Random Rants and Idle Idiocy

I'm way overdue for posting something, and since I don't have any cohesive ideas for concisively focused monologue to share, it's going to be a crap shoot.  Here goes...

Social Media Disintegration

I'm seeing more and more use of social media outlets to essentially ensnare readers into alternative targets.  For example, posting on Twitter to read a blog post, but also posting it on Google+ and Facebook.  That's not new however.  What is different lately is the manner in which these secondary posts are constructed.  They're more often fabricated to appear like an original post that begs for a response.  Only the problem is that the poster has no intention of responding to any responses except for those on the desired target location.  So the poster says "what would you prefer between ___ and ___?", followed by a URL to their blog or web forum, and paste it on Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (ok, nobody really reads LinkedIn, but I thought I'd include them so they didn't feel left out).  Readers on these outlets post responses on those outlets.  The poster never replies.  I call this neo-bullshit.  If you post with a question, you should expect responses where you posted the question, and respond to them accordingly.  Anything short of that is either lazy or disingenuous.

Why Facebook Mail can't work

Remember a few years back when the media when batshit crazy about Facebook's supposed "GMail killer"?  I remember it well.  The problem is that 99.9999% of people online do not use the same social/business/community/casual circles of friends/colleagues/neighbors/relatives/classmates/coworkers/business-contacts as they do on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, FourSquare, GoWalla, whatever.  So, in effect, that kills any idea of unifying a single messaging system when the circle of contacts isn't going to be unified.  Sure, that may not hold true for 10-16 year olds, but once they hit 18 their circles begin to fragment and coalesce into pools based on subjective interaction.  Big words, yes.  However, the fact that even many 10-16 yr olds have multiple Facebook accounts (to thwart mommy and daddy snoopery) just goes to prove that.

Sucky Challenges

Redirect network computer clients to a new FLEXlm license server for various software products, across a WAN, in phased blocks by physical location or by functional role (department/division).  Yes, it's doable.  No, it's not fun.

Good Challenges

Standing up a new FLEXlm license server within Microsoft Hyper-V / System Center VMM and testing with a Windows 7 64-bit client, running VMware Workstation.  Nothing really Earth-shattering about any of that, but to think of doing that only ten years ago, it just gives me pause as to how far we've come in such a short time.  Ok, less than ten years, but still...

Windows 8

Consumer play.  Businesses will ignore it for the most part.  What a shame too, since there are some nice business-oriented improvements buried under all that bullshit tablet interface spewage.  I wish Microsoft would stop chasing shiny objects.  They did it with Apple, and Google, and Sun, and VMware, and, and, and... they're still doing it.  I'm not the only one to say this.  There are quite a few of their own employees expressing the same view.  Dear Microsoft:  Put back a Windows 7 desktop theme for the business folks and it will go a LONG way towards soothing their fears of pushing beyond a recent Windows 7 migration effort to yet another new version, albeit: sans another user training nightmare.

Book Projects

I started a new book project, then put it on hold because I ran out of excitement for it.  I really have to get bitten by the excitement bug in order to write.  When it gets hold of me, I work endlessly until I'm done.  That means a lot of sleepless nights, weekends, holidays, pretty much 24x7 until I'm satisfied with the results.  That hasn't happened in a while now.  I'm kind of sitting idle until I can think of a project that gets my attention.  I thought about updating the VisualLISP Developer's Bible or Network Administrator's Bible, for the 2013 product line, but there's really not enough to justify a new book for either of those as compared with 2011 or 2012 features.

I'm not talking about general "features", but those which are specific to Visual LISP or Network Deployments.  Not that the Network Deployment management features haven't improved in 2013, they have indeed, but just not enough to warrant a whole new book.  I hate pushing a book with a sub-title of "Enhanced for 2013!!" because that usually means a spit-polish of the previous book and I don't feel good asking people to pay for a whole new book with only a chapter or two added or modified.

If anyone has any ideas of what I might focus on for the next project, post a reply on this blog and share your thoughts?

Microsoft Tech-Ed 2012.  The North America Edition!

I fly out this coming weekend to Orlando, for the week-long conference.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm signed up for sessions with all my favorite presenters from Johan Arwidmark, Michael Niehaus, and Wally Mead to Mark Russinovich, Mark Minasi and Jeremy Moskowitz, and plenty more.  My head will probably bust open by the end of the week.  I'll try to post some follow-up when I get back.

Back to work, family, traffic, and hopefully a little sleep.

Crashing is Crashing

I was listening to a bunch of nerds talking the other day, and realized something interesting, as it pertains to knee-jerk FUD perceptions about Macs vs Windows.  I normally block those topics from my puny brain because tech-war talk bores the shit out of me.  But something more akin to psychologically effusive stupidity was apparent.

First off, to be fair and accurate (forget "balanced". I don't care for Fox news), you have to restrict all such comparisons to similar versions. You cannot honestly contrast Mac OS 8 with Windows Vista. The same is true in both directions. Compare Leopard with Vista, and so forth.  It just makes more sense that way.

So, the Mac guy says his one Vista machine crashes all the time. He follows up with "that's common with Vista". The Windows guy says "hmmmm", and nothing more. The Windows guy says his kid's Mac hangs a lot. The Mac guy says "that's got to be a configuration problem". I thought: why isn't the Vista issue a configuration problem? Because all the Mac guy has seen is his experiences with his one Vista machine (probably on bootcamp or Parallels), which are hamstrung by limited daily use, compared to his Mac-oriented activities.

The pretentiousness of that is what bothers me most. It's a common perception with Mac fans. My Vista machines (four of them) have NEVER crashed. Ever.  Early alpha builds crashed (prior to b.4074), but that's about it.  I've been running them since it was released and they're on disperate hardware. One is running on pure crap hardware.  Anyhow, back to the story...  So, in the Mac-boy's view (and many Mac fans), because their Windows machines are crap, all Windows machines are crap.  It's shortsighted and dumb.  I don't ever claim OSX is crap or buggy.  It's a fine product.  But my Windows Vista and (more significantly) Windows 7 machines are rock solid, fast and do everything I need them to do.  I'm so tired of the bullshit koolaid drinking fest.  

I couldn't let it go.  I had to speak up.  "Your Vista box crashes because you have a piece of shit box running it.  Go buy a new box like you would for running Leopard."  You wouldn't try to run Leopard on a PowerPC box from 2001 (even if you could).  Run it on what it was designed to run on and then make your opinions based on that.  To the guy with the Mac problems, I suggested  he bring it to the Genius Bar.  After all: They're freaking geniuses.  :)

FUD doesn't just survive, it Thrives!

The OS weenies are so entrenched it's like asking a lunchroom table of Kindergartener's to voluntarily give up their Twinkees for a can of brussel sprouts. Vista or OSX or Linux. Like, if you say something negative, regardless of being factual or not, invites flaming and hateful responses from any of these camps of half-brained idiots.

Paul Thurrott was drawn out to fight a losing battle as he tries to defend the merits of Vista against someone else's post spraying non-factual FUD comments. It's a waste of time. Vista is suffering from technical problems. It suffers from Microsoft's poor handling of it in general. Marketing, vendor partnerships, licensing, pricing, and corporate stewardship efforts have all been handled about as well as we've handled the Iraq/Afghanistan mess.

I still maintain that all software is crap and lives within a continuous state of refinement and updating. It's ALL BETA when you get down to it. If it were to stop changing then it could become firmware, right? That's what Babbage had in mind with the term "Soft"+"Ware" after all. But what really gets me is how the general perception is that software is somehow organic and results from natural forces. "It" is how we refer to it. As if "it" has a life and conciousness of "its" own. Wrong! Software is created by humans. And while the soul of software has eroded horribly in the past 10 years, it still remains a human creation. Humans are flawed. Terribly flawed. So the axiom flows likewise.

Operating Systems all are great, and yet they all suck too.