Software

Cross-Posted from a blog entry I made about five engines ago. Original Date: 4/12/2006.
In March 2006, I saw some promotional stunt online whereas anyone who watched three of their ASP screencasts would receive a free copy of Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition and a copy for $400 off the Pro edition. I expected it to [...]

Many of you have been around for the Chronicles of Comcast. This is a synopsis for those of you who don’t want to bother with reading through each post in order.
The problem started sometime in December of 2006, around the time that Comcast bought Adelphia. I noticed my connection speed immediately increased, but the connection [...]

I gave Internet Explorer 7 an unusually long trial period, and ultimately decided it wasn’t for me. Why? Several reasons:
1. I like a minimal footprint on my open windows. Seriously, do you people think I have 8 million pixels on my desktop? Well, okay, I do; but my point remains: All I want is the [...]

Today at work I was asked about the lack of “cute pictures” in a technical document I wrote regarding the planned creation of the next phase of the (big, fancy, secret) project I work on. Specifically, the boss wanted Visio flowcharts and screenshots of something that doesn’t exist. I mentioned it earlier today.
Obviously, you [...]

I handed in a design document for the next release of the (big, secret, fancy) project I’m working on. The boss wanted to know why there were no “cute pictures”, meaning Visio flowcharts. The answer was simply that based on the previous release’s documentation, we know that the documentation will change so wildly that there’s [...]

Some of you have been around long enough to remember a few codebases ago when I blogged about my experiences with Windows Vista RTM. I installed it for about two weeks before reverting to Windows XP SP2 due to performance issues.
Specifically, I complained about:
1. General lag in UI with Aero Glass enabled. Also, WDDM and [...]

Here’s a trick I found to create a SQL ConnectionString quickly and easily. Beginning developers may find this useful.
1. Create a new text file with a UDL extension (i.e. sql.udl).
2. Right-click on the file and click “Properties”.
3. On the “Provider” tab, ensure you select “Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server”.
4. On the “Connection” tab:
- [...]

Last I heard from Comcast, I was being considered for Contact Line ASAP pending an escalation to LMC. There was to be some deliberation and I was to be contacted within 24-48 hours of Thursday 2PM.
48 Hours passed, and I called to check. No progress had been noted on the account. Finally today (Sunday at [...]

I came across this image from a link at Channel9, a popular Microsoft-hosted .NET programming forum. You can download it here, but be warned the picture measures 4096×4096 pixels.
Finally, an image large enough that I could scale it across my eight-foot-wide desktop without much pixelation. I cropped out a 4096×512px area over North America and [...]

  Need I say more? I ordered a 1TB HDD yesterday to replace two existing 500GB volumes which are both full of “Public Domain media governed under the Fair Use Act; which appears similar to a television show without actually being a television show”.
I ordered it 18-20 hours ago, and it’s “out for delivery” [...]