Microsoft Archives - NevilleHobson.com

Windows 11 makes its glorious public debut

Today, October 5, Microsoft makes Windows 11, a new version of Windows, publicly available. Over the coming nine months or so, it will be available as a free update in Windows Update on computers everywhere running Windows 10. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 11 has taken only three months to go from first public announcement about a new version coming today to public availability and access to it. In those intervening three months, Microsoft has run a community testing…

Will Windows 11 be the most beautiful Windows yet?

Last month, Microsoft announced Windows 11, the evolution of and replacement for the six-years-old Windows 10. The new version will be released later this year (some reports speculate it might be in October) as a free upgrade to Windows 10. Panos Panay, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer and the executive in charge of Windows, posted a narrative of features to expect in the new OS. He speaks of “simplifying the design and user experience,” noting: It’s modern, fresh, clean and beautiful.…

Memories on floppy disks

Sorting through some boxes and things in storage as part of the type of chore you often do on a Bank Holiday Monday, I came across some items that took me on a little journey. Floppy disks. The 3-1/2 inch, double-sided, 1.44Mb type. Boxes of them. I had time only to look in one box (thus exhibiting an extraordinary level of self-discipline) and encountered a few great memories (pun not intended) of my computing landscape 25 years ago. While my…

For Immediate Release 113: Not a 280-Character Episode

Shel and I recorded the November edition of the monthly Hobson & Holtz Report podcast. We had a great chinwag on these topics: A follow-up to our KFC story (about 11 herbs and spices); the social media team struck again. Twitter has made its new expanded 280 character count available to almost everyone. Not everyone is happy about it. Uber’s new CEO took an investigator’s advice and scrapped the company’s old values statements. Instead of simply crafting a new one,…

The human error of Tay

Microsoft’s public experiment with artificial intelligence in the form of Tay, an AI chatbot, made news headlines everywhere during last week – but not for positive reasons at all. Launched on March 23, Tay was developed by Microsoft’s Technology and Research and Bing teams to experiment with and conduct research on conversational understanding. Microsoft says: Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they connect with each other online through casual and playful conversation. The more you chat with…