The Return: Yahoo and Microsoft evokes flashbacks

Sorry to all my readers for the long hiatus, but I've had a lot of work on, and then I took a 3 week trip to France, and then had more work, but I'm back and hoping to return to my previous semi-regularity of posting.

Now this one is a little out of date, because it's been sitting here waiting to be published for a while. Enjoy anyway ...

But now, to the post proper. As is the buzz on every vaguely tech-interested news service, Yahoo and Microsoft have finally clinched some sort of deal together. While nobody has any strong details, it appears that Microsoft is the big brother in this little relationship, with some speculating that it could be the end of Yahoo. I, for one, believe they won't die out, but it won't be a good omen for Yahoo, who are already struggling against the friendly giant Google, and who are about to have half of their business stolen out from under them by Microsoft.

There is another question that is annoying me, and one that crops up so often i may as well rename the blog: Why?. (But FerretWhy just doesn't have the same ring...) Microsoft is not exactly short of a penny or two with the world's most heavily populated OS smothering the Earth, and they've just gone and put God-doesn't-even-know-how-much effort into creating, broadcasting, publicising and (as Microsoft tends to do) smothering everyone and anyone with "Bing!", which seems to be Live Search but with a new face, a less dorky name, and options to verbify it later. Although I doubt anyone's going to walk around saying, 'Why don't you Bing it', if not for the potential of horridly inappropriate mispronunciations, but more because Google is just sooo good, and soooo everywhere. And works so well as a verb...

So why, then, has Microsoft spent a good part of that fortune on buying a company that is being beaten silly by a certain company with one more letter in its name. And quite a lot larger than 1% of the market. Critics have suggested that its just for the advertising money, but this still just doesn't quite fit. For me, it evokes flashbacks of that wonderful tech match-up between AOL and Time Warner. Wow. I'm not sure I've seen a more woeful sop story from a company other than this one. If you're wondering what I'm rambling on about now, it's creatively discussed here)

As far as anyone can tell, nothings been set out about what's going to happen, or even what is happening. Only that Microsoft and Yahoo are getting together and what odd bedfellows they make

As usual, I could be wrong about all of this (which wouldn't be the first time) and it could just be money-hungry Microsoft trying to grab Yahoo's pathetic little share of the online advertising market. After all, they are feelng more than a little pressure from Google lately...

Is it really necessary?

Everyone. And i mean, everyone feels the need to hate the big guy. It's even more apparent in the tech world. Microsoft. Huge. Hated (although that might be for a different reason, something to do with their products being, i don't know, can't remember, maybe someone can help me in comments...). And the latest casualty to the We Hate the Big Guy Syndrome (WHTBGS) is Google. Everyone was just fine, using Google every day, it had become one of the most used verbs in the English language, and then, BANG, everyone hates it, and everyone should use Bing, because, well, it's not Google.

To the first of Google's new rivals (and probably the worst): Microsoft's Bing.

(That name could only have come from a Google wannabe, hoping to have a new verb entered into the dictionary: "to Bing". No chance, mate. Sorry about that.)

Microsoft's first disastrous attempt at a search engine Live Search, failed. No doubt about it. It Failed. The only traffic it received was from people who accidentally typed something in the IE search box, forgetting that they hadn't changed the default yet. That, and people living under a rock for the last 10 years, and/or those who live in the suburbs, have huge armchairs, are over the age of 75, and do crochet for a hobby. They don't know what that Internet thing is, but it scares them.

Anyway, the point is that while for Microsoft they couldn't just abandon the huge search sector of their business, but i think their usage stats are going to be a bit misleading, since everyone will use Bing, just cos they don't want to use Google. It's just not that good...

And now to Wolfram Alpha. I am no huge fan of Wolfram Alpha. There has been no secret hates, or shady commenting. I admit. I don't like Wolfram Alpha. I have near to zero use for a computational engine like this. I like Google. I like Google Squared. There is very little i would use Wolfram for, that i couldn't do in my head, have no use for, or want to know more about (i.e. Google it). When in want to know how fast 5mph is in m/s, Google tells me, followed by links to tell me exactly why. When i enter it into Wolfram Alpha, it accompanies it with 5mph in kilometres travelled per year, and a small series of increasingly useless data. I will admit that Alpha has its uses, but all those idiots claiming it is some kind of Google-slayer are just idiots. Alpha is for a different audience, and a different kind of search, where being limited to a small database, rather than a huge index doesn't matter. It may be good, but it's no Google beater, as much cos it's not even taking Google on (you'd be mad to! *cough* Microsoft *cough*)

There is also no getting around the fact tha Wolfram Alpha was made by some dude in his basement with too much time on his hands.

To the bigger issue here: The need to demolish Google. Google is incredibly useful, and it has transformed the Internet. There is no getting around it, and there probably never will be, just like there probably never will be an engine quite like Google. Do we need to fight it so harshly? Can't we all just get along?!!

To my devoted followers: This (suitably attitude-ridden) post also happens to be my blog's 50th post! Right from the start , through the shaky start , then the 10th post , the 25th , the 40th , and now the 50th.

I hope to continue well into the next 50 and beyond, with similarly high-quality, highly-objectionable, and highly-attitude-filled posts, to maintain my standards of awesomeness (unlike a certain other blog , which turned into absolute drivel, and was suitably rejected). Happy Birthday FerretTech!

Come on Aussie!

Australia has now slipped to a lowly 4th on visitor rankings for this month! (Mar 17-Apr 17)
We only have 8 more visitors than Romania. Yes, Romania. We are lagging behind the USA, UK, and Canada.

Returning to the full history (since about December last year), Australia maintains its second position, but we are falling behind rapidly.

Yes, my Aussie friends, the Americans are demolishing us by a solid 50%, and Canada is breathing down our collective necks with a miniscule 1.89% buffer.

At least we still have 11.36% on Mexico....

For now...

The Broswer Wars continue...

After some positive starts from Google Chrome, it seems its support is dwindling somewhat. Firefox meanwhile has managed to stay pretty much the same while IE seems to have been gaining support.

At least on Ferret Tech Firefox/Windows still reigns, but we have some very weird setups going, including PS3's, what i think is my PSP, Konqueror (?), and all and every kind of weird Browswer/OS combo

Yes, you poor buggers, Chrome sits on a miserly 8.5% of my visits while Firefox romps home with a solid 55.36% majority. IE has made a big jump forward (BTW, 19% use IE6, 73% use IE7, and a random 7% use IE8. n00bs!) leapfrogging Chrome into second position with 17.6%.

Peculiarly, focusing on just Browsers (rather than Browser/OS combos) sees Firefox pull out 66% of the share, but IE and Chrome staying almost the same.

But of more interest are some of the weird choices. I've mentioned the Playstation 3/Playstation 3 entry but then we get some really odd Apple entries. The typical Safari/Macintosh ones sitting in a lonely 6th behind Firefox/Macinstosh! The we have Safari/Android? Who has an Android phone?

While on the topic of phones, what on Earth is a Danger Hiptop? Don't tell me it's that stupid little Hiptop Slide piece of cr** actually looking at my blog!

There was Firefox/Linux (probably Jackson), but Konqueror/Linux? Who? Why? What's wrong with you?

Safari/iPod. Yay! I have someone reading my blog who also happens to be such an iPod fanboy they couldn't be bothered using a real Web browser.

Camino/Macintosh? What even is Camino?

Mozilla Compatible Agent/(not set). i think that is my PSP there, but not so sure. If you're wondering, yes, the PSP's NetFront browser does run on the Mozilla engine/code.

PS3! Yay! Yay! Lots of Yay! PS3's will rule the world. (as long as we don't begin calling the PS3 the Skynet)

Safari/Windows... You're using Windows so use a real browser, idiot!

And last but not least. Safari/iPhone. oh my god, my life has just lost all colour and meaning....

UPDATE: RSS feeds are now delimited and complete reflections of the posts again.

Aero effects on Vista Basic, Home Premium... Yes, Again

Yes, this particular procedure has been documented so many times, i'm amazed its not in the Bible, but i have done it and am aiming to de-geek it a bit, and cover a couple of bits most of the others don't have.
If you want the original more complex procedure, go to My Digital Life and check out his posts on the topic.
To start, go to Control Panel -> Personalisation (Make Sure you are in 'Classic View' on the left), then Colour Scheme. Make sure you don't have a Windows Vista Aero option in the list. Next, check in Window Colour and Appearance; if you get a dialog box, you don't have Aero.
Next, click Start, then 'Run', and type in 'regedit'. The REgistry Editor will start, and you need to use the tree on the left to go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
The two keys present should be Composition and CompositionPolicy. If there not there, create new 32-bit keys with these names. Next, give Composition a value of 1, and CompositionPolicy a value of 2. Next go to Control Panel, scroll down to and start Services, find Desktop Window Management and click Restart the Service. You may also need to change this service from Disabled to Automatic.
If you think you're pretty handy with a computer, you can ignore the previous step and instead, go to Run, type in cmd, then enter net stop uxsms, wait a second, then enter net start uxsms (uxsms is the code for the DWM service).
At this point, you may have to restart your machine but that should've done it.
IF it hasn't:
That aside, now go back to Control Panel and select 'Services'. Check you are in Extended View (at the bottom) and look for Desktop Window Management. If it's there and it says Disabled, then change it to Automatic, and click Start the Service.
That usually only happens when you're on a domain, and i don't expect it to apply to many of you.
If it has worked:
You can now add some modifiers to change it a bit. The keys (32-bit DWORD's) are:
Blur
Just that, blur. Set to 1 if you want it, 0 if your machine can't handle it.
Glass
As above. nice effect
Animations
Nice animations for just about everything. 1 for on, 0 for off
AnimationsShiftKey
Great Fun! Only works if you hav Animations set to 1. Create your key called AnimationsShiftKey, set it to 1, then restart the service as mentioned above. Now if you hold down Shift whenever you click Minimise, Restore, Maximise, Close, when a dialog opens, anything with an animation, the animations will go super-slow as long as you keep Shift held down. It even slows down Flip 3D! (Windows-Tab for the uneducated)

Now if it doesn't work check around or give us a yell, because there is a million different things that can stop it from working.
P.S. Now when you choose Window Colour and Appearance in Control Panel->Personalisation you can select colours, intensities and enable transparency.
As for running DreamScene on non-Ultimate Computers, you can find a series of files and even a .bat installer, but make sure you backup, before you try, cos it often pops up nasty errors...

Windows 7 and Microsoft

Okay, so we've been told so many times that Microsoft is staying Personal Computer-oriented and not going Web 2.0 and keeping it that way...

That's all well and good and i've read so many articles saying that is the way it should be...

And then I walk down to the city and read that Microsoft is releasing Azure alongside the supposedly PC-based Windows 7. Now in case you hadn't noticed, Azure is not PC-based.

For those uneducated of you, Azure is a system that actually replaces Office, and other apps with a server-side system of 'cloud apps' that each user could 'connect' to in order to empower their computer's abilities.

There are two problems with this. First up, why buy Office for a couple extra features. I'm paying $450-odd dollars for the ability to make a mail-merge (oh yeah, i do those all the time). Releasing Azure as part of a product range made for PC's, is like giving a gun to prison inmate, it just guarantees that things are gonna screw up.

Second problem, unless they do things like shipping computers with it, setting defaults to it, or integrating it with Win7, i find it difficult to believe that anything Microsoft comes up with will be more successful than Google's efforts.

They do have one thing going for them but, Google is a bit of a 'fringe' company compared to Microsoft. The other bigger thing is that Microsoft's monopoly (yes, it's a monopoly) on shipping OS's means that every copy of Windows will encourage and coerce every Windows user to begin using Azure rather than begin using Google. While previous Google users will probably continue to use Google Apps/Docs, new cloud users will be likely to move toward a system thats designed to integrate with almost every single computer on the planet. While Chrome users will be familiar with the concept of web applications and shortcuts as will anybody who has used an eee PC (by ASUS). This is a great idea, being able to run cloud apps off a local terminal, but it is a bit of a problem for Google since every Windows user will be able to run Azure as if it was Office and probably have it interact locally with their machine.

It will be a sad day, when Google Docs calls it quits, and by then it will be Netscape all over again...

Vista Goodies

For Christ sake, what is it with Microsoft and levels and extras and stages and more bloody money...

I say this because i have just spent some time looking at different levels of Vista (no, i'm not stupid enough to fork out my cash on Vista, are you insane!) and my god, there must be 7 different levels of Vista alone, and then there's Office. When XP came out, everyone was getting into a rage about the 'confusing' Pro and Home versions. Now there's Starter edition, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate and some random one they're trying to flog off to failing autocratic governments or something.

But more than this, every single one is different to every other one. There is one problem for Microsoft but... They didn't do a very good job of keeping them separated. See, as some others at school would vouch for, my (school-issued) Tablet PC appears to be an odd blend of Vista Ultimate, Third-Party Software and general customisation. As the logon screen betrays, it's actually Vista Business, but with Windows Aero, and all the premium games, and Windows DreamScene (unfortunately, whenever i try to change my background, say to DreamScene, it just says 'Page Failed to Load'... Still Fiddling, help would be appreciated), and i think i've found out how to get the supposedly Ultimate-only Bitlocker.

I'm pretty much just missing Media Center, something i don't really have a need for, but i've certainly compensated with all the third-party crap I've put on this thing. The fact that i'm writing this using FireScribe, a Firefox extension is enough, but the fact i have another 37 extensions is more, hell, the fact i'm using Firefox 3.0.3 means i've been fiddling with this thing. you name it, i've probably got it, or something to do its role: Winamp, VLC Player, Webshots, Graph, Motorola Phone Tools, the entire Office 97, CyberLink DVD Suite, PowerProducer, Google Calendar Sync, Mozilla Thunderbird (with extensions), a couple extra PIM Managers, Nero Suite, Palm Reader, RealPlayer (*shudder*), TrueSuite, Fingerprint Software, WinRAR (*ugh*, what's wrong with zip files), YouTube Downloader, Google Chrome and IrfanView...
I've also changed almost every setting in Control Panel, a couple of Registry Keys and anything else that can be changed.

While this may seem like overkill, i use most of them pretty regularly!

But to get back to the original topic (OMG! Topic creep on blogs!) my Vista is pretty different to the one they hand out at your local Hardly Normal (Harvey Norman) and it makes you think...

Why the f*** did you pay extra for Ultimate, sucker!!

PS. I'm fairly sure the Idiocy Department (IT Dept) aren't going to recognise this computer when i hand it back to them, especially now i've got my own custom skin on the inside and outside.


UPDATE!
I now have 41 other extensions, not 37 anymore... yay! i broke the 40-extension barrier!

Windows 7

There aren't many great things about Windows 7 as far as I can see, mostly because all the great things are just the same great things from Vista. We're up to Milestone 3 and it still looks like Vista and it doesn't even have the Microsoft customary icon freshen-ups. But there is only one thing that excites me, and that's that they've fixed the major problem of Vista needing an über-computer just to run in anything resembling smoothness. However, there are now screenshots of Win7 running on a mid-spec Pentium 3 machine. hooray!

One problem though, seeing as Vista required such impressive machine specs, and by the time that Win7 arrives, there won't be that many XP users around anymore, so we'll all have already upgraded so we'll be running Windows 7 on über-computers, even though we don't need them...

Did i hear too little, too late?

here are the Screenshots