01.Blogs :
AlfredTwo  
A blog about life, Microsoft, random technology and general academic stuff.

May 2005 - Posts

Computer Geek Quiz
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 7:26 PM
The quiz was fun. Should be called a computer history quiz though. Old guys like me have it easier. I did rate as a Super Geek of course. :-)
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Long weekend
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 1:43 AM
I got a lot done this weekend but almost nothing that I had planned to get done. Going back to work tomorrow will almost be a relief. I had a great Saturday with family. But most of yesterday and today was spent doing unplanned work around the house.
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

More from the backyard
Monday, May 30, 2005 4:04 AM
Video of flowing water taken in my back yard. We've had a lot of rain lately and the little rill in my backyard is flowing like crazy. So I took a video. Come August it may very well be so dry that people will have trouble believing it was ever
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Blogs changing the way you look at the world
Sunday, May 29, 2005 4:31 PM
I read an interesting blog this morning. It is about how blogging, especially as it means you are more aware of people in other countries, can change how you pay attention to world events. I have to say that I found what they wrote to apply to me as well.
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Question of the day
Friday, May 27, 2005 10:32 PM
So what *is* the USA known for outside the US? I think I can come up with things that parts of the country are known for but isn't asking what the US is known for sort of like asking what Europe is known for? They are both big places. If you are outside
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Comic Strip for Computer Geeks
Friday, May 27, 2005 2:16 AM
Bugbash is written and drawn by a  guy who works for a big software company based in Washington state. It's been available inside that company for a while but now it is available on the Internet. Personally I am a fan.
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Two of the best words in the language
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:39 PM
I had a former student say “thank you” today. He’s a really smart kid who I taught a couple of computer courses to while he was in high school. Next December he will graduate (in 4.5 years) with both a BS and MS from Case Western Reserve University (a
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Bitman's Place
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 6:46 PM
Do you remember what it was like when you wrote your first program? I do and it was well over 30 years ago. It was pretty cool. Microsoft, well Jeff Sandquist whose group did the work, announced a website for kids 8-13 to get an easy and fun introduction
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Two Views of one event
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 2:24 PM
Rick Segal offers a look at two different blogs that are reporting on the same event. Read his article and then take a look at the two blogs he links to. Wow, what a difference.One other thing to think about from that blog. When you write about an event
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Imagine Cup US
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 10:59 AM
A lot of news about the US Imagine Cup Software Design Invitational held in Redmon WA last week end at the MSDN Student Flash blog. Check it out. Next year I am going to find a way to be there.
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Virtual Earth
Monday, May 23, 2005 7:43 PM
Wait until you see what is coming this summer! Chandu Thota who is on the team getting the Virtual Earth project going has some screen shots on his blog.  Maps, aerial imagery, photos, directories and more. This is going to be big.
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Do use RSS with theSpoke?
Monday, May 23, 2005 12:59 AM
I'm interested in how many of you use RSS to follow theSpoke blogs and how many of you just use the web interface. Please let me know by commenting. I've outlined the theory I have at my Social Computing blog. It boils down to I think most people use
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One of those days
Sunday, May 22, 2005 10:25 PM
Did you ever have one of those days were you just seemed to be in a bad mood? And then every little thing that goes a bit wrong gets you upset all out of proportion? I'm having one of those days. I think the only safe thing is to not go out and only watch
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

New Avatar
Friday, May 20, 2005 2:58 PM
So a few of you have noticed and commented on the new avatar. It was a gift from the very talented Shê Lim and I am grateful for it. It is based on the picture that I used to use as an avatar. There is something about artwork that is different from a
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Pocket PC projects
Thursday, May 19, 2005 8:13 PM
Looks like my friend Tom has been having fun with his programming class. Personally I think that writing programs for Pocket PCs is a great way to get students interested in doing more with progamming. The form factor opens itself to out of the box thinking.
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Accents
Thursday, May 19, 2005 4:37 PM
Last week I was on Long Island in New York State. I grew up on Long Island but I haven't lived there for over 25 years. One thing that struck me was that many of the people had strong accents. Generally you don’t notice your own accent. I still notice
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We need more operating systems
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 3:27 PM
I have been learning about a new research operating system that Microsoft is working on called Singularity. It is almost all written in C#. A few bits in C for debugging and some Assembly language for the very lowest level of hardware interface. There
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Getting older
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 8:22 PM
Lately I have noticed that I was having trouble reading small print. That and the signs along the roads seem to be harder to read lately. Time to have my eyes checked again. Two years ago I was able to see well enough that my driver's licence does not
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Happy 17th of May
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 11:07 AM
Today is Constitution Day in Norway. I grew up in Brooklyn NY where there is always a big parade to celebrate the day. There are a lot of people in Brooklyn who are from Norway or who, like me, have parents or grandparents from Norway. It was always nice
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

48 Hours Without the Internet
Monday, May 16, 2005 12:21 AM
I think this is the longest I have gone without checking email or using the Internet in at least a year. Probably longer. Friday I went to Patchogue NY for a high school programming competition at St Joseph’s College. I have to say I had a wonderful
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Digital Image Pro 10
Thursday, May 12, 2005 6:12 PM
Rob Miles blogged about this software the other day and I had to get it and try it out. Below is a picture of my backyard that Digital Image Pro stiched together from about 6 or 8 individual digital pictures I took. It was unbelievably easy. it took
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Too many or two few
Thursday, May 12, 2005 4:10 AM
Famous bloggers often write several (even many) posts in a day. But theSpoke is not about famous bloggers. It's a community of friends.Mini poll here. Is one post a day too many, too few or just about right? Do you read your subscribed blogs every
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

The Really Smart People
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 5:27 PM
Fanny Sy left a comment on my blog yesterday that read in part: “I'm fascinated about what goes in their minds and what they do to make good algo's. Are they normal people like the rest of the world? What makes them different?”   Apparently a
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Life is good
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 12:03 AM
I have been trying to get out in my kayak on a regular basis this spring and summer (and perhaps fall). Weather, work and otehr things but mostly work have conspired to keep me ashore for the last week. Lots of rain. But today was warm and sunny. Still
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Can't sit still
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 12:52 AM
I seem to have trouble sitting still in meetings these days. I can sit at my desk and work and not move for hours but if someone starts talking I have to move. Now generally I can control myself for a real meeting for an hour or two. But eventually I
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

No Coding Today
Monday, May 09, 2005 1:46 AM
It was Mother's Day. My wife spent the morning with our son while I did some houshold chores. The rest of the day we spent together relaxing. It was a nice break. Sometimes you just need a day of downtime. I think we needed that today. How was your day
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Coding 4 Fun
Sunday, May 08, 2005 2:57 PM
It seems like forever since I've written any code just for the fun of it. In the last week several people have suggested programming projects for students. One of them is Battleship and another is PacMan. I am thinking about writing a PacMan program myself.
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Changing the way people teach
Friday, May 06, 2005 1:36 PM
One of the great things about my job is talking to people who do things in a new and better way. The other day I visited with Prof. Frydenberg at Bentley College. Bentley has a required course called IT 101 that traditionally had not been very challenging
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

Microsoft Development Locations
Thursday, May 05, 2005 7:51 PM
Microsoft has offices in some unexpected places. Oh sure you expect sales offices outside of the Redmond WA area but not development. Would you believe software development in Durham North Carolina? Actually yes. While it is partly to take advantage of
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

A new blog worth reading
Tuesday, May 03, 2005 11:33 PM
No, not another blog by me. A good friend of mine, Pat Phillips, is the Editor of MainFunction which is a website for K-12 teachers and students and she has a new blog. It's actually been in progress for a while as she got things worked out so there is
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

US Imagine Cup
Tuesday, May 03, 2005 2:20 PM
The US Imagine Cup event is coming up in just over 2 weeks. Kevin Briody has all the scoop on his blog. Well maybe not all the scoop. A lot of information is at the US Imagine Cup  Hub. if you are on one of the 40 teams with an invitation to Redmond
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

The sun will come out tomorrow
Monday, May 02, 2005 9:48 PM
It was actually sunny (but cool) for much of today but it is raining now. They say it will rain until about 2 AM and then the rest of the week will be mostly sunny. I hope so. Too much rain and I get depressed. Yes it is true - too many cloudy days is
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posted  by  AlfredTwo  (Comments Off) 

rain
Sunday, May 01, 2005 10:14 PM
It's been raining on and off for days. Frankly it is depressing. It makes me want to do nothing but sleep until the sun comes back out. Right now it is mostly sunny but the sun has peeked out before only to disappear again behind the clouds. Bah, I want
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