No, not the clouds in the sky, but cloud computing. It’s a broad category, with folks meaning everything from Google Mail to widely-distributed applications (think SETI at Home) when they talk about cloud applications. I just wrote a blog entry at InfoWorld on the question of what happens when your cloud fails. I’m going to be looking deeply at cloud computing this fall — you’ll hear more about why in an upcoming post.
OK, so I’ll admit that being able to work in Honolulu is a very cool thing. I’ve been working on reviews and project with Brian Chee, director of the Advanced Network Computing Lab (ANCL) for nearly a decade and I remain in awe of his technical abilities. The fact that he’s also a great friend makes working out here even more productive than normal technology field trips.
On this trip, we’re working on firewalls. When I was here in March, we were finishing the work for the InfoWorld Pimp Your Datacenter article. We took some of the photos and had Brian narrate them into a couple of slide presentations. Here’s the presentation on the air-conditioning installation — I’ll have the electrical installation show up soon.
PC Magazine, the publication Jim Louderback has helmed for the last couple of years, has always been a staunch supporter of whatever Microsoft’s been doing lately. Now, Jim’s leaving, and as he changes roles he’s writing about a change in opinion. He doesn’t like Vista. I have to say, I agree with him on his major points, and have several of my own to add.
I moved to Vista on my Gateway laptop as soon as the OS became available. After using Microsoft’s latest for most of 2007, I’ve come to a solid conclusion: This software isn’t ready. I’m not positive I’d put it into final beta status, but it certainly isn’t a general release candidate. Promised features don’t work (see: sleep mode), drivers from key hardware and software partners don’t work, and the overall experience is much closer to rock climbing than rock steady. My latest adventure came after the most recent Vista updates, when my machine took to blasting off into blue-screen hell at every boot. It took several days of wrestling with Vista and ATI to return to something like normalcy, and I know that another Patch Tuesday is coming.
Microsoft became so fixed on making a ship date that they released software that isn’t consumer-ready. They shouldn’t have done it, and the fact that so many computers continue to be sold with Windows XP installed illustrates the extent to which customers and hardware partners recognize the very real limitations of Vista.
The truly frustrating thing is that it’s an OS with promise. There are many features I like (or, at least, I think I’d like if they worked), and the interface tweaks between Vista and Office 2007 make for an acceptable way of working. A few folks are looking at Linux as an alternative to Vista, but Linux remains an operating system with a high-geek perception. I know that recent distros have made great strides in ease of installation and use, but the general perception is that Linux is “too hard” for most consumers to try. I still think it would make for most interesting times in the computer industry if Apple were to release the next version of MacOS as a retail product for installation on pretty much any Intel-based computer. I know I’d install it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people who ask for my input on computer purchases. That’s something I can’t do with Vista right now: I will not recommend it to anyone who needs a computing platform that’s reliable and business-ready. I truly hope Microsoft can fix the myriad problems sooner, rather than later, but so far they’re giving few signs of moving in that direction.
One of the things that Windows has never done particularly well is manage the process of getting rid of software. Sometime an application shows up in the “install/uninstall software” dialog, sometimes the software has its own uninstaller, and sometimes neither is true. Sometimes the supplied process gets rid of every trace of the unwanted software, and sometimes stray bits and pieces are left scattered across your system. Now, there’s a bit of freeware that helps get rid of software you don’t want: Revo Uninstaller. It’s a great little piece of software that gives you several options for zapping unwanted applications. There are also features for managing the software that automatically starts when you boot your system.
I tried Revo Uninstaller on a USB camera application that, it turned out, was incompatible with Vista. The app didn’t show up in the Windows dialog, and didn’t include its own uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller found it, got rid of it, and even asked about some stray registry keys when it was finished. I end up loading and unloading a lot of software on my systems, and I can see this being the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
Thanks to the always-useful LifeHacker for the pointer.
So MSNBC has an article telling us that some folks are still complaining about Vista. They’re right about the major problems–driver incompatibilities and the utterly ridiculous way in which User Account Control was implemented–but they haven’t really touched on the basis of the bad feelings some of us have toward this product. I sat down over a year ago with Jim Allchin and other members of the Vista team, and they told me two things: First, Vista was going to be on time; and second, Vista was going to be fabulous. At that point, they had already been tossing features overboard to make the ship date, but by now it’s obvious that either the final feature set or the ship date should have been revised in a big way before the end of last year. Microsoft had become so heavily invested in their self-imposed deadline, and so wrapped up in the hype machine surrounding Vista, that it was beyond their corporate ability to give full value to both. I say this because most of the “Vista will be fabulous” talk we got that day on the Microsoft campus revolved around Vista’s 64-bit capabilities. Guess what? Installations of 64-bit Vista are still rare as hen’s teeth because Microsoft is working very hard not to sell the licenses. They work so hard because the still-growing number of 32-bit drivers dwarfs the number of 64-bit drivers available. I’m still using Vista on one machine, and the experience has spanned the distance from acceptable to intensely frustrating. Will I go back to XP on the one machine? No. I need to keep Vista for part of my work, and I’ve gotten it to a state in which it doesn’t interfere with most of my projects. Will I recommend anyone else move to Vista? Not right now…at least not if the anyone else is someone I like. If XP no longer meets your needs, look at Linux, try Mac OS, but don’t plan on shifting to Vista unless you feel you just have way too much productive time on your hands. I’m sure that Microsoft will eventually get it right, but I have absolutely no way to predict when that will happen. It’s a shame, because Vista does show promise. The slow-motion, dribbling release of Vista might go unnoticed at a lot of firms, but Microsoft isn’t a lot of firms. Microsoft will use bluff and bravado to try to convince the world that the Vista roll-out has gone precisely as planned, but if this is how things are supposed to work, God help us if Microsoft ever has a broken release.
Thanks to Instapundit for pointing out the MSNBC article. It’s worth reading.
Last week I was up in Washington, D.C. speaking at the Publishing for Impact conference sponsored by the World Bank. On the one hand, it was fairly heady stuff for a guy who’s spent most of his career talking to fellow geeks. On the other hand, it was exciting to hear people talking about using new technologies to reach audiences in developing nations. I was talking about podcasting, and was interested to hear folks discussing the possibility of podcasts for distributing public health information in Africa. In nations where neither electricity nor telephone service can be counted on as a 24 x 7 commodity, podcasts are a great tool, since they can be downloaded to a battery-powered device during connection times and listened to sometime later.
More important for me was hearing people talking about technology that’s critical to someone’s life. We get used to thinking about technology as convenient or important to the way we do business–for most of us, a podcast isn’t going to be a life or death issue. There are places and people for whom it is that important, though–and it’s good for me to remember that as I work on these systems.
I haven’t mentioned the book in a while, so I’ll put a link down here in this post. If you haven’t read it, yet, I can certainly recommend it. the book is The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting.
One of the things I’ve already started thinking about is the computer I’ll haul around campus. I’ve got a neat Gateway desktop-replacement laptop, but it has two qualities that make it just slightly less than ideal as a classroom machine. First, it’s just a hair heavy–I’m guessing it comes in somewhere in the 6.5 lb range. That only bothers me so much, though. The thing that really has me worried is that I keep my life on this thing. Really. The up-to-the-minute version of my work, my e-mail, my schedule, all my cool reference files–they’re on the hard disk here. Oh, I know about backup, and I do keep things backed up reasonably well, but those back-ups are analgesic, not truly prophylactic. Having them reduces the pain when something goes wrong, but they can’t keep the pain from happening.
To avoid the pain, I’m thinking about using a little Dell XPS machine I’ve had sitting around for a couple of years. It’s not the hottest new processor, it has a tiny hard disk (less than 20 gigs), and not much memory (384k), but it’s really small, really light, and has built-in networking. I’m thinking that a stripped-down OS with just enough applications might make this the perfect note-taking platform, since it would also let me check e-mail, do a bit of research, and check my schedule between classes. My real question is whether to keep it on Windows XP or try a Linux variant–Ubuntu, perhaps? I’d be interested in your thoughts on this one…and I’ll keep you posted on the decisions.
What made me really think seriously about this? The introduction of the Foleo from Palm. I’ve heard a number of folks talking about what a useless concept it is, but I disagree. Sometimes, you just need something to do basic work on until you can get back to the Mother Ship. The Foleo isn’t trying to be your only computer–it’s trying to be the device you carry with you when your real computer is just a little too much. I don’t know whether the Foleo will be a wildly successful device, but I think the category will be, though it may take a little while to fully develop. Jeff Hawkins has a good track record on this sort of thing–I wouldn’t bet against him here.
…is up at Dark Reading. It’s a rant on the “20 worst…” lists that have become so popular. It’s not that the lists aren’t good, it’s that so many of the items on the list can be boiled down into a few basic problems. In the column I, you guessed it, bile them collards down, as the old song has it. I’ll take the pot likker and stop this string of analogies before I’m compelled to bring anything like chitlins to the table.
You know, though, a lot of the very complicated things we worry about can be broken down into very simple rules. I’ve had to mandate–and take–sexual harassment classes in various jobs. All the words, examples, and legal precedents can be summed up very neatly: Be a gentleman; be a lady; don’t be an ass. There–I’ve just saved you thousands of dollars on harassment training. In the same way, I run across so many IT problems that could have been solved if someone–anyone, actually–had applied Thomas Watson’s famous word: Think.
We’ve built such a cult around speed that thinking about the problem we’re trying to solve and the consequences of our solution gets short shrift. I’m sure you can supply your own example here; anyone who’s been in business for more than 38 minutes can. It’s time to bring thinking back into fashion. Security is a good place to start, but it’s starting that’s the key.
One of the other newsletters I work with is Business VoIP Report. It comes out as a push newsletter every Wednesday, with the information up on the web site shortly after it goes out to subscribers. I’ll put a reminder to post links in my to-do list, and everyone will get to see the extent to which I ignore my to-do list.
One of the newsletters I put together is IT_Wireless. Most recent edition is at the link, with a new version every Monday. I’ll try to remember to link to each new one, but if I don’t, feel free to subscribe.
My latest column is up at Dark Reading. I’m afraid I got up on one of my favorite soapboxes–companies trying to silence those who find flaws with their products. It’s not just security companies; take a look at the license you agree to when you use any of the major databases, for example, and you’ll find that you’ve agreed never to tell a soul if you build a test and get results.
I’m not excited about a culture built on cowardice and secrecy. This kind of thing makes no one more secure, and contributes to an atmosphere that leads to more bad surprises, rather than fewer. Let sales reps know that you don’t like this sort of thing, and that it will figure into future purchasing decisions. It’s the only real way to get the attention of the execs who think they’re doing their company a favor.
Everyone’s excited about the midnight release of Vista. It will be interesting to see if there are lines forming to be the first to pick up a copy. (My guess: not many lines, and not very long ones, at that.) While I’m waiting for my Express Upgrade copy to arrive, here’s my list of things I really hope to find in Vista…
Networking that works. Microsoft has figured out how to get Active Directory to function reasonably well as an enterprise directory. What we haven’t seen is a way to make the Windows Peer networking work nearly as well or as consistently. I field lots of calls asking why a laptop suddenly can’t see a desktop, or why the corporate laptop is now unable to work with the nework printer at home. Home users shouldn’t have to worry about which machine has been elected Master Browser, and any networking fix that involves invoking Regedit is a non-starter. If Microsoft delivers consumer-grade networking that functions reliably, then Vista has gone a long way towards becoming a Win.
Improved Resource Management. I’ve moved to Office 2007. While there are features that will help me in many ways, in Windows XP the Office package is a serious resource hog. My laptop has a Core2 Duo CPU and 2 GB RAM, and it still slows to a crawl when I’m working with more than one application open. Outlook 2007, for all its improvements, is the worst offender. I hear from colleagues that Offie 2007 is much better under Vista, and I’m certainly hoping that’s true.
Usable Security. Let’s all agree that Windows XP hasn’t been as easy to make secure as we’d like. For at least three years we’ve been hearing that Vista will be dramatically better for a host of reasons. Unfortunately, recent reports have indicated that much of the security has followed the model of the TSA–convince people that if the security is truly annoying and disruptive, it must be working well. I don’t buy that premise, and I don’t want a security show. I want security that protects against things that might make it through my firewalls, and I want it to be sufficiently non-intrusive that I won’t be tempted to turn it off. That’s not an impossible list of “wants” for security.
Recognition of the Way I Work. OK, so I’m willing to admit that I’m probably not Captain Average when it comes to the stuff I do with a computer. On the other hand, I’m no longer writing custom apps to tailor the computer to each quirk and tic of my day. So I want to keep ActiveSynch, OneNote, and Groove all humming merrily along in the background while Google Desktop does its think on the side of the monitor. While this is going on I want Trillian waiting for instant messages from multiple sources and Skype to stand ready to complete my video phone calls. Oh, yes, Outlook should be handling my e-mail and scheduling stuff. And then, I want to get some work done with Word, or Excel, or maybe Adobe Audition. Is this so much to ask? It’s the way we were all led to believe computing would be. Of course, we were led to believe we would be computing like this while we wore our white or gray suits on the way to vacation at L5 (a trip we’d take in the PanAm Space Shuttle), but enough about that. The point is, I want Vista to keep the apps from bumping into each other. Now, working on my computer feels like what I imagine it must be to drive the truck taking a rabid rhino to the vet: we trundle resolutely down the road, but I can feel the angry bumps and thwacks from the cargo box, and I just know I’m going to end up in a ditch with an angry rhinocerous doing a tango on my spleen. I want Vista to take just a little of that particular thrill out of my workday.
I want Vista not to disappoint me. This one is hard, but I would like for the product to work as Microsoft has said it will work. I can’t ask it to make me happy, cure my halitosis, or bring back my hair, but I’d really be quite grateful if it didn’t cause the veins to throb on my temples or any more of my Linux-using friends to cluck their tongues in vague disappointment at my obvious stupidity. That last one is really beyond Vista’s abilities–the tongue-clucking will continue as long as I insist on the apostasy of a graphical user interface, but the rest would be nice. Really.
