Microsoft Just Can’t Get It Right

I don’t understand how after decades Microsoft can’t even get one of their longest standing products, Outlook Express, to function consistently. Once again a seemingly simple operation, like starting a program, has failed.

A friend of mine had a computer problem today and as I’m his good friend I needed to solve it. He couldn’t use his email. The only thing you could get from his Outlook Express is a message saying “Outlook Express could not be started. The application was unable to open the Outlook Express message store. Your computer may be out of memory or your disk is full”. I’ve searched the internet on Outlook Express and found an interesting Outlook Express repair utility and I’m sharing the link with you. It’s repair option solved his problem automatically.

Funny, I never have to deal with problems like this on my Mac. But I realize most people are still stuck in the MS quagmire so I offer help where I can find it.

Tags:
outlook express
outlook express repair utility

outlook express
outlook express repair utility

Firefox Losing Market Share, Don’t Think So

Here’s an Information Week healine today:

Firefox Losing Market Share, Internet Explorer Gaining, Says Dutch Metrics Firm

The numbers come from OneStat. I am wondering, are they on the MS
bankroll? First, they contradict the findings on Firefox penetration
presented by Net Applications which shows IE is losing ground. So is it
he said she said? Of course, so I have to side with the report matching
my data.

I run a Myspace tutorial site. I figure if there is a mix of users that
represent the typical Internet surfer, it’s a crowd looking at things related
to Myspace. I am receiving 350 – 500 unique visitors per day and am
showing my viewers using Firefox consistently at 21% – 23% (Safari is
at 3%, also more in line with Net Applications). I have other sites showing
similar results but the traffic is too little to draw additional support from.

Finally, the article also says:

Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox has the largest share of browser users in Germany
(33.4 percent), Australia (25.6 percent), and Italy (21.6 percent), said OneStat.
In the U.S. only, IE accounts for 80.8 percent, Firefox 14.9 percent, and
Safari 3.4 percent.

So I applaud the rest of the world for recognizing the value of quality and for
breaking the bonds of Microsoft propaganda. Here in the U.S. I hope we follow
suit soon. And don’t forget, it doesn’t matter that IE7 will be released before Firefox 2.

Do us all a favor and get Firefox now.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
firefox
ie7
internet explorer
2.0 beta
get Firefox
myspace
myspace tutorial

Microsoft’s IE 7 May Beat Firefox 2.0 To Market, Who Cares

The first part of the title is a headline from Information Week. The who
cares part is mine. Firefox 1.5 is already a better browser than IE7 so
the point is moot. We all need to do each other a favor and give up on IE.
It’s an insecure beast designed to perpetuate Microsoft proprietary
technologies that reduce usability, cost standards savvy web developers
time and money in hacks, and limit the experience of web surfers.

Firefox is gaining in market share for a reason. It’s a better browser. If
we, as a web community, can push Firefox to 50% market share we will,
at the very least, force Microsoft to pay attention to standards and come
up with a comparable product.

If you are a Mac user, help out by using Firefox instead of Safari or other
Mozilla base browsers, at least for a little while. Safari and the others are
great browsers, but only diminish the impact of our fight against Microsoft.
Firefox is a great browser and you won’t miss your stand by. You can always
return as a loyal fan when the fight is done. with 10s of millions of us, and
growing, we can make a difference.

Do us all a favor and get Firefox now.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
firefox
ie7
internet explorer
2.0 beta
get Firefox

Microsoft, Illegal Dominance or Death Throws

I can’t believe what I just read in Information Week. It appears we
now must trust Microsoft, unanimously viewed as a security disaster by
supporters and proponents alike, to be the sole protector of our computing
environment. The headline reads:

Following rival Symantec’s lead, McAfee complained that by
locking access to the Vista kernel, Microsoft was also blocking security
vendors’ access to the operating system core.

I guess Microsoft has gotten over the post anti-trust syndrome and is back to
its old practice of underhanded business tactics instead of innovation and
quality to keep its market share. Here’s another quote:

‘”They’ve leveraged their access [to the kernel] to give themselves an unfair
advantage,” said Viega. “That will leave users less secure.”‘

and:

‘”Microsoft has repeatedly said that its own products — security
software included — must also abide by the PatchGuard restrictions. Viega
didn’t think Microsoft would be able to resist the temptation. “I don’t believe
them,” he said when asked about Microsoft’s promises to steer clear of the
kernel.’

I don’t believe them either. Microsoft’s history of bad conduct Microsoft is too
overwhelming to give anything they say about good behavior any credence
what so ever. Overall it’s a desperate play by a desperate company. I don’t
think anything they do will save them in the long run. It might even accelerate
the decline, at least in the EU, as they thumb their noses at regulators and
bring down the wrath of government legal action once again.

There may be immediate hope, though, in the growth of Apple Macintosh computers in the coffee houses.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
computer+security
windows vista
mcafee
symantec
macintosh

IE7, Just Stop Supporting It Already

This is a message to web developers, IT Managers and eTailers as much as users. Here is a quote from Information Week:

“This isn’t even about IE 7,” Litofsky argued. “IE 7 could be bug free and sites would still have these issues. In a typical browser roll-out, a site may get dozens of hundreds of customer support [and access] problems. With IE 7, though, it’ll be that times several thousand.”

Come on, why do we continue to accepting this? Users, download Firefox and start using it. Web delevopers, just write W3C compliant code and stick to JavaScript and XML. We’ll all be a lot happier in the end.

BTW, Microsoft, if you force me to upgrade to IE7, I’ll hack a big loogey at you.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
firefox
IE7
web developers

Microsoft, their self image is, well, ridiculous

“We made an upfront decision that was, I’ll say, incredibly strategic
and brilliant and wise — and was not implementable,” Ballmer said.
This was said at a financial analysts meeting last week. It’s the first
time I’ve heard somethin unimplementabel be called brilliant and
wise. At least it was strategic.

In an Information Week article Stacy Cowley said , “But Microsoft’s
message to the world is that it’s up for the challenges it faces, with its
robust financial resources and in-house expertise.” Come on. Financial
resources I can agree with, and despise considering the methods of
gain, but in-house expertise? When was the last time they put out a
reasonably good product? My vote is Word 5 for the Macintosh. And
don’t say Excel because it’s been going downhill since Office ’97; oh
yeah, and they bought that one.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags: Microsoft Steve Ballmer Microsoft Office Word 5 Excelfailure Macintosh vista

Computer Lab Techs, How You Can Help Firefox

I am pushing to help Firefox reach 50% penetration by Jan. 1 2007.
This will do 2 things, it will help the browsing public by giving them
a better browsing experience and it will help web developers save
time and money by not having to rewrite perfectly valid CSS2 code
to work in a bloated outdated browser. The 50% mark will give an
immediate benefit to the 50% using it and will force IE to improve
or die.

So this is a call out to all computer lab techs, particularly those in
education. Go to every computer you have access to and make
Firefox the default browser. Don’t ask your IT people, just do it.
It’s time to take matters into our own hands and really get something
done.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
firefox
ie
internet explorer

Microsoft Invites Firefox, big whoooop

I read “breaking news” today in my Informationweek Daily
about Microsoft magnanimously offering the engineers of Firefox access
to their special development lab if the are “interested in making sure the
Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client run under Windows Vista”.

The only thing I learned from this article is Microsoft makes a crappy OS.
First, Firefox works on Windows now so it should continue to work on Vista.
It’s not like they did what Apple did with OS X and built it from scratch. It’s
still the same old, bloated, stretching, screeching, code base as before.

Second, if a developer needs to go to a special lab to ensure a product
works then the OS is either horrendously bad, or Microsoft is hiding something
from all the non-invited developers, which of course is in violation of the
anti-trust settlement.

To top it off they made a big deal out of the fact Firefox developers are the
first open source group invited to the lab. It reminds me of the cigarette
companies running smoking is bad for you commercials yet still selling
cigarettes. “Yeah we know it’s bad, but buy it anyway because we’re honest
about how bad it is”.

I just wish they would go away (the cigarette companies too).

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Watch my success at 1095 to Success, a 3 Year Adventure

Tags:
Windows Vista
Firefox
OS X
Open Source

Mac OS – 8, Windows – 0

Well this is a happy rant. Today Charles Babcock, software
researcher and writer for Information Week, released the
the top 12 greatest pieces of software ever. The Macintosh
OS was listed as number 8; Microsoft Windows was excluded.
Here is snippet from his “How Windows Measures on the
Scale of Greatness” article explaining why he left Windows
off the list:

“But Windows owes its dominance to something
other than programming breakthroughs or technical innovations.
Other operating systems, including MS DOS, Unix, Digital
Equipment’s VMS and the Apple Macintosh, were the first to
introduce many new features. Microsoft popularized them to
a wider audience.”

No, Windows owes its dominance in large part to a series of
agreements Microsoft negotiated at the start of the PC revolution
with computer manufacturers.”

A sentiment I have been espousing for years. Thank you
Mr. Babcock, and thank you for the list of 12.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
windows
macintosh
mac
mac os
great software

Microsoft stifles innovation, and they hate you

We all know that Microsoft has a long history of using marketing muscle to bury
or buy the little guy. But did you know Microsoft is actually stifling innovation
and limiting the potential of your computing experience? A prime example is
Internet Explorer. This browser has been behind the standards curve for over
5 years, and the new version doesn’t seem to show much promise of resolving
the situation. Instead they try to force proprietary technologies (active X) and
modified css implementations to position themselves as the better browser when
in fact we all know the only advantage they have is numbers.

As you might expect, this little rant was spurned by a specific problem caused by
the poor implementation of the IE browser. I want to do something fun and fancy
with Myspace, something I will be able to share with all Myspace users, but it won’t
work right now because IE doesn’t properly support the top property for a relatively
positioned div class (i.e. you don’t get to see my fun stuff because Microsoft doesn’t
like to support standards for your benefit). Safari supports it. Firefox supports it on
both platforms. But not Internet Explorer.

Screw you Bill G, and everything you stand for. If it weren’t for you we would have
computers that were as easy and reliable as televisions by now.

PS. I am starting a campaign to move Firefox to 50% by Jan. 1, 2007. This will help
the entire internet community because Microsoft will have to pay attention to you,
not their market. To help participate in the world wide Firefox day campaign (I have
no affiliation and do not benefit by your participation).

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags: Microsoft Bill Gates Internet Explorer IE standards Myspace Internet Standards css