Tag: software

Visual Studio Orcas

Post ImageI haven’t been keeping up on my .NET news as much as I used to, so lots of the things that Scott Guthrie mentioned in his “First Look at Orcas” post were new to me. And now I’m all excited! Here are some of the things that stick out for me:

  • Orcas will indeed bring us version 3.5 of the .NET Framework. First time I have seen a reference to 3.5.
  • Rich HTML/CSS WYSIWYG designer. Ahhhhhh. I use this daily, so I welcome any changes. I am particularly looking forward to the split-view editing mode…I could never figure out why Visual Studio didn’t have it.
  • LINQ. By all accounts, LINQ looks intense. Scott posted a video a couple weeks ago that demonstrates how it works.
  • First beta this spring, and final release this year. Bring it on!

His post contains screenshots and a link to a slide deck he presented recently. Check it out!

Read: ScottGu’s Blog

Mini-Microsoft on Outlook 2007

Post ImageI have talked about Outlook 2007 a couple of times before, and in neither post was I singing Outlook’s praises. Nope, I love the interface tweaks, but Outlook 2007 is terribly slow. Almost so slow that it is unusable. I wonder if it would be any faster if I had 4 GB of RAM…probably not. Anyway, here’s what Mini-Microsoft had to say about Outlook 2007 recently:

I’ve learned to meditate while Outlook ruminates over ten incoming POP messages of 69K. Perhaps it takes a few seconds over each incoming message or RSS feed to contribute to solving a Grand Challenge. Or it and Desktop Search have to play 333 iterations of rock-paper-scissors everytime a change has to be written. I don’t know.

I have wondered the same thing. It has to be doing something when it’s not doing what I want it to, right? He continues:

For our customers’ sake, I hope that I’m the only one and that there is just something funky about my setup…

Sorry, no. Outlook 2007 sucks when it comes to performance, plain and simple. It can’t be your setup, because there’s thousands of threads on the Internet in which people are complaining. Please Mini, use your power to get someone to fix it!

Read: Mini-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

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:

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!

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!

Joel is wrong about Windows Vista's off switch

Post ImageNormally I agree with what Joel Spolsky has to say, but not today. His latest article, Choices = Headaches, smells like a lame attempt to bash Windows Vista just for the sake of it. He takes issue with the “fifteen” ways you can shutdown Windows Vista, though only nine of those apply to non-laptops. Here’s what he says:

I’m sure there’s a whole team of UI designers, programmers, and testers who worked very hard on the OFF button in Windows Vista, but seriously, is this the best you could come up with?

Joel apparently doesn’t think you can just press the power button – yet that’s exactly what I’d bet most people will end up doing. You can read all about the power button in this CNET News.com article which, by the way, was published over a year ago. Here’s a choice quote:

And with Vista, Microsoft plans to make it so that a PC seems more like all the other consumer electronics out there. Pressing the power button will give users the feeling they are either turning the machine on or turning it off.

So it really is as easy as Joel would like. And for crazy people out there like myself who want all the shutdown options, they are still there, tucked away neatly in a little menu.

I guess Joel’s main problem is having too much choice. Personally, I’m a fan of choice. The research I have come across is pretty divided on whether choice does more good or more harm. That said, Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail certainly makes more choice seem like the way to go. His newest catchphrase – the economics of abundance – conveys this idea really well too.

Note: I haven’t tried Windows Vista since the early betas, so I don’t know if the power button functionality has changed or not, but I haven’t come across anything to suggest that it has. Joel doesn’t say anything about it in his post either.

You can read more about this story here and here.

Read: Joel on Software

How could Zune's software suck so badly?

Post ImagePerhaps you’ve heard on the news recently that Microsoft’s new digital media player, the Zune, is hardly flying off the shelves. I guess that’s not too surprising given the early reviews the device has received. Now I know Microsoft is pretty good at hardware (Xbox, mice and keyboards, etc.) but they are still a software company. How is it then, that they could have screwed up the software side of the Zune so badly?

Now I haven’t seen or tested a Zune, so I can’t say I have had similar experiences. And granted, not all of the reviews are so negative (indeed there are quite a few positive ones), but still. A software company should have gotten the software part absolutely right, don’t you think?

Windows Vista RTM

Post ImageMicrosoft announced today that Windows Vista has been released to manufacturing. Everyone is thinking the same thing – finally! Here’s what Windows chief Jim Allchin had to say:

“It’s rock solid and we’re ready to ship. This is a good day,” Allchin said in a conference call. He said that Microsoft is releasing Vista in five languages. The French, Spanish and Japanese versions were actually signed off on before the English version, Allchin said.

Now that we have some concrete dates, let’s compare Vista to XP:

  • Windows XP was released 62 days after RTM. Windows Vista will be released 83 days after RTM.
  • When Vista is released, a total of 1923 days will have passed since the Windows XP release. A total of 4177 days will have passed since the release of Windows 95.

Sources: ActiveWin, Wikipedia

If you’re looking for some related Vista RTM coverage, here are a few good links:

I’m looking forward to giving Vista a whirl!

Read: CNET News.com

.NET Framework 3.0 Released

Post ImageLast night Microsoft launched the final release of the .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX). I ran the quick installer on two machines today, and the setup worked perfectly both times. Not even a restart required. If you’d like to check out the release notes before installing, they are available here.

Download the quick installer
Download the full x86 redistributable
Download the full x64 redistributable

This is a very important release for developers using Microsoft technologies, because it makes some key Windows Vista components available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Of course the developer tools aren’t quite ready for primetime, but they’ll get there.

Read: NetFX3