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March 2004 - Posts

Where's the Beef?

I was dreaming about computer games again. I was not asleep at the time, but that’s no matter because my thoughts were about as far from reality that computer game makers will ever dare to tread. I’ve asked around to some of my mmorpg playing Read More...
Posted Wednesday, March 31, 2004 12:49 AM by mattwar | 7 Comments
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SQL: Mutually Assured Destruction

I have been playing around with SQL lately, trying to get it to sit and roll over. Sure, I’m familiar with all the normal paradigms; all the usual crud. I can select with the best of them, slicing and dicing data with the efficiency of a ginsu knife. Read More...
Posted Tuesday, March 30, 2004 5:56 PM by mattwar | 15 Comments
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Lost in Translation

A lot of the work that goes on inside a compiler is a bunch of translations that take the high-level conceptual idioms and turn them into stepwise instructions that are executed by the machine. Of course, this is often theoretical as many of these high-level Read More...
Posted Sunday, March 28, 2004 8:46 PM by mattwar | 1 Comments
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I blog therefore I am

Sometimes when I’m not deep in contemplation over the functioning of my brain, my addiction to coding and the contents of the soda coolers here at work, I actually get real work done. I know it is hard to believe, given all these posts. You’d Read More...
Posted Sunday, March 28, 2004 5:32 PM by mattwar | 2 Comments
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X#: There and back again

It looks like X# might just see the light of day afterall, as the foundation of a even more ambitious research language from Microsoft. This article actually gets most of all the facts right. Except it doesn't mention my brilliance anywhere. X# == Xen Read More...
Posted Friday, March 26, 2004 12:43 PM by mattwar | 3 Comments
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XML: Schema Breeds Intolerance

I was at an offsite a while ago where a bunch of us got together to talk about some technology thing, some potential product or what not, that may not see the light of day for a while. I had a chance to give a presentation on some of my forays into data Read More...
Posted Wednesday, March 24, 2004 11:31 PM by mattwar | 2 Comments
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Running on Auto Pilot

I had something special to do this morning. It was a vital mission. I had memorized the instructions, our watches were synchronized. I was geared up and ready to go. Mentally, I was on target. I was well rested, well fed and well into the start of a glorious Read More...
Posted Monday, March 22, 2004 10:18 PM by mattwar | 5 Comments
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ObjectSpaces: The Matrix is not Enough

In response to my earlier post, “ Spanning the Matrix “, Ralfs Sudelbücher has something to say about building O-R mapping engines in “ Spans in ObjectSpaces are not Enough .“ He is making the point that it is not enough just Read More...
Posted Monday, March 22, 2004 8:49 PM by mattwar | 5 Comments
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Humbled like a Noob

How is it that one can bond so well with a machine? It’s not as if it is a person with likes and dislikes, habits and vices. It does not comfort you when you’re down, laugh at your jokes or feel pride in your accomplishments. It’s just Read More...
Posted Sunday, March 21, 2004 11:55 PM by mattwar | 3 Comments
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Thought Co-Processors

“What are you thinking?” The words are pitched into the air, like a balloon from a comic strip that lingers as I stand frozen. Betsy is speaking. She has been telling me something and I have been listening, but I must seem distant, distraught, Read More...
Posted Saturday, March 20, 2004 12:26 AM by mattwar | 11 Comments
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Asteroid on collision course

Anyone can see it now with a pair of good binoculars. The asteroid known as 2004 FH has passed within the orbit of the moon. Scientists are skeptical that it will actually impact either the earth or the moon, but after considerable observation they know Read More...
Posted Thursday, March 18, 2004 11:21 AM by mattwar | 9 Comments
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Real coders, real code.

It's late, do you know where your coder is? Really, it's a very good question. You think your spouse is sleeping next to you at night. They are not. They are awake, bleary, weary and barely lucid, secretly feeding their addiction. Yes, it is sad and depraved, Read More...
Posted Thursday, March 18, 2004 12:03 AM by mattwar | 41 Comments
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Navigating the XPath of Life

Brian Noyles blogs about the XPathNavigator , and how it has improved his life. I spoke last night at the Central Pennsylvania Users Group in Harrisburg, PA. They have a great group and about 35 folks turned out despite snow and nasty weather. Judy Calla Read More...
Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2004 11:14 PM by mattwar | 4 Comments
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Data as a Service

Why is working with a database always an awkward proposition? It’s like this monolithic bank that houses all your valuables. Except it can’t be just any bank. It has to be this specific bank, on this corner with this address. Your data is Read More...
Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2004 12:37 AM by mattwar | 3 Comments
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ObjectSpaces: Spanning the Matrix

I guess this is turning out as a series of ObjectSpaces posts. I did the first one a few weeks back covering the origin of OPath in “ The Power of the Dot ,” and followed that with “ What’s the Big Idea .” Now I have a few Read More...
Posted Monday, March 15, 2004 11:21 PM by mattwar | 14 Comments
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Silencing the Audio Angst

After all my whining about my audio problem and how all new technology solutions are still wrong , I went ahead and made the decision to just put together the best thing I could with what was available. After all, it will be Betsy’s birthday soon Read More...
Posted Sunday, March 14, 2004 10:36 PM by mattwar | 4 Comments
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Getting in the Game

What is it with games? I think there are only maybe five actual games on the market, every other one is just basically the same one redone with new graphics, a slight variation of data. I’ve been a game consumer for a long time, and have at times Read More...
Posted Saturday, March 13, 2004 12:37 PM by mattwar | 2 Comments
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XML: Getting dirty with BMX

Years ago there was a time when I thought XML was evil. That was back when the whole idea was pretty new to my ears. The only introduction I’d had to it was a few examples being shown around by Adam Bosworth when he’d come to our group and Read More...
Posted Wednesday, March 10, 2004 11:48 AM by mattwar | 8 Comments
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Programming in the Blue

It amazes me how difficult it is to design new features to a programming language. Once a language is baked in its original form it’s almost impossible to add new semantics let alone syntax rules. Operators are hellish. You want to invent new ones, Read More...
Posted Monday, March 08, 2004 10:09 PM by mattwar | 17 Comments
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Fried Out

There I was yesterday, at the Mecca of all things tech. How I got there is a long story. It was partially due to my own drive to solve a variety of gadget based problems, but not really. I did not truly expect to find the solutions there, I just wanted Read More...
Posted Sunday, March 07, 2004 2:32 PM by mattwar | 4 Comments
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ObjectSpaces: What's the big idea?

Should your data become objects or your objects become data? That’s the debate. If you build apps focused around objects and just want those suckers persisted then you want your objects to become data. If you’ve got a database and you are Read More...
Posted Friday, March 05, 2004 1:43 PM by mattwar | 12 Comments
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Into the Breach

It happened today; to me. It happens a few times a year, so you learn to expect it. You know its coming but you put it out of your mind until it just sort of shows up. I used to dread it, knowing, wondering what it would mean. Today, I kind of knew what Read More...
Posted Thursday, March 04, 2004 11:27 PM by mattwar | 2 Comments
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Signs of Life on Mars

A few days ago the mars rover 'Opportunity' made a startling discovery on the surface of Mars. The rover had landed in a shallow basin of a small meteor crater. Not to be stymied by this mishap, the scientists at NASA decided to proceed with a full scale Read More...
Posted Wednesday, March 03, 2004 1:39 PM by mattwar | 5 Comments
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Spammed to death

I like most people that use the internet detest spam. I hate it. I want it to go away. And that's just the meat product. Email spam, now that's just plain criminal. There's just no innocent motive behind that one. Spammers try to make a quick buck by Read More...
Posted Tuesday, March 02, 2004 11:10 AM by mattwar | 4 Comments
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Wrong Again

Okay, they’ve got it all wrong! I’ve spent considerable amount of time over the last few weeks researching different products that might be able to solve the audio problem. What I want is a system that will play my digital music files all Read More...
Posted Monday, March 01, 2004 1:56 PM by mattwar | 11 Comments
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