Apparently, the Zune folks have now released an updated version of their software that is compatible with Windows Vista. I learn this from Dwight, who leads off his item with “From the It’s-About-Time Dept.“

Well, all righty, then. About time?

Just to put this in perspective: This upgrade would be six weeks before Vista is released for the retail customers who are presumably the Zune’s target market. And about 30 days after it was released.

Tough crowd. Apparently in the 21st Century you have 29 days to get a product perfect or it’s written off as a miserable failure. Unless you’re in politics, that is.

But what do I care? I refuse to even think about buying one of these things until Om Malik finishes his review.

(Oh, and congrats on the book deal, Dwight. Remind me to tell you how many times I tried to resign from my first book writing gig.)

… In the comments, Dwight says the new Zune software doesn’t work. I’m still waiting for Om to weigh in.

… Another update. I wrote this in the comments but figure it’s worth repeating here:

The last thing I want to do is defend the Zune. I haven’t seen one or used one. My point is twofold:

1. Microsoft is not a monolith. It’s really a collection of companies. So, should they have delayed releasing the Zune until they had Vista software?
Or delayed releasing Vista until the Zune software was ready? That’s a marketing decision which one can critique. It truly sounds like the Zune was released too early, but the absence of software for Vista isn’t the problem.

2. The comparison to iTunes isn’t accurate at all. iTunes is included with the operating system, just as Windows Media Player is. Zune is really being treated as if it were a third-party product from a completely different company. I honestly don’t get that strategy, but that’s what it is.

For the past couple days, I’ve been receiving e-mail announcements from companies alerting me that Windows Vista Ultimate is now available for download. And for a mere $79.95! What’s more, if I click the link and visit the site it leads to, I can download all sorts of other great software for equally insane prices.

Each message has a different domain in the link, although the text is the same. And the sites are identical templates. Here’s what one looks like:

And here’s a closeup of the Vista Ultimate offer:

I used my red pen and my yellow highlighter to flag the two most interesting parts of the screen. Now, can you really expect to get a legitimate copy of the software for $80 when the estimated retail price is $399? No.

Predictably, these domains are typically shut down within a few hours, but they pop right back up under a new name for the next round of spam.

So, who’s crazy enough to give a credit card number to these people? And how foolish do you have to be to actually install this stuff? I expect that most of these are garden-variety hacked copies that will work for a few weeks until they’re disabled by Vista’s antipiracy checks. But still, don’t you think at least some of these copies are going to contain a little something extra?

It just dawned on me that I attended my first Consumer Electronics Show in 1979. I think I went in 1980 and 1981 as well, then didn’t go back until January 2006. For years, Comdex was the place to go if you wanted to see new stuff in the computer industry. Today, Comdex is gone and CES has taken its place and then some.

So, I’ll be in Las Vegas next month. My CES 2007 folder in Outlook currently has 310 messages, and there are probably another 100 or so scattered in other folders that I haven’t rounded up yet.

This week I’ll be answering all those meeting requests (mostly with “no, thank you very much”) but I do expect to schedule 4-6 meetings a day for the show’s four days, in addition to attending two mini-tradeshows where I’ll have the chance to spend some time with 100 or so exhibitors in a more relaxed setting.

I’ll be spending a fair amount of time in the Microsoft booth to see what sort of messages they’re delivering about Windows Vista and which partners are there. I’ve also got visits scheduled with some big PC makers, starting with Dell and Toshiba. I’m going to be taking a long look at any Media Center-related hardware, of course.

So what else should I be looking at? What sort of coverage would you like to read about CES here?

No more page proofs. We’ve read every word and have nothing left to fix.

Next stop, the printer.

And I’m off to sleep.

Carl and Craig and I have burned through a pretty big pile of pages so far, but we’re still less than halfway home. So while I read proofs, maybe someone wants to tackle this puzzle.

I have a folder full of 13 files. In Windows Explorer, every file has a date and time stamp of 12/31/1994 5:00 PM and is exactly 44 bytes in length.

What do I need to do to copy these files?

… Oh, and a major shout-out to The Dixie Chicks for their five Grammy nominations. I am really, really looking forward to seeing Shut Up and Sing.

I was thinking of hanging a big banner and making a speech to announce that at 11:54PM last night we delivered the last piece of Windows Vista Inside Out to the hard-working production team at Microsoft Press. But that approach didn’t work out too well for the last guy who tried it, so I think I’ll just stick with this simple announcement instead.

It’s finished.

We’ve got a two-foot-high stack of page proofs to read over the next week, and when that’s all done it goes to the printer. If all goes well it should be on shelves before the official release of Windows Vista at the end of January.

You can pre-order a copy from Amazon.com if you don’t want to stand in line at your local Borders or B&N. And for some inexplicable reason Amazon left my co-authors’ names off the page. (Update: It appears to be fixed now. Thank goodness, or I would have had to read al these page proofs myself.) For the record, Carl Siechert and Craig Stinson and I did this project as a team. It’s amazing to think we’ve been working on this book since early 2003!

My Windows Vista Inside Out collaborator Carl Siechert passes along this contender for the Worst. Review. Ever. series. Now, those who have been following this saga might recognize the author of the review Carl is about to deconstruct, Robert Vamosi, as the guy whose by-line graced the original (and still, in some people’s minds, the champ) Worst. Review. Ever.

But I have to say, this one is a worthy contender. Last year, Stephen Colbert coined the word truthiness, which means “the quality by which a person claims to know something intuitively, instinctively, or ‘from the gut’ without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts.” This review seems to be full of it. Truthiness, that is.

Take it away, Carl:

CNET Reviews wrote last week about Windows Vista’s new file system. The title caught my attention because I’m supposed to be writing about NTFS, and I apparently hadn’t discovered this new file system. I didn’t have to read very far to learn that the reviewer apparently doesn’t know Vista from Shinola. For example:

(the new Win FS file system is expected to be a feature of the new Longhorn server release due by early 2008)

Microsoft announced in August 2004 that WinFS would not be included in the Longhorn client (Windows Vista) or Longhorn Server, saying at that time that it might be available as an add-on. In June 2006, the WinFS team dropped a bombshell and said that WinFS not only wouldn’t be part of Longhorn, but it wouldn’t be available as a separate delivery either. As for the release date, nobody really knows, of course, but two weeks ago, Microsoft claimed to be on target for delivery in the second half of 2007.

Does CNET not have any fact checkers, or anyone who pays attention to the news?

Gone from Windows Vista is the traditional file path of folders and files separated by slashes.

Sure, the address bar shows a trail of “breadcrumbs” separated by arrows. But all he’d have to do is click in the address bar to see those arrows turn to backslashes that–what do you know?–is “the traditional file path of folders and files separated by slashes.”

Do CNET reviewers not even try the programs they’re reviewing?

For starters, the Windows Explorer toolbar looks like Internet Explorer 7 for Vista (complete with a rather useless refresh button for the file path).

Uh, that refresh button, like the View, Refresh command in Windows XP, is for refreshing the window content, not for refreshing the file path, whatever that means. Windows Vista seems to be smarter about refreshing Explorer windows when folder contents are changed by another app, but I still find occasions to use this useless button.

The left navigation on Windows Explorers opens several context-sensitive mini explorers.

I wish that were true, as it is in Windows XP. Windows Vista displays the same Favorite Links list no matter what folder you’re looking at. (Say, what a minute! I thought we didn’t have folders any more!) 

His overall points–that improved indexing and search capabilities in Vista reduce the necessity to remember exactly which folder contains a particular document, and that there are some nice improvements in Windows Explorer–are valid. But did he have to ignore so many facts to make them?

At least it’s stopped snowing. And the sun will come out tomorrow. And the next day. And even the next day.

The dog, of course, loves it. It was, um, a bracing walk this afternoon. Judy did walkies this morning, when the snow was still fresh. This is in the front yard, before heading out.

Dear Chicago Sun-Times:

If you assign a guy to write a review of Microsoft’s new competitor to Apple’s iPod, don’t you think it’s relevant to note somewhere that he is the author of a brand-new book called iPod Fully Loaded: If You’ve Got It, You Can iPod It?

The disclosure of such a conflict of interest would seem to be especially helpful to your readers when said reviewer titles his piece “Avoid the loony Zune” and peppers it with some of the most over-the-top prose in a technological review since, well, ever? Like this: “The Zune is a square wheel, a product that’s so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.” The hit job review culminates in this bit of sturm und drang: “The Zune will be dead and gone within six months. Good riddance.”

Hmmm. I guess you could have expected something along these lines. Over at MacNotables, way back in August (long before this review was commissioned, I would guess), Andy did a podcast that was introduced as follows:

The superiority of the iPod as the portable data device of choice is on Andy Ihnatko’s mind as he talks about his upcoming book, “iPod Fully Loaded: If You’ve Got It, You Can iPod It,” from Wiley. [emphasis added]

Seriously, assigning longtime Mac and iPod zealot Andy Ihnatko to review the Zune is bad enough. But not informing your readers about his background is a thousand times worse. The Sun-Times’s bio for Ihnatko says only: “Andy Ihnatko writes on technical and computer issues for the Sun-Times.”

Technically, I suppose, that’s true. But it’s horribly misleading.

So, dear Sun-Times editor, I eagerly await your letter asking me to review Mac OS X Leopard when it’s released next spring. As the author of 25 books on Microsoft Windows, I obviously meet your new review standards.

If that’s not acceptable, you could ask Steve Ballmer if he wants to tackle it. I’m sure the results would be about as fair as this review.

(P.S.: Don’t bother asking Om Malik. He’s way too busy.)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

I’m all about Windows Vista Inside Out this week.

So, talk amongst yourselves. Any interesting new toys?