this blog is girtby.net

Don't Drop Your iPod

A few weeks back I dropped my iPod. From about waist height, onto carpet.

No Patentisation without Implementation

Pardon me for butchering James Otis’ famous quotation, but it is an attempt to coin a slogan for an idea that has been nagging at me for some time.

Patent reform is a subject close to my heart. A little too close, in fact. I don’t wont to make any CLMs here, so let me just allude to the fact that I have some experience with the current patent system and some opinions on what is wrong with it. What follows started off as an attempt to explain some of these opinions and ideas, and then before I knew it, it had turned into a mega-post. Good luck wading through it all. Of course IANALessig, but hopefully it passes the giggle test. Here goes.

Microsoft Patents iPod ... or Something Else Entirely

Here is an excellent article on patent reform from groklaw. I have more to say about patents here on girtby, but in the meantime this is worth reading.

Scheduled Task Slippage and Breakage

Despite a few famous delays, I think there is a good case to be made to say that Microsoft generally ships their software in a timely manner. The business of releasing software is surprisingly difficult and, having gone through it many times myself, I have some respect for Microsoft’s ability to meet their release schedules.

However, the old truism “on time, bug-free, full-featured, pick any two” still applies. Something’s got to give. And this is, IMO, why a lot of Microsoft products feel kindof half-arsed. I’ve picked on various UI inconsistencies before, but there are also security problems, behavioral oddities, and other quirks in Microsoft products which are easily traceable to the realities of shipping software.

Corner-cutting like this is perfectly understandable and forgivable. But it is disappointing and frustrating when these corners remain cut, even in subsequent revisions of the software. Instead Microsoft forges ahead and introduces more and more half-arsery in the eternal quest for features, but in my subjective judgement rarely (if ever) fixes past breakages.

I, Censorbot

Recently I had to censor – that is, delete – a legitimate comment on this blog. I don’t feel good about it. Here is an attempt to explain why I did it, and under what circumstances I would do it again.

Not-Invented-Here Security

Another security post, this time attempting to correct a bit of revisionism commited by Microsoft’s GM Platform Strategy, Martin Taylor:

The War on Security

Bruce Schneier almost always says sensible things on the subject of security and in response to the London bombings he doesn’t disappoint:

Childhood illusions shattered

You know, I didn’t mind so much when Top Gear tested a 70s-era Lamborghini Countach and found it to be a noisy, brutish, pig of a car. Even at age eight, I was never that infatuated with them. According to my recollection of that most credible automotive authority, Top Trumps, the Panther Six could beat it anyway.

New Offering: ktrace parser

I just posted another girtby.net offering, namely a ktrace parser.

Must! Resist! Ruby! on! Rails!

In certain circles there’s a fair bit of the excitement being expressed by early adopters of the Ruby On Rails web framework. I for one have been studiously trying to ignore it for two reasons.