istartedsomething

It looks like the interactive Office 2007 advertisement on MSN was so successful back in April, the advertising team have collaborated to do it again. For a limited time of today only, users will be able to experience a taste – more like just licking the peel of a tub of yogurt – of the new user interface experience in Office 2007 otherwise known as the Fluent interface, formally “Ribbon”. The PR company has sent me this blurb,

Tomorrow, Friday, July 13th, the MSN.com homepage will once again display the new Microsoft Office 2007 user interface (UI) so users can experience the new features of the latest version of Office. The page will be transformed to look and feel like Microsoft Office 2007, just like last time. Users will find the new Office navigation ribbon at the top of MSN.com, and will actually be able to use it to customize the page as though they were editing a document.

This “live preview” (nice pun Wagged) of Microsoft Office 2007 is one day only, and it is an awesome way for computer users to check out the newest version of Office without having to purchase it.

Compared to the trial back on April 19, this revision of the same advertisement offers a few minor improvements however keeping the same format and same effects. Unfortunately last time the advertisement may have been overshadowed by the Virginia Tech tragedy. Powered by Flash and Javascript, the Live Previews feels much more responsive in this version than it was where gradual transitions made it a little difficult to see what exactly changed.

If you’ve missed this piece of amazing advertising initiative that is not only interactive and fun, but also informative and highly impactful, then you better send your browser over to MSN.com. Some users may not experience the new experience in their first load, so please rinse and repeat. Otherwise you can also activate/deactivate the experience by clicking the link in the top right corner. Enjoy!

I’m going to be as clear as I can be. What follows is going to piss off a lot of people, from Microsoft that is, people I probably shouldn’t piss off if I were to expect any friendly accommodation again in the future. But I believe dealing with the current situation is more important than the short termed prospects of my blogging career. So here goes nothing.

Things have changed, things aren’t what it used to be. Scrutinizing Steven Sinofsky with funny pictures and satirical references is not for a lost cause. Some argue the “Windows people” has always changed and this is nothing new, but I reckon this change is worth noting. The grandfather of Windows, Jim Allchin, who’s shipped Windows for almost 17 years has departed. At the very least this new group people come from different backgrounds, have different values and will obviously manage the organization and its people differently.

To witness their impact, look no further than the infamous 2-line press release pleading for “future-talk silence”. Again, some people takes Microsoft’s side and argue it is too early to talk about the future, and I partially agree. However it shouldn’t be said they can’t even talk about the past and present which I’m also getting the vibe of. I remember a time, not long ago, when people used to love talking about their job and what they have done. “All Windows questions lead to the same answer: NO.” confirms another blogger.

Forty-eight hours ago something happened that stunned me with disbelief. First, a little backgrounder on the subject in question. As Mary Jo Foley reports, after the launch of Windows Vista, the Windows Beta team has asked the Windows testing community what they would like to see in future versions of Windows – a great initiative. The process involved mostly consumer users, likely Windows enthusiasts, to write their ideas and feedback using a report-format form which they will submit to a central repository. These reports will then be judged solely by other community testers on their validity and importance, thus given a rank based upon thousands of votes and comments. The idea is much like if not entirely the same as Dell’s IdeaStorm in an invite-only manner.

On July 11, the Windows Beta team sent out an email to these testers reminding them of the progress that has been made. The email along with many kind words included a list. A list highly misinterpreted as “the feature list of Windows 7″. When in fact, it is just a list of top-rated suggestions from people like myself.

• A list that can be made so easily by clicking on “sort by rating”.
• A list, undisclosable, undiscussable, of startling consequences on Microsoft’s own enthusiast Channel9 community.
• A list so predictable you could find alternatives on any major Windows enthusiast forum like Neowin, AeroXP and even ironically Channel9.
• A list without participation from Microsoft, in fact I would even dare to say hardly anyone on the Windows development team has seen or taken seriously.

One overly enthusiast tester and long-standing member of Channel9, Jamie, thought this particular list would have made great conversation and debate at Channel9 where he decided to post it several hours later. Within hours, his thread was locked, indirectly forcing him to remove the quoted list. Later that day, a discussion spewed over jamie’s topic where people started questioning what was originally posted, curious like humans are suppose to be. Of course, this curiosity was met by the opposing force, the administrator, Charles, who laid down the law, “PLEASE don’t post illegal stuff here again. End of story.” A fair ruling, but how did it come down to “illegal stuff”?

One would think, or at the least I would think a list of product suggestions thought of by the people, written by the people, moderated by the people and ranked by the people is a product of the people. Under some unexplainable spell, some Microsoft employees insist this becomes company secrets, thus, protected by non-disclosure. I beg them to reevaluate what’s at stake. A long list of ideas with mostly unreachable expectations (replace error codes with plain explanation), monopoly-inducing practices (bundling antivirus) or just plain common sense (consistent design). How did this become the gold bricks of Microsoft?

Ironically, this is exactly why Microsoft does not accept product suggestions from the public otherwise. Microsoft’s own terms of service and copyright document states in nice readable and calm capital letters,

MICROSOFT OR ANY OF ITS EMPLOYEES DO NOT ACCEPT OR CONSIDER UNSOLICITED IDEAS, INCLUDING IDEAS FOR NEW ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS, NEW PROMOTIONS, NEW PRODUCTS OR TECHNOLOGIES, PROCESSES, MATERIALS, MARKETING PLANS OR NEW PRODUCT NAMES. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY ORIGINAL CREATIVE ARTWORK, SAMPLES, DEMOS, OR OTHER WORKS. THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THIS POLICY IS TO AVOID POTENTIAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS OR DISPUTES WHEN MICROSOFT’S PRODUCTS OR MARKETING STRATEGIES MIGHT SEEM SIMILAR TO IDEAS SUBMITTED TO MICROSOFT. SO, PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR UNSOLICITED IDEAS TO MICROSOFT OR ANYONE AT MICROSOFT. IF, DESPITE OUR REQUEST THAT YOU NOT SEND US YOUR IDEAS AND MATERIALS, YOU STILL SEND THEM, PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT MICROSOFT MAKES NO ASSURANCES THAT YOUR IDEAS AND MATERIALS WILL BE TREATED AS CONFIDENTIAL OR PROPRIETARY.

However Microsoft Connect, the centralized beta-testing program has a different terms of service which welcome and allow feedback. It’s a nice contrast.

I’m afraid, afraid of Microsoft fleeing back to the pre-Scoble stone-age. Where NDAs and private betas are the norm and public knowledge is mostly based on communication leaks or rumors fueled by blurry-cam screenshots. Not good for enthusiasts, not good for PR.

There is one other company that comes to mind and that is Apple. It’s easy to argue their secrecy and practices may have contributed to much of their success, however it’s also not impossible to draw connections between the failure to communicate and many of the problems many customers has been tearing their hair out about, for example the missing landscape keyboard in the first (and current) iPhone release. Problems entirely avoidable or at least its importance raised before launch.

One Apple user (and at one time, enthusiast) wrote to me, “You’re not even close to describing the hell that is Apple and non-disclosure. Apple is famous for requiring NDAs from people in exchange for hardware fixes. They did that when the iBook motherboard problems surfaced, you could have it fixed, if you signed a contract (news article in Danish) that said you couldn’t go public with the info.”

To conclude, using gas/liquid analogies to help summaries my thoughts – Windows has always had its fair share of leaks and other IP spillages (for example, wonder why there are so many Media Center copies? Because of a leak a while ago, Microsoft could not claim the patent for MCE UI), and Microsoft has all right to protect its assets. But if you leave no room for that expanding balloon of thoughts and ideas to escape, it’s eventually going to pop or shoot into the sky sounding like an unpleasant discharge. That is not going to be pleasant at all.

I’ve been pulling my hair out over the last few days at a serious and logic-defying problem with Apple’s Quicktime software on Windows Vista. I have tough hair so my fibers remain.

Whilst Apple might make angel-crafted software experiences for the Mac and iPhone with beautiful transitions and all that other jazz, they certainly don’t know how to make software for the greater mass, Windows. There’s no debate iTunes on Windows needs work, but they should probably add Quicktime to that list too. At the moment, not only can Quicktime destroy your RAID setups, it might fail to work altogether if you have SATA disks on Nvidia. Watch…

This problem occurs in both of the latest versions of Quicktime, 7.1.5 and 7.1.6 (update: and even 7.2 released today). I couldn’t find any earlier versions to test but I’ll presume it’s the same since Apple didn’t even support Vista at that time.

What ticked me off after spending almost 3 hours uninstalling and reinstalling most drivers in my system is that Apple even recognizes and publically acknowledges this bug in their knowledge base, however points the finger at Nvidia as the culprit. Which strikes me as odd because VLC Media Player can manage the same files just fine as demonstrated.

Who knows how many people this problem affects, considering there’s plenty of Vista users out there (*shock*), Nvidia is a wildly popular chipset choice for both Intel and AMD users, and SATA hard drives are becoming if not already mainstream.

I’m no Apple-hater, I want to use Quicktime, which is why I’m spending so much time and energy trying to make it work. But if Apple’s not going to fix their problems in their software, then there’s no really not much choice left. My message to Apple, “you’ve had more than 3 years to mock Vista, don’t be a hypocrite.”

It’s so easy to send flowers to the ones you care, I love this service! For you doubters out there, yes, I actually sent it!

Update: As of 48 hours later, he has not yet replied. Flowers are probably dead too.

More details of the second coming surfaced yesterday when Mary Jo reported a few tips she had received about the upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 1 beta to be released later this month, including a very basic list of functionality and performance improvements. However a day prior, a Microsoft employee silently outlined a critical flaw in Windows Vista’s ReadyBoost feature and mentioned SP1 would include the fix – a rare occasion under the new Gorbachev Sinofsky administration.

Robert Hensing, a security engineer at Microsoft, wrote on his blog (update: since been removed, Blake Handler has some quotes) about a performance flaw in ReadyBoost which severely hindered the responsiveness after resuming from standby (S3) or hibernate (S4) due to an architectural bug. The problem causes irregular and unnecessary hard-disk thrashing after resume which can take up to 8 minutes to settle down – ironically the outcome is the exact opposite of ReadyBoost‘s purpose to increase responsiveness by caching. The cause is a simple yet stupid oversight in the design of ReadyBoost’s security system which encrypts all cache-data with an AES-128 encryption key, a great idea badly implemented.

You see, Vista ‘forgets’ the key after resuming from sleep which invalidates all the ReadyBoost data already held in the memory device forcing it to flush and start over. Yes that’s right, gigabytes worth of good and otherwise usable cache-data which could actually be used to improve system responsiveness, down the drain. Mind you, this is all happening seconds after you’ve opened your lid or pressed the power button, a time when all processor cycles should be focused on getting the system back and running, not wasted to something as stupid as this.

I don’t know how such an obvious oversight can be made by the ReadyBoost team – was resuming never tested? Or was this just something they couldn’t fix in time, if so, how was this ever allowed to ship in the first place? But history aside, it’s a good thing it will be fixed in SP1 along with a batch of other anomalies. I guess now I should join the “need SP1″ bandwagon since I actively use ReadyBoost.

It’s interesting to see now that after SP1 has been (informally) announced what the “only-install-Vista-after-SP1 crowd” will think. Are they going to stick to their original cause or move on to “only-install-Vista-after-SP2″. Some people have already moved on to the latter.

And to meet my monthly Sinofsky-quota, “General Secretary Sinofsky, if you seek enthusiasm, if you seek publicity for Microsoft and Windows, if you seek feedback, come here to this gate. Mr. Sinofsky, open this gate. Mr. Sinokfsy, tear down this wall!”

Editorial note: This information was originally spotted by Josh Philips of WindowsConnected.com. However due to work demands he could not write about this sooner. All credits for this extra insight into Vista SP1 should go to Josh.

Update: I’m really surprised the Sinofsky administration has yet to figure out that censorship does not work, which is why Robert Hensing has removed his original post. A summary and quote of his post can be found on Blake Handler’s blog.

Update 2: Robert Hensing’s post has reappeared and it looks like he’s offering a new explanation for the sluggishness during resume from sleep. He’s no longer blaming ReadyBoost as the cause of the problem, however I’m still having resuming problems so I’m not too sure what’s going on just yet.

Three months ago almost everyone wondered (or at least one nosy blogger did) what happens when three amazingly talented Microsoft employees leave to form their own startup company would do and could achieve. Of course I’m referring to the amazing trio – Hillel, Walter and Jenny at Jackson Fish Market. If you still think they’re selling fresh seafoods, please stop reading this blog immediately.

It wasn’t entirely clear, for me at least, what they were doing. For that cause, I’ve been straining my tiny brain cells trying to figure out exactly what they mean by “making software for consumers” – a simple concept on the surface yet unbelievably cryptic at the same time. If they wanted to make software for people, why didn’t they stay at Microsoft then? [Insert witty Steve Sinofsky joke]. Followed by more hints at “branded software experiences“. Did they just want to be a design studio? A consulting agency? It would have been hard to believe three successful Microsoft leads would do something so ‘average’.

But now their focus much clearer. Today, in fact only a few hours ago, they have launched their first Jackson Fish “Experience” – “They’re Beautiful!” – an interactive virtual flower gifting service that really lives up to the name. In fact, so real I actually thought for the first 10 minutes or so looking at the website they were selling real flowers, silly me. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover definitely applies here.

This was definitely a first-time experience for me with virtual flowers. A simple Google search for “virtual flowers” delivers an abundance of results, so I’m obviously under-educated in this field. I figured the top three results are probably the best the industry has to offer so I decided to check them out, and what horrible experiences they were.

In other words, I think I’m beginning to fall for the “branded software experiences” buzz too. Whatever magic is behind this wonderful application/service, it’s working. There’s definitely the Jenny Lam touch on the graphics here – everything is pixel perfect and drop dead gorgeous. When you ‘water’ your plants, a little angel comes and sprinkles H2O on your plants, you have to see it to believe it! Apparently plants even die if you don’t water them. They’ve even made it easy to ‘share’ your plants on your blog (right). I guess details like that puts the “experience” in software.

In terms of a business model “They’re Beautiful” fits right in with the truckloads of other Web 2.0 applications, “what money?”. Since there’s nothing more than little pixel flowers flying around it’s not so bad for them, but you have to wonder how they plan to make a buck. Nevertheless, free is good and I’m definitely going to use this service because of it. If you’re my friend, look forward to some flowers flying your way! If you’re not, then tough luck.

For what it’s worth, this is the sort of people Microsoft and Windows have lost. It’s a shame, but at the same time an exciting adventure for someone like myself, a Microsoft enthusiast. But all hope is not lost, I know the ‘new’ people who’s taking over shares similar levels of passion and enthusiasm for their work. We’ll just have to wait and see I guess. But I’m going to water my flowers for the time being.

Update: I just sent about 25 flowers to some people I know. Wow, I think I’m in love with this service. Only a few clicks, yet every single one of them was unique.