Parallel Programming: five reasons for caution. Reflections from Intel’s Parallel Studio briefing.

By tim, on April 23rd, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I’m just back from an Intel software conference in Salzburg where the main topic was Parallel Studio, a new suite which adds Intel’s C/C++ compiler, debugging and profiling tools into Visual Studio. To some extent these are updates to existing tools like Thread Checker and VTune, though there are new features such as memory

…continue reading Parallel Programming: five reasons for caution. Reflections from Intel’s Parallel Studio briefing.

Cannot open the Outlook window – what sort of error message is that?

By tim, on April 23rd, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I’m actually enjoying Outlook 2007 on my desktop, especially since applying the February patch. It opens in a couple of seconds even from cold. I’m running on Vista 64-bit, and not using cached Exchange mode.

Until today, that is. Started Outlook and got this bewildering message:

This Microsoft article suggested I might not

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The end of Sun’s bold open source experiment

By tim, on April 21st, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

This is a sad day for Sun. It sought to re-invent its business through open source; and the experiment has failed, culminating not in a re-invigorated company, but instead acquisition by an old-school proprietary software company, Oracle.

It is possible to build a successful business around open source software. Zend is doing it with

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What’s new in Exchange 2010 and Hyper-V R2

By tim, on April 19th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Mark Wilson’s blog has the best summary I’ve seen on what’s coming in Exchange 2010 and what’s new in Hyper-V R2.

The big thing in Hyper-V R2 is live migration. The big thing in Exchange 2010 is, well:

For me, it seems that Exchange 2010 is not a major upgrade – just as 2003

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Is Silverlight the problem with ITV Player? Microsoft, you have a problem.

By tim, on April 18th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I sat down last night to watch a programme on ITV’s catch-up service, using the Silverlight-based ITV Player. It was watchable, but not too good. Now and again the stream would pause for buffering, and I saw the Silverlight busy icon for a while. Quality is also an issue. Sometimes it is great; sometimes

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RIA (Rich Internet Applications): one day, all applications will be like this

By tim, on April 16th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I loved this piece by Robin Bloor on The PC, The Cloud, RIA and the future. My favourite line:

Nowadays very few Mac/PC users have any idea where any program is executing.

And why should they? Users want stuff to just work, after all. Bloor says more clearly than I have managed why RIA

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Google’s cut-down Java: wanton and irresponsible, or just necessary?

By tim, on April 15th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Sun’s Simon Phipps stirred things up last weekend when he called Google’s actions wanton and irresponsible. Its crime: delivering a cut-down Java library for use on its App Engine platform, “flaunting the rules” which forbid creating sub-sets of the core classes.

It does sound as if Google is not talking to Sun as much

…continue reading Google’s cut-down Java: wanton and irresponsible, or just necessary?

Measure the dynamic range of your CDs and downloads

By tim, on April 13th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

A new development in the loudness wars backlash: a downloadable application to measure the dynamic range of your music.

Audiophiles have been complaining for years about the tendency of modern CD and download mastering to maximize the loudness of the music at the expense of the dynamic range. This type of compression squashes the

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Google App Engine to be less free: quotas reduced from May 25th

By tim, on April 9th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I’m blogging this because I’ve only just noticed it; I’m not sure when it was announced. From 25th May, Google is reducing the resource quotas allowed for App Engine applications, before you have start paying. The question “by how much” is tough to answer, because the quota system is complex. Here’s the relevant document;

…continue reading Google App Engine to be less free: quotas reduced from May 25th

Google App Engine is easier than Windows Azure for getting started

By tim, on April 9th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Hello App Engine

Yesterday morning I saw the news that Google App Engine was now open for Java as well as Python applications – in beta, that is. I signed up and received notification of access almost immediately. I read the notes on getting started with Eclipse. Fortunately I already have Eclipse installed. I

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