Going though customer and partner feedback today, I was interested to see this appear in my mailbox (thanks to the several people who forwarded this today), an excerpt from an article by Larry Seltzer on PC Magazine’s blog, Why Vista Looks Good After The MS08-067 RPC Bug - Security Watch...
One of the lessons of the recent Windows RPC bug, the one that was fixed "out of band" a few weeks ago, didn't get enough attention. It's that Vista is so much more resilient than XP to the attack, and why. I believe that, on Vista, this vulnerability is almost impossible to exploit and nobody will try.
“When MS08-067 was released it was a shocker, the kind of vulnerability that, in the past, has led to widespread attacks. This hasn't happened so far for a number of reasons. But I'll wager that very few Vista systems anywhere in the world will be successfully attacked through this vulnerability, except maybe in hacker testing. It's all another reason why you're better off with Vista.”
Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs, security, antivirus.
http://tinyurl.com/55zhkz
On NPR's Planet Money site, a "multimedia team of reporters tracks down the economists, investors and regular folks who are trying to make sense of the rapidly changing global economy," there is an interesting series from Alex Blumberg. He explained on All Things Considered (October 31, 2008) How Credit Default Swaps Spread Financial Rot (as well as Unregulated Credit Default Swaps Led to Weakness) and how these instruments contributed to our tanking economy.
"It's a fair guess that a couple of months ago, few people outside the financial world had even heard the words "credit default swaps." But now the obscure and unregulated financial instruments are shouldering much of the blame for destabilizing the global financial system.
"Here's how it works. Let's say there's a guy named Frank and he has a life insurance policy. When he dies, the beneficiary gets a million dollars. Now imagine a whole bunch of other people saying, "I want a million dollars if he dies, too." And so they take out life insurance policies on Frank.
Now imagine Frank dies, and all those people bought their policies from the same company. That company, more or less, was AIG."
Also of interest from NPR (I love the fact that their shows are archived for later listening) is How To Track Music, Scan Bar Codes On A Cell Phone on All Things Considered, which launched a new segment on Mondays called "All Tech Considered." From November 10, 2008... "With new phones, including the Apple iPhone and the T-Mobile G1, you can do more than call friends. You can find your way home or go bowling without picking up a ball. You can even scan bar codes at the mall and comparison shop. Technology expert Omar Gallaga of the Austin American-Statesman showed NPR's Robert Siegel the software people can download on a few different cell phones. With Shop Savvy, the phone can scan anything from a book to a CD to a bottle of Snapple. It uses the built-in camera to scan the bar code, and up pops the cheapest price on the product as well as reviews from people who have purchased the product." Top 50 Women to Watch 2008” Wall Street Journal on WSJ.com - "According to a survey by Catalyst, a New York research group, women hold 15.4% of Fortune 500 corporate-officer jobs -- positions of vice president or higher that require board approval. That number has inched down from 16.4% in 2005. One bright spot: More women are in charge of powerful board committees, such as nominating and governance committee chairs. That in turn could mean more women being appointed to key positions down the road." (Merissa Marr)
One of my favourite blogs is gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": blue monster: why social objects are the future of marketing. "As a marketing blogger, I get asked a lot, "What is the future of marketing?" I always answer the same: "The Blue Monster". What's The Blue Monster? A Blue Monster is a Social Object that articulates a Purpose-Idea. What's a Social Object? What's a Purpose-Idea? Sit yourself down, pour yourself another glass of whisky. This might take a while to explain..." Seven things you may not know about Windows 7 | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News (November 10, 2008). "While Windows 7 has gotten plenty of attention over the past two weeks, there are some features in there that haven't gotten as much attention. I wrote on Friday about a new programming interface for location-based services. Here are seven more features that caught my eye.
- Standard approach to mobile broadband
- Help with public Wi-Fi spots.
- Windows Troubleshooting
- New sensor support
- Improved battery life and playback of DVDs
- Windows Biometric Framework
- Enhancements to Windows Media Center
Mars Phoenix Lander completes its mission | Gaming and Culture - CNET News -- "The last Twitter post said it all: "01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000." For those of you who aren't fluent in binary, the post, from NASA's Mars Phoenix Twitter account, translates as "triumph." According to NASA, the space agency is no longer receiving communications from Phoenix, its Mars lander, after more than five months of operation. The not unexpected event came after the lander moved into an area, NASA said in a release Monday, where "seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander's instruments." In other words, Phoenix has run out of gas. But according to NASA, the agency got more out of the lander project than it expected, so it considers--what else would you expect NASA to say at this point--the mission a success." Brain Power Video - CBSNews.com -- Thanks to Charlie for a link to this clip from CBS News, "one of the most powerful technology stories ever" http://is.gd/5Iok
Faster horses in the age of co-creation (info blog) -- November 11th, 2008 -- "Four pillars "Henry Ford is credited with saying something along the lines of “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they’d have said ‘faster horses’ “. That particular quotation gets trotted out fairly religiously every time the issue of the innovator’s dilemma comes up, helping to point out the apparent perils of listening to the customer. "Henry Ford is also credited with saying something along the lines of “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”. Which gives you an idea of where Ford stood in the context of customer voice and choice. "Why am I sharing all this? To make the point that for many years, even for centuries, it was considered normal for customers to have neither voice nor choice. That it was considered normal for one group of people to decide what other groups of people could have, should have, would have." AmEx Gets Access to Bailout Fund - WSJ.com By ROBIN SIDEL and JON HILSENRATH "American Express Co. won fast approval to become a bank-holding company, helping the credit-card giant gain access to a chunk of the $700 billion in federal funds being pumped into financial firms. The move shows how quickly financial-services firms that have long relied on the capital markets are racing to shore up their funding sources as the credit crisis drags on and economic turmoil spreads around the world."
Anne Kirah: Bringing Humanity to Microsoft at ResearchTalk -- "We like showcasing excellence. So why, you ask, does Anne Kirah deserve this accolade? Because she keeps things simple, she keeps it real. And while that may sound like a cliche, it’s what few clientside researchers do. Yet Anne has managed it at Microsoft. She and her team have got engineers thinking about the people who use their products. One team has even named part of their office Howard’s Corner as a legacy to an octogenarian man who forced them to design products and services for everyday folks and not just the tech savvy. Listen on, it’s inspirational and, as Vinny Jones would say, it’s emotional." Did You Get the "Don't Be A Bandwidth Pig" Letter From Comcast Yet? - Security Watch -- Larry Seltzer wites (Nov 6, 2008) that "In their attempts to manage network congestion Comcast has gotten into trouble with the FCC in the past. They tried to pick only on the programs that were the main source of abuse, but that didn't fly, so they have a new approach and it's "net neutral:" All users will be limited to a particular (very high) amount of traffic (250 GB) per month. They don't actively monitor that number, but they look for users who are using very high levels over a period of time. If you hit a particular level, your traffic may be "deprioritized," meaning it will slow down until your traffic and traffic on the network in general slow down. See a column I wrote a while ago for more details. Comcast has begun sending out letters to users announcing this policy. It comes with a subject line of "Improving Your Online Experience Through Congestion Management"...
Apple added 8,000 retail employees in fiscal 2008 | Latest Apple Computer News - CNET News -- Apple's retail operation doubled in size during 2008. Todd Bishop's TechFlash noted a paragraph in Apple's 10-K annual filing "that the company now employs 32,000 people on a full-time basis, up from 21,600 at this time last year. Almost 16,000 of those people work in Apple's retail segment, which now has 247 stores. In last year's annual report, Apple said it had almost 8,000 people working in the retail group, which comprised 197 stores. During fiscal 2008, or the period ended in September, the retail segment accounted for $6.3 billion of the $32.4 billion in net sales Apple recorded for the year. News Flash: Google Was Never Yahoo’s Friend - GigaOM -- Om Malik reports (November 5, 2008 at 8:59 AM PT) that "Perhaps the managerial bankruptcy at Yahoo was what led the beleaguered Internet company to believe that its biggest competitor, Google, would be its savior. Apparently it bought into Google’s spin about “doing no evil.” Well, today Yahoo is learning a lesson that everyone in the technology world needs to learn fast: Google is nobody’s friend. Just like Microsoft wasn’t a charity, Google, too, is capitalistic venture whose first and only goal is to stuff its coffers with cash — never mind what its leaders say publicly. In a blog post, David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, announced today that the company is withdrawing from the so-called Yahoo-Google advertising partnership, mostly because it was getting too much scrutiny from the federal government."
BBC NEWS | Technology | The end of an era - Windows 3.x -- Wednesday, 5 November 2008 By Mark Ward, Technology correspondent, BBC News -- "Windows 3.x established the look of the operating system. "An application has expectedly quit. Windows 3.x has come to the closing moments of its long life. "On 1 November Microsoft stopped issuing licences for the software that made its debut in May 1990 in the US. "The various versions of Windows 3.x (including 3.11) released in the early 1990s, were the first of Microsoft's graphical user interfaces to win huge worldwide success. "They helped Microsoft establish itself and set the trend for how it makes its revenues, and what drives the company until the present day." Sue Decker’s Memo to the Yahoo Troops - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com (November 5, 2008, 12:53 pm) by Miguel Helft -- "Google decided to end its advertising partnership with Yahoo on Wednesday rather than fight a suit from the Justice Department. Google explained its decision in a blog post penned by David Drummond, its chief legal officer. Meanwhile, Yahoo said it was disappointed with Google’s decision not fight and said it was well positioned to succeed in search and advertising. In a memo to the troops that seeks to put the best face on the unraveling of the deal, President Sue Decker expanded on that idea.The deal with Google, she said, was just one of many efforts to speed up its turnaround strategy."
Microsoft hopes to rebuild trust with Windows 7 | Latest Microsoft News - CNET News - CNET News -- Ina covered WinHEC last week and writes that "In a speech to hardware makers attending the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), Microsoft's Jon DeVaan said that the company is aiming to rebuild trust that Microsoft will deliver products with the promised features and at the promised time. "And Microsoft is also hoping that most partners won't have a lot of work to get ready for Windows 7. "We have the tenet that if something works in Vista it really should work in Windows 7," said DeVaan, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows core operating system division." Microsoft shows Windows 7 on Eee PC - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source -- "But today at Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, the company made a point of demonstrating Windows 7 running on an Eee PC, as a result of the improvements made under the hood of the next operating system. The demonstration model had 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of SSD flash storage, and a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom dual-core microprocessor. During the demo, Windows chief Steven Sinofsky and Microsoft's Mike Angiulo took a picture with a digital camera and plugged it into the machine, bringing up Windows 7's centralized "Device Stage" device management area.
Microsoft: We're not jilting Tablet PCs - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source -- "Is Microsoft giving up on the Tablet PC? No way, says Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, who spent part of his time here this morning expressing the company's continued belief in the market. The comments were notable in light of the dust-up over Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie's offhanded remark last week about Tablet PCs being a "niche" product. But will they be enough to placate Tablet PC enthusiasts? Sinofsky raised the subject this morning on stage at the company's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, when discussing the new touch-related features in Windows 7. Here's a link to what he said." Microsoft: Windows 7 kicks Vista's butt - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source -- Todd Bishop covered WinHEC week and wrote of how "Most companies talk about how much better they are than their competitors. Microsoft this morning kicked off its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference by detailing how much better it believes Windows 7 will be than Windows Vista in areas including boot time, battery life, graphics rendering, reliability and performance. "It was an implicit acknowledgement of Windows Vista's problems. But the company is walking a fine line as it makes the case. On the one hand, it wants to convince PC and device makers that it has its act together this time around. However, with Windows 7 not expected until early 2010, the company also risks hurting Windows Vista's sales in the meantime if it talks about how much better the successor will be."
Microsoft Pri0 | Apple's PC guy John Hodgman takes Microsoft quiz on NPR comedy show | Seattle Times Newspaper Blog by Benjamin J. Romano -- "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me" is a Saturday morning ritual in my house. John Hodgman, the comedian, author and perhaps most famously, "PC guy," in Apple's "Get a Mac" commercials, was the special guest on the show this morning, which I heard on local National Public Radio affiliate KUOW. Hodgman was asked to answer three questions about the history of Microsoft. Here are some excerpts from his 11-minute appearance on "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me." You can also listen to the segment here, here on npr.org. Incremental Blogger » Blog Archive » Ray Ozzie and the myth of the Tablet PC -- Loren Heiny covered in his blog the TechFlash interview with Ray Ozzie last week during PDC, where "Ozzie talks about some of the great things he sees in Windows 7 including the forthcoming multi-touch features" "Despite the fact that I agree with much of what he’s saying here–in particular, that the iPhone has convinced people of the value of multi-touch and that its value spreads far beyond one platform, I think Ray Ozzie has been drinking the “Tablet PCs are niche koolaid.” I wish Microsoft executives wouldn’t speak this way by using terms like “niche” to describe the Tablet PC market. Talk about trying to put a ceiling on their own products."
Test Center review: MacBook Pro is built to last | InfoWorld | Review | 2008-11-05 | By Tom Yager who writes that "If the unibody MacBook Pro were a car, it would be an eight-cylinder, hybrid, luxury SUV with full body armor." (November 05, 2008) Apple has done a complete and meaningful redesign of its top-selling commercial notebook, the MacBook Pro, for durability, serviceability, energy efficiency, and eco-consciousness. A one-piece, rigid, machined aluminum frame (“unibody”) forms the MacBook Pro’s internal structure, a design feature it shares with the new aluminum MacBook and MacBook Air. As with the MacBook Air, the clamshell laptop that upended the thin-and-light PC notebook market, Apple made some marvelously unorthodox design decisions for the MacBook Pro. Apple fanboys vs. Microsofties: A scientist's verdict | Technically Incorrect - CNET News from October 30, 2008 10:25 PM PDT posted by Chris Matyszczyk -- "Since embracing Incorrectness, I have noticed that the passion of those who love either Microsoft or Apple seems even to exceed a Goth's passion for black eyeshadow. The more I have come to know the two sides, the more their mutual stand-off resembles the kind of love-hate continuum embraced nightly by those two remarkably large-headed souls, Fox's Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. Now, research led by Professor Semir Zeki of University College London may help to illustrate and explain the inflamed emotions that surround two mere technology brands. It appears that, although love and hate seem to be rather opposing feelings, some of the same nervous circuits in the brain are responsible for both emotions."
SeanDaniel.com - Small Business Server and Other Technology: How to launch a program always elevated under Vista UAC -- This tip comes from our documentation team on how to launch a program that requires the use of some system files. UAC is there for a reason, and I suggest only using this method if you know what you are doing and are ok with lowering the security level of your system!! So now the warnings are out of the way, how do you create a shortcut that doesn't prompt you to run every time? Let's try creating one for the command prompt in Administrator Mode. Although this proceedure can be used for any application that is naughty for writing data into a system location, or that doesn't have a shim built for it to catch the data and write it into a better location. These steps will require you are running as a local admin, with UAC enabled Windows 7 details galore: interface tweaks, netbook builds, Media Center enhancements - Engadget -- Microsoft's Windows 7 announcement earlier today was followed up by an extensive demo of the new features during the PDC keynote, and since then even more info about the new OS has flooded out, so we thought we'd try to wrap up some of the more important bits here for you. Microsoft seems to have done an impressive job at this early pre-beta stage, folding in next-gen interface ideas like multitouch into the same OS that apparently runs fine on a 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM, but we'll see how development goes -- there's still a ways to go.
HP's new Mini 1000 and MIE Linux make netbooks fun again - Engadget -- "We've been struggling to keep awake for the large majority of this year, as netbook after netbook lands in our laps with identical specs, form factors and general shoddiness. No longer. HP is giving the market a shot in the arm with its new "clutch-style" skinny form factors, polished Linux OS and aggressive price points -- even if the specs are about as boring as the Mini-Note 2133. As rumored, HP's new Mini 1000 netbook is ditching VIA and going the Atom route (1.6GHz N270, in case you hadn't guessed). Also new is an option for a 10.2-inch display, though it's a mere 1024 x 600 instead of the 1280 x 768 display on the 2133..."
HD Netflix streaming comes to Xbox 360 first - Engadget -- "It's something you can't get on the Roku. Nor on LG's BD300. Nor on Samsung's P2500 / P2550 Blu-ray players. Nor through Netflix's own "Watch Instantly" portal. It's high-def Netflix streaming, and it's coming first to Microsoft's Xbox 360. Just in case you glossed over this massively huge tidbit when digesting the new dashboard information this morning, we're here to remind you that when the aforesaid dash hits on November 19th, with it will come HD Netflix streaming for (US-based, presumably) Xbox Live Gold members. You should know that this is only a "soft launch" with about 300 titles available for now, and the litany of details you're surely craving simply aren't available at present time." Samsung NC10 reviewed, trumps competition with 7 hour battery life - Engadget -- "Thus far word on the street about Samsung's NC10 has been good, but not exactly enough to distance it from the crowd. Laptop Magazine's full review of a Korean unit, however, found it to be exemplary, calling it "the most well-rounded 10-inch netbook on the market." The netbook earned high marks thanks to a bright screen, comfortable keyboard, and amazing battery life of 7:34 with WiFi turned on. (That's a bit suspect, though, as on a repeated test with screen brightness raised to 100 percent only 4:48 passed before it all went dark -- another re-test at 50 percent is promised.) The only real complaints were a somewhat dainty touchpad and mediocre disk performance..."
Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs
Five days since I posted, as I have been recovering from a cough/virus/whatever, and I was Mr. Mom all weekend long whilst my much better half spent the weekend with friends.
I have this of interest…
… from mathoov's Flickr stream.
Thanks to Ariel for the link.
Tags: Ariel Waldman, whack, quotes.
http://tinyurl.com/3qmjqj
I'm out sick this week <cough, cough> whilst the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2008 (WinHEC) kicked off today at the Los Angeles Convention Center (thru November 7).
"WinHEC 2008 provides the opportunity to learn about the latest product news and opportunities from Microsoft and the ecosystem. This year’s event will focus on partner opportunities with Windows 7 and Microsoft’s channel engagement and will discuss features of the upcoming Windows Server 2008 R2 update release."
Although I wasn't there, I was able to watch the keynotes live from home over the Internet from the mail WinHEC page – recorded versions available on demand here…
CNET's Ina Fried is covering WinHEC live this week and writes that Microsoft hopes to rebuild trust with Windows 7…
"In a speech to hardware makers attending the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), Microsoft's Jon DeVaan said that the company is aiming to rebuild trust that Microsoft will deliver products with the promised features and at the promised time. "And Microsoft is also hoping that most partners won't have a lot of work to get ready for Windows 7. "We have the tenet that if something works in Vista it really should work in Windows 7," said DeVaan, senior vice president of Microsoft's Windows core operating system division."
Also of interest: Todd Bishop is also in LA and posted that Windows 7 kicks Vista's butt on his TechFlash site…
"Most companies talk about how much better they are than their competitors. Microsoft this morning kicked off its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference by detailing how much better it believes Windows 7 will be than Windows Vista in areas including boot time, battery life, graphics rendering, reliability and performance. "It was an implicit acknowledgement of Windows Vista's problems. But the company is walking a fine line as it makes the case. On the one hand, it wants to convince PC and device makers that it has its act together this time around. However, with Windows 7 not expected until early 2010, the company also risks hurting Windows Vista's sales in the meantime if it talks about how much better the successor will be."
Tags: Microsoft, performance, Windows 7, Windows Vista, WinHEC 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/6pwdnx
As you may know from previous posts, we have both Macs and Windows PCs at home ( think that we even have some CPM and Unix lurking around somewhere). One benefit is that I get to be the IT administrator for both, although the family uses Windows Vista exclusively. As such, I was a bit mystified when I ran into a problem with a recent update for Office for Mac 2008 -- version 12.1.3 – which introduced a bug that impacted the ability to send meeting invites via Entourage.
Well, the MacBU has resolved the issue in a little more than a week, with 12.1.4 fixing the Entourage Meeting Invite Issue.
"We’ve been working hard for the last week and a half to bring Entourage users today’s 12.1.4 update. It’s incredibly frustrating when we get through a release process and a new issue is introduced by an update. When we start to hear feedback and customer reports about issues with an update, I simply cringe because so much work goes into preventing that from happening. Unfortunately, the recent Office for Mac 2008 12.1.3 update introduced a bug that prevented some Entourage users from sending meeting invites to others. We’re sorry."
The MacBU has identified the root cause and has worked on an update to correct the issue as posted here. Version 12.1.4 should now be available and corrects this issue. The update will be available through the Office 2008 auto-update tool and on mactopia at http://www.microsoft.com/mac.
Thanks to Ash Savage and the Microsoft MacBU team for this update.
(Also posted here on the excellent Entourage MVP Blog.)
This is a good time to recommend that you have a backup of a known good version of Office 2008. as noted in this posting: Revert to a previous version after a bad update.
Tags: Apple, Microsoft, Vista, Windows, Entourage, Customer Service.
http://tinyurl.com/67bx47
Happy November.
As I tweeted this week, daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of North America. And leave it to Dr. Nancy Snyderman to tell us that the time changes brought on by daylight saving time may not be good for your health.
For devs staying up late to code, consider that you should likely sleep in if you stay up late for a night of coding. ;)
Dr. Nancy referred in her spot on the Today show (clip above) to a study published on Wednesday suggests that the risk of heart attack my be linked to disturbances in sleep patterns and the time changes that come with daylight saving time. Salynn Boyles of WebMD Health News reports in an article that daylight saving time may affect your heart, according to the research on heart attack sufferers in Sweden.
![j0438743[1]](http://blogs.msdn.com/blogfiles/mthree/WindowsLiveWriter/dsthealth110108_8E0C/j0438743%5B1%5D_thumb.jpg "j0438743[1]")
The research found that the risk of a heart attack rises in the first few days after the "Spring Forward" associated with daylight saving time, likely due to a loss of sleep. And inversely, the risk goes down in the fall after the end of DST and people select to get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning.
As noted in the article, co-author of the study Dr. Rickard Ljung said that the report results "suggest that even small disturbances in sleep patterns may affect the heart."
"We know that Monday is the most dangerous day for heart attacks," he tells WebMD. "It has been thought that this is due to the stress associated with returning to work after the weekend, but our study suggests that disturbed sleep rhythms may be involved, and that the extra hour of sleep we get in the fall [after daylight saving time ends] may be protective."
So next spring, when you have to set your clocks forward, choose to sleep in and then delay your start on Monday as well. As I recall from my past international travels, it takes a day for every time zone you cross for your body to adjust to the local time.
Whatever you do, remember that "time is a precious thing. Never waste it."
I wonder if similarly, heart attack rates remain the same in the areas not affected by these DST changes, places such as Arizona and Hawaii, or Saskatchewan and parts of northern British Columbia. Or perhaps if they're following the gyrations of the stock market or doing business with folks in affected time zones, they have to get up an hour earlier and face the same risk.
As always, to ensure that your computers are up to date, visit http://www.microsoft.com/time for more details.
Tags: Microsoft, health, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, 4,880,000 (up from 4.3M a month ago); 1,940,000 (up from 900K a year ago, down 200K since last month)
http://tinyurl.com/6yj6l8
As I tweeted tonight on Twitter and noted earlier this week, daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of North America.
As we've noted online, in the United States the Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced changes to the start and end dates of DST, which began in 2007. (Another benefit of the current administration.) Now, DST in North America is observed across most of the United States as well as Canada from the second Sunday in March through to the first Sunday in November.
In 2008, DST ends later than in years prior to 2007, at 2:00AM local time on Sunday, November 2. This results in a new DST period that is approximately three to four weeks longer than in previous years. It also means that you'll get an extra hour of daylight to trick or treat, or for my friends in Canada, Halloween Apples.
For the most part, that means many of you in the States and Canada will get an extra hour of sleep. Or an extra hour to club and dance, late night sushi at Hidekazu Tojo's, watch the last weekend of political skits on SNL live, play Halo 3 on Xbox Live or, like many of us old, married guys on Facebook, just sleep.
Whatever you do, remember that "time is a precious thing. Never waste it."
That is, unless you live in Arizona and Hawaii, or Saskatchewan and parts of northern British Columbia. A few US territories don't observe DST either, including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the delightful US Virgin Islands: these areas stay on standard time throughout the year.
Visit http://www.microsoft.com/time for more details.
If you have a PC, ensure that you have applied the latest updates (more info at the link above). For Microsoft Smartphone or Pocket PC owners running Windows Mobile 5.0 or earlier versions, you should have already received the required update from your carrier or installed them earlier this Spring from our Windows Mobile site at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/daylightsaving/default.mspx.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, 4,880,000 (up from 4.3M a month ago); 1,940,000 (up from 900K a year ago, down 200K since last month)
http://tinyurl.com/69y6cr
As noted today on Twitter, a quick post before I head off to my next meeting.
An interesting post this week forwarded to me from technologizer.com on Windows7, from Harry McCracken, providing "a hands-on look at an upgrade that could turn out to be all the things that Vista never was"...
"... the Windows 7 I’ve been exposed to over the past 48 hours is surprisingly crisp and coherent:
- It aims for compatibility. As in, stuff that works with Vista will work with Windows 7, no updates or fixes required.
- It tries to stay out of your way. [it] is full of features that let you tell the OS not to bother you with notifications and warnings.
- It wants to make it easier to manage stuff–applications, documents, and more. ... Windows 7 looks like it’ll do a nice job of letting you juggle apps and data more efficiently.
- It’s connected. As in, it has a ton of networking-related features–it’s the first version of Windows that seems designed with the assumption that it’s for PCs that live on a network.
- It’s surprisingly original. It ain’t just Steve Jobs that has contended that Windows Vista was a warmed-over knockoff of OS X 10.4 Tiger. Windows 7, however, is its own OS–you may end up loving it or hating it, but its new features have little in common with OS X 10.5 Leopard.
"Will the legions of Windows XP users who continue to spurn Vista find Windows 7 to be the upgrade they were waiting for? The version I’ve been using is too incomplete to let me come to any definitive conclusion. But if the new OS lives up to its considerable promise, it could be a meaningful step towards restoring Windows’ reputation. It’s not earthshaking and includes no landmark features–but it looks like it could make using a PC meaningfully more pleasant."
Also of interest: Highlights from the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008 are available here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/pdc/default.mspx
Tags: Microsoft, blogs, Windows 7, Windows Vista, PDC 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/6j9l6x
You can now knock a couple of blogs off your reading list.
No, they weren't tossed – nor did the blogger go on permanent holiday as some are wont to do – but a couple of our Windows blogs were merged into the new Windows Team blog, with (as Brandon says)…
"… sporting an all-new look and feel reflecting Windows in a broader sense instead of a single Windows release. We figured it was time to give our blog a good facelift (it’s looked the same since we originally launched in October of 2006) – especially as we start talking about Windows 7, Windows Live, and many other interesting Windows topics. Our old design focused strictly on Windows Vista. Our new design is no longer tied to a specific Windows release allowing us to talk about a wider range of topics."
We've had two blogs hosted together on the same site, the Windows Vista Team Blog and Windows Experience Blog. Now it's all just one big happy blog family on The Windows Blog.
You'll find the above two blogs as well as a new third as of today: the Windows 7 Team Blog. You can sign up for RSS feeds for the individual blogs or just get the main The Windows Blog RSS feed, all from the following links.
· Windows Vista Team Blog | RSS Feed
· Windows 7 Team Blog | RSS Feed
· Windows Experience Blog | RSS Feed
· Front Page | Main RSS Feed
And a quick quote from Margaret Getchell: Be everywhere, do everything, and never fail to astonish the customer.
Tags: Microsoft, blogs, Windows 7, Windows Vista, PDC 2008.
In this video from CNET's Ina Fried and Kara Tsuboi, you'll learn "why consumers can expect more "dessert" and fewer "vegetables" from the new operating system, and talks about the reasoning behind the number 7 in the name."
Dessert? Vegetables?
I can always count on CNET to explain things so simply that even my kids can understand it. ; )
BTW, the boys use Windows Vista SP1 at home.
Here's the link to CNET's PDC 2008 coverage:
Tags: Microsoft, performance, Windows 7, Windows Vista, PDC 2008.
Hopefully you survived the end of European Summer Time and Moscow Daylight Time on Sunday (as I posted this weekend).
Keep in mind that daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of the United States and Canada. The difference in the changes between Europe and North America could cause some confusion... so watch your cross-Atlantic and Pacific meeting times this week.
As we've noted online, in the United States, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 introduced changes to the start and end dates of DST, which began in 2007. Now, DST in North America is observed across most of the United States as well as Canada from the second Sunday in March through to the first Sunday in November. In 2008, DST ends later than in years prior to 2007, at 2:00AM local time on November 2 in 2008. This results in a new DST period that is approximately three to four weeks longer than in previous years.
Do you have to apply any updates to your computer?
It's likely that there is nothing more to do: as noted in this article, Microsoft strongly recommends that DST and time zone updates be installed on all affected systems, devices and applications to ensure consistency with current DST rules and time zone settings worldwide. Customers should review the product updates available and posted on this site and at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_prodlist for the latest and updated information of Microsoft products affected by daylight saving time.
Keep in mind that updating clocks around the house and office will be a bit more manual.
Microsoft product updates and release schedule for daylight saving time and time zone changes: Most Windows-based applications (and some services) reference the underlying operating system for daylight saving time and time zone information. However, some applications and services do not. Microsoft Windows has established an annual update schedule for daylight saving time and time zone as outlined here. Many of our product teams also follow a similar annual product update cadence, with provisions for semi-annual cumulative updates as needed. For each update release, the window closes for additional updates a few months (generally four to six) prior to the release date. The regular Windows release provides a regular schedule for other product groups to follow.
Following the Windows regular cadence for publishing newly legislated daylight saving time rules and time zone updates, our "Cumulative DST and Time Zone Updates" are scheduled for release each November - December (to the Download Centre and to Windows Update respectively) for the coming calendar year. When needed, Microsoft product groups may also provide a semi-annual update in the August - September timeframe. The product group will also publish the new or modified time zone information (TZI) keys in an update to Microsoft KB article 914387 for IT professionals and systems administrators who may need that information. We hope that this provides a more predictable way for our customers to anticipate and plan for our scheduled product updates as they are published.
For more information, visit Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center at http://www.microsoft.com/time.
Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, 4,880,000 (up from 4.3M a month ago); 1,940,000 (up from 900K a year ago, down 200K since last month)
http://tinyurl.com/58zh4p
In addition to the end of Central European Summer Time this weekend... the Russian News and Information Agency, Novosti, announced this weekend (October 25) that daylight saving time ends in Russia this Sunday "when the country will put clocks back one hour, giving people extra hour in bed."
Nice to know that Novosti advocates sleeping in. ; )
"At 3:00 a.m. local time on Sunday clocks will be changed to 2:00 a.m. The changeover will begin with Russia's easternmost territory of Chukotka and move westward through eleven time zones to the enclave region of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. Most of Europe will also change their clocks, although North America will wait another week."
"Most computers will automatically adjust to the time change, but clocks and household appliances that show the time will have to be adjusted manually."
Yes, and current versions of the Windows operating system should not require any change, as the DST and time zone settings for Russia are unchanged in 2008 from previous years. Much of Russia follows Moscow Daylight Time (UTC +4:00h) when Russians start to observe daylight saving time on the last Sunday of March, and then follow Moscow Standard Time (UTC +3:00h) when they end DST on the last Sunday of October. These changes are the same as the dates for the start and end of European Summer Time.
Although it's been reported that there was some discussion in Russia of discontinuing their observation of DST, no changes by the government have been decided as noted in my previous post. From what I have been told, this has been discussed by the Russian parliament many times over the past several years, but no changes have been made.
For more general information from Microsoft Russia, check out the search results on microsoft.com.
[Added 102708] Remember: daylight saving time ends this weekend in much of the United States and Canada. The difference in the changes between Europe and North America could cause some confusion... so watch your cross-Atlantic and Pacific meeting times.
Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, Russia; 4,880,000 (up from 4.3M a month ago); 1,940,000 (up from 900K a year ago, down 200K since last month)
http://tinyurl.com/5pnv8h
Here's a blast from the past (December 2006): What do candy, Microsoft products and Congress have in common? You can read more about this in the latest news on the subject. If you thought tracking the machinations of various daylight saving time and time zone changes around the world was tough, Paul Tennant of the Eagle-Tribune reports that in Haverhill (MA), trick-or-treating is Saturday night this (and every) year rather than on Friday, October 31.
"While Halloween is always Oct. 31, in Haverhill trick-or-treating is always the fourth Saturday of October. This year it will be Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. City Human Services Director Vincent Ouellette said that the earlier time for trick-or-treating was established several years ago by the mayor and City Council for safety reasons.
"There is a lot less traffic on a Saturday night," said Ouellette, who supervises the Recreation Department. Also because it is still daylight saving time, having trick-or-treating between 5 and 7 Saturday gives people an extra hour of daylight, he said."
I revisited another previous post on Halloween activities and found a post just in time for Halloween: how the Anatomy of a Lego Minifig is quite spooky…
"After killing and dissecting an endless amount of Lego minifigs, artist/designer/mad doctor Jason Freeny has created the definitive anatomy map of the iconic figure, showing all the details and naughty bigs that we weren't able to catch in our exclusive tour to Lego Minifig factory in Denmark. Jason has plenty of experience on cutting apart other species too, like gummy bears and balloon animals…"
And a bit of Halloween-inspired humour from YouTube - The Dark Knight Trailer Recut - Toy Story 2. It really must be seen to be fully appreciated.
And last for this scary holiday, a real fear fest with a humourous bite: The Financial Crisis, as Explained to My Fourteen-Year-Old Sister — The Bygone Bureau. "You’re 14 and have no source of income. What would convince me to lend you money if I’m not sure you can pay it back?"
Surely my boys have read this post and are preparing to leverage their extensive collection of Pokémon and other "valuable" trading cards to help finance their next major investment, likely a heavily leveraged credit default swap fund or collateralized debt obligations.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
CNET reported how Mac buyers may face an "Apple tax" (October 13, 2008). Ina Fried posted that "Apple may offer lower-priced machines on Tuesday, but one top Microsoft official said Monday that Mac buyers will still be paying an "Apple tax" following her interview with Brad Brooks, the vice president of the Windows Consumer Product Marketing team.
TechBlog: Updated: Want proof that Microsoft is feeling threatened by Apple?: October 13, 2008 -- "Updated: Want proof that Microsoft is feeling threatened by Apple? "In the past, when Apple has been on the eve of releasing new notebooks or desktops, Microsoft has let that event pass. Maybe the company would make a spokesperson available to react to the announcement, but that's about it."
Bill Gates' mysterious new company - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source -- Bill Gates' mysterious new company By Todd Bishop and Eric Engleman on Oct 22, 2008 at 11:38 AM – "The bgC3 logo.Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company -- complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark. Public documents describe the new Gates entity -- bgC3 LLC -- as a “think tank.” It’s housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer." Also see BGC3.com, not to be confused with "m3"
Windows 7: A Turning Point for Microsoft? - PC Magazine's Lance Ulanoff posts that "Microsoft reverses the years-long practice of building everything under the sun into its popular personal computer platform. The now officially named Windows 7 carries the heavy burden of Vista's disappointments. Consumers, business users, and pundits have foisted such high expectations on the currently in development OS's back, that it will be a miracle if the final result satisfies anyone. However, lost amid all the hand-wringing is Microsoft's startling decision to lighten Windows 7's load. "In a stunning reversal, Microsoft announced that future versions of Windows would no longer feature e-mail, contact management, calendar, photo management, and moviemaking in the initial install. Instead, Microsoft customers will be encouraged to download these apps from Windows Live online services."
Want to go back to school? Then you'll take interest in in how Yale's MBA dean will found Apple University – (October 22, 2008 1:50 PM as posted by Tom Krazit) "Joel Podolny will leave his position as dean of Yale's business school to join Apple in early 2009. Apple has hired the dean of Yale's School of Management to head up a new program called Apple University. It's not clear exactly what Joel Podolny will be working on at Apple..."
Selling Computers Without Performance Anxiety? – Rob Pegoraro posted (October 20, 2008) that "Something odd is happening in the personal-computer business: While a lot of manufacturers still lead off their ads with the usual blizzard of numbers -- processor speed, installed RAM, hard-drive capacity -- some new models come with sales pitches that largely ignore those traditional performance metrics."
"Apple's new MacBook and MacBook Pro may be the most public example of this -- the company's presentations for each model lead off with a loving description of the new manufacturing process used for each. "But Apple has prominent company in this marketing approach. Dell touts the compact size and environmental appeal of its Studio Hybrid desktop, not how fast it can crunch through an Excel spreadsheet. And this morning, HP announced two new desktops and a monitor, all designed to have a "reduced impact on the environment"; the clock speeds of these PCs' processors was saved for a footnote in the press release."
How Microsoft will compete with 'free' | Outside the Lines - CNET News' has a guest post from Jean-Louis Gassée, who I first met at Apple and nearly worked for at Be a few years later (I didn't pursue the job opening). Gassée cover how "Microsoft's future business model will borrow from both Apple and Google to compete with the free world of software." Gassée is a smart man, and this is a good read.
I also saw this past week how some new Apple ads tweaked Microsoft marketers (October 20, 2008 11:09 AM PDT, posted by Tom Krazit).
"Still, negative advertising, while effective in an election year, grows old. And it plays into the sorely outdated fanboy us vs. them mentality that the vast majority of consumers couldn't care less about; most people in America do not define themselves by the computer that they use, as hard as Apple and Microsoft are trying to make that happen."
"The new ads will get a chuckle out of most viewers, as the polished comedy team of Hodgman and Justin Long could teach Seinfeld and Gates a thing or two. But God forbid that Apple should ever stumble with the rollout of a new operating system; they've taught Microsoft just how to respond."
Annals of Culture: Late Bloomers: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker -- Malcolm Gladwell has an article in the New Yorker (October 20, 2008) and asks "Why do we equate genius with precocity?"
"Thanks to Sabrina for this link. "Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up with precocity—doing something truly creative, we’re inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth. Orson Welles made his masterpiece, “Citizen Kane,” at twenty-five. Herman Melville wrote a book a year through his late twenties, culminating, at age thirty-two, with “Moby-Dick.” Mozart wrote his breakthrough Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat-Major at the age of twenty-one. In some creative forms, like lyric poetry, the importance of precocity has hardened into an iron law."
If you are into the audio, Gladwell also offer Better Late: Online Only: The New Yorker Podcast – "This week in the magazine, Malcolm Gladwell asks why we equate genius with precocity. Here Gladwell talks about how artistic prodigies differ from late bloomers and the kinds of support over decades that some artists need to realize their gifts."
Home Server Hacks – always a great resource for Windows Home Server, along with WebGuide: Windows Home Server.
Microsoft fights legal ‘hijack’ of Windows Update – On October 15th, I read how "Microsoft Lawyers representing consumers in a suit over Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" marketing program recently proposed distributing the class-action notice via Windows Update — the same mechanism that the company ordinarily uses to automatically send out its security patches. In a new filing in U.S. District Court in Seattle (PDF, 15 pages) the company reacts strongly to the idea." No kidding.
Read Kara Swisher's article on how "Yahoo Shares Dropped on AOL Non-Deal: Here’s Why and What That Means" from AllThingsD
A must download: the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool – The Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT) is a free tool designed to help organizations like yours assess weaknesses in your current IT security environment, reveal a prioritized list of issues, and help provide specific guidance to minimize those risks. MSAT is an easy, cost-effective way to begin strengthening the security of your computing environment and your business. Begin the process by taking a snapshot of your current security state, and then use MSAT to continuously monitor your infrastructure’s ability to respond to security threats.
Vista Wow Starts Now … at Apple – John Paczkowski of AllThingsD reports that "Apple COO Tim Cook demonstrated a new MacBook running Windows and said this of the "dramatic increase in the Mac’s market share... was driven partially by "something we didn't do: Vista." "I think it's fair to say that Vista hasn't lived up to everything that Microsoft hoped it would,” Cook said. "And consequently, it's opened doors for a lot of people to consider switching to the Mac. And Apple has been the beneficiary of this."
Photoshop Contest: John McCain Gets Absolutely Humiliated by Technology, Photoshop
Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs
http://tinyurl.com/5ofroe
Generally the lack of posts in October is directly related to the (growing) amount of work on my plate at the office. It's been very busy, as we increase efforts in advance of PDC and WinHEC, and the efforts we have currently on track.
It was with interest that I read today in the Seattle Times an article from Times technology reporter Benjamin J. Romano, "With Windows 7, Microsoft faces a future full of challenges." Romano writes that "when the company divulges details of Windows 7, the successor to much-maligned Vista, it will do so against a backdrop of growing competition from Apple, a battered Windows brand and the global economic crisis."
"Microsoft has made big changes in how it builds Windows since releasing Vista, in part to avoid repeating past mistakes.
"Many executives involved with Vista have moved elsewhere within Microsoft or left the company. Those in charge now include Steven Sinofsky, who earned a reputation for keeping big projects on schedule as the head of development for Microsoft Office, and Jon DeVaan, who also leads a companywide effort to improve engineering."
I've seen several articles on how the Windows management team has (as Romano puts it "reduced the Windows bureaucracy and given front-line developers more responsibility."
Is that a bad thing, distributing responsibility to the people closest to the code?
Windows 7 has been pumped in the press as the "most secretive product ever." So, is it a bad thing that Microsoft management has "kept a tight lid on details about Windows 7"? Companies do that every day, a