This Old Code

In my mind this bbc story(Yahoo’s front page makeover) illustrates why Yahoo will never regain their search engine dominance.

"We want to be at the centre of people's lives online," said Yahoo's consumer experiences head Tapan Bhat.

"There is a destination for everything you are about in just a click or two. Now we are looking at Yahoo holistically, all centered around the user," Mr Bhat told reporters in a conference call.

Yahoo still seems to think of them selves a a portal.  This is the same thinking that has been loosing them relevance and market share for the past several years. If this his their response to Bing, they completely missed the problem that needs fixing

Today marks the end of a sad week. MortgageDashboard confirmed that it will be closing it's doors and that their web based customers have 7 days to get their data.  It is a hard lesson to learn, One day you put your trust into online software, and the next you are left standing in a lurch when they shut their doors.  If it was desktop or server software serving your mission critical software you can coast for a week or month while working on and implementing a data migration strategy.  But when the vendor is in the cloud(web-based) maybe the data is recoverable. 
But even with the files now local, there is no software to run day to day operations.  Now the business is in trouble while you invest in a new solution,  and worse your competition has a leg up in this difficult market.

The cloud is a cool thing and provides some nice shade, but never forget that the cloud can leave just as fast as it came, leaving you to burn in the sun with no water in sight.

Late Tuesday night Google announced a new operating system(Google Chrome OS) set to be released some time in 2010 this OS is set to target Netbook a market that Microsoft and some Linux distros currently own.  Google for their part took a version of Linux and provided (we think) one window the Chrome web browser.  This seems like an odd choice given that even the mighty Microsoft had to back off of their limited Windows Starter edition on netbooks.

Since Tuesday I have been collecting some of the interesting press converge

• Google Chrome OS – it’s about paid content.(Bob Walsh)

• TechCrunch dubs Linux a 'big ol’ bag of drivers'(The Register)
• Why Chrome OS Now? Because Microsoft Office In The Cloud Comes Monday.(TechCrunch)
• Will Google Chrome break Microsoft's hegemony?(Alex Eckelberry)
• OS evolution(Rockford Lhotka)
• Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It’s Made of Chrome.(TechCrounch)

• Will Google's Chrome OS look rusty by late 2010?(Mary-Jo Foley)

 

I find it interesting that we move in a circular pattern, In the beginning there where servers with dumb terminals.  Then we move to actually doing the work locally, and  ever since  we have been trying to move back to that one server with a dumb terminal.  While netbooks are a new dumb terminal and still some what hard to define, the real question in evaluating Chrome the OS’s importance  will be is “Is a cloud os really able to do every thing a desktop os can?”  I don’t think this is the case there are still tasks that require the power and latency of your local desktop/notebook.  While there may be many people that just use the web and can get by with just web apps there is a dirty little secret, the internet pipes are getting clogged and our historically low cost bandwidth much like oil will be coming to an end unless new infrastructure is built.

In the era of peak bandwith, I think you’ll find that yes the OS matters much less but so will the web browser.  What will have the most impact  are the cross platform/browser runtimes such as Adobe Air, Microsoft Silverlight, and Java.  A market where Google is no where in sight. 

In hindsight I should have started with the MISMO enumeration decorated by the Closing version.  Never the less it’s pretty straight forward to export a Point file into MISMO Closing 2.5 format. 

 

var myLoan = Calyx.Point.Data.DataFolderServices.LoanInfo.CreateFrom(@"c:\test.brw");
myLoan.ToMismo( Calyx.Point.Data.MismoFormat.Closing,@"c:\mismoTest.xml");
myLoan.Close();

 LoanFile.ToMismo(MismoFormat, String)  will write an xml  however you can call  LoanFile.ToMismo(MismoFormat)  an XmlDocument.

I tend to forget how to insert into another table from selecting the data form another table so here is an upgrade snippet for next time.

INSERT INTO [FieldExplorer].[dbo].[Field_Guide_Annotations]
 ([Record_ID],[Value],[Type],[Table_ID])
Select [Id], [Definition], 0,6 
From [FieldExplorer].[dbo].[Field_Details]
Where [Definition] is not NULL 

This is defiantly going to be one of my favorite new ide features.

<a href="http://thisoldcode.net/ct.ashx?id=779f4f42-c680-4426-912d-cabc83b8e833&amp;url=http%3a%2f%2fvideo.msn.com%2f%3fmkt%3den-US%26playlist%3dvideoByUuids%3auuids%3a3e57917d-1b92-4188-b898-25a1d64a408e%26showPlaylist%3dtrue%26from%3dshared"" target="_new" title="Box Selection and Multi-Line Editing Demo">Video: Box Selection and Multi-Line Editing Demo</a>

Via Coding 4 Fun, Filip’s Corner