IE7 has a reassuring color scheme dedicated to those users who just want a gentle safety reminder for the sites they visit. I have noted previously of web sites that spoof the real thing. This could be catastrophic for someone logging into, for example, PayPal. Even if the site were simply for your email, Imagine the havoc that could be unleashed if someone were to get your email password for just 12 hours. So all IE7 users should bear in mind the following security color schemes:

Red
The certificate is out of date, invalid, or has an error.

Yellow
The authenticity of the certificate or certification authority that issued it cannot be verified.

White
The certificate has normal validation. This means that communication between your browser and the web site is encrypted.

Green
The certificate uses extended validation. This means that communication between your browser and web site is encrypted and that the certification authority has confirmed the web site is owned or operated by a business that is legally organized under the jurisdiction shown in the certificate and on the Security Status bar (a nice extra step).

It should be noted that even if the connection between your computer and the web site is encrypted, it does not guarantee that the website itself is trustworthy. Any knuckle head can get a URL and pay for a secure certificate. Your privacy can still be in jeopardy if the web site owners are fraudulent or simply do not take the time to secure your information.

"We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits." - W. Somerset Maugham

I am addicted to the two monitor paradigm at work, I am not sure how I could live without it now. I am wondering how one monitor was ever enough when trying to navigate through RDP and code simultaneously. I use the IBM T43 (which has a fingerprint reader that I have not used) together with the T43 Port Replicator and a Samsung Monitor, I can say that I am living the life.

My manager passed on a link to UltraMon that makes the management of two screens a snap. Here are few of the features I cannot live without:

• Window management
Quickly move windows between monitors or maximize a window to the desktop using the additional window buttons added by UltraMon.

• Smart Taskbar
UltraMon adds an additional taskbar for each secondary monitor, and each taskbar only shows tasks from the monitor it is on. This makes managing lots of open applications much easier, and when activating an application, you'll know on which monitor it will appear.

• Desktop wallpaper
The UltraMon wallpaper manager adds the ability to use a different picture on each monitor, or stretch a single picture across the desktop.

• Use more than 10 monitors
UltraMon provides a custom Display Settings applet with support for configuring more than 10 monitors. You can quickly configure even large numbers of monitors using the included monitor arrangement tools.

"I avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep going forward." - Charlotte Bronte

I noticed when I was back in England last year that everyone, I mean even the least technology savvy in my family, were touting phones with not only camera's but were also MP3 players. My phone did not even have 1 Mega pixel camera, theirs had 3. When I left for England the adverts for things like Chocolate were in full swing.

It shocked me that new mobile phones were adopted so quickly in England and apparently in Europe. This has a lot to do with the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technical standard, which apparently the rest of the world adopted fairly readily. The US market has many standards (or more accurately does not have one) which is one reason why the iPhone (which uses GSM) will not be very pervasive in North America, but in the European continent is set to be a dominant player.

SMS is a part of everyone's life in England, while in the US this appears to be restricted to the young and the technically aware. In England literally everyone and their mother was texting everyone else. This is due to the low cost associated with one common standard, even across borders of countries. As a result paying bills, bidding on auctions and even gambling can be enjoyed via SMS.

Of course other market factors come into play, for example, the PC has significant penetration in the US and so this along with the pervasive Internet connections served to reduced the need for some of the advanced phone features available throughout Europe and Asia. Some are predicting that the cell phone is set to challenge Visa and MasterCard for payment dominance across the world, but as long as the US continues to support multiple standards this will remain difficult.

"Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart." - William Shakespeare

"When marrying, one should ask oneself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this woman into your old age?" - Friedrich Nietzsche

I have blogged multiple times about my concerns and desires for the music in my personal collection, and the continual frustration I have with music and DRM as a whole. With the music industry at arms length from its consumers, and the consumers getting their musical fix elsewhere (P2P), I think I am finally starting to absorb and comprehend the full scope of the problem. With the music industry sales down across the board, and digital music sales are up, but not enough to cover the spiral, we are forced to ask what the problem is.

I do no believe it is the concept of DRM, nor is it the poor selection of online music that is at issue. I think it is a simple problem of PRICE! I think with the advent of digital music, the very medium that music travels upon has devalued the content more than the music industry is willing to accept. I honestly believe that the music industry is trying to protect what was 10 years ago a very expensive collective of music. However, without the need for a CD we the consumer cannot get our heads around why it still costs so much for downloads.

I know what your thinking $1 for a song is nothing, and I agree in principle, I just believe that in today's world of XXCOPY and FTP $1 is inappropriate. If the market were truly allowed to determine the price as opposed to the years of price gouging and fixing, IMHO, the cost of music would be in the order of 10-15 cents per song and that is for a song without DRM. With DRM I think it should be closer to 5 cents. That is right! if your DRM is designed to lock me in to using a particular device I should pay less for the music I am listening to.

When consumers were forced to deal with Poly Vinyl Acetate, tapes and even CDs the inconvenience of duplicating music was still great enough to need an industry to churn out copies of music for our convenience. That is no longer the case, all the world needs now is one copy and it so easy to make that available to millions of people and  I could use my vinyl, tapes and cd in any player I wanted.

I know, I know the artist has rights to his music, and as a musician myself I really believe that, but, I also believe the market should determine the price not just the supplier. It is a shame because it seems like it would take the bread right out of artists mouth, and in many respects that is true, but this is a capitalist society with "free" markets, and it is by definition fueled by supply and demand. If our technology has increased the supply the cost should fall. Trust me this phenomenon we are seeing with the music industry would happen to any other product that could be made this readily available. Do not feel too sorry for the artist, there still is no substitute for a live show, if they have the skill and musicianship ;)

The music industry is going to have to get use to the fact that music sales will continue to decrease until music is sold for what it is worth!

"Without struggle, there is no progress." - Fredrick Douglas

Agent Smith (aka Jason S) had me looking at what it would take to consume some XML files in VB6. Thankfully I had been doing work with VB recently and so had some clue's about what to do.

It should be noted that I was loading the XML into DOM, which actually puts the whole thing into memory so while it is flexible (forward and backwards reads) it will potentially consume a lot of memory.

'If we consider this XML snippet.
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<MyInfo>
<LastName>Agent</LastName>
<FirstName>Smith</FirstName>
<Email>asmith@matrix.com </Email>
</MyInfo>

'Then we can access it like this.
Dim Xml As New MSXML2.FreeThreadedDOMDocument
Dim Root As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
Dim Agents As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
Dim Agent As MSXML2.IXMLDOMNode
Dim sLastName as String
Dim sFirstName as String
Dim sEmail as String
'Load the XML string to the DOM document
Xml.async = False
If Xml.Load(Left("C\MyFile.xml") Then
    Set Root = Xml.documentElement
    Set Agents = Root.selectSingleNode ("/MyInfo")
  sLastName = Agents.selectSingleNode("LastName").Text
  sFirstName = Agents.selectSingleNode("FirstName").Text
  sEmail = Agents.selectSingleNode("Email").Text
End If

'or if there are multiple agents as below looping could be done like this...
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<MyInfo>
<MatrixAgents>
  <Agent>
   <LastName>Smith</LastName>
   <FirstName>Agent</FirstName>
   <Email>asmith@matrix.com</Email>
  </Agent>
  <Agent>
   <LastName>OtherGuy</LastName>
   <FirstName>WithGlasses</FirstName>
   <Email>wg@matrix.com</Email>
  </Agent>
  <Agent>
   <LastName>Last</LastName>
   <FirstName>Agent</FirstName>
   <Email>la@matrix.com</Email>
  </Agent>
</MatrixAgents>
</MyInfo>

Xml.async = False
If Xml.Load(Left("C:\MyFile.xml") Then
   Set Root = Xml.documentElement
    Set Agents = Root.selectSingleNode ("/MyInfo/MatrixAgents")
    For Each Agent In Agents.childNodes
  'Get Agent Smith
  if Agent.selectSingleNode("LastName").Text = "Smith" THen
   sLastName = Agent.selectSingleNode ("LastName").Text
   sFirstName = Agent.selectSingleNode("FirstName").Text
   sEmail = Agent.selectSingleNode("Email").Text
  End if
    Next
    GoTo Done
End If

'Remember to clean up after yourself with vb6 ... Xml = Nothing ... etc

"He who praises everybody, praises nobody." - Samuel Johnson