Tag Archives | Microsoft

According to this page on the Microsoft site, the Visual Studio 6 exams will no longer be offerered after June 30, 2004. I interpret the cryptic note “no candidate requirements to retain certification” to mean that current certifcation holders do not have to take exams. A few years ago, Microsoft was glad to terminate certifications left and right. I took core and elective exams three times to retain my MCSD certification. Now, I think they are facing dwindling numbers and will do what they can to artificially bolster those figures.

I thought the MCSD (“Solution Developer”) idea was a good one, but I don’t believe that Microsoft was ever able to estalish sufficient credibility and desirability for earning the certificate.

Disclaimer: I was a significant contributor to the VFP 6.0 Distributed Solutions examination.

Mark Michaelis, a SourceSafe MVP, posts to his blog the following:

Unfortunately I can’t comment on the future of Visual Source Safe except to say that significant work is being done in this area. If this MSDN chat is any indication, the demand is huge as the entire chat is essentially consumed with, “will the next version support…” type questions.

It’s great to hear that there’s some progress being made. As the author of the only currently-available book, Essential SourceSafe, I’ve contacted aa number of Program Managers at Microsoft trying to get involved in new versions, and finding out if a revision to the book might make sense. I was surprised at finding SourceSafe 6.0d in my latest MSDN shipment without a word it was coming.

Microsoft Backs Down on Windows 2000 EULA [Slashdot]

Steve Gillmor talks about the Allchin Tax in this article in Computer Reseller News. The punchline:

Microsoft’s RSS engineers are already hard at work–they need buy in from the leadership and a core authoring object that plays fair across the XML blogosphere.

Sounds like quite the challenge.

All my bags are packed, and I’m ready to go… (to OS X). I read David Weinberger’s account of PC woe today, and a smile ran across my face.  Not because I wish ill on David; I most certainly don’t (and I feel his pain).   I smile because his account of having to reinstall software on his Windows machine coincides with my re-reading for the second time David Coursey’s Macintosh OS X for Windows Users: A Switcher’s Guide.

You see folks, I can now admit it.  I am deep into the planning stage of making my next computer purchase, which will be an Apple 15″ Powerbook with OS X.  I’m not going to get into the Windows bashing.  I like Windows 2000 and Windows XP.  They’re pretty stable and it’s not Microsoft’s fault that it has to make its products compatible with every grain of sand on the beach.

But I have several computers in my home and it’s not my fault that they require constant rebooting and reinstallation of software.  Or that they attract viruses like horses attract flies.  Even when they work as they are supposed to they require tweaking and configuring. 

Of course, all computers require maintenance, and I’m glad for the very thorough education in this process that the various versions of Windows have afforded me.  So now I stand before you today a very technically savvy man, with a great respect for Microsoft engineers, as I say: I don’t have the time or inclination to do it any more.  I’ll always have at least one computer that has Windows in my home, but starting soon I’m going to have at least one that has OS X and I suspect that will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

And I will always feel a tremendous sense of loss for the poor souls who will have chosen to remain behind, toiling in the fields of configuration and reinstallation.  I’d stay behind and help, but I just can’t.  I’m lazy and I don’t want to fight my computer anymore.  When I put it to sleep I want it to go to sleep and when I open the case I want it to wake up quickly. 

I have the feeling that switching to Mac OS X will be an awakening of sorts for me to.  It’s not a panacea, but I will be that I won’t be rebooting as often as I do now.  I’ll let you know….

A flaw in IE6 that requires a patch to Windows Server 2003 is rated as “moderate” with the logic that servers would rarely need a browser. Oh, come on! Too funny!
Update: Okay, that’s overstated. It turns out that IE on Win2K3 ships in a highly secure mode not vulnerable to the patch’s target. However, the security mode may need to be downgraded in order to access some content, so the threat is still there.
Windows Server 2003 gets first patch. “Microsoft says the flaw’s details are a positive sign for “Trustworthy Computing,” despite the embarrassment of releasing a patch barely two months after the OS launch.” From CNET News.com

Had a humbling reminder today. I was looking for a little utility, PFE32, a “Professional File Editor,” highly recommended if you’re swapping files from Unix to PC, because of it’s automatic CR – to – CRLF translations. I knew it was somewhere on my hard drive, since I had copied backups of my last two machines (2 Gb and 6 GB, respectively) onto it. But Microsoft search was taking forever to plow through even the small subset of folders where I suspected it to be. Google to the rescue! “PFE32” and I was pointing to the web site, clicked through some links to a local download site, and I had the 700+ kb file unzipped before Search had finished, even though I’m dialed up on a pitiful 26.4 kbps connection. There’s a lesson in there somewhere. Maybe I should get my stuff better organized. Maybe I should enable Indexing Services on my local machine.

“VX writers release sequel to infamous Sobig worm. Spoof from bill @ microsoft spreading rapidly” from The Register.

Look out for “Please see the attached file” messages. One more time:

1. NEVER open files from untrusted sources
2. There are NO trusted sources.