Blog
Diatribe from the edge!
Technologies that NEED to Die
Wed March 10th 2010
I started thinking recently about technologies that should be at the end of their lives but stay with us for various reasons, here is my list so far and why I think they should die a quick death as soon as possible.
- Access
- Flash
- Outlook
- Visual Basic
Access - When Microsoft released office 2007 they really should have killed this abomination. Okay, it may have its uses but all too often a small Access database ends up running something much larger. Access has so much potential for misuse that users really do need saving from their selves.
Flash
It's CPU hungry, the Linux plugin is simply awful (try playing in full-screen!). Thanks to improvements in HTML/CSS it's no longer needed for fancy menus, the 2 big uses for it I've seen are annoying banner ads and video players. There is a possibility that HTML5 video could replace flash in the latter. I know it's improved significantly since it's earliest incarnations but maybe we need alternatives that don't rely on installing plugins (that is so 90's!)
Outlook
With the rise of web based services it's easy to access email from anywhere. Recently I consolidated all my email accounts on Google Mail. I've found locally archived email folders to be a headache. Something that needs backing up regularly and rescuing if a users PC needs flattening/decommissioning. Particularly if users need access to email on desktops, laptops and potentially off site a web based solution makes much more sense.
Visual Basic - When VB classic programmers had to learn the .NET framework they really should have learned C#. As C# and VB both use the .NET framework I really see no reason for keeping 2 languages going (I'm not even going to start on J#!)
Costumes
Tue November 03rd 2009
It's been a while since I posted any of my epic costumes I thought I'd create a new album for them.
First time I use it in ages and I find the thumbnail function is broken. Must be a PHP version issue, I'm dreading delving in to fix it - early stuff so it's not my prettiest code.
VMware Advice and Fedora 7
Mon August 13th 2007
If, like me, you want to experiment with new OS\'s but don\'t want to risk damaging your finely tuned boot settings (or avoid the trouble of constant partitioning) then VMware Player (or insert your favorite emulator/visualization software here) seems to be a logical choice.
Although Player (the free tool) doesn\'t have the ability to create new machines, instalinux have a blank virtual machine available for download from their website.
I\'ve used this approach to test out Fedora 7. My first attempt at using Fedora (on the desktop, my faithful development server still runs FC5) since I switched to Ubuntu sometime last year.
A word of warning to anyone using Fedora 7 with VMware (Player) - make sure you are using the buslogic rather than the lsilogic SCISI controller. lsilogic devices will not be recognized.
More news on Fedora 7 coming soon.
BBC on Demand Player, a Good Thing?
Sat July 28th 2007
In my opinion, probably not. I have three main reasons for thinking this:
1) Does not need a TV - To use the BBC\'s traditional services (TV and Radio) you\'d need a TV license. To access their iPlayer (looks like somebody\'s jumping on the \"cool\" Mac bandwagon) you just need to be in the UK, and have a broadband connection. No doubt this will contribute to an increase in BBC online\'s operating costs, it wouldn\'t surprise me if the requirement for a TV license was extended to internet connections too.
2) Availability - This service is only available in Windows. This isn\'t out of the ordinary, as this is the requirement for other services such as 4oD. The problem here is that Channel 4 is a commercial broadcaster, the BBC is a public service broadcaster. I\'m expected to pay (probably a lot more soon, the way the license fee keeps increasing) for a service I can\'t use? (As it stands, I only run Windows on a low powered laptop - not an idea platform for a memory hungry application)
3) XP - I\'ve already stated that they are only supporting Windows, but it\'s not even an up to date version. At launch, they\'re not supporting Vista - what do you think is installed on most new home PCs?
I understand that there is no DRM for Linux/UNIX (but the BBC could have commissioned their software developer to devise one) and they can\'t use the DRM for OSX (Channel 4 claim on their website that it isn\'t licensed to 3rd party developers - Apple trying to make iTunes a monopoly on their platform?) but they should try to be a bit more creative than just working with existing software.
Between this and the generally declining quality of programming on the BBC, I\'d be perfectly happy to scrap the license fee and make the Beeb fend for themselves!
