Windows VISTA, the release that is not released!

I have read many articles lately talking on how DELL has began to offer systems running Microsoft Windows XP, even after its successor has been released. Possibly not a good sign for any Redmond software engineers. However, with a closer look at the reasons why this is the case may yield some more reasonable answers.

In the organizations I am aware of, Vista had not been deployed due to software compatibility problems. The main candidates include Cisco VPN client and Lotus Notes. There has not been any discussion on staff retraining or any such guff.... While the back room tech boys still protest about Vista (and indeed any Microsoft product), there is still a large demand for it. This will be evident in the months following the expected roll out of service pack 1 in late 2007, when from what I understand many large organizations have planned to migrate their systems. At this point the above mentioned products should be Vista ready, and the adoption of the new windows can start in the enterprise.

Many of the local universities have informed students not to purchase Vista, as there is no software support for it with the current standard operating environment and infrastructure. The situation is similar for other groups. I would imagine the student market alone is a large market segment enough for DELL to continue to offer XP.

When you look back on recent Windows products, for a large part, most of the applications would work on all of them, or with very little change. Vista, as I understand, requires a larger investment in re-engineering. So perhaps the real questions that should be asked is why are developers not targeting Vista with drivers and applications yet, what are they waiting for?

The short answer I assume is probably service pack 1 and demand. For Microsoft, probably not the answr they want, however if they want Vista to succeed, perhaps they should nudge Cisco for a new VPN client and then talk with IBM about updating Lotus.

From a consumers point of you, I didn't notice any thing in Vista that really said "buy me". So if I were to buy a new system, clearly a 64-bit one, I would find with Vista that the drivers just aren't there. The case isn't better for the 32-bit version. So if to remain in the Windows world, XP is the only option - which may only be common opinion and not reality. The Vista capable and Vista ready systems issues are also a problem, another hindrance for Windows 2007 uptake.

Buy the way, "Flip3D", totally lame. WPF and Avalon, consumers are not developers and really don't care about the under pinnings.... I think the Windows team need to re-evaluate their focus group strategies and work more on unifying windows, and get rid of all the new strange UI elements brought forward in XP service pack 2 and Vista. Ask your self, does the security centre with the firewall settings really sit well the rest of windows, or does it look like a 3rd party product latched on the side.

enough rant.... Vista's slow uptake, not probably a dislike of Vista, but a shortage of apps and drivers.

NFS Carbon Completed on PS3

I finally beat NFS carbon on the PS3. I think it was such a big deal to complete it for me, however the rewards suck butts! The final cut scene is only a few seconds long and you don't really get any new kit from it.... Not impressed... I don't think the game has much more going for it now, maybe I shall try it again with a new car class, but really that just seems lame.

The final canyon race with darius was the hardest, however with a top of the line and tuned McLaren and a first canyon pass score of 15000, I won with only 1500 points to spare. I have kitted out a few of the cars with top of the line part and didn't notice a big difference between them. The more expensive cars are only better with no optimizations, how they all seem much of a muchness with all the bits.

Anyways, my first PS3 game conquered! KEWL!

NFS Carbon

I have been spending the last few weeks playing NFS carbon on the PS3. I am finally attempting the final boss race against Darius in the canyon. It is a real bitch, it is so hard, I gets lots of points then on the next lap I crash. It makes the blood run warm. Hopefully, I shall complete this game in the next day or so. I have seen on some sites that there is only 7 hours of gameplay in this, well this aint true if you suck at it as much as me.

It is a bit disappointing to see that there is not much downloadable content for it on the PS3. I have tried to play this game online, but that was terrible, the other cars jumped around, it was awful. Also, I have not worked out how to take in game photos with the playstation yet either, shame.

MSO2007: Word GUI Corruption

Product: Microsoft Office Word 2007 RTM (Current April 2007)
Bug: Multiple Word windows Equation GUI corruption
First Discovered: January 2007
Discovered by: Michael Kennedy

The new version on Microsoft Office 2007 RTM has lots of nice new features which are not included in much of the hype. However it also has a few bugs left in there for curious users to find. This discusses some drawing issues with the GUI when multiple Word windows are opened.


This picture shows the equation editor inserting a new equation in the first windows in a new document. I really like this equation editor, it was so nice to use and the results look great in PDF. This saved me from using LATEX.


However when you open a second window and try and insert an equation, under some circumstances the GUI will not be drawn correctly in the second window. While this at first may appear insignificant, the new black bits to the right and bottom of each of the equation tiles covers up part of the respective tile, and makes it hard to distinguish between tiles by their respective images. Which makes it quite annoying, and in my opinion is clearly a bug. Probably not an easy one to find because the corruption does not occur on all equation tiles.

In terms of duplication, I have been able to generate the same error on multiple machines quite easily. The first was a high spec workstation and the other was Dell Inspiron 500M with 1GB RAM. The systems both had all drivers and windows software up to date, and shared very little in common in terms of system hardware.

Duplication steps:

1. Open Microsoft Office Word 2007 RTM twice, so you have two new windows each with their own new document.
2. In the first, insert a new equation.
3. In the second, insert a new equation.
4. In the first, move the mouse over the equation ribbon and click each tile's down arrow to reveal all the optional example tiles.
5. In the second, move the mouse over the equation ribbon and click each tile's down arrow to reveal all the optional example tiles.
6. Notice the new blacks bits that appear in one of the windows.
   

I do not believe this error is confined to this element only, but with no money from Microsoft and little interest in the user forums I have given up on testing. Clearly since I have finished my thesis, and my copy of 2007 was legal and free, I have no need or right to complain much.

PS3 - Much Better then a Sega Master System II

Recently the Sony Playstation 3 was released in Australia. I had been looking forward to this for months. Being a total nut job for advanced computer hardware, this is right up my alley. Not discouraged by the large cost, $999 AUD for the console, plus $140 extended warranty, $30 HD component cable, and $320 for three games. Lets also not forget the great DELL 24" widescreen at $1000 (I bought this a while back), which sadly lacks HDMI. For the last few months prior I was occupied by my studies and saving money was much easier then normal, however the initial costs are not to be laughed at.

With the large costs in mind, and the over-hyped lunch, I wanted to make sure I got my PS3 as quickly as possible and pre-ordered it. Which meant I did not have to act like a loser and queue at midnight to purchase a console that I probably wouldn't play tell the next day.

Since my experience with the XBOX360 left my slightly pessimistic, due to continual over heating and the games weren't what I would have liked, I was not sure what to expect. The games I played on the XBOX360 included NFS Carbon, NFS High Speed Persuit (I think that's what it is called), Halo 2, Call of Duty, and a few others. Mostly I found them boring, except NFS. Surprisingly, the newer version, carbon, was less interesting, as the scenery in the older version was much more impressive.







This inspired me to purchase the only PS3 NFS game, Carbon, and I also bought MotorStorm Madness, and Genji. MotorStorm was only selected cause the kewl looking dragon game Lair wasn't available. I must say my first experiences with the PS3 have been pretty good. NFS and MotorStorm Rock!!! While Genji blows chunks and I find it dull and boring. That being said I haven't spent much time playing it, but the dubbed Japanese voices piss me off. Also I don't like the game play much.

The one problem I have had so far has been setting up the network for the PS3. While I was able to browse the internet with some trivial settings (automatic DHCP), I could not log into the PS3 Network. This was fixed by setting an external DNS servers, e.g. not the router. I am also slight annoyed that I had to purchase a component cable...

Images in this blog are probably the property of Sony or at least licensed to them. Since this page is pretty nice about the PS3 I am sure they won't mind. Images taken from www.playstation.com.au.