Microsoft has updated its main home page to look, well, like a bunch of monkey hurlage.
Whereas it used to look all slick and corporate, now it looks like the kind of thing Sneak might have knocked up given half an hour and nothing but Notepad for an HTML editor.
If this is the kind of graphical experience Windows Vista will offer, Sneak will stick with his trusty Atari ST.
(Sneak is guessing that the site is supposed to look a bit more like the Microsoft UK home page...)

July 28, 2005 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (5)

Having struggled to convince firms that the wonders of web conferencing will slash travel costs and improve productivity, Microsoft has resorted to the oldest marketing tactic of them all – bribery. And Sneak reckons there could be some unexpected corporate benefits from the company's decision to reward users of its Live Meeting web conferencing service with gifts such as airmiles. Suffer through enough sessions with jittery sound and an image more liable to break up than a boy band, and eventually you might earn enough miles to fly to a proper meeting where you can learn what was actually being said.

July 27, 2005 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1)

Is it just Sneak or is there some vague similarity between the imagery that Microsoft has chosen to associate with Windows Vista (see previous post), and the logo originally used by search-engine provider AltaVista?
Blueness? Check. Misty mountains? Check. The word Vista in big letters? Check.
Sneak knew that Longhorn has been a long time coming, and that Microsoft wants to take on the world’s search engine leader, but perhaps someone should tell Bill Gates that it’s 2005, not 1995.

July 25, 2005 Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's now official – the next version of Microsoft's operating system, codenamed Longhorn, will be known as Windows Vista.
Sneak was puzzled as to why Microsoft should have chosen this particular brand to represent its next release, which is expected to be the most significant since Windows 95.
Perhaps the name is meant to evoke the immense vista of time that already seems to have passed since Longhorn first appeared on Microsoft's product roadmap. Or has the name been carefully selected so that when the first major flaws are found in it, Bill Gates can shrug his shoulders and say "Hasta la Vista, baby" ?

July 22, 2005 Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (1)

Science journal Nature reports on the work of Japanese boffins at the University of Tokushima, who have come up with a system for burning microscopic dots into fingernails using a laser. The resulting stored data can then be read back using a microscope and a second laser to make the dots fluoresce. It seems to Sneak that the system could eventually be automated, in the manner in which CD-ROMs are burned and read. The researchers estimate that their system could store 800kB per fingernail, or about 4MB per hand, and suggest a variety of uses including authentication and transaction authorisation.
There are some obvious drawbacks, however. It’s not possible to rapidly erase the data - and it takes a couple of months to grow a new, blank nail. Which also means long-term data storage would require frequent refreshes. Plus, lady data carriers can’t wear nail polish. And finally, ending a relationship with an unsatisfactory service provider could be as painful as pulling nails - literally.

July 19, 2005 Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

Across the US, teams of boffins are working feverishly in preparation for this year’s Darpa Grand Challenge. As many readers will recall, this is an off-road driving competition run by the US defence agency, this year offering a $2m prize to any team that can build a self-guided robot vehicle capable of negotiating a tough, 150-mile course.
In 2004 the hot favourite was a modified military Humvee called Sandstorm, built by Red Team Racing. This seven-feet-wide, two-tonne behemoth was sponsored by Intel among others and boasted four Itanium and eight Xeon processors. It got the furthest of all the entrants last year, covering a somewhat embarrassing 7.4 miles before getting itself wedged.
With lessons learned, this year promises a better race - to be held on 8 October 2005. Red Team has got two entries past the scrutineers: an updated Sandstorm, plus a modified civilian-spec Hummer H1 called H1ghlander, which boasts seven Pentium-M processors and an Itanium 2.
However, Sneak is backing neither of these two lumbering heavyweights. Sneak would dearly like to see the more nimble, AMD-backed Ghostrider from the rival Blue Team race off with the prize. Not only does it make do with a lot less processing horsepower - one AMD Geode NX1500 embedded chip - it also has a lot less actual horsepower, being powered by a 125cc engine as opposed to Red Team’s 6.5 litre turbodiesels. It also makes do with fewer wheels: as the name suggests, Ghostrider is a motorcycle - meaning its hardworking Geode not only has to work out where to go and how to get there, but how to stay upright as well.

July 18, 2005 Science | Permalink | Comments (0)

A strong brand is all-important to selling products, or that's what the vendors would have us believe. However, if Sneak's experience is anything to go by, some companies in the IT sector might have a little more work to do on polishing up their brand recognition.
Stuck on a slow-moving train out of London, Sneak couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between two suited executives across the carriage. Frustrated at the snail-like progress of the train, the two had taken to trying to impress each other with the features of their respective smartphones.
"It's fantastic this Windows Portable," said the first exec, showing a movie clip from his handset. The other refused to be impressed, retorting: "I can use mine hands-free in the car... Because it's got Blueberry."

July 18, 2005 Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)

Japanese electronics giant Sharp has unveiled a canny new invention: an LCD screen that can show two distinct images at the same time, depending on the viewing angle. Viewed from the left side, for example, the screen could show an Excel spreadsheet. Viewed from the right side, the same screen could show a movie or web browsing session. Head on, presumably it will show either a blank screen or a jumbled blend of the two images - Sharp doesn’t go out of its way to expand on this particular part of the experience. Anyway, the screen has a myriad uses: in the home, allowing one person to watch the big footie match from one end of the couch, while another person at the other end of the same couch watches Hollyoaks or QVC. You can fill in your own gender stereotypes as required. Headphones will be necessary until Sharp perfects the sonic complement to the directional screen, however. Similarly, in a car, a central screen could show navigation data to the driver, and a movie to a passenger.
If the technology catches on, offices could be transformed. Who wouldn’t want a screen that always looks like you’re working, from the angle at which the boss typically approaches?

July 15, 2005 Television | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lots of people feel that the sentence handed out to Sasser worm author Sven Jaschan, scarcely more severe that being sent to bed without any supper, will not act as much of a deterrent. And they are no doubt right, but few would go as far as US economics professor Steven Landsburg, who argues for, well, death.
In a charming article for Slate magazine entitled “Feed the Worms Who Write Worms to the Worms”, published in May last year, Landsburg calculates the relative value to US society of its death-row policy for convicted murderers. By using studies estimating the deterrent value of the electric chair and equivalents, he suggests that forcibly pushing one murderer off life’s mortal coil prevents ten other murders, translating to around $100m in social benefits.
The benefits of executing a hacker, however, would be considerably higher, he argues, given estimates of damage that top $50bn per year. Deterring just one in 500 hackers would save society $100m.
Sneak is not entirely convinced, but does feel it’s worth a try...

July 14, 2005 Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sneak keeps reading about how wonderful it is for firms to let their staff blog about stuff, particularly if that firm is in the IT sector and likely to have a tech-savvy customer base that is highly suspicious of the usual bovine-byproduct approach to market communications. Borland is a prime example. It has absolutely loads of bloggers, from chief beard-cultivation expert David Intersimone (“I” to his pals) to people who Sneak has never met, who may not have beards, but who nonetheless enjoy equally exotic names that sound like they must know what they are talking about. Sneak has yet to meet a stupid person called Vladislav, but perhaps that’s because Sneak doesn’t get out much. Anyway, oddly enough Sneak can’t find any Borland blogger with anything to say about the ignoble departure of chief exec Dale Fuller yesterday, on the back of some very unhappy financial numbers. Which is odd. Perhaps all the bloggers are too busy writing up their CVs?

July 8, 2005 Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)

For a horrible moment on Saturday, Sneak thought that Bill Gates's appearance on the Live 8 stage meant that the software mogul was going to sing. Fortunately, all he did was say a few words of support for the Live 8 cause - even resisting the temptation to remind people to upgrade from Windows 2000. Despite himself, Sneak was forced to applaud on the grounds that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given more than $5bn to improving health, and $2.4bn to improving education, in the world’s poorest regions. But if Gates had burst into song, what might he have chosen to sing?
I’m in the money?
(You’ll do it) My Way?
Blue (Screen) Moon?
Further suggestions gratefully received...

July 4, 2005 Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sneak understands why home secretary Charles Clarke is so keen on the introduction of biometric identity cards for UK citizens. Never mind the likely £14.5bn outlay in taxpayer cash or the widespread loss of liberty; the controversial scheme will at last allow Clarke to conclusively prove that he is not the same person as Fungus the Bogeyman.

July 1, 2005 Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)