Symptom: Excel 2004 spreadsheets don’t appear correct under print preview, and print only blank pages. Remediation: On some machines, there is a problem with the “high” print resolution. In order to get the spreadsheet to print properly, go to File -> Page Setup. The last drop down is for “Print Quality.” If it is set […]
Air travel is enough of a nuisance these days. Why do airlines have to keep finding ways to make things worse? Take United Airlines, which is my default carrier because it has so many non-stops out of SFO. Here’s a notice they just sent me, rescinding the long-standing rule that travelers can check two bags […]
One of the open secrets of the technology industry is that many — if not most — technology analyst firms are “pay for praise.” Such analyst firms conduct research designed to flatter their clients who sponsor that research. Those clients then promote those “objective” research results as justification of their innovation leadership, and as proof […]
Adobe sent out a notice that one of its services, Adobe Stock Photos, is going to be discontinued. The service will be turned off on April 1. I have no idea how popular Adobe Stock Photos is, but the company offered up a helpful FAQ to explain a few things. From it, you can learn […]
If you were an early adopter of mobile telephones – perhaps you have a car phone, a bag phone, or an expensive handset like the Motorola MicroTAC – you used the analog AMPS cellular phone system. AMPS, or Advanced Mobile Phone Service, used FM signals in the 800MHz band. Range wasn’t great, but when you […]
Seemingly everyone this week is distracted by Microsoft’s hostile takeover bid for Yahoo. • Pundits wonder if other suitors will emerge, and how Google will respond.• Microsoft-bashers want the company to fix its software, instead of screwing up Yahoo.• Microsoft-boosters drool over the synergy between Yahoo and MSN.• Analysts correctly note that there’s a lot […]
Yesterday, both Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 were released to manufacturing. Customers are set to receive the new bits in March. Both are long-awaited updates.Windows Server 2008 (aka “Longhorn Server”) is a significant revamping of Microsoft’s server platform line. The deeply embedded virtualization capabilities, if nothing else, warrant a lot of […]
What’s the most popular part of the Eclipse ecosystem, beyond the framework itself? By a wide margin, it’s the Java Development Tools project. BZ Research conducted its fourth annual Eclipse study late last year. We’re publishing some of the results in the Feb. 15 issue of SD Times, but this one’s worth sharing now. We […]
It’s amazing how dirty a stereo can get after three decades, especially when it’s been sitting gathering dust for the past half-dozen years or so. Potentiometers get scratchy, switches get noisy. Analog circuity is more sensitive to dirt and dust than all-digital components. Bothered by a noisy left channel, we cleaned the old Marantz 3200 […]
USB ports, as any IT security expert can tell you, are trouble just waiting to happen. Sure, they’re fine for keyboards and mice. However, think about the other things that can be plugged into them, like portable storage devices ready to hoover your data. I was fascinated by Andrew Binstock’s recent post regarding the internal […]
As you can see in Galen Gruman’s opinion essay in InfoWorld, “Why XP must be saved,” there’s certainly a movement afoot to stop Microsoft from discontinuing the product. Currently, Microsoft says that it will stop selling Windows XP at the end of June. Windows Vista has been out for a year now. I haven’t done […]
I’m sitting here in New York, using my 250GB external Western Digital Passport external hard drive, and a few moments ago, I received a press release touting the company’s newest product: “WD My Passport Essential.” You may recall that I bought a 250GB Passport in early December, after giving up on waiting for the delayed […]
Remember the old days of carrying power supplies for cell phones, music players and other portable electronics? I am delighted that every portable device I travel with can be charged via USB port. I don’t carry any AC power supplies any more, beyond the briquette for my Apple MacBook Pro. What travels with me? On […]
Speaking of Microsoft TechEd — I was surprised to learn this morning that Microsoft has split it into two separate events. That’s right, there’s a “Developers TechEd 2008” from June 3-6, and an “IT Professionals TechEd 2008” from June 10-13. Both are in Orlando. Bill Gates is keynoting the former, and Bob Muglia is kicking […]
According to Microsoft, SQL Server 2008 is delayed to the third or fourth quarter of 2008. That’s a disappointment, as SQL Server 2005 is getting long in the tooth, and developers have been looking forward to the new release… and had hoped it might ship in the first or second quarter of this year. In […]
Magazines tend to pile up at my house, so that I can read them during my too-frequent business travel. Jettisoning a well-read magazine mid-trip is truly a pleasure. It’s not a pleasure, though, when a feature story starts in the front of the magazine, and then you must jump to the back of the magazine […]
We were supposed to open up reader nominations on February 1 — but everything is ready, so why hold back? Judged by the editors of SD Times, the SD Times 100 recognizes the top innovators and leaders in software development. Most companies, projects and individuals will be nominated for the 2008 SD Times 100 by […]
So, I’m sitting with a friend, and she’s showing off her brand-new digital camera. When the topic came around to my five-year-old Canon EOS 10D digital SLR, she said (not in so many words), “It’s time to upgrade that ancient, obsolete device.“ I bought the EOS 10D back in 2003, when it was the first […]
Here’s today’s great spam message. There’s a laugh in every e-mail inbox. Hi, I wish you a Happy New Year. I have a very important matter that I wish to discuss with you. But, first I want to know if you know any Mr. Robert, I am asking you this because his Last Name is […]
Now is the time of year when the editors of BZ Media’s SD Times begin working on our annual awards program, the SD Times 100. That’s where we recognize the greatest innovators and leaders in the software development industry – companies, organizations and individuals. In the five years that we’ve been conducting the SD Times […]
ZapThink’s Ron Schmeltzer makes good points in his essay, “Forget Maturity Models — It’s Time for an Agility Model,” published today. But not all of his points are on target. “Too often, companies flock to maturity models, such as the widely-famous (and too-often mimicked) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), without adequately understanding what they are […]
In reviewing my blog traffic logs, it’s clear that a lot of people are researching the Oracle/BEA deal. In particularly, my entry from last October, “BEA, Oracle market share” was off the chart. So, if you are looking for stats… there they are. Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
I’ve tuned out a lot of the chatter about social networks. Sure, I’m involved in some, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and the afterMFI site on Ning. But beyond my personal use of them, social networks just don’t captivate my attention. Even so, I was caught off-guard by an analyst report from Hitwise stating that in […]
Today’s news: Oracle is eating BEA, while Sun is slurping up MySQL. The bigger news story is that Oracle, thwarted last October, finally nabbed BEA Systems. The $7.2 billion deal (it looks like $8.5 billion in the announcement, but I’ve subtracted BEA’s cash reserves) is still a hefty chunk of change, even by Oracle’s standards. […]
On a recent trip back to my parents’ house, I went home with my father’s old stereo: a Marantz 3200 stereo preamp console and a Marantz 140 power amplifier (pictured), purchased around 1975. That stereo — fairly high end in that era — always sounded great. However, it had been gathering dust for years, literally, […]
I know that many publications in Europe view the separation between editorial and the industry as — shall we say — less stringent than many publications here in the U.S. While of course there are exceptions on both sides of the Pond, it’s expected for vendors to pick up a European reporter’s expenses for visiting […]
This email came today from a Tektronix sales representative. Feel free to mark your calendar, but you probably won’t see me there. I like the graphic embedded in the message. I just wanted to send you a reminder that the DesignInsight Mobile Expo will be coming to soon! This is a rare opportunity to spend […]
Esther Schindler made me hungry! That’s what happened when I read her latest CIO blog post, “Is there anything developers won’t do for a pizza,” posted last Friday. “It’s not that I’m shocked that developers appreciate offerings of food. It’s that their desires are satisfied with such a simple answer. A steak dinner? Sure, that’ll […]
In his posting, “No Silver Programmers,” my dear friend (and SD Times columnist) Larry O’Brien takes on the age-old chestnut, “5% of programmers are 20x more productive than the other 95%,” recently repeated by Bruce Eckel in his commencement address for Neumont University. I have the greatest respect for both Larry and Bruce, and therefore, […]
Mail server blacklists are insidious. Just about anyone can submit your e-mail address, domain or even IP address to a DNS blacklist (DNSBL). Once that happens, the chances of your messages getting through to people become pretty lousy. (A DNS blacklist is also known as a blackhole list.) While certainly mail servers used by spammers […]