* Posts by Tom Stone

14 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Apr 2009

Mass hack plants malware on thousands of webpages

Tom Stone
FAIL

All the more reason to avoid Microsoft products

How many times do these things need to happen before developers and admins wise up and dump Microsoft products. If this was a programmer's error, why would 100,000 sites have the same mistake. It is inherently poor product design that continues to plague users of Microsoft products.

Nothing is 100% secure but open source seems to have more people examining the code to make sure these problems aren't pushed out to unsuspecting users. Microsoft and other commercial products are too focused on protecting their intellectual property.

HP's Palm buy was all about WebOS

Tom Stone
Unhappy

Short sited on HP's part

The Palm WebOS phones would be killers if they had HP's manufacturing and engineering expertise. What a waste if HP just dumps all of that hard work that went into the phone.

Hedge fund offers $1bn for Novell

Tom Stone
Unhappy

This would be a disaster for Novell

Hedge funds act like a bunch of sharks and will rip the company to shreds in order to squeeze value out of the acquisition. Novell needs good leadership but not a bunch of hungry animals trying to destroy the company. Unfortunately, I don't know if Novell can stop them.

Is Symantec entering the hardware business?

Tom Stone
FAIL

Don't expect Symantec to wipe anyone out.

Symantec has one of the worst reputations in the computer industry for acquiring products and then destroying them. They also have attempted hardware sales over the years and there isn't a dealer with half a brain that would touch a Symantec hardware product. If he or she does, then they will be supporting an orphaned product within a few years. Symantec will abandon it for sure.

Mozilla plans to tie Firefox 3.7 pigtails in pretty Ribbon

Tom Stone
Thumb Down

What are they thinking?

Wait a minute. Obviously they are not thinking! If they were, they would know how counterproductive the ribbon concept it.

Menus work because they are simple and people can hunt if they have to find something. Re-organizing menus would be good. Adding features to menus instead of requiring about:config would be good.

Dumbing it all down with a ribbon would be an insult..

C2000 hits out at loveless Novell

Tom Stone

Novell's not the only one.

Here in the USA, Novell and others are bypassing their distribution channel partners with direct deals. There just isn't any profit margin left to maintain the old business model. No one makes money on Microsoft products either so it is only a matter of time before MS pushes a direct sales model.

Microsoft doubles quarterly revenue drop

Tom Stone

Windows 7 is better but not enough

Win7 will probably do somewhat better than Vista with their corporate customers but the real problem is cost.

Corporations are loathe to spend money on something that shows no real benefit. WinXP suits them just fine and it runs everything well enough to get by. Win7, like Vista, is too expensive to upgrade, implement, and support because it requires new training, software upgrades, time, and the desire to do so. None of which companies are willing to do right now.

If Ballmer had a brain, he would come out with New XP with the following enhancements:

1) Large memory support in the 32bit version (If Linux can do it, Microsoft can)

2) Make real improvements to the interface and forget crap like Ribbons and Clown Colors.

3) Improved video support and updated Direct X like Vista has.

4) Improved networking stack. Vista attempts this but the interface is horrible.

5) No 3rd party obsolescence. Don't purposefully break 3rd party products just to force companies to buy all Microsoft. (They did this in the past and got caught, they will do it again.)

It would be an instant winner with end-users and companies. Microsoft would bury any competition and extend their desktop monopoly, unfortunately. The good thing is...Microsoft doesn't listen to their customers let alone read my comments so they will eventually fail. That will be the best thing to happen to computing.

Cisco thanks customers after website outage

Tom Stone

They forgot to buy the extended support agreement.

Someone must have forgot to spend the extra $$$ to purchase Cisco's maintenance and support. They probably couldn't get anything fixed without it.

Russia stings Microsoft with monopoly case

Tom Stone

Business would abandon Vista completely.

If XP became easily available with no price penalty, businesses would abandon Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 in a heartbeat. There is no incentive to waste piles of IT resources to convert to a product that has no intrinsic gain.

If Microsoft (aka Ballmer) had any brains, he would realize the economic value and advantage to their bottom line. Little R&D, continued revenue cash cow, add-on product opportunities, etc. How could they lose? Just come out with a low cost Son of XP product that supports 64 bit and new hardware technology. After all, XP is still just Windows NT/2000 with newer drivers and some window dressing.

Nork nuke quite a lot less powerful than Hiroshima

Tom Stone

N. Korea may be firing blanks?

It could be that N. Korea doesn't have real nuke capability and are just detonating very large conventional explosions to get some attention. Since none of these "tests" have amounted to more than a fizzle, they might be attempting a bluff by using a vapor fuel bomb type explosion or a really large pile of TNT.

This is a completely broken government that cannot or will not feed its own people let alone pull the resources together that are necessary to explode something as sophisticated as an A-Bomb.

Ballmer clashes with Obama over US tax rules

Tom Stone

Charge them for back taxes.

Since Ballmer admits they are doing it to avoid taxes, the US Government should charge them with tax evasion and require them to pay all of their back taxes for the last 20 years.

Maybe putting Steve and Bill in a prison cell for a few years might adjust their attitudes.

Novell boss in semi-apology over Microsoft pact

Tom Stone

Linux flamers can't understand

The Linux zealots who instantly flamed this whole deal between Novell and Microsoft don't want to face the realities of the business world. If a company wants to stay in business, they have to listen to their customers.

Doing any kind of deal with Microsoft is like making a bargain with Satan. The devil is in the details. I think Novell has learned that lesson over the years because of Microsoft's history of stabbing their partners in the back when they find it inconvenient to be honest. It was a risk that Novell was willing to take in order to please their customer base.

PC buyers fail to prove MS deceived in Vista 'Capable' suit

Tom Stone

Who got to this judge?

The way that this was dismissed sounds like either a poorly conceived lawsuit or a judge with Microsoft stock. I think the latter.

Texas senator wants to ban Vista purchases

Tom Stone
Happy

Keep the date in mind!

I hope that you all noticed that this was posted on April 1st. I think there might be a connection.