Posts by Barry Tabrah 149 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jan 2008
It doesn't matter how it looks or how it runs, if people can't use Microsoft Office on it effectively then it's going to flop. Office is going to need some simplified interfaces for working on the go.
Also, there's definitely going to be a market for Office add-ins such as a Survey designer so that tablet-wielding survey takers can tally up trends on the go. I've lost count of the number of tablets that are gathering dust because people couldn't use them this way.
Trying to get anything added to the iPhone or Windows phone is near impossible, and we won't even mention Symbian. However surely it should be relatively trivial to persuade Google to add a minimum security option to Android without too much effort. If you could prevent the phone from dropping to a lower encryption level, particularly in an environment where the phone never leaves a particular country, then that's all for the good, right?
Email protocols were created in the days of implicit trust, where spam wasn't a problem. Isn't it time that we created a more trustworthy protocol which would nip the whole spam issue in the bud?
If all emails were signed for example then any spam that made it through would at least be traceable to source, or if signing was compromised could be blocked by ISP blacklisting.
It doesn't look like Windows, it doesn't run Microsoft Office, and it doesn't run iTunes.
Remember that I'm talking about your average home user. They are using Windows at work. They've used Windows for years. It's friendly. It's familiar. It's what they know.
You can't just chuck the Microsoft Office disk into a Linux machine and be using it 5 minutes later.
You can't download iTunes from the Apple website on Linux.
Basically if the end user can't do something on their own within 5 minutes then they're going to go running back to Comet to replace it with something that can. And they're certainly not going to go crawling around web forums in order to learn how.
They need to make Windows Phone 7 attractive to business, and then market it as a business phone. If Microsoft can make WP7 a viable alternative to RIM then they'll sell them by the bucket load.
It may well be worth them investing in building a WM6 virtual machine for the WP7 to allow legacy applications to run.
If they keep marketing it as a consumer device then they've already lost the battle.
We've had 64-bit processors in the home for the best part of a decade. The only thing holding us back was the prevalence of systems being shipped with 32-bit Windows. If we'd had the 64-bit push with Windows Vista then we'd all be happily chugging along in 64-bit already. After all, it's not like driver support was great to begin with on Vista.
Thank goodness most modern systems are shipping with 64-bit Windows 7.
Sometimes a firewall gets in the way. Sometimes it's an overly efficient security tool. If you want to get the current version and no other method works then try the following link. You have to close Chrome, run the link, wait for a minute (there's no progress indication on this installer) and you're good to go. No need to worry about firewalls etc.
http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/648.127/chrome_installer.exe
Note: This is an official google build, not a 3rd party hack, so it's safe. If you want a previous version you can also look up the last two digits of the version and substitute them in the link. Very useful if new stuff doesn't work.
Before spending your hard-earned money on more bandwidth it might be an idea to see how much bandwidth you're currently using.
The Speedtest website can tell you what speed you're currently getting and using a simple tool like NetMeter can tell you if you're currently actually making good use of that bandwidth. No point in buying a Ferrari when you're only using it for the shopping run.
Finally take a close look at how much you're currently spending and compare it with the current deals on your provider's website. If you're spending over the odds for a poorer service then try bargaining for a better rate. I've known people who have more than doubled their bandwidth and halved their monthly bill with a half hour phone call.
Sure you can buy cheaper ink. But be ready to buy a new printer. We've had more printers ruined with cheap ink than have failed mechanically. Print heads have been clogged and ink has leaked all over the inside of the printer. Print quality has also suffered in some cases. And inkjets aren't the only culprit. Cheap laser printer toners have caused laser printers to fail, leaked toner into the printer, and left dark marks all over print jobs.
It is better to run Windows unprotected than have a monoculture, particularly for people who don't understand the difference between essential and optional updates? AV retailers have the market covered in the retail sector which pretty much ships every PC with trial AV software that nobody pays for or replaces, but Microsoft get it in the neck for trying to secure their own software.
I say well done Microsoft. They are helping stem the tide of malware, spam, and DDOS for the rest of us. Not to mention the fact that it puts into place the kind of protection that should be built into an OS in the first place. After all, AV vendors have just been profiting from the past failures of Microsoft.
One of the main bugbears of machine replacement can be legacy support. In an organisation that has in-house software that was written by staff that left 3 years ago this can be an issue. Particularly when those applications required much fettling to run on the old machine in the first place.
There is also the question of virtualisation. In an organisation being pushed towards virtualising everything, from its servers to its desktops and applications, the replacement of desktops becomes a contentious issue. Do we replace them now if they're going to be replaced with thin clients in a years time?
The idea that data held in a single location is secure and can never fail is foolhardy. And particularly when you regard a device that is portable. There is always the risk of loss or theft.
And flash is not for ever. Sure you don't have mechanical parts to fail but modern circuit boards do have a nasty habit of failing due to dry joints and the like.
Technology moves forward and storage becomes more durable, but backups are and will remain for the foreseeable future a prudent measure.
Dear Keith 21,
When you have over 1000 employees which don't read emails from IT, exactly how do you provide each user with a unique secret password?
When you are dealing with a handful of users in a single site you can consider things like this. Otherwise you have to make compromises just to keep an organisation operational. This is the nature of the article and an unpleasant fact of large scale IT.
I had the Swiss+Tech Micro-Max and found that the arms tended to loosen over time to the point that it kept opening in my pocket. I wonder if the Scarab would suffer from the same problem. If the metal on the inside of the arms is flat rather than curved then I can see that becoming a problem with the Scarab.
I'm surprised it hasnt' happened already, but why haven't browsers built in a facility like noscript? It can't be far away. With the resources of the main players they should be able to create a whitelist database (even if that database contains entries for ad sites, which would make sense for Google) of safe sites for scripting.
It was easy to use, had a responsive interface, and a wide array of cheap or even free apps. It quite simple blew it's competitors away. It's only in the last year or so that other manufacturers have caught up, with many taking their lead from the iPhone design.
I'm not saying it wasn't, or still isn't, without its faults. Even ignoring the aerial issues there are missing features and annoying restrictions. But it's still a joy to use.
Avatar was a case in point. It really showed off how 3D should be done. I for one am certainly considering watching Tron Legacy in 3D and praying to whatever deity may be listening that they don't play with 3D just for the sake of it. However your average flick really doesn't benefit from 3D, particularly if they're waving stuff in front of your face just because they can.
When implementing these policies there must be no wiggle room. People will always use the simplest method, particularly if they've been doing it since day dot. If staff have to use encrypted devices then systems must be put in place to prevent non-encrypted devices from working.
Inconsistent page rendering across versions makes living with IE of any version a right royal pain. I just wish people would stop developing apps that only run in IE! Particularly when they only run in a particular version of IE! If it wasn't for a company-wide need for the darned browser we'd have probably switched years ago.
IE6 is thankfully dead and buried in our organisation but we still have IE7-only stuff strewn all over the place. IE7 is definitely going to become the new IE6, figuratively speaking.
Grr, rant, gnash!
The average home user has the attention span of a peanut and can't remember how to open the laptop half the time, let alone remember a password.
If a computer can't boot, or the user forgets their password, there is some reassurance for them that their data is not lost forever. In a Corporate environment all information should be held centrally so across-the-board encryption is only logical.
At least we're sticking with IE in local government. There are certain benefits to be attained by doing so. Firstly we are managing only one browser, and doing so using MS tools that we already have. Secondly we have so many systems that barely work with IE8 that we have to stick with IE rather than go to a 3rd party browser.
Home use might change but IE will still rule the corporate roost for many years to come.
They provide a clear list of wifi networks, tell you what security is implemented, what the signal strength is, and more importantly tell you what channel they are on (very useful to ensure that you aren't crossing the streams, to use a ghostbusters reference).
I use it for range testing, channel conflict checking, and verifying the security level. All useful stuff.
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