So I was going to write a rebuttal of the blog entry I just read. It was a standard piece of technical hyperbole, so beloved of us “big picture developers.” Beginning at a false assertion, this blog entry took us forward to a glorious future, where programming is simple and we are all safe and happy, because of the wonderous wonderfulness of Technology Foo. Not that I’ve ever written anything like that myself, every couple of months right here on this blog * cough *.
Like I said, I was going rebut this offensive article, but my darling wife happened to peer over my shoulder and read a paragraph. She said, “That doesn’t make sense. It’s just a lot of big words all strung together.” And of course she was right – it was merely a wierd, esoteric pontification, and my nit-picking counter-argument would have been pure vanity. So I’m not going to get involved with the futile and insignificant, not tonight anyway. I think I’ll go watch Law and Order intead.
Gmail is working well for me. Provided that Google don’t suddenly turn evil, or go Chapter 11 and trash my email, it looks like I’ll be with them for the long term.
Found this paragpraph in a Microsoft document (downloadable from the Microsoft website) which sets forth the embrace-and-extend strategy for the IEEE Internet Printing Protocol (IPP):
RPC Printer Connection through Web Browser — Preferred Method
[When printing over an intranet], Windows automatically creates an RPC true-connect printer connection. True-connect, or UNC, connections have many benefits over true IPP printer connections and should be used for intranet printing (local to the company) where the security setting in Internet Explorer can be set to medium-low safely. True-connect connections are supported through the Windows remote spooler, which is where the vast majority of Microsoft’s future innovation will be — in the RPC printer connection rather than the IPP printer connection state.
Microsoft technically support the IEEE standard, but – through recommendation and program default – direct their users to a proprietary interface that is rather similar to the standard interface. They plan to extend this proprietary interface in future, moving customers even further from the standard. I particularly admire the plausible muddling of “true-connect printer connections”, with “true IPP printer connections.”