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  Karen Watterson's Archived Destinations and Diversions (D & D)  
 
 

28 November 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Jargon Alert

  • VBL. Virtual Build Labs. Used by Microsoft's development teams as part of software development process.
  • COSD. Core Operating System Division.
  • DITA. IBM's Darwin Information Typing Architecture.
  • Headless system. One that doesn't require a keyboard, mouse, or video graphics adapter (VGA) card during operation.
  • OOo. OpenOffice.org. Here and here.
  • Strong inference plus. New paradigm for hypothesis testing, based on J.R. Platt's seminal 1964 Science paper, where he said that "Certain systematic methods of scientific thinking may produce much more rapid progress than others". See Platt's paper and an updated discussion.

Heads Up

Question to Ponder

  • Charles Lindbergh once posed the rhetorical question: "Isn't it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most." Do you agree?

Misc

21 November 2005

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Heads Up

Questions to Ponder

  • Think about the term mercenary. Are armed contract workers in Iraq mercenaries? Are coalition troops who are under the command of US or British commanders in Iraq or Afghanistan mercenaries? To some extent, are some US troops who re-enlist only because of tax-free reenlistment bonuses - say $15,000 - also "mercenaries?"
  • Ted Koppel, who joined ABC at 23, will anchor his last "Nightline" on 11/22. Which TV news anchor was your parents' favorite? Who is yours?
  • "Man is by nature a political animal" said Aristotle. "Man is an animal that makes bargains," said Adam Smith. Which trait is dominant in you - politics or deal-making?
  • Epictetus said that "the pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us the greatest delight." Do you agree?

Misc

13 November 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles - good selection of How Tos

Selected SQL KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Heads Up

Questions to Ponder

  • Aldous Huxley once noted that "The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude." Do you agree?
  • In the 10/27/05 issue of the WSJ, Murray Hiebert wrote about how China is splitting the US Replican party - some taking a hawkish line that China represents a military threat, others saying that we need to take advantage of trade with China. Muddying the issue, of course, are concerns about human rights and Taiwan. If *you* were involved in policy or legislation, which side would you be on?

Misc

6 November 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Selected SQL KB articles

Selected SQLCE/SQL Mobile KB articles

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Browsable

    JARGON ALERT
  • SIPs - software isolated processes, a feature of Microsoft Research's Singularity OS.
  • Erdos number. A measure of the collaborative distance (in terms of published mathematical papers) between an author an the late Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos. Erdos has an Erdos number of zero. The Erdos number of author M is one plus the minimum among the Erdos numbers of all the authors with whom M coauthored a mathematical paper. Related.
  • OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language).

Heads Up

Questions to Ponder

  • Ernest Hemingway once said that "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know." Do you agree with him?
  • A lot's been said about the correlation between music and math/programming. Do you "visualize" music as it's playing? How do you "visualize" your programs? As flowcharts? Or do you "see" code?

Misc

30 October 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

  • My.Blogs - a collection of VS 2005 sample code that shows you how you can provide programmatic access to blogs in your apps. Full source code is provided along with Windows Forms, ASP.NET 2.0 and a Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Outlook Add-In. Related: Getting started with My.Blogs.
  • Google Maps API.
  • MapWindow, open source mapping software with samples using VB, VB.NET, and C#.
  • Visual Haskell (a functional language) available for .NET.

Misc

23 October 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

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Browsable

Travelable

Jargon Alert

Question of the Week

  • Do you remember the last time you wept? Was it a physical or emotional cry?

Misc

16 October 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

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Jargon Alert

  • Xlinq - in-memory XML API (part of LINQ - Microsoft's new Language Integration Query).
  • EAP-TLS - Extensible Authentication Protocol-Translation Layer Security. Used to create a secured connection for 802.1X by pre-installing a digital certificate on the client computer.
  • CMAK - Connection Manager Administration Kit.
  • PUR - Product Use Rights. This is the 7/05 "plain language" version that replaces the previous 100+ pager.

Heads Up

Questions of the Week

  • The late Susan Sontag once said that "The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions." Do you agree?
  • In 1806, William Wordsworth wrote a sonnet beginning with these lines:

    The world is too much with us; late and soon,
    Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
    Little we see in Nature that is ours.
    Is the world (still) too much with us? Or, perchance (think of the environment), not enough with us?

Misc

9 October 2005

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Jargon Alert

  • MSS - Microsoft Solution Selling. (The Redmond Channel Partner September issue also has interesting articles on the $199 InfoPath, Groove, and Microsoft's services strategy.)
  • ULSD - ultra low sulfur diesel fuel with <= 50 ppm sulfur. (Current on-road diesel has about 350 ppm.).
  • SWORD - Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System.
  • NaN - Not a Number, IEEE representation for error values. QNaN = quiet NaN. SNaN = signaling NaN.

Heads Up

Question of the Week

  • It has been said that by the time we turn 40, we get the face we deserve. Do you agree?

Misc

2 October 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

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Microsoft blogs

Travelable

Jargon Alert

  • TKIP: temporal key integrity protocol.
  • Cassini: the Visual Web Developer Web server. Also of interest: JPL's Cassini-Huygens site.
  • Xoml: the version of XAML that's in the current beta of WWF (the 'o' being an artifact from Orchestration). Related: very cool WWF site. Check out the Workflow Designer Control!
  • Bubble talk: voice SMS, based on technology developed by Bangalore-based Sunil Coushik and a partner. The WSJ's Cris Prystay wrote a good article on the technology in the 9/29/05 issue. Related: this.
  • Centro: forthcoming Windows Server the combines the Longhorn version of Windows along with forthcoming versions of SQL Server and Exchange. (See the 9/12/05 issue of Information Week, "Rethinking the Midmarket.")

Heads Up

Questions of the Week

  • The Australian Consumers Association lists a variety of "useless" objects, such as hot dog makers, facial saunas, and so on. How many do you own, and are there others you'd like to add to the list?
  • I read that the USDA impounded food donations to Katrina victims that came from abroad in order to test them. Assuming that's true, do you think that was an appropriate action?
  • According to an English proverb, "A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder." Do you agree?
  • According to Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney, "Public opinion has a short list of bad guys, and the drug companies are on it." (He was quoted in a recent LA Times article about California's forthcoming Prop. 78). Who's on *your* current short list of bad guys today?
  • If you were a billionaire, would you spend $20 million as a space tourist?
  • If you had to perform, say two years of government service, would you opt for the military (complete with a bonus and, probably combat pay as well), a gig with the Peace Corps (or your country's equivalent), or a low-paying teaching job in one of your country's "inner cities"?

Misc

25 September 2005

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Travelable

Jargon Alert

  • Force majeure. Force majeure allows parties to not honor obligations to deliver certain products and suffer no liability or penalty. (Preceding Rita's landfall, the New York Mercantile Exchange declared force majeure Friday (9/23/05) morning on remaining September natural gas futures contract deliveries Friday following the shutdown of the Henry Hub in Louisiana, its key physical delivery point, in this case natural gas due at the end of September). Related: Yale Library reference.
  • DSE - dynamic string execution. A risky technique that makes you vulnerable to SQL injection attacks (see Rod's 8/05 VB-Helper column in VBD about "Avoiding a Lethal Injection.")
  • BRBs> - buckling-restrained braced frames. Steel frames that are being used in seismic retrofit projects, for example.

Heads Up

Questions of the Week

  • Microsoft is on a mission to provide us with role-based software - whether we want it or not. Do you like having what amounts to filtered views of help, functions, and so on?
  • Who or what do you think will be the superpower that ultimately replaces the US? China? The EU? A global military-industrial complex?
  • Part of Microsoft's modus operandi seems to be always having a #1 target enemy in its sights. Java has been there, as have Netscape, open source, Linux, and so on. Google seems to be there now. Do you think it's possible Microsoft might lose? If not, who or what will be next?
  • Steve Jobs reportedly scorns focus groups; Microsoft seems to rely on them. Have you ever participated in one? What do you think of them as part of a business strategy?
  • President Bush stresses an "Ownership Society" for Americans. Do you think that's a noble vision or an overly materialistic one that risks marginalizing "invisible" ones who become part of an Entitlement Society?
  • In his 9/24/05 presentation to a standing room only crowd at the US National Book Fair, "The World is Flat" author Tom Friedman stressed the importance of kids knowing how to learn. (Most programmers are good at that.) When asked by a student how to learn how to learn, Friedman recommended they ask their friends who the best teachers/professors were and take courses from them - no matter what the subject was. The enthusiasm of such teachers is bound to be catching; kids will want to learn - and will figure out how to do it. Do you agree? Related: Excerpts from Jonathan Kozol's book, "Amazing Grace" at and the Summer 2005 issue of The American Scholar (issue title: Science Matters). Unfortunately, the quarterly journal of the Phi Beta Kappa society is only online to subscribers.
  • US House OKs faith as Head Start hiring issue. Should this become law?. (BTW, several readers have suggested that I provide an email where you can reply. You're free to email me, and I'll pass them on to Rod to post as he sees fit. karen_watterson@msn.com>.)

Misc

18 September 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

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Jargon Alert

  • XRI - Extensible Resource Identifier. Here and here. Microsoft doesn't appear to be a member of this OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) group.
  • XML switching. Technology and appliances associated with XML acceleration. Here and here.
  • eDIB - the Social Security Administration's forthcoming electronic disability information system. Let's hope the $800 million system, based primarily on IBM software and Sun hardware, works better than the $170 million VCF (Virtual Case File) project abandoned by the FBI earlier this year. (SAIC was the primary contractor for that venture.)

Heads Up

  • Microsoft's forthcoming Microsoft Certified Architect program. Here, Here, and Here.
  • Xbox 360 launch November 22. Here and here.

Questions of the Week

  • Do you think it's ethical for firms to ship software when they *know* it contains bugs? Does it make a difference if the firm lets clients know what the bugs are? If they promise to provide free updates as the bugs are fixed? What if clients want the software so badly they'll take it as is?
  • It's been said that dogs have the intelligence of about a two-year old. What do you think? Think about how dogs react differently to different people and compare that to how children do.

Misc

11 September 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

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Jargon Alert

Questions of the Week

  • Cyril Connelly once said that, "We fear something before we hate it. A child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise." Do you agree? How does the media affect people's fears?
  • In his 9/1/05 editorial, SD Times' Andrew Binstock reiterated the fact that, as far as developer IDEs go, it's basically a choice between Visual Studio vs. Eclipse. He also faulted both for (my term) becoming more baroque. Do you think the developer IDE is due for a paradigm shift?

Misc

4 September 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

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Browsable

Jargon Alert

  • QVGA = quarter VGA (160x120 pixels)
  • Continuous partial attention. A phrase coined by Linda Stone, former Microsoft VP, to describe the seeming reality of mental multitasking. (Mentioned in Wade Rousch's Technology Review article on Social Machines that I mentioned a few weeks ago.
  • Net promoter score (a way of measuring customer satisfaction. According to Bain's consultant Fred Reichheld, author of "The Ultimate Question," the average for American corporations is "extremely low" - only about 10 percent.)
  • OBL - Osama Bin Laden. How Duke University Islamic Studies professor Bruce Lawrence, author of "Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden," thinks of him.
  • Pacifica and Vanderpool. AMD's and Intel's competing virtualization technologies.
  • Paternal discrepancy. Term used by British scientists from Liverpool John Moores University to describe their findings that probably 4 percent of men worldwide aren't really the biological fathers of a child they believe is theirs.
  • Phase-contrast Xray imaging. Offers improved imaging of soft tissue.
  • MON 863 - a strain of genetically modified corn/maize produced by Monsanto and recently approved for feed use by the EU. Here and here.

Question of the Week

  • I read somewhere that it's considered bad luck in the garment industry to use green thread on the eve of a fashion show. (Who knew, right?) Do you consider yourself superstitious? If not, do you have any "rituals" you perform on important occasions? Any "lucky" shirts or dresses? Any superstitions related to programs or builds?

Misc

  • September 20 is Arctic Refuge Action Day.
  • Finding profits in podcasting.
  • News about changes at Technology Review magazine.
  • Sometimes I turn to the last page of the new issue of Maximum PC to see its "Rig of the Month." (Think of it as a special form of DIY). The 10/05 issue features a waffle iron PC.
  • Very cool article on 10 things venture capitalists would like to fund. Example: senior-friendly PC. The same issue of Business 2.0 has a fascinating article on QVC.
  • Online version of Robert Brookings' (1850-1932, founder of Washington, DC-based Brookings Institution) 1928 classic book, Agricultural corporations: the conversion of agriculture into a prosperous industry. Socializing the soulless corporation : a sequel to agricultural corporations. Related: the Brookings Institution site.
  • The 10/05 issue of The Atlantic Monthly has a fascinating 'World in Numbers' section prepared by Richard Florida and colleagues at George Mason University with help from geograph Tim Gulden of the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland. Four global maps showing concentrations of population, light emission, patents, and scientific citations illustrate the team's point that the world is spiky (a reaction to Romas Friedman's popular "World is Flat" book. (But not viewable online.)
  • Stefan Fatsis' 8/25/05 story on the 2005 National Scrabble Championship, A Beautiful Endgame, is a delightful read, not only about the tournament's last match Thai student and an American mortgage underwriter, but also some of the more interesting matches.
  • How Chrysler HEMI engines work.
  • Memory test - see how many of the top 100 hits from your high school years you remember. (where xxxx is the year).
  • Free learning style test (visual, aural, verbal, physical, logical, social, solitary.) Then, if you want, compare your style to others in your age group, job group, country, gender, etc.
  • In an 8/29/05 excerpt of Edison Schools CEO Chris Whittle's "Crash Course," Whittle suggests five "new truths:" 1) learning that's accomplished through individual effort or in small teams is "stickier" than learning that's "served up" by the teacher, 2) class size isn't everything, 3) children are capable of tremendous focus and responsibility on their own, 4) variety in education matters, and 5) children can teach as well as learn. Among his proposals: a West Point for principals, letting kids help run schools, and bankrolling R&D for schools. (Question - isn't that what the Dept. of Education is supposed to be doing?) Related: California seems poised to enforce an exit exam for seniors. In the spirit of No Child Left Behind, I assume, seniors will be forced to demonstrate 8th grade math skills.
  • Cartoons I've enjoyed recently: 1) Caption: If Roberts is Confirmed. Cartoon shows Roberts extending his coffee cup towards Justice Ginsberg and saying, "Decaf, black." 2) Couple at train station, viewing approaching train: "Right on time, the Tuesday Patch Express." 3) Antlered funeral director inside a deer mortuary explaining to grieving couple: "You have your choice of a casket, a mounted head, or the inexpensive canned version. 4) Furniture salesman to couple: "If you're on a budget, I have something uglier."
  • Who knew? 1) Some grocery stores illuminate their meat cases with red-toned light (standard fluorescent can give it a greenish sheen) 2) Whites are now the minority in four states: CA, TX, NM, and Hawaii. 3) Over 30 percent of US trash is now recycled. The average American produces 4.5 pounds of trash daily. 4) The housing market affects 1 in 6 jobs in the US economy. 5) Inhaling airborne salt can raise your blood pressure.
  • Sloan Digital Sky Survey extended as SDSS-II. (Microsoft Research's Jim Gray is involved in the SDSS SkyServer project.)
  • Essay contest opportunity: "What's on the minds of America's youth today?" Up to 1500 words, due 9/30/05.
  • Bitty beasts of burden: Algae can carry cargo. Interesting research. What next? Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Algae?
  • And don't forget to read Rod's great column on Sort Support!

28 August 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Travelable

  • PDC 2005, Sep 13-16 in LA. Though sold out, will presumably have some live Webcast/podcast feeds.
  • DEMOfall 2005, Sep 19-21 in Huntington Beach, Calif.
  • VMworld 2005, Oct 18-20 in Las Vegas. JARGON ALERT

Jargon Alert

  • FOGs (Fiber Optic Gyros).
  • Mustang. Forthcoming Java SE 6 release.
  • UDO - ultra density optical. 5.25" form factor write-once media cartridges (30 GB)
  • MVNO - Mobile Virtual Network Operator. here and here.
  • N-tier hairball. Priceline CIO Ron Rose's term for the architecture in today's data centers.

Question of the Week

  • An 8/26/05 LA Times article on the sale of the 19-story Century Plaza Hotel (built in 1966) to a San Clemente-based REIT had an accompanying photo showing President Reagan launching a paper airplane from the penthouse balcony of the Century Plaza. The question: when was the last time you flew a paper airplane? Or blew soap bubbles, for that matter?

Misc

21 August 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Misc

13 August 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Jargon Alert

  • HALE - High-Altitude Long-Endurance. Special type of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) used for surveillance. The BBC article says there are thought to be some 800 operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • Vlogging - video logging.

Misc

7 August 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Travelable

Heads Up

Jargon Alert

  • HSIN-Secret. Homeland Security Information Network-Secret .
  • EGL. Enterprise Generation Language, the successor to Informix 4GL.
  • ADS. Active Denial System. 95 GHz system that delivers non-lethal heat as a deterrent.
  • Scrum. Agile process for developing software that breaks a project down into small chunks. Here and here.
  • IMS. IP Multimedia Subsystem.
  • HTTP Request Smuggling. A technique for defeating web proxies and caches first described by Watchfire. Related: Data smuggling.
  • ICE. In Case of Emergency ("code" to add to important cell phone contacts). Also Interactivity Connectivity Establishment.
  • Tailwind. Name of Microsoft's sales force reorganization emphasizing vertical markets.
  • ITIL. Information Technology Infrastructure Library.
  • Cell phone abuse. The subject of a great essay by Alison Manheim ("Stuck? Don't call me") in the 8/4/05 LA Times about getting unwanted phone calls from people stuck in traffic who "kill time" by making cell phone calls.
  • Snuppy. Short for Seoul National University Puppy, the world's first cloned dog, now three-months old.
  • Baidu. China's popular Google-like search engine.
  • MBA - Mandatory Binding Arbitration.

Thought Questions of the Week

  • Common wisdom is that adults (at least Westerners) get more conservative as we age. Do you see that trend in yourself? At a professional level, are you less inclined to install beta software and explore "bleeding edge" technology?
  • Were you often bored as a kid (waiting for parents, in school, etc.)? Are you ever bored now?
  • Do you worry that kids don't play outside enough? Richard Louv (Last Child in the Woods) does. (I meant to combine this with my recent link to Richard Stilgoe's "Outside Lies Magic."

Misc

22 July 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Travelable

Heads Up

Jargon Alert

  • GRIN (genetics, robotics, information, nano), technologies that are impacting us biologically. See Washington Post reporter Joel Garreau's 7/17/05 LA Times article, You're not good enough.
  • Microformats>. Extensions to HTML/XHTML tags.
  • PHEV>. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.
  • Bash script. A file containing a list of commands to be executed by the bash shell. See L.M . MacEwan's class notes and Mendel Cooper's Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide for more. Download the Bash shell here>.
  • Vista>. New name for Longhorn. Vista ("bringing clarity to your world") presumably sends an, ahem, clearer message than Longhorn (methane-emitting cattle).
  • WAKA> - World Adult Kickball Association.
  • PEAS> - America's Places of Ecological and Aesthetic Significance according to the Charture Institute.
  • WFO> - workforce optimization.
  • MoonROx> - Moon Regolith Oxygen. New NASA-sponsored Centennial Challenge ends 6/1/08.
  • PLA> - private label manufacturers.

Thought Question of the Week

  • Should individual pharmacists and/or pharmacies be allowed to refuse to fill valid prescriptions for medications they don't approve of such as the "morning after" pill - or, presumably, lifestyle drugs like Viagra?

Misc

17 July 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Heads Up

  • ESRI World Conference 2005, July 25-29 in San Diego.

Jargon Alert

  • SLRRP - Simple Lightweight RFID Reader Protocol at sourceforge and networkworld.
  • metrosexual - fashion conscious urban male with a strong aesthetic sense. here, here and here. (Are many geeks and nerds metrosexuals?)

Thought Questions of the Week

  • I suspect the pro-Harry Potter fans vastly outnumber the critics (some conservative Christians) and curmudgeons. Among the latter is LA Times columnist Joel Stein who, in last week's editorial opined that "A culture that simplifies its entertainment down to fairy tales is doomed to simplify the world down to good and evil." Do you agree?
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Do you agree?

Misc

11 July 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Heads Up

Jargon Alert

  • Gemini - code name for the next major release of MIIS, Microsoft Identity Integraion Server. Info about Microsoft's forthcoming InfoCard. Related: the MIIS site.

Misc

  • Science Magazine's anniversary feature on the top 125 Big Questions.
  • As the site name advertises... www.freetranslation.com.
  • Cartoons I've enjoyed: 1) Scenario: man looking intently at computer screen. Sign on side of his monitor: "The PC has been porn free for 23 days." 2) Full-page cartoon by Roz in 6/27/05 New Yorker on "The Muttering Classes" with pictures of 16 people muttering things like "Jerk," "Thinks he knows everything," "One of these days..." "Can kiss my ass...," etc. 3) City street scene with woman enjoying a sprinkling from a hose. Vendor's sign: "Hose you off. $2" 4) One executive to another looking at vast, empty room: "Well, that does it, Charlie - we've outsourced everything." 5) Executive handing Plan Z business plan to his partner: "Of course, if this one flops, we're done." 6) Backyard scene with man flipping burgers on a barbecue to boy: "Don't think of me as your stepdad - think of me as the guy having sex with your mom."
  • Heartwarming article about voice technology empowering the disabled.
  • Tree sites: What Tree Is That? and Dendrological Plant Image Gallery.
  • Google in "foreign" languages: Swedish Chef, Elmer Fudd, Klingon, Pig Latin, Hacker.
  • SEED (Standard Exchange of Earthquake Data, an international standard format for the exchange of digital seismological data.)
  • Interview with Rational execs.
  • Request a free copy of the Qur'an.
  • Five young profs each receive $200,000 Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowships and here.

4 July 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Travelable

Heads Up

  • Watch an architecture webcast, get a free book.
  • Sunset alert! In the July issue of "Maximum PC," Watch Dog reports that Quicken only supports the current and past two versions online. Microsoft Money offers two years online support. The remedy? Upgrade, of cour$e.

Jargon Alert

  • manwha - Korean version of manga.
  • rapture theology - popularized by the popular "Left Behind" series of novels by Tim La Haye.
  • ROC - Return on Customer, according to Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, in their latest book.
  • ABI - Automated Broker Interface, Advanced Bus Interface, Application Binary Interface, Adaptive Brain Interface.
  • SPOMF - Symmetric Phase Only Matched Filter (method for detecting a known object in an image.)
  • EPIC - Embedded Platform for Industrial Computing.
  • poilu (hairy one) - French equivalent of grunt.

Misc

  • Interesting article on the rise of the creative class. Dan Pink ("A Whole New Mind" argues that the future will belong to creators and empathizers, driven by abundance, Asia, and automation.
  • The July issue of Fast Company had several other fascinating articles, including an interview with GE CEO Jeff Immelt and a surprisingly interesting article on Cirque du Soleil (good sidebar by Blue Ocean Strategy co-author Renee Mauborgne, on innovation). One of Immelt's observations: management literature has focused on how to. "I think we're now in the what-and-where generation." The July feature, "Is your Boss a Psychopath," is interesting, too.
  • Americans reportedly consume an average of 66 pounds of beef/year.
  • The most popular cosmetic surgery for men is liposuction. Average cost: $4117. Eyelid surgery, nose jobs, male breast reduction, and hair transplantation round out the top five.
  • Review of Dean Hamer's "God Gene." Recommended background music (select autoplay).
  • Pinnacle's July newsletters are all online now, which means that even non-subscribers can read the feature article of each newsletter free until next month's contents are posted. So...that means you can read 1) Carl Ganz's feature on using Office Web Components in VBD (Disclaimer - I'm the editor) 2) Pete Rodriguez' "Roll Your Own Masked Edit Custom Control with ASP.NET" in Visual Studio .NET Developer, 3) MVP Hilary Cotter's feature on what to expect in SQL Server 2005's Full Text Search in SQL Server Professional (I'm also the editor of SSPro), and 4) Paul Millennas' excellent Smart Access article on adding color to otherwise "battleship grey" buttons in Access.
  • NY Times science articles.
  • Crop, grass, vegetable, and weed seeds.
  • Photographic archive of Gary, Indiana, steel plant.

28 May 2005

Readable/Watchable

Heads Up

  • Awesome TechNet Webcast series on SQL Server 2005's BI features. On tap for Tuesday - Real-time BI with SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services.
  • Articles about Office 12's features and timetable here and here.

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

  • The June 2005 issue of Intelligent Enterprise with two excellent articles on XML. My prediction: winners of the inevitable turf wars over content ownership will wish they had lost.
  • The 5/23/05 issue of Network World offers 10 troubleshooting tools for network managers - ones that are useful for home networks, too.

Jargon Alert

Misc

21 May 2005

Readable/Watchable

Heads Up

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Jargon Alert

  • LSI - latent semantic indexing, a technique used by many search engines that try to associate certain terms with concepts when indexing web pages. For details, see Telcordia, Microsoft, University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
  • LTL - less than truckload, as in FedEx's LTL subsidiary.
  • Fuzz testing - a simple technique for feeding random input to applications.
  • 10-30-30. Shorthand for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's speed goal for the Pentagon. The goal: be able to halt an enemy incursion within 10 days, win within 30, and be ready to fight another enemy 30 days after that. See the 5/16/05 WSJ article ("Rumsfeld's Push for Speed Fuels Pentagon Dissent") and rantburg.com.
  • Evil twins and pharming. Techniques used by hackers to hijack online identities. Evil twins offer a "fake" wireless login that mimics a legitimate one, and pharming redirects surfers to a hacker site by DNS cache poisoning. See a 5/17/05 WSJ article.
  • Financial terms that may be new to you (they were to me): 1) Viatical - of or relating to a contractual arrangement in which a business buys life insurance policies from terminally ill patients for a percentage of the face value: a viatical settlement. A growing industry. 2) CDO - collateralized debt obligation. Type of credit derivative.
  • Eiger - codename for special bare bones Windows XP SP2 client. bink.nu and news.com.com.
  • Maestro - codename for forthcoming BPM scorecarding application based on Office, but which reportedly will also require SQL and SPPS CALs.

What Do *You* Think?

  • Do you consider yourself "middle class"? Do distinctions between, say upper middle and lower middle class matter to you? Fascinating in-depth series. Related, a 5/20/05 interview with one of the series authors, Janny Scott.
  • Is there such a think as a "noble lie"? Plato thought so. What's the difference between a noble lie and a white lie?
  • Massimo d'Azeglio, a 19th century Italian novelist and statesman, said that "The gift of liberty is like that of a horse, handsome, strong, and high-spirited. In some, it arouses a wish to ride; in many others, on the contrary, it increases the desire to walk." See Fouad Ajami's essay with the citation.

Misc

14 May 2005

Readable/Watchable

Selected KB articles

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Jargon Alert

  • Fabric wars (about interconnects, not cotton vs. rayon) -

What do *YOU* Think?

Misc

7 May 2005

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Travelable

  • ACM SIGKDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Augus 21-24 in Chicago.

Jargon Alert

  • The "I" word - referring to isolationists and isolationism
  • LUA - Least-Privileged User Account.

Misc

30 April 2005

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Jargon Alert

  • ESTs - Expressed sequence tags represent tiny portions of an entire gene that can be used to help identify unknown genes and to map their positions within a genome. Go here for more on ESTs and access to another half dozen mini tutorials about biotech topics.
  • CHEM - Cold Hybernated Elastic Memory. A new kind of foam that can be used in packaging.
  • E3 - term coined by the META Group combining ETL, EAI, and EII
  • Metro - the code name for a new XML-based document technology framework, to appear in Longhorn. Susan Kuchinskas wonders if it's meant to be a "PDF killer? Related: article on printing PDF from .NET.
  • Mendocino - code name for SAP/Microsoft joint project.
  • DU - depleted uranium.

Misc

23 April 2005

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Jargon Alert

  • TOE - TCP Offload Engine. A networking technology that's reportedly part of Microsoft's "Chimney," which was originally slated for the late 2004 release of the Scalable Networking Pack for Windows Server 2003.
  • PXE - pre-boot execution environment.
  • CXT - Commercial Extreme (think up to 6 tons of hauling power) Truck.
  • Two-factor authentication. Here and here.
  • PSD - point spread functions. Here and here.

Misc

16 April 2005

Readable/Watchable

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Jargon Alert

Thought Questions

  • In his 3/15 SD Times column (registration required), Allen Holub asks "Is Software Engineering an Oxymoron?" and concludes with an observation that programming has changed from the study and implementation of algorithms to the study and creation of complex documents - essentially that "it's moved from math to English." Do you agree?
  • In a 3/01 Communications of the ACM article, "Developing the Future," Grady Booch suggested that there are two developer communities - Athenians and Spartans. The Athenians are the "shoot-from-the-hip Internet-time" entrepreneurs, while the disciplined software engineers are the Spartans. Does this distinction still make sense? Did it ever?
  • Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" ends describing a world that "Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,/Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;/And we are here as on a darkling plain/Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,/Where ignorant armies clash by night." Do the words speak to you?

Misc

  • Gecko GrassWorlds (grassland simulator).
  • 12-page PDF on XML indexing in relational databases by SQL Server team members.
  • Excellent 3/29/05 report, Comprehensive Database Security Requires Native DBMS Features, by Forrester analyst Noel Yuhanna.
  • Info on VMware Workstation 5 and what it offers developers.
  • Info on hyperthreading.
  • Cartoons I've enjoyed recently: 1) Bar scene where one man with a beer says to another who's working on his laptop, "Download it again, Sam." 2) Restaurant patron holding his cell phone to waiter, "My nutritionist would like a work with you." 3) Woman holding phone hears message: "Get a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, put your feet up, and listen to our menu options." 4) Man seated in armchair reading book, "Moral Values for Dummies." 5) One snowman to another who's holding a hair dryer to his head: "carl! No!"
  • My back yard is full of ladybugs, quail, the "seeds" from my neighbor's cottonwood trees, and other magical critters and sights. I hope you find time to get outside and enjoy spring, too.

9 April 2005

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Heads Up

Travelable

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Jargon Alert

  • Gen Y - 10-24 years olds (about 60 million in the US)
  • BCL - base class libraries. Related: the BCLTeam blog at
  • pomo - postmodern
  • pen tests - penetration tests
  • SNAC - SQL Native Access Client
  • AMO Analysis Management Object: a new object model for managing and administering Analysis Services 2005.

Misc

2 April 2005

Don't forget Daylight Savings Time!

Readable/Watchable

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Heads Up

  • Remember to sign up for MSDN's SQL Server 2005 Webcast miniseries that starts next week. Here's the lineup:
    • April 4, 11AM PT, MSDN Webcast: Introducing SQL Server 2005 Express: Your Smart Client Data Store (Level 200)
    • April 4, 1PM PT, MSDN Webcast: New Data Features in Visual Studio 2005 Windows Forms
    • April 5, 11AM PT, MSDN Webcast: Putting the "Smart" in Smart Client: Embedding Key Performance Indicators into Smart Client Applications
    • April 5, 3PM PT, MSDN Webcast: Managing XML Data on the Database with SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005
    • April 7, 10AM PT, MSDN Webcast: Data-Disconnected: Working with Disconnected Data Using ADO.NET 2.0
    • April 7, 1PM PT, MSDN Webcast: Using Web Services To Connect to SQL Server 2005 from Your Smart Client Applications
    • April 8, 11AM PT, MSDN Webcast: Native Data Access Technologies for SQL Server 2005 (Level 300)
    • April 8, 1PM PT, MSDN Webcast: Improving Smart Client Performance Using MARS (Multiple Active Result Sets) in SQL Server 2005 (Level 300)
    You'll probably notice one big theme: "smart client" apps, which makes FTP's new SmartClient Live! (see below) all the more timely.
  • Update on O'Reilly's new quarterly magazine, Make, for the geekish DIY market. Amazon seems to have exclusive rights to sell the first issue, and you can listen to a 5 minute audio clip on the story behind it from the Amazon/Magazines website, where you can also download a 14 page PDF preview, and subscribe for a year starting with issue 2. MakeZine.com has another PDF preview with the aerial photography for your kite.
  • The Windows XP SP2 automatic update blocker will be lifted on April 12th.

Travelable

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Jargon Alert

Thought Question

Misc

26 March 2005

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Heads Up

Downloadable

  • Sneak peek of O'Reilly's new quarterly Make magazine (think hefty hobbyist's mag, i.e. 200 pages/issue with articles on building a camera-equipped kite, a Gauss rifle, or your very own mag stripe reader).
  • Trial version of $229 VBdocman .NET 2.0, which works as an add-in in VS.NET 2002/2003.
  • IronPython 0.7.
  • LibCheck. Utility that lets you compare two versions of an assembly.
  • ILMerge. Utility that lets you merge multiple assemblies.
  • March 2005 Avalon and Indigo CTP. (Nota bene: 454MB)
  • MBSA 1.2.1.
  • vbUnit3 for writing and running automated unit tests against VB and COM objects.
  • utPLSQL - O'Reilly's utPLSQL Project.

Browsable

  • March 2005 issue of Wired with features on radio, Yahoo at 10 (the UnGoogle), and Jimmy Wales, the guy behind Wikipedia.
  • Tigris.org. Open source software engineering.

Jargon Alert

  • Oulipo (Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle, i.e. Workshop of Potential Literature), Oulipo for short, was the name of a small group of primarily French writers, mathematicians, and academics devoted to the exploration of mathematical and combinatorial techniques in literature. Founded in 1960 (and still somewhat active), the group searched for new literary structures via the imposition of unusual constraints. More info: Who's Counting: Google Made Surreal and Index of Oulipo Books.
  • 3FB - 3-fluorobenzene. Part of an "unnatural" DNA base pair (3FB-3FB - the "natural" ones are C-G and A-T) being investigated by Floyd Romesberg's lab at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Economist.com and Romesberg Group .
  • EGRET (Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope) sources. Objects that emit gamma rays continutously (not just in bursts). About 170 known. See also NASA image of earth seen through gamma ray eyes.

Misc

19 March 2005

Readable/Watchable

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Travelable

Jargon Alert

  • WAL (Write Ahead Logging), a database protocol, which requires that "all transaction log records associated with a particular data page be flushed to stable media before the data page can be flushed to stable media."

Misc

12 March 2005

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Jargon Alert

Misc

5 March 2005

Readable/Watchable

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Browsable

Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon Alert

Misc

26 February 2005

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Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon Alert

  • VOCs - volatile organic compounds, including those emitted by paint. Related: Recycling info.
  • MS13 - no, it's not related to adult content from Microsoft, but to a gang.

Misc

19 February 2005

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Jargon Alert

  • M Generation - Missionary Generation of kids who attend the 700+ US religious colleges. Related: Naomi Riley's "God on the Quad" and a review.
  • RSI - requirement stability index/indicators. Requirements stability indicators are in the form of trend charts that show the total number of requirements, cumulative changes to the requirements, and the number of TBDs (to be dones) over time. A TBD refers to an undefined requirement. Based on requirements stability trends, corrective action may be necessary.

Misc

12 February 2005

Readable

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Heads Up

Travelable

  • Semantic Technology Conference, March 7-10 in SF. "By Semantic Technologies we are including technologies and methodologies that have been used within leading enterprises over the last decade that leverage Semantics, such as Semantic Brokers, Semantic Modeling, Model Based Warehousing, Business Rules and many more. We are also including the Semantic Web and the technologies that make it possible, such as OWL, RDF/RDFS, DAML+OIL and XML."

Browsable

  • Enterprise Geographic Information System (EGIS). Formerly, a separate system called HUD Environmental Maps, this upgraded system provides mapping tools for displaying housing, environmental, emergency management and census data.

Jargon Alert

Misc

  • Presidential pets at the Whitehouse Web site and the Presidential Pet Meseum.
  • Great feature, The Kinsley Report, in the current (Feb 2005) issue of LA Magazine. You may remember Michael Kinsley as the journalist who launched Microsoft's Slate. Well, now he's in charge of the LA Times editorial pages.
  • UDDI 3.0.2 is official.
  • Cartoons I've enjoyed recently: 1) The scene: two groundhogs in their den. One recounts, "I saw my shadow. It made me look fat." 2) The scene: two fish, one with a hook protruding from its mouth. The hookless one observes, "Nice lip piercing." 3) The scene. A pleasant-looking middle-aged woman in her doorframe, making a happy, beckoning gesture to her dog. The dog's thought balloon shows a can of dog food perched on top of the woman's legs. 4) Doctor to patient: "You'll be awake during the entire procedure. The anesthesiologist is on vacation." 5) The scene: two aliens and a human in a spaceship. One alien says to the other, "*You* abducted him. *You* feed him."
  • Very cool book: Home Hacking Projects for Geeks. Related: Wiley's forthcoming Geek House: 10 Hardware Hacking Projects for Around Home.

5 February 2005

Readable

Selected KB articles

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Heads Up

Browsable

Jargon Alert

Misc

29 January 2005

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Jargon Alert

  • Slurpware - According to Gartner analyst Jay Heiser, it's when all the effective Internet attack elements come together to potentially steal a lot of money.
  • SSR - sustained silent reading.

Travelable

Thought Questions

  • Sun's president and COO Jonathan Schwartz recently said that "Developers don't buy things; they join things." It seems to me that communities *are* becoming more important. Do you agree? Which communities do *you* feel part of? Is the "community thing" eroding the "cowboy" culture of the lone wolf programmer? If so, is that for the best? Jonathan's Blong and Linux World article.
  • Most of us first grappled with life's "big questions" as teenagers, and I suspect that most of us remember some of our long youthful conversations with a bit of nostalgia. Which topic intriuged you most? The problem of evil? The existence of God? The problems of inequity - your lot vs. that of a third-world peasant? Sex vs. love? What you wanted to do with your life? Some political question?
  • Some companies perform ritual annual reorgs. Does your firm? What do you think of reorgs in general?

Misc

22 January 2005

Readable

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Jargon Alert

  • CCF - Microsoft's Customer Care Framework, a modular XML Web Services architecture for rapid development and deployment of contact center solutions and runs on Windows XP Professional for providing a single desktop to call center agents, plus a prescriptive middle tier architecture using Windows Server, BizTalk Server, SQL Server, and Host Integration Server to connect all line of business applications to the CCF client using XML Web Services.
  • IPTV - Internet TV.
  • MJO - Madden-Julian Oscillation. Move over, El Nino. Webcast about by Dr. Madden.
  • VLOG - video blog.
  • twixter - young adults who delay "settling down." Related: twixters in other countries.
  • PIA - Primary Interop Assemblies.

Travelable

Misc

15 January 2005

Errata

Readable

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Jargon Alert

  • LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/Python/PHP.

Travelable

Thought Question

  • What public person do you think currently has the hardest job on earth? Would you want to be in their shoes? Or at least part of their team?

Misc

8 January 2005

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Travelable

Misc

1 January 2005

Readable

Selected KB articles

SQL Server-related from here on

Browsable

Heads Up

Downloadable

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Jargon/Acronym Alert

Thought Questions

  • Does the notion of an elegant universe composed of ten (or more) spacetime dimensions seem oxymoronic to you? Related: Patricia Schwarz's string theory site at and summary of recent astronomical observations.
  • A few hundred years ago, most humans would have lived and died without even being aware of a disaster like last week's tragedy. Does our awareness matter? Has the tragedy changed anything for you? Did you "celebrate" New Year's Eve in your normal manner? Suggested related ideas: McLuhan, chaos, Gaia, fate, suffering.

Misc

18 December 2004

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Jargon/Acronym Alert

Thought Questions

  • Do you believe in "free will"? Is your position based on faith or intellectual convictions?
  • On a far lighter note, when was the last time you didn't make your bed?

Misc

11 December 2004

Rod pointed out that I had 142 links in last week's D&Ds [I admit, I teased her a bit--Rod ;-], so I'm trying to return to my original vision of supplying about a dozen links per week. Doesn't look like I quite made it, but hope you enjoy the less-overwhelming list.

Readable

Selected KB articles

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Heads Up

Jargon/Acronym Alert

  • NCE - new chemical entity (used in pharaceutical industry)
  • Baldwin Effect - the possible result of the interaction of evolution with learning by individual animals over their lifetimes, named after J. Mark Baldwin, an American naturalist who described it in 1896. Related: Baldwin Effect revived for discussion and Social Learning and the Baldwin Effect.
  • WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy (an encryption protocol for WLANs) and Weak Equivalency Principle (related to gravitation and relativity).

Thought Question

  • If you could instantly be endowed with knowledge of another language (programming or spoken) or development platform, what would it be?

Misc

4 December 2004

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Heads Up

  • DLP - as in digital light processing (think DSP on steroids).
  • WLAN mesh networks.

Travelable

Jargon/Acronym Alert

  • CEP: cascade error projection, a learning algorithm for artificial neural networks. NasaTech and worldscinet.
  • FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array. Devices that can support thousands of gates and are often used in prototyping ICs. Related: about HP's Teramac. here and here.
  • GTIN - Global Trade Identification Number, a family of EAN.UCC global data structures that employ 14 digits and can be encoded into various types of data carriers. Currently, only used within bar codes, but likely to be part of many RFID implementations.
  • VRS: Virtual Reference Stations that can make RT corrections to GPS readings. Info: here and here.
  • TEM: Telecom Expense Manager
  • Content monkey for AOL - how blogger Ana Marie Cox refers to her life before Wonkette.

Thought Questions

  • Albert Einstein once said that "Science is what you know; philosophy is what you don't know." To what extent do you think we *really* know anything, scientific or otherwise? Aren't scientific hypotheses, even laws, always subject to refutation by new discoveries? Even mathematics, which is supposed to be the solidest of the sciences, can be attacked as basically being an intricate, yes, sometimes "elegant" house of cards, can't it?
  • Have you read any of the new genre of "graphic" (cartoon-style) novels? They beg the question of what novels are. How do *you* define "novels," and what was the last one you read (in your copious spare time)? A librarian's portal to info about graphic novels.
  • If you were an executive and had the opportunity of reducing expenses by either using prison labor or offshoring, which would you do? (Microsoft is among many firms that reportedly use or have used prison labor.)

Misc

  • Inifinifield, a *new* strategy board game that's designed for two to four players, ages 6 to adult. It "breaks away from traditional games with a fixed board layout and takes the playing field to the third dimension," and it happens to also have been invented by my friends, the Zanevsky family. *Very* cool and highly recommended.
  • Q&A with Microsoft's Yuval Neeman, corporate VP of the Storage and Platforms Solutions Group about Microsoft's forthcoming (second half of 2005) Data Protection Server (DPS).
  • Why the I-Hate-Oracle Club?
  • 45-page PDF on what used to be DEC's VMS-based Rdb. Related: Rdb's current home page as an Oracle product. Also interesting - a short article on how Rdb is still being used. FWIW, Microsoft's Dave Cutter started his career at DEC in the VAX era, and many of the features of that OS are said to have influenced architectural decisions about Windows.
  • Volunteerism opportunities: geekcorps, giscorps.org
  • Possibility of carbon sequestration in briny water in depleted oil fields.
  • Online Etymology Dictionary. (Inspired by my research after hearing Alan Alda refer to a character as being "ruthless, no ruth at all." In fact, back in the Middle Ages, they did use "reuthe" to mean compassion and pity.)
  • Geostat - U of Virginia's geospatial and statistical data center.
  • Archive of Punch/Daily Mail cartoons by Welsh cartoonist, Leslie Illingworth (1902-1979).
  • Cyberlaw/IP prof Susan Crawford's blog focusing on technology policy. Also worth noting - her vetted list of other interesting blogs, ranging from the Yale Law School's LawMeme to John Perry Barlow's blog.
  • MIT research scientist Dan Weitzner's excellent editorial on buildings as information systems.
  • I recently read that there were about 200 types of neurons (not just the sensory, motor, and interneurons you may have learned about in school). Well, according to the Mind Project site, there may be thousands.
  • Info from the USAF Research Labs.

24 November 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Turkey not your thing? How about BUGs?

Browsable

  • Free GIS Resources [software, data & Ideas] user forum.
  • Adobe Acrobat 7.0 released, Reader 7.0 coming soon. Related: PDFforLawyers site with tips.
  • Free session Webcasts from VNU's Training Fall Conference, "Incorporating Online Learning," 1) Michael Allen's "How Executive Leadership in Rapid Prototyping can Improve ROI," 2) Susan Boyd's "Ten Ways to Make E-learning Stick," 3) Jay Cross and Gloria Gery's "History in the Making: The Debut of Workflow Learning," 4) Chris Florio: "Working with Streaming Multimedia," 5) Dave Meier's "Learning Styles: Creating the Accelerated Learning Smorgasbord," 6) Sivasailam Thiagarajan's "Requiring and Rewarding Higher-Order Thinking in Online Games and Simulations," and/or 7) Dave Weinberger's "The Information Revolution That Wasn't and the One That Will Be."
  • Excerpt on business supermodels from Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan's "Confronting Reality."
  • Very cool site on Plato's dialogues. Related: online version of most of the Great Books.
  • "CLR god" Chris Brumme's blog.
  • The US NIST and DOD-sponserd TREC site is for folks who're interested in text retrieval.
  • Microsoft's Common Engineering Roadmap site for Windows Servers.
  • Allen Holub's resource page on patterns.
  • Business Week's 11/29 article on the US's top philanthropists. Bill and Melinda Gates continue to hold the top position, followed by Gordon and Betty Moore at #2. The Dells weigh in at #7, and Paul Allen at #9. Oracle's Larry Ellison continues to be MIA.
  • Free poetry e-books.

Downloadable

Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon/Acroym Alert

  • CUV - crossover utility vehicle (apologies is this is old hat to most of you - it was new to me)
  • machinima - film genre and techniques used to create it. At Wiki, machinima.com, and machinima.org.
  • SEM - security event management.
  • DPM - disruptive pattern material (think camouflage).

Thought Questions

  • Imagine that you could do it over again and that money wasn't an issue. Which university would you want to attend, and what would you major in? How about a PhD? If you could go back to school today (again, assume money's not a problem), which PhD would you want to pursue?
  • Mega-mergers such as the recently-announced one between Sears and Kmart, invariably inspire me the wonder how the IT functions will be combined and conformed. Imagine that you had been brought in as an outside consultant to oversee the IT part of the merger. Where would you start? Is this the kind of challenge you'd enjoy? Do you think the people and political issues would be worse than the actual technical problems?
  • Do you ever "feel sorry" for turkeys and other animals that are raised in factory farm conditions? Do you think they have "feelings"? Do you think open-range animals are "happier" than those raised on factory farms?

Misc

  • Are you a Tinkertoy programmer? "C# and VB.NET are so similar that you can't pull a decisive technical argument why one is better than the other. It's all about the Framework-all the .NET languages compile to the same thing," said Dan Appleman, president of San Jose-based component vendor Desaware Inc. and author of the forthcoming e-book, "VB.NET or C#: Which to Choose," which compares the 2005 versions of the languages. While VB developers opt for VB.NET, and C++ and Java developers gravitate toward C#, the decision is driven more by psychology than technology, said Appleman. "C++ programmers have had to know a lot more than VB programmers. The bar is much higher. They choose C# because they are too embarrassed to use VB," he said. Patrick Hynds, chief technology officer at CriticalSites Inc., agreed. "If a product is written in VB, they will think it is a Tinkertoy," he said, referring to the ISV customers that the Burlington, Mass.-based consulting company serves. "But C# and VB.NET are virtually equal" Related: Dan Appleman's updated $9.95 e-book (for VS 2005) on VB vs. C# and tinkertoys and another Hasbro favorite, Mr. Potato Head. On a lighter note: Top 10 reasons VB.NET is better than C#.
  • Great online resource of articles on ancient history.
  • Great links about journalism.
  • Tolkien fans would probably like the special 50th Anniversary edition of "Lord of the Rings" ($100).
  • Got kids? They might enjoy Jon Scieszka's funny 40-page Science Verse and/or Neil Downie's Ink Sandwiches, Electric Worms, and 37 Other Experiments for Saturday Science.
  • The 11/23 PBS Frontline program on the secret history of the credit card will be available for online viewing 11/26. Explains how banks, in conjunction with the major US credit reporting agencies, three national credit reporting agencies (CRAs), Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, target profitable "revolvers" who don't (or can't) pay off their charges monthly. Related: an excellent 11/22 WSJ article on how casinos like Harrahs' use data mining to lure customers.
  • Business 2.0's December issue has a feature on the 5 Lessons of 2004: 1) if you want to make money, make money for the likes of eBay and Amazon, 2) luxury sells, 3) smart service keeps customers, but smarter service prunes bad ones, 4) the handheld is the new platform, and 5) you *can* do more with less (think outsourcing).
  • Analysis of Vivisimo's search engine.
  • Cartoon I've liked: man in bookstore to bookseller, "I'm looking for something that will keep people away from me on the subway."
  • Prof. Alan Hirshfield's prize-winning essay on Michael Faraday.
  • Good two-part article on trade secret law. Part 1 and Part 2.

20 November 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon/Acronym Alert

  • MODS (blue sky stuff) - Multiplexed Optical Data Storage
  • DPS - Microsoft's new Data Protection Server, a low-cost, disk-based continuous backup and recovery solution
  • ONIX is a powerful new publishing tool. ONIX (Online Information Exchange) is a communications format for sending all the information about a book that would be required for promotion. Developed by the book industry, ONIX is the standard format for publishers to send book data to retailers, distributors, and data companies. Your books can now appear online with all the reviews, categories, author biographies, and rich product information needed to effectively sell books on the Web. For more information on ONIX, visit www.bisg.org.
  • Zero-day exploit - any vulnerability that's exploited immediately after its discovery
  • IPMI, SMASH, WMX - competing server management protocols. Network Magazine.com and Information Week. Related: SMASH CLP.
  • UDO - ultra-density optical storage.
  • RCW - runtime callable wrapper
  • BSM - and you thought BPM was bad enough? Try Business Services Management.
  • EV-DO - Evolution Data Optimized (wireless data service competing with Wi-Max).
  • Infranet.

Thought Question

  • Are viruses alive? How about prions? Does it matter? (Is the human ability to categorize learned or inherited, and are we "slaves" to it?) Remember the old model of animal, plant, and bacterial kingdoms? Well, today, most scholars list five: monera/bacteria, protists, fungi, plants, and animals. Jury's still out on viruses. (See the SA article mentioned above)

Misc

  • Lukasz Golab and M. Tamer Ozsu's paper, Processing Sliding Window Multi-Joins in Continuous Queries. "We study sliding window multi-join processing in continuous queries over data streams. Several algorithms are reported for performing continuous, incremental joins, under assumption that all the sliding windows fit in main memory. The algorithms include multi way incremental nested loop joins (NLJs) and multi-way incremental hash joins. We also propose join ordering heuristics to minimize the processing cost per unit time." From the same authors: an August 2003 paper, Evaluation of DBMSs Using XBench Benchmark.
  • David DeHaan's paper on extending bottom-up compensation-based algorithms for calculating the usability of a view to answer a database query, where both query and view definition are multi-block SQL queries containing aggregation.
  • Most of us don't have to deal with petabytes of data. But if you're involved with or interested in bioinformatics, you might want to skim this.
  • Best places to see hawks.
  • Participate in any of several online psychological experiments, such as the Experiment on Human-Robot-Communication.
  • Neuroscientist Rick Grush's home page with some online papers.
  • Subscriber access to reprints of Science articles, with some access to supporting materials for non-subscribers, too.
  • Add computer use to high blood pressure, smoking, and genetics in contributing to development of glaucoma.
  • Excellent cartography/map history portal maintained by retired British Library map librarian Tony Campbell.
  • Interesting-sounding books. 1) Steel Bolt Hacking (I'm not kidding), 2) Convict Cookbook, 3) Wee Book of Calvin. On a more serious note - forthcoming book which sounds interesting: Hedieh Nasheri's Economic Espionage and Industrial Spying.
  • Inflation data.
  • Lobbying Juggernaut. Depressing feature on the influence of NAB on media. Related: the recent PBS Frontline special, The Persuaders. According to the show, Little Rock-based Acxiom, categorizes US households into about 70 categories ("demographic tribes"), an expertise that was leveraged for "narrowcasting" in the recent US Presidential election.
  • Speaking of Little Rock, here's a description I've enjoyed: the Clinton libary as a 1) trailer on stilts or a 2) recumbent phone booth.
  • Cartoons I've enjoyed: 1) several children are fingerpainting. One says "I don't fingerpaint. But I do collect quality fingerpaintings." 2) Man in trenchcoat in back alley: "I'm here for the offshore outsourcing discussion." 3) Security guard to museum patron viewing David-type sculpture with Jockey shorts and Rodin-type Thinker with boxers: "Thank God John Ashcroft is leaving."
  • Ad I've enjoyed: Shows the cover of a book by Eliot Spitzer, "Great e-mails I have read." The advertiser? Iron Mountain, advertising its e-mail archiving.
  • Interesting article on smart (think RFID) tires.
  • France tries harder.
  • FEMA mapping and analysis site.

13 November 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Heads Up

  • The November issue of ACM Queue features an interesting conversation with IBM Fellow Bruce Lindsay. (And remember, US and Canadians can apply for a free sub.) Kode Vicious's ongoing columns are also interesting. Example: 5 pet peeves - crappy comments, dangling else clauses, magic numbers, code dingleberries, and global variables. AOL's Vijay Gill's article, "Lack of Priority Queuing Considered Harmful" is also good.

Travelable

  • Islamic Art exhibit from London's Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, through 2/6/05.

Jargon/Acronym Alert

  • ZEPP - Zero Emission Power Plant.
  • DEP - Data Execution Prevention.
  • Wittgenstein's beetle. Everyone knows about Schrodinger's cat. "Imagine, he says, that everyone has a small box in which they keep a beetle. However, no one is allowed to look in anyone else's box, only in their own. Over time, people talk about what is in their boxes and the word "beetle" comes to stand for what is in everyone's box. Through this curious analogy, Wittgenstein is trying to point out that the beetle is very much like an individual's mind." Related: Wittgenstein's Beetle And Other Classic Thought Experiments.
  • PEAP - Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (vs LEAP).
  • PON - Passive Optical Network. Related: EPON (Ethernet PON), BPON (Broadband PON), GPON (Gigabit PON), APON (ATM-based PON).
  • NAT - Network Address Translation.

Thought Question

  • Robert Musil (1880-1942, Austrian utopian novelist and essayist with a PhD in philosophy from the University of Berlin) once said that, "One can't be angry with one's time without doing damage to oneself." Do you agree? More info on Musil: here and here.

Misc

6 November 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon/Acronym Alert

Thought Question

  • I'm a big fan of the Teaching Company's "classes" and have just finished Shalom Goldman's excellent course on Ancient Near Eastern Myths and Elizabeth Vandiver's equally great class on classical mythology (Listening to them full-blast during my daily ablutions beats singing in the shower). My question: Most would agree that the characters in Harry Potter's universe and those populating the Star Wars sagas represent some of today's mythological figures. Can you think of others? Have you invented any for yourself or your kids? For more on myths, try here.

Misc

30 October 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon/Acronym Alert

  • VVPT (Voter Verified Paper Trail) Synonym: VVPB - Voter Verified Paper Ballot.. Related: 51-page March 2004 PDF on electronic miscounts and malfunctions and Bruce Schneier's 12/15/03 http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0312.html#9 newsletter item about e-voting.
  • Grid storage.
  • rRNA (ribosomal), RNAi (interference), shRNA (short hairpin), siRNA (small interfering), snRNA (small nuclear), miRNA (micro). I don't know about you, but when I went to university, mRNA (messenger) and tRNA (transfer) were the only ones we knew about.
  • PLM - product lifecycle management , a technology that allows manufacturers such as GM and Boeing to "re-use" and standardize on designs.

Thought Questions

  • Imagine that you or a loved one is terminally ill and that you read about research that may provide promise. Although the research is far from clinical trials you (or your loved one) are willing to serve as a "human guinea pig." Should you be allowed to?
  • The current US election, with all the talk of "faith" and "values" has led me to ponder what I see as the extremely uneasy relationship between church and state. Do you think it's appropriate for priests, rabbis, and ministers to take public political stands from the pulpit? What do you think of the French ban on Muslim girls wearing scarves to school? Related: open letter from 200+ theologians on the "theology of war".
  • Do you think that some implementations of bioengineering and genetic engineering technology are a form of eugenics?
  • Given women's role in combat (37 female military fatalities in the current Iraq war, for example) and their use as hostages, do you think women's "special" status as people to be protected (along with children) is eroding - a quaint anachronism? In a society that prohibits sex discrimination, is this appropriate?
  • Is it ethical to establish bounties for suspected criminals and terrorists? Do you realize that US taxpayer dollars are being used for this purpose?

Misc

23 October 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

VB .NET

VB 6

Browsable

Downloadable

Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon/Acronym (Jargonym?) Alert

Thought Question

    Do you think humans have a "moral obligation" to learn? That learning is a form of worship?

Misc

  • NPR (and radio) jargon. 12-page PDF:
  • Salad packaging.
  • Leave the driving to LimoLiner, which has launched an alternative to air travel between Boston and NYC for $69 each way. Take advantage of Wi-Fi that works via the DirecTV satellite on top of the bus from the luxury of your leather seat.
  • Innovations (the continuing saga): 1) Smart underwear and 2) TP Saver (as in preventing pets and kids from making a mess pulling it off the roll). This site also features shoe clues and belly bras. Got you curious?
  • Bought a car or SUV recently? It's interesting to me how much of the automaker companies' profits are from their credit divisions. According to the 10/20 WSJ, Ford reported Q3 profits of $266M - $117M from Ford Credit.
  • Oracle security alert.
  • Ed Yourdon's written a new book on outsourcing.
  • Sounds useful: Linksys's 802.11g a new wireless line.
  • Interesting editorial in the 10/21 WSJ by 2004 Economics Nobelist Edward Prescott, "Why do Americans Work so Much More than Europeans?" about tax policy. Related: FRB Minneapolis Research Archive article.

16 October 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Heads Up

  • Free wireless is beginning to be deployed at rest stops in the US, according to a brief news item in the 9/24 WSJ.
  • The November issue (not online yet) of MSDN Magazine focuses on security.

Travelable

Jargon/Acronym Alert

  • COA - compliance-oriented architecture (sigh)
  • POC - point of care, as in hospitals using wireless technology
  • WiMAX - Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
  • Mesh networking - alternative to centralized wireless networks that allows nodes or access points to communicate directly with other nodes, eliminating centralized failure and permitting self-healing and self-organization.
  • SIM - 1) simple instant messenger, 2) security information management, and (among many others) 3) Subscriber Identity Module, as in SIM cards.
  • tla - Tom Lord's (Gnu) Arch revision control software. Tom Lord's Software and Linux Journal. (The Nov Linux Journal issue also features the 2004 Reader's Awards).
  • LLDP - link layer discovery protocol.

Thought Question

    If you were uber rich (let's say a billionaire at least), how would you use the bulk of your money? Keep it in the family, investing to make it grow? Fund good works, such as health-care, anti-poverty, or literacy initiatives? Spend as much as you could on a luxurious lifestyle? Build visible monuments to yourself by building named skyscrapers or stadiums, for example? Invest in R&D? Buy an election (or a politician)? Related: 2003 Slate 60 of top charitable contributions.

    [A friend of mine who is a financial advisor quoted someone (I don't remember who) as saying, "Give your children enough money to do anything but not enough to do nothing." Rod]

Misc

9 October 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Heads Up

Travelable

Jargon/Acronym Alert

  • CISO - chief information security officer
  • GoogleWhackBlatt - single words that produce precisely one word in Google. Related: The Ultimate Googlewhackblatt Page.
  • ADR - adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator.

Thought Questions

  • Would you consider dating or marrying someone who was a strong advocate of a different political party than you are? Variation: assuming you're a non-smoker, would you date and/or marry a smoker? (If you're a smoker, would you date/marry someone you knew would "be on your case" to quit?
  • If asked to do something unethical and/or illegal (offer a potential customer a bribe, for example), would you blow the whistle? To whom, e.g. the person's supervisor or to "authorities"? Related: Fed biologists ordered to rewrite salmon study. Also related - smart cities and dumb laws or what? Read the 10/7 WSJ article on "How Bit Tax Shelter with Cities Shortchanges Federal Treasury."
  • Do you believe in the notion/law of conservation of information?

Misc

2 October 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Travelable

Thought Questions

  • Would you accept an IT job in Iraq today? How much would they have to pay you? Would your answer be different it the firm were one you considered "tainted" based on its reputation, e.g. under investigation for fraud? What if you'd have to work in a smoking environment? How big a life insurance policy would you require? Who would you name as beneficiary?
  • The 10/1 WSJ describes jazz musician Cecil McBee's legal efforts to stop a company from using his name on its chain of stores. The company claims the name was selected randomly, but, according to a mathematician McBee hired to calculate the odds of randomly coming up with that name, the result was "less than 1 in 90,000." If you'd been the mathematician, how would you have tackled the problem?

Misc

25 September 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Travelable

Jargon Alert

  • Witches' knickers. One of several euphemisms (another is the "National Flower of South Africa") for plastic bag pollution as described in the 9/11/04 NewScientist article, Battle of the Bag.
  • mongo. Any discarded item that is "rescued" from the trash. Related: MONGO: ADVENTURES IN TRASH.
  • DNA "barcoding." DNA barcoding, using cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1), has the potential to be used to identify the estimated 10 million species of eukaryotic life on earth. Census of Marine Life, DNA Barcoding Protocol.
  • Zorbing. Adventure experience started in New Zealand where you strap yourself into a transparent ball and roll down hillsides.

Thought Questions

  • How many layers of management exist in your organization? Do you think it's too many or not enough? How high are you aiming? Related: the US Interior and Commerce departments reportedly each have 27 layers of executive management, leading to a surge of "innovative" job titles.
  • What was your high school GPA? High school GPAs are inching up (A- now seems to be average, with US News and World Report claiming that 47% American high school students earned A averages), and colleges aren't far behind. Felten analysis refutes grade inflation claims and Grade Inflation ... Why It's a Nightmare. Is grade inflation a problem? Would you try to get your child transferred to an "easy grader" teacher if he/she was assigned to a notorious "hard" grader, even if the latter was reputedly a "better" teacher?

Misc

18 September 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Travelable

  • I'm in a stay-at-home mood. Sorry. [Must be all the hurricanes -- Rod ;-]

Jargon Alert

  • TPM - Trusted Platform Module, a PKI chip that signs digital certificates and vouches for a machine's identity.
  • Yahoo - Do you remember how Jonathan Swift used the term in Gulliver's Travels?

A Question To Ponder

  • If you could have a "free" housekeeper, chauffeur, cook, or babysitter, which one would you opt for?

Misc

11 September 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Travelable

  • Basta! Sept 20-23 in Frankfurt.
  • SD Expo, Sept 20-23 in Boston.
  • Women in Science: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century with Laura Woodmansee, Sep 26 (2PM), Baxter Lecture Hall, CalTech, Pasadena.
  • World Cyber Games, Oct 6-10 in SF.

Jargon Alert

Misc

4 September 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Jargon Alert

  • SATA - Serial ATA, where ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment (the AT harks back to the original IBM AT computer). SATA can transfer data up to 150 MB/s, is backward compatible with existing parallel ATA software and drivers, has connectors designed for blind mate and hot plug, and supports RAID. SATA's main competition is from the faster (to 320 MB/s), but more expensive and generally harder to configure, SCSI interface. Another competitor is FC-AL, fibre channel arbitrated loop, which uses optical fiber in a loop configuration to produce transfer speeds of 100 MB/second and is designed to connect up to over 120 devices as far as 10 kilometers apart.

Travelable

Misc

28 August 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Jargon Alert

Travelable

Misc

21 August 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Heads Up

Downloadable

Sites of the Week

Travelable

  • VMWorld (VMWare's first conf), San Diego, Oct 27-29.

Jargon Alert

  • glycomics - you've heard about genomics and proteiomics. Now, sugars get their own "omics." And here.
  • spif - special performance incentive fund (in the HP world, anyway)
  • kriging - a statistical interpolation method used in fields such as health sciences, geochem, and environmental studies. Kriging assumes that the distance or direction between sample points reflects a spatial correlation that can be used to explain variation in the surface. Related: The Geostatistical Analyst and Kriging and Geographic Information Systems.
  • fade - a haircut style. According to a short on New Jersey haircuts by Ben McGrath in the 8/23 issue of the New Yorker, it's one of a range of short haircuts (think buzzcuts) that includes Guido fades, white boy fades, Rican fades, etc. Related: CropShop.

Misc

14 August 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Travelable

Misc

7 August 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Jargon Alert

  • V2G - vehicle to grid power.
  • TABOR - Taxpayer Bill of Rights. (Recent article by right-wing CATO Institute)

Travelable

Misc

31 July 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Downloadable

Travelable

Jargon Alert

Misc

24 July 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Browsable

Jargon Alert

  • DSL2+ and ADSL2+ seem poised to be the next generation of DSL. SuperComm 2004.

Travelable

Misc

17 July 2004

(No D & Ds this week.)

10 July 2004

Readable

  • Hey, it's the weekend - you've got time to digest at least one meaty MSDN article.

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Travelable

  • KDD-2004. The Tenth ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Seattle, Aug 22-25.

Misc

3 July 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Acronym and Jargon Alert

  • DOD 5015.2. The US DOD's standard for electronic records management.
  • Interactomics - study of genome level protein-protein interaction maps. (free registration required).
  • LDML 1.1 (Locale Data Markup Language).
  • EDB: new embedded database to join CEDB and SQL CE in Windows CE 5.0.

Travelable

Downloadable

Misc

26 June 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Acronym Alert

  • IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface).
  • CBEFF (Common Biometric Exchange Formats Framework).
  • Some Boomers may morph into Woofies (well-off older folks)

Downloadable

Misc

19 June 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Travelable

Miscellaneous

12 June 2004

Readble

Selected KB articles

Noteworthy

Browsable

Downloadable

Misc

5 June 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Noteworthy

Travelable

Browsable

Radar-able?

Downloadable

Misc

29 May 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Downloadable

Travelable

Browsable

MISC

20 May 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Tip

  • Did you know that you can run Microsoft's MBSA (download latest version 1.2) from the command line, using any of two dozen parameters? Locate the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer folder (defaults to the Program Files directory), and then run mbsacli.exe /? to see the switches.

Downloadable

Travel Opps

Misc

15 May 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Browsable

Travelable

Downloadable

Misc and JFF (just for fun)

8 May 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Worth Noting

Downloadable

Potentially Interesting

1 May 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Potentially Interesting

Worth Noting

Downloadable

24 April 2004

Readable

Selected KB articles

Worth Noting

Downloadable

Highly Recommended

Potentially Interesting

17 April 2004

Readable

KB Articles (mainly related to programming Exchange with .NET)

Downloadable

Misc

10 April 2004

3 April 2004

27 March 2004

20 March 2004

13 March 2004

6 March 2004

28 February 2004

21 February 2004

14 February 2004

7 February 2004

  • Readable
  • Downloadable
  • Watchable
  • Joinable
  • Surfable

    31 January 2004

    24 January 2004

    17 January 2004

    10 January 2004

    3 January 2004

    20 December 2003

    20 December 2003