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
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/14/20060 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.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/09/20060 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.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/09/20061 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.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/09/20060 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 11/09/20062 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
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/08/20061 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 11/08/20060 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 11/08/20060 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 11/08/20060 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.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/07/20060 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.
More
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/07/20060 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 11/07/20060 comments