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Friday, March 21, 2008 9:15 PM

Retro-bundling - another suck of the Apple

I thought I was done blogging about Apple Software Update, having removed QuickTime from my system completely, and sworn never to install it again or watch another QT or MOV file. But nooo, someone had to spoil it by telling me what Apple Software Update...
Posted by Alun Jones | 8 comment(s)
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Thursday, January 31, 2008 10:46 PM

Get Well Scotty McLeod

I could have titled this "adversity shows how small our world truly is". I had no idea that so many of my friends, acquaintances, MVPs and Microsoft staff are also friends with Scotty McLeod - until he got hit by a train last week. He is recovering...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Monday, December 17, 2007 5:38 PM

Removing Apple Mobile Device Support

As mentioned before, I'm not a fan of Appple 's, particularly because they tend to impose crap on me that I'm not interested in having. I've been trying to figure out how to remove iTunes , iPod and Aple Mobile Device Support on and off...
Posted by Alun Jones | 36 comment(s)
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Monday, November 26, 2007 8:29 PM

What I need for Christmas

At one point, I mentioned to my wife that I could do with a leaf blower. Then I figured out how I could take the shop vac and turn it into a leaf blower. Now I could do with a leaf blower and a shop vac.
Posted by Alun Jones | with no comments
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Thursday, November 22, 2007 10:44 PM

How many people do you represent?

In my earlier discussion on why 100% utilisation is not maximum efficiency , I alluded to the fact that a rejected customer, or a customer with a bad experience, will tell other potential customers that you never get to see. This reminded me that there...
Posted by Alun Jones | with no comments
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Thursday, November 22, 2007 12:32 AM

Autism Screening at 18 months and 2 years

I'm excited by the news that the American Academy of Pediatricians is recommending that all children be screened at their regular 18 month and 24 month checkups for autism . As regular readers will know, my son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Sunday, November 18, 2007 10:47 PM

Thanksgiving - five years

Regular readers of my blog will know that Thanksgiving is a special time for me. Five years ago, I was giving thanks that a relatively routine surgery discovered and removed a cancerous growth - a tumor. Last week, I visited the doctor to find out the...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Monday, September 03, 2007 8:51 PM

Why complain about UAC prompts?

Jesper's article in TechNet Magazine on the purpose and future of UAC in Windows Vista and beyond reminded me that there's a whole slew of behaviours more annoying than UAC's prompting (which, as Jesper points out, is only the most visible...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Monday, June 04, 2007 12:00 PM

Catch me at Tech-Ed

For those of you who want to catch me at Tech-Ed, if it's only to let me know that real people (rather than spammers) read this blog, you can find me in the yellow section of the Technical Learning Center, in the Security sub-section, at the Solution...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Monday, May 14, 2007 9:20 PM

I'm still not that into Apple

Apple Updater showed me two new software updates the other day - "Quicktime" and "iTunes + QuickTime". Now, remember, I never installed iTunes , and went out of my way to install only QuickTime . I use QuickTime about once every six...
Posted by Alun Jones | 4 comment(s)
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Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:50 PM

Alternate Data Streams in Windows Vista

Windows NT 3.1 was released ... oh, back in the early to mid '90s. Ever since then, I've been aware that it supported Alternate Data Streams, also known as ADS, or in some technical documents that didn't make it to final review, Alternative...
Posted by Alun Jones | 4 comment(s)
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Thursday, April 19, 2007 8:52 PM

April is Autism Awareness Month

And yet... so many people are completely unaware of what autism is. Maybe you've seen "Rain Man", starring Dustin Hoffmann, the guy from Top Gun, and the girl from Hot Shots. Yeah, it's like that, for some autistics. But in the time...
Posted by Alun Jones | with no comments
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Thursday, March 29, 2007 8:30 AM

Will MVPs crack down on Mary-Jo Foley?

Mary-Jo Foley, whose articles I only read when other people direct me to them, has a new speculative blog entry , musing about whether Microsoft will continue down the track of openness and transparency, now that a few champions of openness - okay, Jim...
Posted by Alun Jones | 6 comment(s)
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Thursday, March 22, 2007 6:45 AM

Couldn't have done that at Microsoft

Today, another reminder of things I couldn't have done at Microsoft. Last night, I rushed home from work in time to take my kid to his Webelos den meeting. There, we worked on his Pinewood Derby car. He's been sick most of last week and weekend, so he...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Thursday, March 08, 2007 8:27 PM

Global MVP Summit March 12-15

About every eighteen months or so, Microsoft throws a big party for all of the Microsoft MVPs around the world. The next Global MVP Summit is in Redmond (as always), next week - March 12th to March 15th. In honour of the MVPs being away from their usual...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Sunday, January 28, 2007 9:37 AM

Vanishing Point Game, Seattle [Event 4]

17:45 - A couple drives down unfamiliar streets, looking for a place that they only believe is the right venue, based on an ability to throw GPS co-ordinates at Google Maps. [Yes, Google Maps, because I couldn't figure out how to do that with Live Maps...
Posted by Alun Jones | 2 comment(s)
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Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:10 PM

VanishingPoint VIP Party - am I invited?

So, I found some time this week to play the Vanishing Point Game that Microsoft has been using to promote Vista 's launch. If you like puzzles, it's really worth playing this, although I will have to admit there were a couple of places where I cheated...
Posted by Alun Jones | with no comments
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Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:24 PM

Giorgio Armani has limited skills

In a recent article on the trend of banning underweight models from appearing in fashion shows , Giorgio Armani is quoted as saying that he prefers models "on the slender side" because "the clothes I design and the sort of fabrics I use need to hang correctly...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Saturday, August 12, 2006 3:17 PM

I'm a developer - I don't do operations.

Okay, so there's a point that Larry has here, in referring to Dare's posts 1 and 2 - that operations and development are two separate skills. [ Joe refers to it , too] I've suggested for a long time that developers should spend some time on technical...
Posted by Alun Jones | 1 comment(s)
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Saturday, July 29, 2006 5:44 PM

How hard do you want to make this?

So, I'm beta testing Outlook 2007, and it's got some really pretty "ribbons" that indicate that they've gone to great lengths to improve the user interface. Today, I'm creating a distribution list from a number of people that have emailed me. This should...
Posted by Alun Jones | 3 comment(s)
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