Category: Software

If it’s not hard, it’s software

Categories
Software

Movable Type 3.0?

Well MovableType 3.0 has been released.

Not to thrilled about the new licensing. Not even sure if I should upgrade, or look at alternatives like WordPress, which looks really interesting. So I’m curious what other bloggers intend to do?

Personally I wish SixApart went for a more developer, community friendly model. Release the source under something like MPL. And sell the support, installation, and custom features/development. Wouldn’t require as much developers since people would join in and commit code. And would let them focus on larger things like TypePad (which could adopt contributed MovableType code), as well as custom jobs for larger companies looking for CMS. Combine that with a donation model.

They would cut their costs, and increase their productivity if they were smart about it. Now they are going to need to compete more with alternative platforms like WordPress, and I’m sure the many others that will come about in the next few months.

I’m personally a little more interested in what WordPress is going to evolve into in the coming months. They may have a new convert. I’m not to far from switching.

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Software

Finally, software for a great cause

Pizza via command line. Could it be any better than that?

Hopefully Domino’s in my area will support online ordering sometime in the future.

On the technical side, it’s written in perl, so it should run on most Operating Systems. I’m curious if someone will hook up a UI to it.

Yummy command line. I command you order me a pizza. Now if only we can rm -r the calories we’d be all set.

Categories
Politics Software Tech (General)

The Pure Software Act of 2006

A must read article on all the bad software, and how to help users stay away from it.

I really hope it goes to the Feds, and we get a law about this. All websites with downloads must be labeled appropriately, and all downloads must warn before such actions take place. Even commercial software should note right on the box.

We have warnings on everything. I’ve seen markers that say “do not insert in anus”. Why not warnings to protect peoples property (computer), intellectual property (data), and protect the users themselves from fraud?

A well thought out solution to a problem that has pestered everyone. I think it’s a worthwhile thing to make law. This is perhaps one of the best plans presented in quite some time to combat a problem with technology.

Categories
Mozilla Security Software

Spyware Blaster Supports Mozilla

Spyware Blaster has been updated to version 3.0. This popular Internet Explorer tool blocks most Spyware ActiveX components and Cookies. New to version 3.0 is support for Mozilla. Since there’s no ActiveX support, it blocks some cookies. Perhaps in the future it will protect against malicous XPI’s.

In any regard, it’s great to see a popular product making Mozilla a priority to support. It makes Mozilla even better for those who want security (without disabling all cookies).

Categories
Software

In search of

Looking for Free (prefer Open Source) software that can create flowcharts, in particular for use with designing user interfaces.

Also in search of project management software.

Any insight/suggestions welcome.

Categories
Software

I’m running Fedora Core 2

Well, I finally did it. I burnt Fedora Core 2 Install CD’s, and put it on my 2nd HD of my Thinkpad. Had trouble booting at first, but found a hidden option in my BIOS to select the drive as my boot drive. It’s zippy! Very, very, very fast. My big problem so far is I’ve been unable to get my wireless card going, and downloading anything, means booting into windows, and copying to a floppy disk…. a real drag.

But it is fast. Looks like I got a new toy to play with!

Also on th agenda is a boot loader. I tried just using the Windows one, but that wasn’t working for me, so perhaps I’ll just use grub on the alternate drive, to boot windows. If anyone has some good directions, or reading material on this topic, please shoot me an email, or leave a comment, I’d really appreciate it.

Other than that, all is good. It’s been a very busy week, so some geeky fun was in order.

Categories
Software

Random Desktop Fun

Interesting question came today, and I thought I would hand code this one.

Want to display a random desktop on startup (Windows).

I decided on a Free, Open Source, simple, and HTML 4.01 Strict valid. It also has an option to reload on a defined interval, or just when loaded (boot time).

It’s released under typical MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 Tri License (FREE).

If you don’t like anything free, click here, and I will adjust it for you. 😉

Download Now (2 KB)

Categories
Software

Microsoft Software Update CD (FREE!)

This is actually a legitimate offer. Microsoft is offering a free CD. Granted it’s slightly out of date (October 2003), I’d still recommend getting a copy. That way next time you restore your computer, you don’t need to wait for the download of all those updates (especially if another virus attacks windowsupdate or Microsoft.com.

Also good to loan to someone who isn’t very good with keeping their computer up to date. I know I’m sure I’ll end up passing it along. Remember. Helping others cure their exploits means one less computer being used for evil on the network.

A good way for Microsoft to convince people their OS is secure may be to keep offering such Free CD’s. And encourage people to burn copies for friends. It’s not like someone will abuse it. They make them freely available for download (or mail them at no cost). It’s still their copyrighted works. They still own the patents and all rights to it. They don’t lose a penny. Just lowers their distribution costs in such a campaign.

Would be a good idea for them to do.

Thankfully Apple at least makes software updates easy. It lets me know when they are available. I update, reboot, that’s it. And the server is always fast. Doesn’t overwhelm me with info I don’t care about (well I care, but I know most won’t). Doesn’t tell me what can be installed when, or what goes first/last. Just does it. Pure beauty.

But this campaign could help Microsoft a bit.

Thanks to Marc Rust for the info.

Categories
Software

Microsoft Soure Code Leaked

Various sources are claiming that Microsofts Windows 2000 and Windows NT source code has been leaked.

Should be interesting to see how much code they ripped off of Linux. Perhaps even SCO!

Would also be interesting to see how many security issues are found in their already-proven-vulnerable code. Hackers find hundreds without the source. With the source, I’d expect 10X the security risks.

On another note, someone seems to have posted the source code to Apple’s Darwin 😉

Categories
Software

Thank you Norton, for wasting an hour of my life

I gave you the best hour of my life!

Ok, it wasn’t that bad.

Symantec, apparently deployed a new version of Live Update today, and it apparently wasn’t well tested. After days of serious virus catches, it updated, and live updated, doesn’t function. I uninstall, reinstall, uninstall again, clear registry out a bit, search for files, look in Knowledge Base, reinstall. I got it working (think they disabled that update for now).

What a mess.

So for any Symantec engineer reading this. THANK YOU. That was fun 🙁

Try beta testing next time.