Ktn

I just read the article “Some Viruses Come Pre-Installed” by the Associated Press in ABC News and the fact that any type of gadget (hardware) coming from China could contain several viruses and infect your computers is very bad.

Not only gadgets come with several viruses each like iPods, digital picture frames, the TomTom navigation gear, external hard drives, etc., but there’s toxic toothpaste, poisonous pet food and toy trains coated in lead paint.

Be sure to check that your computer has the latest antivirus signatures before plugging in whatever gadget you buy. Almost always, the cheap stuff turns out to be more expensive.

Some time ago I read Andrew McAfee’s article “The Ties that Find” where he cites a really good article created in 1973 by Mark S. Granovetter called “The Strength of Weak Ties“. I didn’t have the chance at that time to read the article but, some weeks ago I decided to read it and I have to say that now I understand more clearly the real impact that the current social software makes in all aspects of our day to day activities, and more importantly for us knowledge workers who depend on finding the right people at the right time to be able to solve whatever the problem we’re faced with.

Definitely a good read; and by the looks of it, seems that there are a few other interesting papers in there, hope to have time later to check them out.

I just read an article in the IBM Systems Magazine titled “Preparing for V6R1” which I suggest you go and read if you’re planning to move to V6R1. It’s concise and well explained. The only thing that seem to not work is that I get a Server Error when trying to see the figures, I’m getting an “HTTP 404″ from the “Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.832; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.832″… no wonder why, really.

There’s an “Impact on Domino” supplement that is good also.

I haven’t posted anything here regarding Domino and V6R1 because we’re trying to have everything properly documented. You’ll see the redpapers for i5/OS, information in the Domino for System i ibm.com page and not sure if in the Release Notes. I’ll probably talk about something if I see anything missing in those.

I just installed iTunes 7.6.1.9, the one that also contains Quicktime, but at the end of the installation my firewall software told me that a mDNSResponder.exe was trying to access the Internet so obviously what I did is to block it. Since it was in a Bonjour directory over the %ProgramFiles% directory I first went to it and checked a .rtf file where I saw that it was something from Apple, and then went to the Add and Remove Programs where I found it too.

I hate when software is installed without my consent. It may be useful for apple software but nonetheless could be dangerous, right? I uninstalled it.

Looks like effectively Apple is turning Evil.

For several months now I’ve been interested in topics related to the technology industry, and one of them is that there are not much women doing development for Operating Systems, Applications, networking or hardware stuff. So I have been in the lookout for information, articles actually, that talk about the different skills involved (intelligence, social, etc.).

I found this article that mentions a couple of things that I agree on:

• They are more collaborative
• Groups work much better when at least one woman is in the group. They bring a different perspective and viewpoint.

Just spot on! That’s what I have seen in my team for a couple of years now. You need different “forces” to maintain a good team.

We already knew that Vista’s a fiasco, but I have to say that the information in some Microsoft emails is quite interesting!