September 03, 2004

Grok Headline matches for September 03, 2004

"Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: September 05, 2004 - September
11, 2004 Archives"

"Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: September 05, 2004 - September
11, 2004 Archives" 09/07/2004 03:14 AM

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: September 05, 2004 - September
11, 2004 Archives

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: September 05, 2004 - September
11, 2004 Archives 09/08/2004 07:11 AM
Jimmy Carter to Zell Miller .. righteous outrage

talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_05.php#003438
track this site | 4 links

JunkYardBlog: September 19, 2004 -
September 25, 2004 Archives

JunkYardBlog: September 19, 2004 -
September 25, 2004 Archives 09/24/2004 05:37 PM
Junkyard Blog has one idea .. Tubby Reifensthal returns .. must-read post

junkyardblog.transfinitum.net/archives/week_2004_09_19.html#003 527
track this site | 3 links

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: August 29, 2004 - September
04, 2004 Archives

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah
Marshall: August 29, 2004 - September
04, 2004 Archives 08/31/2004 02:19 AM
The Bush retreat? .. Talking Points Memo .. which end is up .. Today

talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_08_29.php#003377
track this site | 4 links

September 11, 2004

September 11, 2004 09/12/2004 08:39 AM
In Memoriam

September 06, 2004

September 06, 2004 09/06/2004 10:08 PM

My Latest Article

Software in the 1980s, when usability was "invented," was all about computer-human interaction. A lot of software still is. But the Internet brings us a new kind of software: software that's about human-human interaction. When you're writing software that mediates between people, after you get the usability right, you have to get the social interface right. And the social interface is more important. The best UI in the world won't save software with an awkward social interface. It 's Not Just Usability

Workspace Quality

Someone posted a nice summary of links to information about the quality of workspace provided to software developers.  “Perhaps it can be useful to other software developers in a position to influence managers or may someday be in a position to make decisions about workspace design themselves.”

September 14, 2004

September 14, 2004 09/14/2004 12:47 PM

We've been quietly making some improvements to the beta discussion group software.

Today we rolled out Brett's new full-text search feature. It relies on the database engine to provide full-text search, and we're running Microsoft SQL Server, which has rather poor full-text search capabilities: for example, it requires a manual process to rebuild the index, which we schedule for every 15 minutes, so it won't find anything posted in the last few minutes.

I also added an RSS feed. Originally I wanted to provide full text of all topics and replies in the last three days so that you could use an RSS reader to read the discussion group. Unfortunately that would have resulted in a huge download, and since RSS readers bang on the site every hour or three, our bandwidth usage would have been absurd. So I had to settle for full text of the original topic but not of replies.

And finally we got Summer Intern Ben's excellent Bayesian filtering code working... due to a couple of configuration problems it wasn't running right. The idea is to delete comme nt spam before anyone sees it. It's hard to tell if the filter works yet because it needs more training, but so far it's doing pretty well. If you think comment spam is not a big problem, you haven't moderated a discussion group lately... this is the number one priority for spammers these days, since email filters are starting to work pretty well and spamming a lot of discussion groups is perceived as a good way to trick Google into giving a site prominent placement.

We admit to three strategies to prevent comment spam:

1. Bayesian filtering which can be trained to remove comment spam instantly
2. Not allowing new comments on old posts, so that comment spam can't be hidden in posts which nobody but Google visits any more
3. Using a META tag to ask search engines not to follow URLs from discussion topics. Although this technique prevents comment spam from working it doesn't prevent it from happening because spammers don't seem to particularly care if a given spam works or not.

By "we admit to" I imply that there are other things we do which we don't talk about too much because revealing them would make it that much easier for spammers to work around them, thus reducing the cost of spamming, thus making it more economically feasible.

One side affect of the Bayesian filter is that if it finds a suspicious topic, rather than letting it through, it will flag it for a human moderator. The moderator can then allow it to be posted (which trains the filter) or leave it unshown. The effect of this is that rarely, new posts won't appear until a human approves them. This should happen less and less as the filter learns more.

September 02, 2004

September 02, 2004 09/02/2004 01:42 PM

Try out the new discussion group, now in beta!

A few brief comments:

• Yes, there are bugs! Many bugs! Please report them using the link provided.
• It looks kind of plain right now, I know. And I haven't implemented a search feature yet, which is planned.
• It works a lot like the old discussion group.
• There's a new archive section ("Older Topics").
• You can provide a URL with your name when you post. I'm hoping that people who have their own web sites will do so, and that this will make posters a little less anonymous. (Note that these URLs will not be followed by search engines like Google, so they cannot be abused to "steal" PageRank.)

Most of the changes are really on the back end, in the adminitrator's interface and in the abuse- and spam-prevention features. I'm hoping that if all works well, you'll see a lot less spam. And it's now much easier for me to make a new discussion group, something which used to take an hour of work, so I may set up several new groups in the future (if you have a good idea for a topic please post it.)

September 26, 2004

September 26, 2004 09/26/2004 01:05 PM

Doug Kaye interviewed me for IT Conversations; you can listen to the audio interview. Dave Walker also interviewed me for the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age; an extended verison of that article is on his site Shorewalker.com< /a>. Finally, Mary Jo Foley came by the Fog Creek office to interview me for Microsoft Watch, which is a subscription-only newsletter.

E-Gov Bulletin - September 2004

E-Gov Bulletin - September 2004 09/20/2004 08:58 AM
Mondaq Sep 20 2004 1:26PM GMT

The Lockergnome Universe for September
2004

The Lockergnome Universe for September
2004 09/01/2004 04:01 AM

Lockergnome's Windows Fanatics: Camtasia Studio v2.0
Lockergnome's IT Professionals: Small Business IT Check List: Security Basics
Lockergnome's Web Developers: Newspaper Does Standards
Lockergnome's RSS & Atom Tips: Egress - PocketPC RSS Reader
Lockergnome's OS X Fanatics: Production Suite
Lockergnome's Linux Fanatics: Latest Security Advisories
Lockergnome's Political Geeks: Text taxation rebellion
Lockergnome's Hardware Help: BTX coming to Gateway
Lockergnome's Technobabble: Slash Your Electric Bill with Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Lockergnome's Media Center: Video Capture
Lockergnome's Game Invasion: Doom 3: A Casual Gamer's Review
Lockergnome's Mobile Lifestyle: Wednesday Scribble
Lockergnome's Search Engineer: Astronomy Resources
Lockergnome's Net Connections: Successful Forums Tip #4: Positive Reinforcement
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch: NASA Plans Robotic Fix for Hubble Space Telescope
Windows File of the Day: PiXPO v1.5

September 2004 Bandwidth Report

September 2004 Bandwidth Report 09/22/2004 04:41 PM
The Bandwidth Report is a monthly roundup of connectivity trends in the US and elsewhere. Each month's bandwidth report offers the latest statistics in Internet connectivity and broadband trends.

OpenChange 20-September-2004
(Documentation)

OpenChange 20-September-2004
(Documentation) 09/19/2004 11:26 PM
An implementation of Microsoft Exchange under Unix platforms.

Pulse News - September 22, 2004

Pulse News - September 22, 2004 09/23/2004 12:41 AM
G4 Tech TV Sep 23 2004 4:53AM GMT

Pulse News - September 2, 2004

Pulse News - September 2, 2004 09/03/2004 02:29 AM
G4 Tech TV Sep 3 2004 6:25AM GMT

MSDN September 2004 Shipment

MSDN September 2004 Shipment 08/27/2004 02:05 PM
-0000 MSDN® Subscription Index - September 2004 (English) -1011.3 Customer Support Diagnostics for Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (English) -2730 Windows® XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies (English) -2728 SQL ServerT 2005 Developer Edition Beta 2 (English) -1891.3 Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 Service Pack 1, SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Service Pack 1 (English) -2758 Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 Standard Edition (English)

Pulse News - September 24, 2004

Pulse News - September 24, 2004 09/25/2004 02:04 AM
G4 Tech TV Sep 25 2004 5:14AM GMT

Pulse News - September 9, 2004

Pulse News - September 9, 2004 09/09/2004 10:05 PM
G4 Tech TV Sep 10 2004 2:36AM GMT

Rhonabwy: September 2004 Archives

Rhonabwy: September 2004 Archives 09/27/2004 12:45 AM
Looks like there’s a new Cocoa SIG in Seattle meeting at the Apple store in the University Village. Sounds like fun.

WaPo September 16th, 2004

WaPo September 16th, 2004 09/17/2004 12:57 AM
WaPo's got a few tidbit .. further confirmed .. rejected .. WaPo

washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24635-2004Sep15?language=printer
track this site | 5 links

Spyware Reviews - September 2004

Spyware Reviews - September 2004 09/20/2004 11:06 AM

php|architect: September 2004 Issue
Released!

php|architect: September 2004 Issue
Released! 09/21/2004 08:14 AM
The September 2004 issue of php|architect has been announced.

Dexter Cartoon for September 3, 2004 -
"The Salesman"

Dexter Cartoon for September 3, 2004 -
"The Salesman" 09/03/2004 02:17 PM

This week's "Dexter" is one I did for a local magazine back the early 1990s, and since it's fairly large I've simply linked to the full cartoon rather than post it here. Keep in mind that I created this long before spam took over our inboxes.

SVG Open 2004: Tokyo, Japan 7-10
September

SVG Open 2004: Tokyo, Japan 7-10
September 08/05/2004 07:43 PM
2004-08-05: SVG Open 2004, the 3rd annual conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, will be held 7-10 September at Keio University, Japan, on the Mita Campus in Tokyo. The conference schedule has courses and presentations and location and accommodation. Registration opens 31 August. A joint event, UPIMap is colocated on 7-9 September. SVG Open is your chance to discuss SVG development experiences, products, workflows and strategies. The conference language is English; translation facilities will be available to encourage English-Japanese communication. Read about SVG. (News archive)

The Australian: US 'endangers
Australians' [September 18, 2004]

The Australian: US 'endangers
Australians' [September 18, 2004] 09/20/2004 03:16 AM
Kerry sister warns: USA 'endangers Australians' .. on America's side .. blaming

theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10797507% 5E2703,00.html
track this site | 3 links

Israel.pm September 2004 Meeting
Announcement

Israel.pm September 2004 Meeting
Announcement 09/06/2004 11:10 PM
offerk writes "On Thursday, September 9, the Israeli Perl Mongers will hold their regular monthly meeting. The program this week: 18:00-19:00 -- Assembly and light refreshments 19:00-20:00 -- Uri Bruck will lecture about A simple method to manipulate open ...

GSA - National Preparedness
Month-September 2004

GSA - National Preparedness
Month-September 2004 08/11/2004 01:34 PM
National politicising homeland security Preparedness Month .. Are You Ready? .. Quote:

gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?pageTypeId=8199&channelI d=-13260&P=WCA&contentId=16903&contentType=GSA_BASIC
track this site | 4 links

Linux Security Week - September 6th 2004

Linux Security Week - September 6th 2004 09/06/2004 02:14 PM

CBS News | Dan Rather Statement On Memos
| September 20, 2004 12:49:59

CBS News | Dan Rather Statement On Memos
| September 20, 2004 12:49:59 09/20/2004 09:24 PM

Linux Advisory Watch - September 3rd
2004

Linux Advisory Watch - September 3rd
2004 09/03/2004 12:22 PM

From the Editor -- September 2004: A
Spectrum of Great Products

From the Editor -- September 2004: A
Spectrum of Great Products 08/11/2004 06:51 AM
Wireless communication on Linux is much more than merely a wireless session at a café.

CBS News | Bush Ranked 22 Of 53 Pilots |
September 7, 2004 20:40:01

CBS News | Bush Ranked 22 Of 53 Pilots |
September 7, 2004 20:40:01 09/09/2004 08:32 PM

Linux Advisory Watch - September 10th
2004

Linux Advisory Watch - September 10th
2004 09/10/2004 11:08 AM

Linux Security Week - September 13th
2004

Linux Security Week - September 13th
2004 09/13/2004 12:59 PM

CBS News | Top Dem Rips Kerry Campaign |
September 14, 2004 20:37:09

CBS News | Top Dem Rips Kerry Campaign |
September 14, 2004 20:37:09 09/16/2004 03:30 AM

September 2004 Security Update for JPEG
Processing (GDI+)

September 2004 Security Update for JPEG
Processing (GDI+) 09/15/2004 03:51 AM
Techzonez Sep 15 2004 7:46AM GMT

The Budget and Economic Outlook: An
Update September 2004

The Budget and Economic Outlook: An
Update September 2004 09/17/2004 08:43 AM

The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update September 2004

The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update September 2004
http://www .cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5773&sequence=0

This volume is one of a series of reports on the state of the budget and the economy that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issues each year. It satisfies the requirement of section 202(e) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 for CBO to submit to the Committees on the Budget periodic reports about fiscal policy and to provide baseline projections of the federal budget. In accordance with CBO's mandate to provide impartial analysis, the report makes no recommendations.

BW Online | September 17, 2004 | A
Firefox in IE's Henhouse

BW Online | September 17, 2004 | A
Firefox in IE's Henhouse 09/17/2004 10:10 AM
BusinessWeek online reports .. very noticeably eroding .. Business Week .. businessweek

businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2004/tc20040917_ 1883_tc119.htm
track this site | 5 links

Linux Advisory Watch - September 24th
2004

Linux Advisory Watch - September 24th
2004 09/24/2004 10:02 AM

Grok Description matches for September 03, 2004
GrokA matches for September 03, 2004

September 03, 2004