Category: Technology

I work in technology sector. And I do round a clock, not only from 9 to 5. It is my bread and butter, it is my hobby, it is the fascination of my life. And with the current rate of change particular in information technology (IT), there is always something new to learn, to try, to talk about. I often post news, thoughts, and reviews. And when I do, this is the category I use.

Microsoft has failed

Microsoft has failed

Microsoft is largely irrelevant to computing of late, the only markets they still play in are evaporating with stunning rapidity. Their long history of circling the wagons tighter and tighter works decently as long as there is not a credible alternative, and that strategy has been the entirety of the Microsoft playbook for so long that there is nothing else now. It works, and as the walls grow higher, customer enmity builds while the value of an alternative grows. This cycle repeats as long as there is no alternative. If there is, everything unravels with frightening rapidity.

Read the whole thing – it’s a really good summary of where Microsoft stands today.

phing fatal error after upgrade to 2.4.13

If you are using phing for building and deploying projects (and you should), and using Remi repository for PHP 5.3 and related tools for CentOs and RedHat, be prepared to see a problem with phing and build.xml files that use conditions in If.   Here is a sample snippet from the build.xml:

<!-- Directory separator based on the current file system -->
<property name="ds" value="\" />
<if>
  <equals arg1="${host.fstype}" arg2="UNIX" />
  <then>
    <property name="ds" value="/" override="yes" />
  </then>
</if>

and here is the error:

Error reading project file [wrapped: build.xml:39:20: Error initializing nested element <equals> [wrapped: equals (unknown) doesn't support the 'arg1' attribute.]]

The bug #943 has already been filed in assigned in phing trac, and after a brief chat with devs in IRC channel, it seems like it will be fixed soon (by 2.4.14 release). The best cause of action for now though is reverting back phing 2.4.12.

–i-am-a-dummy

Here is a handy command-line option for MySQL client: –i-am-a-dummy, or, if you don’t have a sense of humor, –safe-updates.  When used, this will prevent updating or deleting rows without explicitly specifying a WHERE clause.  It will also limit the number of SELECT and JOIN results.

Search for emails by size and more in Gmail

Search for emails by size and more in Gmail

Search is one of the two main reasons I use Gmail (awesome SPAM filtering being the other one).  It’s nice to see that Google recognizes it and works on improvements.