Nemesis has finally hit cable – consequently it has been on at least four times a day – so it has been on my TV a few times over the last month, and I noticed something that caused me to wonder a little bit… during one of the battle scenes, Captain Picard gives the command to “fire at will” to the entire battle crew. Yet no one shoots at Commander Riker… Talk about an over abundance of free time, neh?
Category Archives: GeekStuff
Finally, Radio Shack Comes Through With Something Useful!
Got a surround sound system? Got wires running to the rear speakers that are a) running across the room and over a coffee table, b) running along floor boards, or c) taped to the side of a wall? Someone finally has a solution for such a set up: Radio Shack’s 5.8GHz Wireless Rear-Channel Amplifier (product #15-1974).
Continue reading Finally, Radio Shack Comes Through With Something Useful!
Oh: Technology Update
Xbox, Special Edition. An all green see-through model, with a copy of Halo (supposed to have some Halo 2 movies on it) and a controller branded for Halo. The graphics are better than the PC version, which completely boggles my mind. $169 at most places and it’s only for a limited time, although I’m now tempted to sign up for Xbox Live now…
Now that I’m an MCAD…
What do I do with it? Well, aside from updating my resume, of course. I guess I could make my email signatures read MCAD.NET, MCSD, MCP but I really hate that crap… so much so that I don’t even have an email signature in Outlook!
Continue reading Now that I’m an MCAD…
Coding Notation Changes?!
Actually, this is a Rant. For years I’ve gotten used to seeing things like objThis and m_strThat and knowing exactly what variable or object I would dealing with… I’ve used an approximation of what is known as “Hungarian Notation” among Geeks, but the fact is that it was easy to see nWoot and know it was an Integer. But now I’ve been hearing that you shouldn’t use Hungarian Notation anymore… it’s frowned upon for .NET applications, it’s no longer a slick way to code, and everywhere I look people seem to agree.
I. Will. Not. Comply.
Continue reading Coding Notation Changes?!
Who Said .NET Was Slower?
I was working on a project the other day in MFC/C++ 6 and had to put 180,000 items into a ComboBox. Every Windows programmer that reads this Blog just collectively groaned, but there was a reason for it – honest. On a whim I thought I would see what would happen if I did the same test using C#, Windows Forms, and the .NET Framework; the results were surprising, given all of the “Why .NET Framework?” grief I’ve gotten over the couple of years.
Continue reading Who Said .NET Was Slower?
MTClient
I know I probably freak people out when I talk about titles that are in “competition” to my own software, but I’ve always been more about the technology than I am about pissing contest for a bigger marketshare of freeware. Having said that, there’s a new player in the MT-specific offline Blog writing arena: MTClient. I found out about this new one through Stupid Evil Bastard who has toyed with SharpMT before but wasn’t pleased about all aspects of it, before coming to find MTClient…
Continue reading MTClient
Shareware: Dead or Alive?
The other day Wesner asked: “Shareware Profitable?” He goes on to talk a bit about shareware and how it’s changed over the years. I posted a comment or two on this topic on his site, but it’s been percolating in my head for a little while and after posting a new version of SharpMT last night, I know why it’s been nagging me.
Continue reading Shareware: Dead or Alive?
Letterbox
Remember the fuss about Letterbox format and how people went on and on, saying that they’d never get used to it? Ask anyone that’s under the age of forty if they even notice anymore, now that it’s been around for a while. I had on a movie on cable for the last 57 minutes and just realized that it was being shown in letterbox. I mean I know I have a head cold right now, but I’m not that out of it…
Blogging the World Over
While a lot of companies are censoring their employees about company matters and warning them to keep their mouths closed – or at least ordering them not to Blog about things – Microsoft has swung in the other direction. They’ve got a number different technical sites running all over the place with “inside views” of technology just breaking to the scene but they’ve got two newer sites that haven’t seen anywhere else, at least in Blog format. They are Technical Careers @ Microsoft and Marketing @ Microsoft – want some insight into who they’re looking to hire to work out in Redmond? Go check them out, right now.
Will Code For Food?
I read an article the other day about how a company up in Massachusetts is trying to prevent programming jobs from being outsourced to India. Obviously, this made me read the entire article, as it impacts me directly. Or well indirectly. OK, let’s be honest here: anything that stops Apu from getting what could be my job is important to me.
Continue reading Will Code For Food?
E-Stamp?
There has been a lot of talk lately in tech publications about the possibility of selling electronic “stamps” to be used for sending email. To that I say, “Are you fuckin’ high?” At a penny an email, that would mean that I would get charged $10-$50 a month, for a service that I already have and use for free; better yet, it’s a service that I should be entitled to, technologically speaking. The worst argument I’ve heard for this is “it will stop Spam” – bullshit. I get snail-mailboxes full of junk mail, at 37 cents a pop, or whatever the bulk rate is. I used to get tons of calls from telemarketers and they have to pay for the long distance charges. Did that stop them from calling me? No. It took a state level law to stop the calls. This is whole thing is simply a plan to line someone’s
pockets – probably government – and it disgusts me.
Oh and if you want to stop Spam? Go after the Spammers. Pass a real law – unlike CAN-SPAM, reads as “[You] Can Spam [Us]” – and don’t fuck the end user simply because they use an email account. It’s just disgusting.
AV: Why Norton’s Irked Me
Have you installed Norton’s AntiVirus 2004? I have. Can someone explain to me why six different processes need to be running to “protect” me from attacks? I mean, it used to just be just one simple process and that was only if I had Auto Protect on? No, you can’t explain it, so don’t even try.
For people that are running McAfee’s AV: is your scanner any better than this? I’m looking to trade up, and soon, I think.
Continue reading AV: Why Norton’s Irked Me
DevDays 2004: Hartford
Hometown conference for .NET related technologies? How can you pass that up, even if it is $75 out of my own pocket; I didn’t even know companies out here were actively using .NET – they’ve usually heard about it, but haven’t moved to it yet (even though it was introduced in 2002.) The sessions don’t start for another half hour so I thought I’d share the experience – and more importantly what’s in the goodie bag – oh, and if you saw a slacker-looking guy in Donut’s Red Army T-Shirt wandering around the conference or typing on a ThinkPad you saw a rare public appearance of the Rant’r.
Continue reading DevDays 2004: Hartford
Literary Quandary
Here it is, in a nutshell: I’m having trouble selecting a textbook for my class and I’m looking for some Geek-feedback. The class is an Introduction to C#, for graduate-level CS students. I’m using it as an “overview” of the language, an introduction to Windows Forms and the .NET Framework, and I plan to offer a glimpse of Web Services, Mobile Forms and version 2 of C#. The problem that I face is the fact that most books either focus on C# as a language and ignore Windows Forms or they gloss over C# and focus only on Windows Forms. I wanted to try to avoid using two books – to save students’ money – but I fear I have no choice.
Continue reading Literary Quandary