Random Curry

I’ve really tried to resist commenting on the ridiculous spectacle of the “financial bailout” going on in Washington this week, but I can’t resist any longer. Watching the staid capitalists and politicians haggle about how many hundreds of billions we need to give to already-rich people brings this scene to my head, and I can’t get it out…

All I can say is, “sheesh”…

After many false starts, the new Lemon Curry Solutions website is operational. Please check it out when you get a free moment!

Yeah, this is off my main topic motif, but I just love the headline:

Florida Officials See Added Hurricane Threat: Not Enough Fear

You see, you cause a threat to the authorities if you’re not sufficiently afraid. It’s impossible to be prepared if you are not fearful. Sigh…

Seems like a brilliant metaphor for the last seven years in America…Glad to see that the Times sees fit to admit it…

This post is about a security update passed out by Microsoft this week to fix a general vulnerability in the Internet’s DNS system:

Patch (the Entire Internet) Tuesday

The laptop my daughter uses at home had the update installed automatically via Windows Update, and after completion found that she could no longer access the Internet. After troubleshooting the problem, I determined that my ZoneAlarm firewall was not allowing access at its (recommended) High security level. I decided to turn down the firewall temporarily, ask my daughter to refrain from going online (no real issue – she has other machines available that can get there), and wait a couple of days for a solution to appear. I found that there is a fix provided by ZoneAlarm, which I installed on my protected PCs this afternoon.

I have several observations about this issue:

According to the ZoneAlarm page about the issue, “Windows Vista is not affected.” Could this be a subtle jab at those of us staying on XP by Microsoft? (Tinfoil hat taken off now )

So, in review, I spent an hour Tuesday diagnosing the problem, and another hour this afternoon downloading the new version of ZoneAlarm and installing it on my protected PCs (including 45 minutes on one laptop that is insanely slow – how did I do business on that machine not two years ago?). I also cast the evil eye on my daughter about the original problem by mistake (sorry, honey), which should be worth some pain and suffering compensation. So, I figure that Microsoft owes me about $500 for my time and trouble – I’ll wait patiently by the mailbox for the check…

Oh, yeah, I’ve been down this road before…

Two great posts from Matt Asay at The Open Road:

Red Hat pitching proprietary lock-in as “open”

Open source a “sign of management failure”

I think that the genesis of these stories is that few business schools cover open source in their business curriculum, and it’s hard for people to learn new tricks…

Preston, why did you do this to yourself?

Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OS X

The flames in the comment section do a great job in refuting this “article,” but please feel free to add to them if you know the truth. For my part, as a recent convert to Mac, I can only say that I have many fewer software problems, my machine is MUCH faster, and I’m using Parallels (WinXP) a great deal less than I thought I would. Everything is simply of higher quality. I don’t regret the move at all, and I feel I still have a lot to learn to make my MacBook even better.

So there!

You don’t see the PeopleSoft name in the press too much any more, but this article brings back some bad memories…

Yahoo seems headed the way of PeopleSoft

One of the beauties, and the downfalls, of the current climate in America is that people can pretty much say anything they want to and have virtually no repercussions if it’s inaccurate or derogatory. I wonder if this author’s text would be any different if, say, her job was on the line about the innuendo and false perception she uses about the Oracle-PeopleSoft situation. I submit that this sort of character assassination had as much to do with PeopleSoft’s downfall as Conway’s reckless tongue…

Yeah, I know, I’m throwing some stuff out too, but I don’t work for CBS MarketWatch…