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.

 

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...

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...