Tag: microsoft

Windows Vista Exploits Exposed!

Post ImageI was going to post something last week about the “fatal flaw” found in the speech recognition feature of Windows Vista, but I never got around to it. And now, thanks to Long Zheng’s brilliant post, there is simply no point. Here’s a snippet:

Last week, the media went schizophrenic over the Windows Vista speech recognition ‘loophole’ which allowed anyone with a microphone to have full access over your computer. Granted, you must also be partially-deaf, turned your speaker volume to full, carefully place your microphone next to the speakers, turn on speech recognition and train your speech profile as if you were someone else.

The rest of the post is quite funny, and discusses other possible exploits such as the mouse and keyboard, and Visual Studio. Definitely worth a read!

Read: Long Zheng

What Comes Next for Jim Allchin

Post ImageI just read Jim Allchin’s final post over at the Windows Vista blog, and I have to admit, it’s kind of sad. He has been in charge of Windows development at Microsoft for so long, I’m sure he won’t know what to do with himself now. I mean, it must be pretty hard to go from running the Windows team to just relaxing, right? Running the Windows team has to be one of the hardest jobs around. They are always behind, always getting dumped on by the press, always fighting the bad guys, etc.

Jim’s post conveys this very well, with a funny overview of what a “typical day” might look like now that he’s retired. I guess he knows it’ll be hard to transition. This one is my favorite entry:

9:30 AM: Spent 45 minutes looking around the house for the big refrigerator with the free soda just like Microsoft – was unable to find it.

When I visited the Microsoft campus a couple years ago that was easily one of the coolest things. Big refrigerators all over the place with all the Coke you could ever want. It was wonderful!

Anyway, here’s my “thanks Mr. Allchin”. My fellow Windows fans and I appreciate all that you’ve done. And hey, no need to stop blogging! Start a personal blog!

Read: Vista Team Blog

Windows Vista available today

Post ImageToday’s the day. Windows Vista is now available in stores, ready for you to purchase. I went to Best Buy today (for something else, not for Vista) and I have to say, the Vista display was sad. There were only a couple boxes on the shelf, and one demo computer. More people were buying the WoW expansion than Vista.

I guess that is to be expected though. Most people will get Vista when they buy a new computer. That has caused some people to wonder why Microsoft has spent so much on advertising for Windows Vista. I think it’s a tactical move.

Here are some of the more interesting things I have come across today related to the Vista launch:

Outlook 2007 HTML rendering is crippled

Post ImageThe more I learn about it, the more Outlook 2007 continues to suck. First it was problems with downloading POP email, and now David Greiner tells us that HTML rendering in Outlook 2007 uses the Word engine rather than Internet Explorer:

Imagine for a second that the new version of IE7 killed off the majority of CSS support and only allowed table based layouts. The web design world would be up in arms! Well, that’s exactly what the new version of Outlook does to email designers.

You can see a full list of what is and isn’t supported at MSDN.

David wonders why Microsoft has done this, and suggests security, consistent rendering, and “they hate us” as possible explanations. I suspect security is the main reason, but like David points out, IE7 is a big step foward in security! They should just require use of IE7’s rendering engine.

So what does this mean for the average user?

All it means is that a lot of HTML emails in Outlook will be garbled and difficult to read. Nothing more, nothing less.

That sucks, especially since IE7 is pretty darn good at CSS rendering. And to be clear, it doesn’t matter if you think the world should only use text-based email. HTML email is not going to go away, and if Outlook is going to render it, I’d rather it do so correctly.

Read: Campaign Monitor

Bill Gates at CES

Post ImageFor the tenth time, Bill Gates delivered the Sunday keynote at CES in Las Vegas. I watched it tonight using the live feed supplied by Microsoft. He said he’ll be back to keynote again next year, and said future years are up to the CES organizers as it’s likely he’ll talk “more about infectious diseases than software.” The theme of the keynote was “connected experiences”.

Here are some of my thoughts (for much, much more see Engadget):

  • The first demo was Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Windows Live. The full motion desktop feature in Vista is pretty cool. I think this was the first time anyone has seen “Ultimate Extras” from Windows Vista Ultimate too.
  • A new feature on Windows Live lets you fly through virtual maps using an Xbox 360 controller plugged into the computer – totally sweet!
  • As expected, Bill Gates announced Windows Home Server. Too bad they cut the feed due to “intellectual property” concerns. He did mention that the goal is simplicity, with features such as automated backup (it will find PCs on the network and back them up). The product will launch in the second half of this year.
  • Robbie Bach talked about entertainment. I love that they highlight Windows Games…I think their strategy here is brilliant (Windows + Xbox). Apparently they sold 10.4 million consoles, exceeding their target of 10 million.
  • Halo 3! Halo 3! That game is going to kick so much ass.
  • Apparently Xbox Live now has 5 million members…and it’s coming to Windows. The demo was kind of interesting – too bad they didn’t have a more hardcore game than Uno to use as the example.
  • They also demoed IPTV on Xbox 360….pretty sweet. Too bad it probably won’t be in Canada anytime soon.
  • The stuff coming from Ford and Microsoft sounds pretty neat, and Ford must be happy to have a one year exclusive deal.
  • The final stuff Bill showed, with the bus stop, the kitchen counter, and the bedroom, is wicked. Projecting screens, smart surfaces, etc. I keep telling Dickson and my other friends that it’s gonna happen. It’s only a matter of time.

Some cool stuff for sure!

Xbox 360 V2

Post ImageThink Microsoft has been resting on their laurels with the launches of the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3? Think again. According to Engadget they are working on a new version of the Xbox 360:

Ever wonder why Microsoft hasn’t released an HDMI cable for the Xbox 360, or whether the AV port was really capable of digital out? Well, here’s your answer: we landed pictures of what appears to be the second Xbox 360 — the Xbox 360 v2, if you will — codenamed Zephyr.

The new version apparently has a cooler 65nm processor, an HDMI port for 1080p, and a 120 GB hard drive. They might as well include an integrated HD-DVD player while they’re at it!

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little perturbed when I first read this, but I realize that I sealed my own fate by purchasing my 360 the day it was released. And I don’t regret it. It makes perfect sense to update components as they improve (and it becomes cost effective to do so). The HDMI port would be nice to have, but I’d need a TV capable of 1080p for it to really make a difference. And I doubt I’ll be getting one of those anytime soon.

Bottom line: Zephyr (if it turns out to be real) is a minor update. Games on Zephyr will be identical to games on today’s Xbox 360, and that’s all that really matters.

UPDATE: Engadget links to some pictures and a video of the HDMI port and HANA scaler.

Read: Engadget

Outlook 2007 = Painfully Slow

Post ImageI started running Office 2007 recently, and for the most part I really like it. The new ribbon interface is incredibly intuitive, and the “live” preview of changes is really handy. PowerPoint is the one that impresses me the most thus far – it’s simply amazing what you can do with the new version! You really have to try the new interface to see what I mean, words just don’t do it justice.

I also upgraded from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007. If I had to describe Outlook 2007 in one word, it would be slow. I like the interface tweaks, and the instant search is handy, but the application itself is almost unusable. Downloading POP3 email takes at least ten times as long as Outlook 2003 (it is significantly faster using Exchange). Displaying messages takes longer than it used to. Loading the program takes longer. Outlook 2007 is just painfully slow. It’s amazing that this kind of a problem made it past the betas and into the final release.

I’m not the only one who has noticed the problem either. There’s a huge thread here, and a simple search turned up these posts.

I haven’t decided what I am going to do yet, but I might have to go back to Outlook 2003 until they release a fix.

UPDATE (3/14/2007): If your Outlook 2007 is slow, try this tip to help speed it up. Worked for me!

Expression Studio and XAML bring markup to Windows

Post ImageOver the years I have designed my fair share of user interfaces. Sometimes they have been decent, other times they have sucked. I’ve taken a few courses on design and have picked up many tricks along the way. For the last few months I have been primarily working on web applications, though I have created a number of Windows applications in the past. The most important thing I have learned?

Markup is awesome.

You can’t appreciate this completely until you have designed both a website using something like ASP.NET and a Windows application using something like Windows Forms. The website job wins every time. That’s why the new Expression Studio from Microsoft is so important:

So, could Flash ever be “force fit” to be the UI of Windows? Not according to the engineers who’ve studied the problem.

They needed a system that could be used to design real pieces of Windows, if not the entire UI, and handed off to a developer, or team of developers, without having to have the developers touch the UI at all.

The rest of Scoble’s post is quite good – he explains exactly the problem that Expression and XAML attempt to solve. I’ve seen some demos of Expression Designer, and I came away truly impressed. Finally the ability to create Windows interfaces using markup. I can’t even describe how excited I am!

Markup has lots of advantages. It is XML-based, and therefore it’s human readable. Being XML-based also means we can validate, transform, and extend it. Markup is extremely easy to write and to parse. For interfaces, markup allows us to separate the interface from the underlying logic. There are a lot of reasons to like markup.

XAML brings the power of markup to Windows, and Expression Studio will make it easy to work with. Everything else (like cross-platform support, targeting Flash, etc.) is secondary.

For more on Expression Studio, check out the official press release, TechMeme, and the Expression website.

Read: Robert Scoble

Invention vs. Innovation

Post ImageToday Don Dodge posted about a Wall Street Journal article that asks whether Microsoft is driving innovation or playing catch-up with rivals. If I were to ask myself why I read Don’s blog, today’s post would be the answer. Don is careful not to fall into the “Microsoft copies everyone!” or “No they don’t they’re awesome!” traps, and instead gets right to the heart of the matter:

People tend to confuse invention with innovation, as the WSJ has here. They use the words interchangeably, but they are very different.

Invention is the creation of a technology that is totally new. Innovation takes a collection of prior inventions to the next level by combining them with existing products or technologies, and producing a commercially viable product that solves a customer problem.

Both invention and innovation are vitally important to our industry. Microsoft does both but rarely gets credit for it.

I have quoted quite liberally from his post, but I wanted to get all the main points. In the post he also explains how R&D are related to invention and innovation. Definitely go read the entire thing, it’s worth it.

Read: Don Dodge

Microsoft likes municipal wi-fi too

Post ImageBy now you’ve probably heard about the wifi network that Google built in San Francisco with partner Earthlink. Now Microsoft wants in on the game, and has partnered with MetroFi to blanket Portland in wireless Internet bliss. The deal is more than just a “me too” reaction:

Content providers who capture the growing municipal Wi-Fi market will be in a better position to enjoy higher traffic to their sites and greater customer loyaltyand, as a result, grab a greater share of online advertising dollars, expected to reach $16 billion in the U.S. this year, according to consultancy eMarketer. “It’s a battle for eyeballs,” says Matt Rosoff, an analyst with consultancy Directions on Microsoft.

I could care less what the battle is about, as long as they keep building these networks. I have to agree with John Battelle:

All I can say is, please, keep up the competition. I’d love a chance to select from three different Wifi carriers in every major city, each of them free/advertising based.

Entire cities covered in free wireless Internet access can only lead to goodness. Bring on wireless everywhere!

Read: BusinessWeek