26 Jun 2004
Being the weekend, I caught this on EMERGIC.ORG.
TECH TIME: 50 Best Websites: Complete List<
/a>
Each year TIME Magazine puts together a list of what they consider to the best 50 sites (in their opinion) that launched over the past year.
Lots of stuff that falls outside of my traditional browsing patterns so the list had some value to me. I enjoy discovering new online material and skimmi
ng link blogs like Erik’s and Robert Scoble’s is a pretty simple way to find content. Erik’s Linkblog deals
primarily with technology and Scoble’s Linkblog talks about all kinds of cool stuff, basically anything that he
considers newsworthy at the time.
I guess Gmail‘s beta launch fell outside TIME’s story cutoff. Despite what the competitors do (Yahoo and Hotmail), I e
njoy Gmail’s simple interface. I don’t need a gig now, nor will I likely in the near to medium-term future. What I do need is an internet service with st
rong automatic filtering abilities and spam control. This sort of stuff is not currently provided by my hotmail account, and I can’t comment on Yahoo sinc
e I haven’t actively used it in years. However, the pre-production Gmail is providing me with a great service. All that Google needs now is an IM service
(perhaps jabber-based ?).
25 Jun 2004
Via Scoble’s Link Blog
[Dana Epp’s ramblings at the Sanctuary : Microsoft, Youâre not setting a very good example. I am disappointed.][2]
I’ll admit my guilt. I run win2k on one machine on my home network and for the most part haven’t yet been bothered to setup any additional users and do th
ings the right way. The machine is behind a firewall and as up to date as possible on security fixes, so I’d like to consider it fairly safe. If I
were running XP things would be different because I easily logout without losing my session.
On the flip side, I work in Linux and that’s where I’m most experienced from an administrators point of view. It pains me when I come across a workstation
where a user has left their machine unattended and:
1) Unlocked
2) Email opened
3) root consoles open
… etc
Personal Experience
While I was still in University (a few months ago), I’d see (computer science) students in the labs that would often leave themselves logged in to a system
for extended periods of time while they left the room.
Security is important, academic integrity is important. People need to start taking appropriate mechanisms to pre-empt these security breaches. Using the
university example, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to believe that students had easy access their classmates projects. This access amounted to acad
emic fraud and, if not taken care of, could potentially have an impact on the value of my degree.
I like Aaron Margosis‘s take on this, but I would take it a small step fu
rther. If you come across and unattended PC logged in as admin, first lock the screen (and then tell them they’re setting a bad example). Half the time p
eople don’t realize the consequences of their actions, or inaction in this case….
Repeat after me..
Security….
Security….
Security….
[2]: http://silverstr.ufies.org/b
log/archives/000640.html "Dana Epp's ramblings at the Sanctuary : Microsoft, Youâre not setting a very good example. I am disappointed."
24 Jun 2004
Microsoft open to open source
Microsoft has commented on themselves being open to taking a greater role in the open source community. Perhaps this is a case of, if you can’t beat them,
join them. At best, a ploy to get developers on a completely different platform using, maintaining and contributing to their software.
What I see as benefiting developers most is not the release of any specific application (…Office excluded), but instead additional information about spec
ific file formats, API’s and other data exchange mechansisms.
I’m not overly enticed by seeing a company open source software for which their are already alternatives in the community. It would be interesting to see
what kind of developer support there is in the community for these releases. Is a company like Microsoft prepared to continue providing resources for main
tainance and support or has the software effectively become abandonware and _donated_ to the community with the hope of having its shelflife extended. Is
Microsoft just looking for extra developers to help with their development efforts ?
I applaud the company’s efforts to try and get a foot in the open door, but it would be even nicer if they donated something releavnt in sourcecode
or detailed specifications that would help improve interoperability between the different systems.
At the very least Microsoft has lendedsome credibility to the open source movement, whether it was needed or not. They definately have a solid grasp on ho
w to build developer communities (as a Java developer, I’m sometimes envious of what they’ve got for the .NET community. [Scoble’s][2] a great read).
Cheers.
[2]: http://radio.weblogs.com
/0001011/