Microsoft Haters Score a Two-Fer
Wow! Within a few months there will be not only a new version of Windows for Microsoft haters to rail against but also a new version of the Office suite. This week I learned that "Microsoft Office 2013 Customer Preview Proves Difficult With Touch-Screens." That was the opinion of a writer for one of the tech magazines. I was going to identify him by name but I've seen similar articles by other writers. So all I can say is Really? What a surprise!
This week Microsoft released the Customer Preview of the Office 2013 suite and the subscription-based Office 365 (aka "Google Docs Killer, Maybe") and the author of the first article I ran across seemed to think that it was important to tell people that Office applications really don't work particularly well on a tablet. I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you. This never would have occurred to me!
Seriously, though, what do the Office applications do? They create letters and memos. They analyze columnar numeric data. They manage relational databases. They create presentations full of words and graphics. In other words, these are applications that, while they can be used on a tablet in a pinch, are not intended primarily as tablet-based applications.
Telling me that they don't work particularly well on tablets has about the same value as predicting that the sun will set this evening in the west and rise tomorrow in the east.
Who could possibly be surprised that "[Major Publication] Labs tests showed that using Office 2013 with only one hand while holding on to a tablet ... proved to be a real slow down"? If anybody at Microsoft really thinks that people will be using Word to edit long documents on a tablet or Excel to calculate P&L statements on a tablet or Access to manage relational databases on a tablet, then that person should be fired. But if people at Microsoft think that these applications will be used on tablets to create ad hoc documents, perform quick calculations, or review data that already resides in a database, I think they're spot on.
What's In It for You?
When?
After hinting that Windows 8 would be available in the late third or early fourth quarter, Microsoft recently narrowed that down to October. Early fourth quarter. This week Microsoft's Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky finally dropped the other shoe. Windows 8 will be released on October 26th. New PCs with Windows 8 will go on sale that day and upgrades will be available for users of Windows 7, Windows Vista, and even Windows XP. If you have any version other than Windows 7 or if you have older hardware, I do not recommend the upgrade. Computers running Vista and XP are due to be replaced.
In my year-long sojourn with Windows 8, I have mentioned several times being surprised by how quickly the operating system boots and shuts down. Vista could sometimes take 10 minutes or more to become ready or to power down. Windows 7 improved things greatly but Windows 8 is considerably faster both at the beginning and end of the day.
What I've found in limited Office 2013 testing is that opening and closing these applications is also considerably faster than with the current (2010 or 2007) versions.
Faster is always better with operating systems and applications because any time spent waiting on a computer is wasted. For that reason alone, the update is intriguing. I won't provide a full review until I've had time to work with the various applications in the suite but my first impressions, if they mean anything, are positive.
Some have already whined about what they call the stark Windows 8 Metro Interface in the Office applications but I don't see it that way. In some ways there is more ornamentation in Office 2013 apps, although fewer colors. Taming the interface seems to be something that many developers are doing these days. Consider Adobe's version 6 of the Creative Suite. One goal has been to make the interface less obtrusive on the document, whether it's a publication or a photograph or a video. That seems a to me to be a reasonable approach: I don't open Photoshop or Word or Excel or Audition to spend time admiring the interface; I want to do something with the application.
In the design world, the best typography is said to be typography that the reader doesn't notice. When typography calls attention to itself, either because it's pretty or because it's ugly, it has failed to fulfill its primary task. The same is true of an interface: When it becomes more visible than the application, something is wrong.
So I for one welcome an interface that isn't in my face.
Without much comment, here's what the new applications look like, starting with Microsoft Word.
Word continues to try to do everything and with varying levels of success. It's not a page layout program but it can sometimes be the stunt double for a page layout program. Just don't try any close-ups.
The screen shot I selected is an example of a corporation's annual report. In my estimation, Word is the wrong application for this job but if you're running a small corporation and you need to create an annual report on the cheap, it would serve the purpose.
Microsoft Excel.
I'm more of a words person than an numbers person but I've found some features in Excel that are both revolutionary and useful, features that can save time. I like saving time.
What you see here, though, is a pre-made family budget worksheet that includes graphical analysis of the numbers.
And Microsoft OneNote (and the good news is that the file format hasn't changed as it did between OneNote 2007 and OneNote 2010.) The 2010 format works just fine with the 2013 application.
The TechByter Worldwide program summary is at the right. It's what I use to keep track of which topics were on what programs and what's on the schedule for the next several weeks. Having this available from any location is both helpful and welcome.
One of Microsoft's goals is clearly to provide online access to documents while still providing the power of a computer-based application. I've looked at Google Docs and the competing Zoho applications but they have consistently failed to deliver the features I need. Having a powerful word processor or spreadsheet on the computer that also happens to make my documents available seamlessly whether I'm at home, in the office, or on the road is an exciting prospect.
Whether Microsoft delivers is still to be determined. Earlier iterations of Microsoft Live didn't but I have been using OneNote's ability to share its documents across multiple computers and even Android devices. If the Office suite's sharing capabilities are as powerful and easy to use as what Microsoft created for OneNote 2010, I think many people will be more than satisfied with the results.
Why So Much Bile?
What I've found to be surprising (in a non-surprising way) and disheartening is how many negative comments have been posted about Windows 8 and now about Office 2013 before people have even seen it. And I'm not talking here about members of the computer press. After all, they're paid to sell magazines and apparently the only way to do that is to complain vociferously about anything that might resonate with the audience.
No, what concerns me is the amount of negativity I've seen from consumers who tell me that they haven't worked with Windows 8 or with Office 2013 but still they hate it. Vehemently.
I'm old enough to remember when the early geeks understood that Microsoft's BASIC was better than other versions of BASIC. I bought an Atari 800 from a store that no longer exists. Various versions of the BASIC programming language existed and Microsoft's was considered to be the best. Since then Bill Gates has made a lot of money. He married Melinda even though she was deeply involved with the production of Microsoft Bob. Together they formed the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to provide money for health initiatives worldwide. And people hate this guy, his company, and his successor. Why?
Microsoft's First-Ever Loss
For the first time in 26 years, Microsoft reported
a quarterly loss for the just-ended period and it's a big one, $492 million. The loss comes from Microsoft's decision to write off most of the $6.3 billion it paid for online ad service Aquantive (aQuantive is the silly way the company styles its own name). The write-off was $6.2 billion.
I'm not a Microsoft apologist. The company has made lots of mistakes. The Me version of Windows, Bob, and Vista among them. Internet Explorer was rightly criticized for ignoring W3C standards but Netscape did the same thing. Microsoft was hated because Word killed Wordperfect and maybe some of that is justified because Microsoft pretended to be building OS2 with IBM when it was really planning to expand the Windows platform. But should that have surprised anyone? Really?
Remember when Windows 95 was released? The Microsoft haters suddenly proclaimed their great love for Windows 3.11. Then when Windows 98 came along, they wrote that Windows 95 was clearly better. Windows Me followed and this time the Microsoft haters were right because Windows Me was a turkey. Windows 2000 was solid but that didn't stop the haters from telling their readers that they would be nuts to upgrade. Windows XP? A disaster. It would never replace good ol' solid Windows 2000. Windows Vista came along and once again the Windows haters were right but an embarrassed Microsoft followed that with Windows 7, which has been widely accepted, even by the haters, and a pretty good product. Now there's Windows 8, which is the most radical change since Windows 95, and the haters have already sharpened their knives.
I can say, as I've said before: I'm optimistic that Windows 8 will be a worthwhile successor to Windows 7. It's already shown me that it's faster on the same hardware than Windows 7 is. It will provide a similar interface across a wide range of devices and that seems to be a worthwhile goal But until I see the production version of Windows 8 on a production machine running production applications, I'm not willing to call it a success and I'm really puzzled by those who feel that they can call it a failure before it even ships.
There's even less to say about Office 2013 at this early date and so I won't say it.
Why Does Anyone Still Use Yahoo?
Yahoo has confirmed that nearly half a million unencrypted user names and passwords have been stolen. You may have noticed an increase in the number of messages from your friends with Yahoo accounts stating that they are in some remote location (London, Paris, Madrid) and that their hotel room was burgled. The police are trying to help, of course, but they have no money. Might you send them some cash? The messages are frauds.
The trouble with Yahoo security is that is seems not to exist. If you're still using a Yahoo address I really should ask why but I'll be polite and suggest what you should do now.
This should be obvious but I'll say it anyway: Change your password. Now. Don't read the rest of this article. Change the password and then come back.
Your new password is strong, isn't it? By that I mean you haven't chosen a password such as "kitty" or "abc123" or "password". And make sure that you're not using the same password for any other service. Why? Well, it seems that Yahoo does not encrypt the user names and passwords it stores. No matter how secure your password is, if Yahoo stores it in a way that thieves can obtain it, your credentials might as well be posted in Times Square. (And, unfortunately, that seems to be exactly what Yahoo does.)
We've talked about secure passwords before but let's run through the basics again. A secure password cannot be a name or any word that can be found in a dictionary. A secure password should be at least 8 characters long (longer is better) and it should contain uppercase letters, lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
Leet (or 1337)?
Also known as eleet or leetspeak, leet is an alternative alphabet for the English language that is used primarily on the Internet. It uses various combinations of ASCII characters to replace Latinate letters. The leet alphabet is a specialized form of symbolic writing. Leet may also be considered a substitution cipher, although many dialects or linguistic varieties exist in different online communities. The term leet is also used as an adjective to describe accomplishment, especially in online gaming and computer hacking.
Source: Wikipedia. See the article for examples.
This is a secure password: TBsW@L!AY5i1966. But how could you remember that? The Beatles sang "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" in 1966.
TBs = "The Beatles sang"
W@L!AY5 = "We All Live in a Yellow Submarine" using leet characters for A=@ I=! and S=5.
i1966 = "in 1966".
Is this password memorable? Absolutely.
Is it hard to crack? Yes because it includes uppercase and lowercase letters along with numbers an symbols. It's 15 characters long and cracking that code would take several thousand years even with the most powerful password cracking software available.
WARNING: Do NOT use this password! Create one of your own. Use a book title or a musical selection. Whatever. Never use any password that you've seen described anywhere.
Short Circuits
Yahoo: Take Three
Yahoo has yet another new CEO, the third in just a year. If you've been following this train wreck, you'll remember that Carol Bartz was fired after being CEO for less than 3 years. She was replaced by Scott Thompson, who was fired when the company discovered that he had claimed a computer science degree that he didn't have. Since May, Ross Levinsohn has served as interim CEO. And now it's Marissa Mayer.
Mayer was Google's 20th employee and the first female software engineer. She was largely responsible for Google's home page and in recent years had headed the division that includes Google Maps, Google Earth, and the Local and Street view functions.
Yahoo is a company in trouble. The company’s stock has fallen 41% over the last five years so one of Mayer's first challenges will be to reverse that trend. Interim CEO Levinsohn had already described the direction he wanted Yahoo to take. Mayer and Levinsohn have worked together previously when Mayer was in charge of Google’s Internet search team and Levinsohn was in charge of digital operations at News Corp.
MSNBC Is No More
In the same week that NBC bought out Microsoft and converted MSNBC.com to NBCNews.com, the company also apparently decided to work with Facebook during the upcoming Olympics.
The relationship between Microsoft and NBC is an old one that dates back to the earliest days of the World Wide Web. But ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox have their own news sites. NBC probably felt out of place. NBC will pay Microsoft about $300 million for its part of the operation.
The split isn't exactly news and has been expected for a long time. Microsoft exited the cable TV channel operation about 7 years ago and that complicated the process for advertisers who wanted to buy ads on both cable TV and MSNBC.com. If you type "MSNBC" into your browser's address bar now, you'll see a new logo and the address will change to nbcnews.com. Except for that, things remain about the same.
The Facebook deal hasn't yet been made official and probably won't be until closer to the beginning of the games. The San Jose Mercury News says "NBC will show a 'Facebook Talk Meter' throughout its broadcasts in order to show what people are saying about the Olympics on the social network. On Facebook, NBC will have exclusive content on its Olympics page as well as promote daily polls."
The deal is expected to be cooperative in that neither side will pay the other for access or exposure.
NBC is also expected to work with Twitter during the games.
The European Union is Hot on Microsoft's Trail Again
This feels a bit like Back to the Future, Part XVI. The European Union says that Microsoft has failed to allow some users to select which browser to install and therefore it's time to step up anti-trust investigations.
This is particularly important as it concerns the impending release of Windows 8. The European Commission has received complaints that Microsoft blocks efforts by other browser publishers to build software that runs under Windows RT, the version that runs on ARM-powered tablets, the lower-priced and less capable of the devices Microsoft will release.
The commission says that it had already re-opened its investigation when Microsoft omitted the browser-choice screen from Windows 7 Service Pack 1. The new investigation will also examine charges that Microsoft has refused to provide full access to application programming interface (API) data for Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT.
Mozilla accused Microsoft of refusing to provide APIs necessary to build a competitive browser for Windows RT several months ago and claimed that Microsoft had provided complete API access only to Internet Explorer 10. Only IE will currently run on the RT version of Windows 8's operating system.
Apple Must Advertise for Samsung in England
A British judge says that Samsung's tablet isn't as "cool" as Apple's Ipad that that means that the Samsung Galaxy did not copy its design from Apple as Apple has charged. Furthermore, says the judge, Apple must place a statement on its home page in the UK stating as much.
Samsung's tablets are called Galaxy Tabs. The judge says that in addition to stating on its website that Samsung did not copy the Ipad, it must also run ads in British newspapers to correct any impression that Samsung copied Apple's design. The website announcement is supposed to be posted for 6 months.
Samsung had also asked the court to forbid Apple to claim that Samsung had infringed Apple's design rights. The judge essentially said that Apple could have that opinion and continue to make such claims.
So Samsung didn't infringe and Apple must say so publicly but Apple may also continue to say that Samsung did infringe. Sometimes I have a lot of trouble understanding legal rulings.
The author's image: It's that photo over at the right. This explains why TechByter Worldwide was never on television, doesn't it?
