Ventureblog has an excellent article on how Dartmouth students and faculty are utilizing their ubiquitous wireless connectivity.  Worth the read.  NOTE:  I want a matchbox-sized wireless access point (more a relay station than a wired access point) that I can plug into a wall socket.  If anyone builds one, I will order a dozen (if less than $30… Continue reading Ventureblog

New Version of PowerControls Released.  Version 2.0 of Ontrack’s excellent PowerControls tool has been released. The latest edition of this great (but not cheap) tool which can work wonders with, and extract data from, unmounted .edb database files, and allows you to pull out data down to individual message/attachment/contact/calendar item level, contains a number of… Continue reading New Version of PowerControls Released

Replace and defend. Reading the Longhorn SDK docs is a disorienting experience. Everything's familiar but different. Consider these three examples: … Joe Hewitt sums it up nicely: I think the bottom-line of XAML is that it is equally useful for creating both desktop applications, web pages, and printable documents. This means that Microsoft may be… Continue reading Replace and defend

Avalon isn't about Web/GUI convergence. Edwin Khodabakchian echoes what seems to be a common — but I think incorrect — perception that XAML, the XUL-like layout language revealed this week to be a building block of Longhorn's Avalon presentation subsystem, heralds some kind of Web/GUI convergence … To my way of thinking, you don't have… Continue reading Avalon isn't about Web/GUI convergence

Open source citizenship. On the world stage, both failures and successes can loom larger than in the corporate cubicle. Developers who plug into the reputation-driven meritocracy of open source — while advancing the goals of your business — are a force to be reckoned with. [InfoWorld: Open source citizenship: October 24, 2003] This column was… Continue reading Open source citizenship

Lessons from Dartmouth. Naval Ravikant at Ventureblog has a good analysis of what Dartmouth is learning from its extensive deployemnt of WiFi and VOIP.  [Werblog]

Why buy desktops?. It's hardly surprising to me that IDC is predicting that laptop sales will far outstrip analysts' previous predictions.  In most companies comprised mainly of “knowledge workers,” a desktop is really just a laptop waiting to happen.    Almost everyone needs to work at home occasionally and almost everyone has to work while traveling at… Continue reading Why buy desktops?

WinFS Synchronization. I can't possibly blog every session or highlight all the stuff I'm learning here at the PDC – but needless to say my head is spinning. These folks have come up with their own 'triples' – their own subject-predicate-object sceanrio. It's part of their WinFS file system (formerly known as Cairo.)  They have no idea… Continue reading WinFS Synchronization

Laszlo is XML technology, not Flash technology. Avalon isn't about Web/GUI convergence. A couple of points about this post: 1) Laszlo is an XML technology – while Royale is Flash technology. 2) Jon's right about XAML – it goes around CSS and HTML – like only Microsoft can.  And it certainly IS in the 2006 timeframe.… Continue reading Laszlo is XML technology, not Flash technology