Transmedias Glide
The SaaS Office World continues to heat up with another feature laden player with Transmedias Glide: Okay, what I have seen so far has been only a demo – but that was very impressive. There are three versions of Glide. The Campus Version seen in the screenshot above, a Business version, and a Campus version […]
Adobes JavaScript Makeover
One of the things this reviewer has advised in confidence for many years before the AJAX phenomenon to key staff at Borland and Adobe, was that they should consider a more leadership role in developing JavaScript and a JavaScript IDE. Borland had one in the form of IntraBuilder and Dreamweaver has all the bells and […]
Drive in a Cadillac
Our family is a dying breed – the classic Middle Class American Family of the latter half of the 20th Century. Upper affluent but not ostentatiously so. You could see it in the choice of Family cars: A Mercury, a Pontiac station wagon, An Oldsmobile 88 Cutlass, and then Dad went on a splurge. A […]
Programming Languages Dynamics
Martin Heller at InfoWorld raises questions about the desirability of Write Once Run Anywhere systems like Java, JavaScript, and a host of other scripting and cross platform programming languages. In the process Martin raises fundamental issues about the Dynamics of Programming Languages and specifically : Locally Optimized versus Globally Adaptive. Already, Martin has raised issues […]
Waiting for Godot II
I had two experiences that were like the play Waiting for Godot – Samuel Becketts classic waiting for something to happen while life continues and even manages to slip away. First one. A colleague has stuck faithfully with Windows to do high-end video editing and development work. He was rewarded a few years back when […]
Ajax Repackaged
I have problems with AJAX – and they are gut level and three: 1)AJAX like Linux has already forked too often and is now spread over several mutually incompatible frameworks – sort of like getting instant SQL mayhem just when interoperability is el numero uno, dos, y tres problemos in IT and development; 2)JavaScript, the […]
SaaS Now!
Saas is increasing in popularity – and I am no exception in succumbing to its Siren song wiles. Here is a poll as SaaS from pollcode.com which is adapting the Google “let ads pay the freight” model of SaaS . I get to setup at poolcode.com the poll shown below and pollcode.com does all the […]
IT Trade Press Blogs: Better than the Originals?
Here is proof of the old adage “choose the singer not the song” for selecting courses, books, and even music. The idea is that the subject matter of a course may be interesting but the the teacher determines how sustainably good and interesting that course subject will be over the many weeks of a term. […]
Toshiba Tablet Vista-ed
Read this promising preview of Toshiba;s new Portege R400 tablet machine. Then read this less than enthusiastic review and more candid assessment-Feb 5 issue of eWeek, Page 40 Anne Chen article. This is the price that hardware vendors have to bear for the next 1-3 years while Microsoft gets Vista off of bloat and upto […]
Zoho Writer Visual Review
Google Visual Review
Testimonial to Vista for Developers
Darryl Taft at eWeek has just written one of those testimonials to new Microsoft software (Why Vista Matters to Developers) – in this case, Windows Vista and the new Developers tools and “opportunities”. I have to admit I am biased against Microsoft on how it treats its developers since I have seen how many times […]
Unabashed Puzzles Plug
Our sister website, Bookraft.com is now featuring a blog devoted to solving various Crossword and other Word Puzzles.. PuzzlinCraft is the blog and it has a variety of crossword, anagram, pun and other word-crafty puzzles. But even better the Puzzlin pages features fabulous prizes of Bookraft Bookmarks for the first 3 to solve our Word […]
Vista: Anti-People Ready ?
I have recently had problems posting ads on Craigslist for this blog – the article is Anti-People Ready in which I try to summarize some of the 7-8 reviews that I have read on Office 2007. I cant figure out (and Craigslist is not telling) why the ads have been pink slipped – pulled by […]
Microsoft-Novell Interoperability
In the interest of clarifying positions on Interoperability between Novell and Microsoft I present the following comparison made by Novell of Novell Linux versus Microsoft Vista: 1 – On costs of entry and operation. 2 – On relative security. 3 – On usability and desktop innovation. 4 – On flexibility and hidden costs. Now that […]
AJAX: Security Problems Emerge
I have a coding whiz as a colleague on some freelance assignments and he not only codes well, but also plays great badminton and sometimes seems ultra cautious(and here is someone who would agree). The other day we were discussing the use of AJAX for some local web page activities, and Paulo would have none […]
AJAX:Dynamic Program Change=Security Gap
Infoworlds Martin Heller keeps harping on a JavaScript problem that is fundamental to the assessment of its security risks: Dynamic change in scripts of program code addresses that are publicly available and therefore subject to malevolent misdirection. The latest investigation by Martin into some details on Ruby on Rails implementation of CRUD is even more […]
PSSST: Wanna Buy Windows XP?
Do you want to get some new PC hardware but bypass the pleasures of having to relearn the WOW of running your OS and Office ? And really – did you want to spend the weekend like my two buddies – searching frantically for Vista drivers for peripherals that worked just fine under Windows XP […]
Prediction: Microsoft Will Buy Novell
Redmond is definitely kicking the tires. This is a known pattern on Microsoft purchases – first doing kiss, make up and lets do good together as required. Then actually doing joint things together. But most of all confirming these gals and guys really do have the goods we want. And Novell does. 1)one of the […]
Windows Out-Migration
It is becoming obvious that Windows Vista is good but still a marketing kludge – a rushed and incomplete upgrade in which great bodily harm was done to Windows credibility and marketability: 1)Windows somewhat shaky performance and efficiency – this is bloatware demanding doubling or more upgrades to hardware to run effectively while other OS […]
Anti-People Ready
We are a getting an awful lot of variations on People Ready software ads on TV from Microsoft.However they seem misdirected because the consensus among reviewers of Office 2007 is this is the one thing that cannot be said about the product. Ditto for Windows Vista where the consensus among reviewers on both products is […]
Microsoft Bribery: The Last Word
I and many others have brought up the issue of the Microsoft Bribes to bloggers doing reviews of Microsoft Vista – by giving them free $2200 laptops “to help in their explorations of Vista”. And then taking them back. And then giving them away … ad nauseam. Well David Pogue of the New York Times […]
Camtasia Studio:Reversal of Form
In a review of Adobe Premiere Elements, one of the best programs for creating business and home videos or image slideshows, I suggested that it could also be used to create fabulous program demos which document how a program works through video screen capture. I suggested all users had to do was use some video […]
Linux versus Vista: Best Review
Well Steven Vaughan-Nicholls at DesktopLinux has done a very good 1/3 of what I have been calling for – strong testing of Vista versus Apple MacOS/X, Linux and Windows XP. This is a candid and thorough review of Linux versus Vista: Now so far Steven has done 3 installments most asociated with getting a new […]
Lahman Baseball Database
Cheers echo throughout the land. Baseball aficionados doff their caps. Database experts sigh with relief. The 2006 Lahman Baseball database is now officially available with data on the batting, fielding, pitching, and managing prowess of Americas finest players and baseball participants for 2006. However, what makes theLahman database so much more – and compellingly so, […]
Gold Standard Vista Reviews
Here is the Gold Standard for a Vista review: updated Feb 02, 2007 First, because Microsoft is claiming that after 20 years Windows has finally reached Enterprise caliber levels of security, reliability and availability while retaining all of its good virtues – most applications, usability, most applications, new GUI features, most applications, etc – this […]
Bill Gates on the Daily Show
Monday night, January 29th 2007, Bill Gates appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Whoever in Microsoft PR advanced this appearance … uhh well not exactly what you wanted. The problem is that the Daily Show is testament to the fact that a whole generation is growing up to not trust its leaders, media […]
Dont Wait for Adobe
I have stated here that availability of two programs on Linux would have me convert from Windows desktop to Linux 100% of the time in very short order. Well for one of those programs, Photoshop, I dont have to wait for Adobe. Xara has a very fast and amazingly easy to use program, Xara Xtreme […]
The Buzz on Browsers:The Problem
I have been trying to confirm whether my impressions that Firefox 2.0 and Opera 9 are clearly superior to to IE7 are supported both in the IT Press and the blogosphere. I have had mixed results. Ask and Google searches on the topic bring up mixed results at best: 1)Surprisingly there are very few real […]
Steves Rotten Apple
Steve Jobs and Apple assiduously court the image of being a step above. Here are three quick signs of Apple looking like a Banana Peel for slipping up and being, in a step, on their behind. 1)Martha Stewart was sent to prison for doing some relatively low value insider trading. Whats going to happen to […]
Benchmark No More!
Tom Handy is a writer, philosopher who has popularized the Frog Tactic. The idea is that if you want to cook a frog (or World) alive – all you have to do is slowly turn up the heat from warm to warmer until you have the legs (countries of the World) cooked and done exactly […]
Linux Lift Off
I currently use Linux on one of my 3 current PCs about 1/3 of the time. I have asked myself what would it take to get me to go to Linux fulltime especially given the specter of el Bloato = Vista and its rancid fat running rampant on desktops. My answer is in two screenshots: […]
Rising Security Problems
2007 will be another year of rising security problems for three reasons. First, there is a lot of unfinished security business from 2006 including the Spam and Rootkits tsunamis, combined SocialEngineering/Trojan attacks on data sources, and the huge wave of newly released Vista/Office/Exchange software. Second, hackers are broadening their point of attack from OS/browser/email to […]
Bill Gates Replacement: Steve Jobs
Many readers know my views on Bill Gates – for the past 10 years his tactics – Machiavellian at best, ruthless at worst have proved highly counter productive for the industry and ultimately his company. Just one example is Bills fruitless efforts to replace and then undermine the Web have proven to be futile. And […]
Gold Standard Vista Review 2
Apparently I missed the Gold Standard Vista review from Jim Allchin – super VP for Microsoft Windows. Here is an excerpt: “I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. If you run the equivalent of VPC [Virtual PC] on a Mac you get access to basically all Windows application software […]
Apple Rattles UI Cage
The following is the Tibco General Interface AJAX development tool running in the Firefox browser: Now what makes this interesting is that just over a year ago Redmond was saying Smart Clients based on the desktop were the way to go – and that was what Visual Studio 2005 and Vista were going to bring […]
Why Steve and Bill Should Break up Microsoft
First, Microsoft stock has been performing horizontally for the past 7 years. Second, there are profound problems in the workforce stemming from the loss of growth of stock prices and therefore employee stock options constantly being under water. But also management dynamics are out of whack. Finally Microsoft is currently living in welter of contradictions. […]
Embarcadero Rapid SQL
About two months ago, I put out a request for a good cross database platform SQL Database Development utility. Yes, I know I was not precise in defining what I really wanted. The only explicit requirement was the ability to display the database objects and data in the tables of the most popular databases – […]
Why Microsoft Is Resorting to Bribery
The big furor over the New Year weekend has been Microsoft giving away free Vista loaded laptops to an A-list of bloggers – reportedly 90; but I have yet to find a definitive list. However, this”PR” move is tacitly strange given that: a)The machines clearly define Vista as bloated.Bloggers were given 2GHz dual core AMD […]
How to Resolve Bribery Charges Against Microsoft
I have just left the following note on Mitch Dennys blog. Mitch received one of the 90 or so free Ferrari laptops (2Ghz dual core AMD processors, 160GB disk loaded with Vista 64bit edition) to do anything they want with them – give them back to Microsoft/AMD/Acer, give them away, or just keep them. So […]
Who is Censoring? eWeek ?
eWeek has raised the question of Blogger Bribery by Microsoft; but in the meantime they may be guilty of egregious censorship themselves: I had just received an eWeek Weekend email citing the story on Blogger Bribery by Steven Vaughan-Nichols. I wanted to add a comment that would show that indeed it is bribery because Microsoft, […]
Redmonds Blatant Bribery
It has become all the news on many tech websites like Microsoft-Watch and eWeek, Microsoft is giving away away free laptops loaded with dual core 2GHz processors, 2GB of memory, 160GB hard drives, big screens and Windows Vista 64bit edition to bloggers with “no strings attached”. The reaction of some websites pundits has been LOL […]
PHP Again: PHPRunner
PHP again hits the spotlight as we try to find a good PHP IDE with visual design capabilities. For example Nusphere PHPEdit has great editor, debugger, and even some basic code generation wizards – but no Visual Design tool. Ditto for Zend Studio and Activestate Komodo. Now some will argue that Visual Design with drag […]
Open Source Database Designer
Fabforce.net has produced a very practical database designer utility that allows users to create EREntity Relationship database model diagrams either from scratch or reverse engineered from existing databases. The types of databases that DBDesigner natively connects to includes MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and a host of desktop databases through ODBC. The screenshot shows the tool […]
Crossword Puzzle
I have a puzzler for crossword enthusiasts – which technology is going to win the RIA-Rich Interface Applications race ? Now I have just featured an article about Adobes Flash – and its great media compression and handling capabilities coupled with its Actionscript 3, (a JavaScript 2 superpowered edition with its powerful media objects and […]
Adobe Labs: A Graphic Developers Place To Be
I swear that Adobe has taken a leaf from IBM and has fortified its Adobe Labs to be like IBMs Developers Works, the place to be about all things new Adobe and more broadly in graphics software usage and development. And I am not the only one noting this. Graphic designers can find the latest […]
WordWeb
WordWeb is a delightful popup dictionary and thesaurus which is easy and useful to use in writing on Windows. This writer has long ago given up on Microsoft Word and does a good deal of penitentiary work on the Web or in programs like PHPEdit, WordPress, Macromedia Flash or CorelPaintShop Pro where the chances of […]
Creative Computing: Artmaster Pro
Fo2Pix Artmaster Pro creates wonderful images through its ability to provide stunning design options. Artmaster Pro literally knows the lines, areas, tones and colors of your images. It then goes about simplifying and emphasizing those attributes in your image: As you can see from the screenshot, Artmaster knows how to simplify the colours within in […]
Creative Computing: Rhymesaurus
From time to time I shall try to emphasize some of my favorite software for doing creative work. Since I am constantly toiling in the Wordpatch, it is appropriate to start with Rhymesaurus from Purpleroom: Are you like me – particular about word and yet frustrated by the ability to find the perfect rhyme or […]
Microvell: Microsofts Calculated Buy into Linux
Microvell is the name of the new alliance between Microsoft and Novell not to create fear uncertainty and doubt in the Linux software market over whether you will get sued by Redmond if you run any other version of Linux other than MS approved Suse Linux – no no no no. But rather, this is […]