Topic
Microsoft
- Excel Never Dies
All the cool conversation is on no-code tools these days, but the OG no-code platform has been around for 35 years: Microsoft Excel. Even from its early days, it had all the hallmarks of today's no-code tools: a combo…
- Hardcore Software
Steven Sinofsky is writing a book on his time at Microsoft and the rise of the PC. He joined Microsoft during its ascendancy in 1989, starting as a software engineer and moving up to leading product on Office for most…
- Project Natick
Microsoft's Project Natick is exploring the feasibility of underwater datacenters. They sunk a container with 864 servers off the coast of the Orkney Islands. So far they've seen reliability numbers that best the same…
- Slack and the Intercompany Communication Layer
Ben Thompson published this piece a few weeks back on the state of Slack up against its competitive market for chat and collaboration, namely Microsoft's Teams product. It covers the history well, dating back to Micro…
- Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
I love this story about Access and how it's still hanging on with a sizable user base after almost a decade of neglect by its parent. It goes to show you that there are still gaps in the market for software being fill…
- Clippy: The Unauthorized Biography
One of my favorite tech figures, a16z's Steven Sinofsky, gives a history of "Clippy", the helpful anthropomorphic office supply from Microsoft Office. As the product leader of the Office group in the 90s, he gives som…
- Weekend Reading: Calculator, SaaS Metrics, and System Shock
💻 Open Sourcing Windows Calculator Seems silly, but this kind of thing is great for the open source movement. There’s still an enormous amount of tech out there built at big companies that creates little competitive…