Fully Armed Endpoints

Our friends from FullArmor recently treated us to some sushi at the local buffet (I used all my willpower and only had one heaping plate), and between sips of miso soup, chomps of calamari, mounds of mackerel and tons of tuna, we talked about their latest product: FullArmor Endpoint Policy Manager, a tool that lets admins build and enforce security and other policies for fixed desktops and roving laptops.

The whole idea is to make sure that laptops and mobile devices that have been out in the wild are in compliance with internal corporate security as defined by Group Policy when they return to the corporate nest.

Posted by Doug Barney on March 27, 20070 comments


The Last Word on Viacom vs. YouTube

You've heard the pundits pontificate on the Viacom vs. YouTube lawsuit. Now hear what Viacom itself has to say.

Posted by Doug Barney on March 27, 20070 comments


Abode Blends Web/OS Development

Adobe is taking a stab not just at Web development, but at rich application building, as well. Apollo, now in alpha test (how I've missed that term, overwhelmed by a tidal wave of CTPs, RCs, RTMs and other inane Microsoft names for test software), takes the best of what Adobe has learned with Web development and ties this to OS-style services such as printer drivers and personalization.

I hope this tool is a winner, partly because it will defuse the religious debate of thin vs. thick clients, but mostly because it will force Microsoft and others to build more flexible development tools.

Posted by Doug Barney on March 27, 20070 comments


Open Source Feedback

The Slashdotters have struck again. The popular discussion site (what is it about the Internet that releases inhibitions faster than a double Grey Goose martini?) picked up our cover story about Microsoft's fledgling effort to work with the open source community.

We praised Redmond for its efforts to build quasi-open products and its more serious stab at interoperating with the open community.

As you might expect, zealots (God bless 'em) came out of the proverbial woodwork with comments.

I was plumb excited by the sheer volume of feedback, and even more pleased by the passion. One of my favorites was W. Anderson arguing that Redmond magazine editors are "inexperienced in professional journalism" and should "learn to report stories factually."

Hey, W. My folks have lost more hair than a grizzly's chest and are saving up for liposuction, dentures and hip replacements. They might not be experienced journalists but they sure are creaky!

Scroll to the bottom for the good stuff.

While the open source posts were a gas, they were not nearly as much fun as when Fark made fun of one of Redmond magazine's maiden issues.

Posted by Doug Barney on March 26, 20070 comments


An Hour After You Boot It, You Want To Boot It Again

It's rare that I find myself jealous of those in less-developed countries, but hearing what Dell is doing in China has me pleased and steamed simultaneously. I'm happy because Dell built a $230 desktop for China that runs XP and has a 40GB drive and a quarter-gig of RAM.

Then I got mad wondering why we can't all buy a brand-new, low-priced XP machine. Before sinking into total depression, I did some fact-checking (yeah, I do this occasionally) and found a $350 Dell Vista desktop with an 80GB drive and half-a-gig of RAM. If I were in the People's Republic, I might just order my machine from Austin!

Posted by Doug Barney on March 26, 20070 comments


Oracle Booming

As if Larry Ellison, owner of America's largest yacht, didn't already have enough money, his company goes out and increases revenue by 27 percent and profits by 35 percent in its latest quarter.

It turns out the $20 billion Ellison shelled out to buy a bunch of high-end software companies was money well-spent.

What's really interesting is that Oracle is becoming less and less of a database company, and more and more an enterprise application vendor. But what really makes me happy is that Larry has finally stopped mouthing off about Bill Gates!

Posted by Doug Barney on March 26, 20070 comments


Fortran Father Passes

The man who invented Fortran – and, in the process, laid the foundation for much of what we now take for granted in computer programming -- passed away at the age of 82. John Backus developed Fortran for IBM out of frustration with all the low-level work required at the time to program.

For many in the science community, Fortran is alive and well, just as Cobol is in mainframe business computing.

Posted by Doug Barney on March 22, 20070 comments


Is a Palm Deal at Hand?

Palm Inc., longtime maker of hand-held devices that are actually easy to use, is reportedly up for sale, with either Nokia or Motorola as the presumed buyer.

This has been an interesting space, with Microsoft getting better and better at making smaller and smaller operating systems, and Apple set to get into the market with a phone that comes stocked with all the hand-held computing basics.

What is your hand-held or smartphone of choice, and which devices stink on ice? Let us know at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on March 22, 20070 comments


Scoble Bites the Hand That Made Him

I do this all the time, but for some reason it bugs me when someone, besides myself, who's never run a company tees off on those who do.

Robert Scoble, who was paid by Microsoft simply to blog, became famous because Microsoft paid him simply to blog -- so famous, in fact, that he left the company that helped make him famous and went out on his own.

Now Scoble thinks he knows more about success on the Internet than Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie put together.

According to Scoble, whose sole achievement on the Internet is writing a blog (not inventing the concept!) says that Microsoft is failing in search and Web advertising. Not just failing, but s*&^!cking.

Hmm. Last time I checked, IE had about 90 percent market share, XP, Vista and Office all have myriad Internet hooks, and Microsoft has an impressive line of Web development languages and tools. That clearly doesn't s*&^!ck.

And by the way, since when did the "s" word cease to be a swear? Do the folks that toss this word around forget what it actually means? I'm no prude, but it bugs me when 8-year-olds use the word as casually as they use "Mommy."

Now that I see how distasteful I find Scoble's criticisms, I am actually rethinking my own tone and style. Do you want to see a kinder, gentler Doug Barney? Let me know at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on March 22, 20070 comments


Express Yourself

Microsoft is working to finish its Expression line of tools. Last week, the company released a near-final version of Expression Blend, which helps developers build Vista and XP interfaces. This week, a near-final version of Expression Design, a graphics program, was shipped.

I haven't fiddled with any of these little beauties yet. Have you? Let us know what you think at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on March 21, 20070 comments


No Hiding from AIM

Here's a technology I don't think I need and know I don't want. By figuring out what wireless router you're using, AOL's instant messaging service can let your friends (and your boss) know exactly where you are.

This reminds me of all the hype around presence, when we were all supposed to fall in love with the notion of knowing if our co-workers were in the office, on the phone or in the john. It's not enough that we are tethered to work through cell phones, BlackBerrys and home broadband connections -- now our every physical move is to be known, as well?

Posted by Doug Barney on March 21, 20070 comments


Microsoft Comes Clean on AJAX

Microsoft this week promised to support and promote AJAX interoperability by joining the OpenAJAX Alliance. If all parties truly cooperate, then Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX (I had to use the caps lock to type that name!) will work with AJAX tools from other vendors.

This also shows that Microsoft is serious about Web 2.0-style development. In fact, if you really think about it, Microsoft has a broader range of Web 2.0 development tools than Google. Here's what Google offers in this area.

Redmond Developer News Executive Editor Jeff Schwartz has the deets here.

Posted by Doug Barney on March 21, 20070 comments