Beta 1 is not safe. But it is reasonable.

In the Windows 7 beta newsgroup, a certain Mike asked:

MikeXXXXXXX wrote:
> How long should people wait until we start testing say, internal house tools
> against Windows 7? Is it safe to assume that if we were to modify our
> applications to work with Beta 1, that they would work with the final
> bug-free?

My response:

It depends.

My experience is, the more of a straight ahead application it is, the
more it does stuff in standard ways and not in some weird legacy
freakish kludgey way, the less likely it's going to be to break.
Lower level stuff (vpn clients, antivirus, various sorts of drivers)
historically seems a more fragile from build to build.

If you're asking safe in terms of "my boss will frown mightily at me
if I waste dozens of people's time, and I'll be first on the list for
the layoffs that are surely coming next quarter" - then NO it isn't
safe to modify your apps for Beta 1.

But if you would get some huge benefit out of having those internal
house tools ready for use on Win7 ASAP, and it wouldn't cost you an
unreasonable amount if you did have to do it over, it's probably
reasonable to go for it.

It all depends on what sorts of risks you're willing to tolerate, and
what kinds of benefits you stand to gain.

And a follow-up:

Do your apps work with Vista? I'd say if an app works with Vista but doesn't work with Windows7, that's a little dicier than if the app doesn't work on either.

That was a little convoluted. If the app works on Vista, and is broken on Win7, then it was something that changed back in Vista that you need to fix for. That code is probably going to remain consistent through the Win7 beta. (I'm just speaking in terms of likelihood and rules of thumb -- this isn't a scientific fact.)

But if it was something that worked in Vista and is only breaking now in Win7, then you're definitely working with some code that's changing. It might be just done with changing, but it was recently in motion and probably hasn't settled down yet.

Schneier on Security: Biometrics

Schneier on Security: Biometrics

The biometric identification system at the gates of the CIA headquarters works because there's a guard with a large gun making sure no one is trying to fool the system.

Office Communicator 2007 install error: The file 'eulamsdnrtf' cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file 'MsgrCore.cab'

I couldn't find a clean solution for this error message either via JFGI or by searching the fine MS KB, so for your Googling pleasure:

If you install Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 (MOC 2007) on a machine that already has MOC 2005 installed, when you launch MOC 2007, you may see Windows Installer run to configure MOC and then display this error message:

"The file 'eulamsdnrtf' cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file 'MsgrCore.cab'. This could indicate a network error, an error reading from the CD-ROM or a problem with this package."

Restarting will allow MOC 2007 to launch successfully and log in, but when you try to initiate a text chat, you will get the same 'eulamsdnrtf' error.

To fix this:

1. Quit all instances of Communicator.
2. Use Add/Remove Programs on W2k/XP (Programs and Features on Vista/Win7) to remove all versions of Communicator.
3. Then (re)install MOC 2007.

Windows 7 works just great in VMware Fusion

Specifically, VMware Fusion 2 on a Santa Rosa MacBook Pro that has a 5400rpm 500gb HD and 4gb of RAM.

The VM has 1gb of RAM and 1 CPU allocated to it.

I'm not getting the 'glass' video effects but that doesn't really matter to me at this point.

What have you tried?

Matt Gemmell rants:

If you’re a developer and you’re about to ask another developer a technical question (on a forum, via email, on a chat channel, or in person), you’d better be ready to answer the question “What have you tried?”

[...]

This isn’t some trick of software engineering; this is the entire process of learning how to do anything at all.

It’s not a secret handed out at institutions of higher education, it’s just how things work: you begin with a lack of understanding about a topic, and a need to solve a problem in that topic area. The honest, sustainable means to doing so is to improve your understanding. This is achieved by:

1. Formulating a question which, when correctly answered, will improve your understanding in some way; then:
2. Attempting to answer it.

Note the second step above.

Yes. PLEASE note the second step. If you can't or won't do that, it's not worth talking to you.

This is a great essay, and like http://justfuckinggoogleit.com it has a self-explantory URL shortcut: http://whathaveyoutried.com/

It's an Ultra-Lounge Christmas

Click to groove on an Ultra-Lounge Christmas Playlist on Rhapsody.

The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway

The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway: Voice: AIGA Journal of Design: Writing: AIGA

To answer those questions this essay explores several important histories: of the New York City subway system, transportation signage in the 1960s, Unimark International and, of course, Helvetica. These four strands are woven together, over nine pages, to tell a story that ultimately transcends the simple issue of Helvetica and the subway.

I'm really enjoying this (long!) story. It's a great web essay, very good use of the medium. Lots of detail photo examples and tons of links to explore. Excellent writing, too. And of course, it resonates with my background in design, typography, layout, printing and publishing.

What's that? You don't know about my publishing experience?

Excellent - that serves as a more than sufficient excuse to post autobiographical detail that no one was particularly asking about! That's the whole point of a blog, n'est-ce pas?

I worked several summers at my uncle Jon's educational software & publishing company. Some of the things I spent hot summer days doing included:

• learning PageMaker and QuarkXPress from Steve
• seeing how Joe operated the printing presses (yes, kids - real printing presses! with ink! and rollers!)
• learning PC networking - VINES irrc, then AppleTalk - ("See, Dan, this computer is called a SERVER") from Sharon
  
• learning how to use the other finishing machinery like the folding machine, paper trimmer (aka hydraulic guillotine - massive slicing power!) etc.
• becoming a master of manual booklet layout and pagination. (Quick, there's 17 pages of main material, plus a 2 page index, a 1 page table of contents, and a title page. Which two pages from the main material face each other in the center of the 2-up, doublesided booklet? Aren't you glad computers do that for you now?)
• owning the Xerox machine's control panel (I actually knew what every single option did and how to use each correctly the first time)
• picking and boxing books for orders (mostly for school libraries and reading classes - 32 copies of Huck Finn. 3 of Red Badge of Courage. 17 of Pride and Prejudice.)
• using the powered forklift to load the pallets of books we'd wrapped onto the truck. (This forklift/loading dock experience served me well at Future Shop - I always got out of detailing shelves because I'd be on 'truck duty'. As any 6-year-old will tell you, operating the forklift is a lot more fun than putting things away on shelves or hangers.)
• Listening to some of my uncle's incredibly extensive and high quality jazz CD collection - with occasional commentary from Steve, himself a jazz trumpeter
  

Once I got to college, after spending some time with the folks from the college paper (This was during the great USENET alt.* ban, which I'll tell you about some other time) I got involved, first as a reporter covering the mundane stuff like student government meetings. Later I became layout editor -- following in the footsteps of someone who ended up being a major force in modern typography: Chank Diesel (website, blogs, fonts, free fonts)

Yes, he did the Taco Bell font! (It's really called Mister Frisky.)

My designs skills were, suffice to say, not even remotely in the same league.



However, I did have some Desktop Publishing skillz. At the time, they'd been using WordPerfect (the DOS version) to print text in columns, and separately print headlines, and then cut them all out and literally paste them up along with the photos. Those boards would be sent off to the printer, who'd do all the production and printing. I spec'd out a new lab full of fresh Macs (ooh, Quadras!) laser printers and even digital cameras. We moved to a computer-based workflow using DTP software and started producing full page printouts in-house. We still used plenty of Xactos, metal rulers and 3M Spray Mount.



Regardless of the tools used, there was always the craft of getting not just the font selection but even the kerning and leading just right. As a decided non-master, I studied it quite a bit. To this day I remain very appreciative of excellent typography.

I don't live in the future, but I like to visit

From yet another story about outsourcing comes this great quote from James Macpherson:

It’s not easy being a visionary, he said: “I have essentially been five years ahead of the world for a long time, and that’s a horrible address at which to live because people look at you, you know, like you’re nuts.”

Here's the source for the quote.

Feature Request for Windows: Paste as Plain Text

Dear Microsoft: please incorporate, as part of Windows core Copy/Paste function, Paste as Plain Text.

Basically, please blatantly copy Steve Miller's PureText, and give the man some props.

Thank you.

That is all.

Tables Turn

iTunes played this Decibully song for me last night as I was walking to meet Mike and Dori at Barking Dog.

(Listen to Tables Turn on Last.fm or on Rhapsody)

It was still stuck in my head after I got back home, so I went looking for chords or tab since I really like the chord progression and guitar parts. Ended up spending an hour or so last night fumbling towards it.

All I did find online was lyrics, but all the ones I found were garbled, so here they are transcribed correctly, apparently for the first time. (It takes us monkeys a while to get things right, but we get round to it eventually.)

you packed your life up into boxes
and what didn't fit
you carried
and the heavy things, you left

the city loves you it gives you oxygen
and a little space
to be filled
with all the heavy things you make

CHORUS
i'm not wasting
loose change
‘cause i'm changing
falls without wings
i'm not waiting
on tables to turn
‘cause i'm turning
forgive me for all things

the mirror kisses like you once did
at first it's cold
but delicate
then it reflects much more

my focus now is on the closest things
since my glasses broke
someone else should drive
or i might not leave at all

CHORUS

BRIDGE

CHORUS

i'm not disapproving
if you got something to prove
well then prove it

we've got something
nothing else matters now does it
forgive me for all things