I absolutely agree -- we have Outlook templates that didn't work after upgrading to MS Office 2007, Excel formulas which required changes etc. I didn't point this out because you have these types of incompatibilities with a lot of software upgrades. What makes it special for MS products is the dependencies.
As a practical example, we are migrating from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2010. That requires a 2008 domain which means a domain upgrade. Office 2010 (Outlook) won't work with Exchange 2000 so we've upgraded to Office 2007. Our older version of Sharepoint supposedly will work and in fact we want to upgrade it as part of all this but there's no clear upgrade path from our free version.
I didn't mention the Office format changes and extension changes. So it's a dependency hell in several ways.
You're right that I haven't dealt with the government, and perhaps I am naive in thinking that they are like a very large business in many ways. There were/are many places that standardized on Lotus Notes, or on Wordperfect Office, or on other office systems, and we have all heard or experienced the pains they had migrating away from those systems. I'd like to think that lessons learned from using a tool that's incompatible with the rest of the industry / addons which only work with this specific tool would be important to consider, and that moving away from such a platform piecemeal as it could be done would be an important goal, if for no other reason that saving money is an important goal for most modern businesses.
Granted, these are governmental organizations and their wheels turn slowly. And it's not their money they're spending, it's ours. Perhaps I'm guilty of being naive in thinking that this could be accomplished over time.
Why should I pay an IT consultant / IT department 1000's when I can do something that meets my needs in 10 minutes.
I think that may be why you're viewing it this way. It sounds as if you work in a small business, and in that case this usage may make sense. In larger corporations you have to deal with things such as multiple users accessing the same spreadsheet simultaneously, users creating macros that work albeit in a disruptive way, etc. In these larger corporations, data tends to be warehoused centrally where it's scrubbed and formed as needed, and distributed to users in various ways. In places I've worked, the solution would be to provide the analyst with the data they need in whatever interface makes the most sense... but it most certainly would not involve anyone querying a spreadsheet every minute. Excel isn't a dashboard app.
I remember looking up how I could have a spreadsheet link to another spreadsheet and auto-update every minute
But... why would you want to do that? Even an AJAX query would be more efficient. Even MS Access would seem to be a better solution. Spreadsheets aren't databases.
...in my particular agency we have multiple major commercially written systems covering about 90% of the business staff which rely on [Microsoft] Office integration to do rather important things like generate documents--so anything that doesn't involve [Microsoft] Office is just not going to work because we'd have to have Office anyway.
It seems someone has made a decision to purchase or create systems which only work with Microsoft Office (I can't tell if "commercially written systems" means custom programming or not). That in itself -- putting all your eggs in one basket -- seems foolish, especially for a large government agency. It gives the vendor too much leverage, forcing you into whatever solution the vendor creates at whatever price the vendor charges.
As far as your upgrade costs, I'm willing to bet you're -- we're -- paying annual support & upgrades, Software Assurance etc that more than pays for each new version that comes out of Redmond. I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed that our tax money gets wasted like this.
Please explain why this news item is news, and why after (how many years?) Microsoft hasn't managed to fix the virus problems on the Windows platform. When you need a monthly "malicious software removal tool" I think it's a big sign that things are out of control.
We've heard for years that it's because of marketshare that Macs don't have virus issues. Mac users still don't have virus issues -- although sure this is a flaw in Java (a piece of third-party software not installed / enabled by default on any recent Mac) and has since been corrected.
If, in the future, Macs begin to really get viruses then Mac users will purchase and use AV software just like Windows users. It's just not a big threat right now, and that's why this whole thing is news.
The whole point of this article is that there are now a couple of ways for a Mac to be infected. You might ask yourself, "Why is that news?", and by doing so, you would have your answer on which OS seems to be more secure.
The fact that OS X has now two (or is it three?) known vulnerabilities -- real vulnerabilities not trojans -- which have been subsequently patched, and which did not affect out-of-the-box Macs (because they don't ship with Java installed / enabled), is an absolutely huge difference from the Windows platform along with Microsoft's feeble attempts to distribute a monthly "Malicious software removal tool" to counteract the severe problems there.
Sure, at some point, Macs may have real virus problems, but for now it's not widespread and it's not severe and there isn't the level of imminent danger that there is with Windows. Much like the state of Linux virus protection, I might add.
If you're behind several models (I suspect the newest iPhone you could have is an iPhone 3G which came out almost 4 years ago; compare models here), it's similar to a security patch for Windows 7 that is not available for Windows XP. With the iPhone, and mainly because of substantial hardware upgrades in newer models, replacing the unit is required to continue to receive support and updates. Apple's pretty good about updates, though, approx 3 years.
IOS5 was a large upgrade that took advantage of the newer hardware. In my personal experience, my iPhone 3GS with IOS5 is noticeably slower at several things than an iPhone 4. Just like it's quite a bit slower than an iPad 1. An iPad 2 is incredibly zippy compared to my phone. Going down the hardware line, my iPod Touch 2G is so slow that even if Apple allowed it to run IOS5 it would be such a terrible experience I would hate it. It just doesn't have the "horsepower".
I will be happy to see this situation come to a close. Would like it better if the whole patent system were reworked, but I will take a small amount of progress any day. It's a bad thing that corporations use bludgeons because if you don't you get beaten down. Restore some sanity in the process, please!
I've seen a few videos of it, but I have not tried it out personally. A few of my coworkers are trying it out. It's enough for them to tell me it's not ready. When they think it's ready, I may investigate... but it's far more likely that I will skip it and go with Windows 9 or whatever it's called. Or move to Windows 7 and then stay there for awhile... not that I've seen anything in Windows 7 that would speed my work, that upgrade would be because of the support EOL.
The move from Windows Server 2003 R2 to 2008 R2 was an abrupt shift. SQL Server 2000 to 2008 R2 even more so. IMHO it seems like things are being complicated for no apparent reason.
Call me a curmudgeon, but I've been at this since well before Windows 1.0 and I've seen a lot of things change, some not for the better. I do not jump at each new version as it appears, I wait for the service pack and the workarounds. YMMV, and it's great to have a hobby and play with the shiny, but although this is a free download, my time is very expensive and also precious to me. I don't have time to get excited about WinFS again.
The fact that Apple does things differently than everyone else is "all your fault".
You're going to love Windows 8, it's so similar to what you already know! (Well, except for the GUI and the control panel and system logs and oh wait how do you shut it down...)
It's like every major OS vendor is trying to see how far they can differentiate themselves... Windows 8... Mountain Lion... Unity.
Having a couple of choices would be beneficial, rather than having users possibly forgo the upgrade to migrate to another system because they dislike the UI. Especially when the UI is the thing that most users interact with most. Especially if there are no other official "editions" or window managers available.
You don't have to get extreme with options, but clearly some people are going to want to see more things on-screen simultaneously than others. Oh well, guess we will have to see how that plays out.
You hold the grudge until the misdeeds are corrected. Their rootkit caused me a lot of hours and effort to reinstall everything, redo my settings etc as I could not be sure that any backup I had was not compromised. There was never a real apology, and no promises were ever made to avoid this in the future. No one from Sony fixed the problem they caused and no one from Sony was appropriately punished.
YMMV and all that, but I'm getting fastest results (42-43 fps) with canvas under Firefox 12 / Snow Leopard (there is an update I haven't applied yet, it just showed up). This is not a new machine by any standard -- it's a 2007 Core 2 Duo 2.4 MBP. I'm running Parallels with a Windows XP VM while testing, and I've got 2 X11 rdesktop sessions open (IOW if I wasn't at work and could close out everything, my results would probably be faster).
I get roughly the same under Flash, but it's very jumpy, with swings from 38-45 but returning to around 41 after the swings. You can feel the system under higher load once Flash starts up, but I don't see that with canvas.
At 42-43 fps, canvas is very usable for me on my older computer.
RIM will probably be gone in 18 months or less... if they aren't bought out by someone wanting their patents before that time. Their losses are too much, they are too behind technologocally, and they've now scared anyone who was thinking of investing in their devices or platform. No one wants to sink with someone else's ship.
Why on earth would someone want to go with RIM when both Android and iPhone platforms are thriving and expanding daily?
Our salespeople and several executives have returned brand-new Blackberries provided by the company over the past year because they've bought their own iPhones and Androids. They actually paid for the new phones themselves, they disliked the Blackberry so much. Our remaining people who have Blackberries are evenly divided between those that curse them regularly and those who don't care one way or the other.
YMMV and all that... but if others feel the same way, want more / better apps, want a better web browser, want to be able to open more file attachments, etc etc, then Android / iPhone are the only real solutions available. Not to mention all this uproar at RIM makes future investment in them seem unwise.
I already don't comment on most sites which require a login (/. is an exception) -- but I can't even imagine wanting to link my personal social media account with a commenting account. What a horrible idea.
The privacy issues alone are a big deal, but sometimes you want to say something that you can't have directly linked back to yourself (for various reasons). I'm not defending criminal activity or hate speech, but I could think of examples where expressing your view could cause issues because of your religion / country of residence / association with others etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I absolutely agree -- we have Outlook templates that didn't work after upgrading to MS Office 2007, Excel formulas which required changes etc. I didn't point this out because you have these types of incompatibilities with a lot of software upgrades. What makes it special for MS products is the dependencies.
As a practical example, we are migrating from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2010. That requires a 2008 domain which means a domain upgrade. Office 2010 (Outlook) won't work with Exchange 2000 so we've upgraded to Office 2007. Our older version of Sharepoint supposedly will work and in fact we want to upgrade it as part of all this but there's no clear upgrade path from our free version.
I didn't mention the Office format changes and extension changes. So it's a dependency hell in several ways.
Apple only blocked app updates / new apps using this, it didn't cut off existing users. It's a poor title designed to generate page hits.
You're right that I haven't dealt with the government, and perhaps I am naive in thinking that they are like a very large business in many ways. There were/are many places that standardized on Lotus Notes, or on Wordperfect Office, or on other office systems, and we have all heard or experienced the pains they had migrating away from those systems. I'd like to think that lessons learned from using a tool that's incompatible with the rest of the industry / addons which only work with this specific tool would be important to consider, and that moving away from such a platform piecemeal as it could be done would be an important goal, if for no other reason that saving money is an important goal for most modern businesses.
Granted, these are governmental organizations and their wheels turn slowly. And it's not their money they're spending, it's ours. Perhaps I'm guilty of being naive in thinking that this could be accomplished over time.
Why should I pay an IT consultant / IT department 1000's when I can do something that meets my needs in 10 minutes.
I think that may be why you're viewing it this way. It sounds as if you work in a small business, and in that case this usage may make sense. In larger corporations you have to deal with things such as multiple users accessing the same spreadsheet simultaneously, users creating macros that work albeit in a disruptive way, etc. In these larger corporations, data tends to be warehoused centrally where it's scrubbed and formed as needed, and distributed to users in various ways. In places I've worked, the solution would be to provide the analyst with the data they need in whatever interface makes the most sense... but it most certainly would not involve anyone querying a spreadsheet every minute. Excel isn't a dashboard app.
I remember looking up how I could have a spreadsheet link to another spreadsheet and auto-update every minute
But... why would you want to do that? Even an AJAX query would be more efficient. Even MS Access would seem to be a better solution. Spreadsheets aren't databases.
...in my particular agency we have multiple major commercially written systems covering about 90% of the business staff which rely on [Microsoft] Office integration to do rather important things like generate documents--so anything that doesn't involve [Microsoft] Office is just not going to work because we'd have to have Office anyway.
It seems someone has made a decision to purchase or create systems which only work with Microsoft Office (I can't tell if "commercially written systems" means custom programming or not). That in itself -- putting all your eggs in one basket -- seems foolish, especially for a large government agency. It gives the vendor too much leverage, forcing you into whatever solution the vendor creates at whatever price the vendor charges.
As far as your upgrade costs, I'm willing to bet you're -- we're -- paying annual support & upgrades, Software Assurance etc that more than pays for each new version that comes out of Redmond. I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed that our tax money gets wasted like this.
I see what you did there...
Please explain why this news item is news, and why after (how many years?) Microsoft hasn't managed to fix the virus problems on the Windows platform. When you need a monthly "malicious software removal tool" I think it's a big sign that things are out of control.
We've heard for years that it's because of marketshare that Macs don't have virus issues. Mac users still don't have virus issues -- although sure this is a flaw in Java (a piece of third-party software not installed / enabled by default on any recent Mac) and has since been corrected.
If, in the future, Macs begin to really get viruses then Mac users will purchase and use AV software just like Windows users. It's just not a big threat right now, and that's why this whole thing is news.
The whole point of this article is that there are now a couple of ways for a Mac to be infected. You might ask yourself, "Why is that news?", and by doing so, you would have your answer on which OS seems to be more secure.
The fact that OS X has now two (or is it three?) known vulnerabilities -- real vulnerabilities not trojans -- which have been subsequently patched, and which did not affect out-of-the-box Macs (because they don't ship with Java installed / enabled), is an absolutely huge difference from the Windows platform along with Microsoft's feeble attempts to distribute a monthly "Malicious software removal tool" to counteract the severe problems there.
Sure, at some point, Macs may have real virus problems, but for now it's not widespread and it's not severe and there isn't the level of imminent danger that there is with Windows. Much like the state of Linux virus protection, I might add.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/21/mac_os_x_lion_security/
http://blog.laptopmag.com/mac-os-x-lion-vs-windows-7-which-is-better/9
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/Apple-Mac-OS-X-Lion-Bests-Microsoft-Windows-7-10-Reasons-Why-647298/ (slide 4)
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/lions-upgraded-robust-security-features/
I think you get the point... all of these I found on the first 2 pages by Googling "lion security vs windows 7".
If you're behind several models (I suspect the newest iPhone you could have is an iPhone 3G which came out almost 4 years ago; compare models here), it's similar to a security patch for Windows 7 that is not available for Windows XP. With the iPhone, and mainly because of substantial hardware upgrades in newer models, replacing the unit is required to continue to receive support and updates. Apple's pretty good about updates, though, approx 3 years.
IOS5 was a large upgrade that took advantage of the newer hardware. In my personal experience, my iPhone 3GS with IOS5 is noticeably slower at several things than an iPhone 4. Just like it's quite a bit slower than an iPad 1. An iPad 2 is incredibly zippy compared to my phone. Going down the hardware line, my iPod Touch 2G is so slow that even if Apple allowed it to run IOS5 it would be such a terrible experience I would hate it. It just doesn't have the "horsepower".
I will be happy to see this situation come to a close. Would like it better if the whole patent system were reworked, but I will take a small amount of progress any day. It's a bad thing that corporations use bludgeons because if you don't you get beaten down. Restore some sanity in the process, please!
I've seen a few videos of it, but I have not tried it out personally. A few of my coworkers are trying it out. It's enough for them to tell me it's not ready. When they think it's ready, I may investigate... but it's far more likely that I will skip it and go with Windows 9 or whatever it's called. Or move to Windows 7 and then stay there for awhile... not that I've seen anything in Windows 7 that would speed my work, that upgrade would be because of the support EOL.
The move from Windows Server 2003 R2 to 2008 R2 was an abrupt shift. SQL Server 2000 to 2008 R2 even more so. IMHO it seems like things are being complicated for no apparent reason.
Call me a curmudgeon, but I've been at this since well before Windows 1.0 and I've seen a lot of things change, some not for the better. I do not jump at each new version as it appears, I wait for the service pack and the workarounds. YMMV, and it's great to have a hobby and play with the shiny, but although this is a free download, my time is very expensive and also precious to me. I don't have time to get excited about WinFS again.
The fact that Apple does things differently than everyone else is "all your fault".
You're going to love Windows 8, it's so similar to what you already know! (Well, except for the GUI and the control panel and system logs and oh wait how do you shut it down...)
It's like every major OS vendor is trying to see how far they can differentiate themselves... Windows 8... Mountain Lion... Unity.
Having a couple of choices would be beneficial, rather than having users possibly forgo the upgrade to migrate to another system because they dislike the UI. Especially when the UI is the thing that most users interact with most. Especially if there are no other official "editions" or window managers available.
You don't have to get extreme with options, but clearly some people are going to want to see more things on-screen simultaneously than others. Oh well, guess we will have to see how that plays out.
You hold the grudge until the misdeeds are corrected. Their rootkit caused me a lot of hours and effort to reinstall everything, redo my settings etc as I could not be sure that any backup I had was not compromised. There was never a real apology, and no promises were ever made to avoid this in the future. No one from Sony fixed the problem they caused and no one from Sony was appropriately punished.
Soooo.... you're supporting Sony because it's convenient for you to do so. Even with the knowledge of their past actions.
Hope it works out for you. I won't give them another dime.
+1 Informative. Thanks for taking the time to be pedantic -- I learned a few things from your efforts.
YMMV and all that, but I'm getting fastest results (42-43 fps) with canvas under Firefox 12 / Snow Leopard (there is an update I haven't applied yet, it just showed up). This is not a new machine by any standard -- it's a 2007 Core 2 Duo 2.4 MBP. I'm running Parallels with a Windows XP VM while testing, and I've got 2 X11 rdesktop sessions open (IOW if I wasn't at work and could close out everything, my results would probably be faster).
I get roughly the same under Flash, but it's very jumpy, with swings from 38-45 but returning to around 41 after the swings. You can feel the system under higher load once Flash starts up, but I don't see that with canvas.
At 42-43 fps, canvas is very usable for me on my older computer.
You can upgrade Tiger to Snow Leopard for $29. I know, I did it. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/27/apples_snow_leopard_disc_will_install_on_tiger_macs.html
We purchase Office 2010 which has downgrade rights for Office 2007.
Another option is to use a Mac with Windows / Linux VM's. That's what I do, YMMV and all that.
RIM will probably be gone in 18 months or less... if they aren't bought out by someone wanting their patents before that time. Their losses are too much, they are too behind technologocally, and they've now scared anyone who was thinking of investing in their devices or platform. No one wants to sink with someone else's ship.
Why on earth would someone want to go with RIM when both Android and iPhone platforms are thriving and expanding daily?
Our salespeople and several executives have returned brand-new Blackberries provided by the company over the past year because they've bought their own iPhones and Androids. They actually paid for the new phones themselves, they disliked the Blackberry so much. Our remaining people who have Blackberries are evenly divided between those that curse them regularly and those who don't care one way or the other.
YMMV and all that... but if others feel the same way, want more / better apps, want a better web browser, want to be able to open more file attachments, etc etc, then Android / iPhone are the only real solutions available. Not to mention all this uproar at RIM makes future investment in them seem unwise.
I already don't comment on most sites which require a login (/. is an exception) -- but I can't even imagine wanting to link my personal social media account with a commenting account. What a horrible idea.
The privacy issues alone are a big deal, but sometimes you want to say something that you can't have directly linked back to yourself (for various reasons). I'm not defending criminal activity or hate speech, but I could think of examples where expressing your view could cause issues because of your religion / country of residence / association with others etc.