Category: Web, Tech & Design

Microsoft has launched a direct attack on Linux through a new ad campaign they’ve started in the US that aims at companies considering Linux on servers.

The campaign directs information technology managers to “get the facts” about Linux before buying anything but Windows and points them to a website called Get The Facts on Windows and Linux that contains research on the cost benefits of licensing Microsoft’s Windows Server System instead of a Linux-based solution.
Of course, most of that research has been commissioned by Microsoft.

I’ve gone through some previously published research on this issue before, and i do agree that the claim that Linux is cheaper is false.
I also think the claims that Linux is more secure are false too. If Linux ever becomes as widely spread as Windows, you’d see how many bugs and security issues would come up.
I also think that the question of Product support is a very important one.
If you’re running critical business on your servers, you should be at least sure you’ll find someone to call when things go wrong, and that there’ll always be someone there working on that product guaranteeing continuity for you.
Anyway, Microsoft make more claims on their campaign’s site, and i think it’s worth reading.

I’m not pro-Microsoft or pro-Linux, i just believe in choosing the best solution for the case and the problem at hand.
Depending on the situation and the different parameters we have, the best choice could be Windows or Linux or why not even MacOS 😛

Anyway, this campaign, i think, is a bigger sign of how Linux is eating more and more into Microsoft’s share of Server systems, and how desperate Microsoft are becoming on shooting Linux down.

So Apple has finally gone on and released the iPod mini, which as you can see looks mostly like the iPod but smaller.

I have to hand it to them that Apple are great at designing their products and making the coolest looking gadgets and machines.
I’m not so keen on the hardware or software, but the looks are great.

This new iPod mini comes in a number of colours and costs $249.
The white and metalic colours are the best in my opinion.

One of the gadgets i’m certainly looking forward to getting is a portable mp3 player, but i still haven’t made up my mind on what product it will be exactly.
An iPod or iPod mini could be an option though 😉

I’m also interested in seeing the stuff that will get released by other manufacturers and that will be based on Microsoft’s Portable Media Player platform, previously called Media2Go.

On his blog, Nick Bradbury, the Man behind TopStyle, HomeSite and FeedDemon tells his story of software piracy and how the little independent developer is affected.

It is very interesting and counters the claims by most people that they’re only stealing from rich mega-corporations that screw their customers, and shows that the people who are hurt the most by piracy are the small independent shareware developers.

Being a developer myself, i’ve often thought about this issue and about the effects it could have. And i totally agree that the people who really get hit hard are the small companies and independent developers who can’t afford to keep going in and out of courts filing lawsuits against wrong-doers.
A consequence of this is that more and more companies and developers will end up losing financially and will quit developing altogether, and so we’ll have both less innovation and creative programs as well as more and more jobless developers pulling down our wages and the economy alltogether.

This must have been blogged on other blogs, i’m sure, but well i’m gonna blog it too anyways because i find it very interesting.

Tim Berners-Lee, who combined HTML with URLs and came up with the World Wide Web, has been knighted.

Sir Tim said the honor, announced Tuesday by Buckingham Palace as part of the New Year honours list, is an acknowledgement that the Net is becoming globally powerful and isn’t just a passing trend.

The article i read about this on cnet’s news.com is really cool and offers an insight into the history of the creation of the World Wide Web.
So, check it out here.

Something i didn’t know before is how Apple could have leaded the way into this whole thing, but were stupid enough to not know what to do with it…

I also liked what Tim said about the dream behind the web:

“The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information,” wrote Berners-Lee. “Its universality is essential: The fact that a hypertext link can point to anything; be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished.”

But there was a second part of the dream, too, Berners-Lee said, and this was dependent on the Web being so generally used “that it became a realistic mirror (or in fact the primary embodiment) of the ways in which we work and play and socialize.” Once the state of our interactions was online, Berners-Lee said, we could then use computers to help us analyze it, and help us make sense of what we are doing, where we individually fit in, and how we can better work together.

I totally agree with Tim and i think that not only is the web becoming a mirror of how we work, play and socialize but also a mirror of what we think about, know, do and live.
So, the web is more and more like a snapshot of the world at any given time including the smallest details of the individual mindset, and i think that is totally awesome.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project began chronicling the internet in March 2000. Back then 52 million Americans logged onto the Internet each day. By this past August, that figure had swelled 27 percent, to 66 million.

Now, for the first time, the Internet research project by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts has done a comparative analysis of the data collected since the project?s inception. In a report released last week, there was ample evidence that the Internet has become mainstream.
DOH ?! Now that’s one hell of a discovery ! You’d never know if they didn’t tell ya, huh ?

Anyway, here’s an interesting table on the fastest growing online activities.

Other than the facts in it being interesting, what i find amazing is comparing these numbers to numbers i expect we would get in Tunisia.

Now although, we do have and use all the online services mentioned above, but still their adoption rate is not as high as the numbers in the US.

Sadly, the internet is still not as mainstream over here as i wish it would be.

Well, i don’t know if i should be happy or not about this, but i got my first piece of blog spam.

I’m not sure if that should be a good sign that my blog is gaining some popularity, thereby pushing these people to add it on their must-spam list.
Or if my blog is just a dumb target on their spam-if-you-have-nothing-else-to-do list, lol…

What’s funny though is that they chose to put their spam in the comments on a post in which i talked about spam and posted a funny spam email message.
Spammers with a sense of humour, now that’s new.

oh well, i hope this is just a bad joke and that it’s the first and last blog spam i ever get.

I was just reading this interesting article about Apple and the limits of innovation, when i found this set of interesting tips on getting innovation right.

If Apple teaches us anything, it’s that effective innovation is about more than building beautiful cool things.
A few thoughts for innovating well in your own shop:

• Not All Innovation Is Equal
  Technical innovation will earn you lots of adoring fans (think Apple). Business-model innovation will earn you lots of money (think Dell).
• Innovate for Cash, Not Cachet
  If your cool new thing doesn’t generate enough money to cover costs and make
  a profit, it isn’t innovation. It’s art.
• Don’t Hoard Your Goodies
  Getting to market on time and at the right price is vital. If that means licensing your idea to an outside manufacturer or marketer, do it.
• Innovation Doesn’t Generate Growth. Management Does
  If you covet awards for creativity, go to Hollywood. Managers get rewarded for results, which come from customers.
• Attention Deficit Has No Place Here
  Every innovation worth doing deserves your commitment. Don’t leap from one new thing to another. If your creation doesn’t appear important to you, it won’t be important to anyone else.

For the full article read: If He’s So Smart…Steve Jobs, Apple, and the Limits of Innovation.

I just came across this interesting list of the 10 technologies to watch in 2004.
So here they are by category and with my comments in between.

1. Home networking : Ultra-wideband
Ah, pure delight. An ultra-wideband wireless network at home would be a dream come true for me 🙂

2. Supply chain : RFID
There’s been quite a buzz about RFIDs in this past year, some people loving them and some people saying they’re a threat to privacy. My opinion is that they’re a great way to keep accurate records of stock and all, but if they go further and start tracking customers histories and behaviours with them, well it could go sour.

3. Wireless broadband : 802.16 WiMax
Hmmm, i guess i’ll have to wait for the prices of regular broadband to go down in Tunisia before i even dream of Wireless broadband.

4. Energy : Micro fuel cells
Anything that extends the energy life of mobile phones, pdas, laptops, …etc. is great, so i’m all for it.

5. Household products : Gecko tape
This is rather interesting technology they’ve come up with. But i don’t think i’ll ever need to use it, unless… oh well, nah, i don’t think i’ll ever become a thief, lol…

6. Software : Antispam software (that works)
Now that would be a great piece of software. A must for my inbox which gets an average of 103 emails a day, 100 of which are spam.

7. Consumer electronics : OLEDs
Seems cool. If they consume less energy for mobile screens and stuff, i think it’s great.

8. Lighting : LED lightbulbs
Last longer, consume less. What else would we want ?

9. Computer memory : MRAM
More than 1,000 times faster than the fastest current nonvolatile flash memory and nearly 10 times faster than DRAM = Beautiful.

10. Medicine : Bioinformatics
Hopefully this will help to identify potential drugs faster, and so save more lives quicker. I can’t think of anything better than that.

[via CNN]

Another interesting list of the top design mistakes in 2003 from Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com.

Here’s the list:

1. Unclear Statement of Purpose
2. New URLs for Archived Content
3. Undated Content
4. Small Thumbnail Images of Big, Detailed Photos
5. Overly detailed ALT Text
6. No “What-If” Support
7. Long Lists that Can’t Be Winnowed by Attributes
8. Products Sorted Only by Brand
9. Overly Restrictive Form Entry
10. Pages That Link to Themselves

For the details check out the full article: Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003.

I read this interesting article A Net of Control in Newsweek magazine a few days ago, and i just found it again on the net, so i thought i’d post the link.

It talks about how the freedom we’ve enjoyed on the internet for years may just be stolen from us, and that the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power because of the updates now in the works.

It goes on to state the fact that whatever freedom is left to us is the freedom we stand up and fight for.

I too see that the internet going in that same direction, and some of it is for the better and some of it for the worse.
And i too think that it’s the responsibility of the people to stand up and put the limits to how much control is exercised over the net to reap the new benefits as well as keep the old ones and the liberties we have now.