Microsoft Calls to Action
Microsoft will be making lots of calls to action at the upcoming PDC – probably no more so than in the field of desktop collaborative applications and Web Services designed to match recent offerings from Google and Yahoo. Googles new Desktop 2 is very very competitive – and threatens to become a runaway best seller […]
Microsoft: Breaking Trust With Web Developers
Bill Gates has been espousing Trustworthy Computing as the new direction that Microsoft is taking within its software offerings. But the problem is that Bill is still thinking in terms of bits and bytes and not the fundamental moral issue of trust. Bill persists in pursuing zero sum games where his need of 80 to […]
The Cost on Non-standard IE
Assume there are 10 million Web developers world wide (based on this article 10 million may be a very conservative number) that are using one of or all of JavaScript, CSS, DOM, HTML, XML. Assume those developers spend betweeen 10 and 15% of their time each day working on hacks, working arounds, and/or other fixes […]
Implications of IE7 Beta
In this article I have delineated how and why the new IE7 beta is such a monumental disappointment from Microsoft. In effect, Bill Gates and company are saying to the IT community: “we control the browser market and therefore we can dictate the nature of the Web interface. What standards and technologies are to be […]
Note on Trustworthy Computing
The following is the gist of a note I sent to my editor at BIPipeline. It is relevant as IE7 and Visual Studio betas reach the market: Ted I want to update you on my encounters with Microsofts SQL Server 2005 Community Technology Preview. I had decided to get up to speed in the new […]
American Gods
In a scene eerily reminiscent of Neil Gaimans stark novel American Gods, one of Redmonds Demigods, Steve Ballmer, was shouting over and over “I love you, partners … I love you, partners”. And well he might. For 6000 partners came to Minneapolis at Redmonds beck and call despite being treated to ever shrinking market opportunities […]
Tom Yagers Crusade
Tom Yager is on a crusade to delineate the unfair practices behind the AMD vs Intel suit. He makes no apologies about taking sides with AMD in this suit – and has set up a phone and email address for people who want to supply facts and evidence on this case. He also has described […]
Microsoft Atlas
Microsoft is clawing to get back aboard the the DHTML bus with its latest AJAX innovations. Talk about how thought and development leadership has shifted back to the Bay Area and Google, Macromedia, Sun, Yahoo etc. See how Redmond claims they were doing this all along with Outlook Web Access -its just that the companys […]
Java Takes Over Services
In an article on Borlands Together/J, eWeeks Darryl Taft gets at an essential point that is happening in the Java Services Development: “Alan McCutchen, vice president of engineering for Modus Operandi, a software company that accelerates and simplifies mission-critical EII (enterprise information integration) projects for federal agencies and prime contractors, in a statement said By […]
Quiet Competence:Java One 10 Times Over
eWeeks Peter Coffee is write on Denmark with his remarks here about Java One. As Peter says “I hope to find that this weeks JavaOne will continue a pattern by being one of the highlights of my year. There are conferences marked by tension, notably those involving IT security; there are conferences marked by frustration, […]
Embrace and Extend
The RSS community is up in arms over an apparent Embrace and Extend by the good gals and guys up at 1 Microsoft Way. Despite the misreading, Kevin Finck at Digital Web Magazine has got it right – and as Robert Scoble and Dave Winer are only too happy to say – “look what happens […]
Testing and the Open Source Value Proposition
One of the key concepts from Agile Development and Extreme Programming is to test early and often. I generally embrace this critical notion from both development disciplines with a slight amendment. My variation ? Test everywhere but effectively. By “everywhere” I mean that every phase of the IT development process should have measures and tests […]
Borland Core
Borland , like others like IBM with its Rational line, is breaking out of its monolithic development tools (JBuilder and Together primarily) into Core products designed to meet specific development roles. For example Core Architect contains architecting with design patterns, UML modeling, design metrics, etc. Code Developer drops the modeling and metrics/requirements but adds testing, […]
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
I have been chastised for referring to awshucks-I-am-just-a-coder-at-heart Bill Gates and his compadre-in-Machiavellian arms, Steve Jobs, as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in my story on Star Warriors. But Ziff Davis Peter Coffee, though much too polite to call them the same, nonetheless leaves little doubt as to how “good” these goodfellas are to their longstanding development […]
Thinlets: Java Arising
AJAX, Asynchronous JavaScript And XML for Web GUI processing, has been getting the lions share of attention on this weblog for the past few weeks. And the “new and improved” Flash has really caught peoples attention and deservedly so. But I would like to direct peoples attention back to Java and Thinlets. Thinlets use XUL-based […]
WiMAX : Nuking the Last Mile
WiMAX is coming and if you want to see how darned fast go to the SuperComm show in Chicago. WiMAX is going to nuke the last-mile monopoly that first telephone and now cable TV have enjoyed into homes and even many small busineses. Be prepared for Topsy to meet Turvy in the broadcast, telecommunication, mobile, […]
ODBC/JDBC Update
While doing a review of BI software with SAS developers we talked about some of the issues related with heterogeneous joins – linking up tables from two different databases. I prematurely commiserated with the SAS guys – saying this was a dogs breakfast and their performance must really take a hit. The looked at me […]
Microsoft:Rapprochement with Open Source ?
eWeek is chronicling efforts by Microsoft to have some sort of Rapprochement and Reconciliation with Open Source. Do read the comments attached to the article – the first 10-12 are not little kiddie verbal brawls and insults … but actually generate some key points and alternative visions on what is actually going on here. I […]
Gecko Usage up over 22%
Gecko usage up over 22% on my website which is decidedly pro-Gecko, Opera and anything-else-but-IE. This is from the list of top 20 user agents on theOpensourcery.com. So if I tabbed all user agents (3451 in May) the 22% using Gecko total would probably increase notably. Now here come all the disclaimers: > The sample […]
Apples in x86 Land:Linux Get Going Notice
Steven J. Vaughan-Nicholls at eWeek has written a superb analysis of what Apple adopting x86 means for Linux desktop developers and what they must do to respond. I will not paraphrase it – just highly recommend reading it. (c)JBSurveyer 2005
Revenge of the Sith III/II
This summer will see the comic-book epic Batman Begins and has been treated already to the Revenge of the Sith III, the third chapter in the Star Wars Trek. But hot on its tale comes the monumental IT thriller Revenge of the Sith III/II(Three-Too like in beer). This is the second installment where the Evil […]
Flash at the Crossroads
Macromedia Flash is at the crossroads – a many optioned crossroads. First and foremost, Flash is still a relatively young and fast evolving technology. For example, it took on a complete programming model with versions 4 and 5 while video and sophisticated audio streaming plus remoting and Web Services has been spread over the MX […]
Dean Edwards IE7
If anyone tells you that IE is only missing a few HTML and W3C standards, take a look at what Dean Edwards is doing just for CSS in creating what he calls IE7. First, kudos to Dean for a massive and well architected effort. Dean is certainly right about developers being tired of spending anywhere […]
Addendum on AJAX
AJAX is getting a lot of attention with the likes of Flickr.com, backpackit.com and Google Mail already changing the landscape of what can be done with greater speed and yet retain GUI richess while working in the relatively familiar JavaScript/HTML/CSS/XML/DOM world that is DHTML. We have raised big view issues and AJAX is far from […]
AJAX Approaching for Takeoff
AJAX – Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is building up a huge bubble of interest. The reason is simple – in n-tier processing managing the Presentation Layer is tough. There are a number of trade-offs between the centrally administered and generated interfaces versus local GUI on the client with better interface widgets and potential for better […]
Altova UModel 2005
Altova sent a blurb about its new UModel 2005 software. Having used XMLSpy in some of its many guises we were intrigued and a bit quizzical. Quizzical because it is very late to get in the UML game – the technology is 10 years old and well represented by: Argouml is Opensource, free and definitely […]
Demo on AJAX
One of the problems with AJAX technology is, strangely enough, the fact that it is JavaScript based. This is not to complain about JavaScript per se or its general functionality but rather the lack of a support structure around JavaScript. Here are three quick questions to support my statement: 1)Who invented JavaScript and how do […]
Adobe + Macromedia and Microsoft
At the JP Morgan 33rd Annual Technology Conference, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen was asked repeatedly whether he thought the new Adobe would now appear on the Redmond RadarScope and become a major target for Microsoft. For the record, here is what Bruce had to say: ” …this gentleman thinks the [Macromedia merger] is a threat […]
I Got It Wrong
In the past few months I have been arguing that Microsoft would finally be delivering on .NET across the board in its software technologies – Office, Application Servers, Longhorn, and Longhorn Server. I got it wrong. In a series of reports on .NET Framework, Microsoft Watch – confirmed by Infoworld has raised the following key […]
Screencasting is Happening
Online demo vendors such as Techsmith with Camtasia Studio, Qarbon with Viewlet Builder and Adobe/Macromedia with Captivate must be delighted to see Jon Udells coverage for the third time in less than half year of the advantage of what Jon calls screencasting and many know as online demo software, usually Flash based, but sometimes using […]
A Conversation on Bigotry
“You sure are an anti Microsoft Bigot. Congratulations.” from Ricky Datta bigot, noun bigut – a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own. This was the only line from Ricky in his email to me – but I responded because I believe some of the tough coverage of Microsoft in […]
Slo-Pitch Interview with Bill Gates
Want to see a t-ball or slo-pitch interview with Bill Gates ? Check out eWeeks Peter Galli and the masterfull arcing lobs sent Bills way at WintheHec are you going to answer the real questions. No offense intended for Peter, but to get any interview at all means having to submit to the controlled presidential […]
Linux vs Windows Servers: Notttt Exactly
All the OS pundits have been portraying the final battle for OS Server dominance as a pre-ordained contest between Windows 2003 and successors versus Linux in its RedHat, Novell/Suse, Mandrake and other forms. The proprietary Unixes such as AIX and HPUx have been assigned to the scrap heap of Novell Netware, OS/400, and the Bunch. […]
AdobeMedia I – Breeze 5
AdobeMedia is what we are calling the merged entities of Adobe and Macromedia which will fuse together in the Fall of this year. These are the two most powerful and technically advanced multimedia software players in the world. Its not a done deal – third parties may object. And well they might. Of the top […]
BI BlitzKrieg: Updated
The latest freebies from Microsoft in the BI marketplace has eWeek reporters bewildered and pursuing a red herring about DBAs, database servers, and IT systems being overwhelmed by the new programming and data access load generated by all the freebie …. Hell, a complete Blitzkrieg on the BI marketplace has broken out and we are […]
Kudos to Larry Seltzer
Kudos to Larry Seltzer for naming names in the Phishing business in the US. I have been working diligently supplying PayPal, eBay, Security Bank, Washinton Mutual, and dozens of others with spoof email adresses just minutes after the attacks so they can locate the perpetrators and shut them down. Nothing much is happening. It is […]
VBA Rescues Classic Visual Basic ?
Microsoft Developers are not happy about the demise of classic Visual Basic 6 in favor of Visual Basic.NET. Microsoft developers,even 225 MVPs, have continued the protest. Microsofts key executives in charge of development have rejected those requests and promised better conversion utilities and advice. Not what the developers wanted to hear … but end of […]
Microsoft Moral Malaise
Robert Scoble has tripped off a moral whirlwind on the Redmond campus this weekend. For those not in the know, Robert works for Microsoft PR and has a huge blog following in the Websphere. Also his blogging has helped establish a blog-voice for hundreds of Microsoft employees. Finally his and the other employee blogs provide […]
Sayanora to JPEG2000
As a web developer I have been salivating at the prospect of using JPEG2000. The reason is simple. JPEG2000 delivers discernibly better image quality than JPG at the same compression level. JPEG2000 also affords better control over the image degrade artifacts while providing black and white compression opportunities only available to a limited audience of […]
Gecko Usage Update
Just a quick update on usage of the Gecko/Mozilla engine on my two websites: theOpensourcery.com – on 850,000 hits/month 15.3% are Gecko based thePhotofinishes.com – on 150,000 hits/month 12.0% are Gecko based The drop of Gecko usage on thePhotoFinishes.com may be attributed to the large number of Apple users. Finally this list is compiled from […]
AntiTrust Conditions
Now that Microsoft, IBM and Oracle are in a MAD contest to giveaway the biggest possible BI stack for free to sell their underlying databases, this raises some antitrust questions: 1)Is it an antitrust violation for a vendor to enter into an already existing and prosperous market and offer all products in that market for […]
BI Raining Competition
BI vendors are finding out what a Hell two or three good years can be. It is simply raining competition in the marketplace. First, Siebel, SAP, and Lawson decide to add more BI capabilities and even standalone BI products to their offerings. Then IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle increase the amount and breadth of their free […]
Macromedia Adobe Matchmaking
Let there be no doubt the key to this merger is how well the two companies blend their three multimedia players. Look at where they stand right now: Macromedia Flash Player – 98% penetration of Web connected PC desktops, 10% of mobile deals. -Flash Player can be stand alone, or be a seamless part of […]
Developers, Developers, Developers II
“Developers, Developers, Developers” is the famous chant by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer telling in no uncertain terms what the CEO thinks is the key success factor for Microsoft – all the third party developer building apps for Windows and making its suite of applications so large that it could easily defeat IBM OS/2 and any […]
AJAX: The Foaming Cleanser
AJAX- may stand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (we have seen variations on this theme). And AJAX is the current darling of the web development community. And to a great extent it deserves to be. DHTML is coming out of the cold as Google proves that vendors such as Isomorphic werent wrong when they said […]
Now You Said It
Tom Yager at InfoWorld has gone and said it publicly. Something that really deserved saying for the past year or two. In fact recently there have been intimations that somebody would say it and soon …. but until Tom popped the words it remained, sadly, unsaid. And what are those magic words ? Write once, […]
Grimes on .NET: Death Knell ?
Richard Grimes has been working with and writing about .NET from its very start as COM+2 and COOL back 2000. For the past 3 years he has been writing the Grimes on .NET column for Dr.Dobbs Journal. He has now chosen to stop writing about .NET and tells us why in this farewell column – […]
Unmanaged Code from Redmond?
Tom Yager at Infoworld has done a piece about systems programming languages and the tensions between C++ and C# camps at Microsoft. In his piece, Blame Visual Studio.NET, he is arguing that the C++ coders have felt out of synch if not just left out of their rightful place in the newish (circa 2000 but […]
Even the Rats out of the Barn
Here are five articles from the 1996-1998 time frame about Internet Explorer, ActiveX and Security – Classic ActiveX Exploder demo and warning from way back when … early 1996 – WebDeveloper.com raises some critical ActiveX on Web issues in 1996 – A Security Comparison of ActiveX and Java from 1997 – A frank warning about […]
CEOs: Blog or Die
Baseline Magazine has some pretty adventurous views; so I approached the recent article by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld , CEOs: Blog or Die, with equal parts curiosity and skepticism. After all CEOs go to the top by being master reflectors or deflectors. Toms call for more CEOs to join the small but impressive list of current CEO […]