Vonage Pain

I've had Vonage VoIP for few years and my wife constantly complains how bad it is. Well, 2 days ago my Vonage router [linksys router] went bad and I've asked to use my older device [Motorola box]. They said that they can switch me back in a day but 2 days later, it still doesn't work for me. Maybe they're too busy with their IPO. Anyway, after talking with the tech support [sounds like I'm getting it from India], I was told to wait another day!

They start trading today but I didn't buy any [all customers can buy up to 5000 shares if I remember correctly]. With service like I'm getting with them so far, you can see why I didn't bother to buy....

Update 2:47PM [CT]: Stock doing poorly today: about $15 right now, after opening at $17.

Abstracting of Apps

Microsoft just bought "Softricity" which does application virtualization which is what I've somewhat discussed before in virtualization news.

True virtualization is where underlying resource can be shared without disrupting the programs running in the higher level [i.e., OS on the HW or application on OS]. With Softricity, it seems to be able to pull off the "without disruption" part by allowing all kinds of applications to run without conflicting with others [all too often easy to do with DLL's in Windows].

The ideal is being OS independent but then that's the world of virtual machine....

Ajax: Head Rush

/. review of "Head Rush Ajax" makes me want to go out and buy the book right now. However, I'm moving soon so less stuff to move is better. Plus my money is being spent on firearm stuff these days so no room for computer stuff for some time....

ALM: Application Lifecycle Management

Application Lifecycle Management or ALM sounds really cool. I read it at BuildForge and has a nice ring. However, it's probably good only for process heavy development. [Congrats to the BuildForge folks for the Software Development mag recognition and then being bought out by IBM.]