I'm seriously considering moving over to EverNote from OneNote. Reason: EverNote has a free version, OneNote costs me $100 (note: currently $50 with a $50 rebate at CompUSA).
Plus, it work pretty slick and looks cool. I still have to test out the search capabilities, but I'm definatly happy so far.
Man, this thing and a laptop would have been so cool to have when I was in college.
August 19, 2005
100 years of E=mc2
Einstein had his miracle year 100 years ago, 1905. This is the year that he pubished his most famous (and generally non-understood) equation. E=mc2
Anyway, to mark the occation, some are calling this The year of physics. Even PBS is getting into the action now, via NOVA of course. The have a program that is supposed to air in October.
Anyway, to mark the occation, some are calling this The year of physics. Even PBS is getting into the action now, via NOVA of course. The have a program that is supposed to air in October.
August 08, 2005
CoPilot/Aardvark released
If any of you have read Joel on Software, you already know this.
For those of you who do not: CoPilot has been released!
See: https://www.copilot.com/
What is cool about this: it is a VCN easy enough for your mother to use, it works through a firewall, and it removes itself once you are done.
It's intended audience: you the IT professional who gets requests for support from family and friends, and those family and friends who need help with their computer (this, of course, assumes that your friends have internet access and it is working).
How it works: The person needing your expertise goes to the web site (www.copilot.com), enter in some information, pay a $10 fee (that pays for one day of use), and an email is sent back to you. You click the link in the email, a program is launched giving you access to the other person's computer.
Beautiful. The key of course, it to get the person needing the support to pay the $10 fee.
I fully expect to be using this in the future.
For those of you who do not: CoPilot has been released!
See: https://www.copilot.com/
What is cool about this: it is a VCN easy enough for your mother to use, it works through a firewall, and it removes itself once you are done.
It's intended audience: you the IT professional who gets requests for support from family and friends, and those family and friends who need help with their computer (this, of course, assumes that your friends have internet access and it is working).
How it works: The person needing your expertise goes to the web site (www.copilot.com), enter in some information, pay a $10 fee (that pays for one day of use), and an email is sent back to you. You click the link in the email, a program is launched giving you access to the other person's computer.
Beautiful. The key of course, it to get the person needing the support to pay the $10 fee.
I fully expect to be using this in the future.
August 05, 2005
Business plan for Super Hero's
Something to think about: super hero's always seem to have the coolest toys. Expensive toys. Some don't need them, Superman I'm looking at you, but you have to figure they cost money.
So what the heck do super heros do to earn the much needed cash they need to get the new toys, costumes, pay rent, fix the office building they destroyed, etc. There must be a business plan for average super hero!
We think we have found it: The icecream shop!
Find some guy who can talk to animals with super endurance hands to milk the cows. Note, not super strong, super endurance -- trust me, I tried to milk a cow by hand once. I couldn't finish, and then I could move my hands for the rest of the day.
Next, get Fire Girl to homoginize the milk. Next you use a combination of Ice Man and Storm to freeze and mix the milk into icecream. Next, grab Gambit to throw some static electricity to give the icecream some zing (for no good reason, but heck, you buy Evian).
Now grab Flash to mix the specialty ingredients together and hand it off to a teenager to give the customer. Viola, a business plan!
So what the heck do super heros do to earn the much needed cash they need to get the new toys, costumes, pay rent, fix the office building they destroyed, etc. There must be a business plan for average super hero!
We think we have found it: The icecream shop!
Find some guy who can talk to animals with super endurance hands to milk the cows. Note, not super strong, super endurance -- trust me, I tried to milk a cow by hand once. I couldn't finish, and then I could move my hands for the rest of the day.
Next, get Fire Girl to homoginize the milk. Next you use a combination of Ice Man and Storm to freeze and mix the milk into icecream. Next, grab Gambit to throw some static electricity to give the icecream some zing (for no good reason, but heck, you buy Evian).
Now grab Flash to mix the specialty ingredients together and hand it off to a teenager to give the customer. Viola, a business plan!
August 04, 2005
101 Visual Studio 2005 Samples
I usually find a good way to learn a new system is to see see some examples of what it can do.
So to that end, Microsoft has published 101 code samples for Visual Studio.NET 2005 (coming in November, the beta is easily downloadable).
Samples are separated into sections: Base Classes, Data Access, Web development, and WinForms.
This reminds me, I have been playing around with VS2005 a bit lately. Couple of things I really like:
1. The new docking mechanism in the IDE. I love this one. No more moving a docking window 1 pixel to the left to try to get the window where you want it.
2. static main is, by default, in its own class file called program.cs! Thank you, thank you. This will seem small and piddly, but it ended up being the first change I had to make to any C# program I ever worked on.
3. The new intelligence is really improved.
4. I haven't used it much, but Edit & continue ultimately will be the best new addition to the language.
Things I still have to look into at this point:
1. The new databinding.
2. Generics
3. Refactoring.
4. ClickOnce -- this could be huge for me.
Why haven't I had a chance to look into them yet: I'm still running around the new SQL Server 2005 and Analysis Services! The changes to Analysis Services are HUGE! -- in a good way. There are so many things that are fixed in this version. That is the good part. The bad part is that what ever you know about cubes in Analysis Services 2000, doesn't really apply to 2005. There are that many changes, but the changes are worth it.
Biggest changes in Analysis Services 2005
(that I know of, right now)
1. Single cubes with multiple fact tables, and mixed granularity.
2. No more virtual cubes
3. Dimension design completely redesigned.
4. UDM. Enough cannot be said about this.
5. Many-to-Many problem solved!
Of course there is a down side: there is an upgrade path -- but it only works in the simplest of cases. If you use Virtual cubes, you are dealing with a redesign.
Anyway, that is enough for now.
So to that end, Microsoft has published 101 code samples for Visual Studio.NET 2005 (coming in November, the beta is easily downloadable).
Samples are separated into sections: Base Classes, Data Access, Web development, and WinForms.
This reminds me, I have been playing around with VS2005 a bit lately. Couple of things I really like:
1. The new docking mechanism in the IDE. I love this one. No more moving a docking window 1 pixel to the left to try to get the window where you want it.
2. static main is, by default, in its own class file called program.cs! Thank you, thank you. This will seem small and piddly, but it ended up being the first change I had to make to any C# program I ever worked on.
3. The new intelligence is really improved.
4. I haven't used it much, but Edit & continue ultimately will be the best new addition to the language.
Things I still have to look into at this point:
1. The new databinding.
2. Generics
3. Refactoring.
4. ClickOnce -- this could be huge for me.
Why haven't I had a chance to look into them yet: I'm still running around the new SQL Server 2005 and Analysis Services! The changes to Analysis Services are HUGE! -- in a good way. There are so many things that are fixed in this version. That is the good part. The bad part is that what ever you know about cubes in Analysis Services 2000, doesn't really apply to 2005. There are that many changes, but the changes are worth it.
Biggest changes in Analysis Services 2005
(that I know of, right now)
1. Single cubes with multiple fact tables, and mixed granularity.
2. No more virtual cubes
3. Dimension design completely redesigned.
4. UDM. Enough cannot be said about this.
5. Many-to-Many problem solved!
Of course there is a down side: there is an upgrade path -- but it only works in the simplest of cases. If you use Virtual cubes, you are dealing with a redesign.
Anyway, that is enough for now.
July 26, 2005
FireFox Home Page feature
This is something I've been looking for, and just found.
We all know FireFox has multiple tabs, and I wanted FireFox to start up with multiple pages at startup (i.e. Gmail, Hotmail, and Slashdot).
Here is how it is done: In FireFox, go to Tools->Options, General settings, Choose Home Page.
Enter in all of the pages you want to start, separated by a | (pipe).
So mine looks like this: http://www.google.com/ig|http://www.hotmail.com|http://www.slashdot.org
Honestly, I'm sure this feature has been there for ages (like 0.9x), I just never saw the blasted thing.
We all know FireFox has multiple tabs, and I wanted FireFox to start up with multiple pages at startup (i.e. Gmail, Hotmail, and Slashdot).
Here is how it is done: In FireFox, go to Tools->Options, General settings, Choose Home Page.
Enter in all of the pages you want to start, separated by a | (pipe).
So mine looks like this: http://www.google.com/ig|http://www.hotmail.com|http://www.slashdot.org
Honestly, I'm sure this feature has been there for ages (like 0.9x), I just never saw the blasted thing.
July 22, 2005
July 21, 2005
What I'm reading now
Coder To Developer by Mike Gunderloy.
Amazon
So far so good. Right now it is mostly a rehash of the things that I know I should be doing -- but dont.
Nice thing is I was able to pick it up used for $8 from Amazon.
Amazon
So far so good. Right now it is mostly a rehash of the things that I know I should be doing -- but dont.
Nice thing is I was able to pick it up used for $8 from Amazon.
July 20, 2005
High tech gone wrong: Terminal Services + VirtualPC
OK, I'm living the life of high tech.
I can use Remote Terminal Services (rts) to connect to a server.
I can use Virtual PC to run Win2k with SQL Server 2005 Beta on that server.
I cannot get the mouse to behave inside of that virtual os. That slippery sucker is jumping all over the place right now! I move the mouse an inch to the left, the mouse jumps kamikaze style to the far edge of the screen and goes straight down! Why? I guess the little mouse felt like it.
I think what I will have to do is run rts to the machine, start Virtual PC, and then rts into the virtual OS. Then, maybe-hopefully, the mouse wont act like a Jack Russell Terrier on acid.
Sheeze, the stupid things we try to do with technology these days...
I can use Remote Terminal Services (rts) to connect to a server.
I can use Virtual PC to run Win2k with SQL Server 2005 Beta on that server.
I cannot get the mouse to behave inside of that virtual os. That slippery sucker is jumping all over the place right now! I move the mouse an inch to the left, the mouse jumps kamikaze style to the far edge of the screen and goes straight down! Why? I guess the little mouse felt like it.
I think what I will have to do is run rts to the machine, start Virtual PC, and then rts into the virtual OS. Then, maybe-hopefully, the mouse wont act like a Jack Russell Terrier on acid.
Sheeze, the stupid things we try to do with technology these days...
July 15, 2005
Great quote
2 posts in one day!...but I couldn't resist this one.
This is from The Code Project in an article by Chad Z. Hower titled Developers are from Mars, Managers are from Venus.
If it will take you 4 weeks, 4 of you can do it in a week, right?
What a manager means:
4 weeks = 4 developers x 1 week = 4 weeks x 1 developer. Why not? It computes! Algebra does not lie.
What a developer hears:
I guess he thinks 9 women can make one baby in 1 month.
This is from The Code Project in an article by Chad Z. Hower titled Developers are from Mars, Managers are from Venus.
If it will take you 4 weeks, 4 of you can do it in a week, right?
What a manager means:
4 weeks = 4 developers x 1 week = 4 weeks x 1 developer. Why not? It computes! Algebra does not lie.
What a developer hears:
I guess he thinks 9 women can make one baby in 1 month.
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