Today's Mailbag features your thoughts and experiences with different broadband Internet providers:
The first broadband I had was DSL. I was convinced that I would not be sharing coax/cable TV speed with neighbors. Compared to dial-up, it was rocket fast. Then, my father-in-law got FiOS just a couple of miles away, and I started to drool. While cable speeds seems to climb, I always saw their turbo-boost as smoke and mirrors. Finally, after the cable contractors destroyed the lawn installing fiber optic cable, I arranged for FiOS. And I love it. Occasionally, it seems slow, but I'm not sure if that is my computer, my target Web site or something along the network in between.
-Ray
I have been using AT&T DSL since 1999. When we first received our DSL modem we had a lot of trouble getting connections. After about six weeks, and a number of calls to support, everything straighten out. I have checked with AT&T at various times to see if we could get a faster connection and were told we were too far from the CS. We have a speed of 1.5 mbps, down and 384 kbps up. After all this time, I hope someday we will be able to obtain a faster connection.
-Thomas
I am one of the many people who really have no valid second option to my primary Internet service. I have access to both cable and DSL Internet service options, and I use cable -- I even pay extra for a higher bandwidth tier. The DSL service in my area is closer to dial-up speeds and priced close to the entry tier cable Internet service. This fact caused me to go with cable.
I have occasionally been without service once or twice a year; usually due to interesting things like someone shooting a cable box on a pole (I live in the country) or a neighbor destroying my underground cable while grading a wash (I really do live in the country), but the service is stable. I pay for 20mbs download and generally get somewhere around 10 mbps to 15 mbps while upload is rated at 2 mbps (but actually is 0.7 to 1.2 mbps).
My fallback and travelling option is a 3G USB modem with service through Sprint. I find none of the wireless carriers to be really great service providers, and I am tired of complaints of people actually using their service, service limits and lack of investment in service capability. Phoenix has not been blessed with LTE or WiMax, so I am not sure which service I will upgrade to.
I am currently waiting for my third-rate Cable provider (Mediacom) to enable Docsis 3.0 in my area.
-Robert
Here at our office we use AT&T DSL Elite, which is "rated" at 6000 mbps downstream and 768 mbps upstream. We get around 5000/600, which I don't think is too shabby. It is fast enough for our use, and we have about 10 people sharing the service, using both wired and wireless access. AT&T DSL is the only high-speed service we have used here since the end of 2003 when we finally gave up on dial-up, and we have had no significant problems with the service.
-Phil
I've always had Qwest DSL, starting with 512 kbps, then 1.5 mbps service, but I don't know what my actual speeds were. Guess I wasn't geeky enough to care. I later upgraded to 7 mbps service, and my actual speed was consistently between 5.9 and 6.2 mbps. Recently, I upgraded to 12 mbps service. My actual speed is consistently between 10.2 and 10.4 mbps, which is pretty damn good in my book. So I'm wondering if some of the information coming out of these government studies isn't angled a bit to make things appear worse than they actually are, so us ignorant taxpayers will be happy to have our taxes raised so the government can supposedly spend a lot of money to "fix" the nonexistent problems.
-Brad
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 09/13/2010 at 1:18 PM2 comments
There was a double whammy for Microsoft HR as it lost two key players last week. Redmond's main gaming exec Andre Vrignaud left to drive Amazon's upcoming gaming push. An even bigger loss, at least on the enterprise front, was the loss of Stephen Elop, who was instrumental in driving Microsoft's ERP business and managed a good deal of the Office business.
Elop is heading quite a ways east (or west, depending on how you want to fly) to serve as CEO of Finland-based Nokia.
Nokia is a supporter of the Windows Phone OS, which I'm sure lessened the pain of Elop's departure.
Hyvää onnea! Stephen!
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/13/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
If you thought last month's Patch Tuesday was unusually busy, get ready for tomorrow -- which will, likewise, boast a bevy of patches.
Some experts are waiting to see if Microsoft does anything new with the recently disclosed DLL Hijacking problem for which there is a workaround but, apparently, no patch.
XP SP2 users shouldn't hold their breath waiting for fixes. Last month Microsoft stopped patching that version and is aggressively pushing users to move to SP3.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/13/2010 at 1:18 PM1 comments
Office for Mac 2011, which is (surprisingly) actually due this year, will get some of the Web Apps features that debuted in Office 2010 for the PC this summer.
Besides lightweight Web versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, Mac Office will also use the Web to support co-authoring.
Mac users will also be able to "broadcast" PowerPoint, meaning their presentations can be shared with folks that don't have PowerPoint.
The Mac, in many respects, has full-enterprise software parity with the PC. I can't for the life of me figure out why the otherwise brilliant Steve Jobs isn't making a concerted effort to push the Mac towards the enterprise. Maybe it just doesn't fit the company's carefully crafted consumer culture. What would it take for your shop to adopt Macs? Advice for Jobs welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/13/2010 at 1:18 PM1 comments
A regular to Doug's Mailbag discusses Paul Allen's patent actions:
Let's be fair, Doug!
Paul Allen wasn't just a Microsoft employee, he was its CO-FOUNDER! However, he acquired these patents. They are his to grant to his own company -- whether he works for them now or not!
As for these patents being overly broad, your beef is with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. I want to know if these patents are registered or are they still patent pending?
If they are registered, then the USPTO has declared them valid and, therefore, protected. It will be up to a jury to decide if they were violated. If they are still pending, the USPTO could deny them at any time.
There is no doubt that US patent law needs some serious revision for the reasons you state, but it is within Paul's legal rights to protect the patents that the U.S. government has granted him (rightly or wrongly).
Congress has repeatedly extended the lifetime of copyrights, patents and trademarks well beyond the lifetime of the inventor so, considering that Paul Allen still lives, his rights are intact. Whether or not he should ever have been granted these patents is a different question entirely -- and extends far beyond the scope of Paul Allen's rights.
-Marc
Here's one reader's thoughts on Window's 15-year-old OS:
I was in college, and thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread, Windows 95 gave me my first (and last, I swear) practice in hacking.
Friends and I would use 95 to put odd screensavers onto the office manager's computer. And you have given me a question I can't remember the answer to: Was 95 the first version you could have more than one application window open at a time?
-Vicke
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 09/10/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
If you have followed Microsoft for any length of time, you know it is willing to fail before it ultimately succeeds. Usually it takes three tries, but in the case of mobile operating systems, Microsoft is on its seventh turn at bat. Now, Windows Phone 7 has been released to phone makers -- meaning it will be in stores soon.
Microsoft is taking this market seriously, and my guess is its mobile OS will be pretty darn good. The only problem is the iPhone, Android and Blackberry are pretty darn great. This is gonna be a fun battle.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/08/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
Microsoft treats the customers that pay the most better than those that pay the least. For instance, big volume license customers get XP mode, which runs XP apps in a virtual machine within Windows 7. But XP mode ain't exactly perfect, so Microsoft has a new way to virtualize legacy apps to run swell within Win 7. If you want this feature, you best be a Software Assurance customer (Software Assurance is designed to assure a regular revenue stream to the Redmond mothership).
The new item is a physical-to-virtual toolkit that packages older apps so they run in a virtual machine. This allows the apps to bypass the problems associated with confronting the newness and incompatibilities of Win 7.
I haven't found any compatibility problems with Win 7, but it isn't 100 percent stable either. Like all versions of Windows, it sometimes acts weird.
Does Win 7 do strange stuff for you? Send your bug reports to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/08/2010 at 1:18 PM3 comments
Windows 95 was a pivotal product in Microsoft history. It marked the true birth of Internet Explorer, which was integrated with the OS and ultimately killed off Netscape. Win 95 was also the first truly enterprise-ready desktop operating system (except for stability issues which, quite frankly, still plague Windows today).
Last month, Win 95 turned 15. It boasted a better GUI, a briefcase feature for moving files between multiple computers and the Start button. Like with the newest versions of Halo or iPads, folks actually lined up to be one of the first to buy this new puppy.
Where were you when Win 95 launched? Tell your tale at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/08/2010 at 1:18 PM3 comments
Microsoft believes it has, more or less, vanquished the Alureon (anyone know if this word has any actual meaning?) rootkit, at least as far as 32-bit systems go. Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool can root out this rootkit, and the tool has reportedly cleansed over a million machines of this little nasty.
Now hackers are aiming Alureon at 64-bit systems such as XP 64 and 64-bit Vista. So far this new rootkit variant has not been beaten.
Have you used the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool? If so, is it any good? Send malware-free messages to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/01/2010 at 1:18 PM1 comments
It is clear that nearly all vendors want into the cloud. A few have a head start, such as those that have huge remote datacenters like carriers and service providers, vendors such as Google and Microsoft with data center and software and services and, last but not least, virtualization vendors upon which most cloud services are based.
Citrix sees this opportunity and recently raised the stakes a bit by buying VMLogix. VMLogix is not a cloud provider, per se. Its software makes it easier to manage the life cycles of vast numbers of hypervisors and VMs, therefore making it easier to set up an elastic infrastructure to support internal or external cloud apps.
While primarily aimed at providers, large shops building large private clouds may be a target as well.
Do you ever see yourself building a private cloud? Answers welcome across the ether at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/01/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
One reader comments on whether Microsoft's limited presence at VMworld is fair or not:
Whenever my kids whine about something not "being fair," I explain to them that fairness is in the eye of the beholder. And then I tell them to get over it.
In this case of Microsoft's presence at VMworld, VMWare is being "fair," in some definition of fairness. After all, they are hosting the show and the show is all about VMWare -- why should they allow exhibitors who are antagonistic the platform? Makes sense.
On the other hand, it does do the attendees a great disservice. For a lot of customers, MSFT or Citrix might very well be an overall better choices. Shouldn't the attendees be able to learn at least a little about them? It's unlikely that letting MSFT promote Hyper-V is going to make a big difference in the competitive landscape. Let's face it; essentially all of VMWare's customers have a significant investment in Windows.
I have to navigate the same sort of issues with MSFT and The Experts Conference. Now that Quest has acquired NetPro and the conference, I have to manage the fact that we (Quest) both rely on the Windows platform AND we have products that at least nominally compete with MSFT (as well as with some of TEC's sponsors). In my situation, what's fair is what delivers the greatest value to the attendees, the sponsors (including Quest and MSFT) and the speakers, in that order. They each provide money, time and expertise, and my job is to make sure they each get good value in return. And people trust me to do that.
So asking whether VMWare is "being fair" isn't the right question. The question really is, is VMWare making sure that their attendees and sponsors are getting the best possible value from the show? In this case, I think VMWare has made it in to a zero-sum game, and moved the value meter to their side -- at MSFT's and the attendees' expense. Fair? Maybe. But not the way I would play it.
-Gil
A regular to Doug's Mailbag discusses his views on the state of Microsoft's Office:
Most users I know can't begin to leverage the features of Office 2003 -- let alone Office 2010. But there are new tools that the enterprise can and does make use of. As long as you buy your Office suite when you buy your computer, it is a no-harm, no-foul proposition to buy the latest and greatest. Whether or not people need the full Office Suite or not, how well Office 2010 Starter Edition sells on new PCs compared to the Student Edition will tell us lots about people's perception. After all, that is really what counts.
-Marc
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 09/01/2010 at 1:18 PM0 comments
The recently reported dynamic link library (DLL) flaw that affects apps, from Office to IE, is now more easily fixed. A workaround has been out for a bit. Now Microsoft is making it easer to install the fix through a new 'Fix it,' which is supposed to be a one-click affair -- that is, once you first download and install the update.
The fix prevents rogue DLLs, or those that don't point to a specific path, from being hijacked and pointed to malware.
The flaw is blamed on poorly written apps. If so, Microsoft's software also has been subject to this flaw.
In any case, I'm grateful for a quick and easy solution to this problem.
Posted by Doug Barney on 09/01/2010 at 1:18 PM1 comments