November 18th, 2009

Office 2010 Beta 2: More than just a bunch of pretty icons

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 3:40 am

Categories: Breaking news, Downloads, Microsoft, Office 14, Productivity, Windows Live, e-Learning

Tags: Beta, Office 2010, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, Groupware, Office Suites, Software, Enterprise Software, Zack Whittaker

Office 2010 is more than just a bunch of pretty icons. I’ve only been playing with the Beta 2 of Office 2010 for a few hours now, but considering that my academic life pretty much takes absolute precedence over anything else, using Office for a short time feels (and practically is) like a lifetime already.

Outlook is without doubt the killer application. I’ve only recently dived head first into Outlook after a long, painful struggle with my email management, but am glad to have done so. Windows Live Mail is great and has done me well, but after my hard drive fried, it was just too much of a pain to set up again.

Gallery
To see a selection of changes in Outlook 2010 and other common student-based Office 2010 Beta 2 applications, head over to the screenshot gallery for a peek.

Upgrading from previous versions is just a dream. I haven’t had to change a single setting after migrating from Outlook 2007 to 2010 (but I did check, just to be sure). But there are three new features which you need to take note of:

• The Ribbon is finally here. We knew this long ago when I broke the story initially of Outlook being first seen in the wild, thanks to my leaky plumber friend at Microsoft.

• The social connector keeps you in check with the people you communicate with. If you’re running on an Exchange server, pictures and details can be shared with one another allowing you to see presence, instant message one another, see previous correspondance and check their calendars.

• Conversation views allow you to track what was said and to whom, and when. It reads email to you like a story; starting off at the bottom and working its way through, adding each reply to the very top to keep your conversations to-and-fro organised and seamless. No longer will you have to depend on replies including the original message, even though some strongly disagree.

Of course I could easily go on and on, but it’s nearly 5am where I am and my all-nighter was meant to be spent doing university work. However, I’ll be using Office 2010 not because I like to play with things before they hit the shelves, but because the improvements to the entire suite has left a positive feeling in my cold, dark, hating and stoney heart.

Have you played with it yet? Any thoughts so far?

November 13th, 2009

Windows 7's first 100 days: So how were yours?

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 6:35 am

Categories: Discussion, Downloads, Next-generation technology, Productivity, University, Windows 7, e-Learning

Tags: Memory Usage, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Zack Whittaker

It has been 100 days since the release-to-manufacturing copy of Windows 7 was available for download on MSDN and TechNet. I’ll put this very simply: I have never used an operating system which works so well, is as stable as it is, is aesthetically pleasing, and is a pleasure to use still even after three and a bit months.

There is nothing within Windows 7 which is particularly aimed at students or me specifically. The whole kit and kaboodle focuses on making it an all-inclusive “experience”, but after using it for so long now the experience fades into the background, like a sickly cough in a lecture theatre.

At the end of the day, all you want to do is check your emails or whop out a quick essay. You don’t particularly care about the experience and most of the time you don’t notice the surroundings. Even with Windows 7, this hasn’t changed.

Besides my computer going well and truly kaput, the way I noticed my positive experience so far is through the lack of negative experiences. I’m lucky in that I took advantage of pre-release builds and have seen Windows 7 grow from a small, insignificant Vista rip-off, into a mature, upstanding member of the technology community.

There is only one nit-picky thing that I still struggle to shrug off. The memory usage is far better than Vista but has a long way to go until it reaches levels that XP coped with. Even with a base level of applications open: Outlook 2007, Messenger, Skype and DisplayFusion to maximise my taskbar space, but it still looks like it uses more than it should. On a 4GB RAM system (in 32-bit mode, so only 3.5GB is really recognised), I’m still using 1.10GB on a dual screen system.

I understand why, as I have two screens and the Aero theme takes up quite a lot of memory usage, and doubled it naturally doubles (ish) the memory usage. But I like to keep my memory usage down as much as possible; at least that way I don’t hear my tower whirring away and going nuts.

The feedback I have had from other people, friends and colleagues, may seem somewhat cliched. But all have had a positive attitude towards it when mentioning it in passing. “Oh, Zack, by the way, Windows 7; I like”, for example. Seeing it running on my friend’s computer in a 24-inch crystal clear LCD screen combined with his justified semi-smugness about being one of the few, even still, to have the operating system on his computer, being another.

All in all, I’m extremely happy with everything as it is and how it works, what it does and when it does it. But what I say isn’t too important. How were your first 100 days?

More Windows 7 coverage:

November 9th, 2009

Paperless students? Never going to happen

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 1:22 pm

Categories: Discussion, Environment, Gratuitous rant, Hardware, Mobile computing, Productivity, Skills development, University, e-Learning

Tags: Student, Netbook, Computer, Productivity, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, Zack Whittaker

We live in an age where technology is rife. We cannot escape from mobile phones, computers, netbooks, projectors, e-readers and the rest of it. But students simply couldn’t go paperless. The chances are it’ll never happen, or at least if it does, when I am long gone, dead and buried.

The argument for going paperless is stronger than ever, with learners wanting less paper and more technology, and teachers wanting less paper to manage and deal with.

But this is schoolchildren we are talking about, not university students. Students in higher education relish using paper; allowing them to spread their thoughts across multiple pages and across multiple work surfaces.

The incentives are there; every time I print something off at university, because I need to use my university username and password to print, it records when I do so. But every print-out leaves me with a pop-up guilt trip reminding me of how much of a tree I’m destroying in the process.

Forget computer science students because they are a minority at most institutions. Of course they will be using their netbooks, Androids, smartphones and iPhones to tap away at during a programming lecture. But the rest of the students on campus are more than happy with scraps of paper, Post-it notes and lined paper with scribbles on. The rest of the campus doesn’t engage with technology on an everyday basis so they are not missing out in the first place.

For this, when writing up the notes later into electronic format, we can have a sense of satisfaction about screwing up the paper and chucking it away.

How would you write notes onto a PDF file? Yes, you could use a touchscreen computer, but handwriting recognition isn’t an exact science yet and a pad of paper and a Biro pen are far cheaper.

Taking books out of the library aren’t always possible. Sure, we could grab our Kindle and download the book but why should we when we are spending thousands of our respective currencies on library provisions? Some books are only available for an hour at a time, so instead of scanning them into a computer for later analysis, photocopying is a more sensible solution. Those who remember will know that I have proven this one long ago.

In realistic terms, the only computers students want to use is the one computer that they are using to write their essays on. Besides that, technology has yet to really have a major impact on the main brunt of our degree courses - the discussion seminar - where all you need is your mind and your mouth.

Me? Personally? Many can testify to this. I would be far happier with a handful of notes, scribbles and scraps than a netbook. Would you rather go paperless?

November 3rd, 2009

Google Wave: Has potential, but let loose too soon

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 4:12 am

Categories: Cloud computing, Google, Multimedia, Next-generation technology, Productivity, Skills development, Social networking, University, Weird and wonderful, e-Learning

Tags: Google Inc., Google Wave, E-mail, Corporate Communications, Online Communications, Marketing, Zack Whittaker

Google Wave has annoyed me so far. Because I am set in my ways and stubborn enough to brandish anything new, exciting and radical to my everyday routine as “a giant waste of my time”, I saw Wave as more of a challenge than anything else.

At the moment the only real factor it has in its favour is the real-time collaborative space, and of course I see this as a positive from a students’ perspective in a university enterprise arena. But besides that, it has very little substance. Sure it has the avatars, the ability to change the colour of certain items here and there, and it’ll give you a contacts list. Besides that? Mostly unfinished features and no obvious end-game.

One of my favourite features so far is the “Sign out” button in the top right hand corner. This has been particularly useful when pulling out my own hair, trying to work out what the hell is going on, and becoming confused as to what is being said.

Read the rest of this entry »

October 20th, 2009

One second: The time it takes to wipe three years of work

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 5:43 pm

Categories: Discussion, Gratuitous rant, Hardware, Multimedia, Offers, Productivity, University, e-Learning

Tags: Hard Drive, Disk, Machine, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, Zack Whittaker

It only takes a single second, some would argue a micro-second, to wipe an entire hard drive. Without the need for electromagnetic pulses or an industrial liquidiser, all it takes is a single spark of electricity to cause havoc with your entire electronic life.

How do I know? Because last night I hit the realisation that I lost everything in a blink of an eye. Here’s how, kids.

Two days ago, I was in my home office working on my degree work for the week. Just as I finish writing up a seminar, I stretch my legs, kicking out the all important power cable at the back of my machine. It’s not the first time I’ve done it, so I was annoyed at potentially losing what I had been working on but not particularly fussed. Read the rest of this entry »

October 1st, 2009

FOWA 2009: Microsoft Surface 'proof of concept' actually pointless

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 3:49 am

Categories: Events, FOWA London 2009, Hardware, Microsoft, Multimedia, Next-generation technology, Skills development, University fun, e-Learning

Tags: Microsoft Surface, Device, Microsoft Corp., Education Authority, Projectors, Taxes, Hardware, Components, Financial Planning, Finance

The young whipper-snapper I spoke to, a computer science-studying university student at Nottingham Trent University, showed me a demonstration of the Surface table. I had seen it before and while I was initially impressed with the technology, we seemed to hit a defining moment when we both realised that the device was utterly useless.

The device itself is quite impressive, to the point where you gaze upon its innards and see the projector and the vast amount of cabling. But to be fair it is fairly simplistic for what I thought was a breakthrough device. For a camera, a few cables, a projector lamp and perhaps a few little bits and bobs here and there - as well as the outer casing which I believe was perspex - this device cannot justifiably cost $15,000.

This Microsoft intern, the student, like me yet nothing like me, seemed to be pushing his way desperately through the one-on-one talk we were having. He was showing me the feedback from the table and using interactive objects, which are essentially ordinary objects with a barcode on the underside. While I can see this as an interesting way to input data from an object to the device, it still has flaws and doesn’t work every time. It stumbles on things it doesn’t know or see properly

After a few interesting (and pushing) questions from myself, he threw in the educational factor on the defence. By claiming that schools can use the Surface device as a tool to engage with students, make and build applications and learn in the process, the Surface device is a perfect piece of kit for schools.

Wrong. As the same with universities and other educational establishments, if they can make it cheaper, then they will do. One of the games involved rearranging tiles with letters on to create a word. Local education authorities are not going to shell out the vast proportion of their IT budget on a single, damned glorified table which they could access the same learning process from using cut out card and pens.

When I told him this fact, he looked baffled and thrown away for a short time. His mind switched over to “PR Mode” and carried on discussing other points about the device. Nevertheless, after numerous blows to his ego and his knowledge and understanding, I saw in his eyes that he gave in to the journalistic pressure of an educational equal.

Not only did he admit that it was a mere proof of concept device, he couldn’t honestly pick a genuine use for the Surface table. Regardless of this, a number of hotels and big corporations in the US have bought one for their receptions and waiting areas. But it is not for the small businesses, the educational sector where it is the taxpayer’s money going into these “investments” or anyone else for that matter.

I could see the tears well up in this young gentleman’s eyes as he realised the Iron Curtain of Microsoft falling down around him. I did, however, try and recover from crippling this young man’s ego by telling him “the technology was impressive”. But that’s all I could really say without lying to him.

September 29th, 2009

XP to Vista? No, if it ain't broken, don't upgrade it

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 4:26 am

Categories: Discussion, Environment, Gratuitous rant, Microsoft, Money, Productivity, University, e-Learning

Tags: Desktop, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, Lecture, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Zack Whittaker

The question I posed a few months ago was whether Windows Vista would live to die another day? It seems no, no it shall not. Today, through first hand experience on two occasions, it died entirely of its own accord.

My place of work and education, the University of Kent, went through a major upgrade over the summer which prompted me to write about this in the first place. Quoting from the original article, they announced:

“It is intended to roll Vista out on our student desktops during the summer see the Information Services’ paper to be presented to the University’s Computer User’s Panel next week.“

Although it seems that the upgrade has been performed well and everything went smoothly after speaking to IT staff earlier on, the subsequent student and staff reaction to the operating system has been mostly critical.

I logged into a Vista-running public PC for the first time today. Well, I say “logged in” to the point where I entered my username and password but got no further as the remaining 12 minutes was waiting on the folder redirection policy. I gave up in the end and went to my lecture.

My lecture revealed another flaw in the upgrade. My lecturer logged on at the beginning of the lecture. But not only should he have attempted logging into his machine before the lecture had started but doing so would have had very little difference. The projector was on and I could see the same thing going through the motions as before. I clocked it opening up his desktop no less than two minutes before the end of the hour lecture.

Our “message of the day” page which provides the latest, breaking news on the state of the all-important and hugely popular range of IT services on campus showed:

Now don’t get me wrong. There is no doubt in my personal and professional opinion that Windows is still the best operating system to be running on a mass scale in a corporate or university environment. But in this case the supply cannot necessarily meet the demand. Allow me to digress. Read the rest of this entry »

September 22nd, 2009

Students vs. Google Apps vs. Office Web Apps

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 4:01 am

Categories: Discussion, Google, Microsoft, Next-generation technology, Office 14, Productivity, University, Web 2.0, e-Learning

Tags: Google Inc., Google Apps, Google Docs, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Windows Live SkyDrive, SkyDrive, Cloud Computing, Microsoft Office, Office Suites

I have spent quite a portion of my time covering the developments between Google Apps (Education Edition) and Microsoft’s Live@edu online suites; the latest features, the timeline and background information, and the increasing competitive natures of the companies.

But throw in an interesting twist like Office Web Apps and it makes me consider the depth and breadth of Microsoft’s determination to make an impact in the office-in-the-cloud niche market.

For what I am trying to conclude in this post is the Google Apps (Docs specifically) vs. Office Web Apps war but from the students perspective. This was admittedly my editor’s idea, but a “student perspective” requires one to think outside the bog-standard definition-of-a box. Both are equally good - even though the latter has not been fully evaluated by the masses yet. From the documentation, the videos and the images we have seen already, what they have to offer seems appealing to the iGeneration.

Gallery
To see a screenshot gallery of the new features in the Office Web Apps technical preview release, head on over this way, or read on.

So let’s take this from a logical perspective and see which offers what exactly, rather than a finger-pointing exercise of which is better. Frankly, I don’t care. Everyone is different and personal preference prevails in this; hence the competition factor between the companies.

A brief tit-for-tat comparison

With Google Docs I have the ability to use my university email address and corresponding password; that, however, is a feature of Google’s account setup. With Google Apps which is a combination of Gmail, Google Docs and some other bits and pieces, it can link in directly with your university’s account servers for a single sign-on solution.

Microsoft’s Office Web Apps runs in two main capacities. In this context it falls into a “free for everyone” category where Office Web Apps is an online office suite which is activated when you access a compatible Office document through Windows Live SkyDrive. The second is the “for the university” where SkyDrive is non-existent and is replaced with an existing internal SharePoint site which allows Office Web Apps to open up in a very similar way to the consumer view.

The “free for everyone” version will be advert supported and will no doubt be quite annoying to those working with their documents, but it is after all how the Internet remains as free as it presently is. This version doesn’t support your university single sign-on details mixing your Windows Live ID and your university credentials. Anything academic should stay that way; using “personal” accounts makes things messy and you lose track of your stuff.

Google Apps is a purely hosted solution so if something goes horrendously wrong then the chances are it is Google’s issue and your IT technicians haven’t tripped over an important cable in the server room. As Google has a far better infrastructure in place than even the most powerful university, so it takes costs out of the hands of the university to provide more services elsewhere.

Microsoft’s side is getting a little confusing though. It seems to be mixing together so many services and not making distinct lines between services and products. Windows Live SkyDrive hosts the documents, whereas Office Web Apps opens them, but it can be integrated into SharePoint and Office Web Apps will be an integral part of Live@edu too.

Google Docs, however, uses the same space for storage of files and editing. It is as close to an actual online office suite as you can get, really.

But whether you like it or not, Google Docs or any non-Microsoft company will never make a fully compatible online or offline office suite which works 100% with Office documents. The simple reason here is that Microsoft made Office and that Office has a set standard. Only those with the know-how and the original source code can make it happen. If Google were in that position, Google Docs would be on top.

And there’s more… Read the rest of this entry »

September 17th, 2009

Office 2010 for students excludes Office Web Apps

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 11:19 am

Categories: Breaking news, Microsoft, Office 14, Productivity, University, Web 2.0, Windows Live, e-Learning

Tags: Web Application, Office Web Apps, Cloud Computing, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Zack Whittaker

In a strange and frankly pathetic move on behalf of Microsoft, the Home and Student edition of the next generation of the Microsoft Office suite will not include Office Web Apps.

According to the documentation just released on the Microsoft website, looking through the editions available, Home and Student includes the same applications as Office 2007 but without the Office Web Apps function.

From inspecting the product documentation, Office 2010 Standard and Office 2010 Professional Plus will be providing Office Web Applications licenses.

There is limited access to the Microsoft Office Web Apps, which has been confirmed as the final name for the web applications, through SkyDrive at the moment. Only beta testers with Office 2010 access will be able to use the online office suite.

Office Web Apps seems to be running through SkyDrive rather than a separate service. Users can connect Office already to their Office WorkSpaces which may or may not interlink with SkyDrive, to then access their documents through the web interface.

The limited technical preview will open up the Word Web App, Excel Web App and PowerPoint Web App (as they are now officially known as), and the OneNote Web App will be added soon after. The simple reason is that it is not ready yet.

Support is being provided to Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari users; browsers which support the Silverlight software which is used to render the web applications.

What is interesting, however, is the wording of the answer to their self-provided question:

Are Office Web Apps free? What are the different ways people can get them?
For business use, Office Professional Plus and Office Standard 2010 licenses will each include access to the Office Web Apps. A customer will then be able to run the Office Web Apps on SharePoint 2010. For personal use, Office Web Apps will be available as a free ad-supported service to consumers via Windows Live.

So while the Office Web Apps will still be available for use but will be paid-for by advertisements displayed on the screen.

Live@edu users will be given access to Office Web Apps “soon”, according to Microsoft. The reason they get access before anybody else is explained in my previous post.

• Read more: What Office Web Apps will and won’t do (Ed Bott)
• Read more: Do you really need Office? Really? (Chris Dawson)
• Read more: 10 things to know about Office Web Apps (Mary Jo Foley)

Update: after digging deeper into this, it does seem that though Office 2010 Home and Student will exclude Office Web Apps, the online suite of applications are designed more for the corporate environment - including universities.

Everyone, including students, will still have access to the Office Web Apps for free. The only difference is how they are delivered to the end user. It will be either through Windows Live - for consumers - or through SharePoint - for enterprises. The SharePoint interface will have no advertisements whereas the consumer view in Windows Live will be advert supported.

Again, Live@edu users will still have access through their university networks. However if universities and colleges opt to roll out the more enterprise based Office suite to their client machines, students will have access to Office Web Apps available over the Internet but will be hosted internally.

Internally-hosted Office Web Apps allows integration with existing university network logins, whereas Windows Live will not (Live@edusupports local Active Directory integration). It will also include backup and restore features and groupings for organisation in true SharePoint style.

It is therefore up to the educational establishment to consider Office Web Apps for its users - the students - as opposed to the students buying a copy of Home and Student and having instant access to the web applications.

They still haven’t included Outlook in the Home and Student edition. This is something that still grates me but something that will probably never change.

September 15th, 2009

IT support: Cut the jargon or find another job

Posted by Zack Whittaker @ 7:49 am

Categories: Careers, Discussion, Gratuitous rant, Skills development, e-Learning

Tags: Job, DNS, Generation Y, Information Technology, SSL Certificate, SSL, Domain Name, Ssl/Tls, Domain Names, Authentication/Encryption

I had a phone call from an extended colleague working for a charity here in the UK. The website they have is throwing up SSL error messages due to the extended security in modern day browsers - Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 are the best examples.

The domain name for the site stands, but the website is hosted by another company which has an SSL certificate for their own subdomain, which covers this charity’s website and every other website they host. When accessing the members-only part of the site, they are faced with an SSL certificate error, which is causing havoc with non-technical users and deterring them from using the site.

So from the charity’s domain name, hit the Login button and it throws an SSL error because the SSL certificate is issued to the hosting company’s subdomain, and not the charity’s domain name. It’s a domain name mismatch issue and quite common nowadays. Keeping up?

Their support response was to “advise your visitors to ignore this warning”. That threw me back quite some way. Is that really the best solution? Or perhaps installing another SSL certificate to accommodate the additional domain name would have been a better idea?

This colleague got in touch with me to ask for my advice after emailing back and forth for weeks, ladies and gentlemen. Weeks.

The first question she had asked was in fact spot on, “Can just purchase a certificate to cover our domain name?” Instead of giving her a valid response, they quite simply bounced around jargon and technical bull which would have made very little sense to someone outside of the IT community.

This happens every day, in every organisation, and this is what I truly hate - hate - about the computing industry. It’s the self-important, arrogant nonsense which IT professionals bounce around. They use language which confuses the lay person and causes them to feel inferior, when in fact they are the paying customer.

The reason people ask me for advice is because I don’t bounce around technical language, or when I absolutely must, I explain it in almost gratuitous detail so they actually learn from what I say. More often than not, they don’t just want an answer or a solution to the problem; they want to know what the problem was and learn from it.

One of my friends working for the Home Office didn’t go in for two days claiming she was ill, because she was too terrified to speak to the IT technician on call, because of the flurry of patronising and condescending comments she would have to endure as a result of not knowing something.

Another example was last year. I went to the IT support desk at the university with a friend whose laptop was playing up. I was hungover and tired, and didn’t have the energy. But I went for morale support because English wasn’t her first language. From memory, this is how it went:

IT support: “So what’s the problem?”
Friend: “The Internet won’t work. I plug it in and network doesn’t connect. I need to submit my work otherwise my marks will be zero.” [Bad English, I told you]
IT support: [sighed and rolled eyes] “Fine, open it up.”
[The laptop loaded and she put in her password]
IT support: “Well it’s clear to me that the DNS cache is clogged and needs to be refreshed, so I’ll open up a command prompt and flush out the DNS. I’ll resolve it and the IP configuration will automatically reset. If you [something, something] the DNS resolver will fail and the connectivity will cease.”

All good and well to me, as I understood roughly what was happening. For some reason, the DNS cache needed flushing out and the slate needed to be wiped clean. He did this in a matter of seconds and it was all good and well.

But the attitude he gave my friend - perhaps because of her lack of technical skill or the fact that she was did not speak in eloquent English tongue - he was clearly “attitudey” and made her feel like it was her who was in the wrong. Sometimes computers just screw up, and this was one of those occasions.

She left that office with a negative experience. But it was his fault, the spotty, rude and arrogant idiot who clearly shouldn’t be in a public facing job if he cannot grasp the concept of basic social skills.

So this is a plea to the IT community. For crying out loud, get a grip. Sure, you may hate your job and hate people asking you for advice when their computers or devices screw up. But you are a specialist in your field and are respected for knowing that knowledge.

So pull your finger out and learn some social skills, because I can tell you now, ladies and gentlemen, that the Generation Y will not put up with your attitudes. The Generation Y do not appreciate being patronised because we’re younger. The Generation Y will rip you to shreds.

Thoughts?