I've been asked a number of times about which podcasts I listen to. I subscribe to a few podcasts using PodNova (and listen on my smartphone) but the only one I never miss is Venture Voice (Web: www.venturevoice.com, Feed; http://feeds.feedburner.com/vv). There is also some good content on the IT Conversations network but mostly in their archives, especially from conferences. I find that I don't listen to their weekly programs. I've also started listening to ACM Queuecasts but so far I'm not committed to adding them to the subscription list.

Here's my current podcast subscription list: PodNova-subscriptions.opml1.xml.

A few particular programs that stick out in my mind are listed here:

http://cdn.itconversations.com/ITC.OSBC2005-GeoffreyMoore-2005.04.05.mp3

http://cdn.itconversations.com/ITC.SW2004-GeoffreyMoore-2004.03.01.mp3

http://www.radiotail.com/rt/cast/742/venturevoice32_dave_sifry_of_technorati.mp3

http://www.radiotail.com/rt/cast/241/venturevoice28_john_bogle_of_vanguard.mp3

http://cdn.itconversations.com/Paul%20Graham%20-%20Hackers%20and%20Painters.mp3

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail94.html (Philip Greenspun, Software Engineering)

http://cdn.itconversations.com/Clayton%20Christensen%20-%20Capturing%20the%20Upside.mp3

http://www.venturevoice.com/2005/06/vv_show_4_joe_kraus_of_jotspot.html

http://www.venturevoice.com/2005/07/vv_show_5_joe_kraus_of_jotspot.html

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail848.html (Tom Barton, Rackable Systems)

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An issue that when we ran into while trying to cluster 2 Asp.net boxes:

When a given session changed between boxes, the

[HttpException (0x80004005): Unable to validate data.]
System.Web.Configuration.MachineKey.GetDecodedData (Byte[] buf,
Byte[] modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength) +195
System.Web.UI.LosFormatter.Deserialize(String input) +60

This occurred when the second machine was attempting to decrypt the viewstate created by the first.  Since  machine key used in the encryption/decryption process is not the same on both boxes, it fails.  To fix this issue, add a machinekey tag to the system.web section of the web.config on both machines.  To generate a proper machinekey tag, use the following utility: 

http://www.aspnetresources.com/tools/keycreator.aspx

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I wasn't sure anyone would believe this unless I took a picture. Google showed me an unusual ad when I searched for church.

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I touch type reasonably fast. I seem to have muscle memory for all kinds of words so in my brain it seems like I really type full words at a time rather than individual characters. Just now I was typing an email when a dialog box from an Adobe Acrobat update took focus. I was in the middle of typing and probably typed out at least four or five letters before my brain acknowledged the dialog box, which subsequently disappeared because of one of the keys I had pressed. I don't know if I accepted or rejected or made some other decision. Does this happen to you? Is it a widespread usability problem / failure that we just don't talk about?

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Mac OS X Vulnerabilities

Mac OS X is losing its reputation for being a safe and carefree place with reports of a virus and vulnerabilities making the news these days (which seems to be the iChat trojan from February that really has nothing to do with a vulnerability but just careless / clueless users). But Tom Ferris has reported a number of actual vulnerabilities to Apple. What I found interesting was his assessment that Apple is in the same situation Microsoft was in a few years ago: increasing security problems but not really knowing how to deal with security issues (source: AP via Wired and CNN).

Amazon Cuddles Up to Microsoft

Without much fanfare, Amazon has switched from Google to Microsoft for search results for A9 and Alexa (http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/04/amazon-drops-google-from-a9-and-alexa.html).

Poor RIM

Looks like Research in Motion (the Blackberry folks) are in for a new round of patent lawsuits. And the plaintiff-to-be has already won a patent infringement case.

Firefox Patch / New Feature Dropped

An update for Firefox to fix a known security issue is coming this week. And a completely rewritten bookmarking feature called Places is being dropped from Firefox 2.0, which is supposed to come out this year. Apparently it just was not going to well-baked enough to include in 2.0. Presumably we'll see it eventually. What I've heard is that without Places the new release should just be Firefox 1.6 since the other changes are just incremental. (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125598,00.asp)

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Google is bellyaching about Microsoft planning on making MSN the default search engine in its Internet Explorer 7 toolbar search box. What? Would you expect Microsoft to do something different? Would you do something different if you were on the IE7 team? I wouldn't. And let's now forget that Google is pretty tight with the Firefox crowd. The big G is the default search engine and home page in Firefox. And when you go to pick an alternative search engine, MSN is not a top six choice. eBay and Creative Commons are deemed more relevant than MSN:

There might be some truth in claiming that Firefox users are not likely to want to use MSN Search, but nevertheless, isn't Google a pot calling the kettle black? The only reason they dare speak up is that Firefox has far less market share than Internet Explorer and no real potential to oust the incumbent.

Before I get flamed for being a bigot, understand that my personal usage is about 50/50 IE and Firefox. I use Google for search almost exclusively. I love Firefox. I love Google's search technology. But I am finding Google's modus operandi a bit much to stomach these days.

All that being said, I think a fair approach for Microsoft is to show a "Welcome to IE7" page on first run that has a small section saying "Your start page is set to www.msn.com (click here to change)" and "Your default search engine is set to MSN Search (click here to change)". That gives informed users the ability to change things on first run, it won't confuse or irritate people who don't care, and most importantly it prevents Microsoft haters from claiming that Microsoft was abusing its OS and browser dominance.

Technorati : firefox, google, ie7, microsoft, msn

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