Rants Tagged with “Microsoft”
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The latest drop of
SQL Server 2005 is now on MSDN for subscribers. Curious thing...its a September CTP, not a RC. Anyone else think its going to slip past the November ship date (I doubt that
Visual Studio will, but i'll let you know what I see when I get it installed).
Microsoft has just released Virtual Earth. While it is a great competitor for Google Maps, it is still missing much of what Google Earth gives you (unless I am missing something). It is impressive what they are doing as a browser app without a download.
I played with "Locate Me" a bit. It did require a download. What it attempts to do is figure out where you are based on WiFi/IP Address. It was quite a bit off for me. It could figure out that I was in Atlanta, but located me in the capitol building (I am about 30 minutes from downtown Atlanta). Speaking with Robert Scoble at our geek dinner on Saturday, he told me that it was quite accurate. Perhaps they have more of the Northwest mapped out than Atlanta.
One word of warning. The "Locate Me" download ends up installing itself into the tray and loads up when windows loads. Come on Microsoft, don't play those stupid tricks. I have too many "TSR"s running anyway.
If you want to be able to play with topographic maps and see mountains and cities in 3d, check out Google Earth or my Rant about about it. Also check out Google Moon (especially the full zoom)!
Longhorn finally has a real name: Windows Vista. Huh? Can't we just go back and call it Windows 2006? XP was wierd enough, but now the marketing people have invaded the campus' core. They announced the new name with the marketing tagline:
"Clear, Confident, Connected: Bringing clarity to your world."
Get used to it. We got used to XP, we'll get used to it. But I am going to try and call it Windows 2006 until someone slaps me down.
I have gotten through the hoops to be able to use the new MVP Logo. I have to say its a nice change from the old logo which was a bit antiquated. I really like it:
I concur with this blogger. I don't get what will be in Longhorn. I really like Avalon and Indigo presents a great platform for SOA, but they are pre-Longhorn. And anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about WinFS...
Speaking of Cairo, I hope WinFS was dumped because they needed more time to get the API right (the last few builds were horribly difficult to understand) and not just because SQL Server dropped key features (row-level security and FileStream datatypes).
Microsoft has released a public beta to their new Illustrator/Photoshop/Fireworks killer. Take a look!
With
Microsoft reporting that it will release BT 2006 with VS and
SQL Server 2005, I guess I have some catching up to do. I am a little confused by their discussion of BT 2006 not really being available until 1st Quarter 2006. Anyone know the truth?
This week is expected to be the OS X (Tiger) vs. Longhorn week. With Steve Jobs taking the covers off the newest incarnation of OS X, he'll be trying to besmirch Longhorn at every turn. This newsweek article is probably only the first of many on the subject.
I am still impressed that the Microsoft spin machine hasn't been able to get WinFS out of the press's minds. They still beat up on them for dropping WinFS. I am hoping that Microsoft sees fit to include WinFS in a future version. My opinion is that they can't ship WinFS until SQL Server (the underlying DB engine that had powered WinFS) has row-level security. Building something akin to NT File Permissions over SQL Server is just too much overhead.
Even though I'd love to poke Microsoft about how Tiger will have something akin to WinFS, it doesn't really. Tiger's new feature is to allow metadata on files to help out search. This is not WinFS. While WinFS was to have supported additional metadata, it went a lot further than that. It was going to be an object-based file system with full support for relationships between objects in the file system. That's a lot bigger than just metadata support.
My only hope is that the continued bad press about lack of WinFS will push Microsoft to accellerate WinFS to earlier than the rumored 2010. I have heard whispers that the WinFS team is still working on the product, but when it will see the public eye is anybody's guess.
I am perhaps most disgruntled about Apple's new metadata/search functionality which mirrors some of the importance of WinFS. As Joe Wilcox stated:
"Apple also is in a position to exploit Microsoft missteps. Tiger will feature metadata search capabilities as part of the file system. Microsoft touted such capabilities with WinFS, but that file system now won't ship with Longhorn, if ever." (emphasis added, ed.)
I hope MSN Desktop search isn't Microsoft's answer to real metadata in the Post-Longhorn timeframe.
I am very impressed by PocketStreets. I've uploaded an Atlanta Metro Area map in only 5 Megs. It does very detailed address searches and even lets me specify what pushpins to include (e.g. restaurants, rapid transit and ATM's).
