tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11164787952710571182011-09-29T11:07:57.231ZPACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.comBlogger121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-45031451093600072192007-10-24T14:58:00.000Z2007-10-24T15:19:31.093Z

Having pretty much abandoned this blog as a redundant mechanism for forming my opionion (redundant, because the opinion is formed), the answer can only be that Open Source is not only a good direction to go in, for some projects, and for some people, but is a spectacularly good fit for the project I had in mind (housed now here).In Healthcare generally, and Radiology specifically, there is a

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-72547440270386262802007-07-17T10:55:00.001Z2007-07-17T10:55:38.433Z

Through Matts entry I read Roy's thoughts on competition between OSS vendors in a marketplace, and it seems to me that the OSS model is beginning to see teenage angst on the horizon."I do believe that the first one in a market raises the barrier toentry, effectively closing the door behind him. Would you want to entera market against Alfresco at this point"I think Roy is right here - the barrier

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-33473158433942182922007-07-03T13:26:00.001Z2007-07-03T13:28:57.968Z

Ubuntu doesn't support proprietary formats out of the box. That's why DVDs can't be played without adding stuff from the repositories. Mark Shuttleworth has good reasons why Canonical takes this position. But hang on. Out of the tin, Ubuntu includes OpenOffice, which supports MS Office formats - proprietary no?Powered by ScribeFire.

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-86547672793905909142007-06-27T14:45:00.001Z2007-06-27T15:00:04.401Z

My last post really set me thinking. I wasn't entirely sure exactly what was going to end up on page when I started & then when I looked back at the result, it struck a major chord. My conclusion after all the thinking is that while OSS isn't always the best option, it most certainly is a natural home for my own temperament and development (whether it is software or product) style. So there. The

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-69333770832852552072007-05-31T17:02:00.001Z2007-05-31T17:10:18.633Z

Software projects are unlike most, if not all, of other kinds of projects. The relationshipp between problem and solution is rarely clear at the start of the project, and successful outcomes are usually the result of a delicate dance between customer and vendor(s), user and provider. I believe many software projects fail because they are managed in the same way as the provision of more tangible

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-79840107274877017242007-05-18T01:13:00.001Z2007-05-18T01:45:39.635Z

As a frequent train traveler I have a number of podcast sources to take along to keep me company. One of those is from IT Conversations. Along with a bizarre tendency to stray into fields like biotechnology, there are frequently fascinating podcasts. One such is an interview with Mikko Hypponen on the state of viruses and malware. It's an hour long but worth every minute.One particularly

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-35246352100476055402007-05-16T14:58:00.001Z2007-05-16T15:15:20.276Z

Over the last year or so I been asking myself questions about FLOSS, some of them documented in these notes. While the undocumented questions cover a broader range, so far those in these notes have largely revolved around the readiness (or not) of Linux as a desktop. I have looked on as a number of FLOSS projects are driven by their respective communities - communities by and large comprising and

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-76614776093026570792007-05-09T15:44:00.001Z2007-05-09T15:46:27.192Z

On the negative side, I'm increasingly coming across people having bad experiences with the latest & greatest (Ubuntu), even without looking for them (example). But on a net-positive day, I made a sweet discovery.I was trying to install VMWare server onto my Ubuntu FF workstation. I tried obvious choices - the binary packages available for download, and alien'ing the rpm package. In both cases,

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-58917943360728366452007-05-03T11:51:00.001Z2007-05-03T12:01:18.671Z

So Dell picked Ubuntu. No great surprise there. But I would be a little cautious about what that means. I'm not sure there is a particularly significant market there now other than those folks who were happy to install the OS themselves. There are other skeptics.Of course, it may be a positional move at this point, putting channels in place ready for when the 'ordinary' punter starts to

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-82346481641756368242007-05-03T10:48:00.001Z2007-05-03T10:54:49.387Z

I just came across a very interesting article here comparing computer security products (hardware and software) to 'Lemon markets' and it rang bells all around the place. Now I didn't know a lemon market from a lemon meringue before it prompted me to go and read up, but by God those bells have gotten louder and louder. For those in a similar position to myself, allow me to describe, as concisely

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-12782230235558207712007-04-25T12:26:00.001Z2007-05-03T10:53:35.782Z

I've had an intention in mind for some time now to seriously investigating desktop Linux for professional life. This intention has been driven by a number of factors, but until the advent of Vista gave me a vision of the future, the intention remained just that. Why?From a personal perspective, it could be because I'm too old or too dim (or both) to go through a great deal of education and

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1116478795271057118.post-39774070132193285392007-04-21T07:35:00.000Z2007-04-21T07:56:43.540Z

I am not an open source enthusiast. That is not to say that I am not enthusiastic about open source, bacause I am, but I am not an enthusiast in the same way that I am not a car enthusiast. I do not spend my spare time tinkering with the hood up adjusting petrol mix for optimum performance, nor do I subscribe to glossy magazines informing me which form of alloy trim is in vogue. Don't get me

PACSFerrethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645192606402825518noreply@blogger.com3