After reading The Internet Is a Very Sick Place @ Wired.com, it seems clear to me that the industry is failing miserably at learning from its mistakes. These neanderthal authors keep nailing us with the same old out of the box, let's see if this will work again, I have 5 minutes with nothing better to do so let's create some havoc, type viruses. We are not even nipping at their tails... not even forcing them to be creative and stay one step ahead of us. No. Instead we keep bending over and taking the same beating with same stick, over and over.
Perhaps I am expecting too much, or perhaps the industry realizes there is more money to be made by not addressing the fundamental shortcomings of our software/hardware.
Or could it be that “Joe“ users out there are so brain dead and incompetent, that regardless of efforts to curb these vulnerabilities, we are hopelessley doomed to the reality that they will always be suckered into propagating these viruses?
Am I alone here? Should we not be doing a better job?
The year 2003 has been deemed the worst in computer-virus history by security experts, despite the fact that worm and virus writers displayed no significant technological progress in the code of their newest nasty little creations.
But why bother to develop new tricks when the old ones work so well? This year computer worms managed to shut down ATMs, slow airline and train travel by infecting reservation and signaling systems, clog emergency phone services, and crash networks controlling critical systems at hospitals and at least one nuclear power plant.
Plan on downloading some music in the new year? Wanna get the low down on our choices for Digital Music Stores?
Brian Biggs at BBSpot.com provides us with a comprehensive review of ...
iTunes Music Store
Napster
Musicmatch
Rhapsody
Wal Mart
BuyMusic
EMusic
MSDN has just posted a new show outlining how Longhorn was presented and received at the PDC.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to troll for some links where I could find some more audio/video resources for .NET, Longhorn or related technologies. Perhaps some of you might have something to add to the short list of resources I have come up with so far.
.NET Rocks
MSDN Online Seminars
MSDN TV
MSDN Webcasts
The .NET Show
VBTV
I also wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am a independent consultant working in Ottawa, Canada and pursuing the ever illusive title of .NET GOD. I have been contracting for 10 years and have always focused on software development using Microsoft Technologies. I look forward to rambling, ranting, and debating the issues with you all. I might even manage to pull of the odd thought provoking insight!
Went to an MSDN Event (Turbo Charging ASP.NET Applications) last night in Ottawa. Although I didn't bite on any of Compuware's pitches for various products, I was very impressed with there profiler (DevPartner Profiler Community Edition) for VS.NET that was used throughout the presentation. Integrates very nicely with the VS.NET IDE, quality/content & presentation of profiling is well done, nice graphing capability, and the documentation seemed sufficient and complete.
Ironic that none of the products they pitched impressed me, however this FREE profiler that they were using had me itching to get out of my seat so I could run home and give it a test drive myself. Go figure!
DevPartner Profiler Resources (Updated August 31, 2004)
Download DevPartner Profiler
Code Review with FxCop and DevPartner