Entries tagged Computers

Software is hard

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:15:00 +0000

This is a great read for anyone who has done any software development. There are some great quotes spinkled throughout.

Talking about a software development schedule more than a year out is like talking about where we go after we die. Everyone has some idea where we'll end up, but those ideas differ wildly, and there's a lack of solid evidence to support any of them.

Software is Hard

Solid state drives can't come soon enough

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:28:47 +0000

Anyone who has used a computer for more than a few years has had problems with a hard drive. When solid state drives become main stream hard drive crashes will dissapear.

SSDs offer a couple advantages over disk-based drives: they're lighter, consume less power, and are more rugged, making them ideal for laptops and mobile devices. They are also more expensive, but the price gap is narrowing as flash memory becomes increasingly cheaper.

Report: Seagate planning flash-based solid-state drives

These devices will not alleviate the need for backup devices (it will still be possible to accidentally delete files for example) but they should prevent a large portion of data disasters.

Mac OS vs. Windows?

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:29:15 +0000

In my experience (when properly configured) both operating systems are secure and reliable. Companies and organizations need to do end user education about best practices (e.g. what attachments to open, web sites to stay away from, don't click on website ads that look like system dialogs).

Are Macs more secure than PCs, or not? Either way, the answer always drives Windows users nuts.

The real question about Mac security

With Windows (and I'm speaking of Windows XP...Vista should not even be considered until they make a number of improvements) the bigger problem is rot. Anyone who has used Window XP for any length of time knows that is slows down considerably (and becomes less stable) the longer you use it. Eventually the only way to regain the speed and robustness is to reinstall the operating system (and because of the way DLL are spread throughout the system...many of your applications). I'm not sure if rot has been addressed or if Microsoft is hoping that faster hardware will minimize this "feature."