SBC DotNet Weblog

I just saw Julia's article about ADO.NETv2  listed on MSDN Magazine [April '05]. Congratulations Julia! Looking forward to reading it.
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Michael Hensen [WebVize] is in a predicament - to FLOSS or not to FLOSS.. [sorry.. I just couldn't let that pass.. ;-)].

I had a post recently about James "Sherlock" Gosling's changing heart regarding the Open Source industry. The post includes my sentiments regarding the same matter (referring also to comments by Chris Chapman).

It is a difficult decision by individual developers who wish to incubate and grow a company. Most of my work are for clients and thus such decisions (or discussions) do not occur frequently. I am reminded of a philosopher, Jason Shaw's statement - "To learn how to think with your heart, think with your mind and then compromise the best answer for your soul."

Good luck & Good fortune WebVize.

This is something I posted within a Groove space (in a discussion thread regarding BitTorrent, Podcasting & Groove). Posted here verbatim.


Regarding Podcasting -
Carl Franklin (an associate - we run the local .NET developers group www.ctdotnet.com) has a terrific 'video' on configuring Bittorrent clients (www.pwop.com/video/BitTorrentDemo/btTutorial.htm). Carl runs an online radio show, .NET Rocks that just celebrated its 100th show! (www.dotnetrocks.com). He also uses Bittorrent to distribute content (mp3/wma files). I also recommend taking a look at another client NIMIQ - www.nimiq.nl which uses .NET and is well suited for podcasting.

Regarding Bittorrent -
Bittorrent's original purpose is as a file-distribution protocol that "seeks pareto efficiency" (in an excellent economics paper by Cohen, the inventor of BT). It does this by ensuring pipelining, choking algorithms & tracking which also tracks "leechers" who download content but do little or nothing to upload which leads to the distribution inefficiency.

Regarding Groove+BT
A Groove+BT combination in the GFS may work (a seperate option as in the manual download perhaps) but am not sure what gains it will bring. This is partly, for the role & need of the Tracking/Relay servers in the architecture. The tracking, storage & forwarding mechanisms itself, will induce a complexity (overhead & the needed security layer) that may affect performance. In itself, GVO does have a BT-like distribution (e.g.,'fanning') so I am not sure if incorporating a BT-architecture will bring gains (perhaps marginal at best). The primary goals of GVO (IMHO) is security & P2P syncing - stability & currency within spaces and doing it with minimal or no external resource dependencies (e.g, relay servers, trackers, etc).

There are BT-clients out there that "cheat" - wrongfully reporting the upload statistics, thereby avoding "snubbing/choking" by other BT-clients.  There are situations where such "cheating" is needed - large-file distribution during emergency crisis (eg, Tsunami relief) where the end-user can only consume (download) and not upload especially over very low bandwidth like dial-ups. A seperate BT+GVO tool (3rd party development) may be worth exploring  and this was suggested before by a few Groove developers.

(Un)fortunately, as with all "commons" (commonly consumed resources) there will always be inefficiencies - be it in distributing content or bringing in content.

SBC

XML Reader with Bookmarks - a great idea from MSDN, I can see its usage in traversing a XML tree with a 'breadcrumb' trail. This idea is a whole lot better than trying to make XML into a relational database.

More details here...
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An Aussie Linux rag had this about James "Sherlock" Gosling - 'Father of Java chides open source developer community' [via Sadasivuni].

I am reminded about the  Holmesian (or Sherlockian) deduction -
"The word "Sherlock" has entered the language to mean a detective or nosy person; it is also commonly used in American slang to mean a knowledgeable person, as in the sarcastic phrase "No shit, Sherlock", uttered when someone says something obvious."

My sentiments about the Open Source "business" are given by Chris Chapman's statements -
"JUST SAY NO TO GPL! This control is NOT GPLed! No permission is given to allow any portion of this control to appear in any GPL/FSF or other Stallman/Raymond licensed application. Support capitalism and free, independent developers!"

The last phrase captures it all.
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APRESS encourages book reviews for User Groups. Got to get it for us at the Connecticut .NET Developers Group!
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This is certainly interesting - INETAA (Academic). I picked it up via MSDN Student Flash. Need to find out more as to how it would play here in Connecticut along with our Connecticut .NET Developers Group (which is an INETA member).
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