Digging into a web portal application. It uses Ajax … and frames. 17 years of Web history, all on one page. (I didn’t know browsers still supported frames.)
Category: Technology
This is how I make my living, mainly doing Business Intelligence and Web development.
Heads-Up for LinkedIn Users
If you have a LinkedIn account, stop what you’re doing and change your LinkedIn password immediately. I’m not kidding–just do it. Once you’re logged in, click on your name near the upper-right corner, click Settings from the menu, click the Account tab near the lower-left corner, and click Change password. Now that you’ve changed your… Continue reading Heads-Up for LinkedIn Users
Converting to Project Connection Across Multiple Packages in SSIS 2012
I’m migrating a Business Intelligence project from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2012. Microsoft has, overall, done a great job with their development and migration tools, and some of the new features of SQL 2012 are great and will save me a lot of time going forward. One neat new feature in SQL Server… Continue reading Converting to Project Connection Across Multiple Packages in SSIS 2012
Generating a Range of Dates in MySQL
Working on a report from a MySQL database, I needed a table of all dates for the next year. With SQL Server (2005 and later) there’s a CTE/recursive method to do this pretty elegantly, but I couldn’t find anything similar for MySQL. All the solutions I found involved temporary tables, loops, and/or stored procedures–none of… Continue reading Generating a Range of Dates in MySQL
Active Directory Single Sign-On for Linux Intranet Servers
I mentioned a while ago that I have a Linux web server set up with Kerberos SSO in our AD domain. Setting it up was a lot more tedious than it seems like it should have been. I found bits and pieces of useful information here and there, and some step-by-step guides to help with… Continue reading Active Directory Single Sign-On for Linux Intranet Servers
Intranet Milestone: Transparent Authentication
I’ve started a project to move the front-end of our intranet from SharePoint to WordPress (SP is just too icky to do any serious front-end work with). The plan is for WordPress to become the front-end and CMS for news-type content, keep SharePoint for file library and calendar-type stuff (at least for now), and use… Continue reading Intranet Milestone: Transparent Authentication
Internet Wiretap Bill Misses the Mark
Charlie Savage reported Monday in the New York Times that the Obama administration is seeking legislation that would require “back-doors” in all encryption products and services in the US. Of course, they cite terrorism as a primary motivation. How best to balance the needs of law enforcement (and of government in general) with the privacy… Continue reading Internet Wiretap Bill Misses the Mark
When Low Tech Is the Best Tech
We’ve been thinking about developing a quick application to replace a paper HR process—should be a simple state machine with four possible states: Submitted, Accepted, Rejected, and Completed. But then we realized we would need email notifications and a coherent security model. These requirements—workflow, notification, and security—happen reasonably well in the old paper model. Not… Continue reading When Low Tech Is the Best Tech
The Enterprise Information Protection Paradigm
It used to be that network infrastructure was one of an organization’s most valuable assets and security was geared toward protecting the infrastructure; but costs are falling, and the network has become a commodity. Meanwhile, the volume and value of information stored electronically are growing rapidly. For this reason, Dan Greer advocates a paradigm shift… Continue reading The Enterprise Information Protection Paradigm
The Spam That Got Through
All of my company’s inbound and outbound email goes through a security service that scans for spam and viruses. From time to time I get an email from someone saying that they got a message that they consider spam. I see that as a good sign. Here’s why: Spam filters are machines, with some human… Continue reading The Spam That Got Through