MSDN Student Flash : Insomniac Nation

Who needs C++ anyway?

kevinbri — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 01:19:00 GMT

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 have C# as the main language or do you like C++ or Java better?

-James (California State Univ., Long Beach)

Now this is a resume page

kevinbri — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:12:00 GMT

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

How nerdy are you?

kevinbri — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 16:46:00 GMT

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)

Can't make Las Vegas for CES?

kevinbri — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 22:41:00 GMT

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)

Are you on the naughty or nice list?

kevinbri — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:49:00 GMT

There is more than one way to get on Santa's nice list as this FoxTrot comic illustrates.

-James (Cal. State University, Long Beach)

Ever wanted to port an app from Linux to Windows (.NET)?

kevinbri — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 03:18:00 GMT

Over the past week Josh Blake of James Madison University has ported an application from Linux to Windows primarily using C#.

I had to learn a lot about the Win32 API...and I'm talking some intense stuff, like Access Control Entries (ACE), Desktop API, Windows Services, default system policies and how to programmatically change them, differences in API behavior between Win XP and Server 2003, Discretionary Access Control Lists (DACL), impersonating another user in order add some ACE's to the DACL, accessing logon SID, using .NET Interop in order to import a Win32 dll and API functions into my C# project, all the different variants of .NET Remoting, and a bunch of other arcane things.

Check out his article over here at TheSpoke.NET.

--Eric (Grand Valley State University)

Special Holiday Episode of MSDN TV

kevinbri — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 07:58:00 GMT

Don Box and Chris Anderson demo the basics of writing custom layout code in Avalon. There is also a rendition of a classic holiday poem at the end of the episode.

-James (Cal. State University, Long Beach)

Themes for XP

kevinbri — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 17:51:00 GMT

James, one of our contributing students, just blogged about the new Christmas Theme available for Windows XP over on his theSpoke blog (it's always fun when you have multiple blogs, and keep track of what you post where!). He also points to the Energy Blue Theme for Tablet PC, which I haven't tried out yet.

I installed the Christmas Theme on my home Windows XP box - it's entertaining for about 2 minutes, and you think "that Santa pointer icon is kind of festive". Then minute 3 hits and you start realizing how obnoxious it really is. Santa themed desktop, icons (recycle bin becomes a stocking), pointer, screen saver with 3D Santa (sort of). All a bit overwhelming. I think I'll stick with the basics...

-Kevin

Need a Regular Expression?

kevinbri — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 06:30:00 GMT

Tonight I was working on creating a regular expression to parse URLs for a program and I could not get one part to work properly (probably because I am tired... since I have pretty much been up for about 42 hours right now). When I mentioned this to James he said I should check out the Regular Expression Library, so I did. This is an excellent site as I found out for finding a regular expressions to do just about anything.

Thanks James!

--Eric (Grand Valley State University)

Insomniac Nation - updates

kevinbri — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 23:37:00 GMT

Just some completely random cool links I came across

Microsoft’s Ian McDonald is blogging – he knows a thing or two about shipping products (think: Windows)

Can’t get enough of Cryptonomicon? Read Slashdot’s interview with Neal Stephenson

If you haven’t been there, go now. Channel9. Or try their moblog. Or even their Wiki.

--Kevin (Microsoft)

Getting down to the wire...

kevinbri — Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:55:00 GMT

It has just been one of those days... I am very happy that we are on Thanksgiving break today, because I do not think I could have made it through one more day of classes. Yesterday was the first delivery day for a group project at school and of course due to another big class project this one had been put off. After a 42 hour stretch of no sleep I finally got to go to bed last night and not have to worry about a thing.

What kind of projects or deadlines have kept you up late?

--Eric (Grand Valley State University)

From the chronicles of Insomniac Nation: Morbid Warnings Icons

kevinbri — Thu, 11 Nov 2004 02:18:00 GMT

Saw this referenced up on Flickr, and I thought anyone (student otherwise) could enjoy! :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nadav/sets/28034/

-Kevin (MSFT)

Insomniac Nation: some random links to keep you entertained

kevinbri — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:19:00 GMT

Embed yourself in this code: Get the Windows Embedded Introductory Kit .
2 hours of nothin' but .NET: .NET Rocks! Hosted by MSDN .
Ever heard of Podcasting? Neither had we, but it's sweeping the developer world .
Total irreverence and Visual Basic, together at last - VBTV - it's old, but worth the watch .

Issue 1, Volume 1, October 14th 2004