Matts Meanderings

Hmmm... Not so impressed that Australia has just joined China in censoring the internet...

Censorship is a slippery slope to start down.

Just read about Joel Spolsky's trouble opening a DVD case. Now, I've got a lot of respect for about 3/4 of what he writes, and complete contempt for the rest...

Today he rants about the trouble he had opening the Office 2007 DVD case. Apparently its the same as the Vista box, which I opened without even thinking about it.

If he's having that much trouble, maybe its time he gave up and went and sat in the corner...

And while I'm ranting, maybe I should suggest that he listens to a bit of his own advice?

Okay, this is slightly nerdy, but hey, I thought it was interesting... Notes on the Resolution and Other Details of the Human Eye.

Apparently its equivalent to a 576 megapixel camera... Cool.

Go check out Photosynth that Microsoft Live Labs has put together... Very cool.

Just did yet another Brainbench test the other day, as part of the hunt for a contract job...

Thought it might be interesting to share the results I've had over the time:

Date	Subject	Score[1]	Percent [2]
13/12/2004	VB.NET	4.31	98%
09/02/2005	MS SQL Server 2000	3.87	91%
09/02/2005	ASP 3.0	4.60	98%
09/02/2005	Visual Basic 6.0	4.34	99%
09/02/2005	XSL	3.12	77%[3]
22/10/2006	ASP.NET (Express)	3.25	56%[4]
22/10/2006	C# (Express)	3.62	83%
22/10/2006	MS SQL Server 2000	3.95	97%

Maybe I do know what I'm talking about.... Just need to brush up on the ASP.NET - thats the one thats letting the team down now...

^[1] Score is out of 5. Not a strickly linear score though.
^[2] Percent actually means 'better than x percent of respondants'
^[3] I'd say about about a gazillion times better on the XSL now - 18 months practice...
^[4] Really thought I'd do better on the ASP.NET test, and worse on the C#.

Got it installed, and 90% setup. Seems quite good, smooth, and stable. Very pretty too...

Only had three issues - it didn't want to setup while connected to my TV, and also that it seems that media centre shuts down when you connect to the machine by remote desktop:

---------------------------
Windows Media Center
---------------------------
Windows Media Center has been shut down because it was running in a mode that is not supported
over a remote desktop connection. Please restart Windows Media Center to correct this issue.
---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

Really quite annoying, as it will kill any TV recordings you've got going if you connect to it at the wrong time.

Last issue is that it seems to think that i've only got two speakers connected to it, when I've got it connected to a surround sound system... Oh well, I'm sure there's a way to make it work - just got to find it.

Once I've got it sorted, I'll post a pretty picture to make you all jealous .

From the RSS team blog:

It has therefore been our #1 guiding principle that we would aim for a secure experience first -- sacrificing functionality, if necessary, to achieve it.

Definitely a change in the mindset - it used to be all about enabling functionality, with little regard for security. I think thats what made Windows the dominant operating system. But, those scumbags that think creating viruses and spyware is fun killed the functionality and ease of use thing...

A little naïve, but still a great story: How to make a corporate butt pucker.

That said, even if it takes 10 times as long, still damn good.

Oh, how I want to be doing ASP.NET rather than using technology over a decade old...

Been looking into some asp.net and atlas stuff recently, and I've really enjoyed it. Even was playing with some virtual earth mapping stuff the other day, which was very cool. It was so easy, but still so powerful. Its takes away so much that you have to do manually, and lets you focus on actually getting things done, rather than fighting with plumbing all the time.

Its kinda got me back into coding in my own time again - its been a long time since I've wanted to do that. Watching the demos and screencasts, the possibilities that it allows is amazing. Really gets you motivated and excited about coding again - a feeling that I've been missing for ages.

Compare that to what I have to do at work. Some of the things that I can do in asp.net in half an hour would take weeks in asp, and then it would be nowhere near as maintainable, or secure.

Given the distinct lack of progress on, well, anything that would actually improve morale at work... Well, hopefully my holiday gives me some motivation (either that, or my boss has an epiphany)...

Been reading about, watching a few screencasts, and even doing a bit of Atlas development, with ASP.NET.

Damn, I'm loving it! Its going to make life sooo much easier.

Now, just have to get away from doing the ancient (and extremely painful) ASP that they make me do at work...

Just managed to setup the T-Mobile email to txt service... I'm really not sure how useful it is, but if you so desire, you can send a txt via email to me at xxx@t-mobile.uk.net... Suprisingly, the xxx is my phone number... I'm assuming you've got it. You dont? Well, you're obviously not special enough...

Maybe it'd be more useful for automated tasks or something... Oh well, I'll figure something out

Which part of my brain decided it was a good idea to get this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this, and try and turn it into something like this.

Not working as planned . Instead, it looks something like this.

Maybe I should just stick to software...

Finally, instead of purely Microsoft bashing, law-makers have finally realised that the iPod is anti-competitive.

French law-makers have approved a law forcing Apple to make its music format available to other manufacturers, rather than only allowing iTunes music to be played on iPods...

via eHomeUpgrade.

Okay. Just finished a site update to the esoteric oneroundpebble, so its now hip, happening, and with it, for the 21st century. Or something.

But, anyhow, hope you like the new colour scheme, and if you dont, well, there's not a lot you can do about it. Deal with it.

The other thing thats new is the new 'subscribe by email' section over on the right hand side. So, for those of you that haven't quite figured out how the whole rss thing works, you can slot your email address into that little text box there, and click the subscribe link, and then you'll never have to fear missing any of my fevered rantings again.

(then again, you might want to consider checking out NewsGator for a funky online newsreader, or intravnews for a free outlook plugin that'll do this for you, and do it with bells on.)