Is .NET a rip off of J2EE? "My history lesson starts out in 1992 when Microsoft released a technology called ODBC to standardise the connecting and programming to different databases. Four years later, in 1996, Sun came up with the JDBC specification which not only had a very similar name was designed to do exactly the same thing! This same story has been repeating itself for the last 9 years:
1996 Microsoft releases ASP; in 1998 Sun releases JSP
1997 Microsoft releases ADSI; in 1998 Sun releases JNDI
1997 Microsoft releases MSMQ; in 1998 Sun releases JMS
1997 Microsoft releases Microsoft Transaction Server; in 1998 Sun releases EJB
1998 Microsoft releases MSXML; in 2001 Sun releases JAXP
2000 Microsoft releases Queued Components; in 2001 Sun releases Message Driven Beans
2000 Microsoft releases XML Web Services; in 2001 Sun releases Java Web Services Developer Pack"
Via TheServerSide which also hosts a debate on the topic
Friday, February 28, 2003
Microsoft: storage supernova?
Microsoft: storage supernova? "You may have not noticed, but Microsoft is playing a fairly significant role in the storage market. The Redmond, Wash.-based software supernova came out of practically nowhere to capture nearly 30 percent of the NAS market, according to IDC, since the introduction of its WPN (Windows Powered NAS) two years ago. This summer, it'll release Version 3.0, as well as a Web download that augments the forthcoming .Net server to support iSCSI. Has Microsoft truly arrived?"
Via http://www.watchingmicrosoftlikeahawk.com/
Via http://www.watchingmicrosoftlikeahawk.com/
Monster Warns Job Seekers About Theft of Personal Data
Monster Warns Job Seekers About Theft of Personal Data "Internet job board Monster.com, acknowledging a growing problem for online career sites, is e-mailing millions of job seekers, warning that fake listings are being used to gather and steal personal information.
An e-mail message from Monster, which arrived in many users' computer mailboxes Thursday, cautions that "regrettably, from time to time, false job postings are listed online and used to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers."
An e-mail message from Monster, which arrived in many users' computer mailboxes Thursday, cautions that "regrettably, from time to time, false job postings are listed online and used to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers."
Blogman Becomes Harvardman
Blogman Becomes Harvardman Winer heads to Cambridge (via scripting.com, of course...)
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Got .NET Yet?
Got .NET Yet? PowerPoint outline version of a forthcoming Microsoft Smart Solutions article -- past, present, and future of .NET, with a report card for progress to date.
InfoPath and XForms
InfoPath and XForms Jon Udell explores the issues with Microsoft's Jean Paoli:
"Paoli: Forms are too inflexible. You have a choice, when you want to gather data, between two families of technologies. With the family of forms, it's like having a piece of paper that doesn't grow, you write two lines of customer data, and then if you want to have a third customer, it's a big mistake, you have to take another piece of paper...and that's the form technology used today, it really sucks, people hate that. On the other side, you use Word or some other word processor, which can grow normally -- you can have spell checking, you can add rows to a table -- big advance of technology [laughs] -- but you are stuck, you cannot extract data properly from this document which is viewed as a form, you don't have the sophisticated validation that you need. So what we wanted to do was really something in the middle, which was a mix of the two things.
We had numerous marketing meetings to decide what do we call these kinds of documents: DocForms? FormDocs? We finally said, it's easier to call what we are doing a form, but then we will explain that it's far more, it's really a mix, a hybrid, a new thing between those two models.
Udell: And the name XForms had already been taken.
Paoli: Yes, but XForms does not have the same goal. The goal is to gather information. How do you gather information best? You give views on the data. We can create multiple views adapted to the kind of gathering you are doing. Think about an insurance claim. The end user is going to think about the first page, he puts name and address, the second page describes what happened, and then at the end, what he is expecting. He thinks about it as three pages. The name appears everywhere. But it appears only once in the XML file. Having multiple views helps make the user experience extremely natural."
"Paoli: Forms are too inflexible. You have a choice, when you want to gather data, between two families of technologies. With the family of forms, it's like having a piece of paper that doesn't grow, you write two lines of customer data, and then if you want to have a third customer, it's a big mistake, you have to take another piece of paper...and that's the form technology used today, it really sucks, people hate that. On the other side, you use Word or some other word processor, which can grow normally -- you can have spell checking, you can add rows to a table -- big advance of technology [laughs] -- but you are stuck, you cannot extract data properly from this document which is viewed as a form, you don't have the sophisticated validation that you need. So what we wanted to do was really something in the middle, which was a mix of the two things.
We had numerous marketing meetings to decide what do we call these kinds of documents: DocForms? FormDocs? We finally said, it's easier to call what we are doing a form, but then we will explain that it's far more, it's really a mix, a hybrid, a new thing between those two models.
Udell: And the name XForms had already been taken.
Paoli: Yes, but XForms does not have the same goal. The goal is to gather information. How do you gather information best? You give views on the data. We can create multiple views adapted to the kind of gathering you are doing. Think about an insurance claim. The end user is going to think about the first page, he puts name and address, the second page describes what happened, and then at the end, what he is expecting. He thinks about it as three pages. The name appears everywhere. But it appears only once in the XML file. Having multiple views helps make the user experience extremely natural."
Microsoft HRM On Tap?
Microsoft HRM On Tap? "Business Portal HRM Self Service Suite offers employee and manager self-service solutions that place employees and managers in control of their own human-resources information," explains Microsoft on its Convergence conference site. "Employees and managers can access their human-resources information on their own at any time, decreasing administrative costs and allowing human resource professionals to take a more substantive role in the organization."
Microsoft's Business Portal — the product formerly known as "Business Desk" — is a Great Plains invention that is due to debut some time in the first calendar quarter, if Microsoft is still on schedule.
While the Business Portal is not based on Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server, it is designed to provide the same kind of functionality. Administrators will be able to set up the Business Portal to provide employees with Web-based access to their applications, which will be viewable via a single dashboard-type interface.
Microsoft has said the Business Portal will be the first product from the Business Solutions Division that will make use of the Microsoft Business Framework (MBF) technology.
MBF is a set of classes, runtimes and development tools that sit on top of the Microsoft .Net Framework. MBF is the "shared horizontal business application logic" that will be common to Microsoft's current and future CRM, SCM, employee-relationship management (ERM) and business-analytic apps from Microsoft's Business Solutions division."
Microsoft's Business Portal — the product formerly known as "Business Desk" — is a Great Plains invention that is due to debut some time in the first calendar quarter, if Microsoft is still on schedule.
While the Business Portal is not based on Microsoft's SharePoint Portal Server, it is designed to provide the same kind of functionality. Administrators will be able to set up the Business Portal to provide employees with Web-based access to their applications, which will be viewable via a single dashboard-type interface.
Microsoft has said the Business Portal will be the first product from the Business Solutions Division that will make use of the Microsoft Business Framework (MBF) technology.
MBF is a set of classes, runtimes and development tools that sit on top of the Microsoft .Net Framework. MBF is the "shared horizontal business application logic" that will be common to Microsoft's current and future CRM, SCM, employee-relationship management (ERM) and business-analytic apps from Microsoft's Business Solutions division."
Mossberg: The Palm Tungsten W Is Good For E-Mail, but Not for Phoning
Mossberg: The Palm Tungsten W Is Good For E-Mail, but Not for Phoning "The Tungsten W is pretty good, but also pretty big and pretty expensive, and it makes a lousy phone. For those reasons, it fails to oust the Handspring Treo 300 from its perch as the best communicator on the market, with the best balance of phone, PDA and e-mail functionality."
Multi-function, $549 -- Palm is not quite so simple anymore....
Multi-function, $549 -- Palm is not quite so simple anymore....
Microsoft researchers from far-flung labs share work in Redmond
Microsoft researchers from far-flung labs share work in Redmond "It's cool, because you get to see stuff that you might get to use but just can't buy," such as software that helps catch errors as they are made, said Mike Piaseczny, a software developer for Microsoft's content management server. "Plus, I got a pen that lights up."
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Putting Microsoft brand on a new breed: Longhorn
The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Putting Microsoft brand on a new breed: Longhorn "The biggest change is to the file system that stores documents in the computer. Longhorn's system will be based on a new database the company is developing that is designed to make it easier to find, sort and retrieve each document. ...
This storage technology is challenging, and its refinement will continue after Longhorn is completed, but Gates insisted that it be part of the new operating system. One reason is that he has always dreamed of making it easier to find files on computers. His mandate was that the technology make it easier to find data on different machines. That would make it easier to learn to use a PC because users would have to learn only one way to search for things.
"This is one where very much I'm the most committed to making sure we get it exactly right," he said.
The search tool sounds similar to the popular Google search engine, but turned inward into the computer rather than out onto the World Wide Web.
But Allchin bristled at the comparison. "Google's a very nice system, but compared to my vision, it's pathetic," he said."
This storage technology is challenging, and its refinement will continue after Longhorn is completed, but Gates insisted that it be part of the new operating system. One reason is that he has always dreamed of making it easier to find files on computers. His mandate was that the technology make it easier to find data on different machines. That would make it easier to learn to use a PC because users would have to learn only one way to search for things.
"This is one where very much I'm the most committed to making sure we get it exactly right," he said.
The search tool sounds similar to the popular Google search engine, but turned inward into the computer rather than out onto the World Wide Web.
But Allchin bristled at the comparison. "Google's a very nice system, but compared to my vision, it's pathetic," he said."
BW Online | February 26, 2003 | Tablet PCs: An Overnight Sensation
BW Online | February 26, 2003 | Tablet PCs: An Overnight Sensation "While it will likely take a year to two for the tablets to enter the mainstream, it's already obvious that Gates & Co. has scored a hit. Users love the ability tablets offer to take notes, make sketches, and circle and underline text with a digital pen. They're a noiseless alternative to clicking on a keyboard during meetings or lectures. And, unlike paper notes, the electronic files can't be as easily lost."
(This and the link below via http://www.watchingmicrosoftlikeahawk.com/)
(This and the link below via http://www.watchingmicrosoftlikeahawk.com/)
CRN: Microsoft Greenwich Beta To Be Released Friday
CRN: Microsoft Greenwich Beta To Be Released Friday The enhanced presence and PC-to-phone integration features in the next version of Greenwich will enable "follow me" scenarios, in which authorized "buddies" can track and zap instant messages regardless of where users roam and regardless of device, Gurle said."
AOL Offering Music Catalog for Downloads
AOL Offering Music Catalog for Downloads "Unlike music downloaded from Napster, the defunct free music sharing service, and its successors like KaZaA, a subscriber can listen to MusicNet's downloads on no more than two computers. They also cannot be copied to other devices or sent to other people."
If this is really "the strongest attempt yet to create a legitimate alternative to free music-trading sites", there is still a very long way to go.
If this is really "the strongest attempt yet to create a legitimate alternative to free music-trading sites", there is still a very long way to go.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Micro Focus unveils Cobol migration for Linux
Micro Focus unveils Cobol migration for Linux Am I the only one who finds this slightly oxymoronic?
Will Macromedia Soon Become Micromedia? - Computerworld
Will Macromedia Soon Become Micromedia? - Computerworld Looks like this is now a weekly rumor...
Monday, February 24, 2003
Ten things to know about XDocs
Ten things to know about XDocs "10. It represents a paradigm shift.
[Jean Paoli:] I try to avoid the "P" phrase. But there is no other way to describe InfoPath. At the dawn of the .Net era, Bill Gates introduced the notion of a "universal canvas" -- a viewing and editing surface for anything that can be represented in XML. InfoPath isn't that yet, but it's a huge step in the right direction."
More Netdocs heritage...
[Jean Paoli:] I try to avoid the "P" phrase. But there is no other way to describe InfoPath. At the dawn of the .Net era, Bill Gates introduced the notion of a "universal canvas" -- a viewing and editing surface for anything that can be represented in XML. InfoPath isn't that yet, but it's a huge step in the right direction."
More Netdocs heritage...
Microsoft Hangs Up on Vo-IP in Messenger
Microsoft Hangs Up on Vo-IP in Messenger "Back in 2001, when Windows XP was being positioned as a clearinghouse for Internet-based services, VoIP firms jostled for placement on the platform, but, with Microsoft pushing its own .NET Voice Services, the ability to make phone calls from the instant messaging application will be removed."
Sunday, February 23, 2003
BW Online | March 3, 2003 | The Linux Uprising
BW Online | March 3, 2003 | The Linux Uprising Good pair of articles on Linux in this week's BW.
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