Mum's the word: Microsoft board 'doing really well' at keeping quiet

Mum's the word: Microsoft board 'doing really well' at keeping quiet
Rumors and speculation are part of the game, says PR expert

Rumors aside, Microsoft's board of directors has done a good job of keeping the lid on its search for a CEO to replace Steve Ballmer, a public relations expert said.

"The key thing any board wants to do is to keep its deliberations private," said Peter LaMotte, an analyst with Levick, a Washington, D.C.-based strategic communications consultancy, talking about the public relations (PR) implications of a CEO search. "They want to do it all behind closed doors. And from what we can see, Microsoft's board is doing that really well."

In August, Ballmer abruptly announced that he would step down within the next 12 months. That same day, Microsoft said it had launched a search for its third-ever chief executive.

Since then, speculation about possible successors has waxed and waned, although all of the news reports that have named candidates attributed their information to anonymous sources. That's to be expected, said LaMotte. "A lack of hard information will create the rumor mill," he said.

What's important to understand, added LaMotte, is that there have been no confirmed leaks from within Microsoft's board, no attributable statements from anyone behind those closed doors. Names, such as Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally or former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, have been linked to the search only through anonymous sources described with phrases like "people familiar with the situation" or "familiar with his thinking." Additionally, no dark horse has surfaced: In other words, only people with connections to Microsoft, and thus easily speculated on, have been named.

And that's the smart way to play out a search for a CEO.

"The search process only looks bad when it leaks that someone was approached for the job and then decided not to take it," said LaMotte of the biggest PR blunder possible. "You never want to read that a company went after someone, but they turned them down."

In that way, a CEO search is similar to those conducted by a presidential candidate for a running mate, a university board of trustees for a new college president, or an NFL or NBA team, or high-profile university, for a new head football or basketball coach.

"Much like a presidential campaign, a board of directors must keep it close to the vest," said LaMotte. "Of course, people will still play the guessing game."

A suitor who spurns an offer creates more than hard feelings: It can damage the brand. A first-choice who declines the job offer makes it look like the company wasn't worthy, that the turn-around Microsoft's executing would be difficult, even impossible, or that the position was defined in unacceptable terms. All would reflect poorly on the company.

Some analysts believe that moves by Microsoft in the last year, including the strategic pivot toward devices and service, a corporate reorganization, the acquisition of Nokia's handset business, and a change in how it evaluates employees, will handcuff any new CEO. That has led to speculation that Microsoft may find it difficult to corral a top-notch candidate, either because of those already-made decisions or because those choices may signal that, with Ballmer a lame duck, co-founder and chairman Bill Gates is pulling the strings.

"Can they really attract a credible candidate knowing that Bill [Gates] may be calling all the shots?" wondered analyst Ben Thompson in an email two weeks ago, after Microsoft announced it had dumped its derided "stack ranking" practice of evaluating and rewarding workers.

But it will be critical for Microsoft's board to choose a new leader who agrees with the revamped strategy, said LaMotte. "Regardless who they pick, it's important that they find someone who continues the brand perception of the company," he said. "Imagine the problems if they bring in someone totally counter [to the brand]."

Microsoft's PR will also have to work quickly after the CEO selection is announced. "They should come out the gate with the messaging of the direction where they're going," said LaMotte, stressing that it will be important to portray the new CEO as someone who fits within Microsoft's corporate culture and will hew to Ballmer's string of major decisions. Any reports to the contrary will make it that much more difficult for Ballmer's replacement to win over employees and convince investors that the company is not in disarray.

Further change will be inevitable under a new leader, who will eventually remold Microsoft to better fit his or her vision of its future, but at the beginning, continuity is crucial. "If they select someone at odds with the brand, there will have to be a lot of effort going into new communication, a lot of new PR, maybe even new branding," said LaMotte.

And all of that would detract from the messaging Microsoft wants to drum into investors,' customers' and partners' minds, that it has a plan and will execute that plan.

"A CEO is a very defined and specific perception of what the brand is," said LaMotte. "The CEO is your brand."

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Google's Gigabit Internet: Not coming to a neighborhood near you

Unless you're lucky enough to live in Kansas City, Provo or Austin

When Google announced plans in 2010 to jump into the broadband business, the company received more than 1,000 applications from communities hoping to be selected for Google Fiber, which promised gigabit-speed Internet at low prices or even free Internet for seven years if you chose a slower speed.

As we head into 2014, Google has delivered super-fast Internet to exactly one place, greater Kansas City; it’s just now rolling out the service to Provo, Utah — where it purchased a pre-existing municipal network for $1; and has announced plans for Austin, Texas, in 2014.

After that, who knows? Google has not released any further scheduling information.

But if you’re Verizon, Comcast or AT&T, you might be breathing a little easier these days, knowing that Google apparently is not planning to buy up all that unused dark fiber and compete in the residential broadband market on a nationwide scale — at least for now.

There has always been speculation about Google’s motives, and, Google being Google, answers have been hard to come by. Is this just an experiment? Another attention-grabbing sideshow, like those mysterious barges floating in San Francisco Bay and Portland, Maine? Is Google trying to compete head-to-head against the incumbents? Or is Google trying to nudge the incumbents to step up their broadband game by introducing the specter of competition? After all, faster Internet means Google can deliver more ads to more end users, which is how the company makes its money.

As Google spokesperson Jenna Wandres puts it: ``The simple answer to ‘why’ is this: it’s for Google users. They keep telling us that they’re tired of waiting for incredibly slow upload and download speeds that often take hours to just transfer an album of photos from one location to another.”

According to Wandres, it’s all about speed. She pointed out that Google developed the Chrome browser to make the Internet experience faster, but it can only be as fast as the Internet connections and the hardware and networks that support that infrastructure. So now, they’re installing Google fiber, to make it faster.

“For the next big leap,” says Wandres, “Gigabit speeds will bring new apps and talented developers to the table, who can and will take advantage of these remarkable speeds.” She explains that organizations such as Kansas City Startup Village (KCSV) — an ecosystem of grassroots individuals working together to create an entrepreneur community — thrive in this type of environment; that is, an area where high-speed Internet allows developers to collaborate and share ideas.

Competition is good news
According to Forrester analyst Dan Bieler, Google Fiber “is good news because competition increases the pressure on carriers and cable providers to bring true broadband service to more households and businesses, if they want to compete effectively with Google. In my view, it is unlikely that Google fiber will target rural areas, but it’s clearly an interesting option for Google to target higher-income urban areas as well as central business districts.’’

“Competition is the main driver for improved services, and this will continue to be the case,” adds Ian Keene, research vice president at Gartner. “But Google has discovered that rolling out its services is taking longer than they first thought. If they carry on at this pace, they will not be a threat beyond a handful of cities; not for the foreseeable future, anyway. However, where they are active, we will and have seen the competition fight back with improved subscriber offers.”

For example, after Google announced plans to deliver gigabit Internet to Austin, AT&T announced plans to up its game in Austin. AT&T has promised to provide ultra high-speed gigabit Internet (called GigaPower) to its Austin users in December, with initial symmetrical speeds up to 300Mbps and an upgrade to the 1Gbps by mid-2014 (at no extra cost, of course).

But it’s still too early to tell whether Google’s efforts will prove to be economically feasible, or whether Google will continue to expand beyond the three locations already identified. “Google, like many others, has learned that the enormity of the costs involved in building broadband infrastructure creates a dilemma,” says telecom analyst Craig Moffett. “It is extraordinarily difficult to earn a reasonable return on building an infrastructure to compete with cable. Verizon tried with Verizon FiOS and, after reaching only 14 percent of the country, eventually conceded that further expansion was just not economically justified.”

Moffett explains that at least Google is giving it the old college try; but the markets they have chosen, so far, are all unique cases. “For example,” he says, “In Provo, they’re building on a network that was already there. In Austin, we’ll get a better sense of what the economics might actually look like. At this point, I think it is reasonable to conclude that fiber-to-the-home deployments like these will remain the exception rather than the rule.”

How it works
With more than 1,100 applicants, Google could choose the communities that offered the most advantageous terms and conditions. These installations require access to utility poles, roads, and even substations in order to lay their fiber networks, so applicants had to be willing to expedite that process.

In the case of Kansas City, Google only extends fiber to neighborhoods with a certain number of pre-registered customers.

According to Wandres, locations must be fiber friendly, technological leaders, and residents must show a genuine willingness to work with Google; that is, to be flexible, move quickly, and cut through the red tape.

“It’s a long process and requires a lot of work,” says Wandres. “There must be a strong demand for fiber among the user base (for those who are excited about a technological hub) and for entrepreneurs who can advance the technology. In Kansas City, the Mayors’ Bi-state Innovation Team came up with a playbook for how Kansas City could benefit from fiber. And there’s another group now tasked with following through on those plans.’’

In Kansas City, subscribers can get gigabit Internet for $70 a month or the gigabit service plus TV (200 channels, HD included) bundle for $120 a month. Both of these options provide free installation plus all the equipment necessary to enable the service to function, such as the network gear, the storage device, and the TV box. Additional benefits include 1TB (terabyte) of storage across Gmail, the drive, and Google+ photos and, for the bundle, one Nexus 7 tablet.

Kansas City residents who want Internet access, but may not classify themselves as power users, can get Google's free Internet service, which runs at 5Mbps. The free service does require a one-time installation fee of $300 (or $25 a month for 12 months), then the service is free for at least seven years.

Wandres adds, “At the end of seven years, we will begin charging the market price for comparable speeds — which should be $0, as long as Internet speeds increase as much as we hope over the next few years. In other words, we think that in seven years, Internet speeds should be ubiquitously faster in America and, by that point, nobody should have to pay for a connection speed that is 5Mbps download/1Mbps upload.”

Brittain Kovač, co-leader and communications pilot at KCSV says, “With regards to speed, nobody has been able to break the gig. We've tried. Downloading tons of files while gaming and running multiple videos simultaneously and we still barely see a dent. What companies are experiencing is an extreme amount of time savings; for example, www.sportsphotos.com, a company that moved to the KCSV from Springfield, Mo., is now able to upload thousands of high resolution photos in a matter of hours; a project that in the past, took days, if not weeks to accomplish.”

“In addition,” says Kovač, “Google fiber has been the catalyst that's brought the community together in ways that may have never happened, or certainly would have taken years to see the outcomes. It's bringing like-minded people who want to innovate and collaborate, who know we (KC) have a short window of time to do something big, and we're really leveraging this opportunity to do great things for the community as a whole. From households to startups, corporate and civic, we're all working together for the first time in years and it's exciting.”

Based on the Google fiber city map, the Kansas City project is still in progress. Thirteen more cities in Kansas and six additional cities in Missouri are scheduled next for this service.

Next up, Provo, Utah
The situation in Provo is somewhat different, because Google purchased the existing iProvo city network for $1. So, Google didn’t have to start from scratch, it just needed to upgrade the existing network, which was built in 2006.

In a recent blog post, Provo Mayor John Curtis said, “Unfortunately, while we’ve had the desire, we haven’t had the technical know-how to operate a viable high-speed fiber optic network for Provo residents. So, I started looking for a private buyer for the iProvo network. We issued a Request for Qualifications and a Request for Proposal and even hired a private consultant to guide our efforts. [And now] under the agreement, Google Fiber is committed to helping Provo realize the original vision.”

Provo’s customer plan; that is, the monthly price for gigabit Internet or the Internet/TV bundle is the same as Kansas City ($70 or $120, respectively) except that everyone in Provo pays the installation fee of $30, not just the users who sign up for the free 5Mbps/1Mbps service. And, like Kansas, the free service is only free for seven years (or longer, based on the market price for comparable speeds after seven years).

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iPhone 6 rumor rollup for the week ending Nov. 15

iPhone big screen or big screens, curvaceous, and pressured

Fortunately for the iOSphere, Bloomberg found a “person familiar with Apple’s plans” to spill the beans and provide a week’s worth of rumor cud-chewing over the iPhone 6 display.

While many iOSpherians are convinced that the iPhone 6 will have a bigger display and a curved display, there is Deep Uncertainty about how big, or which way the curve will, you know, curve.

But let’s not quibble. This one source, in a story written by two reporters, was also familiar with Apple’s plans to introduce not one but two Bigger Screened iPhone 6 handsets. Thanksgiving Day has come early this year.

You read it here second.

“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Apple is investigating curved displays… That doesn't mean, however, that just because Apple looked at something that they're going to release it.”

Avi Greengart, analyst, Current Analysis

“Analyst Debunks Curved Display On iPhone 6 Release Date”

Kristin Dian Mariano, International Business Times, with the iOSpherian translation of Greengart’s commonsense observation.

iPhone 6 will have two screen sizes, curved “glass,” and maybe pressure sensors

Talk about a cornucopia of Innovation, eh? This abundance of information overflows from a Bloomberg story, “Apple Said Developing Curved iPhone Screens, New Sensors,” by Tim Culpan and Adam Satariano.

And where did it come from you ask? From “a person familiar with the plans.” Or, as experienced iOSpherians like to say, a PFWP.

Maybe they caught Tim Cook or Phil Schiller when he was in a chatty mood in an elevator. Or maybe they talked to the drycleaner of the next door neighbor of the best friend of a coworker who has a cousin who plays online games with an engineer who overheard an Apple designer talking to someone before the subway door closed. But somebody who’s not just anybody.

“Two models planned for release in the second half of next year would feature larger displays with glass that curves downward at the edges, said the person, declining to be identified because the details aren’t public. Sensors that can distinguish heavy or light touches on the screen may be incorporated into subsequent models, the person said.

BGR’s Zach Epstein argues in his post on the Bloomberg story that the phrasing “with glass that curves downward at the edges” is not a reference to a curved displays “but rather that the glass covering the panels will be curved.” Which doesn’t clarify much: does he mean the display is flat but it’s covered with a convex glass cover? Or that the glass cover is flat but it curves down over the edge of the phone?

Curved screens – both convex and concave - have been an obsession with the iOSphere for months, even years, though with little analysis on how or why curving the screen, or the “glass,” actually improves the phone. The obsession has been intensified by Samsung’s Galaxy Round smartphone, which curves upward from the two sides, and the just-announced LG G Flex, which curves upward from the top and bottom.

The latter design at least has the sense to mimic traditional wired handset designs going back 70 years, as shown in this Wikipedia image of a rotary phone from the 1940s.

The Bloomberg reporters suggest that perhaps it’s a curved BIG screen that’s vital to Apple’s future, because the Galaxy Round is Samsung’s “latest phone in an array of sizes and price points that’s helping keep Samsung ahead of Apple in global market share.” The PFWP says the screens will measure 4.7 and 5.5 inches, which would make them, as Culpan and Satariano astutely point out, “Apple’s largest iPhones,” since the current 5S and 5C measure just 4.0 inches.

It “seems rather curious that Apple would introduce two new displays sizes at the same time,” posted a skeptical John Gruber at his DaringFireball blog. “Apple has only introduced one new iPhone display size since 2007, but they’re going to introduce two at the same time next year? That smells fishy to me.”

Bloomberg’s PFWP didn’t have much to say about the new pressure sensors, which apparently are intended to detect how firmly someone is pressing on the screen and then do…well something very cool and magical as a result.

The PFWP did add “that the company probably would release [the new phones] in the third quarter of next year.” A person familiar not only with plans but probabilities.

iPhone 6 won’t have a curved display

Or maybe it won’t not have one. It’s hard to tell from reading InternationalBusinessTimes.com.

The headline of Kristin Dian Mariano’s post is emphatically assertive: “Analyst Debunks Curved Display On iPhone 6 Release Date”

Yet the post’s first sentence changes that completely: “Apple may not show off a curved display on iPhone 6 release date, according to an analyst.”

The analyst is Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, who is simply making the utterly common sense observation that Apple, like other companies, creates a whole bunch of ideas, tests many of them out, throws most of them out, and finally eventually comes up with improved or new products.

“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Apple is investigating curved displays and any other component coming on to the scenes. That's what Apple does. Apple tests things out internally to see if they make sense,” Greengart is quote in Mariano’s post. “That doesn't mean, however, that just because Apple looked at something that they're going to release it. They probably have watches, glasses, hover boards, and who knows what else just to see what it's like.”

In short, he’s admitting “I have no idea whether they’re planning to have a curved display on iPhone 6.” In Mariano’s skilled hands this becomes “analyst debunks curved display on iPhone 6.”

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How to solve Windows 8 crashes

Like any computer operating system, Windows 8 can fall over. Luckily, there is an easy way to diagnose the cause of most crashes. Just call up WinDbg, the Windows debugger; a free tool to diagnose the most common causes of Windows crashes -- misbehaved third party drivers.

Blue Screen of Death : (
In Windows 8, the Blue Screen of Death/BSOD has been modified to include a large, simple : ( emoticon and a short message in human (if not very informative) language. Also, Microsoft has made advancements in the dump file creation and management process. While this article focuses on W8, the information applies to both Windows RT and Windows Server 2012.

Crashes are protective measures
In most cases, operating systems crash as a protective measure. When the OS discovers that critical devices are failing or that an internal operating system state has been identified as inconsistent because of possible viruses, bad device drivers or RAM failures, it is generally safer to stop immediately before more damage can occur. Two out of three system crashes are caused by third party drivers taking inappropriate actions in Kernel mode, where they have direct access to the OS kernel and to the hardware.

Thanks for the memory dump
A memory dump is the ugliest best friend you’ll ever have. It is a snapshot of the state of the computer system when the operating system stopped. In Windows 8, the OS creates four different memory dumps; Complete, Kernel, and Minidumps and the new Automatic memory dump. From the W8 Style Menu simply type “control panel, which will take you to the Apps page where you should see a white box surrounding “Control Panel.’’ Hit Enter.

The memory dump path
The path to check Windows 8 Memory Dump Settings, beginning at Control Panel, follows: Control Panel | System and Security | System | Advanced system settings | Startup and Recovery | Settings

Startup and Recovery
Once at the Startup and Recovery dialogue box, ensure that “Automatic memory dump” is checked. You will probably also want to ensure that both “Write an event to the system log” and “Automatically restart” (which should also be on by default) are checked.

Install WinDb
To set your PC up for WinDbg-based crash analysis, you will need the following: • 32-bit or 64-bit W8/R2/Server 2012/Win 7/Server 2008, the Debugging Tools for Windows portion of the Windows SDK for Windows 8, and about 100MB of hard disk space. First download sdksetup.exe. either Standard download or automated download.

Run skdsetup.exe
Install the Software Development Kit (SDK). Accept the License Agreement. Remove the check marks for all but Debugging Tools for Windows. Launch sdksetup.exe. Specify Location: The suggested installation path follows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\ Before calling up a dump file you have to make sure it has access to the symbol files. Symbol tables, available through the use of SymServe, provide that information.

Running WinDbg
From the W8 UI, right-click on the version of WinDbg you will use (x64 or x86) then select “Run as administrator” from the bar that pops up from the bottom of the screen. You will then see a singularly unexciting application interface; a block of gray. Before filling it in with data you must tell it where to find the symbol files. To be sure you are using the correct symbols, at WinDbg’s menu bar, select the following: File | Symbol file path

Symbol search path
In the Symbol search path window enter the following address: srv*c:\cache*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

Note that the address between the asterisks is where you want the symbols stored for future reference. For example, I store the symbols in a folder called symbols at the root of my c: drive, thus: srv*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

Make sure that your firewall allows access to msdl.microsoft.com.

Create a dump file
If you don’t have a memory dump to look at, you can generate one yourself by using NotMyFault. To get NotMyFault, go to the Windows Internals Book page at SysInternals and scroll down to the Book Tools section where you will see a download link. Keep in mind that NotMyFault WILL CREATE A SYSTEM CRASH so save any files that contain information that you might otherwise lose and close all applications. Properly prepared, the machine should go down, reboot and both a minidump and a kernel dump should be created.

Running NotMyFault
Launch NotMyFault and select the High IRQL fault (Kernel-mode) then . . . hit the Crash button. Your Frown-of-Frustration will appear in a second, both a minidump and a kernel dump file will be saved and – if properly configured – your system will restart. Over the W8 UI will be a band of blue with the message that “Your PC ran into a problem . . . ”. If you click the “Send details” button, Microsoft will use WinDbg and the command “!analyze” to identify the cause of the problem. The output is combined with a database of known driver bug fixes to help identify the failure.

Launch WinDbg and (often) see the cause of the crash
Launch WinDbg by right-clicking on it from the W8 UI then select ”Run as administrator.’’ Once the debugger is running, select the menu option File | Open Crash Dump and point it to open the dump file you want to analyze. When offered to Save Workspace Information, say Yes. A command window will open. WinDbg will run an analysis and fill the window with the results.

WinDbg Error Messages
Here are common messages, what they mean and how to resolve them.

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ntoskrnl.exe

*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for ntoskrnl.exe

When you see these two messages, it means you will not get the analysis that you need. This is confirmed after the “Bugcheck Analysis” is automatically run, and the message ***** Kernel symbols are WRONG. Please fix symbols to do analysis is displayed.

Likely causes
• • The most likely causes of those messages are No path/wrong path; a path to the symbol files has not been set or is incorrect (look for typos); Failed connection; check your Internet connection; Access blocked; a firewall blocked access to the symbol files or the files were damaged during retrieval. Do not go further until this is corrected. If you see the following error, no worries: *** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for myfault.sys *** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for myfault.sys

So, what caused the crash?
When you open a dump file with WinDbg, it automatically runs a basic analysis which will often nail the culprit without even giving the debugger any direct commands as shown in the screen where it says “Probably caused by : myfault.sys” To get more information about the crash event and the suspect module, all you need is two commands: !analyze –v and lmvm.

A new way to command WinDbg
If you take a good look at the WinDbg interface, just below the “Bugcheck Analysis” box, it says “Use !analyze –v to get detailed debugging information” and that the command is underlined and in blue. It’s a link. Touch it and the command will be run for you.

Output from !analyze –v
The analysis provided by !analyze –v is a combination of English and programmer-speak, but it is nonetheless a great start. In fact, in many cases you will not need to go any further. If you recognize the cause of the crash, you're probably done.

Output from lmvm
lmvm provides a range of data from the image path, time stamp, image size and file type (in this case a driver) to the company that made it, the product it belongs to, version number and description. Some companies even include contact information for technical support. After you find the vendor's name, go to its Web site and check for updates, knowledge base articles, and other supporting information.

The other third
By following the instructions above, you'll likely know the cause of two out of three crashes immediately, but that leaves the other third. If you have recurring crashes but no clear or consistent reason, it may be a memory problem. Two good ways to check memory are the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and Memtest86. Go to Control Panel and enter “memory” into its search box then select “Diagnose your computer’s memory problems”.

Is Windows the culprit?
The fact is that Windows is very seldom the cause of a system failure. But, if ntoskrnl.exe (Windows core) or win32.sys (the driver that is most responsible for the "GUI" layer on Windows) is named as the culprit -- and they often are –- don't be too quick to accept it. It is far more likely that some errant third-party device driver called upon a Windows component to perform an operation and passed a bad instruction, such as telling it to write to non-existent memory. So, while the operating system certainly can err, exhaust all other possibilities before you blame Microsoft.

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