Has your shop outsourced any key functions? If so, how did it affect your organization? Did it change your job? Was it a positive or negative experience? I'm looking to write a feature story based on YOUR experiences. E-mail me at [email protected] and I'll get in touch!
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/30/2010 at 1:17 PM2 comments
You've probably heard the story about Gizmodo getting its greedy little mitts on an iPhone prototype. The phone was left in a bar by an Apple employee (not sure if he's still employed), picked up by a patron and sold to the Giz for a cool five grand. The site then posted all the details, creating a firestorm far hotter than deserved.
Apple has never liked to have its news leaked before it is good and ready and isn't afraid to threaten journalists with high-priced Apple lawyers.
In this case, it sicced the cops on the Gizmodo editor, which raided his house and confiscated his computers -- after he gave the phone back to Apple!
Apple and the cops clearly overreacted, but what Giz did was also clearly wrong. It bought a device from someone who didn't own it. This is morally, if not legally, wrong.
Over my 26 years as a computer journalist, I've revealed a lot of things Microsoft and others preferred be kept quiet. I was only threatened with a lawyer once, and it sure wasn't from Microsoft!
I've never had Apple as a beat, which probably saved me millions in legal fees.
Ironically the best coverage from one Jon Stewart.
Is Apple the cuddly company most think, or is there a more sinister side? Shoot your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/30/2010 at 1:17 PM8 comments
You may be wondering why an IT newsletter such as this is talking about Vail, the new rev of Windows Home Server. Well, IT folks have home machines too, and more than a few of you have raved to me recently about Windows Home Server.
Small shops with small budgets can't always afford high-end backup and data synchronization solutions. For users you really want to keep happy (like the CEO), Home Server may just do the trick, making sure files are always available and protected.
The new Vail, now in beta, can be shared by as many as 10 PCs -- enough for a small office or large family. Vail has better remote video streaming and shares folders through Windows 7's HomeGroups.
While most shops will opt for a more robust server, small outfits and branch offices are a target audience for the tool. Just don't tell the boss it's called ‘Home' Server.
Have you tried Home Server? Send impressions to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/28/2010 at 1:17 PM3 comments
In response to Doug's warning of the McAfee/XP crash problem, one reader discusses his overall thoughts on XP's reliability:
I have been running XP since it came out, and since Service Pack 1, I have exactly one crash. It was caused by a bad driver for a junky USB device. This has been only one fifth the number of crashes on my Windows 7 machine. Are you sure your check isn't issued in Redmond? We actually had the McAfee issue all over our state because we use the enterprise approach for our network. We did not see the never-ending reboot cycle, but we do not scan on boot either.
OK, I am done ranting, but I hate sound bite oversimplifications. I prefer to know exactly what happened and why. I know that doesn't play to your least common denominator crowd, but it is how we in the trenches get things done. At least you can get me going once a day. Thanks for the effort.
-Anonymous
With Google now recording public and private Wifi hotspots by documenting MAC addresses, is this a legitimate threat to our privacy? Here are some of your thoughts:
If a company offers Wifi as a service to the public, they should be able to submit that info to Google for inclusion on the maps. But for Google to automatically record and publicly include every hot spot they happen to pick up is going too far. They are making the presumption that the signal is intended for public use. Yes, they are public airwaves, and it is legal for Google to do it, but I do not think they should publish it to the world without some sort of check.
Google certainly likes to push the envelope. I understand that they are now going to go inside business buildings to film them and add that data to street view. Again, it is a space that is open to the public, but what is the upside and what is the downside? Who benefits and who loses?
Here in America, the government is generally cast as the bad guy (big brother) and we have created a lot of rules to restrict government actions. In Europe, business is generally viewed as the bad guy. Despite good intentions, Google may end up teaching us the European view. Legal precedent has been established that it is OK for businesses to collect info about us, even info that the government cannot collect. However the government has access to all that info just by issuing a subpoena.
-Robert
Not sure why this is a big deal. El Paso County in Colorado already does the same thing, except the Wifi, pictures, location info and the geographical location are all public record.
-Mitchell
Google needs to be stopped. They should be fined for invasion of privacy and distributing sensitive information to the public. What will they be snooping into next? I am upset about this.
-Concerned Citizen
Even though we have past the point of information saturation, where should the line be drawn as to what is acceptable publicly and what SHOULD be strictly private? Google has become such a tool for exploration that it's become a standard verb in our language. What's more alarming is that NO ONE seems to care. The more we lose our privacy, the more we become equally mesmerized at the instantaneous access to information at our fingertips.
Privacy shouldn't be dismissed as paranoia. MANY people have lost their lives (physically and emotionally) upon seeing their personal lives displayed publicly for all to see. Even journalists have been abused because someone has a cell phone capable of snapping quick pics.
The loss of privacy may well become the definition of "Being Googled." This has gone way too far.
-M
Share your thoughts with the editors of this newsletter! Write to [email protected]. Letters printed in this newsletter may be edited for length and clarity, and will be credited by first name only (we do NOT print last names or e-mail addresses).
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/28/2010 at 1:17 PM4 comments
Microsoft has been taking it on the chin for security holes for most of its corporate life. Now it's time to fight back. In the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, Microsoft says that ISVs are the ones that need to improve their game. The facts seem to back these assertions. Last year, less than half of all attacks went after Windows XP third-party packages. Vista and Windows 7 attacks were based on third parties 75 percent of the time.
Microsoft's take? Hackers have to go after ISVs because Windows is getting tougher to penetrate.
Are you buying all this? What's your experience? War stories and opinions welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/28/2010 at 1:17 PM3 comments
There are two major things stopping folks from moving to Win 7 (beside a Mac or Linux fetish) -- lack of budget or fear of application incompatibilities.
Microsoft can't help you with the first, but a Microsoft partner can with the second through a free service that tests to see if your apps will run on Windows 7 Professional (not sure why it doesn't check for all Win 7 versions).
Gold partner ChangeBase is testing out the service, which is free -- at least for now.
The answers aren't a simple yes/no, but will tell you if there are minor install problems, if a whole new driver is needed or if you are just plain out of luck. In some cases, the ChangeBase tool can solve the problem.
While Microsoft has its own compatibility test tool, the advantage of ChangeBase is checking custom corporate apps.
How is your Win 7 compatibility? Or do you have a Mac or Linux fetish? Answers can be sent regardless of operating system to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/28/2010 at 1:17 PM3 comments
With the news of computer pioneer Ed Robers passing away last week, Doug wants to know some of your tech heroes:
Ken Olsen -- Digital Equipment Corporation. With a $60,000 loan, Grace Hopper as an adviser and the notion of time-sharing computers in his mind, he built DEC into a $13 billion corporation. Even at its peak he would land at a table in the cafe and eat lunch with whoever was at the table. He never behaved as though he was better than anybody else.
More than 10 years after it was broke up and sold off I still miss that company.
An old timer still going at it.
-Tim
I'm sure many people will rightfully cite Donald Knuth ("The Art of Computer Programming"), Brian Kernighan and Ken Thompson (Unix), Dennis Ritchie ("C"), Bill Gates & Paul Allen (Microsoft, MS-BASIC), C. Wayne Ratliff (dBase), Mitchell Kapor (Lotus 1-2-3), Charles Petzold (Windows Programming), and even Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs (Apple) as their heroes.
I'd like to throw in Anders Hejlsberg as my hero for authoring one of the most influential programs of all time: Turbo Pascal. Until then, the only programming environment most people had access to was some version of BASIC or hand coding assembly language programs. Other environments were available (COBOL, FORTRAN, C, Pascal) but at the cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars putting them out of the reach of most hobbyists.
The introduction of Turbo Pascal was significant not just because of its technical prowess and speed but also because of its price point -- less than a $100. Not only did this expose many developers -- both hobbyist and professional -- to a great language and tool set at little expense, but it also opened the door to other lower cost development tools and inspired the creation of such cousins as Turbo C, QuickC, QuickBASIC and MASM that helped forge a cottage industry of software houses that lead to where we are today.
Without Turbo Pascal who's to say how long it would've taken to get here, if ever, and to make so many of us nerds rich? So my hat's off to Anders Hejlsberg. Thank you!
-Erik
Does the recent news that PC sales are on the rise mean the economy is recovering? One reader says no:
Doug, that figures out to a PC for every 126 people on the planet, so you should get that the economy is not back on track. We are not replacing any PCs this year because there is no money to do so. Sales on some equipment is better, cheap net books and such, but no one is buying a lot. Windows 7 doesn't even factor into the equation. We are only replacing equipment that fails. Nothing else. And that will continue for the foreseeable future.
-Anonymous
Share your thoughts with the editors of this newsletter! Write to [email protected]. Letters printed in this newsletter may be edited for length and clarity, and will be credited by first name only (we do NOT print last names or e-mail addresses).
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/26/2010 at 1:17 PM0 comments
If you subscribe to MSDN or TechNet Plus, you can be one of the first to get your hot little hands on SharePoint 2010 -- and you can choose your poison today -- either 32 or 64 bits. And if you are new to TechNet Plus, you can get 25 percent off SharePoint.
Software Assurance customers can get their mitts on the new SharePoint tomorrow.
Do you use MSDN or TechNet? Do you read the magazines? Share your opinions with us at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/26/2010 at 1:17 PM0 comments
If you've been jonesin' for the latest and greatest version of SQL Server, you have only a week or two to wait, depending on your circumstance. As with SharePoint 2010, MSDN and TechNet Plus customers get first dibs and can download R2 on May 3. General release is a full 10 days later.
Microsoft won't be content with you just upgrading to R2. The company also wants you to buy Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010, stitch them all together and build an intuitive Business Intelligence system.
I've seen all these in action, and there are a lot of pretty cool things you can do through integration. My only question is how much effort does it take to integrate and make these tools really work for your shop?
Have you looked at these tools? What are the implementation issues? Send your best guidance to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/26/2010 at 1:17 PM0 comments
I am astounded at the latest Google news. I already knew I hated Street View -- where Google vans take pictures of our homes, shops and neighborhoods. This is a huge invasion of privacy, in my opinion, and Street View has even been used by thieves to stake out houses.
Now, come to find out, Google is also recording if we have a WiFi hotspot, and if so takes down our MAC address.
The German government is trying to get Google to stop this practice, but Google is a stubborn company when it comes to privacy.
Is Google better or worse when it comes to privacy than other vendors? Should we try to restrict the data Google collects and what they can do with it? Shoot your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/26/2010 at 1:17 PM25 comments
Security software, such as antivirus, is supposed to prevent infection and keep our machines up and running -- just like a good tune-up on the family Caravan.
But an antivirus update from McAfee has the opposite effect. It made XP-based machines crash more than XP itself (I've had a million XP machines and it is the NASCAR of operating systems)!
This glitch only impacts VirusScan Enterprise customers and concerns its new virus definition "DAT 5958" which mistakenly believes that a key Windows file is itself a virus (given my XP reboot problems over the years, DAT 5958 may just be right!).
With the Window's driver file disabled, XP goes into a never ending cycle of rebooting (that sounds like my old Amiga 3000).
McFee is building a new virus definition file that should make XP crash at its normal rate.
What is your favorite antivirus tool? Is XP as reckless as I think or I am just a poor administrator of my own PCs? Let 'er rip at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/23/2010 at 1:17 PM12 comments
We start Friday's mailbag with a comment on the shelf life of Windows' Service Pack support:
Service Packs are FREE and operating systems which are not at the latest patch-level -- including service packs (which are mostly bundled security patches) -- pose a threat not just to the users of those systems but to all systems on the same network.
Despite the naysayers, Microsoft has always been reasonable about troubleshooting support, has (unlike Applicationle) always provided free patches and service packs. Aside from emergency troubleshooting, Microsoft is right to tell mean to install the latest service pack. There is no reason not to.
- C. Mark
One reader gives insight on why a huge company like Microsoft would start outsourcing its IT help desk:
My company has started to outsource a few internal IT application locations. A couple being Blackberry Support and Spam filtering. I am sure there will be more to come.
As far as Microsoft outsourcing their IT, I am not surprised at all. Look at Microsoft PSS support; it has been so poor for the past couple of years, what's the point of calling when you can get most issues resolved by using Google or other third-party sites like Experts Exchange?
-Don
And finally, here are a couple more responses to the Office ribbon hot-topic Doug wrote about in April's Redmond magazine:
I thought, way back when, part of the sales pitch for Windows was that all applications were going to have the same interface and look, making training easier. You know in general what's under file, edit, view, etc. so you were going to be more productive. Now they throw that away. Count me in for "classic" Office, not "new" Office. I do think they make these changes just to have something else to sell. How much grief and costs are involved with forced upgrades? Win 7 on your new machine? Now you need to buy a new printer, new version of that application you've been using for years, etc. Oh, and now that file you mail to someone else won't open because they have an older version of that same application.
Sometimes I am embarrassed being in this industry. Like new tax laws, accountants and lawyers -- job security is for the friends of legislators.
-Mike
I've used Office 2007 for over a year now, so I feel comfortable that I have "given it a fair shake." I like a few things, but despise most of it. And this is after reading extensive blogs and interviews by Jensen Harris and other Microsoft employees who foisted this upon us, to try to understand their rationale and vision.
Here's what I like:
- The size of the buttons change as the window size changes -- no more "buttons off the window" problem for any reasonably sized window. This was the one really good idea.
- The previous worst idea ever: the Office 2003 menus that were different every time you open them, defeating muscle memory quite handily, has at least been killed off.
Here's what I hate:
- The organization is illogical. For example, to insert a slide into a PowerPoint deck, do NOT go to Insert; instead, go to Home and select New Slide. Add-ins go onto a special "Add-Ins" tab, instead of where the functionality they represent would logically be found as with the old menu system. (For example, SnagIt should be under Insert, since it "inserts" a screenshot -- get it?)
- The ribbon is memory-deficient. For example, if I resize the object palette in the Drawing section of the Home tab in PowerPoint, the next time I open it, it's back to Microsoft's favorite size and shape. Why am I permitted to resize it if it just snaps back to the way it was when I let go?
- The implementation is inconsistent. The ribbon eliminated menus -- except that the round orb with the Office logo is now used for the File menu, it's just a lot harder to find now. Using Office 2007 means using the ribbon when editing an e-mail instead of using the tried-and-true buttons when managing e-mails.
- Critical features are now hard to reach. For example, aligning objects is now three clicks down. And if I want to align the top and the left, it's a total of six clicks. This is not more efficient than having buttons right there when I need them.
- It's almost customization-free. I can't move the object alignment buttons to somewhere sane. I can't create a new tab with all of my key macros on it -- only what I can fit on the little bulb thingy next to the secret File menu. I can't move New Slide to the Insert tab. Every brain-dead decision Microsoft made is chiseled into ribbon granite.
- It infantilizes the user. With the menu system invented by Xerox, keyboard shortcuts are clearly spelled out on the menu itself. Thus over time, for example, a user learns to hit Control-B for bold, or Control-V to paste. People are allowed to learn. The ribbon ensures that the user must rely on his mouse for the rest of his life -- unless, I suppose, he pays Microsoft for a class in how to become more computer-literate.
- The menus are just too freaking big. Just as Microsoft is intent to more than consume increasingly fast processor power and memory with bigger software, they seem determined to fill up my larger monitors with even more of their stuff. So I get a faster computer with more memory and a huge display, and it runs slower, exhausts memory sooner, and displays less of the stuff I bought the computer to actually develop. Isn't this backwards?
Whenever I complain about the many problems with the ribbon design, I'm told "in time you'll get used to it." No I won't. The ribbon is illogical, not configurable, inconsistent, inefficient, insulting to learning-capable adults and just too darned big. It was a bad idea that Microsoft should abandon.
-George
Share your thoughts with the editors of this newsletter! Write to [email protected]. Letters printed in this newsletter may be edited for length and clarity, and will be credited by first name only (we do NOT print last names or e-mail addresses).
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/23/2010 at 1:17 PM3 comments