Tag: microsoft

MSN Messenger 7.5

Post ImageThere’s a new version of MSN Messenger out, with a bunch of cool features! This latest release, version 7.5, is part of the new strategy to release three versions a year. Here are some of the new features:

  • The UI has been updated again. The login screen now “matches” the rest of the program, showing your display picture, and a better view of your login options.
  • Voice Clips! Basically you can record short 15 second clips of audio that get sent to your contact and automatically played.
  • Apparently the audio has been drastically improved, though I haven’t tested it yet.
  • Patching! In the future, you’ll only have to download small patches to update the client, instead of a complete new program. Very cool!

Go ahead and download it now. There’s also a much more comprehensive list of features here.

I’m looking forward to testing out the new voice improvements. Microsoft has an enormous installed base for MSN Messenger, an installed base which seems to download new versions extremely fast, so they could create a viable Skype competitor almost over-night. Certainly MSN Messenger is a better VOIP platform than Google Talk, at least in terms of the user experience.

Read: MSN Messenger

Happy Birthday Windows 95

Post ImageToday is a special day in the world of technology. It was ten years ago today that Microsoft released Windows 95 to the world, and what a launch it was, as Joe Wilcox remembers:

Windows 95 was an event. People lined up for blocks outside computer stores (like Egghead) at midnight to get their copy of Microsoft’s newest operating system. Rolling Stones’ song “Start Me Up” set the tone for the launch (Colleague David Card reminded that the band is on tour again. What timing!).

Funny that at the time, Bill Gates hadn’t yet issued his infamous “we get the Internet” memo. Many of the large companies we interact with on a daily basis were still in basements and garages in 1995, like eBay and Amazon. And who could have forseen the incredible path Microsoft and Windows would take following the release, sometimes bumpy, others smooth.

Some interesting things to note about Windows 95:

  • There were actually five different versions of Windows 95 released. One release added USB support, another added IE 4.0, for example.
  • The codename for Windows 95 was “Chicago”.
  • Windows 95 was billed as a 32-bit operating system, but portions of the code remained 16-bit.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Windows 95 is that it remains, essentially, the interface for computing today. Windows XP is far superior, but the look hasn’t really changed that much, nor the way you interact with the operating system. I mean, lots of things have been improved and simplified, but at the end of the day, you still click Start, switch applications on the task bar, look for files in Explorer, etc. Let’s hope Windows Vista makes some progress in those departments!

Read: Microsoft Monitor

Google Desktop 2

Post ImageLooks like Google isn’t slowing down their efforts to become a software company! Today the company released Google Desktop 2:

Google has rolled out a beta version of its desktop software, adding such features as “Sidebar,” which offers a personalized panel of information such as e-mail, stock quotes and news.

The software, unveiled on Monday, also includes a scratch pad style tool for taking notes and tools for searching one’s desktop and Microsoft Outlook inbox.

Looks pretty interesting, though I haven’t downloaded it yet. The sidebar is a very thought-provoking feature. Longhorn once included a sidebar, but it is no where to be found in Vista Beta 1. Perhaps the Google Desktop release will force Microsoft to rethink the sidebar feature?

Read: CNET News.com

Web Feeds or RSS?

Post ImageLots of discussion going on lately about whether or not Microsoft, and everyone else for that matter, should call RSS feeds “RSS” or “web feeds”. It all started with the first beta release of Internet Explorer 7, in which the term “web feeds” is used. Instead of delving into the complete history of this little debate, I’m going to instead point you to the excellent roundup by Ed Bott. Dave Winer, creator of the RSS standard, chimes in and says, “Don’t screw around with things you didn’t create and don’t understand.”

The debate is not much of a debate, in my opinion. There’s some really simple reasons that we should be calling them web feeds. When you ask your friend or co-worker about something on the Internet, do you talk about visiting an “HTML page” or a “web page”? Does your web browser (not “HTML page browser”) load up “HTML pages” or “web pages”? Clearly, you talk about web pages, and that’s what your browser loads. There are three very good reasons we use the term web pages:

  1. Saying “HTML page” is awkward. The masses like comfortable and simple, not awkward and complex.
  2. Calling a web page an “HTML page” is, technically, misleading. You’d be hard pressed to find any page on the Internet right now that consists of only HTML.
  3. Conceptually, a page that is only HTML, or combines HTML and JavaScript, or combines HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, etc., are all the same thing. When you load a web page, you don’t think about the technology behind it.

For the very same reasons, we should be using web feeds, not RSS feeds. The term “web feed” is comfortable and simple. It doesn’t exclude RDF, or Atom, or RSS with extensions, and so it isn’t technically misleading. And finally, a web feed is a web feed, regardless of the technology that powers it.

There’s other reasons “web feeds” is better than “RSS” too. For the technology to become as natural and invisible as web pages, it needs a simple name. And the technology is so very young – who’s to say that something newer won’t be created that does the same thing, but in a different or better way? Think Atom 1.0 here.

There’s really no reason to publish more than one web feed, and thus no reason to call them anything else. Certainly the applications which consume web feeds should support multiple technologies, like both RSS and Atom, but publishers shouldn’t really have to worry about what technology to use. They should, just as with web pages, pick the technology best suited to the task at hand. You don’t have separate browsers for HTML and HTML with CSS – same goes for web feeds.

If you’re reading this post on the web, you can no doubt see that I am pretty hypocritical. No where on my site will you find the term “web feed”, and I publish both RSS and Atom feeds. Well, my excuse is that until recently, I hadn’t given much thought to the terminology I used. Heck, I even use the orange “XML” icon for my “RSS” feeds (talk about confusing!). Now that I have given it some thought however, I’ll definitely be making some changes. Look for a web feed button soon!

World War 3.0

Post ImageEven though the Microsoft anti-trust trial finished quite a while ago, I just finished reading Ken Auletta’s book on the famous case, World War 3.0: Microsoft and its Enemies. As someone who followed the case quite closely (I’m a geek, what can I say?) I can honestly say the only new stuff in the book for me was the character sketches created by Auletta of all the major players.

When following the news and opinion articles, you tend to focus on the specifics of the case and the two parties, but not the individual people themselves. World War 3.0 does an excellent job of describing David Boies, or Bill Gates, or Judge Jackson as people, including some discussion on what they do outside of the courtroom. You end up with a better sense of everyone involved.

I did have to chuckle at the fact that no where in the book’s pages is Google mentioned. Auletta spends quite a bit of time talking about Microsoft’s main competitors, and the reader is left with a sense that after the trial is over, the battle will be Microsoft versus AOL Time Warner. As we know now, the company is just Time Warner again, and they aren’t Microsoft’s main concern. Probably not even a secondary concern. Linux is correctly identified as a competitive concern, though not much time is spent talking about how the operating system could affect Microsoft. Also interesting to see how successful Firefox has become – the book doesn’t even come close to predicting that another browser might challenge IE.

While definitely an interesting read, I felt that the book was rushed in the final stages. There was far more time spent on the beginning of the case than on what might happen on appeal and thereafter. I also felt that the commentary on competition and the technology specifically was rather weak. If you’re looking for a good description of the trial, this probably isn’t the right book for you, unless you really want a better idea of the people involved. You can read more about the case at Wikipedia.

Read: Wikipedia

Everything online? Not likely!

Post ImageIn a recent post, popular PR blogger Steve Rubel says:

It’s not to hard to picture a world without Microsoft one day if you believe these guys. ePlatform, now in beta, promises to deliver over the Internet virtually every application you need to effectively manage your life, all available on demand.

Sounds like a great concept, but it’ll never, ever fly. Why not? Let’s list the main reasons:

  • I very much doubt the majority of consumers would be willing to give control of their personal data to a third party. We’ve seen this time, and time again. Remember Hailstorm anyone?
  • Video games continue to grow, and you just can’t power Doom3 or Halo2 over the net. Even if we did get fast Internet access absolutely everywhere, there will always be an argument for rich clients. Games are just one example, video creation is another. It’s not feasible to edit your 20 GB of video using a program hosted on a server thousands of miles away.
  • How about taking content offline? That’s one of the main reasons I used NewsGator as my aggregator – I can take all the blogs I read offline on my tablet. As much as I want wireless everywhere, so that I’m always connected, we’re a long way from that goal.

There are lots of reasons both for and against so-called “thin clients”, but I think that the “rich client” world pitched by Microsoft is more likely to succeed, for the reasons I’ve noted above as well as many others. I’d guess that the closest we’d ever get to a thin client world would be if everyone had their own central server in their house or office. Actually, I guess that’s already happening with tools like the Xbox and Media Center PC. But a third party acting as the central repository and processing house?

Not likely.

As an aside, I think it’s interesting to note that the ePlatform application looks a LOT like Outlook 2003 and Outlook Web Access.

Read: Steve Rubel

A theory on Google and Microsoft

Post ImageI have a theory regarding Google and Microsoft. The two technology giants are often pitted against one another, and hey, you have to admit it’s fun to do. Will Google make inroads on the desktop? Will Microsoft win the battle for Internet search? And on, and on. Ignoring how silly it is to need to declare a winner, here’s my theory: Microsoft is going to win, and their technology won’t be the reason.

Consider for example this article in The Register:

“Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story,” noted reporter Elinor Mills here.

Google isn’t alone in amassing one of the world’s largest databases of personal information and behavior – as Yahoo! and Microsoft have too. But the retaliation against the news site is only likely to focus more attention to Google’s often contemptuous attitude to press and analyst scrutiny (on its first ever financial analyst day the company offered its chef, but not its CFO) and puts its privacy issues firmly in the spotlight.

I would argue that the best thing to happen to Microsoft in the last few years was the major anti-trust trial. Since that major public relations debacle, Microsoft has become much more friendly. They have become a kinder giant. The things Google is accused of doing in the above article sound like something the Microsoft of old might have done.

And therein lies the reason I think Microsoft is going to prevail. They’re still as cutthroat as ever, and yet they’ve learned to be come across as anything but. Google, on the other hand, needs to have its hubris checked, and I think Microsoft is just the company to do so. If Google doesn’t make some changes, Microsoft is going to clobber them in the eyes of the public, not to mention in the eyes of the media.

And if recent tools like MSN Search and Virtual Earth are any indication, Microsoft will nail Google on technology too.

Read: The Register

Scoble interviews Ballmer

Post ImageRobert Scoble has landed a huge interview for Channel9. Yesterday he sat down with Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, for a ten minute chat:

Q: You’re famous for the “developers, developers, developers” speech. Why are developers so important for Microsoft?

A: At the end of the day the innovation in the software business and the IT business comes because someone writes a great piece of code. Even in the hardware frankly most of the innovation comes because someone writes a great piece of code. An important piece of code. A great piece of code.

All the solutions, whether we create them ourselves, whether they are created by our partners, or our ISVs, it all starts with developers, developers, developers.

You can download the video here, or read the transcript here. Awesome Scoble!

Read: Channel9

Tablet PC Memory Leak Patched!

Post ImageFellow Tablet PC users (yes I realize that of my readers, that’s probably just you Dickson), we can finally rest easy! No more restarting! Microsoft has issued a patch for the memory leak that has plagued the operating system:

A memory leak in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 causes a gradual decrease in available system memory. This loss in available memory causes degradation in system performance. When this behavior occurs, the user must restart the computer. This problem is caused by a memory leak in the tcserver.exe service.

Get it while it’s hot!

Read: Microsoft Download

Halo 2 Map Expansion Released

Post ImageMicrosoft (or Bungie or whatever you want to call the team) has released five new maps for Halo 2:

Included in the pack are: Relic, Gemini, Elongation, Backwash (eww) and Terminal. The maps can be downloaded by all Xbox Live! users at a cost of $11.99 (or £5.99 for Brits). Or if you can wait until August 30th, you can get all five for free. Alternatively you can go to your local games retailer and pick up the $19.99 expansion pack which includes all nine new multiplayer maps, a special cinematic, behind-the-scenes documentary and all prior Halo 2 auto updates.

Sounds cool to me! The writer at Joystiq tried them all (oh such hard work blogging about games) and so far likes Relic the best. Considering I don’t think I have played all the existing maps, I am in no rush to get the new ones 🙂

Read: Joystiq