Security (Bug Fixes) is now a Major Industry

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 [draft] 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 was renamed ADSP as a proposed standard RFC 5617 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5617]

ASP is so bad, not even the ASP principal author is supporting it for his new Reputation $$$$ business services. It's not part of the VBR specification!. You wonder why? Well, anything SSP-related would water down his VBR system. Most systems 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.

Post Note:

It is now April 4. 2023. I am hoping to resurrect ATPS [RFC 6541 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6541] as an add-on for the DKIM Policy protocols ADSP and DMARC which also provides a reporting mechanism.  Updating ATPS to piggyback off the ADSP or DMARC record lookup.  DNS-based Mail Security applications have grown since this post in 2008; SPF, DKIM, ADSP, replaced by DMARC are the SMTP DNS lookup overhead expected by receivers in the name of Sender/Author Domain Email Security (SADES).

Liar! Liar! Pant on fire! Clemens Busted!

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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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!

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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"

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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:

• FILE CLIENT
• MAIL CLIENT
• WHO ONLINE CLIENT
• PERSONAL CLIENT
• CHAT CLIENT
• TELNET CLIENT

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

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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

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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.....

---

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

---

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

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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!

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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!

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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

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This is a classic!