Author: Vince Kimball

Nation-Building in Iraq: Lessons From the Past. A former envoy to Afghanistan says the Iraqi reconstruction planning is a lesson in how not to go about nation building. By Michael R. Gordon. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

PostgreSQL 7.4 Release Thoughts. I know it's been mentioned all over the place already, but after reading about the PostgreSQL 7.4 release, including the more detailed changes that Bruce published, I'm very impressed. On my TODO list for next year (that's 2004, in case you're not sure) it to play with PostgreSQL a lot more… Continue reading PostgreSQL 7.4 Release Thoughts

Blackstone Sneak Peaks. We hosted a “sneak peak” session yesterday afternoon here at MAX, engineers from all the product teams (in bee costumes, don't ask) used the opportunity to showcase cool stuff they were working on (stuff that may, or may not) make it into future products. Mike Nimer presented for the ColdFusion team, and… Continue reading Blackstone Sneak Peaks

ColdFusion Powered Flex?. Lots of the impromptu chats I have been having here at MAX have been focused on Flex, and specifically how it relates to ColdFusion. So, no, Flex is not a ColdFusion killer, it is not even a ColdFusion competitor. The truth is that I don't think we've done an adequate job yet… Continue reading ColdFusion Powered Flex?

Working with Bayesian categorizers. There's been some discussion in the blog world about using a Bayesian categorizer to enable a person to discriminate along various interest/non-interest axes. I took a run at this recently and, although my experiments haven't been wildly successful, I want to report them because I think the idea may have merit.… Continue reading Working with Bayesian categorizers

Wired News: 'Cyber Sweep' Nets 125 Arrests. The investigation, begun Oct. 1 and dubbed Operation Cyber Sweep, involved police from Ghana to Southern California and uncovered 125,000 victims who had lost more than $100 million, he told a news conference. Seventy indictments to date have led to arrests or convictions of 125 people, with more… Continue reading 'Cyber Sweep' Nets 125 Arrests

London Has Wi-Fi Fever. Hot zones are popping up everywhere in London: This Guardian story is a very thorough roundup of hot zones and hotspots in London. It notes that a company called MyZones is planning to use gear from Vivato to set up a zone in central Manchester–the company is waiting for Vivato's radios… Continue reading London Has Wi-Fi Fever

New Wireless POS Gadget. Axalto, the new name for smart-card maker Schlumberger, has an 802.11b-enabled point of sale terminal: I've seen a handful of announcements about these devices so I think it's likely we'll start seeing certain types of retail shops using them that need temporarily cash registers or roaming salespeople…. [Wi-Fi Networking News]

Interland Platinum helps me help others. My employer, Interland, announced Business Solutions Platinum that bundles “Do It Yourself” tools with “Do It For You” service and ongoing phone coaching and support to give you a “Do It With You” system. This acknowledges that no matter how easy you make something to use many people still… Continue reading Interland Platinum helps me help others