mattfahrner.com

Month: March 2010

  • 1 Reason Why Microsoft Bing Is Gaining on Google

    Matt Fahrner

    eWeek has this “fluff” piece on why Microsoft Bing is “gaining” on Google:

    10 Reasons Why Microsoft Bing Is Gaining on Google

    I don’t usually like to go this far, but frankly it’s pretty shameless pandering.

    Bing may or may not be a good search engine, personally the results it pulls just don’t cut it for me, but it’s quality or not has little to do with why it’s gaining market share (if it is in fact doing that – there’s good reason to believe it’s mostly cannibalizing Yahoo!).

    No, instead it has one and one reason only for any increasing market share:

    Microsoft made it the default browser for Internet Explorer.

    Simple as that.

    Coming up with 9 other reasons, mostly cobbled from Microsoft PR talking points, is a sad excuse for journalism and eWeek can (and often does) do better.

    If Bing wins here, the fact that it’s the better search tool (which is dubious) is ultimately secondary. Just like Microsoft killed Netscape by making IE the default browser, Microsoft aims to do the same to Google via Bing. If Microsoft truly believed in the product, then they wouldn’t make it the default and would let the user decide up front what search engine to use.

    Unfortunately, regardless of any positives that Microsoft brings to the industry, this is another example of its anti-competitive, no holds barred, behavior.

  • How to kill a session on a Cisco PIX/FWSM

    Matt Fahrner

    Completely different from Cisco IOS, so hard to remember:

    Log into the PIX/FWSM and go to “enable” mode. Do a “who”:

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    fwsm# who
    0: 192.168.100.80
    2: 192.168.100.5

    Choose the IP of the session you want to kill and grab the number. In this case I want to kill the “192.168.100.5” session, so I want “2”. Then kill it:

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    fwsm# kill 2
    fwsm#

    The target session will then drop.

    Note if you’re coming from the same IP it may make it harder because the sessions will reference the same IP. In that case, just assume the later session has a higher number (or conversely, the earlier session has a lower number).

    Be careful. I have no idea what this does is you’re in mid-access-list update.

  • A good Blackberry security primer…

    Matt Fahrner

    ComputerWorld has published a good Blackberry security primer here:

    http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9165238/Five_tips_to_keep_your_Blackberry_safe

    I highly recommend all Blackberry owners read it.

  • Why Internet Explorer rules…

    Matt Fahrner

    This article about the growth of Chrome has a little gem in it that shows just how anti-competitive installing IE by default as the only browser on Windows is. It says:

    NetApplications reported, Microsoft’s [Internet Explorer’s] 61 percent is a record low for the company as its market share continues to decline.

    A key reason for that is the European Union’s recent enforcement of a rule that requires Microsoft to give European Windows owners the opportunity to choose between several browsers upon boot-up, rather than require them to use Internet Explorer out of the box. Although the program just started, that ruling could have a profound effect on which browser will lead the way going forward.

    So the European Union requires browser alternatives to be offered and surprise, surprise, IE drops in usage. If IE really were the better mousetrap, the one everyone would want regardless, then you wouldn’t expect to see a drop. Also, if it’s so easy to download say Firefox or Chrome, as is your only choice in the States, then one wouldn’t expect the numbers to change either.

    No, as Microsoft well knows, if you put it on as a default, it’s likely that no one will change it because it’s easier not to – that’s why their numbers got so high. This is also why it’s also concerning that the default search provided for IE is now Bing. They know damn well they can take the market from Google through this technique.

    Frankly IE isn’t a bad browser and for some Bing is probably a passable search engine (personally I can’t stand it, but we all have our preferences), however my concern is more about the anti-competitiveness these efforts represent. It really is playing hard ball with the market. If you doubt that, remember the Netscape had a viable for-pay browser that Microsoft effectively killed through bundling the extremely buggy IE at the time.