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September 2004 - Posts

Impossible now possible
Thursday, September 30, 2004 1:19 AM

It’s pretty amazing how computers have changed. I remember once upon a time I was working for a company that made computers. A customer wanted two gigabytes of disk storage. We couldn’t offer them a computer because we didn’t make a computer that could

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

An other new blogger
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 3:12 PM

Timothy Shrimplin is the Student Ambassador for the University of Connecticut and is the lead SA for the New England area (not counting Boston). He's a great guy who was also an SA last year. Today he started his new blog at theSpoke. (Stop

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

If you can't save the whole world ...
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 4:09 AM

There is a story of a man walking along the beach. He is picking up starfish that had been beached by a big storm. Someone came to him and said “there are miles of beach and many more starfish than you can save. You are not making a difference.” The man

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

I wish I was rich
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 2:08 AM

I read an article today about how some of the US' richest people give away their money. Some of them, Bill Gates for example, have actually given a way huge sums as a percentage of total assets as well as in absolute terms. I wish I had that kind of money

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Learn more programming languages
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 11:18 PM

There is a famous joke that goes something like this: What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American. All

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Student Flash
Monday, September 27, 2004 9:15 PM

James, one of the lead US Student Ambassadors, has started blogging again. His latest talks about the new Student Flash e-newsletter. Be sure and sign up for it yourself.

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Nothing like homemade
Sunday, September 26, 2004 7:57 PM

It was harvest day today at my house. First we harvested a lot of tomatoes, cayenne peppers and jalapeño peppers. The jalapeño peppers went right into the freezer. The cayenne peppers are tied up with string and are drying in the kitchen. The peppers

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Study more than just software
Sunday, September 26, 2004 2:34 PM

I had a chat (AIM) with a former student last night. He’s been out of high school for a while, attended a 4-year college for a while and then decided to do something completely different. He’s becoming a blacksmith. It’s something he wants to do and I

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Adventure?
Saturday, September 25, 2004 2:11 PM

When I was a young boy my father left a large book on the table. The book was Kon-Tiki and it was written by Thor Heyerdahl. It was the first great adventure story I ever read and it was amazing to me. It sparked my interests in many things: the Pacific,

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

6000
Thursday, September 23, 2004 4:58 PM

I just hit the 6000 reads mark. The best thing about it is that it only took 17 days. Hopefully people continue to find interest and value in what I write. I sure do feel like you are all my friends. And of course you can never have too many friends.

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Microsoft is one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers
Thursday, September 23, 2004 7:26 AM

Working Mother magazine rates companies in the US each year to see which are the best ones for working mothers to work at. This year, for the second year in a row, they have named Microsoft to their list of the top 100. This is the kind of thing that

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Tablet PC Power Toys
Wednesday, September 22, 2004 9:03 PM

Wow! Have you looked at the Tablet PC Power Toys download site lately? Some cool looking games of course but also some other things. Ever want to create a True Type font based on your own handwritting? How about composing and playing music on your computer

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

High School Visit
Wednesday, September 22, 2004 2:20 AM

I gave some guest lectures at a high school today. I talked to 5 different classes for almost an hour (50 minutes) a piece. That is a lot of standing. When I was teaching full time I did that on a daily basis and was used to it. Those days are gone. So

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

What if?
Tuesday, September 21, 2004 11:14 AM

Sometimes I think that “what if?” may be the most powerful question in the world. Last Saturday I visited the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle. It was a lot of fun for me as I have been reading SF since I was a teen. (I.e. for a very

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

What a day
Monday, September 20, 2004 2:35 AM

I had to get up at 4AM this morning to catch a plane to come home. I love coming home but because I am "losing" three hours of the day flying east I have to leave very early to get home at a reasonable hour. I am not a morning person and so this is not

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Odds and Ends on a Saturday Morning
Saturday, September 18, 2004 6:07 PM

It is Saturday morning in Redmond Washington. I have no commitments or plans until this evening when I am having dinner with some good friends. I should be looking for something fun and interesting to do but I’m tired. Maybe later. But I’ve also run into

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

The Things You Will See
Friday, September 17, 2004 4:40 PM

A lot of Microsoft buildings tend to be a bit confusing. The term “twisty little passages all alike” comes to mind. (If you know where that comes from you are a true uber-geek BTW Or you’ve been around a long time.) The reason for this is that most of

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

I’m blogging this
Friday, September 17, 2004 12:44 AM

I was torn between two titles for today’s blog. One option was “Around the Microsoft Campus” but I finally decided to use “I’m blogging this.” Robert Scoble, famous Microsoft Blogger, has a t-shirt that has that motto on it. And I met Robert this afternoon.

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Things everyone should do
Thursday, September 16, 2004 7:55 AM

You’ve probably seen lists like this before. Someone’s idea of things that are “good for you” or that “teach you things” but in general they fall under the heading of “things everyone should do during their life.” Here now (for what ever it is worth and

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

When a plan comes together
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 12:33 AM

My younger brother gave me a call a couple of days ago. I had given him a copy of Windows XP so he could upgrade his computer. He'd installed it and the computer was running very slowly. So the first question I ask is "how much memory do you have?" He

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

My Garden Revisited
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 12:32 AM

My garden is a source of my summer sanity. I talked a bit about it before. The picture below (one of several shots from my web site) is the tomato and hot pepper section of my vegetable garden.I start working on the garden in the very early spring.

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

US Student Ambassador Program News
Monday, September 13, 2004 11:47 PM

News about the US Student Ambassador program. I expect there will be more at Kevin Bri's blog. So if you are a college student in the US interested in the Student Ambassador program you will want to check it out.

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

An article of mine at microsoft.com
Monday, September 13, 2004 8:35 PM

Not as fun as the garden blog below but interesting to me. An article I wrote with a teacher friend (we taught together for several years) is now available at Microsoft.com from the J# home page.Visual J# .NET Makes the GradeRead about how Visual J# .NET

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Cooking
Sunday, September 12, 2004 11:12 PM

I don’t cook all that often. Partly that is because I don’t know how to cook a lot of things and part if it is that I am married to a woman who is a fabulous cook. But I cooked today. I made Chili. The motivation for this was that we have a ton of fresh

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Blogging at Microsoft
Sunday, September 12, 2004 12:02 AM

The last estimate I saw said that there are something like 1,000 Microsoft employees with blogs. Some of them are here at theSpoke of course. Many of them are at http://blogs.msdn.com/. Some are at www.gotdotnet.com and many are at other independent blogging

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Georgia on my mind - but home is better
Saturday, September 11, 2004 2:35 AM

I've been in Georgia (near Atlanta) the last two days. I'm way behind in my Spoke reading and writing. It's one of the downsides of business travel. :-)Georgia was hot and humid. Now I don't generally mind hot or even humid. In the winter it is nice to

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Blogs, Community and World Peace
Thursday, September 09, 2004 8:22 PM

It occurred to me today that theSpoke is really becoming a community. At least it is for me but I suspect it is for others as well. When recent hurricanes hit Florida I worried about epiNole and BrianS. I find my self interested when people go on

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Flowers
Tuesday, September 07, 2004 10:46 PM

I took this picture this morning. These are the flowers (morning glories) that cover the arch way into our backyard. It is so wonderful to see them in the morning. It almost makes it worth getting up.My wife picks out the flowers. I think she does a great

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

5000
Monday, September 06, 2004 11:39 PM

I hit 5000 reads today. That's a pretty cool milestone.It's been a nice quiet day today. My wife and I have been re-doing several of the rooms in our house this summer. We're way behind schedule but today we were able to move our bedroom into the latest

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Eternal Father Strong to Save
Monday, September 06, 2004 2:34 AM

No chance to take out the kayak today. Today I went home. [Church] In the morning my Dad and I went to church together though. Being the first Sunday of the month they served communion. Methodists do not have Communion at every service. I wish we had

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Second day on Georgica Pond
Sunday, September 05, 2004 12:21 AM

So the first task for today was to fix the kayak. I had two problems with the rudder. One is that the connector between the control wire and the rudder had broken and was lost. The other problem was that one of the foot peddles was sticking very badly.

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

A House on Georgica Pond
Saturday, September 04, 2004 4:36 PM

Here is one house. It is right on the water and you can only see part of it, perhaps 2/3rd of it, in this picture.There are more pictures at my web site.

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Kayaking Georgica Pond
Saturday, September 04, 2004 2:54 AM

A few miles from my Dad’s house is Georgica Pond. Along a busy highway is a parking area and one of the very few public places to enter the pond. I’ve been passing this spot my whole life (over 50 years) but never seen more of the pond then this little

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

The old guy buys music online for the first time
Thursday, September 02, 2004 11:43 PM

OK so I am sure that many of you have been buying (or otherwise getting) music online for some time. But it's new to me. So today I installed the new Windows Media Player 10 which allows you to buy music online. And play it of course. Now I

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Wi-Fi everywhere? What does it mean?
Thursday, September 02, 2004 6:06 PM

I’m the first to admit that I’m getting spoiled by wireless networking. I have wi-fi at home, at work (talking any Microsoft office I visit) and a lot of other places I visit. It’s getting to the point that when I open my Tablet PC I expect to see the

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

Meeting with Steve Ballmer
Thursday, September 02, 2004 12:00 AM

I was in a meeting with Steve Ballmer (Microsoft President and CEO) yesterday. A "small intimate" meeting of about 70-80 people. Steve is in the Boston area yesterday and today for a couple of events. When he arrived in the area they brought him

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posted by AlfredTwo (Comments Off)

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