but it looks like Apple will unveil its latest version of Mac OS X, code-named Leopard, at WWDC in San Francisco next month. Exciting news, indeed. I’m sure that, in keeping with its recent tweaking of the software giant, Apple will not resist the temptation to send a few snarky (and well-deserved, in this case) comments Microsoft’s way about its utter failure to get the next (and, alas, not much improved) version of Windows released in a timely manner. (Via Slashdot—I know I’m really showing how much I’ve not been surfing in the last few months by making this comment, but I saw the new Slashdot site design today for the first time, and I heartily approve. Very nice!)
Microsoft’s Origami Project a week or so ago. As of a day or two ago, the site officially went live; that is to say, the product was finally unveiled. So what is it? It’s a new mobile device called the Ultra Mobile PC, or UMPC for short. It’s supposed to be a fully functional computer with media capabilities, an all-in-one device for computing, communications and entertainment.
The idea is cool, I’ll give them that (I confess to being intrigued by their new input methodologies, especially the on-screen keyboard). As to how useful it is, I’d have to get my hands on one and try it out to really give a good opinion. Anybody care to send me one? 
I wanted to find out more about Apple’s new Mac OS X release, 10.5 (codenamed “Leopard” and due out in late 2006 or early 2007), so I looked around. Here’s what I found: the Leopard Wikipedia page and some rumors about new features at LoopRumors. Both talk about an overhauled finder with closer Spotlight integration, as well as a more unified UI (the “solid metal” look of Mail and the iLife apps). What would really be cool is if they added arbitrarily extensible metadata to the file system, to really make use of Spotlight’s capabilities, but that may be a long way off.
Incidentally, I found something else interesting on my search: the Origami Project, a teaser website for a mystery product (apparently from Microsoft) to be revealed tomorrow, 2 March 2006.
ExtremeTech has an article up about why Windows Vista won’t suck. Detailed and informative, it cuts past the MS hype to the real meat of the planned improvements in the new OS. I have to say, if they deliver on everything they say they will, I’ll probably be upgrading—if it doesn’t mean I have to spend thousands of dollars on new hardware, that is. I’m primarily a Mac user these days, and I keep my PC around only for VPN to work and Windows programming; I’m not interested in spending a lot of money to upgrade a computer I mostly don’t use. (Via Slashdot)
using Internet Explorer over a year ago:
- No support for tabbed browsing.
- No support for partially-transparent PNGs.
- And the big one: incomplete CSS2 support.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, there didn’t seem to be relief in sight. It seemed that the new version, IE7, would only come out with the launch of Windows Vista, and that’s still months off. But recently, IE7 finally went into public beta. WebMonkey has a review:
How Does IE7 Stack Up?
While this list of new features is impressive, the other choices in the browser marketplace still have IE7 beat. True, it’s still in beta, but Internet Explorer 7 has some inherent shortcomings that will keep it from being the browser of choice for absolutely everyone.
First and foremost, there’s cross-platform compatibility. Firefox and Opera are being developed for multiple platforms simultaneously, but Internet Explorer remains steadfastly Windows-only. Second, but equally as crucial, is the fact that Microsoft won’t be able to one-up Firefox’s extensible architecture anytime soon. Firefox’s extension management capabilities, not to mention the wide range of extensions available for both developers and basic users, are practically unbeatable at this point.
Finally, CSS support, while vastly improved since version 6, is still incomplete, with limited support for pseudo-classes and CSS-P declarations. Microsoft promises that it will continue to build in support for CSS elements between now and the official release of IE7. Even with these shortcomings, IE7 is shaping up to be a huge step in the right direction. Though the exact figures are difficult to pin down, it’s safe to say that over 80% of the world uses Internet Explorer right now. Users who’ve been chugging along in their asthmatic installs of IE6 are in desperate need of an upgrade. IE7 gives these users more security and a new level of functionality that they may not even have been aware existed.
We’ll go ahead and predict that millions of new RSS devotees will be born this year solely because of IE7′s built in feed reader. And you’ll be able to nod and smile slowly when Aunt Rita tells you that she doesn’t know how she ever survived without tabbed browsing. That, at least, makes IE7 something to look forward to.
So they’re still not going to have complete standards support. And that’s why I’m not going back. But maybe (hopefully!) programming for IE7 will be easier than for IE6.
InstaPundit writes:
But what I’d really like is a wireless printer that will show up on any laptop in range, and print from any laptop in range, without having to load any software or drivers. That way guests, etc., could use it with a minimum of fuss. I don’t think that’s even possible with current operating systems. Am I wrong?
I’m no OS expert, but I don’t think he’s wrong. The way operating systems are designed nowadays, and for the foreseeable future, OSs will have to have drivers to interface with any I/O devices. But having a wireless printer that is instantly and easily accessible from any laptop running any operating system in the vicinity is not so impossible; it’s just a matter of getting printer companies to write decent drivers.
But that’s the problem, isn’t it? Most printer companies, and HP in particular, couldn’t write a good printer driver to save their lives. Printing to my HP printer from my Mac is an entirely hit-or-miss affair. I can’t print from Adobe Acrobat Reader at all (although that may have more to do with how Adobe hasn’t written a good piece of software outside of Photoshop for years), and printing from Microsoft applications doesn’t work more often than it does work. Half the time my printer doesn’t even realize I’ve sent it a print job and I need to reboot it. I mean, really. Windows XP has been around for how long? You’d think they’d be able to write a decent driver for it, at least. Mac OS underwent a huge shift for Tiger, but I think most APIs remained the same. It’s just that the printer companies can’t be bothered to get it right. Jerks.
I bet you thought the browser war was over. It isn’t. Microsoft just got complacent. Once they had won out over their biggest opponents, the (obviously crappy) Netscape 4.xx browsers, they stopped innovating. They stopped releasing new versions of IE except to plug various security holes. In the meantime, a bunch of other companies/groups have released newer, faster, and just plain better browsers (better from both the user’s and programmer’s perspectives). It has gotten to the stage where IE is clearly (at least, to me) the least usable and most difficult to program for browser out there.
From the user’s perspective:
- It doesn’t support tabbed browsing
- I originally had something here about how IE does not have a pop-up blocking feature. It was pointed out to me (see comment below) that IE 6 with SP2 does, in fact, have a pop-up blocker. Consider me corrected. [Original text: It doesn't have popup blocking built in (intelligent or otherwise, but that's another post)]
From the programmer’s perspective:
- It has, bar none, the sloppiest standards support (especially CSS) of any browser
I don’t imagine that Microsoft is expending (or planning to expend) any intellectual capital on improving IE before whatever they release along with Longhorn. Strategically, I figure they can probably get away with it. Or they could have, if the field still looked like it did 6 months ago. Now, though, with the emergence of the two (again, in my mind, at least) best browsers for Windows and Mac OS–Firefox and Safari, respectively–and moreover the continued defection of Microsoft’s users to both of these, Microsoft may find itself in the position of having to earn back user loyalty with the next release of a browser.
So what brought this on? I’ve been working, for the past few days, on using CSS positioning (rather than a table) to make a blog template where there are two sidebars that look like they overlap the main blog content. After much tweaking, I’ve gotten to the point where the template looks great in all* browsers except for IE for Windows (yeah, even IE for Mac, while not perfect, does an adequate job of displaying the page). It is driving me up the wall. I am ready to pull my (or more accurately, someone’s) hair out. AAARRRGHH.
* By all I mean: for Windows, IE 6.0.2, Netscape 7.2 and Firefox 1.0, and for Mac OS, IE 5.2 and Safari 1.2.4.
NY Times:
Eight of the nation’s largest technology companies, including I.B.M., Microsoft and Oracle, have agreed to embrace open, nonproprietary technology standards as the software building blocks for a national health information network.
The Bush administration has said that creating such a network should be a national priority over the next several years. The goal is to improve care and reduce costs by abandoning paper and moving to a digital system for handling patient records, clinical research, claims and payments. Such a network, analysts agree, should save both lives and dollars.
As both a health care consumer and someone who has grown up around doctor’s offices, I say hallelujah. The medical industry has been severely lagging others when it comes to good, organized, modern infrastructure. The advent of a national health information network should make a significant difference in the efficiency of health care everywhere. (Via Slashdot)