Rubber Chicken

Larry Seltzer has written more on the debate of the relative security of open vs. closed source code.

I'm not sure which side is right. But I think that Seltzer makes a good point when he notes that people review open source for the flashy bugs, not the grind-it-out security reviews that closed source companies should do.

Another valid point that he doesn't mention is that open source security is based on the assumption that with enough eyes, all bugs are shallow. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but the presence of longstanding security holes in open source projects may be an argument against.

Posted by Rob at 03:27 PM | Permalink

Basically, Ralph Nader just handed the Prez the election in 2004 by deciding to run again. This makes it just so easy for Republican strategists - drive Kerry to the right by attacking his record and let idiot lefties vote for Nader, giving Bush all the margin he needs. They can probably even keep Cheney now.

Posted by Rob at 10:52 AM | Permalink

BusinessWeek's cover article this week is on that changing nature of the software business. It is a reasonably balanced article with little of the overwrought reaction in much of the mainstream press. It also does a nice job of personalizing the issue by highlighting the outlook for two smart CS graduates, one in India and one in the US.

The overall message that comes across is the absolute imperative to be ready to reinvent yourself if you want to stay in the technology game. It isn't easy, but it has to be done. It would be smart for the government to support technology workers working towards this in the same way that industrial workers are assisted - maybe even more so since technology workers tend to have invested considerable time and money in developing their skills. The alternative is to have a lot of really angry smart people who have lost their livelihoods. This might have long term consequences for the politics and prosperity of the world. This could give the Luddite movement a run for its money.

Posted by Rob at 08:03 PM | Permalink

With the recent leak of Windows source code onto the Internet, a good debate has cropped up about the security beneifits of closed vs. open source. Larry Seltzer has a good piece in eWeek discussing this topic.

I don't think it is gong to matter a whole lot since this code has been beat on for so long, so I guess we will see.

Posted by Rob at 03:25 PM | Permalink

I just read something that makes a lot of sense to me - I think it may have been in brokerage ad or something, but I've got a cold today and can't really think straight. Basically, if it can be made in China, it is going to get a lot cheaper. If it cannot, it will be getting more expensive.

This certainly has been true over the past few years (compare toy or clothing prices to health care prices). I wonder if it will continue?

Posted by Rob at 09:34 PM | Permalink

So, when does El Presidente get a clue and drop Cheney from the ticket for his campaign in 2004? The guy is clearly a liability with his ludicrous statements about WMD in Iraq to his involvement with scandal-plagued Halliburton.

Drop him and pick up someone who could help on the domestic front (maybe Bill Frist?) and El Presidente will coast to victory in 2004. Keep him and play whack-a-scandal every day from here until November.

Posted by Rob at 10:22 AM | Permalink

I've seen the new Mac based supercomputer at Virginia Tech and it is impressive - I was on a tour in early December and they had 1100 full-size G5 machines in a series of racks. They are all strung together using Infiniband and cooled by this advanced (and quite powerful) rack-top cooling system.

At a local PMI meeting this week, they had some of the project managers on the project give a presentation and said that they were moving to the XServers, which will allow them to put a few more in the same space (I guess heat output permitting). Plus, they let on that the desktop boxes didn't have ECC RAM and it was causing some problems with high-precision math.

Anyway, even though I'm a UVa graduate, I'll give the in-state rivals props on a project well done.

Posted by Rob at 08:25 PM | Permalink

I thought he was just trying to cause trouble and generate publicity using the theory that no press is bad press, but it appears that Ellison is serious about aquiring PeopleSoft. The offer of $26 per share is a 33 percent increase over the initial offer.

The market is skeptical that it will happen though, with PSFT shares priced at 22.75 this morning which is leaving a little over 14% on the table right now. Plus, PeopleSoft management is still fighting this tooth and nail. It will be interesting to see what happens at the shareholders meeting next month.

Posted by Rob at 08:44 AM | Permalink

I read this article in Computerworld about Oracle embracing integration with some amusement. In his recent biography, Softwar, Ellison is adamant that the way to go is to install monolithic Oracle ERP software and use it to run your entire business without modifying the software.

Basically, he was saying if you aren't doing it Oracle's way, you are doing it wrong. He has something of a point in that many companies has screwed up processes that they try to map to an ERP and end up getting a big mess. However, some companies have a competitive advantage that is built up in their processes and systems and taking a plain vanilla Oracle implementation would put them back in the pack. It is interesting that customers seemed to have forced Oracle's hand on the integration front.

While I'm somewhat on the subject, Softwar is not a bad book. It drags at times (I guess I'm not that interested in his personal life) but the descriptions of what was going on at Oracle as it grew to be a huge and influential company is interesting. Worth a read if you like that kind of thing.

Posted by Rob at 08:06 PM | Permalink

Reduced pricing is an interesting move by Oracle in the face of increasing competition from Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB2.

Last year, according to IDC, Oracle's share of the market for database management software slipped below 40 percent, to 39.4 percent. IBM gained the most market share, reaching a total of 33.6 percent of the sales, while Microsoft gained 1.4 points to take 11.1 percent of the market, making it the fastest-growing vendor by percentage.

Also factor in the pricing structure has to be the rise of MySQL as a legitimate competitor in the DBMS space. None of this can be good for Oracle's database margins (but I'm sure it hasn't ruffled Ellison's ego).

Posted by Rob at 01:35 PM | Permalink

I think the move by Sun to really push the AMD Opteron is a good one. It gives Sun something that is a little different than the "me too" Intel based servers offered by Dell, HP and IBM.

It won't save their bacon because it is very easy for the others to follow if it is successful, but is a great thing for AMD.

Posted by Rob at 10:12 AM | Permalink