Microsoft's Complete Waste of Time

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I think it's kind of disappointing that Microsoft has basically cloned Google by making their own search engine and now their own desktop search as well. Don't they have any original ideas to be working on? I'm not a Microsoft hater, but Google has the search thing solved, and I think Microsoft could spend their time working on unsolved problems before attempting to duplicate Google's efforts. For instance, howabout Video Conferencing? Microsoft used to have this program called NetMeeting. It brought video conferencing to the desktop of the average user, and it hasn't been updated in years. Go try to find it on your Windows XP PC, it's on the machine, it should be in the Start Menu, right? Under Accessories -> Communications? Nope, it ain't there. You can call it up, if you know where it's at. Now, I'm sure that the Microsoft folks would tell you that they've moved their video conferencing into the MSN Messenger client. Normally, I'd applaud making it easier to launch video conferences with your friends, and it makes sense, except that the MSN Messenger video service isn't H.323 compliant, so you can't use it with any cross-platform clients or even hardware video conferencing units like those from Polycom or Tandberg. Surely Microsoft doesn't think that a computer running Windows Messenger can compete with those devices...

While we're talking about Messenger, can I have the ability to rename my contacts please? Some people think it's cute to put those dorky emoticons in their names, or to rotate their nicknames every couple of hours. That's fine if they want to do that, but give me the option to name them something else, so I don't have to spend a few seconds figuring out who it is that's talking to me. Even worse, I have two people on my list named Angela, and that's what they both picked for their nicknames. Trying to tell them apart is a giant pain that could be remedied easily by Microsoft.

I'd also like an improved 802.1X client, and an 802.11i wireless client too. The current 802.1X client works great if your machine is in a domain, but that isn't exactly practical in Higher Ed. We can't go putting our student's machines into a domain, nor would we want to. You can authenticate with their 802.1X client, after a bit of configuration, but there's no way to force the client to authenticate with another username once you do so. Why would you want to do that? Say you asked someone else to help you get wireless working, and they entered their username to test it. Well, now that they've authenticated once, the laptop just remembers their login info and won't let you use a different username and password unless the server denies them the ability to log in again. I cornered a Microsoft rep at a meeting a few weeks ago, hoping that maybe there was a secret command to force the client to prompt you again, and he confirmed there isn't one. Can I get this fixed too?

I'm not even asking for giant new products here, just some real and useful fixes to products Microsoft has already made. Face it Microsoft, Google's got you beat on searching, this is your chance to show that you're not out to take over the world. Please put your own house in order before attempting to evict Google from theirs.

Homeward Bound

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I've had enough fun with wireless for one day.  I compounded the problem by missing a setting in the access point for my cube on Friday.  I've been testing the use of VLANs and multiple SSIDs, and had set the APs in my area to work that way.  Unfortunately, I forgot to adapt the 802.11a radio to use the right VLAN tags when I did the 802.11b/g networks, so I sat here pulling my hair out trying to get a faculty member's laptop to get an IP address, after I fixed the authentication SNAFU that had brought her to me in the first place.  I could see the access point authenticate the machine against the RADIUS server, then the client would just sit there, forever searching for a DHCP server to talk to.

I manually configured the IP address for that machine, just in case there was some momentary DHCP glitch I wasn't aware of, and I still couldn't get a route out.  I mentally stepped through what made this laptop different from any of the others around me, and realized that it had a tri mode 802.1a/b/g card, rather than the vanilla 802.11b/g cards most consumer laptops have.  Sure enough, the 802.11a network wasn't having the right tags put on its packets.  One quick configuration change, a reboot, and we're in business.

That wouldn't have been bad, in and of itself, but this was the 6th or 7th problem laptop of the day that got escalated to me from the help desk, and I didn't get anything else done.  Maybe tomorrow I can try to get caught up on my e-mail...

Oh, and the Macs just work, it's pretty sad that we're authenticating against Microsoft's Active Directory, using Microsoft's RADIUS server, and the Apple 802.1X client works better than the Microsoft one.

But enough wireless for today, I'm going home.