Every month in our 200 OK newsletter we highlight industry trends in a section we call "HTTP Bytes". Here are some links of note from our Port80 December e-mail chatter:
Before we get on to any holiday fun, there was some pretty big news out of Redmond this month -- Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 is on the loose!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/44738/windowspaulthurrott44738.html
Which happens to be an important milestone in Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Initiative:
http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=135820&liArticleTypeID=1&liCategoryID=2&liChannelID=22&liFlavourID=1&sSearch=&nPage=1
Speaking of Microsoft upgrades, Longhorn will have IPv6 built-in:
http://gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/28058-1.html
Speaking of IPv6, Brett Hill wonders in his security blog if it might help secure the world's tech infrastructure from large scale attacks:
http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/index.cfm?DepartmentID=963
And speaking of Brett, he passed on to us this must-read link on IIS 6.0 performance:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/webapp/iis/iis6perf.mspx
The buzz around the new Firefox browser is that it might be Enterprise-ready (no word yet if that's Kirk's or Picard's Enterprise):
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/120604firefox.html?net
For a good read on IT done the right way, Information Week profiles its IT Team of the Year, none other than Wal-Mart...
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=55300976
Here's a good read on the many ways in which ASP.NET 2.0 is a quantum leap ahead of 1.0 and 1.1:
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=351413
Apparently Google's Desktop Search might be a little too good... it can find things on your computer you may not want found!
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1730748,00.asp
Sandra Gittlen reports that automation is fast becoming the only viable solution to managing the constant barrage of patches:
http://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/article.php/3441861
The quote of the month comes from Gary Thuerk, the self-proclaimed Father of Spam, who says: "I am kind of like the Wright brothers." Uh, only if the Wright brothers had invented the mosquito instead of the airplane, Gary...
http://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/article.php/3438651
Here's another good read on spam, this time exploring the profound question "do I dare click on that unsubscribe link in hopes of actually being unsubscribed?"
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/12/14/remove_me/index.html
WindowSecurity provides a thorough look at Windows server security and FrontPage server extensions:
http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Web-Server-Security-Issues-FrontPage-Server-Extensions.html
Margie Semilof surveys the many free tools available to Windows IT admins:
http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid1_gci1028719,00.html
(uh, Margie, you forgot a few)
Here's another good blog to bookmark, this one from Networking World:
http://blog.networkcomputing.com/daily/
Introducing the Uber-Christmas List: Amazon's Most Wished For. Apparently the old-fashioned letter to the North Pole just doesn't cut it any more...
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/zg/-/03/ref%3Dpd%5Fzg%5Fmw%5Fmw%5Fl/104-6477279-2619123
(anyone else find it a little strange that at #1 in Health & Personal Care is a portable defibrillator?)
Network Computing has compiled a guide to Holiday Gadgets & Gizmos that, in addition to being fun, have just enough Enterprise functionality that you may be able to talk your boss into letting you buy one...
http://www.nwc.com/showitem.jhtml?docid=1524f1
On the subject of gadgets & gizmos...teenagers everywhere groan as Verizon is about to launch geo-tracking for cell phones:
http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2004/112904anderson.html?net
Yet more Cool Yule Tools...
http://www.nwfusion.com/supp/2004/hgg/
Of course, a nasty side effect of all those holiday gifts is that your friends & family will be calling on the nearest IT whiz (that would be you) to help them get their new gizmos working. Fortunately, you can now just point them to this new site from Network World:
http://www.networklifemag.com/
In case you're having trouble coming up with good New Year's Resolutions, here's a list of project management anti-resolutions, 13 mistakes to avoid in 2005...
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6315_11-5464197.html?tag=nl.e106
Best wishes for the holiday season and see you in 2005!
Port80 Software