Today I decided to go ahead and install IE 7 Beta 2, expecting of the ugly browser I dealt with while using Beta 1, this is what I found instead. After so long with IE as the “ugly duckling” of the browsing world, the Internet Explorer team seems to have built something with some degree of quality. While there’s still a lot needed to secure its weakening position in the market, this will have a real impact.
IE has been on a slow decline for so long due to Microsoft’s unwillingness (or inability) to even keep up the it’s competitors innovations, much less come up with an original idea. These changes are going to represent a huge step forward for IE, and it’s market domination. It’s about time that the powers that be in Redmond open there eyes.
“Is this enough?” – I’m asking myself as I write this, will this save IE and end the browser war? Or, perhaps users are now educated enough in the existence of options to still choose what works best? If MS moves fast enough, I think this will slow the trend of moving away for IE to Firefox & Opera, but will it save IE in the long run?
Firefox & Opera are both a generation ahead of IE, and still gaining. This new version will have a profound impact in the near future, but will Microsoft continue to invest in keeping up? They’ve poured considerable resources into this update, the question is, will they keep it up after IE 7 goes gold?
Their competitors will, to that there is no question, this poses a real test for Microsoft, not in power or money – but in the willpower to fund a product that they give away. I guess it comes down to a simple question: What’s market domination worth?
Recently a programmer I know decided that it was time for a career change, leaving the IT field entirely. This gave me cause to think; what does it take to be a great developer. Many people go through school believing they have what it takes, only to receive a rude awaking once they enter the real world.
Before I go on, I think it’s important to define what I mean by developer, and the differences between a developer and a programmer.
Piracy is bad, right? Maybe not, and it seems Microsoft figured it out. Piracy can be indirectly profitable, both by giving you additional customers that you may collect from at some future point, and it also serves to reduce or limit the market share of rivals. Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, acknowledged this back in 1998 while speaking at the University of Washington, saying:
Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software.
Inspired by a post from Scott Arciszewski, I’ve decided to go ahead and publish a year in review post. This is something that I’ve generally avoided in the past, as the tone of these posts is more often than not, just cynicism and negativity. After seeing Scott’s post, it made me think about how such a review can be used to send a positive message — something desperately needed.
Year after year, we see predictions, projections, and sales pitches — and the cynical responses that they always generate.
…or, The Cost of Wild Speculation.
“We need to boost our security – I think the NSA has broken everything we use. AES-256 is too weak, I don’t trust it. Find a way to implement AES-512.”
Double-AES-256! It’d be easy, and double encrypting has never bitten us before. So, let’s write some code!
def encrypt(msg, iv, key) return e(e(msg, iv, key.slice(0..31)), iv, key.slice(32..63)) end def decrypt(cipher, iv, key) return d(d(cipher, iv, key.
Update: LastPass has confirmed that they’ll address this issue in the next release.
Update 2: LastPass has addressed this issue in their new v2.0 release. There is still a way to bypass the password prompt in Chrome, but they will address that in the next release. Overall, it looks like we can close the books on this one.
I’m a big fan of LastPass – it’s a great service that has impressed me every step of the way.
