September 02, 2005

Even More on WinFS

I'm rather enthused over the new WinFS development. Here is an idea from the WinFS blog that might give you some insight into what WinFS can do.

A couple weeks back, I was sitting down with one of the Microsoft recruiters (Mary) and she was showing me her computer. I was amazed. See, Mary's problem is that she can have days where she has 5 candidates on campus simultaneously in different interview loops that consist of 6+ interviewers each. She also has a long list of candidates that are coming for loops in the next week, all of which require immediate attention. So the net of it is: Mary's mailbox is a nightmare. Throughout the day, she’s getting bombarded by email. She'll get a mail that a candidate missed his interview shuttle and needs to be picked up. Or a candidate got lost and wandered into BillG's office accidentally. So all day long, she sits at her computer and adds followup flags to her mail, just trying to stay one step ahead of the onslaught.

Enter WinFS. Now she goes into her recruiting app and builds a query. She calls it "candidates that are interviewing today". She comes back to her email, and selects "mail related to ” and selects “candidates that are interviewing today" as . She sets her mail app to color that set of messages bright red. And that's it. Each day, the list of "candidates that are interviewing today" gets automatically adjusted, and the right messages in her email are now marked red. And the best part is that the mail app and the recruiting app don’t need to know about each other – they just store items and queries in the filesystem and the other app picks them up and uses them.

I read that and say, "Ya, that's pretty cool." But then suppose you could do this? Suppose with the WinFS system you could come into your office in the morning and pull up a list of all customer you need to call for money? Or pull up a list of all orders scheduled to ship this week that you want to make sure go out the door?

That presumes I understand what WinFS does and I'm not sure of that.

Posted by Ted at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

August 30, 2005

More on WinFS

Microsoft has some more information on the new WinFS system. Click here to watch a video about it. A demo of WinFS starts about 11 minutes into the video. The full video runs about an hour in length.

I have watched about half of the video and I’m not sure I fully understand all the ramifications of WinFS. It looks like a totally new way of looking at what is on your computer. In the past I have always through about files and where they are located. It looks like WinFS sort of takes files apart and lets you see not only what’s inside but to find data there too. It’s sort like a database system that sits on top of the current file storage system.

I would guess it’s going to expand how much space everything takes on a hard drive. But it should make it much easier to find data you are looking for.

Take a view of the video and see if you can figure out what it does and is it a step or leap forward?

Posted by Ted at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2005

Microsoft Releases WinFS Beta

Microsoft, in a surprise move, just released the WinFS file system in beta for users to test. WinFS had been one of the selling points for Longhorn – later called Windows Vista. But Microsoft said that Windows Vista would not have the WinFS files system. It seems they had encountered technical difficulties and could not release it in time. Apparently they resolved some issues to release it now.

I know practically nothing about WinFS except the hype. From what I read it appears to be a smart file storage system for your data. It allows you to more easily and quickly retrieve data from your computer. The WinFS is supposed to be available for both Windows XP and the Windows 2003 servers.

From what I read, it supposed to be the next best thing to sliced bread, but so far I know few details. If it’s as good as they claim, it could be a real blow to Mac.

Posted by Ted at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2005

Adobe Patches An Acrobat Security Hole

CRN has a post about a hole in Adobe Acrobat that Adobe is patching. It seems this vulnerability allows people to insert some malicious code into an Acrobat document. Then when you open that document, the nasty code is released to do its damage.

Sheesh! Is nothing safe?

Make sure you Acrobat is up to date.

Posted by Ted at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2005

Windows Vista Guided Tour

Information Week has an guided tour of Windows Vista. Click here to read the tour.

I think Windows Vista looks pretty cool.

Posted by Ted at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2005

No Internet Explorer 7 for Windows 2000

It seems that Windows 2000 will not be getting the new Internet Explorer 7.0. IE 7 is due out in Beta form shortly and it will only run on Windows XP with Service Pack 2. If you haven't upgraded to XP, I would suggest you do it soon. Windows 2000 is rapidly becoming a dinosaur.

Posted by Ted at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2005

New Windows Version just for POS Terminals

Microsoft has released a new version of Windows XP that is specifically for retail point-of-sale termials. Some of the new features are . . .

The new Windows variant includes retail-specific features such as remote boot, multiuser logon and dual-display support. Microsoft also wrote a plug-and-play software layer that works with a retail software standard for linking terminals to peripherals such as bar code and magnetic stripe readers and two-line displays.

[. . .]

More than 40 companies announced they are developing terminals, peripherals or software that work with the new OS. At least three large POS terminal makers including IBM Corp. said they are working on systems that will use the software.

As I have said before, I don't do retail, but sometimes wonder if I should.

Posted by Ted at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2005

Windows XP Downloads

I know I should be talking about Microsoft Great Plains, but I thought this was too interesting to pass up. I happen to stumble over this the other day. It’s several free downloads that Microsoft has for Windows XP. Just click here to download them.

I have just downloaded and tried the ClearType Tuner. It’s supposed to make reading text on your monitor easier. It says it’s for flat screen monitors, but I have a regular CRT type and I tried it.

I have to say, I think it improved the display. I’m really quite surprised. I recommend you give it a try.

Here’s the list of what they call “Power Toys.”

ClearType Tuner
This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access.

HTML Slide Show Wizard
This wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready to place on your Web site.

Open Command Window Here
This PowerToy adds an "Open Command Window Here" context menu option on file system folders, giving you a quick way to open a command window (cmd.exe) pointing at the selected folder.

Alt-Tab Replacement
With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.

Tweak UI
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.
Version 2.10 requires Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003.

Power Calculator
With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.

Image Resizer
This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.

CD Slide Show Generator
With this PowerToy you can view images burned to a CD as a slide show. The Generator works downlevel on Windows 9x machines as well.

Virtual Desktop Manager
Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy.

Taskbar Magnifier
Use this PowerToy to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar.

Webcam Timershot
This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.

Posted by Ted at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2005

Microsoft releases Updated Windows

Information Week has a post about Microsoft releasing 64-bit versions of its Windows 2003 and Windows XP operating systems. These updated operating systems will support the new processors being released from Intel and AMD.

The new operating systems will boost virtual memory capacity from 4GB to 16 Terabytes (16,000 GB).

I’m not sure how this will affect Microsoft Great Plains. My experience with Microsoft Great Plains is that one of the very large determining factor for performance is how fast you can get data on and off the hard drive. I don’t see how this will address that issue.

Posted by Ted at 01:51 PM

April 21, 2005

Windows 2003 Service Pack 1

Information Week has an article about Service Pack 1 for Windows 2003 Server. The upshot is it breaks 14 software applications – by Microsoft’s count. One of the applications it breaks is Exchange Server 2003. That’s not good.

Ignorance being bliss, I downloaded and installed SP1 on my own server. I had no problems, but I’m not running Exchange – at least not at the moment.

I guess the moral of this story is review the list of known conflicts before you install it. Click here for Microsoft’s testing results.

Posted by Ted at 10:25 AM

April 19, 2005

Just How Old is XP?

I turns out that Windows XP was introduced almost four years ago. The next version, code names Longhorn, is not due out until late 2006. Is is just me or does that seem like a very long time between versions?

Posted by Ted at 08:33 AM

April 15, 2005

Longhorn Update

Information Week has a report on the next version of Windows - Code named "Longhorn". It will be a 64-bit operating system. It is due out the second half of 2006. Just click on the link to read the article.

Posted by Ted at 04:46 PM

April 13, 2005

Microsoft releases Data Protection Manager (DPM)

Information Week has an article about Microsoft's new Data Protection Manager. It backs up to disk instead of tape. It gives you near continue backup of your files.

This release (beta) only backs up Windows file servers. Future releases will back up SQL Server and Exchange.

I’m very interested to see how the SQL one will work.

I recently put up a new server. I agonized for quite a while as to how I would back it up. I settled for an external USB hard driver. My backup needs are rather modest, but I’m still backing up about 20GB of data. The 200 GB USB hard drive holds several days’ worth of backups. I only back up important data. My feeling is I’ll be re-installing the Operating System anyway.

By backing up to the hard drive, I can quickly restore any file.

Posted by Ted at 05:33 PM

April 05, 2005

How's your thumb?

It seems Microsoft researchers have come up with a user-interface that allows you to user your thumb to do things. This new user-interface is for use on Pocket PCs and such. It’s good for screens that are from two to five inches in size.

It will be interesting to see if that becomes available. One of my complaints about my Palm is it’s a little cumbersome to use. Perhaps this will be a better method.

Posted by Ted at 05:52 PM

BlackBerry Beware

I see that Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on code that will allow Pocket PCs to be like a BlackBerry. The operating system is for mobile devises and is called Magneto. From what I read, they expect to have devices on the shelves by Christmas time.

It looks like this new device will route your email through your Exchange server. That should allow you to filter out a lot of the spam. It will also give you Outlook on your Pocket PC.

Posted by Ted at 10:51 AM

March 25, 2005

More about Spyware

I recieved an email from someone that does computer hardware and he says...

I just finished working on a customer’s computer that was littered with adware and spyware. I updated AdAware and SpyBot then ran scans with both. They both found many problems and fixed them. I then installed Microsoft’s version of Anti-Spyware. Microsoft’s version found more than the other two put together.

If you'd like to download Microsoft's Anti-Spwyare product, just click here.

Posted by Ted at 05:06 PM

March 18, 2005

Spyware/Adware

Information Week had an interview with one company’s struggle to stay ahead of Spyware or Adware.

They conclude – there is no magic bullet. As he says,

“It's piecemeal. We're using several different tools, including Microsoft's Spyware tool, Ad-Aware, Trend Micro's OfficeScan, and manual removal methods.”

Here are some reviews of various anti-Spyware packages.

Review 1     Review 2     Review 3     Review 4

Posted by Ted at 04:48 PM

March 15, 2005

Is Windows 2003 really more secure that Linux?

A recent study found that Windows 2003 Server had fewer security vulnerabilities than the fabled Linux. There are some, however, that argue the study was flawed. I think this is the most telling comment.

"A lot of people are under the impression that one platform has more advantages," said one of the critics, Max Clark, a network consultant with Intercore, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm that provides support for both Windows and Linux systems. "The expertise of the person deploying it is what matters. The default configurations are important, but once you start consolidating software on top of the system, the system is only as secure as what's running on it."

If you’re interested, click the link and read the article for yourself.

Posted by Ted at 04:49 PM