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Microsoft Needs Geek Appeal

"I thought I had a pretty good handle on the differences between the open-source community and the traditional proprietary approach to software development. But watching a Microsoft spokesperson defend his company and its whole approach to business in front of a room full of Linux zealots last week helped crystallize the gulf between the two camps--not just in business strategy but in fundamental philosophy and political bent." Read the editorial at ZDNet.

SkyOS Gets an ISS

ISS (Integrated sound system) has been implemented into SkyOS. The ISS is a very well integrated sound system which makes it very easy to access the audio multimedia services of SkyOS, though providing a very powerful interface.

Computer Loyalty

"People tend to develop strong ties to a specific computer, even if it means waiting to use their favourite machine, say researchers. A team at Pennsylvania State University found that people were drawn to a PC because of their tendency to assign human attributes to machines." Read the article here.

Data Access Performance in ADO.NET

This article introduces some of the basic data-access performance issues to consider while developing database applications using ADO.NET. It shows you how to analyze network load, load on the database server, un-optimized SQL, opening and closing a connection, fetching a result set, blob access, and metadata retrieval. It then provides suggestions for improving database application performance.

DVD Forums Adopts Windows Media

"The battle to create and own a proprietary industry standard generates rapid improvements in price and performance, at least until somebody emerges totally dominant. If fact, even after a monopolist emerges, there is still considerable pressure to innovate, because unless you can induce your installed base to upgrade frequently, you have a hard time continuing to grow." More at streamingmedia.com.

Little Hoopla Over New Java Spec

J2EE 1.4, Sun's new Java Specification, will undoubtedly be widely adopted by the makers of Java-based software, but though Sun's attempts to hype it have not been as successful as in the past. Aside from the fact that the software industry just isn't as exuberant as it once was, many vendors are already "ahead of the spec" and have implemented functionality that customers demanded without waiting for Sun and Java to blaze the trail.

TiVo’s New Product, New Challenges

TiVo finally launched its High Definition-capable unit. Designed by TiVo for DirecTV, it sports a 250 GB Hard drive and four tuners for $999. But neat new products aside, TiVo faces some daunting challenges. It has not made inroads with cable companies, many of whom have commissioned cheap TiVo knock-offs from companies like Scientific Atlanta. Many owner of these off-brand DVRs don't even know that they aren't TiVos, and, having never used the real thing, don't know the difference.

MESA Port Coming to Syllable and More

Jamie Clarkson released a screenshot of his work on a Mesa3d port to Syllable. In other news: Syllable 0.5.3 is slated to come out the 1st or 2nd in May. This release has many new features including: a updated Radeon driver, a VMWare driver, a new ATA driver, new Yamaha DS-XG drivers, new install scripts, and a whole lot more. This release also contains a humongus number of patches by the whole Syllable team for GCC 3.x. More info here.