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Sunday, 8 July 2001
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No entry.
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Monday, 9 July 2001
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I have a client, a doctor's office, that uses a compiled Foxpro for DOS program to manage the office. It has to dial out to various insurance providers like Blue Cross, and the PC it's running on is a Compaq Deskpro EN, which came with Windows NT 4. Alas, the PC didn't come with a modem, so we popped in a generic cheapo, in honor of the good doctor's thrifty Scottish ancestry. Apparently the modem worked for a while, and then stopped cooperating. I say apparently because when we brought the modem back to the vendor, it showed nary a glitch. Par for the course, right?
I'm figuring this probably boils down to some combination of cheap modem, Windows NT, and archaic DOS program, resulting in unreliable modem response. When I swapped in an external USR 56K modem, all went swimmingly. The older I get, the more clearly I understand that cheap parts cost less for a reason.
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Tuesday, 10 July 2001
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For people who are way smarter than me, here's a link to an interesting page that discusses the ongoing attempt to create a GPL open source version of Microsoft's .NET technology, making it possible for other companies to write Linux, Windows, or Mac programs compatible with the latest and greatest technology from the Borg, without selling their souls. The Register reports that Miguel de Icaza of open source renown is leading the charge to create Mono, a Linux-based set of development tools. My favorite quote from his Mono home page:
Question 5: What does Mono stand for?
Mono is the word for `Monkey' in Spanish. We like monkeys.
And my favorite quote from the Register article:
".NET solves a number of problems we've been trying to solve in GNOME," he told us today. "Instead of wasting our time trying to create a new standard we're embracing .NET and extending it for our own purposes."
To the best of my recollection, this may well be the first time that anybody has ever made a serious attempt to turn the Borg's "embrace and extend" concept back on them. Boy, I sure hope this actually works.
Today I installed Popup Killer, a freeware program that runs from the system tray, and intercepts popup browser windows. Maybe it'll kill those annoying X10 ad windows. It seems to kill the Geocities popup windows on my home page, with no noticeable side-effects. Popup Killer is supposed to run under Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, ME, NT 4, and 2000. It's supposed to work with Internet Explorer, MSN Explorer, Netscape Navigator 3 and up (including 6), Opera 5, Mozilla, and NeoPlanet 5 or above. My initial reaction is positive, using it on Windows 98 SE with Opera 5 and IE 5.01 SP2.
I also just made Opera my main browser, to see what it would be like to not have Internet Explorer. I've played with every major internet browser at various times — all the ones listed above — but I've never made a serious attempt to totally ignore the Microsoft browser. My previous MS-ignoring attempt was to replace FrontPage 2000 with Macromedia Dreamweaver 3, and I'm very happy with that swap. FP2K is a little easier to use, but not so much that I can't live without it. Early days yet, but so far so good.
OKAY... So the Sales Manager just walked into the Project Manager's office, and they both made this wierd science-fiction-y weeooweeooweeooweeoo whistly noise, and the Sales Manager said "Vulcan Mind Meld!" Do I work in a strange company? Maybe we just embrace diversity. Hmmm.
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Wednesday, 11 July 2001
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No entry.
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Thursday, 12 July 2001
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I am shocked, shocked! that Microsoft's Internet Explorer can evidently be seamlessly extricated from Windows, without gutting the operating system's core functionality. The Borg swore it couldn't be done, but apparently they have just decided, without even blinking, that it was not actually a problem after all. Surreal details at the Register, as usual. Please forgive the extended excerpt to follow, but I just find this whole thing to be utterly exquisite comedy of the absurd, on a par with Soviet or Red Chinese propaganda. So without further ado, here are some tasty bits:
In today's statement Microsoft says: " The appeals court ruled that certain provisions in Microsoft's licenses with PC manufacturers impaired the distribution of third-party Web browsers.[note total absence of agreement or disagreement - it's simply an acceptance that it's a fact the court said this] Microsoft will now provide PC manufacturers with the following new flexibility:
"PC manufacturers will have the option to remove the Start menu entries and icons that provide end users with access to the Internet Explorer components of the operating system. Microsoft will include Internet Explorer in the Add/Remove programs feature in Windows XP.
So the insistence that IE is part of the total Windows Experience, and that the desktop and OOBE (out of box experience) is copyright MS is gone. The ability to remove IE, which was added by 98lite.net as soon as MS subtracted it, demonstrates what 98lite.net demonstrated before, that it was all a matter of packaging.
I love reading news reports. I never bother reading fiction any more — real life is so much stranger and more entertaining. One must of course retain at all times a strong sense of ironical distance from each report, to avoid actually bursting that throbbing vein in the forehead with an excess of outrage. I'm a Christian and all-around non-violent guy, but I declare... there are just SO many people walking around these days who are just begging to be choked.s
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Friday, 13 July 2001
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No entry.
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Saturday, 14 July 2001
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No entry.