Geeky News

Free .NET 3.0 training videos!

LouVega — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:14:13 GMT

Doug Turnure, Todd Fine, Mark Dunn and Brian Hitney have produced a series of training videos covering the 4 core parts of .NET 3.0 and released them to the world on the .NET University web site.

If you haven't previously checked out .NET University you really should. We hosted one in Charleston last year around this time and it proved quite popular.

Get the video's free by visiting their course content area here: http://www.dotnet-u.com/coursematerials.aspx - and while you are there pick up some slide decks and hands on labs covering the material too!

Future Drool-ware

LouVega — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:55:00 GMT

Cray and Intel have agreed to work together to design technologies that aims to build Petascale computers....for those who maybe aren't keeping track, a Petaflop is 1000 Teraflops or 1000 trillion floating point calculations per second...pretty sweet!

We were so close and then....aaahhhh!

LouVega — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:48:36 GMT

So originally it seemed as if XP SP3 was going to be released yesterday but then Microsoft pulled the plug on the release at the last minute....now there appears to be no defined release date.

See an article here for more details: http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3743696/No+XP+Service+Pack+3+for+You+Today.htm

Is Windows in danger of collapse?

LouVega — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:03:05 GMT

Some analysts say so - read the full details here: http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9916717-56.html?tag=nefd.pop

Space out tonight!

LouVega — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:54:20 GMT

Hurray for space travel! It was on this day (April 12) back in 1961 that Yuri Gagarin first blasted off into space! What else space-worthy happened on this day? Well in 1981 the first space shuttle flight took off!

Read all about it and make your space-out party plans here:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/11/879319.aspx

Gee, and I've always liked AMD

LouVega — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:44:29 GMT

It seems AMD's Technology Chief is calling it quits....this can't be a good thing for AMD but I'm sure it's pretty good for him...has to be pretty good for him to walk away from a gig like that.

Read all about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/technology/12chip.html?ref=business

Be one of the first 10,000 developers to sign up for Google App Engine

LouVega — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:19:17 GMT

I already signed up - what are you waiting for? There's a little over 8,000 Community Credit subscribers we could almost take it over completely! :)

All kidding aside, check out Google's App Engine - the place where you host your web applications on Google's network infrastructure (how much more robust can you get?)

Also check out the current gallery to see what others are doing with this framework.

Windows 7

LouVega — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:58:42 GMT

As seen on Slashdot - Windows 7 may be coming next year so what does this mean for Vista (or even XP)?

I still haven't made the full switch to Vista preferring instead to do development on either Windows 2003 Server or Windows XP.

Check out the article here on Slashdot: http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=08/04/05/044213

Couple sues Google amid privacy concerns over "Street View"

LouVega — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:10:00 GMT

There's a couple in PA who contend that some of the images posted on Google's "Street View" were clearly taken from their private property and due to the violation of their privacy, the lowered value of their home and other factors they are now suing Google.

While I haven't see those images myself, I'm wondering perhaps how much of this is a real sense of lost privacy versus a chance to try and ruffle the Google money tree until something sweet falls your way.

Don't get me wrong if Google was indeed on their private property to take those photos that's something that should be corrected and perhaps compensated for, but if this is from a public area I'm not so sure.

Here's the full article so you can read it yourself.

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Couple_Sues_Google_Street_View_For_Privacy_Violation_15988.html

R.I.P. XP Pro, XP Home you're free to go home for now...

LouVega — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:04:52 GMT

So it looks like we're going to lose XP Pro as scheduled but XP Home will stick around a little while longer.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9075062

Additional info on Windows 7

LouVega — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:02:27 GMT

http://www.news.com/Next-version-of-Windows-Call-it-7/2100-1016_3-6197943.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

There's two more links with info on the next release of a Windows client OS. One feature that looks cool on the surface but then had me scratching my head was the MinWin - kinda like the Server Core of 2008, but on a client machine....not sure what to make of that yet. For a server that's great, but still wondering what I'd use it for in a client.

Just because it can be done...doesn't make it a good idea.

LouVega — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:04:01 GMT

Maybe I'm off base here but reading this reminds me of the whole "you can rename your Active Directory domain" in Windows 2003....just because it's possible, doesn't make it a good idea.

Seems Sony is going to offer movies on AT&T Cellular networks....excuse me? You're going to have a full movie play on a cell phone? Why? Don't get me wrong....I love mobility and all that it offers and promises but this just seems silly.

See the full story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_hi_te/sony_at_t

Where do you want to be buried?

PeteO'Hanlon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:58:11 GMT

For the serious geek in you - take the final step in true geek fashion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7310000/newsid_7313900/7313906.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&ms3=22&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2

Guitar Hero World Record

DavidSilverlight — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:21:33 GMT

Chris Chike, recently entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the best Guitar Hero player in the world.

Google works to eliminate "domain name tasting"

LouVega — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:37:52 GMT

Google joins efforts already underway by Yahoo! to counter the folks who try to exploit domain name tasting for profit.

Read the full article here for more details: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/web_address_sampling;_ylt=Aki1KOLGxDBT8PEYNdRZnXADW7oF

Submit a Story on your Developement work and win prizes!!![Only India]

SatheeshBabu — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:17:30 GMT

Show the world your achievements.

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At least the robots are safe...

LouVega — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:14:23 GMT

Astronomers who have been watching an asteroid cruising toward Mars have indicated an increased chance for it to hit Mars....but current calculations indicate it shouldn't hit where the Mars Rovers are...whew!

IE8 News

LouVega — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:41:08 GMT

I was reading an interesting blog by the Microsoft IE team on IE8. IE8 is now Acid2 compliant according to this blog though we won't likely see a beta until a little later.

This should be welcome news to web developers in the future but I suppose for the immediate future we'll still have the problem that although browsers will be available that are compliant, still not everyone is going to be using them and I'm sure it will be some time before enough people are using them to make a real difference.

Read the IE Team Blog entry here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/12/19/internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx

Windows Home Server woes...

LouVega — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:21:27 GMT

I had heard good things about Windows Home Server and I remember watching a demo of it when I was out in Redmond at the end of November...but apparently this product has a pretty serious bug that can corrupt your files if you back them up to it and then later edit those files while on that server.

See the full Microsoft KB article here for more info: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/946676/en-us?spid=12624

Is iPod really a threat to Brick and Motar Video outlets?

LouVega — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:53:24 GMT

I saw an interesting article on Forbe's that positions iPod's as a potential threat to the likes of Blockbuster and Netflix, etc.

While I don't discount the fact that Apple has a large user base with the iPod, listening to music on one of those tiny things is a whole lot different than trying to watch (and enjoy) a movie on a tiny screen (no disrespect to this month's Grand Prize - the video player watch...that's just plain cool!).

What do you think?

Here's the article link:

http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/12/28/apple-movie-rental-tech-media-cx_bc_1228apple.html

What's your pick for the best video game system of 2007?

LouVega — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:48:16 GMT

According to this article it was the Wii - I remember reading somewhere else that at one point Amazon registered like 17 sales of a Wii per second...pretty darn impressive.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/ny-2007videogames,0,7110218.story

What's your pick for the best video game system of 2007?

R.I.P. Netscape Navigator

LouVega — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:00:23 GMT

Though I haven't even used (or really thought about) Netscape Navigator since like version 6.x, it's been alive all these years until now.

Read the full entry here: http://blog.netscape.com/

When politicians don't understand IT, it can really cost money...

LouVega — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:26:52 GMT

So another politician is trying to position himself as "IT Savy" and protecting us against data breaches. While he may have great intentions, it seems this particular effort isn't going to really buy us anything other than a bunch of reports...see the full article for more details.

http://www.fcw.com/online/news/151149-1.html

1 Million Euros - the cost of spyware for 3 Dutch companies

LouVega — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:29:46 GMT

It looks as if at least one country in Europe is taking Spyware seriously. The Dutch have handed down a 1 million Euro fine to 3 companies for illegal distribution of spyware....ouch!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/18/duch/print.html

This just proves my theory...

LouVega — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 02:32:56 GMT

I grew tired of hearing so many people beat up on Microsoft because of the perception that they had so many security holes. My position has always been that most any software has security holes, but the only reason you hear about Microsoft's woes are because they are the 800lb gorilla on the block and everyone wants to find a bug with Microsoft so they can gain fame and glory.

Well now that Google is rightfully an 800lb gorilla too, take a peek at who else is getting poked now...a worm found its way through Googles Orkut application.

Full story here: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2237733,00.asp