Software
There are 15 entries for the tag
Software
I've been reserving judgement on Windows Media Player and the whole Digital Rights Management issue for a couple months now. I mean, when Microsoft updated to version 11 and people began complaining about how adding the DRM made it less stable and prone to lockup, I figured this stuff would be worked out and that at least it provided a baseline capability that people can use as a starting point.
Until today, that is. Judgement has been rendered and Windows Media Player is officially found wanting. Not just wanting. It is not merely inadequate. WMP 11 has officially, in my...
If you have the eye of a good copy editor, you might have noticed some volatility in the ole Tag Cloud on the right. I made some changes at the request of people on the SubText developers list and reworked some stuff—most of which is completely invisible. The biggest visible change is that I decided that assuming an even dispersion around the mean might work in natural statistics, blog post tags tend to be more of a declining curve however.
What that means is that most algorithms for displaying tag clouds use a formula that allocates about half their categories...
I just completed some SubText hacking and the results should be visible now. In addition to upgrading to version 1.9.5 (which should officially release here shortly), I implemented a new feature: Tag Clouds. I'd had enough of my feature envy from all the cool kids who had them, so I went and rolled my own. If you're at my actual site (as opposed to a feed reader), the Tag Cloud is off on the right.
This was a non-trivial feature to add. In an email conversation on the SubText developers' list a couple months ago, Phil Haack (semi-benevolent project dictator) indicated...
People have a lot of different reasons for posting blog entries. These reasons vary from financial, to personal, to professional, to I'm afraid to know more. For me, one reason I take the time when I could be doing something else is that I like to put my ideas out there to be tested. I don't really care if a majority of people agree with me so much as I want to see what other people have to say for or against certain things. The downside to this is that I'll sometimes find that an idea isn't as good as...
"So when will you be done with this development project?" I don't know about you, but I hate this question. There simply is no good answer for it. It seems like such a simple question with a simple DateTime valued answer. One of these days I swear I'll answer with, "Oh, I'll be done next Tuesday at 2:34pm." just to see what happens. And seriously, businesses hate that we have such difficulty answering the question. It seems perfectly reasonable for them to want to know when they can plan to have the new processes that they know they desperately need....
Jeff Atwood has a recent post on why he finally gave up and disabled Trackbacks on his blog. My blog is the tiniest fraction of his and I had to disable trackbacks just for sheer spam volume back in October (inspiring an anti-spam rant of my own).
Jeff lays the blame for Trackbacks' demise on Six Apart--the outfit that created the standard in 2002. Ah, those heady glory days when you still had to explain to people what a blog was. Trackbacks were a great idea. They still are a great idea. But Jeff is right, the simplicity of the standard...
Have you ever been in an interview and gotten some variation on the question "What do you regret most about your last position?" Everyone hates questions like that. They're a huge risk with little upside for you. You're caught between the Scylla of honesty and the Charybdis of revealing unflattering things about yourself.
Still, such questions can be very valuable if used personally for analysis and improvement. In that light, I'll share with you two things I regret about my stay at XanGo. Since I've ripped on the environment there in the past, it's only fair if I elaborate on things that...
More griping. I know! You'd think I were a negative person. I'm not really. I don't think. Anyway, this one is short. I've noticed a trend lately (okay, in two products that I sort of like) where developers are using a progress bar to indicate that the program is busy and will get back to you shortly. Now, to me, there's a reason that ye ole progress bar has a Minimum, a Maximum and a Value. You know, it has a task that starts at some value, that value "progresses" until it hits some ending where it can then stop. No doubt...
I don't mean for this to be a "gripe" blog. Not that gripe blogs aren't entertaining--I mean, I kind of like Mr. Angry, the Daily WTF, and others. That said, sometimes you just have to share in the hopes that you aren't alone in this whole frustration thing. I named names in a previous post about Arrogant Software, so I guess this is mostly adding to the list. Today's highlight is SpySweeper from WebRoot. Now, like all the software on my Arrogant list, I found SpySweeper useful. I even bought two subscriptions so that both our computers would be covered. Unfortunately,...
Ever notice that software seems to have a personality? Some programs are desperate for approval, some eager to please, some like to show-off all their cool features, some calmly wait for their opportunity to be useful. And some programs are simply arrogant jerks. There are a couple of utilities that are useful enough that, like in real-life, you simply put up with their crappy attitude and count the days until a competitor comes along that will offer a viable alternative. I end up tallying my annoyances every time they crop up, keeping score for the day I can wipe them...
Well, I still haven't chosen what blog software I want to use in a new home. So many to chose from and none are a perfect fit. The comments left by Scott Hanselman, Phil Haack, and Dave Burke were good ones and point out the connectedness of the blogosphere (is that word accepted enough to forgo the quotes now?)
Since I gave DasBlog such short shrift in my original post, I spent some quality time with it. DasBlog has some really strong points in its favor. For one, it has a very active developer community, though that isn't as apparent as it...
It's always the little things that chafe, you know? I mean, for the most part I'm happy with Windows Live Spaces, but there are little things that bug me from time to time so I find myself getting antsy. On the plus side, I like the modules and the freedom to place them where I want them. I like the book list (but I'd like it better if I could a) put it in the order I want and b) could rate the books listed there). I like my links. But I find that I keep wanting things I get...
Lidor Wyssocky has some good thoughts on why it is that developers don't implement changes that they know would be helpful. The problem is that although we know exactly what doesn’t work right and how it should be fixed, most of us will never say anything. We don’t say anything because there’s a very good chance the minute we do we will be marked as uncooperative, pessimistic, or simply detached from the business reality. (emphasis in original) He concludes with his call to action. If more of us say what we know in our hearts to be true,...
As you may have noticed, MSN Spaces has officially changed to Windows Live Spaces. The URL has changed and I notice that redirects are in place. I'm not sure how long those will remain valid, so update as needed (if you're using my Feedburner RSS feed, no worries--I've updated that already and nothing else will change. This is an unlooked-for bonus on using Feedburner as an aggregator re-publisher). Anyway, I like what they've done with the place. My favorite change (by far) is the addition of Gadgets. There are a couple of new modules available that I have taken advantage of...
The following applies mainly to in-house business software development. It might or might not apply to ISV or other product development houses. I think that there's room for broad application, but you can hit my list of software blogs if you want some quality sources for more generalized ISV or product development exploration. Back when I was looking to hire developers a couple years ago, I knew some programmers that I wanted on my team. I had worked with them before and knew what they were capable of. Unfortunately, they didn't have much experience with .NET--our platform at the time. I...