January 2004 Entries
Here is a screen shot of a program that NASA engineers use to drive the rover that is on Mars! (Click on it to get a bigger version) The quote off of the NASA site says: This image shows a screenshot from the software used by engineers to roll the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity off its lander and onto martian soil. Engineers received confirmation that Opportunity's six wheels had touched ground at 3:01 a.m. PST, January 31, 2004, on the seventh martian day, or sol, of the mission. The software...
As a writer, I sometimes find myself trying hard to figure out what is the official name of a special character is. For instance, what is the name used for “^”? (It is a circumflex.) Here is a site I usually go to for reference for these sorts of things
Whew ... I can finally talk about it! For about 2 or 3 months now, I have been working on a Microsoft/Reuters joint ad campaign that is going to be coming out in about a week and a half, but which was announced only this week in San Francisco. Microsoft is doing their first ad campaign focused on Windows Server System - a brand that encompasses quite a few components (such as Windows Server, SQL, BizTalk, etc.). The focus of the ad was to focus on what real people in real companies are doing with...
Here is an interesting interview with Bruce Perens on how the SCO isn't a big deal anymore, but the threat to Linux and all development beyond the major vendors is software patents and the screwed up nature in which the U.S. Patent Office issues these things. Right to the punch, a quote that really says it all is: “You have to consider engineers today spend their entire careers combining other people's intellectual property. And every small and medium sized enterprise is at risk regarding software...
I found this story kind of funny and interesting ... and sad. President Clinton it seems only sent two emails during his presidency - one being a test to see if it worked and another being the actual message. He sent it to John Glenn who was orbiting the planet at the time and was unable to receive a fax or a parcel from the US Postal Service. There is a little story on it here
INETA, under the program leadership of Dave Noderer, is going to be organizing BOFs again - just as we did at PDC 2003 (only bigger, badder and better!). Dave and team are looking for additional volunteers to make this a success. Volunteer and join in with the community - it's fun and you will meet some great and outstanding people! (Like Dave and the rest of our Florida friends)...
I have been typing like crazy for about a month now, working on WROX's ASP.NET 2 Beta Preview. I am excited about this book. I simply LOVE ASP.NET and so for me - it is an honor to do this book on the beta preview which is coming out sometime this year. I decided early on that this book should have examples in both C# and VB as I think developers (on average) appreciate that. It worked well for ASP.NET Professional Secrets which I put out at the end of last year. I have about 16 chapters planned,...
In something like 8 days, I have been/am going to be: Traveling through the south (Georgia) Climbing mountains in south Utah Driving down the strip in Las Vegas, Nevada Slushing through the snow in St. Louis, Missouri (at present) Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California (Wednesday) Having some beers in Times Square, New York City, New York (Friday) Whew! ... that's all I can say
No not me (yet), but Bill Gates! Looks like the guy is going to get his knighthood. First Mick Jagger and now Bill Gates ... wow
Two great links for globalizing your applications I think I got from Kirk Allen Evans. Putting them here as I don't want to lose them. Globalization Step-by-Step Developing World-Ready Applications
I just noticed that fellow INETA volunteer Julie Lerman is speaking at the Edge 2004 East conference. Cool
I have really been getting into XBOX games as of late. It is a great way to relax and my 3 year old boy loves to play as well, so we have fun! I love the sports games the best - and football is the best of the sports games for me. I got NFL Fever 2002 and 2003. I really didn't notice much of a difference between those two except 2002 has a better film introduction which is cool to watch. The packaging said that the replays of NFL Fever 2003 were better than that of 2002, but again, I really didn't...
Very nice to see the Reuters stock jump high today! This article says we have announced the revenue slide is over (whew ... that's nice to hear), but I also heard that some of the jump is due to Thomson's inability to create a platform for Merrill Lynch. Hmmmmm. Might be cause they use JSP and not ASP.NET! ;)...
Look ... it's my friend Keith Franklin working the people for his user group! :) Sounds like the Chicago ASP.NET Exposed tour went well (not as good as St. Louis .... but oh well) ;)
Another government falls towards Sun's Office dance. First it was China and now Israel. I don't know what to think about this
According to John Alexander and from what others have been telling me, St. Louis had the largest gathering so far for the ASP.NET Roadshow that is roaming the country. That is outstanding, but we also know that the IT training/knowledge interest is extremely high in the Midwest. I am quite thankful that Microsoft came to St. Louis with this show. It wasn't too long ago where the only Midwest city that would be targeted for these sorts of things would be Chicago. When it comes to IT in St. Louis,...
Holidays have come and gone and it always brings with it relatives that need help with their computers. I set my brother up with some programs for his troubled machine and it made me think that I would post here all the programs I put on EVERY computer I own. I would love to hear what else people use as well on their machines. So if I ever do a clean install of Windows. I put on the service packs (not connected to the Internet of course) and once that is all in place, I head directly for: Windows...
My latest article just arrived on MSDN. This one is titled 'Validating ASP.NET Server Controls' and is meant to be a complete introduction to validation server controls as well as putting them to some practical uses. I also spend some time on custom validations and making them more secure by performing them client-side and server-side
Outstanding!! The NASA rover makes it. This is exciting. Should be interesting to see all the photos sent back over the 90 days. Too bad the pictures are not in color
More stuff going to Mars ... this is great