11 hours ago, GoddersUK wrote

@PopeDai: UK ICT lessons are a complete and utter joke. [...]

*rant over*

Unfortunately that is the case in most parts of the world! People would be so much more efficient if they had some basic Word styles and templates knowledge with notions of an Excel PivoTalble together with some typing basics and the foundation for an Access database (or any other database for that matter). My experience unfortunately is that computer courses focus on making PowerPoint effects and slide transitions!!!

After taking these courses people will write "proficient in MS Office" without even knowing what is in the Office package or without specifying what they are good at doing in Office (managing long documents in Word, summarizing data in Excel with PivoTable or creating and maintaining a customer database in Access for example).

Sorry I added my own rant, but the situation is pretty depressing if you consider these are very basic skills to learn and what an impact they could have.

I feel Microsoft has improved tremendously in the past couple of years: they are starting to release products on a faster and more predictable peace, they made good investments in the cloud with Azure and I really like what they started with the modern apps (aka Metro) concept. Sure, they have lost lots of ground in the consumer business, but no company can (or should) have a monopoly forever and I think that much has to do with OEMs competing on price and not quality.

I don't know how Ballmer is perceived from the inside of the company, but it looks to me that he moved Microsoft from the visionary but messy Bill Gates days into a more organized and better performing company. I tend to see Bill Gates as a visionary who started it and Ballmer as the one who moved it from an innovating to a mature company.

Certainly there are lots of younger and very capable potential CEOs, but Ballmer seems to be working well for now and it would be a wild shot to replace it.

The design is probably not that old, but the feel is... I think that with all the emphasis Microsoft has put on Windows 8, they left some of the web tools a little behind in terms of look and feel (they don't fit in their "modern and fluid" (aka Metro) paradigm).

Just my opinion...

By the way, if I were you I would look for help on the Microsoft support page, they have a great forum for that.

i.e. if I were Micrfosoft I would invest a lot in products like NetDuino...

Yes, the OS suffers of a bit of a dual personality at times, but I really like the Modern UI and the "purely digital" look and I hope that Microsoft will transition more and more to it.

In my defense the threads title is different...

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/01/05/the-windows-phone-8-google-maps-kerfuffle-is-contrived-google-maps-never-supported-ie-on-wp8/?fromcat=all

Does anyone know if a book about WS 2012 Essentials is going to come out any tome soon? I don't seem to find any info on the internet... thanks

However, I think this is an important component in a multiple devices market.

I think that Linksys has good reputation with the consumer market while Microsoft one is not always so stellar (Microsoft made routers years ago, but they were never highly regarded). I think Microsoft could use the Linksys brand more than anything else.

Very impressive indeed, but I wonder what the value of doing something that has not been done is: with all this technology, I think we have lost the sense of adventure.

I have much greater respect for those who dedicate their little spare time to their smaller adventures. Achievements made by nonprofessional athletes who make huge sacrifices to push their limits have much greater human and personal value. Professional and devildare should not be two words that go together IMHO.

In the end this will only be good marketing for Red Bull and the like, but it will not profit the BASE community that will be stereotyped in the wrong way in front of the general public.