The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Sad, but I suppose I have to give MS some credit for still offering fixed-price versions when so much software has gone down the subscription-only path...

They pretty much have to. As far as Microsoft is concerned, their customer is the Enterprise, with hundreds or thousands of desktops and laptops running Windows and Office and likely with MS support contracts.

The vast majority of those will be stand alone installations, that do not have to be connected to the cloud, with local installations of the software corporate users need to do their work. The number who will use Office 365 will be a small number of the total.

And enterpise users tend to be slow to update Windows and Office. Enterprise upgrades are complex and expensive undertakings, and productivity takes a hit when it occurs. Taking Excel as an example, what new features in any new version will be "must haves" for those that use it? My guess is "not many", and when upgrades will occur will be questions of budgeting and scheduling, not shiny new features.

I can see heavy power users who live in Excel and do stuff like complex financial analysis getting approval to install updates on their workstations because they've convinced their management they really need the new stuff to do their work, but they'll be the exception, not the rule.
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Dennis

[BetterRed]

IMO paying a modest annual subscription is better than having to shell out hundreds of dollars (or thousands even) when you eventually decide to move from say the 2004 version of something to the current version. In addition you have to face the hurdle of adapting to all the changes - the outfits that make the new look like the old love that approach.

I also prefer it to racketeers that con you into paying an upfront fee to get unlimited free updates. But after a while they retrospectively impose a time limit on supplying the free updates, and expect you to pay full price for a new version and another upfront upgrade fee - beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

@Dennis - in the past, employees would put a lot of pressure onto IT departments to give them the latest version of Windows, Office etc because they had them on their home computers. This was a particular issue if they were 'expected' to work from home. In particular I recall users, usually senior execs, wanting an email system they could use at home or on the road. Installing a 3270 emulator on their luggables and offering dial up access to Memo on the MVS mainfame didn't cut the mustard

I don't think those pressures exist to the extent they did 20-30 years ago.

BR

[BetterRed]

Oh - and FTR I cancelled getting an NBN connection - far too much up front cost for no ongoing benefit whatsoever. To get faster speeds, which I don't need, I would have to pay a higher monthly tariff on top of the extortionate up front costs plus the disruption to my equanimity.

I saw them installing the NBN at a house across the road - 3-5 guys for 4-6 hours standing around watching one of their number up a pole, or with his head in a hole. They were there when I went up the pub for lunch, and they were still there when i came back.

And the router resets have resurrected themselves, but Fast Start is still off - weird. Doesn't matter, when its resetting I'm usually leaving the house or going to bed.

BR

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Dennis - in the past, employees would put a lot of pressure onto IT departments to give them the latest version of Windows, Office etc because they had them on their home computers. This was a particular issue if they were 'expected' to work from home. In particular I recall users, usually senior execs, wanting an email system they could use at home or on the road. Installing a 3270 emulator on their luggables and offering dial up access to Memo on the MVS mainfame didn't cut the mustard

I don't think those pressures exist to the extent they did 20-30 years ago.

No, but they still exist. I once brought in and installed on my workstation at a former employer personal copies of Word and Excel. Our West Coast office had bought newer versions than the ones we had installed, and we couldn't handle the Word and Excel files they sent us. I was able to Save As to a version my coworkers could handle.

Lack of actual corporate standards was the underlying issue. My company had been built by acquisition, and there were all manner of legacy products in use at acquired divisions we in IT were expected to support.

When my office got relocated to corporate HQ, I found myself supporting Windows versions including Win98SE, WinNT Workstation, Win2K Pro, and Win XP. I was primarily the *nix admin, and faced the challenge of getting all of those things to communicate with the *nix boxes. (I had to say "Sorry, but the98SE machine can't connect via Samba!")

The we got merged and acquired, and the new corporate parent decided standards and upgrades were in order. Everyone got WinXP and the then current version of Office. Doing the upgrade across the company was a major PITA, but I was all in favor. One of the things I had previously done was burned the midnight oil remediating a virus infestation. The virus got in through a vulnerability that had been patched a while back, but applying patches was not mandatory and the machine it got in through never got the patch. (It was the 98SE box, which figured.) The company rethought its attitude toward patches after that.

The upgrade effort was grimly amusing. It would take place in stages over a period of three years. And strenuous efforts were made to put as much of it as possible into merger and acquisition costs. Stockholders expected M&A to cost money, and M&A costs wouldn't affect the price of the stock (assuming the shareholders thought the M&A was a good idea in the first place, which they had.) Heavy spending on IT outside of that context would be a pure large expense that would affect the price of the stock. I read the Wall Street Journal for fun and snickered. Most of my coworkers didn't understand what I found funny.
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Dennis

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Oh - and FTR I cancelled getting an NBN connection - far too much up front cost for no ongoing benefit whatsoever. To get faster speeds, which I don't need, I would have to pay a higher monthly tariff on top of the extortionate up front costs plus the disruption to my equanimity...

I had though that it was like over here where when one places your order with the ISP the fiber wholesaler (as I understand Oz'ites also do) the wholesaler is subsidized by government for the cost of the in-house and to the street fiber installation, plus the optical terminal at the homeowner/renter's wanted termination point inside the dwelling (the dwelling can be an apartment) ready for one to plug the ethernet modem/router into, all at no cost to the dwelling occupier. Disturbed landscaping is restored. I think all ISPs who provide telephone services over copper also at no cost to the occupier get the fiber wholesaler to bring any in-dwelling telephone copper back to a termination point beside the optical terminal as a matter of course for patch cabling to the terminal.

There is a limit as to how far they will run free from gate to house, but we are 70m back from the front gate to the front of the house and several years back when fiber was installed here that was free. From memory the fiber service was cut straight over from copper while the technicians were here so there was essentially no disruption to service.

The only inconvenience was taking the time to agree the gate to house cable route and the location of the optical terminal in the house (about 10 minutes), plus I helped them sort out the cable route through the house's various difficult roof spaces rather than just leave them to work it out themselves (it being a 2 story house and the house network is terminated right at the back).

(Our security provider changed us from copper to cellular at their own cost).

It would seem a disincentive to a country's getting rid of the old copper network if the fiber rollout doesn't work as above because getting fiber installed through ones garden and house is expensive otherwise.

As an idea of the cost difference between fiber and ADSL/VDSL services I just looked at an example from an ISP (ADSL and VDSL are priced the same as each other by them). 100Mbps fiber, unlimited data is NZD10 cheaper per month than unlimited ADSL/VDSL; 200Mbps fiber, unlimited data is NZD10 dearer than unlimited ADSL/VDSL; 1Gbps fiber, unlimited data is NZD20 dearer than unlimited ADSL/VDSL. At sub 100Mbs speeds and for non-unlimited plans fiber stays cheaper. As 100Mbps, unlimited data is more than plenty for most households, even with multiple streams going, fiber is cheaper than ADSL/VDSL for most everyone. That does not mean broadband services are cheap here though )

Installation of fiber won't be free here to householders forever and it surprises me how many do not bother to take advantage of the current freebee. I had assumed Oz was doing it the same way?

[BetterRed]

Fibre, what's that?

A government on its last legs promised FTTP, but they knew they wouldn't have to deliver; they couldn't even install pink batts in peoples rooves without killing the workers. So when the next government came in one of the first things they did was to scrap FTTP in favour of cobbling something together using the existing cable TV HFC infrastructure where it existed - which is practically everywhere in the major towns and cities. NIH syndrome + Murdochitis.

I think fibre is being used on new housing and industrial estates and in commercial zones (that's been true for decades, I recall AMP getting some fibre links in the mid eighties) - or where there's a lots of high density redevelopment. But even there I'm not sure of it's FTTP or FTTN with copper tails.

The reason I would have had to bear the high up front costs is because I don't live in what the NBN regard as the principle residence, it's legacy from the days when the PMG ran the phone networks and you had to pay through the nose for a second telephone line. The NBN 'own' the physical network, the ISPs rent bandwidth and sell it, so consumers don't normally have to deal with the NBN directly or even indirectly - the install costs would have been billed by my ISP.

I might have been willing to pay for a fibre connection, but not for an HFC Cable TV copper connection - given I watch naff all television. You can get fibre if you want it - but it will cost you $,000s. Apartment block reburshments get it that way, the developer recovers the costs when they sell the refurbished units - if there not already sold off plan.

BR

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Fibre, what's that?

A government on its last legs promised FTTP, but they knew they wouldn't have to deliver; they couldn't even install pink batts in peoples rooves without killing the workers... etc.

Sounds like a regular but pretty usual when a government has too much say.

Here the countrywide fiber rollout (and 4G mobile - then 5G I assume - to remote small communities and farms) was set up so that the wholesalers are private companies with non-overlapping areas; one (Chorus) has most of the infrastructure though, the other three having the rest between them. Has, all in all, been working out very well and is now well on completion wise.

But that was set up when we had a government keen to keep their fingers out of the actual implementation detail of things they did not know, knew how to forge commercial and private partnership agreements, etc. Fortunately it would now be pretty much impossible to ever unravel it by our current keen on meddling ones full of fine words only (Google "Kiwibuild" for their present disastrous effort at infrastructure).

I know that's not much help to you, but I thought it might send you off to the whiskey bottle for solace now that you know it can be done somewhere else, and for free to the end user

[Adoby]

I get my internet over the phone. It works surprisingly well. Rural Sweden.

I have 100 GB per month on a 4G connection on the phone. Around 35 €/month with unlimited, in Sweden, free calls and message. I configured the phone to share the internet connection with a travel router that I set up as a bridge to my cabled network. Just works. Reconnects automatically when in reach. GL-AR300M.

As long as the 4G doesn't turn into 3G everything is fine. 3G works, but is annoying. Seem to depend on time of day, weather and where my phone is.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Adoby

I get my internet over the phone. It works surprisingly well. Rural Sweden.

I have 100 GB per month on a 4G connection on the phone. Around 35 €/month with unlimited, in Sweden, free calls and message. I configured the phone to share the internet connection with a travel router that I set up as a bridge to my cabled network. Just works. Reconnects automatically when in reach. GL-AR300M.

As long as the 4G doesn't turn into 3G everything is fine. 3G works, but is annoying. Seem to depend on time of day, weather and where my phone is.

That'll be one of the options I'll consider if push comes to shove and my ISP tears down its ADSL/2 service. At least any up front costs wouldn't be a sunk cost because I could take any equipment with me should I relocate, or bequeath it someone when I die.

If my ISP (2nd largest) gets a high NBN conversion rate they could decide to discontinue ADSL/2 by turning off their DSLAMS, but hopefully one or more of the other ISPs (most likely the biggest) will continue to offer an ADSL/2 service, in which case I would switch to them.

But I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it.

BR

[DiapDealer]

When begging your techie friend to help you troubleshoot your home DSL internet/Netflix troubles, the time to tell them your land-line phones haven't worked in a week is BEFORE they get in their car and come over.

And no... the fact that you were "still getting emails" ON. YOUR. SMARTPHONE was not evidence that your WiFi was still working.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

When begging your techie friend to help you troubleshoot your home DSL internet/Netflix troubles, the time to tell them your land-line phones haven't worked in a week is BEFORE they get in their car and come over.

And no... the fact that you were "still getting emails" ON. YOUR. SMARTPHONE was not evidence that your WiFi was still working.

Oh dear. I hope they at least offered you refreshments for your troubles.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Oh dear. I hope they at least offered you refreshments for your troubles.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I typically get paid for that kind of work in future promises of homemade desserts. I DID return a cake carrier on this particular run, so hopes are running high for lemon cake soon.

[DiapDealer]

... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out for Alexa and were greeted with nothing but "try again later." I fear something terrible has happened.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out for Alexa and were greeted with nothing but "try again later." I fear something terrible has happened.

Alexa is done with Friday too

[DiapDealer]

Hey Gmail. In the real world, folks only get to celebrate their birthdays for one day. It's waaaaay past time to pack up the hats, balloons, and the cake.