Microsoft's Progress is Slow, But Not Out of Sight
March 5, 2008
at 12:34 pm
in microsoft, software, standards, technology, windows vista
Comments (0)
We already know that Microsoft needs to start listening to the community and hearing what they have to say. We already know that not only do they need to listen, but they need to involve the community in core decision-making processes with their software, from the very planning stages. What do we as users want out of the software? What do we want to be able to do with it? How would we, as users, actually go about doing this with said software, and what features can be added to make it easier and more enjoyable?
Twoof the teams at Microsoft which have isolated themselves from this ideal are, mainly, the Windows and Office teams, and quite possibly a bit of the Windows Live team. Windows Vista, while not a disaster for me personally, was one for multitudes of people. Office 2007, while having many excellent features, was a trainwreck for the power user (Outlook 2007, anyone? No thanks…). Where are all of these complete OS/cloud integration features from Windows Live? No where to be seen.
Onthe flips side, there are many teams at Microsoft who do an incredible job at listening to users. The Xbox and Xbox Live teams, absolutely the Zune team, and while they’re not heard from too often, the Microsoft Research teams. They all listen to what users want out of products, what features, whether software or hardware, would benefit to the end user, and begin using their brilliant development minds to follow through on those ideas. They have us, the geeks and user advocates, to literally translate what the average end-user wants to do or has frustrations with into language that Microsoft developers and technical users can understand.
Onething that made headlines today is that Microsoft Research has opened up the Singularity project to the public for SDK and RDK use, for 100% free. If you do not know, Singularity is a very small Operating System which runs its microkernel and processes as managed code. Not only that, but it’s written in the C# language. For the non-technical users, this means it’s a completely different operating system than anything else out there both in terms of its programming and the potential it has. What Microsoft Research has done with Singularity is create a virtually uncrashable operating system with insane performance. People have been begging Microsoft to release this to the public, to technical users and developers, for over a year now. They’re finally listening.
Whatdoes this mean? It means that they’re making progress. It means that technical users can use Singularity, get down into its core, and start making suggestions to the Singularity team of how they’d like to see it improved. It means that with Microsoft’s brilliance, and our end user input, we could potentially be involved in the planning stages for a next-generation Operating System from Microsoft.
Now,I’m not saying that Singularity will be the base for the next version of Windows. The Singularity developers have already states that’s not its purpose. However, with input from the community, it very well could be the case that Singularity’s ideas make it into the next version of Windows, something that would significantly help us all. Nor am I saying that this has any relationship to my previous post about Microsoft’s involvement to the community, though a few people from Microsoft have already commented to me about it.
Microsoftis making progress, no matter how slow it may be. Let’s just hope it’s not too slow. And let’s hope that not only my cry to Microsoft, but that of thousands of others, speeds up that process.
Microsoft:Please listen to the community in all areas of your software development from the very planning stages. It will benefit the end user, and ultimately, it will benefit you as a company.
Official phpBB.com Podcast
September 5, 2007 at 11:32 pm in open source, podcast, software, technology Comments (0)
As many of you know, I’m a Support Team Member for the popular open-source phpBB bulletin board project. We are now live after much discussion and work internally with the first episode of the Official phpBB Podcast!
You can find the episodes and more information at the podcast site.
As mentioned in the podcast, please post comments and suggestions in this topic. Please note that the email address mentioned in the podcast and shownotes has not been created.
And yes, we are aware of the sounds. We had forgotten to change the setting for that.
Episode 1 is about 45 minutes long, so sit back and enjoy the smooth stylings of the phpBB Team!
Zamzar.com - Free file conversion
August 31, 2007 at 10:10 am in internet, software, web development Comments (1)
I’ve known about Zamzar.com for a few months at this point, but it has taken awhile for me to really see the true convenience of it.
Zamzar.com, for those of you who don’t know, is a 100% free online file converter. Seriously, you can convert files, virtually any type of media or document up to 100MB, on the fly. All you need to do is simply upload the file and provide an email address where the link for the converted file can be sent. No emails addresses are harvested, you’re not put on any spam lists, and no software is required to be downloaded to use the service.
I find myself using Zamzar.com every day for something or another. All I’m hoping for is a bit more file support for other things besides media or documents, such as address book archives (vCard, LDIV to CSV, etc). Developer and producers file conversion would also be useful, such as DSLR Camera RAW or even things like PSD (Photoshop) conversion.
If you need any type of media file or document conversion, you owe it to yourself to check out Zamzar.com
What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for online file format converters? Leave a comment.
An Apple OS X Experience
August 21, 2007 at 2:54 pm in apple, hardware, itunes, microsoft, operating systems, software, technology Comments (2)
At this point in time, I’m exclusively a Windows user, with Vista as my primary operating system. Over the last few months, I have actually thought about becoming a “switcher” at least temporarily. I’m considering getting a 20″ iMac so I can experience Apple OS X firsthand, something which I’ve only been able to do at work, or at the Apple store. I really do want to learn more about Apple OS X and become as productive with it as I am in a Windows environment.
That being said, I took a trip to Orlando yesterday to do some shopping. While I was at one of the malls, I decided to take a trip into the Apple store to see the new iMac (which, in my opinion, is actually the first good looking iMac design). I stood in front of a 20″ iMac for about 30 minutes or so. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about the experience, but even more annoyances. Below is the list of what I found particularly annoying just from that 30 minutes.
- Maybe I just didn’t find it, but where exactly can I find out how much memory or CPU is being used in real time? That’s annoying.
- When I click the close button on a window in OS X, I expect the application to close. Period.
- Why, exactly, can I only resize a window by using the handle on the bottom right-hand corner? What if I have the bottom of the window already positioned exactly where I want it?
- Please, please, do not allow the desktop to display when Photoshop or Final Cut Pro or any other application like it is open. It confuses me what application is active and I really don’t want to have to look at the Apple bar to tell. OS X really needs to have this changed.
- Put a real scroll wheel on a mouse like everyone else. I kept launching Dashboard when trying to left click.
- And please allow me to secondary click a Dashboard widget to change its properties.
- In iTunes, which I launch a video, why can I only resize the window proportionally? And can we please merge the library and play window into one? Reasons like this are why I stay away from Apple iTunes or Winamp for Windows. Windows Media Player is annoying as heck sometimes, but it’s certainly better than dealing with that
- Apple’s Safari is a horrible user experience. Period. I was surprised that it was worse on OS X than it was on Windows.
- OS X’s Wireless network switching is annoying. Seriously, if I have 2 wireless devices, what then?
- Secondary/right click is a godsend. OS X better start supporting it fully like everyone else.
- OS X Mail looks more like a to-do list than an email client. The iPhone’s SMS system is actually pretty nice. Can’t you make Mail look similar (leaving out the conversation dialog balloons)?
- This is not so much as an OS X issue, but more of the overall experience. Most of my primary phone calling is done through Skype. It’s utter trash on OS X. Even Chris Pirillo thinks so, and he’s leaning towards switching to a Mac way more than I am.
- Mr. Steve Jobs, stop saying iPhoto ‘08 is Web 2.0 compatible. I tried it firsthand, and it is not anywhere close to being this arbitrary “Web 2.0.”
- Slot-loading DVD/CD drives are evil. What if I have a miniDVD that I recorded on my camcorder? I don’t care if it doesn’t look “cool,” please go back to a tray.
- Apple’s .Mac is a total waste of money and you’re developers time. Either fix it to what it should/could be, or drop it entirely.
- And why in the name of the Holy Steve Jobs do I have to pay that much for an Apple brand computer? This is the 21st century!
I’m torn at this point as to whether or not I should get an iMac. Windows Vista has a ton of annoyances, and I really wouldn’t mind switching to another platform such as OS X as there are, at this point, just as many “popular” applications that will run on OS X as Windows, and for the rest I can run Apple Mac Parallels or VMWare Fusion. But OS X has just as many annoyances, if not more, that really need to be fixed before I’ll ever consider switching entirely. Who knows … maybe in the future I will. I’m definitely more tolerant of Macs that I was 3 years ago.
Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail
August 20, 2007 at 11:52 pm in email, microsoft, software Comments (2)
For those who may not have read my previous blog posts, over the past 12 days I have been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my desktop email client needs. I normally use Mozilla Thunderbird. So far, the experience has been pleasant, but it isn’t without its annoyances. I’ve already posted my Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thudnerbird. Here is my top 10 for Live Mail:
- UI inconsistency - When I go into Options or open a dialog/properties box, I’m expecting it to have the same clean look the regular interface has. But for some reason it reminds me of Windows 95. And when I add a new contact, why does the color scheme suddenly change?
- For the love of God, don’t make me have to go into the message properties just to view the full headers. And when I get there, I don’t want to have to use the horizontal scrollbar in order to read it. Can I please just Right Click -> View Sorce?
- As a part of the Windows Live services, Microsoft also offers Windows Live Writer, which allows you to post content to Wordpress, Movable Type, Live Spaces, Blogger, etc, all in one desktop client. But in their Windows Live Mail, why does the “Blog” option only allow you to use Live Spaces? That’s hypocritical–change it.
- Why isn’t there a “Print” label next to the button? Even though it’s obvious, it’s inconsistent.
- The searching options, while simple, aren’t customizable enough. I can’t search just in subjects or just in the body.
- I really don’t get the point of the “Storage folders” section being present by default. If I want to store something other than in the standard drafts, I’ll create my own folder for that purpose.
- When I right click the title bar, the standard menu bar shows up. But when I click off of the secondary click dropdown, the menu bar disappears. Is this a bug, or is it a feature that’s not working properly? I’d prefer it not to show up at all…
- I doubt there’s legal issues involved, so why can’t I import email/settings from a Thunderbird profile? Here I am thinking about switching, and I wouldn’t even have the option to import.
- There’s a big difference between email security, and junk email. Just because an advertisement comes in, it doesn’t mean it’s a fraud or trying to send you a virus. Please give Junk Email it’s own option in the Tools menu.
In a few days, I’ll make my final decision as to whether I’ll be staying with Windows Live Mail or going back to Thunderbird. I’m still kind of torn between the two.
As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, please leave a comment, or Ask Me!
Update: It seems in posting this the code got screwed up and I lost one of my points. What’s odd is I can’t remember what it was, so sorry for there only being 9 … but there were originally 10, I promise.
Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thunderbird
August 20, 2007 at 12:39 pm in email, software Comments (4)
Don’t get me wrong, I love Mozilla Thunderbird as a desktop email client. In my opinion, it’s better than Microsoft’s Outlook in terms of ease of use, stability, and simplicity. Also, configuring account settings is much more intuitive and actually more powerful. It’s also certainly better than Microsoft’s Outlook Express. But regardless, I’ve had my fair share of annoyances with the client. Here I’ll point out a few of them:
- The UI is poorly designed. Don’t get me wrong, the UI is workable and allows you to configure lots of things, but quite simply, it’s ugly to look at. No matter what theme you install, the basic design is still there, and it’s not easily navigable.
- The message rules dialog box is too bloated. You have to click way too many times and customize way too many things in order for you to get it to do exactly what it is you want it to do. I hate to say it, but Outlook (and Windows Live Mail) have much better message rule controls.
- When I’m deleting emails one-by-one starting from the bottom and going up, if I click to skip over an email, the next one in line when deleted is the one below. This on many occasions has caused me to delete the very email I wanted to skip. Definitely a “bug.”
- Thunderbird is literally in lockdown mode while downloading new messages. One of my email accounts I can get anywhere up to 400-700 messages per day (mostly spam). I have plenty of CPU utilization and RAM left, but when I’m downloading all these messages, why does the entire application slow to a crawl? I want to read some of that email as it’s coming in, dangit!
- Junk mail - this is a big one. When I first started using Thunderbird, I was impressed with how acurate the junk mail filters were and how quickly it learned. But after junking out probably close to 50,000 emails, why exactly do I still get the exact same email over and over again? Why hasn’t it learned? I was impressed that Windows Live Mail actually caught those silly USNMA messages right off the bat.
- The address book is horrible. I can’t describe how terribly it’s designed. Now I realize why I’ve never used address book features in mail clients…
- And why the heck is the address book button in the tob bar? That’s a freaking control bar, not an “access the secondary features” bar. Everything else up there controls the email or emails in general. It should not be there.
- All of a sudden, my mail filters stopped working at some point. This was almost a year ago, and I still haven’t fixed them for the sole purpose of I had way too many and it would take up way too much of my time. Why, exactly did these just suddenly stop working?
- When Thunderbird goes to import mail from Outlook Express or Outlook, can it please at least warn the user that some things may not be copied correctly (ie, message filters?). And why can’t I import News/Blogs, Mail, and settings all at the same time?
- What the heck is the purpose of the “Go” menu option sitting on its own? It’s pointless. If it must be present, please combine it with the View menu like in every other email client…
So there you have it. I’m doing this in combination with my previous blog about how I was seriously considering switching permanently to Windows Live Mail for my desktop email needs. To be fair, my next entry will be The Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail.
Tier 2 support rep, please!
February 15, 2007 at 11:34 pm in microsoft, software, windows Comments (0)
Staying on topic with my previous two posts about my upgrade to Windows Vista, I’m still very happy I made the upgrade and absolutely loving Vista. However, with that said, I have one persisting problem.
Randomly throughout the day while I’m browsing the internet I suddenly cannot connect anymore. Sounds like a typical connection problem, right? Think again. What’s even more strange about this issue is that only my browser connectivity cuts out. I always have mIRC open with an active connection to various networks. I always have Trillian open with several chat windows open. I have Thunderbird open which is regularly downloading any new email. Every single application outside of my browsers is able to connect perfectly fine. Yet as soon as I try to do something in a browser (whether it’s Firefox, Opera, or IE7), I have absolutely no connectivity.
But wait, it gets stranger. I can’t even connect to my router. Even worse, I can’t even connect to localhost. Yet I can do pings and tracerts in the command line to absolutely anywhere I like with no problem whatsoever.
Clearing all cache has no effect. Disabling/enabling the network card has no effect. Releasing and renewing my IP does nothing. Flushing the DNS cache does nothing. Manually editing my HOSTS file to point to a specific IP is pointless. Updating to the latest drivers doesn’t work. Heck, I can log off my user account and log back in and nothing budges.
And to top it all off on the weirdness scale, there is absolutely nothing in the Event Viewer to indicate anything strange or any error occurred at any point anywhere close to the time I lost connectivity. No failed drivers, no security restrictions, no memory allocation errors. Nothing.
I don’t consider myself to an MCSE or anything, but I’ll be honest and say I know a heck of a lot and I know how to fix most any issue that comes up. But this one has me completely and utterly stumped.
So I decided to buckle down and call Microsoft. So after going through 30 minutes of verifying that my version of Vista Ultimate had actually been activated, I’m put on with a tech support rep who had a hard time firstly understanding what the problem was, and secondly understanding that I probably knew a infinite amount more than her about Windows. But I decided to play along for the time being.
But after she asked me to uninstall the Google Toolbar from IE7 and use a proxy server, I put my foot down and said clearly that Internet Explorer is not the problem! I mean, come on? The first thing I said to this rep when I got on the phone was it wasn’t local to Internet Explorer. It happens with any browser and anytime I try to access something via the HTTP protocol. Apparently that flies over her head.
I also indicated very clearly the only way I had found to temporarily resolve the problem was to reboot the computer. Yet she instructs me to reboot into Safe Mode after I put my foot down and corrected her about the toolbar/proxy. At that point, I gave up and asked to be moved to a Tier 2 rep. After a bit of trouble with that, I at least get on with someone who knows what they’re talking about.
I can at least talk to this guy in technical jargon and he trusts me when I say I’ve tried things that haven’t worked.
So he gave me a slightly modified driver to try … which unfortunately required me to reboot.
I honestly don’t think it’ll work. So basically, at this point I’m just waiting for the issue to pop its head up again.
Lesson learned: ask for a Tier 2 rep right off the bat.
Windows Vista - One week after installation
February 9, 2007 at 1:14 am in intel, microsoft, software, windows Comments (1)
Just under a week ago I upgraded my laptop (running Windows XP MCE 2005) to Windows Vista Ultimate. You can read more about this in my previous post: (here).
As I indicated in my previous post, I was outright impressed with the quality job that Windows Vista did when it upgraded my system. In the past, Windows upgrades were almost a taboo in the computing world. Windows 98 to XP? Forget it. Not happening. However, with Vista, this is completely changed around. It’s now a pleasure to upgrade.
Of course, it hasn’t come without its downfalls. For one, my printer drivers aren’t working properly since HP has yet to release Vista compatible drivers for their printer line (at least my models). My antivirus software (CA Antivirus 2007) supposedly works on Vista with a minor patch. This isn’t the case. I discovered that whenever my computer was idling and CA attempted to update, the system would entirely lock up, requiring a hard reboot. From CA’s website, another patch won’t be around until the end of March. I can’t wait that long. I’ve since switched to Windows Live OneCare. On a side note, I must say that when I was BETA testing OneCare, I wasn’t impressed. Since the release, I’m very impressed with its quality, and most of all, how it works in the background without so much as making a peep.
I also was enlightened to the fact that Intel’s 945GM chipset drivers for Vista weren’t as compatible as Intel claimed they were. However, that was readily fixed with another patch. And at this point, I’ve not seen any glitches pop up.
All in all, the only issues I’ve experienced have been with third-party applications causing problems (like VLC media player switching the interface back to Vista Basic every time a video is played). Vista in itself is ridiculously stable. And in the rare event of an error, it’s readily able to recover completely.
I’m thoroughly enjoying my experience on Vista. I hope you make the decision to upgrade soon. It really does, as the ad campaign says, make you “wow!”
I took the plunge - Windows Vista
February 3, 2007 at 12:03 am in microsoft, software, windows Comments (0)
I had downloaded the BETA of Windows Vista when it became available publicly and used it on both my desktop and laptop through a dual-boot scenario. This really got me used to the new changes in Vista so I feel very comfortable with it.
However, on my laptop, I have Intel’s 945GM onboard graphics card, which in the beta, and serious problems with Vista’s Aero Glass style (transparency, flip 3D, etc). Any of the new graphical things in Vista also were quite sluggish. This is why I originally didn’t plan on buying Vista until I replaced my desktop.
Just last night, I did a bit of research and discovered that Intel released a new driver for their 945 series graphics chipsets which support Vista to the smallest iota, including the Vista premium features (Aero Glass). So today, I took the plunge and purchased Vista Ultimate and upgraded my laptop’s XP MCE 2005 to Vista Ultimate.
In the past, you dared not upgrade a Windows installation if you didn’t want to have to deal with a ton of compatibility issues afterwards. I had reports of how smoothly Vista’s upgrade is compared to previous Windows versions, though when I was using the BETA, I did a clean installation and not an upgrade. I hadn’t experienced it firsthand until earlier today.
I must say with great enthusiasm that Vista’s upgrade procedure was absolutely flawless. Every file, ever folder, every setting, everything was perfectly preserved. My email, my music, my photos, my recently viewed/opened files, my playlists, heck, even my browser’s cache was preserved in the upgrade from IE6 on my XP installation to IE7 on Vista. Not one thing has gone missing. Not one application has given errors. Not one incompatible driver. I am thoroughly impressed with Vista’s upgrade procedure.
I also must point out that significant improvements have been made since the BETA in terms of speed, reliability, aesthetics, and ease of use. Vista is truly almost twice as fast as my XP installation on the same hardware. Vista can actually take advantage of my dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM, unlike XP. File searching is incredible and fast. Application launches are even faster. Boot time was almost cut in half, and I’m not exaggerating.
Vista’s new style is gorgeous. It has wonderful Aesthetics. 3d animations and hardware acceleration features execute with absolutely zero lag. Media Center is vastly improved over MCE 2005, and it runs flawlessly.
Vista is absolutely wonderful. Period. Kudos to Microsoft for getting away from their stereotypical bug-filled, unstable, and unusable operating system. Vista is amazing. I’ll leave it at that.
Static IP Address - How-to
October 5, 2006 at 8:29 pm in internet, software Comments (1)
In a previous entry, I invited my readers or any visitor to ask me a question via the Ask Me section above. I’ve gotten a few good questions. Most of them are about phpBB which I specifically asked not to be submitted. Some were about how to solve simple physics problems? Huh? What, do I look like a calculator? But regardless, I got a few that I think I’ll turn into an entry.
The first question is about static IP addresses from an ISP that only provides you with a dynamic IP address. If I’m gathering the question correctly, I’m assuming this person wants to setup a web server on their computer, but has no way to access it for any length of time due to their computer’s IP address changing every hour, or day, or week, depending on the ISP.
First, I should warn you that running a web server on your computer opens it up to potential security hazards unless you know what you’re doing or have some kind of firewall setup either on your router, or firewall software. And that said firewall software is properly configured, not just “I installed the disc, so it must be okay.” I won’t get into the specifics of that in this post, because it’s way too involved and there’s no one “correct” way to do it.
Sticking with the topic at hand, in order to get someone access to files on your computer via a web browser, you’ll need to have some static address in place. Most often, this won’t be in the form of an IP address, but an actual domain.
There are a few services out there that offer DNS redirecting services for free. My personal favorite, and the most popular, is No-IP. Basically, you sign up for a free account, choose the domain name you would like to use (or sub-domain rather), and then install a small program on to your computer. What this program does is (every 10 minutes or so), get the IP address for your computer and send that address to No-IP’s servers. So when anyone accesses the No-IP web address, it’ll be forwarded (and masked) to your current IP address, whatever it is at the time.
One other thing to consider as well is the port you’ll be using. No-IP is able to forward any port you wish to your computer (for example, I go to my-no-ip-domain.com:5900 to access the VNC server on port 5900 on my desktop at home). Most often, if your ISP doesn’t allow a static IP address, they’ll also block incoming traffic from ports 80 and 21 (HTTP and FTP respectively). In this case, you’d need to configure your web server software (Apache, IIS) to use a different port. I use 8090. And then you’ll need to access it from my-no-ip-domain.com:8090.
Simple? It really isn’t that hard to set up.
Good luck! Email me back if you need any more details! And keep the questions coming!
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