December « 2009 « Tim Anderson's ITWriting

A year of blogging: another crazy year in tech

By tim, on December 31st, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

At this time of year I allow myself a little introspection. Why do I write this blog? In part because I enjoy it; in part because it lets me write what I want to write, rather than what someone will commission; in part because I need to be visible on the Internet as an individual,

…continue reading A year of blogging: another crazy year in tech

Browser wars: IE loses 12% market share in 2009, Germany hates it

By tim, on December 30th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I’ve been looking at the browser stats for 2009. According to StatCounter, Microsoft began the year with a 67.19% share for IE (versions 6-8 combined) and ends it with 55.23%. That’s a 12% loss or an 18% decline, depending how you figure it.

The biggest part of that share has gone to Firefox, which

…continue reading Browser wars: IE loses 12% market share in 2009, Germany hates it

More patent nonsense: Microsoft loses in Office custom XML appeal

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

Microsoft has lost its appeal in a case where a small company called i4i claims that Office 2003 and 2007 infringes its patent on embedding custom XML within a Word document. This is not the XML that defines the content and layout of the document. It is XML contained within the document that Word itself

…continue reading More patent nonsense: Microsoft loses in Office custom XML appeal

Splashtop: the pragmatic alternative to ChromeOS

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

Today I received news of the a new Eee PC range from Asus which will be based on the Intel Atom N450. Two things caught my eye. One was the promise of “up to 14 hours of battery life”. The other was the inclusion of dual-boot. The new range offers both Windows 7 and what

…continue reading Splashtop: the pragmatic alternative to ChromeOS

Moonlight 2 released; no Microsoft codecs unless you get it from Novell

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

The Mono Project has released Moonlight 2, its implementation of Silverlight for Linux. I tried my own database application and was pleased to find that it works fine; better than it did with the earlier release.

Note the right-click menu which offers some handy debugging features as well as the invitation to “Install Microsoft

…continue reading Moonlight 2 released; no Microsoft codecs unless you get it from Novell

What is the future of Microsoft Small Business Server?

By tim, on December 17th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

I’ve just attended a briefing on Microsoft Server and the future of the Small Business variant was one of the things we discussed.

There are a couple of issues with Small Business Server that make me question its future. One is that, at a time when cloud-based services are proving their ability to simplify computing

…continue reading What is the future of Microsoft Small Business Server?

US Federal Trade Commission sues Intel

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

Just as the EU declared victory over Microsoft having secured the dubious benefit of a browser “choice screen” – I’m wondering if users will suspect malware when this thing appears – the FTC has stepped in with an anti-trust case of its own.

the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut

…continue reading US Federal Trade Commission sues Intel

Adobe financials and the future of packaged software

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

I listened to Adobe’s investor conference call yesterday following the release of its fourth quarter results, to the end of November 2009.

The results themselves were mixed at best: revenue was down in all segments year on year and there was a $32 million GAAP net loss, but Adobe reported an “up-tick” towards the end

…continue reading Adobe financials and the future of packaged software

Reflections on Microsoft PDC 2009

By tim, on December 14th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference has long been a key event in the company’s calendar. CEO Steve Ballmer and his colleagues are famous for their belief that developers make or break a platform, and PDC is where the most committed of those developers learn as much as Microsoft is willing to share of its long-term plans.

…continue reading Reflections on Microsoft PDC 2009

When backups fail

By tim, on December 11th, 2009 Follow tim on Twitter

Jeff Attwood has lost the content from two popular blogs that he runs:

http://blog.stackoverflow.com http://www.codinghorror.com

thanks to:

100% data loss at our hosting provider, CrystalTech.

He gives a little more detail here. He is now trying to recover data from search engine caches such as Google’s – a painful business, apparently; Google banned his

…continue reading When backups fail

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