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October 2005 - Posts

Mended my PC - and something good to listen to
Monday, October 31, 2005 8:54 PM

Wahay. Cheers and jubliations. I've fixed my PC. And today of all days, when everything that could go wrong did. My office PC did the dodo thing this morning. At one point I was wondering what could possibly go wrong next (the answer was, of course, the

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posted by RobMiles with

Programming -> Databases
Sunday, October 30, 2005 8:44 PM

I was talking to day to a keen programmer (not even at uni yet - but running a very good looking web site and already writing code for customers) and he was saying that he liked my C# notes (free to anyone who asks by the way). He suggested that I take

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posted by RobMiles with

Fun Reporting Bugs
Friday, October 28, 2005 8:38 PM

Today I took my life in my hands and posted my first bug report on Vista. I thought long and hard about it before I said anything, but in the end I thought it worth doing. The issue isn't a Vista one, it is an IE7 one. The problem is this: "I love

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posted by RobMiles with

Geek Humour
Friday, October 28, 2005 4:14 PM

I've not read this book. But it looks like fun in a geeky kind of way.

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posted by RobMiles with

Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind?
Thursday, October 27, 2005 9:58 AM

Take a look here for a very interesting article from a venerable source: http://charlespetzold.com/etc/DoesVisualStudioRotTheMind.html

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posted by RobMiles with

Corpse Bride From the Jaws of Death
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 10:55 PM

I'm writing this from a dying machine. It has just failed to boot from the system disk. Fortunately I'm made of sterner stuff, and so I have a spare bootable drive in the system (doesn't everyone?). Anyhoo, the data files look recoverable, and so I think

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posted by RobMiles with

Phoenix Rising
Sunday, October 23, 2005 8:20 PM

One of of the many nice things about being an MVP is that we can get MSDN magazine at a reduced rate. It is a very interesting magazine on a number of levels. It keeps you posted on what new Microsoft developments are coming down the tracks. It has

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posted by RobMiles with

Gizmondo is coming...
Friday, October 21, 2005 9:48 AM

I've just been to the Gizmondo site and discovered that it launches in the US in, er, one day. They have a very nice little video to announce the launch date. If you not heard of Gizmondo it is a british designed Windows CE based mobile games unit, media

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posted by RobMiles with

Wallace and Gromit Rocks!
Thursday, October 20, 2005 7:57 PM

Are you busy right now? Are you near a cinema? Have you seen the Wallace and Gromit movie "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" yet? Nope? Just go. You can thank me later. This is one wonderful film. I've enjoyed the work of Nick Park since forever, Chicken

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posted by RobMiles with

Failing in Slow Motion
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:28 PM

My home PC is getting worse. Now the fingerprint reader refuses to respond and I can only get Active Sync to connect every now and then. I'm getting worried that it might fail in mid

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posted by RobMiles with

Take a look at Square Space
Monday, October 17, 2005 8:07 PM

I've been playing wth a very good web hosting/content creation site. You can find it here. The clever thing about this is the very flexible way that you can create and manage the web content from any browser. The way that they've integrated all the various

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posted by RobMiles with

Device Not Recognised
Sunday, October 16, 2005 10:24 PM

Not a good day. Out of the blue all the devices on usb connections are suddenly not recognised. Except some. Very strange. And worrying. If I can'tconnect my Portable Media Centre every couple of weeks it will lock out all the protected content and none

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posted by RobMiles with

Gardening
Saturday, October 15, 2005 9:50 PM

Did some more gardening today. I'm not that keen on gardening, but I can see a need to do it at least once year. I'm very good on the "get rid of stuff" part, so today we took down something which I'm assured will grow back (but I forget the name).

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posted by RobMiles with

Simple is Best
Friday, October 14, 2005 9:37 PM

We are using Microsoft Class Server to help us manage the practical work which ours students do. This semester we are branching out and using it for assessed responses to tests that we have developed. This poses a problem, in that our students do their

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posted by RobMiles with

More Balancing..
Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:43 PM

If you get bored with balancing rocks, you can always do this.

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posted by RobMiles with

Serenity Rocks
Wednesday, October 12, 2005 11:18 PM

Just got back from Serenity the movie. Loved the TV series, the movie is even better. Good direction, good dialogue, genuinely scary bits and JossWhedon the director isn't afraid to ditch members of the crew. If you think "they're OK, they're

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posted by RobMiles with

Carefully now...
Tuesday, October 11, 2005 9:42 PM

So how many people think this is for real?

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posted by RobMiles with

The Ninety Percent Rule
Monday, October 10, 2005 10:54 PM

I'm tidying my office at the moment. Throwing away huge amounts of stuff. I've a theory that 90% of the stuff there is rubbish, 5% might be rubbish and 5% will be important. I'm wondering if it is cost effective to go through the lot and find the 5% or

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posted by RobMiles with

A Trip to York
Sunday, October 09, 2005 9:12 PM

Took number one daughter to York today. Looks like a very nice place. We left here there and went for lunch. On the way out I noticed that the leaves on the trees look nice: Then we went and bought a car. With four electric windows (I must be mad)

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posted by RobMiles with

Life Centre
Saturday, October 08, 2005 10:44 PM

Number one daughter is going away tomorrow to university. She wants to watch movies, send messages, listen to music, chat with friends and do her work. Her laptop is going to do all that for her. That machine is going to be the hub around which big chunks

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posted by RobMiles with

Good Questions and Software Development
Friday, October 07, 2005 8:20 PM

Had a student who stayed behind after the Software Engineering lecture today. We are looking at the design of a system to manage a library of sorts. He asked me "What happens if someone borrows something and doesn't bring it back?". "I dunno" I replied.

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posted by RobMiles with

Walking into windows with GPS
Thursday, October 06, 2005 10:47 PM

Don't get carried away with your gadgets people.I got the new SatNav program for my Gizmondo today and I was so keen to try it in the conservtaory (the only place in the house where I can get a GPS fix) that I tried to walk there through our patio doors

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posted by RobMiles with

Window Resolution
Wednesday, October 05, 2005 9:46 PM

It occurs to me that people out there might not be that interested in the broken electric window winder in my car. But anyway, I replaced it this afternoon with the one I got yesterday from Ebay. Delivered to my door, no going down to spares depots, for

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posted by RobMiles with

The Wonder of Ebay and Window Winders
Tuesday, October 04, 2005 8:51 PM

Yesterday, during a visit to Doncaster to attend an exam meeting the window winder on my car broke. It was kind of embarassing. Marilyn let me in the to the car park. The window purred down and I suavely thanked her. Then I pressed the up button and there

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posted by RobMiles with

Broken Again - but what to do?
Monday, October 03, 2005 8:56 PM

My carefully fettled repair of the electric window on my car has broken again. The cost of a replacement part, at 200 pounds, represents around a fifteenth of the value of the car. So, do I go for the repair, or a new car?

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posted by RobMiles with

Stars at Collectormania
Sunday, October 02, 2005 7:34 PM

Today it was time for one of our pilgrimages to Milton Keynes, to spend around 15 seconds with a star. It was an early start, hitting the road at 4:45 am and getting to MK at around 8:00. We took this picture whilst whizzing down the motorway. After

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posted by RobMiles with

Fragfest Fraternising
Saturday, October 01, 2005 11:03 PM

I made a brief guest appearance at the Comsoc Fragfest today. Thanks for the loan of the machine folks. I hung around just long enough to get shot quite a bit. But I did manage to shoot Andy, and I wasn't last this time. Good to see people having fun.

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posted by RobMiles with

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