theSpoke.net

A Good Project
Saturday, September 30, 2006 2:28 PM

A good do it yourself project around the house has several important attributes. My wife is happy with the results There are no trips to hospital You get to buy new tools Today was a pretty good project. Last week end we went to IKEA and bought

0 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

you'll settle for somewhere everyone knows you're there
Friday, September 29, 2006 3:21 PM

The theme song ofr the TV show Cheers has a line that says "you want to go where everyone knows your name." And the song is right. We all like to go places where everyone knows our name; places where we have a little bit of local fame. But sometimes you

1 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

New Versions of Halo coming - sometime
Thursday, September 28, 2006 2:03 PM

I see that Microsoft Gaming Studios and Bungie are partnering with Peter Jackson (director of Lord of the Rings and King Kong) to create new games in the halo series. I can't wait to see what they come up with. The new studio will be based in New

0 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

My grumpy idea of a geek test
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 3:03 PM

I'm getting tired and grumpy. It's about several things but one of them is people with very limited experience who think they know it all. All too many people seem ready to tell me what operating systems are good and which are bad without having any real

2 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

It's all English
Monday, September 25, 2006 6:40 AM

I found this web site this morning. The site has recordings of over 500 people from different language backgrounds reading the same paragram in English. If you ever wanted to hear what different accents sounded like this is the site for you. I think that

2 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Road Trip!
Sunday, September 24, 2006 9:07 PM

Not me unfortunatly but Diane is traveling this week. She and Hilary (Hilary is new to our team and should be blogging soon) are making stops at several universities and at two conferences. The list is: Monday: Northwestern University Tuesday:

3 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

What does an igloo have to do with software?
Friday, September 22, 2006 9:34 PM

This is one of the most unusual recruiting videos I have ever seen. Sometimes thinking outside the box mean building interesting things inside of a box. :-)

1 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

When a company grows up
Friday, September 22, 2006 11:23 AM

There are a lot of people whose thinking about Microsoft is stuck in the past. By the past I mean before the events that lead up to the big anti-trust suit of several years ago. My opinion and why I felt comfortable coming to work for Microsoft was that

1 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Why I am never going back to the office again
Thursday, September 21, 2006 12:11 PM

OK never is a long time. And I don't mean that I am stopping work. But the traditional go to an office somewhere to work is not something I think I can easily go back to. As most of my long term (and long suffering) readers know I work out of an office

1 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th
Monday, September 18, 2006 1:03 PM

Talk like a Pirate Day was a private joke that went around the world. This year it is tomorrow September 19th. The official web site is http://www.talklikeapirate.com It's fun and it shows just how wierd ideas can go places thanks to the Internet.

2 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Geometry and Me
Sunday, September 17, 2006 10:17 PM

Math is not my strong suit. I got through statistics in college by writing computer programs to do all the arithmetic for the homework. This was back in the day when calculators were expensive, did not go near as many functions as they do today and no

0 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Blogging Catch Up
Saturday, September 16, 2006 3:26 PM

I fell behind in blog reading (and email) this week. Today I went ruthlessly through my blogroll skimming the titles of posts. I read only the ones that looked really interesting (remember to give your posts good titles) and marking the rest as read.

0 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

BASIC is bad - or is it?
Thursday, September 14, 2006 11:19 AM

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. -- Edsger W.Dijkstra What do you think? Was Dijkstra right

3 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

35 Unread Email Messages
Wednesday, September 13, 2006 10:41 AM

I went to bed last night with 35 unread email messages. You have to understand that this almost never happens. Oh perhaps sometimes I come home late and am so tired that I go right to bed. But as a general rule all email messages are read before I go

5 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

US Microsoft Student Partners
Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:11 PM

I see that there are still a couple of openings for Microsoft Student Partners at US universities. These openings will not last long.

2 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Life Ends, Life Goes On
Monday, September 11, 2006 10:35 PM

I have been thinking about September 11, 2001 all day today. It's been hard not to. The radio played reminder messages and patriotic music during the day. Our radio stations almost never play patriotic music BTW. I have of course been thinking about the

0 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

New phone - is that good or bad?
Monday, September 11, 2006 12:12 AM

For the longest time people looked at my phone and asked if I really worked for Microsoft. Why? Because it was an old dumb phone. No picture taking, no Internet, no email, nothing. Microsoft people are supposed to always be the ones running the latest

7 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

OK now we are having fun
Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:52 PM

My wife laughed and my son looked at me funny when I came home with an Xbox 360 controller when we don't have an Xbox 360. Ha! Today I finally got around to installing XNA Studio Express and I have been playing Spacewar on my laptop using the controller.

2 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Some good career advice
Thursday, September 07, 2006 12:45 PM

List stolen from Kevin Briody: Get your financial house in order. Get out of your comfortable circle and meet some new people. Start working on a side gig. Take your training and learning seriously. Spend time thinking

1 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Apple v PC spoof ads
Tuesday, September 05, 2006 5:55 PM

I just love these. Tablet PC ad Game/Work PC Media Center PC

1 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

Group Shot - making a good picture from several bad ones
Monday, September 04, 2006 7:57 PM

Years ago I was part of the photography staff on my college yearbook. One of the very difficult things was to find a good picture of various groups. In one someone might have blinked. In anothey someone's hand might be in the wrong place or doing something

0 Comments | Post a Comment |

posted by AlfredTwo with

September 2006 - Posts

Subscriptions