I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.

Java Lobby impressions of MS
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 8:07 pm on Tuesday, 29 March 2005

Ed flicked me this link.  Great presentation.

http://www.javalobby.org/eps/summit.

“ASP.Net 2.0 is truely impressive”

Really worth a listen.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Working Style
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 12:20 pm on Tuesday, 29 March 2005

For work wear Working Style is a bit more expensive, but that make such an effort that it’s worth it.  For a refreshing level of service (including a complimentary coffee) give them a try.

This promotional email from Rex is charmingly direct: 

Its nearly the end of our financial year & we are close to budget.

If you are on the verge of a spend up, now is the time. The range is here and looking good. I am here and looking good. If I make budgie I will look even better, if that’s actually possible.

Not to mention that you will make me very happy.

Your tailor to the stars,

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Free PDF Writer
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 12:20 pm on Tuesday, 29 March 2005

This one seems to work well…

CutePDF

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Windows Mobile 2005
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 2:34 pm on Saturday, 26 March 2005

Found a review of an early build of Windows Mobile 2005.

Windows Mobile 2005, Exposed.

Looks like they’ve smoothed out a number of rough edges.  Not sure when due.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Google Grid > Epic
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 2:39 pm on Thursday, 24 March 2005

Nic sent me this.

http://epic.chalksidewalk.com/

8 minutes but worth a watch.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Developing on Mac
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 2:39 pm on Thursday, 24 March 2005

Ed sent me this great article. Covers a MS developers perspective of
Mac programming.

I shall call him Mini-Mac.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Binary XML
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 9:08 am on Thursday, 24 March 2005

News.com reports …

Faster XML Ahead

This is would remove one of the major issues of XML. It’s bloated.  Seems to make sense to standardize on a way of sending XML in a binary format.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Upping the Resolution
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 9:04 pm on Wednesday, 23 March 2005

Given that hi-def TV will be here soon (the examples I saw at CeBIT were stunning), what resolution should we be taking digital photo’s at so they are full screen on future hi-res hardware?

If someone in the know could email me, I’ll post the advice.

Dave D writes …

Disk is cheap, go for as big as your camera supports. 

I shoot a Nikon D70 (6.3 megapixels) in RAW mode.  All my images are written to the file server (which has tape backup) either as the original RAW file or as JPEG…

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
We’re hiring
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 9:04 pm on Wednesday, 23 March 2005

AfterMail is really starting to take off and we’re ready to bring in our next intake of dev staff.

Jobs @ AfterMail.

We’re in year two now and hitting the gas pedal.  It’s a great time to come in and enjoy the ride.  I can promise you’ll learn a lot.  We are.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
ASB Business Show
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 10:48 am on Wednesday, 23 March 2005

Did a live interview on ASB Business this morning

“Can’t you tape me first”. 

“Nah, you’ll be right”

Scary!

Cool to see the room with the Wellington backdrop.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
The best days of VOIP may have passed
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 10:43 am on Wednesday, 23 March 2005

Cringley writes on how carriers are killing VOIP.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050303.html

Here’s how they plan to cripple the Vonages and Skype’s, according to friends of mine who have spent 20+ years in engineering positions at telephone companies, cable companies and internet service providers. As the phone and cable companies begin offering their own VoIP services in real volume, they plan to “tag” their own VoIP packets so that at least within their own networks, their VoIP service will have COS (Class of Service) assignments with their routers, switches, etc. They also plan on implementing distinct Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) for the tagged packets.

Tagged packets get both less restrictive rules for passage and a private highway lane to drive on.

The net effect is that any packet that isn’t tagged will only get “best effort” service, which means whatever is left.

“Best effort,” as defined by IETF RFC 791, makes almost no guarantees. The packet may arrive damaged, it may be out of order (compared to other packets sent between the same hosts), it may be duplicated, or it may be dropped entirely. And that was in the good old days.

Now imagine “best effort” transport on a backbone that is already clogged with tagged traffic that gets preferential treatment. Where previously all packets got “best effort,” in this new system some packets get better than best effort, which means the remaining packets will effectively get worse than best effort.

The telco and cable guys know enough about their networks that they can throttle their network capacities up and down so that “best effort” service is going to be pretty awful. But have the magic tags on your packets and you’ll have decent service.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Innovation cycle slowing
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 8:15 am on Tuesday, 22 March 2005

Visual Studio and SQL Server delayed again to the end of 2005.

Microsoft delays tool, database updates.

I used to start developing as soon as beta two was released.  By the time you got serious the software was delivered and deploy-able and you were running full speed.

With VS2005 I consciously decided to delay investing.  Once you start playing with the new tools it’s hard to go back.

The industry technical magazines have been pushing VS2005 for well over a year, almost devoting the entire set of articles to the new environment.  No one really expected this to be so late, but the industry needs to reset it’s time-lines.

There still does not seem to much point in engaging for another 6 months.  When it goes goal we’ll still have 3 months plus to skill up and transition. 

There must be heaps of companies sitting there with VS2005 code ready to go feeling pretty uncomfortable. 

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
On Singapore
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 8:54 pm on Monday, 21 March 2005

I like Singapore. 

Regional hub, nice architecture, clean, wifi everywhere. Good customer opportunities.

We spent Friday there and managed to cram in 5 meetings.  The new Microsoft office is palatial and has very clever features for nomadic workers.  Like mini quiet rooms with comms and great presentation rooms.

The IT Mall is six levels of geek heaven.  I was overseas for my wedding anniversary and had to make amends.  I appeased with a Canon EOS 350 Digital SLR. Pretty cool.  Main reason was so that we could put on other lenses, like a wide angle.

We found some bars on club street before heading back on the plane. 

Hope to get back there soon for more than a day.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Why business people speak like idiots
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 4:01 pm on Sunday, 20 March 2005

Leoonie flicked me this link

Do your users know WTF you’re talking about?

This is just the kind of synergistic, customer-centric, upsell-driven, out-of-the-box, customizable, strategically tactical, best-of-breed thought leadership that will help our clients track to true north. Let’s fly this up the flagpole and see where the pushback is.”

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
CeBIT. Done.
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 3:35 am on Thursday, 17 March 2005

We’re just packing up after 7 days of CeBIT.  It’s been a great show.  Met some great people, seen many cool things and learnt a hell of a lot.

Trade shows are exhausting and physically tough on the body.  I feel like I have shin splints and am almost looking forward to the two 12 hour flight legs for having a rest.

It’s been very worthwhile and I’d recommend anyone in technology to come to a CeBIT event at least once.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
I.E. and standards
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 11:32 pm on Wednesday, 16 March 2005

Great post from an I.E. team member on standards support and subsequent comments/flames.  Entertaining.

Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Gizmondo
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 11:11 pm on Wednesday, 16 March 2005

Speaking of devices with screens, this thing seems to do everything.

http://www.gizmondo.com

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Portable Media Players
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 10:39 pm on Wednesday, 16 March 2005

At CeBIT you can imagine there are lots of portable devices that now have screens and can play content. 

I like watching DVD’s but, as I have the attention span of a 3 year old, seeing a film more than once does nothing for me. 

When you combine a Hard Disk Video Recorder with a portable device then that starts to get interesting.  So I could record programs that interest me and then have 20 hours of content  I could take on an international flight. 

Disk technology is getting smaller and smaller. 1GB drives for camera’s are common.  There are now 8GB memory sticks and small 30GB disks are everywhere here. I’m also seeing 3 mega pixel camera phones and soon they will have this disk technology as well. 

Bulletin magazines characterises the phone as the ‘device that ate everything’.

So when I get home I’m going to get a PVR - probably Windows Media Center, so I can start gathering content for viewing while away.

Hopefully they have some content re purposing tools so the content can be compressed to smaller display devices, ala Windows Movie Maker.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
MDA IV
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 9:04 pm on Tuesday, 15 March 2005

Here’s the device I saw on the Vodafone stand.

http://www.msmobiles.com/news.php/3668.html

Trackback uri | Comments(0)
Press
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Old-blog-archives at 11:07 am on Tuesday, 15 March 2005

A bit more coverage in the Herald today …

NZTE gives $560,000 for technology exhibition.

and ComputerWorld

NZTE gets behind CeBIT.

Trackback uri | Comments(0)