Category: Microsoft

It’s a Chrome away from Chrome.. I’ve switched from Firefox on two platforms!

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 15, 2009

While I have given up Google Apps (no, it’s not because I fear the Google and it’s tight grip on my data – I’ll write a blog post about why I left Google Apps a bit later), Google still gets used an awful lot here at Drake Towers.  Google the Search Engine is the de facto here.  Then there’s Google Maps, Google Reader, Feedburner, Google Webmaster Tools,  Google Analytics, Google AdSense, YouTube, and so on.

I now use Google Public DNS on the Dell laptop at home and as a secondary DNS server for my MDaemon mail server.  And now I’ve converted to Google Chrome, Google’s efforts to produce a fast web browser designed for simplicity.  And it works exceptionally well on Windows.  And now OS X.  Despite Chrome being beta on my work Mac, I now use it as my primary browser despite a few kinks (the main one being the passwords are not saved if you’re browsing a site that uses an expired or self-signed certificate – I’ve filed the bug with the Chromium bug report system).

My dependence on Google will not end there either.  While I have no intention of running the Chrome OS on this PC (although if I had a netbook I would probably consider it), I am still very tempted by the T-Mobile G2 Touch which runs the Android 1.5 (at the time of writing) platform.  I’ll be carrying Google in my pocket too.

I’m a Mac AND a PC. Yet I’m not complacent.

Posted by Martyn Drake – December 2, 2009

Interesting article over at the Mail Online about the so-called Windows 7 “black screen of death”.  Even more interesting is the comments where the forever OS snobbery war continues.

People saying “Get a Mac”, or “My Mac has never seen a virus” are far too complacement for my liking.  In the six years of working in an industry where Macs are the dominant platform for creatives (followed behind by Linux – yaaboosucks to Microsoft!), I’ve seen Macs become infected by trojans – installed by users who have unwittingly given the trojan access to their system by giving it their admin user password (which is usually only required for major system operations, such as installing kernel extensions or amending system configs).  This has resulted in an compromised system – and this is because the users have usually downloaded something from a dodgy (warez, illegal torrent, etc.) web site and believed their Macs were invulnerable to viruses, etc.

The same can be said of some Windows users.  Despite the almost universal paranoia of Windows systems getting viruses, I’ve also seen some Windows think along the same lines of the smug Mac owners in that “I’m careful – I’ve never caught a virus before and therefore do not need anti-virus software”.  Subsequently their machines have been compromised and it’s re-install time.  NEVER think you will be affected because one day you’ll most likely be kicking yourself.

Regardless of whatever platform you use – it’s always worth having some form of anti-virus/anti-malware software installed (free or otherwise) to ensure that you’ve got some warning about the new application you’ve just aquired will do.  Never willingly grant strange applications access to your system and always verify their source first.

Mac users – I highly recommend Sophos Anti-Virus.  Despite a few wibbly moments which have since been ironed out, Sophos is one of the most trusted and respected security vendors for all the major OS platforms.  Certainly, I’ve been very impressed with their Windows products in the past when I’ve used them.  For Windows users, I do not hestiate to recommend ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus.

Another thing that bugs me are people who do not take care of their system backups.  It’s now so incredibly cheap to buy an external hard drive, CDs, DVDs or Blu-Ray rewritables to back up all of your sensitive data.  And add to this the numerous onlne backup services (my favourite being SquirrelSave – but then again I provide the majority of support for this as I work for Memset who own and run it!) and you’ve got no excuse for losing data.

Office 2010 now in public beta, but some things never change..

Posted by Martyn Drake – November 19, 2009

Microsoft have now released Office 2010 as a public beta.  So I decided to download it and give it a go.  The user interface has generally improved in Word, but Outlook 2010 is the one application I had great hopes for and, to be quite frank, am the most disapointed in.

The major issue I have had with Outlook since the last millennium has been that it always top posts.  That is to say, it produces an effect similar to this:

Dear Mr. Drake,

You are quite right, we will give you £25,000,000 to fund the Top Quoting Is Brilliant! Institute.

Yours lovingly,

Microsoft

– Original Message –

From: Mr. Top Posting Genius <topposting@microsoft.com>
To: Outlook Team at Microsoft <flurglemumblings@microsoft.com>
Subject: We’ve got to give this guy money!

See below!

– Forwarded Message –

From: Martyn Drake <contactme@drake.org.uk>
To: Microsoft <welovetoppostingandwillnotchangeitwhateveryousay@microsoft.com>
Subject: Money needed for important project!
Date: 19th November, 2009

Dear Microsoft,

Please can I have some money to fund an institute dedicated to annoying people by only ever allowing top posting in emails.  Bottom posting/trimming replies is a complete waste of time.  I mean, everybody has oodles of bandwidth and nobody has any time to sit and trim their email replies.  So it’s top posting all the way!

Kind regards,

Martyn Drake

Almost every other email client, including the more popular web mail systems (ESPECIALLY Gmail), allows for free choice.  Some even allow you to rewrap the quoted text so that it doesn’t turn out like a bunch of horrible mess when you come to reply to the reply.  The best you can do with Microsoft Outlook, even in 2010, is this:

From: Martyn Drake <contactme@drake.org.uk>
Date: 19th November, 2009

> Dear Microsoft,
> Wibble Wibble Wibble

Message body goes here.

Whereas what I WANT is this:

On 19th November, 2009,  Martyn Drake wrote:

> Wibble Wibble Wibble

Message body goes here.

Without using third party macros for Outlook 2007, and without disabling a whole bunch of stuff, and using signatures to hold templates for certain variables, can you do the type of quoting above.  It’s a hack job.

Microsoft could fix this, but despite feedback, they STILL choose not to do so.  WHEN, Microsoft, will Outlook get proper quality quoting?  I’ll bet we’ll never see it implemented.

Pride and Prejudice and Operating Systems

Posted by Martyn Drake – November 5, 2009

This will sound hypocritical of me, but I really dislike OS snobbery.  I've unsubscribed from the Greater London Linux Group (GLLUG)  a number of times due to the general bitchiness of some subscribers over their hatred for all things Microsoft, OS X, or any number of other operating systems that are not Linux.

I also hate to say this, but much of this snobbery seems to stem from Linux zealots.  I continually hear how crap Windows is and that Linux is so much better than every other operating system.  Similar things from the FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD camps too – although they tend to put their OSes above Linux.  As for the hard core Windows user, they bitch about Linux being unfriendly and complicated.  OS X users come into the fray and say their computers/OS is better than Windows, Linux and all other *ixes put together.

I have news for you.  No one operating system is any better than the other.  And it also all boils down to personal choice.  I've seen Windows, Linux and OS X systems compromised[*] (and I should note: none were any of mine!).  I've not been around FreeBSD, NetBSD or OpenBSD to say the same.  But certainly one cannot be smug about any operating system when it comes to security. 

In terms of usability, I've always found Linux desktops to be terribly inconsistent and fiddly – and not a little ugly.  But that's just my personal preference.  Windows has generally been a bit more consistent (although I am still getting used to some of the changes in Windows 7 where Microsoft have moved some regular options I used to the Control Panel), but it provides the biggest choice in terms of software and compatibility.  OS X has been the most consistent interface of all, and provides a very friendly and wonderful approach to user friendly computing.  But I'm not liking much the software availability and quality of some of the software that's available for the Mac.  Apple's own software products are, for the most part, wonderful, but there are still some issues that prevent me from loving Apple completely.

The reason I'm now rooting for the Windows/PC camp is that it suits my needs now.  I may well head back to Macs later down the road, but for now, the PC and Windows does what I want it to do.  I could even go to Linux as a desktop if the interface was right (Ubuntu comes very close to my ideal, but it still needs work).  In terms of hardware support, Linux has never had it so good.  And the same can be said about Windows.

I certainly grumble about OSes and hardware myself, but I *do* try to bear in mind about having an objective outlook on things rather than simply dismissing something simply because it comes from Apple, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, or whoever.  Each and every operating system has advantages and disadvantages over each other and I believe it is quite wrong to start slanging matches for the sake of doing so. 

[*] I'm seeing more people running obsolete versions of Fedora Core and even Red Hat Linux operating systems.  A few years ago I noticed a film distribution company running Red Hat 9 with telnet (not SSH!) and all available default services running (and all versions of those services were available for all to see) – and this was a server running the web site for a Terry Gilliam film.  I had to write to the systems team and advise them that this was putting their site (and reputation) in jeopardy.  Thankfully they then firewalled off the machine and fixed the problems.  The stupid thing is, this is still a common problem!

Windows 14

Posted by Martyn Drake – October 22, 2009

Have received our two copies of Windows 7 through Amazon today (via City Link rather than RM) having pre-ordered since the 15th July.  Will be installing my copy tonight, whereas we'll get around to Jennifer's laptop over the weekend.  Our house will eventually be rid of Vista, the operating system from heck.

I've been running Windows 7 since the Release Candidate, and just over a month with the RTM Windows 7 Enterprise trial, and I can honestly say that I've had no problems whatsoever.  Windows 7 has taken everything I've thrown at it and it's just worked.  It's much nippier and generally much more pleasant to use than both XP and Vista combined.

Let's hope Microsoft continue to uphold this quality of operating system.  I'd hate to see Windows 8 turn into Windows ME and Vista combined.

Why can’t Microsoft keep current pre-order Windows 7 pricing for the duration of the OS’s life?

Posted by Martyn Drake – July 17, 2009

As soon as Windows 7 came available for pre-order on the 15th July, Jennifer and I secured our copies.  We have now pre-ordered two FULL copies of Windows 7 Home Premium (E) for £65 through Amazon.co.uk – £32.50 per copy.  Okay, we used a free gift voucher from Be to claim more money off, but nonetheless it's still a bargain.

The demand for Windows 7 has been such that the pre-order price has now gone up to £80 for the Home Premium edition.  When Windows 7 is finally released, it'll go up again.  But why?  Why have Microsoft's operating systems always been so damn expensive (especially the Ultimate editions of Vista and 7)?  In comparison, Apple's OS X have been cheaper, have no activation restriction (with the one exception being OS X Server).  You're forking out a fortune even before you've added any useful applications other than the media players, gimmicky games, and web browser (and even then, Microsoft have taken that out of the European edition of Windows leaving the user to use another computer or magazine cover disc to install one – they didn't have to do this, but Microsoft seem to be sticking fingers up at the EC commission at the expense of their customers).

If I had my way, Windows 7 would be completely free for existing users of Vista who have had to endure a very long time for an operating system which now promises to live up to being a good one.