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Ted's Radio Weblog
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Wednesday, June 30, 2004 |
Sounds great! I know several folks for whom this would be perfect!
The Doc Searls Weblog reports Well sown. "Dan Bricklin has released ListGarden,
an RSS feed generator. Looks like an ideal way to extend easy RSS
generation from blogs to everything else: newsletters, private
websites, whatever. It's a free-standing utility that runs as a local
HTTP server app or through CGI on a remote server. No need to know XML,
HTML or RSS details. Runs on Linux, OS X and Windows. Open source
(written in Perl), released under the GPL. Launches a new category,
methinks. Very cool."
7:46:56 PM 
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I have no trouble browsing and seeing shares on my Samba (2.27) file
server from my Windows XP SP1 client. However, on the test machine with
SP2 RC2, using the "Add a network place" (boy, I love being treated
like an idiot), the dialogs let me browse and see all the shares on
Windows machines, but it doesn't show the shares on the Samba server.
Providing the explicit path in the dialog's text box
(\serversharename) did let me see the files on the share, and read
and write them without a problem. It appears that just browsing is the
issue. A quick Google didn't turn up any documentation on this, so I'll
have to try to figure out if it's something in my settings or
versions...
UPDATE: Never mind. Must have just taken a while for the browsers to get in synch. The shares appear fine now. That's a relief!
11:44:23 AM
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Successfully installed Release Candidate 2 of WIndows XP Service Pack 2
on a test machine last night. The morning, I was greeted by a screen
asking me to turn on Automatic Updates, with green and red shields
lifted from McAfee or similar security products. This option not only
downloads but installs patchs as Microsoft distributes them. While this
might be an appropriate setting for a non-professional, it's important
to me to evaluate the possible dangers to installing, say, an hour
before a major presentation (ask me about Visual Studio Service Pack 5
and my nine GPFs during a DevCon sesssion sometime). Also, you can find
very few patches available from Microsoft that aren't version 1.0a,
revised or reissued. They just don't get them right the first time. I'd
prefer to evaluate the danger of being exposed to a flaw, expecially in
products I don't use, like Outlook Express or Media Player, in
comparison to the possibility of destabilizing a production machine.
So, I passed on the Automatic Updates.
Next stop ("Where do you want to go today?"),
Windows Update. Interestingly, Windows Update came up with a "We're
Sorry" message and a bar across the top of the page saying "This site
might require the following ActiveX control: 'Windows Update' from
'Microsoft Windows Publisher'. Click here to install...." I'm not sure
how that really differs from the older means of confirming
installation, except I don't see the "Always trust content from
Microsoft" joke checkbox. Clicking on the bar produces a pop-up menu
with three options: "Install ActiveX Control...:, "What's the Risk?"
and "Information Bar Help" -- the last two options both pop yet another
window with the Microsoft Internet Explorer HTML Help. "What's the
Risk?" doesn't explain what the risk is, it explains the variety of
messages the bar may display. It appears that ActiveX controls without
valid digital signatures are blocked. The page does on to ask:
"Do you trust the Web site providing the control?
Don't install an ActiveX control unless you absolutely trust the Web
site that is giving you the control. Click on Related Topics for
information about how to decide if you can trust a Web site." OK, I'll
skip the diatribe on whether I should "absolutely trust" Microsoft and
go on to try to install the control.
Selecting "Install ActiveX Control..." brings up yet another dialog,
titled, "Internet Explorer - Security Warning" and asks "Do you want to
install this software? " with a "More options" button, "Install,"
"Don't Install" and another pane across the bottom "This type of file
can harm your computer. Only install software from publishers you
trust." and a link "How can I decide what software to install?" that
again goes the help file, on a different topic. The "More options"
button expands the form, revealing option buttons to "Always install
software from 'Microsoft Window Publisher'." "Never install..." and
"Ask me every time" with the last option selected. Seems like "Always
trust Microsoft" lives on.
Finally, the "Install" button really does install the control. However,
the page doesn't refresh, and I'm left staring at a message that says
"Windows Update has encountered an error and cannot display the
requested page. Try refreshing the page, clearning yor Internet
Explorer Temporary Internet Files, closing and restarting Internet
Explorer, or trying Windows Update again later." and then it goes on
with "Self-help options" and "assisted support options." Jeeez.
Refresh didn't work. I get the "Checking for Windows Update and then a
message "Get the latest Windows Update software" followed by "We've
made improvements to our website. To download the new version of the
software and beding using WIndows Update, please click Install Now." I
thought I already did that. Then, I get the "Sorry" message again.
Third time through (because I'm noting all of the message here) and it
starts installing successfully. Go figure.
Now we get another page "Welcome" says the message "update your computer" and presents two options:
"Express Install (Recommended): High Priority Updates for Your Computer
... Choose this for the fastest updating. Quickly scan for, download
and install only the critical and security updates your computer needs"
or...
"Custom Install: High Priority and Optiona Updates for Your Computer...
Chose this to scan for optional, critical and securit updates your
computer needs, choose from all the updates on the site and review
updates before downloading."
I choose the latter, of course.
What do you know! No "high priority updates" to install. Good news at last.
Overall, I thought the "eXPerience" was painful, drawn out, and not
terribly helpful. The issues could be explained without several trips
to the Help file. People who are just trying to install some new
internet toy are either going to gullibly ignore all the warnings you
put up, or they are going to pass on the process that is too
cumbersome.
However, the machine is finally patched up to date and I can begin testing. More news as it happens...
11:12:16 AM
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Tuesday, June 29, 2004 |
John Koziol blogged
back in March that two areas of VFP were a problem with SP2 installed,
and those two problems were only on chips that supported the NX
processing instructions. Well, Intel says
they'll be shipping client machines with those instructions soon. I'd
really like to see some more concrete examples of what kind of code is
going to break, so that I can evaluate the extent of the threat to my
clients, and start to plan work-arounds, if possible.
9:45:51 PM
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Taking my own advice, I installed XP on a test machine, so that I could test Windows XP Service Pack Two Release Candidate Two.
Not a screamer, an PII-266 HP Omnibook that was Laura's previous
laptop. The CD turned out to be flaky, so ended up XCOPY32'ing the CD
to disk (it had a Win98SE install on it) and installing from there,
successfully albeit slowly. Where do you want to go today?
Windows Update, of course. A clean install of XP has forty-nine, yes,
49, "Critical Updates and Service Packs" to download. SP1's a mere 54.5
Mb, so I am glad Comcast's download cap has been lifted to 3
Mbps. That's plugging away now, since it must be installed
separately from everything else. Then I can go back and review the
other "Critical Updates" and see what else I'll need to do.
On the bright side, Microsoft is updating their product -- remember
Ashton-Tate that left an entire community hanging for a year and a half
with a dBASE IV that didn't work before shipping 1.1. On the other
hand, it looks like Microsoft shipped swiss cheese. I read recently,
though I can't recall where, that someone tried doing this install with
his machine jacked directly into the Internet, but before he could
install all the patches, the machine was compromised. I can believe
that. This one's been installing for six hours...
UPDATE: After the WIndows XP SP1, install, Windows Update now
claims there are only 18 "Critical Updates and Service Packs" left to
go. I'm going to go straight for XP SP2 RC2 (try saying that three
times fast) and see how many are left after that.
More news as it happens...
9:03:05 PM
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Batten down the hatches, those of you, like me, who support clients out
in the field. Windows Update could be bringing you some surprises, in
the form of tech support headaches. If you haven't beta tested it
already, you might want to get ahead of your customers, who'll be
beta-testing it soon...
Windows XP update could cause support chaos.
The major changes to Windows XP brought by Service Pack 2 (SP2) are
bound to cause support headaches. Analysts, users, PC makers and
Microsoft Corp. all expect a spike in help desk calls. [InfoWorld: Top News]
1:05:29 PM
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Sunday, June 27, 2004 |
It's traditional in most of the newsgroups and forums go on until one
wingnut accuses the other of acting like Hitler. At that point, the
fight has degenerated to silliness and is ignore by anyone with common
sense. The anti-Bush campaign saw Hitler in a proposed ad and wisely
nixed it. If only the President's campaign had the same sense of
decency.
Dan Gillmor's eJournal blogs No Shred of Decency: NY Times: Hitler Reappears in '04 Campaign, This Time in Bush Ad. President
Bush's campaign Web site is featuring an advertisement casting Senator
John Kerry and his allies as a "coalition of the wild-eyed," blending
clips of former Vice President Al Gore, former Gov. Howard Dean of
Vermont and the filmmaker Michael Moore shouting about Mr. Bush.
Interspersed twice are images of a shouting Hitler, drawn from a Web
spot that MoveOn.org, the Internet advocacy group that runs anti-Bush
advertisements, briefly posted months ago in a contest for
advertisements about the president. Dan goes on to write: "The clip of Hitler came from an ad submitted to MoveOn.org's "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest -- an ad that MoveOn disavowed as soon as it was noticed and, quite properly, attacked for its inflammatory nature.
But the Bush campaign has no trouble using the same images
(wmv video) to slander political opponents and critics of its radical
policies. Just when you imagine they couldn't sink any lower in their
tactics, the Bush people find a way.
If this slimy ad were to be aired on television -- on the airwaves Bush
and so many others are so eager to censor to stop "indecency" --
campaign laws would require him to personally endorse it. He doesn't
have to personally vouch for this garbage when it's on the Web. Maybe
that's why it's online."
7:15:03 PM
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The Future of Free Weather Data on the Internet [Slashdot]
Please follow this link and read about the question of whether the NOAA
should subsidize business by making their information not freely
available to all. There's a link in the article header for you to
submit your own comment. Also, take a look here where the NOAA is
explaining the issue and seeking comments.
11:29:43 AM
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Tomalak's Realm links to InfoWorld: Experts agree on method, not scope of IIS attacks.
"We don't have significant reports of Web sites compromised or of
people sending us examples of the new Trojans," he said. "I'd rate this
a low risk if you're patched and a medium risk if you're not." Still,
other security companies reported widespread infections.
Three exploits took place at once: the IIS 5.0 servers had an SSL flaw
(patched in MS04-011) that allowed them to be infected. The Windows PCs
had two flaws: an MHTML handling problem in Outlook Express and IE
(also patched, in MS04-013) and a cross-site scripting exploit
identified last week that remains unpatched.
If you must use IE (for example, I can't get to the Microsoft KnowledgeBase without it), make sure to do the following:
- Set your IE security level to high (Tools, Options, Security:
Select 'High' from the drop-down and then 'Reset' - you'll want to note
your previous settings and record them somewhere in case you're having
problems browsing), and
- Make sure your virus scanners up to date. Even though I had
upgraded to NAV 2004 on Friday and updated to the most recent files
then, I download two updates this morning (Sunday) with 1.2Mb+ of new
stuff in them.
6:07:42 AM
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New York Times: NYT HomePage reports As Doctors Write Prescriptions, Drug Company Writes a Check.
"An investigation has shed light on the system of financial lures that
drug companies use to persuade doctors to favor their products."
By Gardiner Harris.
In many ways, the investigations are a response to the evolution of the
pharmaceutical business, which has grown in the last quarter-century
from a small group of companies peddling a few antibiotics and
antianxiety remedies to a $400 billion bemoth that is among the most
profitable industries on earth... Offering
treatments for almost any affliction and facing competition in which
each percentage point of market share can represent tens of millions of
dollars, most drug makers now spend twice as much marketing medicines
as they do researching them.
This sounds like a market out of control. The arangements between
the manufacturers and distributors (doctors) leave the patient worried
about getting an informed an impartial decision, while the patients are
left ignorant of the economics of the arrangement, both between
manufacturer and doctor, and in what their insurance ends up paying.
This is capitalism with a fatal flaw: deals go on in the back room that
the players aren't aware of. When the system is made transparent,
products can compete far more fairly.
5:58:41 AM
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Saturday, June 26, 2004 |
Ernie The Attorney reports Power Up Your Powerpoint.
"Cliff Atkinson announces his new blog, Beyond Bullets, which focuses
on new ways to use media to better communicate -- and relate -- with
people. It's not all about using Powerpoint (so I apologize for the
misleading headline) but it..."
8:31:16 PM
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Friday, June 25, 2004 |
News.Com: Web site virus attack blunted.
"The attack, which had turned some Web sites into points of digital
infection was nipped in the bud on Friday, when Internet engineers
managed to shut down a Russian server that had been the source of
malicious code for the attack." Link via Tomalak's Realm
6:17:11 PM
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InfoWorld: Top News reports: "Web attack aims to steal surfers' financial details.
A new Internet attack discovered late Thursday was designed by an
infamous group of Russian virus writers to steal credit card and other
financial information from Web surfers and send it to Web sites where
it can be retrieved by hackers, security experts warned Friday." The
key paragraphs:
"Security experts
have said that the attack only affects users of certain versions of
Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser...
Additionally, Cluley said that it appears that the threat only affects
Web servers running Microsoft IIS 5 (Internet Information
Services) Web Server software and not Microsoft IIS 6, which comes with
Windows 2003 Server."
Make sure you've patched IIS with the
Sasser patches. Raise the shields high on IE, or better yet, get a
secure browser. According the article, some *major* sites have been
hacked, so watch those credit card bills!
Update: According to this article on Netcraft, the trojan can be installed silently on fully-patched versions of Internet Explorer. Until the extent of the exploit is known, you may want to hold off surfing with IE.
11:48:13 AM
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Thursday, June 24, 2004 |
I want my share of the credit, too. I said this, um, last year, after the year of the LAN fizzled. Or was it the year of IM?
Zawodny: "RSS looks like one of the better bets this year." [Scripting News]
8:01:13 PM
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 |
Open Source Paradigm Shift.
"This article is based on a talk that I first gave at Warburg-Pincus'
annual technology conference in May of 2003. Since then, I have
delivered versions of the talk more than twenty times, at locations
ranging from the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the UK Unix User's
Group, Microsoft Research in the UK, IBM Hursley, British Telecom, Red
Hat's internal "all-hands" meeting, and BEA's eWorld conference. I
finally wrote it down as an article for an upcoming book on open
source,"Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software," edited by J.
Feller, B. Fitzgerald, S. Hissam, and K. R. Lakhani and to be published
by MIT Press in 2005." [Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Network]
Interesting reading.
10:50:48 PM
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From Dan Gillmor's eJournal: Opinion Laundering Thrives. Tim Lambert: When Think Tanks Attack. Why
are all these think tanks so down on Open Source? Well, the Small
Business Survival Committee is concerned that using open source will
expose small business to the risk of lawsuits. Citizens Against
Government Waste is concerned that the Government might waste money on
Open Source. Defenders of Property Rights is concerned that Open Source
might be a threat to intellectual property rights. However, I was able
to detect a common theme to all their criticism. They all seem to be
funded by Microsoft. "This piece isn't absolute
proof, but it's another layer of circumstantial evidence that Microsoft
is continuing its campaign of what I've called "opinion laundering" to
make a case against LInux and other free software. (See previous looks
at this subject here, here and here,
for example.)
Microsoft is hardly alone in this activity, of course. Lambert's
article looks into the tobacco archives and shows how major think tanks
were paid by tobacco companies and took positions congruent with the
tobacco interests' own views.
The bigger problem is that we often don't know who
is funding which think tank, and many won't tell us. Even the ones that
do say they're getting some money from companies like Microsoft won't
say how much. If the "contribution" is .001 percent of annual funding,
that's trivial. If it's 50 percent, that's not trivial. But we are
never told this relevant information.
None of this is illegal, but it's definitely sleazy. We need laws, not
that this Congress or administration will every touch the topic, to
force think tanks to reveal the sources and amounts of their funding in
amounts over, say, $500. That would let individuals continue to
contribute in privacy, but would shine a needed light on the opinion
laundering that is now so prevalent.
In the meantime, when a think tank takes any position on just about
anything, your first instinct should be to ask, "Did someone pay for
that opinion?" -- Dan Gillmor
Some people accuse me of being an "Open Source zealot" (thanks, btw),
but at least my opinion is not for sale to the highest bidder.
1:40:22 PM
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MacOSXHints points out a really useful reference for Mac OS X, Linux or Windows CygWin users, for that matter - the GNU Bash Reference.
Written by the authors of the shell, this book covers the concept of
the shell, its commands and variables in 180 pages. The book can be
purchased for $29.95 or downloaded in PDF from their website for free.
12:54:42 PM
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Off to Waltham this evening for the meeting of the Boston Area FoxPro User Group. Dmitry
Litvak will show how he accesses Visual FoxPro using ASP.NET.
Directions to the meeting - open to the public - and enrolment
information for our low-traffic announcement email list is also
available at the website.
8:45:41 AM
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Tuesday, June 22, 2004 |
Andrew MacNeill - AKSEL Solutions responded to my query about Office having a 3% upgrade rate: "Only 3% of Office Users Using Office 2003?. Ted
wanted to know where Jeff Riefman got his facts from on his complaints
about Office, etc. Here's the quote right from Ballmer's mouth, in
response to a question about long vs. small steps (back on April 7,
2004).
"No.
2, it is not like Office releases, in any sense, have slowed down. We
did Office 2000; we did Office 2003; we are working away on the next
release. Most of our customers do not use Office 2003 yet. It has been
in the market, what, four or five months--something like that--and
maybe 1, 2, 3 percent of the installed base use Office 2003 so far. I
think we have got plenty of headroom before we need another product to
bring huge benefit to a lot of people. "
Read the entire article: here. By the way, Jeff's original comments were in the Seattle Weekly"
Thanks, Andrew!
9:07:33 PM
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Sunday, June 20, 2004 |
Ernie The Attorney blogs "Microsoft guy switches to Apple and guess what?.
Jeff Riefman writes about his experience with Windows: I began using
Microsoft products 23 years ago, at age 11, and I worked for Microsoft
from 1991 to 1999 as a technology manager. For many years, I was a
Microsoft loyalist." Yawn! Stop me if you've heard this before. Yes,
yet another switcher story. This one has some interesting variations,
but really, folks, let's get over it: most people who try out
Microsoft's competition stay away.
But wait. If you can plow thorugh his whining that he has to reboot his
Windows XP machine every day and that Outlook locks up on him (sounds
like his machine could use some work), eventually he gets into a
discussion of the economics and business model of Microsoft that
actually has some merit. Very interestingly, he cites the "fact" that
less than 3% of the installed Office base has upgraded to the latest
version. Do any of my readers (yes, both of you!) know where he got
that statistic? I'd really like to learn some more about that.
1:00:22 PM
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Saturday, June 19, 2004 |
Steven Levy posits the Internet of the future in this article in Newsweek:
Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages
censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where
anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the
powers that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive)
ideas in the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list without
the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying that
such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this infrastructure is none
other than the former paradise of rebels and free-speechers: the
Internet.
Chilling. Levy goes on to describe the downsides of Digital Restriction
Management and TMCA and Microsoft's Palladium, now renamed "Next
Generation Secure Computing Base."
Like shopping anonymously in a grocery store (if you don't use the
store card) or eating at a restaurant without identifying yourself,
there is no justification for broadcasting your digital identity to any
who want to know. Law enforcement can track down your addresses and
electrons and bits should they need to, but every vendor doesn't have
the right to know everything about you, to be able to turn on or turn
off your access at their whim. We are in a slippery slope where
Internet citizens can lose some of the features that make the internet
the great place that it is.
7:37:37 PM
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Friday, June 18, 2004 |
DRM: A Bad Business Move for Microsoft.
"Invited guest Doctorow told the Microsoft Research staff that DRM
systems don't work; are bad for society; are bad for business; and are
bad for artists. In short: "DRM is a bad business-move for Microsoft,"
Link from Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley.
Great speech linked on the Microsoft Watch site: a simple and clear
explanation of why Digital Restriction Management is dumb and
impractical. Copying things for backup, time-shift, place-shift and fair use should be easy; stealing things is wrong. Let's work out how to make that happen instead.
4:32:49 PM
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Thursday, June 17, 2004 |
OSNews posts a link to an O'Reilly draft chapter on Version Control with Subversion: Basic Concepts.
"This chapter is a short, casual introduction to Subversion..." This
chapter is great explanation of the difference between different models
of source control.
8:15:45 PM
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Joel Spolsky's "How Microsoft Lost the API Wars" (linked below, too) ties in really well with Calvin Hsia's post on "Solving a customer problem"
- to steal Calvin's punchline, the Microsoft XP security push breaks
the backward compatibility of COM within Microsoft's own Visual FoxPro
software. Calvin's pragmatic troubleshooting stories and tangents into
Win98 and pianos are fun reading, especially for those of us who know
Calvin.
Joel concludes that the solution is to code your applications for the
web and not for one API of one window manager or GUI on one operating
system. Coincidentally (or is it?), that seems to be Jon Udell's theory
in his InfoWorld column talking about efforts by BEA and Macromedia to do something with XML and browsers. Which ties in pretty well with the Mozilla XUL effort,
which seems to be creating a browser-based GUI using RDF XML. Great
minds really do think alike, and it seems that the industry is
exploring similar next-generation solutions. And, speaking of Mozilla,
Ars Technica interviews Scott Collins, who provides some interesting insights into Netscape/Mozilla then and now.
Meanwhile, my email chimes with the latest issue of Woody's Windows Watch
(7.08, not yet in the archives), where he talks about the Window XP
Service Pack 2 (which isn't a Service Pack, in my opinion, but XP
Reloaded), and says:
"Service Pack 2, more than any of its predecessors, is a seriously
risky patch job. That's because Microsoft's almost exclusive focus in
SP2 is security. Security first. Ahead of backwards compatibility."
Security is a good thing. I like to feel secure. I like to feel secure
that my computer will work tomorrow like it did today. Perhaps I
misunderstand what Microsoft means by "security."
Backward compatibility is not just a Good Thing. I'm scrambling to help some
clients who've discovered that DOS machines can't access files stored
on their new Windows Server 2003 file server. I'm supporting
applications written, re-written and refined over 10 and 15 years.
Backward compatibility is not just a feature, it's a requirement.
Ghandi was once asked what he thought of western civilization and he
replied, "I think it would be a very good idea." I feel the same way
about software engineering. Security, compatibility and future
directions are not and cannot be mutually exclusive. All must advance,
together.
2:36:21 PM
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Wednesday, June 16, 2004 |
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Tuesday, June 15, 2004 |
Mozilla Firefox 0.9 Released. "Mozilla Firefox 0.9 has been released. Release and..." posted via OSNews
Firefox rocks. Check it out. Small, fast, customizable.
4:22:50 PM
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Bruce Schneier, a respected security analyst, in this NetworkWorldFusion op-ed, opines that "Microsoft's actions speak louder than words" in denying pirated versions of Windows XP the Service Pack 2 security patches:
"Microsoft is harming its licensed users by denying security to
unlicensed users... This decision, more than anything else Microsoft
has said or done in the past few years, proves to me that security is
not the company's first priority."
4:07:10 PM
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Bluetooth Worm.
Symantec reports on a Bluetooth worm: It spreads itself on Nokia Series
60 phones and tries to install itself on any Bluetooth device it finds,
reducing battery life for the infected phone. A recipient has to accept
the file, apparently, for it to transmit. It's hard to delete because
it hides itself in a directory that's not accessible to the average
user. [link via Xeni Jardin]... [Wi-Fi Networking News]
3:53:03 PM
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Great article by Steve Gillmor in eWeek on the promise and power of RSS. He really
gets it. Here's the short version: video broadcasters can publish what
content appears where and when via RSS; smart clients
read/parse/filter/flag content, and record via programmable personal
video recorders (PVRs). Voila! Instant customized video. Very cool.
Steve also posts:
"Paradox Outtakes. In preparing The RSS Paradox, here are some breadcrumbs left on the cutting room floor:
Posted from Steve Gillmor's Blogosphere
11:54:49 AM
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Monday, June 14, 2004 |
Microsoft's war on GPL dealt patent setback. FAT not a banker By Andrew Orlowski . [The Register]
Software patents are an inherently bad idea, in my opinion, and
compounded and amplified in the US by an incompetent system that grants
frivolous patents that cost small fortunes to litigate. Software
companies should compete on features, on true innovation, and not on false claims of past inventions. That's not how the software community has ever worked.
4:21:43 PM
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Profile of a Dangerous Cross-examiner.
I remember once asking my father, the Psychoanalyst, to explain this
thing called 'sublimation' that I kept reading about in his shrink
books. His explanation went something like this. People often have
urges that are socially unacceptable, like perhaps a... [Ernie The Attorney]
1:20:07 PM
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1:00:56 PM
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"Microsoft Corp.'s plans for a common set of services that promise its
server platform products will work better together are being met with
skepticism..." writes Peter Galli at eWeek.
8:30:24 AM
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Barbara Darrow, industry editor at Computer Reseller News, writes "Something interesting happened
on the road to and from software dominance. Microsoft, which always
delighted in displacing the old farts of technology, has become an old
fart itself."
8:28:45 AM
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Saturday, June 12, 2004 |
Slate magazine, which admirably discloses its ownership by Microsoft in this article, says there is "A Simple Plan: Virus-proof your PC in 20 minutes, for free."
The three steps they advocate - make sure security is sufficient on IE,
get the latest Windows Updates and search for spyware - surely make the
machine more reliable than if those steps were not taken. But that is
not enough.
I think author Paul Boutin missed the mark in not considering the
possibility that there are many other browsers out there - Opera,
Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox and others - that don't suffer from the
many, many IE exploits and will meet the needs of most users. Also,
slipped in among those three steps was the off-hand mention of
antivirus software, which ought to be a mandatory requirement for all
systems.
Speaking of which, ComputerWorld reports four new Internet Explorer holes have been discovered.
9:42:40 AM
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Friday, June 11, 2004 |
SCO has taken a serious hit here, according to eWeek, Groklaw and Slashdot. Good. Let's get this over with, and get back to work. Groklaw is exuberant: "Remember all the experts who told us SCO might win this? They were mistaken." and "I love this judge" and " This just isn't SCO's day."
4:36:02 PM
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An interesting illustration of the power of social software came up
while I was giving my RSS presentations at the DevEssentials
conference. I explained that years ago there used to be
science-fiction-like predictions of the future with magic-like
electronic newspapers that updated themselves as the news broke. Then I
showed them Radio Userland's news aggregator, with postings from the
FoxForum Wiki, the FoxCentral announcements, my web site, and Craig
Bernston's posting while in the session.
The future is here.
They got it.
4:08:52 PM
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Thursday, June 10, 2004 |
c|net reports that Google is reconsidering RSS. Good. Get out of the middle of the standards wars.
7:18:14 PM
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Monday, June 7, 2004 |
We're Blogging
As
I write this, I'm sitting here at DevEssentials in Ted Roche's session
on blogging and RSS. It will be interested to see if this shows up in
Ted's aggregator during the session. From Craig's ::FoxBlog::
4:21:46 PM
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Saturday, June 5, 2004 |
Scott Ambler warmed up the crowd last night with a provocative keynote on agile development. No one was left unmoved.
Ken Levy did the keynote this morning showing off the new public beta
of Visual FoxPro 9. His presentation was a mixture of the keynote
previews he's been doing for the last year, combined with full
disclosures on the new features, especially the report writer.
Here are a few bullet points:
- VFP 9 was based on customer wish list feedback.
- Primary goal to maintain backward compatibility.
- Enhanced language and data types
- Additional end user UI features
- Increased developer productivity
- Significant report writer enhancements
- Extended DotNet and SQL Server interoperability
- More reliability.
- Scheduled released is Q4 2004
Sessions going well. More notes as I have the chance.
3:13:23 PM
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Friday, June 4, 2004 |
No posts today, on the road to the DevEssentials conference.
7:30:35 AM
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Thursday, June 3, 2004 |
Ken Levy, the VS Data Product Manager at Microsoft, reports "The Visual
FoxPro 9.0 public beta is now available for download! Download page
link at http://msdn.com/vfoxpro . The June letter is also online at http://msdn.com/vfoxpro/letters with VFP 9.0 beta details and other important VFP related news."
5:28:22 PM
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Wednesday, June 2, 2004 |
A question I've heard and tried to answer from a couple of angles is
'So how do you make money if the software is free?' Part of the answer
lies in examining the question's assumptions: I rarely, if ever, made a
profit because a client chose a specific software package: I'm in the
business of consulting, not value-added resale. But that's me. How does
everyone else in the chain profit, or at least benefit? IT Manager's
Journal answers the question in their article "Seven open source business strategies for competitive advantage."
6:26:34 PM
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Tuesday, June 1, 2004 |
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