06.30.08
Posted in General Rant at 2:48 pm by Administrator
As this is the last day of Bill Gates as the head of Microsoft (sort of) - I was wondering if Bill is a little sad or if he’s planning a huge “I’m so done with this” party?
I’ve read a couple of biographies over the years - as well as all the various retrospectives that have been all over the press the last couple of weeks.
If I were him - I’d want to get the hell out and try something else for a while as well. I mean, there are millions of people’s lives who have been forever changed because of the luck, greed, ambition, talent, ruthlessness, and genius of a rag-tag group of 13 people at a little start up company no one had ever heard of - more than 30 years ago.
I know that I’m one of those people.
Yeah, sure, he made a few dozen billion dollars doing it. That’s what everyone likes to focus on. That’s what everyone is jealous of. That’s what everyone respects.
Now I don’t happen to have a few billion in the bank - but I have to imagine that once you’ve built a $140 million house outfitted with Michael Jackson-like technology at every turn, and you have traveled the world and met with world leaders, business leaders, tech leaders, social workers, etc. that you’re basically just bored with it all.
I think for Mr. Gates, the real challenge is… well… the challenge. From what I’ve read about him - he’s crazy smart and really devours books and information at near computer speeds.
He doesn’t seem to tolerate people that “don’t get it” (eg him) and has been known to really get in their face and maybe even fire them if he thinks they’re too thick to get his meaning (on anything). He seems to be the kind of person whose brain just doesn’t shut down.
He always seems to be trying to solve a problem. Trying to find an answer.
Maybe he’s just bored of being the whipping post for EU (and US) regulators - just for doing “good business” in his mind.
Maybe he’s just trying to spend more time with his kids and his wife in doing something worthwhile with his pile of dough.
Trying to solve the problem of world hunger and disease in 3rd world countries is a little harder than the Sunday crossword - but I for one think it’s a really noble cause. Apparently so does his wife, Warren Buffett and loads of other (on both sides of the foundation’s money).
So, Mr. Gates - as you’re getting older, and your kids are growing up in front of your eyes - maybe it’s time to just pick up a few (hundred) books at Amazon, kick back (ish) and see how you can influence another untapped area of humanity.
Best of luck!
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06.27.08
Posted in General Rant at 1:15 pm by Administrator
With the run-up to the iPhone 3G introduction and the changing of the guard over at Microsoft, I got to thinking about the future of computing and about what the landscape will look like 3-5 years down the road.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that within the next couple of years we’ll see the decline of the laptops and the increase of mobile devices that will be able to function like our laptops do today.
I think that Apple is trying to build more than just a mobile device - I think they’re trying to build an entire platform. The little iPhone has it’s own operating system (based on Linux), it’s own SDK, and it’s linked in to millions of copies of iTunes.
So people will start writing the default applications: games, crm links, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Apple is moving toward the online synch and storage (mobileMe) and AJAX-ifying it’s own applications in the cloud for use anywhere on any platform. They also announced wireless FireWire.
It makes total sense that the iPhone would become a true mobile computer in your pocket - or a PocketTop. I can envision on the road with the “normal” iPhone (and the smaller screen) when on the plane; it would wirelessly connect with a monitor and keyboard in my office; would wirelessly connect to my car’s audio system; would allow me to wirelessly connect to a projector in a meeting room; etc.
That would be a device I’d buy in a MINUTE. And, I think a lot of others would as well.
To be sure, there are some technical hurdles - like processor power, battery life, solid state storage and faster mobile (4G) networks that need to be solved before this can happen - but I think we’ll see these advances in the next couple of years.
In fact, handhelds are advancing faster than laptops - in terms of memory and CPU prowess. Laptop memory capacity typically doubles every two years, while pocket devices are those gains annually.
To be sure - there will always be room for bigger “real” machines in server rooms, etc. - but I think that about 85%-90% of people who are using laptops today would buy a PocketTop with similar capabilities - assuming they could use it everywhere.
Now I only hope I don’t lose it…
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06.26.08
Posted in General Rant at 7:42 am by Administrator
As this is the last few official days of Bill Gates’ tenure as Chief Software Architect at Microsoft - there has been a lot of retrospectives floating around.
Some of them are banal, boring and obvious - but there are a few Gems as well. The one that I particularly like is an ancient email (from 5 years ago) that he wrote to the Windows XP team blasting them for making the OS do really stupid things when he wanted to do something simple (install MovieMaker 2.0).
It’s really a cool insight into the fact that the co-founder of the company uses the software and is frustrated by the same stuff that the rest of us are (even after 5 years has passed). It also just feels good that I’m not the only one who is fairly technical, yet is confused and scared when trying to install patches and programs with dependencies on other Microsoft technologies.
This is the text of the email that Todd Bishop of seattlepi.com dug up from the crypts (long):
—- Original Message —-From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame
I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
It wasn’t in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.
These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.
They are not filtered by the system … and so many of the things are strange.
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?
So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.
Doesn’t Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?
Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.
This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.
So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn’t use it for anything else during this time.
What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.
Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?
So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.
So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.
So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.
What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.
So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.
At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.
So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like “Open” or “Save”. No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.
The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.
It is not there.
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
Moviemaker is just not there at all.
So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.
I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.
I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.
I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don’t you just love that root certificate message?)
When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.
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06.25.08
Posted in General Rant at 7:24 am by Administrator
I just (finally!) got time to watch the latest episode of John Dvorak’s truly excellent Cranky Geeks (episode #121). Now, I love John’s wit, cynicism, and loathing of all things… well all things literally… but he surrounds himself with 20-something folks who have a rather… let’s just say… “interesting” point of view on a lot of topics.
Maybe I’m a Cranky Geek® (property of Ziff Davis, John Dvorak, et al) at heart. On one of the snippets of the show (really, see this stuff, you’ll love it!) about bloggers. The very attractive and only (!) woman on the panel Natali Del Conte (Senior Editor of CNET TV’s “Loaded”) predicted that the term “blog” will go away in the near future.
This was met by enthusiastic and hearty “hear hears” by co-crank Sebastian Rupley (Editorial Director of PCMagCast.com) and Bryan Gardiner a tech journalist from Wired.com. They all agreed that the term “blogger” will be replaced with “communicator.”
It was Ms. Del Conte’s contention that some of these so-called “bloggers” are really reporting news - and as such - should be held to the same journalistic “ethics” as “regular” news outfits. This includes journalistic training, subscription to AP new feeds and the like.
I agree with the fact that people that just copy/paste stuff from the AP are stealing content. Just like if you copy/paste something from anyone else’s paper/blog/website/podcast/video and claim it’s your own IS stealing content (without a proper link and credit [excerpted Ziff Davis’ Cranky Geeks episode #121]). I also agree with John Dvorak who said that “90-99% of the time people are not passing stuff off as their own” (taken from an excerpt by John Dvorak on Ziff Davis’ Cranky Geeks episode #121 - it’s not my own quote that I’ve copied from a new feed - I SWEAR!)
The thing I really like about John Dvorak - is that his opinion is the same as mine - “….there should be no standards. Your right to be a journalist is part of the Bill of Rights…” (taken from an excerpt by John Dvorak on Ziff Davis’ Cranky Geeks episode #121)
Well, damn it - it’s true. Bloggers (and, by the way, the term is NOT going away) - are just that bloggers. They are putting up their personal opinions about things that they give a crap about. Some of it may be “news” in the sense that they have a social life and know people (other than their mother) that might have something interesting to say that that AP or Reuters or WSJ actually didn’t happen to find out on their own.
Big whoop.
They go on to talk about all the ethics and disclosures that “real news organizations” have. If you write about Microsoft, you can’t own Microsoft stock, etc.
In general, good rules. In practice - it’s BS. Disclosure: I don’t own Microsoft, Ziff Davis or Apple stock. Even if I did - I’d still write about it. Why? Because I would be passionate about it.
I would actually put my money where my mouth was - and buy something and take a position (either pro or con) and express what it is and why it was that I bought something.
It’s not taboo. It’s not like some-random-guy writing about why you should buy Apple stock now (or not) is going to make people do it. Correction - most sane people who have a life and an Internet connection.
There is nothing wrong with passionate people writing passionately about subjects they care about. If you get your only news from them (e.g. you get your news from the Daily Show with John Stewart [Copyright © 1995-2008 Comedy Partners. All rights Reserved]) - then you deserve what you get.
There are lots of people who are ethical, “proper” journalists (including John Dvorak, Sebastian Rupley, Natali Del Conte and Bryan Gardiner) - and that’s THEIR DAMN JOB. That’s what they get paid to do. That is their chosen profession and their bread and butter.
The other blogs that they cited (the so-called “Web 2.0″ bloggers) have day jobs. They do something else and passionately write a public blog on what they care about - or what interests them.
Don’t worry Ms. Del Conte - they are not after your job. They don’t have one iota of the training or professionalism that you do. They are not professionals. Most of them are just… well… Cranky Geeks® (property of Ziff Davis, John Dvorak, et al) at heart.
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06.19.08
Posted in General Rant at 12:21 pm by Administrator
OK, so I was one of the 8.5 million people who downloaded Firefox 3.0 (and one of eight people that actually got an uncorrupted archive that would install).
First impression: Better than 2.0, that’s for sure.
It’s memory usage is finally back to the realm of reasonable from being way, way, too much of a pig. I have 9 tabs open and it’s (only!) consuming 140MB of RAM. In 2.0, just opening the thing would take that much RAM.
They’ve slightly changed the UI at the top of the screen but I don’t find it all that huge of a change. There are others who have raged an all out jihad over their opinion that the new graphics at the top are tantamount to heresy and that nothing should change. But then again, there are always those people who love to live in the past (they probably still wear bell bottom jeans and live at home as well).
The one thing I do miss is the fact that when you go to a SSL site - only the little expanded favicon (to the left of the URL address) is colored - rather than the whole address area. I liked the old way better - it was much easier to see when you were on a HTTPS site and when you weren’t.
I do like the expanded favicon, though. Rather than it being just an icon next to the address (the position is the same but it’s now a clickable button that turns colors) - it will show warnings when you’re on a suspected phishing or malware site.
You can click it at any time to get more information about the site your on (changes in context) - but you still have to know that you can click it. You can also rollover it and it will show a tooltip with the basic information as well.
I’ve heard people bitching about that as well - “You have to KNOW to click it…” one guy complained. Huh. It’s that tough? Once you know to click it (or rollover it) - you know forever. It’s a training issue - so suck it up and get over it.
I also noticed that the browsing experience tends to be a bit faster in general - although in my two days of browsing, I haven’t been “floored” by the performance - it just “feels” faster than 2.x.
Of course - when you have such a new version, download by so many in such a short time - there’s some miscreant out there somewhere that will find some kind of security hole in it.
And they did. Today. Less than 48 hours after launch. It seems that an “unnamed researcher” found the thing and sold it - SOLD IT - to the highest bidder. According to a note from TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) , a company that buys exclusive rights to software vulnerability data, the Firefox 3.0 bug also affects earlier versions of Firefox 2.0x.All the gory Technical details are being kept under wraps (thankfully!) until Mozilla’s security team ships a patch.
According to ZDI’s alert, it should be considered a high-severity risk:
“Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, permitting the attacker to completely take over the vulnerable process, potentially allowing the machine running the process to be completely controlled by the attacker. TippingPoint researchers continue to see these types of “user-interaction required ” browser-based vulnerabilities - such as clicking on a link in email or inadvertently visiting a malicious web page.”
So if you’re a Firefox fan - and you’re not the type of user that clicks in every single spam link - definately upgrade, soon if not immediately. If you ARE that type of person - use a different browser (you know, the “foolproof” one) or shut off your computer in sheer terror and don’t open it again until the patch news makes it into the tech paragraph in your local paper.
I use both Firefox and IE (and Safari and Opera) all the time, and I expect things will get even better with Version 3 - including making it more secure.
So far - it’s off to a good start - and hey, at the very worst, at least you get tons of memory back!
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06.18.08
Posted in General Rant at 9:21 am by Administrator
Well, it’s the last official day to get XP installed on a Dell without paying a “downgrade” fee. If you’re looking for the low-priced Vostro line of desktops and notebooks - bring your piggy bank.
It’ll cost $20-$50 more to have XP Professional installed as a downgrade to Windows Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. Oh yeah, and if you want to downgrade to XP Home - you’re S.O.L. - you can only choose XP Professional (which is better, if a little more expensive).
You could, however, choose the more expensive Latitude, OptiPlex and Precision systems and downgrade for no cost - but those machines will set you back the extra $20 to $50 anyway.
Also notice that you have to pop for Vista Business or Ultimate versions in order to be eligible for the downgrade. Those two options are the “high end” of the Vista scale in terms of price. Here’s a for example:
If you add Vista Ultimate to a Vostro 400 desktop it’ll cost you $149 more than the default Vista Home Basic; choosing to downgrade from Ultimate — Windows XP pre-installed and the Vista Ultimate installation disc in the box — costs $169, a surcharge of $20.
And, the best part is - you don’t get the XP re-install disc! Hey, great move Dell! I guess this is so that when (not if) your hard drive fails, you can see the error of your ways and install the most hosed piece of crap ever invented “true” operating system - Vista.
To be fair, it’s not really Dell’s fault - at the end of the day, Dell is only doing what it’s supposed to do according to their OEM license with Microsoft.
Microsoft will stop giving computer makers an OEM licesne for XP after June 30th (12 days from now) and will stop selling boxed copies to retailers on that day as well.
My advice? RUN down to BestBuy and get as many of these things as you can afford. Then you can charge all your friends, co-workers, in-laws and relatives cost + $75 to get XP after their hard drive fails or when they realize they need to have a four processor, 32 core system with 8GB of RAM to get Aero to work properly.
I can understand Microsoft wanting to get people on to the “new” code base. It’s going to be the basis for their next OS version - and it makes life much easier for THEM - in terms of upgrading.
The interesting thing - is that Microsoft has relaxed the XP OEM licensing until June 2010 for these new subnotebooks like the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and the Eee PC.
Ah, so I get it. Those low-cost, ultraportable notebooks don’t come with four processors and 8GB of RAM! So for those people, XP is the ONLY alternative (short of Windows Mobile!) that Microsoft has for them.
Good thing Dell also offers Ubuntu Linux right out of the box - NO extra charge… no downgrade B.S….
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06.17.08
Posted in General Rant at 10:43 am by Administrator
Well, Firefox 3.0 officially launched today - and they wanted to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by having the most downloads in a single day.
Too bad you can’t download it.
Apparently, everyone took that challenge literally - and the servers are all down. Yep, all of them. Mozilla.com, the SpreadFireFox, GetFireFox - all went to their knees.
Now I guess they know how the Woodstock organizers felt. It’s one thing to ramp up to a big new release by seeding the world with release candidates, and get everyone talking about how great and fast the new version is. It’s a whole ‘nother enchilada when you’re encouraging everyone in the world to download a huge file on the same day.
One would have thought that if one challenged people to go for a world record - that it would have called up their ISP and Alkamai and had mirrors and extra bandwidth to spare.
Alas, ’twas not the case here (at least not yet). It will be interest to see as the day progresses - what will happen - but for now - it’s “No soup for you” - unless you downloaded RC3 (which is identical to the final version).
If you’re one of the souls that hasn’t been keeping up - here’s an overview of what the hullabaloo is about:
- There’s an easier to use password manager
- Download manager which supports resumable downloads
- Better find system
- Totally re-designed address bar
- Ability to integrate with antivirus software and parental controls
- According to SunSpider - it’s the fastest browser out there
- Greatly reduced memory footprint
So, if and when the servers come back up - I’ll be anxious to give it a whirl…
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