Posts Tagged ‘Windows’

If you’ve never seen the Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs comics, they’re pretty funny! Here’s an example of one:

Anyway, after looking at a bunch of them for the past day or so, I decided to cook one up of my own based on the one thing I think about the most when I get into debates with Apple bigots (no, I’m not saying that all people who use Apple products are bigots; I’m just talking about the Apple fans who act high-and-mighty). If you don’t understand what I’m referencing in the comic, then take a few minutes to watch the video clip I’ve posted just beneath it. It will all make sense then. Anyway, here is my spin on the Bill Gates versus Steve Jobs comics:

And that’s it! If you’re interested in cooking up your own, I’ve provided a template below. The first comic that I posted at the top and the template below are courtesy of these guys.

Make Your Own Bill Gates Vs. Steve Jobs Comic: Download Here

-Stephen

While taking a look around the Web earlier today, I stumbled across some kiosk maker software that got me thinking on Windows 8 — specifically, if it made any sense for Microsoft to add something like this into Windows 8. Personally, I think there could be many applications for something like this in Windows, but I’m not sure this specific functionality would be worth the cost of Windows alone.

First and foremost, there are the scenarios where businesses turn computers into single-use workstations that serve very specific functions. For instance, if you go to a Verizon store and use one of their kiosks to put your name down on a list or browse for in-store products, etc. Or how about if you go into a Borders book store or something of that nature and they have the computers which allow you to browse a store-specific version of borders.com to find something you’re looking for in-store? Even still, how about the times you go to a store like Best Buy and use one of their machines to browse in-store products? The business kiosk scenario is one I think we can all associate with in terms of having seen and/or used them, but what are some other great scenarios for utilizing functionality like this?

Well, how about schools, libraries, and publicly-accessible government establishments? I can think of plenty of task-specific workstation uses for those types of facilities! Maybe a school, publicly-accessible government establishment, or otherwise would like to make specific types of records only accessible via a single computer whereby they could log all activity and not allow any other types of tasks to be performed on that computer. Where libraries are concerned, there’s always the need to be filled for looking up books, checking their availability, etc. And we all know libraries have computers which access the internet that are made available to the public, so there are plenty of uses for having something like this built into Windows 8 provided places like public libraries actually upgraded to something like Windows 8.

Naturally, the question then becomes affordability. If your only task is to turn a workstation into a kiosk, then maybe a piece of software would be your best bet. However, if you’re like me and you have a plethora of computers where you know you will upgrade them all to Windows 8 and you have that one desktop that sits out available for any and all to use (if you have parties, family get-togethers at your place, etc.), it just might be a nifty little tool to have available to you. Oh, and it can’t go without being mentioned that there’s always the concern of privacy, but whether you’re using a public computer that’s running some sort of proprietary kiosk maker software or a rendition of Windows (like Windows 8, of course) which provides built-in kiosk maker functionality, you should always be aware of your environment.

Anyway, I just thought this would be some nifty functionality added to Windows 8 and I can’t imagine it would be too difficult for Microsoft to implement. The number of people who need something like this is probably quite low on their customer demand list, so I won’t hold my breath.

-Stephen Chapman
http://msftkitchen.com

This post is my gratuitous offer to Microsoft to help them track down websites of piracy advocates who store and/or share activation cracks and similar nuisances. This all started as an experiment to see how many ways I could find a particular file and I’ve come to the conclusion that Microsoft probably either isn’t implementing half the methods I’ve devised or they don’t have the time/interest or a person/team in-house or outsourced dedicated to formulating solutions like this. I’ve cherry-picked two methods to delve into, then listed some action items to follow through with in taking said methods into consideration.

I would use Bing for these examples, but I’m still waiting for an all-encompassing guide for using advanced syntax usage in Bing. Usually, when I try to replicate my Google methods in Bing (yes, I make sure I’m using Bing’s syntax where applicable), the results are dismal. Anyway, I’d like to think someone at Microsoft will see this for what it is and bring me in to really get creative with this stuff, because there’s a whooooooole lot more where this came from! But I won’t hold my breath, because in the words of one Tony Lucca, “if I held my breath, you’d be the death of me.” lol.

Method 1: Use the following query in Google (I’ve even hyper-linked it for your pleasure):

 

intitle:index.of removewat21 | removewat22 | removewat*

 

Results: A large number of personal websites where they have the RemoveWAT file stored and directly accessible for anyone to immediately download.

Method 2: Go to Google. Click “more” and then click “Blogs.” Now, perform a search using the following query and then, on the left-hand side, click, “Sorted by date” (yes, I’ve hyper-linked this one as well already using the aforementioned steps):

 

removewat21 | removewat22 | removewat*

 

Results: An ever-expanding list of blogs linking to the file(s) you’re interested in getting off the internet. Most of them link to file sharing services, but that’s a major score as well.

Action Items: Bearing in mind the methods above, the next thing is to gather a list of as many variables of the RemoveWAT file name as you can, such as scene release names, shortened versions, etc. and interchange them throughout the queries. Rinse and repeat the process with other activation crack technologies and voila. From there, of course, gather contact information from somewhere on the site, perform a whois search, etc. to contact the individual(s) to remove the file or simply send a DMCA take-down request to the host or whatever legal actions Microsoft has to adhere to.

Also, you can get more extensive with the research portion and use Yahoo Site Explorer or SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer to search for inbound links to the links harvested via method 1. The results are a mixed bag where that’s concerned, but I’ve found that Google typically yields those results after spidering the site from a completely separate entry point, so whether or not the person posted the file in a public forum or simply posted something completely irrelevant and Google happened to spider its way to the particular file is up in the air until additional research is performed.

Oh, and while you’re at it, you might as well try to make this process as automated, productive and facile as possible by setting up some Google Alerts (or something similar) for all the terms/queries you come up with and keep an eye on when new sites are indexed with those file names. What a great way of finding and getting rid of those files from (probably) a completely untapped avenue.

There! I’ve officially put my personal information-finding and off-page SEO research methods to good use for Microsoft’s anti-piracy endeavors. =) But bear in mind, the aforementioned methods and action items are just the tip of the iceberg. If I so chose, I could use just about any Microsoft product for free without ever touching a P2P application or utilizing a crack — all thanks to Google and absolutely careless individuals out there. There’s a lot out there; you just have to know how to find it.

Happy hunting, Microsoft.

-Stephen Chapman

http://www.msftkitchen.com

Back in 2005, Microsoft mentioned in a Thinkweek article the idea of an ad-driven Windows. Ina Fried summarized quite well what was discussed in that article in a section titled “Plan Extends to Windows.” Seemingly only an idea back then, new evidence shows that Microsoft has done more than simply *think* about placing ads in Windows.

While recently doing a bit of research, I ran across a Microsoft employee’s mention (screen shot below) of an incubation project they were involved with sometime between 2005-2008. Code named “Madison” (not to be confused with the SQL 2010 code name), it appears an actual prototype has been created for advertising in Windows. Prior to writing this article, I mentioned my findings to Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet and she quickly made an observation I hadn’t thought of — the code name “Madison” obviously stemming from “Madison Ave.” in Manhattan. To quote Wikipedia, “[s]ince the 1920s, the street’s name has been synonymous with the American advertising industry.”

(Yes, that says “madision” but that’s almost certainly a grammatical error)

The implications of this prototype are staggering, but not necessarily all bad.

On one hand, this could be a way for Microsoft to offer Windows on-the-cheap for many individuals — namely, those who either can’t afford Windows or don’t want to pay for Windows in the first place (i.e. pirates, yarrr!). In theory, you could use a “Windows Ads Edition” or something where you’ve basically opted for ads to stream to you in exchange for your usage of Windows. Another possible scenario is for this prototype technology to perhaps replace (or maybe become a component of) Starter Edition. After all, with Microsoft’s recent job post looking to fill a position on the “Windows SKU team,” it’s pretty clear that Microsoft is planning Windows 8 SKUs — thus implying a SKU-secured future for Windows — so why not the possibility of a “Windows Ads Edition?” I don’t think too many people would use such a thing by choice, and for those who did choose to, Microsoft’s marketing would have to be crystal clear to spell out why you wouldn’t simply be using an ad-ridden version of Windows.

Also, when bringing ads into the equation, I can’t imagine they would riddle every SKU with ads, but how could Microsoft really expect to make a significant ROI based on a model where ads are being shown to people who are looking to circumvent – or simply cannot afford the cost of – Windows in the first place? With that in mind, perhaps it would have nothing to do with SKUs at all. Perhaps it would consist of a technology designed to run under certain variables in *any* SKU of Windows where the obvious candidates would lie amongst all unactivated, non-genuine, and pirated copies. The thought of that gets shaky when considering all the headaches Microsoft would face from those screaming “invasion of privacy” or “anti-trust measures!” They would have to be clever about monitoring ad traffic, of which there’s absolutely no way Microsoft could successfully convince businesses to fork over cash for ad views without being able to show some semblance of accurate numbers… unless it’s a PPC thing, and then Microsoft has to face dealing with potential click fraud amongst the other obvious deterrents, such as ad blocking software, host file modification to block ad servers, or even full-blow file modification/replacement to remove the ad-driven functionality in its totality.

Naturally, this all just boils down to Microsoft looking to cash in on a BIG money-making industry with the most visible product they have. The most popular application in the entire world. Potentially, every Windows user would be a lead just waiting to turn a profit for whoever pays to advertise in Windows. And if Microsoft went the route of making this a technology that wasn’t limited to any particular version of Windows, they could even scale it back to XP via a simple update (but I see XP being obsolete by the time ads ever make it into Windows).

Thinking even grander, imagine if Microsoft created an ad platform in Windows that was so successfully facile to the end user that the price of ALL versions of Windows was little to nothing at all. Now, that may sound ridiculous, but that’s the kind of forward-thinking that — if they could pull it off — would bring them many more users and drastically drop certain costs of developing Windows, such as the cost of anti-piracy measures. If they could figure out a way to make ads extremely relevant, non-evasive, yet have them yield high click-through rates — in a perfect world — that would be a version of Windows accessible to nearly everyone.

But I’m a realist. I don’t think such a scenario would ever come to fruition. Honestly, between unhappy users who want nothing to do with ads and potential legal woes that would inevitably face Microsoft, I see the headaches mounting for actually implementing ads in Windows. What do you think? Do you think Microsoft will ever bring such an effort to Windows? How would you feel about actually using an ad-implemented Windows? I don’t think I would mind too much, but the implementation of them would have to be nothing short of genius.

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com

Caveat: I’ve been sitting on the information contained in this post for quite a while now, but it has finally perturbed me enough to put it out there for all of you (and myself, for that matter). If you would be so kind as to help spread the word, that would be great as the lie has spread like wildfire and taken on various forms, such as sites now reporting that Windows 8 will be 128-bit (ridiculous). Not only that, but the perpetrator that started this mess needs to be called out with fair warning given to all. What you choose to believe by the end of this post will be up to you, but my intentions here are to help sift out the garbage in a community full of journalists who – like me – truly bust their butts to bring you solid, unique, and honest content.

Most of you may recall the “exclusive” I posted on this almost 2 months ago now. As most of you may also recall, I’m no stranger to the LinkedIn profile browsing. Well, when I found Mr. Robert Morgan’s profile, I got WAY too excited for my own good. I whipped up that post as soon as I could, then took a step back to see if anyone else had found it. Well, as it had turned out, sometime like a week earlier, it had been, “found” by eightforums (I’ve linked the Google cached page for that link just in case they try to delete it and play none-the-wiser, as you can already compare it to the post on their page today to see that they deleted my comments calling them out on the issue). I say “found” because – as it turns out – it wasn’t really found at all. It was fabricated. Everything on that profile was garbage, and when you read back at what his job description said, it does indeed look like something a “journalist” would write so as to create one hell of a scoop. Check it out again:

Experience
Senior Research & Development Microsoft
Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry

 

January 2002 – Present (7 years 10 months)

 

Working in high security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and longterm projects. Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM.

Let’s critique this, shall we? First off, “working in a high-security department for research and development” is something that no employee working in those conditions would -in their right mind – write in their profile. I’ve seen some pretty amazing things pop up in people’s job profiles, but nothing so blatant. Second, Research and Development isn’t the Windows team. Each is its own department with its own funding and its own projects. At BEST, Windows 9 MIGHT be accurate here (as in, Research and Development is working on technologies that may make it into Windows much later), but it’s not. If anyone is going to be working on a 128-bit kernel for Windows, it’s going to be the architecture side of the Windows core team (David Cutler’s crew, etc.); not MSR.

I don’t think 128-bit is in the scope of anyone for the next 7-10 years. After all, 64-bit is rarely properly utilized these days – nevermind dropping 128-bit into the laps of devs and consumers! And that brings up another point… at best, 128-bit would exist only for very select industries that could truly use it right now. AMD’s Bulldozer project is real, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 8 or, I would imagine, Windows 9, either.

Alright, so… let’s assume that profile was indeed real. eightforums was certainly enjoying the traffic off of their initial “find.” As a matter of fact, they somehow managed to land an exclusive interview with the guy afterwards! Once again, I’ve linked to the Google cached page for the same reason I did a few paragraphs ago. So… whatever happened with that interview, anyway? What happened with it is that it was one great big old pile of BS, that’s what happened with it! It was a big, fat lie (along with the cake, of course).

Yes, your supposedly down-right and honest Windows 8 market-cornering buddies over at eightforums managed to pull the wool over the eyes of almost every major news site out there. Unfortunately, enough minor details lined up enough for those like me to jump the gun and post what we did, when we did and without ever verifying if this guy was even an employee in the first place. This stuff happens sometimes and, well, I don’t take too kindly to it. Especially considering how much time and effort I know I put into bringing you all the content that I do – nevermind how much time and effort the countless other real journalists around the community put in! Not only that, but stuff like this makes a mockery of the credibility of the sites you know and trust. We’re as human as you are, though, so I’m one who is fully willing to say, “hey, this guy fooled me and I’m sorry he ended up fooling you, too, vicariously through my post.”

Now, a couple of days or so after all of this stuff went global, I noticed a couple of my respected peers make some comments on this story that started to make me take a second look at it all. First, Paul Thurrott said the following:

Windows 8 To Be 128-bit Only? LOL

 

Wow. I have to admit, the most amazing thing about this rumor is that anyone believed it. I won’t single anyone out, but spare me. It’s completely and utterly bogus. Obviously.

The fact that this all got around to him in the form that Windows 8 was going to be *ONLY* was baffling enough for me, never mind seeing the next hit being doled out by one Steven Bink of bink.nu:

Bink says: Sorry but this is BS so to say. We are still in the transition to 64bit, That Morgan guy does not exits at MS

By that time, I immediately thought back to the crap I had already called out the eightforums people on and then… it all just made too much sense that they would be the ones to fabricate garbage like this. At this point, I have now also verified (thanks to two kind Microsoft folks for checking for me) that Robert Morgan is/was nowhere to be found in the employee database. It was all just a load of crap created by a site desperate for traffic and attention. They throw up frivolous posts just to somehow meander Windows 8 into the text to boost their rank in search engines for the keyword. Not only that, but their forum is littered with garbage posts that – once again – only exist so as to skyrocket their keyword density.

So, now we’re at this juncture ONCE AGAIN with eightforums. First, it was stealing content from my site (which, I hope I’ve made clear will not be tolerated any longer) and now, one big lie heard ’round the net. And to top it off, dishonest means obviously get you somewhere since this guy was apparently at PDC 2009 as press! How he got in, I have no idea but at this point, I wouldn’t doubt it if he really wasn’t there and his PDC coverage was also a big, fat lie. Everything he wrote could have been discerned from watching the keynotes streaming online. Not to mention, out of all his blabber about, “I wonder if we will hear about Windows 8,” he produced a whole lot of NOTHING! My favorite line of his from PDC comes from his PDC Day 1 blog entry:

What can we dig up about Windows 8? I see tons of wannabe journalists and some actually talented bloggers, how will we be different then all the others? We’ll bring you the dirt!!, we’ll interview the top minds at the conference in the next few days to get all the best information. Like always, members of the Windows 8 forums will get the stuff we just can’t post here, all that leaked information, we try to get all our members to say things off record and sneak them into the underground circles of Windows 8 Forums, only members can see!

“Wannabe journalists,” huh? LOL! Oh, the irony. Lot of top minds he interviewed there, huh? Lot of Windows 8 information they were able to dig up, huh? And leave it to this guy to not only pull the wool over everyone’s eyes a couple of times, but his loyal followers by creating a paid membership for his website as well! He’s actually going to charge people for his lies. Man, if you’re a glutton for being ripped off, by all means, whip out that Paypal account… but if you’re AT ALL wise – even if you’re a member on that forum and see me as the bad guy because I’m taking shots at your “leader” – you’ll take a good look at the big picture here and see that this guy has provided absolutely NOTHING of substance for his readers or for this community. Nothing. Just a bunch of empty promises and cliffhangers. Where’s the PDC 2009 Windows 8 info you were going to dig up? Where are the interviews with the “top minds” about Windows 8? Where’s that Robert Morgan interview exclusive you supposedly had? I mean, to see just how bad it is, take a look at his latest ENLIGHTENING post:

Seriously? You’re *that* desperate to throw Windows 8 (and italicize it, none-the-less) into a story? lol. Oh, the humanity…

So, at this point, I can’t spell it out much clearer for everyone. For some reason, though, I can’t help but wonder who you’re going to believe: Some nobody site trying to corner the Windows 8 market by littering their site with pointless references to Windows 8, or tried-and-true individuals who have been in this community for countless years reporting the good with the bad and truly busting their butts to bring you content with REAL substance? I certainly hope the latter, as people like me calling out sites like eightforums serves me no purpose other than wasting my time and creating drama that I would rather not have to deal with. In cases like this, though, it’s totally worth it.

Update: Be sure to go to his site to catch him poking fun at the frequency of road maps I post. Even I laughed at it; nothing like a good bit of roasting every once in a while.

Update 2: I’ve decided to remove the antagonizing comment about awaiting negative comments from eightforums and disable comments for this post. End of discussion. If you have something to say, feel free to email me. Thanks to those of you who left supportive comments initially. I really do appreciate it.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Another day, ano……. oh, wait. I keep saying that every time I find one of these things. lol. Basically, I’ve run across YET ANOTHER road map (the second one in Korean) that further solidifies the ~2012 release of Windows 8 Server. Let me clarify, all of these road maps I’ve found – ALL of them – resided in Windows Server 2008 R2 slide decks. None of these are in relation to client, but since Microsoft has made the decision to align Server and Client release dates, it may be fairly safe to assume that these cadences apply to Windows 8 client as well. Either way, here’s the latest of the onslaught:

Since I’ve found so many of these things now, I’m going to go ahead and recap the others below. Click each of the following road maps to be taken to their respective posts, if you’re interested:

 

 

 

 

And that’s it! Stay tuned for more road maps. Even though it’s pretty damn obvious that Microsoft is shooting for a 2012 release date, I’m going to post every single one of these I find. =)

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I took the time to write up a little review of Windows 7 on Amazon.com a couple of days ago. I tried to make it approachable for users of all operating systems since I have nothing against anyone for what they choose to use (I honestly hate the OS wars, but I don’t mind getting down into the trenches if I have to, mwah ha ha). Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the beginning of my review:

Let me preface this review with my qualifications so that you may understand the extent I’ve gone to with operating systems to end up proudly claiming, “I’m a PC.”

 

I use Linux (RedHat) at work, I’ve tried Ubuntu and Lycoris long before it, I’ve tried Debian and Slackware and however many other flavors of *nix in the past just to say I tried them. I’ve messed with BeOS (Zeta development was an exciting time), I’ve played with Mac OS X on numerous occasions (beautiful OS), and I’ve tried countless obscure operating systems that I doubt even 1% of those reading this would know about (and trust me; there’s a reason for you not knowing about them, lol). Why have I messed with them all? Because I enjoy operating systems and I find them to be amazing achievements. There’s no denying that Mac OS X is a beautiful OS that performs quite well within the structured hardware environment Apple has created. Linux is hella useful on an enterprise level (though Windows Server is easily comparable these days) and even home flavors of Linux have become quite nice (Ubuntu)! The fact of the matter is that I’m partial to Windows through my experiences with having tried just about every flavor of every OS out there over the past 10 years or so. I used to collect beta versions of operating systems (not just Windows, but others as well), so I’ve not only tried the final products, but I’ve also gained appreciation for them by seeing them and playing with them through their development cycles. Where Windows is concerned, at one point or another, I’ve instally just about every build of every version currently out there (and trust me, there are TONS of builds – alpha and beta bits from every version of Windows, including obscure bits like Windows Neptune). I’ve ridden the roller coaster through the highs (Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, and now 7) and lows (Windows ME, Windows Vista’s initial release) and I couldn’t be happier that I’ve stuck it out.

 

Enter Windows 7.

Check it out and rate it however you feel it should be if you’re a member of Amazon! It’s nice to see that Windows 7 actually has so many positive reviews, I think. There was a 1-star, “review” (I say, “review” because too many people think that Amazon is simply a forum for them to get up on their soapbox) there that I guess the, “reviewer” decided to nix once I left a comment questioning the integrity of his opinion. He basically felt like Windows should be cheaper than it is for people like him who want to run Windows on a second partition just to, “use occasionally.” Somehow he felt that in all his marketing genius, that would help Windows’ market share… you know, if Microsoft brought down the price of their OS simply so people who wanted to use it, “occasionally” could do so. Since when did an OPERATING SYSTEM (sit there for a second and think about just what an operating system is and does) become something to be purchased and used occasionally!? There is software out there that provides very specific functionality (albeit, very well) that costs WAAAAY more than the operating systems that run them! Windows 7, too expensive? Hardly. But I digress…

Link: Windows 7 Review on Amazon

UPDATE: 7 of 7 people approve my review of Windows 7! (Dorky, I know… lol)

-Stephen
Microsoft Kitchen

As noted previously here on Microsoft Kitchen, Windows 8′s user interface seems to be a fairly major focus. Though I have seen some odds-and-ends mentions on the web of folks who are working on the Windows 8 UI, the following profile I just stumbled across is a bit more telling than just someone working on the UI:

Manager of Windows 8 User Interface Designers at Microsoft

Managing and Improving software usability for over 10 years, designing, researching, and developing multi-tier distributed applications for Windows 8 focusing on customers using ecommerce, general consumers, and banking companies.

Again, while it is no surprised whatsoever that Microsoft is updating their UI in Windows 8, focusing on the UI in relation to such a broad userbase all in one release (and with the mention of multi-tier distributed applications), I stand firm in my belief that Windows 8 is shaping up to be one heck of a release. What do you think?

UPDATE:Google has an interesting cache of the LinkedIn profile I linked to above which adds details not previously listed when I originally stumbled upon it. It reflects what seems to be a close link between Windows 8 and Windows 9, based on how often I’m seeing the two mentioned together. To quote:

I work with other User Experience Directors and User Experience Designers deciding on successful feature possibilities by analyzing competing operating systems (Mac and Linux). Research customer reactions to these features in Windows 8 themes and planning for long-term products such as Windows 9 User Interfacing.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

UPDATE 12/2/2009: It has been discovered that the information once contained in this article is false! It was a lie based off of a convincing fake profile created by eightforums.com. You can read all about it here: 128-Bit Kernel Support in Windows 8 and Windows 9: A Big, Fat Lie

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

Having some fun making these videos and all, I decided to cook up another one. This time, I’ve included a full-screen version of the log in animation that wasn’t fully in the original. There has been a screenshot or two out there, but that’s it. Along with posting the video here, I’ve included a high-resolution download of the video. Likewise, I’ve updated my previous post here to include a high-resolution download of it. Enjoy!

HD Download (45 MB): Longhorn Days Video 02

-Stephen Chapman
http://www.msftkitchen.com