August 2006 - Posts

Convert files to XAML, win a Dell XPS laptop
29 August 06 05:54 PM | alexholy | 0 Comments   

Michael Swanson posted the contest today: If you create and submit a file converter to XAML, you can win one of three Dell XPS M1710 laptops. Here's the catch: It must be one of the following file formats, and you must submit your entry by October 29th. Read More...

Filed under: NetFx3

Ways to speed up Vista
25 August 06 05:19 PM | alexholy | 0 Comments   

Depending on who talk to, people will tell you how happy/unhappy they are with current Windows Vista performance. Like most of my colleagues, I have installed the July 2006 CTP (Build 5472, available from the MSDN subscriber download). On the machines Read More...

Filed under: Windows Vista

XL[S|T|A][X|M] or XLSB?
23 August 06 12:21 PM | alexholy | 1 Comments   

The new Excel File Formats. Like all "new" file formats coming along with Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007, these file formats are really ZIP containers. Excel however, offers a choice of XML-based or binary files inside such a container. The XML Read More...

Filed under: XML

.NET Rocks all over TechEd: Developers/Barcelona (and how to win a ticket)
22 August 06 03:02 PM | alexholy | 0 Comments   

I hope to see many of you at Tech·Ed: Developers Europe Nov 7-10 in Barcelona, Spain. I am one of the people responsible for the content there, taking care of "Windows Desktop and Mobile Development" sessions to be more exact. We'll cover an exciting Read More...

Filed under: TechEd Europe 2006

On the Internet, everyone knows you're a dog
22 August 06 12:26 PM | alexholy | 3 Comments   

According to a famous "New Yorker" cartoon by Peter Steiner, " On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog ". That's no longer true. In fact, today we can tell you're a scotch terrier, live north of London, enjoy chewing up your owner's shoes (including Read More...

Filed under: Security

Augmented reality marching forward
21 August 06 04:51 PM | alexholy | 0 Comments   

Occasionally people are questioning those fancy 3D Vista examples , or anything beyond today's 2D graphical interfaces will easy man-machine interaction. And, to be honest, it is not always - or even close to impossible - to predict how most people Read More...

Filed under: Research

Script# to tame the JavaScript beast?
18 August 06 11:19 AM | alexholy | 0 Comments   

10 years ago, JavaWorld was wondering if JavaScript has a future . Today, JavaScript has emerged as the most widely deployed form of a "runtime" available. Nevertheless, most of the of the criticism raised a decade ago still applies. Despite the ECMAScript Read More...

Filed under: Web 2.0

The computer book market as a tech trend indicator
09 August 06 03:24 PM | alexholy | 1 Comments   

Tim O’Reilly recently published a truly insightful analysis of the computer book market . Looking at the second quarter 06 computer books market provides clues what is hot. Obviously the real-world distribution of computer languages cannot be determined Read More...

Rest in pieces, WEP: Retire your WEP based WLAN equipment today
07 August 06 01:58 PM | alexholy | 11 Comments   

I've always had this uneasy feeling about WEP secured wireless networks, so when I moved to my current apartment a year ago I purchased WPA enabled devices. Unfortunately this means I cannot use and will not buy a number of nice devices (such as digital Read More...

Filed under: Security