Christopher Anthony's World

Channel 9 = Microsoft PR site

2006-08-26T00:29:00.000-05:00

I have recently gotten banned from Channel 9. Tried logging into the system and I was refused. Why did this occur, because I went on the site and championed the Linux OS, Charles Torres, the sites admin has little patience for those that use or advocate Linux. Among other suspicions put out by a quality poster, Beer28, he is right. this just shows Microsofts closed mind and their inability to deal with or cope with Linux. Microsoft will never change their ways, they just want to keep up their illegal activities. Here is how bad it has gotten on Channel 9, I advocate Linux and Open Source I get banned, Cybermagellan a niner on the site doesnt get banned nor any disciplinary action when he admits to pirating Microsoft software

PR site? its worse than that. Torres plays favorites, bans the Linux people and doesnt ban the real trolls like rjdohnert who posts poetry on the site, doesnt ban people who admit to being pirates, ie Cybermagellan and W3bbo.

Those people on that site who claim to have "tried" open source are liars and most of the users on that site severely exagerate their skills. Dont be surprised to see them serving coffee at McDonalds and any other fast food restaurant you can think off.

Windows Servers beat Linux

2006-06-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

What a crock. Laura Dildio and the other no computer knowledge writers over at the Yankee Group have published a study on Windows Server beats Linux in reliability. First, no one at the Yankee Group have the technological expertise to even conduct a study like this much less publish this. Secondly, lets see what Linux users have to say about this. they are speaking out, adoption of Linux on both the desktop and the server. I think the facts speak for themselves.

Here is particularly one FUD line;

"On average, individual enterprise Windows, Linux, and Unix servers experienced 3 to 5 failures per server per year in 2005, generating 10 to 19.5 hours of annual downtime for each server."

Linux = 364 days and 4.5h uptime per year.

"Windows 2003 Server, in fact, led the popular Red Hat Enterprise Linux with nearly 20 percent more annual uptime."

Windows = 437 days and 18h uptime per year.

How many days in a year?

I question this study and its reliability. Seems funded to me.

Microsoft losing power

2006-06-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

Microsoft is losing its power in this industry. Linux is rising and new Linux desktops are starting to come to fruition. Perfect example, an aquantince of mine that works for AOL is now using a Linux desktop at his job. The Linux desktop is on the rise.

How Microsoft blew it

2006-05-05T00:52:00.000-05:00

The big talk is how much Microsoft's stock has gone down, their quarterly earning were not up to par and of course we may be looking at a Windows Vista delay again. With all this bad news coming up I personally disbelieve anyone who says they will firmly stand behind Microsoft and the quality of their products anymore. Microsoft has blown it and unfortunately they are on the way out. Here are the facts, and they are undisputed.

Windows Vista

Microsoft has tried to revamp the security models in Windows. Beginning with SP2 and Server 2003 SP1. They failed, and Windows Vista will be no different. Im sure Microsoft wants to fix the security problems with Windows but the simple fact is they cant. The more they try the more they screw things up until they have to move to a different codebase like they had to do with Windows Vista. Microsoft keeps trying to to pile on more code to Windows already shakey foundation and it will be no time at all before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. UAC may sound nice and may even help improve the situation but its like putting a bandaid on a severed leg, its a useless fix. Until they improve the code which in this case means dumping the entire Windows codebase and starting from scratch more and more vulnerabilities will keep coming up.

MSN vs Google

Google is already the industry leader in search. They are the leader in providing the most useful services. Microsoft has no chance to even make MSN scale or be as relevant as Google search. Instead of embracing the truth and trying to partner with Google Microsoft is on this holier than thou crusade. Steve Ballmer himself has said that he wants to kill Google. So Microsoft reverts back to its old tactics of trying to lock Google out of being used on IE7. They say its easy to change the default, its also easier to stay with the current default. With Microsoft going back to its old ways its time for the Justice Department to wake up. This industry needs competition and Microsoft rather than helping is trying to once again hinder choice and dominate again. This is unacceptable

Microsoft vs Open Source

Like with Google, Microsoft has taken on a crusade to stop Open Source. They spread lies and FUD with their get the facts campaign. Whats even sillier is that they think IT professionals are stupid. Windows is expensive to acquire, its expensive to deploy. Right now a copy of Windows XP Professional is $300.00 for the full version. This does not include anti-virus and anti-spyware solutions. SUSE Linux costs $85.00 and you dont need anti-virus or anti-spyware protections. The Office suite comes free with all Linux distributions, Microsoft Office is $400.00. So how Microsoft comes up with Windows is cheaper is beyond me. They also bribe Open Source "advocates" such as Bill Hilf to try to persuade people that they arent the bad guy, that they believe in competition. Bull, if thats so why doesnt Microsoft have any Linux products in its product line-up? And what few scraps they throw they have to "partner" with someone to provide them. If their own developers are not competent enough to provide these solutions themselves, how are they competent enough to effectively enhance Windows and Microsofts current line-up of products. Coding for Linux is relatively easy and straight forward.

Microsofts reputation

Can Microsofts bad reputation be fixed. In a short answer, No it cant. Microsoft will have to fire everyone, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Robert Scoble and most of their teams and bring in some true talent and visionary leaders. Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer are done. They should have retired and turned the reigns over to someone else a long time ago. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, while great men in their day, I dont feel have the vision or the understanding of todays markets to lead Microsoft into the future. They are relics of a past that desperately needs to be forgotten. When and if Microsoft ever does this then people may look in their direction again, but it will take a lot of work for people to trust the company or the brand again.

In closing I want to point out that their are alternatives to Microsofts feeble product quality. Linux, Mac OS X and Open Source software. I do not feel sympathy for anyone who gets a Windows virus anymore, or who has a spyware infested system. The alternatives are there. The alternatives are safe and secure and the quality is much better. For people who own Microsoft stock, I give this advice. Sell now because its only going to get worse for Microsoft.

Long time since last post

2006-02-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since my last post. So where is Christopher now? Well right now Im just working, enjoying married life and mine and Suzannes new child. Bruce was born on Dec 20. 2005 and he has just been a dream. Mine and Suzannes wedding anniversary is on the 12 of this month and Im glad Im home this year for the festivities.

My life

2004-09-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

Well guys work has been a bitch, I have been working a lot and when I get home Im not in the mood to blog. Laci's dads house fell victim to Hurricane Charley, this is her real dad and not her step-dad, so we have had a house guest for more than a few weeks. He was in the process of negotiating a rebuild and then now Hurricane Frances has come along. So that blew it out of the water, literally. he is a nice guy, a bit of a pain in the ass tho. For starters he didnt like the type of music that I listen to so he reprogrammed my radio. I bit my tongue. He complains if I dont cook eggs over easy and bitches and moans. I bite my tongue. He complains about my weight and tells me that I am subject to diabetes and other fat boy diseases, I bite my tongue. He tried to confiscate my brand new Tablet PC for his own personal use, I did not bite my tongue. I told him he couldnt use it because I use it for work and that its a fragile machine and he has a a nervous system condition and shakes all the time. I compromised, I gave him an old Celeron 366 mhz machine that I had with Red Hat 8, he botched Linux, dont ask me how but I couldnt get the XServer to start right and I kept getting corruption errors so I took that off, went to an old computer store here in Santa fe and got Windows ME and installed it for him and now thats the only one he can use. He told laci that she could not sleep with me and that she had to sleep in a seperate room. I put my foot down, I could see it if she was still a girlfriend or still my fiance, but no she is my goddamn wife and she sleeps in my bed with me. Just to humor him I asked him why, he sad it was because we might have sex. Duh you old fart thats what married couples do,we have sex not as much as we did when we were dating but we have sex. He brought his pittbull named Diablo, dont ask, who barks at all hours of the night, who he feeds pickles and human food to and the dog and I have an understanding, if he looks at me weird I will shoot the goddamn dog. Today as a bonding thing, I took my father in law (FIL) to see Anaconda's: Hunt for the blood orchid and I could see in my mind him and that goddamn dog from hell being swallowed by a giant Anaconda. my FIL is okay from a distance, I get along with him at a distance but I can see I can't live with him, but I am willing too for my wifes sake because I love her and I cherish her and she is my soul-mate and my life, but if it wasnt for her i wouldnt even put up with the bullshit and he should thank her because right now if not for her he would be toting a GIANT ass kicking. I can see why Laci's mom left him. I try to avoid him, i stay in my computer room most of the time now and I try not to converse with him. I am so glad he doesnt even know what a blog is.

Now on the Longhorn changes, im fucking happy about it. I applaud MS for it. I dont think the exclusion of WinFS is a big deal and Im happy with the decision to cut WinFS instead of Indigo and Avalon.

Now on the new iMac, I hate the new design. I think its ugly and awkward looking. But hey Mac fans should love it.

Service Pack 2 for Win XP

2004-08-10T00:53:00.000-05:00

you can get it now through the Download Center for network installs or you can wait. At work we are planning a party to celebrate the release. Yes we are corny, yes we are geeks. Link is in title for download.

Changing the blog content

2004-08-10T00:35:00.000-05:00

Im changing the blog content, i will still be doing my regualr tech talk here but I am also going to add personal content. the Blog name will be changed to " Christopher Anthony's World ". I contemplated starting a seperate blog like some of my friends have doe but I decided to just add on to this one.

.NET Rocks with Mr. Mono himself

2004-08-10T00:33:00.000-05:00

It was a great show, I had to listen to archive because i had a family emergency that i had to leave town. My stepdad had a heart attack, luckily it was a minor one and they expect him to make a full recovery, he had to quit smoking and i have quit myself. Anyway, miguel went through a lot and one thing i didnt know was that Don Box had sang him a song, I found it on the net and it was cute. Poor Miguel. It probably would be cool if he joined Microsoft. Roory asked many fascinating questions, i dont think Carl Franklin is that proficient with Linux as Rory asked most of the questions pertaining to Linux. Great show, my compliments to Carl and Rory. Oh Carl, resistance is futile.

Miguel De Icaza on .NET Rocks!

2004-08-02T08:38:00.000-05:00

This is like a dream for me, Miguel De Icaza, da man, is going to be on .NET Rocks this Thursday. This is like a dream for me, Miguel is like my personal tech heros. Not only for his work on Mono, but his contributions to the Gnome Project and his contributions to the SPARC Linux port. I will be listening live to this show.

Windows-To-Linux Migration Hits Speed Bump In Munich

2004-08-01T13:12:00.000-05:00

This is a real shame that Munich needs to be worried about this patent issue. Munixh tho I think will be aiiright they had to know theirs would be a real journey and some obstacles along the way may seem like giant hurtles. This wont be a coup for Linux adoption but this is a high profile case and any problems will be a reflection on whether Linux is put into heavy use or whether its just a passing fad similar to Unix in the 70's. There is nothing free anymore, even free beer is not free beer someone needs to supply the keg. For development tho I do wonder if they will focus on Mono or Java, being as tho Novell owns SuSE and Ximian I hope its Mono, it would really help bolster Mono's presense in the industry.

Wrong about Windows? Or was I brainwashed ?

2004-07-27T15:23:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago I decided to take the walk down Microsoft lane. I decided to try Windows XP and Visual Studios .NET. In some cases I got harsh criticisms in others I got a resounding amount of support and a lot of help while I checked out this new environment, well new to me, and I really started to think logically out of my usual zealous nature. I have never been a big fan of Microsoft or their products. I always felt that Microsoft was so underserving of the recognition it got for their crappy products and that a UNIX based system was the way to go. My old IRC buddies quit talking to me and I was shunned by my LUG before I moved because I dared to bring a Windows XP laptop to a meeting and connect to their wireless network. People have been talking about myths of Open Source and making rebuttals and comments on why Linux and Open Source is better than Microsoft or Microsoft's products. While I may not be a Windows expert, I feel a lot of their reasonings just dont make sense. Im going to go over a few of these things now.

Myth 1. Windows is insecure and cannot be as secure as Linux

I challenge anyone to try and run Linux without a firewall, I can almost be certain you will be hacked if you have anything of worth. Security is not a Windows problem its an industry problem. I have seen and heard reports of Linux being hacked, Hell we run HP-UX at work which is one of the most unbreakable systems in existance and last week our main server was compromised. Crackers will do what they want, when they want and it doesnt matter what system you run whether it is Linux, UNIX, Windows or Mac. Its up to the user to make sure thatt they are protected, to make sure their systems are up2date. Red Hat, Microsoft HP and Novell are not there to hold your hands the reponsibility of proper configuration and security is up to the user. Some Linux advocates have suggested that Microsoft be held responsible for the vulnerabilities in their system while in some cases I agree with that I also think that if a patch is readily available when the compromise takes place it is not the fault of Microsoft or any Linux company. It is the users fault.

Myth 2 There are more viruses written for Windows than Linux or UNIX

True, but which system has more widespread use? Someone said this recently on a blog that I read and the guy hit the nail right on the head. Can we blame Microsoft for the actions of these virus writers and crackers? If we do its like blaming Glock or H&K if someone goes out there and robs a bank or kills someone. It is stupid to blame Microsoft for something that they cannot control.

Myth 3 Visual Studios is too easy and takes the fun out of programming

Whats wrong with Visual Studios .NET being easy, and its a lot of fun to use. i like easy it gives me more time to spend with my wife and my stepson instead of pulling my hair out trying to discover what went wrong. It makes me more productive and I wish we had tools like this for Linux. I used to think like that "Oh yeah, give me Emacs instead of Visual C++ any day".

Myth 4 IIS sucks and you cannot run ASP.NET content on Apache

Well yeah, IIS does suck. I tried to like IIS, I really did and it just didnt work out. I can run ASP.NET on Apache using a module from Covalent standalone and for free by tying into the Cassini Web Server but I wont go into great detail here. And yes, I do like ASP.NET more than PHP now. Its so much easier and I have done things with ASP.NET that I couldnt even figure out how to do with PHP. I do not care what Oracle says give me ASP.NET any day. Also Mono is doing some extraordinary things with ASP.NET on Mono and I am looking forward to that.

Myth 5 There is no community support for Microsofts products and Microsoft support sucks

I have had more help from Microsofts forums and newgroups and Microsoft related chatrooms than I ever had with Linux. I had to learn Linux and UNIX by myself, I had very little to no help at all. In Linux chatrooms I was called a "noob" and put on ignore, in forums and news groups I was ignored. Which makes me think, Why did I even bother with Linux? But I learned Linux and didnt realize that in time I turned into one of those guys that called others a "noob" and put people on ignore without realizing "hey, I was new at one time too" Microsofts support team is not bad and they actually went above what they actually had to do. With the few problems that I went to Microsofts newsgroups for I actually hooked up with a couple of MS employees and they were a great help and they stuck with me until the problem was fixed, I wasnt ignored and when/if I ever go to Redmond I do intend to buy the beer, perhaps 2 or 3 for them. Red Hats support team is not very much support at all, SuSE's wasnt bad but since they hooked up with Novell they have gone the wayside as well. The only equivalents I have seen on the Linux side that offer any kind of real support are the Gentoo team and the Rock Linux team.

Myth 6 OpenOffice is better than Microsoft Office

OpenOffice is a great product, dont get me wrong I do like it. But a few weeks ago I bit my lip and bought a copy of Office 2003 and I do like Office 2003 much more. It has features in PowerPoint that I cannot find in Impress and they make for a much better presentation. For word processing and spreadsheet yes I do feel Word and Excel are a little bit bloated and if that basic functionality was a users only requirement then yes, stick with OpenOffice but if you do heavy formatting or are a Macro junkie and you want really great faultless presentations then Office 2003 is your baby. The only reason I dont use Office 2003 more than what I do is because I have a lot of *.sxw documents that I do not forsee myself trying to convert. In my opionion, choose the suite that does what you need it to do and make a decision but dont tell me Office 2003 sucks because I will call you an idiot.

Myth 7 Longhorn is vaporware and Windows will continue to suck.

I have seen Longhorn and played on a box with Longhorn so I know it isn't vaporware and Im really impressed with it and I think Microsoft finally got it right. A lot of the things I have heard from the open source community regarding trusted computing and other Longhorn features are nothing but FUD. I work with a development team and we like to play with stuff, just to play if we have the free time and me being an Open Source supporter decided to see if Longorn really breaks compatibility with Open Source software and it ran everything I threw at it in my opinion it strikes me as Microsoft is really trying to improve 3rd party application support and it wont be the vault that most open source and Linux guys claim it will be.

Myth 8 Windows XP is not stable

Windows XP has been very stable for me, I havent had to reformat my HD or reboot for anything. I havent had a problem where a crashed application brings down the entire system. Pre 2000/XP instability may have been an issue but I dont see a problem with it now, luckily I missed out on that.

With all that said I will make a few criticisms now. Internet Explorer is ok but I wont use it, I like tabbed browsing and I like Firefox more. Microsoft will have to work on licensing and pricing because I do feel their products are on the expensive side. One of my little requests for licensing is that Microsoft do with Windows for the home user and educational user what they do with Office academic version, allow the upgrade to be installed on three PC's for home and non-commercial users. Dont do that with the full or OEM versions but if a family wants to upgrade existing systems then dont charge a premium, most families that I know of cannot afford 300 Dollars just for an OS. Open Source more software, I see where Open Source can improve the quality and ensure 3rd party standards compliance for IIS and Internet Explorer. You cannot charge for a browser, look at opera and Omniweb, they rarely make any money for their browsers outside of licensing agreements they have with OEM's. While Windows may be good I will still continue to use Linux, they both have pluses and minuses and I think I can coexist with both happily.

GmailfortheTroops.com

2004-07-26T01:57:00.000-05:00

This is an idea started by Whil Wheaton, the geeky kid that used to play Wesley Crusher on Start Trek: The Next Generation, he also does some appearances on TechTV. The idea is to send your GMail invites to the troops. So send those invites here

Wesley's errrr I meant Whils page is here.

Whils an Open Source guy too and he uses Mandrake Linux.

SCO flops in DaimlerChrysler Unix lawsuit | CNET News.com

2004-07-22T09:14:00.000-05:00

Best news of the week. I hope those putzes just die already, they cant compete, no one wants their crappy OS, their biggest mistake was turning against the Linux community.

Run Linspire Music Video

2004-07-22T09:12:00.000-05:00

Linspire Anti-MS music video hillarious

Microsoft pays to end Lindows suits

2004-07-20T00:23:00.000-05:00

Big new but who actually won here?

Gentoo Mac OS

2004-07-20T00:22:00.000-05:00

Gentoo has made news with their portage and other Linux tools ported to Mac OS X. This will make porting and aquiring new software for the Mac easier.

** My views (actually my wifes views)

Unless I can experience this software using a native Mac OS interface without having to use XFree86 and going through the hassle of configuring X Windows under Mac OS X, Im not interested.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday

2004-07-06T09:47:00.000-05:00

In the US we just celebrated the 4th of July. The fourth of July is the birthday of our nation. This year I took my new wife to see fireworks, then we made a few of our own at home afterwards hehehe. My presentation went well at work and I was told that the decision makers would have a decision by the end of this week. Well folks time to go back to work.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its off to code i go. :)

.NET sings

2004-07-01T12:41:00.000-05:00

This is probably the funniest damn thing I have ever seen, man these .NET guys know how to have fun. I have yet to see any Java guys who would even consider doing this at a conference. Maybe Carl Franklin should get the transcript and do a remix.

Damn the world is going to End

2004-06-29T13:39:00.000-05:00

Scott McNealy actually said something nice about Microsoft, I just heard it on his keynote. Damn this is like the twilight zone, next thing you know Aliens will land and Dogs will quit chasing cars.

JavaOne and WWDC

2004-06-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

JavaOne is hot this year. I would have gone but didnt want to take the time off of works since I just started this job. Last year while exciting, it just didnt seem to have the pizazz that this one does. Luke Hutteman is their, in case you guys dont know Luke is the author of SharpReader. JavaStudio Creator is very nice. Tiger is finally bringing in some of the features that I liked about J2EE. Tiger J2SE is building in monitors and other tools for the JVM and it is going to tie in better with SQL. They Open Sourced looking glass which is very hot. And the Java 3D API. One of the really neat things is that Sun showed a lot of its demos with Longhorn, it seemed to work fine and a couple of my buddies who went to JavaOne and sat through the keynotes said that they were impressed with the speed of Longhorn. If Longhorn is a preview of what we will see coming from Microsoft, Im very impressed. What I have seen of Longhorn, the test builds we have at work and what I have seen on the web, I think Microsoft finally has a winner on their hands.

WWDC was very, very dissapointing to me this year. Apple took several shots at Microsoft this year and all they did was copy other peoples work. Dashboard = Konfabulator & Longhorn Sidebar, Spotlight = WinFS. Okay, Spotlight is nice, metadata indexing and instantaneous search. The problem I see is that it is not a filesystem. It is an Application that sits on top of the filesystem. It is limited to the information that it can search for, Apple in all of their wisdom limited the filetypes. For example, when my wife uses her Mac she uses Microsoft Office PowerPoint to do her presentations she doesnt use Keynote because there are several incompatibilities with Keynote and PowerPoint. Granted I have incompatibility issues with OpenOffice but I'm getting off topic. Spotlight does not show PowerPoint presentations, it limits itself to Keynote presentations. It searches for MP3 and ACC but not for Ogg or Windows Media. With WinFS you will not have to deal with designating file formats we will be able to search our hard drives for whatever content we wish regardless of filetypes. WinFS is not an application it is the filesystem, it sits at the core and that is what gives us our functionality. What Apple did with Spotlight, a talented developer using VB and C# could probably do in less than a week. I must say I have seen more innovation and really neat ideas from Microsoft at WinHEC than I saw from Apple at WWDC.

MSH Part 2, Mono beta 3

2004-06-24T23:27:00.000-05:00

I finally got a hold of MSH through the betaplace website. My first impression is like WOW. This is a real shell, UNIX like and high octane scripting. The creator of MSH says he see's many automation capabilities that the .NET framework brings, I wish he had a blog so he can explore indepth those capabilities. I will bringing much more to you about Microsoft technologies here and no, I havent abandoned Linux just nothing interesting is going on there now.

Mono has released Beta 3 and this brings in a lot of enhancements I havent tried it on Mac OS X yet but I look forward to doing so.

MSH and Windows XP SP 2

2004-06-23T01:44:00.000-05:00

I just recently saw a video on the .NET Show, I know, this stuff is getting fascinating. Anyway I saw the new command shell. This is the first time I have ever been really excited about a Microsoft technology. I signed up to be a beta tester for the project but I have a question. Is mapping the registry to a drive really a good idea for security sake? I would assume it will be easier to write a virus for execution in MSH, maybe I missed something or incomplete information. If anyone knows the answer to that question leave a comment.

Speaking of security, Yes I heard about the Linux vulnerabilty from Carl Franklin and Rory Blyth and I have patched my Linux kernels on my Dell laptop and my HP Desktop, thanks guys.

Now, I have downloaded and installed SP2 RC2 on my Gateway XP Laptop. It seems to be a pretty solid RC. It fixed many of the issues I had with RC1 and I am being a good boy and reporting bugs to Microsoft.

Im Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack !!!!

2004-06-22T12:11:00.000-05:00

Guess who's back, back again. Chris is back, tell a friend.

Well folks, I have been very busy. I completed my move to Santa Fe, I like it. Hot as hell, dry, no rain but hey the salary Im getting more than makes up for the climate. I dont know if you guys remember but I started a new job after my wedding. Well my wedding went along without a hitch. The new Mrs. Anthony has finally found employment out here, not in web design like she wanted but more of a graphic artist job for an ad agency. She loves it out here. She does miss her folks, I do too but the phone calls are starting to subside a little bit and I took a play out of Rory Blyths book. To save time, money and sanity I invested in the iSight solution for Mac OS. I went on eBay and bought her folks a powerbook and i went to Apple and bought the camera. I love it so much, I wish Apple would prot it to Windows, so any Apple guys that read this blog there is a hint. I have started dividing my time between three operating systems on the professional level. Solaris, Windows 2000/XP, HP-UX. The new job deals with these OS's we are more of a role of service provider. One thing I have found surprising is in the press we hear about all these Linux migrations and how many people are using Linux. We have no active Linux clients on the books. On the personal level I still use Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X. C# has by far become my favorite programming Language and on Windows I love using the Windows forms. I have gained a lot of respect for Windows developers much more than I thought I ever would. I used to call em Betty Crocker developers, they had everything they needed and really didnt have to think through problems. That was my old method of thinking boy was I wrong. It is in fact a good thing they have these tools and they are actually well constructed. My only question is what happened to Visual J++. At work though, next week my team has a presentation for Eclipse, we are trying to push this solution because we are trying to go to a unified set of tools where right now we are ass backwards. We are using Visual J++ for Windows 2000 Client and AS, Netbeans for Solaris and Windows XP and some no name bullshit IDE for HP-UX. Since I am settled and got everything under control I will be posting more. It has been a very hectic few months.

Oh well, not dead yet

2004-04-11T22:43:00.000-05:00

I finally told my GF soon to be wife about my new job. Oh how she bitched, oh how she moaned but she never liked Durham anyway so she agreed to move. I thought, "Yeah Im the man". She grew up in this city so she is wanting to leave. So today at easter dinner we told her parents. Mind you, its easter dinner, Im at her relatives place and she has 4 brothers who adore her, one is a cop out here, cousins who adore her and who dont want to see her go. I was worse than a cornered deer with a pack of wolves closing in. Her family thinks its a bad idea and I got looks, insults and threats that would end my reproductive abilities. I dont think I will be going hunting with her father anymore. It took her father awhile to get used to me because Im Cuban, he didnt like that at all. Her mother was really nice about the whole thing tho so I hope she will talk some sense into her husband. Laci wasnt very excited about it at first but she is on her computer in the living room looking at real estate.

New Job

2004-04-10T09:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry I havent posted in awhile but I had to go out of town for a job interview. Since June 1st will be the last day for me at Estrella due to layoffs my supervisor had a close friend who is the hiring manager, HR, for a solutions development house in Santa Fe New Mexico. So I have been out there for the whole week. Everyone knows I do Java development so I thought this would be a perfect match fro me until I actually got to see what they are doing out there. They do develop Java solutions but they are developing Visual J++ 6 applications and some Solaris development is there as well as Windows applications. They are starting to work on C# on the Windows side and they are migrating over to .NET. I bit my tongue. I found out they only have 3 Solaris developers and 79 Windows developers. We talked a lot about Open Source, Linux and the state of technology. So happens they arent interested in Linux and when I asked why I figured an answer was going to be something pro-Microsoft but it wasnt, his response was there was no customer demand for Linux based solutions. At dinner Thursday night he finally asked the question, "Do you want the job?" I thought about it long and hard and I said "YES". They will assist me in relocating from Durham and now the final thing I have to do is talk to Laci,m we are supposed to be married May 15, 2004 so I wonder if after I tell her will the wedding be on. I start out there on June 2nd and I think it will be a fun job. I can already see my e-mail inbox, " Didnt you say you would never do Windows development" My only question is, wouldnt it be easier just to use Suns Java and continue to do Java development on both platforms? I was very well behaved and I didnt push the Linux issue.

Chris Sells advice

2004-04-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

I followed some of Chris Sells advice. I quit using Services for UNIX tools and have been using the native Windows tools such as Notepad and other graphical utilities. I discovered the MMC, that is a great utility and it is centralized meaning there is nothing that cannot be accomplished via the MMC. I have since started to use Notepad for raw HTML editing it is unlike Emacs and is extremely basic but it works, and I discovered a great tool for WYSIWYG website editing, Web Matrix from Microsoft. Yes Microsoft creates it. I still use NVU on Linux so I wonder how much I can edit in NVU and work in Web Matrix and remain compatible. I also looked at a tool Rory Blyth suggests on his site, Sharpreader for viewing weblogs. I like this tool because its simple, its quick and its less irritating than the other RSS aggravators out there. It brings all the Blogs I visit to me and it even shows comments that are made. I wonder if it is possible to port Sharpreader to Linux via Mono or to run it under Crossover office.

Found something interesting

2004-04-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

I made the comment that Windows doesnt run supercomputers. Well I was wrong, Unisys has a Windows server that goes up to 106 Processors. So I guess Windows does scale after all. I have started doing research trying to find Windows supercomputers because certain people opened my eyes and suggested I research some of the stuff I was actually saying. It worked I have been getting surprised for almost a week now about how little I actually did know.

For a good laugh

2004-04-05T13:16:00.000-05:00

Once again this specific guy opens mouth and inserts foot. I think this is the funniest thing I have ever read in my life. They call me a Linux zealot well I think this guys is a real Windows zealot. I wonder why he like many others fear Linux. The guy needs to get a real life.

What the hell, wheres my complexity???!!!!

2004-04-02T18:21:00.000-05:00

Ok I tried two new things today. I downloaded and installed SharpDevelop. I like it and its a lightweight look-alike of VS .NET. Seriously it reminds me of VS .NET in a lot of ways. I also like the fact I can work on Java with SharpDevelop. It is a good project but VS .NET looks more refined. I would reccomend SharpDevelop for the hobbyist. Now I have a bitch to make. VB .NET, Microsoft cannot be serious. I mean C'mon developers need to use their brain. They need to work out problems. VB .NET is way to simple. It is to easy to use. With VB anyone can be a developer. If everyone uses VB then guess what, the population of developers will grow and it will be harder to find a job then what it is now. Seriously tho, I like VB a lot and I will definately be looking at it more seriously. Look at the quickstarts and code samples on the MSDN web site and just search the web. Yes, VB will definately be a technology I look at even as a Linux user.

Installation of Visual Studio

2004-03-31T21:23:00.000-05:00

I had gotten the Visual Studio .NET 2002 since I found out through a Rory reader Sven that it only compiles for the .NET Framework 1.0. I had Laci pick up a copy of Visual Studio .NET Academic from her college bookstore which includes the .NET Framework 1.1. I am out the money for Visual Studio .NET 2002 but I will go ahead and put it on eBay and try to get some cash from it. Installation of Academic was smooth sailing and I figured the $100.00 I paid for it is olay for evaluation purposes. One of the things I noticed about the interface is that it is similar to QT Designer on Linux. I like Windows Forms and wish we had those on Linux but who knows when MonoDevelop gets done we may have something similar for Linux. C# is easy for me to understand because I work with it on Mono, VB .NET is over my head. I havent even started looking at J# yet because I heard it is based on the really old Java 1 standard. I will try to get a book so I can learn something about VB .NET. Does anyone have any suggestions on a good starting point and a good starter book?

More Windows Experiences

2004-03-30T23:01:00.000-05:00

I have looked into other portions of the OS this night. I have never used Internet Explorer before. I decided to see what the fuss was about so I have been using it all night for general surfing purposes and blogging. It works reliably, the only complaint I have is no tabs and you must open multiple windows. I like the idea of grouping windows as the XP taskbar does. If IE had tabs it may be a little more appealing. Next came MP3's, Windows Media Player plays them. I was always told it didnt so that was a pleasant surprise to see it work. I installed QuickTime and the DivX Player which works equally well. Instead of scripting one of my readers told me I could do batch files instead on the CLI. I will look more into that later but I do intend to test the Windows SFU capabilities to run Linux and UNIX scripts with some of my own.

Command Line utilities fixed

2004-03-30T17:37:00.000-05:00

One of the things I was lacking was the missing command line utilities which make it easier for us Linux users to use Windows. I was suggested to use Cygwin but I found out that I already had the issue covered with Windows Services for UNIX. Windows SFU has all the utilities that are necessary for us command line junkies. Windows SFU uses VI which I am a Pico/Emacs fan so I found a Pico clone called Nano which a Windows user posted on his site. So far I have had only one bluescreen and I think its something that I did, after installation was complete of all the service packs I put in a PCI IDE Controller board and installed a second hard drive for backup sake. After I booted the system, I logged into Windows and the card was picked up and then BAM, hit a bluescreen. After a reboot It worked fine and it took me forever to find out how to format a drive but Laci showed me the MMC and I found disk management and formatted the drive. I will say its too soon for me to make a judgement but I was expecting a crashmatic operating system and it hasnt given me too many problems thus far and hasnt crashed hard. The only real learning curve that I have found is commands from the CLI and Windows graphical user interface, finding some of the configuration utilities. I installed the rest of my applications except for the development environment, the GIMP, StarOffice 7, Blender etc. I even found a few free packages for Firewalls and such, the Sygate Personal Firewall. I tried the AVG Free Anti-Virus solution but It wouldnt do the update properly, the server kept kicking me off so I went with the Avast Anti-Virus solution which worked fine and offers a free personal edition. Sygate was a better solution in my opinion because it gives more control to the user in what to block and how to block it than some of the other free solutions.

Tommorow I tackle the installation of the .NET Framework 1.1 and Visual Studios .NET and I will compare that to Java and QT.

Exploring Windows

2004-03-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

My arsenal is as follows:

Windows XP Pro
StarOffice 7
Visual Studio .NET
Windows Services for UNIX 3.5
.NET Framework SDK 1.1
.NET Framework Redistributable
SharpDevelop
All Related Service Packs

I spent about 600 dollars on this project. I spent last night installing Windows XP Pro. Here are my first thoughts on it.

Installation -- Installation is pretty dumbed down. It did not read my Linux partition and claimed them as unknown. I partitioned my drives as NTFS. One of the things I did not like was at startup they have no option for verbose logging meaning that you just see a black screen with an indicator rolling across. After installation I then called Microsoft to activate Windows, which sucked because it took awhile. After installation I installed SP1 then SP2. I had a hard time with the interface because I hate the default Fisher Price blue that they have, so I looked at Olive Green, which looks gay so nix that I then looked at Silver which I liked. The only thing I disliked about the theme service in XP is that there is no support for third party themes unlike with GNOME, http://art.gnome.org to install themes in XP you need StyleXP.
Also the lack of Virtual Desktops was a huge turn off for me. I found one which isnt bad The control panel is a knock off of KControl and you can see where Microsoft got the inspiration for their control panel. I dropped into the Command Line and found it very limited. There is no good command line editor and I dont even know anything about scripting on the Windows command line. I am going to try to find more command line tools for Windows, if any exist.

Ok I give ( a little)

2004-03-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

Due to an e-mail from Rory Blyth that I recieved. He made some sense and I have decided I am going to give Windows an actual look into. After a decade of Linux usage I am going to blaze a trail into the dark side of computing, install and use the Windows OS. I am going to install Windows XP and the related Service Packs. My girlfriend was shocked when I told her this because as most of you know, I eat, breathe, live Linux. I will not totally switch over but I am going to look at several Microsoft technologies, Visual Studio .NET even tho I dont know crap about Microsofts implementation of C# and Visual Basic, no I dont have any experience with VB either. I will ...BUY software for probably the first time in my life. I am going to post on my progress and give comparisons on both platforms and what I like and dislike about either. In other words I plan to be objective. We are heading out to CompUSA to pick up some stuff. Does this mean Rory and the Windows zealots won? NO. But maybe I need to be a little more objective.

BUSTED

2004-03-29T20:45:00.000-05:00

Microsoft has been caught falsifying their own case studies. What can we expect from a company this unethical?

Longhorn or Linux?

2004-03-29T15:17:00.000-05:00

There are several people who have asked me about how Linux compares to Longhorn. I have decided to answer those questions here.

First I must say I doubt Longhorn will ever ship, I believe we will see Microsoft Linux before we see Longhorn.

Now, with Longhorn Microsoft has incorperated an entire new security schema. I dont think this will be an effective means of security because even tho Longhorn is a new OS its still based on the NT/2000 codebase and with the current exploit of Microsoft source code there are undoubtedly holes that will exist in Longhorn. Some hackers have even said that they will keep these exploits a secret and I believe they are doing this so that they will be able to embarass Microsoft at the Launch of Windows Longhorn to draw more customers to Linux to show that Microsoft is not taking security as seriously as they should.

Avalon and Indigo are impressive technologies but I feel that Linux in a year will be able to topple everything and advantage those technologies offer.

WinFS is a clone of GNOMEFS and nothing new or exciting. This is similar to the Virtual Desktop pager. Linux has had them for years and now Microsoft decided to clone the idea. Nothing extremely innovative.

As you can see Microsoft is not doing anything really innovative in the OS space. Linux will have the equivalent of Avalon and Indigo within a year thus making longhorn obsolete by the time it arrives, if it ever arrives.

Also with Longhorn, Microsoft will debut TCPA with the intent to lock out the user. Their thinking is to let Microsoft decide who you can trust and what you can do with your computer. None of your old apps will run, only "trusted code" this is scary because then Microsoft is given the power to stomp out competition. Thus with the state of Longhorn and the threat of TCPA I recommend a switch to Linux.

Really Scary

2004-03-29T15:02:00.000-05:00

Bill Gates did an interview with eWeek and i must say he sounded good but as my grandmother always told me, beware of a man with a forked tongue, I think he is running scared because of Linux and now he wants interoperability

IBM is da BOMB !!!!

2004-03-29T14:52:00.000-05:00

They have started a new partner program to entice users away from NT to Linux. I hope this program is successful because it is imperative that we keep these customers out of Microsofts clutches. Linux is so far ahead of Windows Server 2003 that its not funny...

Another one drops Windows for Linux

2004-03-29T14:48:00.000-05:00

BayPackets decided that they would join the Open Source community and now supports Linux. This really makes my day. Every company thatn drops Windows support drives another nail into Microsofts coffin. I bet Bill and Steve are weeping over this loss.

More Randy

2004-03-29T00:14:00.000-05:00

" How can you respect a fuckwit that lost his computer to a power surge anyway? How smart can he be, if he doesn't use a surge protector? "

Surge protectors do fail and I did have mine hooked up to one.

" What I find to be ironic is that he's convinced he downloaded three viruses from Windows update. How can he know he has a virus if he hasn't installed an AV package yet? "

I did have an AV package already installed and it did tell me I had three viruses, anyone who does a Windows install will tell you they always get hit by at least one virus during update.

" Are they bad because they require a download from time to time? "

AV Packages are not bad, but if M$ would bother to even consider creating reliable software than maybe we wouldnt need them and with Linux I dont have to take up hard drive space with an AV package thus it doesnt cost me more money. After all, would you trust any company that created a free AV product?

And they call me a zealot

2004-03-28T23:59:00.000-05:00

Rory Blyth, as you know from .NET Rocks and Blogging fame has a new entry from one of his readers named Randy. Here this obvious Windows zealot rants and raves about the things I say about Windows, Windows sucks we all know this to be true but lets go ahead and dissect some of his rants here:

" 1) Maybe if Linux had as many people using it, hackers would target Linux. 95% of the viruses today are Trojan horses - not true viruses - that are passed on and spawned by user intervention. Maybe if Linux had more users, this would be a problem here too, eh? "

Ok this is a stupid rant. Linux is a multi user system and in order for a virus on Linux to be effective the user who gets infected must have a write permission to the folder they are trying to infect, now the only person who has total write permissions is root, root is the system god you can mutilate your machine as root so guess what, a secretary in the office is not going to have write permissions. In Windows everyone has write permissions this includes that same secretary who is going to open that attachment with said virus and infect the entire network. Even the limited user in Windows XP has write privileges so any virus is going to be effective. This is how come Linux only has 15 viruses where Windows has 500,000. Windows machines are infected daily where Linux machines just hum along with no problems.

" 2) Linux is as hacker proof as Windows and you are a fool to say that anything is hacker proof. The only hacker proof system I know of is a computer that has been turned off and disconnected from all power and network connections. Dumbass. "

Linux is hacker proof. You cannot violate a Linux system unless you have root privileges as said above if someone does hack a user account their access to the system is limited to what that user has permissions to view, put that beside Windows who everyone has access to the root filesystem and other users files. It is proven Windows is a more hacked system.

" 3) So can Windows. Try going to CodeProject.com and other freeware sites to see what's available. Again, more ignorant spouting. "

This has to do with my Linux can run Open Source software and Windows cant comment. This is very true. Because developers do not have access to the source code of the OS. OSS Software cannot run reliably on Windows PERIOD. Look at all the trouble the GTK fols had with doing a Port to Windows. One of Rory's friends says it can be done but you cannot run Apache on Windows Server 2003 without conflicts from IIS and MySQL sucks on Windows, I know of nobody that runs MySQL on Windows due to the poor performance.

" 4) SCO says they own Linux - that's why their suing everyone. Again, DUH. "

And Microsoft is so scared of Linux that they decided to bankroll SCO's lawsuits. But they failed, Eric Raymond exposed them and now Microsoft is under investigation by the SEC for violating several anti-trust laws and stock hiking. Microsoft is so unethical they decided to try to destroy the biggest threat to Bill's fat wallet amd if not for the whistleblower inside SCO, they almost got away with it.

" 5) Yeah, right. That's why I never see ads for .NET programmers and Windows server IT tech work. It's all for Linux and never Windows. Nice judgement there. Better get used to saying "want fries with that" if this is the pinnacle of your business sense "

I never see any ads for .NET and or Windows programming and when I open my business I intend to be very upfront with clients, I refuse to work with Windows or .NET and I guarantee I will be more successful than any Windows programmer.

" 6) Here's a better use of your time, seeing as you can't even write well enough to support your own arguments: masturbate in your bathroom. Maybe if you use all your sperm you can't procreate, and that would do us all a favor. It's obvious that you cannot write and you have no clue as to what makes a compelling argument."

This is the part where Windows zealots get pissed because they know we are right and they are wrong, so they resort to vulgarities. Randy, go to hell.

" 7) Free. That's why RedHat charges for it in CompUSA. That's why IBM has made millions on it. Good job. "

Red Hat chraged for media, now RH doesnt even bother doing the retail bit anymore because they have Fedora. IBM made their money off of the hardware they never charged for the OS.

Ridiculous arguments from a Windows zealots that I was more than happy to mutilate.

Now

" On Novells going to drop Windows like a bad habit: Um, who's Novell? "

Novell is the new king. Novell is the company that will kill Microsofts unfair dominance on the market. Novell has always made better products than Microsoft and people are now starting to see it.

As you can see they call me a zealot and they are very misguided, next thing you know they will tell me that Windows is used in HPC environments which we all know is false. Oh as for more MS FUD, since they are losing out to Open Office they are spreading more FUD with their competitive guide which an open source advocate, you know the good guys, carefully dissected here.

Microsoft got what they deserved

2004-03-26T19:52:00.000-05:00

A $614 million dollar fine and they have to unbundle Media Player. This made my day, I am so happy. I cant wait for the SEC to finally shut the bastards down and then I will be dancing like a fool and I will go back to Rory Blyth and tell him "I TOLD YOU SO"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

2004-03-26T19:49:00.000-05:00

Well folks I lost my computer, a power surge killed it. This time I bought a PowerBook although the Mac OS X sucks I went ahead and downloaded Yellowdog Linux. It works beautifully on my new PowerBook and its just Red Hat for PPC. This morning the used IBM PC that I ordered from eBay got here and I installed Fedora Core 2 and set it up as my desktop unit, although I use the laptop for everything. The IBM came preloaded with Windows 2000 and I was going to attempt a dual boot just so I could learn a little bit of Windows but reality came crashing in and I was reminded why WINDOWS SUCKS!!!! Less than 5 minutes online getting critical updates I got three viruses, I hosed the drive and now I use Linux totally.

Well Guys SCO is going down

2004-03-23T17:24:00.000-05:00

Without the daily infusions from Microsoft and Microsoft customers, SCO stock is now at $7.77 Well too bad, its over. My only hope is that Ballmer and McBride are cell mates.

Novells going to drop Windows like a bad habit

2004-03-23T17:10:00.000-05:00

Thats right people, Novell is back and they are here to stay. They made a wise choice developing for Linux and now its going to pay off. In 12 months Novell will be the dominant PC Operating System vendor with SuSE Linux and Ximian. A combination that beats Windows hands down in functionality and reliability as well as support. I cant wait until the PC vendors start offering this product line on their PC's and they get rid of Windows.

8 Reasons not to use Windows

2004-03-23T15:42:00.000-05:00

8 Reasons Not to Use Windows....

1. Virus propagation --- Windows has more viruses than a 50 cent Whore House. All Viruses are written for Windows and there is no way a virus can be written for Linux.

2. Linux is hacker proof, Windows is not ---Windows on top of viruses has whats called vulnerabilities. Meaning buggy code that can be exploited to let a hacker control your system. Linux due to its Open Source nature does not suffer from this. Linux has no real vulnerabilities and since Linux has millions of programmers offering code everyday, any vulnerabilities are fixed very quickly such as in hours unlike Microsoft which it took them 1 year to fix a vulnerability.

3. Linux can run Open Source programs --- Users have a library of software titles that can be had for free or no cost. They are more advanced than Windows commercial offerings and due to the fact that Windows is closed source the distributions of Open Source software for Windows do not work properly or are a version behind until the developers find a workaround.

4. Windows is owned by Microsoft, no one owns Linux --- Microsoft owns Windows, meaning that they control you. Microsoft is anti-competitive, a convicted monopolist and they knowingly produce buggy, insecure software so that the user has to upgrade. They also cut support for their own products so that users have got to upgrade. Linux is free to aquire and deploy, and support will alwys be there no matter if you wish to upgrade or not.

5. Linux has a future --- All big businesses use Linux. Microsoft and Windows have started their death throes meaning in a year to two years there will be no more Microsoft and Windows. Support will be cut for Microsoft and Windows making them Legacy systems. Linux is used in big production houses and there are huge computing clusters with Linux. No one builds Clusters with Windows and no renderfarm uses Windows because the cost is prohibitive, Windows days are numbered

6. Linux is just superior -- Linux can have uptimes in the number of year. Windows crashes constantly, thus it will never see the reliability that Linux offers.

7. Linux is free -- Windows costs hundreds of dollars, Linux is free meaning no cost. You get a superior OS for free.

8. Open Source is better -- Unlimited number of developers contributing to Linux and Open Source versus about 500 that Microsoft employs, how can we not be better

.NET Rocks

2004-03-23T15:05:00.000-05:00

I listen to .NET Rocks, an Audio talk show devoted to .NET, dont worry I would rather die than use Windows but I listen to it to get tips for programming with Mono. On this show, the hosts: Carl Franklin, Rory Blyth have a segment called Google weirdo's, well they listed me as a weirdo because I said Rory supports SCO. Well folks he does support SCO. Since Microsoft funds SCO everytime Rory and Carl for that matter buy a Microsoft product such as Windows, Office, VS.NET and such their money goes to funding SCO. They dont seem to understand this. I figure when Linux kills Windows they will finally then understand and they will change the name of the show from .NET Rocks to Mono Rocks or Linux Rocks.

Get the facts

2004-03-23T14:36:00.000-05:00

I decided to start this blog as a way to keep up with the rise of Linux and the downfall of Microsoft and Windows. Due to recent happennings in the Europe, Microsoft appears to be losing its dominace on the desktop. Also due to their illegal funding of the SCO group the SEC will close them down in America and Linux is the only real alternative to Windows.