Moskowitz's Rant: Why imaging? Why SMS?

My three questions are:

Why does Microsoft have 7 ways to deploy a desktop?
Why bother with image-style desktop deployments at all? and
Why bother with SMS-style tools?

http://www.gpanswers.com/newsletters/15

My answer to this rant is,

“Each business has different politics and skill sets of administrators, thus what works for one business does not “work” for another, when only looking at the culture and political situation of the business in question”.

It is rarely technology alone that drives a busines, but the combination of people, politics, and technology. The blend that is achieved by the company leadership is what drives the business. There are some good points in the rant, however the limitations of the current technical skill sets and policital environment are what really rule the business world, these others tools like SMS, Altiris, etc. are what fill the gaps in the different blend of those three forces.

Its the little things that count!

I have been trying to point out this concept to some of the folks at my current employer, as I believe this is a core concept of what separates good companies from exceptional companies.

Google has the Finance section on their site (In Beta of course).
Google Finance: Forward Industries, Inc.

However, when looking at the site and actually using it, it has many of the hallmark items, which usually make Google, products stand out... Attention to detail, and the little ones at that.

If you are working on a project at work and you want it to be a huge success, take the time to research some improvement in usability and enhancements usually simple little details that people miss until they use the product then say... “Wow, that is great!” Those are what make or break products and services. This can apply in any format of our lives from daily tasks at work to deep and in-depth complex problems. Make sure you pay attention to the details.

If you have not already take trip over to the Google Finance part of the site and give it a whirl, count how many little useful details they paid attention to that YOU notice... now go look at another finance page and look at what they did not notice, how many times can you say, "If they only did..." Now apply this to your own work and see what happens.

Free Games

Free Games? Are they really free? Are they worth playing? Search online and you will find many onlines games which are free or in development. How many are worth playing? How many ask for too much information for a free game? How many are actually fun?

Not many. My time to play games has dwindled to an all time low. I usually only play one game at a time, and they tend to be big name well produced games, but it was not always that way. I used to tinker with game development and played many small and indie games, there are some good free and indie games out there. They are just hard to find.

If you have some free time check out Runescape. It might be a fun game? I'll post more and I tinker with it (as time allows).

http://www.runescape.com/

What if the tables turn?

Hmm... Copy protection, people love it, hate it, or do not know about it. Some don't care, some do, well what happens when companies try to bypass the copy protection market leaders? Do they play fair, or not? You decide...

Well apparently a new game called Galactic Civilizations 2 has broken with tradition and does not use any copy protection software. It's a bold move I admit, given that most people pirate anything which isn't nailed down. However it has turned out to be more commercially successful than first thought. So, seeing potential damage to their business, and in an effort to illustrate precisely why they are fast becoming the most disliked feature of the digital era, StarForce have decided to provide a working link to the warez version of Galactic Civilizations 2 on their forums. They do this supposedly to prove their somewhat obvious point that the game is being pirated - much the same way as if one person were to shoot another person during a debate on gun crime to prove their point.