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Mitchell Ashley
Will Browser Extensions Make Their Way Into Chrome OS
Written on Wed, 11/25/09 - 9:58am
Firefox has shown us the value of being able to customize your web browser through extentions. Extensions are coming in the Chrome 4 browser beta. Developers creating extensions per Google's developer documentation can now upload their Chrome extensions in preparation for the release of the Chrome 4...
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Is A Ballot Screen For Choosing Your Browser Really Fair?
Written on Mon, 09/28/09 - 9:28am
Microsoft's proposing to use something called a "ballot screen" that would require users chose which browser they would like to use. It's something akin to the default search engine chooser you're presented with the first time IE8 starts up. Great, one more install question we'll get to answer. But is...
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Google Eating The Chrome Off Of IE8, Firefox Drinks Ribbon Menu Kool-Aid
Written on Mon, 09/28/09 - 8:57am
It was mid last week when I installed the Google plugin for IE8 that replaces the web rendering and JavaScript engine with Google Chrome's WebKit and V8 engine respectively. Since I blogged about this last week, Microsoft's fired back balking because the plugin negates the private browsing feature in...
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Is Open Source The Enemy Within Chipping Away at Proprietary Microsoft?
Written on Tue, 08/04/09 - 6:47am
Sam Ramji, Senior Director of Strategic Platforms at Microsoft, said some pretty unexpected things during his interview on my podcast this week. I've gone back and listened to the interview with Sam several times, each time picking up a new little tidbit, but also re-enforcing what I heard him say about...
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Firefox Stays In The Game With Firefox 3.5
Written on Wed, 07/01/09 - 2:37pm
Firefox released their 3.5 version update for download today and so far it seems to be a pretty good release, including some new additions and some catch up features. Probably the biggest change, though not classified as a new feature, is Firefox 3.5's use of the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. Whether...
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Windows 7 Speeds Browser Performance
Written on Fri, 05/29/09 - 5:39pm
It's a bit of a surprise but BetaNews.com is reporting  their testing shows Windows 7 RC speeds up browser performance. IE specifically picks up the pace by about 12%. Why is happening? I don't think we know those details. I wonder if Microsoft might have revamped the TCP stack, and if so...
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Linux: Chrome's endgame OS to beat Windows
Written on Tue, 09/09/08 - 1:15am
Last week's announcement of Google Chrome had every armchair blogger speculating about the same thing: Google is out to replace Windows with Chrome as the desktop operating system. I initially had the same thought but, given that everyone pretty much had that same, obvious idea, I didn't see...
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Given up on Google Chrome -- already
Written on Wed, 09/03/08 - 2:26am
Just a quick update to yesterday's post about the Google Chrome browser meaning more Web-site incompatibility. After downloading Chrome, I decided the best way to determine if I could use it would be to try it with sites I use most frequently. First site -- good. Second site -- still good. Third...
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Chrome Just Means More Incompatible Web Sites
Written on Tue, 09/02/08 - 1:28am
I hear that Google's coming out with yet-another-web-browser and the product development guy in me immediately says, "Oh great. A third incompatible web browser I'll have to develop and test with." And for what, because Google thinks they can build a better mousetrap? Does the world...
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How Apple Can Win The Browser Wars
Written on Sat, 06/21/08 - 12:42pm
Apple's definitely heading down the wrong path with the whole Spamafari browser install approach. The whole thing with Apple Updater covertly pushing Safari onto our PC desktops is way beyond uncool. The last thing I want is yet another browser competing to be my default browser, especially...
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Vista Crashes Big, And Why I Wish It Was Five Years From Now
Written on Wed, 05/14/08 - 9:48am
This week I'm on the road attending IPSCon in Chicago for my company. And as happens with system crashes, my Vista Business laptop chose this moment to lose its brains and suddenly stop working. It crashed, its broken. Vista boots but doesn't load all the typical start up programs and other than...
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Apple's Trojan Easter Egg - Apple Safari
Written on Tue, 03/25/08 - 10:44am
While upgrading one of my other machines to Vista SP1 this Easter weekend, my laptop popped up the all too familiar Apple software upgrade window. I figured it was yet another iTunes or QuickTime upgrade wanting to be installed. It seems these days Apple iTunes wants an upgrade of bits at least every...
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IE Tab - IE Browsing In Firefox
Written on Wed, 03/12/08 - 12:25pm
Firefox has long been my primary web browser application. It's much faster than IE, has lots more plug-ins and generally far fewer annoyances than Internet Explorer. But then there are those occasional web pages that either work better under IE or require IE because of Active-X or some other IE-ism....
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How Google Quietly Gained Control Of Open Source To Compete With Microsoft
Written on Wed, 01/02/08 - 2:23am
How do you take on the dominant player in your industry, like Microsoft? Well, you aren't going to easily outspend or out market them. Microsoft has a tremendous amount of momentum and software assets creating a huge barrier for competitors. They have more cash on hand than the GNP of some nations....
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About Converging on Microsoft
Mitchell Ashley has a diverse background in software development, network engineering, information security, mobility, collaborative technologies, and IT management and operations. An early adopter of social media in business, he began blogging about security and information technologies in 2006 at theconvergingnetwork.com. Mitchell is VP of Information Technology at CableLabs in Louisville, CO, and previously held positions as CIO, CTO and VP Engineering at prior companies.
 

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