theSpoke.net

April Fools Software
Friday, March 31, 2006 1:24 PM

The Coding4Fun site has a special page for April Fools' Day. Of course buried in each "prank" is some serious learning and information about how some things work. There is a screensaver application, how to operate a CD trays and system sounds under program

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Write Notepad in C# - an interactive lesson
Wednesday, March 29, 2006 1:50 AM

You can find an interactive tutorial for C# using Visual Studio Express here. This tutorial will walk you though the IDE, how to save data to a file and how to debug a program. It is all interactive and will walk you though everything step by step. At

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posted by AlfredTwo with

I'm falling behind
Monday, March 27, 2006 8:18 PM

Found this quiz - how geeky are you - online and took it. I made it into approaching geeky by one point. It's almost all the fault of my phone which does not take pictures and which I do not use for Internet. Still it is scary how far behind I am falling.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Alarm Clocks are Evil
Monday, March 27, 2006 11:48 AM

Around 7AM the alarm clock in one of the rooms of this hotel went off. I don't know which room it was in. The really bad thing was that no one was in the room to turn it off. So it kept going for over half an hour. Now if I was up and busy I would probably

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posted by AlfredTwo with

I was going to blog today but I'm not going to
Sunday, March 26, 2006 11:55 PM

Today was a long day. I got up at 4AM on the east coast and was on the west coast (Seattle) and three time zones away by about 1PM Pacific time or 4PM Eastern time. I was lucky enough to get upgraded to first class and usually that will get me to pull

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posted by AlfredTwo with

FIRST Robotics
Saturday, March 25, 2006 11:56 PM

I went to the Boston Regional event of FIRST Robotics today. I was invited to the VIP lunch. One of the people at my table did a podcast with some of the people there. Not me though. I'm not as famous as the people he interviewed. Or him for that matter.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Internet Safety Web Site
Friday, March 24, 2006 2:50 PM

A co-worker (thanks Diane)showed me the Internet safety web site run by MSN. One of the pages was all about phishing: what it is, why it is a problem and how to recognize it. There is even a test to see how good one is about picking out the valid email

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Another take on Interviewing (at Microsoft or elsewhere)
Friday, March 24, 2006 7:11 AM

I found this post interesting and useful. I've been on a lot of interviews over the years. When I was looking for my first job it was scary - very scary. Frankly I don't find it all that scary anymore. A lot of that is because at my age I know who I am,

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Time to clean the office
Thursday, March 23, 2006 7:51 PM

I really love a nice neat office. I've never managed to keep an office nice and neat for very long though. I don't know what it is. Some of it is the result of coming home from trips with a lot of things and not having enough time to really put them in

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Custom "10" PC Contest
Wednesday, March 22, 2006 6:11 PM

Have you visited On10.net yet? Have you seen that they have a contest to win a free computer? The full details are here. On10 is an interesting site. The videos are fun and interesting. It's less technical than Channel 9 but that's not bad. In fact it

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posted by AlfredTwo with

XNA and a busy weekend
Monday, March 20, 2006 11:24 AM

I see that we have announced XNA. XNA is going to change the way game companies develop games for the Xbox 360 and for PCs. Managed code for the Xbox 360 means that code can be written for both platforms. Should be interesting. As for me I was pretty

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Old Programmers
Friday, March 17, 2006 4:46 PM

I found this to be an interesting take on the idea of old programmers having to go into management. In some ways programming seems like a young person's game. But I know of a lot of people who are still cranking out great code into their late youth (in

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Cool Computers
Thursday, March 16, 2006 8:34 PM

Cool computers - as in liquid cooled computers. On10.net has a video today with a liquid cooled computer for computer gamers. It costs about US$5500 which is a lot of money for me for a computer that isn't going to help me make a lot of money. A guess

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posted by AlfredTwo with

PHP for .NET
Thursday, March 16, 2006 1:24 PM

Looks interesting. "the ease-of-use and effectiveness of the PHP language and the power and richness of the .NET platform."

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Been a rough couple of days
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 8:51 PM

Some 23 years ago my mother in law had a stroke that left her somewhat disabled. For most of the following 23 years and all of the last 10-12 years she has lived full-time with my wife and I. The last two years have been rough. One year she broke an arm;

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posted by AlfredTwo with

On 10 is Live!
Monday, March 13, 2006 9:58 AM

On10.net is now live. A video a day during the work week.The first show is a really interesting tour of KEXP a member supported radio station that broadcasts over the Internet. This is not your typical radio station either. The DJs play what ever music

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Catching Up on the Week End - Again
Sunday, March 12, 2006 10:12 AM

Well I sent out a round of invitations to the MSN Messenger beta this morning. I was crazy busy all week but finally had a break this morning. I still have some left if anyone is interested. One of the other things I let slide this week was reading blogs.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

What is On10?
Saturday, March 11, 2006 11:20 PM

OK this "viral marketing" stuff is starting to really confuse me. What is On10.net all about? I know it is from Microsoft and I know that it has something to do with the group that runs Channel 9 but other than that I just don't get it.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

MSN Messenger Beta
Friday, March 10, 2006 11:49 AM

I have some invitations to the beta of MSN Messenger. If you want one either leave a comment here with your email address or send an email to my home email account which is act2 (at) acthompson.net. Note that the invitation will not come from that address

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Computers Are Not Just for Boys
Wednesday, March 08, 2006 6:59 PM

Interesting article involving comments from Maria Klawe of Prinston University about women in computing. I think she's got some great ideas. I also think that her suggestions on ways to teach computer science that may work better for women will also help

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Origami - Video on Thursday?
Monday, March 06, 2006 1:47 PM

Scoble says that Channel 9 will have a video on Oragami on Thursday. He also says he is going to buy one with his own money! I haven't seen it yet. Nor do I know enough about it yet. So I'm waiting for Thursday.

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Jim Gray: Behind the Code
Sunday, March 05, 2006 12:49 AM

Jim Gray is a pretty amazing guy. An amazing list of awards including the Turning Award (think Nobel Prize for Computer Science) and database expert. Jim has worked for some impressive companies in the computer industry including IBM, Digital Equipment

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Most trusted company in the world
Saturday, March 04, 2006 12:48 PM

I saw in Ivan Joseph's blog that a study has shown that Microsoft if the most trusted company in the world. As an employee that is really nice to read. I'd like to think that the company has come a long way to earn that trust. Now if we can just convince

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Far away but still in touch
Friday, March 03, 2006 4:33 PM

The FIRST Robotics Team (Team 811) that I like to think of as my own is competing today and tomorrow. They are in New Hampshire and I am in Texas. I think that's about 1800 miles apart. But I'm not missing everything. My friend Tom Indelicato is calling

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posted by AlfredTwo with

Tired but happy
Thursday, March 02, 2006 10:48 PM

When I was teaching (less than three years ago) I was on my feet most of the day. I was used to it. Now I am not so used to it. But today was a day when I was on my feet almost all day. And I am feeling it tonight. My feet hurt. My back hurts. And I am

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posted by AlfredTwo with

March 2006 - Posts

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