Alexander’s Blog

Microsoft Automotive is extending the Windows platform beyond the desktop computing. Check out this Ford Sync Demo at CES 2008. Ford Sync is an example of how Microsoft Automotive has extended the Windows CE 5.0 platform.

If you haven’t seen this funny video from Microsoft, check this out. There are appearances from several famous people including Matthew Mcconaughey, U2’s Bono, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Former V.P. Al Gore, comedian Jon Stewart, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and others.

I am not a programmer but I do know that, just like any other profession, there are good programmers and there are bad programmers. Writing software must not be an easy task or else multi-billion dollar companies like Microsoft would have written a browser that is secure, reliable and bug-free and Apple wouldn’t have to deal with 69 security holes in Mac OS X in less than 3 months. I just read an article about what’s wrong with the software written today. Perhaps the software developers are in a better position than me to to comment on the author’s take on this subject.

Here are a few excerpts from an article written by Shayne Nelson called What’s wrong with 90% of software written today?:

In the early seventies, industry studies revealed that eighty-five percent of all software development efforts went into just one area: maintenance. You can put that figure another way: programmers spend six to seven times as much fixing and modifying software as they do designing and building it.

Since most programmers instinctively (and justifiably) hate maintenance, that means that we are looking at a profession where the practitioners spend most of their day doing something they dislike. What a sad observation, and what a sad profession.

Things are always changing in a company, and therefore the company’s software is going to require changes, lots of them. This is inevitable. The question remains: why does the average company have to spend six-sevenths of its effort and programming manpower and time on fixing stuff rather than building it?

Asking that key question makes the issue (and the right answer) far more obvious. The answer is, BAD ORIGINAL DESIGN.

That’s right. Most software on earth is written with virtually no features incorporated to make debugging and maintenance much easier.

You can read the entire article here.

Finding information on Microsoft’s Web site is not always an easy thing. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s search engine is not very reliable so if you are trying to locate a Knowledge Base article or a certain document, use Google’s special search engine for Microsoft, rather than relying on Microsoft’s search which will often fail to locate documents on Microsoft’s own Web site.

The following contact information may be useful to you if you are looking for Microsoft’s support contact information in US or Canada.

Contact a support professional by phone or e-mail for help if you purchased the product separately
Online Assisted Support Options
Professional Support Options and Phone Numbers
Support for software that was supplied with your PC (OEM)
Self Support Solution Center
Search the Support Knowledge Base
Microsoft Public Newsgroups
Microsoft Online Technical Chats
Support Options for Home Users with Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office system
Note: This support option for Home Users is only good for 90-days after you activate the product.

I was watching a news channel this morning and saw a discussion of this service. CatalogChoice.org offers a free service that lets you decline paper catalogs that you do not want to receive. Catalog Choice is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center and is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council. You might want to give this free service a try, whether you want to do it for reducing mailbox clutter or to save the natural resources (the production and disposal of direct mail alone consumes more energy than three million cars).

Remember to check out their FAQ page for more information. Click here to access their Web site.

There are some additional Web sites that you may want to check out. For example the site stopthejunkmail.com has been in business since 2001 and they even offer 100% guarantee. Check out this demo of how their site works. Other online sites include proquo.com which is free and paid sites greendimes.com and 41pounds.org.