Some of these questions have already been covered but listed below is a list I've been saving for just such a meeting.
Mike Honeycutt
==============
1. Is the service free with advertisements? How much screen
space does the ads take? Other costs (conversion, yrly maintainence, etc.)?
How long is it "free"? 2. What is the quota and how is it enforced? 3. Is there any backup/restore option if a message is deleted? 4. Are the advertisements targeted to keywords in
each email? If so, what is Microsoft's privacy policy? 5. Who do you call with problems? What is response time? 24/7 support? 6. Assume spam/virus checking is included? 7. Are certain attachments blocked? 8. How long can students keep the account once they
graduate/drop out? 9. How easy is it to get out of the service? How do you
get the (gigabytes?) of old mail if you bring the
service back in house? How do you get the *gigabytes* of
existing mail on the new service? 10. Is IMAP and POP supported? 11. What happens when students leave for summer
and their quotes become overdrawn? 12. Are there FERPA issues? 13. Do you have options for campus-wide email
distribution lists (all students, all faculty, etc.)? 14. Is there Exchange-type options - shared calendars, task lists, etc.
for Outlook users? 15. Who does the RIAA, Secret Service, etc. contact if they
have questions about emails being sent from a student's address? 16. How do you get the student names to them? Format? How long to setup? 17. Finally, why choose the Microsoft solution over the Google solution? 18. What browsers will it not work with? 19. How are password changes handled? 20. When are email accounts (and messages) deleted? 21. Students only? Faculty, Staff, Alumns, Retirees? 22. Name changes (marriage, divorce) and re-admits (is original email address still available?). 23. Can students forward their mail to another server (hotmail)? 24. Black list - if UNCA.google is banned, how to resolve
Change: 1. Versions - having only one version of Windows (with the ability to install only the options I use) would be easier to maintain and market by Microsoft. 2. Consistency - after all these decades, can't we all agree that the right mouse button will *always* work, the search key is F4, etc.? Likewise, check the entries on the right-click menu to make sure they have all the available options for that item (as in, why would anyone want to print a directory listing while managing files in Explorer?). 3. Cloning - why is moving my Windows setup (OS/software) to a new computer with different hardware just one step below voodoo? People get new PCs so make it easy to move everything (including settings) to the new box. 4. Multiple Cores - I can't find any articles on how Windows uses multiple cores. I manually set the affinity/priority and get better results. Once again, Steve Jobs is leading the effort as if Microsoft didn't get the memo that 95% of the new PCs have multiple cores. Feel free to educate me on this if I'm missing something. 5. Flash Partitions - flash drive capacities are exploding, and I still can't partition the flash drive and have Windows recognize anything above one partition. 6. Drivers - I don't think I've ever had "Search online for new hardware driver" work. This seems like an easy way to get around some of Vista's driver issues. BTW, how about knowing that my "USA super-duper" video card can, in a pinch, use the same driver as "XYZ China Clone" video card since they are made by the same company? 7. System Restore - I want this to work in the real world. I've never seen it work from a serious crash. Likewise, the "Last Known Good Configuration" in Safe Mode has been useless to me. 8. DLL Hell - Why can't I easily move a program from one directory to another? Between scattered DLLs and registry entries, this is almost always impossible. 9. Innovate, Don't Duplicate - I don't have a beef with Apple but you'd think Apple has the greatest minds in computing. As they've proven repeatedly, Apple has smart employees, but more importantly, they have Steve Jobs. Microsoft needs an evangelist (and it is not Balmer) who can wow a crowd. Likewise, I can only imagine the efforts it takes to get a cool, new feature added to Windows. I picture committee after committee and months and months of effort. 10. Skunk Works - the concept of hiding a group of employees in a separate location, giving them lots of money and no bureaucracy leads to greatness. 11. Piracy - since Bill Gates had his first BASIC compiler stolen, there has always been pirates. I've yet to see an anti-piracy scheme that hasn't quickly been defeated. It becomes a game for hackers and an annoyance for legitimate users. Piracy will be largely dented by only charging $50 for the OS and with gentle reminders the OS/software has not been registered.
Stop Changing List: 1. Stop moving things around - It makes supporting people over the phone difficult and just confuses everyone. Notice how the items in Control Panel change with each new version of Windows. Why? Notice how "Documents and Settings" is now "Users" in Vista. Why? 2. Names - is it officially called the "Notification Tray", the "Notification Area", or my own name "Lower right corner of the screen where the time is showing"? This is classic bureaucracy behavior where someone is bored or protecting his/her job and changes things for no reason.
Simply put, politicians can't be trusted to get us off oil. Something this important needs all of our eyes and brains. How about this:
1. For two years, everyone - Big Oil, Uncle Joe, Crazy Mary who walks sideways, etc. - is allowed to experiment and submit proposals for reducing our dependency on oil by 25% in 10 years and 100% in 25 years. The deadline is two years away and for the effort, the person/company with the best solution get 1% of profits - forever.
2. All the proposals are posted on the Internet. We yell at each other, question each other's motives, listen to experts, become experts ourselves and in the end, vote for five of the most promising projects and test the concepts for the next year. Detailed monthly web updates are required.
3. Year three: we pick the best solution and we DO IT.
4. To convert the infrastructure will take money so each of us is taxed an additional 1%. Every dime is accounted for on the web of course.
I, for one, am tired of seeing the oil profits used by madmen, seeing young people die on foreign soil, and seeing the pollution. Stop gap measures are not acceptable - 25% use of alternative fuels still means 75% on oil. Oil prices will plummet but that shouldn't stop us.
Mike Honeycutt
Slashdot Mirror
Some of these questions have already been covered
but listed below is a list I've been saving for
just such a meeting.
Mike Honeycutt
==============
1. Is the service free with advertisements? How much screen
space does the ads take? Other costs (conversion, yrly maintainence, etc.)?
How long is it "free"?
2. What is the quota and how is it enforced?
3. Is there any backup/restore option if a message is deleted?
4. Are the advertisements targeted to keywords in
each email? If so, what is Microsoft's privacy policy?
5. Who do you call with problems? What is response time? 24/7 support?
6. Assume spam/virus checking is included?
7. Are certain attachments blocked?
8. How long can students keep the account once they
graduate/drop out?
9. How easy is it to get out of the service? How do you
get the (gigabytes?) of old mail if you bring the
service back in house? How do you get the *gigabytes* of
existing mail on the new service?
10. Is IMAP and POP supported?
11. What happens when students leave for summer
and their quotes become overdrawn?
12. Are there FERPA issues?
13. Do you have options for campus-wide email
distribution lists (all students, all faculty, etc.)?
14. Is there Exchange-type options - shared calendars, task lists, etc.
for Outlook users?
15. Who does the RIAA, Secret Service, etc. contact if they
have questions about emails being sent from a student's address?
16. How do you get the student names to them? Format? How long to setup?
17. Finally, why choose the Microsoft solution over the Google solution?
18. What browsers will it not work with?
19. How are password changes handled?
20. When are email accounts (and messages) deleted?
21. Students only? Faculty, Staff, Alumns, Retirees?
22. Name changes (marriage, divorce) and re-admits (is original email
address still available?).
23. Can students forward their mail to another server (hotmail)?
24. Black list - if UNCA.google is banned, how to resolve
Good comments. I'd add/agree with:
Change:
1. Versions - having only one version of Windows (with the ability to install only the options I use) would be easier to maintain and market by Microsoft.
2. Consistency - after all these decades, can't we all agree that the right mouse button will *always* work, the search key is F4, etc.? Likewise, check the entries on the right-click menu to make sure they have all the available options for that item (as in, why would anyone want to print a directory listing while managing files in Explorer?).
3. Cloning - why is moving my Windows setup (OS/software) to a new computer with different hardware just one step below voodoo? People get new PCs so make it easy to move everything (including settings) to the new box.
4. Multiple Cores - I can't find any articles on how Windows uses multiple cores. I manually set the affinity/priority and get better results. Once again, Steve Jobs is leading the effort as if Microsoft didn't get the memo that 95% of the new PCs have multiple cores. Feel free to educate me on this if I'm missing something.
5. Flash Partitions - flash drive capacities are exploding, and I still can't partition the flash drive and have Windows recognize anything above one partition.
6. Drivers - I don't think I've ever had "Search online for new hardware driver" work. This seems like an easy way to get around some of Vista's driver issues. BTW, how about knowing that my "USA super-duper" video card can, in a pinch, use the same driver as "XYZ China Clone" video card since they are made by the same company?
7. System Restore - I want this to work in the real world. I've never seen it work from a serious crash. Likewise, the "Last Known Good Configuration" in Safe Mode has been useless to me.
8. DLL Hell - Why can't I easily move a program from one directory to another? Between scattered DLLs and registry entries, this is almost always impossible.
9. Innovate, Don't Duplicate - I don't have a beef with Apple but you'd think Apple has the greatest minds in computing. As they've proven repeatedly, Apple has smart employees, but more importantly, they have Steve Jobs. Microsoft needs an evangelist (and it is not Balmer) who can wow a crowd. Likewise, I can only imagine the efforts it takes to get a cool, new feature added to Windows. I picture committee after committee and months and months of effort.
10. Skunk Works - the concept of hiding a group of employees in a separate location, giving them lots of money and no bureaucracy leads to greatness.
11. Piracy - since Bill Gates had his first BASIC compiler stolen, there has always been pirates. I've yet to see an anti-piracy scheme that hasn't quickly been defeated. It becomes a game for hackers and an annoyance for legitimate users. Piracy will be largely dented by only charging $50 for the OS and with gentle reminders the OS/software has not been registered.
Stop Changing List:
1. Stop moving things around - It makes supporting people over the phone difficult and just confuses everyone. Notice how the items in Control Panel change with each new version of Windows. Why? Notice how "Documents and Settings" is now "Users" in Vista. Why?
2. Names - is it officially called the "Notification Tray", the "Notification Area", or my own name "Lower right corner of the screen where the time is showing"? This is classic bureaucracy behavior where someone is bored or protecting his/her job and changes things for no reason.
Mike Honeycutt
Simply put, politicians can't be trusted to get us off oil. Something this important needs all of our eyes and brains. How about this: 1. For two years, everyone - Big Oil, Uncle Joe, Crazy Mary who walks sideways, etc. - is allowed to experiment and submit proposals for reducing our dependency on oil by 25% in 10 years and 100% in 25 years. The deadline is two years away and for the effort, the person/company with the best solution get 1% of profits - forever. 2. All the proposals are posted on the Internet. We yell at each other, question each other's motives, listen to experts, become experts ourselves and in the end, vote for five of the most promising projects and test the concepts for the next year. Detailed monthly web updates are required. 3. Year three: we pick the best solution and we DO IT. 4. To convert the infrastructure will take money so each of us is taxed an additional 1%. Every dime is accounted for on the web of course. I, for one, am tired of seeing the oil profits used by madmen, seeing young people die on foreign soil, and seeing the pollution. Stop gap measures are not acceptable - 25% use of alternative fuels still means 75% on oil. Oil prices will plummet but that shouldn't stop us. Mike Honeycutt