TIME FOR A round-up of the tech news, starting with the praise that Information Technology Secretary Carrie Yau has bestowed on herself for her performance at Cyberport.
'The fact that we were able to lease out 80 per cent of the space during an economic downturn is not a bad report card,' she said on Tuesday after announcing that Microsoft will move its 250 Hong Kong employees to Cyberport.
Did you do it that way when you were at school too, Ms Yau? You must have been a straight 'A' student. Tell me your secret. I myself once managed to liberate a few blank report cards from the teacher's desk but could never fake her signature properly.
Let us leave aside for the moment that when the Government offers space at market-beating cheap rates and badgers every company it can think of into moving there then it is no surprise that a few people will bite. But it skews an already fragile property market in an economic downturn, which is not necessarily a good thing at all.
As much to the point, there are a few questions to ask about this Microsoft tenancy. Here is the first one: what sort of work does Microsoft do in Hong Kong? Do not tell me that it consists of software engineering at the leading edge of its latest virus-prone and bug-infested piece of bloatware. I shall bet that it consists of sales and marketing plus an armoury of sledge hammers to bash away at anyone who thinks of subverting the high licence fees it charges. Is that what you call high-tech, Ms Yau? Second question: did you discuss government use of alternative operating systems to Microsoft's? Linux is fast grabbing market share in this field, including United States government agencies such as defence, agriculture, energy and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Microsoft would not be pleased to see the SAR Government choose this much cheaper alternative, too. Was the matter raised in tenancy discussions? Was there any agreement to stick with Microsoft? Just asking.
