Technical Tidbits™

Archive for the ‘Microsoft’ Category

Warning: The language in this post may be offensive to Microsoft and it’s supporters.

Recently, on both The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert, I heard mention of the cost of the Recovery.gov website. According to these comedic – and often satirical – show hosts, the cost of the website was, $18 Million.

Well, I now totally understand not only the cost but the errors on the site. This quote from a recent Information Week article explains it all!

Earlier this year, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon began offering to host public data on their cloud services, and the competition will likely only heat up. Microsoft has touted the fact that SharePoint is the front-end platform for stimulus-tracking Website Recovery.gov, and clearly has a few other ideas up its sleeves.

via Microsoft Taps Into Open Government Market — Cloud Computing — InformationWeek.

Do you get the same picture I’m getting?

So, maybe Microsoft isn’t getting the full $18 million for the district creating website that’s supposedly tracking our stimulus money, but I have a few concerns about the site now that I know Microsoft is behind it.

But first, I want to know what web design company got this contract and what happened to small business in the government procurement process? But I digress.

Oh, never mind! I just looked at the “View Source” of one of the web pages on recovery.gov and saw this:

meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft SharePoint"
meta name="progid" content="SharePoint.WebPartPage.Document"

Microsoft obviously did get paid most of that $18 million! But again, I digress.

We all already know that we can’t trust Microsoft for security, nor accuracy. And that’s based on their software – not the recovery.gov website.

But now, we have them touting their crap to the government. How secure do you think your information is going to be now?

And now, we have Microsoft with both hands in our pockets. Suckering us to into buying their new Operating System and other products, and then using a reach around the back to grab our tax dollars by courting the government.

But as they say in the infomercials, “But wait! There’s more!”

On December 10, CNN Money announced that Microsoft plans to acquire health information-technology company Sentillion Inc.  According to the article:

Massachusetts-based Sentillion provides identity and data access management services to more than 500,000 caregivers across North America and Europe.

This is all part of Microsoft’s Health Care Solutions strategy. And if you don’t think that’s a scary proposition, look at what they have line up here: Microsoft Health Care Solutions.

Now, if you’ve ever applied for Health Insurance, you may or may not know that when you sign the papers for a policy, you give the health insurance company permission to input all your data on that form into a global health insurance industry database.  (That could explain why you suddenly start getting junk snail mail from health insurance providers once you investigate a policy!)

So, now your intimate health details are part of a global industry database. And if you have heath insurance currently, your data is already there!

How do you feel about Microsoft having access to that information?

Can you imagine the amount of money they can make from selling just the names and addresses to their partners? Which we all know they are famous for anyway! (READ YOUR EULA IF YOU’RE IN DOUBT!)

I won’t even get started with Government control or mandatory heath care either! That’s a whole other blog post.

And if the way the errors on the recovery.gov website are any hint to what we’re in for, imagine how erroneous information will affect your health care! I can hear it now…. “Oh, we’re sorry! The database said your husband had cancer. Don’t worry. The Chemo will wear off and he’ll get his hair and immune system back in time. Now what were we supposed to be treating him for?”

Suffice it to say that with the government in bed with companies like Microsoft and Google – whether health care or websites, we taxpayers are literally screwed.

There’s no amount of KY Jelly® that’s going to keep this from hurting.

And in case you don’t happen to enjoy The Colbert Report and haven’t heard the news about the governments recovery website, for your enlightenment:

The Colbert Report	Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a Made-Up District – Connecticut’s 42nd
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

I am asked time and again by students and folks on twitter about what I think about Windows 7. I will restate my position one more time for you,

Windows 7 is nothing more than a regurgitate version of Vista.  ~ Debbie Mahler

I have had other twitter followers agree with me, while a few others – very few I might add – have said that they like it.

The folks that apparently like it have a few things in common. They have high end, fast computers, or newer computers that had Windows 7 pre-installed. Many of them are also Microsoft groupies who believe everything that Microsoft makes is a gift from the tech gods, or who make the majority of the income from their work with Microsoft products.

While still others learned on Vista and liked Vista so they are elated with Windows 7.

CNN Money published a recent report (December 9, 2009) about how the complaints are starting to roll in with Windows 7. I’ve heard nearly all of these and to be quite fair to Microsoft – I can be fair and balanced too – the list with this roll out is NOT as bad as what it was with Vista.

But, if Windows 7 is nothing more than a regurgitated version of Vista, shouldn’t it roll out better? If not, Microsoft learned absolutely nothing!

Here’s what I find totally unacceptable according to the article (full article link below):

One common gripe, experienced by 9% of installers, is that the half-hour to an hour-long upgrade process gets to the “62% completed” point and then freezes. It’s a problem that Microsoft is aware of, and can be fixed by rebooting the computer, going into advanced settings, and typing in a code that instructs the computer to ignore plug-ins.

A half-hour to an hour to download the freaking thing? Are their servers using dial-up? But the freezing computer? Anyone who uses Microsoft products is used to that – no big deal.

Aside from that point, and the other reported Windows 7 reboot loop I talked about, there are a few other glitches in the upgrade that include odd things like:

….complaints was that basic “applet” programs, like Mail, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery, were missing. That’s because Windows 7 deletes those programs and makes users download them from the Windows Live Essential Web site. IYogi said 26% of their customers were confused about that extra step.

Others had problems getting their computers to work properly: Eight percent said their DVD drives couldn’t be found and 2% couldn’t sync their iPhones with Windows 7.

One in seven users also complained that the sleek new “Aero” theme doesn’t work. The Aero theme enables users to see through a window to view the desktop or other programs that are open behind it. According to iYogi, most of the 14% of users that have problems with Aero don’t have the graphics capabilities on their PCs to handle the program.

But here’s my biggest problem with Windows 7 aside from these installation issues and aside from the fact that it’s made by Microsoft,

According to Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group, one of the biggest annoyances with the new operating system is that the “ribbon menus” at the top of programs have been redesigned and must be relearned. In previous Windows versions, the menus remained very consistent (File, Edit, View, Insert, etc.), but in Windows 7, they can be wildly different from application to application.

Says one user quoted in the article,

“It took me a long while to figure out how to print,” said Kerravala. “Microsoft tried to improve the user interface, but there’s a learning curve because it’s inconsistent.”

Once again, Microsoft reinvents the wheel and we all have to learn how to drive again.  They’ve done this consistently with newer versions of Microsoft Office and nearly every other program they manufacture.

So, why do you suppose that is? Why do they keep forcing us to relearn new software? Hmmmm, could it be the money? And this time it’s not Microsoft making the money.

Sure, they stand to benefit from the sales of Windows 7, but there’s more at stake here than meets the eye.

Perhaps you heard the story about how the radio patent was given away to manufacturers by the battery company that invented it so that it would have a product being produced that would require a constant supply of batteries? If not, read the story of Rayovac.

Well, look at what Microsoft offers the industry. They create a new operating system that requires you to upgrade your computer. Microsoft increases PC sales! Why wouldn’t PC manufacturers support it?

Apps, software, drivers, devices, and a whole slew of items have to be recreated or modified for the new operating system. Microsoft created a new revenue stream for software manufacturers, app developers, and hardware companies.

Partners and Value-added Resellers (VARs) gain from reselling the OS or subsequent upgraded software.

Places like colleges and universities, as well as companies that offer onsite or online training gain new courses teaching people how to use the new software. And I’m sure Video Professor is ready with his newest Windows 7 CD!

When you put the money in perspective, it’s easy to see why so many people and companies are pushing the new Windows 7.  Microsoft is not the only company that will benefit from this new OS.  Shareholders in publicly held companies are rubbing their greedy little hands together and visions of dividends are dancing in their heads.

Will MICE be offering courses in Windows 7? Yes, unfortunately. There are too many people who will be forced into it on new computers that will need to learn. But, we are also preparing to teach you about your options. Ubuntu. But that’s another story for another time.

Read More: Windows 7 complaints rolling in – Dec. 9, 2009.

I am always stunned that many people don’t know that Bill Gates was once a teen hacker. But in the slide show presented by Baseline titled: 45 Fast Facts About Microsoft, the background info on Gates is listed on slide #1.

Maybe that’s why we should have never trusted him? 

And if you’ve never seen the police mug shot of the young Gates, slide #3 provides that also.

Slide #19 states:

In 2004, former Windows Guru Jim Allchin wrote, “We lost our way,” while developing what would eventually become Vista.

The next slide added:

Allchin also wrote: “I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.”

I hear that Allchin! I’m saving for a MAC but in the meantime, I’m moving to Linux!

Check out the entire slide show here: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Intelligence/45-Fast-Facts-About-Microsoft-461779/?kc=BLBLBEMNL11172009STR6