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.

 

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...

3/2/2008 - Dude Where's my Business Logic

One of my presentations from TechEd: Developers is now online on the MSDN Showcase. More...

2/29/2008 - Social Network Hell

A few years ago my sister asked me to see why her computer was running so slowly. I looked and found she had installed Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger, AOL AIM, ICQ, and several others I did not know existed. I promptly introduced her to Miranda which does all of them. I asked her why she had all of these, and she said "So I can talk to everyone". Most of these programs (especially ICQ) are notable memory pigs. Her IM programs used more memory than Outlook and Windows combined. This is where I think we are headed with all the new "social networks" I'm being asked to join. More...

1/29/2008 - Programming for Kids

What to use to start kids in programing? Visual Studio is great for professionals, but not really kid friendly. Here are two environments specifically for kids. More...

1/26/2008 - C# Open Source Managed Operating System

a.k.a Cosmos. A complete User Kit has been released enabling you to build your own OS in just a few minutes. File, New, Project. Enter a few lines of code, and press F5 to debug in QEMU, VMWare, PXE boot, or even make an ISO! More...

1/9/2008 - If we only had more magenta

Is there some kind of stupid virus going around among hardware companies? My printer thinks I have no magenta, therefore I cannot print in black. But read on... More...

1/9/2008 - WPF and the Keyboard

I love WPF. Sometimes I get frustrated because something I am looking for and that should be simple has moved, or there is a different way to do it. Other times, it seems that the WPF team either purposefully made it so obscure, or simply overlooked certain needs. Maybe I am totally missing the point, but if so then so are thousands of others (per Google). More...

1/8/2008 - Huge tablet, or surface clone?

Ive seen demos of the Wiimote in action with tin foil on fingers, and even projectors before. But look what this guy did with the wiimote and a projector. He really takes it to the next level. More...

1/5/2008 - More D-Link Duds

Traditionally I bought a lot of D-Link hardware. However, I think it is time I reexamine my faith in D-Link. More...

1/4/2008 - Open Source - Before it was cool

I have been heavily involved in open source since at least 1995. Long before it was cool. One of the problems I see now in the open source community is the hijacking of it by radicals. Very much like what many say is happening (or has happened other say) to the environmental movement. For a long time I've planned an extensive blog post about this. More...

1/4/2008 - DRM and Unconventional Wisdom

"The trouble all started when Freeberg bought a new monitor for his Vista computer........Netflix documentation warned him that the recommended means of fixing a problem with DRM-restricted Netflix programming "may remove licenses to other content using Microsoft DRM" -- including, in particular, restricted programming he had already purchased through Amazon Unbox...........In fact, one commenter points out that the easiest "fix" for Freeberg's trouble appears to be downloading the movie from an unauthorized torrent tracker............Unfortunately, these kinds of (mis)features generally (1) don't stop pirates and (2) result in compatibility headaches for paying customers. More...

1/3/2008 - Peer Forums

Companies seem to be setting up peer forums at a ferocious rate. Peer forums are a great way to enable customers to find each other and perform "self help". However too many companies put them up and forget about them. More...