You are currently browsing the archives for the Microsoft category.
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago at 1:37 am. 0 comments
The Great Divide
Time Warner plans to split AOL into two factions, an advertisement unit and a dial-up unit. The plan will be to sell off each unit to potential buyers.
Dial-up users do not make up the majority on AOL so giving them away won’t be such a big deal. Plus this means that AOL will finally have no use for India call centers, although they still might work as online tech support.
The advertising unit also known as Platform A, accounts for the whole AOL community, but mainly focuses on Ad.com. Platform A consists of tons of websites and brands all across the internet. Its a very lucrative spot to potential buyers as they will have ad spots in tons of areas including the massive AIM user base.
I am a Dial-up User, Where do I go?
Earthlink has been in talks to take over dial-up subscribers. I believe dial-up users will be switched over to an entirely new Earthlink email address, Their AOL account will automatically be switched over to free and they will be encouraged to use both emails. This is just purely speculation.
I am a Broadband User, Where do I go?
As for the advertisement unit, it looks like we’ll end up joining Microsoft or Yahoo, or hopefully someone else who wants to step up to the plate.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The most interesting part of this merger is the drama between each of the major companies. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are battling it out to gain the largest footprint over internet advertisement revenue. If AOL merges with Yahoo, Microsoft gets upset. If AOL merges with Microsoft, Google gets upset. Added to this problem includes the recent deal Yahoo and Google are making to share advertisement plans. Microsoft isn’t so happy about that either and wants the decision blocked. I’m hoping neither of these companies buy AOL. As you can see its already a tangled mess. Joining forces with AOL will only complicate matters.
If Microsoft or Yahoo does indeed buy AOL, interoperability will finally be on the table. Whoever buys AOL will now have to integrate all AOL screennames together with the buyer’s IM service. For the first time we may finally have AIM with the ability to add Microsoft and Yahoo subscribers to the buddy list. I know many have have been clamoring for that.
The other great feature is advertisement revenue. Now Yahoo or Microsoft will have an even larger audience to host advertisements, including non-AOL owned websites that Ad.com serves.
The Buzz Around the Internets
There seems to be no agreement as to who should buy AOL. One thought is that If Microsoft buys AOL, it could allow Yahoo to prove themselves to investors that they can run independent of Microsoft. Another speculates that AOL won’t be able to save the Microsoft brand. We may find ourselves watching the same thing happen years from now when Microsoft announces it will try to sell off AOL.
During this battle, users are always the victims. If I were to choose a company that could attempt to save the AOL community to bring them back together, I would choose Yahoo. Yahoo has proven its expertise in this aspect with sites such as Yahoo Groups and Yahoo Answers.
What do you think will happen to AOL?
Post a comment on your ideas and thoughts as to what might happen to AOL. You’ll have to wait until 2009 its announced what plans AOL will be forced to make.
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago at 6:59 pm. 0 comments
In a step to make Xbox 360 more friendlier to the casual audience. Microsoft has unveiled a completely new dashboard experience taking away everything you know about menus.
Borrowing From Nintendo WiiMii
Nintendo Wii has been known for its unique avatars known as Miis. Microsoft didn’t take any steps to differentiate from that style. From the eyes to the blocky heads, everything just screams Nintendo. The customizations and details may be a big step up from the Wii, but we hope that next time Microsoft will come up with its own unique avatar.
Borrowing From Apple and Sony
Coverflow; while not as practical on Ipod Classic as it is on Ipod Touch, is one of the most unique ways to search through a catalog with ease. In the new dashboard system, every game and option, comes towards the screen at a slight 45 degree angle. As you flow through, each game has its own cover which may also feature some minor animation as you select it.
Primetime Games
Xbox Live will feature a new category of games called “Primetime”. Essentially you will be able to play in multiplayer games that starts at specific times throughout the day. The first Primetime game to be announced is 1 vs 100. Based on the TV gameshow. You and 100 others will be competing against each other for the most money. They have also unveiled other Primtime games like Uno and Trivia.
Posted 8 months ago at 3:43 am. 1 comment
When it comes to antivirus software, I think programmers don’t realize they are unintentionally doing the same things they are trying to protect us from. They still produce pop ups and are hard to remove, it makes you wonder if these programs are viruses themselves. I did find that the majority of users hate their own AntiVirus software, and would gladly switch to another one if they weren’t so wary of the side effects. I know alot of you reading would chime in and say, they should use Grisoft or Avira, but this article is for us people with money, you know the ones who have jobs…
We’ll take a look at the Majors (Norton & Mcafee) and the Rookies (Kaspersky, F-Secure, Gri-Soft). More and more people are switching over to Kaspersky and F-Secure and I believe in the end they might become household names as soon as they start selling in Costco..
10. High Prices
If there’s anything that can deter you from buying any Antivirus Suite is its high price…
Product Name: Total Price/Amazon Price
Kaspersky Internet Security: $79.95/$49.99
Gri-Soft AVG Internet: Security $69.95/$54.99
Norton Internet Security: $69.99/51.25
Mcafee Internet Security: $69.99/$41.49
*F-Secure Internet Security: $59.90/47.92
I always say to myself, anything that costs more than a video game better be good. Its something we come to expect from software, and most of the time $49.99 seems to be the cap that most people would expect to pay. Keep in mind that these prices are for the 2008 internet security versions with up to 3 users. So its a good idea to retail below 49.99. F-secure was not listed on Amazon when this article was written, and its price is taken from its own website.
9. Toolbars And Junk
Aim Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, Decline Decline Decline!!! I’m not sure why there is this big obsession over packaging your programs with toolbars. Maybe there aren’t much complaints about them, but everyone I’ve talked to just don’t know how the Fun Web Products Toolbar appeared on their browser. Its even worse when the program that is supposed to protect you from things like that, installs one anyway.
“The first thing you might notice is that is installs it’s own ‘Norton Toolbar’ into whatever browser you’re using. And it locks it in. Seriously, you cannot remove it without uninstalling Norton” ~Amazon Reviewer
8. Pop Up Ads!?
Previously when we bought any Internet Security Suite, some would come with a pop up ad blocker. Since the internet has changed and IE now has one built in there isn’t any need for all that anymore. But still (Mcafee! I’m talking about you) there is no point in having Pop Up Ads telling me to purchase some overpriced license renewal earlier in the year. These ads don’t come up often but periodically you’ll just see it there thinking your loaded and full of money!
7. Unnecessary Blocking
Blocking malicious websites might be a good idea for those of us who just stumble on them. But what happens when it starts blocking websites you know and love.
“One web site in particular (Home Shopping) will load OK…but if you go to the various topics (Jewlery, electronics etc.) it will not open them at all…and a blank screen is all you get…the only way to get those things to open is to COMPLETELY disable the Kaspersky program” ~Amazon Reviewer
6. Complicated and Hard to Find Settings!
You usually won’t see this problem in Norton and Mcafee, but as soon as you scurry away to the alternative antivirus software, they stop being nice and start being real! This is the Real World! F-Secure’s firewall really hates p2p programs by blocking every connection attempt. When I try adding some rules to the firewall, I feel like a complete idiot when its asking me about IPv6, UDP, and TCP. I only set those things up in my router. I never had to worry about that on Mcafee, but now I have to figure out what the hell they are talking about.
“The worst thing is after I block a certain activity, there’s no way to go back and find out where to unblock it. Ok, if you are computer expert, I think you will figure out a way to unblock it. I’ve gone through help file, searched google, and forums for answers and still could not find the solutions.” ~ Amazon Reviewer
5. Constant Alert Pop Ups
You’ve seen those Mac commercials where PC has to allow or deny everytime something happens. Most people think Vista’s UAC is annoying, well why not add another layer on top of that when you install Norton, Kaspersky, and F-Secure. Norton doesn’t trust what your doing. Kaspersky wants to ask what muscle your going to use next, and F-Secure thinks everyone your inviting over is High Risk! I think Mcafee handles this somewhat well and tries to keep it to a minimum.
“…Apparently, this program has no brain. For example, I have the Live Search Toolbar installed in Outlook. It had to ask me if it was OK to run that dll file. In fact, each program that called up a process from a shared dll has to ask permission before it could run… ”
4. Tech Support
Tech Support should be the last and final straw for any problems you have. Just hope they are not outsourced, otherwise expect them not to help you since ”its not our fault.”
“I had to pay three dollars a minute to use the technical support telephone number. Of the seven minutes I was on that call, I was on hold for more than half the time (still being charged). When the technician finally emailed me instructions to resolve my technical issue, I quickly discovered he had sent me instructions for an issue completely unrelated to mine. In essence, I spent 21 dollars on hold music. ” ~Amazon Reviewer
3. Hard to Uninstall
Its always easy for spyware to install on your computer, but why is it soo hard to uninstall… hmm. In essence the same thing happens with Mcafee, Norton, and Kaspersky. Try removing them and you learn you’ll need an additional uninstaller to uninstall where the uninstaller left off…
“…you have to use an uninstaller from the Symantec web page, to guarantee that you remove its hidden installations that the uninstaller from the Add/Remove programs from the control panel will miss.” ~Amazon Reviewer
2. Resource Hog
Nobody likes a hog, the ones who don’t play fair and doesn’t share. Mcafee, Windows Defender, Kaspersky, Norton, are all resource hogs. They come in, dump their tub o lard and take your precious time loading some obscure feature for whatever reason.
“Internet loading will be drastically crippled. Expect frequent system choppiness due to automatic downloading and background processes.” ~Amazon Reviewer
1. IT KILLS YOUR COMPUTER!!
It has happened to me, and many others. For some reason whether its our fault or not, the program just can’t take it anymore and boom, blue screens of death, constant crashing, and in my case, java just went up and left. The last thing you want to do is call tech support, so off we go reinstalling Windows. I know the Mac user is laughing their butts off but you know your day will come soon! *SHAKE FIST*
“You’re better off with a virus than this POS. Two days after loading this tumor it was doing an update and froze my computer like a two week old penguin turd…Way too busy, not allowing you the use of your own computer. Had to run a recovery on my system” ~Amazon Reviewer
Posted 10 months ago at 1:50 pm. 11 comments
This is sometimes the most annoying thing about Quicktime. You set it’s file associations not to play Mp3s yet someway somehow it still plays it. The other annoying thing is that it takes over MP3 association everytime you reinstall it. So lets disable quicktime from playing Mp3s one more time!
Removing Quicktime Association
You can skip to the last section if you did any of these steps below.
1. Open Quicktime in Start > Programs > Quicktime
2. Click Edit > Preferences > Quicktime Preferences
3. Click [File Types] Tab and Uncheck MP3
4. Click [Browser] Tab
5. Click MIME Settings, and Uncheck MP3
6. Click OK Twice
Restoring MP3 Associations
1. Open Windows Media Player
2. Press ALT+T and Click Options
3. Click File Types
4. Check Mark Mp3 and Click OK
5. Close Internet Explorer and Reopen it.
Setting Default Associations
1. Click On Start > Set Program Access And Defaults
2. Click Custom and Scroll Down to Default Media Player
3. Choose a Default Media Player like Winamp
4. Press OK
You can check to make sure it works.
Also note that you can reassociate your original Mp3 Player. If your using Winamp, it will automatically associate with Mp3s as soon as you open it. This will allow you to now Open or Save an Mp3 when you click on an mp3 link.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 3:06 pm. 4 comments
Yahoo Web Messenger unveiled itself to the public recently as an alternative to those who would rather not download their clunky yahoo messenger program. Unlike Aim Express, Yahoo Web Messenger loads within the browser window, and its features are all done in flash. Lets take a look between Yahoo Web Messenger and Aim Express.
Logging On.
With Yahoo’s Web Messenger, you first login through a popup window. After validation the site will load through the main browser window automatically. As for Aim Express, you login through the main window but then things start to get screwy. One thing is where it redirects you to a page stating your popup blocker is blocking the window from popping up. Sometimes that message stays on even if you allowed the two domains to popup. Once you get passed this area, Aim opens up in a window on the side.
Sending Messages
Since Yahoo has everything done in flash. All messages are sent within the window and show up in a frame to the right of the buddy list. You can resize the width of the frame near the top of the window. AIM however has to open a popup window, after this takes a while to load you can send a message. For some reason the sent messages are delayed. You can click on the send button and it can take a few second for it to actually be sent. Sometimes this causes a bug where you send the same message numerous times.
Recieving Messages
Yahoo places all messages within its window. All messages are tabbed by the user. You can switch names quickly on the fly and can read history about your previous conversation. Aim Express on the other hand creates a new window for anyone who IMs you. This new window takes up focus, it gets very annoying typing in one window when a message pops up and you begin typing in that window.
Quirks
Yahoo Messenger only has quirks with the avatars. These avatars do not load up on the first use. After 2 uses, my avatar finally showed up, as for my friend’s I had to log off and back on to see it. They do show up in the History section but I’m not sure why they aren’t as dynamic as Aim is. In Aim Express, the smiley faces work on the first IM sent, after that they malfunction and don’t show up at all.
Conclusions
Yahoo seemed to have taken the safe route of Meebo.com and placed all of its messages inside one window. Surely this window may not give you that much attention but its better than having pop ups. These pop ups just float over the screen in the middle of your work. Not only are they annoying, but each and everyone takes a while to load. Woe to you if you get Mass IMs from different people. It may be time for AOL to switch Aim Express to flash, there is just way too much problems with Aim Express that hasn’t been fixed. I feel in this case its OK to copy Yahoo’s design this time. Yahoo may not have all the extra features Aim Express has but hey atleast it works properly.
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago at 2:36 pm. 0 comments
Its that time of the year again. Its that time where once again, Photoshop is released at a ridiculously high price, which in turn forces people to pirate it, and the search for the code to crack registration. Yes I’m pessimistic but dang, how much people on DeviantArt do you believe actually paid for Photoshop. Can we ever get a nice cheaper version, and not just that student edition. One where you can still do a tutorial without having that certain special high priced version. But, you know thats what makes up the whole photoshop world, tutorials, tutorials, and more tutorials. Microsoft renamed its WPF/E [what?] to Silverlight [thankyou!], now Microsoft can be just as trendy as the rest of us. I will say that Silverlight will have atleast 20% marketshare against flash. Also remember that silverlight has to be installed, Microsoft gets the upper hand with that just because so much people use Internet Explorer 7.
Posted 1 year, 7 months ago at 8:30 pm. 1 comment
AOL, Google, and Windows Live, have been the biggest players in providing websites for your cell. In the world of WAP, there is limited amount of space and bandwith. Its essential to create sites that are easy to use with quick load times. We’ll divulge into each one of these as well as others suggested by you.
Continue Reading…
Posted 1 year, 9 months ago at 5:25 pm. 0 comments
It may be less likely than you think! Its up for debate whether Windows Vista will be the most secure Windows OS ever to market. The same thing was said for Windows XP, and look what happened, first we had the Messenger popups, then the Blaster worm, then we all had to go to SP1, then we had to jump ship to SP2, then we had VML and other things floating around, and now we’re forced (by user interaction) to go to IE7. So its been stormy seas in XP land, while MAC heads jump around feeling secure.. (MACs your day will come!) So… Betanews posted an interesting article where they were misquoted for misquoting a quote which in summary stated, "Windows Vista will not need antivirus" (GASP) What?? How is that possible, could you imagine a world where we don’t need to buy Mcaffee to slow down our systems, and we don’t need Norton hogging all system resources, and we don’t have to pay a subscription fee ontop of buying AV software for $50. Think of all the money that would be saved! The security behind Windows Vista is its User Access Control. The very annoying popup that would come up if you did anything risqué like install a program. It even lets Windows XP programs think they are actually writing to the registry but instead its just a virtual look a like for compatability reasons. So all new users will be under UAC, and it should be good enough to prevent little johnny from downloading coolgames.exe.
