Hawk's Nest

Saturday, May 31, 2003

Wat's Pig

From the makers of Wallace and Gromit, comes a nice little Medieval tale. Also, watch free weekly Wallace and Gromit shorts here

Friday, May 30, 2003

ABCNEWS.com : Silicon Insider: The Empire of Ants
This cycle is the endless vacillation between centralization and decentralization. This wave affects every part of the modern, tech-driven corporation, from products to organization charts.
An interesting commentary on the historical cycles of IT philosophy. What I find most interesting in my own experience is how slow state government is to believe in an era where the pendulum has swung to decentralization that we should be moving toward centralization.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog: Using Weblogs to Manage IT Organizations

If you don't read Windley, you should. This particular posting is great food for thought and discussion about blogs.

Lego Chef

The Lord of the Rings...the ????
It's music to my ears.

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

I'm 18.93491% - Geek. How about you?

Monday, May 26, 2003

Microsoft Finds Some Doubters for the Motives of Its Largesse
The company is significantly increasing its donation of software to the nation's nonprofit organizations, to a level that may approach $1 billion annually in the next three to four years
If open-source is so much better, why feel threatened about free M$ software?

Never been to Mount Everest. If you don't think you'll make it, try this panoramic view. (QuickTime plugin may be required)

vnunet.com Doctors prefer Linux to Windows
Equally important, the RCGP was already concerned with Microsoft security, having discovered that a hacker in France was downloading data using FTP.
This led to a security review which found, for instance, that Exchange was acting as a conduit for spam.
Evidently, UK doctors aren't as smart as they used to be. Notice two of the reasons Microsoft was left behind as a choice was the lack of best practices in using Microsoft products. Linux should solve all those kinds of problems...NOT!

Sunday, May 25, 2003

Is Search Privacy an Issue?
Should you be afraid? Is it time to boycott Google, as blogger Gavin Sheridan called for?
Should you be paranoid of Google? Is your personal welfare threatened by this internet transforming tool? Nah, it's just the fear factor.

CNN.com - A book lover's heaven on earth - May. 24, 2003
Hay is home to 1,500 people -- and about 40 used book stores.
"There are more books per head of population in this town than in any other town in the world," says Richard Booth, who opened Hay's first book store more than 40 years ago.
This is my kind of town. I love books! I guess a visit to Wales is in order.

Thursday, May 22, 2003

Yahoo! Top Stories - Tree That Give Meat Instead Of Fruit!
Here's some good news that vegetarians can really sink their teeth into: Researchers have developed genetically engineered fruit trees that bear real meat!
Oh, and Microsoft was deploying the iLoo! What a world!

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

UPI: 'Babylon 5' Still Flying High

One of the finest Sci-Fi series on television airs in reruns on the SciFi Channel now. Babylon 5 was an extraordinary 5 year ride which any lover of the genre should sample. If you don't know about it, read the story link. Any Star Trek bashing can be ignored. One can love both series.

Monday, May 19, 2003

Eight years old, and he’s a Microsoft professional
Impressed by his photogenic memory, his school director suggested that he take the MCP exam.
I wish my memory looked so good.

Sunday, May 18, 2003

Dating a Blogger, Reading All About It (NY Times subscription required)
While personal blogs have been around for years, their proliferation has caused a wrinkle in the social fabric among people in their teens, 20's and early 30's.
An interesting cultural phenomena with blogs. You won't read any salacious personal commentary here but critiquing the world around me, including my personal world, may occur. You've been warned.

Wednesday, May 14, 2003

From the highway to the skyway
‘Flying cars’ already exist, but you’ll probably never own one
Ugh! Skeptics!

Journey to centre of Earth proposed
A proposal to send a probe to the centre of the Earth has been published in a leading scientific journal. The wacky scheme would need the world's largest nuclear bomb and enough iron to fill 13 large concert halls.
We don't need to send a probe. In 1951, Superman showed us that Mole-men live there. We don't need to disturb them any more.

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

On the Verge of Extinction?
Once all the buzz, the enterprise CIO may be disappearing. What went wrong?
Great article on the enterprise-level CIO. The state government CIO (enterprise-level) maybe gone before it arrived. Read why.

FOXNews.com: Oregon County Calls Off Klingon Interpreter Job
Sorry, potential Klingon interpreters.
Officials have said they won't be needing your services, after all.
I'm a Trekker. And I love to see the Trek mythos invade real life. But a Klingon interpreter??

Monday, May 12, 2003

The Register: Google to fix blog noise problem
Google is to create a search tool specifically for weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the self-publishing tools its own tab.
I think this is a good thing. Google has broken "News" out as its own category. With blogs as a separate search, they can gain equal footing with longstanding Internet groupings.

The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid
When you [are] surfing the blogosphere you are never deluded by the false sense of security conferred by an undeservedly authoritative brand-image like that of the New York Times -- you are in the wild west, and you know it.
An encouraging piece for us bloggers. Blogging can be a rich source of information. We just need to get the word out.

Sunday, May 11, 2003

New find reignites anthrax probe
The FBI has developed a new theory on a central mystery of the 2001 anthrax attacks after finding evidence in a Frederick, Md., pond that may suggest how an ingenious criminal could have packed deadly anthrax spores into envelopes without killing or sickening himself, according to sources close to the investigation.
Remember that anthrax scare? A new theory sounds like the stuff of movies. Check it out.

Google Hacks: Shrinky Search!

Sending long Google searches in e-mails? Try Shrinky Search.

South Carolina Website Eaten by Web Program

Find nifty little items in e-mails is always fun. This one came for Brian Livingston's Wierd Wide Web. It's good for some smiles. And in South Carolina, that's what we're all about. The site to try is Man Fakes de Minimax

VARBusiness:State Teams With Novell and BravePoint To Develop Online Health Care System
The diagnosis was easy: The South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services was suffering from budget constraints, reams of paperwork, the administration of requirements regarding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and an expanding number of employees who were quickly running out of office space. The cure, although tougher to determine also was obvious to the department's IT staff: Develop a secure Web-based system that would allow the organization's health care clients and more than 1,800 employees to remotely access data from its existing mainframe environment.
Is it as good as it sounds? Novell?? Java?? Mainframe?? Time will tell.

Q&A With Matthew DeZee (TechNews.com)dezee
DeZee was South Carolina's first state CIO. He recently joined a group of former state CIOs to meet with South Carolina legislators to share ideas about re-engineering the state's CIO position. The meeting was part of a state and federal CIO mentoring program called Chief Information Officers -- Senior Advisors to Government Executives (SAGE). The Washington-based Council for Excellence In Government organizes SAGE.
Matt DeZee was a great asset to South Carolina State government. I don't always agree with him, but his openness to input from the frontlines workers made trust of him easy. One comment he makes in his interview is regarding e-mail system consolidation. Part of the flaw in his argument involves an ignoring of the special needs certain elements of state government may have. Tailored systems can't be dumped into cookie cutter state government enterprise systems and end up with the same productivity result. Another flaw in the enterprise scenario suggestions involve the personnel implementing the solution. Those tasked with this in our state government have NOT demonstrated the expertise, desire, service or ability to implement such a system. Do I want my agency users to go from I think is the "best service" state government has to offer to some half-baked solution implemented by technologically backwards departments? Sorry, Matt, I miss you but I miss arguing some of your points even more.

Google Alphabet

Do you know your Google alphabet? If you put a single letter into Google, what do you get? Check out the results.

Saturday, May 10, 2003

USATODAY.com - 'Matrix' world is all-consuming in mythology, mysticism

Christian Science Monitor - The Gospel according to Neo

Two interesting articles exploring the religious imagery/mythology used in "Matrix". It's truly an amalgam of various religions and a great source of discussion. Will "Matrix Reloaded" bring any spiritual clarity or will the new movie raise more questions than answers? It's a fascinating movie with a unique blend of story and thought. As one person put it "It's what Hollywood always promises but never delivers: action with a brain". See you at the movies!

Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Wireless Librarian: Libraries with Wireless Networks

Visit a wireless library and surf.

Calling for a Renewable Future
If the end goal is innovation, the raw material is talent. Very simply, when it comes to great new ideas, the team with the best people wins.
Creating a great team can make the difference in the future of an enterprise. The innovation of the team at Nokia and my own team of talented individuals at work bears that out.

Linux Desktop Myths Exploded

"Supported versions of Linux are not free," Gartner analyst Michael Silver notes. Consumer versions of Linux are basically free, but "enterprises that require vendor support for their client OS will need to pay for it."
Hype about Linux on the desktop is increasing, according to Gartner's recent study, "Myths of Linux on the Desktop." The goal of the research was to enable enterprises to be objective in understanding the benefits of the Linux OS on the desktop, separating open-source fact from fiction.
Here is a Gartner study with actually some excellent points. Since the real study is $95, read the highlights for free above.

Tuesday, May 06, 2003

washingtonpost.com: The 50 States of the CIO
State Technology Officers Face Tight Budgets, Institutional Barriers and a Steep Learning Curve
That sentence says it all. Working with Matt DeZee during his short time in South Carolina, I can echo his laments and sing his praises. His time as CIO for South Carolina was much shorter than it should have been. Somehow the politics of it all has to be taken out and sanity restored. Come back, Matt.

Sunday, May 04, 2003

Funny Microsoft Q Articles From The Knowledge Base

As a regular user of the MS Knowledge Base, it was fun to visit this site for a laugh.

B9 Robot Builders Club

B9 is the classic sci-fi robot. He definitely has a life of his own as well as a site of his own. Visit the "construction" link to find out how to make your own B9.

Friday, May 02, 2003

Net attack crushes SCO Web site | CNET News.com
An avalanche of data blocked access to the SCO Group's Web site for several hours Friday, said the company, which has come under fire from Linux fans for an ongoing lawsuit against IBM.
The threat to Linux from SCO's claims as pointed out in yesterday's posting is significant. I guess the Linux community thinks so too.

Rocket-powered sled sets a record
As part of a missile defense test, a rocket-powered sled shot down a 3-mile straightaway in about six seconds to break a world record that had stood for two decades.
Now all we need to do is lay track.

Thursday, May 01, 2003

Code red for open source? | CNET News.com
Lines from Unix's source code have been copied into the heart of Linux, sometimes exactly and sometimes in a modified form designed to disguise their origin, SCO Group Chief Executive Darl McBride said Thursday.
This is the biggest news I've seen in a long time. And it illustrates the problem with open source solutions like Linux. With an open source community, the possibility of planting legal landmines, not technological, are numerous. Anyone can copy and obfuscatecode and in an attempt to go undetected. Legal challenges ensue when discovered and systems which had been royalty-free may suddenly become a liability.

Additionally, open source assumes everyone working on the code has the best interests of everyone else at heart. But we know that just isn't so in our world.

The "nirvana" of open source inched a little more toward the precipice today. I'm glad to see some sobering circumstances challenge the Linux guard. I know we're far from sorting out all of the issues. But for a "Softie", it's one significant threat which won't penetrate my enterprise.