Ok, just had to write a comment on this article I just read.
From what I understand there's a WikiPedia entry regarding an open standards document format that Microsoft felt was slanted and had some inaccuracies. They asked a third party to review the article, with the caveat that Microsoft would have no option to review what changes he would suggest, and they would pay him for the time he spent researching and making the changes he felt were required.
This has apparently come about because this article was 'apparently' heavily biased by people related to IBM, and all of Microsofts attempts to make changes or corrections were rejected because they are involved in the article and are not considered 'unbiased'.
At first glance it seems like this was a very very bad thing for Microsoft to do, until you start to read more about the background. I'm curious as to how the slanted article got approved in Wikipedia, and why it wasn't pruned and caught when it was first submitted.
Yes, technically what Microsoft did goes against the Wikipedia ruels, but I honestly didn't have an issue with Microsoft asking a third party to review an article and make the changes that the THIRD PARTY felt were necessary without any input or feedback from Microsoft.
Am I missing something? Probably, I'll do some checking into the article and see how biased it really is and might make a follow up based on what I find.
New VHD test drive program from Microsoft
Well, I'm glad Microsoft is doing this. I've actually done this with my MSDN subscription, created base server machines with an application/server installed, so when I needed one to test with I just copied it over to a new directory and fired it up.
While I do use VMWare almost exclusively, it really excited me when Microsoft opened up their hard drive format for Virtual PC. Having a more open format is good for Microsoft, maybe they'll realize that providing a useful product is more important than putting all this anti-piracy effort into their products making them more and more difficult to use.
Oh boy, I can just imagine the response that's going to get, but honestly, when I was younger, I didn't agree with a lot of things that companies did to protect their software. I really like the ShareWare concept where if you have a product that is useful and works well, people will give you feedback, or support you by sending more money so then next version will have 'such and such' functionality.
A great example of this is the UltraEdit programmers edit (shameless plug to the link on the left). I started using this editor quite some time ago, when it was the only program that he had made public. I liked it so much, I told him what other things I'd like to have and registered the copy I had. Last year I went ahead and got the lifetime license, and pretty much one of the first programs I install is UltraEdit before I do anything else. You can see how far he's come from selling just a basic editor, to now a whole product line of development tools and enhancements.
Back to the VM stuff from Microsoft (I warned you about my rambling)
Here's the link to Microsoft describing the program: http://tinyurl.com/yj8vg5, and now the only dilema I really have is whether I should download Microsofts copy, or keep using all the ones I've already made :)
And by the way, Virtualization is definitely the way things are heading. We're are using it at the company I work, by putting all our development virtual machines on a single server that we access using Terminal Services. The perforamance has been awesome, and we reset the machines each night so we have a clean environment every day. Yes, this does take planning, and yes it requires discipline to check in and save all the code your working on. But man are the results worth it. No longer have to worry about 'breaking' my dev box, because I know we can restore it psuedo-instantly (Bobism, takes more than 1/2 a second, and less than a minute)
Meetings
Ahhh, the joy of the corporate world, what would life and work be like without these wonderful meetings!!!
Here's a good article and tips on what to do and not to do during a meeting. I especially like the Cow-like gum chewing reference :)
The gauntlet has been thrown down
Well, I have once again been challenged (rightly or not does it really matter if I accept it?) to start up my blog again.
I look upon this with a little bit of trepidation, the last time I did one, I ended up being very sporadic in my postings, and gave new meaning to the word 'Rambling'. Maybe it's got something to do with the way I think, or more likely how much coffee I've had during the day.
Well, either way, I'm going to be waxing philosophical here, and using this place as a sounding board to get an idea of how far out in left field I already am, and how far I can actually go before someone stops me, hehehe.
So welcome to the 'New and Improved' Bob's Blog :)