And so, after a lot of time spent trying to debug reinstall, upgrade and uninstall problems on Windows Mobile 2005, I find out that (tada) it's a Microsoft bug. From:

Pocket PC Thoughts :: View topic - Doing Battle To Uninstall Or Upgrade On Windows Mobile 5:

The problem has been fixed is will be included most device upgrades in queue and also future releases on WM 5.0. If you find yourself running into install/re-install issues, the best thing to do it to soft-reset *prior* to the install operation to ensure you have optimal memory available to perform the operation. You are most likely to see failed installation on device under the following conditions:

So basically there was (once again) insufficient testing before release. Does that sound like a harsh statement? I hit this problem (as did a large number of other people) the very first time I tried to uninstall an application on WM2005. I'm pretty sure someone should have caught this.

I'm at my limit on these mysterious failures that appear in each new WM release (remember the wake up problems from WM2003?) and which end up costing developers and users a vast amount of time and frustration.

This particular bug won't be gone for a while, either, since we have to wait for all of the OEM's to release the fix at some point. Hopefully. In the meantime, I'll probably have to encorporate the kludge (oh, sorry, workaround) suggested here.

Mac OS X Hacking Redux

If you've been following the OS X security follies, you may find this article of interest:

MacNN | Mac mini weathers 38hrs of attacks

This contest was presented after all of the questionable industry news regarding Mac OS X hacking. Seems the results were quite different than some others would have us believe.

Macs and VPNs

I've recently had the need to use my PowerBook on a Cisco VPN with pretty darn good results. If you're trying to do the same and/or running into VPN problems, this site has some pretty useful information:

Macs and Virtual Private Networks

And Finally

Thank you Matt Gemmell for the truely awesome Cocoa source code that you've made available. You have saved me much time and frustration:

Matt Gemmell » Cocoa Source Code

The flood of "news" regarding purported Mac OS X security flaws is starting to really annoy me. I'm not a zealot, nor am I so foolish as to think that OS X is completely immune to viruses, hackers, etc, but really, half truths and ommisions of critical information regarding these "trojans" and "hacks" doesn't serve anyone, unless the purpose is to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt (those staples of the industry).

It really isn't much of a trojan if a user is required to enter their root password in order for it to operate. And finding out that the widely circulated report of Mac OS X being hacked within 30 minutes required the "hacker" to have a local account and ssh access...well...forgot to mention that, eh?

I understand that everyone wants publicity, and to sell advertising, and that riding Apple's coattails is a proven way to do this, but please, tell the whole truth.