Author: Vince Kimball

Code Complete 2nd Edition a conversation changer, Larry says. Larry O'Brien, former editor of Computer Language and Software Development magazines (translation: if he says something about programming I listen) says on his Knowing.net weblog: “Pedagogical quibbles aside, Code Complete 2nd Edition deserves to be the most read software development book of the year, a distinction… Continue reading Code Complete 2nd Edition a conversation changer, Larry says

Explaining the Big in SP2.  Microsoft's Channel 9 has posted a video and transcript (useful for folks trying to access using non-Windows machines) of a session (here) with Windows XP product manager Rebecca Norlander. She explains why Windows XP Service Pack 2 is so large–264MB for the latest build available to external beta testers. “We… Continue reading Explaining the Big in SP2

'Inside the Victorian Home': Upstairs, Downstairs. In the late 19th century, Judith Flanders's social history shows, the contents of a home were a window on the Victorian character. By Alida Becker. [New York Times: Books]

NetGear's Back Door. A BugTraq report claims that certain WG602 units from NetGear have an unavoidable backdoor password for administration: A few days ago, we linked to news that Linksys's WRT54G had certain firmware releases that left remote administration turned on. Now a report says that it's likely that a username and password that's available… Continue reading NetGear's Back Door

Franchising Free: SalemOpen.Net Installs a Meme.  SalemOpen.Net will launch shortly using Michael Oh’s model—and support—for establishing commercially supported free Internet access over Wi-Fi: In an interview last week, Michael Oh outlined the new network in Salem, Mass., that will launch in the next few days. The network involves the sponsorship of a local bank and… Continue reading Franchising Free: SalemOpen.Net Installs a Meme

SoftAP Brings Mac's Simplicity to Windows. Apple has offered a software base station feature in its client software for nearly five years; PCTel now brings the same ease to Windows with Segue SoftAP: Under Windows XP, you can set up an ad hoc Wi-Fi network and then link that via Internet sharing to bridge an… Continue reading SoftAP Brings Mac's Simplicity to Windows

SocialText and Ross reaps the benefits. Ross Mayfield has written up some results from our usage of Socialtext's Wiki during our 1UP.com development process. I was the main guy using the thing, so I got to put Socialtext's product and services through the paces.  In fact at this point – I'm working with five SocialText… Continue reading SocialText and Ross reaps the benefits

ISBN Y2K+5. At the heart of LibraryLookup there's a regular expression that matches a 10-digit ISBN. Wouldn't you know it, come January 1, 2005, that string of 10 digits grows to 13. Thanks to Tim Meadowcroft for the heads-up (via email, with permission). He adds: All 10 digit ISBN's can be converted to 13 digits… Continue reading ISBN Y2K+5

IT Manager.Net: Here's SOmeone Who Deserves a Big Raise. Roger Bonine of IT Manager.Net hits a towering home run with his post “Are Document Management Systems Broken?” His post was a response to Cindy Chick's response to my discussion-starter question of, uh, are document management systems broken? Roger makes his points so well that I… Continue reading IT Manager.Net: Here's SOmeone Who Deserves a Big Raise