Why get back to Windows Xp?
After more than one and a half year of using Windows Vista Business I have decided to get back to Windows Xp.
Even though Windows Vista has some extremely cool features like the search box in the start menu, more intuitive and easy to use interface, sidebar, better firewall, hardware accelerated GUI, etc. it is quite slow. My laptop is not the ultimate power station but is not bad: Intel Core 2 Duo at 2 GHz, 2 GB RAM 667, 160GB HDD 5400 RPM and the video card is a GeForce 8400G Mobile and the producer recommended Vista for it – had this OS preinstalled.
I’ve decided that I want performance instead of an eye-candy interface. One of the main reasons that made me want this was the startup/shutdown time. Why is taking more that one and a half minute to shutdown Windows and almost 3 minutes to start it? Even after startup the desktop was freezing for 10-15 seconds until the wireless network connection was established and the Sidebar was loaded.
The HDD was constantly reading/writing even though I’ve stopped the indexing service, defrag, search and any other application that could do this. Now, on Xp, this problem disappeared.
I am still thinking that the HDD must be the slow part of my system because I am having another desktop computer that is having almost the same configuration – the only difference is the CPU that is AMD and the HDD is running at 7200RPM – and is having no problems running Vista.
Sad to say but no Vista for my laptop even though is such a great operating system :(
Randy Pausch is gone
Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose “last lecture” about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.
Pausch died at his home in Chesapeake, Va., said Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal writer who co-wrote Pausch’s book. Pausch and his family had moved there last fall to be closer to his wife’s relatives.
Pausch was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 garnered international attention and was viewed by millions on the Internet.
In it, Pausch celebrated living the life he had always dreamed of instead of concentrating on impending death.
“The lecture was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful,” Pausch wrote on his Web site. “But rest assured; I’m hardly unique.”
In April, his book was published and leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists, where it remained this week. Zaslow said Friday that Pausch was “strong and funny” during their collaboration. He recalled that Pausch became emotional when they worked on the last chapter, though, because that to him was the “end of the lecture, the book, his life.”
At Carnegie Mellon, Pausch was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, and was recognized as a pioneer of virtual reality research. On campus, he became known for his flamboyance and showmanship as a teacher and mentor.
The speech last fall was part of a series Carnegie Mellon called “The Last Lecture,” where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk. The name of the lecture series was changed to “Journeys” before Pausch spoke, something he joked about in his lecture.
“I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it,” he said.
Born in 1960, Pausch received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Brown University and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon.
He co-founded Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, a master’s program for bringing artists and engineers together. The university named a footbridge in his honor. He also created an animation-based teaching program for high school and college students to have fun while learning computer programming.
In February, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in California announced the creation of the Dr. Randy Pausch Scholarship Fund for university students who pursue careers in game design, development and production.
He is survived by his wife, Jai, and their three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe; his mother, Virginia Pausch of Columbia, Md.; and a sister, Tamara Mason of Lynchburg, Va.
In a statement Friday, his wife thanked those who sent messages of support and said her husband was proud that his lecture and book “inspired parents to revisit their priorities, particularly their relationships with their children.”
Microsoft Surface… Sphere?!
If you don’t know what Microsoft Surface is you show visit this link before reading any further.
As a short resume Surface is a Multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects
Surface is a impressive product and almost everyone react with “wow”. Now read this: Microsoft announced that if going to debut its spherical multi-touch Surface – another “WOW”.
Remains to be seen how practical and how usefull will be this new form factor.
Wordpress 2.6
A few days ago a new version of Wordpress, the popular blog publishing system and the one that is behind this blog, was released.
The new 2.6 version brings some exciting new features:
- Word count
- Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
- Bulk management of plugins.
- A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
- Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
- Plugin update notification bubble.
- Customizable default avatars.
- You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
- Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
- Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
- You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
- Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
- Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
- You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
- A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
- Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
- Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.
Here is a video preview of the new features:
Also, the complete release article can be found here: http://wordpress.org/development/2008/07/wordpress-26-tyner/
Programming Puns
Writing code, comments, variable names, etc., in the manner that they create a pun:
byte me;
long john_silver;
char broiled;
string vest;
float valve;
double jeopardy;
struct by_lightning { … };
Object strongly;
class warfare { … };
String cheese;
Exception taken;
Graphics ex; // XXX
long walk(short pier) { } // from the MrBunny Java book
int elligence;
bool me_over;
short circus;
int eger; // …completing what the designers of the language left out
char acter;
bool ean;
void* bowels;
class Brick implements Throwable { }
class Marathon implements Runnable { }
class Novel implements Serializable { }
class Human implements Cloneable { }
Fun(key) %% funky!
G$
/* Following was seen in the required (at least until 3.8 or so) constructor for a JUnit TestCase.
* Many words or parts of words can be substituted for man as the variable name for hours of amusement.
* The shortest that makes sense is just “b”.
*/
public MyTestCase(String man) {
super(man);
}
throw (fit | up | something);
while (e_coyote) {
Avatar on comment
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Join the community by signing in with an email address on that site and whether you post a comment on this blog or other blog and provide that email your picture will be shown as avatar.
New theme
The blog changed its appearance.
Please provide some feedback about the new look!
Imagine Cup 2009
Now in its seventh year, the Imagine Cup is a global student technology competition focused on finding solutions to real-world issues. The competition encourages the world’s most talented software designers, programmers, game developers, photographers and filmmakers to tackle the toughest problems facing the world today.
Over 200,000 technology students around the world competed in the 2008 competition.
Do you want:
- To contribute your talents to tackling some of the toughest problems facing us today-and maybe even turn your ideas into a business one day?
- To learn new technology skills and test yourself against the brightest students on the planet?
- To make friends around the world?
- The chance to win important cash prizes, internships at Microsoft, and even a free trip to Cairo, Egypt next summer?
Since 2002, the Imagine Cup has been challenging the world’s brightest technology students to step up and make a difference.
The next year’s theme is “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today” and the World Finals will take place in Cairo, Egypt.
The competition that I’m interested in is Software Design so I will tell you a few things that changed since the last edition.
The last year you had 3 required elements and you should integrate two in your application. Now there are 4 required elements and you need to use all of them; they are:
- Use of a Mobile device;
- Implementation or consumption of a XML Web Service;
- .NET Framework 2.0 or later;
- Visual Studio family (Express, Standard, Professional, or Team System) for development
Also the number of optional elements was reduced to one (from two) and two interesting optional elements were introduced:
- Your entry must address a social cause connected to the Imagine Cup 2009 Theme: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today”
- Any presentations or documentation that is part of your entry must be in the English language. We will provide translators if needed for translation.
It’s funny because they give the theme but it is at your latitude to create a project related to it :) The possibility of being helped by a translator is a great thing because some teams were disadvantaged in the last year by their poor English knowledge.
The prize for the first place was doubled and now the winners will go home with $30,000 USD.
So, if you are interested in participating or you just want more info, visit the Official Website.
Binding in WinForms like in WPF Part 1
If you have ever used Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) then you might have been impressed by the binding features of it.
Part one of this tutorial will show how to bind properties of the same type while the second one will also anlyse type conversion.
Using data binding you can synchronize object properties. The source of the binding is the object or property that is changing the value and the destination is the one who receives it (the new value).
There are two types of binding:
- one way binding – there is only one source that updates the information and as many destinations who receive the update.
- two way binding – every binding element can update and can receive updates so there is no distinction between source and destination.
The Website Is Down
Today I’ve found something really funny on Youtube. See how is the life at tech support :)