BlackBerry Cobbler

As I’ve grown up in varying parts of Georgia, one thing remained absolutely constant; blackberries. They’re in south Georgia and north Georgia. They grow vigorously regardless of what pain you can submit them to. My mom makes the best blackberry cobbler in the world. I haven’t had it in sometime now (hint, hint), but I’m… Continue reading BlackBerry Cobbler

Konfabulator – Yahoo! Widgets

The Konfabulator tool was recommended to me by a coworker recently. He noticed that I used the Desktop Sidebar, a Longhorn-looking (Windows Vista) desktop component. To be honest, I was speculative of the Konfabulator’s ability to replace the Desktop Sidebar, both by its name and the source of information (he’s not a Windows guy, so… Continue reading Konfabulator – Yahoo! Widgets

Microsoft Forces IE Dominance

Upon attempting to download many new software titles available via Microsoft’s website, the user is confronted with a “Validation Recommended” message. At first glimpse, the procedure is a tell-tale signature of a pending ActiveX application. This won’t work on non-Microsoft browsers, so you’ll probably just close FireFox and open IE with some bitterness. Having done… Continue reading Microsoft Forces IE Dominance

Simple, Instrumented, Bullet-Proof

I had an “all-hands” meeting today at CheckFree in which we discussed our division’s strengths and weaknesses. One of the things I gleaned from this was that there is a desire by upper management for solutions to be simple, instrumented, and bullet-proof when they’re handed off. This rings true in many people’s minds, I think.… Continue reading Simple, Instrumented, Bullet-Proof

New Recruits

Carlos Rivera and I have both been trying to recruit additional members into the blogosphere. At present, we’re working on pressuring a fellow car-pooler, David C., and a co-worker, Marc W. Each of them have some assemblage of a web site already, but you and I know that excuse is lame. Besides, I don’t think… Continue reading New Recruits

A Considerate Computer

Microsoft Research tells us about some intelligent software able to make decisions on availability versus message importance. The workforce potentially loses lots of productive time attending to unimportant emails. Worse still, unimportant messages can cut into personal time. This system is designed to do the human part of risk analysis in order to determine whether… Continue reading A Considerate Computer

W00t W00t!

At one time, there was only one crack of choice. Today, woot.com products replace the tired old, used goods of yesteryear that were once purchased from the old flame, eBay. eBay still has a place – I still need to sell my woot.com warez to unsaavy individuals, but now woot.com takes first place in online… Continue reading W00t W00t!

A Chat with Microsoft

Today I sat with Julius B., a SQL guru with Microsoft, and discussed the implications of the OpenSource movement with him. This is an interesting conversation to have with a Microsoft goon, but a good one nonetheless. His take on OpenSource was familiar; that without corporate backing and support, there can be no consistency in… Continue reading A Chat with Microsoft

DoJ Probes for Pirates

“‘The execution of today’s warrants disrupted an extensive peer-to-peer network suspected of enabling users to traffic illegally in music, films, software and published works,’ Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement. ‘The Department of Justice is committed to enforcing intellectual property laws, and we will pursue those who steal copyrighted materials even when they… Continue reading DoJ Probes for Pirates

Darren’s Laughable State of Personal Computing

“The computer industry’s track record is just shameful. In what other area of our consumer life would we accept ‘buggy’ products that only work some of the time? If your car (assuming it wasn’t a jalopy), tennis racket or can of Coke failed regularly, you’d be pretty upset. Yet, the software industry has failed to… Continue reading Darren’s Laughable State of Personal Computing