Microsoft R&D Burgled: Only Apple Products Stolen 141
Sir Realist writes "Apparently Microsoft's R&D offices in Mountain View were broken into over the holidays: the only things stolen were Apple iPads and the theft has apparently been confirmed from a number of sources."
Brandnames (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Brandnames (Score:4, Informative)
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One of the funniest jokes I ever heard was when the first windows phone came out: They said they hated it so much, they went to a store and left the phone on the passenger seat of their car with the window rolled down. When they came back... there was another windows phone next to it.
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you DO have to admit that its pretty funny that even a thief wouldn't touch Win 8 or Surface
That's not true. Identity thieves love Windows.
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It doesn't say anything about what stuff is better, just what sells for more.
...which has a lot to do with what the general public thinks about what stuff is better...
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I'm not sure what your post meant - I didn't really understand it, but I just wanted to clarify that I was saying that people will generally pay more for something that they perceive is of greater value.
The funny thing is that it sometimes works the other way, people perceive something as being more valuable if the sale price is higher, but this isn't what I was originally getting at.
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Yeah, I hate when I keep having to enter my 25 digit license code.
makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
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Seriously? Modded "insightful". God damnit I hate this place now.
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And apparently this place hates you, too. :-)
Re:makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
"And nothing of value was lost", said everyone at the Microsoft R&D center.
Yep. Regardless of how you feel about one company or another, an unreleased product from company A is almost certainly more valuable than a commonly available product from company B. My suspicion would be that the thieves were probably employees or contractors at the MS site (cleaning or other cheap labor crew or some such) and knew they could get a quick buck for the Apple products. They probably didn't even know what some of the other stuff was. Asserting the apple products were selected because of their superiority is about as silly as the tongue in cheek assertion that Steve Jobs is really responsible for NY Crime rates due to the theft of Apple products.
Also, if you follow the news here at all you'll see that missing development products from large companies attract great attention from law enforcement. Missing ipads get filed away as a report somewhere and if they happen to catch the guy, then everyone is happy. If not, MS is out, what maybe $2k that they can now write off? What missing ipads don't get are federally funded investigations.
Re:makes sense (Score:5, Funny)
'"And nothing of value was lost", said everyone at the Microsoft R&D center.'
I don't know, the loss of valuable prototype gear is pretty bad. Good job they can just go back to their prototyping organisation (colloquially known as 'Apple Inc') and get some more. Without these important devices, Microsoft wouldn't know what to do next with their production gear.
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They were likely the only things of value in the building.
Correction: They were the only things of value that were highly visible, lightweight, and easily gathered and thrown in a car in a few minutes. You can bet there were also computers there. LCD monitors, boxes, etc., could all be dismantled and sold off for parts. The people who worked there likely also had personal electronics there -- laptops, cameras, mp3 players. And if it's anything like most corporate buildings, there were at least a few giant LCD/plasma screens in the lobby or in the meeting rooms, as
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bundling thieves
Is that like stealing someones cable tv but ignoring their 10mbit internet connection?
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According to my criminal contacts, the average used pc laptop has almost no resale value and isn't worth stealing.
You mean Eddie Crispo?
Re:makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
They were likely the only things of value in the building.
I would think the research there is valuable. It however isn't easily sold on the street. It's like breaking into a mansion and stealing the silverware and ignoring the priceless art on the walls.
Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)
Yesterday's news [regmedia.co.uk] tomorrow :P
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background audio taken the theft:
"It’s got to ask uss a question, my preciouss, yes, yess, yess. Jusst one more question to guess, yes, yess.”
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as much as I'd like to make a joke... (Score:5, Informative)
It was an R&D center for making Apple software, so there probably were no Surface tables around...
But it would be extremely funny if there were left out in the open for all to see.
Re:as much as I'd like to make a joke... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's entirely possible that a Surface tablet was around to compare/contrast how the software runs on the different platforms.
Re:as much as I'd like to make a joke... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, according to the article... Microsoft's phones and tablets were still there. They did find 5 iPads missing, though.
Re:as much as I'd like to make a joke... (Score:5, Insightful)
It was an R&D center for making Apple software, so there probably were no Surface tables around...
Unlikely. Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player." This is the company that watched its entire mail service (Hotmail) implode because the edict from on high was they had to use IIS exclusively. It simply couldn't handle the load, regardless of the number of servers and load balancers they threw on... with much chagrin they rolled back to Apache. Linux is used on print servers internally to this day, though it's a dirty secret. They may have had iPads there for development work, but you can bet many of those developers also had Surface tablets because they have to develop for those as well.
Considering how few of them have sold so far, it's safe to say the product launch, er, exploded on the launch pad. But Microsoft, being Microsoft, will still demand their employees use them or else. I'm sure they'd still be demanding their employees avoid ipods and use Zunes, but we all know what happened there. :)
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Unlikely. Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player." [snip] They may have had iPads there for development work, but you can bet many of those developers also had Surface tablets because they have to develop for those as well.
This is bullshit. Many folks I know personally at Microsoft sport Macbook Pros (running Windows mostly). Not sure about the phone thing, but if it runs Windows, it's definitely kosher.
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This is bullshit. Many folks I know personally at Microsoft sport Macbook Pros (running Windows mostly). Not sure about the phone thing, but if it runs Windows, it's definitely kosher.
*facepalm* *headdesk* *strangles self with mouse cord*
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This is bullshit. Many folks I know personally at Microsoft sport Macbook Pros (running Windows mostly). Not sure about the phone thing, but if it runs Windows, it's definitely kosher.
*facepalm* *headdesk* *strangles self with mouse cord*
You know when I was a kid I personified my computer after I learned it has AI. I still think of it as a crude primptive set of conciousness. Forcing Windows on a Mac is like .... like watching an animal being tortured and shriveling in pain.
I know it is not likely that and is irritational to think that but it feels wrong on so many levels. That or like putting ketchup and how grade $80 steak at Ruths & Christophers.
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Linux is used on print servers internally to this day,
Id be interested to know why that would be a necessity; ive seen Windows servers handling a pretty large number of printers.
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While MS as a company is big about dogfooding (as every company should be) they don't force employees to use particular product. Of course when you get a new phone as Christmas bonus or something it will be a Windows Phone but this is different from what you describe.
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It was an R&D center for making Apple software, so there probably were no Surface tables around...
Unlikely. Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player."
As an employee, I can tell you that isn't even remotely true. The one and only case where I've heard any pressure happening about use of Microsoft products in field sales and support.
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Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player."
Bullshit. You see iPhones and MacBooks aplenty, and quite a few Android phones as well, by just walking through the corridors of any office building on MS campus.
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There is a good aspect to dogfooding, but when it comes to the point of using your own products exclusively, you risk becoming blind-sighted, not knowing what your competitors do or why it's important. Personally, I do have a Windows Phone, so that I can meaningfully talk about the platform with other people based on factual information and first-person experience, but as a customer, I can't choose it as the best device on the market for my own needs.
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Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player."
This is not true. I know many people @ Microsoft who use iphones. I even know a few who dual boot linux on their laptops or who have macs.
Linux is used on print servers internally to this day, though it's a dirty secret.
This is not true either.
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Microsoft are big on dogfooding, as they should be. If the people who make a product aren't using it then they aren't doing their job. I don't mean that using the product is part of their job, but if you make Windows Phones and you don't want to use that phone then you've not made the phone you should have. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't explore your competitors products, but the reason that most of the very best software written tends to be things like compilers and IDEs is because the people who wri
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Unlikely. Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player."
This would be a good idea if Microsoft would listen to the feedback from the employees. Think about how fucked up your processes are when the CEO himself complains and nothing changes: http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/2008/06/24/full-text-an-epic-bill-gates-e-mail-rant/ [seattlepi.com]
Just batshit insane to have a culture of eating their own dog food when they will not listen to their own dogs talking about improvements.
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Apple servers must have been pretty dreadful indeed(and their partnership on various matters with IBM rather weak) if the stuff that MS was selling as 'server' operating systems in the 1994-1996 period counted as an improvement... That would have put them on NT3.x or NT4...*shudder*
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it was a bigger joke than NT. I hear rumors of A/UX, apples first go at unix.
Re:as much as I'd like to make a joke... (Score:5, Informative)
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he discovered that Apple used Windows servers almost exclusively because Apple didn't have great server offerings.
At some point you either have to make a truly competitive product, or realize you shouldn't be in that market.
No, Apple used Solaris and IBM AIX. Back then, Microsoft didn't have great server offerings either. (This being Slashdot, lots of people will say it still doesn't.)
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An interesting claim, but Mac's OS 7.2 was a perfectly decent single-tasking OS (on a Mac II). I can't really comment about OS 9, as I never used it.
FWIW, I preferred OS 7.2 to any other OS I had access to. So much so that I was able to hang onto it for years after the company officially decided to go with MSWind95. Within a year of the time I gave it up, I had Red Hat 4.x (or perhaps 5.x) installed in a partition, and was using it whenever I could. I did *not* like MSWind, even after using it for a yea
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An interesting claim, but Mac's OS 7.2 was a perfectly decent single-tasking OS (on a Mac II). I can't really comment about OS 9, as I never used it.
I can comment on both -- Classic MacOS' lack of memory protection was a real problem. Any buggy program (and that technically includes all of them, although some were much buggier than others) could crash the entire OS, costing you all of your unsaved work and possibly corrupting the filesystem on your mounted drives. Truly a painful experience.
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I never experiences a drive corruption problem....but then I mainly used development tools and word processors. I agree about the crashing programs, but on a single tasking system that's more a nuisance than a real problem.
It's clearly not comparable to today's systems, but 10 years ago it was about as good as any (again, bar things like Solaris which I didn't have access to).
Re:as much as I'd like to make a joke... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder if the thieves were at all cautious about stealing MS hardware from MS because of how tightly some tech companies are known to control pre-release or dev versions of hardware?
Most likely, the fact that it's easier and quicker to flip stolen iDevices for cash was the reason; but I know that I'd be a bit nervous about stealing a contemporary 'appliance' type device in a situation where it might be some kind of specially blessed dev unit. Modern hardware has at least 3-4 globally unique numbers burned in, and tends to call home frequently, and it wouldn't be a big surprise if dev gear(for reasons of loss prevention or UX testing) is stuffed to the gills with analysis and reporting software...
Onion called, wants their story back (Score:5, Funny)
This too closely fits the decades-old stereotype that MS just steals Apple's ideas as their "R&D" M.O.
Re:Onion called, wants their story back (Score:5, Interesting)
The best Onion stories are the ones that have a hint of truth to them. Unfortunately, some [theonion.com] end up having a bit too much truth in them and later come to pass.
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Do you get depressed seeing Obama double down on that?
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For a few years now you've been able to buy a razor with five blades and two lotion strips. I'm not sure if one of them lathers, but the handle does vibrate to add an element of danger.
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The best Onion stories are the ones that have a hint of truth to them. Unfortunately, some [theonion.com] end up having a bit too much truth in them and later come to pass.
On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.
How can you read that and not love the Onion. (For those not following along at home, it was published in January 2001 and also predicted a war in the Gulf.)
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My jaw actually dropped when I reached that bit. Seriously, if The Onion has access to a time machine they should really tell someone, and not just keep it secret for the purpose of amusing internet satire.
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Money money money (Score:1)
It was information what was stolen, not the devices.
Now the thief can sell for analytics and bloggers the information what kind software Microsoft is cooking for Apple devices.
Like think about screenshots and actual apps of MS Office for iPad.... THAT IS MONEY! Not the devices but the SOFTWARE.
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Now the thief can sell for analytics and bloggers the information what kind software Microsoft is cooking for Apple devices.
Who cares? Must be worth about 50c. They'll do far better out of selling the iPads.
Probably the Gates kids (Score:1)
I seem to remember a Melissa Gates interview where she stated that her kids were not allowed Apple devices. They would be likely to have access to their father's keys, and they would have no need to steal any Microsoft devices.
you know your marketting has failed (Score:5, Insightful)
When someone breaks into your R & D shop and the only thing they see of value is someone else's gear.
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Or more likley this was done by someone who had a chip on their shoulder againt microsoft and figured this would give them some bad press.
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inside job (Score:2)
It was surely an inside job. Maybe they thought it wouldn't be as bad for their co-workers if they only stole the Apple stuff.
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It was surely an inside job. Maybe they thought it wouldn't be as bad for their co-workers if they only stole the Apple stuff.
Of course it was an inside job, you twit, the Apple stuff was stolen from a R&D building.
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I read that as (Score:1, Troll)
Microsoft R&D Ballmered.: Only Apple Products thrown out the window.
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Ballmer asked R&D to make a translucent minimalist-style Apple chair.....with a parachute.
Stealing from pirates (Score:2)
"They're stealing our ship!"
"Bloody pirates!"
"Turn right at the next dead end" (Score:5, Funny)
The thieves wanted to rob Apple, but they made the mistake of using Apple Maps to find it.
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iPads can be sold/pawned for cash (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft prototypes can't easily be sold. I see the obvious joke that the Microsoft prototypes were not of value, but in a sense, if they can't be sold, then that is true.
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Just a guess, but Microsoft probably had Microsoft gear in there for working on, as well as just prototypes. If they're anything like Microsoft employees I know, they'll be following the company orthodoxy of using 100% Windows, except where it is unavoidable.
So those thieves probably walked past HP Elitebooks at about $1000 a pop, or touch-enabled Thinkpad at $1500, and picked up the $500 iPads instead. That's still pretty embarrassing.
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Those types are not in the same networks as execs and rightfully expect to be ratted out if they tried to shift something conspicuous.
Also most likely they are only semi-literate meth-heads who wouldn't know an MS prototype from their ellbow. All those need is the cash for their next hit. Fast.
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If I was an exec at Google/Nokia/Lenovo/HP/Dell/ or any big hardare player, I'd be willing to pay quite a lot for a MS proto. You know, just to figure out wether it'l turn out more like Kin or Surface. If it's a Surface, I could leave it to the engineers so they can find anything patentable, copiable, hackable, buyable, sellable, anything. I would make sure a spare junior coder spends some time trying to get some software to run on it or something. I'm sure the marketoids would be really interested in knowing what's it does and who's supposed to buy it.
why the hell? it's all the same crap and you got no way of knowing if they'll use the materials in it for a real product and you'd put yourself at the receiving end of a potential hefty fine. sure marketdroids would be interested but that doesn't mean the information would be valuable. it's not like there's any chip manufacturing secrets or such to be found at that lab - they're buying the same shit as everyone else.
but then again, some companies work like that. which is why they're losing money fast. case
Random? (Score:1)
need to change the tag (Score:2)
from: andnothingofvaluewaslost
to: andeverythingofvaluewaslost
There are two microsoft researches? (Score:2)
I thought Apple was Microsoft Research.
Apple Products Unsafe (Score:2)
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it's all part of the new Movie.
Hobbit, 2013
Re:Microsoft is finished (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft still turns a hefty profit. They've got massive market share and the company is still experiencing revenue growth, though the rate of growth is declining.
http://ycharts.com/companies/MSFT/revenue_growth [ycharts.com]
Microsoft is losing market share in key markets. There are reasons why Microsoft could stumble, but they are so diversified and have so much capital that it would take a great number of massive failures for them to really go under.
I wonder how much longer Ballmer will remain CEO.
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1. xbox - the only product they make people actually enjoy using
2. vendor lock ins, and enterprise sales of windows/office/sharepoint/etc... No one gets excited about their software, they just feel compelled to use it.
Re:Microsoft is finished (Score:4, Interesting)
The XBox division has gone back and forth between profit and loss over the years.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/microsofts-xbox-division-loses-229-million/ [edge-online.com]
The enterprise market really is the bread-and-butter for Microsoft. That is what really amazes me. They seem to be alienating the enterprise market in many ways currently.
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Large businesses generally have large programs, with large databases that would take millions and millions to switch away from, and the ever present "uncertainty" of the FUD.
they stick with windows because they've been using windows forever, and are scared to change. microsoft's marketing people are adept at FUD(Fear Uncertantiy, Doubt), and playing up already stewed fears of the non-technically competent decision makers.
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I just converted some large MS SQL databases to Oracle (on Solaris) recently with 10 years of historical data. It doesn't cost millions. But I get your point that many companies do operate under the assumption that Microsoft is the only alternative.
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microsoft continues to make money from two things 1. Windows 2. Office
FTFY
But you do have a point about vendor lock-in.
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it doesn't matter because MS makes money, and the product gets distributed either way.
it does matter, because this type of consumption does not predispose consumers to actually enjoyment of, or seeking out this product over competitors.
In fact the opposite. When given the choice, most people choose not to use windows. People don't actually like using it.
Only so long that can go on for.
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Yes, but they are very small billions!
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Microsoft is losing market share in key markets. There are reasons why Microsoft could stumble, but they are so diversified and have so much capital that it would take a great number of massive failures for them to really go under.
Microsoft is making a fuckton of money (I'm talking about profits, not just revenue), that is true. And yes, they have an iron grip on the desktop, especially in corporations, and a dominant position that is a gift that keeps and will keep on giving for years to come.
But they are not diversified. People buy Office because they have Windows. And the same reason why they buy Windows Server and Sharepoint. The myth is that if you have Windows desktops, you must use Microsoft on the back-end as well. That's goo
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They have:
* Desktop
* Server
* Cloud
* Office
* SQL
* Development
* Games
* Mobile
* Hardware
* Search
* Advertising
* Music
I'd call them relatively diverse.
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However revenue is not the interesting part, income is. And net income for Microsoft has been falling lately to 2010 levels. See this chart [wolframalpha.com]. Not that this is proofs impeding doom on Microsofts part, just that business hasn't been nice to them lately. A fate they share with many other companies in these difficult times. What is interesting is that neither Google or Apple share this kind of dip [wolframalpha.com].
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I do think Microsoft is on a decline that will likely only be rectified if they change leadership.
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iNinjas
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