Sunday, May 19, 2002

Star Wars 2: This is really bad 1 1/2 stars (of 5) We just back from seeing Star Wars 2 with Jonathan. In a sentence - This is really bad 1 and 1/2 stars out of 5). The dialogue is some of the worst I have ever heard in a movie - I actually groaned and cringed at many spots. Roger Ebert left a screening and said"I had not heard one line of quotable, memorable dialogue." Me neither. The acting is bad. I  felt like I was watching a bad Spy Kids or Power Rangers movie. I alternated between wishing I had a book to read (rather than listen), leaving the theatre (which I don't think I have ever done), or pining for Return of the Jedi (in the good old days). The movie didn't grab me at any time. I didn't feel like it was interesting or engaging. In all honesty. I got more excitement from the Minority Report trailer than virtually all of the movie combined. 6:07:42 PM

Here is an update reg. MONO : We are able to retrieve simple data from the database using our ADO.NET like functionality. Only string and integer data types are supported right now but more are in the works. You can find more information at The Mono ADO-NET Page I don't think that the Mono contributors will have the equivalent of DataSets in their libs but you know, what they do have goes an awful long way. [The Wagner Blog] Whoa! This is great. They were able to do some of ADO.NET. I didn't think they were going to achieve anything outside the CLI, FCL and CTS. If they get DataSets, this will be huge. Good job guys! 10:53:37 AM

Understanding .NET So, Microsoft, when are you going to start explaining what you're doing to help people like me do things better? You've done a dreadful job of: 1) Coming out with new technologies that improve my life (at least in the past six months). 2) Explaining what you did come out with (does anyone really understand .NET?) [Scobleizer Radio Weblog] Believe it or not, .NET is not directly for you. You don't write software. However, as is all too common in tech companies, the marketing people -- who are extremely smart at marketing, but generally technologically inept -- have attempted to spin the term ".NET" into anything and everything. I fully place the blame onto the marketing people, desperate for some way to justify their existence. We never saw this kind of stupidity with the Win32 API. The bulk of what we call .NET -- that is, the .NET Platform -- is for developers only. It Anything else you may have heard is a rumor. Disregard it. :) [The .NET Guy] Yes, I agree with Brad. Very much like the COM and ActiveX days, the Microsoft Marketing folks have applied the .NET term to everything including all the BackOffice Servers and everything else. Never mind that none of these have any .NET "bits" in it. I just did a presentation on this for 50 people at my client. .NET breaks down into 4 pieces: The .NET Framework .NET Enterprise Servers HailStorm, .NET My Services -> morphing into something can't say yet Visual Studio.NET and Dev Tools When we talk about .NET and what Brad and I all mean by .NET is number 1. The .NET Frameworks consists of the CLR and the BCL (Base Class Library). The runtime plus the incredibly rich OO class library are what we believe to enable quick construction and deployment of Web Services, rich Web apps (through ASP.NET + WebForms) and incredibly rich clients (via WinForms). This is all for programmers (and VS.NET). 2 is a bundled marketing term. I highly recomend David Chappell's most excellent 20,000 foot view on .NET for those wanting a non-technical view. 10:50:02 AM

© Copyright 2002 Sam Gentile.