Death by fire

Yet another reason for hating on Microsoft: NTLM. Specifically, that some folks insist on running SOAP services protected by NTLM. More particularly, SOAP services that are intended to be consumed by platforms other than Windows. And especially that no cross-platform scripting or programming language has native support for NTLM. With the coup de grace being that all of this sits on the corporate LAN–ostensibly shielded from those who would attack it by the full force of $COMPANY’s firewall.

So do I hate Microsoft or just the people who want to impose Microsoftian $FOO on an internal, polycultural ecosystem? Given that it is Monday and that the office is running at half capacity I’ll be generous and hate them both with equal fervor.

Oh, and by the way: Microsoft officially no longer supports NTLM because it is easily spoofed. So there’s that too.

Vibratory wrist

I’m experiencing alert fatigue. For the last 50 or so minutes, my watch has been buzzing me every 30 seconds to keep me abreast of the Leicester City vs. Tottenham score. Soccer does not move that fast. Please, just tell me when the score changes.

Similar issues with hockey and football games. Once Google Now thinks it has you figured out, the notifications are relentless.

The long fellow of the law

The Bush/Cheney administrations’ days of international travel are over. [1]

On the one hand, “surely this

On the other:

THOUGH the mills of God grind slowly,
Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience he stands waiting,
With exactness grinds he all.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [2]

[1] http://www.ecchr.de/us_accountability.html
[2] http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/2000/l/long52.html

The hotness

My previous manager, now executive director, is a bit of a Michigan fan. Michigan, whose football program is searching for a head coach, has been rumored to be courting Jim Harbaugh with numbers something like $48 million over eight years.

Anyway, the numbers, they are not important. The important thing is that said executive director is enamored with the idea. Also, apparently there has been a banner graphic floating around the Michigan fan sites of a tastefully nude-ish Harbaugh. This graphic is creepy.

I was asked to mash things up to make it both creepier and include my executive director. This is what I came up with:

JVH dreams of Harbaugh
JVH dreams of Harbaugh

The original banner graphic:
mgoblog Harbaugh banner