Domain: microsoft.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to microsoft.com.
Comments · 34,132
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Re:WGA?Doubt it.
If a user selects "Install": The installation process will commence and require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and a re-boot to complete.
Source: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/updatemanagement/ windowsupdate/ie7announcement.mspx (mentioned in jorghis' post) -
Use DropMyRights
Article here http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/securecode/col
u mns/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dncode/html/s ecure11152004.asp
So for example this is my shortcut to IE
C:\DropMyRights\DropMyRights.exe "c:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe" /c
If you try to install something like Shockwave you get an error. Now I don't use IE much at all but if your in a situation where you have to use it and have to login as Admin this is a decent solution. -
Significantly Higher?
When it comes to switching browsers, I really only care when I see value. In general, I stick with what works until (a) it breaks or (b) the positive value of switching is significant.
For each person, the significantly higher will be different. Extremely minor updates are enough for those folks that want the latest and greatest. For others, it takes a crazy value propostion to be enough for a switch. Obviously this kind of thinking can be mapped to an innovation adoption curve.
I'll wait. My browser isn't broken and the value isn't there. But now I ask, does IE7 arouse your interest? Are you sold on the business case? -
here ya go
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2126479/malicio
u s-trojan-infects-windows-media-player
http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5211168.html
http://secunia.com/advisories/20626/
The truly scary thing is that prior to May 2005 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892313 WMP left you vulnerable to the DRM-based viruses even if you'd explicitly told it not to auto-download DRM code!! -
If you dont want to install it...
If want to prevent the automatic install MS has a page for you here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/updatemanagement
/ windowsupdate/ie7announcement.mspx
It looks like you have the option to just click "no thanks" when it asks you if you want to upgrade to IE7. -
So what are we saying here...?
Are you suggesting that most
/.ers don't also spend time hanging out at in other technical fora? That's crazy talk. -
Re:Why so much hostility towards their terminologyOf course not, because its silly to argue over how different companies use the terms engineering release, alpha, beta, release candidate
Bullshit
MS's own glossary says:release candidate
A version of a build that has been tested and is ready for release.
Do you also scream in protest because google didnt spell itself accurately?
Retarded. Googol is a word, Google is a brand. -
Re:Travelling Consultant
have you used the SyncToy powertoy from microsoft? http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powe
r toys/xppowertoys.mspx
it was very much like a gui for rsync, slower and i don't know if it could be hooked in so that it always ran or anything like that. but it did work nicly for moving 1/2G of pictures from a SMB share on my desktop to my lappy. -
Re:So...
Volume license doesn't get activated (ours doesn't anyways).
We just load our image, hit newsid and connect to the right domain and the machine is in buisness.
Ohh and doing something on alot of machines isn't exactly hard if you know what you are doing, even changing the serial if the volume license key somehow gets banned, MS has even made an example script to do this here.
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Re:Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Coolness? Superior UI? Apple? You've got to be kidding. Check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune
/ images/image022_low.jpg. You'll want to compare this, of course, to the latest and greatest iTunes storefront: http://dsandler.org/gruntle/itunes7/iTunes7Dissect ed.jpg Then there's the customizable zune ui: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune/ images/image004_low.jpg. Of course, you might prefer the iPod version- I know Creative did, earlier this summer, to the tune of a million bucks. Innovative. You betcha. -
Re:Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Coolness? Superior UI? Apple? You've got to be kidding. Check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune
/ images/image022_low.jpg. You'll want to compare this, of course, to the latest and greatest iTunes storefront: http://dsandler.org/gruntle/itunes7/iTunes7Dissect ed.jpg Then there's the customizable zune ui: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/zune/ images/image004_low.jpg. Of course, you might prefer the iPod version- I know Creative did, earlier this summer, to the tune of a million bucks. Innovative. You betcha. -
Re:Simple solution
The problem is not that it's hard. The problem is that it's cumbersome as hell, and doesn't scale to doing really complex query generation. You're still writing your whole query as a string with named blanks in it, and then at the end saying which things go in those blanks. If you need to have conditional logic that dictates what's going to be put in that query, or, God forbid, if you wrote and maintain an application that needs to be able to generate arbitrarily complex queries based on a recursive description of a dimensional schema (as some of us do), you're going to be in SQL text append hell anyway.
Again, the common paradigm for accessing databases from programming languages (embedding SQL as strings in one's language) is crap. What Microsoft is doing qith LINQ, building query capabilities into the language itself, is fundamentally moving in the right direction (though I don't know their implementation well enough to actually endorse it).
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Re:Because Tescos is a trusted brand name
Fair enough, I don't have first hand knowledge, the impression some websites I found when I first heard of this story, indicate they are a big Microsoft shop.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.asp x?view=PR&symbol=MSFT.O&storyID=84359+03-Oct-2006+ BW&type=qcna
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/jul0 1/07-17tescopr.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/canada/casestudies/tesco. mspx
I'm not sure where I read the .net thing from, possibly it was Sainsburys or ASDA rather than Tescos though. -
Re:Because Tescos is a trusted brand name
Fair enough, I don't have first hand knowledge, the impression some websites I found when I first heard of this story, indicate they are a big Microsoft shop.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.asp x?view=PR&symbol=MSFT.O&storyID=84359+03-Oct-2006+ BW&type=qcna
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/jul0 1/07-17tescopr.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/canada/casestudies/tesco. mspx
I'm not sure where I read the .net thing from, possibly it was Sainsburys or ASDA rather than Tescos though. -
Re:It's all about TCO, quality and your users.
QT, $3,000 per seat vrs M$VC at $700. How many M$VC's can you get at no cost for free software distribution?
Or you can use Microsoft Empower which gives you all of the power of MSDN for $375/yr for up to five developers. Its like crack - coding for Windows is cheap at first, when you're small. And the resulting binaries are always freely distributable, no matter what license you're using.
Is the difference in price worth the platform you will have to force on your customers? No version of Windows has ever worked as well as any Linux distribution I've used.
That depends. Do your customers already run Windows? In that case, the answer is an unqualified, "Yes." -
Re:Trolltechs QT pricing and M$ MSDN pricing
first, a startup/small company gets a 65% discount off $3300 or $1155.
And if some of the developers work on tools you plan to share source for that development station is free!
So what? If you're a small/startup company, you can go with options like Microsoft Empower for $375 a year, which gives you basically everything that MSDN does for five people, not including some of the support speed. That's OS copies, office, servers, visual studio, you name it -- all without any distribution license headaches.
Yeah. Under $80 per developer, per year, for damn near everything that MSFT puts out, as long as you promise to release a Windows program within two years. Not too shabby. -
Re:Moo
> The truth is, Microsoft has _always_ lied about amount of ram needed since win95 at least. Their definition of minimum amount of ram needed is "it boots but can't do anything else" kinda numbers.
I agree that MS were a little economical with their system requirements back in the 95/NT4 days, but I think the minimum system requirements are far more realistic now. I'm running Vista RC1, and this box is 1Gb - Vista Premium minimum system requirement: 1Gb. I'm not having any performance issues here, even when editing print size images in Photoshop.
Minimum system requirements are a tricky game though - too low and people will be unhappy with their "user experience", too high and the bean counters will have an apoplexy ;) -
Re:XP will stick aroundShame MS refused to patch some of the security bugs before it went EOL.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulleti
n /MS03-010.mspx -
Re:Really?
Then maybe you should be removed form Windows support and reassigned or let go. Sorry but if you have these problems "all the time" then you are doing something wrong.
Yeah, right. It's my fault Microsoft patches often cause problems. My fault and the fault of thousands of others who just don't know what they're doing, I suppose. Let's see what a google search turns up:
- August 30, 2006 - IE patch breaks Exchange 2000
- August 16, 2006 - Microsoft patch may crash IE when certain websites are viewed.
- June 16, 2006 - Microsoft patch breaks dial-up networking
- April 18, 2006 - Microsoft patch breaks HP software
- April 16, 2006 - Microsoft patch breaks web pages ON PURPOSE (EOLAS problem passed on to their users)
- April 14, 2006 - IE patch breaks Siebel client
- October 29, 2005 - Another Black Eye for Microsoft Patch Creation Process
- May 13, 2005 - Faulty Microsoft Update Rekindles Patch Quality Concerns
I could go on. That's just the tip of the iceberg. It's a known issue. Has been for years. Many of those links point to articles saying things like "Patches have caused trouble at times, on occasion prompting Microsoft to fix already released updates" and "When we are dealing with Microsoft updates, one thing we always reiterate, then reiterate some more, is to test before deploying. The guidance is always to download, test, then deploy the patches. With Microsoft, the test section of our guidance has gotten larger and larger."
That you haven't experienced problems with ANY Microsoft patches but SP2 is at best an anomoly.Where I work we've got about 500 windows computers, give or take. Those run on a rather eclectic mix of hardware, some as old as P2s, some as new as Core 2 Duos. Servers, workstations, you name it. We run a pretty eclectic mix of software too. Off the top of my head some examples would be Matlab, HFSS, Photoshop, Office, Vegas, Visual Studio, Metrowerks, Miktek and so on. A fairly diverse Windows environment, in other words.
Wow. I'm happy for you. Your parents must be so proud.
Wanna know how many patches ever came out that broke systems? One: SP2. How many broke? 2, both personal systems loaded to the gills with spyware. We wiped them to get rid of the spyware, they took the update and worked fine. That's a pretty good track record. Comparable to Solaris (which we also run a lot of)
So, is it your policy to automatically patch production servers using AutoUpdate? You've never run a competitor's database or application stack on any of your Windows servers? All the software you mentioned is desktop software. Because if you have, you'll find service packs breaking things aplenty. I'm not talking desktop apps. I'm talking backend. I'm actually fairly comfortable setting desktops (since XP stabilized) to auto update. I would never apply a patch to a production server without full testing on test servers to make sure things like, oh, let's see...the latest SQL Server service pack doesn't cause function FOO of product BAR to stop working...because that happens...frequently.
Now let's compare that to, say, Fedora, which we also run.
I never said anything about Linux. Patch management seems to be an equal
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Re:He required support
This should be modded as +5 Funny, as I get a "page not available" screen when I click on the link.Does that 700 dollars include support? No it does not.
Actually, yes it does:
Depending on product and how it is purchased, you may be eligible for two support incidents at no-charge. These incidents apply to Full Packaged Products only and broadly speaking the following groups of products are covered - consumer products, desktop applications, desktop operating systems and developer tools.
This is nothing like the support one tyically expects with a commercial support contract. 3K per seat per year is a typical price in the industry. Our RTOS licenses are in this ballpark, as are our commercial (non-Microsoft) compiler support contracts. If that is what support prices really are for OSS, there is nothing unusual about them.
One of the things that periodicly paying a large amount of money buys you is leverage with someone who can fix your problems. If they are tardy or non-responsive, you can shut off the gravy spigot. The thought of getting Microsoft to do that, even if you were paying them 3K a year, is laughable. They are so big and rich, nothing short of government action can budge them.
Perhaps a better topic would have been "Why are Microsoft's support options so odd?" -
Re:Not a Good Business Model for Enterprise
Not to mention, it's the cost of an illegal copy of WinXP. OEM copies purchased separately from a PC are illegal.
No, it is not. Even the microsoft website suggests that you can purchase OEM copy of Windows XP pro 32/64bit from various vendors if you purchase qualifying hardware such as harddrives, CPUs Ram, Video cards, motherboards, basicly anything that would trigger windows activation if it is changed.
Tip: If you purchase a computer with a 64 bit processor (not an Itanium), you can obtain an OEM System Builder Copy of XP Pro x64 from vendors such as New Egg, with a qualifying hardware purchase. This hardware must be a non peripheral item that becomes an integral part of the system in question. Ordering additional/replacement RAM for your system and installing it fulfills the requirement.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/64bit/bow man_05nov07.mspx
Why is OEM so cheap?
OEM versions of Windows XP:
-- cannot upgrade over an existing Windows installation.
-- must be installed "clean" on a freshly reformatted drive or partition.
-- cannot be transferred to a different computer or if motherboard is upgraded.
-- the license cannot be sold or transferred to another user.
-- are not eligible for free Microsoft technical support.
-- any problems whatsoever with the installation CD or Product Key.
is not eligible for Microsoft support....you have to deal with the "seller".
-- cost less than "retail versions" due to the above limitations/risks
http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine/ShowPost.aspx? PostID=670963&SiteID=25
If the end user is installing Windows XP on machines that wont be upgraded/altered for quite some time, OEM is a cheaper solution especially if you have an IQ of 50 or higher. Really, how often do you need to call Microsoft for ANY type of support? in 10 years or so of using Windows 95 through Windows XP, i have never EVER had a reason to call MS for anything.
For a business the best solution would be something like dell, since the guy is all worried about support.
I purchased a retail copy of Pro for 239 and Home for 139. -
Re:Not a Good Business Model for Enterprise
Not to mention, it's the cost of an illegal copy of WinXP. OEM copies purchased separately from a PC are illegal.
No, it is not. Even the microsoft website suggests that you can purchase OEM copy of Windows XP pro 32/64bit from various vendors if you purchase qualifying hardware such as harddrives, CPUs Ram, Video cards, motherboards, basicly anything that would trigger windows activation if it is changed.
Tip: If you purchase a computer with a 64 bit processor (not an Itanium), you can obtain an OEM System Builder Copy of XP Pro x64 from vendors such as New Egg, with a qualifying hardware purchase. This hardware must be a non peripheral item that becomes an integral part of the system in question. Ordering additional/replacement RAM for your system and installing it fulfills the requirement.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/64bit/bow man_05nov07.mspx
Why is OEM so cheap?
OEM versions of Windows XP:
-- cannot upgrade over an existing Windows installation.
-- must be installed "clean" on a freshly reformatted drive or partition.
-- cannot be transferred to a different computer or if motherboard is upgraded.
-- the license cannot be sold or transferred to another user.
-- are not eligible for free Microsoft technical support.
-- any problems whatsoever with the installation CD or Product Key.
is not eligible for Microsoft support....you have to deal with the "seller".
-- cost less than "retail versions" due to the above limitations/risks
http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine/ShowPost.aspx? PostID=670963&SiteID=25
If the end user is installing Windows XP on machines that wont be upgraded/altered for quite some time, OEM is a cheaper solution especially if you have an IQ of 50 or higher. Really, how often do you need to call Microsoft for ANY type of support? in 10 years or so of using Windows 95 through Windows XP, i have never EVER had a reason to call MS for anything.
For a business the best solution would be something like dell, since the guy is all worried about support.
I purchased a retail copy of Pro for 239 and Home for 139. -
Re:He required supportDoes that 700 dollars include support? No it does not.
Actually, yes it does:Depending on product and how it is purchased, you may be eligible for two support incidents at no-charge. These incidents apply to Full Packaged Products only and broadly speaking the following groups of products are covered - consumer products, desktop applications, desktop operating systems and developer tools.
Also, while at $700 he wasn't talking about an MSDN subscription, were he to go with that instead the following would apply:No-charge Support Incidents as a Program Benefit or Microsoft License Type
Click on the appropriate link to find out whether you are entitled to no-charge telephone or online support incidents if:
* You have a Multi Year Open license or an Open Subscription licence
* You are a member of the MSDN Programme
* You are a member of TechNet Programme
* You are a Microsoft Registered Partner
* You are a member of the Microsoft Certified Partner Programme
(Note that I can't be bothered to reconstruct the links)
So no, you don't get as much support (I assume - I actually don't know what TrollTech's support is like), but it's incorrect to say that you don't get any, even if you just buy VS.NET. (And any company serious about developing with/for MS products ought to buy at least one MSDN subscription, if only for the support...)
On top of that, community support resources for MS are at least as plentiful as those of the OSS community. Programmers working with MS tech are not fundamentally any different from those of us working with Java, or with OSS tools; we're all human, and most of us are more than happy to help out a fellow programmer in need from time to time. -
Re:This will get cracked.
Microsoft will force people off of XP and 2000 by refusing to support the OS and stop issuing security patches.
But people won't be "forced" off of Windows XP Professional until January 2014, Windows XP Home until January 2009, and Windows 2000 until July 13, 2010. Those are the earliest dates that "mainstream" suppport will end for XP Home, and when "extended" support will end for XP Pro and 2000.Extended support includes security updates and paid incident support. Seven years of support for the home OS and 10-12 years of support for the pro OSs seems pretty generous to me. Both versions of Windows XP will continue to get mainstream support (includes free incident support and requests for OS design/feature changes) until January 2009 at the earliest.
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Re:This will get cracked.
Microsoft will force people off of XP and 2000 by refusing to support the OS and stop issuing security patches.
But people won't be "forced" off of Windows XP Professional until January 2014, Windows XP Home until January 2009, and Windows 2000 until July 13, 2010. Those are the earliest dates that "mainstream" suppport will end for XP Home, and when "extended" support will end for XP Pro and 2000.Extended support includes security updates and paid incident support. Seven years of support for the home OS and 10-12 years of support for the pro OSs seems pretty generous to me. Both versions of Windows XP will continue to get mainstream support (includes free incident support and requests for OS design/feature changes) until January 2009 at the earliest.
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Re:This will get cracked.
Microsoft will force people off of XP and 2000 by refusing to support the OS and stop issuing security patches.
But people won't be "forced" off of Windows XP Professional until January 2014, Windows XP Home until January 2009, and Windows 2000 until July 13, 2010. Those are the earliest dates that "mainstream" suppport will end for XP Home, and when "extended" support will end for XP Pro and 2000.Extended support includes security updates and paid incident support. Seven years of support for the home OS and 10-12 years of support for the pro OSs seems pretty generous to me. Both versions of Windows XP will continue to get mainstream support (includes free incident support and requests for OS design/feature changes) until January 2009 at the earliest.
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Re:Maybe because you volunteer for this?
Nobody is making you buy Vista.
In my case it's XMPlay, Satscape and a few Windows only games like Continuum, Freelancer etc.
It's either because there is no real alternative to them or because they don't run in Wine (as well as they should). -
Support Contract vs Software License
You toss out a lot of prices in your post, but you don't really indicate what the price is for.
One example you use is a comparison of RedHat Workstation for $299 versus Windows XP Professional for $140. That RedHat Workstation you're buying comes with a fairly nice support contract... According to the website you get unlimited incidents and a 4 hour response time. That Windows price is just the license to use their software, no implied support contract at all...and Microsoft charges $245 per incident if you don't have a support contract...
A more accurate comparison of prices might be Fedora Core for $0 (just the license to use the software, no implied support contract) versus $140 for Windows XP Professional. Or Redhat Workstation for $299 (with unlimited support) versus $8,299 for "up to 10 hours of proactive support assistance" from Microsoft.
Software is cheap, support is expensive - and with OSS products you are generally buying support, since the software is usually available for free. -
Re:Microsoft's balls are in a vice
This my friend is easy
... to change your CD key in Windows XP to a SP2 capable key.
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 v2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158
Serial:
s/n:7MD2F-FYJX4-D4R2B-3M7W2-DC9PD
s/n:WGQMG-3622W-4CPWB-YJP6W-RDWGJ
Microsoft Windows XP Profesional SP2 Corporate Edition
Serial:
yq7xw-qpt6c-233qf-rrxc7-vf7ty
x4ptj-6wp7j-bfvcy-wydjt-dmddk
3px6y-7htr8-4pvpq-pyfgk-grk3p
I would assume your running one of those 2 editions.
http://www.solosoft.org/~chris/cdkey.vbs
Download this and put it into your root of C ... then goto run and type "cmd" then type cd \ then simply type cdkey (cdkey)
Without the brackets of course
If it works you should see nothing ... then simply download The Full copy of SP2
It should work like a dream :D activation issues getting you down then you can simply google up on how to remove the activations (it's as easy as a file replacement and a registry entry. Now you find your windows updates don't work ... that's as easy as replacing ONE file ... google the rest up or if you want i'll tell you how to do both. -
It's the support costs.
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Re:Genuine Advantage is evil
Totally agree, a Volume License Key is no defense against the WGA... as this story shows. Microsoft even admit they have problems.
The department of education here in NZ did a deal with microsoft so they basically have a country-wide enterprise agreement with MS, where the schools gets all the software free...
My father is responsible for administering the "computer lab" at the local intermediate school, and they recently got 20 brand spanking new machines, all with VLK's... 1 of these brand new machines suddenly decided it was an illegal copy and started spitting out the 'illegal copy' messages. Thats some quality software you got right there
:PI will not be splashing out and taking my chances on the Vista/WGA 'Wheel of Fortune'(tm)... might be good for the adrenaline junkie/gambling addicts tho... perhaps they should have called it "Vegas", because it seems to be a bit of a lottery as to whether or not WGA is going to work for you!
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Re:Minimal battery use?
You can read about it here. The Sideshow idea is designed to support a multitude of devices with different power, display and processing capabilities. The sideshow device manufacturers can define what their device is capable of, and then vista provides the information.
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Re:Heard this before?First of all, Windows Activate *has* reduced the piracy it was intended to reduce. It was never meant to keep everybody from pirating Windows. It was meant to keep the casual "oh, sure, here is my Windows CD" type of pirate. And it works perfectly. See this KB article.
MPA helps reduce casual copying by making sure that the copy of the product that is being installed is valid and that it has been installed on the computer in accordance with the product's EULA. Installations that are not compliant with the EULA are not activated.
Second of all, one thing we've definitly heard over and over is how various anti-piracy measures will surely frustrate consumers to the point of switching to free alternatives. Except that it hasn't happened. And, very likely, it won't happen.
Windows Activation was never a big deal for all but a very, very vocal minority of users. Microsoft's policy has always been to give the user the benefit of the doubt when they call in to complain that their copy of Windows won't activate. In almost every scenario they just give you a key. In fact, the average length of a call to activate (or deal with an activation problem) your copy of Windows is between 2 and 3 minutes. OH THE HORROR!
Furthermore, dispite the predictions of rampant failure of the activation mechanisms due to hardware changes in user's machines, activation rarely rears its head after the initial prompt.
I suspect things will be just as smooth with Vista. Microsoft has no desire to piss off users. That's the last thing they want to do. But it's a constant battle with pirates, and as long as there is a net gain in the number of people using legal copies (or, rather, a net gain in $$$ as a result), they'll keep doing it. -
Re:Oh... Perfect.
except that support for XP runs out just a few months after Vista comes out.
Windows XP sp 2 loses support 5 years after its release date OR 2 years after its predecessors release. Whichever is longer. The end of life policy is right here.
I'm no fanboi, but that statement isn't accurate. -
Announcement
Here is the official announcement made today by MS, if anyone cares.
:P -
Re:Easy to write a negative book
Any ass monkey can right a book of criticisms... I would like to see his attempt at a software development methodology that is better.
It is highly unlikely that there will be a particular methodology that magically makes things better, but certainly there are things you can do to make things better. Two major hurdles in software quality are "building the right product" and "building the product right". That is, is what you are planning to build what the users want, and is what you're actually building the same as what you're planning. There's no magic methodlogy, but spending some time thinking how to best answer those questions for your particular piece of software can go a long way toward lifting the quality. The first question, ultimately, is the hardest - working out what you need to build involves wheedling the details out of the customer. You can do things like acceptance testing, or try an agile rapid feedback approach, but that isn't always applicable, and it isn't necessarily going to get you the right answers.
The other side of the issue is a little easier, presuming you're willing to expend a little effort. At the most basic level there is testing - whether that is direct testing from a testing department, unit testing, or automated random testing (like quickcheck or AutoTest). Alternatively you can step up to extended static checking tools like ESC/Java2 or Spec# which use automated theorem provers to try and find potential errors, effectively testing all possible inputs - they can't always find errors, but they can find a great many that testing won't. In the end though all of these, even the most basic testing, require you to be able to specify what it is you are trying to build (see the first paragraph). The more preceisely you can specify that, the more powerful the testing you can do to verify that you're building what you intend. That means the quality of verification is up to the quality of the validation - how well you know whether you are building what you want, depends on how well you know what you want to build. -
Guys
Someone submit a story about the new Vista antipiracy measures instead of this.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/o ct06/10-04SoftwareProtection.mspx -
this is not new...
this is just an implementation of the windows sideshow technology shown atleast over a year ago by microsoft. more info here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/fo
r everyone/sideshow.mspx -
Re:Microsoft phone?! Never seen one
those are just the smartphones. there are also the pocket pc phones which run windows as well.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devices/poc ketpc/phone/americas.mspx -
Re:Too bad you have to be root.
that is more due to limitations on NTFS and FAT* than self protection
unix filesystems can delete an in-use file and only physically remove it when it is no longer in use, windows cannot do that. hence having to reboot for so many updates and some configuration changes (such as changing host name)
Windows has been capable of deleting in-use files for the last 5 years (i.e., since XP was launched). Applications, however, are able to prevent open files from being deleted by specifying appropriate locking flags when they open them. See CreateFile and search for FILE_SHARE_DELETE. -
Microsoft phone?! Never seen one
Will it really be this easy to wean myself from the Microsoft mobile teat?
Microsoft phone is a rarity. It's the Symbian-OS which is the majority.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS
Microsoft lists ten models with Windows Mobile (in Americas)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devices/sma rtphone/americas.mspx -
Re:Probably none.
UAC does not require ctrl+alt+del, does it?
No, but the little "Allow" button on the UAC prompt can only be touched by objects that alleady have "root-level" access to the system. A device, like a keyboard or mouse are examples. I don't know the technical details behind it but I've read that it the same mechanism that requires you to press crtl+alt+delete to get the logon prompt in Windows. You could probably manipulate the UAC prompt via sofwtare, but that software would already have to have the admin token to do so.
Also, everything but the password dialog should be blanked out.
Exactly. You cannot do ANYTHING else but answer the UAC prompt when it comes up, and only an object that allready had system access can answer it. Like I said, you've just described UAC in Vista.
Here a link that explains exactly what UAC does in a little more detail..
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/libr ary/0d75f774-8514-4c9e-ac08-4c21f5c6c2d9.mspx -
Re:Hmmm
At my work (we are part of an institution with upwards of a hundred thousand seats) the monthly fee paid for an Exchange account confers the right to download and use Microsoft Outlook 2003 for free. It does not include the right to download and use Microsoft Entourage 2004.
Wow, either someone in your IT department is lying or very incompetent. If you are getting Microsoft Outlook 2003, then you are also getting Exchange 2004. Microsoft states it on their own web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/howtobuy/enterpr ise.mspx/
From the web site:
The Exchange Server 2003 user CAL is required for each user gaining access to the server and entitles access rights to both editions of Exchange Server. Each Exchange Server 2003 CAL also includes Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac and permits access from Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, Exchange ActiveSync, or any standard Internet-messaging client.
The only thing I can think of preventing you from receiving Entourage 2004 is if your company has older client access licenses (Exchange/Outlook 2000) and they are using their Outlook 2003 licenses bundled with MS Office 2003, rather than the software licenses provided with Exchange. Even then, that's a stretch, as Microsoft usually allows you to update the Outlook/Entourage clients even though the server and the CAL's might be an older version.
It's true that Entourage isn't provided as a download from Microsoft. At the same time, I've never seen a place to download Outlook from either. Instead, they come on a CD with the Exchange software, and updates are sent via CD to the Exchange server admin.
Finally, for a company as large as you describe (you stated 100,000 seats for Exchange), I find it hard to believe that you do not have Microsoft Office for Mac installed on any of your computers for compatibility with the rest of your company, and if you have Microsoft Office 2004, then you have Entourage 2004 to use. The older version Office/Entourage X, will work with your Exchange servers as long as they have SMTP/IMAP turned on. -
Re:I have to ask...
this is half wrong. wine is not an emulator, sure. but the win32api runs on more than just x86. not all windows binaries are x86 binaries.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/ntwrkstn/ reskit/archi.mspx
> Windows NT runs on ... Intel 486 or higher processors, MIPS R4000, Digital Alpha AXP, or PowerPC processors. -
Re:The "grandma market" is smaller by the day.
I'm not sure this is true. Lots of home users want to be able to open documents that they might get emailed, or find on the web.
There are two ways to handle that:
- Tell people to stop mailing you data that's locked up in a proprietary format. (Before OpenOffice, this was what RMS and his acolytes were telling everybody. Maybe it still is.)
- Use one of the viewers Microsoft makes available for its files (anyone know if these work under Wine?).
-
Re:Coverage
There are people that create software, beta test software, classify images, submit bug reports and do a whole host of things that benefit companies. They do it for a wide variety of reasons. One of the best reasons is because often when we help, we are making the world we live in a better place to live and we are helping ourselves.
-
Great hardware platforms...
...deserve great software. I hope it's not been locked down too tightly so that we'll be able to replace the firmware.
What do we know about the Zune? Well, the first generation at least is apparently a rebadged Toshiba Gigabeat media player.
The rumors are that it runs Windows Mobile on a 400MHz DSP processor. This isn't strictly true because Windows Mobile doesn't run on DSP's - it only runs on ARM / XScale CPU's. However the Zune is likely to be similar to its close cousin the Gigabeat S. This uses the Freescale i.MX31 CPU. This is a 533MHz ARM11. It's not a huge leap of the imagination to think they'll use the same cpu or at least very close. If MS chose Toshiba as a partner for this its more than likely its because of their existing working product is a good starting point.
Given that, it's at least plausible you'll be able to run linux on the CPU. The only problem is hinted at in the FCC pics with the yellow sticker on the PCB stating "Fuse Blown". If you look at the it appears to have an eFuse on board making it as much a pain to re-flash as the Xbox. We'll see what happens I guess...
~Pev -
Bah
When I was a kid, the only video game episodes we had were photosensitive episodes.
And we LIKED IT. -
HOTMAIL thinks Vista is unfairIn other news, MSIMN.EXE -- aka Windows Mail, nee Outlook Express --
"no longer supports the HTTP servers used by Hotmail" under Vista
as of June 19, 2006 according to Knowledge Base.For further information you are advised to join here.
Microsoft's Hotmail employees are downright LIVE about Vista. -
GNAA campaign against PHP and ZEND bears fruitImpi - Diplomatic Corp, South Africa
The ongoing war against PHP by the GNAA has finally produced results that are a step in the right direction. GNAA have been aggressively involved in a campaign to educate the public at large about the tremendous control that MOSSAD has over the development of PHP and the subsequent clandestine information gathering technology that has been implemented by Jewish developers.
The co-founders of Zend, the PHP Company, Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans are known Israeli MOSSAD agents; they were recruited by MOSSAD during their formative years at the Israel Institute of Technology.
On Friday, 28 July 2006, Jani Taskinen, aka _sniper_ resigned from the PHP development team.
<_sniper_> FYI: I don't care at all what anybody thinks about me. I'm going to be openly anti-Israel from now on. This was the last straw for me. Fuck you Jews. <_sniper_> I will also quit this project. As long as it's backed by some Israel company, I don't want to have anything to do with it. <_sniper_> Good bye.
This was a direct result of the ongoing war against Hezbollah which has been backed by the USA and primarily been driven by the information gathering technologies embedded in PHP by Zend.
Several GNAA members who were also part of the PHP development team have also resigned in solidarity with Jani Taskinen.
timecop, the glorious president of the GNAA has reacted in the wake of these events by extending an invitation of honorary lifetime GNAA membership to _sniper_, for having courage in his convictions.
GNAA official website, located at http://www.gnaa.us/ is powered by Microsoft Internet Information Services and ASP.NET, running on INTEL hardware.
About Zend
Zend is an Israeli funded body that is controlled by MOSSAD.
About PHP
Crap.
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