Unapologetically opinionated views on technology, in the office and out
Simon Bisson is a freelance technology journalist. He specialises in architecture and enterprise IT. He ran one of the UK's first national ISPs and moved to writing around the time of the collapse of the first dotcom boom. He still writes code.
Mary Branscombe is a freelance tech journalist. Mary has been a technology writer for nearly two decades, covering everything from early versions of Windows and Office to the first smartphones, the arrival of the web and most things inbetween.
Every time I sign in to Outlook, I get a credential dialog asking for my password – not for Outlook but for publishing my calendar online. After typing in my Windows Live ID details six times in a row and seeing the dialog reappear I settled for just clicking cancel; after doing that a few dozen times (I don’t restart Outlook very often), I thought I’d see if I could work out why.
We’re all used to applications that are at best frustrating, and at worst infuriating. They just don’t seem to do what we want, when we want it.
Will Bing or Google make it easier to find out? We’re off to New York for some meetings and the annual Strategic News Service predictions event and I’m wondering what to pack: raincoat or down jacket?
Not surprisingly, the Microsoft Stores run on Windows. Over the last few months Apple has been switching from using Windows CE handhelds to modified iPod Touches for its EasyPay system in the Apple Store, where you don't have to walk up to a till to buy something.
Ten years ago I went into a Microsoft Store.It was a wide open modern space, with wooden floors and low tables showcasing Microsoft products.
What's an OS for? Thanks to Rupert Murdoch, Google has spent most of the time it probably wanted to be talking about Chrome discussing the value of paid content on the Web; but that's actually an awful lot of what Chrome is really for.
It’s time to state the plain truth, something that’s being hidden from us by special effects and shiny chrome: Computing as we know it is dead. We’re working with zombie operating systems that lurch in search of fresh cycles on top of the rotting corpse of Moore’s Law.
Microsoft only used the codename Oslo once in the PDC keynotes today, talking about SQL Server Modelling Services with the throwaway reference that "you may have heard this called the Oslo repository ". Is that Oslo disappearing into SQL Server the way WinFS did?
Microsoft is trying to marry SharePoint admin with FAST’s search expertise for manageable search.At the SharePoint conference last month we got more details about the new Fast Search for SharePoint offerings – the first integration of the industry-leading search technology it gained with last year’s acquisition of FAST.
Most of the time, computers sit there waiting for you to ask them to do something. Phones tell you when they have something you care about.