Archives for January 2009

Free Upgrade to Vista Final (Code-named Windows 7) is a Good First Step, but Not Enough

Posted on January 8, 2009 ·

Put the last nail in the Vista coffin. Windows 7 is on the fast track.

– good summary of the Windows situation by Signal to Noise. Yes, Win 7 Beta will be available for download starting tomorrow, and it promises to be less of a resource hog than Vista. Microsoft also talks about providing free upgrades to Windows 7 for Vista users – at least those who buy Vista after July 1st.

Good start, but not enough. The upgrade assurance is vital for both Microsoft and more importantly its OEM partners, the computer manufacturers to avoid a slump in computer purchases while waiting for the next OS.

But let’s not forget what Win 7 really is: it’s Vista Final. As it has been widely discussed, Win 7 does not have a new kernel, it’s all about lots of incremental improvements to Vista. In other words, it’s a Vista that works – using the Microsoft lingo perhaps it should be called Vista SP3.

Make no mistake, the accelerated move to Windows 7 is a marketing decision, not a technical one. Vista became such a disaster that Microsoft finally realized no amount of marketing can save it: it was better the abandon the shipwreck and start with a clean slate, a “new” Windows product.

But that leaves millions of Vista victims behind, who did not want to by this junk, but had no other choice when they bought their computers. I’ve repeatedly said that Windows 7 should:

Be released as Vista Final (meaning it works)
Be provided as a free upgrade to Vista
Come with a letter of apology to all Vista victims

OK, I know … fat chances for the letter of apology. But I am serious about the upgrade: customers who paid for Vista deserve a working (SP3-level) OS. Abandoning those millions would be akin to a hit-and-run on a mass scale.

Update: Finally, I don’t feel alone anymore: Jason Perlow @ ZDNet agrees: Windows 7 Should be a Fixta Free For All:

…since Windows 7 is essentially a performance and usability fix for a defective product, I’m of the increasing opinion that a Windows 7 upgrade should be free to anyone who was conned into buying Windows Vista.

Did The Tow Guy Get Towed?

Posted on January 8, 2009 ·

This is real, I am not making it up. Excerpt from a Skype conversation:

[4:26:50 PM] K says: BTW, remember the towing?
[4:27:13 PM] Z says: yeah
[4:27:18 PM] K says: He was supposed to take two blocks to the repair guy. It has been 3 hours and the car hasn’t reached him. The towing company is now trying to trace the employee 🙂
[4:27:33 PM] Z says: c’mon?????
[4:27:52 PM] Z says: do you have a rolls royce or austin martin that’s worth stealing?
[4:27:53 PM] K says: Yeah. I am coordinating with Geico (who sent that towing company) and the towing company 🙂
[4:28:00 PM] Z says: hilarious
[4:28:02 PM] K says: Nope. Hyundai Accent :))
[4:28:11 PM] Z says: sorry, not making fun of it
[4:28:15 PM] Z says: but sill hilarious
[4:28:18 PM] K says: Actually, it is
[4:28:32 PM] K says: I was laughing with the Geico guy when I was complaining 🙂
[4:28:33 PM] Z says: oh, it had to be a misunderstanding.. because of the Accent 🙂
[4:28:47 PM] K says: Ha Ha

Filed Under: Humor · Tagged: Humor, service

Late Christmas Gift from Norway: Download All the Beatles Songs Free and Legally

Posted on January 5, 2009 ·

See update at bottom!

From Norwegian site NRKBeta:

Some weeks ago, NRK – Norwegian Braodcasting – signed a deal with music rights holder organisation TONO in Norway. The new deal gives NRK right to publish podcasts of all previously broadcasted radio- and tv-programs that contains less then 70% music.

Podcast containing music may be up for four weeks, while our podcast without music stay up on our server forever.

One result of this deal, is that we now can publish “Vår daglige Beatles” – “Our Daily Beatles” in English – as a podcast.

In this series from 2001, journalists Finn Tokvam og Bård Ose tells the story of every single Beatles tracks ever made, chronologically. Each episode contains a 3 minute story about each track (sadly for our international visitors – in Norwegian) and the actual Beatles tune.

This is – as far as we know – the first time you can download the Beatles’ music legally. Neither iTunes nor Amazon have The Beatles in their music stores.

So now Norway’s contribution to Beatles music is a lot more than just Norwegian Wood. This is an incredible deal: grab the 128kbps mp3 format podcasts here.

(hat tip: Espen Antonsen)

Update: Well, this was too good to last. NRK pulled the podcast due to legal issues.

Filed Under: Misc · Tagged: beatles, iTunes, mo3, music, norway, podcast

Popcorn Leads Police to Burglary Suspect

Posted on January 4, 2009 ·

This just in from the “You can’t make this up” department: Police found the suspect of a convenience store burglary by following the trail of popcorn the suspect left from the crime scene all the way to his apartment.

The popcorn brand “trail’s end” just got a new meaning…

Source: Sacramento Bee.

Filed Under: Humor, Misc · Tagged: crime, Humor, news, popcorn

The Bogus Vista vs. Windows 7 Debate

Posted on January 2, 2009 ·

If you love Windows XP, you’ll hate Windows 7 – says Ed Bott on ZDnet. Windows 7: Mojave My Ass –complains Jason Perlow. Dwight Silverman confirms: Sorry, but Windows 7 isn’t a return to Windows XP, while others don’t refrain from some name-calling.

Sorry guys, you’re all wrong.

You’re debating the merits of an operating system based on it’s UI. Sure, if you migrate from XP to Win7, some of the changes can be confusing – but it’s an initial change, the learning curve is not that steep. I actually side with Ed Bott here, the search box to launch programs is a more user-friendly approach than having to remember the names of all *.exe files a’la XP.

But it does not really matter. Mojave my ass? Mojave was a bogus experiment (in fact a PR blitz dressed up as an experiment) showing happy “users” who liked the Vista UI – but hey had no chance to assess what fails in a short demo, and that’s what doomed Vista, not appearances.

Windows in all flavors, be it XP, Vista or 7 is not an application. It’s a friggin’ operating system whose job is to get us into applications and get out of the way. In today’s flurry of blog posts Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has the right approach, presenting performance tests – yes, performance is key to judging how good an operating system is.

The other key criteria is how invisible it stays. Think about it: any time you have to get down to OS level typically means something does not work right. It’s the stupid unexplainable little things like:

Vista and XP computers not finding each other on a home network until you apply an undocumented patch to the XP machines
Simple copy or delete operations taking forever
Not being authorized to move / delete files on my own computer even after elevating to Admin mode, killing UAC and a number of weird cryptic options that take an IT deapartment to deal with, not a home user
Windows upgrade failing if more than 3GB memory is installed
The latest Windows upgrade causing printer and camera drivers from several vendors reinstall themselves (some take 30 minutes or more, kinda big deal)
…

The list could go on, but I think you get my drift: Windows 7 (and any other OS) will be judged on how well computers will run, let users interact with real application without having to touch the OS itself.

Finally, to address the speculation about Windows 7 upgrade paths, let me just reiterate this:

Win7 should be released as Vista Final (meaning it works)
It should be provided it as a free upgrade to Vista
It should come with a letter of apology to all Vista victims

OK, I know we have fat chances for the apology – but I really mean the free upgrade part.

(Cross-posted from CloudAve – to stay on top of Cloud Computing news, analysis and just our opinion, grab the CloudAve Feed here.)

Filed Under: Software · Tagged: applications, microsoft, operating system, os, ui, vista, vistasucks, Windows Mojave Experiment, windows 7, windows bugs, windows performance