Brian Johnson works with BizSpark Startups on the East Coast of the United States. For more information about the BizSpark program you can go to http://bizspark.com.
.NET Passport 2.5 Software Development Kit: Software and DocumentationMicrosoft .NET Passport is a suite of Web-based services that help make using the Internet and purchasing online easier and faster. .NET Passport provides users with single sign-in (SSI) capability at a growing number of participating sites, reducing the amount of information users must remember or retype. In addition, Microsoft Kids Passport can help your Web site comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) passed by Congress in November 1998. (COPPA requires that operators of online services or Web sites obtain parental consent prior to the collection, use, disclosure, or display of the personal information of children.)
The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software Your free lunch will soon be over. What can you do about it? What are you doing about it? The major processor manufacturers and architectures, from Intel and AMD to Sparc and PowerPC, have run out of room with most of their traditional approaches to boosting CPU performance. Instead of driving clock speeds and straight-line instruction throughput ever higher, they are instead turning en masse to hyperthreading and multicore architectures. Both of these features are already available on chips today; in particular, multicore is available on current PowerPC and Sparc IV processors, and is coming in 2005 from Intel and AMD. Indeed, the big theme of the 2004 In-Stat/MDR Fall Processor Forum was multicore devices, as many companies showed new or updated multicore processors. Looking back, it’s not much of a stretch to call 2004 the year of multicore. And that puts us at a fundamental turning point in software development, at least for the next few years and for applications targeting general-purpose desktop computers and low-end servers (which happens to account for the vast bulk of the dollar value of software sold today). In this article, I’ll describe the changing face of hardware, why it suddenly does matter to software, and how specifically it matters to you and is going to change the way you will likely be writing software in the future.
Windows XP Service Pack 2: The Inside Story SuperSite readers will remember Todd Wanke as the guy who ran Microsoft's War Room for Windows Server 2003 (chronicled in Windows Server 2003: The Road To Gold Part Two: Developing Windows). Todd, you may recall, had pledged to never again run a War Room after the grueling Windows Server 2003 development process. "No way," he said, laughing, when I had asked him then if he would do it again. "No way."... ...In early December, I sat down with Todd, Ryan Burkhardt, and Jon Murchinson to discuss XP SP2 and the virtual team that made it happen. Here is their story.
The best gadget present this year, didn't even go to me. It went to my two kids. One of my good Microsoft friends, Robert, gave each of the boys one of those headstrap miner lamps from REI. The model is the Petzl Tikka Plus. I rebuilt some computers this weekend and I wore one of these the whole time. I can't imagine working on a computer under a desk without one now. :)
Petzl Tikka Plus LED Headlamp
I was looking something up with regards to security around mobile cameras, and I found this site (must be from 2000) that details the history of the Brownie Camera. Mobile photography isn't quite as new as many of us might like to think. It was very new in 1900 though.
The Brownie Camera @ 100: A Celebration
What I mentioned in the comments here, was that when the Brownie was introduced, it was banned from some public beaches. Sound familier? :)
I found the coolest little Pocket PC calculator today. It's called SpaceTime. I can't believe that I hadn't found this earlier, but it's a very advanced graphing calculator for the Pocket PC. They have a special running right now, so I picked it up today for 40% off. Check it out here:
SpaceTime MobileSpaceTime 1.6, a revolutionary graphing calculator for the Pocket PC empowers your mobile device with 2D, 3D, and 4D graphing and nearly all the mathematical capabilities of a TI-83 Calculator.
New article on the Security at Home site about spyware:
Microsoft's strategy for addressing spyware and other potentially unwanted software Microsoft's vision for anti-spyware is that customers should be empowered to make informed decisions about the software that installs and runs on their computers. Microsoft will take steps toward this vision by making it easier for customers to gain insight into what's running on the system, to better discern good software from bad software, and to block and remove spyware from a PC.
Microsoft's strategy for addressing spyware and other potentially unwanted software
Microsoft's vision for anti-spyware is that customers should be empowered to make informed decisions about the software that installs and runs on their computers. Microsoft will take steps toward this vision by making it easier for customers to gain insight into what's running on the system, to better discern good software from bad software, and to block and remove spyware from a PC.
Camera Phone Criminals Targeting Holiday Shoppers ORLANDO, Fla. -- Thieves armed with camera cell phones are using the devices to steal credit card numbers, bank account numbers and even ATM numbers from holiday shoppers, according to a Local 6 News report.
It's official...I am no longer doing podcasts As I mentioned previously, I don't like the name podcast. So from now on, I won't be doing podcasts...I'll be doing blogcasts. Same thing, just a different name. Blogcast sounds better...and does not sound exclusionary.