The Register | MS pulls the plugs on Hailstorm, pending rethink

Hailstorm, one of the cornerstones of Microsoft's .NET "bet the company" strategy, is no more - at least in the most ambitious of its advertised forms. As initially envisaged .NET was about Microsoft producing the systems that would allow delivery of services across to Internet to individuals, and Hailstorm, subsequently rechristened .NET My Services, was intended to allow consumers to access a range of services based on their own particular identity, anytime anywhere. But Microsoft has been unable to convince any of the providers of such services that it makes sense to do this via Microsoft...

The Register | Eight new IIS security holes exposed

There are eight new security stuff-ups affecting various editions of Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server), the most serious of which will enable an attacker to take over the system, MS revealed today.

If you're wondering why you haven't heard about them before, chalk it up to Trustworthy Computing, a Redmond policy which leaves everyone exposed to attack until MS is satisfied with its patches and spills the beans. We prefer to know these things as soon as possible so we can look into temporary workarounds and shutter the window of opportunity straight away, but MS is clearly opposed to that approach. (One workaround we rather like is called Apache, but we digress....) ...

Hey! Google Search: duncan puts me at #1 ;-) Howzabout that then!? Sad, or what.

In fact, a colleague in my department - Prof Paddy Nixon - coined the term 'GLUM Metric' with the following definition:

I reckon the GLUM rating should defined as follows:

The 1 over the quotient of number_of_hits/position_in_hit_list for search of google of one's "familiar name"

So, now I have a GLUM rating of 1 / ( 2,610,000/1)
= .00000038314176245210

According to Paddy, the closer your GLUM rating is to zero the sadder you are ;-)

Paddy's GLUM rating is 1/(474000/28) = .00005907172995780590. Which means that I'm 154.17721518987632836708 times sadder than him B-)

Craig Hunter - the author of the NASA benchmarking report cited in http://duncan.smeed.org/2479 - has written the O'Reilly Network: The AltiVec Difference article.

Computer News: Microsoft To Detail Mac .NET Plans

Microsoft ... this week is expected to announce its plans for implementing the .NET platform on the Mac OS.