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  • 1 min read

XP SP2 Shows Why Microsoft Is A Great Company

I've said (and believe) that there's no other company on earth that has the capability to develop, debug, beta test, deliver software on a massive scale like Microsoft.

The number of configurations (both legal and illegal) of hardware, system sofyware, application software, languages, etc that XP has to be tested against totally boggles the mind.

I truly believe that not IBM, Apple, BEA, Oracle or any of them have the capability to do this at the scale Microsoft does it.

This at some level is a key competitive advantage and provides them the monopoly lock-in that they enjoy. So when that capability ceases to be a competitve advantage is when their monopoly will start eroding.

So let your imagination run free : if all software becomes centralized on servvers, if massive scale software like XP becomes obsolete, when all hardware becomes so cheap that you just throw it out instead of upgrading it, maybe then Microsoft might loose their lock-in.

Not before.

  • 1 min read

BlogBridge Beta 3

We just put up BlogBridge Beta 3. Check it out. It's got many neat new features, most particularly the BlogBridge Service which I wrote about recently.

Here are the key links of interest :

BlogBridge has reached the functionality now that it is my main Blog Reader. It's more buggy than I would like , but that's the nature of a beta, I guess.

Finally the foundation is there for us to build some of the neat new ideas we've been talking about, like " Show only good articles". Hmmmm. Clever trick!

And let me know what you think!

  • 2 min read

BlogBridge open source license

I've done a little research about what the Open Source really means, legally, when it comes to BlogBridge. I wrote about this question a few months ago, and now, having consulted with people who know, here's an update.

First of all, start with the goals.

  • BlogBridge should be available, in source code form and executable form to everyone who wants to look at it and use it. It should be a bona fida open source project.
    Reasoning : We will be able to recruit others to help us build it; It is a significant differentiator among the other blog readers out there; And we can legitimately use services such as Source Forge to manage the project and its source code.
  • If a commercial entity wants to use the code to build a commercial business, we would like them to have to come to us for permission.
    Reasoning : Obviously, we aren't making any money on this; if someone else wants to, it would be nice if we were involved.

As it turns out, this is not an unusual set of objectives, and it is pretty straightforward to achieve.

As of BlogBridge 0.5.4, the product will be licensed under the GPL (rather than the LGPL which is what we had before.)

The effect of this is that the first objective above is fully achieved implicitly. The second objective is achieved, indirectly:

Because the GPL is quite strict in its requirements of releasing any modifications, enhancements, etc also under the GPL, it makes the source code as it stands unsuitable for a commercial purpose. The obligations attached to modifying the source would really discourage anyone from building a business around it.

(You might wonder, once you've released something as Open Source, can you decide to change the license? Isn't that prohibited? It turns out that it's perfectly alright.)

The code as it stands therefore is incompatible with a commercial project. If we decide that we want to embark on, or give someone else the ability to embark on a commercial project, what do we do?

We release a copy of the source code under a different, commerical license. This copy forms the basis of the commerical project. It's called "dual licensing " and it's a well understood and accepted model.

  • 1 min read

Can you change the license of an Open Source product?

This puzzled me. Once we released the BlogBridge source code under the LGPL, it was out in the open, and published to the world. Had we forfeited the right to change the license? The answer depends on who owns and holds the Copyright to the code.

As it is, all the code was either personally written by me (90%) or written by others who have agreed to transfer ownership to me. In other words,I hold a clear copyright to all the code, and that is the key. This makes it legitimate and legal to reissue the same source code under a new license.

What existed before (i.e. everything up to 0.5.3) under LGPL will not cease to exist or be available under the LGPL, but, all continuing work, enhancements and so on will be governed by the GPL and that's what counts.

So the key requirement is that, no matter what the open source license is, do you have clear ownership and if you do, you can re-release it under a different license. Makes perfect sense once you hear it.

  • 1 min read

Two really cool new applications

Today I was introduced by two totally different people to two really cool little utilities.

  • Anagram. This application works with Outlook and pulls and structures contact information out of emails. Simply, you select the text with the name, phone numbers, address etc. in the email, type control-c twice, and up pops a new Outlook contact record all properly filled out. It does similar things with appointments etc. Super useful and perhaps a more politically correct alternative to applications like Plaxo (Thank you Esther Dyson)

  • WordWeb. A tiny dictionary, thesaurus, word finder doo-hicky that lives in your toolbar. Type a word in and out comes all this useful information, in a compact, lightweight (unlike the others) form that doesn't get in the way. (Thank you David Carpe)

Each of these very useful tools sells for almost nothing, once again proving that no one can make money with software anymore.

  • 1 min read

MSN Sandbox

I just came across this - MSN Sandbox - where you can find various Microsoft goodies which are otherwise not available. Notable is LookOut the search product that MS has recently acquired. Haven't tried it myself - I prefer X1.

  • 1 min read

iTunes Rules

Here's a nice bit of civic participation : the iTunes Music Store is offering single click, FREE , downloads of the 9/11 Commision Report's Executive Summary, and of speeches from the 2004 Democratic National Convention. What a great way to make this accessible to us. Thanks!