Immediately after I find out about Palm’s triumphant new Foleo I find out about Microsoft’s scatological new “Surface” tabletop PC. Woot, I think not. At US$5,000-10,000 each, these monstrosities will inhabit hotel lobbies and mobile phone dealers and allow you to drag crap around on their 30″ touch screens. You can even put stuff on the top and it will scan a barcode it can find.

This is nothing more than a standard Windows PC with a large touch screen and some flashy software. I can go to The Bridge in Westchester and do the same thing with my feet in the theater’s lobby. Exciting! This is just another stupid project from Redmond that gets traction because they don’t know what to do with all that money they have.

Microsoft even said that the price tag would come down in a few years to make it an attractive purchase option for consumers. Ha! Is there such a thing as collective senility?

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: Opinion, Watchdog

What is the deal with IBM and this Lotus Notes fetish?! I’ve now been administering (user level only) Lotus Notes for almost two years now and I still don’t get it. Lotus Notes is a real piece of work. It was apparently designed by programmers to support programmers needs. It was originally developed for IBM’s dead OS/2 platform. It makes no attempt whatsoever to work like the operating systems it runs on. Its basically a database viewer.

Its a nightmare of operation and integration. I will take a stab at a metaphorical description: Its like adding each version of Windows from 1.0 to 3.0 together without removing redundant elements, mixing in some UNIX but changing it so its no longer familiar, slapping an SQL database in the trunk, letting Animal from the Muppets modify the code, and then requiring that it call Richard Nixon on the phone to get the latest data.

Mad, I tell you. Mad!

I can’t help but think that the estimated 118 million users were all forced into using Lotus Notes, as we were at my office. We were shoved into it by an excruciating need of the US Federal Government to regulate enterprise via the Sarbannes-Oxley mandate in an effort to prevent another Enron. If you ask me, all of the SOX crap will just mask any such efforts and make it easier for the scum to get away with it again!

We have over 6,500 users in North America. Every single one I have spoken to (nearly 600) says something like this to me,”Have I mentioned I hate Lotus Notes?” Yes, I say. You have. Several times. I could have sworn to you that I would never string the following words together over my dead body, but here goes: I’d take Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook over Lotus Notes any day!

Oh! Yes. I know Richard Nixon is dead.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: Maddening, Watchdog

As everyone who is familiar with me knows I LOVE Microsoft. In fact, I often make annual pilgrimages to the holyland, Redmond, WA. Just kidding! Had you going there… Anyway, MS has let loose with another mobile technology, this time from the Live Labs, the failure which created Live Search. Its called DeepFish, and true to form Microsoft coders have managed to take a fantastic idea and “option” it to hell. I love this quote from Neowin:

It’s free and available right now (but availability is limited) for any Windows Mobile version 5.0 and up device. “The code is actually written to be potentially cross-platform. But because we ship these rapid prototypes in live labs, we’re shipping it just for that operating system for now,” concluded Alex Daley, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Live Labs.

First, they’re not giving it out any more. Second, if the code is already portable, then there shouldn’t be any reason why they can’t offer beta versions for other mobile OS now. Third, MSN Live Search sucks! Okay, so the last one is only valid if you’re me. Regardless, if Microsoft ever intended to be a cross-platform company, they would have worked a hell of a lot harder to do so already. This is lip service. Don’t expect versions for anything but MS products.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: Watchdog