Kudzu's Tech Blog

Welcome to my tech blog! Here you will find my thoughts and findings regarding .NET, programming, design, and other computer related topics.

 

7/4/2008 - Keeping clean and small Virtual Machines

I have about a dozen virtual machines that I use for development and other purposes. I normally have 4-5 running at anyone given time on my development machine, and I also do development on the host as well. More...

7/1/2008 - Delphi finally separated from Borland

It took nearly 2.5 years to happen, but Delphi is finally separated from Borland. This is another case where I am sorry to have been correct about such a prediction that it would be longer and messier than stated, but finally it is done. Delphi is now part of Embarcadero Technologies. Despite the trend for Delphi to stick to hard to spell and hard to pronounce companies (er, Inprise) continues, I first became acquainted with Embarcadero over 10 years ago and it seems like a good fit. More...

7/1/2008 - Full download of VS 2008 SP1 Beta

It is not readily apparent, but there is a way to get a full version download of the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta rather than the bootstrap install. More...

7/1/2008 - Newer isn't always better

Have you ever upgraded a piece of software to find a new crippling bug or a feature removed but the vendor has removed the older version? I came across a website which archives older versions of popular software programs. More...

6/30/2008 - Microsoft to publish formats of .doc, .xls, etc

From a mention in a press release called "Microsoft Takes Additional Steps in Implementing Interoperability Principles" there are a few gems. More...

6/29/2008 - LINQ to SQL vs. Entity Framework

There is a battle brewing between LINQ to SQL and the upcoming Entity Framework. Some say that it is already settled and that LINQ to SQL is DOA, destined to be replaced by Entity Framework. I do not think it is quite that simple though and both have a role in the mid term, and quite possibly in the long term. More...

6/29/2008 - Annoying IE and SOCKS proxy bug

IE has settings for a SOCKS proxy, and it uses it for retrieving web pages. However other applications that normally pay attention to IE's settings and use IE's HTTP engine ignore it. If you set the HTTP proxy they will use it, but they completely ignore the SOCKS setting. More...

6/26/2008 - Is Delphi Back?

The last few years for Delphi have not been good to say it nicely. Lately I have been looking at the latest plans for Delphi and finally they are moving in the right direction. Is it too little too late, or is there a chance for Delphi to recover as some say? More...

6/26/2008 - It just doesn't get geekier than this

I have long since realized I am now part of the "older" computer generation. In the mid 80's there was a movie called "The Last Starfighter" and was one of the first movies to use large amounts of computer graphics for the movie. By today's standards they may not seem impressive, but for 1984 they were quite mind blowing. More...

6/18/2008 - The PC in 10 years

In 1998 most of us were running Windows 95 or Windows 98. Ten years forward we have USB, faster processors, better graphics, but the general paradigm has remained the same. Windows, mouse, and keyboard are our primary inputs. Ten years prior to 1998 it was quite a different story, and I believe 10 years from now we will go through another change, hopefully even bigger than the one from 1988 to 1998. More...

6/3/2008 - What tablet to buy?

I'm looking for another tablet to buy later this year. Unfortunately, there is a very limited variety in tablets, especially with the criteria I am looking for. Can you make a suggestion? More...

5/6/2008 - Today's Tablets

Let's say you want to buy a tablet today. How can you find a list of what is even currently available? There are reviews galore, but many are dated and no longer available. Here I will start a list and keep it up to date as a reference of what is available "today". More...

5/6/2008 - Thinking outside the box

Too often we think only of making incremental steps based on existing precepts. But we constantly need to be aware of new ways to do things. This is true in other disciplines as well, and here is an amazing video of a Russian jet which does just that. More...

4/28/2008 - X# - Using C# to create an inline X86 assembler

This is from the Cosmos project but could easily be used to generate any X86 code. It's really neat, write C# like code that has 1:1 mapping to X86, and to generate the X86, just run the C# code. More...

3/28/2008 - The Problem with PayPal

Over the years I've used PayPal to pay for things occasionally. Each and every time I've encountered small problems and generally came away with a bad feeling about PayPal which generally caused me to avoid them whenever possible. But a recent encounter is utterly disturbing. More...

3/21/2008 - New Cosmos User Kit released

Cosmos (C# Open Source Managed Operating System) has just released the Milestone 2 release with an all new user kit. More...

3/20/2008 - Reduction in my speaking schedule

Over the previous half year I have posted various news items regarding the future of Woo Hoo. The demand for Woo Hoo speaking has become overwhelming. As much as I love to speak, I cannot be everywhere and I need to deal with some family issues as well. I considered expanding the team, but maintaining the "Woo Hoo" proved difficult. More...

3/16/2008 - Extending the Tablet

I've been using a tablet for almost a year now. There is a lot to like, and a lot to hate. One thing that I've been thinking of is that using just one hand is inefficient. No I don't think tablets should have 2 pens. More...

3/16/2008 - A tale of two keyboards

I have both of the Apple aluminum keyboards. They are nearly perfect. But the few areas they fall short make them also amazingly annoying. More...

3/4/2008 - Open Source - Opening Divide

I won't claim to have been one of the open source pioneers, but I definitely was into open source before "it was cool". Indy was my debut into open source. Delphi 1 arrived in 1995 and I open sourced Indy shortly there after. In fact the exact date escapes me, but 1996 seems to ring a bell. This I think gives me a sound grounding in the open source community as well as an ability to see its evolution. In recent years I have noticed some disturbing trends. More...