Posts by Bob Boblowski

Anonymous turns ire on Japan after anti-piracy law passes

A maximum jail sentence of ten years...

So let me get this, in Japan, uploading illegal content is just as serious a crime as say manslaughter.

This world is seriously fucked up...

Peeling back the skins on IBM's Flex System iron

Thanks!

That was actually a informative article. Makes it much easier to understand what these new systems are about and what we can expect from them.

What you can do to enforce endpoint security

Good article, but how to explain to the users?

Good article, I like the systematic approach and the management perspective.

But how do you explain to your users all that security is in their own best interest, so they can actually get their jobs done and go home at 5 o'clock?

In our smallish company we have, what I think, a very reasonable balance between security and useability. Still I spend a lot of time dealing with users that feel all those security measurements are just frustrating their daily work. Even simple procedural things like file libraries that can only be updated by users with management permissions, lead to endless discussions about how much easier everything would be if they could just update it themselves. And then they want to install that super convenient calculator utility their nephew showed them or synchronize business data to their smartphone so they can take a look while having their lunch around the corner.

I just want that everything works as it should work and all security and legal requirements are met, so everybody can go home at five. How do I explain that to them? That it actually saves them time and thus the company money if everything is done in a secure and orderly fashion?

Apache confirms new OpenOffice build by 2012

RE: Too little, too late

Job opening available?

Seriously, what marketing agency do you work for?

Win 8 haters are just scared of change, say MS bosses

RE: hierachial naming systems

>> Errr.... What is it about Microsoft and the wholesale destruction of the concept of hierachial naming systems? I have my current Start menu set up as Start->Tools/Graphics/Internet/Disk&File/Office/Misc with appropriate programs within approproriate subdirectories. Why is it that MS panders to and encourages this "dump everything in one huge pile" crap? <<

The demise of hierarchical models for the organization of documents or applications is one of the more interesting questions when it comes to this whole new bunch of 'tablet optimized' OS's. I think it deserves more attention.

Personally I'd go crazy without some hierarchical ordering system for just about anything I need to find back, but in my experience for a lot of users this explicit kind of hierarchy is surprisingly difficult to manage.

Implicitly of course they use hierarchical systems all the time, they just call it something else, like 'grouping' or 'projects'. And it even gets worse if they need to manage this hierarchical ordering themselves, such as for their documents in folders.

For the average user the world is flat: if you can't see what you're looking for, it's not there. So they just spread everything out (we would call it 'spatial') and spent a lot of time looking for what they need. But that's ok, or perhaps even preferred, because that's how it works on their desk as well.

That this spatial model does not scale well beyond a dozen or so applications or documents, in their opinion does not prove that this spatial model might be too simple, it just proves for them that the search functions is crap or that they need new better hardware.

I never understood why computers should try to simulate my physical real-world desk with all it's limitations.

IBM PC daddy: 'The PC era is over'

Yes I get what he is saying ...

... but nevertheless I'd like to invite him to write my reports or to create any other relevant content longer than 140 characters on his tablet.

RIM PlayBook nabs first US gov't tablet certification

RE: Can the Playbook replace my Bold?

I think you'll find that the Playbook is actually designed to complement your Bold, rather than to replace it. Using a 9780 in combination with a Playbook here, and I think it's one of the best thought-out products I've used in a long time. It's a bit like having a dual-monitor workstation for on the road. Looking up figures or info on the Playbook, while calling or messaging on the Bold -- or the other way round if you'd prefer. Perfect for getting serious work done.

And it integrates very nicely with our security infrastructure as well, though I understand that for most people that's a non-issue.

Old school music sales fell 8% last year

Sales volume in dollars or actual number of sales?

If you are talking about http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/Recorded-Music-Sales-2008.pdf , then it only states the total sales volume expressed in US dollars declined. It doesn't say anything about the actual number of sales, or the sales volume as expressed in the respective local currencies of the different markets.

If those actual sales figures where worse than those numbers, then for sure they would have been published, wouldn't they?

Oracle reels in Sun Microsystems with $7.4bn buy

I'm not happy about this

Oracle is a very successful company, if anything because of the way it embraces and shields its technologies. I always found that almost any Oracle solution was overly complex and geared towards The Big Oracle Integration (TM) thing. Weblogic was top heavy when under BEA's wings, but got totaly unuseable when Oracle bought it. I actually started to like Sun's appservers (and even Sun's SJS webserver). Oracle will surely use technologies like Java, MySQL, Sun's webservers, and even Solaris as an inward directed part of its business. I especially fear for Java, which will probably be reduced (as a business value) to some Oracle ecosystem language for corporate webapps. Microsoft must be very happy today...

BSA hijacks Somali pirate hype

I have to agree

Strict enforcement of software anti-piracy laws (preferable with harsh sentences) must be the best thing ever to happen to open source software. Just imagine what all those milions of illegal Windows, MS Office or Photoshop would use if they actually had to pay for their software... Software piracy is IMO the no 1 reason for the lockhold of companies like Microsoft and Adobe on the IT business.

Think again, FSF tells Microsoft on GPL3

re: Precedents for GPL enforcement

Indeed. There has been at least one confirmation that I know of:

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2004/04/21/licence_germany/