Overheard in the tech blogosphere » Microsoft Windows

Windows Intune will allow enterprise sideloading

Margaret Rouse — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:51:07 +0000

“The next version of Windows Intune, Microsoft’s cloud-based desktop management tool, will allow for the sideloading of apps — that is, the installation of apps directly from Intune, without going through each device’s app store.” — Colin Steele

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is sideloading, the installation of an application on a mobile device without using the device’s official application-distribution method. Sideloading works differently on different mobile platforms. On an Android OS device, you simply check a box in the operating system settings. On an Apple iOS device, however, you have to jailbreak the device.

Surface tablets

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:25:51 +0000

“On the hardware front, what does it say about the tablets Microsoft is seeing from its OEM partners…? Either they are not happy with the devices out there, or they are not satisfied with only taking a licence fee from selling Windows-based tablets.” — Jan Dawson

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Surface, Microsoft’s new line of tablets which will go on sale later this year.

Surface tablets are expected to be priced comparably to Apple and Android products, with the Windows RT version selling for about the same price as its chief competitor, the iPad, and the Windows 8 Pro version selling for the same price as the MacBook Air laptop.

Overheard talking about memory maps

Margaret Rouse — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:18:08 +0000

“Bad computer memory is one of the three main reasons for random system failures; the other two are heat (usually caused by fans or heatsinks being blocked with dust) and bad power.” — Serdar Yegulalp

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is memory map, a massive table that tells your computer how much memory is available and helps ensure that data is always written to, and read from, the proper places.

There’s an interesting article at Forbes.com this week about recent advances in understanding human memory. Author Roger Kay writes about his own memory issues and explains how memories may not be held in their entirety in the brain but are maintained as a kind of chemical residue of the original perception.

That means my brain, in effect, uses hash values to store and retrieve data. Does that also mean that when I remember things incorrectly it’s because my brain has suffered from a hash collision? Makes sense to me!

Overheard talking about Hyper-V 3.0

Margaret Rouse — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:43:51 +0000

“Installing Hyper-V 3.0 with a PowerShell script is faster than using the GUI. It also allows you to maintain role/feature consistency across multiple host installations.” – Rob McShinsky

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Hyper-V 3.0, the virtualization feature created for the client version of Windows 8 and Windows Server 8.

Overheard talking about clean installs

Margaret Rouse — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:44:09 +0000

There are several ways to install a clean version of Windows 7 on enterprise desktops. And regardless of the method, the process may be easier than upgrading from Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Mark Brownstein, How to install a clean version of Windows 7

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is clean install.

Overheard talking about same origin policy

Margaret Rouse — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:02:56 +0000

The same-origin policy restricts which network messages one origin can send to another. For example, the same-origin policy allows inter-origin HTTP requests with GET and POST methods but denies inter-origin PUT and DELETE requests. Additionally, origins can use custom HTTP headers when sending requests to themselves but cannot use custom headers when sending requests to other origins.

W3C Same Origin Policy

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is same origin policy.

Overheard – social computing

Margaret Rouse — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:01:11 +0000

“It really boils down to this: Employees know a lot of stuff. Social computing systems make it easy for everyone else to share and ultimately benefit from that knowledge.”

Paul Galvin, A case for social computing in the enterprise

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is social computing.

Like many new technology-driven concepts, social computing can be a little confusing as a term. Definitions run the gamut, but many people will agree that social computing is both a process and supporting tool set that enable individuals within an enterprise to contribute their knowledge and insight about the business. Social computing makes business knowledge easily searchable and accessible to everyone in the enterprise at any time through a number of search avenues.

Overheard – MinWin

Margaret Rouse — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:45:14 +0000

MinWin is a way to graft onto Windows some semblance of the architectural layering it should have had, if its architects in the 1980s had any foresight into how Windows would be used thirty years later.

Scott M. Fulton, Mark Russinovich on MinWin, the new core of Windows

The breakthrough with Server Core, introduced back in Windows Server 2008, is that it minimized the number of running services to just those that enabled the operating system to be self-sustaining, and perform its roles as a server to the outside world. But even those services contain dependencies to libraries that involve graphical functionality, even if none of those services use that functionality. Conceivably, a breakthrough above and beyond Server Core itself would be a completely minimalistic kernel, upon which those roles could be added modularly, without having to involve libraries that presume the computer operator needs graphics, a mouse, and sound. MinWin is the first critical step in that direction.

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is MinWin.

Overheard – VMware vs. Microsoft

Margaret Rouse — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:33:03 +0000

“The video has ignited a longstanding debate within the partner communities of Microsoft and VMware over which company has the better approach to virtualization. In Microsoft’s view, virtualization is a feature of the operating system, while VMware represents an unnecessary — and expensive — extra layer. VMWare counters that Microsoft’s virtualization isn’t sophisticated enough for the needs of enterprises.”

Kevin McLaughlin, VMware Apologizes To Microsoft For Hyper-V Bashing

Scott Drummonds, a technical marketing manager at VMware, admitted that he exercised bad judgment in posting the video and said he has removed it from Youtube. “Unfortunately, my intention to stir the pot with eye-poking banter has put my credibility and by association VMware’s credibility in question among some of you. For this I apologize,”

Overheard: Memristor is the missing link of integrated circuitry

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:46:28 +0000

Electronic theorists have been using the wrong pair of variables all these years–voltage and charge. The missing part of electronic theory was that the fundamental pair of variables is flux and charge.

Leon Chua as quoted in ‘Missing link’ memristor created: Rewrite the textbooks?

A memristor can be thought of as a resistor that changes its resistance depending on the amount of current that’s sent through it — and the big deal is that it retains its resistance even after the power is turned off. Memristors are in the news again because engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed flexible memristor-like electronic memory chips. It could be big news for consumer electronics because it opens up the possibility that memory chips can be printed just as simply and inexpensively as overhead transparencies.

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