One of thing that remains confusing in this whole Mark Hurd saga (the now semi-disgraced ex-chief of HP) is did he or didn't he?
He was accused of sexual harassment, which apparently didn't stick, but was fired for steering money towards a 50-year-old honey who used to appear in sexy movies. But both he and the gal claim nothing happened. Is Hurd lying or is he the quintessential high nerd who will do anything for the gal who's just out of reach? You tell me at [email protected]. With so many high-priced lawyers, we may never discover the truth.
Posted by Doug Barney on August 11, 20103 comments
Vendors loves to toss around the term "mission critical," as if every organization was NASA. Truth is, mission critical is in the eyes of the beholder. What's meaningless to you may be critical to me.
For those that truly care about data and uptime, Microsoft is offering the Dom Perignon of support -- a mission-critical add-on to the company's Premier program. When you pay the top shelf price, you expect top shelf service. In this case, you get a team of dedicated solutions engineers who promise to respond in a half hour (although, if 30 minutes of downtime is acceptable to a mission-critical system, how mission critical is it?). You'll also get 24x7 support.
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 11, 20101 comments
If you or your staff aren't yet patching, you best get to steppin'. This month, Microsoft released 15 patches, including one out-of-band patch that isn't technically part of Patch Tuesday.
Sorry to sound like an old record, but the vast majority of fixes address remote execution flaws (you know, where a dirtbag hacker tries to hijack your machine).
Word from the experts is that implementing all these fixes will take some time and care -- especially as all these patches demand a system restart.
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 11, 20101 comments
In honor of yesterday's Patch Tuesday, here are some reader thoughts on the Microsoft monthly tradition:
I have never been impressed with the thoroughness of Microsoft's development in regards to security. And I think it shows with the enormous amounts of patches that get distributed for every operating system and software program. I understand they can't catch everything, but wouldn't you think that after so many years of OS/software that you have to patch that it would be a good idea to secure systems before they come out -- instead of sending out ridiculous amounts of patches, which in turn usually slow machines/software down after so many get applied? But, what do I know? I am not a programmer.
As always, your columns and articles are informative and entertaining.
-Travis
I would like to see a comparison of patches released for other operating systems. I've seen similar lists in the past (maybe on CERN's site) that actually show MS operating systems require fewer patches than Mac OS and some Linux distributions. Your question is more relevant if compared to what competing operating systems require.
-Curtis
Whether I have two or 20 patches, if I have to reboot the server, the number of patches does not matter to me. Some people seem to make a big deal out of it. I'm just glad that bugs are being fixed. I'd rather have 20 patches, once a month, then have two patches this week, four more next week and so forth. And that's just my opinion...
-Bruce
I don't believe Microsoft has ever really been proactive about anything, and has been more of a reactive entity with regards to patches.
Although, maybe they are proactive in their new software and in the numerous ways they can just plain outright annoy you.
-Michael
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 11, 20102 comments
Research firm Computer Economics (great name, by the way) just wrapped up a survey pinpointing what you, the IT professional, plan to spend your company's hard-earned cash on. Surprising, at least to me, is a rush to either buy or upgrade ERP systems. This could be good news for Microsoft Dynamics, SAP and Oracle.
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 09, 20101 comments
I'm not sure what to think of former HP CEO Mark Hurd. During the scandal of 2006 where HP spied on reporters and even its own board members, Chairwoman Barbara Dunn took the fall. Hurd sidestepped the whole situation and came up unscathed. My view was that, as CEO, he either knew or probably should have known what the board was up to -- especially after it hired a team of nine outside investigators to look into the matter.
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 09, 20103 comments
Here is some reader mail on the ultimate demise of IPv4 Internet addresses:
It is no different, Doug, than the switch to digital TV. It took the federal government setting a hard deadline to get the industry to make the move. Still, there are millions of analog TVs in the market that cable systems will have to support for the foreseeable future.
Millions were spent mitigating Y2K which would not have had to be spent if people had begun preparing for Y2K in the decades leading up to that hard deadline.
ISVs and OEMS slowness to adopt to Vista was what ultimately doomed that OS.
When they have to switch to IPv6, the will – and not a minute sooner. Will it cost millions more than it should? Yes! Late adopters invariably cost themselves millions more than they save by putting off the introduction of new technology.
-Marc
Internet Service Providers are not ready to support IPv6 to customers. I have talked with my AT&T representative many times about IPv6 and if they had it on their core network. They don't and are not supporting it yet.
SOOOO, this is a no starter for those with service providers that don't support it yet.
-Daryl
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 09, 20101 comments
IE 9 has been parceled out in early test versions for some time, and now there is what's called the fourth "platform preview" available. Like previous previews, this edition isn't yet quite a browser, as it doesn't include an address bar or a key way to navigate around the Web. So what is it good for? Testing performance and compatibility of custom apps -- that's what.
For those that really want to see the new browser in action, the first beta, with real browser features, is the very next step.
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 06, 20100 comments
We turn this issue's Mailbag to a reader who wants to get a few gripes he has with today's technology off his chest:
Every kid I know says, "Cool." I have kids and, as a result, know a lot of kids. And everything is, "Cool.". "Cool" has never gone out of vogue. "Out of vogue" has, but not "Cool." It remains a very groovy thing to say.
I love technology. I look back on the '70s and think, "If I needed to contact someone, my only option was to find a telephone that was tethered to a wall somewhere." I mean, Ma Bell's final introduction of the RJ11 for general use was the greatest technological blessing of that decade -- more important to me than the moon landing of the previous one. Here some of this decade's technological breakthroughs that I just don't understand:
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 06, 20108 comments
Tuesday is coming. You know that means -- we're going to have a special guest. So wiggle your ears, like Mousketeers, cause Tuesdays is a special patch day.
With apologies to Anette Funicello, I bring you tidings of not quite great joy, as Microsoft is prepping its biggest load of patches ever.
Apparently, not willing to dish out an unlucky 13 fixes, Microsoft went for a solid 14. These patches cover pretty much the gamut -- Windows (of course), IE (of course), Office and Silverlight.
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 06, 20102 comments
For years there have been fears that IPv4 addresses were running out, and the Web would be more paralyzed than the U.S. Congress. I had the honor of interviewing Vint Cerf on this very subject over ten years ago, and came away a bit nervous. Cerf's answer? Move over to IPv6.
As I understand it, there were some tweaks (kludges?) to IPv4 that expanded the address space and bought us an extra decade or so. Now that time is running out, and without a new kludge, we could be plum out of IPv4 addresses, tout de suite.
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 06, 20105 comments