Cave Man Programmer
Editor · Security
I sometimes feel like some kind of cave man programmer. Frozen in ice sometime after the 6502 assembly era, thawed out in the post-OOLAMP age.
Filed at 3:09am
January 17, 2007
14 entries filed this day
100 Million Copies of IE7 Installed
Editor · Software Development
Sadly Microsoft has now distributed more than a 100 million copies of Internet Explorer 7 since its release in October.Microsoft claims that IE7 currently makes up about 25 per cent of the world's browsers.
Filed at 5:46am
The Road to KDE 4: Full Mac OS X Support
Editor · Platforms
Just because KDE has been designed to be portable across Linux, FreeBSD and other UNIX/ X11 environments for an age now, doesn’t mean we aren’t up for the occasional challenge. With version 4, Trolltech released Qt for the Mac, Windows and now even embedded environments under the GPL. Since Qt is the base upon which KDE is developed, KDE is now free to offer native support for these platforms. Today I am focusing on the KDE/Mac developments for KDE 4. Read on for the details. Before I begin, I’d like to discuss some branding issues that KDE has had to face in previous releases. With KDE 3, does the term “KDE” refer to the Desktop Environment (KWin, Kicker, kdesktop, etc.) and if so, would it still be reasonable to refer to the Mac OS X port as “KDE” even if it was without these key desktop components? Or, is “KDE” a reference to the project as a whole, in which case we can still call Konqueror a “KDE application” whether it is running on Mac, Windows, or in Enlightenment …
Filed at 7:19am
Mapshark, Maps Search Engine
Editor · Software Development
Mapshark is a search engine trying to dig through maps mashups only (those websites making use of Google’s Maps API , the Yahoo Maps API and so on). Creator Andrew Mitton from Anchorage, Alaska, explained to me how he implemented this tool using Google’s Custom Search Engine service:
Filed at 7:43am
Firefox Fires Away
Editor · Open Source / Software Development
I’m not sure whether this is the right phrase but do consumers have a bad case of “upgrade fatigue” when it comes to Microsoft software? Look at Internet Explorer, which has seen its market share decline to about 80% in the U.S. while Firefox has climbed to 14%, according to WebSideStory and Net Applications . This is despite the fact IE7 has Firefox-ized itself by adding features such as tabs so you can open multiple Web sites at the same time. Are people moving to Firefox becawuse it’s better and/or cooler, or are they simply tired of IE? While there’s no Firefox in the operating system world (sorry, Mac and Linux supporters), there doesn’t seem be much buzz about Vista’s impending launch. While I haven’t drilled down into Vista yet, there appears to be nothing compelling that will drive XP users to buy Vista . And what about Office 2007 ? How many people really need a new version of Word or PowerPoint when Office 2003 will do pretty much everything and anything you need. Of course, millions of computer users will happily upgrade to IE7, Vista and Office 2007, while people buying new computers will have no choice. That said, IE7’s battle against Firefox puts the focus on the upgrade cycle and how difficult it can be to migrate people to new versions at a time when interesting competitors are battling for the attention of consumers.
Filed at 8:20am
Gadget or Girlfriend: Let Me Think About It ...
Editor · VoIP
How about this piece of wacky news out of the UK that one in every eight guys would ditch their girlfriend for a hot new gadget?
Filed at 10:21am
WS-Context moving thru OASIS standard process
Editor
From Mark I am reminded to mention that we are (finally) moving the WS-Context spec toward a vote for possible acceptance as an OASIS standard. One of the things that I have always liked about WS-Context (and this by the way is something I picked up during the Web Services Architecture work from Mark Baker and others) is the opportunity to model the context as a Web reference. It can also be passed by value directly in a SOAP header. WS-Context defines an XML structure in which to store data elements related to the service execution environment, such as transaction context (from which the idea was generalized), database connection IDs, user IDs, security tokens, and so on. These are values typically generated by the service infrasturcture rather than created by the application, but need to be associated with the application. Some of the committee members used to suggest a better...
Filed at 10:48am
No Java on the iPhone
Editor · Software Development
Scoble wonders about Java on the iPhone after talking with Sun's CEO. Nope. Not happening (although the browser supports JavaScript which may be causing some confusion. Update - John Markoff of the NY Times asked the same question.
Filed at 11:38am
Why Did Steve Jobs Hype the iPhone Patents?
Editor · Knowledge Management
Mike over at TechCrunch posted that Apple doesn’t need the 200 or so iPhone patents to gain from the innovation in phone design it’s done because technology like this isn’t easy to clone. In a later post he also points out that the perception of Apple as an innovator and a design leader and the rest of the strengths of the Apple brand also obviate the need for patent protection.
Filed at 12:24pm
Are the Pillars Shaking?
Editor · Storage
Pillar Data Systems has always been a mystery to me. I have written about them here and elsewhere in the past asking why anyone would try to enter a saturated enterprise monolithic storage market with yet another monolithic storage offering?
Filed at 12:53pm
Intel's Polaris prototype is a glimpse ten years into chip futures
Editor · Data Management
Our new favorite phrase in hardware lust around the 10 HQ has been 'multi-core' (Sampy says it like Leeloo Dallas says 'multi-pass').
Filed at 2:55pm
Semantic Web & Data Integration
Editor · Data Management
Stefano Mazzocchi , via his blog: Stefano's Linotype , delivers insightful contribution to the ongoing effort to recapture the essence of the original Semantic Web vision.
Filed at 8:36pm
Choosing Network Attached Storage For SOHO
Editor · Storage
One of the wonderful things about the storage industry is how rapidly prices fall and new technologies become available to more people.What is less wonderful is that as this sophisticated technology moves down market, it keeps the same terminology and mindset from bigger, more sophisticated applications.
Filed at 11:36pm
The Meme of Publicly Owned Muni-Fi Resurges
Editor · Wireless
The concept of municipally owned Wi-Fi makes a comeback: I've been blunt in noting for a couple of years that I don't generally support the idea of cities entering the telecommunications business except in cases in which alternatives are few. But municipally owned wireless really doesn't mean that towns and metropolises are encouraged to develop, say, a utility-based in-house expertise. Rather, it's the other side of the line from public-private partnerships. And it requires acceptance of the notion that substantially more "free" Wi-Fi access is a public good that's more valuable than outsourcing the network and allowing profits to accrue to private enterprise.
Filed at 12:17am