Microsoft Genuine Advantage – Shot in the foot

April 27, 2010 Development, Strategy No Comments

ARRRGGHHH! is probably the best way of putting it.

Why does Microsoft insist on telling me my copy of Office is not genuine?  I have an account on MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network) which says I can install Office, so I downloaded it, from Microsoft, got the key, from Microsoft, and installed it.  The next day having run Windows Update  it says its not genuine! how genuine do you want it to be, you gave me the key yesterday.

I asked a couple of friends if they’d had any problems and one said (a teacher) that their school had recently started showing that too.  ‘So what do you do?’ I asked  ‘There’s nothing we can do it’s installed by the council we just use it’ she replied…  So all the kids in the local Primary School are learning that Windows Genuine Advantage is something to ignore, Brilliant.  Do you think the money they are making from corporations at the minute (who would pay anyway) out weighs the effect of teaching the next generation to either ignore the ‘We think you’re a pirate’ message or to just switch to something which doesn’t nag, like Google Docs, Open Office…

I was talking to the network admin at work, he had a shiny new Mac on his desk, I asked if we were all getting them, he replied ‘No, this is mine, after a day of this s#!t I just want a computer that works when I get home’.  The only conclusion I can draw from that is that expert Windows users prefer Macs and after the trouble I’ve had (2 days to re-install all this nagware) I’m starting to think the same too.

And now for a developer rant at .net 4 now… I may as well go all out while I’m here!

I went to one of the .net 4 launch events the other day.  I went because I wanted to know more about how to use the tools, these are days for developers after all!  Half the day was pure sales pitch, look, I’m here, I’ve bought in (to an extent) now show me how to go back an impress.

Then, the content when it did come pointed to the fact that a large chunk of the improvements in VS2010 and .net 4.0 are actually things they should have just done right in the first place (standards compliance, not using bloated names for IDs), or already exist in 2008 as add-ons (MVC). Ah! so that’s why the whole morning was a sales pitch… you haven’t actually got much to show me, but yeah I am excited that after 8 years you finally managed to make your HTML output W3C compliant, 8 YEARS!

As for Silverlight, well 4 looks like it has potential (finally), it’s a shame that I tried to use Silverlight 1 (or 2?) to do something useful…We’re currently narrowing down the plugins used across our sites from 5 to 1 and we’ve chosen Flash.

Perhaps now Silverlight could challenge Flash, but again they’ve shot themselves in the foot, I have a day job to do and I’m going to use the tools I know will get the job done, when I lost 2 weeks work trying to do it in Silverlight you not only lost me but you lost my boss, who 2 years later ‘knows’ that Silverlight isn’t up to the task, and he’s not going to be going to any of the MSDN brainwashing sessions, and if the boss decrees ‘no silverlight, it failed last time’ then you’ve lost the battle.

Mind Hacks

April 26, 2010 Books No Comments

Mind Hacks, Tom Stafford, Matt Webb

To honest I was a little disappointed with this book.

Possibly down to my expectation rather than the book itself.  I was hoping to learn some techniques to improve my memory and speed of thinking but that’s not what this is about.  There are 90 odd explanations of ‘phenomena’ from blind spots (both physical and mental) through explanations of why thinking about exercise is better than not doing any at all… Quite a lot of it isn’t new it’s a collection of other peoples work (okay so a lot of books are but when you’ve seen a lot of it already elsewhere it makes it a lot less interesting, although it is quicker to read because you don’t have to fire up  a browser and watch the videos!).

All very interesting but it wasn’t what I was expecting (perhaps my expectations had been anchored too high!).  If you are interested in the brain from a biology and psychology lesson point of view then it is very interesting and explains a lot of detail and gives places to look for even more information so you can deep dive on a subject too.

The Creative Habit, learn it and use it for life

April 21, 2010 Books No Comments

The Creative Habit, Learn it and use it for life, Twyla Tharp

This really does show you a way to make being creative a part of your life.  Initially I was worried that his might be a little too dance orientated, there are references to it (she’s a choreographer and dancer) but you don’t need to know about dance it’s just a way of explaining the concepts and that all makes sense.  There is no short cut to follow these steps and you will be creative, it’s pointers and help to get you started and then to show at different points what may trip you up an dhow to avoid it.

There are many concepts and explanations of other people and their processes.    I like the idea of creating boxes for projects so that you an collect together all the information and resources in one place, but then look back on those later and remember what was the aim.

I liked her explanation of spine, that’s helped me with a couple of ideas I’ve had going round my head for years but somehow there was something missing from them.

One things I must say is that you should do all the exercises, don’t just read them… do them!

I really enjoyed reading this and  I’ll be eading it again if I feel I need a little shove.  One thing which did come through and is something which seems to be a theme is just do it! Get on with your creative (entrepreneurial) endeavour, and have a ‘team’ of people who you know will give honest feedback on it to keep you on the straight and narrow.