In search for ultimate programming language: 2007

Well, historically, the most important lesson from Microsoft - and one they themselves seem to have forgotten - is simply “Give your customers what they want”.

I think the reason Microsoft was so successful was that they filled a niche with some very basic technology (and in this case, early on, that basic technology was literally the BASIC language - that’s how they largely got started), and they sold it cheap and made it “good enough”. They didn’t play games with the customer.

Of course, that seems to have changed. A lot about the last few years of Microsoft seems to very much be playing games with customers: their licensing and what, seven different “versions” of Vista, and all the DRM crap they are trying to push on their customers are not actually what anybody wants.

So Microsoft has always been good about marketing and selling, and their strong hold on the market has also caused them to become a standardized platform. That’s generally all good for customers. They’ve left some of that behind (now they are trying to splinter their market on purpose with Vista and pushing DirectX 10 only on the new platform, for example), but I think their historical successes are worth looking at.

http://www.oneopensource.it/interview-linus-torvalds/

2007-07-12

Consumer JRE, Easy Deployment

Consumer JRE: Leaner, Meaner Java Technology
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/javase/consumerjre/

"Easy Deployment Is Finally Here" session notes
http://sellmic.com/blog/2007/05/16/easy-deployment-is-finally-here-session-my-notes/

2007-07-10

Polish National Interoperability Framework promotes Open Standards

http://polishlinux.org/gnu/polish-national-interoperability-framework-promotes-open-standards/

standardy.org | Koalicja na Rzecz Otwartych Standardów
(Coalition for Open Standards)
http://www.standardy.org/

C# 3.0 - The Evolution Of LINQ

The Evolution Of LINQ And Its Impact On The Design Of C#
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/06/CSharp30/

Common roadblocks to Linux adoption, Demystified

http://www.debiantutorials.org/content/view/181/264/

Interesting introductory links from the article:

Slapt-get - package manager for Slackware

Introductory article to slapt-get:
http://jakilinux.org/linux/slackware/slapt-get-menadzer-pakietow-dla-slackware/
(article in Polish)

Home page for slapt-get, gslapt and slapt-update-notifier:
http://software.jaos.org/

2007-07-09

Linux device drivers - part 1

/dev/hello_world: A Simple Introduction to Device Drivers under Linux
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2007/07/05/devhelloworld-a-simple-introduction-to-device-drivers-under-linux.html

Driver porting: The seq_file interface
http://lwn.net/Articles/22355/

2007-07-08

Open Source Windows

Open Source Windows - Free, Open-Source software for Windows XP and Vista
http://opensourcewindows.org/

2007-07-07

Why I am not going to use Slackware - yet

Out of curiosity I installed Slackware 12.0 today. Somehow I haven't really liked it.

http://www.slackbook.org/html/package-management.html

The truth about pkgtool is not that it doesn't exist, but that it doesn't do any dependency checking

This is not to say that Slackware packages don't have dependencies, but rather that its package manager doesn't check for them. Dependency management is left up to the sysadmin, and that's the way we like it.

But I don't like it - personally I prefer the Debian package management.

http://xlayn.blogspot.com/2007/07/slackware-12-review.html
So many things to do manually - when I know better ways to spend my time...

Slackware really got better recently with version 12. It has both good and bad characteristics:

2.6.21 kernel (not to say I run on 2.6 line for three years already)
still uses LILO by default (I prefer GRUB, really)
the installer looks dated
and the overall feel is that if I had no previous experience with Linux, I think I'd be lost
default package management is awful, even Gentoo has a better approach

So no plain vanilla Slackware for me now. I will try Zenwalk Linux instead.

2007-07-04

Edubuntu Wiki: Keep LTSP in shape

Updating your LTSP clients NFS root
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToCookEdubuntu/Chapters/LTSPManagement

LTSP network traffic forwarding

Started from this one:

Activate NAT on Debian etch and Disable IPv6 support on Debian
http://www.debianadmin.com/activate-nat-on-debian-etch-and-disable-ipv6-support-on-debian.html

and ended up with this one (in Polish):

Re: NAT + IPTABLES
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user-polish/2006/03/msg00176.html

2007-07-03

Developer.com - Project Management Articles

http://www.developer.com/mgmt/

OpenOffice.org API Tutorial

A useful feature for many business applications is functionality
allowing the user to generate reports from data in an application.
Spreadsheets are ideal for this purpose. Not only does a spreadsheet
lay data out in a structured, scanable format, but it also gives the
user the opportunity to quickly and efficiently perform calculations
on data. As it happens, the OpenOffice.org API exposes a very wide
range of classes and methods that let you, the developer, integrate
the OpenOffice.org spreadsheet application, called Calc, into your
application. A simple click of a button in an application can start
up OpenOffice.org and transfer the application's data to a
customized spreadsheet.

http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-open-office.html
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/regarding_openoffice_org_development_with
http://blogs.sun.com/roumen/entry/netbeans_podcast_episode_30

2007-07-01

Choosing the Right Architecture - eBook

Choosing the Right Architecture: What It Means for You and Your Business
http://cp.jupiterweb.com/index.php/3806_architecture/084c5c900ab38c5c07f95aaadb4c44db?js=1

This custom eBook from DevX and IBM Rational explains why choosing the correct architecture early in your development process is essential for success - both for your business and for you, personally, as a developer.

2007-06-30

Open Standards Committee

KOMITET OTWARTYCH STANDARDÓW / KOS (Polish)
http://www.kigeit.org.pl/kos/ogolne.htm

NetBeans: Introductions to the Open-Source Project, More Than an IDE

http://www.developer.com/open/article.php/3685826

Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective

People should just work and the Great Companies will take care of all their needs. Interesting reading and food for thought.

http://no2google.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/life-at-google-the-microsoftie-perspective/

Just Say “No” To Google - Weblog

http://no2google.wordpress.com/

2007-06-28

Microsoft to simplify downgrades from Vista to XP

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=543

2007-02-18

Miguel de Icaza - Weblog

http://tirania.org/blog/

2007-12-01

2007-11-28

2007-10-31

2007-10-27

2007-10-22

2007-10-07

2007-09-24

2007-09-13

2007-08-28

2007-07-26

2007-07-25

2007-07-19

2007-07-17