Posts for September, 2007

Sep 30, 2007

How To Code To Ensure Job For Life

I came across Roedy Green’s satire, via JP, on writing code to ensure a job for life. Though focused on Java, you can apply the tips quite efficiently for any programming language, and make it equally unmaintainable. Roedy has brought out the evil in a humorous way, a good read. [Continue]

Sep 29, 2007

Using WebRunner

WebRunner is getting increasingly usable. Interestingly, it is so much in contrast with modern trends. No multiple tabs, no icons, not even an address bar. [Continue]

Sep 29, 2007

oAuth Brings Open Authentication

We have been using and seeing advantages of OpenID. It has seen its share of criticism, and a lot of it comes from the fact that OpenID is about identification, it is not about authorization. As a natural succession, we are about to see something that will assist this - oAuth. [Continue]

Sep 28, 2007

On IT Project Failures

Michael Krigsman informs us about the study done by Computer Associates to determine causes of IT project failures. Michael presents some slides from the yet to be published study. Interesting, but the view seems to be only from the corporate world, where the discussions start and end with budget. [Continue]

Sep 27, 2007

We Need More .txt

Everytime someone requests me to send my resume or a small document in .doc, I remember the long forgotten, simple yet versatile format - the text file. While we have been fighting over standardization of office documents, we have neglected it enough to make our lives difficult by hovering around resource-hogging proprietary tools and formats even for most basic tasks. The text file is like a meta format (though format is not exactly correct, I assume it is enough for our purpose), that lets you easily create your own schema and use any extension to build your own type using it. [Continue]

Sep 26, 2007

Choose Your Operating System

Someone is thinking of decoupling the operating system from the hardware when it is being sold. Computers in the European Union should be sold without a bundled OS, according to this submission to the European Commission. It says that the bundling of Microsoft Windows with computers is not in the public interest, and prevents meaningful competition in the operating system market. [Continue]

Sep 26, 2007

France’s Orange Will Provide OpenID

David Recordon liveblogs from Digital ID World to inform that Orange SA is providing OpenID to all its subscribers, about 40 million or so. We have seen AOL do the same thing. Mic As Marshall Kirkpatrick says, this is a huge move for the federated identity movement. [Continue]

Sep 25, 2007

WordPress 2.3 And Another Comparison With Movable Type

WordPress 2.3 is out. The release is significant because it has some heavy changes in the schema, to natively support better taxonomy and tagging. I assume that the inherent support for tagging would also make it faster than through the plugins. [Continue]

Sep 24, 2007

buzhug Can Make Life Easier

For a while I have been playing around with buzhug, a pure Python database. It seems to be slower than other RDBMSs, but is fastest amongst the Python databases. I think buzhug can make life easier in some Python applications. [Continue]