Windows 8 on a laptop: first look

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

All the talk so far has centred around the wonderful new Metro UI, and how it could well be the nicest touch interface yet – but what of the vast majority of PCs and laptops that don’t have a touchscreen? Does Windows 8 relegate them to an afterthought, or can you carry on with mouse and keyboard as if touch never existed? To find out, I installed the developer preview on a 15in Core i5 laptop and plugged in a mouse.

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Is Microsoft throwing stones in the developer glass house?

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Am I the only person who finished reading the Security Development Lifecycle Progress Report and immediately conjured up an image of Microsoft developers throwing stones in a big glass house?

The Microsoft SDL is, obviously, a good thing if it helps to reduce vulnerabilities in code. But I got the feeling that Microsoft was saying that Windows and Internet Explorer are such popular targets for attack because developers are not applying all the SDL techniques and technologies available to them.

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IT Expert Syndrome: is your data at risk?

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

I don’t consider myself an IT expert. I consider myself to be an enthusiastic user of technology who just happens to know a thing or two about specific IT subjects and has an ability to communicate that knowledge to others. Not everyone is so shy in stepping forward to don the ‘expert’ hat though, and that is causing problems for businesses.

The Urban Dictionary definition of Expert Syndrome is an ailment that is characterised by “the need to expound on a given topic beyond actual knowledge” and that advanced sufferers are “often unaware of the condition, losing the ability to distinguish opinion from fact”. Before you dismiss this right now as being just another of the many somewhat jovial opinion pieces fuelled by an excess of seasonal cheer, there is actually a rather serious side to IT Expert Syndrome. To grasp the seriousness of the problem you first have to appreciate the duality of the learning theory concept of transfer.

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Simple rules for stupid tech companies

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

I’ve decided to fix the tech industry. All of it, right now. Here’s how.

If it’s been done before, do it better

Company exec: I have an idea for an eBook reader. It’ll be like the Kindle, only rubbish and more expensive. Happily, our customers have the intelligence of drunken sparrows and are easily confused by colour. The Kindle is white, ours will be white. They’ll never know.

CEO: Sebastian, you’re a genius. The money I was going to invest in research and development I can now use to buy another yacht, from which I can sip champagne and watch as my company goes down the pan quicker than the contents of a banker’s pockets after a knock on the door from the fuzz.

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Scrivener: a word processor that makes you smile

Monday, November 8th, 2010

It’s rare software makes people smile. Rarer still that it makes them want to hug their computer and never let go. Scrivener will do this, because Scrivener will change your life. And not half-heartedly, like having a child or getting married, but properly change it. It will open your head and spoon feed happiness directly to your brain. This will naturally make you more attractive, charismatic and fun. I confidently predict that by the time you’ve read this article and downloaded Scrivener you’ll be a 67% better person.

Bombast be damned, Scrivener is brilliant.

It’s a word processor. No wait, that’s like describing a waterfall as big, wet and noisy. Scrivener is a fundamental rethink of what a word processor should be. The idea is that instead of trying to plop all your text onto one page – like word diarrhoea on an endless sheet of literary loo roll – you create a series of smaller documents within Scrivener, then arrange these how you see fit, according to how you write.

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Death of the sales channel

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

The news that Microsoft will have a software e-shop for Windows 8, and that Apple will be doing the same for its forthcoming Lion version of OS X, should be ringing alarm bells in the boardrooms of the high-street vendors, and the online e-shops.

The reality is that customers like buying from a curated store, with easy installation, payment and updating. And they like the low prices that this method tends to bring. In addition, developers love it because it allows for them to concentrate on app design and not on website design, credit card handling, and the huge overhead of keeping in touch with customers for updates.

However, if you’re in the business of selling packaged software, then you are about to have your Titanic moment. (more…)

I cannot uninstall Microsoft Office 2010

Friday, October 8th, 2010

The press release said that a survey of 600 sales, marketing and IT professionals from companies in the UK, France and Germany had revealed millions of pounds were being wasted every year on unused applications. Actually, it said millions of Euros but I knew what it meant. Actually, at first I didn’t know what it meant as my thoughts turned to smartphones and while I appreciate that the iPhone, BlackBerry and assorted Android devices are doing well, I wasn’t swallowing a survey which reckoned that business were wasting millions every year on apps they don’t even use.

Then I read the document again, and everything became clearer. This was a story about data governance rather than Angry Birds in the office, and don’t even get me started about that one or the wife will kill me. According to Informatica, the outfit that provided me with the research data, some 81% of those IT professionals questioned said their corporate networks were hosting unused applications and data. Which isn’t really any surprise at all, is it? I’ve just looked at my own corporate network and it’s full of applications that sounded like a good idea at the time but turned out to be a waste of money as they are never used. Microsoft Office 2010, for example.

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Software companies, the hard sell and the whiff of desperation

Friday, August 6th, 2010

I’ve just got off the phone with a global software company, and I’m shocked. Partly because I’ve had to phone up and register a piece of software in 2010 – it’s like a throwback to 1997 – but mostly because of the cynical way that the phone registration was used to try and pressure me, a potential customer, into buying stuff I just didn’t want.

The call started amicably enough: while I didn’t like having to hand over my email address, phone number and postcode in order to register an account, the operator was friendly and chatty.

Immediately afterwards he started talking, casually at first, about the software I was registering and how I planned to use it, before moving on to the benefits of the latest version of the same application. I was pretty non-committal – after all, I’d only just installed the application and hadn’t actually used it. His computer then told him that I’d registered an account with the company back in January, although I’ve since forgotten.

He then proceeded with the hard sell, both for the updated version of the product I was registering and the now-forgotten free application I’d installed in January. The full-fat versions of both applications cost around £80, and I want neither. It’s worth mentioning that his selling technique was to repeatedly run down the software I was registering in comparison with the new version, even if he didn’t specify one new or improved feature.

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So, why has PC Pro switched to EcoDisc?

Monday, July 5th, 2010

That sound? That’s the sound of my conscience being pricked, and the reader responsible is Joe Clarke. “Where is my nice sturdy disc?” he asked via email. “It’s a paper DVD! It bends and makes a noise like a Rolf Harris didgeridoo – but dare I risk inserting it into my beloved PC? What’s this new-fangled discology and why no fanfare on its use?”

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The 10 free programs I can’t live without

Monday, November 30th, 2009

I had the delightful task of rebuilding my working life last Monday, as my hard disk decided that would be the perfect time to die. And I realised I hadn’t actually synchronised my online backup system since I last tested a new service. Clever. With time against me – the magazine went to press on Wednesday night – it quickly became clear which programs I desperately needed to install.

1. Paint.NET

Windows 7 may now include a version of Paint complete with a fancy Ribbon interface, but it still doesn’t offer the features I need to quickly enhance photos and mould screenshots to my whims. Paint.NET does, and it also supports plug-ins for RAW files (and more), making it my top photo-editing choice. (more…)