Thursday, October 26, 2006

VMWare vs MS Virtual Server for MOSS2007 Development

OK, so it's been nearly two months since I last posted, but then the work I've been doing is a little hush, hush, at least as far as our competitors are concerned.

But here's a hint:

While investigating the state of MOSS2007 BDC generator tools, I came across Todd's post on
virtual machine performance for MOSS2007 development.

Makes for very interesting reading and his results are probably not all that surprising. Pitty he didn't compare with a real machine as well...

Friday, April 07, 2006

Windows on a Mac is here

Windows on a Mac is here - Product Review - CNET Asia

Apparently some non-IT industry guys won the US$14000 competition to get Windows on Mac/Intel and now it looks like Apple are releasing the method into the wild!

Spot the entry that points to Photoshop running faster on Windows than on OS/X (on the same hardware)...

I don't think the writing is on the wall for OS/X fans, but at least they now have the option to switch OS's to suit the application they're running, without having to switch the hardware too...

I think this will be a boon (well, bust actually) for the Mac gaming industry, since there will no longer be a point to releasing Mac ports of popular games, since they could just run Windows anyway... It'll be interesting to see how the Mac community jumps on this one, since we've already seen what the Linux community feels...

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Google Copies Corporate Data to Google's Servers?

Slashdot Google Copies Corporate Data to Google's Servers?

It's clearly stated during the install, but Google is getting busted for copying corporate files to Google's servers via Google Desktop.

I hate to say it, but it's all about user education and standardising corporate desktops.

If non-standard applications are being installed by uneducated users... the corporate already has an a problem.

We have a single standard desktop (IT Admins and Developers being the only major exceptions) and a rappidly improving change control process to go through if exceptions are required.

You're average corporate user should not have sufficient privledges to install aplications on their desktops. And yeah, I know the software people are finding new and clever ways to get around this, especially through the use of browser plug-ins, which often seem to require minimal privs to install/work.

If you must install Google Desktop or anything really, use Group Policy to limit or even lock down the configuration. Then if that's not enough, you can always use your firewalls or Intrusion Prevention devices to block the outgoing traffic.

But that's just my 2c. It's nice to feel that corporately, we're pretty much on top of this one... it's rare.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Chapman Tripp makes waves in the Geek Community - Slashdot | 'Infectious' Open Source Software?

Slashdot 'Infectious' Open Source Software?

Some of our lawyers wrote a piece for the New Zealand State Services Commission on the use of Open Source Software.

While I don't agree with everything they say, I wont speak up about it here (I have internally).

There a few more relevant bits on our website here & here.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Telecom takes a spanking...

It's about time and kudos to TV3's Campbell Live (who's sponsor is Telecom) for hosting an article on the poor state of Broadband in NZ [windows media].

Unfortunatly TV3 didn't stream the debate that followed, though some enterprising people have made it available:

NZ:
http://sneep.net/CL-Broadband.avi or
http://www.blakjak.net/adsl/CL-Broadband.avi

Non-NZ:
http://wibble.focb.co.nz/CL or
http://www.vonfluffy.net/files/CL-Broadband.avi
Google Video coming soon.

Personally, I think this is all long over due. Telecom are seriously holding up broadband in NZ. I'm not entirely convinced that unbundling the local loop is the answer, even though it's been done in all but one other OECD country (Mexico?). If I recall correctly, in Australia, unbundling did very little, it wasn't until Telstra's entire(?) country-wide backbone was made available to other ISPs (wholesale, at cost, aka level playing field) that Broadband took off in Aussie.

Telecom's UBS (Unbundled Bit Stream?) service is kind of like unbundling the local loop, but still has the drawbacks of:

  • Telecom dictate speed (up and down)
  • Telecom dictate base price
  • ISP's still need (expencive, non-resiliant, archiach) connectivity between Telecom and their own networks, so that they can route the ADSL users over their own connections.

It's time the Commerce Commission got out it's big stick and gave Telecom a hard time. Tax payers paid for the "last mile" when Telecom was still Government owned. And while (to my understanding) Telecom's NGN (fiber/IP) network has been paid for by profits (since privitisation), it's aging ATM network (which must be used by ISPs for the UBS service!) was paid for by Tax Payers...

BTW Campbell Live then took on the duopoly of Telecom & Vodafone (showing that just one other competitor isn't really enough) in the cellphone war... Yes, NZ has the 2nd highest pricing on the OECD! Hmm... TV3 is going to start loosing sponsors... :0

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Minimo

Minimo - The opensource (Mozilla) browser for PDA's...

Finally, something to replace the crappy PocketIE on my PDA!

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Publishing in China

Google and My Red Flag

Very interesting insite into a) how Google and other Tech firms do business in China and b) how one author came up with his answer to publishing in a land of censorship.

Steve Jobs' Magic Kingdom

Steve Jobs' Magic Kingdom

Excellent (long) artical on the rise and fall (and rise again) of Steve Jobs with respect to Pixar and Disney.

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Linux vs Microsoft: Has Linux's time come?

LXer: Linux not standing in wait as Microsoft sinks its own ship

Interesting article that presents some different ideas on why Microsoft might have to start worrying about Linux and other "competitors".

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Wine starts to catch XP!

BenchMark-0.9.5 - The Official Wine Wiki

I'm impressed! They're a little selective on the tests (old versions of 3DMark, etc) which means the benchmarks aren't necessarily giving current APIs (DirectX 9, etc) a real work-out.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Neat: VGA Adapter for your PDA/Smartphone!

Video-on-the-Go
All you need is an SDIO slot and away you go!
Possibly quite handy if you don't want to lug a laptop AND a project around for PowerPoint presentations.

Shame it's only 640x480...

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

"Most Vulnerable OS"

A number of sites are reporting this CERT article as pointing out that Linux/Unix had more vulnerabilities reported in 2005 than Windows did.

The point they're missing, is how many vulnerabilities are 3rd Party apps and how many are core OS? I know this is very hard to define for Linux/Unix, since so many of the apps shipped on the install CD/DVDs are 3rd party and have always been. Unlike the various Windows OS distributions, which have very few 3rd party apps.

Just my2c, people really should think a little and do some analysis of their own...