BinaryWolf

2005 Bloggies Winners

March 15, 2005 | In blogging | No Comments The 2005 Bloggies, previously mentioned here, are now history.
Voting closed on February 3. The winners were posted yesterday.

Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career

March 11, 2005 | In blogging | No Comments

Let�s assume that you�re reasonably competent, reasonably coherent, and reasonably mature.

1. You have to get noticed to get promoted.
2. You have to get noticed to get hired.
3. It really impresses people when you say �Oh, I�ve written about that, just google for XXX and I�m on the top page� or �Oh, just google my name.�
4. No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.
5. Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.
6. Knowing more also means you�re more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.
7. Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.
8. If you�re an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.
9. If you�re in marketing, you�ll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.
10. It�s a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.

Link to Tim Bray.
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MyBlogLog Stats

March 9, 2005 | In blogging, web apps | No Comments Track outgoing links. Simple to set up. MyBlogLog Pro provides realtime, historical, and full daily stats.

Well Made Interactive Tutorials

March 7, 2005 | In hardware | No Comments I was searching for information on how to release and renew an IP address in Mac OS X. I found this nicely done tutorial from Mahernet and more than 60 others in the following categories:

• Windows: Understanding Packet Loss and Latency
• Windows: Determining the Make and Model of a NIC
• Windows: Using Diagnostic Tools to Troubleshoot
• Windows: Reinstalling Device Drivers
• Windows: Checking and Renewing the IP Address
• Windows: Configure TCP/IP
• Windows: Removing/Replacing TCP/IP Stack
• Windows: Identifying Resource Constraints (IRQ) Conflicts
• Windows: Determining Avaliable IRQs
• Macintosh: Basic Skills
• Macintosh: Verifying Minimum System Requirements
• Macintosh: Troubleshooting

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Norton System Works

March 2, 2005 | In software | No Comments Why NSW is free (with rebates) year after year? Read this all-to-common story of frustration by Charles Cooper for reasons to seek alternative solutions other than Symantec: Why does PC support stink? Ask Symantec

Another point-of-view from columnist Fred Langa:

Over time, Symantec has increasingly emphasized “soft” PC problems more and more, and steadily downplayed “hard” problems. For example their disk tools now mainly focus on various forms of more or less routine software rollbacks and file-recovery techniques; and not so much on resurrecting a system or hard drive that’s suffered a catastrophic problem (such as a head crash, or accidental formatting or repartitioning).

In fairness to Symantec, the overwhelming majority of drive problems *are* of the softer, simpler sort: In these instances, a “GoBack” or “Unerase” or “Disk Doctor” tool can be a huge help. But these tools aren’t fundamentally different from what’s already included in Windows. With the Symantec tools, you’re getting somewhat extended functionality, a slicker interface, and more automated operation— all good things. But you’re not getting an entirely new set of functions that you didn’t already have, at least in simpler form, built into Windows. For example, GoBack and Unerase extend the functions you already have in System Restore and Recycle Bin. And if you already have a good, full-blown backup procedure in use, a tool like GoBack is nearly pointless.

Likewise, consider Norton Disk Doctor: If your hard drive is munged, you can run NDD from the installation Symantec/Norton CD; but the current versions of NDD don’t do anything fundamentally different from what Chkdsk (or Scandisk, in older versions) can do; those tools are already built into Windows. In fact, the User’s Guide for Norton SystemWorks 2005 only has maybe 1000 words, total, on the entire subject of “If your disk is damaged…” Most of those 1000 words is devoted to using Windows’ own, or Norton’s, emergency disks so you can access GoBack or the other “soft” recovery tools.

In contrast, the old versions of the Norton Utilities included a powerful “sector editor” that let you examine and manipulate a hard drive literally byte by byte. Tools like that weren’t fun to use, but in those rare instances when you needed ‘em, you *really* needed them, and they could be a lifesaver. But the newer versions have nothing like that at all.

So: Is something like SystemWorks 2005 useful? Yes, but only in a limited way: The more skillful and knowledgeable you are; and the more well-setup your PC is; the less useful it is to have these tools. (Oddly, this is totally the opposite of the old Norton Utilities, whose value increased as you gained knowledge and experience). On my PCs the Antivirus is the only Symantec/Norton tool I still routinely use.

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Spyware Warrior

March 1, 2005 | In software | No Comments Spyware Warrior’s anti-spyware feature comparison of group one and group two.

Readers interested in purchasing anti-spyware applications are advised to investigate and test those programs on their own systems. No one program will be useful, convenient, effective, and appropriate for every user. Moreover, as testing with these anti-spyware applications has demonstrated, no single anti-spyware application will remove everything. Therefore, users are advised to install and use at least two anti-spyware applications.

Recommended Programs and Additional Steps.
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WebSideStory: Firefox Gains Beginning to Slow

March 1, 2005 | In web apps | No Comments

WebSideStory: Firefox Gains Beginning to Slow

Feb. 28, 2005 ? The growth rate of Firefox?s usage share on the web has slowed slightly in recent months, according to the latest U.S. data from WebSideStory (Nasdaq: WSSI), a leading provider of on-demand web analytics. Firefox grew 0.74 percentage points in the last five weeks and 0.89 percentage points in the previous six weeks before that. This compares to a jump of 1.03 percentage points between Nov. 5 and Dec. 3, which coincides with the release of Firefox Version 1.0 on Nov. 9.

Analysis by WebSideStory CEO Jeff Lunsford:

According to a recent report by the Mozilla Foundation, there have been 25 million downloads of the Firefox browser in the last 100 days. The download numbers continue to impress us and, it seems, the media. We track usage rather than downloads, however, and are seeing that the growth in Firefox?s usage has slowed slightly since its big surge in November. This is probably to be expected as we move beyond the early adopter segment. Growing concern over potential security holes in the browser might be another factor to consider. Back in December 2004, it seemed Firefox was a lock to reach 10 percent by mid-2005, ahead of the reported year end goal of the Mozilla Foundation. Given the latest growth rates, the year end target still appears attainable, but a mid-year achievement is unlikely unless we see increased marketing activity from the Mozilla Foundation.

Note: The difference between browser downloads and browser usage share is important. ?Downloads? is the number of times the browser has been downloaded from the web. Usage reflects the number of people who a) downloaded Firefox, b) installed it and c) are using it to view the web sites we track. Usage statistics are what matter to businesses and web designers working to improve their online operation.

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