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Where to next, Part II

By on October 19, 2003 in Home Page

Perhaps switching off the Microsoft OS is not possible for you right
now, or you can’t afford a second machine to mess with. There are still
alternatives. On my main development machine, a Windows XP Professional
machine, Mozilla is my default
browser. Mozilla is more than just a browser, it’s an internet
application development environment, with HTML markup editors and
javascript debuggers. And OpenOffice.org
is my default office suite, with built-in word processing, spreadsheets
and presentation packages competitive with any of the commercial
suites. I used the OpenOffice.org Write and Impress packages at the
recent Great Lakes Great Database Workshop conference to present my white papers and slides, without any problems.

And, if you’d like to dip your toes into the water without fully committing to a Linux install, check out Knoppix.
Knoppix is a full Linux distribution that boots and runs from CD,
without writing to your hard drive at all. This is a great way to try
Linux out without messing with your machine, although, of course, you
lose any changes when you shut down your machine. I’ve heard that
people have gotten their USB storage devices to work with Knoppix to
save documents. Check it out. It’s free.

Internet Week: Sticking with Microsoft could cost 10 – 40% more

By on October 19, 2003 in Home Page


Microsoft’s Integration Strategy Is Costly For Customers, according to this article at Internet Week. It starts:

spacer

Microsoft’s strategy of increasingly integrating its
server and client products — as best evidenced by the Office System
line-up which officially launches next week — means some enterprises
may end up paying 10 to 40 percent more to stay with Redmond’s wares, a
recent report from Jupiter Research suggests.

Information Week: Staring Down Linux

By on October 19, 2003 in Home Page

Information Week has an interesting articled called Staring Down Linux
that has some thoughtful points about how Microsoft plans to play the
game when dealing with customers and partners and Linux. Not
surprisingly, the word uncooperative describes much of their
\”strategy.\” Also, read the embedded surveys on why customers choose
Linux vs. why Microsoft. Pretty interesting stuff.

So, where to, next?

By on October 19, 2003 in Home Page

So. You heard Whil’s keynote (or read Andrew’s summary)
and you’re ready to take the next step. What to do? Here’s how my
experimentation has gone, so far (I’ve been messing with Linux
part-time for about four years now, btw). First, if there’s any way you
can do it, find a separate machine you can experiment on. Invariably,
an install will go awry or some piece of hardware won’t work and need
to be swapped out, or you’ll just want to blow the whole box away and
start over. If you’ve got a junker designated for that purpose, it gets
so much easier. It doesn’t need to be a state-of-the-art machine,
although of course, speed and memory and power contribute to a better
feeling with all machines. A beater you’ve retired as a development box
or a $400 eBay special can do the trick nicely.

At TR&A Labs, we’ve got three machines we’re messing with: at the
tr.com web site, a dual PII-333 Dell Workstation is an alternative web
server. In-house, a white box we assembled ourselves runs an Athlon
processor and coffee-stained keyboards and mice on a borrowed
monitor, serving as file server and intranet web and wiki server.
Finally, on the road, a Dell Lattitude PII-366 is the road warrior.
Download the latest ISO files for your favorite distribution, burn CDs,
and try a couple of installs just to see what happens. Once you’re
feeling like you’re getting it, try installing a spare (but properly
licensed, of course) Windows installation and see if you can get the
machine to dual-boot.

Find a support group. There are many Linux user groups worldwide (check our GLUE: Groups of Lunux Users Everywhere),
and there are many mailing lists and forums for support as well. Don’t
ask dumb questions: check the man pages and help, rtfm second, Google
it third, search for likely synonyms, and then ask a question with
sufficient (but not excessive) Who-What-When-Where-How information to
get a good answer. Volunteers on newsgroups don’t want to answer the
same question all day long, or a question who’s answer is already on
your machine. I’ve taken several old boxes with non-standard or
relatively unsupported hardware and gotten them running through this
technique. You can, too. Good luck!

October VFUG Newsletter released

By on October 18, 2003 in Home Page

Download October VFUG Newsletter Now.
VFUG (the Virtual FoxPro User Group) just sent out the October issue of
its monthly newsletter to those who have chosen to receive it via
e-mail. Articles in this issue include My Mistake by Les Pinter, Part 7
of Basic Introduction to Office Automation using MS Visual FoxPro by
Matt Jarvis, Help Make Your Old FPW Apps Jump Into the VFP World by
Carl Warner, Wireless Devices, Part 9 by Tom O’Hare, assorted tips that
cover Tracking Updates via Stored Procedure, Remove a Control from a
Grid Column, Quick Way to See the Active Cursor/Table, New VFPSkins
Available, Run Your VFP App as a Service (Shareware Suggestion),
Compile your CONFIG.FPW, Check for an Open File, and even more. As
usual, you can view this monthly newsletter online or download its text
version or all other back issues free at the VFUG site. Not a member?
Join VFUG for free at the site. [FoxCentral]

Short people don’t get no respect

By on October 18, 2003 in Home Page

AP: “Short people may be shortchanged in salary, status and respect.” [Scripting News]
Being $1,578/yr shorter than the average guy, I have certainly found
myself in situations where foolish tall guys intentionally or
unconsciously try to use their height as leverage. It’s weird, but true.

Autumnal perfection

By on October 18, 2003 in Home Page

Laura and I spent the morning going to the dump,er, excuse me, transfer station, and then a drive up to Gould Hill Orchards. [updated link] A gloriously clear and sunny fall day let us see for miles in all directions, with beautiful autumn colors everywhere. We took a long walk in the orchards, but elected to pay for pre-picked apples, a half-peck of Macouns, a favorite of mine. It’s good to be home!

Andrew MacNeill: GLGDW Closing Session

By on October 16, 2003 in Home Page

Great Lakes Closing Session: Where Whil’s Heading.
\”Great but short closing session from Great Lakes: Where To Go.\”
Andrew MacNeill has a great summary on his blog, linked above. Andrew
says: \”You know — listening to him, it makes a lot of good
sense.\”  Read the entire post at Andrew’s blog.

Seven new Microsoft security flaws of concern

By on October 16, 2003 in Home Page

Microsoft Warns of 4 New Windows Flaws OSNews points to an article on Salon
that makes a few interesting points: Microsoft is going to monthly
security bulletins as some sort of comfort for the plethora of patches
that must be applied. Frankly, I’d rather know now, than the first
Wednesday of the month, when a weakness is discovered. This just
expands the threat window from discovery to closure (assuming the patch
works) from a week to a month.

In one email from Microsoft, titled “Microsoft Exchange Server Security
Bulletin for October 2003,” I was warned of the following:
MS03-046, titled “Vulnerability in Exchange Server could allow Arbitrary Code Execution (829436)” allows remote code execution.

MS03-047, “Vulnerability in Exchange Server 5.5 Outlook Web Access
Could Allow Cross-Site Scripting Attack (828489)” also permits remote
code execution.

The second email message was also titled “Microsoft Exchange Server
Security Bulletin for October 2003,” but the body of the message
indicated it was really “Microsoft Windows Security Bulletin Summary
for October 2003.” This included five new threats for you to evaluate,
mitigate and/or patch:

MS03-041 – Vulnerability in Authenticode Could Allow Remote Code Execution (823182)
MS03-042 – Buffer Overflow in the Windows Troubleshooter ActiveX Control Could Allow Code Execution (826232)
MS03-043 – Buffer Overrun in Messenger Service Could Allow Code Execution (828035)
MS03-044 – Buffer Overflow in Windows Help and Support Center Could lead to System Compromise (825119)
MS03-045 – Buffer Overrun in the ListBox and in the ComboBox Control Could Allow Code Execution (824141)

I’m runing Windows Update on a few machines in the home office here,
and you’ll probably want to do the same. It’s the 42nd week of the year.

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