The FuzzyBlog!
Marketing 101. Consulting 101. PHP Consulting. Random geeky stuff. I Blog Therefore I Am.

Wednesday, July 31, 2002

If You Want to Complain About the HP Unix Debacle Then ... Here's the "Email Carly" CEO vanity web form to submit your comment.  I submitted my blog entry.  It'll be interesting to see what happens. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/fiorina/index.htm And, while I'm not sure, I think the email address for Kent Ferson is kent.ferson@compaq.com since that's the one variant that doesn't get bounced back right away (he originally worked for Compaq before this HP crap).  Drop him a line if you think this is just plain silly.  And if anyone out there has a definitive email address for him then I'll be thrilled to publish it... 9:45:38 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

The New HP: In My Humble Opinion, As Dumb as a Sack of Dead Toads.  That's New. WASHINGTON--Hewlett Packard has found a new club to use to pound researchers who unearth flaws in the company's software: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company's Tru64 Unix operating system. In a letter sent on Monday, an HP vice president warned SnoSoft, a loosely organized research collective, that its members "could be fined up to $500,000 and imprisoned for up to five years" for its role in publishing information on a bug that lets an intruder take over a Tru64 Unix system. HP's dramatic warning appears to be the first time the DMCA has been invoked to stifle research related to computer security. Until now, it's been used by copyright holders to pursue people who distribute computer programs that unlock copyrighted content such as DVDs or encrypted e-books. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-947325.html This is just plain stupid beyond belief.  It also makes me sad to see HP claiming Compaq's previous role as one of the first commercial Linux companes.  What would John Maddog Hall (the original Compaq Linux enthusiast) think? Carly, Carly, Carly... Would you please drop kick the rather clue free individual known as "Kent Ferson", a vice president in HP's Unix systems unit.  And as a general rule of thumb, if your engineers simply wrote bug free code, these things wouldn't happen.  If you could ensure this then I'm sure that groups like SnoSoft will have no problems with your products. Thanks Dave for pointing this one out. 9:34:08 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

From Slashdot: Narrative and Weblogs: the Blognovel URL: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/31/1919240&;mode=thread&tid=149 Diego writes "A few days ago I started Plan B -- a blognovel as a way of exploring the narrative constraints created by a weblog, and whether it is at all possible to use it as an artistic medium to produce interesting work. It also presents some interesting challenges on the UI side: what kind of navigation to use besides the basic calendar navigation of the blog? How could it be made obvious that it's not intended to replace print or even ebooks? I thought the slashdot community would have a lot useful things to say about all of these issues. I've also put together a short intro page and a FAQ that I think will be useful to start the conversation: What is Plan B? and the Plan B FAQ." 7:23:11 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

Marketing 101: WaldenBooks Drops Computer Books from Bookstores Following up on the reference to WaldenBooks from Monday's? blog entry on Great Customer Service is Great Marketing, I just learned today that Walden Books is dropping computer books.  Apparently they change so quickly that the new versions which are current aren't available when customers need them.  So every WaldenBooks is being reduced to 30 to 40 best sellers, being lumped in with the small business section, and all other computer books will be special order.  Strange. 2:13:42 PM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

Yup.  I Admit It.... I may take some heat on this one so I'll just plain admit it in advance before / when I start.  I've added some tracking urls to my sidebar just out of curiousity.  If you click on the links to the O'Reilly book or the Web Builder conference, you're being fed through a database backed redirector since I'm really curious how much people actually use this sidebar stuff.  NOTE: I get no $$$ for referrals.  The O'Reilly book is a courtesy and the same for webbuilder. And, in the vein of being agressively, compulsively honest, here's the data being captured (it's the sql table definition, I built the table in like 10 minutes so I'm sure there are some less than perfect db issues here): # phpMyAdmin MySQL-Dump # version 2.2.6 # http://phpwizard.net/phpMyAdmin/ # http://www.phpmyadmin.net/ (download page) # # Host: localhost # Generation Time: Jul 31, 2002 at 05:58 AM # Server version: 3.23.44 # PHP Version: 4.2.2 # Database : `db_fuzzygroup_com` # -------------------------------------------------------- # # Table structure for table `redirector_logs` # CREATE TABLE redirector_logs ( log_id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment, term varchar(50) default NULL, url varchar(125) default NULL, referer varchar(125) default NULL, ipaddress varchar(25) default NULL, useragent varchar(125) default NULL, date datetime default NULL, PRIMARY KEY (log_id) ) TYPE=MyISAM; The only thing that is potentially identifiable is the IP address and that's really so I can start to get a feel for the geography people come from (my inbox has emails from all over the world and that's just the few who actually email me).  I really don't think this is a big deal.  The data will all be stored securely on my server and I'll make non-identifiable, aggregated statistics available.  If anyone needs the code for this application or wants to track some blog links of their own, email me for instructions.  Code is all php and mysql. 7:03:26 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This

Gorizia, Italy / Belmont, MA. - July 29, 2002 - Evectors today announced the offering of Frontier Programming Services. Evectors, established in 1992, is an Italian software and services company that specializes in web content management software and application development services. Frontier is a powerful object database, application server and scripting environment. Evectors now employs one of the most talented largest group of Frontier developers in the world and is making those services available to the market as a whole. Evectors Frontier Services: Rapid Application Development Evectors, originally a multimedia and website development firm has evolved into a combination software and services business.  The Frontier Services offering is simply the latest addition to the suite of Evectors client solutions.   Among the many benefits to choosing Evectors to provide Frontier expertise include: Access to the same team that created IdeaTools, the largest and most sophisticated Frontier application available today An experienced team that knows how to deploy Frontier in a variety of Intranet, Extranet or Internet environments Frontier integration expertise with other applications such as relational databases Macintosh Frontier specific development knowledge When asked about why the company is offering Frontier Services, J. Scott Johnson, the Vice President of Marketing for Evectors commented: If you look at today's complex IT environment, finding access to specialized talent like Frontier developers simply isn't easy. Having one of the most talented team of Frontier developers in the world, assembled in one place, makes offering Frontier services to a large audience a logical evolution.  Evectors has always been a customer focused, software and solutions business, so offering Frontier development is responding to the demands of the market. About Evectors North America The Evectors North American division is led by J. Scott Johnson, VP of Marketing and Gretchen Cahaly, VP of Business Development: Scott is a multiple time entrepreneurs, ex-dot commer and the author of multiple books and articles including a co-author of the forthcoming "Blogging Essentials" by O'Reilly and Associates . Gretchen is an MA, MBA  and former dot commer, with project management, web development, marketing and business development expertise. Evectors North American is headquartered in Belmont Massachusetts and can be reached online at www.evectors.com. Contacts for People Who Need Frontier Services, Press and Analysts: Evectors North America or Evectors Srl can be reached as follows: Who: J. Scott Johnson, VP of Marketing Email: scott@evectors.com IM 1: fuzzygroup (yahoo) IM 2: fuzzygroup (aim) Phone: 617 588 0613 Who: Gretchen Cahaly, VP of Business Development Email: gretchen@evectors.com IM 1: gcahaly (yahoo) IM 2: gretchenfg (aim) Phone: 617 588 0613 Who: Paolo Valdemarin, CEO Email: paolo@evectors.com IM 1: paolovalde (yahoo) IM 2: paolovalde (aim) Phone: 011 39 0481 776.550   5:55:38 AM  Google It!  comment []   IM Me About This