For those who don’t know me, let me establish a few positions that I have taken over the many years that I have been working in IT before me writing a piece I never thought I would write. First, I do not particularly care for Microsoft and have been known to go great lengths to avoid using or buying their products. I am even writing this on my Ubuntu laptop for now. And I won’t claim to be a free software preacher either. I feel that every job has a proper tool, many have more than just one.  For example when I am home browsing on the internet, that tool could be an Apple Product or a Windows Product, or an alternative such as Linux.  They all do the job well.  When I work, I use Windows 7 x64 bit because I need the memory for the work that I do.
Second, as much as I dislike Microsoft, I loathe Steve Ballmer even more. In my personal opinion, Steve Ballmer is the mouthpiece that rattles on endlessly as though possessed by an otherworldly spirit while the rest of the company appears to want to present itself in a better way. While many key people in Microsoft try to reach out to Open source communities and bring in developers or try and encourage hackers to work with Microsoft to improve security, Mr. Ballmer will spout ramblings of IP theft and threaten lawsuits just moments later and place bounties on the head of anyone who exploits security flaws. The man seems about as in control of Microsoft as a dog owner would be of a Rottweiler walking through a butcher shop. The man has been notorious for being a clown on stage and jumping around like the dancing monkey boy moniker he has earned.

Which is why as much as it pains me to say this, but I feel Sam Diaz of ZDnet is wrong on saying that Steve Ballmer should remove  himself. Over the past five years, Microsoft has suffered a lot of brain drain and replaced a great many good managers with technical goals with business men that are out for pure profit.  One such great loss include one of my personal idols Ray Ozzy.  The problem with losing those engineers, the visionaries of the company is that eventually without the visionaries, the company runs out of ideas to market and lacks direction.  Ballmer finally realized this and appears to be changing his tune.  You see, he has shown something of what I would call growth.  He made a mistake and is showing signs that he has learned from that mistake.  Much like when I tear apart a computer and for some reason, I misplace a jumper or get the wrong power supply or purchase a CPU that won’t work with the existing motherboard. I can easily just abandon the computer or give it to some one else for a discount price because I can’t make it work.  Or I can try and troubleshoot the problem, fix the computer and learn something from the experience.  Another example would be taking the star basket ball player out of the game for being a ball hog after he finally learns how to pass to the other members on his team.  Steve Ballmer seems to have learned one of the valuable lessons in running a business.  That is running a technology company with only businessmen as executives is a bad way to run a business.

Now for why I feel so strongly about this.  For the last decade I have seen more people chase after jobs in the “business” world rather than the engineering world because they didn’t want to deal with the complexities of math and feel they could get an equal or better paying job than some one who actually did the heavy thinking.  I have a co-worker that chose to be an manager of information systems instead of a computer science major for just such a reason.  Bill Gates spoke for years about the need for more H1B Visas because of the talent shortage in engineers.  Steve Ballmer didn’t do much to help the problem by showing everyone that marketing and sales were important to the business while letting the engineers disappear.  Hopefully this is a high profile enough movement and successful enough that more companies will push to get engineers and more technical people into positions of leadership.  With that notion perhaps, and this is a long shot, people will see an engineering degree as a way to make real money instead of thinking the only college degree is an MBA.

So yes,  I want Steve Ballmer to stay as the CEO of Microsoft, not because I like the guy.  Not because I like the company.  Not even because I don’t like the company.  I want Steve Ballmer to be CEO so he can put more engineers in power and hopefully set an example that sometimes the person with the engineering degree gets to call the shots, which by what I still call a long shot, but start getting more students to enroll in college as engineers.  These hopes are the reason that I feel Steve Ballmer is moving Microsoft in the right direction.

Intel found a problem last week with the new H67 and P67 chipset used for the Sandy Bridge processors and decided to halt shipments last night.  The problem will be resolved by the end of February so hold off on the Sandy Bridge system purchases until the motherboard chipset is resolved.  Apparently the problem involves a slow degradation of the four 3 Gbps SATA ports but not the two 6 Gbps SATA ports, and it only affects 5% of the chipsets after 3 years of typical usage.  Doesn’t sound like a serious problem, but you’re better off waiting for a fixed chipset.

Actually, you won’t have a choice but to wait since the motherboards have already been pulled.  Newegg has already yanked all the P67 and H67 motherboards and we probably won’t see products until end of February or possibly as late as April for volume shipments.  This basically means a halt to all Sandy Bridge products since there’s no point buying a CPU if you can’t get a motherboard for it.  If you already have an H67 or P67 motherboard, I would ask the vendor for a recall and I’d expect them to send me a replacement.

Today I came across an oddity which I can not explain. I have dealt with firms before that have all sorts of policies which make little sense in a digital world. Some of them I understand, such as older firms not accepting credit cards or checks. Various people not trusting online payments due to security concerns. Some people simply do not understand technology and take a cautious stance. Some do not feel that their business needs the additional headache to thrive or a business may just not want to grow beyond those confines of their current limitations.

That brings me to the software company that I had to deal with this week.   They went the extra step and built their online store up with an interface to accept credit cards and directed customers to use just such a thing. They are also used to dealing with companies that prefer to order through PO verses using a credit card. But here comes the caveat. They would only accept the purchase order by fax or snail mail. Apparently emailing a purchase order is completely out of the question. I have dealt with a few companies that would not accept a purchase order by email, but this marks the first time that a software company happened to be the one requesting just such a thing. What made this even better is that the purchase order had to be faxed to an ’800′ number so they were actually paying to receive a purchase order that could have been received free of charge by email.

How many companies do you know that still only accept orders or even payment by methods deemed almost obsolete? And why do they do this?  Feel free to comment your position on this subject as I am so very curious as to why a software company of all people would not accept a PO via email.

Wow, Micro Center really has a great bundle deal on the new Intel “Sandy Bridge” i5 2500K quad-core unlocked CPU and GA-P67A-UD3 LGA 1155 P67 ATX Motherboard for $280!  These new CPUs are the newest and most advanced consumer CPUs to date.

Note that this price is for in-store pickup only, but they still offer some great non-bundled deals.  Any of the “K” designated models are multiplier unlocked which is the only practical method of Sandy Bridge overclocking.  Base clock overclocking is now impractical because everything is tied into a single base clock and it forces too many components to run in overdrive which severely limits the degree to which you can boost the system.

This particular “P67″ motherboard is needed to support memory and CPU overclocking (and apparently no HDMI, DVI, or VGA out even though the CPU has the GPU built in).  The “H67″ motherboards support graphics overclocking.  Both support the integrated on-die CPU graphics of the new Sandy Bridge architecture.  And for those of you new to “Sandy Bridge”, here’s a good primer on the new architecture and review.

This particular bundle is great for power users without the need for an additional graphics card as the on-die GPU built into the CPU is as powerful as an entry level discrete graphics card.  Gamers will use this system with a high end graphics card for the best gaming performance.

The web was a buzz earlier today with news that Microsoft wasn’t the only company being involved in CDTN Holdings and some including ZDNet and ComputerWorld blogger Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols tried to speculate just what patents each of the member companies of CDTN Holdings would want and why.
First many thought that VMware would jump at the opportunity to get an OS to complete their stack and as I found out talking to a few PR employees from VMware, they pretty much already have everything they need from Novell, or so they say. Of course, VMware is owned by EMC who is a partner in CDTN holdings, so the VMware reps didn’t exactly inform me accurately.  After a quick search I did happen to find patent number7,793,101, which is Verifiable virtualized storage port assignments for virtual machines . I think I could see why VMware might want a crack at that patent portfolio now. I noticed that there are several more storage based and virtualization based patents for VMware and their parent company EMC to hand pick through. Keep in mind that Microsoft is also competing in the virtualization space as well.
In the storage space there are a few other gems including:

• 7,844,787 Techniques for data replication with snapshot capabilities
• 7,844,580 Methods and systems for file replication utilizing differences between versions of files
• 7,809,910 Backup archive management
• 7,774,568 Clustered snapshots in networks

VMware is also dabbling in identity management, also something that Microsoft has been working with for some time. Oracle and Apple also have identity management needs and would probably not hesitate to pick up a couple patents for their own related products.
With Identity Management we have a whole slew of goodies to pick through including:

• 7,770,204 Techniques for securing electronic identities
• 7,774,826 System and method for determining effective policy profiles in a client-server architecture
• 7,793,340 Cryptographic binding of authentication schemes
• 7,793,342 Single sign-on with basic authentication for a transparent proxy
• 7,774,827 Techniques for providing role-based security with instance-level granularity

All four companies might be interested in improving their application deployment technologies with the following patents:

• 7,730,480 System and method for creating a pattern installation by cloning software installed another computer
• 7,739,681 Delayed application installation
• 7,730,179 System and method for policy-based registration of client devices

The point I am trying to make is that each of these four companies have much to gain for the capital they put together to get access to these patents.
Many of us know that Microsoft is all about their Operating System, their Active Directory architecture, Search, their entry into Cloud computing.
EMC is the storage giant, but they also own VMware, RSA, Atmos, vBlock, Mozy, RecoverPoint, Documentum and have just as much if not more to gain than Microsoft.
Oracle while everyone knows is a database company, has bought more companies than anyone else, and leverage patents from Identity Management to Virtualization. Don’t forget that they own Sun Microsystems and happen to have Virtual Box.
Lastly we have Apple, who seems to stand out as while being worth more than anyone in this venture, appears to have the least to gain. However, when considering identity management, Apple would be quick to take advantage. Novell has quite a few data synchronization patents that could help out their MobileMe services. Single SignOn could be a big plus for them as well. They don’t really seem to have as much to gain from what I can tell, but then again, Apple doesn’t think like most companies. We could see them try dive into the enterprise with some of these patents or perhaps they could push themselves to the cloud.
All in all, we have four companies that are going to benefit greatly from the jewels of Novell, their patents. And while everyone was too busy worrying about the UNIX copyrights, the patents which I consider much more important were being handed over pretty much going unnoticed by the media.
Trying to figure out the direction that Attachmate will take Novell is very scary, especially handing out all of the patents like they did. As a Novell customer myself, I am concerned. Then again, who really knows the direction of the tech industry in the long term.

The Aftermath of this transaction is most interesting. Novell was a real hot potato that no one company wanted entirely. The market share of Novell has been slipping since the 90′s, and their recognition is even less. When talking to a salesman for a backup software company, he failed to even recognize the name and recommended that I speak to a tech. Yet, much to the dismay of many, when the patents for Novell were up for grabs, these four companies were first in line.  Microsoft, Apple, EMC, and Oracle are bitter enemies on several fronts, and yet they put aside their differences to pick apart this former powerhouse.

Kinect modified to capture true 3D video
Oliver Kreylos has produced one of the most amazing demonstrations of true 3D video I’ve ever seen using an off-the-shelf Microsoft Kinect. This is not the cheesy stereoscopic tacky “3D” moniker being affixed to recent movie titles but actual video footage that you can rotate in three dimensional space.

Words can’t begin to express how impressed I am with this.  Just imagine a football game captured like this.  All live events should be captured like this even if it’s only one camera.

I don’t much care for product placement although I do accept the matter, but when dealing with the poor quality of some companies as of late, I thought I would pat one on the back for doing an exceptional job.

That being said, EVGA went out of their way and decided to do a one time replacement of a video card that I have purchased two years ago. The card had a lifetime warranty, but had that one little clause of, you must register the card within 30 days. My failure to do so could have easily been held against me. Fortunately EVGA was willing to help me barring two tiny hurdles. The first was submitting an invoice which I still had from dealing with an online company. Second was to register the card which was done over the phone while on the call. After working long hours and not being able to call support on their hours, I decided to submit my issue through email. After a single email discussing the matter with EVGA Tech support, they issued a one time RMA for my graphics card. I was very specific with my email detailing all of my troubleshooting measures and listed each component in this particular machine by product name. I managed to get a reply on the same day and on a Saturday.

I want to thank EVGA for their great service and also would like to remind everyone to read their product warranties and do what it takes to keep the valid. I decided to register a similar produce with EVGA and the process took may be two minutes. There was no excuse for me not to take that time to fix the problem.

I recently fought with AT&T as a carrier and after reaching the end of my 2 year contract, I finally decided to change cellular providers to Sprint. While AT&T has a great reputation elsewhere, in my location, they have failed to provide 3G coverage and even have had outages as of late due to an influx of population related to the annual arrival of college students.

Coincidentally at the same time my contract was just about up, my Samsung Eternity suffered from a flaw in the screen that wouldn’t allow for me to dial from the right side of the screen. When having to dial a number composed of mostly sixes, I decided that my phone could no longer be of use and so I went in search of another phone.

I have chose to look to the Samsung Intercept as the answer to my prayers. The phone has a 3.2” touch screen with a full qwerty keyboard that is easily usable by even my larger sized hands. The Phone features the Android 2.1 Operating System with Google connectivity. Many things about the Android OS makes the phone great. After logging into my gmail account and porting over my contacts, my contacts needed some serious sorting, but everything was there and linking contacts seemed relatively easy.

The phone seemed to be sluggish at times. The processor is noticeably slower than the Epic and other more expensive phones. The phone even seems a bit more sluggish than the older Samsung Moment. Over all the feel of the phone is rather cheap compared to similar priced phones. Part of this could be because of the licensing of Google’s android. One thing that both the Epic and the Intercept seem to have issues with is home row of soft keys. I have seen an Epic which already has these keys not functioning the majority of the time. Although having access to TV as well as several apps from the Android market made the phone feel much more usable, the thoughts that the Android was a mobile internet device first and a phone second was quite frustrating. A few other items that nagged at me was the inability to change to notification settings to include custom ring tones. I could easily assign a custom ring tone to a contact, but when having 300 contacts, setting these up was a bit too much of a task than what I was willing to take on.

One additional feature that I had with my Samsung Eternity that I was hoping to get away from on my Samsung Intercept was pocket-dialing. I would lock the phone and simply by sliding the phone into my pocket, it would unlock and start surfing the web or some other task to which I was unaware of.  Apparently there is a copy of some Armymen game that I have yet to download because of this.

On a much more positive note, the integration of apps where one could easily upload and send off a picture taken by the phone is very much welcome. The Android OS makes most of this possible.  The older propriety OS on the Samsung Eternity didn’t seem to have as much integration.

While the phone has many advantages that make it a great device for connecting to the web and creating a great online experience, putting the phone functionality as a secondary feature makes the Samsung Intercept more of that phone that you want if you don’t care about talking on the phone. But for that web-centric integration device, the Intercept still does pretty well. But on a personal note, I would recommend saving your money for a HTC Evo or a Samsung Epic if you want your Android phone.  My personal bad review of the Intercept is not so much because of the weakness of the phone, but the weakness of the phone compared to the predecessor.  The Samsung Intercept screen is not as clean or crisp as the Samsung Moment.  The construction of the phone feels poorer compared to the Moment.  In fact, the inferiority of this phone almost makes me think that Samsung pushed the phone to keep an option open for the mid-range phone while really driving people to consider the Galaxy S phones.    So while this phone is in and of itself not a terrible phone, the fact that the device is a step down in quality yet in the same tier as the Moment does not please me and that is why I definitely feel that Samsung has lost my business at this time.

One late development that I have had with the phone is that the screen has a flaw and does not respond to touch in certain sections.  This is a second of Samsung’s devices which has me concerned about their quality at this time.  I definitely feel burnt by Samsung in this matter, but fortunately my carrier Sprint was ready and willing to fix the problem and replace the phone without any restocking fee.  So I will be doing a review of the HTC Evo 4 soon.