Copying big batches of files isn't always easy or fun -- and when mistakes are made heads can roll. Microsoft thinks it has a better approach with Windows 8's simplified and centralized interface for handling these duties.
The news broke in the new Building Windows 8 blog, which parcels out just enough information to wet our whistles.
To help make sure there are no mistakes, you can see how the file copies are doing and stop them if need be.
Also, the system will warn you if your copying will actually overwrite source files -- something you may or may not want to have happen.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/31/2011 at 1:18 PM1 comments
Update Rollup 5 arrived for Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1, but a copy problem with Outlook remained unfixed. Some messages copied to folders appear to be missing but wind up in the recoverable folder instead. This problem arose from a recent Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 Rollup, which users were advised not to install.
That was Rollup 4. Now Update Rollup 5 for Exchange SP1 (intuitive name, eh?) is out and ready to be installed. Unfortunately the Outlook glitch has no fix. If you installed Rollup 4 there is a stopgap fix you can get from Microsoft, so don't be afraid to speak up.
A future rollup should finally resolve the glitch. Meanwhile get to know how to work your recoverable folders.
Have you come across this bug, and if so, how did it go? Share at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/29/2011 at 1:18 PM0 comments
Readers chime in on Microsoft's assertion that most computer problems are caused by user error:
You said, 'I've done plenty of dumb things with computers, but looking back, the software always allowed me to carry out the action -- and often poor design led me to my mistakes.'
With technically, this is true. But isn't it also true with cars that won't prevent you from driving too fast or driving off the road? People are required to go to training to learn how to operate that type of machine and the related usage rules. Yet people who have not educated themselves on using a different type of machine (computer running Windows) blame mistakes on Microsoft.
Next week I'm going to tell the judge that I got my speeding ticket because my Ford didn't prevent me from speeding! Clearly a poor design on Ford's part.
-Steve
I would certainly estimate that 90 percent of helpdesk calls are because the end user is either careless or clueless, but the other 10 percent is because of bad programming. (Still human error -- just not end-user error.)
Frankly, I am surprised that the average end user gets along as well as they do with their computer. Having been in IT for over thirty years, I find it remarkable how well these exceedingly complex general-purpose computing systems really work. Still, every now and again, I get stumped by some subtle error that takes hours to locate and correct. The average user has neither the time, the knowledge, nor the patience to trace these 'bugs' down.
Whether or not the question is worth asking or whether the answer worth knowing is of any value is an entirely different question. The popularity of the iPad (and even the HP Touchpad -- when sold at the latest fire sale price) tells us that end-users want products that are simpler to use (which translates into more complex to design and build).
Apple can sell exceedingly simple-to-use products but it must do so at premium prices. Microsoft can sell an exceedingly flexible, but complex, operating system and offer the end-user more choice but also, more things that can go wrong.
-Marc
We did not decide to allow everything that come in the communication ports to run on our computers. Microsoft's Outlook and IE does that for us without our consent. It was decided by Microsoft that we should run software from an unknown outside source on our machines to view the Web by means of IE. We do not have the support tools to stop any of this from happening because we don't know what all was opened up to the public domain.
Since when did we decide that an overflow of anything in our computer should be allowed to execute or even accepted into the execution path of a process? We did not decide that if an image file shows up in an e-mail to display the image automatically and then allow some background kiddie script to automatically access and transfer my Excel files to a stranger. We are held hostage to someone's short-sighted vision of the future , forcing us to change the manner in which we have to conduct business. We now bear both the cost of keeping current with all the software changes along with the outrageous upgrade costs.
And you say that WE are the problem...
-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 08/29/2011 at 1:18 PM2 comments
Software vendors always want you on their latest and greatest (this is called insuring their revenue stream). Customers aren't usually so anxious to spend hard-earned corporate dollars on new software when the old stuff works just fine.
The carrot is the promise of cool new features. The vendor stick is ending support, in particular stopping security updates and patches.
Are you still on unsupported versions of Office, Windows, Windows Server or other older Microsoft apps? If so, tell us how you deal with it at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/29/2011 at 1:18 PM2 comments
Microsoft is tapping into the Apache Foundations Hadoop project to tie SQL Server and its data warehousing edition to Hadoop systems. Hadoop is an open source-distributed computer platform
The two connectors are only in the community technology preview (CTP) stage -- a long-winded way of saying beta.
Microsoft joins an elite band of Hadoop supporters which include Amazon, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, IBM and Twitter.
Do you want to see Microsoft do more to support open source? If so, how? Shoot your answers to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/29/2011 at 1:18 PM0 comments
I must be the last journalist to say something about Steve Jobs' resignation. Fortunately I have a good excuse -- I was on vacation last week! Kinda hard to write a newsletter or blog from the deck of a 20-foot center console.
I'm not sure I have all that much original to say. On a personal level, it is sad to imagine what Mr. Jobs is going through. He has been private in the matter but is clearly battling health issues. 'Nuff said as I don't care to grimly speculate.
It is a huge loss for Apple and we'll have to see how it'll do. When Bill Gates left Microsoft the impact was actually fairly marginal.
I think Sun lost a step when it lost Scott McNealy, a truly radical thinker -- not always successful but always willing to try something different.
I think Jobs blends the best of McNealy's risk taking and Bill Gates pure practicality. Apple has enough in the market and in the pipeline to do just fine -- for a while. But I doubt its future won't be as great without the guiding hand of Jobs.
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, for reason, didn't comment on the Jobs. I guess their moms told them as kids that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
Paul Allen had no such misgivings, and posted a heartfelt Twitter message. Allen has fought his own health issues and so understands what Mr. Jobs is going through. Allen, in an understatement, called Jobs "one of the greatest innovators of our industry."
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/29/2011 at 1:18 PM1 comments
Boy, that cloud sure does sound great. All those admins can get pink slips and the air conditioners in the server room can be redeployed to the CEO's summer house. What could possibly go wrong?
An insightful Redmond Report reader points out that if your WAN is slow (and many are) your cloud apps will be sluggish as well. And as more and more application processing moves over these wires, latency becomes, well, more latent.
A 10-GB Ethernet used to be overkill and was needed only by service providers. As the cloud continues to grow, we may need 10-GB speed everywhere.
Are you happy with WAN speeds? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/29/2011 at 1:18 PM0 comments
Here's another batch of early PC thoughts:
We brought up 2000 users on an ERP system running on Vax VMS. We had four 'really fast servers' -- each with an amazing 512 Meg of memory in the early '90s. Each user could have up to four sessions running at once (green screen terminals). Each command issued was expected back with a 'sub-second response time.' Clustering and time share computing engineered by DEC has not been matched even today.
Today my laptop has 3 Gig of memory running Windows XP and has a tough time letting me run 4 MS Office programs at once.
-Bret
I spent many years with DEC and Compaq before they disappeared. However, their impact lingers on inside HP -- for now anyway. I sent many years in DECUS -- the DEC user group. It was a great organization. I participated in leadership which taught me a lot and I gained a huge amount of knowledge and experience by attending the semi-annual symposiums. It was a great sharing society. Compaq had large contingencies there and we interacted with them on every level. They really gave me my first start with PCs.
I had been using PDP 11 and VAX/VMS systems up until then. I was curious about these strange toys called PCs. My first PC experience was with Compaq. I've owned several over the years and when I started down the Windows patch, I bought Compaq servers. They were the best. HP wisely used the Compaq technology and lines as the basis of their server line after the acquisition. OpenVMS never quite got its fair due because of the rapid decline of Digital. I was involved with a number of people at Digital at the time and saw the implosion from the inside. It was sad that such a great company with so much talent and dedication that destroyed itself from within. Ken Olsen is still one of my heroes in this business. I wish it had ended better for him. He was a true pioneer.
I'm sad to see that HP is ditching the PC business. Printers will be next, and what else will follow? I fear it may be heading down the same path that Digital did -- giving up in key areas and depending on services as its main focus.
Anyway, the times continue to be a changin'.
-Greg
My actual first, if you put aside the mechanical Frieden calculator, was an IBM 1620 -- punch cards and all.
As for the desktop models, I had an IBM PC at work AND, the answer you've been waiting for, a KAYPRO-II at home, running CPM off a couple of Floppy disks, attached to a fantastic Daisy Wheel printer that always got my cats attention with its rhythmic ticking and head moving back and forth.
-Anonymous
My first personal computer was a Commodore Vic-20 and it's what got me started looking at the awesome IBM PC Jr. which, thankfully, I never bought. That uncomplicated Commodore PC spring boarded me to a Radio Shack Tandy 1000a. I managed to miss the business end of the 286 processor excitement and never looked back after my first Intel 386-based clone.
-Kurt
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 08/26/2011 at 1:18 PM2 comments
Microsoft's Build conference, where Windows 8 is planned to be showcased, is just three weeks away. We're already expecting to see a radical shift to a Windows Phone 7-like touch-screen user interface. Also, we may see new form factors emerging with system-on-chip integrations on the ARM platform, as well as x86 SoC designs from AMD and Intel.
In the meantime, Microsoft has dispensed information slowly via its "building Windows 8" blog, and here's what we know so far:
Window 8 will have some backward compatibility with Windows 7-capable hardware. It will have some sort of App Store. USB 3.0 interconnects, enabling data transfers of up to 4.7 Gbps, likely will be seen on Windows 8 machines. That's not much, especially since many expect to see the first public build of Windows 8 in September.
We're left with some mysteries going forward:
- Why did Microsoft emphasize HTML 5 and JavaScript when building Windows 8 apps?
- Will Microsoft be able to pull off porting its OS to the ARM platform, which is thought to offer less standardization than x86?
- Will the touch-enabled UI really work well for complex menu-driven applications such as Microsoft Office?
- Will Windows 8 provide a sort of universal OS that works across PCs, laptops and mobile devices, and, if so, what happens to Microsoft's Windows Embedded efforts?
What puzzles you about Windows 8 and what have you heard? Tell Doug at [email protected].
-By Kurt Mackie
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 08/25/2011 at 1:18 PM5 comments
Here are some readers' thoughts on the unending court battles over tech patents and the current mobile landscape:
If Apple and Microsoft don't stop this so-called patent war on Android, let them go to hell.
I only started as a newbie app developer a year ago and without Android open source software this would have been impossible for me.
I love Android, and I love open source.
-Ali
I was in Redmond at the Microsoft campus six years ago visiting a friend who is a product development manager. I had a chance to meet with four more of his peers for lunch. As we were making idle chit chat I more than casually said that Microsoft needs to get into the mobile handheld game in a large way now before it's too late. I suggested it buys a company that it can make sexy and appealing like Apple. Never before did I feel like so many deer caught in headlights were looking at me.
It feels like all players now realize the real deal in today's world has never changed. Most want it now, don't want to be late to the party and get there in a Porsche or Ferrari. What the players are realizing is that whether it sounds or looks ugly it's all about self preservation. I see a bunch of deer and the perception is that Google owns the forest, city and most of the utilities. The deer want to make sure that they will get fed and have a small stake as they see the stark reality of digital domain dominance/ownership. I asked my kid four years ago if you need to figure things out where do you turn to? He said "that's easy dad. I would just Google it."
It's clear that if you don't have an invitation to a party and are not an invited guest, the only way to get in the doors is to buy your way in. In effect this is what all the players are doing to be at the party and catch a small piece of the cake.
-Alan
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 08/24/2011 at 1:18 PM0 comments
The World Wide Web evolved from a DARPA project to maintain communications after a nuclear war. It's since turned into a kind of consumer tracking system. Just using a search engine means getting served up text ads from Google or Microsoft, and then you later get spammed based on your queries.
Since tracking can be monetized through ads (Google had $7 billion in cash as of June 30), there's little incentive for change. Microsoft was even found to have dabbled in the use of "supercookies," a tracking method that can't be removed from your browser when you delete regular cookies. Microsoft has since disabled that code, but doubtless others will persist in such methods.
Are voluntary efforts by software companies effective in ensuring privacy? Should tracking and privacy even be an IT concern? Track back some thoughts to Doug at [email protected].
-By Kurt Mackie
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 08/24/2011 at 1:18 PM2 comments
If one patent defines the future of Windows, then after Windows 8 we'll see Windows become a true cloud-ready OS. The recently unearthed Microsoft patent describes how an OS can boot from the cloud to a remote computing device, whatever it may be, and the storage streams back and forth from the 'Net.
The theory is you can have a laptop, tablet, what have you that is purely dumb until it connects. Then it boots remotely and starts to work. Not entirely original and perhaps not patent-worthy, but it may indicate Redmond's direction moving forward.
I believe that for decades to come Microsoft will sell operating systems that come with your phone, PC or whatever.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/22/2011 at 1:18 PM6 comments