Too Many cooks in the kitchen. When is too many developers one project a bad idea? So I had the chance to meet with some friends the other day. Of course they work as developers like me. They work for one of those companies with allot of money to throw at a web site (a == 1). I found it interesting having 20 developers writing code for a web site. They called it Agile programming or Extreme Programming (Developer Humping). The reason I called it this was as they (my friends) described agile as two...

I know what your thinking. Oh crap here he goes again with recommending tools and or services. My question is have I ever steered you wrong? Yes I normally deal in freeware tools. Mostly due to me being cheap and thinking my skills should push me past that latest issue with code. So why recommend a commercial tool? Good question. A friend recommended to me this tool. I had used tools like .net reflector to look into DLL’s to understand the application I am adding. I had heard rumor of NDepend however...

Ever need a minute away from the craziness of school, home or even work? However you can't leave your office due to way to much on your plate? Well here is two ways of getting that stress out and making your Windows desktop take the punishment. Desktop Games and Chicken destroy. Basically when you launch this software it takes a screen shot of your current desktop and allows you to put various tools of destruction on or act upon your Desktop(screen shot). Works in all versions of windows as far as...

Little known(unless your a XP expert) Applications from Microsoft that really never went anywhere. Like the "shplayer" that is or was supposed to be the Shell media player for XP however rumor has it being axed on or before RTM. On a different note another outsourced XP(media player 9)powertoy for having a video screen saver was very cool until Microsoft released Media player 10 and 11 and the app broke. Since the original writer (AnalogX) of the app has not been heard from for a while no more updates...

It is tax time again. Barring a Tax audit. It means tax returns for most of us hard working Americans. The question is how much are you going to pay to have your tax forms filled out for you? Because lets face it. Who has time and the energy to do it themselves? Yes your CPA and or H and R block but they typically charge you. Then there is Turbotax but who wants to pay 30 dollars without support? Why not go free and no support. That's the true D.I.Y. way. A brilliant excel guru (I want to say developer)...

So long ago and many many times infinity(2nd grade reference there). I downloaded the Internet. Any cool app I found. Some I wish I had kept. I then found myself in a pickle when the downloaded software had been updated or duplicated in another folder so I had multiple copies of different versions (good or bad) and no way to keep track of any of them. So I found Dupelocater.exe. Drag folders from Windows Explorer into the DupeLocater.exe window and press Search. When finished, drag the report duplicates...

A long time ago in a remote windows 95 machine I had a cool little game called Scorched Earth. Scorched Earth is one of many games in the loose genre of "turn-based artillery games". Such games are among the earliest computer games, with versions existing for mainframes with only teletype output. Scorched Earth, with a plethora of weapon types and power-ups, is considered the modern archetype of its format, on which the popular Worms, Hogs of War and GunBound games are based. Its slogan, "The Mother...

Novell’s NetDrive. Transferring files to and from your blog’s web server can become a nuisance. Most of the pain is from having to use an FTP program to move your files instead of the file manager you are accustom to. Novell’s NetDrive can make this file juggling almost transparent. NetDrive lets you map your FTP server just like a local drive. Manage your files exactly like you would your offline files and NetDrive will do the uploading and downloading almost transparently. Licensing restrictions...

I was pondering late last night how can I get along with the new Zune software. No more name calling and bashing the moderators at Zune.net forums. I needed to be a responsible Zunian(no I am not an alien. Just of Zune citizenship) and do more investigating. Here is how the XML is laid out for both the Windows media playlist file and the Zune Media Playlist file. Here is what I found: Windows Media Playlist or WPL <?wpl version="1.0"?> <smil> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft...

I was going through all my old backups and laughing at some of the old software I thought was important. I noticed allot of cool stuff I had long past forgotten. So to define Retro would be "its old to me" so that makes it retro. I hope you guys enjoy this I will make a feed of it and post hopefully every Wednesday. Some of this software may or may not work on your pc. I hardly remember the system requirements but I will do my best to give detailed info on how to run it. Enjoy! This Week we start...

So I have been a System Admin and Web Master and Web Developer for well over 10years and I am always looking for a better way of doing things. Mostly it means modding whatever software or hardware to follow my rules. Some of the greater issues especially when you are a windows system admin you run into heavy uses on servers and cleaning up orphaned processes and or memory leaks caused by buggy code. I guess what I am getting at is I have been using a little tool that helps me automate those pesky...

Access your Zune30 as a extra hd. Source: Phaleux.com I highly recommend backing up these registry values before modifying anything. If you don’t know how to do that, I don’t recommend that you even attempt this right now =) 1. Make sure your Zune is not plugged in and your Zune software isn’t running 2. open up regedit by going to the start menu and selecting “run”. Type regedt32 and hit “OK” 3. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\C... 4. Search for “PortableDeviceNameSpace”....