Archive for June, 2009

WordPress 2.8 Upgrade Ease

Well, I just did the Wordpress upgrade from 2.7.1 to 2.8 and I have to say, that’s the easiest upgrade of any CMS I’ve ever done. I’m actually still in shock. I was planning on spending about 15-20 minutes going through making sure all my plugins worked, etc., but not so! I did the automatic upgrade and voila, all done within seconds. That’s all, I just wanted to share the awesomeness that is WordPress :)

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Filed under Just for Fun : Comments (0) : Jun 24th, 2009

Yet Another Reason Not To Use Outlook

If the slow speed, virus targeting, instability, and clunky interface isn’t enough to deter you from using the trainwreck of a mail client called Outlook (I have no opinion of Outlook :) ), Microsoft has just given you another reason not to use it. Microsoft has announced that it will for sure be using its html rending engine from Word to display html emails. This means that Outlook won’t be able to render html messages using web standards. There’s even a website using Twitter to send Microsoft a message that users don’t want Outlook to break their html messages for years to come. If you don’t believe them, check out the message in both Outlook 2000 (not using Word) and Outlook 2010 (using Word).

It shouldn’t surprise us that Microsoft would pull something like this, but it certainly caught me off guard. I thought that they had learned their lesson and seemed to make progress towards using web standards with Internet Explorer 8, but apparently they’re going to keep doing their own thing. Unbelievable.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Jun 24th, 2009

Native Zimbra Syncing to OS X Snow Leopard, But Not The Way We All Thought

One of the biggest features that Apple is touting of the new version of OS X is native Exchange integration. Native Exchange integration is a great feature for Apple since not even Windows offers it. Being a Zimbra fan, I was hoping that Snow Leopard had implemented this via ActiveSync rather than Exchange’s Web Services. It turns out that this is not the case, but it looks like we may still get native syncing just not the way we all thought.

According to a Zimbra forum thread, this will likely happen via CardDAV and CalDAV. Zimbra has CardDAV support slated for version 6.01 which is supposedly scheduled around the same time as Snow Leopard. One of the new, not-so-hyped features of Snow Leopard is the use of CardDAV for Address Book Server along with (of course) support for CardDAV on the client side. OS X as well as Zimbra have supported CalDav for some time so calendar syncing. While it’s not quite as simple as we would have liked, it appears we’re still getting the native syncing that we were hoping for, just not the way that seemed obvious from the beginning.

Update: As @thebitnix points out, it’s not a bad thing that native sync with Zimbra isn’t happening via the Exchange protocols. It was just unexpected that it would happen via different methods.

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Filed under News : Comments (1) : Jun 19th, 2009

What Canonical Is Doing Right To Boost Ubuntu Market Share

No, this isn’t one of those “year of the Linux desktop” posts. Linux on the desktop as well as the community have a long ways to go in usability as well as other issues before it’s ready for mainstream. It’s not that I don’t like using Linux on my desktop or that I don’t like promoting it. It’s that I can’t drive to Best Buy and pick out software to run on my Ubuntu machine. There are some great things, though that Canonical has done to give Ubuntu a pretty good-sized market share.

Desktop usability initiative
Canonical has launched its “One Hundred Paper Cuts” initiative that is focusing on eliminating one hundred “paper cuts” or annoying usability bugs in Ubuntu by the release of 9.10. The program allows users to submit bugs from Canonical’s Launchpad as “paper cuts”. Through the initiative, Canonical has shown interest in the end user as well as focus on getting rid of annoyances for end users. This is crucial as often one of the biggest complaints (as well as my own) is that the GUI tools take one most of the way to where one needs to be, but then you have to jump to the command line to get the rest of the way. This is fine by me, but quite annoying for users coming from Windows.

Directory services server
While Canonical has let us know that they have very limited resources to throw at this project right now, they are working on a centralized management service for Ubuntu-based networks, much like Active Directory. This is an absolute must in larger environments where large amounts of desktops need to be managed by a relatively small amount of administrators. There is already a version called Edubuntu that allows administrators to create network-bootable images so machines boot off the network, but that’s significantly different than standalone managed desktops.

Backing by major PC manufacturers
Canonical seems to have made significant strides in achieving support from major PC manufacturers, but they seem to be really making some headway with HP. End users don’t want to drive home from the PC store, download an .iso, burn it to a CD, install the OS, and then finally start playing with their new PC. Pre-built machines exist, but aren’t pushed with large manufacturers’ full weight behind them. Users also don’t want to buy a PC and risk hardware compatibility. Canonical’s move to ‘certify’ Ubuntu 9.04 on on HP Proliant servers will hopefully be copied into the consumer market and with other manufacturers. The market certainly isn’t ready for a step away from WIndows en mass by large manufacturers, but Canonical seems to be going in the right direction with its relationship with HP. There are smaller PC makers like System76 who sell Ubuntu-based PCs exclusively, but, unfortunately, big names and brands do a lot more in the consumer market than smaller ones.

A thriving community
Canonical has built an incredible community around Ubuntu. Their forums are alive and active and full of helpful people. Sure, there’s some trolls like any forums, but for the most part the forums are a great place for help as well as a very vibrant, supportive community. The Ubuntu community also rises to the occasion when their operating system is insulted. Sometimes to the extreme. Of course, extremism is not good, but it shows the power and draw of the community.

While Ubuntu certainly has a long ways to go, Canonical has positioned itself quite well and has been gaining some momentum in a very big way. Currently, Ubuntu seems like a very dominant Linux distro, but with the right strategy it could become a dominant player in the overall operating system market.

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Filed under Tech Trends : Comments (0) : Jun 18th, 2009

Google Maps Street View Car Spotting in Sioux Falls

I had a little bit of excitement on my way to work this morning. I was driving down I-29 here in Sioux Falls and spotted a car with a very large pole sticking up. When I got near it, I noticed it had California license plates with a monitor mounted in the passenger seat with enough antennas and wires to make any nerd jealous. I really didn’t think it could be a Google Maps car, but I quick got my camera out and took a picture just in case. When I got to the office we ‘Googled’ Google Maps cars and found out that that is exactly what it was.

google-maps-car

Now my whole day is going to be ruined with constant refreshes of Google Maps of Sioux Falls to see if their Street View is available..

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Filed under Just for Fun : Comments (0) : Jun 17th, 2009

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