New: Black inside Microsoft, in pursuit of new applications

That's why Bubblegum is an application for a nascent market: people who have the new Smartphone Windows Phone 7 software inside. The phones have been on the market for a few months in the United States. (Four models, including the Focus of Samsung, HTC Surround and the Quantum of LG, are each 100 $ at Microsoft).

But if many people are chosen in a crowded field led by iPhone and Android-based devices, these new phones will be required a large dose of an essential aphrodisiac: smartphone apps by the armload that add games, social connectivity and many other features.

Because the platform is new, developers must learn its ways before writing many of these programs. So adding them quickly, Microsoft took an unusual step. It has relaxed a strict rule and enable employees moonlight in their spare time and keep the resulting intellectual property and the majority of revenue, as long as this second job is to write applications for devices based on Windows Phone 7.

And did not do the job safely. The company is party downloads pizza for workers who step write code for the platform and are planning ways to publicize their work, including posters and recognition awards, said Brandon Watson, Director of developer experience for Windows Phone 7. Free phones based on Windows 7 you are given to all employees in 19 countries where phones are available.

The disadvantage is that if an application does not catch, there's money in it for employees who developed in their spare time. This makes it a less attractive incentive than, for example, some of those of Google, which has a policy of allowing engineers to spend 20% of their paid time on projects of their choice that benefit society.

But the change of rule change Microsoft is a starting point for a company that, like so many others, has traditionally been its engineers to give their all to their core jobs, said Michael a. Cusumano, Professor of management and systems engineering at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also co-author of "Microsoft Secrets" and the author of the recent "Staying Power," which has various chapters dedicated to the company.

"Engineers all work hours; They Punch a clock 9-to-5, "said Professor Cusumano. "Normally, you want employees to pay their passions in their jobs. If they do something on the other hand, you don't cheer them on. "

Mr. Watson of Microsoft, said that the change in policy emerged in part because of a boost from its group. "We tend to have strict black", said the company. "But we changed the rules so that developers can do in their spare time and have the financial advantage and the result of work".

The company is offering what Mr. Watson was a standard split on sales app: 70 percent for developers, 30 per cent to Microsoft.

The stimulus seems to help. More than 3,000 employees have registered to submit apps, he said, and so far have been published about 840.

One is Bubblegum. It was written by a married couple recently, Sriram Krishnan, program manager working for the company's cloud computing platform and Aarthi Ramamurthy, program manager on the Xbox team.

Mr. Krishnan, said that the app was definitely done in their spare time. "We were on our honeymoon in Hawaii when we started working on it," he said. "But we like to write code." (Continued to work on it during the Christmas holidays last year.)

Mr. Krishnan, said that with the app, he wanted to be among the first to capture the user base of Windows phone. He hopes that the app will give rise to a network of mini-social to your site, bubblegum, where users will be able to share photos. "The value is how many people are on it," he said.

He is worried that his side projects could raise eyebrows at Microsoft, and has already written a second app, a Web browser, for Windows phone. "Shows a test and a pick you. Microsoft is O.K. with that, "he said. "They were very favourable".

New rules of MICROSOFT, adapt to the wider rethinking how large companies manage the research, said Josh Lerner, Professor of investment banking at Harvard Business School. "Microsoft is not only rewarding people for what they do in their spare time," he said, but is also "harnessing the energy at the ends of the company" to catch up in the mobile market.

"It is symptomatic of a transformation bigger," he said, as a society to unlock more entrepreneurial activity, incentives and rewards for researchers in the hope that it will stay put rather than switch to other companies.

Professor Cusumano agrees that the change of rules promoting entrepreneurial activity. "Need companies like Microsoft who stick around for decades to reinvent yourself regularly," he said.

"Microsoft has been knock their heads against a wall, building more bells and whistles for Windows that anyone needs," said Professor Cusumano. "They can use their own staff in this way. It is a way to make every potential entrepreneur programmer and helps Microsoft intends its new mobile platform.

The change of rule provides an option for employees who do not want to leave for the insecurity of a start-up but still recognition for ideas, said Daniel h. Pink, author of "drive: the Surprising Truth about what motivates us."

"This is another way of saying, ' work here, and you can have the best of both worlds, ' as an employee of a company and as an entrepreneur," he said.

E-mail: novelties@nytimes.com.

Raps GeoHot on Sony PS3 hacking lawsuit, videos inside

It seems that the PlayStation 3 jailbreaker George Hotz, also known as GeoHot, isn't too happy that Sony has brought forth its hardware. Apparently decided to vent his anger in a rap song (video embedded below, MP3 available from MultiUpload) as part of The Light It Up Contest.

Sony legal attacks against hackers who issued the PS3 root key and custom firmware began last month. Group known as fail0verflow is accused of posting a crude hack in December 2010 after finding the codes for the PS3. It was perfected by GeoHot weeks later when he independently and published the main key of PS3. The resulting hack allow homebrew apps and pirated software to run unmodified on consoles. Sony is still threatening to sue anybodyposting or distributing code jailbreak PS3 and that a federal judge for Google and Twitter to surrender details of who watch illegal content. This is despite the fact that Sony accidentally tweeted the security key for PlayStation 3 earlier this week.

We are wondering if you could have more sense for Sony Computer Entertainment to withdraw its lawsuit and Sony BMG Music Entertainment sign instead of the guy. What do you think? If you do not catch all that said, check out the texts below, taken from the description of the video, in which Sony's Apps also says "you got some rappers signed, right? Come to me bro "and" Cries a heretic for light beat East, road to the contest, Karmaloop codes for sponsoring the contest and SCEA to quote me ":

Yo is geohot
And for those who do not know
I'm always quoted by Sony

We take this out of the courtroom and in the streets
I am a beast, at least, it is necessary to deal with me in the Northeast
Get my ire up, light my fire
I'll go more difficult than Eminem went to Mariah
Call me a liar
Pound me in the ass with no Lube, rubbing
You're fucking with the guy who got the keys to your safe and
Those who cannot bring clothes
Cry of your Uncle Sam for the settlement of disputes
Thought that you should address this problem with a little more tact
But then again fudgepackers, I dont know Jack

I shed a tear that I think everytime Lik Sang
But shit man, they're a corporation
And I am a personification of liberty for all
Fills with dockets, as this is a concept foreign to y'all
While the water muddy lawyers and stall Troo
Out of business for me is the prison
And you're quoting civilly

Perform in the classroom
Go on, do it, I dare you