I’ve got a huge backlog of unfinished blog posts (at least 300 at last count) so I’ve decided to create an entirely new one based on what this website told me to do.
8 things you probably didn’t know about Microsoft
Monday 01st March 2010
Tuesday 16th February 2010
Got an email from Microsoft this afternoon. Yes I am aware the release candidate for Windows 7 wasn’t the final version, and yes I’m aware it wasn’t supposed to be used after a cut off date, but this is ridiculous.
Sunday 14th February 2010
Hot off the heels (relatively speaking) of their ribbon interface-clad Office 2007 Microsoft’s Mac division has announced their next version of Office for Mac that will also include the ribbon interface. Problem is, both Microsoft and Apple already solved the problem of feature accessibility years ago with the tall toolbox and the ribbon is a giant step backwards, especially now with widescreens so prevalent.
Friday 04th December 2009
Damn straight Chanandler Bing, I didn’t want that page I wanted Google! Wonder if any data got Sidekicked?
To be fair Gmail was out again a few months ago too, so it’s just further proof that all this reliance on cloud computing whatnot is a problem.
Friday 20th November 2009
Dell’s profits are way down, and Microsoft makes a move that could scare beige box makers even more.
Thursday 19th November 2009
@Oliyoung on Twitter shared a link from the IE team’s blog about what they’re focusing on for IE9.
Tuesday 17th November 2009
Some disturbing news about the state of tertiary education in South Australia being reported by Suzanne Tindal on ZDNet Australia. Flinders University and TAFE SA (similar to a polytechnic for my Singaporean and Malaysian readers) have adopted Microsoft Exchange based Live@Edu for a three year contract. While on the surface the features actually sound cool, the potential ramifications of adopting this expensive system are scary.
Wednesday 21st October 2009
With Mozilla’s recent blocking of Microsoft’s vulnerable .NET plugin for Firefox on Windows I’ve mostly read positive comments from people on blogs, news sites, Twitter and so forth, but there are a few who it seems the move has rubbed the wrong way.
Tuesday 20th October 2009
Comment I just overheard someone make in class:
Don’t trust Microsoft with their Azure or anything else for backing up your cloud data. They’ll Sidekick it!
Sidekicking actually makes for a really a good verb! Perhaps it could be extended to refer to any cloud data loss that hasn’t been adequately backed up, or data lost on services people have developed an ill advised over-dependency on. Or false advertising and breach of contract regarding data integrity and security.
Sunday 16th August 2009
Given some of the software I have to run at university is Windows only and that I need to test sites in IE, I’ve been using Windows 2000 and later a copy of the release candidate of Windows 7 in a virtual machine. I’ve decided it’s probably in my best interests to purchase a licence for 7 once it becomes available.
As far as I can tell I don’t need, want or care about any of the so called premium features of Windows 7 so I want the most barebones one possible. Windows 7 Starter is out of the question because I just can’t bring myself to use an OS where you’re not even allowed to change your desktop background. Whatever the marketing people at Microsoft are smoking I advise them to get off it before it causes them all irreversible brain damage! I turn Aero off on machines I use so not having that doesn’t bother me.
Problem is the next one up is Windows 7 Home Basic which according to Wikipedia will only be available in so called "emerging markets", no doubt to help stop people from considering free software alternatives that do most of what they want to do without most of the vendor lock-in and high prices. I guess it makes sense.
Here’s what I was thinking. When I go back to Singapore for Christmas to see my dad and we head over to Bangkok I might be able to grab myself a copy there, though I assume there’s a clause in the EULA that states taking a copy of Home Basic outside an emerging market is illegal or some other dubious legal claim. Would I have to run that virtual machine through a Thai proxy server whenever I wanted to update it to trick it into thinking I was using it there? ;)
Once again Microsoft saves itself from a failed product (Vista) with a relatively decent product, then fails in the marketing and follow up. It’s a bummer, I really thought they had a compelling product here for the first time in a long time. I guess they still have time before the final release.
I wonder if they’ll have student pricing for Windows 7? I know they do for Vista. I’m assuming my legitimate retail Windows 2000 Professional licence won’t mean squat for an upgrade, and even if it did it would probably only apply to the Professional or Enterprise versions which are too expensive anyway. Might have to look into this.
