Visual Studio 2005: Return of Just Good Enough
Mary Jo Foleys Microsoft Watch entry on Just Good Enough software picks up and summarizes a torrent of notes on the quality of Visual Studio 2005 just released on November 7th 2005. In contrast with SQL Server 2005 there are a number of bugs lurking in this version. And some people are raising the issue […]
BI Country Bumpkin: The Rest of the Story
I can remember long car trips across the sea-waving plains of Kansas, Nebraska, eastern Colorado in which every 3 hours or so I was held in thrall by Paul Harveys reading of the news – and then telling listeners the rest of the story. Well after my foray into BI Monopoly Pricing about a fortnight […]
Microsoft: Enemy of …
Microsoft can appear to be very petty and spiteful. Here is an example: But dont be fooled; this is not petty as much as an animal display of power. Its like a dog dousing a hydrant, or a moose bull trumpeting. This says to ISVs, developers, partners, businesses and all who use this site and […]
Thrilla in Manilla 2006: Cheat Sheet
The Thrilla in Manilla for 2006 is going to be Microsoft Windows Vista going against Apple Mac OS/X on the same Intel hardware. This weblog will be supplying a little ongoing Cheat Sheet which will be offering some insights on who is getting what advantages in what is shaping up to be the OS Desktop […]
Development: Snapshot 1993
One of the questions that frequently gets asked in development planning is how much time should be spent on the various phases of an IT project. I dont have the answer but I did look up in my favorite Bible on development practices as actually practiced, Caper Jones book Applied Software Measurement. I did not […]
Adobe as Monopolist
Adobe has managed to secure a position that many vendors in the IT field would covet – a near monopoly position in a rapidly growing market. What makes this most interesting is that Adobe has just absorbed in final acquisition the last possible major competitor to that market position, Macromedia. But first things first. Just […]
XML Databases
XML is taking hold as the foundation of Small Packet (<100KB) Data Exchange. This is coming about for a number of reasons. The first and most important, is that SOA designs are taking off as companies build to integrate, interoperate with flexibility, reuse and agility. Second, XML data bases are also starting to take off […]
IBMs U2 Database :Relaxing the Relational Rules
Dr. E.F.Codd must be rolling over in his grave. IBM, the IBM he worked for and developed the relational model at and for, is changing in its U2 database the definition of the relational database at the core – the first normal form rule. Specifically, that rule states that each column specifies one r none […]
eLearning Directions
I act as as TA assistant in a university setting, and therefore I get to see the students reactions to the overall eLearning Course Management System-LCMS and the individual eLearning programs and modules used by the teachers. The LCMS is uniform across the university and most departments make use of the core course management subsystems: […]
Trends 2006:Hardware Virtualization
Hardware chips already have made two major transitions in 2004-2005. First, the transition to 64Bit computing lead by AMDs design adopted by Intel helped to secure the acendancy of the x86 architecture as the dominant one in the server space. it certainly helped that there were 64bit software operating systems, lead by Linux and Solaris […]
Stuck on C: Drive II
If there be any doubt about the Microsofts ruthlessly strict NO NO NO policy on moving IE7 and some of Redmonds other Web tools to complete and robust Web Standards, check out the following two WASP postings: on CSS improvements and on a range of IE7 and other tools adherence to Web standards. Does this […]
Stuck on C: Drive
Ephraim Shwartz is back to hitting the issues right on Denmark again – in this case the emergence of Web 2, SaaS-Software as a Service, SOA Architectures, ESB and therefore demise of the Smart Client and and a Window server and Windows PC centric if not controling IT universe. Ephraim goes straight to the point […]
Effectively, the John Udell Challenge
Jon Udell at Infoworld, in commenting about the XML/Office storage brouhaha has along the way effectively raised a broader challenge that is well worth considering seriously – especially by pretenders to the RIA -Rich Internet Applications or 6As crown. For these ISVs the challenge is simple: Build a text editor/mailer (see Gamma et alia Design […]
Getting Commitment:Joint Tests
Two of the fundamentally astute calls in Agile development is to test everywhere, often and to get active participation of the clients throughout a project. What better way to do so by combining the two by having the clients and their analysts create the acceptance tests during a project. This is the proposition of the […]
Call Me a BI Country Bumpkin
Portrait of me as a BI Country Bumpkin Call me a country bumpkin … naif to the ultracost curve pricing practices of the IT industry. But note to Judge Colleen Kotar-Kotelly: please explain to me why Microsoft could be found guilty of unfair pricing practices in the case of Netscape where the company deliberately gave […]
Appletel versus Microsoft Vista
At year end eWeek, Information Week and Infoworld will all be offering their prognostications for the major technology trends to watch out for in 2006. It will be easy to pick the number one technolgy trend – Appletel versus Vista. This will be ITs equivalent of the Thrilla in Manilla. There will finally be the […]
Open Office Gets Better
From time to time, in my consulting business I get requests for a “free copy” of Microsoft Office. Almost without hesitation I recommend instead OpenOffice as a very viable alternative. The file compatibility is better than Microsofts own – Open Office both reads and writes more old Microsoft Office formats than Microsoft itself. And the […]
Coffees Visual Basic
Peter Coffee at eWeek writes an apology for Visual Basic that is strangely out of tune. Peter acknowledges what is generally conceded to VB – following the template of Guptas SQLBase, Visual Basic brought the important idea of 3rd party components for both visual GUI development and added backend (think database connections and report output) […]
eRains ZAM 3D
One of the fundamental shifts taking place in IT development is that the need to develop for and deliver to new networked and many devices without having to resort to a new development paradigm each time as you switch from PC to mobile phone to PDA to Web. These needs coupled with delivering in any […]
6As Arriving: Mobile Phones
The October 24th issue of eWeek has an article about Microsoft letting its security guard down on Exchange Server in order to gain advantage against Blackberry in the Enterprise Mobile Phone Messaging and Distribution marketplace. What that says about Trustworthy Computing is both disturbing and compelling. However of equal import is the fact that a […]
Zend Advances PHP
Zend Advances PHP is the title of an article in the Tech Watch section of InfoWorlds Oct 24 2005 issue. Zend are the people behind the essential P in LAMP-Linux Apache MySQL PHP/Perl/Python that dominates the web development world. PHP is very popular in Europe as well as North America and is winning over major […]
MySQL:The Mouse that Roared
For all you Peter Sellers movie buffs, The Mouse That Roared, is still quite entertaining despite the War on Terror as it tells the story of an impoverished backward nation that declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose and then get all the postwar US rebuilding aid. Its one of […]
Microsoft is Rudder-less
Darryl Taft has done his usual excellent job ferreting out the real tasty morsels in Redmond – and here is a huge story: Microsofts Server and Tools Rudder-less. Eric Rudder, one of the more productive executives at Microsoft, has been relieved of his duties in the Windows and Tools division and has been kicked upstairs […]
Bill Gates Attack on Malaria and Disease
News.com and the New Yorker, covering various sides of philanthropy, have revealed how much a player Bill and Medlinda Gates and their Foundation are in the field: According to a recent New Yorker story on The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, most of its nearly $29 billion endowment is dedicated to ridding the world of […]
Broadband Slowdown
Pew Study Group made public a survey and research that shows broadband acceptance slowing down from 20% annual growth in 2004 to about 12% in 2005. Given that less than half of US households are on broadband, this is not welcome trend. Pew Research discounts costs and or inconvenience and instead cites cultural factors – […]
Schizophrenic Personality
At Mamusings blog there is an interesting response to a recent talk given at the Microsoft campus by Chelsea Hardaway and Brian Fugere, authors of Why Business People Speak Like Idiots : A Bullfighter’s Guide. These two Deloitte authors while flogging … uhhh promoting their book gave a lecture . The lecture raised a responsive […]
AJAX and the 6As
There is a lot of interest in AJAX development lately. Here is a very informative special report at InfoWorld.com and another special report on CNET and even Business Week is getting into the fray. But AJAX is really a lot about pent up demand. Microsoft dropped the ball on AJAX 5-6 years ago when it […]
Extreme Programming and Planning
In his blog, Five Pound Bag, Martin Fowler talks about how the planning aspects of eXtreme Programming are misunderstood. He starts about how projects attempt to slip in extra features and how the simple aspect of stories helps people to understand that you can’t put 10 pounds of stones in a 5 pound bag. This […]
Ephraim Schwartz on Denmark Again
In his piece on Office Apps on Demand, Ephraim Shwartz is right on Denmark again on a crucial point. No, not whether Google and Sun will bring Web based interface to Office apps – clearly doable, and likely to really shake up the Business IT space if done … and not necessarily by Google and […]
CNETs Big Picture
CNET is often too much like its near namesake, CNN, for my liking. Too headline oriented at times, missing the depth in some stories. But give the CNET editors top marks for some of their innovations in getting the news out on Tech Stories. The latest can be seen in the screenshot below: CNET calls […]
What Was Not Said: Charles Fitzgerald
From time to time we will be featuring What Was Not Said, in which we, in the spirit of the Jon Stewart and the Daily Show, fill in the blanks creatively in an interview of some industry notable. In our inaugural edition we feature Charles Fitzgerald, Microsofts general manager for platform technologies in his remarks […]
$399 Dells are a Dagger to the Heart of …
This party is a Swell Swill junky; thus you could have caught me for the past two weeks watching ABC TVs Wednesday night Swill Fest composed of Lost followed by Invasion. This brought memories of undergraduate days when I had to make such important decisions-> whether to spend 2++ hours researching the latest developments in […]
UI Market Scramble
The scramble is on for another large IT market – Rich Interactive Applications. This involves major software APIs that provide the GUI Presentation layer for 6As computing: 1)Immediate Access to information for 2)Anyone Authorized 3)Anytime, 4)Anywhere on 5)Any device in 6)Any format required. Client server computing has been able to deliver 3 1/2 As – […]
Incumbency in IT
One of the fallibilities in US democracy, which is currently a big export item in US foreign affairs(read Afghanistan and Iraq), is the tremendous rigidity of incumbency. For example, the politician currently in power starts off the next election with an 80% probability of being re-elected. Even in so called swing years when a new […]
Web 2.0: Take Three
This party finds it very hard to understand how Microsoft keeps ISV partners and VARs happy. Microsoft has taken away market space from just about every major ISV and often with bruising and below the belt tactics. Moreover they continue to do so. And the names are major players like Novell, Corel, HP, IBM, Sybase, […]
Web 2.0: Take 2.0
The following are the gist of remarks made to a colleague on Web 2.0. In these remarks I try to get at the cause for Web 2.0 and the delay in its naturally happening: I really enjoyed your editorial on Web 2. I am always a bit leery when some parties creating a new conference […]
Web 2.0 : A Musing
Stephen Bryant at Publish.com has been writing about the Web 2.0 Conference out on the Left coast and what repercussions that is having on computing. He is naming it a Call to Action – which is a delicious irony because most of Web 2.0 is about the Server becoming the arbitrer of what appears on […]
Choosing Failure
In developing systems, the denoument often comes at the very beginning of the project. The projects Success or Failure is written right in the feasibility and requirements stage. And if Failure is chosen, then the drama and exact level of pain to be inflicted is played out, like Japanese Kabuki theater, in a series of […]
Could Not Dot the is and …
It appears that Suns Scott McNealy and Googles Eric Schmidt could not dot the is and cross the ts on a major technology sharing agreement. Or did they not want to reveal all ? The expectation is that Google and Sun would announce a joint venture to bring Suns Star Office to the Web. Google […]
Warning Will; Danger Danger
Remember those fateful words “Warning Warning Will, Danger, Danger” in Space TV days of yore ? That meant the plotline was going to take a nasty , often improbable twist. Somebody in the Space Family was going to make a gosh-awful decision. Well I am getting those same signals on the Adobe:Macromedia merger. This was […]
VOIP:The Next Big Wave Breaks
Full Disclosure: I am currently in the process of installing Bell Canadas ULTRA DSL at my own offices plus ULTRA DSL +VOIP at a colleagues office. And despite the great disservice from Bell (neither of us have had one 24 hour period of consistent DSL performance in a week and still counting of great trials […]
Love-Hate Relationship
I have just completed a review of REALbasic for Linux 2005 on Redhat and Debian Linux – look for it in Linux-mag.com. Let me tell you this was a real lot of fun. First, my Pentium 3 system crashed midwaythrough the review- hard disk did a very hard crash. I simply have not been able […]
Can Big Companies Innovate ?
Neil McAllister raises Bill Gates question – can Open Source developers innovate ? And to save you having to goto Neils article here is Bill Gates words for the record: “I dont think that someone who completely gives up license fees is ever going to have a substantial R&D budget and do the hard things, […]
Microsoft Expression Suite: Apple Target
A lot of pundits are identifying the new Microsoft Expression Suite as an attack on Adobe/Macromedia – and who could blame them ? Expression Suite takes advantage of the weaknesses in the Abobemedia line-up very effectively: 1)Expression Designer (nee Acrylic) exploits vector/bitmap gaps in the Photoshop/Adobe Illustrator and Fireworks/Freehand line; only Fireworks has pushed the […]
Cognos BI 8 Suite
Cognos launched its BI 8 Suite on September 14th calling for Consolidation and Standardization in the BI industry. Cognos put the case forward that it was the 1 to consolidate 2 with the following arguments: 1)it was extending its successful browser based Reportnet framework across its product lines – OLAP, MetricMeasures, Scorecarding, and the new […]
Overshadowings
The Fall is traditionally announcement month in the IT industry and 2005 was no exception. This last wek was typical: at PDC Microsoft announced its Expression Suite of new graphics products overshadowing Macromedias launch of its Studio 8 Suite; Oracle announced its acquisition of Siebel overshadowing Microsofts PDC and the Microsoft Business launch into the […]
Laura DiDio Making Sense
Normally I have little or no confidence in what Laura Didio writes concerning Microsoft versus Linux – she has proved to have a “I cant see that” attitude towards persistent problems with Windows, notably in the arenas of reliability, security and security administration. But in a recent piece summmarizing a Yankee Group Yet Again study […]
Linux on the Desktop
I am in the midst of doing a review of RealBasic 2005, a Visual Basic look-alike, that now runs on Mac and Linux as well as Windows. The GUI interface is uncannily like say Visual Basic 4 or 5 – with visual drag and drop design using a rich set of components many of which […]
Information Week Agility Poll
I keep track of the Information Week polls at the end of each issue as tea leaves that help determine the direction and more importantly the pace of change in IT. Back on July 25th of this year Information Week published some data on Business Agility. For example, they asked the following questions: 1)Is risk […]
IE7 Sept 5th 2005 Update
If readers had any doubt that IE7 is not going to be anything more than “Just Good Enough” to slow down the ascendancy of Firefox and other browsers read this posting. Here is the guts of what is being said: 1. There are no plans in having “active desktop” support for Internet Explorer 7. 2. […]