Over at Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley lists The Top Ten TechEd Hot Buttons. “Microsoft's annual gathering for IT pros and developers kicks off on June 11. Here is our list of the most significant of the unveilings and announcements [^] everything from a first test build of the new mobile SQL Server, to a new beta of WinFS — that we're expecting at this week's show.”
Tag Archives | Microsoft
Scoble escapes the belly of the beast
Over at Scripting News, Dave Winer confirms Scoble moves. “Chris Pirillo says it's “100 percent true” that Scoble is leaving Microsoft and joining Podtech.” … Dave goes on to say,”I didn't like how Microsoft was changing our relationship, and I told him so, really clearly. You can only be at such a large company for so long before it changes you… A person like Scoble can have enormous influence just by adopting some very simple ideas. It's the ideas that have power. But Microsoft hasn't let the changes waft over them. They still think in old terms. I'm glad to see my old friend didn't go down with the ship.”
Agreed.
Microsoft Genuine Advantage phones home daily.
OSNews posts Microsoft Plans Better Disclosures of Tool. “Microsoft acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker.” Ya think?
The article goes on to quote: “It's kind of a safety switch,” said David Lazar, who directs the Windows Genuine Advantage program.”
Is this Trustworthy Computing?
Microsoft leaps to nearly 30% of web market, Apache down to 3/5ths
OSNews points to Netcraft: Microsoft Continues to Chip Away at Apache's Lead. “Microsoft continues to gain share in the web server market, chipping away at Apache's commanding lead. The number of hostnames on Windows servers grew by 4.5 million, giving Microsoft 29.7% market share, a gain of 4.25% for the month. Apache had a decline of 429K hostnames, and loses 3.5% to 61.25%. Apache's lead over Microsoft, which stood at 48.2% in March, has been narrowed to 31.5%, a shift of 16.7% in just three months.”
Wow! That's a phenomenally large shift in a short time period. Looking at the historical graph, the speed of changing is unprecedented. Even with the large shift of parked domains, there's something interesting going on. Did Windows Server 2003 R2 deliver some new compelling feature that caused several large hosting providers to shift over? Did they get a killer pricing deal?
Daily Windows swipe…
Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley reports Another Windows Vista Bites the Dust. “Microsoft has cut PC-to-PC synchronization from Vista. Vista Beta 2, which is slated to go to as many as two million testers, does not include the P2P synchronization technology. Quality is the reason for the latest cut, Microsoft officials said.”
Meanwhile, Computerworld Breaking News reports Microsoft to tweak key Vista security feature. “Microsoft will change a key security feature in the Windows Vista User Account Control to make it less cumbersome for users.”
Amazingly, this will appear in “Release Candidate 1” which has slipped to August 25th. I'm astounded that they could get to this level with features as clumsy as this.
Why did Microsoft back down in Adobe confrontation?
The other thing bothering me about the Microsoft-Adobe thing: Microsoft took on the DOJ and in losing, won. Microsoft is taking on the EU and daring them to the brink of Microsoft's oblivion. Microsoft settled with Burst.com. Microsoft settled with Novell. Microsoft settled with WordPerfect. Microsoft settled with Stacker. How is Microsoft is unwilling to wrestle with Adobe? Not because they were certainly. That hasn't been a problem for them in the past. No, there's something else going on. I wonder what.
Microsoft announces another dropped feature: PDF?
InfoWorld: Top News posts Microsoft to pull PDF, XPS support from Office 2007. “Microsoft Corp. has decided to delete from its next version of Office an automatic way to save documents in PDF (Portable Document Format) after Adobe Systems Inc. threatened to take legal action.”
How strange. There must be more to this. PDF output is included with Apple's OS X. OpenOffice.org has the option to save files as PDF on Linux, OS X, Windows and everywhere else it runs. PDF output is free for anyone willing to dig around for it, from the free Ghostscript to PDFCreator.
Either Microsoft was infringing on Adobe's extensions to the basic PDF, or something else was in play here. I'm looking forward to some followup article that might shed more light here.
Another day, another Microsoft announcement of a dropped feature. Boy, the company is building an impossibly difficult hurdle to shipping new products.
Seven Simple Steps to Delete a Vista Desktop Shortcut
Need to delete a shortcut off your desktop using Microsoft Vista! It’s easy and simple and improved! Just follow these Seven Simple Steps to delete a shortcut. Amazing!
About Ted Roche
Last good picture, 1997-ish
An independent consultant specializing in web site development and database-centric software development, co-author of 4 books, contributor/editor to another six. Work web is http://www.tedroche.com .
Currently, working on Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, jQuery and occasionally a bit of PHP. Certified MySQL Developer (CMDEV) for MySQL 5.x (2008), Core Certified in MySQL 4.x. Former Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, 1994-2002, Microsoft Certified System Engineer and Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, first certified in Windows 3.1. Passed 17 exams, 1994-2000.
Senior Member of the Association of Computing Machinery, Member, Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union and many other organizations.
Former member of Greater New Hampshire Linux User Group, New Hampshire Ruby Group, Alphaloft Community Supporter, Python Special Interest Group, Seacoast WordPress Developers Group, National Writer’s Union, Boston Computer Society, Foxboro Area Common Users Group and many other organizations.
Books:
- Editor/Technical editor for Using SQLite to Bypass the 2 GB .DBF Filesize Limit, 2013, written by Whil Hentzen and published by Hentzenwerke Publishing
- Technical Reviewer for The Well-Grounded Rubyist, Second Edition, by David Black, Manning Publications, July 4, 2014.
- Technical editor for “MySQL Client-Server Applications with Visual FoxPro,” 2007, written by Whil Hentzen and published by Hentzenwerke Publishing
- Hackers’ Guide™ to Visual FoxPro 7, 2002, co-author with Tamar E. Granor, Doug Hennig and Della Martin.
- Essential SourceSafe, 2001, sole author, published by Hentzenwerke Publishing
- Microsoft Office Automation with Visual FoxPro, 2000, editor. Authors Tamar E. Granor and Della Martin.
- Hackers’ Guide™ to Visual FoxPro 6, 1998, co-author with Tamar E. Granor
- Hackers’ Guide™ to Visual FoxPro 3, 1996, co-author with Tamar E. Granor
- FoxPro 2.5 Programmer’s Reference, editor. Authors Bill House and Tamar E. Granor
- FoxPro Windows Advanced Multi-User Developer’s Handbook, editor. Authors Pat Adams and Jordan Powell.
- Using FoxPro 2.5 for Windows, editor and contributing author. Main authors Steve Arnott and Lisa C. Slater.
- Using FoxPro 2.5 for DOS, editor and contributing author. Main authors Steve Arnott and Lisa C. Slater.
Contributing Editor to FoxPro Advisor magazine. Fifty columns of “Ask Advisor” or “Advisor Answers” published 1995 – 2000, along with a dozen feature articles.
Currently an independent consultant and head of Ted Roche & Associates, LLC – http://www.tedroche.com. We develop Visual FoxPro solutions, and work with clients as mentors, trainers and developers. Other tools include Microsoft SQL Server and Visual SourceSafe, the Oracle family of databases and Free/Open Source Software like Linux, Apache, MySQL, PostGreSQL, Python, Subversion, Twiki and Zope.
2000-2001: Worked at http://www.bugcentral.com before its parent did the Chapter 11 thing.
1995-2000: Worked at Blackstone Data Systems, who also managed to tank during the dot-com bomb. A great group, a great learning experience.
1995: New Hampshire Health & Human Services as a support technician while finishing “Hacker’s Guide to Visual FoxPro 3.0”
1992-1995: A brief employment at Brickstone Square in Andover, MA., followed by independent consulting, including Kronos and New England Computer Sales (NECX, since purchased by VerticalNet).
1989-1992: Software Developer for AINetwork and New Hampshire Insurance, part of AIG. Worked on a mailing label system for tracking attendees to the golf tourney that eventually turned into the most powerful and accurate P&L in the entire company. Scope creep. PCs and Fox had a tendency to do that kind of thing. Eventually wrote the report that proved the company would never make money, and they closed. Sure hope I was right. I was among the hundreds laid off.
1987- 1989: Worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Division of Food and Drugs. Moonlighted evenings and weekends at “The Memory Location,” Washington Street, Wellesley, MA, selling Commodore 64, 128 and Amiga computers, peripherals and software. What a blast! Great fun, cool stuff, great bosses – Don Towne and Roy Lee.
Also volunteered for the Foxboro Area Commodore User Group as President, BBS SysOp and newsletter editor. BBS was a blast: 300 baud modem, Commodore 64, an SFD-1001 IEEE-488-interfaced One-Megabyte! 5-1/4″ floppy disk. Beta-tester for GEOS Software. First public-domain (pre-Open Source) software release was a quad-density Epson printer driver hand-coded in 6502 assembler. Owner of Commodore Amiga 500, 1000 and 2000. So much for future visions!
Ten year member of the Boston Computer Society. RIP.
Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, 1984, from the Regent’s Program of the University of the State of New York, renamed Regent’s College and now Excelsior College. Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Mohegan Community College, now Three Rivers Community College Norwich, Connecticut. Both degrees earned while serving in the U.S. Navy full-time.
1979-1987: Served as an Electrician’s Mate First Class, EM1/SS, Submarine Service. Ten deterrent patrols aboard the USS Daniel Webster, SSBN-626, Blue Crew, 1981-1987.
NPTU Ballston Spa, New York, winter of 1980-81.
Naval Nuclear Power School, Orlando Florida, 1980. Top electrician in my graduating class, 3.94 GPA.
Boot camp, Basic Electricity and Electronics, Electrician’s Mate “A” School, Great Lakes Training Center, Chicago, Illinois, 1979-1980.
Crosbro, Inc., 1978-1978: shipped my first commercial applications (order processing, inventory control, work-in-process tracking) written in BASIC on WANG 2200-A, T and VP computer systems. 16 kB RAM, BASIC in ROM, Key File Access Method (KFAM) as an ISAM database.
Bates College, 1976 – 1978. Teletype terminals, PDP-8 and 11, time-sharing with Dartmouth College. BASIC and beta-tested SBASIC – structured basic, without line numbers! – on the Dartmouth system.
Brockton High School, 1972-1976. Swim team, 3 letters, National Honor Society. Learned BASIC on a PDP-4.
You wouldn’t want to be out of compliance, would you? Sales Pitch or Shakedown?
Don Tennant, editor in chief of Computerworld, writes
“It’s bad enough when Microsoft strong-arms other software vendors into submission as a means of thwarting competition. But when it engages in underhanded tactics to intimidate users in order to land a software deal, we have a very disturbing situation on our hands. And someone needs to have the guts to speak out about it.”
Read the whole story here. Thanks to Bill Anderson for the pointer