CleverStat

CleverStat is a nifty tool I've been using recently for web site content analysis. Unlike numerous online apps, CleverStat makes a copy of the site on your hard drive and analyzes the entire thing and not only individual pages

InfoTech: Thomson Scientific Debuting Intellectual Property Research and Analysis Tool

Thomson Scientific is now marketing Thomson Innovation, an “intellectual property research and analysis solution” that allows researchers to “simultaneously search worldwide editorially enhanced patent data, Asian patent data translated into English, scientific literature, and business and news sources.” Thomson Innovation features a fully integrated searchable database combining Derwent World Patent Index with full-text patent data to provide the most comprehensive patent records available; support of strategic intellectual property decisions through powerful analysis and visualization tools, such as charting, citation mapping and search result ranking; and, integration of business and news resources; as well as enhanced collaboration capabilities, including customizable folder structures that enable users to organize, annotate, search and share relevant files.

Security shifts?

It was just naturally to read the following post "Oil Change or Culture Change?". Some time in the past I had a discussion with a Microsoft employee. Amongst other questions I mentioned that SDL and other security frameworks can hardly be used outside MS.

Why? MS people apparently tell us the same and they came to a conclusion that there is a misunderstanding of a security problems importance on the CxO level and on the customer's level at the same time. I think CxO level is quite adequate. They raise money. Poor customers....

The final pasage is well turned: "A final note to help illustrate my point – for those of you that are old enough to remember, there was an old TV commercial for Fram Oil Filters that showed a mechanic working on the tear down of some old beater. At the end of the commercial, the mechanic turns to the camera and says, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later..." "

MS Released Privacy Guidelines for Developing Software Products and Services

The document is a set of privacy guidelines for developing software products and services that are based on Microsoft internal guidelines and their experience incorporating privacy into the development process.

Included in This Document:
Basic Concepts and Definitions
Guidelines:
Scenario 1: Transferring PII to and from the Customer’s System
Scenario 2: Storing PII on the Customer’s System
Scenario 3: Transferring Anonymous Data from the Customer’s System
Scenario 4: Installing Software on a Customer’s System
Scenario 5: Deploying a Website
Scenario 6: Storing and Processing User Data at the Company
Scenario 7: Transferring User Data Outside the Company
Scenario 8: Interacting with Children
Scenario 9: Server Deployment

Polar Rose Search Engine

Polar Rose is a new face recognition system. It makes photos searchable by analyzing their content and recognizing the people in them. It is based on the algorithms developed by CTO Jan Erik Solem during his M.Sc and Ph.D. stints at the universities of Lund and Malmö in southern Sweden. They use 3D representation of an image from regular 2D images so such approach radically improves the short-comings of existing face recognition approaches.

There will be a royalty-free API, which will allow partners to integrate the Polar Rose functionality into existing sites or create stand-alone applications of Polar Rose.

Lectures on Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (1986)

This course has been MIT's introductory pre-professional computer science subject since 1981. It emphasizes the role of computer languages as vehicles for expressing knowledge and it presents basic principles of abstraction and modularity, together with essential techniques for designing and implementing computer languages.

Security + Reliability = Quality

It is undeniable fact that to be considered high-quality software should be both secure and reliable. Michael Howard emphasis on that there is no need to protect your product from all possible threats that can appear but to decide on what are the most likely threats and then try to "treat" them. He also suggests building threat models in order to decompose the system into blocks.
There are few if any good advices: threat trees, STRIDE, DREAD and so on... but you can find out your own :)

Threads and UI controls

Did you know that you can't access to UI controls from another thread but the one the control was created in?
To couple with the problem in .Net controls have an InvokeRequired property so you can easily redirect your call and make it internal for the UI thread using Invoke method.

Weak References in .NET

Did you know that WeakReference class represents a weak reference, which references an object while still allowing that object to be garbage collected?
The common language runtime garbage collection mechanism reclaims inaccessible objects from memory. An object becomes inaccessible if all direct and indirect references to that object become invalid (for example, by setting those references to a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic)). A reference to an accessible object is called a strong reference.
A weak reference also references an accessible object, which is called the target. A user creates a strong reference to the target by assigning the value of the Target property to a variable. However, if there are no strong references to the target, the target becomes eligible for garbage
collection even though there is a weak reference to the object.

Vista and Windows Version Compatibility

When it comes to run applications under the new version of OS there is no guarantee everything will go correct. To lessen the threat of such behavior in Vista it is possible to follow next steps:
1. Run Program Compatibility Wizard.
2. Choose your App from the list.
3. Choose compatibility mode – i.e. Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2).
4. Set Disable visual themes flag if needed.
5. Save custom settings.

Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group (Info-Tech) is an information technology research, analysis and consulting firm. Info-Tech provides businesses with independent expertise in strategy, planning, implementation, optimization, management, staffing and education.

Info-Tech is headquartered in London, Ontario, Canada with a branch office in Toronto. President and CEO Joel McLean founded Info-Tech in 1998 and the company now serves more than 21,000 clients globally.