From: mike 


Scroll down a bit...

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/95725/95725.html?Ad=1


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WinInfo Blog

It feels like Saturday today because the kids are off from school (Good
Friday?) and because my wife didn't set the alarm as a result so I slept in
by mistake. Now I've got to race through Short Takes so I can make it to
the gym on time and... arrgggh..... Anyway. There's nothing like the sharp,
cold blast of reality in the morning.

And speaking of cold, I'm going to stop talking about the weather. After
essentially promising myself and others that winter was over, we lapsed
into a week of frigid temperatures and even had some snow. I almost ran
outside and covered up the flowers that had burst through the ground a week
earlier. It's finally going to be milder this coming week, but the past
week has just been brutal. Spring always comes in fits and starts in this
part of the world, but this is ridiculous.

My son Mark turns nine on Saturday. He's selected "Monster Golf"
as the location for this year's party, so our family, and almost 20
screaming nine-years old kids, will be immersed in a dark, black-lighted
indoor mini-golf nightmare for a few hours this evening, and I as much as I
love the kid, I have to admit I'm not all that excited about this event.
And if you're curious, there's still no word on his pending cochlear
implant surgery. Apparently, we're waiting on the parts, which is also true
of my wife's Mazda, and yes, I find that coincidence more than vaguely
disturbing.

For the next ten days, friends of ours from France will be visiting, which
is a nice turnaround, as we've stayed with them more than a few times now
when we travel there.

Last night, Leo and I recorded a live version of our Windows Weekly
podcast, which was fun. We had quite a crowd, and a number of people
calling in via Skype or otherwise. I'm not sure how this works, exactly,
but I assume a recording will be made available normally via the podcast.
In the meantime, you can hear it on the TalkShoe Web site.


Short Takes

Microsoft Considers Near-Free Zune Model While there have been rumors of a
Zune smart phone lately, it seems that Microsoft's designs on the smart
phone market are more about distribution plans than actual hardware: The
company is considering taking a page from the cell phone/smart phone
playback by offering a Zune model for little or no cost and then making up
the difference by requiring the buyer to sign on to a yearly subscription
plan. If Microsoft does pursue this tact, it won't happen any time soon,
but the company noted that it got the idea in recent months after watching
the number of subscribers to its Zune Marketplace surge early this year. I
think that's a fine idea, but I'd like to see Microsoft attack some core
Zune issues first, by adding additional model types (like a flash-based
version) and some missing functionality (including podcast support).

Microsoft Releases Home Server SDK
Microsoft's upcoming Windows Home Server product is a nifty idea, and my
experience with the beta version thus far has been surprisingly positive.
This week, Microsoft revealed that it will be making Home Server even more
useful, however: It released a software development kit, or SDK that will
allow developers to write applications and services that can integrate with
Home Server. And I'd like to once again clear up some confusion about this
product: Despite what virtually every report I've seen about Home Server
says, Microsoft will make two versions available: Software-only, which you
can install on your own PC or server hardware, and as a bundle with Home
Server-specific hardware. This, too, makes the product more valuable.

Hungarian Notation Creator Heads to Space Charles Simonyi, the
Hungarian-born ex-Microsoft developer responsible for the so-called
Hungarian Notation style of programming, will soon rocket into space
onboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship. The self-described "space
nerd" has been training for months, and he paid a $20 million fee to
become the 450th person in space. Or, as he calls it, "the first nerd
in space." Dr. Simonyi and his crew will blast off on Saturday and
spend ten days at the International Space Station. Now, that's what I call
a vacation with a view.

Microsoft Threatens Poster of Vista SP1 Info This is a weird one: Last
week, a blogger named Ethan Allen posted a list of the 100-plus hot-fixes
and patches that Microsoft plans to ship as part of Windows Vista Service
Pack 1 (SP1), due later this year. He claimed that the list was mostly
derived from Microsoft's publicly available knowledge base (KB) articles,
though it has never been assembled in a single place as he did on his site.
He also supplied a download of the fixes, which he called the Vista SP1
Preview. Microsoft was not amused. The company sent Allen a cease and
desist order, for some reason, and demanded that the blogger remove his
"unauthorized redistribution of [Microsoft's] hot fixes." More
problematically, from my perspective, is that Microsoft program manager
Nick White was harshly critical of Allen's list in the Windows Vista blog
on the Microsoft Web site. I find that offensive: Allen is an enthusiast
trying to help people, and the way he's rewarded is with a legal threat and
a dismissive mention in a Microsoft-run Web site. Bravo, Microsoft. What's
next? Do you think you could just tar and feather the guy while you're at
it?

The Truth About Vista SP1
I'm tired of Microsoft's insane posturing about Windows Vista SP1. I've
written about this before, but it bears repeating. Every single time Vista
SP1 comes up, some representative from Microsoft--all the way up to CEO
Steve Ballmer, by the way, who has done this twice in public--acts as if
the company has no idea when it will ship SP1 or what features it will
include. That is not true. Microsoft will ship Windows Vista SP1
concurrently with Longhorn Server in Q3 2007 and SP1 will include a major
kernel update for Vista that will bring the client OS up to speed with the
version of the Windows kernel in Longhorn Server. That has been the plan
for quite a while, and they all know it. Why the company can't just say,
"We'd rather not discuss SP1 at this time" is beyond me. Instead,
they're simply lying, and for no good reason. And that's not right,
especially when there are millions of customers waiting on this release to
upgrade. You'd think a company that supposedly cares about transparency as
much as Microsoft would realize when they're being so, well, transparent.

And What About Windows XP Service Pack 3? And while I'm ranting a bit,
let's dredge up Windows XP Service Pack 3, which was delayed from 2005 to
2006 to 2007 and now to 2008. If you were looking for any glimpse into the
mind of Microsoft, this is it: The company has completely abandoned Windows
XP, and it has absolutely no plans to ever ship an XP SP3. My guess is that
Microsoft will do what it did with the final Windows 2000 Service Pack:
Claim years later that it's no longer needed and just ship a final security
patch roll-up. This is the worst kiss-off to any Microsoft product I've
ever seen, and you'd think the company would show a little more respect to
its best-selling OS of all time. But the reality is, Microsoft is looking
ahead to new revenue and not behind to money that's already in the bank.
And though hundreds of millions of people will be running XP for years to
come, despite Microsoft's best efforts at selling them a later Windows
version, the company has absolutely no plans to actually support those
customers. This flies in the face of its publicly-stated life cycle support
plans. And it really freaks me out. It should freak you out as well....
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The comment about no service pack 3 for Microsoft Windows XP looks ominous
as well.   Is Microsoft in self-destruct mode?


  /m

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