DevBlog

It's Christmas time around the world. I want to wish you Happy Holidays. May whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year bring you much joy.

VFP makes a fantastic development tool for the Tablet PC. It was used in the custom program discussed on InternetNews.com.

Microsoft has posted the Ken's December newsletter. There is information about the upcoming Europa release including anchors, docked forms, and enhanced report writer features. There is also a screen shot of the new report writer. The surprise in the letter is the annoucement that there will be a public beta of Europa in the first half of 2004.

No, don't do it now. This is a funny video of Dave Bradley talking about why he invented Ctrl-Alt-Delete. [Scobleizer]

As many of you know, I like Mountain Dew. No, check that...I love Mountain Dew. It's my beverage of choice. Now, I've found an organization for me.

I first worked with Robert Green about ten years ago when I was doing FoxPro training in North Carolina. We bought our manuals from IMG, the company he worked for in Chicago. He wrote the manuals and did Fox training there. He later joined Microsoft as the VFP Product Manager (ie marketing guy). Today he's in the Visual Studio team where he works on marketing the Visual Studio Tools for Office. This .NET Rocks audio clip is an interview with him.

Business Week video of interview with Steve Ballmer. Some good stuff here. [John Porcaro]

Rick Strahl, the creator of West Wind's Web Connect has started a blog. Now if he can get the RSS feed to work.

As you have probably noticed, I have been getting errors when accessing blog comments. My hosting service said it was because I was using an Access 97 mdb and it was not totally compatable with newer drivers. I've now converted the table to Access 2003. Let's see if that fixes things.

I have no idea if this is true or not, but it sure is funny. A Monty Python skit comes to mind.

I've said for years that if you want to create a usable interface, copy what Microsoft has done. The reason for this is that most people use Word, Excel, Outlook, and Internet Explorer everyday so they are used to how the UI works. Sriram Krishnan agrees and gives some other good advice on UI design. [Scobleizer]

The RSS 2.0 Framework allows you to add syndication to your .NET applications. Mondo cool. [Scobleizer]

The Microsoft marketing bandwagon is charging full steam ahead getting people ready for Longhorn. Yes, it's three to four years out, but it's such a huge shift that you need to prepare now. One way is the Longhorn Readiness Program. You'll get software, tech info, and more.

If you're a software tester, your job will be changing. Testing won't be the same as it is now. We already do some of these here at 3M HIS. [KC]

That's the subject of an email I received today. The body of the text reads:

Today two leaders came together with one purpose: to provide the clear standard for business intelligence. Business Objects has successfully completed our acquisition of Crystal Decisions.
Over the last few months, we have met with a broad range of our Business Objects and Crystal Decisions customers and partners. You told us to continue the progress and functionality of our core products. You asked for the highest level of reliability and the lowest total cost of ownership. You made it clear you want product integration, improvement, and innovation.
We have listened. And it is our goal to not only meet, but to exceed your expectations.
I assure you that Business Objects is 100% committed to you and your organization's pursuit of excellence. We plan on giving you the broadest, deepest set of business intelligence capabilities ever seen.
Business intelligence (BI) is now recognized as critical for improving business performance. As the clear market and technology leader with the resources, scope, and vision to set the BI agenda, Business Objects will be the driving force to help you achieve your organization's vision.
In the coming weeks, you will be receiving more information addressing many of the questions you may have. And in early 2004, I hope you will join us — in person and online — to see the product roadmap and company vision for the new Business Objects.
Best Regards,
Bernard Liautaud
Chairman and CEO
Business Objects

Well, BO isn't getting off to a good start. There were two links included in the email. The first, was described as, "Be among the first to hear our vision for the new Business Objects".

The second was for more local events at cities around the world. It was called "The Future of Business Intelligence".

Well...neither link worked. Nice way to launch the new company.

I just found an MVP blog site, msmvps.com. I should be listed there soon and will report on any interesting blogs I find there.

I just spent the past couple of days mostly offline and away from the office. My oldest son came home on leave from the Navy so I was getting some quality time with him.

If you architect software, here's a new journal that could help...especially if you do .NET. [Scobleizer]

This far surpasses anything from Radio Shack. Could this possibly be the ultimate geek toy? [Kase]

Last September, I blogged about International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Now you can find out your priate name.

Ted pointed to the article "How to Misunderstand Open Source Software Development". A good article that points out some things that people may not realize.

However, there are some things that the article doesn't address or are just pure opinion. For example, in the first paragraph, the author states, "As a commercial software program and development manager, I view Open Source Software methods as simply a way to build applications. It happens to be the most efficient one." Pure opinion. There is nothing no evidence that Open Source methods are more efficient.

Later he says, "In a closed, proprietary development shop project leopard would continue to exist as an idea. Instead of people downloading the application and using it to build eGovernment web sites, the project team would still be writing specifications. Business analysts would have engaged in interviewing "users" and the whole project would have just crawled along. ... In an Open Source world, we would have consulted the existing standards base, looked for existing code or projects, found a database vocabulary and tool kit and opened the specs to our team...". He seems to imply that "users" are never interviewed. How the hell can you determine what your users want? If your competitors are also using Open Source techniques, such as consulting existing standards base, how can you ever gain competitive advantage? After all, it will be the user that picks one product over another. If both are functionally equivalent because each development team was using the same research, it wouldn't matter which product was selected.

And this leads me to one of the biggest misconceptions from the Open Source supporters. Only an extremely small percentage of all the computer users out there will actually touch the source code. Most people are just plain users and don't give a damn about the ability to modify the source because they don't have the skills nor knowledge to do so. Open Source supporters keep shouting that Open Source is better because you can modify the source. If well over 90% of the potential market can't do it, why the hell does it matter?

And where is the evidence that Open Source produces better products or is more secure? I haven't seen anything. They say to just look at the number of Windows worms and viruses that have been released. That doesn't mean the code and/or application is less secure. Only that more authors are targeting Windows because they get more bang for their buck due to a MUCH larger installed user base.

I think eventually we'll find that neither open source nor closed source is any better or worse than the other in terms of which is a better model for development or more secure. They are just two different methods of software development. In the meantime, I would like to see the evidence backing up the claims from the open source community.

An earlier attack on the Debian Project was due to a flaw in the Linux kernel [CNet]. I maintain my stance that open source isn't any more secure than Windows.

Ted and I have exhanged messages lately about the security of open source projects. He mentioned that Microsoft isn't any more secure. Check out this information on security at MS from Microsoft Monitor.

Reading Pete Maher's entry in This Is Broken had prompted me to blog my own recent experience...

The story begins in late October. I need to book a flight to corporate HQ in St. Paul. I vow to not fly Northworst if I can help it. I jump onto the corporate travel web site and eventually find a non-stop Delta flight with the right flight times. As usual, I could have found it faster on Expedia or Travelocity. Booking the rental car and hotel were much easier.

Move forward to Wednesday, November 19. I leave training class early to catch my flight. As usual, Delta is on time and the flight was without incident. I get off the plane and take what seems like the 100 mile trek across the airport. I hate the Minneapolis airport. Who dreamed up the crazy scheme to only gate the planes on one side of the concourse? I'd flown through here before, but only to change planes. It turns out the rental cars are in a different terminal. The tram ride doesn't make it any easier.

Ah..the Hertz counter...go past it and check the Number 1 Gold board and go straight to my car...umm...no...my name isn't on the board. So much for being a Gold member. Go back into the terminal and stand in line at the counter. I tell the hired help (barely more intelligent than someone at Wallmart) my name. I even spell it. Nope, no reservation. Time to find my paperwork. I finally get it, and give her my reservation number. My reservation is found, but she tells me it'll be 15 minutes before a car is brought up. Um..no..wrong answer I tell her. I'm a Number 1 Gold club member. My car should have already been waiting. "We just had 15 flights put down. It'll be 15 minutes.". I grumble off swearing that I'll complain about it later.

My complaints must have moved heaven and earth because my car is waiting for me on the curb when I leave the terminal. I'm feeling much better about this. I get out of the airport and find my hotel just fine. Returning the car is a different story....

The next evening I'm on my way to the airport. I normally get off one or two exits before the airport, fill the gas tank, then get back on the freeway. But in this case...it can't happen...no gas stations. I wander aimlessly about the area and finally find a gas station, put in $4.00 worth of gas and get directions back to the airport.

The exit signs give two terminal names. How the hell do I know which terminal I want???? Can't it just say "Airport"? I make a guess. It must be right because there's the Rental Return sign. Just stay in the middle lane of the three lanes. Umm..no..that doesn't work. The lanes split in different directions, with signs giving information for where the right-hand and left-hand lanes go. The middle lane, where I am, goes both directions...and nothing to indicate where to go for rental car return. I'll take the right-hand turn.

Good guess. I get into the Hertz return area, give the man my paperwork and get my receipt, then prepare to make the 100 mile long trek again. But wait...there's more...

Move ahead to Monday. As I'm filling out my online expense report, I find that guy in the return read my mileage wrong. I got charged for additional miles. It's off by exactly 100 miles. Time to call Hertz. "We get unusually heavy call volumes on Monday. We urge you to call back tomorrow." Ummm...no...I'm going to remain here on perma-hold.

About 20 minutes later I'm talking to someone that says he can help me. I explain my situation and then get put on hold while he checks things. I think of this as buying a car. The salesman says "Let me go talk to the sales manager and see what I can do." knowing full well that he can do everything needed to close the sale. Eventually, the Hertz rep comes back on the line and tells me my credit card charges will be adjusted.

Unfortunately, my session with the online expense system has timed out and lost everything. Time to start over again...

If not, perhaps it's time to reevaluate your skillset. Gartner says to move now rather than later [Scobleizer]. Hmm....seems I've heard this before. So, what am I doing? I've been spending a bit of time learning ASP.NET with C#. Eventually, I'll move my website to my own server and integrate some ASP.NET pages. I don't have any specific time frame for this. Hopefully before Microsoft ships Longhorn .

// posted by Craig Berntson @ 10:13:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post   

But, what if it is broken? If It's Broken is new project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. Subscribed.

Well, I survived the annual inhaling of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, and pumpkin pie. Hope you did the same.