Check out Microsoft's new site that will allow you to have 5GB of free public and/or private online storage.

http://skydrive.live.com

Sony and Waste Management have announced a one-day recycling event on Saturday, March 8, Qualcomm Stadium, from 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.  Both residents and businesses are encouraged to drop off outdated electronic equipment to be properly recycled at no charge courtesy of sponsors.  All brands of equipment will be accepted.  Items accepted include TVs, computer monitors, computer systems, VCRs, DVDs, cameras, phones, stereo equipment, videogame consoles, keyboards, cables, scanners, printers, fax machines, ink jet and printer cartridges, phones (including cellular), computer mice and rechargeable batteries. 

Items that cannot be accepted are:  microwaves, humidifiers, thermometers, air conditioners, smoke/fire alarms, and large household appliances such as dishwashers, refrigerators and washer/dryers. 

Sony and Waste Management and its Recycle America locations, hope these types of events will build awareness for the importance of proper e-waste recycling and come closer to a goal set by Sony to recycle one pound of old consumer electronics for every pound of new product sold.

Microsoft has wrapped up development of two major products, Windows Server 2008 and the Service Pack 1 update to Windows Vista, CEO Steve Ballmer told financial analysts Monday.

"Both products have released to manufacturing today, which is good news," Ballmer said.

Ballmer highlighted a few big corporate deployments of Vista, including at Continental Airlines, which is in the process of upgrading 10,000 systems.

"We think we are turning the corner in terms of enterprise deployment, and Service Pack 1 will be a huge boon," Ballmer said.

Microsoft will begin distributing Vista SP1 via Windows Update in mid-March, according to a Microsoft blog post on Monday.

Microsoft is due to formally launch Windows Server 2008 on February 27 at an event in Los Angeles.

In this day of age with the Internet, you would think customer service would be better? Well I'm amazed at how many large companies totally ignore you when you send them an email or submit a support request. Below are companies that I never hear from or they take a long time. I will also list the good ones (one day or less turn around).

Bad Customer Service

• I sent Corel (the makers of Paint Shop Pro) a support request the week of 1/7/2008 because the dang program will not accept the serial number from the invoice when I purchased the program. I even followed their online instructions that that did not help. I never heard back from them. 

Good Customer Service

• On 1/22/2008 I sent an email to Symbol about .NET Framework install for Windows CE for one of their barcode scanner devices. I received an answer back in less than a day!

This is an ode to the “Things I've Learned This Week” feature that Carl Franklin does on his Monday’s podcast. Since I do not have a weekly podcast, blogging will have to do.

I learned that taking the Coast Starlight train from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo is pretty cool. Much less stressful than driving.

I learned that two volunteer Forest Rangers get on the Coast Starlight train in San Bernardino and give everyone a very cool guided tour of what we are passing until we reach San Luis Obispo.

I learned while the best view of the ocean and the sights from the Coast Starlight train is from the observation deck. This is also where the only power outlet is for the entire train!

I learned it is best to bring a power strip on the Coast Starlight train so there is no fighting over the one power outlet.

I learned that some women on the Coast Starlight train start reading books on how to change their man before they even have one.

I learned that said women gets nervous when sitting with three geeky programmers in the dinning car.

I learned that the drunken woman on the Coast Starlight train somehow lost her boot???

I learned that Robert Hope, almost single handedly, but on the best organized Code Camp that I have ever spoken at!

I learned that bikers (Harley-Davidson) are not as tough as they try to appear. When a biker walks up to the bar at the Embassy Suites and orders a white wine or a mojito, I have to question their masculinity.

I learned that San Luis Obispo is a pretty cool place and that geeks live there!

I learned that 6:45am is too early in the morning to catch a train.

I learned that train food is just as bad if not worse than airplane food.

I learned that you should never bring grandma on the train because they think they know everything and they never shut up.

I learned that burps from the old man behind me smell just like old man farts.

I learned that kids should not be allowed in the business class section of the train because they never shut up and stop whining.

I learned that my iPod is a necessity on the train when kids (or grandma) are in the business class section.

I learned that earphones should be required on a train for anyone listing to a DVD player!

I learned that if the kids in front of me had earphones then their grandpa would not have gotten mad at them for turning up DVD player and in turn making them cry.

I learned that when a freight train comes apart in front of your train, it delays you outside of Ventura for about an hour while they put it back together?!?!?

I learned that train engineers cannot make up time by going faster like airplane pilots can. In the end I was 2.5 hours late arriving home (San Diego).

I learned that crazy old people are allowed to bring their dogs on the train… can it get any worse?

I learned that listening to “Answers” by Steve Vai while your train is going through the bowls of Los Angeles makes it more enjoyable. Do not know why. Maybe anything from Steve Vai would do the trick.

I learned that my iPod volume does not go up loud enough to drown out whining kids that have been stuck on the train for 8 hours.

(In following examples, we will substitute the name "Ted" as the System Administrator)

• Make sure to save all your MP3 files on your network drive. No sense in wasting valuable space on your local drive! Plus, Ted loves browsing through 100+ GB of music files while he backs up the servers.
• Play with all the wires you can find. If you can't find enough, open something up to expose them. After you have finished, and nothing works anymore, put it all back together and call Ted. Deny that you touched anything and that it was working perfectly only five minutes ago. Ted just loves a good mystery. For added effect you can keep looking over his shoulder and ask what each wire is for.
• Never write down error messages. Just click OK, or restart your computer. Ted likes to guess what the error message was.
• When talking about your computer, use terms like "Thingy" and "Big Connector."
• If you get an EXE file in an email attachment, open it immediately. Ted likes to make sure the anti-virus software is working properly.
• When Ted says he coming right over, log out and go for coffee. It's no problem for him to remember your password.
• When you call Ted to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under a year-old pile of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, unpaid bills, bowling trophies and Popsicle sticks. Ted doesn't have a life, and he finds it deeply moving to catch a glimpse of yours.
• When Ted sends you an email marked as "Highly Important" or "Action Required", delete it at once. He's probably just testing some new-fangled email software.
• When Ted's eating lunch at his desk or in the lunchroom, walk right in, grab a few of his fries, then spill your guts and expect him to respond immediately. Ted lives to serve, and he's always ready to think about fixing computers, especially yours.
• When Ted's at the water cooler or outside taking a breath of fresh air, find him and ask him a computer question. The only reason he takes breaks at all is to ferret out all those employees who don't have email or a telephone.
• Send urgent email ALL IN UPPERCASE. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.
• When the photocopier doesn't work, call Ted. There's electronics in it, so it should be right up his alley.
• When you're getting a NO DIAL TONE message at your home computer, call Ted. He enjoys fixing telephone problems from remote locations. Especially on weekends.
• When something goes wrong with your home PC, dump it on Ted's chair the next morning with no name, no phone number, and no description of the problem. Ted just loves a good mystery.
• When you have Ted on the phone walking you through changing a setting on your PC, read the newspaper. Ted doesn't actually mean for you to DO anything. He just loves to hear himself talk.
• When your company offers training on an upcoming OS upgrade, don't bother to sign up. Ted will be there to hold your hand when the time comes.
• When the printer won't print, re-send the job 20 times in rapid succession. That should do the trick.
• When the printer still won't print after 20 tries, send the job to all the printers in the office. One of them is bound to work.
• Don't use online help. Online help is for wimps.
• Don't read the operator's manual. Manuals are for wussies.
• If you're taking night classes in computer science, feel free to demonstrate your fledgling expertise by updating the network drivers for you and all your co-workers. Ted will be grateful for the overtime when he has to stay until 2:30am fixing all of them.
• When Ted's fixing your computer at a quarter past one, eat your Whopper with cheese in his face. He functions better when he's slightly dizzy from hunger.
• When Ted asks you whether you've installed any new software on your computer, LIE. It's no one else's business what you've got on your computer.
• If the mouse cable keeps knocking down the framed picture of your dog, lift the monitor and stuff the cable under it. Those skinny Mouse cables were designed to have 55 lbs. of computer monitor crushing them.
• If the space bar on your keyboard doesn't work, blame Ted for not upgrading it sooner. Hell, it's not your fault there's a half pound of pizza crust crumbs, nail clippings, and big sticky drops of Mountain Dew under the keys.
• When you get the message saying "Are you sure?", click the "Yes" button as fast as you can. Hell, if you weren't sure, you wouldn't be doing it, would you?
• Feel perfectly free to say things like "I don't know nothing about that boneheaded computer crap." It never bothers Ted to hear his area of professional expertise referred to as boneheaded crap.
• Don't even think of breaking large print jobs down into smaller chunks. God forbid somebody else should sneak a one-page job in between your 500-page Word document.
• When you send that 500-page document to the printer, don't bother to check if the printer has enough paper. That's Ted's job.
• When Ted calls you 30 minutes later and tells you that the printer printed 24 pages of your 500-page document before it ran out of paper, and there are now nine other jobs in the queue behind yours, ask him why he didn't bother to add more paper.
• When you receive a 130 MB movie file, send it to everyone as a high-priority mail attachment. Ted's provided plenty of disk space and processor capacity on the new mail server for just those kinds of important things.
• When you bump into Ted in the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon, ask him computer questions. He works 24/7, and is always thinking about computers, even when he's at super-market buying toilet paper and doggie treats.
• If your son is a student in computer science, have him come in on the weekends and do his projects on your office computer. Ted will be there for you when your son's illegal copy of Visual Basic 6.0 makes the Access database keel over and die.
• When you bring Ted your own "no-name" brand PC to repair for free at the office, tell him how urgently he needs to fix it so you can get back to playing EverQuest. He'll get on it right away, because everyone knows he doesn't do anything all day except surf the Internet.
• Don't ever thank Ted. He loves fixing everything AND getting paid for it!

List from: http://www.sysadminday.com/time.html

Here are things I have overheard in an IT department either live or via email:

• Please pull down the firewall so I may send an iPay password to an employee.
• Last week I accidentally spilled OJ on my keyboard and now they space bar is sticking... really hard to push. Can I get a replacement until mine can be cleaned.
• Help I lost my printer!
• I really apologize for this. I was unexpectedly out of the office last Thursday afternoon and all of Friday. I had some files in U:\Public that I did not transfer to a permanent location before I left. Would someone recover them for me? Of course, I can’t remember the exact file names. (NOTE: all files in our U:\Public are erased every Sunday night)
• I am traveling to Texas (from San Diego) next week. Please have a laptop available for me to use when I arrive. (NOTE: After some investigation, we found out she already has a laptop. She just did not want to carry it on the plane!!! Now that's what I call lazy!)
• What have you guys done to my computer???????????????????????????????????? (NOTE: This is all the message said. Little more explanation would have been nice.)
• Opps, I jammed my printer. Tried to fix. But failed. Please help
• Word does not work appropriately on my computer.
• My computer time to time is making horrific noise. Please check. It may be dying.

I was on a conference call today with two programmers from a VERY large over night shipping company. They said in passing that recently someone at at their company "lost" a laptop that contained over 15,000 customer accounts, including names and account numbers! The person no longer works there, but this brings up two issues:

1. Why do large corporations like this one allow employees to place this sensitive information on portable devices?
2. How secure are these laptops if they are stolen or "found"? I'm sure any hacker could get into the system and recover the data.

I'm sure this is a much bigger problem than most of would like to admit. I Googled this to see if it was in the news... it was not.

I just stumbled across this cool FREE website that will monitor your upsite for you called Montastic. It's 100% free, no ad, no spam. Can't beat that deal! It checks your site about every 10 mintues from two different locations. You can monitor up to 100 sites. It even has an RSS feed for your list of sites!

The new version of WinZip has been released that include practical image handling through thumbnails and a new internal image viewer, more efficient compression, enhanced data backup functionality, and support for RAR and BZ2 files. For more info, click here.

If you haven't been to a Code Camp, then you are missing out. Two days of free training! In San Diego we are even having a Geek dinner featuring music from Killola (awesome band from L.A., pictured to the right)

Code Camp is on Saturday June 24th and Sunday June 25th. For more info go to the Code Camp site.

There is going to be a Code Camp in the Phoenix area on May 6th. I will be presenting two talks:

• .NET Coding Standard & Best Practices
• Unlock the Power of WMI

If you live in that area, you should come check out these talks and the others being offered. Hey, it's free! Click on the link below for more info:

http://desertcodecamp.com/

On April 3, Microsoft announced that Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition will become available as a free download. You can use Virtual Server to create a robust virtualization environment for your production server consolidation, to support disaster recovery and high availability scenarios, and to consolidate mixed workloads including Linux guest operating systems.

Below is a list of free wireless hot spots that I have found in my travels. Please add your own using comments. I will add them to the list.

• Skyharbor Airport - Phoenix: I'm adding this as I sit at the airport waiting for my plane. Way to go Skyharbor!
• Residence Inn - Lewisville, TX
• Denny's - Austin, Tx: Near the airport. Not sure if all Danny's provide this service or not?

Places That SHOULD Provide Free Wireless!

• San Diego, CA Airport: $10 per day!
• Dallas - Fort Worth, TX Airport: Wireless is controlled by T-Mobile. They want you to sign-up for a monthly subscription for $30 or pay a whopping $6 per hour! Come on!!! I believe wireless should be free at all airports. Take my info and spam me if you want... I don't care. If Denny's can provide it free, why can't airports?
• Austin, TX Airport: Same issue as Dallas :-(

DECEMBER 06, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Microsoft Corp. today released to manufacturing a long-awaited interim update to the current version of Windows Server OS, Windows Server 2003 R2.

The update, which will be generally available to customers in about 60 days, should be 100 percent compatible with applications running on the current release of Windows Server 2003, said Bob Muglia, senior vice president for server and tools at Microsoft, in a webcast Tuesday morning. "If you have deployed Windows 2003 today you can feel confident deploying this without a long test cycle," he said.

Microsoft released the first preview of Windows Server 2003 R2 in August and another preview in October.

Virtualization is a key focus of the update, which is designed to work closely with Virtual Server 2005, Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and Systems Management Server (SMS) as part of Microsoft's Dynamic Systems initiative, Muglia said.

Microsoft recently simplified its virtualization licensing for Windows Server System, of which Windows Server, MOM and SMS are a part. The company no longer requires a customer to pay for inactive or stored virtual images of Windows Server System on a network. Instead, Microsoft now only charges for the virtual images of Windows Server System products actually running on a customer network.

Microsoft also enables customers to have four virtual machines running on top of Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition and Windows Server "Longhorn" Datacenter Edition at no extra cost.

As part of its continued focus "to take a leadership role in virtualization," Muglia said Microsoft is offering a special promotion for Windows Server 2003 R2. Customers who purchase the enterprise edition of the update with get Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition for US$99 until June 30, 2006, he said.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 is expected to be generally available in the same time frame as Windows Server 2003 R2, said Jeff Price, a senior director in the Windows Server division at Microsoft.

Windows Server 2003 R2 comes in several differently priced versions. Prices for the update will be in line with current Windows Server prices, Price said. Windows Server licenses range from $399 for a Web edition, to $3,999 for the enterprise edition, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft also updated customers Tuesday on plans to release Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 R2 in the beginning of 2006. That update to Microsoft's Windows server targeted at small-business customers is on schedule to be available either toward the end of the first calendar quarter or beginning of the second calendar quarter of next year, Price said.

SBS 2003 R2 will include technology from the most recent release of SQL Server 2005, which debuted last month, he added.

The new Windows Server release also includes a key identity management technology for the company, Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), which introduces the idea of federated network identity into the OS, Muglia said. This enables companies to securely provide distributed identification, authentication and authorization for users across organizational and platform boundaries.

In addition, Windows Server 2003 R2 also promises new branch-management capabilities; better Unix interoperability through the inclusion of the Unix subsystem within Windows; and a new version of the .Net framework, .Net 2.0, Muglia said.

Most of us know that one of the tricks to speed up your computer is to keep the disks defragmented. Windows has always has a defragmenter, but when the heck will it really work correctly? The graphic below shows how the Windows Disk Defragmenter left the disk on my machine after I ran it about 5 times?!?!? See the gapping holes? What’s up with that?

I have heard that the Windows Disk Defragmenter is just a crippled version of a defragmenter from another company (I forget their name). But come one, it should work better than this! I REALLY need it to work correctly in my Microsoft Virtual PC’s so that I can compact them better.

Hopefully Microsoft will fix this in Vista.

Kicking off what he called the "live era" of software, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates on Tuesday said the company plans to launch new Internet-based complements to its core products.

For the rest of the very interesting article, click here.

MANSFIELD, CT - November 1, 2005 - WinZip Computing significantly improves the usability and functionality of its popular compression utility for Windows with today's release of WinZip 10.0.

WinZip 10.0 allows users to send e-mail faster and save additional disk space by using improved compression technology that creates even smaller Zip files. WinZip 10.0 also offers users a new Explorer-style view, making it easier to manage large, multi-folder Zip files. Other enhancements include the ability to create split (multi-volume) Zip files during compression, automatic update checking, and support for the Windows XP SP2 Attachment Manager, which helps users protect their computers by warning them of files that might be dangerous to open.

For the first time, WinZip is now also available with optional Pro features offering valuable additional functionality. WinZip 10.0 Pro includes the WinZip Job Wizard, a powerful new tool that offers predefined data backup jobs and allows users to create Zip "jobs" that automate almost any repetitive zipping task, including custom-made daily data backups, periodic reporting, and data archiving. Users can also move valuable data off site by using the included FTP upload functionality.

WinZip 10.0 Pro also allows users to create Zip files directly on CDs and DVDs. This eliminates the need to zip to a hard drive and then transfer the files. Large Zip files will automatically span multiple CDs/DVDs, as necessary.

WinZip 10.0 Standard is US$29.95, and WinZip 10.0 Pro is US$49.95. Attractive volume licensing discounts are available. Download links and ordering information can be found on the WinZip web site at www.winzip.com.

About WinZip Computing

Founded in 1991, WinZip Computing is located in Mansfield, CT, and offers WinZip, the world's most popular Zip utility for Windows used by thousands of organizations, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, as well as millions of home users. More than 150 million copies have been downloaded from CNET's download.com web site alone. Other products offered are WinZip Companion for Outlook®, WinZip Self-Extractor, and WinZip Command Line Support Add-On.

I would like to add that WinZip is the only program I can find that can zip large files... like 4GB and more. Check it out! (David)

How much time is wasted where you work because people come in late, go home early, call in sick, inept at their job etc? Well the current place I am contracting I have never seen a bunch of employees abuse the system so badly. I won't say where it is, but let’s just say it's related to the government. No, I'm not saying people should come into work when they are sick... PLEASE DON'T! But when it seems they take sick time every week it gets kind of suspicious.

To make this more visible here, they usually email when people won't be around. For the last two weeks, I have kept track of this and here are the results:

9/26
Sam out today.
Jayne will be out the rest of today.

9/27
Nancy will be in late.
Steven out sick.
Tom G working from home.

9/28
Tom G will be in late.

9/29
Jayne will be working from home the rest of today.

9/30
Tom G will be working from home this morning.

10/4
Fred out sick.

10/5
Fred out sick.

10/6
Martin will be in late.
Annie out sick.
Alice will be in late.
Martin went home sick.

This is just what was publicly announced. It does not include people that just came in and out without notice. Plus we have less than 20 people in our department!

If you can believe it, as I was writing this today, here is what happened:

Tom G will be in late.
Fred is out sick (he was out the next day too).
Annie will be in late.
Martin went home sick.

How can a department function with these work ethics going on? Well, it gets worse here. Let me tell you about some of the biggest abusers.

Annie is constantly coming in late, leaving early, calling in sick, taking long lunches and more. Most of here lateness, sick and early departures are due to her kids being sick, taking them to school etc. For the longest time I figured her husband worked long hours and was not around much. But then I found out he is an artist and works at home! So what's up with him helping out!?!?! One day she had the nerve to bring in one of her sick, coughing and hacking kids and let him run around the office so he could infect the rest of us. I left early that day! When she actually is at work, she can spend an hour or more on the phone chatting with her friends. She disappears for hours during lunch. She also volunteers (a lot) to help out with company activities during work time so she can get out of working and there is more. She is a database administrator and made a huge mistake recently and cost the company 40K+! As the norm around here, nothing happened to her.

Zack is a programmer in our department. I don't know first hand how good he is, but he has been working on the same project for two years and has not completed the first phase. I was told by another programmer that his project should have taken six months at the most. So why has it been taking him so long? Well maybe because for the last two years he has been working on his real estate license at work. He got his license and now I'm told he devotes around 80% or more of his day running his real estate business from his cube!?!?!

Stephen is another programmer that has been working two years on a project that should have taken him three months. I don't know what his story is... yet.

Rob is a programmer that skills could be in question. About a year or so ago a hacker broke into the company and stole thousands of teacher and employees personal information. This made the news. Because of his sloppy programming, he stored this sensitive information in normal text files that anyone could open and read! As usual in this department, nothing happened to Rob after the break-in which has cost the company an untold amount of money.

I can keep going, but in summary, this is a typical government facility if not worse. What I mean by that is once you work here about two years it takes an act of god to fire you. So many people just shut down and wait for retirement (I'm told they have great benefits here). I usually estimate 90% of the people here are in this mode. The other 10% actually do the work, but it's very difficult because the other 90% are always trying to stop anything you are trying to do... because it might actually cause them some work.

Microsoft plans to outsource more, says ex-worker

By Brier Dudley
Seattle Times technology reporter

Microsoft is on track to outsource more than 1,000 jobs a year to China, according to blistering evidence released yesterday in Microsoft's increasingly nasty spat with Google over an employee who jumped ship in July.

In a revelation that highlights the complexity of China President Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle and Microsoft on Monday, legal filings detailed claims of how Microsoft had offended the Chinese government by not outsourcing as many jobs as promised to Chinese technology vendors.

Chief Executive Steve Ballmer visited China in 2003 and promised to step up the pace, from $33 million worth of work a year to $55 million a year, according to a statement by Kai-Fu Lee, a former vice president who left to work for Google in July. Lee was charged with smoothing over relations with China and finding jobs that could be shifted to Chinese contract workers.

"At the time of my departure, MS was on track to outsource over 1,000 jobs a year to China," he said in a court declaration. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company has transferred some projects to China "in order to free up teams here for other work."

"We are growing our work force there and will continue to do so; however, that growth has not and will not replace jobs here in Redmond," spokeswoman Stacy Drake said.

Microsoft continues to hire thousands of new employees a year in Redmond, but the pace of hiring has slowed. Simultaneously, it has increased work in China, India and other technology hubs.

Google is likewise extending its reach, and Lee was hired to start a Google research center in China. Microsoft immediately sued to prevent him from working there for a year, citing a noncompete agreement he signed in 2000. King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez granted Microsoft a temporary restraining order in July and is set to review the case in a hearing starting Tuesday.

Drawing on thousands of e-mails, notes and other material, Microsoft filed a motion with the court that painted Lee as a bit of a schemer. It said Lee removed "Microsoft confidential" labels from a strategy document on China and sent it to Google while pursuing his new job. It also said Lee continued to attend China strategy meetings after he began talking with Google.

Google said Microsoft doesn't have a case and that the confidential material was already made public by Chairman Bill Gates and Microsoft's Web site. It also released a statement from a former employee portraying Ballmer as a foul-mouthed fit-thrower.

It remains to be seen how the back and forth will affect the lawsuit. But the filings provide the deepest look at Microsoft's internal tensions since its antitrust trial in the late 1990s.

In his declaration, Lee contends Microsoft's China research center was disorganized and needed to be unified, but his proposals met resistance from managers who wanted to continue making key decisions in Redmond. Lee said he decided to leave after disagreements with Senior Vice President Steve Sinfosky, head of the Office operation, and research chief Rick Rashid over his plan for China, and after Ballmer's "inadequate" response to his plan.

Microsoft said Lee apparently reached out to Google the day after interviewing a Microsoft job candidate who let on he was talking to Google about opening its China lab. In his statement, Lee said he found out about Google's plans for the lab from a Chinese news Web site. He also denied sharing confidential materials, and downplayed his significance to Microsoft's work on search products.

The details about Ballmer were in a declaration by former Distinguished Engineer Marc Lucovsky, who in November 2004 told Ballmer he was leaving for Google. Lucovsky said Ballmer threw a chair across his office and cussed out Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, saying, "I'm going to ... bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going ... to kill Google."

Lucovsky said Ballmer encouraged him to stay at Microsoft and told him that "Google's not a real company. It's a house of cards."

After Google sent the Lucovsky statement to reporters yesterday, Ballmer issued a statement denying the account.

"Mark Lucovsky's account of our conversation last November is a gross exaggeration of what actually took place," he said. "Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterization of that meeting is not accurate."

Lucovsky's declaration says nothing about Lee, but Google lawyer Nicole Wong said it's relevant.

"Microsoft is trying to stop employees from trying to come to Google — that's what this case is about," she said. "The Lucovsky declaration shows a pattern of behavior that supports this."

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

If you live in the San Diego area, dotNetDave (a.k.a. David McCarter) will be teaching a 6 week .NET Framework course at the University of California, San Diego Extension beginning on Monday 9/20/2005 from 5:30pm to 9:30pm. For more information and to enroll, please click here.

I just came out of a meeting about setting up a project management site for a new company I am working for using SharePoint. While listening to some of the problems they wanted solved with SharePoint, I knew it could be implemented easily with InfoPath. Then they asked me if it costs money and how much (starting at $199 a pop). For hundreds of people at a university, this is pretty much out of the question. So we will have to do what we can and not provide some functionally, easily.

I love InfoPath, I think it's an awesome product. But it will never take off until Microsoft releases a free "reader" so that most everyone can enter data into a InfoPath document. Do you think the PDF format would be very popular if Adobe did not release a free reader? I think not.

After 1 1/2 years of not having a useable laptop which made it hard to present at the San Diego .NET Developers Group, made it hard to teach with the CRAPPY computers that UCSD provides teachers, being computer-less when traveling etc... I finally broke down this weekend and purchased a laptop. (a really good one that should last hopefully at least three years). So I'm asking anyone that has gotten value from my web sites, teaching, books or wants to say "thanks" for helping to run the San Diego .NET Developers Group for 11 years, to donate what they can to help offset the costs. I would greatly appreciate it!

Microsoft announced today that it will call its next-generation operating system "Windows Vista."

The much-anticipated operating system had formerly been code-named "Longhorn."

Microsoft also unveiled the Windows Vista Web site and said the first beta test version of the system, which will be targeted at developers and IT professionals, will be available by Aug. 3. The system is scheduled to be released late next year.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/22/technology/microsoft_vista/index.htm?cnn=yes

Here is how the dictionary defines Vista:

1. a distant view through or along an avenue or opening : PROSPECT
2. an extensive mental view (as over a stretch of time or a series of events)

Interesting... does a "distant view" mean that it's going to be a long time before we ever see it?

VSDN Tips & Tricks has released a book on our store site titled "VSDN Tips & Tricks .NET Coding Standards". This book is a consolidation of many of the .NET coding standards available today in one easy to read and understand book. Written for the .NET 1.1 framework and Visual Studio 2003, this book will guide any level of programmer and development department to greater productivity by providing the tools needed to write consistent, maintainable code. The core of the book focuses on naming standards, how to order elements in classes, declaring methods, properties etc. properly and much, much more. Code tips are even included to help you write better, error free applications. All code examples are shown in C# and VB.NET.

"David McCarter once again demonstrates his knack for pulling best practices into one cohesive unit with his new book "VSDN Tips and Tricks: .NET Coding Standards". This book includes everything from how to set up your project to how to declare variables to how to use exception handling. It is a great place to start to build your own set of coding standards."
- Deborah Kurata 5/5/05

Apple Computer on Tuesday released 20 patches for its OS X operating system designed to fix flaws that could catch users off-guard.

The vulnerabilities apply to Mac OS X v10.3.9 and Mac OS X Server 10.3.9, according to Apple's advisory. The announcement comes roughly a month after Apple issued nearly a dozen patches for its Mac OS.

The advisory also falls just days after Apple's much ballyhooed release of the latest version of its operating system, Mac OS X 10.4, widely known as Tiger. The flaws were already addressed in Tiger, so the patches apply only to the previous version, known as Panther.

Security company Secunia on Wednesday rated Apple's OS X flaws as "highly critical." Among the flaws of greatest concern is a vulnerability in the OS X AppKit that relates to the handling of TIFF graphics files.

"If people view a malicious TIFF, it could result in running arbitrary code," said Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer for Secunia. "TIFF is usually viewed as safe form to view things, so this makes it more critical."

Another issue of concern is an AppleScript flaw. If users visit a Web site and accept AppleScript from that site, they could find it executing different code than they had expected, Kristensen added.

For the complete article, click here.

The University of Illinois tied for 17th place in the world finals of the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest, which concluded Thursday. That's the lowest ranking for the top-performing U.S. school in the 29-year history of the competition.

Click here for the complete (sad) story.

Although Microsoft plans to support key Longhorn technologies in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the company has said the next Windows release will still be worth the upgrade because of the core operating system technologies.

[Computerworld App Development News]

If you live in the San Diego area, dotNetDave (a.k.a. David McCarter) will be teaching a 6 week VB.NET course at the University of California, San Diego Extension beginning on Thursday March 31st from 5:30pm to 9:30pm. For more information and to enroll, please click here.

Microsoft has developed an almost ideal tool to help you configure security on computers in your organization. The tool is the Security Configuration Wizard, which is available in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1. The tool can help you configure services, network security, auditing, registry settings, and more. The wizard accomplishes these goals by producing security policies, which can be used in conjunction with security templates and specific server roles.

Click here for the complete article.

Linux vendors Red Hat, Novell and Mandrakesoft on Wednesday released patches for several vulnerabilities, ranging from flaws that could allow denial-of-service attacks to buffer overflows.

For the complete article click here.

CNet is reporting that tech jobs are on the decline. Click Here for Article

Netflix now has RSS feeds! Way cool. My favorite one is the "New Releases" feed. I've been using Netflix for many years and hopefully this feed will make it easier to find out what cool new movies I can add to my queue.

The layers of security I use to keep criminals at bay .

Tim Anderson: SP2 debate exposes deeper problems.

ZDNet's David Berlind: SP2's new firewall: better than nothing, but not good enough.

Security is an interesting issue. How much security is good enough?

Let's get out of the computer world. Let's talk about heirloom jewelry. My wife, Maryam, has a bit of jewelry. Does she store it here in the house? No. Why not? It's not secure enough. Where does she store it? In a safe deposit box in a bank. Let's talk about a bank's security and how many layers it has.

1) The jewelry is stored in a safe deposit box with a lock.
2) There's a camera on the box area, so if something goes missing they can verify what happened later.
3) Each box is alarmed. So, if you try to break into someone else's box, an alarm will cry out.
4) The safe deposit boxes are stored inside the bank vault. Three feet of concrete and steel with a very sophisticated lock on the door.
5) Video cameras on the vault door to verify who goes in and out.
6) The vault is behind a counter and you aren't allowed to go near it unless an employee lets you in.
7) The vault is in a building that's designed to be difficult to break into. Alarms. Heavy duty doors. Lighting that makes it easy to see in.

I'm sure there's more layers too that I'm not even aware of. But, let's not dwell on this. The point is that there's multiple layers of security all to protect my wife's jewelry. Let's say any one of these layers failed. Her jewelry would still be safe. It would take multiple failures for a criminal to be able to steal her jewelry.

So, what's my point? Well, when it comes to computer security you should have multiple layers as well. If you have multiple layers of security, then any one layer -- even if it's not well designed -- will prove sufficient in keeping criminals away from the digital equivilent of your jewelry.

If you visit www.microsoft.com/protect you'll see the layers that Microsoft is recommending. For me, I go further. Here's what I'm doing now.

1) Install Windows XP Service Pack 2. This update has many protections against attacks (recompiled code, closed APIs, firewall on by default, all known patches, etc).

2) Get a good anti-virus program. Visit www.microsoft.com/protect for some suggestions, including a Computer Associates one that's free for first 12 months. Why is this important? It'll protect your system from all the known viruses, worms, and trojan horses.

3) Get a good two-way firewall on every machine. The Sygate Personal Firewall is free and is good. Zone Alarm is another popular choice. Why don't I just use the firewall that's included in XPSP2? Because it is only a one-way firewall. Sygate's watches activity going on from both inside your computer as well as out on the Internet. What if your company already has a firewall? That's not enoug