Pretty darn sneaky GOOG. Do you really have to resort to this to hijack someone to Chrome? Accuracy of GOOG search is definitely questioned here and gives rise to how much truth is actually tweaked.

Sigh. I try to avoid commenting or referencing public marketing furor over Microsoft because I am just not a cult-fanatic or hold a religious view on technology (for Goodness sake - Get a life ...) BUT the story that PervX ran that says: "Black Screen woes could affect millions on Windows 7, Vista and XP" is really saying something about the responsibility issues that comes with technology journalism.

Gosh - really, is there nothing we can do about this ?

Obviously, PervX was made to eat their own words. They issued a public apology to Microsoft but there is obviously still a sense of denial in between the lines.

Ed Bott says it best here and how I wished this furor they caused stays with them for a long time until redemption time comes. As what Ed says in his closing para: "As for Prevx, they deserve to be laughed out of the security commmunity for their role in this fiasco."

I read with amazement at how Google is allowed and could be bestowed a patent for their iconic search home page.

No, dont get me wrong, this is not about Google and I always give credit where it is due BUT gosh - I am very sure that way before Google, there were a few that came up with this UI design. I believe I saw Yahoo! Search page way before Google. While it may not be the same, I am quite sure the design principles are the same.

In my years of IT project developments and deployments, I am sure I have seen many of my teams' designer engineers come up with the same principles into database full-text search, Index servers, etc

In any case, this is interesting and this does change the patent strategy for many companies, doesn't it ? I wonder if Bing would do the same for its background images. Furthermore, to enable users to allow that to be turned on or off is itself a "patent-able* design, wouldn' it be ?

Gosh, I think I am in desparate need for some new empty bookshelves ...

   <-- Click this pic to see a higher resolution for even more details.

...and you havent even seen my other bookshelves containing my other interest, which I wont share for now ...

I am left speechless at this. Really. Simply astounding ...

Lumbar Spine Report (13 February 2008):

• The lumbar spine has a mild lateral curve convex to the right.
• There is minimal slipping forwards of L5 on S1 which is lumbarised on the left side.
• Moderate osteoarthritis is seen in the apophyseal joints beween L5 and S1 segments.
• The bodies of L1, L2 and L4 are slightly wedged anteriorly. These changes may be secondary to the previous trauma.
• The lumbar discs spaces have average heights.

Conclusion:

• Unilateral lumbarisation of S1 segment.
• Lower lumbar spondylosis.

• From playing a lot of competitive basketball back in my varsity days in Canada in the late-80s/early-90s as a point-man to getting the above report in my envelope is somewhat depressing, I am getting old ...

I had talked about Yahoo! Pipeshere. It didnt take long (well, maybe longer than some of us would like ..) before MSFT Corp came up with something even better ... AND I mean real better with Silverlight and the works.

I have played around with it and I am IMPRESSED and HOOKED. Upsize my mashups, please.

While Microsoft Popfly is still in alpha, you can still check it out here. To find out what it actually is, there is a good demo-ONLY video here.

Welcome to the Social.

Now, aint this cute ?

Video: Microsoft's oPhone

This one got me laughing in stiches. Not so much about how ridiculous it seems, but with the latest acquisition Google has made, who knows - maybe they will value and acquire MSFT Corp at USD120 billion.

I would probably put money on them that they would also probably be the first to be able to value the Internet. Well worth a read.

Windows Home Server will be one of the better well-kept secret products that will be ultra-cool once its released into the wild. You can go here for a brief animation overview. The official Home Server Team blog can be found here and the forums here.

Some of the interesting briefs include:

 This is not a product based on the Windows Server 2003 codebase. It's a consumer-oriented product that is quite similar to Media Center Edition, in that it's less of an "edition" of Windows Server than it is a special application (like Media Center) that runs atop a version of Windows.

There are, of course, many features on this server but what I love best about it is placed on emphasis here:

• Expandable Drive space - Add as many Hard-Drives in gigs, teras and petas as your hardware allows. (No problem with the hard-disks I have lying around. I could easily squeeze 6 SATA suckers into this once I can find the supporting muthaboard ...)
• Remote Access - Access your photos, music, videos from any computer with a WWW connection. Even give restricted access to your cronies through your free, customizable Live Web Site.
• Automatic Backup - It stores only a single copy of every file, remembering which computer had what and saving your drive space - Hard Disk Storage Space Virtualization, anyone ? (this is just music to my ears ...)

I dont know about you but my living room is ready ...

I had just broken my own budget this year already (and therefore I am not getting me or anyone anything this coming Christmas) ... Too bad ...

After rounds of spec'ing and phone calls with my special DELL contact, I officially accepted the quotations ...

Like I said here, I am going all out this time around as most of my machines had run its 3+ year course and I am getting it all ready for Vista as well as the upcoming Longhorn, or Windows Server 2008, or whatever PLUS the High-Performance Computing (HPC) of Virtualization Technologies (VT), etc.

So, what kind of goodies did I end up with for being much poorer (even though I got a great deal on DELL for the pricing) ? Here it is - all X64 bit Chips (Core 2 Duo and a Dual-Processor Dual Core XEON Pro)

• DELL LATITUDE D620
  CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 2.0 GHZ - Merom Chip
  Integrated 4MB ON-DIE L2 Cache, 667HMZ FSB
  + the works ...

• DELL POWEREDGE SC1430 Server
  CPU: Intel Dual Core XEON Pro 5140 2.33GHZ - Woodcrest Chip X 2 Processors
  4MB L2 cache, 1333MHz FSB
  RAM: 4GB (4 x 1GB) 667MHZ ECC 2R Fully Buffered DIMM (FBD) Memory. Max Support: 16GB FBD
  + the works ...

OK - Now that I have the metal, now its time to look at some nearby (I dont think I can afford the gas to travel that far ...) banks for a quick heist for the greens.

OMG - Spare me. You have got to be kidding ... Lets just move on.

So ...

Mr. Setag goes over to Mr. Nezihc's little cafe-library called "Cafe Eboda" in Tonmeerf and bought a cup of coffee. Mr. Setag then sits down with his coffee and proceeded to pick up some publications to read from the Cafe's Library. He was, however, abruptly stopped by Mr. Nezihc who refused to allow him to read those in-cafe publications unless Mr. Setag pays for it.

Mr. Setag was taken aback. Arent those magazines free to read. Everyone else here is reading it and I dont see them paying for it. Isnt this an open library ?

"Well, yes", Mr Nezihc replied. "But because your wallet is bloated, I think it is only right that I charge you if you need to read those publications."

"That is absurd", Mr Setag retorts. "It is not my fault that my wallet is bloated. In fact, given anyone else, they would love to have my bloated wallet as well, or try their very best to empty it through some legal means. This has nothing to do with the fact that I used to be your boss before, right ?"

Mr Nezihc: "No, like I said - I am charging you only because your wallet is bloated. The rest of the folks here are not as rich as me, therefore, I dont charge them a single cent ..."

Mr Setag: "OK. I will just bring in my papers to read then. How about that ?"

Mr. Nezihc: "Nope. You have to use ours and you have to pay for it ..."

Ridiculous ? Only happens in undeveloped countries ? You say ?

Well, if you believe the content here is true, then I dont think this is any different.

Jonathan Zuck of Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) sums it up real well with the following quote:

"Adobe seems to be realizing that open standards have costs as well as benefits.  While opening its technology to the world helped Adobe to spread Acrobat far and wide, it also limits its potential business models and incentives to continue innovating.  The problem for Adobe is that they can't put this genie back in the bottle"

---

The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) is an international education and advocacy group for the technology industry. Focusing on the interests of small and mid-size entrepreneurial technology companies, ACT advocates for a "Healthy Tech Environment" that promotes innovation, competition and investment. ACT has been active on issues such as intellectual property, international trade, e-commerce, privacy, internet policy and antitrust. ACT represents more than 3000 software developers, systems integrators, IT consulting and training firms, and e-businesses from around the world.

Have anyone of you signed in to Mobile Passport on your PPC ? The above screenshot is what I see on mine.

Some people would argue that so it is to make it easier to get right typing it in multitap the first time or that it is easier to prevent people from prying eyes on a PDA.

I beg to disagree. Isnt that one of the reasons why there is "Remember Credentials" ? It is like saying - If you cannot type and you have a sucky memory, please dont type. In fact, there is a new option called - "Always ask for my username and password" in the defacto Passport mode for the security conscious :)
 
I just find it too much of a drastic change to remove all these options (in the mobile mode) and NOT use masked passwords instead. It gives the sense that the teams creating these logins are so disparate and so different in thinking and there is not a single philosophical approach. Arent we talking about People, Technology, Integration and Seamless Experience recently ? 
 
The worst thing is that - the Masked Passwords (*) are so commonly accepted these days that it is becoming some sort of "self-imposed" standard. Thousands of sites, mobile or not, are using this "standard".
 
Why is Microsoft one of the first (if not, the first) to change that ? I hardly think making it correct the first time typing is a good enough reason to change that and this cannot be categorized as innovation.

MSN and Hotmail are all social sites which means that it is catered for people like my parents and grandparents and such and not for the geekiness. The bulk of the people dont really know what the S in HTTPS stands for and dont really care and would never want to care how it works.
 
To them - The masked passwords is really part of the secure experience although we know that it is more of a placebo more than anything else.
 
I wonder how will the masses react when they see that their passwords are not masked anymore, even though there is still an S in HTTPS.

I remember running a test before on a workshop on consistency, standards I conducted a while back. In this test, I reversed the order of the username passwords inputs of the (HTTPS) Login screen to the effect of this:

Password: ________________
Username: ________________
Login Button

The strange thing about the whole result is that: Most people will stop after entering the first character in the Username field. They will rub their eyes to make sure they are NOT seeing things. Besides the fact that they realized they are prompted for their password FIRST - which is NOT consistent. Most of their responses will be "Why is my password NOT secured ?" Of course, if you are reading this, it is likely that you know that the little stars (*) have nothing to do wih security or encryption. In fact, more often than not, it gives people a False Sense of Security. Many people will still post their passwords, thinking it is secure, when it is masked with little stars (*) and there is NO HTTPS.

My point is that - whether or not security is involved here - it mars a user's perception and his or her experience.
 
I just tested it with my wife and she refused to login - thinking it was "one" of the bugs on a Microsoft site. - And Yes - she is the normal one in our marriage :)

I had a good Aussie friend of mine test this on his accountant wife as well and this was the conversation:

He: Would you use this screen on your phone?
She: Why are you asking?
He: Just curious…Would you use this screen on your phone?
She: Where are the little stars for the password?
He: Dunno
She: No way… something is wrong
(He did not influence her answer)

Does this mean that the masses are normal or that I am just a prude ?

Is this *really* intended behavior ? The least I would do - is to offer this as one of the options as part of personalization.

To add to this, I am recently in the market looking to upgrade my current ADSL package running at 1500kbps and I came across an ad saying this ISP will give a free ADSL2+ Wireless modem if I sign up for a 10mbps package. Sounds good. I proceeded to call.

Pleasantries exchanged...
Me: "So, you are giving me a free wireless modem, correct ?"
She: "Yes"
Me: "Is it just plain wireless ? I mean is there a wired option ?"
She: "The 10mbps ADSL Transmission speed will only work with a wireless modem..."
Me: "huh ?"
She: "Yes, because the speed is too fast, we can only use this wireless modem."
Me: "What has the ADSL Upload/Download speed gotta do with how I connect the modem to my router?"
She: "I am sorry, Sir - you *HAVE* to use the wireless modem ONLY"
Me: "Wait - I dont think I am getting this. I know I need a ADSL2+ modem for the blazing speed of 10mbps, but if it only comes with a wireless option, how do I connect to an existing network of computers, routers that are NOT wireless-enabled"
She: "In that case, I recommend you to get a Wi-fi card. These are cards that ... ... ..."
Me: "Wait, I dont need an education in Wi-fi. I just need to know what do you tell your calling and interested customers who wants this blazing 10mbps speed and accepts they need a new ADSL2+ modem BUT has no Wi-fi network, equipment to play with or tap-on"
She: "I told them - Sorry Sir/Madam. Our advanced ADSL speed requires a wireless option. If you dont have one, it wont work at all and you have to go for a slower ADSL speed. Sorry."
...

I decided to check the ADSL modem brand that is given to subscribers and went into the manufacturer's site to look at the specs ...

"...All our ADSL2+ modems comes with a wireless option PLUS 4-Ethernet enabled RJ45 Ports ..."

Gosh. I wonder how many customers has she turned away with her knowledge that the ADSL Upload/Download speed is directly tied to the mode at which data is being transmitted from the modem to the connecting machines.

Polite as she can be, I admit, BUT if I have a sales force of people like that, I will NOT be able to make any money at all to pay them.

<sigh /> End of rant.

I remembered talking to someone on the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF, previously - Indigo) team before and the reason they chose [MesssageEncoding].MTOM instead of MessageTransmissionOptimizationMechanism is so that it could *at least* fit on a slide.

Well, that someone obviously didnt educate the developer who build the [MessageSecurityVersion]. WSSecurity11WSTrustFebruary2005WSSecureConversationFebruary2005WSSecurityPolicy11BasicSecurityProfile10 property. [Talk about a mouthful]

Not only is it hard to fit on a slide, it would be hard to mouth those words as well.

Besides "bug jail", "secure-programming courses",  "geography lessons", I would highly recommend Microsoft engineers and developers go for "Power-Point Presentation Etiquette 101" lessons as well .

Speaking of which, I just got handled an exception with a message like this:

The CLR has been unable to transition from COM context 0x1a0d28 to COM context 0x1a0e98 for 60 seconds. The thread that owns the destination context/apartment is most likely either doing a non pumping wait or processing a very long running operation without pumping Windows messages. This situation generally has a negative performance impact and may even lead to the application becoming non responsive or memory usage accumulating continually over time. To avoid this problem, all single threaded apartment (STA) threads should use pumping wait primitives (such as CoWaitForMultipleHandles) and routinely pump messages during long running operations.

Talk about being explicit. Exceptions should give a friendly message that enables one to have an idea where to start debugging and troubleshooting. The one just made me want to shut my machine down. .

Singapore has just announced an bold ambitious move to wire up the entire nation with a extremely high speed backbone that would move data in speeds beyond 1Gbps, or 500 times the common access speed of 2Mbps with the use of optical fibres or other technologies. Most of the crowded centres and streets would be "WI-FI"-ed by late this year.

My dream of having the entire nation being one BIG hotspot would be coming true in probably a couple of years time.

I have heard that the term "disconnected applications" will be thrown out of the window in Singapore very soon .

Ah - the wonders of living in a [garden] city-site.

AJAX, Maps and all the cool works

OMG !!! I think this is the hardest I have ever laughed ever for a long long long time.

It just brought tears to my eyes.

I just broke the piggie, took what has been accumulated in there for the last 2 years. Add that to the bank I just robbed and therefore it looks like I will be there.

I have been receiving business and technical content on CDs / DVDs for years and I have always taken for granted that CDs / DVDs are very durable media types. I mean, have you ever tried breaking a CD ? It is not easy and cannot happen just "accidentally".

I was wrong.

I received this (See below pictures) in my mail (by a reputable courier) 2 weeks ago. It was packaged in a plastic envelope and not in a hard box and was damaged in transit ... The damage is actually much worse than it seems in the pictures. Lessons learnt:

1. Ship CD / DVD out in a hardbox, even if it is a single piece
2. Dont play at the edge. If you are expecting the content to come in a day or two before you need to use it, you are playing with fire. Get it way way way in advance before you need it. You may need a re-send again if get the below.
3. Shit happens.

I dunno --- I think 1 GB is already a lot. Now, we have 2 GB !

When will the war hit the breaking point ? When it reaches 1 TB ?

Pat Helland, a favourite speaker of mine on Service-Orientation and someone whom many regard as the Architect's Architect is joiningWerner VogelsinAmazon.

Is there a brain drain in MSFT Corp ? OR is it just a process of making way for newer ones ?

Pun intended on the word "Galestorm" in this post title.

What strikes me most is the fact that if you read between the lines further, you will noticed that Google and Amazon got mentioned in the same breath. Doesnt that sound eerily familiar ?

What is happening to our PROFESSIONAL tagline in our Singapore Professional DotNet Usergroup ?

We are getting very strange new languages asking for help and even worse (?), people like these feel so natural about it and some others do not hesitate to defend and ask everyone else to try to find time to understand it as it is the way to go (?)

I take the liberty to Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V some snippets here. I hope Douglas Adams of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Wierd Science - The Babel Fish) get me a Babel Fish soon.

hi every 1
i am new to sql server and i dint noe how to let the server start to run on my PC
can some 1 direct mi how to do that
another qn i had is how to set data i wanted to the database similar to using microsoft access database
can some1 direct mi too
thanz alot
 
=============================================

Anyone here tot/dream of  a 'Tech/IT' startup or already doin it?
anyone wanna discuss issues pertaining to these?

Eg
1) idea
wat kinda of business wud u be interested in?
wat business do u think has potential?
wat do u think is hot currently ? or wil be hot in the next few yrs ?

well... mayb not jus local .. consider goin global as well..
anything under the sun on tech startups....

ok...let me start....1st....
since im currently preparing for a possible startup...

well...i feel one critical issue is...
finding/assembling the core team of people...why?
a) its hard to find partner who is willing to commit, has simliar goals n willing to sacrifice
i believe nothing great can b achieved wo sacrifice.. eg personal life, lower income or
 no income for sometime, etc etc

haa... im also like tat... working at irregular hours...
all my past jobs r flexi hours.... or rather...
my past bosses had accept flexi hours arrangement w me...
always late to reach office...n work til late at night...when everyone had left...

i like ur component based idea... i guess... one way is to properly architect a certain
project, n sub-out/assign the different modules/components to freelancers/subcontracters..
however... i guess it also depends on the nature of the project as eg hw-sw linked
projects r difficult to 'componentised'..

hmm... n i guess.. theres also the integration difficulty n answerables n expertise in architect...
i can guess why most coy avoid these since
a) they can make a subcontractor answer more easily to whole project than a component
b) let the subcontractors handle integration issues
c) perhaps the coy do not hav enuf expertise in architecting complex projects n so
sub out whole project n let sub contractors do the designing...

however , if a coy has its own architect n intergation engineers...
component-based contracts wud b viable..

agree... complementing skills r hard to find indeed...
n one thing i feel abt knowing people thru networks...is tt u dunno them enuf...
...unlik frens or former colleagues...
well... there is certainly some risk + give n take...
we all know or hav heard how political things can get in any startup bussines...
even w frens...it may b tricky at times...
perhaps its all parts n parcels...of running a bussines...n learning...

i feel killer app n business acumen is not enuf...
or rather.. its the beginning....
the execution is when core team players come in...
need diff skillsets... such as marketing/sales, tech skills, managment, etc etc...
even tech skills alone.. alreadi need diff skillsets if it involves diff disciplines...

cash flow problem....hia....tats where investros come in...
but i guess... in startups... theres lots of 'make do' situations n compromising....
eg using free/cheap tools instead of full-fledge ones...

how abt ideas on bussiness?

infact... im jus interested to hear the pt of views from IT people...
as im from embedded sw background... really know nuts abt  IT industry...
my ideas r often related to hardware products...

for eg... rite now... i see opportunities in
-providing middlewares
-providing reference designs
-designing products
based on some in 'Emerging Technology/area'

Eg of emerging tech/area
-wifi-n, wimax, zigbee, wireless usb
-homenetwork, homeautomation
-securities industry : eg survillence, biometrics
(i see tat video survillience is under goin a 'generation' change stage... which is an opportunity...jus lik 2G->3G)
-n even dsp areas...(theres been lots of developement lately in the industry)
-n voip etc etc...

yeah... n the problem w emerging tech is tat... u need to hit the market at the rite time
- too early n u hav to b able to sustain cash flow...
 thou u hav more time to 'maturiese' ur ip n market ur expertise...
- too late u wil hav less chances...

moreover... i feel there w be more 'convergence' betw embedded n IT services...
eg video-on-demand...etc etc... im sure there wil b more to b discovered...

how abt IT side??? really dunno much abt IT...

hahaa...
i tot the short hand i use r alreadi the common ones...unlik other local forums...really

well... if there is another person who complain abt my short hand... than i wil try harder...
cos i had found it natural n quick to write in this way...

if my grammer n vocab incorrect... its due to my poor command of the language...
so pls pardon me on tat... cos i use too much machine langauges...haa...jus joking...

=============================================

ah..the 'weight thing'.... well personally im not so concern over such things in forum...
but thx...i wil take note of tt...

apologies for giving u guys dazy eyes