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Author: getwired

Social is not the goal.

Social is not the goal.

This week at the SharePoint Conference 2012, I attended a roundtable with two customers who have deployed Yammer within their organization and are pleased with the results. Last year I attended a roundtable with two customers who had deployed SharePoint 2010’s social features and were pleased with the results. The conversations were similar – and I can’t help but notice a pattern. The pattern is the beating of the “social in the enterprise” drum. Not just by Microsoft either. Companies…

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Windows RT, Sideloading, and Office. Oh my.

Windows RT, Sideloading, and Office. Oh my.

When you start working with Microsoft licensing – well, to be fair, almost anyone’s enterprise licensing, it can be mind-numbing. Truth be told, when I stepped up to pinch hit for my colleague, to cover the immense changes to SQL Server 2012 licensing, I developed a migraine with vertigo – something that hadn’t occurred for several years. While it could have been coincidence, we’ve taken liberty with it at work, and turned it into a running joke for our boot…

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iOS is showing its age

iOS is showing its age

My iPhone and my iPad are almost always running the latest version of iOS. When the App Store icon lights up with app updates, I click it like a Pavlovian parlor trick. Sometimes to regret, but not always… My wife on the other hand? Her iPhone is running iOS 5 – she’s terrified of the new maps app. Her App Store icon read “48” last night when I went in to try and unwind the me.com/Mac.com/iCloud.com bedlam she has accidentally…

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Bill Hill – the authentic type

Bill Hill – the authentic type

Looking through my old email – it was apparently 13 years ago this week that I first exchanged email with Bill Hill. We had been working on making all of our content on Slate into a neutral format so we could output it into multiple types of content (Word, Word two-column, text-to-speech) – and when I first read Bill Hill’s writing on reading, he captured my imagination about it – when few around him really believed that eBooks could happen,…

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VDI? OMG.

VDI? OMG.

For two days last week, I was at the annual Chicago installment of our Microsoft Licensing Boot Camp. I’ve been to several of our camps to help present a couple of the topics. I’ve also noticed something unusual (and somewhat frightening) occurring. What I’ve seen is the growth of – or at least growth of the interest of – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). In VDI, the desktop operating system that a user interacts with is virtualized (and often remotely located)…

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What’s the deal with counting Windows Store apps?

What’s the deal with counting Windows Store apps?

I’ve had a few people ask me why I started counting the number of apps. Why should I care? Do I have some sort of vendetta against Microsoft or something? No. I don’t. The Windows Store count is what it is. I’m not here to say it’ll trounce iOS. I’m not here to say it’ll be a failure. That doesn’t matter, and little I can or do say will change how Windows 8 does with consumers and corporate customers. My goal…

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Yahoo and Microsoft – Bread and circuses?

Yahoo and Microsoft – Bread and circuses?

This morning I awoke to the news that Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of Yahoo, was awarding Yahoo employees with a free smartphone, and, from what I can derive, some coverage for service plans as well. On the heels of Microsoft’s news last week leaked during their company meeting of free personal/work Windows Phone 8 devices, Windows RT devices, and accelerated replacement of work systems with Windows 8-capable PCs, this is interesting news to consider. Perhaps some may call this…

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Introducing! The new iPhone Disappointment!

Introducing! The new iPhone Disappointment!

No. This isn’t going to be one of those posts. It’s not going to be derisive about Apple at all. So if you came here for a good old fashioned “Steve Jobs wouldn’t have done that” beating, you might want to just click back or close this tab. Even at the age of 39, I still enjoy visiting Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Why? Because, if you let your mind go, and your imagination wander, they’re amazing places. For a…

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How not to announce a consumer electronics device in 2012 – a lesson from Nokia

How not to announce a consumer electronics device in 2012 – a lesson from Nokia

When you get a piece of spam, there are a couple of key components to it. There’s a subject line – intended to make the reader excited to “make money fast” or “make cheap international phone calls”. There’s an assortment of flattering text, sometimes pictures, and other components to the message, designed to both delude and confuse the reader into thinking this is a legitimate offer. Finally, there’s a call to action. A hook. In most spam, this is a…

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Windows to Go where exactly?

Windows to Go where exactly?

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of excitement around Windows to Go, a new feature available in Windows 8. Windows to Go (WTG) enables Windows 8 (Enterprise) to boot from a USB Flash Drive (UFD). Fundamentally, WTG includes three technical features: Windows support for USB boot (including USB 3.0) Support for installing and running Windows from a removable USB hard drive (yes, this is a different line item than 1) Support for handling “surprise removal” of Windows without hanging or crashing….

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