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I've just installed the beta 1 of Yukon to take a look for myself. Initial impressions are good. The install went very smoothly and it was fairly easy to figure out which end was up without reading any documentation. More comments to follow as I get a little deeper.
Out of the box, Movable Type only does excerpts on RSS feeds. This annoys me. Why should a subscriber have to visit a site to get the full text? I found this reference on how to change it to full text. Much better.
I really don't understand the attacks from both sides about waffling in the election. For me, intellectual flexibility is a plus. I like the quote that is attibuted to John Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
I also saw a link to Jon Stewart's commencement address at W&M on Scoble's weblog. The speech is an absolute riot!
Scoble talks about the atomistic nature of weblogs. Even the big boys don't get a huge audience. My audience is tiny, but I still have fun doing it. For me, the best part is just being able to think about things as I post them. I must like it because I've been doing it for a year now.
Apparently some source code got stolen from Cisco recently. This has caused some concern because people believe that insidious hackers with access to source code are more dangerous than insidious hackers without access to source code. Didn't the same thing happen to Microsoft a little bit ago? Were there any new holes discovered as a result of that?
The detente announced between Oracle and Microsoft today sounds promising. I wonder what it really means? It isn't all that hard now to use Microsoft tools with Oracle databases (with a few quirky exceptions).
Sounds like IBM is going to be MSFT to the punch with a new release of DB2 that is scheduled to be out by the end of the year. The Office Connect feature which allows direct consumption of cubes in Excel sounds like a particular Yukon killer. The pressure is building with this release of DB2 and the last release of Oracle.
MSFT really needs to get that thing out the door. I haven't seen much about the Yukon beta 2 that is supposed to be out this month.
I have to agree with this article by Randall Stross in the NYT about the limits of eBay. Although I'm an eBay buyer and seller and probably do about a transaction a month, I definitely agree that there are limits to the eBay model because of its dependence on caveat emptor. I've found that if you shop around, you can usually find what you are looking for without the hassle of going through the whole auction and checkout process. In many cases, it is much cheaper to boot.
Case in point, I recently purchased a Timex Bodylink watch/HRM/GPS from Bike-Run-Walk for much less than the final auction price (if you include the hidden cost of shipping, which is usually quite steep for eBay auctions).
If I'm looking for something unique or unusual, eBay is the place to go. But for most stuff I buy online, the more traditional commerce model seems to work better.
I can't believe that the Oracle/Peoplesoft saga is still going on. Although it arguably might have been a smart move 9 months ago, now it is kind of like Napolean's march on Moscow. The cost in time, money and distraction just doesn't seem worth it.
I've been doing a lot of work with Oracle 9 over the past week. I'm now convinced that this product is aptly named: you need to consult with an Oracle to get the database tuned up properly. I hear it is better in Oracle 10, but getting things optimized in 9 takes a lot of knob-twiddling.