Remember the human

Thanks to an incompatibility between Parallels Desktop for Mac and our company proxy server I learned that this software is designed to phone home without the user's knowledge. What several folks have reported in online forums as an annoying behavior with this product is really the result of an attempted violation of privacy.

I'm not accusing Parallels of breaking any laws but based on my interactions with them while troubleshooting an issue I have little confidence that they understand why I am concerned.

In a couple of days the current Microsoft Office for Mac forums will be closing and folks searching for answers to their questions will be redirected to Microsoft Answers.

I thought the following exchange in the soon to be defunct Word for Mac forum was too good to lose.

This post is for the folks on the YouTalk mailing list.

Over time Microsoft Entourage 2008 builds a list of recently used E-mail addresses based on messages sent and received. This list is called the Most Recently Used list or the MRU. As time goes on, this list builds and builds and becomes cluttered with outdated addresses or addresses from junk mail that wasn’t properly marked as “junk”.

Today is the last day of Macworld 2011 and could very well be the last of Macworld Expo altogether. This is my fourth show in the past five years and it's the second without Apple. What a difference their absence has made!

I'm very happy to see that Peter Borg updated Lingon for Snow Leopard, which he's now distributing via the Mac App Store. I see on his blog, however, that his will be the only method of distribution for his product.

The early behavior of developers to embrace the Mac App Store as their exclusive distribution channel could be an Enterprise administrator's headache but I see it as the potential to be a much needed solution for the corporate environment like iTunes was for the music industry.

OK, so I don't have a hyperactive social life anymore. My twenties are long gone and most of my Saturday nights are relegated to home life. While many folks my age (I'm only 42) might still enjoy heading out to the bars and making casual acquaintances, their partners may not really appreciate that.

I realized today how much I like being a geek at home on Saturday night. It's relaxing and never really boring. Life is a hundred times too short to ever be bored.

Yesterday, I posted this as part of a quick response to question on the MacEnterprise mailing list:

"At one point I though the Adobe Acrobat updates were not scriptable but Mr. Neagle found a way around that."

I later received a direct communication regarding my comment from someone on the Acrobat update/install team at Adobe explaining:

"I'm trying to understand what folks are doing for silent install in 9, hoping to make this better in the future."

Below is my response. Yep, it's long-winded but, frankly, this is such a huge problem that it warrants all the detail. Sadly, I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said. I'm just adding my voice, adding my experiences and happy that someone's paying attention.

This post is about Extensis and the great over-the-top service I received from someone there today. I'm making sure my Extensis representative Girish sees this post so that he can go personally thank that someone for providing great customer service in under 300 characters.

MacBU announced the official name for its next version of Office, Office for Mac 2011, at Macworld Expo just two weeks ago. Inevitably, the beta gets leaked, screenshots begin filling rumor sites and torrents let the general public get a sneak peek.

Releasing a major software suite like Office for Mac to the world is akin to a writer releasing his next major novel. Some critics will praise it. Others will hate it. It's exposed to the world and you can't take it back. The developers, testers, product managers and everyone else at MacBU must be sorely disappointed (but maybe somewhat flattered) when their 2-3 years of hard work gets leaked to the public before it's ready.

Well, I'm sorry to say that it's been leaked. Or has it?

I'm writing this post while sitting on a plane headed to Portland, OR. In a little while I'll be meeting fellow MVP Diane Ross and former MVP Allen Watson. We're driving to Redmond for this year's MVP Summit at Microsoft.

Flying is a wonderful time for me to catch up, reflect and look into new things, which is what I'm doing now. Beneath the iPhone in my hand are two issues of iPhone Life magazine, which I discovered at the Macworld Expo last week. I'm enjoying reading it and considering asking if i can write for it as well.

Last week's Expo was my third to attend, but it was the first where I actually presented a session. Nadyne Richmond from Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit and I presented "Administering Macs with Exchange" as part of the MacIT conference where we covered Exchange tips as well as Entourage troubleshooting. We had no idea what to expect for attendance, but Nadyne did a quick head count—52 people. A sizable group for a topic so specific.

More of my time was spent answeing questions in the Microsoft booth about the new version of Office for Mac to be released later this year. Lots of folks wanted to know about Outlook replacing Entourage and I wish I had had this next week come first so I could've answered them better. Maybe this is for the better since all this talk will be under NDA anyway.

Several months back I heard a saying that "Facebook is for friends you've met and Twitter is for friends you've yet to meet." I believe that. I met face-to-face for the first time three folks I've known at least a year only online. Two are prominant bloggers/podcasters and the third was my publisher at MacTech magazine. To add a warm handshake to those relationships was really nice.

So what did I see at Macworld? My favorite area had to be the iPhone apps area where each 4x4 table accommodated four app vendors. I think the area had at least 20-25 tables. I saw several gems there including two apps for creating and editing Office documents. Just Word and Excel.

Finally, I've found an app for grocery shopping that includes a barcode scanner! It won't be available for a few weeks. The app is pending Apple's approval process now. Can't wait!

I now have an app to take a picture of business cards and convert them to electronic contacts, which is handy. However, if a person has an iPhone then I'm going to insist he download Bump to transfer contacts more easily.

I reget not attending either of the two big parties. My nerves from before the presentation really drained me. Surprisingly, once I was on stage I thought it went really well. One of the attendees stopped by the booth the next day and said something to the effect of, "I went into the session with low expectations but came out thinking it was once of the best sessions this year." Made my day.

So this week I get to see quite a few old friends at the MVP summit and see sooper sekrit stuff I can't share here. This is a good month for a geek like me.