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Seven
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 10:35 PM

Internet Explorer 7.0 the beta preview. Now with RSS, improved tabs and anti-phishing support. Try it!

posted by AlfredTwo with

The Journey or the Destination
Monday, January 30, 2006 12:56 PM

I like to work with wood. I find that building things myself is very satisfying and enjoyable. But I had a professional carpenter working in my bathroom this morning. He was fixing a section of floor that had been ruined by water from a leak. I

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Rating Hotels
Saturday, January 28, 2006 11:21 PM

I’m thinking about putting together a grading sheet to rank the hotels I’m staying in. I’m starting to get an appreciation about what is and is not important in a hotel. Cost does not seem to be a good way to pick a hotel so far. That is to say that just

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Information overload - again
Friday, January 27, 2006 6:31 PM

OK this is why I hate to be off the Internet too long. I have been in meetings all day. No Internet. Actually no computer as there was no good reason to have one there and more than a few good reasons not to. Plus I didn't catch up on things from yesterday

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Another theSpoke Chat Interview
Friday, January 27, 2006 12:27 AM

Bernard has anothe one of his fine chat interviews up. This time with one of the 2005 winners of the Imagine Cup Software Design Invitational. Go take a look. It is a good read and it may inspire you and your team to go for it. And to not give up.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

And now for something different
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 6:39 AM

A little developer rap from Microsoft Korea. It's in Korean of course. There is a transcript of sorts in English if, like me, you don't read or speak Korean. There is an international advertising campaign that Microsoft is starting that apparently is

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Good New, Bad News
Monday, January 23, 2006 11:29 AM

The good news is a whole list of reasons for people to want Windows Vista when it comes out. The bad news is a scary, to me, report of the bug fix phase at Microsoft. I'm pretty old school when it comes to software development. Sure there are always

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Catching Up
Saturday, January 21, 2006 1:17 PM

So I have been working on the third edition of a textbook for a while now. I'm lucky in that there are several co-authors who are responsible for large sections of the book. But the first four units (including 12 lessons or chapters) are all mine. Writing

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Benefits you can't use
Friday, January 20, 2006 3:25 PM

The airlines try so hard some times. Last year I flew a lot. I mean really a lot. So Delta Airlines, my all time favorite airline, awarded me their Gold Medallion status. That is the middle of three levels of status. It means some good benefits for me.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Why is it so hard?
Thursday, January 19, 2006 10:05 AM

I have been away for about 8 days. During those 8 days I was "working" for, let's call it, seven and half days. The half day was officially just a reception but being far away from home without plans I also hung around on the Internet doing email and

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Geek or Nerd
Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:04 PM

A friend of mine researched and wrote a history of the word nerd. Near the bottom he discusses the difference between geek and nerd. He prefers nerd. I tend to prefer geek - and have a t-shirt with the word boldly displayed in large white letters on a

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posted by AlfredTwo with

You might be a geek if
Monday, January 16, 2006 1:53 PM

You might be a geek if: You install wi-fi at your parent’s house so you can use their Internet connection on visits. Your friends call you to fix their parent’s computer. You see a string of binary in a comic strip and think about converting it

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Just how much of a nerd are you?
Saturday, January 14, 2006 9:42 PM

Have you seen this cartoon? When you saw it (if you haven't seen it yet do so now - I'll wait) did you convert the binary to ASCII? Or did the thought not even enter your head? If you did translate it, did you do the binary to decimal in your head (5

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posted by AlfredTwo with

A feeling of belonging
Saturday, January 14, 2006 1:57 PM

One of the things that good organizations do, either intentionally or not, is to make people feel like they belong. This is true of companies as well as service organizations, schools, and of course the military. I am sitting in an office 2800 miles away

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Old Computers on the Internet
Friday, January 13, 2006 8:27 PM

I found this article this morning. It is about Paul Allan's collecting a couple of old Digital Equipment PDP-10s and a PDP clone. The systems run a pair of operating systems called TOPS-10 and TOPS-20. For those of you who don't know, Paul Allan and Bill

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posted by AlfredTwo with

How to carry 2 tons of books in your backpack
Thursday, January 12, 2006 12:45 PM

A friend of mine, Richard Seltzer, has a business that sells electronic copies of books. Today he wrote a blog entry comparing his book collection on a DVD to actual physical books. He figures that the 9378 books on the DVD would weigh in at about

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Moving stories
Wednesday, January 11, 2006 2:34 PM

When I was in university the parents of one of my roommates moved while he was away at school. He told me he thought he knew where the new house was but he wasn’t sure. I told him he was lucky they told him about the move at all. (Jokingly of course)

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posted by AlfredTwo with

On the road again
Tuesday, January 10, 2006 10:28 PM

I am in Redmond, center of the "Evil Empire", again. It's raining. I hear that it has rained on each of the last 23 days. But only about 10 inches of rain have fallen in that time. Back home that many days of rain in a row would be unusual to the extreme

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posted by AlfredTwo with

The Digital Lifestyle
Monday, January 09, 2006 11:35 PM

Rick Segal talks about how a laptop and a wi-fi connection helped him make the most of an airline delay. Ted Demopoulos talks about how his laptop and his cell phone allowed him to stay productive even though his car brok down in a remote area. You'd

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posted by AlfredTwo with

The Bloggies
Sunday, January 08, 2006 6:58 PM

They are accepting nominations for the 2006 Weblog Awards. Nominations are open until 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) on Tuesday, January 10, 2005. I've nominated a number of my favorite blogs including of course several from theSpoke.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Security Issues
Friday, January 06, 2006 11:52 AM

I found this interesting. It is from CERT (US Computer Emergency Readiness Team) This bulletin provides a year-end summary of software vulnerabilities that were identified between January 2005 and December 2005. The information is presented only as a

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Why you should date a geek
Friday, January 06, 2006 11:12 AM

Maryam Scoble has written a blog entry with ten reasons one should date a geek. Guys, you may want to print it out and leave it where girls can find it. :-)

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Will blog for sleep or Sleepless in NH
Thursday, January 05, 2006 3:12 AM

It is 3AM where I live and I can't sleep. I was tired and sleepy all day but as soon as I tried to sleep tonight my mind started racing. I slept for an hour or 2 but after that I woke and could not sleep again. I've been up for about 2 hours now. I'm

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posted by AlfredTwo with

IronPython is now in beta
Thursday, January 05, 2006 1:31 AM

I saw in Jason Zander's blog that IronPython has been released in beta 1. I've been playing with an alpha version and its pretty cool. You can read about IronPython and get a copy here. If you've wanted to learn or use a language like Python but didn't

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Answers to Follow up Questions
Wednesday, January 04, 2006 7:10 AM

Zadig asked some follow up questions to Bernard's interview. I thought that answering them here might give me a little more room. I hope people don't mind bouncing back and forth. Alfred, you wrote, cyberculture has developed 'its own set of morals and

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Interview with a people watcher
Tuesday, January 03, 2006 8:31 PM

The ever hard working Bernard (when is someone, ideally at MSFT, going to wise up and hire that man?) has completed and posted a new interview. This one was with me so I hope you all go read it and make it the most read blog Bernard has ever posted.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

New Year's Eve Dinner
Monday, January 02, 2006 10:29 AM

For some reason Chinese takeout food has become the big thing for New Year's Eve eating in my area. My wife and I decided that we would also have Chinese food that night. There is a Chinese restaurant about a mile from our home. On a normal night we place

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posted by AlfredTwo with

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
Sunday, January 01, 2006 11:10 PM

So it appears that Guy Kawasaki (please don't tell me you don't know who he is or I shall be forced to be critical of your education :-) ) is now blogging. One of his first entries is about something he calls the 10/20/30 Rule of Powerpoint.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

January 2006 - Posts

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