J-F Bilodeau's Blog @ chronogears.com

Having a Microsoft Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:43:00 +0000

What a day yesterday.

I had the dubious pleasure of delivering a SharePoint 2007 development course. The course was set on a Windows Server 2008, running SharePoint, IIS, SQL Server, Visual Studio and Office 2007.

My training career spans more than 10 years, and I've seen courses that went smooth as silk and courses that went terrible. However, I have never encountered a course as difficult as the one I just delivered.

A couple of crashes is to be expected, but to have Internet Explorer 7 crash every five minutes (literally!), and Visual Studio crash at least two dozen times and IIS blow up for no reasons is something I have never seen. As for the overall performance, let's just say that the course made very powerful machines look rather wimpy.

At least the participants had a chance to learn what they came to learn, and left reasonably satisfied. On the other hand, I'm not satisfied, since I know the course could have gone much more smoothly.

Oh well, it's water under the bridge and another nasty Microsoft story to add to my bible. for now, I'm back with my Linux machines, where souped-up hardware is not necessary to gain decent performance. Things work. I'm happy.

Been a while

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:36:00 +0000

I haven't posted in a while. I was on vacation, so please forgive me. However, I'm back at work, but then, I'm expecting my baby boy in about three weeks, so there may be silence for a while again.

There has been many minor events in the world of free software, but nothing earth shattering. My only frustration is ISO and their handling of the OOXML appeals.

Also, some of you may have heard that Viacom is suing Google over YouTube. Viacom is the owner of MTV, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks. The suit has been ongoing ever since Google purchased YouTube. Viacom's claim is that YouTube is a haven of illegal movie uploads. To prove their point, Viacom has asked the judge that Google hand over all their user accounts as well as a list of all the videos they watched. The idea is that Viacom wants to demonstrate that copyrighted videos are more popular than non-copyrighted videos.

I think that it's only fair that Viacom attempts to protect their copyright. However, I cannot accept Viacom's request for identifiable user information. This means that Viacom would not only be able to know which videos are more popular on YouTube, they know immediately know who are the copyright infringer.

On one hand, it's true that whoever illegally uploads and whoever watches a copyrighted video on YouTube may be breaking the law. On the other, it's setting up the Internet to become a corporate police state.

In my opinion, Viacom is simply playing dirty to win the lawsuit against Google — a rather short-sighted strategy to control their copyright-catalog. It's the type of corporate action that pits David against Goliath — David being Google, the good guy.

Though I don't foresee this backfiring too much in Viacom's face, I'm of the opinion that Viacom will loose more than it will gain from this lawsuit even should they win.

On a personal note, I've aquired a mayhem device, also known as a video camera. Of course, the first victims of my mayhem device was the pets. The following video is the result.

Of course, it has been posted on YouTube ;). You may notice I've used copyrighted music. I would like to claim Fair Use.

Hope you have a great day!

Firefox Adoption

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:57:00 +0000

I was intrigued by this article from PC Pro in the UK about the trailblazing pace of Firefox 3.0 adoption. It turns out that just after 10 days, the number of visitors using Firefox 3.0 is outnumbering those using Firefox 2.0. Wow! Talk about success!

Just for the fun of it, I looked at my (completely unscientific and scewed) site stats. It turns out that the number are very similar for me. Before June 17^th, it turns out that Firefox 2.0 was already in the lead, followed by Firefox 3.0.

Here are the stats over a 32 day period:

Before June 17^th:


Firefox 3 52.87%
Firefox 2 45.98%
Firefox 1 1.15%

On June 17^th and after:


Firefox 3 62.00%
Firefox 2 38.00%

For the sake of comparison, here's how Firefox fared between the other browsers.

Before June 17^th:


Firefox            85.29%
Internet Explorer  11.76%
Mozilla             1.96%
Safari              0.98%

On June 17^th and after:


Firefox            86.21%
Internet Explorer   8.62%
Opera             5.17%

So, what conclusions should we draw behind these stats?

Well, to begin with, I don't think my site counts as a solid benchmark of Firefox for two reasons. I think it's fair to say that a lot of my visitors are like-minded and a lot of my regulars are friends and family. Most of them will be using Firefox.

The only surprise is that Firefox 3 was already ahead of Firefox 2 on my site 16 days before the release. This is most likely due to me encouraging my friends to try the latest beta.

I'm happy to see that Firefox is going to strong on my site — and not all of those visits are from people I know.

Beyond that, I'll let you draw your own conclusion.

Have a great day!

How Microsoft Won and is Loosing

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Steve Ballmer had it right. Developer developer developer!

The prime reason why Windows won over OS/2, the MacIntosh and even MS-DOS was thanks to the mighty influx of application that crept up for the OS. And the only way that those applications existed was thanks to developers.

Thought the Windows API are not the most graceful API I've encountered, they were reasonably well documented. I learned the Win16 and Win32 APIs mostly by reading the MSDN help files.

Using the simple tactic of ensuring that developers would favour the Windows platform early on, Microsoft achieved dominance in the operating system market.

But what is happening today? Balmer has been singing a different tune for the past few year. Since the rocketing rise of Microsoft's stocks capped in 2000, the behemoth is now struggling to pierce new markets while retaining their heavy monopoly.

It's interesting to see Microsoft running like a chicken with it's head cut off. Vista is a disaster, they are still loosing money in their search and gaming division and .NET is barely making a dent in the Java marketplace. Let's not even mention their iPod killer: the Zune.

If it wasn't for the near monopoly on Windows and Office, Microsoft would be hemoraging money faster than the speed of sound. BANG! Bankrupcy before they know it.

I think the reason is pretty clear. Microsoft is now spitting in the face of the very people that brought them to where they are: the developers.

Balmer himself said that he would like open source innovations to happen on Windows. However, he seems (or chooses) to be clueless about the free software philosophy.

Balmer can push all he wants, but he should realize that developers are usually intelligent folks. Many open source developers are quite brilliant. I do believe that most developers can smell bullcaca when it is spewed out of someone's mouth.

Genuine honesty free of marketspeak is not something you often hear from Microsoft!

It's certainly not by forcing proprietary software or standards down the FOSS developer's throat that Microsoft is going to win any friends. Neither is it going to give developers the desire or even the posibility to innovate.

Personally, I like computers to work for me and not the other way around. That's one of the many reasons I don't use Windows &mdash I cannot stand an OS that thinks it can tell me how I should work.

ODF is the Winner: Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:31:00 +0000

I'm kinda worried when Microsoft themselves declare that ODF is the clear winner in the OOXML-ODF war.

However, I think I can agree with Microsoft. The whole ISO/OOXML saga gave ODF a huge boost both in terms of popularity and credibility. This means that more people and organizations are aware of ODF than ever before.

I've long learns not to take anything Microsoft says at face value, so I'm a bit concerned about the statement. Maybe the statement is genuine, but I can't help but think that Microsoft has something up their sleeve. Until they display they ace, I'll keep my eyes and ears open.

Microsoft and Québec

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:00:00 +0000

"Vive le Québec Libre!"

I'm both honoured and weary of Microsoft's reach in Quebec.

The honour comes from the fact that Microsoft is calling their next version of Windows Embedded 'Quebec.' It's nice to see Canada recognized again.

However, using Canadian landscapes to win me over. Things like recognizing the GPL and supporting standards (instead of redeveloping them) would make me look at Microsoft again.

I'm also weary of Microsoft and their deal with the government of Quebec. Microsoft recently objected public access to the deals, since it would "likely risk to cause serious prejudice to our client and would procure the competition an appreciable advantage and would substantially undermine the competitivity of our client."

What I find interesting is that both IBM and Novell had no quorum against exposing the deal. So, what does Microsoft have to hide? What kind of prejudice would it place on the government of Quebec? If Microsoft feels that if would procure a appreciable advantage to their competition, does that mean that Microsoft has priced their products well above that of their competitors? What else was in the deal?

I'll keep my eyes on http://blogs.savoirfairelinux.net/cyrilleberaud/ and see which way this story goes. I'm sure it worth it!

"Vive le Québec Enchainé!"

The MS-OOXML Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:47:00 +0000

Venezuela appealed OOXML as well, following the lead of South Africa, Brazil and India. Norway has also filed a letter of protest.

Though the news is interesting, what I find even more interesting is that it seems that even discussion of OOXML usually leads to Microsoft and/or Office.

The reason why I find this interesting is that no other companies are ever mentioned as direct benefiters beyond Microsoft. If the standard is truly a standard, why is only one company's name attached to it.

It's true that Microsoft created the standard, but why is Corel or Apple — supposed backer of the standard — never mentioned? Why are so many headlines along the line of 'Microsoft looses OOXML war?'

I don't know about you, but that tells me that there is only one company that stood to win from OOXML, and that's Microsoft. Let's face the fact: Microsoft did not create OOXML out of the goodness of their heart, or with inter-compatibility in their mind. OOXML was simply another tool in their lock-in arsenal.

Though ODF, MS-OOXML's so-called competitor was created originally with OpenOffice in mind, it has grown and evolved thanks to their own standardization process. Companies like IBM, Novell, Sun Microsystem and Google all participate to the development of ODF.

In the case of OOXML, who gets to participates in its future development?

Here's a hint

This is one of the many reasons I cannot support any Microsoft-controlled technologies or standards. No matter how 'open' they claim to be, Microsoft develops in secrecy, and announces specific features as they are getting close to completion. This ensures that any competing project continuously have to play catch-up with Microsoft. The standards controlled by Microsoft are pegs in the sand, and it's Microsoft that chooses where to put those pegs.

Who wants to play a game against an opponent who is also the referee?

Good News All Abound

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:52:00 +0000

Yay!

OOXML has been formally appealed by South Africa, Brazil and India. Microsoft has announced that they will support ODF 1.1 in Office 2007. However, they will not even support OOXML until the next version of Office.

To keep up with the good news, Internet Explorer 8 will finally be standards compliant. As a web developer, this is such a relief! No more double standards for web pages.

Furthermore, thanks to the success of the Eee PC, Linux is becoming more and more ubiquitous. Desktop Linux is, in my (no so) humble opinion at a level that is above that of Windows and the Mac. Not only do you have choice, but if you compare the ease of use of Gnome or KDE, I think that Linux is a powerful contender. The only obstacle that remains is education. Windows users need to unlearn things like C:\ drives or the pain of running setup programs.

Finally, even Novell is reporting success in the Linux front. I took the plunge and installed Novell's openSUSE, and thus far I'm greatly enjoying it. As much as I like Ubuntu, I would hate for a single Linux distribution to become the 'defacto standard,' just like I would hate to see Gnome or KDE displace one or the other. Choice and competition are good.

I'm so excited to see real competition gearing up in the world of informatics. I'm afraid that the Microsoft monopoly has set us back a number of years from where we could be in terms of technology. For example, it if hadn't been for Internet Explorer slowing the adoption of standard HTML, then CSS, where would the web be now?

Oh well. That's water under the bridge. Now that we are freeing ourself from the Microsoft stranglehold, who know what real innovation we are going to see in the world of computing.

What is Windows?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:00:00 +0000

What is Windows? Yeah, I know, it's supposed to be an operating system, but I'm completely confused as to what is Windows.

Here's the situation. My work laptop is back. Of course, I promptly installed Ubuntu 8.04. Now, Ubuntu, like most Linux distribution is much more than an operating system. You get the rock-solid Linux kernel, the GNU tools, and a full-fledge desktop environment. By full-fledged, I mean that I have my office suite, Internet browser, email program, photo management and photo editing software, games, and other miscellaneous doodads. The whole thing takes a little over 2G. Oh, and none of those programs are crippled trialware.

Now comes the fun part: installing Windows Vista Ultimate!

Installing Vista is actually straight forward. Similar to Ubuntu, you just pop in the installation CD and reboot. Unfortunately, there's not 'live DVD' for Windows, so you can't try it on your hardware before you install it. That would have been really nice, as you'll see later.

Moving ahead, I went through the necessary motions (like entering the insanely long activation code). Vista installed. Vista rebooted. Vista came up. It took a little longer to install than Ubuntu but not too much, especially considering that the whole thing takes 10G of disk space already!

Now, for the fun part: Pop! pop! pop! pop!

That's the sound of all the popups that came up after the installation — or at least that would be the sound if my sound worked.

Windows Activation was one of the biggest annoyance. It complained that it had to phone home and validate with Microsoft that I'm allowed to run Vista — but it cant! Why? Well, both my wired and wireless network cards do not run.

Now, I should specify that the laptop is about half a year old. The version of Windows Vista comes with SP1, which means that it should be up to date, right?

So, here I am with 10G of hard disk space eaten up by an operating system that threatens to cripple its functionality if I don't phone home, but the operation system cannot phone home. Ouch! I can't even download the drivers, since I can't connect to the Internet.

We'll skip over the hunt for drivers and move ahead to the next interesting part about Windows Vista Ultimate. For the price, it contains remarkably little. I mean, I've got a web browser that passes as a poor imitation of Firefox, a crippled word processor called WordPad that supports only RTF or plain text and a paint programs that reminds me of my DOS days. My computer is barely powerful enough to support the whizzbang visual effects and is better without it.

(Do I need to mention that the 'whizzbang' effects are turned on in Ubuntu?)

So, here's my question to anyone who wishes to answer it: what the heck is Windows? What is the 10G for? What am I paying so much money for?

I mean, it can't be for the glitzy user interface, since that's been available long before Windows Vista (Mac OS X, XGL). It can't be for the load of default applications that are installed on it, since it's pretty naked for an operating system. It can't be for development purpose since I can't seen to find a single compiler on it, much less a decent text editor. It can't be for its hardware support since it was missing drivers for at least 7 devices on my older laptop. It can't be for it's performance, since Ubuntu is more responsive, boots faster and uses less memory.

I'm starting to suspect it's for games, since a lot of games are written for Windows. Is Windows Vista a really, really expensive virtual game console? Actually, I just learned that it's probably not the case. I just tried to run Civilization IV on Vista, and it told me that it had compatibility problems. It doesn't sound like it's the best operating system for games.

The other possibility is that people want to run Microsoft Office. Yes, Microsoft Office is a nice office suite, but I've been using OpenOffice.org since the StarOffice days. True, OpenOffice does not have all the features of Microsoft Office like talking paper clips or online activation, but it serves me marvelously well — and it has a real drawing toolbar instead of the silly ribbon. That ribbon may be great for Office neophytes, but is a total hindrance for power users.

But I digress. Let me close by saying that it's true that the best things in life are free.

Windows Vista is No Help

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:38:00 +0000

Since my work laptop is being repaired, I have the pleasure to work on another laptop running Windows Vista. I feel like I'm working on a poor imitation of Mac OS X that has been designed by a marketing committee. Actually, the whole thing feels like it was designed by multiple committees, each striving to do their best job, but always having to compromise to meet the needs of another committee. Unlike the Mac OS, or a Linux Desktop, it has no personality — no soul. I think that Vista should win the Best Jumble of Ideas with the Worst Implementation Possible award.

Here was my surprise this morning. I was working in Microsoft Access 2007, when I accidentally hit F1. For those who may not know, the F1 key is typically used to bring up the help.

And help it did bring me indeed. Here's the screenshot:

Wow. So, I can't open Office 2007's help on Windows Vista. Did two committees forget to meet?

Here's the official reason why Windows Help is no longer included in Windows:

Ever since Windows 3.1, Microsoft included the Windows Help program (WinHlp32.exe) with new releases. WinHlp32.exe is used to view 32-bit Help files that have the .hlp file name extension. Starting with the release of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has decided to no longer include in WinHlp32.exe as a component of the Windows operating system. Microsoft made this decision because WinHlp32.exe has not had a major update for many years, and it does not meet Microsoft’s standards for all new Microsoft programs. Microsoft realizes that this may cause some difficulties for customers who want to upgrade to Windows Vista or to Windows Server 2008 but still rely on 32-bit .hlp files. Therefore, Microsoft is making WinHlp32.exe available as a download from the Microsoft Download Center. (Source)

So, an incomplete product is considered a higher standard than a product that is used by millions of people but has not been updated by the very company that made that product. Wow. I'm sure if I were a Microsoft customer, I'm sure I would feel content knowing that Microsoft is watching out for my best interest. I mean, I'm sure glad Microsoft invested in transparent title bars (that I had to turn off) instead of updating such a crucial component to Windows.

Which brings me back to an earlier question: What the heck is Windows anyway?

Microsoft Windows for (Nearly) Free?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Sat, 17 May 2008 01:29:00 +0000

This is a follow up to Microsoft Windows for Free?

Shortly after I wrote this entry, a couple of interesting events occurred. As I predicted, Microsoft went ahead to compete with Linux on ultramobile PCs (UMPC) like the Eee PC. They are now offering Windows XP Home for $32 US. It's not free, but it's getting close to cheap. Actually, it's not free in either sense of the word, since Microsoft dictates what it considers a UMPC. The maximum specs are: 1G of RAM, 80G of hard disk space, single-core processor running at 1Ghz, screen size of 10.2 inches and no touch screen capability. Anything higher than that requires the vendor to buy Windows XP at their regular price.

That's fair. It's their product, so they can choose how it's licensed. However, I fail to see how they plan to compete with Linux on this field with those restrictions. Furthermore, the $32 US is only for Windows. This means that if you want Word or Excel, be ready to fork out more money. I'd be surprise that Microsoft would allow the vendors to ship Windows with OpenOffice prepackaged. Have fun playing Minesweeper!

With Ubuntu, I have a full fledged desktop with my office suite. The full install that takes up less disk space than Windows — And the $32 stays in my pocket.

Another interesting event is the fact that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) recently announced that they would support Windows XP on the XO laptop. What a shame. To me, that alienates the whole concept of the XO — learning. How can they learn in a closed, controlled and censored system that greatly limits their freedom. Some of those children who are growing up in a dictatorship are denied yet another freedom. That is a massive loss for them.

Those poor children are denied freedom in the world of computing to further entrench the monopoly of an American company. I cannot help but wonder what goes on in the mind of folks who are more concerned with buying yet another, bigger yacht on the back of those children.

I remember in the early days that OLPC decided that the XO should only use free software (as in free speech). Thus, both Windows and Mac OS X were refused early on. Steve Jobs, president of Apple, went as far as offering Mac OS X for free (as in beer) for the XO, but was denied, since he would not free (as in speech) the software.

In their 'philanthropic' move, Microsoft is charging about $3 for Windows XP. Of course, that does not include Office or anything like that. Just Windows (Yay! Minesweeper!). Furthermore, to allow the XO to dual boot between Windows and Linux, the machine will cost an additional $7 to make.

Since Microsoft is all about their image, I was surprised that they did not offer Windows for free as Steve Jobs did with Mac OS X. I mean, $3 per copy isn't going to register a blip on Microsoft's revenue radar. So, why?

The only thing I can see is anti-thrust. Microsoft is having enough problems with the EU and the Department of Justice, that they may be reticent to offer Windows for free out of fear that it will be perceived as an anti-competitive move.

Though I may be painting Microsoft as a nasty, greedy ogre, we have to remember that they cannot force people to buy their products. They are doing a fantastic job of both painting their software as the 'only' option and — more importantly — hiding the true monetary cost of buying (and using) Microsoft software.

As long as the average consumer remains ignorant of both of those aspects, they may never realize that there are alternatives — much less of the need for those alternatives.

Ubuntu Vs. Windows Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Wow. What can I say? I actually had a chance to work on Vista. Really! Since the hard disk in my work laptop died, I was given another portable pre-installed with Windows Vista.

What an experience. It's an HP dual core 1.9GHz 2G laptop with an nVidia graphics card. It should fly, right? Well, it flew about as gracefully as a turtle on it's back in the middle of the highway.

For comparison, I'm currently writing this blog from an older Gateway machine running on an AMD Turion 64 (single core), 1G of RAM with a Radeon XPress 200M. running (for now) Ubuntu 7.10. The machine was out of commission since I dropped an entire cup of coffee into the DVD drive. Thankfully, the folks at Farstar Networking in Alexandria did a fantastic job resurrecting it for a fraction of the cost I would have assumed it would have been.

However, back to Vista. For starters, after I had booted, the machine was already sucking up >700MB of ram. That leaves less than 1.3G to run my applications. That's not overly bad, since I've go to 2G on the HP, but my Gateway has only 1G. So, forget about running Vista on it. In Ubuntu, running the Gnome desktop with Compiz, Apache, MySQL, Firefox 2, Thunderbird and a system update, I'm not quite at the 475MB watermark.

I've heard a lot of folks complain about the performance of Vista. I finally had a chance to experience this first hand. Yuk! Is it ever SLOW. I could not even drag a window without the system studdering. Furthermore, I got kind notification from Norton Anti-Virus that my subscription was expired, and I should renew. What's that about my credit card number? I forgot what it's like to run an OS where you need an anti-virus. Let's not get into the endless array of continual popups.

Here's my first major gripe: No package manager. HP installed tons of crap on the laptop, including a (I would assume) redundant wireless connection manager, a trial version of Norton, tons of little application that are — supposedly — there to improve the user experience, and god knows what else. Time to clean the system!

I crack open the Add/Remove program, click on the first application, hold down control, and click on the next. Guess what? You can't! In Windows, you can only uninstall a single application at a time. Furthermore, it takes forever to remove the tiniest of application. Oh, and let's not get into the reboots. Remember, I'm cleaning this up because I need to get some work done. How much fun is it when all of a sudden, all your windows starts to close one after an other, and the machine reboots. Oh, I just love it when my operating system controls me. Sure! I love being a slave to the machine. Kiss your freedom goodbye.

On the other hand, I want to upgrade my Eee PC to Ubuntu 8.04. Unfortunately, I lacked disk space. No problem. I cracked open Synaptic package manager, selected a number of application for uninstallation, clicked Apply, and waited while the applications were removed. By the time the applications were removed, Windows Vista had finished booting, and was almost at the desktop. Of course, that was just one of the many reboots I had to do with Vista. None so far on the Eee PC!

Vista is slow. I asked one of my Windows Guru how I could turn off Areo. After digging around a bit, my guru showed me the option where I could chose the Windows Basic theme instead of Areo. What a difference this makes!!! I can move my Windows without feeling like the system is about to go into terminal shock. Here, on my Gateway, I've got Compiz working with the wobbly windows and all the fun graphic effects. It works great &mdash smooth as silk. Oh, and the Gateway is Windows Vista Capable. Not Ready, which means that Areo would not even work on the machine. My Eee PC is running eeeXubuntu with Compiz as well. It's pretty!

As a last point, one of my coworker asked about an 'upgrade path' from Vista Home to Vista Premium. He needed to upgrade Vista so he could run SQL Server Reporting Services (if I'm not mistaken). The software does not run on Windows Home. Not because Windows Home is incapable of running it, but because Microsoft thinks you should not. That is why I love free software. I come from a country that enjoys freedom of expression, movement, religion, etc. I cannot imagine myself relinquishing any of those fundamental freedoms for any price. It's the same thing with software.

I'm a free person. I refuse to pay for proprietary software that limits your freedom when there are perfectly good (better!) free solution out there.

In closing, my Eee PC quietly upgraded to Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04). One reboot was all it took. I then reinstalled whatever applications I had removed. No reboots. Everything works. Don't you wish it was the same in Windows? (To be fair, the wireless card did not come back up. But it took two minutes of googling, and found a simple solution)

While I'm writing this on my Windows-Vista-Incapable Gateway laptop running Ubuntu 7.10, I'm upgrading to Hardy Heron. Can you work on your machine while you are upgrading your Windows version?

If the answer is no, I would then ask you: why not?

Oh, and you paid how much for Windows Vista? And that does not even include an office suite???

<SHOCK>!!!!</SHOCK>

Thank you Microsoft!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:24:00 +0000

Microsoft is considered by many open source advocates to be the arch-enemy of Linux and free software. I think it's fair to say that Microsoft fears the success of Linux and the free/open source movement. They are doing their best to make compete. However, free software is not their traditional competitor.

Because GNU/Linux is free (as in speech), and is freely (speech & beer) available to anyone, they cannot buy it out and close it as they have done with some past competitor. Because free software is developed by a (tightly or loosely knit) community that may or may not receive corporate sponsorship, they cannot hinder the development. Because the software is free (as in beer), they cannot compete in terms of price. Even Internet Explorer is more expensive than Firefox. Though it may be a 'free' download, remember that you must buy Windows to have Internet Explorer. Thus, as part of what you pay in Windows, you also get Internet Explorer. In other words, Internet Explorer is just another (unfortunately inseparable) component of Windows — not a free download.

Finally, Microsoft cannot compete in terms of freedom. Their End User License Agreement (EULA) determines what you can and cannot do with their software. In the free software world, the license protect both your freedom to use the software, and the freedom of the software.

So, how is a multibillion dollar corporation to compete against the penguin and the likes? FUD is their answer. FUD stands for 'Fear, Uncertainties & Doubt'. Or, in Microsoftspeak, 'Get The Facts.'

In the hopes of driving people away from Linux and free software, Microsoft created a site called getthefacts.com. The site is a direct attack on free software. Though the so-called 'facts' presented by Microsoft are an assault on both intelligence and reason, I think that the biggest looser of the site is Microsoft and a major victory for Linux. For starters, I think that any reasonably intelligent person understand that asking a Honda salesperson what they think of the Ford Focus over the Civic will not get them an unbiased, objective answer. Why should it be any different with Microsoft?

What MSFT may not realize is by setting up getthefacts.com, they have provided immense exposure to GNU/Linux and the free software movement. The website presented free software as a true competitor and alternative to Microsoft products. Folks that had never heard of Linux before are now becoming aware of it thanks to Microsoft. Furthermore, IT directors who rely on Microsoft to keep them up to date with the industry are kindly informed of alternatives to Windows and Office.

For this, I say Thank You Microsoft. There is nothing like corporate backing to promote free software. After all, it's time that Microsoft catches up with the market, and joins the ranks of Novell, IBM, HP, Apple, etc who are all users and backer of free software.

Glossy or Matte Screens

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:52:00 +0000

About two years ago, matte screens on laptops began to be replaced by glossy screens. The difference is that matte screens were non-reflective, while glossy screen were reflective. This meant that an unfortunately-positioned light-source would reflect on a glossy screen, and make the text difficult to read. That has since been addressed, and glossy screens are (mostly) non reflective.

Glossy screens are pretty much standard now. You'd be hard pressed to find a matte screen on a laptop. However, I still hear from users that they prefer the matte screen.

But which one is better?

The last two laptops I've worked with (Gateway & HP) were both glossy. I actually liked the glossy screen. My newest laptop is an Eee PC. I love the little thing, and it serves me marvelously well. However, I'm starting to realize that its matte screen makes the screen harder to read. I think I would have been happier with a glossy screen.

After having used matte and glossy screens, I think that I'm decided: Glossy it is for me. The screen is so much easier to read.

Control Panel for the Eee PC

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:25:00 +0000

This week, I wrote a small Eee PC control panel that takes advantage of the wonderful eee kernel module. The control panel runs in the background and is available through the system tray. Pointing on the icon gives the general status of your Eee PC. A click on the icon will bring up the actual panel. From there, you can control the fan, the front-side bus (overclocking) and the voltage (from what I can understand).

Obligatory screenshots:
The system tray icon & tooltip

The control panel

The control panel is written in Gtk+, and works great on my eeeXubuntu. I would assume that it works fine on the default Xandros install or even (K)ubuntu. From start to end, the control panel was created on the Eee PC, proving that it can be used to get actual work done.

For the convenience of Debian or Ubuntu users, I've create a deb package. Otherwise, a tarball is available with a pre-compiled version of the control panel as well as the full source code. Of course, it's all GPL ;) Please copyleft.

eeectl.deb
eeectl.tar.bz2

Before you install the control panel, make sure you install the eee kernel module available at http://code.google.com/p/eeepc-linux/. Detailed installation instructions are available at http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:overclockfsb.

This is a first for me in many ways, so please forgive any stupidity or ignorance on my part. I've used Gtk, Glade and GkSu APIs for the first time, and I've created my first .deb package. I'm more than willing to learn from any guru who may find improvements to my little application.

Of course, usage of the Eee PC Control Panel is entirely at your own risk. Though I use it on my own machine, I cannot be held responsible if you fry or brick your little machine.

Hope you enjoy!

(Before you ask, there is no Windows version, nor do I intend on creating a Windows version. For starters, I'm not willing to buy a Windows license for my Eee PC. Someone else can take care of that)

Beware the Microsoft Poison Pill

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:17:00 +0000

As someone who uses mostly free and open source software, I can't help but be wary and cynical of Microsoft's position toward open standards.

If you are wondering why many of the members of the open source community feels that way, here are some facts:

Microsoft is well known for their Embrace, extend and extinguish (EEE) tactic. The moment a standard comes out that is supported by the industry, Microsoft launches their old tactic. They will 'adopt' the standard. Make changes to it that will only work with their software, ensuring that the standard becomes a Microsoft-only standard. Then, when the competition is mostly dead, they drop support for it.

Here are some notorious examples:

Refusing to support CSS standard for nearly a decade to ensure that webpages had to be formatted specifically for Internet Explorer.
Attempting to break Java's write-once-run-anywhere promise by adding Microsoft-only extensions.
Support for Unix applications using POSIX
Support for OpenGL to which Microsoft created a competing standard: Direct3D.

Each of the above technologies were once embraced by Microsoft, and most of them have been mostly abandoned. There are many more examples.

Another notorious tactic is to release multiplatform products to accelerate their acceptance as a 'standard,' then abandon support for those products. Examples include:

Internet Explorer for the Mac and UNIX.
Windows Media Player for the Mac
'Sponsoring' Silverlight on Linux through Moonlight.

In the words of PJ from Groklaw, 'People aren't as dumb as Microsoft needs them to be' and I'm very thankful for that. Sure, there are folks that are strong partisans of Microsoft, paid or not. However, I think that the majority of the world is starting to realize that Microsoft is not all the gold and glitter they pretend to be. The EEE tactic is starting to backfire at Microsoft. For example, Opera has recently filed a lawsuit against Microsoft. In their press release they make mention of the "Embrace, Extend and Extinguish" strategy by name.

But EEE is not the only tactic that Microsoft uses, especially recently. I may not be a fan of Microsoft, but I don't think they are stupid. They are not where they are today in the marketplace out of blind luck (neither are they where they are because of technical superiority). The other tactic used by Microsoft which infuriates me is their total refusal to embrace standards. Be careful, I'm talking about embracing, not extending. Microsoft has split the market countless times by creating their own proprietary standards.

Examples of established standards Microsoft is refusing to support are:

ODF (Open Document Format)
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), a W3C standard.

MathML

...and the list goes on.

Some may argue that to remain competitive, Microsoft should not have to adopt competing technologies, but that's a fallacy. For starters, many of these standards existed before Microsoft created their competitors. Also, if Microsoft is not required to support 'competing' standards, their competitors should not be required to support Microsoft's proprietary standards either. Hint hint: Mono & Moonlight.

The latest trumpet blow from Microsoft is Open. You've got the Office Open XML, the Open Specification Promise, Microsoft Open License, Microsoft Open Value and even (GASP!) the Open Source Heroes. Now, how many of these so-called open initiatives actually are compatible with the free/open source software philosophy? As usual, Microsoft dances around the real issue: GPL compatibility.

So, how is this new tactic different from EEE? It's not. And that what I want people to realize. Microsoft is in the stage of Embracing and Extending open source. They are attempting to create a powerful divide between the 'Microsoft Open Source' and real free software (à la GPL) so they can move in for the Extinguish stage. I cringe every time Microsoft uses the word 'open' just as I cringe when someone pronounces my first name like that of a popular denim wear. It's not right to my ear. It's an abuse of the language that I'm familiar with. Furthermore, unlike Alanis Morrisette's poetic use of the word ironic, Microsoft is purposely muddying the water of the language to spread a thin layer of FUD jam to conceal their poison pill.

So, next time Microsoft slaps together a marketspeak sentence with the word open strewn in, look up Embrace, extend and extinguish, and think twice before you hop on the bandwagon, because it is not going in your direction. The Microsoft Open Bandwagon^tm is headed in one direction only — towards 1 Microsoft Way, and the ride can be very bumpy.

Discrimination Against Linux Is Discrimination

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:29:00 +0000

"This gas station only serves Ford and GM vehicles. Yes, the gas works in your Honda, but we will not serve you."

"This CD player only supports CDs from Sony or BMI, Yes, your United CD would work, but we won't play it."

"This website only serves Linux or MacOS X. Yes, your operating system will work, but we won't let you view it."

How does discrimination feel? I feel fortunate that I come from a country when discrimination against race, religion or gender is protected by the constitution. I've spend most of my life ignorant of racism, and I'm very happy about that.

However, going to a website, and being told that I cannot use it because I'm not using the 'browser of choice' or the 'operating system of choice' is very insulting — especially when the website works fine with my browser and operating system. This gives me an idea of how discrimination and racism must feel.

Dilbert.com recently entered a major overhaul. That's not a problem. What's a problem is that I was greeted with the message 'Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center 2005, Mac OSX 10.3 or Mac OSX 10.4 is required to view this page.'

If you read any of my posts, you know that I run mostly Ubuntu Linux & Firefox. Thus, I was unable to enjoy part of the website. Now, before you gripe and say that Linux and Firefox do not have the capacity necessary to present the website, read on.

As someone who has developed a number of websites, I get suspicious when I'm told I can't use the site with my present configuration.

Should you be discriminated against, here are tips to help you.

Tip #1: If you are discriminated against, yell. The worst thing that you can do is decide "I'm never going back to that site." You are doing a disservice to yourself and to the site owner. Take a moment to use their comment or feedback page to tell them what you think. This is important. Some site owners may not realize the damage they are doing to their site. Help yourself by helping them. If they refuse to hear you, then leave, or try tip #2.

Tip #2: Use Firefox with the User Agent Switcher add-on. This add-on allows you to 'pretend' that you are a different browser on a different operating system. Using the agent switcher, I was able to use the section of the Dilbert's site by telling the site that I'm running (GASP!) Internet Explorer 7 running on Vista. Of course, I promptly wrote a (sorry to say) nasty message to the site telling them what I thought.

Tip #3: Don't switch! As long as your browser supports (most) of the W3C's recommendation, there is no reason for you to bow to discrimination. You have a right to choose your browser and your operating system.

I may disagree strongly with the browser that you use, but I will defend to the death your right to use it.

Poking a bit of fun at Windows Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:13:00 +0000

I was googling stuff while preparing my next article, when I came upon these two hilarious YouTube videos.

The first one shows how desperate Microsoft is to sell Vista to the enterprise market. The next is just too plain hilarious.

Hope you enjoy!

If it breaks, who do I blame?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:30:00 +0000

A question I get in almost every seminar I present on topics like open source or Linux is: if the product fails, who can I yell at?

In other words, they are looking for a massive, faceless corporation they can call to complain (and sue). In the open source/Linux world, who can you scream at?

I think it's a valid concern ranging from home users to operators managing the information technology infrastructure of million dollars businesses. But is free software really that much of a risk compared to proprietary software?

If you download and install any piece of software licensed with the GPL, you will notice that the license boldly states that the software comes with no warranty whatsoever. In other words, if it breaks, you have no one to sue. Should you go back to proprietary software then?

If a warranty and support is the only reason to use proprietary software, well, you're in for a nasty surprise.

Let's take a look at a couple of commercial licenses:

To paraphrase the Microsoft Windows Home edition EULA, you have no warranty. Should the software not meet your needs, you have 90 days to ask for a refund. Should it cause your computer to meltdown, your claim is 'limited to the greater of the actual damages you incur in reasonable reliance on the Software up to the amount actually paid by you for the Software or US$5.00.'

I would love to peak at the Microsoft Office 2007 License, but it's in an EXE file. Strange that you need Windows to be able to see a license. Oh well, if Microsoft wants to be incompatible with the rest of the world, that's their choice.

The Adobe Photoshop CS3 license is not much more promising. Again, you have 90 days to ask for a refund. After that, you're on your own.

I'm assuming that if you feel that running proprietary software is preferable over open source, then you probably pay for an anti-virus. Here's the McAfee EULA. Aside from the warranty lasting only 30 days, the rest sounds awfully familiar. I don't know about you, but after a while, all licenses starts to sound the same, don't you think?

Just for giggles, let's take a look at one more license from a company that 'thinks different.' Can you guess who? Here's a link to their licenses. Any surprises over here? Not in terms of warranty, but looking at section 2.B, there's a mention of open source software included with the product. So, it seems that some software vendors do take a byte out of the forbidden fruit called open source.

So, are you still convinced that proprietary software offers better protection? But what about service and support agreements, you say? Microsoft will happily lighten your wallet in exchange for a phone number that you can call if you're up the creek without a paddle.

Here's the kicker. If you are in a situation where support is a requirement, that is readily available to you. You need help with your Ubuntu setup, call Canonical. You heard that PHP is a great web development language but want support, call Zend. What's a website without a database in the back end. Let's install MySQL and call Sun Microsystems for a support agreement.

If this is too many companies, you could look at one-stop single-vendor support from shops like IBM, Sun or even Novell.

And hey, if you're looking for friendly, personable support in Ontario or Quebec, call Farstar Networking.

By considering free and open source software as an alternative, not only do you get the complete source code to your application (which you don't with Microsoft), you can also get support. The choice is yours.

I'm hoping that this is a bit of a wake up call. I've seen a number of article discussing the virtues of single-vendor or multiple vendor-solutions. However, it sometimes seems like Microsoft is the only single-vendor solution out there. They may also seem to be the only one who is on solid financial grounds. If that's your opinion, be aware that when you buy Windows of Office, you are subsidizing their Internet and game division, which is known for losing money.

It may be surprising to know that Microsoft is not the only company that is making a profit. Open source is a billion dollar market that Microsoft has not been able to tap. Others are already tapping it.

So, next time you have a need for a new server or home computer, before you hit your quick dial button to Microsoft Sales, how about you place a few calls around. You may be surprised as to how much you can save in the short and long term.

And you can still have someone to blame if it doesn't work. Except you get to keep the code. What more could you want?

The Complete Work of Darwin Online — One of the Most Important Contemporary Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:32:00 +0000

Almost all of the complete collection of writing by Charles Darwin is available online at http://darwin-online.org.uk/.

I personally think that this is one of the most important contemporary document collections. There's a lot of great science papers available out there, some thousands of years old. So, why is Darwin so important?

For starters, he wrote in English, which is a language that is available to many people on the planet. I'm not sure how many people are able to read English, but we can see the very original writing of a great mind without having to go through a translation. Though there are many great translator out there, most translation causes a bit of the original texture and subtleties to be lost.

Another reason why Darwin Online is important is the fact that we get to glimpse inside one of the greatest minds there was. Darwin is known for taking meticulous notes on just about everything he observed. Those notes are available for anyone who is interested in observing a great mind at work, or anyone who simply wishes to look at a bit of history.

Darwin may be more approachable as a scientist model than Newton, Einstein or even Hawking. He spent most of his life unknown outside of botanical circles. He only became a 'superstar' after publishing On The Origin of Species, late in his life. Furthermore, the fruit of his research was not born out of a 'flash of brilliance' but out of careful observation on the natural world — something that anyone is capable of. Thus, observing Darwin's work communicates that an average person, with enough passion and dedication can draw startling conclusions about the universe in which we live.

I'm not saying that other scientific minds did not go through the same process as Darwin. What I'm saying is that Darwin's work demonstrates the power of the scientific method — something that is not always approachable for the average individual when looking at Newton's or Einstein's work.

Darwin forever changed the way we look at nature and the universe. I believe that the theory of evolution is probably the most important scientific discovery of all time. No other theory has ever shaken our perception of the world the way evolution did.

Earlier this April, my lovely wife and I had a chance to visit the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Darwin exhibit. I was moved to see Darwin's original writing right in from of my eyes. I was humbled by his careful hand-written notes and images that led to one of the most important books ever published. To me, it was as if I had a chance to meet an idol, a role model. Of course, I'll never get a chance to actually meet Darwin, but after having gone to the exhibition, I feel like I had a chance to meet him face to face.

Now, I can continue to meet Darwin anytime I wish by visiting http://darwin-online.org.uk/. I hope you'll take the time to meet him too. He's a really nice guy and easy to get along with ;)

Charles Darwin
12 February 1809 - 19 April 1882

What is Computer Programming?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:07:00 +0000

Most computer users are mystified by computer. They know how to use them, but they're not sure how they work. There is also the concept of computer programming — the esoteric science used by developer to make the computer do something interesting.

In this article, I would like to give a quick introduction to what is computer programming. This is not a complete course or tutorial, but I think that this will be enough to give you a better idea of what computer programming is all about. Also, I hope this will will also show you why there are bugs in most of the applications we use day-to-day.

Let's start demystifying computers. To begin with, they are machines, and only machines. In my courses, I sometimes ask my students what is the most powerful computer on the planet. Some answer the brain. However, I can't accept that as an answer, because the human mind is not a computer...and that's a good thing! Though our minds are not capable of doing billions of calculations per second, it is able to think, which a computer is simply (as of yet) incapable of doing.

So, computers are not thinking machines. They are incapable of thought. But what are they? Fundamentally they are machine capable of storing information and processing that information. To process that information, a computer follows a sequence of precise instructions. Creating those instructions is what computer programming is all about.

Without a program (a series of instruction), a computer is incapable of doing anything. The instruction given by a computer programmer falls into certain categories.

Accessing memory — the ability to read and change what is in the memory of the computer
Performing calculations like additions, subtractions, multiplications, etc...
Evaluating conditions like 'is A greater than B' or 'is the number of characters entered less than 50'
Branching — or jumping around in the program. For example, if the password matches, allow entry, otherwise, display error message.

The last point — branching — is really what programming is all about. Telling the computer how to handle different scenarios.

To give instructions to a computer, a programmer uses a programming language. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of programming languages out there. The reason there are so many languages is that some are better suited at certain task than others. Another way to view it is road vehicles. There are compacts cars, minivans, sports cars, buses, motorcycles, transport truck, etc. The reason there are so many different cars on the road is that each is better suited to one task or another.

Programming languages, as opposed to human languages, are very strict. Since computers don't think, if a period is missing, a comma is misplaced or a word is misspelled, the computer will not be able to make sense of the code. Chances are, the computer will not even execute the program. Even if the computer can execute the program, most likely, it will not do what you expect it to do. In other words, it encountered a bug. The programmer meant something, but told the computer something else. Call it a misunderstanding if you'd like.

Here's an example: The programmer tells the computer: 'The cat is shedding fur on the couch. Move it.' The computer comes back and says: 'I finished moving the couch. Next instruction?'

I'm a strong believer that the only way to learn something is to do it. Thus, to help you learn what is programming, we are going to look at code, and see it in action. I strongly recommend you play around with the code. Don't worry, you will not be able to break anything. If you mess up the code click the 'Reset' button, and it will be brought back to it's original state.

To explore programming, we'll use a language called JavaScript. It's a reasonably easy language to start with, and is readily available to most web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Let's start with a simple example. We'll ask our computer to execute the 'alert' function. Look at the following code, and click 'Execute.'

If all went well, you should have seen a window popup with the text 'hello.' If it did not work, it may be that your browser has JavaScript disabled for one reason or another.

In the above example, we are asking the computer to execute the JavaScript 'alert' function. It's one of many functions we can use. We'll explore a couple more as we carry along.

For the fun of it, try to change the above code to:

alert(1+2);
alert("1+2");
alert(1+2*3);
alert(8/2);
alert("Hello " + " World!");

Did you try all of the example? Can you explain the difference between the first and second example? Also, in the third example, can you explain the result?

Once you are reasonably comfortable with the above example, let's move to the concept of variables. A variable is simply a placeholder for information. In other words, it's a chunck of memory we are reserving for our program, and we can put whatever value we like in it, and look at the content at any time. Try the following example:

Let's disect the above example. The first line which begins with 'var' tells JavaScript I would like to declare a variable named message. You choose the name of your variable. They can be any combination of letters and numbers, but they cannot begin with a number. You cannot use spaces or punctionation in the variable name. For example, message, message1, myvar, c123 are all valid names. On the other hand, 123, hello world, my*var are not valid names.

The second line tells JavaScript to store a value in the variable. Right now, we are storing the textual value 'Hello from a variable'. Try to replace the text by 2+2 and see what happens. Try it with and without the double quotes ("). Also, try to change the name of the variable to something else, like mymessage. Again, feel free to experiment.

You probably noticed that there is a semicolumn (;) at the end of each line. This is to tell JavaScript that we are finished a statement, just like in English we use a period (.) to indicate that we are finished a line.

In the next example, we will use two variables, as well as interact with the user. Try the following code:

I hope that it's not getting too sophisticated. It if seems like a lot of goobledygook, look at the program one line at a time.

The first line, 'var name,' declares a variable called name. In the next line, 'name = prompt("What is your name?");' we are asking JavaScript to prompt the user for their name, then store it in the variable called name.

The next too lines declare a second variable called message, then 'concatenate' (merges or puts together) three textual value: The text 'Hello, ', the text that the user entered, and finally, an exclamation mark. Notice how the plus (+) sign is used to tell JavaScript to concatenate text together.

Finally, the last line text JavaScript to display (alert) the content of the message variable.

Note that I could have reduced the lines of code. For example, you could have declared and initialize your variables on a single line, as follows:

var name = prompt("What is your name?");
var message = "Hello, " + name + "!";
alert(message);

The above code is equivalent to what we executed a moment ago. Try it now if you'd like.

Let's try another example, similar to the first. This time, we are going to calculate something.

Again, read the code line by line, and try to make sense of what's it's telling JavaScript to do. Have you noticed that we are using a new function called Number? What does it do? Try to remove it from the code, and see what happens.

The Number function tells JavaScript to take what is in the bracket, and convert to a number. The thing is, the prompt method assumes that whatever the user enters is going to be text. Thus, if we write 'number1+number2', JavaScript assumes that we'd like to concatenate two textual values. To force JavaScript to treat our variables as numbers, we use the Number function.

If the above explanation is not clear, remember that computers are not intelligent. They do not think. The prompt function returns the text of whatever the user types. Even if you type in a number, for JavaScript, it's text and not a number. We can tell the difference between a word and a letter, but JavaScript cannot. We have to explicitely tell it so. This is where programming can get a bit tedious. As a programmer, we have to explicitely tell the computer what to do, step-by-step. If you forget to tell the computer something, then the computer is not going to do it.

Though it may seem tedious, the fact that computer do not think is one of their strenght. Because they follow instructions to the letter without deviation, they ensure that a process is completed error-free. AS human being, we can think and rationalize, but we are prone to error. The only way a computer can do an error is if the programmer has introduced an error in their code. Errors in code are called bugs. I'm sure you heard that term before! So, now you know that whenever a program misbehaves, it's most likely because the programmer made a small error in their code. Please don't blame the poor programmer. It is very difficult to write bug-free code. If you're not convinced, try to write a simple program and see for yourself.

Speaking of simple programs, let's get back to our code. In the next example, we will to some actual programming. So far, the programs that we wrote simply execute one instruction after another. That's not real programming. Programming involves giving decision-making ability to our program. We will look at a simple example that will prompt the user for a password and let the program 'brach' in different direction depending on the password that has been entered.

Can you figure out what the 'secret' password is? Please note that this is only an example. The above code should never be used to protect a website.

We are using a new construct called an 'if' statement. This statement allows your to tell the computer to make a 'decision.' The double equal (==) operator tells JavaScript to compare if two values are the same. The reverse of that would be the != operator that compares to see if two values are different. How about you try it! Replace the == by != and see what happens now. Execute the code with a valid, and invalid password.

You have probably notices the curly brackets { }. These are used to 'group' statements together. They tell JavaScript that every statement between the opening and closing curly bracket should be executed one after another in that branch.

It is possible to 'chain' multiple if statements. Try the following code:

How many branches (else if) can you have? The answer is as many as you'd like.

If statements are one of many constructs that we can use to give define the behaviour of our program. In the next example, I would like to explore the concept of a loop. Loops allow you to tell the computer to repeat something over and over again while a condition is met. Try the following code:

The new construct that we are using is a do-while loop. You'll notice the use of curly bracket to indicate to JavaScript that everything between the do and the while should be executed for each iteration on the loop.

The above example will prompt the user until they enter a valid password. Note that the user cannot even cancel the action. Why not? The reason is, we haven't told the computer what to do if the user clicks the cancel button. Again, computers don't think. We have to tell it exactly what to do.

If you would like to be able to cancel, try the following code:

What you are seeing is starting to look more and more like a computer program. There are actually make ways a programmer can write the same program. The above example is just one.

If you've gotten this far, don't let the length of the program scare you. Disect it bit by bit, line by line. The only thing that is new is the && operator. This tells JavaScript that both comparison (password != "abc123" and password != "") have to be true to continue the loop. Since this is an overview of what computer programming is about, I won't spend too much time on sophisticated conditional statements. As always, feel free to experiment with it.

One last example, then we are moving to the grand finale. The next example will allow three tries to get the password right. If after three tries, the right password is not entered, we exit the loop. There is nothing really new in the next example, beyond merging together many of the concepts we have explored so far.

The only new construct here is the less-than operator (<). Can you see what is does? As long as the counter is less than three, we continue the loop. The moment it's greater than or equal to three, we exit the loop.

Notice the line 'counter = counter + 1;'. Can you figure out what it does? Everytime the loop is entered, we increase the value of the counter by one. For example, the first time we enter the loop, the counter is at zero. Thus, the line reads as 'counter = 0 + 1.' The value of the counter is increased from zero to one. At the next iteration, the line reads as 'counter = 1 + 1,' thus the counter is now at 2.

Again, there are many ways the above code could have been written. Because this is an introduction to what is programming and not an introduction to JavaScript, I'm not exploring all the possible approach here — I'm just exploring how to give instructions to the computer.

For our grand finale, I would like to give you a complete program. It's a game you most likely played in primary school. The computer will pick a number between 1 and 100. You have to guess what it is. The computer will tell you if you guess was less or greater than the secret number.

Look at the code. See if you can figure out what it does, and run it. This is more or less an example of a computer program.

Can you make sense of it? I wrote the code so that it would be reasonably easy to understand, but by the same token, I did not dumb it down too much. If you managed to follow me so far, I think you should be able to make sense of it. It may require you to look closely at the code, and even taking some note on paper, but do give it a try. You can even modify it if you'd like.

So, you've looked at computer code. You now know that computers have a memory (variables) and instructions that the machine will follow to the letter. Because computers do not think, you, as a programmer, are responsibile to tell the computer exactly what you want it to do. If your code does not execute exactly as you would expect, that's because there is a bug. Computer rarely do mistakes. For that matter, we might as well say that computers never do mistakes. So, if your code does not do what you expect it to do, it's not because the computer is wrong. It's because that's what you told the computer to do.

If you've enjoyed this little foray into the world of programming, there are plenty of great resources on the Internet available to you. You can, of course, continue to edit and modify any of the code on this page, and I encourage you to do so. To continue learning JavaScript, I personally would like to recommend w3schools.com. It's not the only place on the Internet, but it's one that I've used a lot. There are many programming languages you can learn, and JavaScript is only one of them. Also, there a number of best-practices that I did not use in the above examples. The given code is only meant as a learning tool, and not as enterprise-ready solutions.

One way or another, this article should have given you an understanding of what is computer programming — that is, giving very precise instruction to the computer. There's a lot more we can discuss and I'm sure you probably have questions. If you are looking for guidance as to where you would like to go next, or have any questions, please drop me a comment.

Or hey, if you created a cool program, please feel free to share it with us!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Microsoft Windows for Free?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:50:00 +0000

How is Microsoft to compete? I mean, Mac OS X Leopard is $129 CAD, Mandriva Linux is about ~$80 CAD and Ubuntu is free.

Windows Basic, on the other hand is (GASP!) $199 CAD! And it does not even come with an office suite. You definitely get more bang for you buck with Ubuntu.

This brings me to two big questions.

The first one is: What exactly is Windows? I get a fat DVD which will eat a sizable chunk of my diskspace. It lack drivers for some older and even newer devices, and the closest thing you have to a functional word processor is WordPad. Whoopdidoo. I fell like I'm really getting value for my big, fat $200 dollars. Well, I guess that's Microsoft privilege to charge whatever the hell they want for their operating system. That's the beauty of having a near monopoly.

The second question I have is: How is Microsoft going to compete? Computer are getting dirt cheap. The Asus Eee PC is changing the way people think of laptop in terms of size and price. At the rate prices are going down, more than half of the computer's price will be for Windows Vista Basic. Even now, it is possible to buy a laptop at FutureShop for less that $500 CAD. How much of that $500 goes towards Windows?

At the rate things are going, Microsoft is going to have to dramatically reduce the price of Windows. I personally feel that $200 for a 'basic' version that allows me to surf the web and the privilege to install spyware, is highly unjustified. Especially when I can get a complete system that includes my office suite and development tools for practically nothing.

Or maybe the high price tag is to help support emerging markets? Since Microsoft is so altruistic, they will charge the develop world more to help subsidize Windows for the poor. What a nice robin-hoodish, humanitarian approach...except for the fact that the Robin Hood we are talking about here has more gold in his coffer than all the rotten sheriffs in the world. Furthermore, this Robin Hood is gladly charging the poor.

Once again, since they have a monopoly, it's only natural that they choose how much they charge. For years, it was easy to hide this Microsoft Tax, since a computer typically went for thousands of dollars. Now that computers are barely half a grand and that the price of Microsoft Windows keeps increasing, this tax is quite noticeable. People will quickly realize that an Asus Eee PC preloaded with Linux actually offers a lot more out of the box than the same Eee PC loaded with only Windows.

That brings me back to my first question: What the heck is Windows anyways? What am I paying $200 for?

Hold the Mono, please

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Does Microsoft innovate? I think so, but not as much as people think. They are very good at taking existing ideas, and adapting them to work only on their products.

This leads me to the .NET Framework, their competitor to the Java programming language. Java is a programming language that has been around since 1995 and has enjoyed tremendous success in the computing world. Its success is due to a number of factor. Personally, I feel that Java succeeded because it used and encouraged a number of best practices, like forced exception checking, strongly typed language and taking full advantage of object orientation as well as design patterns. Furthermore, Java evolved through the Java Community Process. The JCP is a process managed by Sun Microsystem, the creator of the Java programming language, that allowed interested parties to participate in the development of the language. This means that Java is not the brainchild of solely Sun Microsoft, but also that of IBM, Borland, Novell, and many other organizations. Because many organizations actively participated in the development of the project, this encouraged adoption.

Today, the success of Java is undeniable. There is one company, however, who is directly threatened by Java, and that is Microsoft. One of the early promise of Java was write-once-run-anywhere. That is, you write your computer code once, compile it, and then you can run it on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, your cellular phone or whatever else you'd like! This is a reality today. I do a lot of Java development, and use a lot of Java programs on Linux, the Mac and Windows.

It works. Microsoft does not like this. They would prefer that applications are written for Windows and stay on Windows.

To achieve that end: enter the .NET Framework. Microsoft created .NET as a response to Java. To compete, they create a language that superficially resembles Java called C#, and a framework that is tooted as write-once-run-anywhere. They even went a step further and got part of the .NET framework standardize with the ECMA.

Just like Java, the success of .NET is undeniable. Let me be the first to say that Microsoft actually came out with some cool ideas. I like LINQ and I think that Workflow Foundation will be an important set of API in the future.

However, I will not develop open-source application with .NET for two reasons:

1. It is not free software. Java has recently been freed by Sun Microsystems. Yay! I hope that this will continue to speed the adoption of Java on Linux. However, .NET is not free. Microsoft owns a number of patents on .NET and has yet to provide a license to their intellectual property that is compatible with the GPL. Until Microsoft opens .NET, I will not touch it with a ten foot pole on Linux.

2. It is not write-once-run-anywhere. It's true that I can create a .NET application on Windows and run it on Linux. However, please repeat after me: .NET is not write once run anywhere. Saying that .NET works on Linux is bullcaca.

For starters, there is a project that is sponsored by Novell (and indirectly, by Microsoft) called Mono which permits the development of .NET applications on Linux. However, repeat after me: .NET is not write-once-run-anywhere. I need to get that into your head. Sure, it looks like it's portable, but here are the problems you will encounter:

The API to write GUI (windowed) application is meant to run on Windows. Whatever application is created on Windows with .NET will look good on Windows, but look like crap on Linux. Futhermore, Mono has its own GUI API that is incompatible with the one provided by Microsoft. This means you either create your .NET application to run on Windows or Linux. Say bye-bye to portability. Score 1 for Microsoft!
Microsoft is introducing more and more Windows specific API. Just the names of the APIs should give you a clue: Windows Presentation Foundation. Windows Communication Foundation. In other words, Microsoft is making sure that your write-one-run-anywhere investment is glued to the Windows platform.
The is no community process. This means that Microsoft has sole control over the direction of .NET. Don't go whining to Microsoft that your gorgeous .NET application looks like crap on Linux and does not work on your Mac. They don't care. Actually, that's a lie. They do care. They care that it runs on Windows and only on Windows. You can expect more and more Microsoft Windows specific API on .NET masquerading as 'open,' 'portable' APIs.
You are creating .exe and .dll files. Unlike .class or .jar files in Java, These files are Windows specific. They contain MS-DOS and Windows code. In a Java application, there is not a single line of platform-specific code. That means that Mono has to be able to load a Windows executable on Linux. For something that is supposibly portable, it sure carries a lot of Windows with it.
But Linux already has strong support for .NET with Mono! you say? So, why not use Mono? The reason is simple. It's a Microsoft technology. It belongs to Microsoft, and should they decide your Mono application is eating away at Windows market shares, prepare to receive a kind letter from Microsoft politely indicating that since you are using their intellectual property, you owe them $$$.
Though I doubt that Microsoft will ever collect open source developer for the use of their so-called intellectual property, I think that the real problem will be that Mono on Linux will forever play catch-up with .NET on Windows. Who wants to use a 'write-one-run-anywhere' technology that is one or two years behind on some important platforms? Either you write a Windows-only application in .NET, or look at alternatives.

.NET exists solely to further Microsoft's agenda. Anyone that chooses to use Mono on Linux is kindly helping Microsoft achieve that agenda. Yes, there are some cool ideas in the .NET framework, but most of those ideas are copied from existing languages. For example, I've been using workflow management API and designers long before Microsoft came out with the Workflow Foundation API.

Before you consider Mono, please take a look at what's available on Linux already. You want true write-once-run-anywhere? Java is one solution. Not good enough? What about Python? Pascal? PHP, C/C++? Need I go on?

Linux is where it is today not because of heavy-handed sales tactics or razzle-dazzle marketing, but by its own merit. Let's continue to develop Linux through it's own merit.

We will not innovate if we follow the Microsoft path — that is, mostly copying what others are doing.

As for me, I think my plate is delicious as it is. I'll hold on that Mono sauce, thank you very much!

Enjoying the Asus Eee PC

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:06:00 +0000

Having just received my Eee PC, I'm still getting familliar with it's capabilities. The keyboard requires getting used to, but I'm getting better. As long as I don't have to use the right shift key too much, I can almost achieve the same typing speed as on a regular keyboard ;) All joking aside, once you get used to the keyboard, it's actually quite pleasant.

I got the 8G model, which means that I have a whooping 8 gigabytes of 'hard disk' space. While this is tiny compared to a regular hard-disk, which is usually over 100 gigabytes for a laptop. However, for my needs, I think that 8G, or even 4G should be enough. Since the Eee PC supports SD cards, I'm using a 4 gigabyte card for my /home partition (for Windows users, think My Documents).

The pre-installed operating system is a custom version of Xandros Linux (which is based in Ottawa). Though the default is fine for most people's need, I wanted something that gave me more -- so I installed eeeXubuntu. I removed the default Gnome games, Abiword and
Gnumeric to save space, and them promptly installed:

OpenOffice.org
Java 6 SDK
Eclipse
C/C++ compiler
Free Pascal & Lazarus
Anjuta IDE
jEdit
Frozen Bubble
Cedega
Firefox 3
(and a few more which I'm sure I'm forgetting)

I've got ~640M of space left (which ought to be enough for anybody) on my system partition. Not too bad, considering I've got a practically complete portable development system.

One of my goals is to get Morrowind working with Cedega. So far, no joy, but I'm not about to give up. I know some folks got it working, so I'm sure I can as well.

If you are going to install eeeXubuntu or Ubuntu, be aware of the Eee Wiki. One of the coolest trick I found is how to enable the ALT+F11 key to make a window take the full screen. That really takes advantage of the 800x640 screen resolution. There are many more cool tricks on the page. Check it out!

Software for Windows seems to take up much more room than software for Linux. If anyone plans to run Windows on the Eee PC, I would like to recommend they consider using Google Docs. It is a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package that runs in a web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Using Google Docs does not require you to install and special software. As long as you are connected to the Internet, you can use it. Futhermore, Google Gears should eventually allow you to run online application offline.

Actually, I'm using Google Docs one my Eee PC right now to author this article. So far, the Eee PC turns out to be a fun, yet useful machine. My wife is starting to strongly hint that I'm spending too much time on it. Oups! I think I should wrap up this article, and spend some quality time with her! See ya!

(Hum... I'm a bit disappointed with the Google Docs' HTML exporter. I wish it did XHTML)

Three good news

noreply@blogger.com (Jean-François Bilodeau) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:12:00 +0000

OOXML got voted in at the end of March, but Microsoft has not necessarily won.

I applaud the people of Norway who openly protested OOXML. I hope this is not the last of those protest.

Also, while the EU is investigating Microsoft, a member of the EU Parliament asked that Microsoft be excluded from public procurement. If that motion goes through, that would be a major blow to Microsoft's monopoly.

Finally, Microsoft has 'released' 14,000 pages of 'secret' protocols and APIs. Personally, I see this as Microsoft's attempt at easing the EU's antitrust concern, and also as Microsoft's attempt at locking developers on their platform. Microsoft is not stupid, and know that they need to adapt to the emerging changes and competition facing them. The fact that they release the documentation is not the good news. As I mentionned before, it's just an attempt at furthering their lock-in. However, it's definitely sings that they are feeling the pressure.

Let's hope the good news keep coming!