The Hector Safety Button

The Hector Safety Button: "This Hector Safety Button has been created by the NetSafe® Programme of New Zealand to help keep children safe online. The function of this button is to give a child the ability to quickly cover the screen of the computer with a screensaver of Hector Protector when they encounter material that frightens or upsets them. With a click of the button, the problem is covered over by Hector until a trusted adult can come and deal with the situation. Hector also gives children very positive feedback for using the button and for talking with an adult about the problem.

"

A new ruler - this time a transparent grid

DVXP: All downloads: "View a grid and ruler on top of your application. (Requires Windows 2000 and up.)"

Big brother strikes agin

PCWorld.com - Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents:

For those wanting to know more about Office

Microsoft Office Assistance: 100 and counting...: "Training for Office Online has now reached a major milestone: 100 courses have been published. "

Watch Your Weblog - Computerworld

Watch Your Weblog - Computerworld:
"Legal liabilities lurk amid corporate blogs.
... As weblogs have multiplied, a number of legal issues have arisen, and regardless of whether your company sponsors its bloggers, it may be opening itself up to hidden liabilities. Here are some of the dangers of corporate blogging and precautions companies should consider.

CorporateBloggingBlog: Free Corporate Blogging Primer

CorporateBloggingBlog: Free Corporate Blogging Primer: "The Beginners' Guide to Corporate Blogging (pdf)."

Error Code Look-up Tool

Download details: Exchange Server Error Code Look-up Tool: "Use the Error Code Lookup tool to determine error values from decimal and hexadecimal error codes in Microsoft Windows(R) operating systems. The tool can look up one or more values at a time. All values on the command line will be looked up in Exchange's internal tables and presented to you. If available, informational data associated with the value or values will also be shown."

Get it before they change their minds.

Microsoft Photo Story 3 for Windows: "Breathe more life into your favorite memories with Photo Story 3 for Windows(R) by adding motion, effects, music, and more to your digital photos."

An article I was going to write (but lack the skill)

{ End Bracket }: A Tidal Wave of Change: "When I started working in the industry, computing was dominated by big iron machines..."

Tip from the Top, (Thanks Nic)

TODAYS SURVIVAL TIP
"Next time you are too drunk to drive,
Walk to the nearest pizza shop,
Place an order,
And when they go to deliver it,
Catch a ride home with them.
:)"

Microsoft Leadership Team Bloggers

Developer Division LeaderSpeak
"Many members of the Developer Division leadership team are blogging their plans for the division, and the products they are responsible for. This page gives you the ability to see what they are planning and insight into the direction for Visual Studio and the related products from now, through Whidbey and Burton, and to the future."

Headset Screen

Mitsubishi is going to introduce next year a headset with a small
liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen. Called the SCOPO, this prototype
compact wearable display is designed for users who need to perform
multiple tasks simultaneously.

Have a look at what the guy next to me is doing.

NZFC Virtual Football

"Welcome to NZFC Virtual Football League"

FYI this is Soccer (football) as a seperate entity to Rugby (football) or Gridiron (football)

How you can break Murphy's Law - By Jennifer Sym

"THERE'S grim news for people who worry that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. A new mathematical formula has proved Murphy's Law really does strike at the worst possible time.

Ordinary people have long known that computers crash on deadline and cars break down in emergencies, while previous studies have shown the law, also called Sod's Law, is not a myth and toast really does fall buttered side down.

But now a panel of experts has provided the statistical rule for predicting the law of "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong" - or ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)).

After tests of the experiences of 1000 people, they have discovered "things don't just go wrong, they do so at the most annoying moment".

Now the experts commissioned by British Gas - a psychologist, a mathematician and an economist - say the formula allows people to calculate the chances of Sod's Law striking, and even try to beat bad luck.

Project psychologist Dr David Lewis said: "The lesson from this is that, to cut the seemingly unbeatable Murphy's Law gremlins down to size, you need to change one of the elements in the equation.

"So, if you haven't got the skill to do something important, leave it alone. If something is urgent or complex, find a simple way to do it. If something going wrong will particularly aggravate you, make certain you know how to do it."

But he added a note of caution: "There is, of course, a Sod's Law factor to the equation. If you judge your ratings wrongly, you might become too optimistic - and calamity will strike."

In the calculation, five factors have to be assessed: urgency (U), complexity (C), importance (I), skill (S) and frequency (F), and each given a score between one and nine. A sixth, aggravation (A), was set at 0.7 by the experts after their poll.

Top of the most likely - and most annoying - events was spilling something down yourself before a date and the hot water heater breaking down in cold weather, followed by rush hour being worse when you're already late."

New Cleartype Tuner

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP: "ClearType Tuner (New)
This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen, and installs in the Control Panel for easy access."

Waiting...

so if i live in Luxembourg (pop 462,690 area slightly smaller than Rhode Island ) I can download Pocket Streets 2005
LUX_Luxembourg.mpss

But in New Zealand (pop 3,993,817) we have to wait.

Whis is this again?

Blogger father resigns from Google

Search company Google Inc. has lost the services of Evan Williams, father of the Blogger Web logging service

A place that needs building

The SaltwaterPizza Blog: Mall for Guys

Teenager -> Human dictionary

Teen Lingo

An interesting take on the future of RSS

Micro Persuasion: Don't Worry, Microsoft Will Wake Up and Smell the RSS
"In typical Microsoft fashion, the software giant will again crash a hot, happening technology party fashionably late and then dominate it, just as it did in the Web browser and email/groupware markets. As I pen this post, I bet Microsoft is probably now cooking up all kinds of new software/ASP-based tools that will make it a snap for information workers and consumers to save and publish any information that needs to be continually updated in RSS format."

How to report a bug - a good guide from MSDN

Bug Reporting Best Practices: "Bug Reporting Best Practices "

Task manager services exposed

Windows Process Library: "The WinTasks Process Library contains information about all common Windows processes and is continously updated with new information. On this page you can find a subset of the most popular processes listed in WinTasks Process Library. The categories available online are: Security Risks, System Processes, and Applications"

Dilbert's "Salary Theorem"

"Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives and sales people."

This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two postulates:
Postulate 1: Knowledge is Power.
Postulate 2: Time is Money.

As every engineer and scientist knows: Power = Work/Time
Since: Knowledge=Power & Time=Money
Then: Knowledge=Work/Money
Solving for Money, we get: Money=Work/Knowledge
Thus: as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

Conclusion: The less you know, the more you make.

The End is nigh (for chip makers that is)

Outgoing Intel chiefs interview somewhat foreboding for the future of the IC: "Most theoretical guesstimates are that when you get down to the 5 nanometer range, these things physically don't work anymore, because you've run out of atoms.
You can't split an atom in half or you can't split a molecule in half. But to get to 5 nanometers, you go from 90 to 65 to 45 to 30 to 20 to 12 to 5. So, there's six or so generations between now and then. "

New on MSDN

Talking With Navision: Say hello to Navision and Expect Navision To Be Polite

You would search if you knew what to search for

When You Can't Google It..: "So sometimes you will find yourself sitting in front of Google scratching your head. You might want to dig up a site you lost. Want to go back to where you browsed 2 weeks ago. Want to research that hot new programming language. What was it called? Sure, Google provides the dry wood, but you are missing the spark to light the fire. In situations like these, you have several options:"

A brilliant movie to explain TCP/IP & net related subjects

Warriors of the Net: "The Movie"

Why it is good to be eco friendly

When they get this in NZ I will be hooked

Map24 - USA Java Maps

although this Driving Directions - www.wises.co.nz is doing a sterning job - it is just that the maps get fuzzy at times as opposed to the java Map24 solution

My first post

:::: NZ.NET USER GROUP ::::: "Get a job as a .NET Developer "

This could be good

I want to be in America?

HackerWatch Map: "World Animation of Lovsan Worm Activity"

Aha! I thought so. - and we don't even get free PocketPC's

Computerworld - Microsoft promises MSDN price correction: "Pricing figures provided to Computerworld by a reader for the six MSDN products indicate New Zealand developers are paying between 41% and 66% more, on an after-tax basis, than the US recommended retail price.

It gets worse. If the products are sourced from Amazon, the differences ranges from 87% to 111%."

To blog or not to Blog.. What was the question again?

Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger: "How your blog will get discovered"

This is Wrong on Oh So Many Levels: "do what you want, anyway, because we're all just making this stuff up."


Do you write a blog for the audience or yourself?
to quote Forest Gump "or maybe it's both"

Confessions of a Web greenhorn.

OK, So I am an HTML Newbie
you can tell this from the number of 'freebie' buttons on this site (under the powered by area).
Paypal, blogshares, firefox...
The truth is I am just trying stuff to see how the plumbing works.
Does this site load in thess than 3 seconds? - probably not.
Is the web design World class? AS IF!
Does it reflect the mind of a developer learning at his own pace? Absolutely!
So help me out, visit my page and click on a few things.
Click a google ad, put a pin on my guestbook map, send me some money via paypal... ;)

Go ahead make my day.

Graphical analysis of SPAM & Virus content

Seven Years of Unwanted Email, Charted and Graphed: "Raymond Chen saved every piece of junk email and virus-laden email over the last seven years. Recently Chen posted a graphical plot in his blog of the trends related to that saved email. "

A Blog is like a favorites list with notes

Download details: Visio Viewer 2003: "Visio Viewer 2003
The Microsoft Office Visio 2003 Viewer enables almost anyone to view Visio files."

think of this as a bookmark in case I need it later.

New MSDN works well

New MSDN = REALLY cool:

Andrew Duthie has this to say

"I am really impressed by the new site. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/default.aspx.

Now you can use 'http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/.aspx' to get the documents for a particular namespace. For example, I reference System.Reflection quite a lot. So I type http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/System.Reflection.aspx, all the documents for classes under System.Reflection are right there.
This is what MSDN team called 'URL aliases'.
Aliases also works for classes. To look for documentation of System.Reflection.Assembly class, I will simply type http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/System.Reflection.Assembly.aspx.
This is superb work done by MSDN team!
I can't believe this. It actually works with properties and methods as well. Like http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/System.Reflection.Assembly.FullName.aspx. This is too good to be true."

I just treid it and I must agree, this is a cleaner, faster interface. Well Done to the MSDN team.

Geek Art

Download Visual Studio.NET 2003 Posters

Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service

Welcome to the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service: "
The Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service will end on October 15, 2004. While current users can continue to use the service until October 15, we are not enrolling new users."

Not surprising, I could never got it to work, or get anyone else game enough to try it.

Saved my bacon more than once

DLL Help Database: "This database contains information about DLL files that ship with selected Microsoft products."

Ok So I'm a lemming - Load Forefox now.

Firefox - Rediscover the web: "The world's best browser just got better. The new Firefox Preview Release is the award winning preview of Mozilla's next generation browser."

Desire has a new name

Microsoft Mice & Keyboards - Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer with Fingerprint Reader: "A mouse that recognizes you. This stylish wireless optical mouse offers the Fingerprint Reader to eliminate password hassles - now you can log on to Web sites and your computer with the touch of a finger. Tilt Wheel Technology makes navigation easy, and more than half a year of battery life lets you stay productive."

Simple Intro to blogging

HP Smalltechnology tips- 101 series: Blogging
"Weblogs 'blogs' for short are a type of online journal devoted to a single subject or a range of them. Blog entries, also called 'posts' or 'stories,' might be written by a blog owner, a contributing reader, or gleaned from other Internet resources."

These are not me.

Andrew Dixon, Director of Marketing for Microsoft's Tablet PC Team

But if anyone wants to send me free samples I would not complain.

Andrew Dixon, editor of the Weekly's popular 'On-line' column.

Right country, Right profession - I can't write

Andrew Dixon: The Art of Sax

Right country, wrong profession - I can't even spell saxophone.

The things you find out when you google....

And a dictionary we could do without

Dictionary tells it like it was, man:
"Are you feeling screwed, blued and tattooed because the man slipped it to you? Like, stay loose, hit the pad and share a thumb with your pash.

If that made no sense to you, check out 'The Hippie Dictionary' by John McCleary. Using the new book to translate, readers come up with the more conventional: 'Are you feeling mistreated by the authorities? Relax, go home to bed and share a very large marijuana cigarette with your significant other.' "

A Dictionary we could use

TheStar.com - Also sprach die Fraulein: "We are amused to learn from Reuters that a leading German dictionary publisher plans to launch a guide it says will help men translate the subtext of female conversation"

A report from an alternate reality

The Inner Secrets of Google Revealed: "Google is a female."

Yeah Right...

Copernic Vs LookOut

I have a number of .pst files that hold archived messages (in outlook) Copernic SAID it was indexing them - but did not
Copernic could not see public folders on the exchange server
I REALLY like the interface and the fact it is not inside outlook - but I for one will be sticking with LookOut for the moment.

Scare people on the Motorway

In case you were wondering, those are balloons

DotNet Ruler. Get it.

Ruler util: "DotNet Ruler"

Jeff Key has a blog. subscribed.

Pat's back

Data on the Outside vs. Data on the Inside: "An Examination of the Impact of Service Oriented Architectures on Data
By Pat Helland

Summary: Pat Helland explores Service Oriented Architecture, and the differences between data inside and data outside the service boundary. Additionally, he examines the strengths and weaknesses of objects, SQL, and XML as different representations of data, and compares and contrasts these models."

Another blow for Project Green

InfoWorld: Longhorn cuts delay Microsoft Business Framework: "Experts say the delay is bad news for developers waiting for MBF and gives the rival Java platform an edge.

MBF is not just key for third-party software vendors and corporate developers building on the Windows platform: a new family of Microsoft ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM (customer relationship management) applications -- known as "Project Green" -- is also supposed to rely on the framework, Microsoft has said.

Microsoft recently disclosed that it is slowing down development work on Project Green and is instead focusing on its existing offerings. The software maker even reduced the number of developers assigned to Project Green from 200 to 70 because the first products are not expected out until 2008 at the earliest, Microsoft Senior Vice President Doug Burgum said in June. Microsoft originally had planned to ship the first results of Project Green as early as the end of this year.

Microsoft plans to provide early MBF code, so-called alpha code, to its early-adopter partners for MBF later this year, the company spokesman said. "

Spetember 2nd - red letter day

CNN.com - The Internet at 35: "Stephen Crocker and Vinton Cerf were among the graduate students who joined UCLA professor Len Kleinrock in an engineering lab on September 2, 1969, as bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers. By January, three other 'nodes' joined the fledgling network.
Then came e-mail a few years later, a core communications protocol called TCP/IP in the late 1970s, the domain name system in the 1980s and the World Wide Web -- now the second most popular application behind e-mail -- in 1990. The Internet expanded beyond its initial military and educational domain into businesses and homes around the world."

Made round to go round

Following in the footsteps of others before me, I introduce my paypal button. Go on, show me just how much you care ;) No donation too small.

Things to do when you have nothing to do

The Search Engine Belt Buckle: "What is the Search Engine Belt Buckle?
The Search Engine Belt Buckle is a PDA which shows 24 hours of all the bizarre and banal things people are looking for on the web. Art project or pointless hack? That's for you to decide, but all we know is that people are searching for some pretty freaky stuff out there, so why not put in a belt buckle..."

GMail me

drop me a line at MrDeee@gmail.com
I feel so cyberbuff.

Outsource your job to earn more

The Times of India:
"Programmers are outsourcing their software modules to cheap and efficient labour in India. This way they get the best of both worlds- more money and more time. They earn doubly - one from the outsourced job, other from the new job they undertake.

Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: 'My employer thinks I'm telecommuting. Now I'm considering getting a second job and doing the same thing.'"

Ping

I am up to my eyeballs in SQL replication.
normal service (whatever that is) will resume one day...

ProFont - The ultimate Programmers font

ProFont: "These are various download files for all people who love ProFont and comparable small sized, monospaced bitmap fonts."

I Wonder if Microsoft really knows where NZ is?

Microsoft pays dear for insults through ignorance

"only 23 out of 56 young Americans knew the whereabouts of the Pacific Ocean."

"The company [Microsoft] has now launched geography classes for its staff to avoid further bloomers which have caused embarrassment and cost money on a grand scale"

· A game called Age of Empires 2 offended the Saudi Arabian authorities because it showed victorious Muslim armies turning churches into mosques. The game was withdrawn from sale in the kingdom

· The Korean government, objected because Microsoft software showed the national flag in reverse. The software had to be changed.

Scary Stuff - patch quickly.

You've got 20 minutes to get your system patched:
"If the human body did patch management the way (companies do), we'd all be dead." - Fred Baumhardt. Microsoft Security Consultant

According to the SANS Internet Storm Center, an unprotected PC connected to the net to get patches, updates, and security fixes will last about 20 minutes, on average, before becoming compromised. Last year, the number was 40 minutes.
SANS offers a helpful guide called Windows XP - Surviving the First Day. ZDNet has a brief overview of this recent analysis."

Why didn;t I think of this...

The amazing Linux Duracell CPU load monitor
"You probably know those onboard testers found on Energizer and Duracell batteries : press the two white dots printed on the wrapper, and magically the battery's state appears on a yellow bar. No need for a separate battery tester, everything is included on the battery itself. While not very precise, it's good enough to know if a battery is brand new, so-so, or completely dead.

Here are instructions to turn such a tester into a not-so-precise analog display to monitor the CPU load on a Linux system, controlled by a serial port."

Internet Law - In plain english

Internet Law - Legal Encyclopedia - Nolo

After a recent brush with (I believe) cyber squatting, I found this link. It explained the fundamentals to me very well. There may be other iems of law that interest you. obviously this is a USA bviased site, but the principles may apply to global issues, but what do I know - I'm not a lawyer.

Outlook Deleted items bloat problem FIXED

Are your 'Deleted Items' full of stuff you thought you threw out?
My word this guy is clever.

Nice change for Bloggar sites

The Navbar:
Automatic Google SiteSearch... That works - very nice.

So many gadgets - so little time

ActiveWin.com Exclusive: "New Microsoft Hardware Fall 2004 Lineup Photos"

SORRY LINK PULLED

Blogging in a corporate environment

Biz Blogging Heats Up
"A lot of thoughts today on blogging as a way to bring an enterprise and its customers closer together...."

This lead me to
Six Types Of Business Blogs - A Classification
which is on an excellent site.
Subscribed!

intraVnews RC1 released

intraVnews Beta Program:
intraVnews is a must have plug in aggregator for Outlook.
Compine this with Lookout and you have a killer active newspaper.

What are you waiting for?

More cunning than a fox

How to get someone to answer your questions: "I learned a wonderful trick today that completely resonates with me, and I wanted to share it. Perhaps I should start a new program management category for this kind of thing, seems like I've been writing about it a lot recently.
The problem: You have a question. You need an answer. You know the person or group of people who can answer the question. You ask them the question, but you never hear back... you might have to continually checkin every few days or weeks, you might have to cc their manager, etc... but that's an awful lot of work just to get the answer to a question.
The solution: Send the mail to the person or group of people, but rather than asking the question, state what you know is the wrong answer. 'I think the way it works is Foo, right Bob?' You'll be amazed at how quickly someone will take the time to correct you, particularly if the question was aimed at more than one person, since it's an opportunity for that person to prove their knowledge in front of others (which is just human nature).
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Of course, it's not without consequences... you need to have a thick skin (or be willing to grow one), and be willing to live with the consequences should you use this trick so frequently that others start to think you don't know what you're talking about."

Anne's Weblog about Markup & Style

The perfect weblog system

Reference URL - might be worth a look

Six great myths of IT

InfoWorld Special Report: "Urban legends from the tech trenches ... and the realities behind them"

Geek Humor

Humor: The Top Ten Reasons .NET is Better than COM

put this on my SQL to do list

Download details: SQL Server Health and History Tool (SQLH2): "SQL Server Health and History Tool (SQLH2)
The Microsoft SQL Server Health and History Tool (SQLH2) allows you to collect information from instances of SQL Server, store this information, and run reports against the data in order to determine how SQL Server is being used."

Pat Helland strikes again

Why I hate the phrase "Long Running Transactions"...

Whenever I hear about a 'Long Running Transaction', I wonder about where it ends. Let's consider the following example:
1) I decide to take a trip to Europe so I book some airline and hotel reservations.
2) The hotel in London hits a threshold of occupancy and decides to increase staffing and food for the restaurant.
3) The hotel orders more food from the Green Grocer.
4) The Green Grocer hits a threshold and orders another delivery from its shipper.
5) The shipping company hits a thresold and orders more diesel fuel for its trucks...
6) Two weeks later, I cancel my trip.

So, if I believe in long-running-transactions, the shipping company doesn't need any more diesel fuel! I don't think so!

Help Make Blogs More Visible!

There are by some estimates more than a million weblogs. But most of them get no visibility in search engines. Only a few 'A-List' blogs get into the top search engine results for a given topic, while the majority of blogs just don't get noticed. The reason is that the smaller blogs don't have enough links pointing to them. But this posting could solve that. Let's help the smaller blogs get more visibility!
This posting is GoMeme 4.0. It is part of an experiment to see if we can create a blog posting that helps 1000's of blogs get higher rankings in Google. So far we have tried 3 earlier variations. Our first test, GoMeme 1.0, spread to nearly 740 blogs in 2.5 days. This new version 4.0 is shorter, simpler, and fits more easily into your blog.
Why are we doing this? We want to help thousands of blogs get more visibility in Google and other search engines. How does it work? Just follow the instructions below to re-post this meme in your blog and add your URL to the end of the Path List below. As the meme spreads onwards from your blog, so will your URL. Later, when your blog is indexed by search engines, they will see the links pointing to your blog from all the downstream blogs that got this via you, which will cause them to rank your blog higher in search results. Everyone in the Path List below benefits in a similar way as this meme spreads. Try it!
Instructions: Just copy this entire post and paste it into your blog. Then add your URL to the end of the path list below, and pass it on! (Make sure you add your URLs as live links or HTML code to the Path List below.)
Path List
1. Minding the Planet
2. Luke Hutteman's public virtual MemoryStream
3. MrDee
4. MrDee Office Zealot
5. (your URL goes here! But first, please copy this line and move it down to the next line for the next person"

Putting the Sans in Comic Sans

ban comic sans: "The FoNT foundation has determined that according to these trends the only typeface anyone will use by the year 2030 will indeed be Comic Sans. (illustations below)"

I just had to link to this one

bizgirl: "Mucus Trooper"

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

A clever Idea in SQL server

SQL Server Alerts: "By using alerts for the client processing (not a system monitoring) better security with ability to use full SQL Server power and physical separation between two logically connected but physically independent processes can be achieved. This article shows only general design ideas that I was using for multiple processes very successfully. The actual implementation may vary based on each individual process scenario. "

Hmmm

XP SP2 Released - be prepared

XP SP2 Released - resources for developers: "Windows XP Service Pack 2 has been released, and should be becoming available via automatic updates soon. In the meantime, you may want to check out this link which will help you prepare:"

The problem with passwords

Jon Udell: Tragedy of the network commons: "A recent survey found that 75 percent of Dartmouth students have shared their network passwords. They like having people who know their password, explained Denise Anthony, a sociologist who spoke at the PKI summit conference I attended earlier this month. 'They like having someone who can check their e-mail for them or log them in to places where they're supposed to be.' "

critique of Microsoft.com design

Stopdesign | Throwing Tables Out the Window: "The shame is that Microsoft's site isn't as optimized as it could be. They haven't taken the plunge yet. Users download unnecessarily larger pages, and servers waste extra bandwidth to keep up. At 40 KB, the HTML for Microsoft's home page is not exactly a bloated beast. But it is burdened with inaccessible, kludgy, table-based markup filled with proprietary attributes and some awkward JavaScript. "

I Am A Zealot

Andrew Dixon, Office Zealot
OK so I live on outlook.
I am investigating CRM and IBF
I can be made to admit I use access
I figured I might as well talk about the experience.

Nice freebie re: XML

"Essential XML Quick Reference" book available for free download: "Developmentor and TheServerSide.NET have teamed together to provide you with the entire book 'Essential XML Quick Reference', by Aaron Skonnard and Martin Gudgin, . The book offers quick-reference access to the XML Schema, XML, XSLT, XPath and more."

Yet avain we beat the Aussies ;)

Computerworld - Tech Ed attendance hits new high:

"Ironically, the New Zealand event this year is larger than Tech Ed in Australia.

Microsoft's Doug Pratt says speakers won't have to fly out next year, because the Australian event will be held a week before New Zealand's conference. "

Good at twice the price

ImageShack (TM) - Hosting: "ImageShack(TM) is a dedicated internet digital content hosting service"

Interesting disclaimer

Disclaimer

"All opinions are my own. All content is provided 'AS IS' with no warranties, and confers no rights. Use code samples at your own risk.
Posts may contain information that is confidential, privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humour or irrational religious beliefs. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this post is not authorised (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social faux pas. Unless the word absquatulation has been used in its correct context somewhere other than in this warning, it does not have any legal or grammatical use and may be ignored. No animals were harmed in the preparation of this post. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards, so just ignore that Alert Notice from Microsoft: However, by pouring a complete circle of salt around yourself and your computer you can ensure that no harm befalls you and your pets. If you have read this post in error, please add some nutmeg and egg whites and place it in a warm oven for 40 minutes. Whisk briefly and let it stand for 2 hours before icing. "

Firefox Checklist - Time to get compliant

Can Your Site Survive Firefox?

The first Pocket Computer (as in pocket of land)

Babbage Difference Engine

Ever wondered how this worked? They have built one in london, something Babbage was not able to do with the engineering available at the time. What do you know - It worked.

Security Wisdom

Passwords are like Chewing Gum

Strongest when fresh
Should be used by an individual - not a group
If left laying around, will create a sticky mess

TechEd - Day Three (the pain begins)

SEC201 Defending Against Layer 8: How to Recognize and Combat Social Engineering
Steve Riley at his best. BTW the auction for may password starts here (and begins at more than one chocolate bar)

ARC305 Improving Application Performance and Scalability
Tom Hollander
Good solid, sensible advice. Glad I went.

DEV403 .NET Framework: Writing Faster Managed Code
Nic Wise, recipient of the TechEd purple heart for continuing under fire. Next year can we please have a venue that is finished.

"The one thing you need to do is (insert mind altering screetch noise from the heavens that makes your eyes rattle) and that is it."

Sorry Nic, I could not get much more that this out of your session (and I lost the link to Quake :( )

DEV322 Using Web Services Enhancements v2.0 to secure Web services
Gabe Smith
Torture. One of the 'features' of v2.0 is ease of use. These guys need a dictionary.
I am sure Gabe is a great guy, it is the session that should be put out of our misery

DEV307 Visual C# Best Practices: What's Wrong With this Code?
Valentine Boairkine
Should have gone to the dentist. Even if I WANTED to feel like I was trapped in a C# for dummies book or a Hi-5 TV show I would not have come here.

DEV311 Secure coding best practices (or Writing Secure Code 2nd Edition)
Michael Howard
What a way to finish. Michael has passion, skill and an ability to make me REALLY scared. Please come back.

TechEd - Day Two

SEC403 Windows Passwords: Everything You Need to Know
Jesper Johansson
WOW I wish I had been to his first session. Electric, Informative.
no wonder this is the session that will not die.
and yes, he is a good as steve riley

SMT205 Smart Clients in a Service-Oriented World: Thomson Financial Case Study
Brenton Webster
Wierd opening, content that swung from a 100 to a 300 level - Interesting overview, just needed a little focus.

DotNet User Group
this is a must not miss, must support local talent - shame it conflicted with
SEC404 Security Expert Panel
Jesper Johansson, Steve Riley, Ben Smith
but there is one one of me - I'm sure they missed me (NOT)

DEV201 .NET Framework: Exploring What's new in the CLR 2.0
Joel Pobar
Nice overview, The map was a little strange, he seemed a little eagre, but very sincere - and a good topic helps.

DEV310 Threat modeling of possible software exploits
Michael Howard
He is the MAN. He wrote the book on security at microsoft (well co-authored at least)
Writing Secure Code and he knows how to interest an audience. I did not want to leave.

note to sponsers. WE NEED MORE STUFF. my haul so far - pens=2. t-shirts=1, balls=2 and I had to WORK hard for these. c'mon guys t-shirts are cheap adverting. Geeks wear these everywhere. and if you want to buy something technical who do you ask? why not make them a moving billboard. I will wear a t-shirt long after I have forgotten the eye-candy air-heads you have manning your stalls.

TechEd - Day One (part 2)

Oh yeah I forgot
DEV316 Visual Studio Team System Part 1
this could be good, this could be bloat, this could be another hoop to jump through before you an get to DOING something useful. I will wait for time to tell.

This one saw WAY too few seats. Can abyone explain why pre-registration is not mandatory so that sensible room sizes are allocated?

Then again Commnet would have to be reliable... maybe next year.

Oh yeah, annoyance number somthing - session times changed - I had the whole 3 days planned and the world shifted resulting in conflicts with cool sessions and dead periods with blah content.

methinks sharing speakers with Australia was the problem. I wonder if having NZ wed-fri and OZ mon-wed might work?

Customer service as seen in NZ

Monty Python's Cheese Shop Skit

Oh for the time to do everything

How to download Microsoft Webcasts

VMWare vs VPC - objective review

Ars Technica: Virtual Machine Shootout - Page 1 - (8/2004): "Virtual machine shootout: VMware vs. Virtual PC"

Lookout v1.2 Official download

Download details: Lookout v1.2: "Lookout v1.2"

Bob Lewis on Hiring Uber-programmers

Great Hacker != Great Hire: "I worry that lots of small ISVs will read this article (Great Hackers) and believe that they need to hire great hackers. When great hackers are as fussy as Graham says they are, they're not worth the trouble. We want the super-productivity, and we want the innate love of software development, but we don't want all the extra baggage. Instead:
Hire people who care about users.
Hire people who understand the difference between a job and a hobby.
Hire people who want to contribute in lots of different ways to the success of the product.
It's okay to be in awe of these great hackers. But as a practical matter, small ISVs would be much better off hiring professionals."

Beat the ROT,

Be as ROTten as you like:

Bob Lewis has some insightful comments to make about business in a techo evnironment.
read this article to see what IU mean (then subscribe)

Yippee - the pixie is back

pixies are like that.

(tech ed content to follow when I get back tonight)

TechEd NZ - Day One

TechEd 2004 NZ

Tech Ed started with a bang and a roar. SOOO many people. I would have traken notes but, there was no pen supplied. Can you believe that? you pay an arm and a leg and no pen... or pad.. or eval forms.... note to self - pick these up later... too much to see.

ARC301 Metropolis: Envisioning the Service-Oriented Enterprise
Harry Pierson presented this fabulously - if you watch nothing else on the DVD set, this will give you a fresh perspective on where IT is going

ARC303 Business value of Enterprise Architecture
Mark Carroll - WARNING buzz word alert!
however when you actually understand what he is saying the value is obvious. I am looking forward to getting the slide deck (still no pen)

ARC401 Data in Services-Oriented Architecture
Harry Pierson - This guy is on fire. I will ahve to digest this session futher, but to see some flesh on the fiefdoms concept has made TechEd worth coming to this year (yay a pen was found, and a t-shirt, squeeze ball etc - must say though meagre pickings for geek pack-rats)

SEC402 Network Threat Modeling
Jesper Johansson - Such a shame I missed this gut earlier - tomorrow I will not miss him (despite 8:30 start) Animated, funny, INFORMATIVE. why are security guys so entertaining? Steve Riley et al.

did I mention the food - Not bad.

If they could find a way of letting us get from one seminar to the next without risking life an limb (bad queues due to sponsers on bith sides of narrow corridor, and a VERY dodgy escalator) I would be happier.)

don't you just love Tech Ed? I know I do.

Simple ClearType Config

ClearType Setup: "ClearType delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as those in laptops and high-quality flat panel displays. Readability on CRT screens can also be somewhat improved. "

Nice intro article on blogs

StreamLine :: How Blogs Work in 7 Easy Pieces: "How Blogs Work in 7 Easy Pieces "

Am I the kiss of death - or what?

I added weatherpixie to my site - it is now dead
I added a Feedster ATOM->RSS converter - it is now dead.

does anyone want to pay me to link to a competitor site?

More Architecture reading To Do

Crossing the Border: Service Boundaries and Architecture:

"In the creation of Service Oriented Architectures, service boundaries define the interactions between applications. Internal to those applications is the concept of tier boundaries and component boundaries. Which technology should you use to communicate across these boundaries?"

Virtual networks

Virtual networks with Virtual Server 2005:

OutlookPower Magazine Syndication

OutlookPower Magazine on your Web site:
This is a really good source of stuff microsoft & Outlook related.

Great Quote

'The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.'
Dorothy Parker

Where is the Weather Pixie?

I can normally go here

WeatherPixie at Auckland Airport

but the link is dead - is it just me (corporate firewall maybe)?

A Warm Kiwi Welcome

DevHawk - Passion * Technology * Ruthless Competence: "Architecture Down Under
I'm off for New Zealand today"

J2EE or .NET?

The Smart Choice for Smart Clients: J2EE or .NET?: "So Which Framework Should I Use, .NET or J2EE?
Unfortunately, the decision between frameworks still has no clear-cut choice. J2EE has more to offer in terms of no-touch deployment, but only .NET provides pre-packaged synchronization logic and in-memory manipulation of DataSets. As with all applications, choosing the right technology depends heavily on your specific application's functional and technical requirements. "

Blog Boom

Technorati tracks 3 million blogs
"We're seeing over 275,000 individual posts every day. That means that on average, more than 3 blogs are updated every second. The median time from when someone posts something to their weblog to when it is indexed and available for searches on Technorati is 7 minutes. And we're striving to handle the load. But to be perfectly frank, it isn't easy."

You THINK!

IMHO This service really rocks. Tecnocrato has received some flak but just like Christopher Carfi I think these guys should be given a loud round of applause.

I Want one

NASA to build 10,240-processor Linux computer:

NASA Calls it Project Columbia. The 10,240-processor system will be used to design equipment, simulate future space missions and model weather patterns. The Ames system uses 512-processor nodes, each of which will have more than 1,000 gigabytes of memory.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds said in an email interview "Scaling up to ... 512 CPU's is pretty damn studly, Putting 20 of them in a cluster and making them be programmable as a single machine is pretty hot."

Behold, The man with the plan

Pat Helland's Video page
> The Nerd, the Suit, and the Fortune Teller
> Metropolis
> Autonomous Computing

A whole bunch of Office updates released today

Microsoft has released a number of Office 2003 updates today.

• OneNote SP1.
• Service Pack 1 releases for the Office 2003 Suite, Visio 2003, and Project 2003.
• Updated Junk Filter

Interestingly, Microsoft is offering two different downloads for each SP1 release - a full installer (big) and a special installer for those who have their original installation CD at hand (much smaller).  - you haver to clicl the Mote Information link to find this out.

Go to the Office Update web site to determine which updates are available for your system.

Following in Nic's footsteps

Back up and running. Kinda.: Tis the season for laptops to die badly - just before Tech Ed - at least I get to take a clean PC.

Architecture Update

.NET Architecture Center: : Messaging Patterns in Service-Oriented Architecture, Part 1: must look at this

Upgrade or Die?

InfoWorld: Microsoft invests $50M to spur Windows, Office upgrades: "Many businesses continue to rely on older version of Windows on the desktop. Research firm Gartner Inc. in a poll of attendees at its U.S. Symposium in October last year found that only 14 percent of attendees had upgraded to the three year-old Windows XP. The poll, answered by 186 people, represented more than 1.3 million desktops and 460,000 laptops. "

The other day I used Office 97 on Windows 95. you know it still works!
I could type a letter, insert graphics, print it, file it, search for it.
Comparing 97 to 2003 I find that setting up tables is just as confusing and bullets & auto-numbering is still brain dead. When I go to a ramdom place in the document hit the delete key it is still a game of russian roulette as to what formatting will be applied, and deleting inside a bullet list is something only to be tried AFTER prozac.

After squillions of R&D could they please fix this stuff and not worry about reference book look-up, online collaboration (does ANYONE use this)

And while we are at it why does Windows still forget that I prefer detailed list view in explorer.

Brilliant marketing idea

the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company: "'Ask inside! We can custom-order alter egos.' Promising capes, masks and shrinking gas, the sign adds, 'If we don't have it, a superhero doesn't need it.'

Further curiosities lie within. In the rear, past floor-to-ceiling shelves bearing grappling hooks and utility belts, a secret door masked by a steel bookshelf swings open to reveal - shazam - a tutoring center. "

what a neat idea to make tutoring fun for students (and make a buck while you are at it)

Reality TV we all want to avoid

UserFriendly Jul 19 2004

It had to happen one day

First Windows CE virus emerges: "A virus designed to demonstrate security holes in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE operating system but not to cause damage was identified by security companies over the weekend. "

Sounds like a yawn - but is actually quite cool.

Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework: "The Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework is an infrastructure and toolset that enables powerful Office-based solutions. Using Information Bridge, developers can create solutions that connect Microsoft Office System programs to line-of-business systems in an intuitive, cost-effective way. These solutions extend the value of the Microsoft Office System by providing the ability for information workers to consume line-of-business data that is, to view, retrieve, and act on critical business information within the Microsoft Office applications. "

this leads to
Office Zealot:
and
IBF Home:

More on Asperger's

What are the diagnostic criteria of Asperger's Disorder?: "All six criteria must be met for confirmation of diagnosis.?"

Lookout!

Why did microsoft buy out Lookout?: "Think of it this way: You find pencils to be useful, but you always run out of erasers, so you buy those extra eraser blocks. They aren't critical, but it makes a big difference to your experience. Suddenly Bic buys the eraser block makers and takes them off the market. When you ask what's going on, Bic says, 'We're busy working to integrate eraser blocks into our new highlighters'.

Lookout's technology might make sense in MSN, but it also made sense in Outlook. The question is, why is it now unavailable for it's originally intended purpose? "

Sometimes Common sense wins.

DotComGuy Goes Bust and Changes Name: "The man who legally changed his name to DotComGuy changed it back Tuesday - to Mitch Maddox.
In 2000, Maddox spent one year at home and living off purchases made on the Internet. Video footage of his life was streamed on the Internet 24 hours a day and attracted worldwide media attention."

When good patterns go bad

Humor: .NET Architectural Anti-Patterns: "Catastrophe oriented architecture, Pattern oriented architecture, Interface oriented architecture, XML oriented architecture "

Make it go away

New Version MSN Messenger: "What's New
Minor update: Version 6.2 Released Thursday, 22 April 2004"

I upgraded in April - Why does it still nag me to upgrade? Any replies appreciated.

Language wars

CausticTech on Language Snobs: On programmers, their love of language and the wars that they fight.

Microsoft Acquires Lookout

"Microsoft announced this week that its MSN subsidiary is purchasing Lookout Software, which makes a highly regarded email search tool for Microsoft Outlook 2003 (in a bit of irony, Outlook detractors have often referred to Outlook as Microsoft LookOut). It's unclear how MSN will leverage the Lookout technology (MSN isn't responsible for Outlook), but I expect to see the technology integrated into future versions of the MSN email client and, possibly, MSN Hotmail. However, Microsoft has announced that the Lookout Software team will be working with the MSN Search folks, which also makes me wonder if this deal is about more than just searching email." - WinInfo Update

http://www.winnetmag.com/

How to make money from receiving SPAM

Computerworld - Microsoft wins $4 million spam verdict: "According to Microsoft, the company has filed 60 lawsuits in the US against spammers in the US and other countries. Of those cases, Microsoft so far has settled four, won six by default, had one summary judgement, and had one case dismissed.

The company has been awarded $US54 million in judgments from spammers, five of whom were among the top 10 known spammers, Microsoft said. "

Pete Wright's writes about Linux

Nasty gun toting narrow minded short sighted hippies: "In short, the Linux crowd wants, once again, to puts tens of thousands of people out of work, get something for nothing, and then no doubt royally mess it up by sticking 101 different flavours of user interface on it before complaining that people in the real world 'just don't get what we're trying to do'. "

A site that is well done is a joy to behold

Auckland Traffic - Congestion report

Shame the traffic stinks.

I drive home through this

Motorway Cam: "Central Motorway Junction looking south at the link between State Highways 1 and 16"

This is really quite cool

memepool.com: "memepool
the clothes have no emperor "

Who wants to be my buddy?

Microsoft launches new developer support program: "Microsoft launched an 'Adopt an ISV' program, in which Microsoft employees are paired with software makers to offer assistance and guidance on how to work with the software giant. Already 800 Microsoft workers, including some senior executives, have signed up to be a buddy."

Online Seminars - Master List

Microsoft Online Seminars: "Welcome to Microsoft Online Seminars. Here you'll find the latest streaming media seminars presented by the experts. "

Ahh found it again

Design Patterns: "The Gang of Four (GOF) patterns are generally considered the foundation for all other patterns. They are categorized in three groups: Creational, Structural, and Behavioral. Here you will find information on these patterns "

Equally old - and good

You need Developers, not Programmers: Developers, and Programmers - thr crucial difference

On oldie but a goodie

Career Calculus: "Don't work for a manager
who is actively hindering
your practice of
constant learning.
Just don't do it."

Seven Pillars of Pretty Code

Whitepaper: Seven Pillars of Pretty Code:

"The essence of pretty code is that one can infer much about the the code's structure from a glance, without completely reading it. I call this 'visual parsing': discerning the flow and relative importance of code from its shape. Engineering such code requires a certain amount of artifice to transform otherwise working code into working, readable code, making the extra step to leave visual cues for the user, not the compiler. - Christopher Seiwald"

Great Money Quote

Seth talking blended - Oliver Thylmann's Blog: "Money is like air to people. It's essential to life, but it is not the reason of living..

I am hoping, and believing, that the current focus on the profit bit will become less important, or rather less focussed on, as it does not have as much weight for a company success as the others. This would mean that to really make a profit, your focus needs to be on something else. And that will likely be very good indeed."

Seth's Blog: Blended

who's real and who's not: All the cues we use to figure out who's real and who's not appear to be fading away.

interesting look at what makes something worth time, effort & money as social indicators vanish.

Here it is - the ultimate swiss army knife.

Victorinox Swiss champ XXLT swiss army knife. : "72 features - the addition of the Swiss Flame - & a tool for every occasion.
A fully loaded swiss army knife from the Victorinox."

OR how about this?
SWISSMEMORY USB Storage
in a VICTORINOX Pocket Knife:

VICTORINOX CyberTool : "Developed for our times when computers and electronics rule the day. Thanks to 13 different screwdrivers.
They are part of the official equipment for the NASA space-shuttle crews.

Go ahead - make my day"