Month: April 2006

MSNBC has a series on “The Digital Life” (note: it does not feature any hotel heiress TV icons), a look at new technology for the home, from your garage to the kitchen and the backyard.

This week the installment is on the digital bath, and although it doesn’t offer any helpful information or recommendations on how to wire your room with sound coming from a streaming media player in the living room, it does offer a look at how you might get a snide comment or two from small appliances:

“Connected via the Internet, the [health monitor] devices have small LCD screens that ask questions — “How are you feeling today?” — and then prompt the patient through whatever testing procedure is appropriate, such as taking blood sugar or testing lung function. The device asks more questions about how the patient is feeling and then sends on the results of the “visit” to the doctor for follow up.”

Oh, well.

EWeek has an interesting article on the Secret Service’s Operation Rolling Stone, the fed’s latest effort to fight cyber-crimes.

One of the things that the article highlights is that it’s not just high-tech investigative techniques that crack the case: often, it’s the crook’s own stupidity that helps the investigators.

For instance, the feds convinced one suspect to be paid by Western Union rather than PayPal, tagging them for wire fraud. And another suspect provided his real name for payment.

“… another defendant who went through great pains to keep his credit card creation company efforts secret, but proceeded to buy much of his equipment publicly on eBay—using the same name he used for deceptions. Correction: He changed one letter. (Second note to cyber-bandits in training: This is not a job for the lazy.)”

Click here to read more about Operation Rolling Stone.

Tom’s Hardware Guide posted an article today on “How capable is a ‘Vista-capable’ PC?” In it, the author collected information from various reports and specs from across Microsoft and outlines the hardware requirements for different Windows Vista hardware configurations that meet the logos requirements:

Tom’s reported…

“The Windows Vista Capable PC Program,” a spokesperson for Microsoft told TG Daily late yesterday, “is a program that will provide information to customers about PCs they can buy today that will be able to run the next version of Microsoft Windows operating system.  PCs with the Windows Vista Capable logo will ensure the best possible computing experience today, while helping create a seamless transition to Windows Vista.”

As I mentioned over the weekend re: the Windows Vista Capable PC Program, I’ll stick by my plans for new machines, but add an additional 1GB of RAM and at a minimum a 128MB graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0L… ‘though I’ll consider a reasonable 256MB card. 

Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Vista.

We often discuss how leading companies strive to improve customer satisfaction and measurement, which included a look at HP. Recently, one of my friends referred to HP’s “Rules of the Garage” which were widely promoted by HP back in the late ’90s. Here they are for your reference, as I have them archived from a past email:

1. Believe you can change the world.
   
2. Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
   
3. Know when to work alone and when to work together.
   
4. Share — tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
   
5. No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
   
6. The customer defines a job well done.
   
7. Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
   
8. Invent different ways of working.
   
9. Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
   
10. Believe that together we can do anything.
    Invent.

At Microsoft, the core values of the company include broad customer connection, a global inclusive approach, excellence, trustworthy computing, great people with great values, innovative and responsible platform leadership and finally, enabling people to do new things.

Reminds me of some of the articles I’ve read by Robert Fulghum, author of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” Basic things, really:

“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I (we) learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile in Elementary School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life — learn some and think some and draw and 
paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold 
hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. 
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup — they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first 
word you learned — the biggest word of all — LOOK.”

Tags: Microsoft, customer service, customers, garage, values, HP.

Here’s the question on my mind today:  if you’re considering buying a new PC, will you wait to buy a new PC with Vista preinstalled, or would you buy a new Windows XP machine this year that’s Vista ready?

A few months ago, I noted that many popular configurations we see today on general purpose PCs meet the minimum general hardware requirements for Windows Vista, which as noted on the wiki includes…

• CPU: Intel x86-compatible 32-bit or x64-compatible 64-bit microprocessor (Dual Core systems will be supported)
  
• Motherboard: ACPI-compatible firmware is required
  
• Memory: At least 512 megabytes
  
• Graphics Card: A DirectX 9–compatible GPU that is capable of supporting Windows Vista, with 64 MB of graphics memory
  
• Hard Drive space: At least 1.5 gigabytes

A somewhat lower bar than originally reported in the press. 

Today the Seattle Times reported the an overview of the Windows Vista Capable PCs program. The program to help make the transition from Windows XP computers to Vista is noted on the Microsoft Partner site:

“Windows Vista Capable PCs must meet all the criteria for the “Designed for Windows XP 32-bit or 64-bit” logo. In addition, the PCs require a combination of essential hardware that will define sufficient overall Windows Vista performance — a triumvirate of CPU plus memory plus graphics. PCs should have a modern CPU which includes at least 512 megabytes of memory, and a DirectX 9 class graphics processor.”

Vendors such as ATI Technology and Nvidia have posted lists of Windows Vista Ready parts and cards. I’ll guess that consumers will see similar notices from PC OEMs in the not so distant future: PC Magazine reported on some Vista-ready PCs last month, and Dell’s just announced their new Core Duo notebooks that will offer an upgrade path to Windows Vista:

“Dell Product Manager Robert Thompson said some of the notebooks would come with Windows Vista Ready logos that would indicate they would be upgradable to the upcoming version of Microsoft’s operating system. He said the upgrade cost had not yet been set.”

“OK… That’s all great but which PC should buy?”

At home, the good news is that most of the PCs used by our family meet the minimum bar. Our children’s PC is equipped with an older embedded 32MB graphics chip, so that one may remain a Windows XP machine (especially as it runs all of their games and educational software, much in Windows 98 compatibility mode). I’m often asked by friends, family and people at the bus stop this very question, and I’ve answered it more often than ususal since the release schedule for Vista was announced. My answer is always the same:

• First, upgrade what you have. Make the most of what you have today by upgradng your PC, either by adding more RAM, a new (or second) hard disc drive or video card. People are amazed just how easy it can be to upgrade PCs manufactured in the last couple of years.


• Later, buy the most PC for your money. Once you decide to move your old machine to the family room, buy the most PC you can that fits your budget, and in the right time frame. Sometimes it depends on when you plan on bringing a new PC home. 

For us, I would spec any new machine with a minimum dual core 2.80GHz processor, 1GB high speed SDRAM, an 80GB HDD, a multi-format CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) and a 256MB graphics card. Good news is that system today is under $700. (I also found current deals on the web offering systems that meet the minimum bar for Windows Vista for under $500.) Add another $100 to upgrade to a larger LCD monitor, at least 19″.

Better news: the way component pricing moves, seasonal discounts & incentives are offered by manufacturers and Moore’s Law, I’ll most likely be able to get an even more powerful computer with >3GHz processor, larger HDD and more RAM for the same investment. Or less.