Standard Lunacy

What is it about Microsoft that makes it incapable of sticking to the rules? Internet Explorer has mangled HTML for years, so it should come as no surprise that Outlook has problems with processing some iCalendar files.

This particular problem has been around for a long time, and yet there still is no details offering a solution or work around available on the Microsoft support pages.

It is a testament to downright orneriness that software companies seem incapable of agreeing on and sticking to a single standard to allow seamless interchange of something as seemingly mundane as calendar information.

It is a glaring indictment on Microsoft that it fails to adequately support many open web standards that would make life easier for users, preferring instead to promote proprietary formats that serve no purpose other than to try and lock users in to its software platform.

The Maceater Display

Sung to tune of Nelly Furtado's cover of Maneater

Everybody download me, me
Enter bogus key you start screaming
Come on coders what chu here for?
Move your files around like a psycho
Everybody get your forks to point around
All you crazy devs come on jump around
I want to see you all on your knees, knees
You either pay me or you can't have me!

Maceater, make your drive blow
Make your folder go
Make you want all, of his code
He's a maceater
make you buy apps
make you kill files
make you run, far far away
Maceater, make your drive blow
Make your folder go
Make you want all, of his code
He's a maceater
make you buy apps
make you kill files
Wish you never ever met him at all!

The smoke rises, but nothing's burning

The Apple Blog has an interesting review of Disco which has just gone 1.0. You'll remember that Disco went on sale while still in beta-test some months ago, creating a few raised eyebrows.

I've always understood that the purpose of a beta-test was to identify and fix bugs before a major software revision was released. According to the review, there is still no shortage of problems with this disc-burning app.

I don't think that developers selling software before it is ready for release is doing themselves or their customers any favours. In fact I think it casts a bit of a pall over the work of all small independent mac developers who are putting in the hard yards to release applications that work as they are supposed to and look good too.

Clearly a lot of hard work goes into building a good piece of software, and many people seem to think that Disco falls into this category, but I'm not one of them.