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Massimo Morelli's Weblog
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sabato 31 agosto 2002
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Apple Secretly Maintaining X86 Port Of OS X via [Slashdot]
According to sources, the Cupertino, Calif., Mac maker has been working steadily on maintaining current, PC-compatible builds of its Unix-based OS. The project (code-named Marklar, a reference to the race of aliens on the "South Park" cartoons) has been ongoing inside Apple since the early days of its transition to the Unix-based Mac OS X in the late '90s.
Sources said more than a dozen software engineers are tasked to Marklar, and the company's mainstream Mac OS X team is regularly asked to modify code to address bugs that crop up when compiling the OS for x86. Build numbers keep pace with those of their pre-release PowerPC counterparts; for example, Apple is internally running a complete, x86-compatible version of Jaguar, a k a Mac OS X 10.2, which shipped last week.
10:14:54 PM 
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Joel pick on Groove. I think he has a very good point. He wants a groove freely redistributable runtime. I will wait for the Roy response. Better than TV
If you want a platform to be successful, you need massive adoption, and that means you need developers to develop for it. The best way to kill a platform is to make it hard for developers to build on it. Most of the time, this happens because platform companies either don't know that they have a platform (they think it's an application) or they get greedy (they want all the revenue for themselves.)[Platforms] [Joel on Software]
1:29:11 PM
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giovedì 29 agosto 2002
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Maybe is not a light read (I did not read it all myself) but I point it anyway.
Design Patterns in XML Applications. (via PHP everywhere)
Several design patterns (Command, Flyweight, Wrapper, and Iterator) in the context of XML processing. You don't use the same patterns in all languages (cf. patterns in dynamic languages), so it would be interesting to think about the best way to implement the examples in the article in Python or Scheme as opposed to Java/C++. [Lambda the Ultimate]
10:14:56 PM
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mercoledì 28 agosto 2002
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To laugh or to cry? That's the question.
Hail Macintosh! Hail Satan!. "Founded by long haired hippies, (Apple) has consistently supported 60's counter-cultural 'values.' But there are even darker undertones to this company than most are aware of. Consider the name of the company and its logo: an apple with a bite taken out of it. This is clearly a reference to the Fall, when Adam and Eve were tempted with an apple by the serpent. It is now Apple Computers offering us temptation, thereby aligning themselves with the forces of darkness." (Scroll to see the Apple bit, but the rest of the page is a hoot too.) Link Discuss (Thanks, John!) [Boing Boing Blog]
11:56:43 PM
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Gadgets
Ethernet-to-WiFi Adapter. Linksys has shipped a low-cost ($129) Ethernet-to-WiFi adapter -- just plug the box into any Ethernet port and it becomes a wireless Ethernet port. Now I can finally put my printer *anywhere* (and you can add your games console/ReplayTV/whatever to your network). Link Discuss (via 802.11b Networking News) [Boing Boing Blog]
3:05:08 PM
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Oh. Thanks Scott! Very useful.
Windows Tab Completion
Does tab completion work in Windows?
but it is hugely convenient and available with just a registry change. I've tested this in Windows 2000 Pro and Server and its supposed to work also in NT 4. If you don't know what tab completion does, it lets the command processor "complete" commands you have entered by pressing TAB. For example, type dir at a command prompt and then the first letter of the file you want and press TAB it will fill it in. Press TAB again and it will give the next file and so on. Tab completion is one of the unsung wonders of the Unix world and most Windows users don't even know it exists. If you run Windows then you can make this registry change to get Tab Completion:
Windows 2000 Instructions
- For one thing, Make sure you run "cmd", not "command" to get to the command shell
- Go to Start / Run - "Regedit"
- Expand the tree under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and then Software and then Microsoft and then Command Processor and edit the value for "CompletionCharacter" to 9
- Exit Regedit
The next time you run a command shell, it will have tab completion. Type dir and then the first letter of the file you want and press TAB it will fill it in. Press TAB again and it will give the next file and so on. [The FuzzyBlog!]
2:58:05 PM
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martedì 27 agosto 2002
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Good Idea: Klogging vs. SFA's.
I've been thinking about a new (at least I think it's new) area where klogging could take wing namely as a way of augmenting a Sales Force Automation (SFA) suite.
I've got a little experience here and in particular with some of the pitfalls of an SFA. For example an SFA will typically only work well if:
- Everyone who should be entering data does so
- In a timely fashion
- The data is good
- The data remains good
[read more] [Curiouser and curiouser!]
10:43:10 PM
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John is wise as always. This remember me that I have already posponed enough a bio link on my weblog. In my opinion something is sourly missed is the possibility to publish also some private post or (better) post and stories.
Here is an interesting development. Recently, I have had business meetings with people that have weblogs. Usually, when you have a business meeting, there is a period of formality. There are introductions. You exchange business cards and personal histories. Basically, you spend the first 15 minutes trying to synch up.
The difference with people that have weblogs is:
1) We don't have to exchange business cards. [..]
2) By reading the weblog of the person I am about to meet with, I already know a lot about that person. Most importantly: I know how they think through reading their writings. [..]
3) I can write up the results of the meeting on my weblog and share it with a wider audience. [..]
I really didn't expect weblogs to change the way I met with people. This was a surprise. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
10:22:55 PM
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K5 on a problem that I feel is real. The discussion is on K5 or slashdot but is marginally connected with personal blogs:
The future of blog: The scaling barrier. Blogs have a scaling problem. Kinda like clubs. The good crowd moves in and they become these perfect little places for some time. And then too many people start coming in, and the magic disappears. Teenagers take over and after a couple of years place is converted into a bad fast food restaurant. I propose a few improvements to help k5 avoid that. [kuro5hin.org]
9:45:57 AM
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lunedì 26 agosto 2002
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USA invading the Netherlands: Adam Curry and Paolo on the subject. In Italy we have a word for this: "avvertimento di stampo mafioso":
The Bush administration has warned European nations that the American role in NATO will change if the European Union refuses the United States' request for agreements to keep Americans out of the reach of the new International Criminal Court. [.. ] [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] The International Criminal Court is where the trial against Slobodan Milosevic is currently held. The statute for the court has already been signed by many countries. The U.S. want to keep Americans out of reach of this Court, and they would invade the Netherlands to free a US citizen? It's indeed pretty unnerving... [Paolo Valdemarin: Paolo's Weblog]
2:54:28 PM
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domenica 25 agosto 2002
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sabato 24 agosto 2002
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Macro Fiddling. I am trying to wet my feets with userland macros. I should say it is not so easy (or maybe I am getting old).
4:18:49 PM
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venerdì 23 agosto 2002
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giovedì 22 agosto 2002
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Dasher. An article over the economist show what I think will be the next SMS writing machine.
Dr MacKay and Dr Ward are not the first to try to replace the conventional keyboard, but they are perhaps the first to find a solution that is so much fun to use. The letters line up on the right-hand side of the screen in alphabetical order, top to bottom. Move the cursor towards them and they start to stream forwards, jostling and crowding. A letter is selected by steering the cursor into the coloured box that contains it. Within that box another set of letters then appears. The cursor moves ever deeper into the nesting boxes as letters are strung together.
11:36:48 PM
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I wonder if George Lucas has a patent pending...
U.S. Military Uses the Force. Troops in worldwide danger zones may have a defense against the primitive $10 rocket launchers favored by terrorists: a multimillion-dollar electrical force field. By Noah Shachtman. [Wired News]
12:24:53 PM
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Ray Ozzie: Nondiscretionary controls.
[..] people who are serious about security insist that, on principle, you shouldn't give people a false sense of security by creating products that protect information with a veneer that can trivially be stripped away by a competent programmer, engineer, or rocket scientist. The simple rule of thumb is as follows: if the data is on your PC and can be consumed even once, it's ultimately uncontrollable. Why? Because then it's just a matter of cleverness and time and cost before someone can "liberate" it from its controls
9:25:43 AM
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Matt Particle Phisics Columns. Four articles on Particle Phisics. Well, I can't say I have understood all. But for now I have only skimmed them. Surely I will understand later. Maybe. | |
9:13:06 AM
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mercoledì 21 agosto 2002
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Alcohol and science...
Scientists discover the secret to getting hot chicks!. In a recent study, scientists have revealed that if you consume alcohol, people of the opposite sex actually appear to be better looking. While this is a well known fact researched for years by men, it is only now that scientists decided to step up and do some real research into this facinating phenomenom.
The scientists believe that this amazing correlation between alcohol and good looks is due to the fact that the stimulation you receive from drinking alcohol affects your nucleus accumbens, the portion of your brain that perceives facial attractiveness. [kuro5hin.org]
5:19:14 PM
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Artificial vision.
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A Wired article. There is a blind guy who actually can see through a camera and a brain implant.
Jens turns away, and we clear all objects off the conference table. Dobelle picks up a telephone and puts it down on the far corner. Jens turns back around. The camera is sending data down the pipe and to the implant in his brain at 1 frame per second. So when he first scans the table his head swivels, robotic and turtle-slow. It takes him nearly two minutes to find the phone — but he finds the phone. Then we do it again. Fifteen minutes later, Jens can pick up the receiver in less than 30 seconds. Within a half hour, it takes him less than 10. |
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9:55:35 AM
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martedì 20 agosto 2002
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Another lesson you (as a consultant) have to think twice before recommend a ERP project:
Here is an example of bad reporting and why customers ARE taking control: Agilent reports that problems with its enterprise-wide ERP system caused a $105 m drop in revenue this quarter. The WSJ reports the story but assiduously fails to name the vendor of the ERP system. 4 seconds later, I am on Google and I find that Oracle is the vendor. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
8:59:44 AM
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lunedì 19 agosto 2002
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Well said, John. And Buon Compleanno.
One major thing Bush could do to get the economy rolling again is to stop all this nonsense talk about invading Iraq. War means risk. Risk depletes expectations of future economic growth. It also radically reduces the willingness of people to make long-term investments necassary for productivity improvements, innovation, and wealth creation. Talk of war, particularly one with a slippery time line, is pure poison for an economy. Iraq isn't worth spending the next three years in the economic toilet. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
10:01:16 PM
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domenica 18 agosto 2002
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The economist. Tracking devices + Gps + Miniaturization = Big brother.
Seem that a new breed of tracking devices is being breed. The name is Digital Angel but I am sure that some less angelic use come fast to mind. Here is the article.
the new generation of tracking devices combines two existing technologies. One is a global-positioning-system (GPS) chip, which uses radio signals from a network of satellites to work out where it is on the earth's surface to within a few metres. The other is a mobile-telephone chip, which broadcasts that location to whoever needs to know it. The result is a pocket-sized, or even wrist-sized, personal locator
4:37:27 PM
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4:11:32 PM
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sabato 17 agosto 2002
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If only this causality was true (is not), there is enough to make Tutankamon blush!
MSNBC. The search for the tomb of Genghis Kahn halted. This is probably a good thing. Remember what happened when Tamerlane's tomb was violated:
Time: >>>On June 22, 1941, Soviet archaeologists working in the Samarkand crypt opened the sarcophagus to study the body and found the inscription: "Whoever opens this will be defeated by an enemy more fearsome than I." Hours later, Hitler invaded Russia. Five weeks after the great Emir was reinterred in 1942, the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad.<<< [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
4:08:52 PM
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Home again. 240 Stories to read, maybe someone to comment. Sometime the news aggregator is something to fear ;-). Moreover I have a good book to comment. Let's work.
1:25:05 PM
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venerdì 2 agosto 2002
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Verba volant...
NYT. Securities regulators have found that the big banks (required by regulation to keep all e-mail for 3 years) have deleted them. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and others are implicated. Solution: slap them on the wrist with a $10 m fine. Given that Merrill Lynch was hit with a $100 settlement because it kept its e-mail, the fine should be at least that if not more. How about a $500 m fine or $1 b? All the players named could afford it and it would send a strong signal to the street about keeping records intact. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
6:07:42 PM
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giovedì 1 agosto 2002
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The Economist: Goodbay Monday
PwC earns most of its money from consulting on IT projects, a business that has slumped with technology spending. And PwC Consulting had a second, more urgent problem. The collapse of Enron and the passage of a new law through Congress has made it near-impossible for accounting firms to sell audit and consultancy services to the same client.
IBM's consultants, say rivals, have a fine grasp of the technical issues, but less mastery of the higher-level strategic thinking. That used not to matter much. But the networked computer has put technology at the heart of strategy, and vice versa. The choices that face a car company as it designs and manages its supply-chain IT infrastructure, for instance, have become the source of its competitive advantage. Retailers live and die by the design of their inventory-management systems, and their skill in “mining” customer information. The IT platform no longer simply serves the firm: it has become the business.
11:32:33 PM
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© Copyright
2003
Massimo Morelli.
Last update:
27/04/2003; 16.08.54. |
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