I have predicted previously that I expected dead bodies to mount up in this book like the final act in a Shakespearean tragedy. I was not disappointed. As a matter of fact, the first death occurs on page 12. Sort of a record. In Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone we find out about Harry's parents deaths on the same page, but we don't actually witness them. Ditto Tom Riddle's family in Goblet of Fire (page 2). But nowhere else in the series, not even Goblet of Fire, does the action pick up quite so quickly...

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Who Will Live And Who Will Die? Tough one, but I've already given my thoughts here. Is Snape Good or Evil. I've given my thoughts on this one previously too, but he's good. Will Hogwarts Re-open? My answer is again here (I don't know). But Harry won't attend, regardless. I'd love to be wrong on this one. Who Winds Up With Whom? Harry and Ginny (assuming they both live) Hermione and Ron Lupin and Tonks (assuming they both live) Where are the Horcruxes? The choices are Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Hogwarts,...

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As I write this, it's only 14 hours and change until the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Some people have managed to get their hands on a copy already through various means. So, since I'll be reviewing that next week, I wanted to go ahead and get my review out of the movie. I saw it last Friday, but just haven't made the time to review it yet. First, let me say that I was a little apprehensive about this movie for several reasons. It's based on my least favorite of the six books...

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A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an app called VersionTracker Pro. At the time, I was trying to determine if my video drivers were up-to-date. I was having some issues and was hoping there was a fix. nVidia doesn't make new drivers for laptops easy to find. They want you to use the laptop manufacturer's website. But Dell doesn't always release new video drivers promptly. And VersionTracker Pro was the answer to this prayer, and to several others I've had. How? What does it do? It checks the versions...

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This is beautiful. Thanks, Dare

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Stardock, the people that brought you ObjectDesktop and WindowsBlinds now have released TweakVista (as part of the ObjectDesktop suite). From their page: Microsoft has increased both the power and complexity of its popular Windows operating system with the release of Windows Vista. Stardock’s TweakVista™ enhancement application helps you configure Windows Vista to meet your personal needs by improving performance. Unlike other power tools for Windows, TweakVista™ automatically prompts enhancement...

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Windows Server® 2008, Visual Studio® 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server™ 2008 will launch together at an event in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 2008, kicking off hundreds of launch events around the world. As the next wave of innovation from Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business, these three products will provide a reliable and security-enhanced enterprise platform, serve as the foundation for the next generation of Web-based service applications, and broadly support virtualization and business intelligence....

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Sprint seems to have abandoned the PPC-6700 as far as upgrades go. The last official upgrade release from Sprint was AKU 2.2. (AKU's are like service packs) Microsoft recommends that all Windows Mobile 5 users upgrade to at least AKU 2.3 because there are some serious performance issues with 2.2. I believe that Verizon customers have received that update, but nothing past that. The latest AKU I know of for Windows Mobile 5 is 3.5 (I've heard rumors of a 3.6, but I haven't seen one), so Sprint customers...

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Denis Gobo has been posting SQL Server Teasers. The one on UPDATE is interesting. Hint: When SQL is being rational, it usually behaves like C

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From Jeff Atwood: Let me start by saying up front that I am a fan of the iPhone. Let me start by saying up front that I am not. He brings up one of my biggest criticisms of the iPhone: EDGE data connections, on the other hand, are none of those things. When my Samsung Blackjack is using an EDGE connection, it's like downloading the internet through an overclocked dialup modem. It's, in a word, unbelievably painful. It's the difference between "hey, let me whip out my phone and look this up really...

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I found this on CodeProject. Here's a nice analog clock control for windows forms. There are multiple configuration options available. Check it out

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In an blatant move to circumvent the First Amendment and curtail free speech, many of our "leaders" lately have been talking about resurrecting the "Fairness Doctrine". The "Fairness Doctrine" was designed so that opposing viewpoints got equal time on any broadcast. In the days of only three major television networks, and two major press syndicates, you might have been able to make an argument that this was worthwhile. Now, with the internet, the explosion of cable/satellite networks, and others...

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Have a nice spiffy installation program that's ruined by a popup install of the .NET Framework from Microsoft? Did you know you can install the .NET Framework silently? From Brad Abrams: For .NET FX 3.0: the magic command line is: Dotnetfx3.exe /qSee this white paper for more details. Oh, and if you are still on .NET Fx 2.0, the command is: Dotnetfx.exe /q:a /c:”install /q”...

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Jeff Atwood has a good piece on why you shouldn't run as an Admin. He even links to another good piece on the subject by Aaron Margosis. Jeff makes his point by visiting a malware website with an unprotected system running an unpatched IE 6.0. The site installed the following spyware on his machine (not that he didn't click on anything or download anything) (Quote from Adam McNeil of Webroot Software): Webroot SpySweeper detected the following spies after allowing the installer to run over night....

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There's now a FireFox plugin for ClickOnce Support. This removes on of my few remaining nags with FireFox. Hat tip: Brad Abrams

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Dennis Gobo explores the misunderstood SQL TRUNCATE TABLE statement. He starts by first exploding the myth that TRUNCATE TABLE is not logged. He even uses the Books On-Line (amazing idea, reading the documentation) to back up his assertion. From Books On-Line (emphasis mine): TRUNCATE TABLE removes the data by deallocating the data pages used to store the table's data, and only the page deallocations are recorded in the transaction log. The DELETE statement removes rows one at a time and records...

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Like Jeff Atwood, I love incremental search. I first loved with it in FireFox. Did you know that it exists in Visual Studio as well (Ctrl-I)? But, where I finally became a huge fan is in Vista. Incremental search in Vista has made me a keyboard junkie again. Hardly ever touch my mouse (err, trackball). With Vista, you have incremental search on the programs menu. Just hit the Windows key, and then start typing some part of the name of the application you want to run (like 'fire' (Firefox), 'inter'...

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