the finger-keyboard synapse - April 2006 Archives

April 2006

Dvorak: Internet Explorer Was Huge Mistake (09:09) - I may not always agree with John Dvorak, but he usually has some thought provoking (if not a little "out there") columns. One of his latest columns was suggesting that IE was Microsoft's biggest mistake and that IE should be pulled from the market immediately. First, [Microsoft] needs to face the fact that this entire preoccupation with the browser business is bad for the company and bad for the user. Microsoft should pull the browser out of the OS and... | 4 Comments

To LASIK or not to LASIK, that is the question (16:32) - Last Friday, I was evaluated for the LASIK vision correction procedure and found out that I was a good candidate. That is, I have sufficient corneal thickness, my eyes are healthy, my vision is correctable with LASIK, etc. My vision is fairly bad (about -4) and while I don't really mind glasses, they can be inconvenient (such as at the water park, amusement park, when exercising, etc.) and it would be nice not to be dependent on them. The high... | 5 Comments

Does open source encourage rootkits? (16:44) - I read with some interest a recent story at ComputerWorld, McAfee: Open-source encourages rootkits. To which I have to say, Bah, Humbug. The basic logic is that open-source rootkits make it easier for people to hack in to other systems, by merely making rootkits easier to get and use than ever before. Further, open-source rootkits on the Internet help the bad guys continue to "improve" their rootkits and make them better and better by sharing ideas & code. The growing... | 3 Comments

Wisdom or folly? (17:34) - A recent issue (December 2005--yes, I'm that far behind) of Business 2.0 had an interesting set of "Golden Rules" from well-known figures in business and technology. I especially liked Blake Ross's statement (Blake is co-creator of Firefox): When Firefox began, the browser market was "dead," client software was "outdated," and many entrepreneurs were working on podcasting tools for goldfish and other "next big things." We focus on the everyday problems that nag at everyday people. There are more than enough... | 2 Comments

Behold the power of Mother Nature! (12:07) - Some of you may have noticed that BitWise was down for a bit this morning. We have learned from our hosting facility that not only was there a widespread power outage early this morning, but that some of their network equipment was destroyed due to electrical damage. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this outage. We are sympathetic to our provider, and hope that you can also sympathisze with us and them for this unfortunate situation....

Screenshots should not be trips down memory lane (17:13) - Hidden on our servers are some "full-screen" screenshots of BitWise that show many of BitWise's features. We link to these from various software sites, and I was reviewing these screenshots and realized how absolutely badly they needed updating. I thought my readers might enjoy a trip down memory lane, though, so I've archived the old ones and linked to them here. Memory Lane: BitWise on XP BitWise on OS X BitWise on Linux The New Screenshots: BitWise on XP BitWise...

What is "Beta?" Is perpetual Beta the way of the future? (14:18) - Stephen Mane's Full Disclosure column in the May 2006 issue of PC World brought out something that I have noticed a lot lately: In keeping with the perpetually-in-beta services of companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, we hereby extend to you a warm welcome to Full Disclosure, Beta Version! ... You'll still get the same hard-hitting, incisive column as always--but thanks to the magic of beta, we won't be shy about passing along information we might have avoided in the... | 1 Comments

Boot camp: Macs do Windows (17:32) - I originally had something else to post today, but this news takes precedence. There have been a lot of "hacker" communities trying to get Windows to run on the new Intel Macs, and the results have been largely disappointing. Imagine my surprise when a friend this morning send me this link: Boot Camp Public Beta: Macs do Windows, too I have to say, a Windows/Mac dual-boot machine has a lot of potential, and I'm glad that Apple has recognized this...