Compiler error of the week (from MSVC): 

\source\mainwindow.cpp(201) : error C2664: ‘QWidget::insertAction’ : cannot convert parameter 1 from ‘QAction *’ to ‘QAction *’

Hmmm, convert parameter from ‘QAction *’ to ‘QAction *’ - just how much conversion does that take?

If you’re interested it’s all down to my poor use of template libraries - but if they confuse the compiler that much where’s the shame in them confusing me?

Did I mention we’d been bought out by another company some time ago? I think I may have ranted over the issue a few times

Anyway, we used to sell two products that shared some same code and did much the same. One was named after X (because it runs on Linux using X Windows) the other after windows because it runs on Windows.

The marketing guys at the new company decided they ought to have a streamlined name like “blah for windows” and ”blah for linux”. Great except we keep getting people trying to swap between them thinking they are identical. They seriously differ in places.

Choosing names is a big issue in marketing - Pen Island could have had a better name for their website than penisland.com for instance. They say the Mini Metro marketing team had to come up with a name and just as a starting point they were given 6,000 already considered and rejected!

However, a thought to engineering or even a moment to reflect why a company that knew the product used different names could have saved a whole raft of support issues and disgruntled customers. Marketing has its place but that place shouldn’t always be at the top of the heap.

Heard a great comment today - unfortunately I can’t claim it as my own - but I love the way it sums the situation up.

I’ve been having problems with IE6(*). It starts up but then hangs for up to a minute. The PC runs fine but IE doesn’t want to accept any key input.

I’ve removed the google toolbar & reinstalled it and problem gone. Google bar is really worth having but I do have to remove and reinstall it from time to time

(* IE7?  No thanks! Tabs? Why? If you know any reason why I would want tabs please leave a comment!)

You sometimes wonder if in a world of management speak stating the obvious is genuinely seen as a clever thing. Over at

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/04/09/virtualization-rsa-malware-tech-virtualization08-cx_ag_0409virtual.html

Someone is (being paid for!) saying if malware controls the virtualization host it will have access to all the virtual machines and their data without the virtual machines knowing!!! Well I never, that’s as if someone bugs the telephone exchange you won’t find the bug on your handset and they’ll hear all the calls not just the ones on your phone.

Who’d have thought it? Well who’d have thought you could get paid for telling people something quite that obvious.

Then again someone is probably being paid for the comment “Rather than the usual pattern, where we deploy a technology and wait for it to get hacked, wouldn’t it be cool to try and secure it first?”

Wow, someone should suggest to the O/S people to try adding some security when they design things. OK, you may think Microsoft didn’t but I think you’ll find they just didn’t do it very well. They didn’t design it to be full of holes (except maybe any employees who moonlight for anti-virus companies).

And “wouldn’t it be cool”??? Surely doing the obvious is the opposite of cool, what we used to call “sensible”.

I am assuming the people designing virtualization software are putting some security in there and that it will be considerable more secure than end user systems just because it is not designed for end users. It can’t be tweaked with downloaded screen savers and won’t have clots (oops, busy, non technical people) opening dodgy emails.

 Going back to the phone exchange analogy, I hope it might be a bit harder to get in there and plant a bug - or am I being optimistic and expecting people to do the obvious (cool?) thing?

Here’s the screen shot showing the contradictory state I managed to get into setting up my wireless network on XP …

And now I have the picture! Maybe it just didn’t like the GIF format of the previous post?

I’ve been setting up a machine for my daughter to take to university and have been looking at what to install. She’ll need some form of Office package. Obviously I have access (not Access) to all kinds of software but without legal licences for her to use. I was encouraging her to use Open Office (as I do at home) but apart from it being that little bit different she is put off by the name “open” doesn’t that mean other people can change it? I don’t want my work open to others. Did I mention she was going to university? She isn’t really as stupid as that comment makes her sound. Anyway the other option (apart from the obvious illegal one and the one that should be obvious but somehow isn’t - ie buying MS Office) is to get a student edition - MS have for years provided cheap licences for students. I have been trying to find out how to get one.

Google “Microsoft student” or “educational” turns up Amazon references to Encarta, the Nation Union of Students site search for Microsoft came up with “how to get a job at MS”. Then, just as I was looking for my Open Office install disks along came http://www.computershopper.co.uk/shopper/news/124820/students-get-office-2007-ultimate-for-39.html

(IT Pro sister mag, I’m sure IT Pro will cover it soon)

The only problem is you need a .ac email which she won’t have until next week. I’m installing the trial version and hopefully she can get the key then.

The advantage to MS is obvious, if they didn’t provide cheap ones students could easily share versions and are not likely to be paying the £400 for a retail one anyway. And it is important that students use your software. In a few years they will be buying and specifying for industry and they’ll want what they know. Cheap copies for students should reap benefits in futre sales.

I’ve installed http://cdburnerxp.se/ for CD/DVD burning (the used DVD burner from ebay came without s/w), http://free.grisoft.com/ for anti virus so all in all it’s been pretty cheap so far.

What someone needs to do is set up a site with a complete set of software for students (or links to). Why the NUS aren’t doing this I don’t know - or maybe I missed it. If you know of one please leave a comment with a link.

Actually a site with profiles (home user, small business, student, silver surfer, gamester, school kids, pre-school) and suggested packages would be a useful - is there one?

On line applications? Will they ever catch on? Well I can see some advantages even for the home user and it could be Microsoft that pushes people that way.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/92730/google-expands-into-business-software-market.html?searchString=google+apps
So why would a home user want to use an online word processor? Your data being available where ever you are seems like a business advantage not a home user one. However, actually being able to get at my documents from the lounge when the kids are using the office PC is really handy but setting up sharing does call for (a little) IT savvy - so the Google route could be the more popular. Getting at my documents at work so I can work on my novel / home accounts / cv during work (oh, er, I mean lunch) time could also be handy. Do I want to open my home PC up to the scary world of hackers just so I can access it remotely? No (even if I knew how!).
And there’s that little item, cost. That’s the one that drives most people. If I could set a cheap machine, even one running Linux as I’m never going to use anything but the browser, which accesses the same apps as I’m using on my expensive machine then suddenly it seems like a good idea. And many people are using Firefox already so a common browser, a common application, it’s starting to sound easy even if the OS is different because most people don’t have too much to do with the underlying OS. With online apps they will have even less to do with the it.
Why will MS push people into it? Because of cost. Why pay for Windows & Office if you don’t “use” them, well you don’t see them apart from the boot prompt and starting the browser! There are lots of bootleg Windows users, as MS upgrades start to check for these & security fears mean those upgrades are needed more people are going to have to put their hands in their pockets or ditch Windows. The fear is “the unknown” - who wants to be lumbered with a new OS & a new set of Apps, to learn about? However if I’m using the same apps (ie Firefox & online ones) it might just be worth it - especially if I can do it on cheap hardware that I already have, can pick up for next to nothing or even on a thin client!

Does that sound like M$ threatening the EU? You make life difficult for us and we’ll make life difficult for you (where “You” is the EU Commission and “you” is all the companies and individuals in the EU).  I think it could be interpreted that way

There is some debate how much a problem this will be - most corporations won’t want to roll out a new M$ (or any but I’m guessing especially M$) Operating System on it’s first release and maybe Europe will gain from the rest of the world being beta(*) testers. However, if we don’t have versions to test and don’t have versions to test against (I can already hear my customers “It don’t work on Vista”) we must be behind the curve (is that the correct marketing speak?).  Then there’s the international support / compatibility implications - the US office is on Vista the UK isn’t…

The EU & M$ is a battle of the giants and the only thing we can be sure of is neither is fast mover.

(* yeah I know Vista has been in beta, but a) I doubt it’s totally bug free yet & b) I can’t remember what comes after beta - feel free to remind me!)

Liz Kindly commented - what comes after Beta? Hell