Microsoft: Malformed Dotless IP Address Can Cause Web Page to be Handled in Intranet Zone [via David Chess] Normally I don’t link to every stupid IE bug, even though this one is serious (spammers generally use dotless IP addresses, and spammers are the exactly sort of people who would be unethical enough to take advantage of this bug) and affects their flagship browsers (IE 5.5 and 6). But some quick Googling found that IE 4 had this same bug 3 years ago. Brilliant.
OSOpinion: Microsoft Offers New “Microsoft Court XP”. [via markpasc.blog] Microsoft Law XP will be released under a ’shared source’ model in which selected plaintiffs and defendants using Microsoft Court will be allow to view the laws under which they are being tried, but not to modify or redistribute them.
Joel Spolsky: Working on CityDesk, part one. On good teams, the days before shipping just get quieter and quieter as programmers literally run out of things to do one at a time.
mac.scripting.com [via inessential.com] As soon as I get a job, I’m buying Mac OS X.1. I have Linux Mandrake 8.0 on my iMac, but it’s unstable and doesn’t support important things like my Firewire CD burner. From what I’ve read about OS X.1, it’s worth the money.
CNET: Apple, HP modify stance on patent plan. Hard to call them “good guys”, exactly, since they initially helped write it, but at least they’ve recanted.
Yahoo: Get most-emailed content by e-mail (requires Yahoo login). I guess this is for people who don’t have any friends, but don’t want to miss out on the experience of constantly getting emailed stupid shit like this.
Content Wire: Ebook Reader Speaks Tongues [via FOS] Adobe is releasing multilingual ebook readers. What? You mean people will be able to publish books electronically in foreign languages like French and Spanish? That’s amazing! What about Chinese, Korean, and Russian? No? That’s too bad. Keep trying to re-invent the wheel, Adobe; someday, somebody might accidentally care.
Christopher Locke: Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices [no thanks to Slashdot which reviewed the book and linked to where to purchase it, but not to the free online preview of the first two chapters that I just linked to] Two relevant quotes. The first is about Ford’s decision to buy computers and Internet access for all its employees, no strings attached:
These computers and net connections will not be under corporate control. They will not be monitored in any way. Ford has unleashed 350,000 people to whom it has tacitly granted permission to speak on its behalf. Not in a legal sense, but in a much more powerful way. These are people who will tell their own stories, in their own voices, any way they see fit. Ford not only got out of their way, it provided the tools and the encouragement to use them. That’s smart. Replacing paranoia and control with no-strings permission is always smart.
The second is even more poignant to me, coming as it does on the heels of my recent experience of exactly the opposite attitude from my (now former) employer:
Why would a huge corporation get out of the way and enable mere workers to speak on its behalf? Workers are no longer valuable for their labor alone but also for their curiosity about the world outside the company — for their interests and passions and the uncontrived voices through which they express themselves.
I have a job interview on Monday, with a company whose CEO read my weblog and knew a good thing when he saw it. Wish me luck.
