Hector's Blogs and Blabs

Security (Bug Fixes) is now a Major Industry

2009-07-29T03:03:00.003-05:00

Have you noticed that Microsoft and other software vendors think bugs are a natural common place?

What I mean by that is that they EXPECT USERS to EXPECT BUGS in their products. I've been a software producer for nearly 30 years now, selling and supporting customers over the years and I don't expect BUGS to be a natural part of the process.

That said, yet, it is well understood bugs do happen and no software is 100% perfect, regardless on how great your are. While some products are managed by highly trained engineers (as myself) and QA is very important, there are times where a bug is discovered by others. "Shit happens!"

The problem is that BUGS have become so pervasive in the industry and in mindset of this generation of software developers, there is a whole industry developed around it, especially in the security area or bugs that cause security problems.

Its become so bad, companies like Microsoft has a regular scheduled BUG FIX update, like every month - and they have trained the mindset of the industry to accept this modus operandi of software product development,

Another problem is that vendors, especially Microsoft use the "BUGS FIX OF THE MONTH" schedule to ship and include new technology they wish to enforce on the user base. And these new technologies are not always top quality and will be part of future Bugs Fixes updates!

Its a tough situation because as a software product producer, we can understand the situation. But we are not one to play this poor QA game to begin with and that is my beef.

Why did it happen?

Well, its hard to point fingers but I have my take on it:

Open source market,
More complexity,
Higher Dependency on 3rd party software,
Smarter IDEs,
Scattered support process,
Developer are less trained as Engineers - problem solvers,
And too much FREE software!

Overall, when you have less control of your software development, libraries and tools, you are prone to suffer the issues that are within the software you less understand and did not developed.

For example, for the Wildcat! Interactive Net Server product line, there are a few millions lines of code. We developed nearly 99% of it all in house. We hardly ever use 3rd party software, and in the rare case we do use 3rd party technology, we only do so with 100% complete understanding of what it does and what issues it has. Doing the design process, we know what every function call does. There are no surprises or unknowns. Its not a guessing game in how a function, blackbox or component is going to behavior. When you don't fully understand something, the risk is higher for problems.

So much of the software products out there are open source, and worst based on other open source. So if one part is broken, all of those products using the broken open source, is broken as well. A good example of this is WebKit which many browsers use. If webkit is broken, all of these browsers are broken. And this is just one small example. There are thousands of examples out there.

There are good and top notch open source software, so that is not a big part of the issue.

A bigger part is the complexity, less documentation. Since you didn't write it, you will spend a lot of time figuring it out. Good developers will roll up their sleeves and figure things out. Unfortunately most do not because of the complexity and when help is needed, many times help and support is unofficial, based on user-support forums and extremely time consuming. For example of this, most vendors have Newsgroup Support Groups and if you ask the question in a way people can understand, many times you get help. You may have to wait a few days and its a pop luck if you do get the help. That's because the vendors have push the support process to the users - users help users. A good low cost idea to help solve vendor QA problems!

It has become so complex, you need smart Interactive Development environment to assist you in putting together applications. Its like a puzzle. Take many parts, including open source, logically put it all together, press a button and viola - you have a product executable!

For many, that's good enough! they do a little testing, package it up and distribute it. It is far cheaper today to let users find problems and report them to you. After all, its no chip off your shoulder. Users expect it.

Only the good developers will use the feedback and solve the problems. Others will use either ignore it or wait for others to complain. After all, its free! How dare you complain and expect fixes!?

But overall, it happens because many developers have lost control of their design, development, quality testing, documentation and production - the traditional five stages in Software Engineering! The smarter IDEs allow kids 10 - 16 years old to write great software - but they are generally BUGGY AS HELL!

If you are not getting paid, they is less incentive to fix problems - yet, the software is "good enough" to release to the world for others to use and propagate the issue!

The industry has been molded to accept this practice!

--
Hector Santo, CTO
Santronics Software, Inc
http://www.santronics.com

Getting a FaceList

2009-07-28T22:03:00.003-05:00

Well folks, I finally swallowed my pride and join FaceBook. Primarily to get together with the family who are ALL on FaceBook, but also to learn of its features.

So what is the secret of FaceBook?

Well, its complete sharing of information.

Duh, you might say.

Right. But sharing information was always considered a taboo - a violation of privacy rights so older software, such as our 25 year old Wildcat! Interactive Net Server hosting package, it never allowed sharing of information.

But that will change, Wildcat! 7.0 promises to bring sharing for customers who want to have their "own Facebook" like system. Heather, my daughter, helped me realized that I have change with the times in order to survive. Heather and I are starting a new business where you can collect all your electronic messages in one area. Its really nothing new, but it will be done via the web and it will have FaceBook and Twitter features too. We have a demo at myfeathernet.com

Well, facebook is fun I must say. You have to give up some of your privacy, but that seems to be the norm today. So be it. My cousin Tara had a favorite word today on Facebook - UPDATE! What is exactly how I feel - I must UPDATE to conform. :-)

--
Hector

Removing Chrome Spying Activity

2008-09-23T11:58:00.000-05:00

Chrome is interesting fast browser (well, starts fast), but it has enough attraction that will probably begin to lure people.

The problem is that while Google touts it as a "Safe Browser" that is only stopping others from malicious and unethical activity - but not unethical activity that Google does itself.

This is like a neighbor getting your mail, opening it up for you, checking that it doesn't have any anthrax, but also records who send it, why, what information it had to sell to others, and then before it gives the mail to you, it will re-seal the letters as if it was never open.

Well, there are a number of things you can do to remove the spying. One will require you to rebuild Chrome.

Under Wrench | Options | General

Click the Default Search Manage option and unclick

  [_] Use a suggestion service to help complete searches.....

Under Wrench | Options | Under the Hood, turn off the following options:

  [_] Help Make Chromium Better........

  [_] Show Suggestions for navigation

  [_] Use DNS Pre-Fetching ...........

  [_] Enable Phishing and malware protection

For Cookie Settings use

  [Restrict how third-party cookies can be used]

This will stop all by one last call home spy ware feature.

The last one requires a recompile of the Chrome source code. Add a single line of code in the c/c++ file:

   File: src\chrome\browser\url_fetch.cc

Function: function StartUrlRequest()

void URLFetcher::Core::StartURLRequest() {
DCHECK(MessageLoop::current() == io_loop_);
DCHECK(!request_);

return; // <--- STOP SPY WARE

request_ = new URLRequest(original_url_, this);
....
}

Adding the return statement will stop all unsolicited background call home, monitoring done by Google.

Google Chrome - Open SPYWARE

2008-09-03T23:03:00.000-05:00

Folks, as much as I admire Google, we need to be careful with what Google is done with their new browser - Chrome.

It is effectively Google "Spy ware" and attempt to take control of the user' PC, oops, I mean "device" in the same with Apple has done with iPhone.

I will have more to say on this, but I believe its time we need to get an organization that will help put a STOP to the rampant unethical practice of installing software that collects, spies and sends info to centralized systems, and also takes control of what you install.

People need to call/contact the FCC, FTC, state senators.

More to come...

Poison Pills: The death of DKIM SSP

2008-02-22T19:51:00.002-05:00

For those who remember the classic ending in Planet Of the Apes, where Heston finally realizes he never left earth seeing the crumbled Statue of Liberty sticking out of the beach sand, he cries in despair:

"They finally did it! Oh no! Those Bastards finally did it!"

Its exactly how I felt when the DKIM working group was commandeered by a handful of business related concerns to finally destroy the DKIM SSP protocol proposal.

The way they did it was nothing short of a brilliant strategy in injecting a poison pill.

For awhile there, it seemed the momentum was on the side of SSP. The SSP-01 specification was making sense, developers began to feel confidence to implement it feeling there was no way in hell, it will change much more.

But all of sudden BANG - a competitive specification called ASP was introduce - a poison pill. ASP was so BAD, it is fairly obvious no one will use it.

But the ASP group was powerful enough to get the SSP authors to rewrite their own SSP specification with nearly all the same content!! It made you wonder WHO copied WHO!

ASP is so bad, not even the ASP principal author is supporting it his new Reputation $$$$ business services. Its not part of the VBR specification!. You wonder why? Well, Anything SSP related would water this VBR system. Most system would simply not need this REPUTATION service.

In some way, I am happy it happen. Now I can move on. The ASP people should be given credit for killing SSP. I just wonder if they have enough sleeping pills on hand - they are going to need it.

Liar! Liar! Pant on fire! Clemens Busted!

2008-02-22T19:42:00.000-05:00

Roger "Steroid Dodger" Clemens is busted!

If the new photos of Roger at this Canseco party isn't enough to prove this big bum is a freaking liar, I don't know what else is. Who needs the DNA results from this needle shots up his a-hole? Anyone who think this guy is telling the truth about not using steroids must also believe O.J. never chopped up his wife! Whats wrong with you people!

Just in case anyone is asking why Clemens would lie in our faces, I need only to say two words: PETE ROSE!!

Is DKIM safe without a strong policy framework? Part 2

2007-12-04T17:02:00.000-05:00

Last year, I touched based with the DKIM securities issues and it major lack of tieing in policy considerations (SSP):

Is DKIM safe without a strong policy framework?

Since last year, the SSP spec has evolved to something that is surreal in terms of its functional specifications. It is overly complex and quite frankly, I don't think even a PHD can understand its purpose.

Today, believe it not, it is still being rehashed, same debates, same arguments, same people on one side of the SSP (CONS) and same people on the other side of SSP (PROS). It is like nothing was accomplished. And just like it existed on day 1, the same problems with DKIM sans SSP, exist today. Its only coming up again now because it will be on the table at the next IETF meeting.

When I wrote the alternative SSP protocol called DSAP, it was specifically written to address all the key security issues.

After discussions with the author of SSP and the IETF-DKIM chairs, I agree to support SSP if it covered all the basic security issues. The author did add the consideration's (although in extremely complex ways), so I opted to abandon any follow ups to my far simply, more concise DSAP I-D proposal.

Today, I am seriously considering of revisiting the DSAP proposal. If the IETF and the IETF-DKIM can't get SSP ratisfied (even with its complexities), I might just throw in this monkey wrench and see how it flies.

Improving jQuery Timers Applications

2007-08-26T10:49:00.000-05:00

A recent discovery about how jQuery is using AJAX using timer dispatch functions opened up a can of worms about the engineering reasoning used for the jQuery AJAX timer design.

I won't rehash the fine details. If you want to follow the discussion, read the thread at jQuery Support Group.

What I will show is how any jQuery applicaiton that has timers involved can behave differently depends on the user's PC machine timer resolution.

If you have a jQuery application that is sensitive with timers, you owe it to yourself to test it with the test C/C++ utility.

Download:

source code: fastsleep.cpp
zip exe/source: fastsleep.zip

Run the utility and then start to test your jQuery application. Make sure it works with as you expect it. Then hit M in the utility to change the resolution on the PC and retest your jQuery application to see if you see any negative or positive effect.

You might be surprise at what you see. Even if you don't see any visual difference or broken behavior using a PC 1ms timer resolution, your jQuery application could be using excessive overhead. To measure this, you will need to use the FireBug Profiler to see how many times a portion of code was run.

Background:

I'll keep it short, last year I can across this interesing submission at codeproject.com:

How Yahoo! speeds up your application

For me, what was the ultimate discovery is that any application running on your PC, including any browser plugin, who changes the PC's multi-media resolution with a call to timeBeginPeriod(1), the change applies across the entire PC system.

This means all applications, including the browser and any javascript with timers are all affected by the system timer resolution change.

Go ahead and play with this. I am highly interesting to see any reports with timer resolution sensitivity in jQuery applications.

--
HLS

jQuery - Javascript on Steriods

2007-08-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

For wildcat!, someone requested a wish item to add dynamic popup windows to see a preview of messages when they place their mouse over the message link. Since this request was ditto but many others, I explored adding "balloon tips" for these previews.

I found an javascript module jTip.js and this was very simple to implement into wildcat! mail template pages. Suddenly we have PREVIEWS!

But it wasn't perfect, so I looked for other javascripts and found a "enhanced clone" of jTip called ClueTip!

What was common between the two was that they both were plug-ins for a phenomenal new javascript framework called jQuery.

I checked out this jQuery and all I can start to describe this is by saying "WOW!"

jQuery is basically another language, a wrapper language more specifically that enhances the use of JavaScript. It basically makes it easier to create Web 2.0 applications with less javascript programming - "Write less, Do more" is the jQuery motto.

It does have a different language syntax that takes getting use to, but once you get over that hurdle, it is really quite flexible and I may say elegant as well with its ability to "chain" jQuery methods together in one line.

Here is a quick example of how jQuery improves javascript coding used in Wildcat!

Mail Inbox and listings have select checkboxes. The following javascript in wcMsglib.js is used to get the total selected:

Using raw DOM/Javascript:

// Find nodes by class name

document.getElementsByClassName = function(className) {
   var children = document.getElementsByTagName('*') || document.all;
   var elements = new Array();
   for (var i = 0; i < children.length; i++) {
     var child = children[i];
     var classNames = child.className.split(' ');
     for (var j = 0; j < classNames.length; j++) {
       if (classNames[j] == className) {
         elements.push(child);
         break;
       }
     }
   }
   return elements;
}

function msgTotalSelected()
{
  var nTotal = 0;
  var msgitems = document.getElementsByClassName("msgitem");
  for (var i = 0; i < msgitems.length; i++) {
    var e = msgitems[i];
    if (e.type == "checkbox" && e.checked) nTotal++;
  }
  return nTotal;
}

Using jQuery:


<script type='text/javascript' rc='/public/js/jquery.js'></script>

function msgTotalSelected() {
  return $('msgitem:checked').length;
}

In short, jQuery handles all the typical complex DOM operations you would do to find DOM nodes, elements, classes and objects on a web page and provides a very elegant language syntax to give you all the functionality you need to create awesome web pages very quickly.

Do we need jQuery for Wildcat! web development?

Of course not. It is another tool, but a great one at that! It can make programming Web 2.0 easier.

jQuery also has a growing list of add-ons called "jQuery Plugins" that many people have written to glorify your web pages and make it more interactive.

jQuery also supports cross-browser functionality. This is one thing that will definitely reduce testing a web site against different web browsers.

The jQuery documentation is good (needs more examples) and I particularily like the Visual jQuery Reference site! In addition, the jQuery mailing list support group is very active and helpful as well.

Since I found some very useful jQuery plugins, it is a pretty good bet we will begin to implement jQuery with Wildcat! in many of its client areas. I've been exploring how to use jQuery template concepts, AJAX and other things and I have already found that we can scale the Wildcat! server more by moving a good bit of the server-side template processing to the Browser. I can't go overboard with this because jQuery will add overhead to the Browser thus making it appear more sluggish.

If this all jQuery exploration holds up, I might be setting up a jQuery support area for wildcat! developers and sysops at Santronics Online. This will allow Wildcat! customers to discuss jQuery and how they might be able to further use it with Wildcat! I'll make an announcement when the mail and files areas are ready.

--
HLS

Wildcat! 7.0 Development Starts this Week!

2007-05-19T19:11:00.000-05:00

After a lengthy research effort, this week we begin the new Wildcat! 7.0 (WC7) development efforts. WC7 will be a long time coming of a re-awaken and modern Wildcat! system with all the current technology and preparing it for the future.

From my research, I found that Wildcat! is still a very strong and powerful framework with ideas and concept that many in the similar industry are just now beginning to recognize and deal with. The basic strategy is to strengthen and enhance the Wildcat! Client/Server framework. This will lay the groundwork for years to come. Our problem has been one of marketing and becoming stagnant with the current strength of the current system, ignoring or not focusing on new trends such as WEB 2.0, RSS, XML I/O, etc.

Well, all that is about to change starting this week. There will more to come with plans and announcements, but one of the first things we already done is to enhance the Developer's Corner at the Santronics Online Support Web Site.

The primarily highlights (subject to change) to look for in Wildcat! 7.0 are:

All Editions (Community, Business, Enterprise)

- XML I/O API support for Wildcat! SDK
- RSS feed support for Mail and File Areas
- BLOG support for Mail and File Areas
- SPRY, FLEX, GWT and APOLLO support
- Audio/Video Support
- New WcNavigator based on Web 2.0 methods
- Open Source WcBASIC (Maybe)

Business Edition and Enterprise Edition

- SQL support for User, Mail and File database
- Clustering Support
- I/O Control Port Support

New editions will be packaged:

- DE Developer Edition
- FE File Exchange Edition
- ME Modem-only Edition
- PE Personal Edition (Free)

and a DEMO version will be made available for download.

Hector Santos/CTO

Playing with iMac!

2007-05-15T08:40:00.000-05:00

Playing with my daughter's iMAC. Wow! Nice Machine. Not as intuitive as "everyone" make its out to be. But Damn! What a nice machine, rich media, video, graphics, all kinds of crap!

Rebranding Wildcat! Navigator Clients as "Web 2.0 Widgets"

2007-05-10T06:53:00.000-05:00

The latest development fad today are "widgets". Google has them, Yahoo has them, Adobe has them, Microsoft has them. Each is doing it in their own ways with their own set of API toolchest:

o Microsoft - ActiveX, .NET and now SilverLight
o Google - A new comer Web Toolkit
o Yahoo - A new comer, Yahoo Widget API
o Adobe - Flash, Flex and now Apollo

For Wildcat! people, Wildcat! Navigator is a perfect example of "widgets" on your desktop. The above are all basically designed under the same idea as was done for over 10 years with your desktop Wildcat! Navigator (WCN) client or your html Wildcat! Web Clients:

Each of these WCN client are design with a single source API/SDK system. When using the Web, you can also display the clients in separate pages, making them appear as "widgets."

Widgets, smidgets! Maybe we will start calling Wildcat! Client as Widgets! :-)

The beauty of WCN clients is that under Wildcat! communications framework, the WCN clients can work with any connectivity device; WEB, GUI and TEXT mode!

So for those who believe "Social Networking" and "Widgets" were just recently invented with the Web, think again. This stuff existed for at least 20 years in the BBS world. You should know that the popular ONE ISPCON trade show was once called ONE BBSCON before the Internet exploded.

If you are interested, click on one of the WCN client links to see Wildcat! Client "Widgets" in action.

If you have Wildcat! Navigator (WCNAV) installed, your browser will start the desktop client. If you don't have WCNAV installed, you will see the web client. The chat client under the web, will start a JAVA desktop client. For text, you have to login under Telnet mode or Dialup. (For people who don't have an account on our system, try using the GUEST account - userid: guest pwd: guest).

Anyway, I think we will explore using Apollo/Flex to "glorify" Wildcat! Navigator clients. A technical challenge for us would be to see how we will bridge the Wildcat! RPC (WCRPC) communications framework with the various AJAX stacks and APOLLO for Java-based clients. A XML/RPC bridge might work but I haven't decided which way would be the best. Here is a drawing that illustrates the Wildcat! RPC framework showing some of the current industry considerations for Google Web TookKit, SPRY, Flash, SilverLight on the web side, and Apollo/Flex on the java side of the desktop.

Finally, to help us decide which way we should focus, I took a small quick survey to see how people are connecting to a Wildcat! system or to read mail. It was a stupid question because people who connected via their favorite method indicated as such the device they were currently using - DUH! However, what I found very interesting is that the response was spread across the board - the market is there for all the device type of connection devices.

CATSPRY - Wildcat! SPRY Framework

2007-05-09T15:26:00.000-05:00

Folks, in my continue endeavors to bring you the good things in Wildcat!, I think I found a good AJAX framework called SPRY by Adobe.

Wildcat! already has a similar conceopt with its WCT (Wildcat Template System), but SPRY will help make Wildcat! XML ready.

Check this out this SPRY demonstration.

Soon I will have the CAT SPRYing! Stay Tune!

Web 2.0 - The New Simplicity: Interfacing with users

2007-05-09T05:10:00.000-05:00

To borrow a current catch phrase, "At the end of the day," when it comes to writing computer software products, its success is how it best communicates with the end-user, the people, you are presenting and extracting information from.

Currently, there is a renewal of the old-age battle of what is best for the user: the offline (fat, downloaded software) client versus the online (thin) client.

The beauty of the web was in its simplicity with basic I/O with the user. Today, with video, music and the shifting of the brick and mortar business to the Internet, the explosion of information, requires a new paradigm of both mixed thin and fat clients.

There seems to be a battle between various companies competing for your mindsets in defining what that new "simplicity" is: Microsoft, Adobe, Google and Mozilla. We can include Apple, but they seem to be in a league of their own.

To explain all this, requires research and tabulation of all the various efforts currently available or current in development to define this New Simplicity. It is a mind boggling effort. One day soon, I will finish my research and try to provide a summary report of Web 2.0 efforts.

But in the mean time, here is a short synopsis of the situation:

Google and Mozilla

When it comes to thin client, you have Mozilla (FireFox, Thunderbird) who have defined their own open standard methods of creating presentations. Overall, the "Browser" is the solution to everything. Since Google does not have an operating system like Microsoft, its only method of penetrating the market place is by using its Search dominance as a platform to attract a world-wide community of users to essentially build its own network-based operating system of components called Google widgets. See iGoogle for a example of all this.

But how does Google get their technology? Well, for the most part it all seems to be coming from the open source Mozilla community. In fact, the new FireFox 3.0 currently in development is infested with Google branded.

Microsoft, Adobe (and Sun too)

When it comes to the fat clients, these two gorillas are battling it out for desktop clients. In short, you have to download or install software. Microsoft built its dominance by providing everything they think you need into the Windows Operating Systems. So when you installed Windows or purchased a new PC, it came with Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, and "Junior" or "Trail versions" of their elaborate Office products.

Adobe is an interesting company. I'm not sure when it decided to take over the world, maybe it was in self-defense, but their recent Web 2.0 story probably begins with Sun.

Adobe is most famous today for having captured at least 90% or more of the PC market place when it comes to online Video and Music playing with their Flash and Shockwave stuff. This fact has got Microsoft all stressed out, and that's putting it mildly.

Nonetheless, Flash is a small piece of software called a "plug-in" that users must install with their browser in order to play video and songs. Flash competes with the Microsoft Windows Media Player (WMP) already installed on the computer. But as FireFox became more popular, not everyone could use WMP. WMP is based on ActiveX and ActiveX is a NO-NO in FireFox (for security reasons). Flash really exploded into the market place when the immensely popular YouTube used Flash instead of WMP for its video sharing service.

But that was not enough for Adobe. This is how Sun comes in.

Sun is famous today for its Java Run Time Engine - yet another piece of software you download in order to run Java-Based Applications.

Sun and Microsoft have long battled each other over the Thin vs Fat client market. So much so, that Sun sued Microsoft when Microsoft tried to take over the Java Market with their separate "modified" version. Today, Microsoft no longer supports Java. Instead, they have .NET. Another piece of software you have to download to run .NET based products, however, since Microsoft owns Windows, all Windows versions now have .NET automatically.

So on your PC today, you have essentially three "Run Time Engines" in order to run "fat clients."

- Google/Mozilla with browsers using JavaScript
- Microsoft ActiveX and .NET
- Sun Java

Since ActiveX is part of .NET and required, we can lump it together, leaving us with .NET and Java.

But today, Adobe is using Sun's Java as a platform to write their own new "Media Player" and new development platform to define the new "simplicity" with their new Flex and Apollo framework.

Not to be out done by Adobe, Microsoft now has release "SilverLight" which will compete with Flash, Flex and Apollo. As mentioned, Microsoft is really worried about Adobe's Apollo/Flex efforts, so much so, they were forcing SilverLight into every one's desktop with all new security patches and Windows updates. This didn't go over too well with the market place, plus it has Anti-Trust ramifications. So Microsoft has backed off that "Throat Stuffing" SilverLight distribution. It is now optional (Wink Wink).

In the end, we have the following competing forces to define the New Simplicity:

- Microsoft with Internet Explorer
- Google/Mozilla with Firefox browsers
- Microsoft ActiveX and .NET
- Sun Java
- Adobe Apollo/Flex
- Microsoft SilverLight

Wasn't that simple?

And it really doesn't end there. There is so much more in the internal details of all the above. It isn't a pleasant concept to follow.

To most users, possibly none of this really matter doesn't. They will use the browser, and the widgets will use the browser, the .NET and the Flex stuff. If a vendor is forcing or offering a "desktop" component down their throat, most users will use it too. At worst, they will have a bloated machine that will require three Cray mainframes to smoothly run all these stuff.

But for developers, its a living nightmare!!

Microsoft must of read my blog.....

2007-05-08T07:47:00.000-05:00

Maybe they did read my blog regarding SilverLight, most likely they did not, but hey, nevertheless, the concerns were foretold.

Microsoft has announced they will not be forcing SilverLight down people's throats by including it in all future Windows updates.

SilverLight is basically Microsoft answer to Adobe's Flash/Flex technology that is dominate in the video and all those fancy rich animated web sites in the world today.

There is not much to say but one way or another Microsoft will find a way to get SilverLight installed on all machines.

PIW - People Integrated World

2007-05-08T00:10:00.000-05:00

Maybe I am just full of myself at this moment, but I just thought of a new acronym "PIW" for People Integrated World.

The Internet is providing the vehicle for people to be integrated and connected. You know, in the early days, when I was deeply involved in developing mail communications software products such as Silver Xpress, for the early "social networks" then infamously known as BBS (Bulletin Board Systems), I use to (and still do) have a strong incentive about what I was doing and how it effected people which came down to one concept: It made the timid have a voice. It made the weak, stronger, more agressive in participating and getting involved.

Cyberspace without a doubt, have provided everyone a opportunity to have a voice and when done behind a keyboard, where no one can see who you really are, it created a platform for debate, criticism and encouragement.

I say that because I was one of those people. Oh, I wasn't really a shy person, but back in the 80s, I did most of my "talking" with computers and software development. I was a user of my own creations and the rich features in Silver Xpress exemplified all the desires of its users but more importantly, its #1 user, moi. I strongly believe great products ever developed are built when the authors themselves are their #1 users. You get to see everything there is about it. Of course, you can't be blindsided and ignore other viewpoints; that is one reason why sometimes software authors are labeled arrogant and ignorant (to criticism). But the better products are built when all views are considered and carefully implemented from the author's own viewpoint. [One side point to the consumers of products: We software authors are arrogant, but we are not really ignorant. Trust me, we don't like bugs. We all want perfection. What most authors do want is to say report it "politely." ]

In any case, that's a different topic to reflect on. PIW is about how everyone is now more readily sharing their synergies, their mindsets, their views of things, their modus operandi. We see more things not only within ourselves but with others. We see more things not only within our local geographical surroundings, but world wide.

This song by Bob Sinclair "World Hold On" is a beautiful, touching reminder of PIW, how integrated we all are and how fast we are evolving to be one world society of thought and issues - both good and bad.

NoScript For FireFox

2007-05-07T12:02:00.000-05:00

Last month, I discussed the ideas about how to speed up your browser and about Web 2.0 Achilles Heal.

Well, Dianne Marsh gave me this tip about a great FireFox Extension called "NoScript"

This extension is the bomb! Its perfect! It will allow you to safely browse the net in non-javascript mode and it will allow you to selectively turn it on and off for trusted and untrusted sites. It also has auto great "security features." This is a MUST extension for FireFox users!

If anyone tried this NoScript and finds any issues regarding it, post a comment. I would be very interested in hearing what you think.

Wrapping your design Interface with more wrappers!

2007-05-07T10:33:00.000-05:00

In my mist of researching how we will improved the Wildcat! application designs, one of the most critical discoveries I found is that it is really a big frigging mess out there!

Folks, we been down this road before and I am not quite sure how the industry got blindsided with such a vast array and mixture of new methods that basically attempt to do the same thing - creating input and output in all kinds of crazy ways!

We got Adobe, Microsoft, Google, Mozilla and a bunch of other Unix wienies based systems all duplicating work and doing the same thing! It is astronomically confusing and anyone who claims to be expert in understanding it all is basically full of it. Google seems to be teaming up with Mozilla, Adobe wants to be king, and Microsoft is adapting with its own set of methods. Its really going to be just a M cubed world - Microsoft, MacroMedia and Mozilla!

It makes me wonder what got us to this point where XML is now a frigging PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE! It also seems that many who had a hard problem with that wrote even more cryptic XML derivative or some other lame string syntax like LSON and the dozen of others. Folks this is insane - we have wrappers languages for wrappers language for wrappers languages!

Whatever happen to just a simple concept?

PRINT "HELLO WORLD"

Could you not just single source this?

Don't get me wrong. Life isn't that simple, but there seems to be no end in sight, and there only seems to be one solution for us - Write another Wildcat! wrapper for these wrappers, written for wrappers, written for wrappers

Social Networks are BBSes!

2007-05-06T06:23:00.000-05:00

You know the saying, “The more things change, the more it remains the same.”

Today’s “web communities” is nothing more than yesterdays “BBS” system, providing all the basic interactive and connectivity and the sharing of information, be it files, images, music, chatting, etc. The only difference today is the “GUI”, the presentation, the higher bandwidth and the wider user access (# of users that can reach you). But truth be told - Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and all simple that - GIGANTIC BBSes!

Wildcat! is basically the “Last Mohican” of the traditional BBS system - Wildcat! Interactive Net Server, the most successful BBS of all time. When I purchased from Jim Harrer (Mustang Software) in 1998, many were skeptical of the purchase and the future. But My vision was clear - we were all headed toward the day where each one of us will have a “Personal BBS” installed on our personal computers and connected as well.

Social Networks, Communities, call it what you want - there are all Bulletin Board Systems A.K.A BBS!

But the evolution is not complete! There is more to come!

Letterman's tribute to Bill Gates and Microsoft

2007-05-05T07:17:00.000-05:00

This is a classic!

New Twist to Sharing Videos

2007-05-01T20:30:00.000-05:00

TU TUBO (YouTube) has developed an interesting new twist to sharing videos called Active Sharing.

The idea is simple:

You watch videos, and it shows all the names of people watching the video at the same time. All the other people will see your name watching the same video.

Sounds spiffy.

It also sounds like the beginning of sharing TV SHOWS as well, when networks begin to show "TV" shows on the internet. For example, recently I got a subscription to MLB.COM to watch baseball games via the internet. It is fantastic stuff, expensive, but great!

However, I am too sure MLB.COM will be happy if I begin to share my viewing with others at the same time.

Gran Paradiso - Google's new web browser

2007-05-01T06:53:00.000-05:00

Oh my gawd, Google is now in the web browser business! This is going to be very interesting - No wonder Microsoft is pissing in its pant!

Oh where do you find it?

Well, its code name is Gran Paradiso, its official name is FIREFOX 3.0!!

I downloaded it this morning, and so far, at face value, it isn't that much different than FireFox 2.0. But what is so annoying and what prompted to write this is that this version makes it almost impossible to change the behavior of the search engine. It always displays the FireFox search page which just happen to be off Google at http://www.google.com/firefox.

But when you look at all the new internal stuff, you can see clearly where these people are headed too - with GOOGLE right smack in the middle of its design with all kinds of GOOGLE related technology and methods BURNED into this new FireFox 3.0 browser.

So go figure!

Microsoft to fuse .Net with Silverlight

2007-05-01T05:38:00.000-05:00

As I predicted, Microsoft has embedded LIVE connectivity in the OS and will force P2P communications. See the article regarding how they are burning SilverLight into .NET.

What does this mean? Well, read what I posted in 2005, about the Pandora box Microsoft has opened and read what I recently posted about the Dangerous patterns in this industry.

Microsoft, true to their industry behavior, when it comes to introducing technology, they do things that is generally viewed as a ENGINEERING TABOO but will takes small steps in this direction to minimize protest. When the protest subsides, they take another small step and repeat this process until it is too late.

Open source code!

2007-04-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

Should we make Wildcat! open source?

I often wonder if we should go in this direction. I think for new start ups it might work, not sure for established companies with branded products and a large loyal customer base. Going open source can hurt your customer base who have stuck with a company expecting high quality product support and stability.

Does this imply products based on Open Source isn't stable or of high quality?

No, not really. But if you go by many examples in the market place of open source based products, you really never know what versions or trunks or custom changes are being used when customers generally discuss the brand - such as Wildcat!, the brand.

But I do also see where there might be some open source advantages for Wildcat!, especially on the hosting components that help create all the various hosting clients, such as the web server, ftp server, telnet server, etc.

If you have any comments about this, please do chime in. And no, please don't say you would like to see us do open source because others are doing it. In fact, I believe you are seeing those companies or people who started as open source, and now established with 3-5 years in the market, are starting to go more proprietary then you think - just look at the new GPL 3.0 licensing debates.

Web 2.0 Achilles Heel

2007-04-29T03:57:00.000-05:00

Web 2.0 is the hottest fad right now. Web 2.0 is basically using Javascript to add some interactive and dynamic content to your web pages. This is done by a method called AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML).

Web 2.0 is being used in the most intrusive ways, such as dynamic popups by moving your mouse over part of the screen. You don't need to click the mouse. Just move the mouse over word, phrase or object and you are being monitored and clocked for web personalization. Ads and videos are literallly being pushed down your throat.

The problem is that businesses are becoming far too dependent on AJAX.

Since users have the power to turn off Javascript in thier web browsers, disabled AJAX will quickly kill many of these new web sites that based their presence, operation and business on Javascript. Try it yourself. Disable JavaScript in your browser and watch how most of the ads, video and popups disappear. It will actually make your web surfing faster.

Could this be the reason to explain the movement by many web development tools vendors are now beginning make users download frontends?

This use to be way things were done, such as with our Wildcat! Navigator. The irony is that we are looking towards making a Web 2.0 version of WcNavigators, others are looking to making a "navigator" of their own.

The point is simple - unless the browser makers remove the option to allow users to disable javascript, businesses ought to think long and hard before creating a web site that is strictly Web 2.0 based - you might find users are so annoyed but the abuse of Web 2.0 they will begin to turn it off or worst, an Anti-Ajax market will emerge.

How to speed up and help secure your Web Surfing

2007-04-29T03:53:00.000-05:00

Psst? You want to speed up your web surfing without all the baloney,
Advertising, Popups, and also help secure your privacy?

Simple!

Turn off JavaScript! Turn off Cookie Support!

Unless you desperately need it, you should avoid any web site that
demands these to be enabled.

Internet Video and Ads

2007-04-28T19:30:00.000-05:00

Maybe it just a current interest, but I will say for the month of April, I've probably watch more video delivered via the Internet, then delivered via your typical TV.

I could say that maybe the main reason for that was that I received as a birthday present a subscription to MLB.COM Baseball games via the Internet. I'm finally able to see my favorite New York Mets and Yankees once again! I watched the Yanks beat Boston 3-1 today, and I'm now watching the Mets vs National, no score top of the 6th!

But like most people, YouTube phenomenon has proved that people are interesting in sharing not just words, but video. All the major networks have joined to show their shows via the Internet. Who needs TIVO? I can turn on Leno on TV and watch the highlights of David Letterman the next day or vice-versa. I can now watch all the TV news like at NBC.COM or MSNBC.COM, or even watch PBS "FrontLine" shows via the Internet!

This is all great, but there two concerns:

1) There is no standard. There need to be a standard for Internet Video viewing. We have FLASH or Windows Media Player, and others are coming out that will attempt to lock down consumers.

2) The FRIGGING Ads!!! They are SO in your FACE!! With TV, you can at least switch channels. But now the the established networks and providers are getting involved, some are showing ads for each video. Some like AOL TV, are actually breaking into the middle of a viewing to interrupt you with a stupid frigging AD!

But the MONEY is too big. Nothing is going to change this and forget the idea that if you pay for a service, you won't see any ADs! That is how CABLE TV started - A paid service with no ADS - which today not only you are paying for CABLE TV, you are blasted with ADS left, right and center, and WORST, they are now taking 10% or more of your screen! Why are people accepting this?

On the bright side, Internet video ads allows for the first time high reliable DIRECT Marketing campaigns. If they did that, at the very least, I think people will accept "items of interest" and not the general annoying "broadcast to all" junk ads!

Got Stupid?

2007-04-28T03:59:00.000-05:00

See this article about a new US government survey found no link between intelligence and wealth. Geez, maybe I've been too smart for my own good. God any stupid pills?

Jokes to the side, it basically means that if you find something you like, regardless of intelligence, if you are lucky and your are at the right time and place, and you the first to do it or do it better than the next guy, you can become pretty successful at almost anything.

Of course, lady luck also factors into our lives (see Dell, Gates, Jobs). So there is probably nothing but a bunch of stupid cliches in this article and what I am blabbing here.

But you see, this is my problem - I'm trying to be too smart about all this when there is really no magic formula or insight, or nothing to flip out about this stupid article. The best thing I should do right now is just shut up and be stupid!

Got stupid?

Exposing the Wildcat! API with REST

2007-04-28T02:44:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been hearing more or seeing references to something called REST in relationship to WEB 2.0, a buzz word for creating Web Services using HTML and Asynchronous Javascript (AJAX).

Like most of the near daily supply of the "next best thing," I just blew off REST as just another hyped up buzz word, and worst, another way to "connect" you to someone's new web service offering, i.e, Google's new "web service" of the day! Gawd, these guys are inventing something old as new every friggin day. But I guess when you got everyone using their favorite search tool, it opens the door to all kinds of "connectivity" potential - that is what scaring Microsoft to frigging death! They (Microsoft) are slowly and surely losing the developer mindset to folks like Google and Adobe with its nearly 90% Flash coverage.

Well, just a moment ago, I finally found out what REST with a very straight forward reading for its genesis.

What's funny is that I found myself being both pissed off and yet, extremly very happy that I now know what the "buzz" is all about with REST. Don't get me wrong, being both pissed off, yet happy are very positive feelings as I will explain.

Why pissed off?

Well, let me explain why I am happy about REST!

I'm happy because we can actually use REST with Wildcat! API system just like many companies are beginning to use it, and do so almost immediately.

So why am I pissed off?

Because for the longest of time, we were stuck in this time warp of having a very powerful API client/server development system. Wildcat! is one of the original systems that put integrated services together and it has a powerful API supporting all the major languages. But we were watching an industry move on to a non RPC/DCOM method called SOAP which is just XML on steroids. SOAP was a different way of defining your "API" and using them to create Web Services.

I had planned to incorporate SOAP but I found it difficult with this XML thing. I also ran into the problem of how do expose the Wildcat! API. A converter was attempted but never finished. I had some early SOAP/XML examples of Wildcat to allowed you to dynamically display your mail and file conferences without redisplaying the web page.

But it was never done, finished probably because it was too complex, and we didn't have the resources to hire a SOAP/XML to convert our API. In some way, we just didn't need it yet.

So what I did over the last 7 years, where it applied, I used a "fake version of SOAP" without the XML baloney for input, but maybe created XML output by simply using an URL with arguments.

A good example is our Wildcat! Sender Authentication Protocol where we developed an WCX (compiled Wildcat BASIC application) to authenticate SMTP based parameters.

You can run WCSAP in terminal mode from a command line:

wcrun -run html-wcsap?
cip=ip_address&
from=return_path&
cdn=client_domain

or you can run it with a HTTP URL

http://wildcat_site_domain/public/code/html-wcsap?
cip=ip_address&
from=return_path&
cdn=client_domain

To see a example of this WCSAP web service protocol in action, click this wcsap test site.

So why am I pissed?

Because REST is exactly what we did with WCSAP!!

As it turns out, Santronics wasn't the only company with a powerful client/server API framework and suffered like other companies in not exposing our API using the very complex SOAP model. Now you are seeing all these companies, such as Yahoo, Ebay, Google, Microsoft and others beginning to expose their legacy API using the more simplistic REST model to create new Web Services.

In short, I have been using REST like ideas all along since at least 2001, and felt bad that I wasn't with the SOAP crowd by not implementiong it with Wildcat! over these many years.

So I am pissed and very happy to know that we can use this REST idea for Wildcat! because we were been doing it already - The "Web Service" applications like WCSAP is a class example of what REST is all about!

The Wildcat! API is unlike anything else in this world. I truly believe that. But I felt that we were quickly falling behind but not keeping up with the Jones.

With REST, Wildcat! will be revitalize. We will be able to once again, with confidence, market the powerful Wildcat! system and its unique API system, its unique social and intranet networking features, and do so without any quilt that its old technology.

Stay tune... There is more to come into this area with REST and how it will be used to revitalize the Wildcat! brand name.

Java on Guice!

2007-04-28T01:47:00.000-05:00

Oh brother! Google, you doing a great job, but re-inventing ideas and giving them new names like "Java On Guice" is no substitute grabbing concept prior-art technology that at least 20 years and claiming you invented it!

What I am talking about?

Well, Wildcat! is already a multiple device system. You can write application code once, create "display adapters" with each client already knowing its dependencies, and the application is usable for each type of device, interface and presentation.

This wildcat! BASIC code:

PRINT "HELLO WORLD"

is usable for any kind of DEVICE depending on the client that runs it!

You call this "Java on Guice - Dependency-Injection Framework!"? What, did you just wake up understanding your your billion dollar business is strictly WEB base and know realize there are other forms of output? Like Text? DUH!

Give me a break GOOGLE!

WEB Personalization

2007-04-28T01:03:00.000-05:00

In recent days, I have pondered the questions; How much is too much when it comes to people posting their inner thoughts, opinions, comments, their daily lives on the web? Where do you draw the line between what should be keep secret, what should be shared? What motivates people to do this? Why I am here asking these questions?

For a company person, what are the legal issues involved? I remember in the old days where an employee posting, writing or sharing information outside the firm might get the person in trouble for breaching the company's NDA. I know, as CTO/CEO of Santronic, I would have concerns and a hard time with the idea an employee was getting too loose with external activities discussing and directly or even indirectly giving away company technologies, ideas, trade secrets, concepts and strategies.

But it seems a growing amount of corporations are now begining or planning to do this - be more open with their inner workings. I wonder what is the legal framework for allowing this to occur in corporations, especially large ones with thousands, per haps hundreds of thounds of employees.

There is so much sharing in the web, whether its of private or public nature. For myself, a person who was an early pioneer in the telecommunications and cyberspace market explosion since the 80's, ironically, I find myself far behind in what seems to be a unstopping growth of blogging and in the technology of "Network Sharing."

With our Wildcat Interactive Net Server (WINSERVER), how much do I talk about? Do I share my strategic thoughts and plans for the future? Do I share it with others so that they might share their thoughts and provide comments with to improve Wildcat!? What about Open Source? Should we make WINSERVER open source?

For the most part, the reason I am doing a blog is because I do have a lot to say, not just about Wildcat!, but about the direction of the Internet, the world in general. I find myself needing to get my own voice more out there.

Right now, the blog is pretty much private site. I haven't published or advertised this blog, so of course, this will be my little private haven for now. Maybe I am just using blogger.com to learn from it so we can add blogging capabilities to Wildcat!. Its backend infrastructure is already there - what is missing is the fancy interface.

Anyway, I'm here and if you find me, go ahead and share your thoughts with me.

Sincerely,

Hector Santos, CTO
Santronics Software, Inc.

A day late, 3300 soldiers short

2007-04-27T08:16:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I watched Bill Moyer's PBS episode "Buying the war."

Duh! Everyone knew this moronic war was based on incredible lies. Everyone knew wayyyyyyyy before Bush became President, he and his compadres had their sight on the liquid gold - the Iraqi Oil!

So what is learned from this Moyer's documentary?

NOTHING! NADA!, KAPULTZ, ZILCH! Its a day late, and now we are over 3300 soldiers short!

Now here is the real story - THE MISSING EMAIL!

Two Dangerous Industry Patterns

2007-04-27T00:03:00.000-05:00

In my line of work, there are clearly two key concerns or on-going industry patterns that will affects all of us - the world:

Disruption in electronic mail operations and integrity, and
Unsolicited P2P networking

The first one has to do with how the email industry is slowly but surely moving towards stronger authentication methods and the growth of lower reliability of email delivery. If you write something, you really can not guaranteed it will be delivered any more. While this practice can be justified, the end result is that people are left with the idea that censorship is prospering.

The second has to do with the idea of how we are more and more "connected" to each other. In the past, remote systems or user had no right to enter your property or computer or use your system as a vehicle for unsolicited communications. This is changing in the name of security and network and social connectivity.

What you are seeing if a shift towards (what is currently an illegal concept) where vendors believe it is their right to a) enter your computer, b) monitor your computer usage, c) control the licensing and d) to deliver unsolicited content (advertising and direct marketing).

In fact, Microsoft believes it is their "right" to be able to do this and they are using their Live .NET strategy to show what they can do. The problem is that once you open the door and allow this to happen, the begin to go further and further into the privacy domain - which again, push comes to shove, is currently an illegal activity.

But who is going to sue Microsoft? Me? You? Is there going to be anyone who is going to take the lead to fight the Microsofts from changing the rules and the laws to allow them to control your computer?

Well if no one speaks up, soon enough, if not already, it is going to be too late - Microsoft will claim it is too late - the technology is already embedded in their new Vista operating system and it is too late to remove it.

Fake Steve

2007-04-26T07:05:00.000-05:00

Man, for the longest I thought Steve Jobs was frigging greedy a-hole!
Well, I just finishing reading his blog from the beginning and I think
the mo-fo is KING!! The guy even has gotten me frigging cursing now
like he does!! Sweet!! Keep it real Steve!!

Web 2.0 and Interactive Systems

2007-04-23T23:01:00.000-05:00

I've always felt that as the web interface improved, vendors, web sites and "people" will begin to demand more interactive I/O with the end users.

At first, I felt that the need to download special frontends will be required and hence this would slow down the moment - it will be really stupid if you had to download a special frontend from everyone.

With HTML + JavaScript and other things like Flash, lump together as WEB 2.0, the need to download frontends has been less and less. WEB 2.0 sites exploded in the year or so, and the greater speed of computers and higher bandwidths, interactive sites has become very useful and usable.

But guess what?

Now you are seeing vendors requiring you to download special frontends! Microsoft has its LIVE plans, Adobe has its Apollo flash, Google has its download agents, like Google Desktop, Google Earth, Yahoo is the same game, and with the video explosion, new you are beginning to see new ventures that will require new special downloads!!

For video, it seems the fight for consumer mindset be Microsoft (Media Player) vs Adobe (Flash) vs Apple (QuickTime). Could you imagine having to have three TV Cable Boxes, one for each vendor just to watch TV? Someone has to grab this and create a universal standard here.

New SMTP standards

2007-04-23T19:22:00.001-05:00

It seems like we are making major progress towards a new SMTP 2821 standard. There was some input I provided which was rejected, but it turned out to help clarify and codify some broken code in practice that now makes them officially compliant - how nice!

I MISSED IMUS

2007-04-23T08:18:00.000-05:00

Now that we have a new right-wing nut job replacing IMUS, I finally
realized how much I miss the bastard!

Bring IMUS BACK!

Is DKIM safe without a strong policy framework?

2006-08-14T06:47:00.000-05:00

DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) seems to be on the road to IETF standardization at a rapid pace. For the first time in 20 years, I sense a rare wide industry interest to incorporate this new technology to help address the major problem of spam.

But at what expense? Will it work?

Anyone with a good engineering conscious will tell you DKIM is an unprotected digital signature protocol which lacks signature authorization consideration.

To highlight the concerns, I've written an IETF draft called DSAP (DKIM Signature Authorization Protocol) showing the major security problems related to the unprotected nature of the DKIM protocol and how the most obvious of the DKIM loopholes in the protocol can be addressed using an extremely easy to implement and strong email DKIM signature authorization policy framework.

I don't wish to excuse the fine people involved putting together the DKIM protocol and pushing it thru the IETF RFC standardization process of acting in bad faith, but there are far too many involved with a direct or indirect conflict of interest in the promotion of new Reputation Business services who see a strong email signature policy framework competing with these new business ventures. To see in action the seriousness of the DKIM problems be pushed back or aside, is both shocking and surreal.

When a message comes in, the DKIM verification process will have some fundamental questions to ask:

Does the domain ever distribute mail?
Does the domain expect the mail to be unsigned?
Does the domain expect the mall to be sign?
Is the domain the exclusive signer?
Are 3rd party signers allowed by the domain?
Are 3rd party signers allowed to strip original domain signatures?

These are basic questions that are ignored by the unprotected insecured DKIM protocol

It remains to be seen to how DKIM will play out, but there is no doubt in my mind, DKIM can create more harm than good if it is unleashed in its pure unprotected DKIM base form, a form special interest will require a "Batteries Required" Reputation Services trust layers will be expected to help protect its designs flaws.

- Hector

Microsoft Patents Prior Art "Local DLL/COM File" usage concept

2005-12-18T05:36:00.000-05:00

This is ridiculous. Microsoft has just patented the idea of having a local DLL in a directory and it be used first over another in a path directory.

Here is the patent:

6,976,037

Method and systems for DLL/COM redirection

Methods, systems and data structure are described for implementing local isolated DLL and/or COM components. A version of a shared component is stored in a local directory with an application that uses that particular version. Another version of the shared component exists on the system and is useable by any number of other computer programs. A local file is created in the local directory that indicates the presence of an isolated version of the shared component. When the application calls the shared component, the system uses the isolated version of the shared component stored locally with the application program. Thus, specific versions of components may be provided to a calling application without making any code changes to the calling application or to the Component to which the calling application is bound.

Wonderful!

Developers been been doing this FOR YEARS! We been doing this since atleast 1996!! We don't store our DLLS in the SYSTEM directory. Its all maintained in a LOCAL installed directory.

Suddenly Microsoft is now developing more "Application" software that is wants to KEEP out of their Windows OS directory structure and THEY GET THE BRIGHT IDEA that keeping a DLL in a local directory to override the system dlls is now PATENTABLE!!!

Here's the scoop:

The Win32 API function, LoadLibrary(), always used the the logic is checking the Local Directory first. See MSDN help for this function to see the order listed.

However, if the loaded DLL has a dependency that is in another directory and it needs to LOAD a DLL, then it no longer checks the Local directory first. In other words, the secondary DLL loading is based on the parent DLL location.

This presented barriers to having local testing of DLLs if you happening to have a copy in another directory.

LoadLibrary() always used the the logic is checking the Local Directory first. See MSDN help for this function to see the order listed. However, if the loaded DLL has a dependency thats in another directory and it needs to LOAD a DLL, then it no longer checks the Local directory first.

This was solved with the LoadLibraryEx() function with its ALTERNATE PATH SEARCH strategy.

Apparently, Microsoft decided to patent this alternate path search logic.

Yet another language!

2005-12-05T00:09:00.000-05:00

Lets see? Sometime around 1974 I learned my first language FORTRAN. Over the course of the next thirty plus years, I had learned over nearly twenty different computer languages on over fifteen difference machines and operating systems.

However, I recall the critical and key point in my programming life when I realized my linguistic lust for computer languages was really making my life overly complex. Even though I have developed a keen sense of general software engineering, switching your brain from one language mindset to another was getting pretty tiresome.

So I decided very early on to concentrate on just a few principal languages and built my future and company products around them. The languages were C/C++, BASIC and Delphi (only because I had an early product based on Pascal) and when required, ASM. For the most part, today, C/C++ and BASIC are my primary languages. I don't think BASIC will every leave this earth. Marketing always seems to prevail showing that BASIC is the status quo mass langauge for the "common" person. I think Microsoft learned this lesson several times over.

I know I am a few years late (by design) but I finally took the plunge to find out what this C# language and .NET environment was all about. I downloaded VS 2005 C++ Express Edition.

Wow! Its hard (and too much) to describe, but this is a whole new environment!

I believe it is not for my age group! I don't think I want to spend the precise time and energy to learn the "ins and out" of a whole new language and framework. To be a great programmer or "craftman of a tool", you have to roll up your sleeves and simply put the time in. Learn thru faults, trial and error and well as success.

Maybe I am just feeling the age. Maybe I am just falling victim to all the hype; I certainly don't need C# and .NET to continue with my career. Maybe we have just allowed Microsoft to once again change the "standards." They are known to do such things, you know?

I don't care how many layers one adds to a development environment. It still takes time to learn it. This has raised a question for me. Is there truly a new mentality of thinkers and new breed computer programmers who see the new language and framework as a natural environment for them? I guess the question may also be: What was wrong with C/C++ object oriented programming? Was it still too hard for the masses?

In the PC world, Visual Basic and Delphi opened the door to event driven GUI programming abd Component Engineering. Remember Dan's Brinklin's DEMO program? I attributed this popular early "modeling" tool for the masses as the early prototyping system. Add a real language behind it and you get your VB and Delphi.

With the new Visual Studio 2005 IDE, you can see how it touches base with VB and Delphi. They had a direct influence in the new framework now owned by Microsoft. In fact, Delphi's original architect was hired away from Borland a few years back and guess we are finally seeing the fruition of this man's work for Microsoft.

Is Microsoft opening Pandora's Box with unsolicited networking?

2005-12-03T03:38:00.000-05:00

Recently, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2005 and now offers free stripped down Express Editions for everyone to download. The free offering ends sometime next year and its an excellent way to explore the next system.

I downloaded the C++ Express Edition (EE) to get a look and feel of the package. It reminded me of the powerful Delphi IDE framework with its easy GUI designers, but in new, nice visual colors and pop up windows that seem to come from all angles! At one point I must of had altleast 100 windows opened, sliding left, right, up and down in the IDE!

However, the most striking feature is the entire framework designed around external communications with Microsoft MSDN Online and the outside internet world. It is an OPT-OUT feature. The entire help system, the search system, the integration with other web sites called CodeZone, is built-in right out the box and they don't make it easy to turn off. Even then, after turning it off, I wasn't confident it wasn't still going out the internet sending or collecting information. I got so paraniod that I know disconnect my internet connection every time I start the Visual Studio Editor.

The issue of Security vs Privacy sparks many debates. My concern is not so much with Microsoft, but with everyone else jumping on board and doing the same type of activity.

Microsoft has opened Pandora's Box.

HLS

Telco exec wants ISPs to charge for download prioritization!

2005-12-03T03:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I read in the Washington Post, the following:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113002109.html

What does this mean?

Well, the way I see it, it means that if you search for something via the bellsouth.net channels and network, they can begin to CAP the bandwidth or even FILTER the results depending on who are you searching.

This would be a whole new business model and paradigm for the search industry. If the TELCO gets it way, then the search industry will begin to charge for their services. There is already talk about this. Would you pay $5 per month to Google to use their search system?

I always said if this was to happen, then a new "No Frills" google-like free search site will emerge and I believe Google knows this and are deafly afraid of the next "No Frills" search site. That is why it hasn't happen yet.

However, with the Telco's like BS, now wanting to get into this new business model, they can control the freebies versus the fee-based search results via domain based capping, bandwidth and filter controls. Slower for freebie site, normal/faster for fee-based search site that
has a contract with BellSouth.

Wonderful!

HLS