Thursday, June 27, 2002

Welcome to the Neighborhood!. I noticed you in my Referal logs today. Thanks and welcome! RSS-subscribed. [Sam Gentile's Radio Weblog] Thank you Sam! And the new website looks great. Isn't ASP.NET fun?! 10:59:57 PM

Welcome! Subscribed. :) What's the story behind the name? [The .NET Guy] A nod from Brad Wilson too? Very cool -- thanks Brad! Ah -- the name. Unfortunately, nothing interesting behind it. I started this as "Patrick Steele's Blog", but wanted something a little different. Not just another "[firstname] [lastname] blog" (no offense Drew, Greg, Justin, Peter, etc!) :) Just sat around thinking of something that had a "catch" to it. I really have no idea where it came from. One of those things that just happened. A few other candidates that flashed through my mind: Left Turn Lane Random Thoughts YAWB (Yet Another Web Blog) It will probably change again. I'm thinking of incorporating my passion for .NET into the name with something like ".method Blog" or maybe ".class Blog". We'll see... 10:22:27 PM

Agency: Orbitz could harm competition. Short of being a formal recommendation, the review of the company by the Department of Transportation now goes to its inspector general. [CNET News.com] Get them to stop those annoying pop-up ads everywhere and I'd be happy! 8:59:54 PM

Cool!  Patrick Steele started a blog and was kind enough to include me in his blogroll!  Although, I am a little worried about ending up between Chris and Brad.  I'm not worthy :) Welcome Patrick.  RSS Subscribed. [System.Error.Emit] Thanks for the nod Brian! As for placement -- it's alphabetical dude. You could rename your site to something like ".ctor" and you'd be at the top! <grin!> 8:54:53 PM

CoolBars.NET v. 1.1 released. "The suite is complete solution for toolbars and menus creation. Some features of the product: -Menus and toolbars. -Docking and floating. -Run-time customization. -Skins engine. -SDI and MDI support." [sellsbrothers.com: Windows Developer News] 6:12:00 PM

Cure For Cancer? ...Doctors give patients injections of folate and fluorescein, a harmless yellow dye that the body recognizes as a foreign invader. The folate-fluorescein combination binds to the surface of the tumor cell. Then the immune system recognizes fluorescein as a foreign invader and sends antibodies to attack it. [nbc5i.com] Talk about "painting" your targets! 4:39:47 PM

Tool eases link from .Net to databases Data connectivity company DataDirect has launched components that link .Net applications to databases from Oracle and Sybase. Although these databases can already talk to .Net applications through standard XML interfaces, these components use 100 percent managed code and will let developers use higher-level .Net functionality... [Technology - ZDNet] 3:13:34 PM

Critical hole found in encryption program. An open-source program for encrypted communications has a serious flaw that could let Internet attackers slip into servers running the software, its creators and a security firm say. [CNET News.com] Perhaps open-source applications aren't as secure as some of its pundits have claimed? 2:00:01 PM

Microsoft plays nice in the IM wars Microsoft was kind enough to alert us to a change in the MSN servers that would have negatively affected Trillian. Thanks, Microsoft! [Trillian Web site] (Thanks to Robert Dunlop for the information) 11:43:26 AM

A New Twist on Light Speed If light is the standard messenger in communications technology, the messenger just got a bigger saddlebag. A recent discovery by five physicists from Scotland has opened the door to packing more information into a beam of light. [Wired News] 11:31:08 AM

Goodbye Windows 98 and Windows 2000 professional. If you want to buy a new computer with anything but Windows XP on it, you better do it by June 30. After July 1 Microsoft is forcing all of its OEMs to stop selling computers loaded with Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 98. I'm very suprised that I haven't seen more news about this. I work for NEC and after June 30 we will not be selling any computers that don't have Windows XP loaded on them. Microsoft weilds a lot of power over the OEMs by offering discounts that if taken away would destroy even a pretty large business like NEC. Please note: I haven't seen the contract. I don't know what it says. All I'm reporting on is the effect. No more "non-Windows XP sales" after July 1. Some retailers will sell their stocks after July 1, but they won't be able to buy new machines after that date. This is particularly dire for large corporations that haven't yet started to get into Windows XP. This will force them to adopt XP. [Scobleizer Radio Weblog] 6:40:10 AM

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