January 2005 Entries
Two nice .NET graphics utilities both got updates over the weekend. The first alpha of Paint .NET 2.1 was released and so was the second code update for Color Picker .NET. I wonder how the color picker in Paint .NET matches up with the specialized app? Perhaps a bit of unification would be nice here?
Interesting post here from Whidbey's release team blog. A little more information on the rigours of releasing public beta software and a little more encouragement that beta 2 might arrive in March or April. Looks like a PDC release in September might only be a release candidate if they take their time like that?
Caught Clint Eastwood's new film Million Dollar Baby last night. What a pleasant change it is to see a film so well acted, edited, and written. It really must be Oscar season. It's main underdog theme is strongly underpinned and counterpointed by Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank's stubborn boxer and trainer relationship to the point where even though there are other subplots involving Morgan Freeman's gym janitor and Swank's trailer trash family, it may as well be just a two-header. The tale has often been told of how stubborn wills can relax into genuine affection and this tale is no...
With a new job approaching, I felt the need to perhaps retrieve some normalcy from past time when work was five days a week. A quick dive into the local comic store got me the latest slices of action from the mad genius that is Warren Ellis. The second collection of his Global Frequency series has been out for about a month now and is well worth it. What immediately strikes you as you read each installment is the discipline it probably requires to keep each story down to just 22 pages when epics like Spiderman have finished after fifty...
It's been a while since I had a full-time job but this one seemed interesting enough to put the myriad freelance things in abeyance and concentrate on in full. As of this Thursday then, I will be taking control of the .NET code that runs the registry for the .coop top level domain. Whould have thunk it was based just south of Birmingham? Aside form the scale of the it all, what makes it compelling is that the job should touch on areas of .NET - yes, all the code is in C# - which I've never worked with before....
Well, it only took six weeks to translate it from the original C# but then another two months to proof and print, but I'm happy to announce that yet another book is out the door, courtesy of Apress. Beginning VB .NET 1.1 Databases : From Novice to Professional will be available in the all usual outlets, some listed below at a list price of $50. It's a bit odd being able to work so quickly through a single book, but given the number of changes I made to the text to maintain consistency in the flow of the book, code...
How much easier is it to blog when you don't first have to dial up to the net, pull up abrowser, redirect it to your blog, log in and then hope that once written, the blog doesn't discount it in afit of peak because of its vagries in crossposting between several at the same time? Oh muchly. So all hail wBloggar for being the great utilit it is alongside RSSBandit and, to a lesser extent, firefox's live bookmarks. Now in its new version 4.0, wBloggar is much improved over v3 and thanks to this excellent plugin for RssBandit, makes for...
An Indian man is rescued 25 days after being thrown by the tsunami on a remote island, the navy says.[Via BBC News | World Edition]
The Hitchhiker's Guide movie is edging ever closer and while we'll be hit with the quaternary phase of the radio series first, an important tidbit has been let out of the bag on the film. Namely the voice of the book. It will be Stephen Fry. Which as far as I'm concerned is just perfect. William Franklin's delivery lacks the somewhat world-weariness of the late Peter Jones but Stephen's know-more-than-you inflections should fit the guide spot on. I'd still like to hear Hugh Laurie deliver a few guide lines though... Can't wait to hear Bill Bailey as the sperm whale...
Omar has announced the release of v1.7 of dasBlog, which currently runs hmobius.com along with warnings that the upgrade is not straight forward.
Well, who would have thunk this?
If the Broccoli family ever finish arguing with MGM, we'll either have someone brand new and unknown as the world's favourite spy or, if the bookies are right, Wolverine. But catching fast, it's King Arthur! Groan. Clive Owen would make a great Bond heavy, but Bond himself? Colin Salmon would do better, and Bond films seem to be the only ones where he doesn't die.
Update: Turns out to be Daniel Craig instead
Finally got around to making the switch and getting my old stalwart box out of day to day life and swapping the new one which should last me for a good few years to come. It's been a while coming this. Almost ten months after starting to scope out components for a box, the blessed discovery of Custom PC magazine for advice, blowing up a motherboard in five seconds flat and a fair old amount of dithering because XP SP2 really doesn't like Norton Internet Security (the secret, I realise now, is to set windows to ignore the DEP feature...
Well, the cast and crew premiere for the Digital Shorts program I was a part of last October finally happened last night. Warped turned in at just under ten minutes, looking wonderful but, for me at least, feeling somewhat underwhelming. Maybe it was just the fact that the edit got everything moving too swiftly to the point that all the subtlety - the really good stuff - was lost onscreen leaving it a bit confusing for the most part. Ah well, must try harder. There were eight shorts in al last night ranging from the convetionally told slightly cheesy 'morning...