Macrosoft being revamped

So I’ve decided to get a new theme for this blog. Name is staying the same as well as content.

I’ve wanted to blog so much, I have so many drafts, but I can never get around to fine tuning the posts before submitting them. So I’ve decided that I will take another shot at blogging again about things I love/hate about Microsoft from a consumer/student perspective, stuff I wish Microsoft would be more gutsy (and often time smarter) to do, and of course the occasional rant.

I might mess around with different themes until I find what I like.

I’m also changing the tagline. Originally, I started on Windows Live Spaces (if anyone remembers that) as MSFT and the Future, with an optimistic hope for Microsoft. Then it became Macrosoft when the inevitable migration to WordPress happened, with a more critical perspective of Microsoft and wanting to look at what I felt was “the bigger picture”.

Now I just want to focus on the bits of stuff I notice about Microsoft, my love/hate relationship with Microsoft and my wishlist and rants towards Microsoft. I used to get a fair amount of readers from Redmond, if the stats I used on an app with Windows Live Spaces is to be believed, and I’d love to see some people there check out my blog sometime to understand what I as a consumer and a university student feel when i see or deal with Microsoft software and services.

I loved blogging before, and I definitely want to go back to it. So I’m changing the tagline of this blog from “Exploring the bigger picture of Microsoft” to “The tales of a university student exploring the scope of Microsoft’s consumer products and services.” I didn’t want to bother migrating or dealing with changing the Macrosoft(er) name so I put “scope” to keep the name in check.

I want this blog to have a lighter tone, not have to worry about being serious, and truly share my thoughts as a user.

I’m still a major fan of Microsoft, but I’m not a fanatic. I will criticize Microsoft as much as I’d like, but I’ll also praise them on things I enjoy. As of September 2013, I think they’ve been making a lot of bad decisions in their attempts to gain  more consumer mindshare, but I believe as they keep refining and fixing what they do, they’ll reach a much better level of consumer interest.

Here’s to hoping that Microsoft continues to be better and always improving, and that I will blog more frequently, at least once a week. Thanks for reading!

Bing Maps fails with Downtown Houston location pinpointing

I use Bing Maps primarily. It’s partly because I’m still an MS fan at heart, but also because I have little interest in giving Google more info about me. However, Bing Maps is just plain terrible at location searching. Maybe not as bad as Apple Maps, but definitely far from what Google has.

Searching for “Downtown Houston” made me laugh today. I commented earlier to a post complaining about how slow transit was back in the time he was using it. I wanted to show him it’s not that bad today (thought not that great either), and looked up quick time info based on Bing Maps transit calculations. I didn’t notice at all that my quick search for “Downtown Houston”’ was terribly mistaken on Bing Maps before telling him it was only kind of better (not taking into account that it was actually nearly 50% better if downtown were correctly located.). Here’s an image to show you the problem:

For those that have never been to Downtown Houston, the Downtown area of Houston is contained within the loop of the freeways I-45 and Highway 59. However, Bing Maps believes Downtown Houston is somewhat more west of where it actually is along Buffalo Bayou Park. Houstonians would probably be laughing at Bing if they knew this. It’s really sad that Bing does not know where our actual Downtown is. It’s not very far off, but it’s not there either. I marked what I consider the center of Downtown Houston to be with the orange place marker with the 1 on it.

Google Maps has it right as usual.

Well it’s not what I’d consider the center or even bustling part of Downtown, but it is in Downtown. Why can’t Microsoft get this right? Who knows? I definitely reported it and repositioned it on feedback though.