IE7, Java, Firefox
I was working with IE7 on a library machine (the only browser available, alas)the other day and ran into this problem while doing an upload to Facebook – no Java available for an upload of photos from my laptop. No problem – Sun and Java have kissed and made up; Suns Scott McNealey has resigned, […]
I Got IT Wrong
In my coverage of BI and the SAP/Business Object acquisition, I conjectured that Cognos and MicroStrategy could not stand alone too much longer against the onslaught of freebie BI giveaways by Microsoft notably bit also Oracle and IBM. So I hypothesized that HP or Sun might want to take the plunge because BI is still […]
Vistas Ever Lower Horizons
Vista is courting not just bad press but the worst possible reception in the IT Community – fear and loathing. “But technology professionals worry about more than the time it will take to actually migrate, but the inevitable difficulties resulting from a … painfully slow user learning curve.” Yet Microsoft continues to report burgeoning Vista […]
Amazon Fumbles!
Please Take One Apple Tablet
Now I have said it before – whoever wins the race (open only to Apple, Microsoft, and maybe some Crazy Linux guys)to a gesture based tablet pc (with docking station) sweeps to the lead in PC market share. That is why iPhone and Leopard are so important to Apple; but Leopard gaffes in security and […]
Google Unearths a Phone Stack
Why show Google Earth in a write up on the Google Phone initiative? because it speaks to the method and theme that Google is taking in its late entry into the mobile phone market – its different, orthogonal, and open sourcing a lot of what has heretofore been a very proprietary and closed market. My […]
GUI Clumsiness
Can you believe that Apple Inc, the self-appointed Deans of Great GUI Design – have still come up lame on basic GUI operations . This is even true with Apples new Leopard. True with Spaces, Apple finally sees the Linux Light and brings a capability that every design program worth its salt (think diversely of […]
BOBJ and SAP
BOBJ-Business Objects and SAP-SAP are now joined but nobody yet knows exactly how – and more importantly how well. But if you take a look at this savvy combination of AJAX and Flash technology that BOBJ has on display at this Web address: one can clearly see that along with Saps own NetWeaver, plus BOBJs […]
Apple Leopard Leap ?
Apple just announced and delivered its new Leopard Mac OS/X – ho hum ??? Well actually this is really important because part of the run up in Apple stock is based on the fact that Vista is really bad, Microsoft is very slow to make changes in Service Pack 1 – and even the changes […]
Why Sun Will Shine
Following the Financial Trade Press and you would think Sun Microsystems is either on its death bed or on the great Kaibab plateau walking straight for the Grand Canyon. Here is one reason that says the conventional wisdom is not so. It is just that many people agree: 1)Tom Yager – Infoworld 2)Chris Mellor – […]
SnapLogic:More Open Source BI
As the BI markeytp lace rapidly consolidates among the original pure play players (Business Objects, Hyperion, ProClarity among other being gobbled up); there is a curious emergence of more Open Source players. This gives more emphasis to software as Services (not just the Salesforce.com hosted service model), but more the Redhat/MySQL/Trolltech model. Snap Logic is […]
Microsoft Raises the RIA Ante
Microsoft is running awfully silent and awfully fast with RIA through Silverlight. Silverlight catches a few of the IT Trade Press because its a signal sent out by Redmond. And the message technically is getting better – as the new Astoria data integration services with special URL syntax indicates. Microsoft is down to the old […]
BEA Buyout: Updated
================================================================= This just in: Oracle may need the BEA Glue more than ever as Fusion falters: Oracle loses head of Fusion development October 8th, 2008. So now in the SitzKrieg – Oracle can figure out how badly it needs BEA glue and BEA can wait for the tading tading tading of a better bid. =================================================================== […]
Consolidation in IT
Consolidation in IT has been prominent on the IT pundits radar for the past five years – and although the reduction to monopoly markets has stopped (Microsoft appears to have gained and is now in the process of losing its last monopoly market with the IE browser), there is still a lot of consolidation going […]
CIOs See #1 Problem- Hiring and Retaining IT Talent
In the October 8th issue of Information Week there is a great “I told you so” article by Marianne McGee. The Society of Information Management does an annual survey of what are the top ten concerns for CIOs and IT management. This is one of the strategic polls that I pay attention to because SIM […]
Adobe Bundles Again
Adobe bundled bigtime with its launch of its graphics programs lead by Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 plus the whole Macromedia line of products. The new products were spread over 6 Creative Product Suites emphasizing Design, Web/Mobile development, two flavors of Graphics, highend video and finally a grand Master Collection. And the pricing was certainly […]
Linux on the Desktop II
The New York Times is featuring a story of Linux on the desktop – see picture below: Now what makes this article interesting is that it says clearly and distinctly that the Ubuntu version of Linux that Dell is offering on its notebook s and desktops is just as easy to install and use as […]
Adobe MAX in Chicago
Adobe MAX is in Chicago starting October 1st and already there are some awfully interesting apps in Flex and AIR showing up. Here is one of the best I have found so far, a Google Analytics Presentation system written in AIR by a Belgian named Nico. This very nifty demo of Flex?AIR capabilities his makes […]
6 More Months of XP
Sales of Windows XP were scheduled to discontinue in January 2008. Microsoft has granted a reprieve and tacked 6 months on to that end date – its now June 30th 2008 and no more XP for sale. StevenVaughan-Nichols at eWeek supplies telling reasons why Redmond was forced to make this extension. He makes a compelling […]
7 Reasons Why Linux Wont Succeed On The Desktop: A Grade Card
Information Weeks Editor in Chief Rob Preston really needed to do massive editing of the 6-page article by Alexander Wolfe on 7 Reasons Why Linux Wont Succeed On The Desktop. This article purports to examine the issue of Linux on the Desktop thoroughly and bias free. Let us cut to the chase and see what […]
About Facebook Browser Opportunity
Microsofts IE6, even powered with Yahoo and other tab oriented editors, just cannot run Facebook at all(bitter experience but try and see if you can find some substitutes). This is a serious problem for Microsoft because IE6 still has 28% market share on my website . Also because it shows how much Web 2.0 development […]
Missing the Boat
Brad Shimmin in his comment, Unholy Alliances — get used to them, which describes alliances between Microsoft and various Open Source providers like Novell and Linspire. Brad implies the only risk is for Microsoft to inject patented code into the Open Source codebase to be used as Trojan Horse attack dogs at a later date […]
RIIA Race Heats-up
The RIIA-Rich Integrated Interface Application market has really heated up over the summer. That is the battle to have the the best GUI for cross platform, online and offline operation – write-once deliver anywhere GUI interface. Redmond is kicking as seen here: When Microsoft rounds up these many partners for a technology that is just […]
Bossies from Infoworld
Infoworld has kicked of its Bossie Awards this week and at first I thought this was going to a small sop to the Open Source community. Wrong. This is a full court and impressive set of awards and associated reviews showing how far advanced Open Source has become in all phases of development. What really […]
Craigslist Polizei “Victory”
The Craigslist Polizei have won – they have removed, deleted, trashed another of my ads: Now if you go here you will see what was going to be so offending to the General Community of Toronto that the Craigslist Polizei so successfully defended the community mores against. Go here to try figure out how the […]
Great IT Expectations
I cant decide in the North American business scene which gets the most disrespect: Manufacturing or IT? The reasons are for such cavalier and/or condescending attitude and pay is obvious. The Exec Suits often dont understand the swift changing economies and technologies in both areas, so they must cede power and decision making to groups […]
IBM to Sell Sun Solaris
Now I have read three or four takes on this Dog Sells Pony story but the funniest by far for its headline has been from Britains TheRegister -> IBM embraces – wtf – Suns Solaris across x86 server line!. And IBM is selling Solaris on some pretty good hardware lines including its blade servers. But […]
Princeton into the Perfect Storm
Information Week has a great article on doing Cross Browser Web Development. But like the people at WaSP, it has one glaring myopia. I copy verbatim the commentary of one party : “I have been a web designer and web developer for almost ten years–about as long as Web has been around! I have followed […]
IT Learning Curve
In commentary on Open Source resources, I advanced the notion that among professionals, IT developers have the toughest lifelong learning curve confronting them next to doctors and health care workers. I offer the latest issue(September 2007) of Dr. Dobbs Journal and the Editorial by Jonathan Erickson therein as proof of the notion. Jonathan has been […]
Vista: Not People Ready
I was just glancing at the Back to School ad by Dell for all its specials for the new college entrant – and the prices were good $800CAD for a dual core notebook with 1GB of memory, and 80GB drive. Desktops dipping as low $400 and all wrapped in the latest version of …. Vista. […]
Lowest TCO == Developers, Developers, Developers
Microsoft has long maintained the argument that Windows Server, despite becoming one of the highest purchase cost Server operating system, has the lowest TCO-Total Cost of Operation. The reasoning in most of Microsofts sponsored studies comes down to this: “There are more developers that know Windows and Windows apps then there are developers for Linux, […]
IT Ops Automation
Want to get competitive advantage in your business – its available and its through a simple process – doing IT right. In the Canadian Telecom market Bell Canada is taking a beating because its IT systems are in turmoil in comparison to its chief competitors – Rogers and Telus. Bells systems are silos based on […]
Mary Jo Foley Keeps Them Coming …
Mary Jo Foley keeps some of the best IT morsels coming. Read her story on the Google/Sun Star Office pact and package here. I think she is right on Denmark – even as to the delay in game nature of the announcement. Then she adds the tidbit on Adobe entering the Office fray using its […]
Microsoft “Open Source”
Microsoft has gotten eWeek to promote its 25 most active Open Source projects here. Now remember there are 4difficulties with Microsoft Open Source. First and foremost, the Microsoft Open Source licensing terms (there are two sets of licensing terms being proposed)have not yet been approved by the Open Source Initiative. I have not checked the […]
The FireBug Advantage
Now some would argue that Firefox deserves to be your browser for the great number of cool plugins that it offers. This story in Computerworld is typical of what the Web savvy are saying about Firefoxs plugin advantage. The Firefox website has this list of 1844 and counting add-ons. Others will say that Firefox real […]
JavaScript IDEs
Readers of theOpenSourcery.com and Keep an Open Eye know that this reviewer has been looking for a good JavaScript IDE. It has to go beyond being just a good color-coded editor and offer 3 capabilities: 1) true animated debugging through source code with watches and breakpoints; 2)true drag and drop visual layout of dialogs and […]
Open Source Websites
TheOpenSourcery.com is about 50-50. I cover just about as much proprietary software as open source – remember PHP, Java, JavaScript and CSS are all Open Source. I also have a tendency to feature free software because I think next to Doctors, IT developers have the toughest constant re-education row to hoe in all of the […]
Divide and Conquer Spells
DesktopLinux continues to tell it like it is. Indeed Microsoft is fracturing the Linux community. Like Martin Luther, Mundie/Ballmer/SaintGates have pinned to the Whaling Wall 235 Linux patent infringements. Its a Whaling Wall because you cant see any of the patents in any detail; but Steve and company will insist they are real – just […]
RIA Morphs Again
It is really remarkable that the GUI interface is changing as fast as the serverside messaging and support services. One would think that with the on-rush of huge amounts of data, topics like SOAP, BI, and Web Services would just dominate IT mindscapes. Well not so. RIA-Rich Internet Applications are morphing yet again into Rich […]
WiFi Directions
I am reading in the comfort of the Northumberland library at Port Hope (most of the libraries in Nortumberland county in Ontario have free WiFi service) all about the slow, inexorable trend towards super-charging the Ether – the sale of 700Mhz band including the possibility of bids for part of that band by Google (for […]
Emerging Technology
Jim Rapoza at eWeek is doing a series of emerging technologies briefings. He is emphasizing the impact of the MIT XO laptop computer for $100=>starting at $175: Despite missing their price target, the computer has not missed on some very innovative software and hardware configurations. Jim almost has me convinced that this Linux variant will […]
“They Are Off…..”
The race is on between Apple and Microsoft. The race for GUI supremacy is on between Apple and Microsoft officially. Again. Microsoft made it so this past week with the intro of its response to Apples widely praised and wildly popular iPhone. This Big Box is called Surface and it says Microsoft can do some […]
Irving Wladawsky-Berger Retires from IBM
Darryl Taft at eWeek certainly gets the tribute right – this is a big retirement from IBM, and the companys rise in Enterprise software is in no small part due to Irving Wladawsky-Berger. He really steered IBM in the right directions on the software side: Open Source tolerant in contrast to Redmond, unflagging cross platform, […]
Web Goes the Way of SQL
On theOpenSourcery.com, I have been doing a revamped series of reviews and tutorials on CSS. One of the facts that is emerging is that W3C standards like CSS, DOM, and DHTML JavaScript are being abused, ignored or delibrately bypassed and thwarted by browser vendors despite having close to ten years to deliver on a very […]
Firefox Add-on FireBug
During the past few weeks I have been doing a lot CSS and JavaScript development on my web pages and one thing that is emerging is that having a good DHTML debugger in the browser is absolutely essential. And the one that puts all others to shame is the FireFox addon – FireBug. This routine […]
Apple: Be Careful What You Wish For
Peter Burrows at Business Week has written the definitive article on why you dont impeach Dubya to get rid of his soaring incompetence – hes got Dick Cheney protection. Likewise for those wishing for an Apple surge on the desktop with the intro of MacOS Leopard and perhaps an iTablet PC to steal big chunks […]
Microsoft IE Does Best on CSS!
I thought I would never say this but on tests of CSS used with the <hr> tag, IE performed best: Even more notable – this is Internet Explorer 6. In contrast all the other major Windows browsers – Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Opera 9 – all of them flubbed simple horizontal rule options like […]
Google and Open Source
Like Apple, Google has profited immensely from the availability and use of Open Source code. LAMP in modified form is the crux of Google SuperComputing which is the companys distinct competitive advantage ->the ability to use massive, grid computing at extremely low cost to support operations like its search engine, Google Mail, Google Maps, and […]
Apple and Open Source Contributions
Here is the Apple statements on Open Source and how it contributes back to the Open Source community. As the first major computer company to make Open Source development a key part of its ongoing software strategy, Apple remains committed to the Open Source development model. Major components of Mac OS X, including the UNIX-based […]
The Beliefs of Silicion Valley: by Mike Vizard at eWeek
Mike Vizard at eWeek is doing one of those David Letterman 10 best lists which seems to have become de-rigeur in the Pundit Pontificating Place. Mike has certainly a provocative list – the ten things most fervently believed in Silicon Valley but nowhere else. It is done with a certain amount of tongue and cheek […]