I love motorcycles (I have 14 of the darn things), but I hate certain people
that ride them. I hate middle-aged men who buy a Harley as their first motorcycle
and then claim that rice burners stink (these are the same guys that slam on
their rear brakes when confronted by an obstacle that they promptly hit).
But more than that, I hate nuts on high-powered sport bikes that wheelie down
the road wearing shorts and T-shirts, endangering themselves and all the cars
they pass along the way.
One such moron got his just desserts in the U.K. Jeremy Parrot filmed
himself pulling every knucklehead stunt in the book, then put the video
up on YouTube. Can you say busted?
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/21/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The Onion is the epitome of American satire today. While not as side-splitting
as the old National Lampoons I hid from my mother in the '70s (so she wouldn't
steal them for herself), the Onion has a subtlety lost in the new generation
of rude, crude, lewd and obvious humor.
In the Onion's
list of the top eight Vista features, the first five are all snoozes, and
the last three a hoot!
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/21/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I used to enjoy the "Opie and Anthony" show when it was on the radio
in Worcester, Mass. They played music, made a few jokes and pulled a few pranks.
Now that they have replaced Howard Stern, they feel compelled to talk for five
hours a day, putting me to sleep after I've just woken up!
Anthony is actually the funny one and recently ran into some problems moving
to Vista, which
he chronicles in this almost amusing clip (trust me, this guy can be much
funnier than this item indicates).
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/21/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft could have used OpenDoc, the file format for OpenOffice and other
apps, as the file format for Office 2007, but that just wouldn't be right. Microsoft
wants it own file formats for market control, and so that the file formats can
handle anything Microsoft apps need them to.
And so it is that we have OpenOffice XML, a Microsoft format that others can
use, along with an open source translator that can convert Microsoft files into
OpenDoc.
I guess that makes Microsoft open -- open
enough to criticize OpenDoc backer IBM for being closed!
In an open letter, Redmond accuses Armonk of trying to hold back Open XML in
favor of OpenDoc. Can't all monopolies just get along?
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/20/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Mark me as confused on this one. Microsoft has just posted a sample application
to show how
Software as a Service (SaaS) works. The Microsoft Web site explains that
"Software as a Service is a new delivery model where companies pay not
for owning the software itself but for using it."
I agree with this whole sentence, except for the word "new." Service
providers have been offering Microsoft software as a service for years, lots
of years. And so, to some extent, has Microsoft itself! I'm glad Microsoft is
serious about this model, and is throwing new technology and infrastructure
in this direction, but the concept is far from "new."
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/20/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Ian Campbell is to ROI what Roger Ebert is to movies: He knows his stuff and
usually gets it right. Campbell, founder of Nucleus Research (I worked there
for a short stint), also likes to ruffle a few feathers. His latest salvo --
that
moving
to Microsoft's latest browser will cost you money.
Campbell's logic goes this way: IE7 isn't worth using, and once you find that
out, it can take hours of your precious time to get it off and put IE6 back
on.
Have you had this experience? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/20/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
OK, OK. I write about my kids a lot (they keep track so I have to mention them
all equally). Here's another item courtesy of a young Barney, this one from
13-year-old David (for equality's sake, I need to point out that he has an older
sister, Lauren, and a younger brother, Nick).
Dave, a Mac and Linux bigot, found
a little story about a kid whose dad wanted him to get and install Vista.
Instead the kid installed Ubuntu, and the dad has been raving about it ever
since!
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/20/2007 at 1:15 PM7 comments
Tired of all these fat clients like XP, Vista and Office 2007? With Microsoft's
new
.NET
Micro Framework, developers can use Visual Studio to build embedded apps
for devices as small as a wrist watch.
Programs can tap into the MSN
Direct wireless data service, which is already powering Windows-based wrist
watches revered by true Windows geeks!
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/14/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Daylight-saving time is a few weeks early this year, and this change in schedule
could be
trouble
for some of our computers!
According to Microsoft, some programs that rely heavily on date and time stamps,
such as punch clock systems and calendars and schedulers, could have problems.
For Windows XP clients, as long as you're on XP2, you should be fine.
Microsoft has all the deets here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/14/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
This month's
Patch
Tuesday was a doozy. Even software designed to protect has to be patched,
such as the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine which helps drive no fewer than
nine separate Microsoft security tools!
It would be easy to make a wisecrack about this state of affairs, but at this
point it would be a cheap shot -- since Microsoft's coders are working their
fingers to the bone on security.
And those eager to fault Redmond should keep in mind that anti-virus vendor
Trend Micro
just reported a nearly identical problem with its virus scanner.
Those anxious to see some fixes to Word's various problems got their wish as
there are four Word-specific fixes, and one for an Excel zero-day exploit.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/14/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The
hunk
of code I told you about
last
week (and reiterated in the item above) that converts files from Office's
OpenXML to OpenDoc and back is now available from Sun. If you're like me, you've
had your share of file conversion nightmares. So is this conversion any good?
Let us know at
[email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/13/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments
On Nov. 2 of last year, Microsoft and Novell announced a pretty important interoperability
agreement. This week Microsoft offered up a completely non-important update.
The
1,128-word
press release was so bereft of new information it could have been written
by a congressional intern.
I parsed it pretty carefully and the only news I could discern is the fact
that the OpenXML to OpenDoc translator is now shipping, something Microsoft
announced separately last week. The company also announced plans to announce
an updated directory and identity roadmap in the second half of this year.
Posted by Doug Barney on 02/13/2007 at 1:15 PM0 comments