Category: Tech

How True

~ rbonini

I’ve just read this post from Jeff Atwood:

I believe there’s a healthy balance all programmers need to establish, somewhere between…

  1. Locking yourself away in a private office and having an intimate dialog with a compiler about your program.
  2. Getting out in public and having an open dialog with other human beings about your program.

If you didn’t catch the humor there, it had to do with the “intimate dialog with a compiler” bit 🙂 .

Funny things are often true. Hold that thought.

So this bit had me chuckling:

Most programmers are introverts, so they don’t usually need any encouragement to run off and spend time alone with their computer. They do it naturally. Left to their own devices, that’s all they’d ever do. I don’t blame them; computers are a lot more rational than people. That’s what attracts most of us to the field. But it is possible to go too far in the other direction, too. It’s much rarer, because it bucks the natural introversion of most software developers, but it does happen. Take me, for example. Sometimes I worry that I spend more time talking about programming than actually programming.

 

Natural introvert. Hmmm. Remarkable timing on Jeff’s part. I was telling myself  just the other day how much more comfortable it is to talk to a C++ compiler….

Jeff spends the rest of his post urging the rest of us to stop talking about implementing features and implement them. I’m as guilty of this as the next programmer/developer, so I’d better get a move on.

WHS Update: Dell Customer Service

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

Well, yesterday I ordered  1Gb in new memory for my Windows Home Server from Dell. I intend to install a Tv Card and SageTv and get more bang for my buck out of said server, thus the new memory.

Since I was lazy, I originally got a Dell PowerEdge SC440 for Whs to run on.

However, the memory I ordered yesterday was/is incompatible with the SC440 (this being despite the fact that I went to Memory Upgrades for the SC440 on Dell’s Website). So Dell Helpfully called to inform me of the fact.

Within minutes, the old order was canceled and the new order submitted and the earth once again revolved on its axis. Easy as pie.

Well, not quite. The new memory is not quite twice the original amount I paid- once again blowing the budget out of the water.

Nevertheless – congratulations to Dell.

So I’ll need to wait slightly longer than anticipated for the TV card.

I’ve not decided between:

Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T 500 – Dual Digital Freeview TV tuner

and 

Hauppauge WinTV HVR4000 – True HD TV tuner – Quad mode (Analogue, Digital, Satellite both DVB-S and HD DVB-S2)

(For those outwith the British Isles, Freeview is our version of free-to-air digital TV)

In typical fashion, the first is half the price of the second.

Not exactly Media Centre Edition, but the whole idea here is to the extend functionality of the Server – which spends most of its day idiling (truth be told, its only really busy between noon and 3pm when it backs the pcs up and SyncToy moves files to to the server). Though, Ill have to fiddle around with the backup times once the Sage is Installed.

And second, the Current PVR is hopelessly deluged with recordings that are usually watched weeks later (its only got 100GB of space).

And third, finally, I’d rather keep the recordings for than delete the everytime the space runs out.

I’ll keep you posted.

And kudos to Dell, again. for their customer service (and I don’t really mind the extra costs as a result 🙂 )

Open Source at Microsoft

~ rbonini

A contradiction in Terms? Well, no. But I can’t blame you for thinking it.

Port25, Microsoft’s open source blog, is worth subscribing to because of posts like this:

Today, Microsoft has published 175 projects on CodePlex, we have written a pair of open licenses that are under a page in length and over the 500-project mark in adoption as others in the community have decided to use them

As Microsoft’s engagement with open source grows, we have to move from being trailblazers to being road-builders. When you’re blazing a trail, organization, bureaucracy, and majority rule are a burden. In the beginning, a passionate group of people with strongly held beliefs and the will to persevere in the face of doubts and doubters is what it’s all about.

Never thought I’d see the day when this was corporate strategy at Microsoft.

In my view this about-face has come about because of a change in the environment that Microsoft operates in.

Think of it. Sun completely open sourced Solaris. The rise of the blog,  the wiki and the Twitter (perhaps not in that order, but humor me) has lead to an increasingly networked community where people’s calls for change can gain plenty of traction. And if Microsoft wasn’t going to do something about them, others would – and did. Think of Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and Open Office – or even Linux.

Secondly, Microsoft had a huge pool of untapped resources in the form of techies who had a great deal of experience in Microsoft products and blogged about it. I mean what better to find out what gripes (or ideas, for that matter) people had than by reading their blogs. And Microsoft could always hire the best ones.

And finally, the perception that Microsoft was opening up and actively engaging with the community has done wonders to its once-flagging reputation.

So while Microsoft may not be on the road to open sourcing its flagship products (Windows, office, Visual and Expression Studio), it is opening up.

iPhone Hacks: What Will Apple Do?

~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

Despite the clear lack of a SDK, intrepid iPhone hackers err developers haven’t stopped churning out thier stuff. Here’s a small list from todays TUAW RSS feed:

This posses an interesting dilemma for Apple. Since all this stuff clearly isn’t intended to be done, Apple can either crack down on it by having hacked iPhones simply stop working( a la Microsoft) or they can go Google’s way and turn a blind eye.

Perversely, Apple will get more consumer attention and popularity at the cost of a potential showdown with AT&T ( who are obviously the very bad guys behind the draconian lockdown of said mobile device 😉 ).

So the question is: What will Apple Do??

Update: TUAW Asks the same Question:

the iPhone apps are arriving en masse. So far the list includes tools like a working Apache we server, python, shell — and a pile of associated binaries like ls, rm, echo, csh, and tsh — and while these might not be terribly thrilling for Joe everyday user, they are a pretty kicking start. We could start to see all manner of fun stuff arriving in the coming weeks, unless, of course, Apple pulls the plug via an update. Again, we won’t link to the goods, but a wee bit of searching should get you on your way

PS3 Firmware Update

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

I’m not lucky enough to own a PS3 yet, but the Firmware updates are coming thick and fast. Version 1.9 has been released. it follows 1.81 and 1.82, both from last month. I’ve never seen updates come out so fast for such a “new” machine.

Sony has embraced the digital age and is racing to catch up with Microsoft and its Xbox Live service.

Not only that, but they are actively taking feedback from the public through Playstation.Blog.

All I can say is that this round of The Console Wars will be fought with Value Added Content over Networks, suggested  by Loyal Gamers intent on the world domination of their console.  And I don’t mean the Wii 🙂 .

The Echo Chamber

~ rbonini

I read this post from Shel Holtz last night suggesting that the Blogosphere is akin to an echo chamber. At this point I’d like to congratulate Google for NOT including search with Google Reader since I had to go looking for this post manually from my long list of feeds, which wasn’t easy – but I digress.

So, bearing in mind that I’m doing some echoing myself here:

One of the dominant criticisms of the blogosphere is that bloggers just write about what other bloggers have written about; it’s nothing more than a huge echo chamber.

I’ll give you an example of said effect. last week, Windows Home Server was released to manufacturing. I got virtually the same post from the WHS Team Blog, We got Served, Ms Home Server Blog and Ramblings of a Home Server Tester. And by the way, they all arrived in my feed reader at the same time.

Shel argues that The Echo Chamber Effect is nonsense:

I don’t buy the echo-chamber argument. Based on the 10% rule, which suggests that 10% of a blog’s (or Wikipedia’s or any other collaborative property’s) readers contribute to the content, that leaves 90% who are passive consumers of the content.

 

And gives an example:

read a blog called Brand to be Determined. Many of you—readers of this blog—probably don’t. So when I point you to a resource I learned about on Brand to be Determined, you’re getting information you probably wouldn’t have otherwise received.

Take Facebook as an example.

The tech blogoshpere has run amok with Facebook posts (A Google custom search of my 140 subscriptions gives me 1500 posts, a Google blog search gives me 437,000 posts).  Facebook has been analyzed from every conceivable angle, probably several times over.

So if I now write a post echoing Scoble and a few others, do I add value to the conversation, or noise?