Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
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One of the 95% of ATMs which NCR says are running Windows XP. -- 2fmagazine.com[/caption]
After 13 years Microsoft is about to finally turn off vital life support to the aging Windows XP operating system. But it's hard to properly say goodbye to XP, not because of love but because so many people still use it whether they want to or not.
On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will discontinue automatic security updates for Windows XP. Significantly, Microsoft says it will will also stop providing the XP-compatible Microsoft Security Essentials for download.
To say that this is going to create a huge security hole in the very fabric of human civilization may not be the overstatement it sounds like.
One of the 95% of ATMs which NCR says are running Windows XP. -- 2fmagazine.com[/caption]After 13 years Microsoft is about to finally turn off vital life support to the aging Windows XP operating system. But it's hard to properly say goodbye to XP, not because of love but because so many people still use it whether they want to or not.
On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will discontinue automatic security updates for Windows XP. Significantly, Microsoft says it will will also stop providing the XP-compatible Microsoft Security Essentials for download.
To say that this is going to create a huge security hole in the very fabric of human civilization may not be the overstatement it sounds like.
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Well... Halo runs on Xbox doesn't it?[/caption]
How sad. Microsoft could be competitive in less than a year. The Redmond-based software-and-hardware company announced today that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer would be stepping down within 12 months. Microsoft stock rose nine per cent on the news.
Steve Ballmer went to college with Microsoft founders Bill Gates, and Paul Allen, and started with Microsoft in 1980. He became CEO of Microsoft in 2000, after Bill Gates stepped down.
Ballmer is said to be smart as a whip, but he's always come off publicly as more than a bit of a clownish huckster. Elevation to Microsoft's CEO in 2000 only magnified his "bull in a china shop" optics. Steve Ballmer had the misfortune of becoming Microsoft CEO the same year Steve Jobs became Apple's self-proclaimed "iCEO" In the i-era, Jobs completely out-general-ed, out-coached, and outmaneuvered Ballmer at every turn. Ballmer probably couldn't have helped Apple more if he had worked for them. He blithely, and blindly laughed at, and ridiculed, each of the iProducts, as they pushed Apple back into profitability, and, in 2012, past Microsoft in market capitalization.
Ballmer seriously hated on opensource and Linux, infamously calling Linux, "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." ► Balmer repeatedly threatened to sue opensource developers for patent infringement. Even without merit backing up it's claims, the threats alone, given Microsoft's legal resources, were designed to have a chilling effect on the opensource movement.
Steve Ballmer tenure as CEO has been a near-total disaster for Microsoft. Under his tenure, Apple came back from the dead to become a thriving innovative tech darling, and opensourse, with Google's help, has come out of nowhere to dominate cell phones. Microsoft has repeatedly been caught off-guard, and left playing catch-up against it's rivals. It's responses: Zune for the iPod, Vista for OS X, Windows 8 Phone for Android, and Surface for the iPad, have all failed.
Microsoft's board has reportedly begun the process to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO. Ballmer himself is quoted in Microsoft's announcement as saying:
Wrong again Steve -- 13 year, and 7 months ago, would've been a perfect time. From all the Apple users, and Linux users you slagged, and tried to terrorize with your "fear-leading" tactics: Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
Well... Halo runs on Xbox doesn't it?[/caption]How sad. Microsoft could be competitive in less than a year. The Redmond-based software-and-hardware company announced today that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer would be stepping down within 12 months. Microsoft stock rose nine per cent on the news.
Steve Ballmer went to college with Microsoft founders Bill Gates, and Paul Allen, and started with Microsoft in 1980. He became CEO of Microsoft in 2000, after Bill Gates stepped down.
Ballmer is said to be smart as a whip, but he's always come off publicly as more than a bit of a clownish huckster. Elevation to Microsoft's CEO in 2000 only magnified his "bull in a china shop" optics. Steve Ballmer had the misfortune of becoming Microsoft CEO the same year Steve Jobs became Apple's self-proclaimed "iCEO" In the i-era, Jobs completely out-general-ed, out-coached, and outmaneuvered Ballmer at every turn. Ballmer probably couldn't have helped Apple more if he had worked for them. He blithely, and blindly laughed at, and ridiculed, each of the iProducts, as they pushed Apple back into profitability, and, in 2012, past Microsoft in market capitalization.
Ballmer seriously hated on opensource and Linux, infamously calling Linux, "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." ► Balmer repeatedly threatened to sue opensource developers for patent infringement. Even without merit backing up it's claims, the threats alone, given Microsoft's legal resources, were designed to have a chilling effect on the opensource movement.
Steve Ballmer tenure as CEO has been a near-total disaster for Microsoft. Under his tenure, Apple came back from the dead to become a thriving innovative tech darling, and opensourse, with Google's help, has come out of nowhere to dominate cell phones. Microsoft has repeatedly been caught off-guard, and left playing catch-up against it's rivals. It's responses: Zune for the iPod, Vista for OS X, Windows 8 Phone for Android, and Surface for the iPad, have all failed.
Microsoft's board has reportedly begun the process to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO. Ballmer himself is quoted in Microsoft's announcement as saying:
“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time.”
Wrong again Steve -- 13 year, and 7 months ago, would've been a perfect time. From all the Apple users, and Linux users you slagged, and tried to terrorize with your "fear-leading" tactics: Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
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When I first saw the attractive Fuduntu cloverleaf logo, which embodied an "f" for Fedora, I suppose, I thought it also, evoked the Windows logo, and the Apple cloverleaf key.[/caption]
I've continued to gnaw away at why Funduntu turned out the lights; I'm like a none-too-bright dog -- and no, that's not a Puppy Linux crack. I love Puppy.
Of course Andrew Wyatt, and company would rightly say they've explained why, but I didn't quite get it (see above dog reference). So I've been reading, back to 2010, and forwards to just a few months ago. For better or worse, here's what I get: Fedora's a bit of a mess under the hood (and they didn't have enough mechanics), and the Fuduntu team wore their name like an albatross around their collective neck for nearly three years. The former explains rebasing on OpenSUSE, and the latter explains the new name for the new distribution.
When I first saw the attractive Fuduntu cloverleaf logo, which embodied an "f" for Fedora, I suppose, I thought it also, evoked the Windows logo, and the Apple cloverleaf key.[/caption]I've continued to gnaw away at why Funduntu turned out the lights; I'm like a none-too-bright dog -- and no, that's not a Puppy Linux crack. I love Puppy.
Of course Andrew Wyatt, and company would rightly say they've explained why, but I didn't quite get it (see above dog reference). So I've been reading, back to 2010, and forwards to just a few months ago. For better or worse, here's what I get: Fedora's a bit of a mess under the hood (and they didn't have enough mechanics), and the Fuduntu team wore their name like an albatross around their collective neck for nearly three years. The former explains rebasing on OpenSUSE, and the latter explains the new name for the new distribution.
It has just come to my attention that Microsoft's FrontPage program is still being used by some people. WTF? I was scared for a moment, but a quick search shows that the program was discontinued in 2003, but it was replaced by other similar MS products, and Publisher is also used to create Web pages, which are every-bit as awful -- I was just looking at one.Back in the day, stone-age flint-chipping tools like FrontPage, filled a niche; people who wanted even the simplest sort of Website were at the total mercy of blood-sucking brainiacs who could write HTML. FrontPage wasn't the only tool that allowed clueless, code-less people to produce simple Web pages at the expense of all that was holy about code, but FrontPage was well-know for just how bad it's code was. But the users it was aimed at didn't care, and they didn't have much choice.
Now they have a choice. Why would anyone use something like Frontpage or Publisher to produce a Website, when they can use a Content Management System, like Wordpress, Drupal, or Joomla, to name a few. CMS are free, easy to use, and produce good results. I can only imagine that a lot of people who would benefit from them, still don't understand what CMSs are.
Illustration by Dave Gilson. Nicked from here.
Great Powers are meeting in battle as we make phone calls, surf the Web and play games. The prize is intangible; we can't hold it in our hands, but we can hold it in our phones, and our computers.
It's been said generals prepare to win the previous war. Back in the 1990s Apple and Microsoft had to just sit and take it while any old kludgey third-party software could be installed, and make a mess all over their operating systems. They could only fight back through the mail with floppy disks, and later, CD-ROM.
The rise of the Internet coupled with the powerful generation of cell phones that came after the iPhone in 2007, finally offered Apple, Microsoft, and new-comer Google, the ability to control their destiny.
The iPhone, in my opinion, represents a kind of "before-and-after" moment. It settled the question of what was the "best" form-factor; it finally broke Microsoft's effective monopoly over the Internet browsing experience, and it turned the premium feature of WiFi into a ubiquitous feature, creating the conditions for constant Internet conectivity.
In a world where everyone is increasingly connected 24-7 to a network (the Internet), that world begins to look like a traditional computer network, with network administrators wielding control over the user's access. But in this case, who are the administrators? Are they the the phone carriers who sell people the phones on plans, or pay-as-you go? Technically, yes, but the company’s who control the operating system, hold the greatest power of all. Apple controls the iOS, Google, the Android operating system, and if any phones running the Window 8 phone OS are sold, then Microsoft will control those.
Faster iPhone! Kill! Kill!
Network administrators have to be able to reach into any or all parts of their network to quickly deal with a threat, such as a virus. All the big computer companies have admitted to having such a "kill switch" in their phone and desktop operating systems.
Steve Jobs admitted there was one in the iOS in 2008 (♦). Microsoft has included one in Windows 8 (♥). Google has already used theirs, in 2011, to delete malware on 50,000 Android phones (♣). Even Amazon, way back in 2009 controversially used a kill switch on their Kindle (♠).
So this isn't the Wild West 1990s, when Apple had to stand by and fume, while Adobe's Flash plug-in caused so many Macs to crash so often. When Steve Jobs slammed the door on Adobe's mobile Flash, with Microsoft nodding in approval, in 2010, this was both a settling of accounts, and the start of setting things right.
Quality and quantity, together at last
Utter control of the user experience is part of ensuring customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Plus, Apple, for one, knows a bit about up-selling existing users.
The stakes and numbers involved, between Apple and Google are becoming positively planetary: Apple claims over 500,000,000 iOS devices sold -- that's half a billion. And, reportedly, cumulative shipments of Android devices top one billion. Of course, Mark Twain's observation concerning statistics applies.
So the legal see-sawing all over the planet between Apple and Samsung, isn't; it's always been Apple versus Google, for apparent control of the Earth. No idea who will win, but I Googled all these facts, and sources.
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