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January 2005 - Posts

Monday, January 31, 2005 8:02 PM

How well do you know algorithms?

Shreyas Vijaykumar pointed out on his blog that the Imagine Cup algorithm invitational first round quiz is live! Go take the quiz and check out the message board today. -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)
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Monday, January 31, 2005 6:37 PM

String Concatenation vs. StringBuilder.Append

I had a question the other day in an interview about the performance of StringBuilder and while I had run performance tests with StringBuilder in the past I had never really looked under the covers to determine why StringBuilder was or wasn't faster then
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Monday, January 31, 2005 4:37 PM

Virtual rock group + .NET = Fun

The WeRock247 .NET SmartClient Training DVD contains material on developing Smart Client applications for .NET and is based on a virtual rock group. WeRock247.NET takes you through building an enterprise application using Windows Forms, Smart Documents,
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Monday, January 31, 2005 11:25 AM

Microsoft Word version of US Software Design spec released

The Imagine Cup US Software Design spec has now been released in a Word version as well as the OneNote version . Fill it out today because entries are due February 16, 2005! -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)
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Friday, January 28, 2005 5:26 PM

New version of F# available for FREE download

Don Syme points out on his blog that a major new version of F# has been released. F# combines the safety and productivity of ML with the libraries, tools and cross-language working of .NET. Check out the screenshots . Also, version 1.2 of SML.NET was
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Friday, January 28, 2005 7:06 AM

Visual Gaming: Happy New Year Competition

Josh Blake just pointed me in the direction of a new unofficial Imagine Cup Visual Gaming contest called the Happy New Year Competition . This competition takes advantage of a new SDK and tissue and gives you an opportunity to get to know the new features
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Thursday, January 27, 2005 12:57 PM

College and High School internships at Microsoft

Gretchen from Microsoft Recruiting briefly outlines some links to Microsoft's college and high school internships. We do have high school summer internships , but only for students who already live in the Puget Sound (in Washington State, USA) area. Cool
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 9:24 PM

Microsoft Doesn't Matter

Recently there was a lot of hype about the success Apple's iPod. People were interested in what Microsoft and its partners might do to get into this market, while others think Microsoft just doesn't get it. Who really cares? Why can't people just be happy
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 5:19 PM

Who needs C++ anyway?

Eric Gunnerson has an interesting blog entry comparing C# and C++. The Computer Science department at CSULB currently uses C++ for most of the programming courses. I think it would be interesting to switch to C# as the default language. Would you rather
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 4:55 PM

Creator of .TEXT engine is looking for a few good students in the NY/NJ area

Scott Watermasysk created .TEXT (the blog engine this blog runs on), works now with Rob Howard over at Telligent Systems , and also works with INETA Academic. He's looking for a few students in the NY/NJ/PA area to get involved on a .NET community project.
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 9:56 AM

Who is your MSA?

For those attending a school in the United States you can now find out if there is a Microsoft Student Ambassador on your campus. Check out the Student Ambassador site and learn how you can become a Microsoft Student Ambassador! -James (California State
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 6:45 AM

Year of the Least Privileged User

G. Andrew Duthie asks: " Will 2005 be the year of Least Privilege ?" Scoble, seems to think that it won't be and I would probably have to agree. I do think that we all as individuals could help convert the community at large if we preach about it enough.
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Monday, January 24, 2005 5:31 PM

Blogging as an academic research aid

BlogSavant highlights this BBC News article on how academics in the UK are using blogs to aid in their research and thesis writing. Open question for students: Does anyone else have good examples of blogs being used in an academic research environment?
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Monday, January 24, 2005 12:53 PM

Visual Gaming leader board - Middle Tennessee State and James Madison in the Top 10

Leaderboard so far highlighting the US teams - impressive scores especially by the team from Middle Tennesee State!
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Monday, January 24, 2005 7:50 AM

Infragistics Is Looking for GREAT Students

Infragistics, Inc. is currently seeking bright, self-motivated team players for a variety of open positions ! Infragistics is the market leader in providing a broad range of presentation layer development tools and services for building applications utilizing
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Thursday, January 20, 2005 6:53 AM

Visual Gaming deadline extended

You now have an extra month to compete in the Imagine Cup Visual Gaming Invitational . The first round deadline has been extended from February 1st to March 1st . A remember - just for competing you qualify for a free copy of Office 2003 ! (you do have
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Wednesday, January 19, 2005 9:39 AM

MCF Format Release Has Been Delayed

Due to the fact that my professor hasn't questioned the .mcf file format yet, I have not released its spec. He has asked another professor in the department about the format but this professor did not budge even though he knows all the details. --Eric
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Wednesday, January 19, 2005 7:18 AM

The latest Student Flash e-newsletter is out

Check it out here . This is issue #3 - we've been going monthly up until this issue, and now are ramping up to every two weeks. If you prefer everything wrapped up in one good-looking email rather than a blog, you've got a choice! -Kevin (Microsoft)
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Tuesday, January 18, 2005 7:23 PM

Up for the ChallengE?

Alfred Thompson says the sign up for Windows Challenge has been extended until February 6th. This is a great contest for Computer Engineering students. Sign up today! -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)
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Monday, January 17, 2005 8:18 AM

Running as a Power User

This past weekend I re-imaged my Tablet PC and vowed to run strictly as a power user. Thus far I have not had too many problems, but thought I would share the short list of issues I have encountered: Microsoft's AntiSpyware Beta does not appear to perform
Posted by kevinbri | 7 Comments
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Sunday, January 16, 2005 8:21 PM

Encryption vs. Formatted File

In response to a post I wrote earlier this week, I Can Read ANY Format. I'm a Mac User. , I figured a follow up post was necessary behind reasoning for calling what I submitted a file format and not an encrypted file. Even though I do use the word encrypt
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Sunday, January 16, 2005 3:30 PM

Convert to Linux in 12 Easy Steps

Linux doesn't have to be hard for everyone, even you can Linux! Yes, even you! If you are intersted check out this short little tutorial from Ohad's blog . --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Saturday, January 15, 2005 10:47 AM

Apple Please Fix Your Feeds

I really wish I could read the Apple Student Blogs via RSS or Atom, but it appears that they have an issue with producing a valid feed . I don't think it's just me and my reader, but maybe it is. Anyone care to give it a try? --Eric (Grand Valley State
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Saturday, January 15, 2005 10:08 AM

I Can Read ANY Format. I'm a Mac User.

This semester I am only taking one class as it's the only class I need to officially graduate. I had contemplated taking a few other courses, but decided not too as I need to start saving money for the wedding . The class I am taking is CS460 - Management
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Saturday, January 15, 2005 9:13 AM

Linux Vulnerabilities Creep Toward the Desktop

As Linux increasingly hits the enterprise and consumer mainstream, a growing number of security threats are emerging which prey on holes in applications and files managed by desktop users. Read more... -James (California State Univ., Long Beach)
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Friday, January 14, 2005 1:00 PM

Funding College with SPAM

The Register has an article about Texas suing two student 'spammers' for $2M . I would not advise trying to fund your college education through SPAM. First, it won't make you too many friends and second, you might end up with a lawsuit on your hands.
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Friday, January 14, 2005 12:45 PM

A Mac Tablet?

Scoble links to a Mac Tablet petition that JK was certain would not happen . Something that I am pretty certain will not happen is Apple releasing a Mac Tablet. I could be wrong on this assumption, but Apple likes to be innovative and ahead of the curve
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Friday, January 14, 2005 10:07 AM

Get Avalon today!

The "Avalon" Community Technology Preview is now available for download . Avalon is the code name for Microsoft 's unified presentation subsystem for Windows. It consists of a display engine and a managed-code framework. Avalon unifies how Windows creates,
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Friday, January 14, 2005 9:07 AM

Hopefully The End is Near

I attempted to check out some of the blogs I read over at TheSpoke this morning and managed to encounter a server error (not the first time recentl). It appears that while some people complain about TheSpoke and vow not to use it, many others have fallen
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Friday, January 14, 2005 6:08 AM

Got a Party Coming Up?

Daryll McDade links to a post on Engadget about the coolest piñata ever . I think I might pick up one of these for the next geek party I throw at Grand Valley. --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Thursday, January 13, 2005 11:19 AM

Students choose Visual J# over BlueJ, JCreator, and other IDE's

Brian Keller posted a story about a high school computer science teacher and his students' experience with Visual J#. --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005 1:19 PM

Email Response Time Expectations

A discussion came up in my class yesterday that was very interesting. The professor asked: How long do you expect to wait for a response from someone you email? There were varying responses from one hour to one week. What are you expectations if you email
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005 10:08 AM

New version of Open Viewer has been released

Stefan Rusek decompiled the existing Viewer for the Visual Gaming invitational of Imagine Cup , and then he rewrote and refactored over 80% of it! Download the project from SourceForge and check out the screen shots . -James (Cal. State University, Long
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005 9:34 AM

Some People's Problems: FREE Smartphone or Pocket PC?

Jan-Kristian has to decide if he wants a FREE pocket PC or a FREE Smartphone. Read More.. --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005 8:56 PM

Get your search results as RSS Feeds

Ever wanted your search results as an RSS feed? Now you can as msnsearch's WebLog explains. Here is an example for Imagine Cup : http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=Imagine+Cup&format=rss -James (Cal. State University, Long Beach)
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005 6:38 PM

Imagine Cup IT Quiz is LIVE

The first round of the IT and IT high school invitationals are live for the Imagine Cup ! The team is also looking for someone to design a banner to help promote alert people to this event. Read more... --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005 11:39 AM

Get Microsoft Office FREE for competing in Imagine Cup

Imagine Cup is getting close to cranking up the competition. Thousands of students from around the world have already signed up to learn more about it. Just for signing up for the competition, students already get FREE access to theSpoke Premium, which
Posted by kevinbri | 6 Comments
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 10:58 AM

Malware removal tool from Microsoft

Microsoft just posted a malicious software removal tool . You can also get this installed on your system via Windows Update. -Kevin
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005 10:15 AM

Centralization of BitTorrent Networks

(courtesy of Slashdot ) A group of local (Seattle local) grad students published an article analyzing BitTorrent networks . Worth a quick read. -Kevin
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005 10:12 AM

Now this is a resume page

Resume pages are always so formal... here's one from a sociology student at Seattle University that really gets makes the professionalism shine through! (it's like Tablet PC gone mad) -Kevin
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Monday, January 10, 2005 3:44 PM

Does the Brain Work Like the Internet?

Computer scientists studying the stability of Internet connections may someday find their research used to help patients suffering from schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease or stroke. Read more... -James (Cal. State University, Long Beach)
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Monday, January 10, 2005 9:25 AM

What Makes a Rockstar Programmer?

Mikael Grev has an intersting post over on jroller.com about how to compute the Coding Ability (CA) of a programmer. --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Friday, January 07, 2005 11:43 AM

Coding Quizzes

Do you like the coding quizzes posted every so often by individuals such as Eric Gunnerson , Brad Abrams , Larry Osterman , and others? What is being missed that you would like to see? logic questions? native code questions? pointers? IL? something outside
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Thursday, January 06, 2005 9:17 AM

Need a Good Laugh?

Check out Conan O'Brien talk about technology. Well enjoying Conan you can also get a glipse into Bill Gates vision of consumer electronics. View the Pre International Consumer Electronics Show Keynote 100k (dial-up) 300k (broadband) --Eric (Grand Valley
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Thursday, January 06, 2005 8:46 AM

How nerdy are you?

Take a test and find out how nerdy you are. You can also determine the extent of your love for money with another test . -James (Cal. State University, Long Beach)
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Thursday, January 06, 2005 8:12 AM

Beta of Windows AntiSpyware now available

Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including
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Thursday, January 06, 2005 6:43 AM

Just In: United States Imagine Cup Statistics

Total Unique United States Registrants: 900 Total States Competing: 45 Total Schools Competing: 411 Competition Registrations Software Design (384) Algorithm (358) Visual Gaming (320) Web Development (282) IT (280) Business Plan (200) Short Film (142)
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Wednesday, January 05, 2005 7:18 AM

Hardening IIS Using a Honeypot

Check out the latest issue of TechNet Magazine there are a ton of great articles including one about setting up an IIS honeypot to help direct malicious traffic away from your production sites. --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005 7:41 PM

Indiana Tech Students to Attempt Historic Rocket Launch

Although a few professional organizations and government agencies from several countries have launched rockets into space, there have been no purely student-based, amateur launches that have succeeded in reaching the area 62 miles above the Earth’s surface.
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005 2:41 PM

Can't make Las Vegas for CES?

If you can't attend the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show in person you can still watch Bill Gates live on January 5, 2005 at 6:30 P.M. Pacific Time. -James (Cal. State University, Long Beach)
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005 1:27 PM

Making Firefox Even Faster!

Jun Yang writes about how to make Firefox even faster. He links to a post that he found over at The Linux Box and even gives a few tips of his own . --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005 12:35 PM

wow...the trouble with group blogs!

Whoops - Eric beat me to the post below by two days (busy catching up my Newsgator reads), and I didn't even notice. Nice. That's a fundamental challenge in group blogs, especially when the bloggers are scattered around the country like we are here. So
Posted by kevinbri | 0 Comments
Tuesday, January 04, 2005 12:31 PM

Advice for College CS Students by Joel

Joel Spolsky from Fog Creek Software ( Joel on Software blog - a great read on an ongoing basis for anyone interested in software development) pens a nice little piece on his advice to college CS majors . A teaser: Without further ado, then, here are
Posted by kevinbri | 6 Comments
Tuesday, January 04, 2005 5:53 AM

Harvard Law Professor Draws Crowds to Class

NPR is running a story right now on Morton Horwitz , a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, that is so popular in order to get into his class you must win the lottery. Is there a professor in technology at your school that commands the same level of
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Monday, January 03, 2005 2:08 PM

It's NOT about you, but IT is!

As a student I have been asked by various professors about how they could improve their class and/or teaching style, while I think many of them do a great job I haven't always had the proper answer, until now! Kathy Sierra writes wrote a great article
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Sunday, January 02, 2005 10:40 PM

Advice for Students in Computer Science

Joel on Software has a nice write up with a lot of great information for students pursuing a degree in the computer science field. --Eric (Grand Valley State University)
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