May 24, 2006 | blog
About 2-3 months ago I rebuilt my PC from the ground up. Fresh XP install, sans many desktop apps I normally would have loaded up. I marveled at the performance increase. Was stunned at the boot times. Reveled in the un-crowded desktop and Start Menu.
Well that lasted about 2 months.
Lets see…
- Internet Explorer Beta 2
- Office 2007 Plus Professional Beta 2
- Office OneNote 2007 Beta 2
- Office Visio 2007 Beta 2
- Office Project 2007 Beta 2
- Media Player 11 Beta
- VMware Server Beta
- Windows Defender Beta
Well, I guess I can’t help myself. Guess I’ll have to start over again..
…now where did I put that fresh Vista Beta 2 DVD that I just burned?
May 24, 2006 | blog
Boy they were not kidding… I thought that when I tried posting from Word 2007 that it didn’t actually post. Well it did – in 1969. Fantastic this new Microsoft technology, transported 37 years back in time just to post to my blog. Yeah I’m being snarky – and I really mean it in good humor, as I had read information indicating that many people were seeing incorrect dates when posting to blogs.
I’ll leave the ‘old’ posts out there for a little while, (though I will delete them evenually). Its kind of funny to see the Archive in the sidebar on the right list:
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- December 1969
Well have fun!
By the way – you can read a bit of info on Word’s blog-related need-to-knows here.
May 24, 2006 | blog
Hey, I just want to point out to anyone who is trying to download either Windows Vista Beta 2 or Office 2007 Beta 2 that the download servers are getting hit hard. I’ve read some comments around the blogosphere that MS did not plan well for the release, that there should have been more servers dedicated to the release.
Well that’s all well and good to whine & complain express your viewpoint, but I’d like to see most any project manager try to gauge the market interest in beta software and plan accordingly. Especially when there are so many people talking trash voicing their concern about your products; it gets hard to scope out the potential number of downloads, times, d/l rates, the increase in broadband connections from the last major d/l offered, etc… There are dozens of constantly changing variables in planning for a release like this, and it is nearly impossible to get it 100% at the ‘launch’ – I don’t care who you are or what you produce and sell.
You know, for so many people criticizing Microsoft on their disappointment in the Vista feature set, or their business practices, or whatever other ‘evil’ is credited to them, it is impressive that there are so many people trying out the next versions of their core products. Myself, I’m not surprised – Microsoft has made several significant changes in the last few years. I’ve seen it in the quality of software, timeliness of security patches & updates, the openness of the company, and the helpfulness of the employees that I’ve worked with on a few projects.
Now that so many people are getting Office B2 and Vista B2 to ‘test’ – here is my $.02 for you. This is your chance to improve the product. The next few months while Beta 2 gets polished into release candidates, and ultimately RTM – you have the chance to improve the product.
Do you remember all the things in XP, 2000, or NT that drove you nuts? What if you would have had the chance to at least point them out to MS, so there may have been some focus on the issue before you bought the software. Take this opportunity to submit your feedback to MS – all the contact info is on the Office Beta 2 and Vista Beta 2 websites.
Now… enjoy!
May 23, 2006 | blog
Well, I had written this post in Word 2007, but it didn’t publish to my blog… strange. Anyway, here was my post (at least written in Word ’07):
Yep, this post is going up from Word 2007 directly to my blog. If the blog-posting features of Word are enhanced a bit, I will definitely start using it for major post creation. The overall quality of Office 2007 so far is impressive. I’ve been testing Vista for awhile, but this was my first look at the Office 2007 betas. Neat stuff, though you can see some rough edges. Performance is ‘ok’ and should be improved as it approaches release. Currently, there are no extra features for blog-posting to WordPress, though I do expect that they will start to work on these soon. For example, categories are not supported directly from Word yet, and they claim that the post date is incorrect (I’ll check when I post). The last time I used an off-line tool to write and then publish a post, it would ‘break’ my page layout (theme), so I’m hoping that Word doesn’t do this; though I will risk it just to test the functionality. So far, I’m impressed with the current build, the new toolbars are extremely easy to understand and use right away – I think these are the single best improvement to the Office suite. More on the product later…
Ugh, in my haste I managed to forget to paste the Title in, so the post slug will be weird. Guess Word ’07 isn’t quite up to the task of blog posting yet. ‘Darn’.
May 16, 2006 | blog
Yesterday, Ilium Software announced on their blog that they will be producing UMPC versions of all their software in future releases. This marks the first Teir 1 vendor of Windows Mobile software to support the new platform.
“The UMPC is a natural evolution for users seeking a comprehensive mobile experience,†stated Marc Tassin, Senior Product Manager for Ilium Software. “We’re very excited about the prospects for this new platform.â€
I’ve used several of Ilium Software’s products. My favorites are currently eWallet and ListPro, but their new RSS reader (NewsBreak) has gotten a number of great reviews, and I guess I’ll evenually give it a try – I’ve not had a real need for a mobile RSS reader yet.
