My Story of the Ribbon Menu

If you're upgrading to Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010, or recently upgraded, then you're in the thick of relearning all of the Office products. It's a bit daunting at first. I remember when the first Office 2007 and 2010 public betas came out. I hated the new ribbon menu and all that entailed learning how to perform the same tasks I already knew using the old dropdown menu metaphor. I thought things were perfectly fine and Microsoft was making a huge mistake, and I didn't have any plans on changing my views about it… mostly because I was not happy about the significant drop in productivity when switching to Office 2007 ribbon menus.

Fast forward to about a year ago plus. It wasn't until I began using Office on my Mac (Office Mac 2008) more frequently that I really appreciated, and dare I say "miss" the Office 2007/2010 ribbon menus. Once you find the functions you commonly use, the ribbon menu is much quicker to perform everyday tasks, and faster finding those features you used to have to hunt down hidden inside one of the old Office menus.

Note: Here's a fantastic video about the history of the ribbon menu and how Microsoft UI designers came to develop this new user interface paradigm… http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX08/UX09. It's a bit long but worth it if you into this sort of thing.

Do I "love" the Office ribbon menus? No, can't say I'm sold to that degree but now that I've become accustom to them I find I prefer the ribbon menu to the old Office 2003 (and older) interface. Office Mac 2011 brings ribbon menus to the Mac, and with them, much more consistency between Office on these two OS platforms.

If you're knee deep trying in the middle of learning the new Office 2007/2010 ribbon menu interface, hang in there. It will start to become familiar. You may have a love-hate relationship with them for a while but they'll eventually grow on you.

Android Nexus S is Here

How will Google's Android Nexus S smartphone fair? Phones bearing Google's Android OS continue to gain steam in the marketplace. I see lots of users who probably would have liked an iPhone but have Android phones instead, and seem just as happy with them. A Best Buy email ad just popped into my inbox promoting Google's own smartphone, the Android Nexus S on T-Mobile. Sales began last Thursday, December 16, and the phone is selling for $199 with a 2 year plan (or $529 with no plan) and is running the latest Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread version. Sales in the UK begin tomorrow.

I don't own any Android devices…yet…and I haven't really spent much time on an Android device to really know how well it stacks up to Apple's IOS 4. But I do have a Samsung Galaxy table coming soon which will close my Android OS experience gap rather quickly. I don't have plans to move off my iPad anytime soon but if Android proves to be more effective in a business and IT setting, that would be pretty compelling.

Time will tell whether the Nexus S is a better phone than HTC, Motorola and others make. If there's one potential advantage it's that the Nexus S may have less (or next to none) bloatware vs. what other manufactures load on. We'll see on all counts.

Podcast: Windows Azure, Windows 7 zero day and 2nd iPhone worm

Welcome again to the Alan and Mitchell Podcast. We're still working on a new podcast name so hang in there until we have something better.

During the podcast, Alan and I talk about:

1. New security features in Windows Azure
2. The first zero day for Windows 7
3. 2nd iPhone worm
4. HP/3Com
5. Why is security so hard
6. Fortinet's IPO
7. Cloud Computing becoming part of the pop culture

Thanks for joining us and enjoy the podcast!

Police Bullets Converge On Bank Robbers and Getway Car

I was driving back from a meeting downtown today and needed to stop by my house to pick up the zip pouch with my bank stuff in it. I needed to make a deposit at the 1st Bank I use down the street.

Driving west on 120th on the border dividing Westminster and Broomfield (Colorado), I came up on two police cars blocking the street in both directions right where I turn into my subdivision. 

It was odd because I had seen the exact same thing a week ago, only it was nighttime, when 120th was blocked off at Huron (about 4 blocks the other direction) because some 26 year old idiot decided to commit road rage and shoot and kill another motorist. Though I made the connection that both sights looked eerily similar, I saw a silver car and a black car that looked like they had been in an accident together. So I figured that's what it was.

I got to my house on the northwest side of our subdivision, grabbed my bank pouch, and drove the long way around our subdivision to 1st Bank which is just three lights from my house. It was strange when I pulled into the bank parking lot because the first two rows of customer parking spots in front of the bank were completely empty. The first cars I could see were where the bank employees park. "Good," I thought, "I'll get in and out with no wait."

When I went in the only people that were in the bank were employees. No customers in sight. I think even the window blinds hand been closed, but I'm not sure about that. All the bank employees were calm, very friendly, and seemed extra nice. I filled out my deposit slip, visited the teller, grabbed two complimentary dog cookies for my dogs and headed out the door.

After taking the same detour and arriving home, my wife said the TV news said something about a bank robbery. They'd shown a picture of a 1st Bank that "looked a lot like ours." A few moments later I see a crawl across the bottom of the TV screen describing a bank robbery, a chase and two bank robbers were killed at the intersection 300 yards from my house.

The phone rang. It was my next door neighbor. I was stunned as she described how she was working in her home office, heard a car crash, and stood up to look out the window to see what happened. What she described was amazing.

"I stood there, saw the cops jump out of 5 or 6 cop cars and pump what must have been 50 rounds into the car. They just started shooting, no 'come out with your hands up.' It sounded like fireworks going off. I saw a neighbor kid hit the ground when he heard the shots." Then she asked, "Would you like to walk down and see it?"

You kidding? Heck yah.

My neighbor, my wife and I walked down to the scene. 30 yellow evidence markers we splayed out along the road just next to the car. The car looked like the vehicle in the Godfather movie that was riddled with bullets when it stopped at a toll booth. There were bullet holes all over the side of the car, and the back window was shot out. 5 TV trucks had the cherry picker antennas extended to broadcast next to the nearby restaurant. And there were more cops standing around than the inside of a Crispy Creme donut shop.

I took some pictures with my iPhone, checked out the scene for 20 minutes or so, talked to other neighbors there to see the scene for themselves, and then headed back home.

I checked the TV and Internet to see what details they had. Turns out three hours earlier a man and a women robbed the 1st Bank where I bank (the one I'd just visited) and drove off in a silver Subaru Impreza. I'm guessing they drove south on Sheridan and then east on 104th to the Federal intersection.

The bank robbers had stopped at a Safeway discount gas station at 104th and Federal to get some gas. (Ah… note to self… remember to fill up with gas before pulling a heist if I ever decided to rob a bank.) These 2 moron's had stopped to fill up with gas AFTER robbing the bank. That's where the police spotted them.

An unmarked police car spotted the silver car matching the description and started to pursue the robbers leaving the gas station. The woman fired at the police car through the Impreza's back window. Bystanders said the police car was hit.

The cops chased the robbers north on Federal where the Subaru turned east on 120th… directly towards my house (we live on the north west most corner of our subdivision on 120th.) The lead cop attempted a pit maneuver on the now gassed up getaway car but ended up ramming it, causing the car to spin and stop facing the opposite direction from traffic, pointing right at the now multiple cop cars chasing them. That's the wreck my neighbor had heard when she stood to look and see what was going on.

The news verified much of her account. A woman jumped out of the car and started firing at the now stopped police cars. The cops literally opened fire spewing a gauntlet of bullets at the woman standing there and the man still remaining in the car. The cops pumped a barrage of 30 lead rounds into the two robbers and their car.

Patrons eating outside the Bakers Street Brew Pub 100 yards behind the robbers wrecked car hit the deck when they heard the shots. One person's account said the shots went on continuously for about 10 seconds.

 The male bank robber died sitting in the getaway car, still wearing his seatbelt. (I guess seatbelts  don't save lives after all.) The female robber was taken away in an ambulance and pronounced dead when they arrived at the hospital. A police officer had non-life threatening injuries (from the auto accident maybe?) and was taken to the same hospital.

After visiting the scene I came back to the house, turned on the news, checked the Internet and started writing this blog post. That's what we know at this point and time.

Next time I'm checking the news
before I head out to the bank.

How to get started at blogging

Write a one sentence blog post per week.

Reintroducing The Alan and Mitchell Podcast

Well, we're back at it again. Alan and I are doing the podcast again and we are enjoying it even more. 

During this episode, Alan and I talk about:

• Is the CISO role really just a consulting gig?
• Microsoft Security Essentials free malware software
• Microsoft Forefront 2010 for Exchange
• and Alan's leaving StillSecure

The podcast is full of the usually banter and tomfoolery so join us for thirty-five minutes of fun and good security information. 

And don't forget to send us your podcast name ideas. The winner will receive a free t-shirt (the valuable part of the prize) and get to appear on our podcast. Email me at <mitchell at mitchellashley dot com>.

Podcast Naming Contest

Alan Shimel and I are back doing our podcast again. We recorded an episode last night and should be up in the next day or so.

We've started a podcast naming contest and we'd love your suggestions. The winner submitting the name we select will get a t-shirt with our new logo on it (including the name) and an appearance on our podcast.

Email me (mitchell at mitchellashley dot com) your suggestions or leave a comment on this blog post.

I'll let you know when the "Alan and Mitchell" podcast is up.

In the meantime, check out my Network World podcast about Microsoft Office Web Apps which has a lot of rich information about how Microsoft will delver their free and enterprise versions of Office in a web browser.

The Year The Media Died

Now, I'm not actually a subscriber to the theory that traditional media is dead to be replaced completely by digital and social media. Newspapers may be drying up while social media is ramping up but things are never as black and white as they may seem they'll be. But, I ran across this Mad Avenue Blues video on GuruOfNew and thought it worth sharing with you.

Enjoy the video.

http://www.youtube.com/v/6CqRcCHk_Pc&hl=en&fs=1&

Generations Of Communications and How They Influence Business and Products

Part 1: One of the reasons I enjoy creating software is that I'm fascinated by researching and understanding users of the technology we create. I sometimes refer to myself as a software anthropologist. That's part of why I also enjoy user interface design. So, enough about me… lets get on to the topic.

Over time, I've noticed how the form of communications we use is generational. By that I mean as time marches on, we create new ways of communicating and that tends to be the form users of that generation stick with. Some make the transition to the next generation, some have a foot in both camps, and others stick with what they've been comfortable with.

When I first started my career, business people communicated very differently than they do today. Besides the phone, communication was written, either through memos or reports, or personal letters between friends and family. There were no cell phones yet, and desktop computers were just beginning to make their way onto desktops. Yes, I'm really dating myself here.

But how I communicated was a bit different, a hybrid actually. I was a computer science student in college and had a side business writing medical software for the Apple II. I was exploring online bulletin boards and using word processing software (that's what we called it back then) to create my content, but few were doing this when I started creating software at the bank where I worked. Very soon after that, I was setting up my first LANs and starting to deploy email servers and email clients, something else that was also very new to the PCs in businesses where I worked.

So, with that as a starting point, I noticed that I was different from those around me in the bank and in the IT department. Everyone lived by pen, paper or a typewriter, while I was always on a computer. And over time I observed how our communication patterns tend to change with new generation of users and stay the same for others.

Here's how I break down the generations of communications and how users of that generation create and consume content.

 Non-computer – short hand, dictation, pen and typewriter. I collapse all of these forms together because they don't involve the use of a computer, matter of fact they largely predate computers. Content was handwritten or created verbally and either written down in shorthand or recorded into a Dictaphone type device, and then transferred via typewriter into written form. This is the generation my parents and grandparents grew up in. My grandmother was well known at the local hospital for her typing speed and accuracy at deciphering and spelling medical jargon dictated by doctors. That couldn't have been easy. Other than the use of the phone, all of our communications were written. (You could go back in history and talk about typeset, printing press and when everything was handwritten, but I'm not going there in this blog post.)

Word processing. When I officially joined the workforce (after college), word processing was making it's way through businesses. This was the Wang word processor era, specialized hardware and software just for word processing. I was using PC software for word processing, like ScreenWriter II (Apple II), MacWrite (Mac), WordPerfect, WordStar and eventually Microsoft Word (PC). I really only saw the tail end of dedicated word processor generation, as it was pretty short-lived from my experience. I recall on the first development project I worked how many people created content by writing it on yellow pads, and then the word processing pool (formerly typewriter operators) transferred it to typed pages. This was an odd period for me because I was using my own word processing software to create content and either printing it  on my own printer or handing it over to the word processing pool to retype. (Go figure.) As computers moved onto the desktop, thanks largely to VisiCalc and Lotus 123, word processing shifted to the desktop as well. Understand that ultimately what we're talking about here is content that's only consumed once it's printed. Creation of content is still written but it's being translated to the computer rather than being created at the computer.

Email. I'm largely of the email generation. I remember setting up one of the first LAN-based email servers in EDS where I worked. The email software was InterMail and it ran on the Mac (and I believe  later became part of ccMail.) Most in the email generation send, receive and consume content via email while they are at their computer. They do it themselves. (This probably sounds like no big deal to you because that's likely how you work and communicate.) An interesting side effect is that non-computer and word processing generations typically didn't fully make the transition to email. I remember countless managers and executives who had their assistants print out their email for them, write comments and responses on the printed page for their assistants to type up and reply back to the sender. That seems as uncomfortable to me as having someone act as a mediator between myself and a caller on the phone, but for those of the written communication generation, computers, mice, keyboards and email programs seem just as foreign or strange.

Instant Messaging (IM). A relatively collapsed generation are IM users. I say collapsed in that IM tends to be an extension of email users, not really a generation in and of itself. It doesn't replace email, but gives instant communications to individuals and groups. The audience of people who you IM is usually pretty small, such as co-workers in your immediate workgroup, some family members and friends. Except for a relatively few users on the extreme, I don't see this as a way an entire generation changed their communication patterns, giving up email in place of IM.

Texting. My kids are of the texting generation. They rarely use email (mostly to communicate with me) and they don't use email to communicate amongst their friends and social groups. They text, and they text a lot. They see email as something Dad does, but not them, though they use email for other purposes such as their school email account where information is delivered to them via email. Both my kids and I are hybrids, but at different extremes. I text, but use much more email while my kids' generation text and use a little bit of email. We're at that crossover point in this transition from email to texting in a variety of forms as we'll see in  a moment. People like myself who have adopted texting will better communicate with the next generation and may transition there themselves (I hope I do), and those who haven't will still require their audience cross back and forth between their preferred method and previous generation's methods.

Twitter and social networking. Clearly social media, with the exception of blogging, is designed around the same types of short messages we've seen from the texting generation. But it's different in   that social networking can reach one person (such as with a direct tweet or wall-to-wall message) and also go out to many within our social networks, both close friends and family or more distant observers. An interesting aspect of social media is how it has quickly crossed multiple generations. While mySpace was primarily a youth and music oriented community, Facebook is used by a much broader spectrum of age groups. Twitter is rapidly making its way into businesses as a new medium for reaching their audiences, but we're still largely in that early adoption phase.

One of the things I haven't addressed yet is mobile communications, i.e. cell phones. Clearly mobile technologies have enabled options like texting, while twitter, IM and email communications can be performed with and without cell phones. I won't go into mobile communications any deeper here as I thin
k I could write a very similar blog post about how mobile communications has shifted from one land line phone per home to wide spread use of mobile phones and to a lesser degree SmartPhones.

Okay, that's the breakdown. In Part 2 of this blog post I'll discuss how thinking about communications in this generational context is important and how it influences our products, IT systems and methods of reaching customers and communities.

Social Media Is Building Schools In Africa $10 At A Time – Please Donate

Earlier this year, a client I advise about social media and web technology approached me asking for help with a fund raising effort on Twitter. The idea was to raise enough money, $10,000, to set up a young Kenyan boy and his brother with a store they could operate and make a living.