Programmers need a Subversion repository. Getting a Subversion repository means you need a network, and a server, which has to be bought, installed, backed up, and provisioned with uninterruptible power, and that server generates a lot of heat, which means it need to be in a room with an extra air conditioner, and that air conditioner needs access to the outside of the building, which means installing an 80 pound fan unit on the wall outside the building, which makes the building owners nervous, so they need to bring their engineer around, to negotiate where the air conditioner unit will go (decision: on the outside wall, up here on the 18th floor, at the most inconvenient place possible), and the building gets their lawyers involved, because we're going to have to sign away our firstborn to be allowed to do this, and then the air conditioning installer guys show up with rigging gear that wouldn't be out of place in a Barbie play-set, which makes our construction foreman nervous, and he doesn't allow them to climb out of the 18th floor window in a Mattel harness made out of 1/2" pink plastic, I swear to God it could be Disco Barbie's belt, and somebody has to call the building agent again and see why the hell they suddenly realized, 12 weeks into a construction project, that another contract amendment is going to be needed for this goddamned air conditioner that they knew about before Christmas and they only just figured it out, and if your programmers even spend one minute thinking about this that's one minute too many.

To the software developers on your team, this all needs to be abstracted away as typing svn commit on the command line.

The Development Abstraction Layer - Joel on Software

I received the following question earlier this week. It’s conveniently timed, as I recently participated in two angel investments – each with one of the structures defined below.

What's the best/preferred structure of investment money pre-VC investment. We're in the beginnings of raising angel capital (~500k) and were wondering what, if any, considerations we should make regarding the investments to allow for VC later. Should we take convertible loans or issue straight preferred stock? What are the other options that are out there for investment structure? Is it too much of a hassle to handle future investments when there is an "angel group (say 5 doctors banded together)" versus a singular angel?

Feld Thoughts: Angel Deal Setup: Convertible Loans Vs. Preferred Stock

This analysis is by no means comprehensive. But in general, I believe that if an entrepreneur wants a seed-investor who can add real value, it is not productive to economically penalize that investor when they add it. Structuring a seed-round as equity allows the investor and entrepreneur to be completely aligned and share one goal - to create as much value as possible for the company.

Redeye VC: Bridge Loans vs. Preferred Equity

Tape is Dead!
Well not quite, but the evolution has begun and its extinction is near. This may sound a bit brash on the surface however there is some truth to both statements. Businesses today, especially regulated industries and e-businesses must focus on business continuity, which is basically a plan for disaster recovery. By utilizing the benefits of disk-to-disk storage there is a better disaster recovery and backup storage solution. What is wrong with the good ole tape backup solutions? What is disk-to-disk backup storage and why is it better?

Backup Solutions - Storage & Backup Servers

"We are observing a definite trend of hundreds of terabytes of tape library being replaced with disk," says Duplessie. "These companies were permanently replacing, not augmenting tape."

Tape is Dead

IT architects are talking a lot these days about getting rid of tape, and for a multitude of reasons--it's too slow and hard to use, hard disks have gotten cheaper, certain databases and applications require faster recoveries, and so on. According to consulting firm TheInfoPro, 90 percent of companies plan to move from tape to Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) disk drives as part of their backup/recovery and data lifecycle management plans by 2006. But for all the brave talk, few IT organizations have truly eliminated tape from their infrastructure, as IT and systems managers will sheepishly admit. Tape is cheap, it more or less works, and everyone is used to it. Some say there will always be a place for tape in long-term archiving. A 2.5-inch Linear Tape Open (LTO) cartridge that holds 600GB is still one of the more space-efficient archive media.

IT Architect | Better Backup Strategies | November 1, 2005

Note: This class is new in the .NET Framework version 2.0.

Represents the abstract class from which all implementations of Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) must derive.

HMAC Class (System.Security.Cryptography) for .NET

public class HMac
extends BaseMac

The implementation of the HMAC (Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code).

HMAC can be used in combination with any iterated cryptographic hash function. HMAC also uses a secret key for calculation and verification of the message authentication values. The main goals behind this construction are

* To use, without modifications, available hash functions. In particular, hash functions that perform well in software, and for which code is freely and widely available.
* To preserve the original performance of the hash function without incurring a significant degradation.
* To use and handle keys in a simple way.
* To have a well understood cryptographic analysis of the strength of the authentication mechanism based on reasonable assumptions on the underlying hash function.
* To allow for easy replaceability of the underlying hash function in case that faster or more secure hash functions are found or required.

HMac (GNU cryptographic primitives and tools, version 2.0.0)

cvs: radmind/radmind-pc

Radmind for windows.

SourceForge.net CVS Repository - directory - cvs: radmind/radmind-pc

How to: Monitor File System Changes

The following code example uses FileSystemWatcher to register for events corresponding to files being created, changed, deleted, or renamed. Instead of periodically polling a directory for changes to files, you can use the FileSystemWatcher class to fire events when a change is detected.

How to: Monitor File System Changes in .NET