So What's Microsoft Windows Vista?

Windows Vista is Microsoft's latest operating system for PC's. It is replacing Windows XP, their current PC operating system. It will ship to large Enterprise customers on November 30, 2006 and to the general public January 30, 2007.

This is a big deal! A new operating system means lots of things. In the early stages of the rollout there will undoubtedly be compatibility issues and plenty of user frustration. However, these will pass and in the long run Windows Vista will bring a whole new wave of applications and technologies that will take advantage of the features built into the operating system.

My experience with Vista so far is that it is faster and has some really nice features. However, I have also struggled to find things that I was previously able to find with my eyes closed. Over the next couple of months I will be posting articles on what's new in Windows Vista as well as what's new in Office 2007, the latest Microsoft Office version that will ship at the same time as Vista. My plan is to publish at least one article on each per week. So stay tuned.

Big Week at Microsoft

Microsoft has officially released the latest versions of their flagship products to manufacturing this week. This means that all of the testing is done and the products are being pressed to CD/DVD's. They will be packed in really cool boxes and shipped to retailers to place on their shelves.

Windows Vista, the next version of Windows, and Office 2007, the next version of Office will be available for retail purchase on January 30, 2007. Large corporate customers will be able to purchase the software in early December.

We have been testing both products for about a year now. During that time the products have been improving regularly. I will post more information on each of the products here over the next couple of months. We will also provide demonstrations for our Clients after January 1, 2007. Stay tuned for more info on the demos here.

Both products are substantial upgrades that will provide our Clients with a more reliable, more robust desktop working environment. They both provide a very good return on investment and will allow for a stream of new technologies to be implemented.

Be sure to subscribe to this feed so you can learn how these products will help your organization continue to move forward with technology. Don't know how to subscribe to an RSS feed? Give me a call.

Windows Defender Now Live

Microsoft has released Windows Defender as a live product. It has been in beta testing for about 2 years. Windows Defender is Microsoft's free anti-spyware product. We have been using it all the way through the beat process. The program is stable and does a pretty good job.

We will be installing Windows Defender on all new workstations purchased from us effective immediately. For Clients that are under our Site Maintenance Program, we will install the program during our next maintenance visit. We will install the program on other Client workstations when we visit them.

More information and the download file can be found here.

Yahoo Email Issues

Over the past couple of days an issue has come up with email being sent to Yahoo.com or any of its hosted domains. (ie. sbcglobal.net, etc) The result of the problem is that users sending email to Yahoo or any of its sub domains may get a message indicating the message is being temporarily deferred. The message that is bounced back will contain something like the following;

Failed Recipient: username@yahoo.com.cn
Reason: Remote host said: 451 Message temporarily deferred - 4.16.50

The Remote Host is Yahoo. There is a long,technical, and stupid reason that this is occurring. I won't get in to all the details here. Unfortunately, there is very little that we or other ISPs can do to try to resolve the issue. Our hosting group has been trying to locate someone at Yahoo that they might be able to work with, with no luck. One thing that can be done is for Yahoo (or SBC) users that are not able to receive the emails that are being sent to them to complain to Yahoo (or SBC).

The issue has to do with the method Yahoo has chosen to try to block spam. While blocking spam is a necessary evil nowadays, the method they have chosen has gone way to far and in fact is broken. Our hosting group is trying several workarounds that are helping somewhat but none of them is a permanent solution.

I wanted to let our Clients know about this problem, the cause, and what we are trying to do about it. Unfortunately, in this case we must depend on Yahoo to resolve it at their side. Note that some email will in fact get through, but a large portion is failing. We will continue to attempt to resolve this issue with Yahoo. Our Clients can feel free to contact me with questions or for an update.

Windows Vista Licensing To Be Tougher

With Windows XP and Office XP Microsoft introduced software activation as a way to thwart software pirates. The idea is that after you install the software the activation software gathers some information from the machine it has been installed on and then contacts an activation server at Microsoft to record the information. If another installation of the software with the same key is attempted the activation server will block the installation. If the software is not activated it will cease to work properly. Microsoft says it needs to do this because piracy is so prevalent. Generally I don't have a problem with software activation as long as it works and as long as it is fast. That is not always the case.

Corporations that have volume license agreements with Microsoft were not subjected to software activation. That's all about to change. Windows Vista will require software activation for volume license customers. There will be several methods available, but the bottom line is that corporate customers will have to activate. In fact the activation engine that Microsoft has developed allows for other software vendors to use the Microsoft activation engine to enable activation of their software products using the engine.

Again, I generally do not have a problem with Microsoft protecting their products. However, the process must be fast, reliable, and maintain the privacy of the user. Not all corporations will agree with me on this and Microsoft may be in for some backlash.

Toshiba Battery Recall

Toshiba has issued a recall for about 170,000 batteries. 100, 000 of those are batteries that came in laptops sold within the United States. The recall covers laptops manufactured between March and May of 2006. This recall IS NOT related to the overheating and potential fire hazard battery recall announced by Dell. The recalled batteries simply do not hold a charge.

Further details and instructions can be found here.

Technology Is Changing Interaction With Doctors

We do a lot of work with VNAs. Over the last several years we have seen a steady stream of changes in this industry. Most nurses are carrying laptops, many take them right into the patients' homes. Because of these changes, VNAs are getting exposed to many technologies that they never would have thought of even a couple of years ago. Laptops, VPNs, PDAs, email, wireless, digital cameras, scanners, and Intranets are a few technologies that are almost second nature in this profession at this point. And the changes keep coming.

Up to this point the patient hasn't had much of an active role in pushing technology for their healthcare. That's begining to change and I believe the patient will be a major factor in the push for technology adoption in healthcare soon. This article highlights how some people are already pushing the edge.

The article points out many of the issues that will need to be resolved before there is a wide apoption. I predict that over the next 5 or so years this will be a major factor in the industry. As younger doctors, nurses and patients move into the system these technologies will simply become the norm. Everyone in this profession has to be prepared and ready.

Read This If You Have a Dell Laptop

Dell has announced a major recall of laptop batteries. Over 4 million batteries are being recalled due to what is being called a manufacturing defect. The problem is fairly serious as there are many reports of laptops that have literally caught on fire because of the battery problem. One of these reports includes the laptop catching on fire on a plane.

Dell has a special website located here that will tell you everything you need to know about the recall. If you own a Dell laptop you need to check this out....now!

Microsoft Releases 12 Security Updates

This month's Security Update bundle from Microsoft includes 12 updates, 9 of which it rates as critical. Details can be found here. One of these updates, MS06-040 is a very serious issue. Even our friends at The Department of Homeland Security are saying that this update should be installed as soon as possible. There are already rogue programs published to the Internet that are taking advantage of computers that have not applied the update.

Security Updates are released by Microsoft virtually every month. This month's updates are more critical then normal at this point. Update your computers!

Microsoft Getting Into Health Care Software?

Microsoft has purchased a health care software company named Azyxxi. The program was developed by a group of doctors involved with Medstar Health, a conglomerate of hospitals and other health care related companies in the Baltimore-Washington area. The purchase includes hiring 2 of the 3 doctors that designed the program and about 40 members of the development team.

The Azyxxi software retrieves and quickly displays patient information from many resources, including scanned images, EKGs, XRays, MRIs, etc. It is currently used in only a hand full of hospitals.

There is a lot of hype going around about how this purchase puts Microsoft in the applications business instead of the traditional infrastructure business like operating systems and databases that it currently associated with. I disagree. The Azyxxi software IS an infrastructure program. It simply ties data provided by other applications together. This will help the health care industry. One of the biggest issues in automating the health care industry is the incompatibility of data generated by a wide range of applications. I see Microsoft's interest in eliminating this barrier at a infrastructure level and not at a traditional application level.

If Microsoft can accomplish this goal it will not only greatly benefit health care in general but also keep the cash flowing in in the future. It will be interesting to watch.

Internet Explorer 7 Will Be a "Critical Update"

Microsoft will release Internet Explorer 7 later this year if all goes as planned. They have decided to distribute IE 7 via Windows Updates as a Critical Update. This means that if you have Windows Updates set to automatic you will have IE 7 installed automatically. Their reasoning is that there are so many security related fixes and enhancements in IE 7 that it fits into the Critical Update category.

Is this good or bad? Well, obviously being more secure is a very good thing. But, IE 7 is quite a bit different. Although I really like IE 7's features (Tabs and RSS are my favorites), it is visibly different. You will need to play around with the new design a bit to get used to it. For a lot of users change can be difficult. I suspect that everyone will be just fine, after some interesting words and faces. And yes, some web pages may not work correctly so be aware.

If you are a Microsoft Enterprise Client, Microsoft has a tool that will temporarily disable the download so you can do your testing. Of course you are already testing with the beta release aren't you? Remember, we do not suggest that you run any beta software on production workstations. Beta software can and will cause problems.

Is Zune the iPod Killer?

Microsoft confirmed this week that rumors of an iPod like device will be coming from them are true. Zune is the brand name for a family of media devices that they will introduce. The rumors are that the first pieces of the family will be available in October or November. The first hardware devices will include a hard disk based media player which will support wifi wireless.

This is the typical Microsoft path. Let someone else innovate, see if the market is there, see where things can be made better, introduce their own products, watch the innovators struggle. Although I'm not sure that Apple will be an easy target. The iPod is like the Mac, the users are extremely loyal and will not change platforms. The vendors that are vulnerable are the Creative Labs, iRivers, and other vendors that produce "me too" portable media players.

As with all of these technologies, the winner will be determined by who has the best products and services. And is the best at a little thing called customer support.

Here's some more info on Zune. Get ready for a laugh!

Don't Let A Software Vendor Compromise Your Security

I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks working with various software vendors both on site and remotely. These vendors were in various stages of trying to install software on several of our Clients networks. I have to say that it amazes me that the skill level of some of these technicians is terrible. And their understanding of network security is non-existent.

Most of these people probably know their software very well (I would hope). But many of them know nothing about the servers or networks they are trying to install on. This can be very serious for the stability of your network as well as the security level. Most of these vendors think nothing of asking for the administrative password or asking me to open up folders to "Everyone". Many have installed software that has caused network related issues. (Ooops, sorry!)

For our Clients, watch those software vendors! They may not be as smart as you or they think they are. They can compromise the security of your data and/or cause harm to your network. Don't give them free reign.

For you software vendors, security is not something you should be compromising. Make your software works correctly, and train your installers better. Getting your software up and running at all costs is simply not acceptable.

Verizon Pulling The Plug On In-Flight Phones

Verizon has decided to discontinue its in-flight phone service on commercial airlines. I can understand why. How many people have you ever seen use them? The cost was ridiculous! Actually they probably see the writing on the wall. In-flight cell phone usage is getting close to being approved and several airlines are testing WiFi Internet service which will allow not only browsing but VoIP service as well. By 2010 Verizon expects to have the phones removed on all the airlines.

In the meantime Carnival Cruise Lines is beginning to offer cell phone service on one of their ships. You can use any cell phone anywhere the ship goes. Very cool. But what will this do to my vacation? They expect to offer it on all their ships eventually.

Bill Gates Stepping Down At Microsoft

Bill Gates announced today that he will be stepping away from his full time position at Microsoft over the next two years. Ray Ozzie will be taking on the Chief Software architect duties. Gates will remain Chairman of the Board "for the foreseeable future".

I really hate to see this guy leave. I have been a fan of his over the years. I am always impressed with his communications skills. He is truly the brightest visionary in this business. But he is also 50 years old. He is the richest man in the world. I'm sure he has a few other things he would like to do.

His departure comes at a time when Microsoft is feeling pressure from companies like Google, Yahoo, and other web based companies that have developed new and innovative programs. Microsoft seems to be trying to catch up for the first time in a long time. But they have been there before and have always managed to pull it together. Even during this "tough" period they are able to net about a billion dollars a month. How can you not respect this guy?

You can find the Microsoft press release here.

Vista Beta 2 Woes

I've been using Windows Vista Beta 2 for a couple of days now. Overall I like what I see so far. Things are moved around a bit so it can be frustrating to try to do something that was a simple click or two before. That will pass as I become more familiar with the new Interface. Glass (the new Graphical User Interface) is very cool. Does it make me more productive? I doubt it.

It's not all roses though. I have had several hangs, I can't print properly to my computer and I'm generating a huge amount of traffic on my VPN. This can be very frustrating, and time consuming. However, this is part of what you bargain for when you beta test software.

I might mention that I am also beta testing Office 2007. When I was running Office 2007 in Windows XP, I saw very few if any issues. Now that I am running it in Windows Vista several problems have came up. Very interesting.

Windows Vista Beta 2

I installed the new Windows Vista Beta 2 over the weekend on my home computer. Vista is the next version of Windows that is expected to be released to the public in early 2007. The installation takes a long time! The beta is a 3.2G download which you must burn to a DVD in order to install. The installation went without a hitch, although I had to remove Windows Defender and Norton AntiVirus as they were not compatible with the installation. Windows Defender was reinstalled during the installation process. I will look for a compatible AntiVirus program today. The only other application that would not run so far was the Symantec enterprise VPN client. I will try reinstalling it after Vista is installed to see if that corrects the problem.

So far I like what I see. Screen handling in Vista is very nice. Windows and menus fade in and out nicely. Note that the video hardware requirements for Vista are not light. You must have good video in order to run Glass, the very cool video UI in Vista. The first few machines I put Vista on were not able to run Glass. Vista itself ran OK but without the nice video stuff.

The other thing that is very noticeable is the security in Vista. Almost everything I do for the first time requires that I approve the application. This is good but I wonder how the everyday user will feel about it.

I haven't had a lot of time to play around with the new stuff in Vista but as I do I will post my findings here. Remember that we do not suggest our Clients run any beta software on their production machines. Windows Vista is no ordinary beta. You will probably cause yourself some problems if you install it.

Microsoft is not always the bad guy

One of the nicest features of the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2007 is the ability to save files from any Office program to PDF format natively. I've been using this feature in the current beta version of Office 2007 and it works great. This is one of those things that a lot of our Clients have been asking for over the last couple of years. Last week Microsoft announced that it is removing this feature from Office 2007 due to a threatened lawsuit by Adobe, the owners of the PDF technologies.

Adobe has stated in the past that the PDF format is open. This means that anyone can utilize the standard to create PDF content. I guess that means anyone except Microsoft or anyone else that Adobe may feel threatened by. Microsoft has said that they will remove the feature but offer it as a free download. Adobe wants Microsoft to charge for the download, presumably to ride the coattails of the extremely popular Office product.

This doesn't speak well for Adobe. Going back on public statements is never a good thing. There are several free programs on the Internet that allow you to print to PDF. Why hasn't Adobe gone after them? Perhaps they will now.

I Like Internet Explorer 7

I've been using IE7 Beta 2 on a couple of my computers and so far I really like it. I have yet to run into a problem. IE7 Beta 1 had several issues some of which were rather serious.

I really like the tabbed browsing function. With it you can have several websites open at a time and jump between them simply by clicking on the proper tab. Very useful to me at the office. You can also save a tab group. This allows you to open a whole group of websites as one Favorite. Very nice!

I think my favorite thing in IE7 is printing. In the past when I printed webpages I would many times lose the right side of the page on the printed document. This made reading the document off-line very difficult if not impossible. In IE7 web pages are reformatted for printing and the whole page prints every time. This in itself is worth the upgrade if you do any printing of web pages.

I'm starting the play around with the RSS reader in IE7 but haven't used it enough to know how I like it yet. Overall IE7 seems like a worth while update. Remember that we do not suggest using any beta software on your critical office computers. Beta software can and does cause problems that can sometimes be serious.

Testing Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2

First, let me remind you that we do not suggest that our Clients install any beta software on their production computers. Betas always have problems and will most likely cause you grief. Let us geeks do the beta testing.

I had installed IE 7 beta 1 on one of my computers and had problems with several sites including Blogger, this blogging site. I waited a little while after beta 2 came out to download and try it. I finally did it earlier this week and so far no problems.

Some things I like in IE 7 are tabbed browsing and an RSS reader. Tabbed browsing allows you to open several websites or webpages at a time and tab between them. You can save sets of tabs for easy recall. This is very useful for me. I am just playing around with the RSS Reader so I'll have to let you know what I think later. Generally I use FeedDemon for RSS feeds, and I am very happy with it so I don't know if I will end up using the IE reader at all. But I will give it a shot.

Notes From Microsoft Seminar

I attended a Microsoft seminar in Branford yesterday. The seminar covered Windows Vista, the Windows XP replacement, and Office 2007, the next version of Microsoft Office. Both products are scheduled to ship in January 2007.

I really like what I see in Office 2007. The user interface is very intuitive. Several very good features have been added. Files are now saved in XML format which is an open standard and it seems to make them smaller in size as well. The newest version of SharePoint Services was also demoed. In combination with Office 2007, this will form an excellent document mangement and workflow product.

We will be setting up demonstrations of Windows Vista and Office 2007 later in the year to give our Clients a chance to see what's new. Stay tuned!

Vista Release Delayed - Again

Microsoft announced yesterday that the Windows XP replacement, Windows Vista will be delayed until January 2007. The previous release date was November 06. They say that they need a few extra weeks to make sure everything is just right. Large corporate customers should be able to get the software before the end of the year, however. The general public will need to wait until January.

I don't have a problem with the change in dates. Our Clients will not be jumping on the Vista bandwagon for 6 to 12 months after the release anyway. This is a new operating system, there WILL be problems that will need to be addressed.

We have been working with the beta releases of Vista and will of course install the live version as soon as it is released so that we can assist our Clients with making the migration. I will be posting Vista information here as soon as it is appropriate to do so.

Will You Use an Ultra Mobile PC?

There was a lot of hoopla a couple weeks ago about a new product that was going to be introduced by Microsoft. It was code named Origami and information started to show up a couple of days before it was officially released. The official name is now the Ultra Mobile PC and it is not actually a product that Microsoft sells. It is a new PC that is smaller than a laptop and larger than a PDA. It runs Windows XP Tablet PC version and can run all Windows XP applications unlike the PDA.

The device has no mechanical keyboard. Instead you can write on the screen or use an electronic keyboard that can appear on the screen. It has several methods of communications including WiFi and Bluetooth in addition to the standard 10/100 network adapter. Several manufactures are releasing these devices in about a month. They will weigh less than 3 lbs and will sell for between $600 and $1000.

I'm not sure how new this idea is. I have a Hand Held PC from several years back that is rather similar although it did not run a standard Windows operating system. I think that was a big draw back. Hardware has gotten much better and now that the UMPC devices run Windows XP, there might be some traction here. I think our Health Care Clients might just fall in love with this device for their Point of Care needs. I will be evaluating a unit as soon as they are available and will post my findings here. What do you think? Check out some information here and here and let me know.

Deja Vu ?

AT&T is bidding to buy Bell South for $67 Billion. They certainly have lots of billions floating around don't they?. They spent $41 Billion in 2004 to buy AT&T Wireless. (I know it's confusing, but in 2004 they were still Cingular and then SBC and now AT&T. Those marketing people are so smart!) And those financial people.... it is expected that the buyout will save $2 Billion a year, after layoffs of course! They cut around 7000 jobs after the AT&T Wireless buyout. And the ROI is what?

I wonder when the next telecommunications monopoly investigation will be triggered and exactly how much will that cost us. I am running short on my Billions!

RIM Gets The Message

RIM has settled a long running patent lawsuit filed against it by NTP. The lawsuit threaten to potentially shutdown the Blackberry email service that millions depend on. The $612.5 million dollar settlement insures that email junkies will still be able to get their fix on their Blackberries.

I believe this is just the beginning of troubles for Blackberry. Their monopoly on push email services is over. Microsoft has built push email services into their Exchange email servers. It is easy to install and setup and costs nothing more once you have purchased the Exchange Server. The Blackberry solution costs more and is much more difficult to setup. I setup a remote salesperson for one of our Clients yesterday to be able to receive his Exchange email on his cell phone. It took a total of 15 minutes.

I think RIM has won a battle but the war isn't over.

Never Happen!?

VoIP Watch: Clinton in Redmond..Is Ballmer Stepping Aside

Now here's one for you! This article rumors that Bill Clinton may be taking the President's position at Microsoft, replacing Steve Ballmer. Is it April 1st already?