Feb 22, 2007 | blog
“Experts” are constantly screaming that the sky is falling. I’m getting really tired of this socialist agenda real quick. This topic is simply a tool for re-engineering of society. Every “green” pundit that has an opinion gets to spout their excrement to the MSM, and the MSM gulps it down without rebuttal from true scientists who have been in the field for decades.
Via: CNET News.com – Global warming could make faucets run dry, expert says
Feb 21, 2007 | blog
Ever had to write documentation for projects at work? The process can be tedious and fun at the same time. At least it is for me most of the time as the creative process lets you explore the best way to communicate a topic.
At the same time, its only as interesting as a person makes it, and the longer it takes the more boring it can become. That’s were I’m at getting the final tweaks finished on my latest document on mobile device configuration for one of our shipping departments.
The nifty parts of technical writing can be finally getting some standardization into the documents. You would be surprised at the differing levels of sophistication in the use of Microsoft Word! Some people still try to use spaces and tabs to fill empty space in their documents and forms! Ugh!
There are so many great features in Word that allow for the formatting that a person wants if they simply use the search feature in Help. Seriously, the help files have all the steps on using these features, and few people actually look it up. Instead they just hack it together and give up when it doesn’t work like they want it to.
So I’ve cleaned up several documents and forms for our Project Methodology, getting some standard formatting and features like file paths & versioning set up properly. Oh, well. On to more documentation!
Feb 14, 2007 | blog
Of course, he misses the point, and does not follow the blogoshpere. I’ve been preaching and predicting DRM-free music for almost 9 months now. The reality for the record companies is that they have missed their opportunity to really control the digital market because they were to intent on leaching every penny from every music sale.
Jobs is only a recent convert to the DRM-free movement. Many people have been pointing out the inability of the recording industry to get their head around not suing their customers for using their product. A few kids and parents copying music is not the same as real pirates that produce cut-rate copies of the various artists, and trying to recover those lost sales is akin to slitting their own throats.
Via: CNET News.com – Parsing Steve Jobs’ alternative views of the future
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DRM+Free+MusicJan 31, 2007 | blog
WTF?
How many people have read the KB article (931667) over at Microsoft concerning the “Addressing the daylight saving time changes in 2007 using the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool“? Go read it, I’ll wait…
Ok, glad your back – now I know that it was really congress that passed this smelly turd along to everyone – thanks bastards – but it seems to me that Microsoft really dropped the ball on this. I mean, in the original design phase of Exchange and Outlook, they could have asked the question “what if the DST parameters change” and followed the conversation, just to see what ideas come up. Maybe there would have been a better design, maybe not. Maybe the way Exchange stores this information is the same way every calendaring system stores it. That’s a scary thought – that nobody ever thought of handling this kind of change on the fly!
Not only do you need to patch the systems so that the new range of DST for 2007 is properly set up in the system, but you have to run an update tool to convert all the appointment data in the data stores to the proper time for the meeting. That means that you have to run the tool on anything that stores its own calendar information.
So a stand-alone user needs to run the tool, and enterprises need to run the tool on their Exchange servers. This is all well and good, and hopefully will be a one-time deal, but what about all those archived PST files? What if someone pulls some archived recurring meeting and resends it to people? If you read the KB, there is a usage scenario that actually points out that it will not contain the correct meeting times.
There are more. If your mobile device (or other types) are not updated with the proper DST 2007 information, you could create an appointment or meeting (Task?) with a time setting that would not trigger a reminder at the time you expected it to – it would be an hour late.
Maybe I’m making too much out of this, but all I see for our help desk at work is a flood of calls that could have been prevented by MS long ago. Tell me I’m wrong!
Link to: Addressing the daylight saving time changes in 2007 using the Outlook Time Zone Data Update Tool
Jan 23, 2007 | blog
It could happen as early as this year according to this article in the NYT. While it would certainly take some time for the entire recording industry to come around to the idea, it sounds like at least one record company will try marketing tunes in unrestricted MP3 format in the next few months.
Again, I echo what I said in The Inevitable Death of DRM post, that DRM is doomed to fail. Give the users what they want – don’t keep trying to rape them on price and keep control of how they can use the product. Give your customers control and you will win accolades on usability and working with customers.
Set the user free and see how it pays you back in return.
Via: The New York Times – Record Labels Contemplate Unrestricted Digital Music
