All Saints’ Day is getting closer and it’s fraught with danger!
Happy Halloween from the InstallAware Team!
Double Standards and Hypocrisy
InstallAware is no stranger to double standards and hypocrisy:
https://www.installaware.com/blog/?p=441
So it is super easy for us to empathize with the following:
And for comic amusement:
May all these double standards and hypocrisy end for once and for all – for everyone!
Reflections on the Global Meltdown
The following article does a good job of explaining why allegations of Kurdish genocide are completely off the rails:
Having a poor lobby to push your interests doesn’t make a country genocidal!
Follow this Twitter stream and get astounded by all the poorly photo-shopped images:
https://twitter.com/peacespringOP
My favorite is this one with a Turkish F-16 pasted perfectly right beside a woman trying to shield her children, as if in a scene out of 2005’s War of the Worlds:
https://twitter.com/peacespringOP/status/1182221101621010432
Its like Dave Gahan says, people – don’t let us down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsCR05oKROA
Here’s another nice balanced piece:
The Imbeciles at Borland
Not the kindest topic, but you might agree after reading the post.
Back in 2007 I spent quite possibly what was the happiest month of my career, upgrading Borland’s newly sprouting CodeGear from InstallShield to InstallAware.
It was a dream come true in every sense of the word – working with my heroes and legends, the people who made Delphi possible, who maintained it, and who kept it at the bleeding edge of Win32 programming technology.
These were people who were underpaid, overworked, underappreciated, and most definitely, miraculous in their abilities to keep Delphi afloat despite ever increasing uncertainty; and despite the relentless mismanagement of a legendary product and foundations so solid, that they still stand today despite all efforts to sink them from within and without.
It was a challenging month. Fortunately, InstallAware rose to the challenge, and at the end of the 30 day consulting contract, we delivered on schedule, and on budget.
Then I got pulled in to a room by Borland Human Resources. Yes, the same department responsible for letting Anders Hejlsberg go to Microsoft more than a decade ago (as of that time).
The lady who pulled me in had curious looks and manners, as if I was about to get fired.
She closed the door to her room and gingerly approached me, as if about to broach a matter of State Security.
She told me that she could not pay me, because I was an illegal resident in the US; having spent my last seven years in hiding after my work permits ran out…
To this day, I have no idea how she came up with this conclusion – and it is still hard for me to reflect charitably on this matter, as evidenced by the title of this post.
I explained to her that her company had just migrated to InstallAware Software, and that I was representing InstallAware Consulting Services; where I was legally employed.
In fact, I added that I had ample evidence contrary to her assertions; the most obvious being all those funny little stamps on my passport indicating my dates and ports of entry and exit to and from the US.
She was nonplussed.
I frankly do not recall how the meeting ended, other than my shock at how Borland HR was risking alienating a brand-new partner on the eve of such a critical software stack upgrade.
I never saw that lady again, but Borland did pay InstallAware for the Consulting Services its founder had personally rendered for a key partner on-site – after getting scans of my passport stamps.
Yes, turns out, they were serious with the charges they were making. I wonder how they ever let go of the suspicion that the passport and stamps may have been forged, which I’m sure must have crossed their brilliant minds.
In hindsight, it makes total sense that Borland ended up being acquired by a graveyard company. With HR like this, it is a miracle that Delphi survived them at all!
I suppose this could serve as a cautionary tale to other companies: Make sure you staff your HR department with the right people!
Lest they hire the wrong people, and suddenly, imbeciles run amok…
InstallAware X10 Now Available
InstallAware X10 made the headlines (thank you, SD Times):
o Save the world billions of clicks: Our new Single Click installers, inspired by MSIX packages; prove our setups are the easiest. Of course, build MSIX packages too, if you’re into that sort of thing.
o Precision Windows configuration: Select your features (and server roles) from a “Turn Windows features on or off” fashioned UI, precisely configuring every single Windows version with 100% accuracy.
o New Plug-In specs: For the first time in 15 years, plug-ins may now register as download handlers for the setup engine – the new Multi Part Download File plug-in shipping inside the box, for example.
o Major IDE upgrade: IntelliScan strikes out invalid file references, saving you from breaking builds (both in script and design views). Code Preview renders your script topology with instant access.
o Full-stack Microsoft: Azure DevOps Services integration is the latest entry in our breakneck pace of support for Redmondian frameworks and technogies, such as TFS, Visual Studio, .NET, SQL Server…
Check out all these great benefits no other installer can even remotely match:
Thank You SD Times for Headlining InstallAware X10!
InstallAware X10 Coming Friday This Week!
After almost a year of R&D, InstallAware X10 is finally here:
o Features and Server Roles: They vary across each iteration of Windows 10. Our engineers painstakingly disassembled every single one to form the industry’s only accurate feature and role configuration supporting all Windows releases ever released.
o Multi Part Downloads: This new plug-in is a drop-in replacement for the trusty old Download File, accelerating downloads substantially with any number of parallel segments acquired simultaneously from multiple threads.
o Code Preview: InstallAware X10‘s IDE is the most modern install builder, now first and only to offer a bird’s eye view of your script topology. Enables you to browse anywhere in your script you like.
o Extensible Download Engine: Setup Plug-Ins may now extend the internal setup engine download process, acquiring bits from any source – are you thinking of peer to peer networking?
o IntelliScan: Never commit a build breaking edit again – just like word processors underlining misspelled words, InstallAware alerts you to missing files in commands.
o Azure DevOps Services: IDE integration pulls source code from the cloud, as well as Visual Studio Team Services or Team Foundation Server of course.
o Single-Click Installs: This new template saves PC users of the world millions of clicks on endless Next buttons to install software.
Secure Your PC with InstallAware DiskZIP
This ain’t your daddy’s WinZip. Compress your entire disk and use it all as if it was uncompressed:
Security First: Your greatest benefit is security. Your compressed disk image file is 100% impregnable to all known malware. Locked by the OS, it could hardly be touched by any future malware.
Privacy Next: Skip the cloud and store local! InstallAware DiskZIP frees up 5,5 GB disk space on a clean Windows 10 install, and a whopping 22 GB of disk space on Windows 10 with a full InstallAware installation – without deleting anything from your disk.
Performance Preserved: Unaffected disk write speeds. Disk read speeds are marginally accelerated in some cases and marginally decelerated in others, for an overall net-zero-sum impact on your performance.
NEW! InstallAware Centennial Update
Good news, everyone: The InstallAware Win32 GDI to DirectX Bridge is finally here!
o DirectX based rendering for all your existing setup wizard dialogs.
o Ensures 100% seamless transitions, with or without special effects.
o Intelligently enabled on a per-dialog basis, based on compatibility.
o Fixes Windows 10 19H1’s slow drag bug for sheets of Acrylic or Glass.
Better news: InstallAware Virtualization 8.0, our agentless app virtualization tech, is now shipping!
o 100% independent EXE container for .NET, Win32, Win64 apps.
o Import and virtualize ActiveX, Flash, and .NET runtimes.
o Run on all Windows versions starting with XP.
Good things come in pairs – our VirtualizationFest and Centennial Update surely do!
NEW! InstallAware X9 Update
InstallAware X9 Update is here:
o Detect the latest Windows 10 version, referred to as Redstone 6, April 2019 Update, 19H1, 1903 – yes, that’s a mouthful!
o Install the newest Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 version – compress it 12% (twelve percent) smaller too!
o Full-support for, and integration with, the entire Visual Studio 2019 eco-system.