01.Blogs :
RobMiles  
Programming, gadgets and life as a lecturer in a UK university.

June 2004 - Posts

Darn Darn Darn
Wednesday, June 30, 2004 4:53 PM
I’m trying hard not to buy too many books while I’m here. Yesterday I only bought a couple, one on test driven development and the other on Object Based Design. I’ll let you know what they are like a bit later. But today, having vowed not to spend any
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Visual Studio Everything
Wednesday, June 30, 2004 4:47 PM
I’m rationing myself to only a few sessions a day at TechEd. This is to avoid over stimulation and brain meltdown. So today I only went to three. They were all in a sequence and all about Visual Studio. They amplified what was said in the keynote yesterday
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Extreme Programming
Wednesday, June 30, 2004 9:21 AM
If you came here from TechEd Bloggers looking for stuff about Smart devices or Visual Studio it is all here. Just lower down......One of the lovely things about TechEd is that you get the really experienced practitioners giving talks about the stuff they
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Andy Makes Us Proud
Tuesday, June 29, 2004 12:26 PM
Big day today, particularly if you are Andy. He is one of our students who only happens to be giving a big chunk of the TechEd keynote presentation today. Just me watching, along with five thousand other developers. The presentation itself started with
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TechEd 2004 Amsterdam Report
Monday, June 28, 2004 4:12 PM
After all of the ripping yesterday I have so far listened to a half of one track on my newly filled DAP Jukebox. Ho hum. Had better things to do than listen to music though. Spent a very useful day learning all about Smart Clients. As usual I left the
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Ripping Fun
Sunday, June 27, 2004 1:54 PM
A large part of my preparations for going to Amsterdam seem to be ripping loads of music into my MP3 (although I prefer WMA) player. I think I now have enough music to listen continuously while I'm away. That is all week, day and night. I'm also finding
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Got Gmail
Saturday, June 26, 2004 3:12 PM
Number one son has come through and referred me for a gmail account. Number on son is also disgusted that I've put a full stop in my new email address. Well, I just fancied doing that OK. And anyhoo, I've put it behind my domain name so nobody will ever
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Seriously Strong Magic
Friday, June 25, 2004 9:54 PM
Paul (one of our .NET MSc students) came in today and showed me some stuff he is working on with the WMI Server Extensions for Visual Studio. People, this is seriously strong magic. You can download the add-in here. It lets you do a shed load of things
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Thursday Nite is Quiz Nite
Friday, June 25, 2004 7:34 AM
Something stupid for tonight. "What is the smallest number of British coins of the realm that you can use when buying a 40 pence cup of coffee?". And talking of something stupid....Great Radio Announcements - Number 1 of a very short series:"In epsiode
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Water From Sky
Wednesday, June 23, 2004 9:41 PM
It sure has rained a lot over the last few days. On Sunday we just about had an underwater BBQ (although it was great fun). Yesterday evening I wandered round and watered all the plants very carefully. Then I was woken up in the night by a proper cloudburst.
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From the Old English
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 9:44 PM
Also for Fathers Day (tm) I was given a drinks mat. On it is a definition of my name:From the Old English meaning 'Bright Flame'. According to the mat (which must be more reliable than the internet) I am also good natured, friendly and outgoing with a
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Live Entertainment
Tuesday, June 22, 2004 3:49 PM
Been out to see a play tonight. A good old british farce, with an Internet twist. Called "Caught in the Net" it tells the tale of two teenagers who meet in the chatrooms and discover that their dads have a lot in common. And this is not terribly
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Father's Day and Fighting
Sunday, June 20, 2004 8:02 PM
In the UK it is Fathers day today. Got a good range of pressies from the kids. And no socks. I've told the children what will happen to them if they buy me socks. So most of the time they don't. Which is as it should be. Got some DVDs (Ally Mcbeal and
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Industry Standard Saturday
Saturday, June 19, 2004 4:18 PM
I tend to do the same things each Saturday. Wander up town and see if there are any new computer games/gadgets out there. Then come back and clean the house. I think the novelty has worn off the cleaning lark. The one good thing is that our vacum cleaner
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Pinball as Life
Friday, June 18, 2004 8:16 AM
You probably know that I've got a pinball machine - the Twilight Zone (best machine in the world). I'm not that good at it, better than some and worse than others. Rich, the person who sold it to me, was very good at it. He made it seem effortless. I'd
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Puzzle Thursday
Thursday, June 17, 2004 8:54 AM
Consider the following C# code: x = 1 ;y = x + x + x ;..but at the end of it the variable y has the value 9 in it. How come?
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Digging up the road
Wednesday, June 16, 2004 8:47 PM
Had a very pleasant evening in the pub. It was quite busy, what with a football match on the telly in full swing. Outside a man with a pneumatic drill was digging up the roundabout. I hope it was road works, I can't think of a particularly good reason
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I'm Off Down the Pub
Tuesday, June 15, 2004 6:50 PM
I'm off down the pub tonight. Another meeting of the Preston Foster Appreciation society. You can find out about that on my other blog. Take a look at the entry for 30th October 2003 for details of how it all started. Then move on to 2nd Feb 2004
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Sequel Server
Monday, June 14, 2004 6:45 PM
I got to thinking about "Legally Blonde II" again. I'll probably watch it. And probably enjoy it. When you reach my advanced age you don't particularly want anything challenging or which holds the potential for an unhappy ending (although this might of
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The Gadget Frontier
Sunday, June 13, 2004 7:58 PM
Took the 20Q thingy to a social gathering at David's. I wish I was on commission. I think I've sold around ten. They were asking how come I know about these toys. I said I live out on "the gadget frontier". Sounds good to me. The machine behaved itself
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Perhaps the most impressive thing I've ever seen
Saturday, June 12, 2004 10:00 PM
The Humber Bridge is impressive. The Longhorn demo was impressive. But sorry folks, I've just bought something which I think beats both. It cost 13 english pounds. And it is a toy. And it is completely amazing. It is a ball around the size of a baseball.
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I'm Driving Backwards for Christmas
Friday, June 11, 2004 10:26 PM
The most important gear on a car, by my reckoning, is reverse of course. Because it is the only one you can't possibly do without. Hmmm. I guess nobody has posted the answer because you are just cross with me for making you go and look in the dictionary
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Thursday Night is Puzzle Night
Thursday, June 10, 2004 7:05 PM
OK. An un-believably easy one tonight:What is the most important gear on a car?Oh, and did you know that the word gullible is not in the dictionary. Take a look.More puzzles next Thursday..
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Chain Reaction
Wednesday, June 09, 2004 3:37 PM
So this is how it goes down folks: Thursday. Number one daughter buys a copy of "Some Day Soon" by Kristian Leontiou (very good album - sort of a male Dido). I want a copy on my DAP Jukebox. Friday. Jukebox is full. All 20GB full of my record collection,
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Hot Stuff
Tuesday, June 08, 2004 4:10 PM
Whew. It has been hot the last two days (although I mean hot by english standards - which is probably not that much really). I've had the fan on in my office. It rather helpfully blew all the papers off my desk into a pile on the floor when I turned it
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The Return of Napster
Monday, June 07, 2004 10:14 AM
Napster is back. I never used it first time round since I felt it was somewhat illegal and I didn't have a fast network connection at home. But the new UK service is now around and it is a subscription music service like cokemusic and the others.
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Specification and Interpretation
Monday, June 07, 2004 7:56 AM
Of course, my missunderstanding about what "spoke" means is a perfect example of how things go wrong in software projects. Particularly at the specification stage. Just think about the fun you could have if the customer asks "And the program will support
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I am so stupid
Saturday, June 05, 2004 8:39 AM
I am so stupid. I think I've only  just worked out what "the spoke" actually means. For the last couple of months I've been thinking about hubs, rims and spokes in a kind of wheel oriented way. But now I think that it is actually the name of a bunch
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Sorry about the wedges
Friday, June 04, 2004 8:17 PM
Sorry about the wedges. It is just that on Thursday night we go shopping and buy all the food for the week. I take number one daughter with me and we have a great time filling up the trolly with stuff. If I go alone I tend to come back with a whole bunch
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Logic and Potato Wedges
Thursday, June 03, 2004 6:49 PM
OK. I'm in the supermarket. Everyone wants to buy packs of frozen potato wedges. There is one pack left in the freezer. It is in fine condition. But nobody is buying it. Why?
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Harry Potter??
Thursday, June 03, 2004 8:08 AM
Went to see the new Harry Potter film yesterday. I've read the first book, but no more for the moment. I was therefore perhaps the only person in the theatre who didn't know what was going to happen. Good film though. One of the things about going to
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Taste and Memories
Wednesday, June 02, 2004 8:48 PM
Now here's a thing. We've just changed from "proper" Shreddies (Shreddies are a malted breakfast cereal) to store own brand. The first bowl of the "compatible" replacement tasted just like the original. Today, the second bowl has started tasting
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Unleash the Ninja Power - Ninja Gaiden Rocks!
Tuesday, June 01, 2004 8:52 PM
Some time back I bought a copy of Ninja Gaiden for the XBOX. The man in the shop reckoned that the first boss was the hardest. Well, we are past him now and by gum he was right! Number one son finally dealt with him and we are now at Master Ninja level,
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Puzzle Answer
Tuesday, June 01, 2004 8:35 AM
At last it can be told. The answer to the puzzle I set last week; why won't this Java compile?public class Person {      String name ;       public Person ( String inName ) {            
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