Working with Vista

nospam@example.com (louis) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:17:01 -0400

[display_podcast]

I've been working with Vista for a little under a year now. There are some things that I like, a lot, and some things I don't like. Maybe others with Vista experience can chime in, maybe some even have some workarounds to temper the annoying parts of the OS. Off the top of my head, these are two things I don't quite like about Vista:

1) Consistency

Alt-Ctrl-Enter will launch a program in administrative mode from within the Start Menu's search field. It will not launch a program in administrative mode when you enter the same command from Windows-R, however. The only workaround I can think of is to hit the Windows key and ignore that Windows-R exists.

2) Interoperability

Say I launch Wordpad in administrative mode to edit a few files. I can't drag and drop files, even from administrative explorer windows! Nor can I right click and edit the file, again from within the administrative explorer window. There are a few workarounds, such as making an administrative Wordpad shortcut, but nothing out of the box. The best I can figure is to turn off UAC, which I happen to like (at least in principle if not in implementation).

Microsoft is in trouble, and they know it.

nospam@example.com (louis) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:36:15 -0400

This thought has been percolating in my head for a while now, and their most recent actions (in the timeframe of years) only seem to reinforce that idea.

This isn't the ramble of a hater; I don't think Microsoft is going to crash because they suck, or write terrible software, or anything like that. There is plenty of history to show that mediocre software can sell fine.

No, the problem, I think, is that Microsoft has run out of ideas. They have tremendous resources, lots of smart people, and lots of good ideas, but somehow that never translates into anything concrete. They are surviving on Windows and Office, with developer tools forming a distant third, but I think they know that story is rapidly coming to a close.

No, Linux isn't going to take over the desktop, but the very existence of Linux shows us that operating systems are not worth $350 (See Vista Ultimate). In fact what Linux shows us is that over time the operating system will become free. Not today or next year, but within 10 years every copy of Windows will drop to $5, I believe. It isn't even because Linux is forcing price concessions, it's because dropping PC prices forces all components, including software, to fall in price. A $2,000 PC can easily support a $99 OS. A $200 PC can probably only support a $5 OS. The fact is that every year PCs are getting cheaper, and the operating system has to keep up. To be fair, Microsoft will make up in volume what they lose in margin, however I think a comparison to Intel is appropriate here.

Approximately 80% of all computers capable of running Windows ships with an Intel processor. Look at Intel's revenue in 2006: $35b. Compare that with Microsoft's 2006 revenue: $44b. Yes, Intel also sells NICs, chipsets, FLASH, and Microsoft sells Office, Visual Studio, advertisements, and games. The values are only roughly comparable. However, it seems incongruous that Microsoft is earning more per PC than Intel. Then when you look at their yearly revenue for the past several years and you will see that both grow at roughly 11% to 12% a year, which corresponds neatly to PC growth these past several years. Both companies are strongly tied to PC sales.

So what, you ask? I'll let Microsoft's actions speak for themselves now. They have asked their investors to have faith in Microsoft's Zune, XBox, and Live initiatives. Or put another way, that Microsoft's future lay in markets dominated by Apple, Sony (soon Nintendo), and Google. A lot of people scoff because Apple or Google is so insignificant in size compared to Microsoft. The surprise is when you look at the relative growth of each company:

Apple's revenue growth between 2005-2006 was $5.4b, Microsoft's was $4.5b, and Google's was 4.5b. Microsoft has already released that their revenue grew by $6.9b this year, a nice healthy increase, but I'm sure management is still worried that Apple and Google will continue to eclipse them.

So what is happening? Apple, Sony, and Google have tapped into revenue streams that Microsoft has missed; consumer electronics, video games, and advertisement, and Microsoft is desperate to diversify into these markets to blunt the continued slowing PC growth. Worldwide growth of PCs is still strong, still healthy, but again falling PC prices and rampant piracy means that Microsoft doesn't have as strong a presence as they want.

However, and this is why Microsoft is in trouble, unlike their past battles with Netscape, Apple, or Palm, Google, Nintendo, and Apple have shown no signs of faltering. Microsoft only has sold 1m Zunes since release, compared to nearly 40m iPods (which is about 2.5%, more or less Apple's PC market share worldwide). Microsoft only has 13% Live market share, which would be a great number except that Microsoft is third, behind Yahoo! at 19% and Google at over 60%. Then there is the console battle; Microsoft originally targeted Sony's PS2 and PS3 and lost sight of Nintendo, who's Wii seems to be on target to become number one.

So can Microsoft recover? I think so, but they have to stop putting the cart in front of the horse. Stop thinking about ad revenue and instead create the best online service possible, stop thinking about game licenses and price points and create the most incredibly fun games possible, stop thinking about music and video licenses, DRM and media formats, and create the most incredibly desirable consumer electronics possible.

The rest will come, I think, if Microsoft can focus on making the best product possible instead of a +1 product; Live is Google+1, Zune is iPod+1, and the XBox is a Playstation+1.

Easy pixel test for the iPhone (or any mobile internet device)

nospam@example.com (louis) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:16:29 -0400

This is a simple iPhone pixel test; black, white, red, green, and blue screens. Verify that each color is solid, unbroken, and with no stuck pixels. Scroll down to see each color.

Your screen should be white. Check for stuck dark pixels.

Your screen should be black. Check for stuck light pixels.

Your screen should be red. Check for stuck blue or green pixels.

Your screen should be green. Check for stuck red or blue pixels.

Your screen should be blue. Check for stuck red or green pixels.

louis - Dr. Blip's PC-Doctor Blog

Working with Vista

[display_podcast]

Microsoft is in trouble, and they know it.

Easy pixel test for the iPhone (or any mobile internet device)