So you've just finished your software masterpiece, a beautiful pile of code
that could be the next VisiCalc. So what's stopping all the creeps on the Internet
from exposing the source code and giving it to every code monkey from Boston
to Bismark?
Stealing your intellectual property is one thing. Even worse, hackers can use
the source to attack your product!
If you develop with Visual Studio, more help is in the way. There is an upgraded
free tool from PreEmptive Solutions -- long known for its obfuscation technology
-- that can hide your code, and it will be bundled with the next round of Visual
Studio. The new rev is more tightly integrated with VS than it has been in the
past.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/14/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
What do applications like Word, Excel, Exchange and especially SQL Server produce?
Data. And what does one do with data? Why, store it, of course.
And what does storage produce? Money!
The storage software market includes backup, replication, mirroring, high availability,
hierarchical storage (also know as ILM), archiving, storage virtualization,
SANs, NAS and, oh yeah, restore. I'm sure there are a couple dozen categories
I forgot.
Microsoft, I'd guess, has the categories all memorized, including the average
annual revenue and trailing five-year growth for each area.
Redmond is slowly getting into the storage market. As owner of the OS and some
of the bigger data-producing apps, this makes a lot of sense.
Leading the charge is the Microsoft
Universal Distributed Storage plan, an attempt to bring Windows-centric
standards to the storage market. And if you've ever tried to get fibre channel
arrays from EMC to work with Network Appliance NAS boxes and talk to an Intel
iSCSI box, you'll welcome any move toward standards. And if you end up shelling
out a few dollars for Windows Storage Server of Microsoft System Center Data
Protection Manager, so be it.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/09/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
I love to laugh at people who are wrong, even when it's me. In this case, I
was wrong by agreeing with Gartner, which was horribly wrong. The wildly famous
research company
predicted
that Vista would be late and not ship until spring 2007 or so.
After seeing so many delays, I figured this was as easy as guessing that Britney
would ditch K-Fed the very week his CD and tour bombed. Gartner was wrong.
Vista
is done, or in Redmond parlance, has been "released to manufacturing."
Instead of just being finished, it's RTM. Can we make the simple any more complicated?
If you are a major corporate customer, the real deal will be downloadable any
day now!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/09/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
I had the misfortune of using Windows CE devices twice, and both experiences
were awful. One was an oversized, overweight Palm Pilot-wannabe that ran through
batteries as fast as the interface wore out my patience. Another was a great-looking
subnotebook that froze up more than an agoraphobe at a Toastmasters meeting.
Now that Microsoft is on version
6.0, I might just give this another whirl, as it usually only takes Microsoft
two or three tries to get it right.
Windows Embedded CE 6.0 isn't so much aimed at handhelds and the like (that
is now the purview of Windows Mobile), but will power set-top boxes and other
dedicated devices.
Developers may be interested to know that apps can be built with Visual Studio
2005, and that qualified developers can get access to source code in an almost
open source way.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/09/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft went to the enemy's camp and
made
an announcement at VMworld this week, but Microsoft's announcement of the
Virtual Hard Disk Test Drive is not exactly a blockbuster. Test Drive is a bunch
of test software, including third-party tools, that show off the virtues of
virtualization. Oh, this is just like what VMware did 12 or so months ago!
VMware isn't above mimicking the success of others. VMware Lab Manager sounds
uncannily similar to what Surgient and others have been up to for a while --
using virtualization to develop and test large software deployment before they
are actually deployed.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/09/2006 at 1:15 PM2 comments
Pieces of Flash are now in the hands of the public thanks to a
generous
contribution from Adobe to the Mozilla Foundation. The scripting piece of
Flash was handed over so that Flash can play a more integral part of Firefox.
I'm now using IE6 and Firefox 2, and although I browse for hours a day (all
work-related, I can assure you!), neither bowls me over. What do you think?
Let me know by posting below or e-mail me at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2006 at 1:15 PM1 comments
The coupons and other guarantees given out to deal with a delayed Vista have
forced Microsoft to
defer
$1.5 billion in revenue. That's pretty rough, until you realize that's about
how much Redmond spends on Jolt Cola and pizza every year (and even with that,
the software is still late!).
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Narus, a company that helps monitor Internet traffic, just got a
big
cash infusion. For companies protecting trade secrets and countries tracking
terrorists, this technology can be a very good thing. But for those concerned
with privacy, such spying is as distasteful as 10-year-old Moxie.
One of its bigger uses is to block Internet phone calls, something the phone
companies just love!
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Office Live, a set of services to manage contacts, build Web sites and more,
will end its beta and actually
go
live (or is that Live?) on Nov. 15. If you can put up with a bunch of ads,
the services are free. If you want more features and fewer intrusions, it'll
cost you $20 a month -- still cheaper than HBO.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
At first, it seemed like a blockbuster. Microsoft, for whom open source is the
Saddam Hussein of software, formally agreed to
support
Novell's version of Linux. I've gotten more questions about this than almost
any other subject (except "Is that your real hair?").
After my heart stopped racing, I realized this is a huge deal for Novell, but
far from a seismic shift for Microsoft.
What Steve Ballmer announced was Microsoft's intention to treat Novell's Linux
server software as if it actually exists. There will be no patent disputes,
and Microsoft will answer questions about Novell's Suse software -- if you have
a coupon and a pre-existing Microsoft support contract, of course.
If you think about, this is akin to Microsoft agreeing that IBM mainframes
have a right to exist and interact with Windows servers. If this was all about
the desktop, where Microsoft has two monopolies (Windows and Office), now that
would be something to write about.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/07/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Explain this to me, please. We have three new Microsoft products about to ship.
They've all been in beta, so millions have used them. Meanwhile, dozens of books
have already been written. When it comes to Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange
2007, they hold fewer secrets than Paris Hilton's Sidekick.
But this is Microsoft we're talking about. For Redmond, you leak that you're
going to build something, and -- after several hundred stories are written --
you publicly disclose such plans. Then, after a few thousand more articles,
you announce your intention to actually build such a thing. After a few months
and many more articles, it finally makes it to beta and tech journalists fall
all over themselves to discover the next little feature.
Eventually, the code is gold and all the secrets are known and dissected. So
it should just ship, right? Not for the masters of PR. For Microsoft, it's time
for launch. So break out the Moet et Chandon, crank up the tunes and bring in
the celebs. This is a press event as shallow and contrived as a new Madonna
hair color.
So on Nov. 30, when Vista, Exchange and Office are all launched, ignore the
tech press -- as we'll simply tell you all the things you already know.
But if your PCs and servers have a few hundred spare megabytes, it might be
fun to download these
babies. They should all be far superior to their predecessors.
Meanwhile Microsoft loosened Vista licensing after IT had a major conniption.
Read the good news here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/07/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments
A Microsoft exec recently mentioned the possibility
the
company might leave China over the massive country's equally massive repression.
Microsoft has only been tangentially involved in the ruckus over U.S. high-tech
companies actually helping the Chinese government repress citizens, but I'm
sure that deep down, counterfeit versions of XP are the main tool keeping the
Chinese populace down. My guess is it will never happen -- Microsoft could never
fully cede a billion customers to open source or some other alternative.
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/07/2006 at 1:15 PM0 comments