Tech Blender

"Actually, I'm showing a lot of usage on this account"

You may have heard that it's hard to cancel your AOL account.  I think it's because people are rude and lie to the AOL customer service people.  Just listen to this:

http://www.break.com/index/aolhell.html

This "customer", if you can even call him that, obviously doesn't know what's good for him.  I'd try to get his dad on the phone too.

(Is this a hoax?)

Flickr + WinFX + Windows Media Center = Pretty Freak'n Cool

Check this out.  A Windows Media Center app that front-ends Flickr, built using .NET 3.0.  And, it's not just demoware.

World Domination Step #1, Build Big Robot with Laser Eyes (Microsoft and Lego team up)

Microsoft has released a CTP of Microsoft Robotics Studio, designed to work with the next generation Lego Mindstorm.

My other blog is a Prius.

Rather than clutter up this blog with off-topic stuff, I've started another blog dedicated to world energy, which I think will be the dominant topic of the 21st century (possibly even more important than where to put the curley brace).

Did you know, for example, that Russia is building floating nuclear power plants which can be sold and towed anywhere in world?  Read on at Dilithium Crystals.

So this "Atlas" thing you mention...

ScottGu posts a gajillion links to Atlas (Microsoft's AJAX implementation) resources.

Broken Windows Theory, and how it's supposed to work

Philip Su's ethereal "Broken Windows Theory" post is back up.  It's a good read, and reminds me of life inside a Fortune 500 software company that I once worked for.  Except that the Microsoft environment is much, much nicer.  Take this quote, for instance:

I once sat in a schedule review meeting with at least six VPs and ten general managers.  When that many people have a say, things get confusing.  Not to mention, since so many bosses are in the room, there are often negotiations between project managers prior to such meetings to make sure that no one ends up looking bad.  "Bob, I'm giving you a heads-up that I'm going to say that your team's component, which we depend on, was late."  "That's fine, Sandy, but please be clear that the unforeseen delays were caused by a third party, not my team."

That's not the way it's supposed to work.  For your company to really be disfunctional, it has to work like this:

1. Your boss goes to a meeting where edicts come down about what will be developed, and when it needs to be developed by.  Everyone below senior management knows it's completely unrealistic.  No on calls bullshit.  It might be in the interest of the company to know that it won't work, but it's not in the interest of any individual manager to bear that news.  Any manager that does so will be singled out for criticism.  Everyone nods their head to the scope and schedule, snaps out a salute and a "Yes sir.", and leaves the room with body language that fully indicates that they're going to charge the hill.
2. Your boss comes and meets with you, his faithful team.  The meeting goes something like this.  "Get this, they want X by Y.  (Chuckles fill the room)  Ok, when this slips/fails, we need to be able to prove that it wasn't our fault."  There's never, for one second, any planning about actually meeting the unrealistic schedule.
3. The team works in earnest, on not being the reason for the slip.  This is not the same as actually working towards the success of the project.  Not being at fault ranges from bluffs of, "No, our stuff is ready.  We're just waiting on (something that no one could possibly expect us to have control over.)"  To actively sabotaging other teams.  "I'll teach Bill over in spider plasma tools to f' with me.  He totally backstabbed me in that meeting 6 months ago, and now I've got my chance.  Check the component in that they're dependent on, but don't tell anyone.  In a couple days he'll start screaming for it.  We'll say, 'What?  It's been checked in for days."  Let's see him hit his deadlines with that."  The most effective way to not getting blamed for a slip is having someone else who you can blame, and make it stick.
4. Eventually, it becomes obvious that it's going to slip.  Now it's time to "Figure out how we got here, and how to keep it from happening again."  Everyone opens their suitcase of evidence about how some other group is responsible for the slip and the blamestorm ensues.

I remember reading an article in Scientific American about a researcher at HP.  They had a problem where sales people wouldn't give accurate estimates to their bosses about how much they thought they would sell in the next quarter. Everyone would sandbag.  So instead of asking how much they would sell, they were given the choice of being paid a high base, or more commission.  It became instantly obvious how much everyone really thought they would sell.

There's also research into using markets as more accurate predictors than official estimates.  Something about the markets being able to predict complex events better than estimates.

The dangers of DHMO

A buddy just forwarded this very scarry and/or terrifying information to me. For the love of all things holy, send this to everyone you know, before DHMO takes another innocent life!!!!!!!!!

More on AJAX security

The topic of AJAX and security seems to have exploded onto the scene. Here's a good intro on some attacks that have already happened.

New Version of Google Earth

There's a new version of Google Earth available. This is quite likely one of may favorite programs of all time.  Strange that it's not named gEarth.

SQL Everywhere CTP

I missed it on the date it went live, but Microsoft has posted the first CTP for SQL Everywhere - a.k.a the Access Killer. If you have applications with local data storage needs, and you're using XML files, Access, or even SQL Express, check this out.

Be Assertive

Larry O'Brien points to evidence that use of assertions does result in higher code quality.

Bill Gates stepping down, Ray Ozzie gets a key to the castle

Microsoft has announced that in 2008 Bill Gates will step down from his day-to-day roll in running Microsoft. Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie have been promoted to Chief Software Architect, and Research and Strategy Officer, respectively. Ray and Craig report to Gates for the time being, but will transition under Steve Balmer at some future date.

Yowza!  Ray Ozzie is a relative new-comer to Microsoft.

Scoble says there'll be an interview posted today on Channel9.

Apache guru has high praise for .NET 3.0

He calls it praise for Vista, but the features he's referring to sound like .NET 3.0 to me, which will run on XP, WS2003, and Vista.

"The big story here is that it brings Vista into sharp focus as an alternative platform for doing enterprise-class mashups. Why futz about with AJAX or Flex/Apollo when you can do it all using WS-* or REST, and get the advanced client capabilities of Windows Presentation Foundation (Avalon)? Enterprise IT people will warm to that story, because they're the people who've been asking for all the elaborate security and management capabilities that WS-* brings to the web services environment and which are signally lacking from both REST and AJAX."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/index.php?p=171

It's impossible because, well, because China hasn't asked for it yet.

In it's report titled "Security Implications of Applying the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act to Voice over IP" (pdf) industry experts assert that applying the law enforcement act to VoIP, which requires carriers to provide wire-tapping capabilities, would be burdensome, expensive and/or impossible.  Good for them, I suppose.  I think the crux is that companies already have unfettered access to the US market, so complying with this would just be a new expense.  If, on the other hand, it was a precondition to doing business in China, I have a feeling the technical challenges would quickly be solved.  I'm surprised that Cisco, Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo aren't touting tap-able VoIP to gain a competitive edge in that market.  Maybe, quietly, they are.

Thank you VS, may I have another?

Pop quiz:  The following screen shot shows me attempting to do something really simple.  I'm just changing the Text property of the form to the string "Something Else", and this "Property value is not valid" message appears.  Why?

This is my "favorite" VS annoyance, and it bites me all the time.

The good news is our site has seen a 20x increase in traffic. The bad news is, it's from the same number of users.

A good read detailing how AJAX makes development more complicated from a performance and security standpoint.  Having each one of them thar controls chat'n with the server has a down side.

SPIT

SPIT = Spam over Internet Telephony.  Some people are worried the same dynamics that make SPAM and E-Mail taste great together apply equally well to SPAM and VoIP.

It's no artillery duel, but still...

Google launching Minesweeper (be sure to look at the ads in the screenshot.)  Funny stuff.

I'm still holding out for either an Ajax powered Atrillery Duel, or Star Trek.

AJAX, on the hype cycle, you are here:

         --  Peak of Inflated Expectations
        /  \
  AJAX *    \
      /      \
     /        \                  -----------
    /          \        --------/Slope of Enlightenment
   /            \  ----/
  /              -/
 /                 Trough of Disillusionment
/

Red Pill passes through Scoble's system

One red pill, ingested by Robert Scoble a while back, has passed completely through his system and is now available for another ingestion. Any takers?

Seriously, good luck on your future ventures outside of the big house.

Oil, it's the new air.

It's a little disconcerting that while oil industry analysts keep saying that we're far from peak oil production, the #1 thing on the G8 agenda seems to be world energy supply, or lack thereof. The subtext is that we should carve up the remaining pie now, or at least define the rules of engagement, lest countries like China strike all kinds of long term deals with, say, Canada, while nuclear arsenals like the US twiddle their thumbs until the Hummer drivers start chanting "Nuke their ass and take the gas."

Note: It's not about running out, or even the point when production peaks. Big trouble starts as soon as demand surpasses supply.

This had better work because we're all out of names.

Microsoft, ever one to coin a new term that even they can't succinctly describe, has decided to try a bit of deobfuscation. Avalon begat WPF. Indigo begat WCF. WPF, WCF, and WF together formed Ghidrah, I mean WinFX. What could possibly be simpler to understand.

If only it weren't for us yokels, too dim to keep up. As we sit, a massive CTRL-H - Find:WinFX - Replace: .NET Framework 3.0, is snaking it's way through MSDN.

I can live with .NET Framework 3.0, but isn't there a way to shoehorn Live in there somewhere?

Windows Super Clusters

Microsoft enters the high performance computing fray with Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003.

Windows 98 and ME prove to be patch proof

Microsoft has scrapped plans to fix a critical security flaw in 98 and ME.

OpenNETCF v2.0 Available

V2.0 of OpenNETCF is now available for Visual Studio 2005. While many new features have been added, the "free" feature has been obsoleted and removed.

The best thing MSDN has ever done.

Yesterday, the MSDN WIki Beta launched. This is the MSDN docs opened up so that you can add your own content to the end. IMHO, this will do more to improve the usefulness of the docs than anything else.

Grid Computing for .NET

Two projects seek to bring grid computing to Visual Basic .NET or C#. Alchemi and NGrid. Grid computing is the notion of using spare CPU cycles of many machines to form a virtual super computer. Alchemi and NGrid seek to provide frameworks to .NET developers to greatly simplify this task.

Google Spreadsheets Taste Test

After one look a Google Spreadsheets I'm certain that Microsoft has nothing to fear. I can't imagine a single "Information Worker" or organization switching to this. I remember when Google used to be a company where their Betas were knock-your-socks-off-unbelievable. Gmail. Maps. News. These things all pushed their entire respective fields ahead by an order of magnitude. Google Spreadsheets are anything but impressive. Simple Excel operations (and I mean something as basic as adding rows to the bottom of the sheet) are cumbersome. Spreadsheets of any complexity won't import. There's no graphing capability. I don't even think you can print.

The other thing that this makes readily apparent is that Office has been under development for over a decade. No one is going to replicate that feature set, that much code, over night. Even if most Excel users only use 5% of it's features, that 5% is still a tremendous amount of code. Good luck.

It seems that the main feature of the Google Spreadsheets is that "You can share them!!!" Big whup. Call me old fashioned, but I call that "E-mail". Most spreadsheets are single-master, many-reader. I don't usually need everyone on earth to be able to update it. Assuming that I do need multiple writers, Sharepoint fills this niche quite nicely.

Maybe Google should stop debuting these things as Beta. A Google Beta used to suggest a higher level of functionality and usefulness. Alpha anyone?

Microsoft, Google, each aim for the head

Lest anyone thought that Microsoft and Google weren't out to annihilate each other, todays news should leave no doubt. Each company made bold moves to wrap it's fingers around the neck of the others golden goose. Microsoft makes money off of Windows and Office. Today, Google put a torpedo in the water aimed at Office's broadside, announcing the beta of Google Spreadsheet.

Google's revenue is, while breathtaking, is even more tenuous. Google makes it's money off ads. Switching off of Office poses a certain barrier for most users. Opening your browser to a different search page requires zero effort. As of today, ads on MSN are powered 100% by Microsoft's adCenter, letting it go head-to-head with Google and Yahoo for ad revenue.

AJAX and "Where'd all my site traffic go?"

An interesting article that talks about when you start using AJAX, measuring traffic becomes a lot more complex than just counting page views.

How to go to TechEd even if you're not going to TechEd

I'm passing on TechEd this year. With a Carribean cruise, and other travel, I'm just not planning on being on the road an extra week. But, I don't have to miss out. With sites like virtualTechEd.com, and the Web simulcast of 40 breakout sessions, I'm hoping to get a lot out of the week without getting out of the house.

Windows OneCare Brief Product Review

Windows OneCare is Microsoft's anti-virus/firewall/anti spyware/backup/performance tuning solution for windows. I signed up for the beta about a year ago because, IMHO, Symantec and McAfee left a lot to be desired. They seems to suck up a lot of CPU, and be unstable. Norton, in specific, seemed like it went out of it's way to make trouble when you tried to uninstall it. I figured that if Microsoft was wading into the Anti-Virus space, they were going to nail it. With OneCare, they have. It doesn't suck up excessive CPU. They backup feature is intuitive. The only thing that hasn't been flawless is the firewall. I have had to turn it off to get Outlook to work, but I could never successfully run with the Norton firewall on either.

Microsoft seems to have taken a fairly minimilist approach with this release. OneCare is to Norton AV as Firefox is to Internet Explorer.

For $49.95, you get the software licensed to run on 3 PCs. Strongly Recommend.

Run .NET on Java

For motivations that are beyond my comprehension, you can run .NET applications on IBM's WebSpere Portal Server.

Other news:

"I was just running a load test on the Internet," says Ryan "Spam King" Pitylak. None the less, evil Microsoft and uber evil State of Texas have won a lawsuit that strips Ryan of his rights to do everything but "breath and pee," or something like that.

"P stands for 'Portable' not 'Producable' says Adobe" who's apparently successfully thwarted Microsoft efforts to let you Save As PDF in the upcoming office. The feature will be available instead through a free add in.

Calling all Language Wonks

Check out the The .NET Programming Languages And Compilers Symposium 2006.