Wictor Wilen

Today was the meeting when the Swedish standardisation organisation, SIS, was to vote on the Office Open XML standard. I have observed this procedure, but not actively participated in it since the first working group meeting a few months ago. At that time it felt pretty comfortable and the Yes vote was in reach. When this day approached both camps, the pro Office Open XML team and the no-sayers both gathered their forces for the final battle. We all entered the meeting at the last possible minute and we all was signed in to the meeting.

The XPS site at www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps just had an extreme makeover, to fit in to the new Microsoft website. It is basically the same content but easier to read and look on. It seems like not all is done yet, some pages still have the old layout, so I expect some more improvements/additions… The most interesting thing is the new XPS Technology Showcase part which contains references of XPS enabled hardware and software. Go check it out if you are looking for any XPS applications.

Windows Vista contains nice functionality for reporting problems on your machine to Microsoft and to retrieve solutions for your problems using the Problem Reports and Solutions feature. To take advantage of this feature and to report problems or check for solutions you have to either enable the functionality, default behaviour, or do it manually. To access the Problem Reports and Solutions center open up the Control Panel and navigate to System and Maintenance and then click on Problem Reports and Solutions. You will see a list of all your problems that has a solutions or if there are more information on any of your reported problems.

Windows Vista is currently suffering from some major issues with performance and reliability when for example resuming from standby, when you are using graphic intensive applications (read playing games :-) or when you are copying files (especially over a network). As of today Microsoft has two new updates for Windows Vista targets some performance and reliability issues. Update for Windows Vista (KB938194) This one covers some cases when Vista stops responding due to display driver problems as well as some other stuff.

istartedsomething dug up something interesting from the Steve Ballmer presentation at the Microsoft Show and Tell 2007. It’s a roadmap for Microsoft products for the fiscal year of 08 and beyond! Some things caught my attention: Expression Studio V2 - there will be a new version of the Expression series pretty soon Microsoft Tellme - this can be really cool. Windows Server 2008 Update Release and Service Pack 1 - wonder what nice stuff they have in the pipeline for these releases… Microsoft Surface - it will be a real product and is not just a showcase! It’s worth browsing through the whole PowerPoint by Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft Windows Vista has a whole lot of new and exciting stuff and some things that may be disturbing (at least when you’re starting with Vista), like the new structure of the folders; X:\Documents and Settings has been shortened down to X:\Users which is good but then everything you are used to are changed (well almost anyway), My Documents is now called just Documents and this folder does not longer contains for example My Music, which is moved to a new location, one step up, with the new name Music.

Here are some interesting links on the (summer) hot OOXML vs ODF discussion. INCITS issues a ballot of “yes” with comments by Doug Mahugh South Africa votes No with comments on the standardisation of Open XML Brian Jones comments on Setting a New Standard by Jason Brooks Wouter van Vugt announces his pocket-sized Open XML book and tells us about the Dutch ISO/IEC standardisaton of Open XML

The OOXML versus ODF discussions are getting more intense and either side lays out the same arguments why the other one are better than the other. Some arguments are valid - but some are definitley not! Why do the ODF side always use the “it’s to much to read” argument!? Just take a look at Andrew Updegroves open letter to the state of Massachusetts, two of his five points is about this argument!

It has been awfully quiet from the Windows Vista Ultimate Extras team; no new Extras, no new hints on upcoming Extras…no nothing… Yesterday we finally got some good news, nothing exciting really but a sign of life from the Extras team. Their current plan is to ship the remaining lanugage packs and a non-beta release of DreamScene, but not until they all meet the quality requirements. There are nothing said about the upcoming extras, only that they “plan to ship a collection” of extras “over the next couple of years”.