Charles Simonyi is famous in a few largely unrelated circles. PC vets know him
as the man behind Word and Excel. Celebrity stalkers know him as the boy-toy
who picked up Martha Stewart from jail. And space junkies know him as the man
who spent millions to go into space as a private citizen.
Simonyi either liked space so much, or has so much cash to burn that
he's
heading back up
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/02/20080 comments
Over a decade ago, I covered unified communications; back then, everyone from
Microsoft to Novell was talking about not just blending voicemail and e-mail,
but tying all your devices -- like cell phones, pagers and Palms (remember those
things?) -- together.
The emergence of VoIP should've made all this much, much easier, but when it
comes to UC, we
aren't really any closer than we were 12 years ago.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/02/20080 comments
Yesterday
,
Doug wrote about Larry Ellison's criticisms of cloud computing. Here are some
of your own thoughts:
Cloud, shmoud. Yes, the cloud is way overhyped. I'm already tired of
hearing about it. Isn't this just another name for client/server computing?
Ho-hum. Been there, way past that.
Oh, and the day I would trust our company's data and/or applications to the
cloud is the day the entire Internet decides to take a dump and I would be
shown the door. No thanks.
-Phil
I think that anyone dismissing cloud computing as hype doesn't know what's
going on around them. We're going through another swing toward "mainframe"
computing, but this time instead of using thin clients to access user sessions
on beefier servers, individual servers are being virtualized on large servers,
and the new thin client is the browser.
I would recommend that people look into hosted cloud offerings such as
Mosso.com, Amazon's EC2 and others to get an idea of what utility cloud computing
really is. You pay for what you use, and your environment scales dynamically
to meet your usage needs. You no longer need to spec out individual pieces
of hardware for hosting certain applications. You just put your applications
online and go. You pay for the disk space, bandwidth and CPU time that you
use. Cloud computing is service on-demand. Many SaaS providers are hosting
on these types of platforms to dynamically scale their application as they
add subscribers. The mainframe is getting much smarter. We apologize if it
has a catchy name.
-Jeremy
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/02/20080 comments
I know you've been there. Your computer is happily chugging along, and all
of a sudden a pop-up warns of a virus, critical performance problem or some
other such catastrophe. Being the IT guru that you are, you ignore it, knowing
it's all a scam.
Not everyone is so smart. Plenty click on the pop-ups and buy the unnecessary
-- and often bogus -- security software offered. I had a whole machine destroyed
this way, and I never even clicked the link! I swear!
Microsoft is working with the state of Washington to sue
companies that exploit Windows to deliver these misleading pop-ups. I hope
Microsoft and the state attorneys kick some major pop-up butt.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/02/20080 comments
Yesterday
,
I brought you news about Visual Studio 2010, and also argued that Microsoft
treats developers particularly well. There are a few complaints that some tools
are overpriced and don't support enough non-Microsoft technologies, but overall
the programmers I talk to are pretty happy.
That may be the reason .NET
is on the rise, taking a few chunks out of Java's market share. According
to a new report by Evans Data, 60 percent of developers will invest more in
.NET. Developers are a finicky lot, so Microsoft is either doing something very
right or the Java camp is doing something very wrong.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/01/20080 comments
Larry Ellison is the king of hype, and gosh if I don't respect him for it.
This time, instead of promoting the network computer or bashing Microsoft, Ellison
is taking a few shots at the concept of cloud computing.
Larry's beef? That clouds refer to almost anything going on in computing today
-- Web services, SaaS and massive datacenters from the likes of Amazon. VMware
is even talking about turning our datacenters into mini-clouds. If you check
out the link, there's a great discussion about the future of clouds and
what this all means.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/01/20080 comments
Readers on both sides of the Google fence share their thoughts on Chrome and
the upcoming Google phone:
Browser is awesome; I've been using it all day. The installer sucks.
It is a user-based install, which forcedly dumps itself in the current user's
Application Data folder. I like to run as a limited user so this does not
work well for me. Whether I tried installing as admin, or using 'Run As' while
logged in as my limited user, it forcedly and secretly places the installation
in the administrator's Application Data folder, which I cannot access or execute
files from while logged in as my limited user. What I had to do to get it
working the way I(kind of) wanted was temporarily give my limited user admin
rights, install it, then de-admin myself. Why not give me the choice to install
for THIS USER or ALL USERS like most programs or, for heaven's sake, at least
let me choose which folder I want to install the software in!
Other than that, though, it seems like a really great product, simple and
easy to understand.
-Tim
Though this may place me squarely within a minority among technology specialists,
I'm not impressed with Google to the degree so commonly expressed these days.
Not that Google isn't a powerhouse, because it is, but I don't agree with
those that want to see it as a company predestined to rule the world and/or
seemingly content to give it a free ride because they simply see it as the
anti-Microsoft. I see Google as intent upon and involved in much for which
there would be an unending public outrage if coming from Microsoft. Such is
the way of the world, unfortunately.
I welcome the entry of Chrome into the marketplace, however, primarily
because it's raising expectations concerning increased JavaScript performance,
something from which everyone will benefit. On the other hand, I have no faith,
nor any interest in, suggestions of Chrome as an emerging application platform.
I see such expectations as entirely unrealistic in today's world, a throwback
to failed attempts by others to achieve the same in years past, and again,
something which would be the focus of intense ridicule and consternation if
suggested by Microsoft rather than Google.
-John
No, I'm not excited about the Google phone. I just want a nice, high-quality
cell phone that doesn't do anything but be a cell phone. That's getting harder
and harder to find, if it's even still possible.
Anyway, I think Google or Apple can stamp their names on any piece of
junk technology and the Google and Apple fanatics will automatically go gaga
over it, even before they know anything about it.
-Brad
I am like a little, giddy schoolboy when it comes to the Android platform.
I am a IT technician and I rely on my phone very much when I need to get online
at any given moment. I have kept track of the Anroid platform since its first
press release. I, like so many others, where hoping that Sprint would be the
first carrier to provide the Android platform (it wasn't). But when it does
offer it, I am for sure going to be there to trade my phone in.
-Anonymous
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/01/20080 comments
All the major browsers have private browsing modes (it's coming in the next
rev of IE) where your history, caches and other traces of where you've been
aren't left behind. And these feature work fine for kids hiding their Web habits
from parents, and husbands keeping their unseemly searches from their wives
(and I guess vice versa).
But private browsing isn't
a perfect defense against hackers or tech-savvy parents and spouses. Spyware
and other techniques can still track your every move, steal your password and
rob you blind.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 10/01/20080 comments
Apple
overpriced?
A few readers think that's an issue worth some debate:
I do not own an Apple. However, my impression has always been that Apple
chooses quality and reliable components, which causes the higher prices. Are
they overpriced? Is a BMW overpriced? They are certainly HIGHER priced...but
OVERpriced? Only if they do not deliver value. If a computer crashes less
and lasts longer, but is priced higher, there could be value there, even for
an enterprise. How much is your time worth to troubleshoot goofy crashes,
root out spyware and viruses, and/or re-image the machine?
Again, this is just my impression, not based on any facts, as I do not
own an Apple. But sometimes I am envious of those that do (especially when
I am staring at a Blue Screen of Death).
-Scott
You seem to be forgetting that Apple is a hardware company that writes
software so it can sell its hardware. Microsoft is a software company that
designs some hardware so it can sell its software (Lord knows, it has yet
to make a dime off the hardware). So I say: Microsoft's software is overpriced
because it's from a single source. And as the King of Windows, Office and
Xbox games, Microsoft rules with an iron fist. Microsoft should be more like
Apple and open source its OS like Darwin
is.
As for the Mac beings overpriced, that's comparing Apples to, well, PCs.
Apple computers are for those who value quality over price and are willing
to pay for it. Top-shelf products always cost more.
-Anonymous
Jobs sells a premium product to an exclusive and remarkably loyal customer
base (how many iPods do you own?). Sure, his computers are overpriced. So
are his music players. So what? His customers keep coming back. Why? Because
Jobs is selling sex -- as surely as if he ran Victoria's Secret! In truth,
the iMac is no more expensive than a comparably equipped Dell -- but Dell
also sells entry-level hardware that can do everything the average user needs
for it to do. For most people, an iMac is simply overkill.
Apple is in a Catch-22. It cannot offer hardware at entry-level price
points because it doesn't sell enough hardware to be able to absorb the extremely
small profit margins at those price points. Nor can it get its production
levels up high enough to tolerate the narrow margins without first lowering
its prices dramatically. If Apple were to change itself into a software house,
allowing users to put Mac OS X on everyone's Intel box, it would get their
license numbers up but destroy its hardware business. If you think this would
be a good idea, look what happened to NeXT computers, Jobs' other venture.
Jobs decided a long time ago to leave the mass market to his geeky counterpart
at Microsoft -- and take as much of the premium market for himself as he could
-- almost entirely through brilliant marketing.
-Marc
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/30/20080 comments
The next major rev of Visual Studio is due out in a couple of years, so what
does Microsoft do? Name it "
Visual
Studio 2010
," that's what!
That wasn't the only news. Microsoft also talked up some 2010 features, especially
Team System items like helping those with different roles -- such as architects
and coders -- work better together.
One move that may dismay some is that Visual Studio 2010 won't support SQL
Server 2005. That may not be a huge deal as it takes a while for developers
to move new IDE releases.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/30/20080 comments
Reader Nate sent me an e-mail last week about his
online
review of Chrome
. The review was so well-done and so well-written, I thought
I'd give good, old Nate a plug.
What Nate did is similar to what I'm doing with an upcoming Reader Review --
getting the skinny on Chrome. In Nate's case, we see one very well-informed
opinion backed by his benchmarks. In my story, over a dozen Redmond Report readers
will help form an overall evaluation of Chrome.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/30/20080 comments
I had never heard of clickjacking before, but judging by the name, I knew
it
had to be bad
.
Apparently, clickjacking is where a hacker gets a user to click a link. Unlike
phishing, where the hacker tries to get you to go to a site you think is legit
(just this morning, Bank of America asked me to reset my site key -- or at least
it looked like Bank of America), clickjackers get you to click on something
you barely notice. Once you do, they can lead you to a site of their own choosing
or making.
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Posted by Doug Barney on 09/30/20080 comments