I found this little gem on Chris Linfoot's blog the other day - but if you don't want to go through the emails for the whole story, The Register has a breakdown.
Essentially it outlines a city official who makes an honest mistake and believes a company's software is blocking their websites... but the problem is that the software in question is actually the operating system that their site is hosted on... their site was down but instead of getting their IT guys to look at it, he unfortunately went straight into "hardball-mode" and started with the threats of FBI investigations... brilliant...
It's along the lines of incorrectly entering a website name into a browser, and threatening FBI action on the browser software unless they remove their "illegal" 404 page!
Apart from it just being funny... top marks for Johnny Hughes of CentOS... he didn't give up, or just ignore the messages, but instead followed it through to the end and ultimately helped an unrelated party get to their solution - top marks for customer service guys...
Archive for March of 2006
sometimes the customer is not "always right"
tim rynne - March 30, 2006a hard drive's night....
tim rynne - March 30, 2006
ok... this is looking pretty cool... Samsung has developed a 32gig flash disk for notebooks
- half the weight
- 3 times the read rate
- 1.5 times the write rate
- no motor, no noise
- 5% of the energy
(compared to existing notebook drives)
update - ohhh baby... check out this usb key - 64gig!
- half the weight
- 3 times the read rate
- 1.5 times the write rate
- no motor, no noise
- 5% of the energy
(compared to existing notebook drives)
"The 32-Gigabyte (GB) NAND flash-based solid state disk (SSD) can upload and download data quickly and quietly as it uses instantly-accessible, static NAND flash memory instead of the rotating discs found in hard drives"
Hard drive's days are numbered - Breaking - Technology - smh.com.au
update - ohhh baby... check out this usb key - 64gig!
if at first you don't succeed... restructure and get rid of the deadwood
tim rynne - March 29, 2006
man... it just doesn't stop raining sometimes... This article claims that 60% of the Vista code needs to be rewritten and that Microsoft are busy restructuring their development teams and dragging resources off the xbox project to fix up the problems they've been getting with the Media Centre component of the new operating system. I know this looks like I'm continuing a bit of a theme but honestly that's not the intention - it's just something that I've been seeing on the sites that I scan every now and then.
Interestingly enough, if you've read the last couple of posts about Microsoft pumping $500million into a marketing blitz of their 2007 products, you'll notice that the article suggests that "Analysts estimate that Microsoft`s delays in releasing the next generation of its operating system, known as Vista, have cost it about $500 million".
Here's a hot tip - sometimes you need to make the call between spending the money on convincing the public that your products are great, and actually getting down to the task of just making them great in the first place.
"Up to 60% of the code in the new consumer version of Microsoft new Vista operating system is set to be rewritten as the Company "scrambles" to fix internal problems a Microsoft insider has confirmed to SHN"
Smarthouse - Platforms
Interestingly enough, if you've read the last couple of posts about Microsoft pumping $500million into a marketing blitz of their 2007 products, you'll notice that the article suggests that "Analysts estimate that Microsoft`s delays in releasing the next generation of its operating system, known as Vista, have cost it about $500 million".
Here's a hot tip - sometimes you need to make the call between spending the money on convincing the public that your products are great, and actually getting down to the task of just making them great in the first place.
$500 million could buy a lot of internal memos
tim rynne - March 24, 2006
ok... let's see now, on the 17th we saw this:
and now, just a couple of days later we're getting this little gem:
ummm..... has anyone else thought that maybe some of the $500 million might have been better spent on some QA, some testing and maybe a little overtime... or better still, spend a few cents on a phone call to your CEO so he doesn't look like a complete monkey who has no idea what's going on inside his own company...
"The $500 million campaign is designed to prepare the way for big product rollouts later this year and next that include Windows Vista Enterprise Edition, Office 2007 Enterprise Edition, Exchange 2007, SharePoint Server 2007 and other products."
eWeek - In the Crosshairs–IBM Is Target of Microsoft Marketing Blitz
and now, just a couple of days later we're getting this little gem:
"The unthinkable has happened: Microsoft has delayed Windows Vista yet again."
Vista Delayed Again
ummm..... has anyone else thought that maybe some of the $500 million might have been better spent on some QA, some testing and maybe a little overtime... or better still, spend a few cents on a phone call to your CEO so he doesn't look like a complete monkey who has no idea what's going on inside his own company...
the hundred dollar laptop gets Bill a little cranky...
tim rynne - March 24, 2006
Bill Gates - the man who caused billions to ponder just exactly where it was that they would "like to go today" has bagged out the OLPC project hoping to provide a laptop to every child in need, the $100 laptop.
BG seems to think that it's a useless piece of technology as it doesn't have a big enough screen, can't store heaps of data, doesn't rely solely on an AC/DC power source... oh, and probably that it doesn't bear the M$ badge somewhere.
""If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type," Gates said."
CNN.com - Bill Gates mocks MIT's $100 laptop - Mar 16, 2006
BG seems to think that it's a useless piece of technology as it doesn't have a big enough screen, can't store heaps of data, doesn't rely solely on an AC/DC power source... oh, and probably that it doesn't bear the M$ badge somewhere.
objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are
tim rynne - March 14, 2006
I've got a couple of driving stories from my youth, but I don't think I would have attempted to drive 56 miles in reverse... although, I have to admit that I can kind of see why it might have made sense at the time... kind of...
"Police said the man told them reverse was the only gear in the car that worked and that he was travelling home to the small regional town of Numurkah, another 56 miles away."
Driver charged for backwards driving - Breaking News
the kitchen keg
tim rynne - March 14, 2006
there's only one thing to say... "woohoo!"...
It's a story about a woman who started doing the washing up and found that instead of water, beer came out of the kitchen taps - it turns out that the pub downstairs had tapped a keg onto her water instead of the beer pipes....
of course, at the other end of the spectrum is the poor punter who got a pint of water instead of amber gold!
It's a story about a woman who started doing the washing up and found that instead of water, beer came out of the kitchen taps - it turns out that the pub downstairs had tapped a keg onto her water instead of the beer pipes....
of course, at the other end of the spectrum is the poor punter who got a pint of water instead of amber gold!
""I turned on the tap to clean some knives and forks and beer came out," Haldis Gundersen said from her home in Kristiansund, west Norway. "We thought we were in heaven.""
Beer on call - theage.com.au
best practice - utilise functions instead of subs
tim rynne - March 09, 2006
ok... here's just a quick one that hopefully will make sense...
I think the subject line says it all - where possible, use Functions instead of Subroutines (in LotusScript).
Over the last few years I've seen a lot of code and it seems that most people are writing their code in subroutines and not taking advantage of the return code available with a function. At the very least, one of the greatest benefits of using a function is so you can return a True/False value based on whether the function succeeds or fails.
I think the subject line says it all - where possible, use Functions instead of Subroutines (in LotusScript).
Over the last few years I've seen a lot of code and it seems that most people are writing their code in subroutines and not taking advantage of the return code available with a function. At the very least, one of the greatest benefits of using a function is so you can return a True/False value based on whether the function succeeds or fails.
"Honey, I shrunk the Lotusphere" (Lotusphere comes to you - Sydney style)
tim rynne - March 08, 2006
So, today was the Sydney version of "Lotusphere Comes To You" - what we here in Australia get because not everyone can afford to fly half-way around the world to experience the wonders of Lotusphere in person. Whilst it didn't quite carry the same "buzz" that was exuded during the sessions in Orlando (I guess the element of surprise was out the window as most people knew about any announcements beforehand), but the information was well presented, and the message strong.
Before I get too carried away, I do a couple of different roles here and there depending on what work I'm doing, but today's event was one that I attended as a "techo" rather than a business analyst or project manager.
Before I get too carried away, I do a couple of different roles here and there depending on what work I'm doing, but today's event was one that I attended as a "techo" rather than a business analyst or project manager.
we finally had a look at a Tivo in action....
tim rynne - March 08, 2006
... and were suitably impressed.
I have to admit, the A.I. of the Tivo was pretty sweet - how it just went about it's business and recorded programs based on your settings... leaving them there for a couple of days and removing them if you haven't explicitly saved them - that was cool! The only problem was that as we were staying with friends, if we happened to be watching tv and the Tivo had decided to record something, we had to leave it alone.
Our Toppy is a twin tuner system so it had the upper hand on the Tivo that we saw - it allows you to record a program whilst still allowing you to browse through your available channels, it even goes as far to allow you to record 2 programs at once whilst watching a pre-recorded show. I assume there is a twin tuner Tivo available (or will be available soon) and in that case it would be awesome! There is no A.I. available with the Toppy, instead we're left to set it up as per the old-school timer settings we saw with VCRs (at least there's no "blinking clock" syndrome as it pulls the time from the digital tv!), but all the other functionality contained certainly more than makes up for the lack of A.I.
I have to admit, the A.I. of the Tivo was pretty sweet - how it just went about it's business and recorded programs based on your settings... leaving them there for a couple of days and removing them if you haven't explicitly saved them - that was cool! The only problem was that as we were staying with friends, if we happened to be watching tv and the Tivo had decided to record something, we had to leave it alone.
Our Toppy is a twin tuner system so it had the upper hand on the Tivo that we saw - it allows you to record a program whilst still allowing you to browse through your available channels, it even goes as far to allow you to record 2 programs at once whilst watching a pre-recorded show. I assume there is a twin tuner Tivo available (or will be available soon) and in that case it would be awesome! There is no A.I. available with the Toppy, instead we're left to set it up as per the old-school timer settings we saw with VCRs (at least there's no "blinking clock" syndrome as it pulls the time from the digital tv!), but all the other functionality contained certainly more than makes up for the lack of A.I.
on a Wing and a prayer..... you gotta love a battler
tim rynne - March 07, 2006
so... I really don't know where to start with this one...
"Wing" is a performer in a league of her own, and this month's sample of her cover of the AC/DC (pronounced "Acca Dacca" for those unfamiliar with the Australian rock legends) classic "Back In Black" is something that I won't easily get out of my head.
She says "I have been learning singing in New Zealand and I do performances in Rest Homes and Hospitals and occasionally promotional concerts as I go along" - 11 CDs later and Wing is not looking like she's about to slow down. And with classics such as "Wing Sings Elvis" and "Dancing Queen by Wing" who can blame her for forging ahead... (more the point - who can stop her?)
Normally when I'm forced to listen to ... umm... alternative interpretations to music, it literally brings a tear to my eye (I bawl whenever I see Australian Idol), but Wing is something else....
Check out this month's samples of her extraordinary talents here... do yourself a favour and, at the very least, listen to the entire sample of "I want to hold your hand"... she enters a new realm of music when she hits the "hand" part of the title line... it's a corker...
I must say, the temptation to make the AC/DC cover my new ringtone is a battle that, for the sake of all people in my office, I hope I manage to resist....
"Wing" is a performer in a league of her own, and this month's sample of her cover of the AC/DC (pronounced "Acca Dacca" for those unfamiliar with the Australian rock legends) classic "Back In Black" is something that I won't easily get out of my head.
She says "I have been learning singing in New Zealand and I do performances in Rest Homes and Hospitals and occasionally promotional concerts as I go along" - 11 CDs later and Wing is not looking like she's about to slow down. And with classics such as "Wing Sings Elvis" and "Dancing Queen by Wing" who can blame her for forging ahead... (more the point - who can stop her?)
Normally when I'm forced to listen to ... umm... alternative interpretations to music, it literally brings a tear to my eye (I bawl whenever I see Australian Idol), but Wing is something else....
Check out this month's samples of her extraordinary talents here... do yourself a favour and, at the very least, listen to the entire sample of "I want to hold your hand"... she enters a new realm of music when she hits the "hand" part of the title line... it's a corker...
I must say, the temptation to make the AC/DC cover my new ringtone is a battle that, for the sake of all people in my office, I hope I manage to resist....
firefox and bookmark keywords... cool stuff...
tim rynne - March 06, 2006
apologies if you already know about this one... it's always a risk when you put up a "tip" that you're the kid in class pointing out the "bleedingly obvious" and making everyone else roll their eyes...
anyway, I've been using firefox for a while now... I was a bit of an early adopter - but not one of the uber-early, but maybe in the third or fourth tier of early adopters... I have to admit that although I may have been using it for a while, I just replaced IE and took advantage of the tabbed browsing and a few of the extra features and extensions - mainly the developer extension and the search in the toolbar for searches on imdb and the dictionary etc.
One thing that I finally took 5 minutes to try and figure out is how to change the address bar searching from using google.co.uk to google.com.au. The Address Bar Searching that I'm referring to is when you type in something like "google shiny new gadget" into the address field (instead of www.google.com) and firefox automatically launches the google page with the relevant returns based on the search terms "shiny new gadget". Being in Australia the problem with this has been that it provides UK localised content instead of Australian - you end up with a bunch of hits from the shops on Tottenham Court Road in London - not quite what I'm looking for...
anyway, I've been using firefox for a while now... I was a bit of an early adopter - but not one of the uber-early, but maybe in the third or fourth tier of early adopters... I have to admit that although I may have been using it for a while, I just replaced IE and took advantage of the tabbed browsing and a few of the extra features and extensions - mainly the developer extension and the search in the toolbar for searches on imdb and the dictionary etc.
One thing that I finally took 5 minutes to try and figure out is how to change the address bar searching from using google.co.uk to google.com.au. The Address Bar Searching that I'm referring to is when you type in something like "google shiny new gadget" into the address field (instead of www.google.com) and firefox automatically launches the google page with the relevant returns based on the search terms "shiny new gadget". Being in Australia the problem with this has been that it provides UK localised content instead of Australian - you end up with a bunch of hits from the shops on Tottenham Court Road in London - not quite what I'm looking for...
top fives... an alternative to a real conversation when you're travelling...
tim rynne - March 05, 2006
As we travelled around recently, we needed some things to entertain ourselves as we didn't pack the travel scrabble and a sudoku isn't that easy to do as you walk around.
It all started out at Lotusphere as "first to ten" as we allocated 1 point for every Lotusphere backpack we saw, and 2 points if it was spotted away from the conference hotel. However, this all went pear-shaped as we quickly discovered that everyone agreed that the backpack was so good that it couldn't be left in the hotel room - "first to ten" quickly turned into "first to six thousand" as the Disney hotels were turned into a sea of yellow and black.
It all started out at Lotusphere as "first to ten" as we allocated 1 point for every Lotusphere backpack we saw, and 2 points if it was spotted away from the conference hotel. However, this all went pear-shaped as we quickly discovered that everyone agreed that the backpack was so good that it couldn't be left in the hotel room - "first to ten" quickly turned into "first to six thousand" as the Disney hotels were turned into a sea of yellow and black.
ok... ok... we're back... and I'm busy....
tim rynne - March 04, 2006
ok... so... as some of you may have read on Laurette's blog, we're back and kicking around in Sydney.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), I've walked straight back into work and things are a little busy... so much for easing back into things after a nice holiday, all the grand plans of things to do "as soon as I get back" don't seem to be eventuating as I would have liked.
On top of that, my uni course has started up again (I'm doing a grad dip in IT Law), and besides, it's summer here in Australia - time for a couple of games of golf or tennis... anything to do something about the traditional pasty white complexion of the it developer!
Anyway, a couple of things on the books at the moment - a couple on which I expect to go into more detail later...
- we're working on the updated interface to the initially quick implementation of www.dominoblogs.com - the new one is built on openslice
- I'm still organising my thoughts after Lotusphere to prioritise my "play time"
- introducing a "top5" component to my blog (and, naturally, Laurette's)
- rebuilding our pc
- organising the photos from the trip
- reconfiguring both our laptops so they're a little more responsive
- playing with my new toys... here's the latest - the mediagate (definitely more on this one later)
- looking at some hosting packages for Domino... and coming to grips with why it's 20 times more expensive than other hosting options (non-Domino)
- reviewing some of the new functions we have ready to add to the 300+ free functions in openslice
- writing a couple of semi-technical entries here to counter the mostly "travel-oriented" entries whilst we were galavanting around the US
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), I've walked straight back into work and things are a little busy... so much for easing back into things after a nice holiday, all the grand plans of things to do "as soon as I get back" don't seem to be eventuating as I would have liked.
On top of that, my uni course has started up again (I'm doing a grad dip in IT Law), and besides, it's summer here in Australia - time for a couple of games of golf or tennis... anything to do something about the traditional pasty white complexion of the it developer!
Anyway, a couple of things on the books at the moment - a couple on which I expect to go into more detail later...
- we're working on the updated interface to the initially quick implementation of www.dominoblogs.com - the new one is built on openslice
- I'm still organising my thoughts after Lotusphere to prioritise my "play time"
- introducing a "top5" component to my blog (and, naturally, Laurette's)
- rebuilding our pc
- organising the photos from the trip
- reconfiguring both our laptops so they're a little more responsive
- playing with my new toys... here's the latest - the mediagate (definitely more on this one later)
- looking at some hosting packages for Domino... and coming to grips with why it's 20 times more expensive than other hosting options (non-Domino)
- reviewing some of the new functions we have ready to add to the 300+ free functions in openslice
- writing a couple of semi-technical entries here to counter the mostly "travel-oriented" entries whilst we were galavanting around the US