Enrique Duvós, who heads up Adobe Platform Evangelism in Europe (and who's been at Allaire/Macromedia/Adobe for about as long as I have), has a new blog at http://www.duvos.com/.

Mike Chambers has posted an entry entitled Update on MXNA (or what the %@#! is going on!) about, well, I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

Ted Patrick turned me on to YSlow, a Yahoo! Firefox add-on that integrates with Firebug to analyze web page loads and make performance recommendations. I've been using it for a few days now, and this one is very cool, check it out!

Mrinal Wadhwa, an Indian Flex enthusiast and a usergroup advocate, is on stage at the Adobe RIA Architect Summit 2008 talking about the importance of communities and staying informed, and just said: "My Morning Newspaper Is MXNA". These guys here are hardcore! ;-)

Microsoft is a common target for rants, dislikes, and disdain. And the negative views and opinions are frequently justified. But Microsoft can also be surprising, and I had that experience this week.

I have only ever contacted Microsoft Support twice, both in regards to my home network. The first occurrence was a year and a half ago. I had made some significant network changes, upgrading my home servers to Windows Server 2003, installing a new firewall, changing how Active Directory was configured, completely revamping DHCP and how IP addresses are assigned, and more, and I ended up with a rather bizarre Active Directory/WINS/DHCP/DNS issue which was causing painfully slow network login times for many clients. I spent hours, many hours, trying to figure it all out. And finally, in frustration, I paid $99 and opened an e-mail based support case with Microsoft. The case was assigned to a support engineer named Ewen Tang who sent me a long e-mail with things to try so as to report back to him. I collected the information for him, and he then followed up with utilities that he wanted me to run to help diagnose the problem. In the course of a lengthy e-mail thread that ran for several days (the delay caused by my traveling), Ewen figured out what the problem was, and offered me a series of solutions. I opted for the quick hack workaround solution just to get things working, and Ewen offered to leave the case open for a while (it ended up being months) until I had the time to implement his other suggestions. Yes, I paid for support, but time is money, and that was $99 very well spent.

But did I just luck out, or is Microsoft's e-mail based support actually as good as my experience seemed to indicate?

This week I ran into another issue, this time with Terminal Server licenses that I was relying on to manage my headless servers. After wasting many hours tinkering, I paid the $99 and opened another e-mail based support case. This time the case as assigned to Steven Shao, who immediately sent me an e-mail telling me that he'd look into my issue, and then sent me a detailed follow-up e-mail that essentially explained that I had misunderstood Terminal Server licensing and requirements, providing me with links to clarify things, and explaining what I needed to do to fix the situation, saving me money by pointing out the configuration I need so as to not have to buy additional TS client licenses. Steven's advice did indeed help me solve my problem (and he saved me money, too), but he didn't actually have to do any real technical troubleshooting. And so he offered to refund the $99 I had paid, and I then received several follow-ups to confirm that all was now well, and to ensure that I was indeed getting my refund.

Bashing Microsoft is a common occurrence, and is sometimes lots of fun. And yes, there is definitely a lot to bash and make fun of. But, at the same time, when a company like Microsoft gets something right, that really should be noted. And Microsoft Support has indeed impressed me.

This morning I flew from San Francisco to Detroit, and did something that I have not done in years. I made it through security in minutes, literally. From the time I walked into the airport terminal until the time I was past security was less than 3 minutes! How? A few months ago I signed up as a Clear pre-screened traveler. I had to provide multiple forms of ID as well as biometric data, and then had to wait while the TSA did a full background check. The process was supposed to have taken a few weeks, but actually took over two months. I received my Clear Registered Traveler card a few weeks ago, but none of the airports I flew through since then had Clear lanes. SFO is one of the airports that does (and even has Clear signup desks), and so this was my first chance to use the card. I deliberately arrived at the airport later than I usually would have, 40 minutes or so before departure (usually a really bad idea in SFO). I inserted my card in the Clear machine, presented my index finger for scanning, and was then escorted all the way to the front of the security lines. It was quick and simple and it just worked. The biggest problem with the system is that too few airports have Clear lanes. Indianapolis, Little Rock, Oakland, Orlando, Westchester, ... it's great that they have Clear lanes, but honestly, those are not airports I frequent. And so I held off from signing up for a while. But, now that San Francisco and San Jose and New York's LaGuardia are on the airport list, with Atlanta and Washington Reagan coming online soon, I signed up. And if you frequent the supported airports, you should too. It's well worth the $100/year. You can enroll here, and feel free to use referral code SCB28371.

10 years ago today I joined Allaire Corporation as an employee. I had been working with Allaire on and off for a couple of years prior to that date, but on February 2nd, 1998 I joined the company as their first Product Evangelist. And now, 10 years, 2 acquisitions, hundreds of thousands of miles, a dozen or so major product launches, thousands of customer visits and demos, hundreds of hotel stays, countless events and conferences, over a million e-mails, and hundreds of PowerPoint's later, it is still tons of fun. What a ride thus far! I can't wait for what comes next!

Fellow evangelist Duane Nickull has posted the slides from his Web 2.0 Design Patterns, Models and Analysis presentation:

Several people have recently asked me about subscribing to this blog. So, I've added support for subscriptions via FeedBurner. In addition, I've changed the feed URL, so you may want to update your readers (although the old feed URL will still work).

I became a U.S. citizen in 2000, just in time to vote in that year's Presidential Election. I have voted at every opportunity since, in elections big and small. But, to date, I have voted in person on Election Day just once (and that was for a local citywide ordinance vote). Inevitably, I am on the road on Election Day, and so I have to vote using an Absentee Ballot. I did this for the Presidential Elections in 2000 and 2004 (both of which were during MAX), for mid-term elections ... and I just went to pick up my Absentee Ballot for the upcoming Michigan Primary (as I'll be on the West Coast next week).

But every time I go through this I can't help wondering "why?"

I can renew my license plate online (by using a use-once PIN that is sent to me ahead of time). I can pay my bills online. I can file and pay my taxes online. I can trade stocks and funds online. I can buy and sell securely online. I can obtain credit reports online (having to answer all sorts of questions to prove I am who I say I am). I can vote online in shareholder votes. I can obtain birth certificates online. I an apply for some travel visas online (electronic visas, for which there is no paper record or stamp). I can open bank accounts online. ...

So, why can't I vote online?

Sure, the big issue is voter fraud. But that is already an issue. Even with paper ballots there is a percentage of fraud - individuals voting who are not eligible to do so, voting more than once, coercion, vote suppression, and more. Ballots have been issued for dead people as well as pets. Full ballot boxes have gotten lost and then turned up after counting has completed. Recounts (of the exact same stack of ballots) result in different totals. People make incorrect selections (remember Florida 2000?). Lots of things can, and do, go wrong. Paper ballots rely on people, and people mess up (maliciously or inadvertently). If anyone thinks that relying on paper and people is somehow safe and fraud-proof, well, as Dana Carvey would say, "denial is not just a river in Egypt".

I want to be able to vote electronically. I want to be able to register to do so ahead of time (so that I'd not be allowed to vote in person at a polling station) and be given a use-once PIN or some identifier for use on Election Day. I want to be able to log in (on the day, or even ahead of time as I can with an Absentee Ballot) and vote. I want to be able to do this on my computer, on my PDA, and even on my cell-phone (get a text message that challenges me for my identifier, and then receive messages one by one that prompt for my vote). Recount? No problem - hit Enter, and you have a new count.

Will there be fraud? Undoubtedly. Mistakes? Yep, those, too. Will it be worse than relying on paper and people? Maybe, maybe not - I don't think that can be answered unequivocally as no one really knows just how much goes wrong right now. Will electronic voting encourage more people to vote (especially younger voters)? Absolutely.

In the 2008 Presidential Elections I'll vote using a paper ballot, likely an Absentee Ballot. But what about 2012? Will I be able to vote electronically? I'm not optimistic. But, here's hoping!

A lawsuit has been filed by Stacie Somers, a resident of San Diego County, California, who bought a 30GB iPod from Target, and who is apparently upset that she has to buy music from iTunes, an alleged monopoly. The complaint is that iPods won't play audio files protected by Microsoft DRM, and that songs purchased from iTunes can only be played on iPods. (See this InfoWorld story).

This one just ticks me off! For starters, users can indeed by DRM-free music from the likes of Amazon.com (the Amazon.com downloader even seamlessly adds the purchased music to iTunes), and Amazon.com started selling DRM-free music before Stacie filed her ridiculous suit. In addition, Stacie seems to be unaware that she does not have to buy anything from Apple directly at all. She can simple buy any music from anywhere for use with iPods, all she has to do is just buy music CDs!

But even more fundamental is this: No one forced you to buy an iPod, Stacie. Owning an iPod is a choice, a choice you made. You had the choice to not buy an iPod, just like you had the choice to not buy any MP3 player at all. And as you shopped at Target (as opposed to an Apple store) you actually had lots of other choices aside from iPods! So, quit whining, and next time learn about the product you buy before you exercise your own free choice to buy it!

Bottom line, this lawsuit should be tossed out immediately. And if at all possible, the courts should make Stacie Somers reimburse Apple for all costs associated with this stupidity.

The FTC requires that copies of your credit report (from all three major national credit reporting companies) be made available free of charge annually, and free must really mean free! Checking your credit report is important, if for no other reason than to make sure that there are no accounts or cards that you are unaware of. And taking advantage of the annual free report is a no brainer.

My annual reminder just popped up, I am printing my three reports right now, and am therefore reminding you to do the same. If you've not done so recently, the site you want to visit is www.annualcreditreport.com. (And yes, the individual sites will try to sell you stuff you don't need - just click the No Thanks options).

XNA Game Studio is a development environment for creating games for Windows and XBox 360. And the XNA team has announced that XNA Game Studio 2 has been released and is ready for download. Lots of new samples and tutorials too. Cool stuff!

Microsoft Virtual PC uses virtual machine hard drive images as disks. These VHD files are typically dynamic in size, they grow as necessary. And I had one grow on me yesterday to over 40GB in size! Microsoft provides a Virtual Disk Wizard which can be used to compact virtual disks (when the virtual machine is not running). But, running it barely reduced the size at all. The problem? The wizard looks for space that has been zeroed out, so that must be done before running the wizard. It would have been nice if the wizard had spelled this out, and also provided instructions on how to do this. But it doesn't (which is odd, as Microsoft actually provides a mechanism to do this)! So, in case anyone else runs into this one, this is what you need to do:

1. Power up the virtual machine.
2. Clean up the drive (empty the Recycle Bin, get rid of temporary files, and so on).
3. You may even want to defrag the drive.
4. Then, locate a file named virtual disk precompactor.iso (it should be in c:\program files\microsoft virtual pc\virtual machine additions), and capture the ISO image (right-click on the CCD icon to do this). This will start the precompactor program which zeros out unused space.
5. Then shut down the virtual machine.
6. And finally, run the Virtual Disk Wizard which should shrink the virtual disk, removing all zeroed out space.

My virtual disk is now down to a more manageable 6GB, whew!

If you have yet to run into WebKinz, don't feel bad - it may just mean that your age is measured in double digits. For the uninitiated, WebKinz are stuffed animals that each come with a secret code that uniquely identify them. Armed with their stuffed animals, kids go to the WebKinz site, create a login, and adopt their pets by providing the secret code. They can adopt as many pets as they'd like (or as many as their parents will buy for them!), and the pets live online happily in a house in a virtual world (with a Flash front end). Kids earn KinzCash (virtual currency used in Webkinz World) to buy stuff for their pets (pamper them, build nicer houses, buy food, keep them clean and healthy, and so on). In reality this means that the kids ignore their stuffed animals and only play with the online equivalents. But, it's clean harmless fun, and the system is designed to be very kid safe.

And one of my kids got a WebKinz this week, and right away wanted to play with it online. No problem, I helped him get set up, and he started buying furniture for his pet, and more. But then he wanted to access Webkinz World from the computer in his bedroom. My kids are allowed to go online with supervision only, and so the computers that they can access alone are very locked down. My firewall grants access as appropriate, and what is appropriate for younger kids is a whitelist system - basically, they have no access except for sites that we explicitly allow.

And that's where things become problematic. WebKinz uses a whole lot of IP addresses, some contiguous ranges and others not, and some in whole different IP ranges. Fortunately, WebKinz has a Technical Issues page which lists the IP address that need to be allowed. Unfortunately, the list is completely wrong! Heck, the IP address that WebKinz resolves to is not even on the list! So, I had him try and try again while I watched the firewall logs, and I gradually opened up the addresses needed until all worked. That was yesterday, but now it won't work again. Why? A whole different set of IP addresses are now in use!

Really, this is pathetic. WebKinz is targeting young children, and it is very likely that filters and parental controls are going to be an issue. Is it really that hard to A) find a fixed set of IP addresses (preferably a sequential range), B) don't keep changing them, and then C) actually post correct information on your web site? Oh, and just to make it a bit more frustrating, try finding a way to contact support or send feedback!

Too bad. The concept is nice, but the implementation leaves much to be desired. If you have young-uns, consider yourself warned.

Due to scheduled network and server maintenance (in the wee hours this morning) some of you may have had problems getting to my web server. Part of this change required DNS changes too, and so it is possible that some of you may still have difficulty getting to the site for the next few hours (as DNS changes propagate). If you do run into issues, please let me know, and I appreciate your patience and understanding.

Oh, and a big loud thank you to the IT guys at HostMySite for accommodating all of my infrastructure requests, and for getting these changes made so quickly and efficiently.

Fake eBay messages have long been favorites of phishers - click on a bogus link and you'll likely go to a fake eBay page that will prompt you for your login and password. We've all seen these before, and I don't fall for them.

But today I received a fake eBay message that made me look, and look again. I was going to delete it, but then reread it, twice, and then checked the links to verify that this was indeed fake, and only then did I delete it. The message purported to be from an eBay user who wanted my opinion on an item that he/she was about to purchase. The message was sent to me not as a buyer or seller (which I'd have immediately known was a fake), but as someone knowledgeable about the item. And the item in question? One of my books (my Sams Teach Yourself SQL Server T-SQL In 10 Minutes)!

Phishing attacks are generally not individualized or customized, phishers tend to cast wide nets in an attempt to catch anything. So this was either an incredible coincidence, or evidence of phishing deception taken to a whole new (and very dangerous) level.

Here's a new one for you, new as in "it's a new rule since last week" (exact quote from a TSA agent in Detroit this morning). When you show your ID at the security checkpoint you must now take it out of any holder. So, if your Drivers License is in your wallet, even if fully visible and legible, you have to actually remove it. The TSA agent won't necessarily take it from you to look at it, they won't scan the magnetic strip on it, they won't do anything different at all - they'll look at it just as they did before. They'll just wait while you take it out and put it back - it's the new rule I was told (even though there is no update posted about it on the TSA web site). And so, after I put my Drivers License away, I stood for a few minutes and watched lots of people fumble with their wallets.

I feel safer already!

I've admitted this before, I am a big Lego fan (for the kids, of course!). I just saw this Eiffel Tower in the latest catalog. 3428 pieces, almost 4' in height, built to scale from the real tower's original blueprints ... I so need (yes, need) this one!

I have finally gotten around to updating the On The Road list and pictures. Lots of new pictures have been posted, including this one taken last week while climbing The Great Wall of China. Hey, this evangelism gig is a sacrifice, but I am willing to do it. ;-)

I am standing on the Great Wall of China at Badaling.

When I travel on longer trips, especially international trips, I bring along snack food with me (things like snack bars, dried fruit, nuts, crackers and peanut butter, etc.) - quick protein snacks (for the most part). I've been doing this for years, and never a problem. Until yesterday. I usually carry the tiny 1 ounce peanut butter containers (use once and throw), but I could not find them this time and therefore brought along a 3.4 ounces jar. And the TSA agent in Detroit Metro got quite upset at my little plastic peanut butter container. He held it up and sternly declared "you can't carry gels!". Ok, I know that you should not aggravate or mess with TSA agents, but I could not help myself, and burst out laughing. "A gel?" I asked him. "Do you know what a gel is?" He was not amused. I explained that TSA rules prohibit carrying liquids, gels and aerosols over 3 ounces, but that thicker paste like substances are not prohibited (with the exception of the very dangerous toothpaste). "Let me get this straight, peanut butter is a gel?". "This is a gel!" he replied. I (slowly) tried to explain that the definition of a gel is a liquid that has become semi-solid, and that a gel is only a gel if it can revert back to a liquid (usually by heating or shaking). I also pointed out that no one has ever complained about this before (even when I have carried the deadly 3.4 ounce jars), and that he seemed to be making up his own rules. To no avail. "This is a gel, and you can't bring it on board!" was his final statement, and he then told me to check my bags if I wanted to bring the jar along. So, there you have it - contrary to what common sense dictates, peanut butter is now a gel.

rtePad is a web based rich text editor. If you want to truly be amazed, check out these examples! It's all client-side JavaScript, so it is back-end independent (and they note that it can indeed be used by ColdFusion).

I live in Michigan. And yes, I know that the name Michigan conjures up images of freezing rain, snow storms, weather shutting down schools and freeways (as well as the automotive industry and unions threatening to go on strike, but that is a separate post). But the fact of the matter is that we get a lot of sunshine in Michigan, far more than most people expect, especially where I live in Southeast Michigan. When I first moved here (almost 20 years ago) we almost did get snowed in during September and October, but that has not happened in a long time. The summers last longer, and the winters are shorter and less severe. And with sunny 90+ degree weather this week (in October!) I've been thinking ...

I have a large roof on my house, with lots of out-of-the-shade south facing surface area, perfect (I have been told) for solar panels. And while I understand the technology involved in harnessing solar power, what I am missing are practical answers and advice from those who have researched, and utilize, solar power.

So, if you have any experience that you can share, here are some questions ...

• Solar power is popular in California, and Arizona, and other more sun-drenched locations. Is it as viable (or even cost effective or justifiable) in the Midwest?
• We do get snow and icy weather, usually in December through February. How does this type of weather impact solar equipment, if at all?
• I have seen all sorts of installation and setup costs, from one extreme to the other, but have not been able to fully ascertain what the true costs are. Does anyone have real-world experience here?
• What are the unforeseen costs? Things like roof structural requirements due to panel weight, or cost of panel replacement, or ongoing maintenance costs?
• What else am I not thinking of here?

Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

We are eBay fans, and have been so for years. We've bought all sorts of stuff on eBay, and have sold a few things too. And we've always been very careful to provide accurate feedback, and have expected accurate feedback in return.

But a few months ago we had a less than perfect buying experience. We bought a product that arrived defective (after a several week delay). The seller (after weeks of nagging) agreed to take the item back and replace it, and eventually he did in fact do so. As the seller did indeed deliver in the end, we opted not to give him negative feedback, but he definitely did not deserve positive feedback either. We left neutral feedback which we felt was honest and appropriate. And the seller responded by leaving entirely undeserved negative feedback about us. Since then, we've been sure to leave our buyer feedback only after the seller has left feedback for us.

But we have another item that we need to leave feedback on, and we intend to leave neutral feedback for this one, too. The problem is that the seller refuses to leave feedback for us until we've left our feedback for him. And we don't want to leave feedback for him until he has left feedback for us.

Apparently, many eBay users are running in to the same issue. Feedback used to be an important way to help determine which buyers and sellers to do business with. But as feedback has become less honest and more retaliatory, the system is fast becoming useless. High positive feedback no longer means that the individual has only high positive feedback, it also means that he or she may have lots of negative feedback that was never left for fear of retaliatory negative feedback posting. The result is that when transactions are good for all parties, lots of positive feedback is posted. But when the transaction is less than good, no feedback is left. Sellers (especially those with scores in the hundreds or thousands) don't care if the feedback is not left, and buyers (especially those with lower scores) can't risk being the recipients of negative feedback.

In other words, feedback scores mean next to nothing nowadays, and that is hurting buyers, sellers, and the whole eBay experience.

eBay needs to fix this by enforcing feedback rules:

1) Feedback should be mandatory, and must have a time limit (perhaps 30 days). After that time limit, feedback should no longer be allowed, and the system should automatically generate negative feedback for non-compliance.

2) All of the feedback for any given transaction should remain private until all parties have provided feedback (or have exceeded the time limit). Parties should be informed that feedback has been left, but they should not be able to see the details until they have left their own feedback.

These changes will help level the playing field, and will help make eBay feedback scores relevant once again.