Search Results for: vista xp

Subprime Primer – What, Me Worry? :-)

Posted on September 28, 2008 ·

This recycled presentation is making the rounds amongst the Enterprise Irregulars this morning:

Recycled, as it was first published in February, 2008 – see the financial crisis was not that unexpected, after all. Apologies for the language used in the last few slides – I’m just the messenger.

Of course not everyone feels a financial crisis. Here’s a report from another Irregular:

The Monaco Yacht show finished yesterday, and this year bigger and better than ever. Lots of buyers, new now is a distinct increase of Asians, especially Chinese and of course the usual Russians.
In fact same things happening as for every general downturns – big boats are just fine, small not so good.
…

The big ones though see no slowing down at all, if any of you are in the market to build a not too big one in the 70 to 80 meter size (reckon a million € per meter) at a good name yard (Germany, Holland) reckon with delivery earliest in 2015. Not a slot to be found before 2012 now. (And if you are, you know who to call of course)

As always, the rich (seriously rich that is) goes "what, me worry?"

Hm… all I can add is I like this description on the Show’s site (warning: don’t click the viewer applet with Firefox under Vista, you’ll regret it):

Aft deck beach area with pool that transforms into a helideck.

Something tells me I could not afford even the YaaS (Yacht-as-a-Service) version.

Update: For a bit more serious view, check out We are all Japanese now.

Filed Under: Business, Humor · Tagged: financial crisis, luxury, mortgages, recession, subprime, subprime loans, yaas, yacht

I’m Broadcasting Over the Comcast Cap – This Can’t Be Good

Posted on September 7, 2008 ·

Since Comcast is about to cap monthly traffic at 250G per month, I thought I would check my monthly stats. Little did I expect that I am already exceeding this limit… but what’s scary is that it’s outbound traffic, not inbound.

This can’t be good – I probably have some malware sitting on my machine. Neither McAfee nor Spybot S&D finds anything… if you have ideas, pls. comment below. Thanks in advance – I guess this is my first crowdsourced problem resolution.

Update (9/21) Lots of good advice in the comments. I tried another pacakage, highly advised by several.. only to find a thread by the author, acknowledging it does not properly measure usage under Vista. Crap. I am not too worried though: my router shows way higher download traffic than upload, which is the “normal” user profile. It’s in packets though, not Gigs. Why does it have to be my pain though? Comcast shoud not introduce the bandwidth cap without providing a measurement tool.

Filed Under: Software · Tagged: bandwidth, bot, broadband, comcast, leak, malware, mcafee, spybot, spyware, torrent, virus

Apple vs. Windows Pricing: It’s All About TCO

Posted on August 6, 2008 ·

The debate du jour: should you pay twice as much for a Mac than you’d have to pay for a Windows PC?

(Data source: NPD)

Just about everyone attributes the price difference to Apple’s marketing, Brand Power. But I think by focusing on out-of-the box prices, they all miss the boat: it’s all about TCO. Total Cost of Ownership.

I started to chronicle the hassle of just running a Vista PC and dealing with random, unexplainable failures, but more or less gave up. Compare this to the anecdotal evidence of my Mac-user friends, who, despite occasional hiccups all agree: it just works.

I don’t know how you value your time (heck, sometimes I wonder about mine), but most computer users probably are not in the minimum wage bracket. Considering the days and nights I spent trying to fix this Vista monster, I’m quite sure I would have been better off paying more upfront for a Mac. My TCO would have been lower. And not even my Virtual Invoices can make up for that.

See today’s debate on: Apple Watch, DailyTech, TechBlog, Mark Evans, Microsoft Watch, Technovia , jkOnTheRun, The Digital Home, Hardware 2.0,

Update: Finally, some sanity – here’s Jake:

Focusing on out-the-door pricing seems too narrow to ask such a broad question. It would be very interesting to see a comparison of expected full costs (not just OOTB) for each of the major O/S.

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Technology · Tagged: Apple, computer prices, desktop, laptop, mac, pc prices, virtualinvoice, vista, Windows

Virtualinvoice: Time To Fight Back

Posted on July 1, 2008 ·

There are two types of computer users:

The problem-solving techno-geeks who build hardware, hack software and enjoy every challenge, even bugs to dug themselves get deeper an deeper in… most of us have probably been there, done that, then grew up.
Those who simply want to use their systems for work, fun or whatever they damn please, and hate when they are forced to spend hours investigating problems that should not occur in the first place, and then they should be documented… I suspect that’s the majority of us. A few hours here, half a day there, always in the worst possible time. We feel it’s unfair that we are forced to work instead of [insert your favorite lousy company here]. After all, wear not on their payroll.

Enough is enough. Let’s fight back! If you’re a freelancer, or are in any profession where you bill your hourly, you know exactly what your rate is. Even if not, chances are you have a realistic estimate of your time’s worth. Next time you feel you got robbed of a few valuable hours, just bill it! Chances are, you won’t get paid, but you’ll feel better. I certainly do, having just billed Microsoft, Mozilla and HP.

Remember to tag your invoice / blog post.. whatever as virtualinvoice: I will keep tab of the totals, and periodically publish them.

Viva La Revolucion!

Update: It looks like Bob Warfield is should send a Virtual Invoice about now …

Filed Under: Customer Service, Humor, Misc · Tagged: customet support, technical support, virtualinvoice, zoho invoice

Firefox 3: Lost a Few Extensions, Found Others… No Smooth Sailing Though

Posted on June 26, 2008 ·

Several of my favorite Firefox extensions did not make it to 3.0 for compatibility reasons, but I found functional equivalents for almost all. Amongst the (temporary) losses is Zoho QuickRead, being replaced by OpenITOnline (The Zoho Team tells me QuickRead will be FF3 compatible in a few days The FF3 compatible Zoho QuickRead update is now available).

OpenITOnline is a handy extension that allows you to read documents online without the need to first download, then open them in the relevant Office applications. The file formats currently handled are:

Documents (*.doc, *.rtf, *.odt, *.sxw)
Spreadsheets (*.xls, *.csv, *.ods, *.sxc)
Presentations (*.ppt, *.pps, *.odp, *.sxi)
Images (*.jpg, *.gif,*.png)

There’s an easy guided setup, where I changed the default Zoho Viewer to the relevant “active” services, i.e. Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show. OpenITOnline also supports Google Docs and ThinkFree.

My old-style del.icio.us extension was replaced by the functionally richer new one. The PayPal Plugin became a casualty, just days after I had discovered it.

The upgrade itself was anything but smooth sailing, and I’m not referring to the initial download fiasco. The new Firefox appeared to work fine on the Vista PC, but exhibited strange behavior on two XP machines.

It simply did not “remember” the settings for two key extensions: every single time I started Firefox I got flooded by pop-up windows to configure Gmail Manager (one window for each account) and had to go through the hoops of setting up Foxmarks. For a while I thought the extensions were to blame, or perhaps a strange interaction with some of the new extensions – once you’re on the wrong track, you can spend hours uninstalling/ reinstalling them in various sequences. But then I noticed some of my default settings were gone, homepage reset, cookie handling and history tracking all changed. Weirdest of all was the fact that the “OK” button did not work on any configuration/setup screen.

So now I knew something was wrong with Firefox itself – to cut a long story short, I could fix one of the laptops by some magic sequence of uninstalling/reinstalling everything a few times, but the other one was hopeless. I had to resort to brute force: uninstall Firefox, wipe out all related directories (those ugly documents etc.. \user\ local data\whatever paths), then System Restore to the day before the Firefox upgrade, then install everything again, followed buy repeated Windows and McAfee updates that the system forgot due to the Restore. It was ugly.

Now Firefox 3 (almost) works, except that the “Use my choice for all cookies from this site” button does not seem to do anything. (Update: It’s damn frustrating having to hit the same button a zillion times!)

I lost about half a day, and more importantly at a time I really couldn’t afford it, had more urgent things to do. Not the first time, and I’m afraid not the last one either. But this time I’ve decided to do something about it: I’m presenting a virtual invoice to Mozilla, for the productive time lost.

Of course this invoice won’t ever be paid.. but I already feel better. Every time a software company hijacks my productive time, I will create a Virtual Invoice. (I already have another one in the queue, for Microsoft… coming soon).

Filed Under: Humor, Personal Productivity, Software · Tagged: ff3, firefox, firefox 3.0, foxmarks, gmail manager, google docs, Mozilla, openitonline, thinkfree, virtualinvoice, zoho, zoho invoice

The ZDNet Obstacle Course, or Eating One’s Own Dog Food

Posted on June 25, 2008 ·

Michael Krigsman tends to be critical all the time. Not that he’s mean, but what else can you do when your blog title is IT Project Failures ?

Today’s he’s getting his own dog food served up, in nice bite-sized portions . After poking fun at Bill Gate’s Byzantine Web Experience at Microsoft.com, one of the first comments he received by a fellow Enterprise Irregular was:

Michael
Good thing that Bill Gates hasn’t tried to comment on the ZDNET blogs.
Imagine that rant…!-)

Ouch… but he is so right. ZDNet has built a hard-to-penetrate comment wall that deters most from entering the conversation. Anyway, the story gets better. Michael received the following email from his own Mother:

I DECIDED TO BE BRAVE AND ENTER A COMMENT OF MY OWN, BUT I DID NOT GET VERY
FAR. HAVING TYPED MY THING, I FOUND MYSELF WITH A FORM TO FILL OUT, A
SEEMINGLY VERY SIMPLE TASK. LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT IN THE WORLD YOU
INHABIT, EVEN FORMS DON’T SPEAK MY KIND OF ENGLISH. I WAS REJECTED OUT OF
HAND BECAUSE I COULDN’T FIGURE OUT WHERE TO ENTER ZIP CODE!!! LIKE A DOG
CHEWING ON A BONE, THE FORM WOULDN’T LET ME GO, INSISTING ON THE ZIP CODE.
AFTER TRYING AND TRYING, I FINALLY GAVE UP…… THE FORM IS PROBABLY STILL
LAUGHING NOW.

FAILURE TO FIND A PLACE FOR THIS PIECE OF INFORMATION WAS NEW TO ME, ONE WHO
IS USED TO MEET WITH OTHER FAILURES REGULARLY. BUT TO FAIL TO COMPLETE MY
ADDRESS? WHAT GIVES?

Beware of a Mother’s wrath . Joke apart, Michael’s Mom must be quite frustrated, as shown by the all-CAPS.

Jeff Nolan’s more analytical opinion on the EI discussion group:

Actually that ZDNet comment wall is a legitimate example for a post on how complex systems that deviate from community norms discourage participation which in the end frustrate the objectives of the host.

We hear this left and right. Not only from readers, but from some ZDNet bloggers as well. And while at it, let me quickly admit I was guilty of building an obstacle course myself – although nothing as discouraging as ZDNet’s wall. And to be fair, today’s criticism isn’t directed at Michael, but ZDNet’s management.

I can’t resist (mis)quoting President Ronald Reagan’s famous words :

Mr. Gorbachev , [insert ZDNet Exec here] open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev , [ZDNet Exec] tear down this wall!

Filed Under: Blogging · Tagged: Blogging, co.mments, comment wall, conversation, dogfod, zdnet

Microsoft, the Walking Dead

Posted on June 24, 2008 ·

Over a year ago Paul Graham caused quite some uproar calling Microsoft Dead. Unlike in the 90’s, none of his startup Founders fear (or even respect) Microsoft. They have their eyes on Google and other startups – so Microsoft must be dead. Cash-rich, wildly successful – just not a future force to reckon with.

Today I read evidence that Paul Graham is right. Todd Bishop produced a Bill Gates email from 2003, in which the Microsoft CEO complains about his own systems usability (or lack of).

—- Original Message —-

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com.

…

This site is so slow it is unusable.

…

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

…

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11

I tried to selectively quote from this email, but it’s impossible. This email is a goldmine, you have to read it in its entirety.

It sounds like John Doe Windows User spilling out all his frustration with a useless, unfriendly system. Or like me, ranting about Vista. Which brings me to my point: although we’re blinded by the sales success, a result of monopoly, nothing changes the fact that Vista is widely considered a fiasco. If this is the best the world’s richest company could come up with 5 years after the CEO’s angry rant – well, that speaks for itself. Microsoft is dead. Rich, powerful, but without a future. A Walking Dead.

(And now you can call me crazy.)

Update (6/25): Jeff Nolan feels sorry for Citizen Bill: Of course he’s right about the usability… too bad he can’t switch to a Mac.

Phil Wainewright is wondering whether Gates is “a secret cloud convert, or have I been drinking too much of my own Kool-Aid again?”

Michael Krigsman points to this PDF which shows some of the follow-up email correspondence – you’d think after the CEO /Chairman rants so explicitely, they rush to find a solution. Instead, what we find is fingerpointing, politics, total corporate inertia. That’s what kills (formerly great) organizations.

Update (10/7/2010) – Good read @ Computerworld: Microsoft’s coming heart-attack moment

Filed Under: Business, Software · Tagged: microsoft, monopoly, paul graham, vista, walking dead, Windows

Windows Search 4: Does it Finally Work?

Posted on June 4, 2008 ·

I often stated my preference for Copernic Desktop Search, fought Microsoft’s sneaky plan to install Windows Search on XP systems without the owners consent, yet I find myself using Windows Search by default. Only on my Vista PC though, where it’s easier to keep the default than switch to third-party products. On the XP machines I’m still running Copernic.

And now it’s time to admit my title is misleading: Windows Search actually works – at least half-way. It can add files to the index. It just doesn’t remove them. Not when they are deleted, not when they are moved.

I’m not kidding, try it yourself: move a file to another directory or delete it, then see the multiple, redundant pointers to it in Windows Search. No way to tell which entries are dead until you click them.

Today Microsoft released Windows Search 4; let’s hope they learned the basics of updating an index. (Oh, yes, I know I can force a total rebuild of the index, but this should happen automatically, in the background). I’m not going to find out for a while: I learned the hard way not to touch Vista components and wait till it becomes part of Windows Update.

Filed Under: Personal Productivity, Software · Tagged: cds, copernic, copernic desktop search, microsoft, Windows, windows search

Zazzle Very Sick Today

Posted on April 6, 2008 ·

Zazzle, the online T-Shirt business has been ill for a while. I wanted to order my own T-shirt, but needed a slight addition to the design. Well, it’s kinda difficult to work on the design when images are not displayed properly…

Today Zazzle’s condition appears to have worsen: any time you try to talk to her, she just blurts out:

An error occurred on this page which may make it unusable. If this occurs please refresh the page.

I did. Refresh. She blurts again. Again.

Ouch. Dear Zazzle, I hope you recover soon…

Update: I am not experiencing the above errors from another laptop, running XP. But it’s not browser-specific either: on this Vista computer I run into the same problem whether using Firefox or IE7. And yes, I cleared everything (cookies, permissions, cache) on both browsers.

Filed Under: Misc · Tagged: cafepress, online retail, online t-shirt, t-shirt design, zazzle

Apple Sneaky, Microsoft is No Angel, Either

Posted on March 25, 2008 ·

I’ve been observing an annoying trend on TechMeme for a while now: when a good discussion happens over the weekend, obviously some writers will miss it – then they sleep on it, come back to it a few days later and TechMeme picks it up as a new theme.

That’s what we’re seeing today with ZDNet blogger Ed Bott coming back to the Apple Update brouhaha and trying to place Microsoft on a morel higher ground.

In summary, the issue was that the Apple iTunes update program all of a sudden wanted to install the Safari browser on Windows PC’s and had it as the preselected default. That’s certified bad behavior. Even worse is the fact that it’s not new at all – a fact missed by almost all but yours truly. I pointed out that:

the same update program has been trying to install iTunes on a Windows machine where I don’t have it, don’t need it forever, despite unselecting it every single time
the update runs because I do have Quicktime installed, and Quicktime itself is as aggressive as it gets, re-installing itself in the XP systray no matter how many times you remove it.

To me this was all about respecting users choice or not. But the discussion went the “wrong way”:

Apple fans are a religious cult who came in hordes to defend Holy Apple. (before you chastise me, just look at how often I point to Apple as a better choice, without becoming blindly faithful)
Most debate focused on whether Firefox or Safari is the better browser (IE dully ignored) – nice tactics to change the subject…

And now here comes Ed Bott with a provocative title: What Microsoft can teach Apple about software updates:

For the record, I think Apple is dead wrong in the way it’s gone about using its iPod monopoly to expand its share in another market.

Right.

Ironically, an excellent model for how this update program should work already exists. It’s called Windows Update, and it embodies all the principles that Apple should follow.

Dead wrong.

I can’t believe anyone in their right mind would quote Windows Update, known for delivering patches that mess up one’s system only to be patched again and again as the ideal model to follow. One does not have to go too far, just look at the reports on systems disabled by the recent Vista SP1 update. The worlds richest company could not put a decent operating system together in five years, and a full year later the best they can deliver is a botched update!

But since Ed takes the opportunity to place Microsoft on the moral high ground in general, let’s not forget about another recent Microsoft update coup:

The windows live installer, released last September while offered an opt-out screen like Apple does now, then proceeded to install Windows Desktop Search, without ever asking for permission or even notifying the user.

Not only this was outrageously bad practice, completely ignoring the users right to decide what they want on their computers, it was also performance degrading, especially on systems that already had another desktop search installed (see system bar above).

So back to Ed Bott: yes, I condemn Apple’s latest move, but please, please, never in a million years would I think of setting Microsoft as the model to follow.

Update: This window just popped up on my system:

Windows Firewall blocked Foldershare – a Microsoft product, which just got updated a few days ago. Only (?) problem is, I have (I should have) Windows Firewall turned off, since McAfee is installed, too. WTF is this message? Or has Win Firewall been turned on by some update, without asking me? And why is it my job to investigate?

Filed Under: Customer Service, Software, Technology · Tagged: Apple, browser, desktop search, firefox, foldershare, ie7, iTunes, microsoft, Safari, software update, update, windows firewall, windows update