AOL vs. OneCare
While Windows Genuine Advantage checks to make sure your Windows is bought
and paid for, AOL's new tool wants to sell you software. The upcoming
Active
Security Monitor checks to make sure you have enough security, and if you
don't it'll sell you the pieces that are missing. The tool rifles through your
machine looking for proper anti-virus and firewall software, and actually digs
deep at some pretty low-level settings. In the weeks to come, AOL will start
beta testing its answer to OneCare, Microsoft's subscription-based security
service.
Office, the Next Dev Platform?
We have XP, Vista, Windows Server, IE and Windows Live. Now Redmond
wants you to develop
apps for good old Office. Office Line of Business Interoperability (LOBi,
maybe the worst acronym in the last decade!) is designed to help developers
that tie into Office, which in turn tie into back-end apps.
Let's Rename Before It Ships
By the time a Microsoft product makes it to market, it has usually gone
through a few names: the first code name, the new code name, maybe a proposed
commercial name, and finally the real commercial name. Then, a few years after
it ships, it gets renamed again. WinFX (not to be confused with WinFS, the file
system that was yanked), the programming model underlying Vista, is now, drum
roll...NET Framework 3.0! Now, doesn't that just roll off the tongue?
Here's how Microsoft explains
the change.
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CrackBerry Addicts, Help Is on the Way
Are your fingers and thumbs calloused and twisted from hours punching
those tiny BlackBerry keys? Do you message from the toilet (better than using
a cell phone)? Well Bucko, fly to Chicago, check into the Sheraton, and the
manager will confiscate
your little blue e-mail machine and not return it until check out. As long
as he doesn't steal my key to the minibar!
Bricklin Is Back
Google's new spreadsheet has me more underwhelmed than high school cafeteria
shepherd's pie. But a new,
open source, collaborative spreadsheet from the father of VisiCalc, Dan
Bricklin (well, Bob Frankston was co-author), is pretty darn exciting. Bricklin
is one of the coolest, nicest, smartest people in the world of software (Ray
Ozzie got his start working for Dan), and this product, which is free and shareable,
fits his personality to a tee. Look for wikiCalc at a Web site near you.
About the Author
Doug Barney is editor in chief of Redmond magazine and the VP, editorial director of Redmond Media Group.