A-Z of computing: S is for Steven Sinofsky.

Posted on by April 26, 2013

Steven Sinfosky: S is for Short Notice

Steven Sinofsky is – oops, sorry, was – head of Microsoft’s Windows division. He has left at not just short notice but no notice, a few weeks after MS launched Windows 8 (supposedly the future of Microsoft).

Steven Sinofsky was behind the development and marketing of Internet Explorer and Windows, and online services including Outlook.com. A well-educated Russian-speaker, Steven Sinofsky started out with Microsoft as a software design engineer. Rising up through the ranks, he eventually found himself actively convincing engineers not to move to Google. Sinfosky has spoken about working for Microsoft and what new employees never know or suspect. These talks are available online.

Leadership change, or internal problem?

Microsoft neatly side-stepped the issue on its site, describing it as a leadership change. The BBC suggests it’s about internal problems, and the BBC knows a thing or two about that. We couldn’t possibly comment, but will just mention that this marks the third in a series of high profile tech leadership changes: Apple shuffled the pieces following disappointing quarterly results and *that* mapping problem, Yahoo recently appointed its third chief executive in a year in a bid to regain lost market share, and now Microsoft has lost its Windows and Windows Live President. Well well.

Steven Sinofsky’s departure: in the media

Here’s more on that precipitous departure, updated 15.11.12:

New Microsoft Windows chief “in shock” – suggestions that Steven Sinfosky’s departure was anything but “orderly”.

And here’s more: the Guardian technology’s take on Steven Sinofsky’s “amicable sacking”.

A-Z of computing: Q is for QR code

Posted on by May 2, 2013

QR codes, those black and white square pixelly thingies. Shock news: they don’t have to be black, and they don’t have to be geometric. QR codes – or quick response codes – are now becoming as popular in the West as they are in Japan and unlocking a world of potential.

According to an article from Infotrends, 

In Europe, print service providers expect a 79% rise in volume that contains cross-media elements, such as QR Codes, between 2012 and 2014

And this Infotrends article on developments in the printing industry,

Printed QR codes are driving users to mobile-optimized landing pages, videos, and more.

In other words, a QR code isn’t an end in itself – a game, a bit of information or a money off voucher – it’s part of a company’s strategy to drive traffic to websites.

What is a QR code?

So what is this thing you should be considering for your business? It’s a type of matrix barcode originally dreamed up for the car trade by Denso-Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota. The secret of its growing popularity is its faster readability and greater storage capacity than a traditional barcode – a whopping 7000+ characters, rather than just 30 with a standard barcode. And with that growing popularity comes creativity: QR codes have moved on from boring black and white squares to works of art.

QR code applications

And how are these beautiful things used? Anyone with a smartphone can scan the QR code with a barcode scanner app and immediately have access to information, special offers, contact details etc. The QR code can be printed on any surface that will take it. It’s yet another way for a company to interact with its existing and potential market and raise its visibility. This Mashable article looks at uses of QR codes from cupcakes to book jackets, via a pint of Guinness.

QRStuff.com

A-Z of computing: P is for Polly

Posted on by May 7, 2013

Polly - Linux Twitter client designed for multiple columns of multiple accounts

Polly – Linux Twitter client designed for multiple columns of multiple accounts

Polly is an open source Twitter client. It’s highly customisable, supports multiple accounts and delivers desktop notifications.

Polly is in pre-alpha which means it’s not yet quite ready for full release, but don’t let that put you off. As Justin Pot said earlier this year in a makeuseof.com article,

If you haven’t found the Linux Twitter client that’s right for you, try Polly. It might be what you’re looking for.

Polly pros and cons

We’ve been using Polly for months now, running and managing numerous accounts (we ghost-tweet for various companies and organisations). Justin’s article mentions a couple of cons, mainly features that are planned to be incorporated but haven’t yet had their moment, and it’s true to say that I do have to go to a Twitter page to do things such as sending a DM to someone I haven’t been in DM touch with recently, if at all, and to search for a user. This last one in particular can be a pain, but we forgive Polly as it is still in pre-alpha after all. It’s such a good client with so much scope that we’ve never been tempted to move away from it.

Polly screenshots

Justin’s article includes several screenshots of both the columns and the dialogue boxes. The various preferences are easy to configure, and the Add new account feature works more smoothly than that of any other program we’ve ever used. We’ve had occasional problems with hanging, but have been in direct touch with the developer to get things sorted out. Viva open source.

We highly recommend it. Good things come to he or she who waits and a full Polly release will be the truth of this. Polly for Android would have us dancing a little jig.

Follow Polly on Twitter @PollyClient