Jericho (TV show) moves me

I am not sure why, but the new TV Show "Jericho" always leaves me in a high emotional estate. It could be that the father-son struggle portrayed reminds me of what my Dad and I went through. It may also be the result of seeing small kids in danger -- a normal reaction by most parents. Anyway, this is an awesome show.

The best jams ever!

If you want to try the best jams ever you really need to go to imladrisfarm. Talk about great jams! You barely taste the sugar in these great products. Forget the price -- they are worth every cent of what these folks are asking for!

We need NetForce!

Could it be possible? Could there be an organized effort to destroy it? As I read details of the latest Internet Explorer vulnerability, it dawned on me that the first websites to exploit the weakness came from Russia. I have nothing against Russia or its people -- but there has been a number of "black hat" programmers from the former USSR that have caused havoc amongst Internet users. Could this be a conspiracy to disrupt or destroy the ultimate capitalist symbol, the Internet? Could the Internet, rather than Internet Explorer, be under attack? Much of the world depends on the Internet for major parts of life: email, e-commerce, e-banking, etc. Email has already been crippled -- and the other sections are under constant attack. Could there really be an organized effort to destroy the Internet? Evidence clearly points in that direction.

Will it never stop?

A U.S. Senate committee has approved three bills that further undermine the established judicial system of checks and balances by allowing widespread surveillances without a court order. If you care about your privacy then you may want to read about these bills and act by communicating your thoughts to your representatives in Washington.

How long will we Office?

In his August 28 column, John Dvorak makes a point about why Microsoft Office, on the back of Word, will continue to be the dominant Office Suite. His messages are always interesting to read, whether you agree with his point or not. I happen to disagree with this one. Short term (which I define here as for the next five years) you may see the Microsoft Suite remain the dominant package. But there are too many others out there that can do as good a job. Economics alone will allow OpenOffice to make significant gains in market share. Various web-based programs will also erode Office's dominance. It is possible that the new Office 2007 innovations will do more to hurt than to help Microsoft -- that remains to be seen. Surely, the new version will require significant re-training by current users. The stability factor no longer will be completely in favor of the current champ. Listen to the wind -- it sings of changes ahead.

When boundaries fade

I see an interesting trend in computer technology. With Apple's migration to Intel chips, many users are installing the Windows OS in Apple computers. That was unimaginable a few years ago. It gives Microsoft an interesting opportunity to expand into a market it once thought closed. However, the picture gets even more interesting when you introduce virtualization. Now, we can have several operating systems running side by side in the same computer. It gives OS X, should Apple wake up and realize this huge opportunity, an opening into the previously-closed PC world. But which OS will be the "host" system of choice? Will Linux finally make it through? It certainly can do a great job at managing resources and providing stability and security. Those are critical factors of any virtual host OS. It seems obvious that major players are counting on significant growth in the virtualization technology; why would Microsoft and VMWare give away their virtualization products otherwise? I believe they are setting up the industry to finally come to realize the many benefits of virtualization. And as the previously well-defined boundaries of what OS runs in what platform melt away, I also predict that hardware vendors will benefit greatly by the increased demands virtualization will put on equipment (more RAM, faster CPUs, etc.). Indeed, it is an exciting time to be in the computer field. More importantly, all of us need to set aside preconceived notions and be receptive to new concepts. Change is the only constant in the world of computers.