So, will MS ever be a world-leading software vendor? The answer is absolutely NOT...never ever never will they ever be able to maintain anything other than a perfunctory standing in the software community. Why? It's simple. Because they hold such a loose dress code. It sounds like the two things aren't related(success and dress), but they are. They must be, because that's what we're told constantly by almost eve So, will MS ever be a world-leading software vendor? The answer is absolutely NOT…never ever never will they ever be able to maintain anything other than a perfunctory standing in the software community.Why? It’s simple. Because they hold such a loose dress code. It sounds like the two things aren’t related(success and dress), but they are. They must be, because that’s what we’re told constantly by almost every company out there. “You can’t wear jeans because it’s unprofessional.” “If you dress like a professional, you’ll act like a professional.”Almost every company out there has a business or business casual dress code, but come on now… every one of them allows for casual friday. So what you’re telling me is that since the clothes make the man, then I’m allowed to screw up the DBs and just play around on fridays, because I’m not dressed like a professional. Of course I’m not allowed to do that. So what’s with the dress code then? Well, we get customers at this site, and we want to make a good impression. We want our people to look like professionals. OK, so customers are banned from the building on friday? No, we just explain to them that it’s casual friday and they’re usually good with that. So, why can’t you just explain to them that it’s casual wednesday, or better yet, we have a casual office?My big problem with these dress codes is that they’re just so arbitrary. Who says that a tie is better than a t-shirt for working in all day? I’ve had managers call me down for wearing shirts without a collar. But, I explained to him, Tim over there is wearing a polo shirt with simple logo on it, and I’m wearing a very nice silk sweater, and you’re telling me that he’s dressed nicer than I am because he’s got a collar? YES, that’s exactly what I’m telling you. But what about Jane over there? Her dress doesn’t have a collar. But women don’t count. They don’t have to wear collars. So women really are smarter than men because we need collars to be smart, and women can do it without them? Wow, I’ve got a lot to learn about the differences between men and women. So apparently, if you can’t be good enough at your job to wear a tie to prove it, then you can at least know enough about SQL to wear anything with a collar. So dressing well isn’t good enough… it has to be a specific uniform. Hey, like in fast food! Why don’t we get companies to issue us uniforms like at McDonald’s or a private school? That way we can all look alike and it would take casual fridays and everything else right out of the equation. Because women aren’t held to these dress code standards, just men.Last week I was in the shower pondering a problem at work. I thought on it for a few minutes, and just couldn’t think of a way to fix my problem. That’s when it hit me. I called my wife to bring me a tie. I slipped it on the the answer came to me almost instantly. Sometimes I just don’t know where my head is. How could I forget something so basic?Now, back to MS. Haven’t any of you ever wondered why MS is always delaying their releases? Why did it take so long to get Yukon out the door? Why are Vista and Longhorn suffering from delays? Why was WinFS taken out of the OS? Why doesn’t Exchange use SQL on the backend? That’s right people… dress code. If they would only require their developers to wear ties, they could start being a real heavy hitter as a software vendor. As it stands, they don’t have one single product that anyone uses… Office, what a joke… SQL Server, don’t make me laugh… Exchange, might as well be a paper airplane with a note written on it… Windows, what is it, like on one desktop anymore? So you can see what having a loose dress code has done for MS. They could have been worth something, but they insist on letting those hippies run around on campus in their shorts, trying to code without the proper coding attire. It’s a pathetic waste. And with policies like that it’s no wonder Gates can barely afford to feed the country he bought. Those poor people only get to eat steak and lobster once a day. Now how sad is that? OK, all of this sarcasm has been very fun, but I’ll get serious for a minute. You know, dress codes are necessary to a degree but only in certain areas, and they have nothing to do with how professional you are or even act. Dress codes should be used to keep women from putting too much on display. That much is certain. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for women dressing so show off their assets, but it just doesn’t belong in the workplace. Now, I’m not being sexist here. I’ve never seen an issue come up at work where a guy was talked about because he showed off too much of his body, or wore his shirt too low. However, for the sake of fairness, I’ll go ahead and say that nobody should be dressing in a manner to attract a mate. How’s that?Other than that, I can’t imagine that anything else would be taboo. And like I said, it’s completely arbitrary. If it weren’t, then different companies wouldn’t have different dress codes. If a company like MS can become one of the largest software vendors on the planet and still maintain a casual dress code, then there must be something to it. And MS doesn’t have some special of screening exam to test for people who can do their jobs without ties. They’re pulling from the same work force everyone else is. And I can’t think of a single instance… anywhere… where someone has messed something up at work because he wasn’t dressed in business attire. It’s just ridiculous. Databases