Posts by TonyJ
42 posts • joined Thursday 30th December 2010 11:12 GMT
I would tend to agree with him actually
Although I have both in my laptop - a 512GB SSD and a 1TB spinner, until the price/capacity of SSD starts to come closer to HDD, I can't see mass take up of anything other than where you can use two drives - one for the OS and speed, and one for the apps / data.
That 940(?)GB at around £400 the Reg had the other day is at least heading the right way, but it still has a long way to come down.
Really...
"This is an easier way of helping us manage customers' licensing".
You mean
"This is an easier way of helping us to lock customers into perpetual licensing".
There you go. Fixed if for you.
Can you no longer cap your call balance?
I ask this seriously as I guess, like many people, my phone has so many minutes of bundled time to landline and other mobile numbers that it is to all intents and purposes unlimited.
However calls abroad and to premium numbers cost a fortune, but since I never let my kids play with my idevice (but the wife occasionally does hers) it makes me wonder if operators still offer the ability to cap outgoing call costs at £xx ?
Seems to me that that would be an ideal safety measure - cap your outgoing calls and turn off in-app purchases?
Though I do like the idea of turning the device into aeroplane mode prior to handing it over anyway.
Christ on a bike...
Seriously? Forced to resign because of a simple opinion. Not an official MS position at that, either, but his own.
And even if it was official - chased down because of it?
I don't want to live on this planet any more.
Re: Androids are Instantly Obsolete
I've had this same conversation to a large extent and though I wouldn't necessarily say they're obsolete immediately, they are so much sooner than other equivalents (well perhaps not MS...WinPho 7 - 8 for example).
When it comes to my phone of choice, like yourself, I don't want to have to root it, hack it, crack it or in some other way manipulate it just to make it usable, but then I have a very low demand in what I want from it so probably don't fall into the 'average' tech user of phones.
I have a colleague that's forever telling me how good 'droid is..especially the OS he's shoehorned on that's written (his words) by some teenager in his bedroom...and how his phone can do all sorts of gizmos and tricks that my iPhone can't but he never quite gets the point - for _me_ the phone works well. It does what _I_ want, well enough for _me_.
It's a phone. It's not representative of a mindset or lifestyle (and if it is you have a real issue). I couldn't care squat if someone has something fast, bigger, brighter or shinier. But like I said, I'm not in the target market :-)
Agreed...
That it's a bit harsh to blame the administrators for the failure of the board that preceded them.
Could they (the administrators) have done things any differently? I don't know, it not being my specialist area. I'd like to think they should at least have honored their employment contracts and paid those poor souls they laid off without pay for January, but other than that from what I know from the outside and a few comments from friends who still worked there, the brown stuff had already hit the rotary device to such an extent that it was far too late to save the company.
Posted in Review: Renault Zoe electric car
Actually
I will say one thing.
At least it looks like a bloody car and not some 60's sci-fi idea of what cars in the 21st century will look like.
Practical for me? No, not personally, due to my nomadic choice of career. For the wife though? Well at last check she drove less than 1600 miles a year so very probably.
I do like the battery lease idea too - batteries degrade and until now I wasn't aware of any other company offering that. Mind you, what would the range in a cold and wintery UK drop to?
Yup...'working on support for business contracts'
From http://www.o2.co.uk/tugo/want-it :
Only available for Pay Monthly at the moment. Calls and texts come out of your bundle. We're working on TU Go for Pay and Go and Business customers.
Re: Not working for me
Exactly the same issue - a three handset business contract and told it isn't the correct type of contract....seriously, O2?
I was sent a Win 7 phone to try by O2 when they first came out.
It was ok. Not great, but not bad either. Nothing to prize me away from my existing choice.
One thing though I've never understood with MS on this one - Win 7 phone adopters who took a chance and bought in early got royally screwed by no upgrade path (I assume this is still the same). Nice on MS. Kick the very people who were trying to support you.
Re: The Reality...
Now you need to be careful RainForestGuppy - there's no place for a reasoned, common sense, point on El Reg.
It should be a foaming-at-the-mouth rant against whichever OS/phone/slablet device and/or manufacturer you don't personally support!
Re: From now on, I'll be referring to this debacle as...
I disagree. It is, however, a very good example of when due diligence goes wrong*.
*Or doesn't get done at all because the perceived cost savings cloud judgments.
Re: IMHO, MS Office 13 has a largely anti-productivity UI
I do understand that power users (particularly) hated the ribbon when it was introduced but for the casual user such as me that wanted to produce documenft for customers and internal use it actually made my life inordinately easier overnight.
There were things I knew that I _could_ do in Office but didn't know _how_ to and finding them (and even using them) was often laborious and frustrating.
With the ribbon and its layout I could suddenly find things much more easily.
That of course, is my own subjective opinion and yours maybe be different but equally valid.
I will agree that 2013 seems a bit of a step backwards in the way they've done some things and it's certainly a very bland UI compared to previous versions. Not sure there's a compelling upgrade for anyone on 2007 or 2010 or even those happier using the earlier versions if they work for you.
Sad, but...
...I was in our local HMV at the weekend with my eldest son and it was a mess. DVD's and CD's etc just piled in in no apparent order. No room to browse without blocking the aisles and prices that weren't even a little over the odds.
Jessops - I enjoy photography as a bit of a hobby and last year I was after a lens for my Canon. Jessops wanted (online at this) £1,300 for a lens that Amazon wanted £600 for. Other online retailers were in the £700 bracket on average.
Whilst I like to try and support our incumbent businesses they have, for too long, been their own worse enemy.
Many times in our local Comet store (well I say many - the handful I visited) it could be almost impossible to grab the attention of a sales person.
And of course, fundamentally, many of these companies just failed to respond to the online threat quickly enough.
At the very least, they should have tried to emulate the PC World model of order online and collect from your local store.
<Sigh>.
Posted in Review: Mio Cyclo 300 cycling satnav
22.5mph and Cadence sensors
22.5mph isn't all that quick for cycling. I can hit double that on my road bike on some of the descents and easily hit 20+ on the flat.
Terry - go for one of the newer Garmin bike navs. They integrate with their cadence, heart rate etc sensors via ANT+
Re: Said it before and I'll say it again
Wow...that's a lot of downvoting for a simple fact: it's been proven, time and time again, that if you go head-to-head with Apple and the iPad on price you will fail. Cut the price and look what happens. And it really doesn't matter if you come up with a killer alternative.
I agree with dotslash (and here come the downvotes again I guess) - most people buy a tablet and give up on it within a fairly short term.
My kids love mind though - they read, play games, browse the web, watch Doctor Who etc but personally after I was bought a Kindle, it stopped being used by me for anything much.
Said it before and I'll say it again
People don't want a tablet, they want an iPad. Unless it's a cheap tablet.
Shame about Sharp
I used to work for their third party repair company back in the 90's.
They were the first to market with passive colour LCD portable and then active matrix (TFT) displays in their portable computers. These things were enormous and had a handle, required mains to run and a very strong arm to carry.
I witnessed first hand Sharp's then view on customer care - they (the customer) always came first. Warranties were honoured a full three months after they'd officially ended and if you complained you would always be treated respecfully and would usually have your complaint positively acted on.
I would be genuinely sorry to see them go.
Still having problems.
Haven't had a data connection since yesterday and now at work, where I normally see a full signal, I am stuck with my handset saying "searching".
O2 were good (business contract, three handsets - never 'big' money to O2, but still £130 a month) when I joined them three years ago but their customer service attitude these days is "stuff you. give us more money". I've even considered buying out what is remaining of the contract, it's that bad.
How long...
...before the damned "martian curse" kicks in and we lose this vehicle, too?
Price...
Doesn't look too bad but if it's going to be priced akin to the iPad then MS have already lost.
Because, as we all know, people don't want a tablet they want an iPad. Unless it's bargain prices, then they want a tablet.
MS really need to follow the XBox model on this and use it as a loss-leader and making up on apps and licensing.
Re: Improved service would be better than occasional discounts
Totally agree.
I've been with O2 for my company mobile phones since 2009. In the beginning, I seemed to get decent 3g coverage at my home and office.
I made sure I checked their coverage map before signing up and it gave a green for 3g coverage indoors and out at both locations.
I now struggle to even get a decent 2g signal at home and the map has changed to show no 3g available in this area.
I have a personalised 'account manager' from a third party (Azuzzi) who has single handedly managed to screw up just about every simple request I've made. This moron can't even call my - the primary number on the account - when I tell him what it is in email. He goes through the motions of calling the handsets in apparently ascending number order until he gets me.
Oh and that's usually about 72hours after I've tried to make contact via phone and/or email with a stock apology that he's been out of the office.
My superb, next-day, turnaround for faulty handsets for example is not done any more. But of course, I was never told this. My once good annual upgrade of all handsets now comes with the caveats that - (a) it's only for one handset on the primary number and (b) it's an automatic 12 month extension of the contract if you take it. Neither of which were explained outright - I had to go digging.
Anyone remember the problems with them releasing our private data last year? It was a "small problem" and one that was "technically difficult to achieve" and "only affected some test systems" - basically everything except even a simple apology.
I don't want gimmicks O2 - certainly not on an expensive business contract - I want a reliable signal and good service. I want to be able to pick up a phone and believe that my business is important to you - ok, in the grand scheme of things, £170pm on mobile contracts to a company your size isn't a lot but to a company my size it is and compared, I suspect, to the vast majority of non-commercial accounts it's a rather large sum
In fact, the longer I think about how O2 have managed to go from what was really a rather good company that looked after my needs and treated me with what was genuinely great customer service to the steaming pile of nondescript grimness they now are, the more I think it'd be a good idea to buy the contract out.
Nor have I even been a "high maintenance" customer - had a couple of handset failures in the early days, that was all, and I don't blame O2 for that.
And...breathe.
Sorry - didn't mean that to be such a moan.
Agree with so much said here
I've had this same discussion re "speed kills" many time.
Wrong.
Inappropriate speed kills. Poor driving kills. Tailgating and not paying proper attention kills.
We have a crazy system in the UK and there are some fairly simple solutions that would generate revenue and I believe to some extent lower costs to individuals.
First off - scrap the road excise duty. It isn't even as if it goes towards maintaining our piss poor road infrastructure any more.
Replace it by increasing the cost of petrol and diesel a few pence a litre (bear with me).
As part of this cost increase, implement third party insurance for everyone.
This has three immediate benefits:
No one can ever drive uninsured, be they foreigners or just some jumped up idiot;
You actually have a pay-as-you-use mechanism that means people like me, that have driven over a thousand miles a week for work in the past pay the appropriate amount of money for this whereas my wife, who struggles to put in 1500 miles a year doesn't pay the same as me;
You can scrap a lot of the DVLA.
Stop this crazy law whereby my son, when he hits the age of 17 can pass a test and so long as he can afford the costs associated with it can then take a Ferrari out on the motorway the day he passes.
Let's make people have lessons and possibly another test even before they are allowed on motorways. Ditto before they're allowed to drive powerful motor vehicles - hell, you have this mechanism with motorbikes.
Make people take tests more than once (another revenue generator and allows people to keep up to date on the most recent highway code - my 70+yo neighbour passed his test almost 60 years ago. The roads haven't changed much since then...?)
Let's have sensible speed limits - like others have said, let's make them genuinely variable and let's have traffic police officers back on our roads that can use their own judgement and common sense.
And if you lift the speed limits and people are caught tailgating, for example, or blasting through the lower ones in fog/rain then hit them hard.
Oh and as for the comments about lower insurance costs - I traded my ageing Porsche Boxster in lately for a Focus CC - the insurance? It went down 24 quid a year...it really is a protection racket.
Posted in Ten... gaming mice
Have the R.A.T. 7
Actually bought an "on offer" 5, but it turned out to be ex-demo with a load of bits missing.
So I got the 9 which is basically the wireless version of the 7. Battery life sucked - and despite getting a spare that sat in the wireless transponder base, changing them needed fingers with a grip like pliers.
Also it tended to suffer a lot of interference, so back it went and I settled on the 7.
Because, despite the issues, it's a an amazingly adaptable mouse - you can change most angles, add and remove parts, slide the palm rest out and change the weight. I've finally found a mouse that I can make fit my hand properly.
Yes it looks pretty cool, too, and is a conversation piece ("what is that?" being most common), but above and beyond all that, it suits me, my hand and how I use it.
Posted in Netgear ReadyNas Duo v2 network storage
Another vote here for the HP Microserver.
Have mine running Ubuntu Server 11.04 and it handles my Squeezeserver (far more responsive than it ever ran under Windows), streams video to my Samsung TV via TVMobili and acts as a time capsule for my MB Pro.
You can actually add a 5th disk by removing the DVD drive and using a 3.5" to 5.25" fitting kit and running the SATA cable.
It's practically silent and only cost me £99 after a fantastic cashback deal last year.
Posted in HD JuiceBox HDMI over Powerline kit
Very expensive option
I like the idea, but compared to say Sky multiroom (and I never thought I'd be saying Sky are cheaper than something/someone) in the UK, it seems a very expensive option! Especially if I can't get my full fat BluRay, for example.
I do accept this kind of thing isn't globally available though, but even then - a second TV with a free to air receiver and a BR player would still be less expensive than this.
Citrix XenClient
Guys take a look at Citrix XenClient.
If you're lucky enough to have a machine that is compatible (and despite the fairly limited HCL it will run on most stuff now) then this is a godsend.
A free, bare metal (i.e. type 1) CLIENT hypervisor. Switch between running machines at the press of a couple of buttons. Have your works machine P2V image, your personal Windows machine, Linux and OS X all running (ok the latter has to be foisted on and is far from reliable but it works for limited testing and demos).
The only reason I no longer use it is because it isn't yet compatible with Apple hardware but I did have it for over a year on my Dell.
Yup...said this many times in the past...stop passing off parental responsibility to ISP's/website owners/government agencies etc and take responsibility.
Don't understand tech? Put the damn computer in a room where you can look up and see what your kids are doing.
And like has already been said - pre-screen it. It's happened before and will happen again.
But I guess that means spending time with, and interacting with, your sprogs rather than letting someone/something else do it for you.
As for the perpetrators...why aim your smut at pre-school kids you sick whack jobs? Let's hand the "The internets are dark and evil and must be censored" brigade a huge stick to beat the ISP's & governments with.
What we need here..
...are some grown ups to come along and bang their collective heads together.
And then take a step back and re-inject a bit of sanity into the whole bloody mess that is the patent market.
I'm no fanboi - I have an iPhone because it does what I want it to do. But I realise I don't want it to do an awful lot - but these companies need to stop wasting time, effort and money on lawyers chasing bloody rainbows where the only losers are us, the consumer.
I've used but never owned 'droids.
I've owned seven BlackBerry handsets over the years, going way back to when they looked like a desktop calculator.
I had a dally with an HTC HD7 earlier this year - quite liked it, but like the original iPhone, it's lack of features I take for granted was a huge problem for me (me, personally - others may not be so bothered about a lack of cut and paste, for example). I also found it uncomfortably large. Now my elderly neihbour, to whom I gave it, loves the fact that he can read everything on it and it has big tiles he can mash with his fingers.
I've had an iPhone 3GS and now have a 4. I switched to iPhones because I got tired of the poor build quality of my BB's. When the annual handset renewal comes up in January, I'll no doubt look to get the 4S.
I also didn't like the fact that on a BlackBerry, to sync more than just email (e.g. calendars), I needed an additional server component (BES) whereas the others just connect and work.
And really, for me, that's the crux of it. I like how it looks and I like how it feels but at the end of the day it's just a phone and for me, it works as well as I need.
It isn't a fashion statement or a statement of wealth and privilege. It might be seen as a mindless following and I will admit that I didn't really put any thought into it beyond "BlackBerry's seem to be ridiculously unreliable so what else should I try?".
If you want to hate me for my choice of a mobile telephone/car/computer then I feel quite sorry for you. I certainly don't judge a person by the _things_ they own.
I feel no need to defend my choice - if you don't like it for reasons x, y and z that's fine. It's your decision. I respect that.
But...it's just a thing and in 100 years it, me and these silly extremist point of view arguments won't matter a jot.
Isn't this just the way things are going?
In fairness, how many end users (not techies) even want to change the OS from the one they bought with their el cheapo PC from the local computer shop?
How many of them, if asked in plain English, would sacrifice the option of being able to install a different operating system for protection (perceived or otherwise) from nasties? Or a promised 8 second boot time?
In some ways, Apple are responsible for this mindset - look at the iPhone. It's a fundamentally complex device with a locked in ecosystem and in some ways a "noddy" front end. But that, in some ways, is it's selling point: it just works.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong, by the way, just a sign of things as I perceive them.
Posted in Apple's new Lion beta bakes in iCloud
Hmm was the crack pipe insult aimed at me?
Yet again the fanboy extremist (they exist on both sides) chose to hurl insult rather than verfiable fact.
Why not provide statistical evidence over a broad user base to compare crashes between say XP, Vista, 7, OS X Leopard, OS X Snow Leopard and OS X Lion? And throw in a couple of Linux variants whilst at it.
And I mean real world tests with real world users? With proof and documented evidence.
I never once claimed Vista was better than Mac OS X did I? For the record, though, I'm forced to use it on my current corporate machine - not had a single problem with it in the 4 months that I've had it so far.
I have Windows 7, XP, Ubuntu Server 11.04, CentOS 5, Windows 2003, Windows 2008 and Windows 2008R2 in use and in my lab environment at home - and although I treat it as such, it's actually running day-to-day, live services.
I have had one BSoD on one Windows 7 machine when I tried to force Win 7 onto it and use an outdated XP driver because there were no 7 drivers.
Hardly the OS's fault. Or the hardware's. I knew it would probably fail when I tried, so no complaints.
I've had zero BSoD's on anything else and some of it is 5 years old. And I've had no problems with the MB Air.
I tried to keep my comments pretty neutral and asked questions, so why the pointless insult?
Posted in Apple's new Lion beta bakes in iCloud
One thing always makes me wonder with Apple.
They seem to get away with things that, were it say Microsoft, users and (for want of a better term) Apple Fanboi's would scream blue murder.
Examples such as with Lion - clearly, from the bugs it has been rushed to release. When MS do this (Vista, anyone) they are crucified. Why do Apple seem to get such special treatment?
I have also always been curious why the Apple equivalent of MS's UAC never drew the same kind of response as it did in Vista? It seems no less intrusive to me (I use Windows, Snow Leopard and Linux, for the record).
Just curious.
Wow...just...wow
Not everyone in England is quite so angry.
What I love with these kind of rants is how they're always posted anonymously.
And as has been said before - I had no intention to reply until I read that rantogram. Take a pill or get laid or something.
And whilst you're at it - was there really any need to be so personally insulting about the readership of an online rag?
Posted in Will the looters 'loose' their benefits?
Am I the only one...
...that's seen this coming for some time?
Sorry but this is a bit of a long one.
Without politicising the issue overly, surely we need to be taking a closer look at the complete breakdown of any kind of discipline, morals or respect these people have been brought up with.
Kids are being taught that whatever they do, it's ok - it's not their fault: there's always someone to blame. Success and aspiration aren't really necessary because you can make benefits a career choice and hey - it's everyone else's fault for letting you down.
Come on! I was brought up in a loving family with two parents. My old fella went out to work and my mum stayed home to cook, clean and look after my siblings and I.
You know what? We were quite poor. But then, so was the community we lived in and so were all of my friends.
I was taught right from wrong. If I did wrong, I got punished. And of course, being a typical boy I did a fair few things wrong.
I pinched a packet of sweets once. My mum found out and marched me to the local cop shop where I was given a very stern talking to and shown into a cell. At about 8yo that's frightening - well it WAS back then.
When my old man got home, I got a wallop - not a beating, just a slapped arse and sent to bed.
My dad worked from the age of 15yo to 65 - he retired recently. I was supported in my choice to study and get a job.
Oh and my first "real" job was a kicker - I mended electronic typewriters in what was little more than a sweat shop for what wouldn't even make minimum wage now (£75 a week, for 10 hours a day) - yep...£1.50 per hour.
Nor was this the 60's or 70's where that'd buy you a night out, a meal and change for a bus home but the early 90's.
I have worked my nuts off to get better positions to eventually find myself finally comfortable and able to enjoy small luxuries in life, and to ensure my kids are well looked after.
I started at the bottom of the career ladder and climbed. I didn't - ever - expect to walk into a senior job before I'd earned the right to.
I wasn't a model student at school, but again if I did wrong I was punished. I didn't query it - I accepted it as a direct result of my actions.
My own ethical mindset is, I think, fairly simple:
What consenting adults do to/with each other in the privacy of their homes is their business and shouldn't be inttruded on by the authorities;
Benefits should be a safety net, not a career. They should be in the form of tokens that can only be used to buy specific goods.
Ditto, teenage pregnancy should not be a career choice.
If you break the law you should be punished. Not cruely, not without cause, but the punishment SHOULD fit the crime.
If little Johnny commits crimes, and is too young to be punished - apply it after they become old enough. If it keeps happening, punish the parents.
There IS work. Most people are just too bone idle, or as one recently moved neighbour pointed out "we get waaaay too much from the state to make it worth my while getting a job..." Hmm...see my point about it not being a choice of career.
Restore discipline. Teachers and police and parents should not only be working together, but unless there is good evidence to suggest otherwise should be given the benefit of the doubt. If a student or parent assaults a teacher then they should go to jail. End of.
Liberals...smacking a kids arse really doesn't turn them into mindless slobbering victimes. There's a huge difference between abuse and punishment.
Restore accountability - if you want to take risks/break the law that's fine. But it's YOUR fault when things go bad, not everyone else's
Teach kids that not only is failing a part of life, that actually helps to build one's character but that not everything you do can be a "win". Nor, believe it or not, do you know everything.
Make people who have received long-term benefits perform community jobs for further receipt.
Teach these numbnuts that "I want it" does NOT equate to "I have earned it" and that destroying someones livelihood is NOT ok just to get a new telly that you cannot be bothered to go out and work and save for.
Let's teach them, that "being famous" isn't a viable choice of career. Or that footballers really aren't role models on the whole, but overpaid twats with the morals of gutter snipes (Ashley Cole can shoot a kid with an air rifle in a club changing rooms and not even face the sack?)
Take away their housing? No, probably not but make them repair their damage and pay them in vouchers. Let's see how long it is before they realise they have to work for their fags, booze and Jeremy Kyle fix.
I don't want a return to Victorian moral ideas, but a bit of common sense, common decency and respect.
I don't dislike MS
I don't dislike Microsoft. Hell, I've worked for them. I was trying to give a balanced reply to Jamie's question about why there is such loathing by giving specific examples.
If you don't like having IE etc on your servers then put core on. Not everything requires a full GUI or IE: Try doing some research into what will or will nor work for you rather than looking like an archetype of those who seem to proudly declare themselves "Old Skool" whilst seemingly managing to come across ill informed and angry and very bitter about something.
And for the record, I cannot remember the last time I saw a server blue screen because of a driver issue...but again, perhaps that's because the enterprises I've helped design have proper patching testing processes rather than lazily relying on Windows Update.
WSUS anyone?
Best security?
Sorry but from a historical perspective that's bull.
IIS 5 was FULL of holes. IIS 6 out of the box, ditto - you had to harden it with the likes of URLScan.
Yes, they have the market majority. Yes, they will always be the biggest target with the largest attack profile, BUT if your comments were true then why a few years ago did MS have to go back to basics and fundamentally change their coding practices to include things such as how they handle buffer overflows?
And for balance - I have previously worked for Microsoft and indeed my entire career has been balanced around a number of their core server products so I can hardly be considered a "hater"
As for the comments regarding the Novell boxes et al that have been running for years - Netware is a footnote now and were pretty much dead when the internet took off and I believe that Linux should be patched, as well as the various applications.
To Jamie
Jamie,
Microsoft had some pretty underhanded business practices in the past - the IE vs Netscape is a fairly good example.
When MS wanted in on the browser market, they bought a piece of code* (Mozilla) and developed it into IE.
They then proceeded to give IE away for free, whereas at the time the leading browser (mostly accepted to be Netscape from the number of users) became rapidly defunct. Yes, it's arguable they helped that process with things like the communicator product, but in essence MS ripped their market out from under them.
There are stories of Bill Gates effectively shouting at, and bullying, senior managers to support Windows and to develop drivers etc.
And then there were the anti trust cases where Bill Gates came across as a complete kn*b - refusing to answer simple questions and posturing with complete arrogance to the point he just simply annoyed those asking the questions, and a lot of supporters and press.
Plus arguing that since Win 98, IE was fundamentally built into the OS and couldn't be removed.
So for those of us that've been around for enough years, we remember some of their (MS's) tactics.
Then there's a reasonable argument that MS hasn't really innovated much on anything for the last decade or so. Even Windows 95 (a huge step change from DOS) was pretty much a copy of what Apple were doing in terms of a GUI.
Add to that, their abortive attempt to deliver Vista and that alone pushed a lot of people into the arms of Apple because of a couple of reasons - they already had an iPod/iPhone etc and wanted something that "just worked".
And of course, you will always get people who will argue for one platform blindly and vociferously regardless of valid counter arguments just for the sake of it. The so called "Fanboi" or "Hater" breed.
Microsoft also got burned with their security - or more precisely the lack of it. But again, it's easy to criticise in hindsight about how poor the security of NT4 or Windows 2000 was out of the box, but even MS themselves will admit they built their software for use in a LAN environment and the internet took them by surprise. And that's important - you can't build a system with the security for the web if you don't realise the web is happening.
But arguably, they make some decent products now (subjective point of view, I know) - for example, I found the ribbon in Office 2007 a breath of fresh air. Suddenly I could (personally, again) find the things I needed and wanted far more easily than ever before. Die hards hated it of course.
And they do seem to be trying to listen and behave a little better in some cases - look at how they're reacting to the news that the latest XBox update may snafu some consoles - they're proactively sending out replacements free of charge (taking note here, Sony?)
So yes - MS (and others) have made some poor choices and behaved in some silly ways over the years, but the hate and loathing seems, most of the time, to be way, way, overboard.
*I think they licenses the code from Mozilla - it was some time ago?
Check the MS licensing in virtual environments
You might want to reconsider the licensing that Microsoft offers within virtual environments.
Pay for one Enterprise license, and run four copies on the same host (there are pretty tight rules such as they are bound to one physical host).
Pay for one Datacenter license and run as many as you like on that one license.
More information is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/about-licensing/virtualization.aspx
What is more, although they're not clear about it, it applies to other hypervisors and not just Hyper-v
One Exchange account?
Not sure where you get that idea from - mine currently has four of them configured.
And I've been like that since I had a 3GS, so not just on the 4.0
Smile are superb
I've been with them for getting on 10 years.
Yes, they've made the odd cock-up but have always done their best to put them right in good time and where necessary at their cost and unlike many have held up their hands and said sorry - human error.
I can heartily recommend them.
A Smile...well, it had to be didn't it?
Have both for a while
Having both types of connector on iStuff for a while would be the obvious answer, but supply new equipment with only a micro USB charger.
Legacy docks and cables can be used for a while.
