FAA to Ditch Microsoft

The FAA has had so much trouble with Microsoft products that they are considering moving away from all Microsoft products.

In a recent Informationweek interview, FAA chief information officer David Bowen said he's taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency's Windows XP-based desktop computers and laptops. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps attractive. "It's a different sort of computing strategy," he said. "It takes the desktop out of the way so you're running a very thin client. From a security and management standpoint that would have some advantages."

This move would also include using Linux as an operating system to replace XP.

We do live in interesting times.

Steve Ballmer - The Dark Lord ?

Many people, myself included, are beginning to believe that Steve Ballmer is crazy and I don't mean a little crazy.

Although Microsoft is considering taking a major position in Facebook, Steve stated recently that “There can’t be any more deep technology in Facebook than what dozens of people could write in a couple of years." He went on to call Facebook a fad. So why bother taking a stake in it?

If the Facebook remarks were not bad enough, he called Google "Big Brother." What is Microsoft's answer to Google. It is called "Windows Live." Haven't heard of it? Don't worry, neither has anyone else. The Windows Live group is loosing approximately $300 million a quarter. Yes, those numbers are correct.

Lest we think Steve does not have a sense of humor, he laughed when asked if he thought that Apple's iPhone would sell well.

The real question is why Bill Gates allows Steve Ballmer to go out in public? He can't open his mouth without embarrassing the company. You would think that Vista was enough embarrassment.

Things are going so poorly with Vista that Steve was recently confronted about it by a 'mom' at a recent Gartner group conference.

When one watches Steve Ballmer, late night infomercials come to mind. That may not be far from the truth :-)

Stay tuned for more Steve Ballmer embarrasing moments.

Switch to Mac - or not

I can't tell you how many times a day people ask if they should switch to a Mac. There are many good reasons to switch to a Mac. They just work! In addition, it reduces the number of phone calls that I get that are all basically the same - "what is wrong with my PC?"

Steven Leigh of Apple Matters wrote two great articles on the topic. They are - "8 Reasons Why Windows Users Don't Switch" and "8 Reasons Windows Users DO Switch to Mac." As a heads up, Steven was once a rabid Microsoft fanboy. These two articles are very good.

Microsoft opens medical records division

Microsoft announced that they plan to get into the medical records business. They want consumers to store all of their medical records on a server in Redmond. The project is called HealthVault.

I would have thought that this was an April fools joke - except that it is October. I predict that that this project will be an abysmal failure. Honestly, who in their right mind would trust data security to Microsoft? Perhaps Microsoft should concentrate on building a quality OS first.

Frozen iMac

Lest we think that Microsoft's Vista is the only OS with woes. There is no perfect machine as is demonstrated by the problems that people are experiencing with the new iMac. It seems that the new iMac is prone to an interface lockup that requires that the system be re-booted. Apple has discovered that the problem is related to the ATI graphics card driver. This problem surfaced with Vista early on. You would think that ATI would have figured that out by now.

Unfortunately for several people that have purchased an iMac, this happens right out of the box. Fortunately, Apple has unmatched customer service.

Zune 2.0 on the way

The new version of the Zune is on the way. Great, an answer to a question that no one asked - "Why doesn't Microsoft make an iPod competitor?" :-) The strange thing about the Zune is that Bill Gates even apologized for it's mediocrity. Now, return to your regularly scheduled show - on your iPod.

Zune Phone

With the recent success of the iPhone, Microsoft has decided that they are going to create the Zune Phone. If this weren't so funny it would be sad. I think that this video on YouTube captures how the Zune Phone will be perceived by the public. How many people do you think will wait in line for this one? :-)