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Microsoft is largely irrelevant to computing of late, the only markets they still play in are evaporating with stunning rapidity. Their long history of circling the wagons tighter and tighter works decently as long as there is not a credible alternative, and that strategy has been the entirety of the Microsoft playbook for so long that there is nothing else now. It works, and as the walls grow higher, customer enmity builds while the value of an alternative grows. This cycle repeats as long as there is no alternative. If there is, everything unravels with frightening rapidity.

Read the whole thing – it’s a really good summary of where Microsoft stands today.

This is definitely one of the best stand ups I’ve ever saw.  It’s all there – a bit of politics, a bit of fooling around, laughing to tears (child birth and marriage bits), and hard rock music.

If you are using phing for building and deploying projects (and you should), and using Remi repository for PHP 5.3 and related tools for CentOs and RedHat, be prepared to see a problem with phing and build.xml files that use conditions in If.   Here is a sample snippet from the build.xml:

<!-- Directory separator based on the current file system -->
<property name="ds" value="\" />
<if>
  <equals arg1="${host.fstype}" arg2="UNIX" />
  <then>
    <property name="ds" value="/" override="yes" />
  </then>
</if>

and here is the error:

Error reading project file [wrapped: build.xml:39:20: Error initializing nested element <equals> [wrapped: equals (unknown) doesn't support the 'arg1' attribute.]]

The bug #943 has already been filed in assigned in phing trac, and after a brief chat with devs in IRC channel, it seems like it will be fixed soon (by 2.4.14 release). The best cause of action for now though is reverting back phing 2.4.12.

Make sure to read through comments.  Funny stuff, if you know even the basics of the regular expressions.

I love Cyprus Mail dearly, and I do feel for the man in this report:

A CAR belonging to a 35-year-old man in Limassol was torched early yesterday morning, police said. The fire began at 2.30am while the car was parked outside the man’s house. Initial police investigations indicate it is a case of arson. The car was extensively damaged.

But you have to admit it that it’s not the best writing ever.  Once I read it out loud in the office, my co-workers helped out with a few other reports along the same lines.  For example:

A pedestrian was ran over by a car yesterday night in Nicosia.  The driver took off and is being looked for.  The early police report suggests it was a case of hit-and-run.

Or, this one:

A few masked man entered the branch of Hellenic Bank in Aradipou village yesterday.  They were armed with a rifle and a pistol and demanded to give them money.  A few minutes later they took off in what appeared to be a stolen vehicle, carrying over 50,000 EUR with them.  An early police report suggests it was a case of bank robbery.

Crime is not a laughing matter, but the reporting of one can sometimes bring a smile.

Just watched “Life is beautiful” once again.  Truly awesome movie.  One of my all time favorites.

Here is a handy command-line option for MySQL client: –i-am-a-dummy, or, if you don’t have a sense of humor, –safe-updates.  When used, this will prevent updating or deleting rows without explicitly specifying a WHERE clause.  It will also limit the number of SELECT and JOIN results.

Fried eggs, coffee and cookies, all while watching UFC – a perfect Sunday, I’d say.