I just bought a new DVD player to replace our perfectly working existing version. But this one is so much cooler! It has a USB port on the front, which most people gloss over at the mere mention of interrelations between household electronics and computer technology. However, I see the potential here. [...]

I discovered Optimal while looking for ways to render OPML as HTML. OPML, for my purpose and many of those reading this, is what RSS is to data, for RSS. That is, an OPML outline describes a list of feeds, each of which consist of an RSS feed for another site, which represents [...]

Some psychos out there have implemented COBOL.NET, that is, COBOL for Microsoft.NET. Fujitsu is, at least in part, to blame for their Windows implementation of a compiler and interpreter. On one hand, it speaks volumes of the capabilities of the CLR, but on the other hand it just goes to show you that [...]

Upon attempting to download many new software titles available via Microsoft’s website, the user is confronted with a “Validation Recommended” message. At first glimpse, the procedure is a tell-tale signature of a pending ActiveX application. This won’t work on non-Microsoft browsers, so you’ll probably just close FireFox and open IE with some bitterness. [...]

Microsoft Research tells us about some intelligent software able to make decisions on availability versus message importance. The workforce potentially loses lots of productive time attending to unimportant emails. Worse still, unimportant messages can cut into personal time. This system is designed to do the human part of risk analysis in order [...]

I’ve only recently tried out the RealPlayer and QuickTime alternatives out there. Due to my hosting arrangement, I’m only able to stream Real A/V streams. The server side stuff is actually really nice, so I’m not complaining about that. I realize, however, that there are a lot of people out there that [...]

For Christmas (Yule, what have you), I commissioned a song in Amy’s honor. I also created a video around the song for her to see Christmas morning. It was probably one of my better surprise gifts ever. The plan went off without a hitch and she says I can post it here [...]

I’m not among the l33t when it comes to programming, but I do enjoy a good scriptercize! If you are one of them, then you know who you are and can explain it binary (converted in your head from hex, of course). You should also be looking into the Google Code Jam events [...]

I finished the class Microsoft presented on MSI 3.0. It’s interesting stuff, but if you’re used to such things as RPM, it’s just catching up. Microsoft does have a nice feature coming out that is targeted to assist the gaming community. This new feature allows the original MSI installer to apply a certificate to the [...]

I’m in training today and tomorrow for MSI (Microsoft Installer) 3.0. It’s pretty sexy stuff, though today we’re primarily going over MSI 2.0. I’ve used MSI packaging technologies for some time because of my deployments manually and through SMS, but now I’m getting a much better understanding as to the behind-the-scenes activity. [...]