Archive for the 'Microsoft' Category

TechEd - Or How I’d Rather Buy an iPhone

Published
by
Chris Meller
on February 12, 2007
in Commentary, Daily Grind, Microsoft, Techno-Babble, Windows, Windows Vista and Work
. 0 Comments

After ordering a TechNet subscription last week, now that Microsoft offers a significantly cheaper “Direct” (ie: download-only) version, I got a postcard in the mail today offering me a whopping $200 off an early-bird registration to Microsoft’s TechEd 2007 conference.

Just out of curiosity, I thought I’d check the TechEd site and see how expensive this particular conference was. I’m constantly amazed at how expensive some conferences can be, while the particularly interesting ones like WordCamp are 100% free.

In case you were wondering, the regular price for TechEd ‘07 is $1,9951, but if you register before April 7th, you can save a whopping $200 and get it for the rock-bottom price of $1,795.

I had thought about doing a little “What you could get instead of going to TechEd” segment, but turns out I’m too lazy. Suffice it to say: a lot2.

Now if only I could convince my boss to blow about $3,000 (including travel, meals, etc.) to send me to Orlando for 4 days…

  1. Can’t we just round up to $2,000 already? It’s $5 lousy bucks… [back]
  2. Like an Apple iPhone and about a year of unlimited data service from Cingular [back]

Life Hacker’s assinine Vista poll…

Published
by
Chris Meller
on January 22, 2007
in Commentary, Links, Microsoft, Public Opinion, Rants, Windows and Windows Vista
. 4 Comments

I checked out the headline Reader Poll: Will Windows Vista send you when I saw it on my Google homepage, mainly because I wanted to see what the rest of the sentence was.

Clicking on it popped up the full-text of Reader Poll: Will Windows Vista send you running to a new OS? and the no-javascript message got me interested, so I decided to load up the article and check out the poll.

Am I the only one that realizes that this poll is totally, obviously, and painfully anti-Vista and anti-Microsoft in general? I mean, every single option may as well have “if I absolutely have to…” tacked on to the end. There’s not a single positive remark made about Vista on the entire poll, despite its increased security measures and the amazing Aero glass effects.

What kind of statistical results can you honestly expect from a poll that could easily be summed up with a single “No way will I upgrade to Vista” option? We may as well have called the post “Why won’t you upgrade to Vista in the new year?”

Thank you for objective and fact-filled reporting, Life Hacker… *unsubscribed*

Vista Editions Feature Matrix

Published
by
Chris Meller
on December 7, 2006
in Internet, Links, Microsoft, Techno-Babble, Windows and Windows Vista
. 1 Comment

Found a very useful matrix that actually lists the differences between each Windows Vista edition.

Check it out at Extreme Tech and say goodbye to your Vista edition confusion!

Microsoft Brings some Vista Features to XP

Published
by
Chris Meller
on November 29, 2006
in Commentary, Daily Grind, Insomnia, Internet, Links, Microsoft, Networking, Reviews, Techno-Babble, Windows and Windows Vista
. 0 Comments

Early this morning, as my insomnia-driven computer addiction ensued at hours in which even the birds refuse to wake, I noticed that a couple of new Windows Updates had been deployed by my in-house WSUS box and were ready for installation on my client machines. I thought we’d already had our patch-Tuesday for the month, so I decided to check out what was being updated.

Much to my surprise, there was a new version of the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (aka Terminal Services client) app available. Since, as far as I remember, there has never been an update to this program (since it’s initial inclusion in Windows XP), I thought I’d go check it out.

Thanks to my handy dandy (unofficial) Microsoft Download Notification RSS feed, I was able to quickly track down the stand-alone download package1.

For those that may be interested, the short description of this update is:

Remote Desktop Connection (Terminal Services Client 6.0) provides a way to use any new Terminal Services features introduced in Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows Server Code Name “Longhorn” from a computer running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1.

This simple update boasts a host of changes. Most notably are:

  • Lots of new Authentication updates
  • 32-bit color support
  • Font-smoothing capability
  • Terminal Services “Remote Program” capability
  • Enhanced Device Redirection (for things such as printers connected locally)

My favorite feature, however, is without a doubt the new Monitor Spanning capability. That’s right, now I can finally utilize both of my monitors when doing a remote desktop. Oh sweet joy of joys. Microsoft, sometimes I just can’t help but love you guys2!

For those interested in more details, here’s a link to the stand-alone download, and the knowledge base article3.

Update: In case you have difficulty finding them yourselves, here are download links for other platforms. Still, I’d probably just snag it over Windows Update…

Windows 2003: here
Windows 2003 x64: here
Windows XP x64: here

  1. Oddly enough, Googling around and searching both Microsoft.com and the Microsoft Knowledge Base directly proved to be useless. [back]
  2. And god knows I try not to… [back]
  3. By the way… When did these start requiring passport logins? KB articles have always been publicly available, haven’t they? [back]