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June 23, 2003

My Thoughts on "The Missing Future"

When I read Eric Kidd's The Missing Future blog entry on the weekend, it just didn't sit right at all with me. I was tempted to write a response, but my brain was already hurting from too much work-related writing. When I read Joshua Allen's respose, I thought I was pretty much off the hook for responding, though I still had a couple of thoughts that I considered throwing into the pot.

Well, now, after reading Krzysztof Kowalczyk's response, I know there's nothing left to say. Case closed. Excellent article, and from an apparently non Microsoft-camp guy to boot.

Ok, I do have one thing left to say. I believe that we are on the brink of seeing some of the most incredible software breakthroughs ever. I believe that there's a definite lack of vision right now just due to so many new technologies being thrown at us over the past 3-5 years. Once a critical mass of developers gets a good grip on these technologies we're going to start doing things never dreamed possible.

Posted by Steve at 01:57 PM | | Comments (0)

June 20, 2003

My Favorite Christmas Gift Ever...

... was a Captain Crunch bathrobe when I was around 10 years old.

I think that was the same year I got my Capsela set, and the Radio Shack 160-in-One Electronics Project Kit. It all added up to probably the best Christmas ever.

Posted by Steve at 06:00 PM | | Comments (1)

Posted my email and MSN Messenger ID

I realized that I don't have any means of contacting me on this page, so I posted my email address and MSN Messenger ID at the bottom of the right-side front page. After considering whether I should post my main email address on the site, I decided, "what the heck". There's NO way I could receive any more spam than I already do, and SpamNet catches the vast majority of it now anyway.

Email or message away, just don't call me on a telephone.

Posted by Steve at 12:42 PM | | Comments (1)

Microsoft DriveTime CDs!

Remember my entry on drive-time learning last month? I was wishing that Microsoft would start releasing some of its content as audio CDs that I could listen to in my vehicle. Well, guess what just showed up in this month's Microsoft Certified Partner package? Microsoft DriveTime audio CDs!

Ok, I admitted in my previous entry that I'm sure I didn't invent the term or concept of drive-time learning (I know I must've heard it somewhere else), but does anyone know if Microsoft has done this type of CD before? We've been a partner for about 2 years, but this is the first time I've seen audio CDs from MS.

Am I delusional to think that my idea might have trickled back to someone in the Microsoft content group?

[Listening to: The Violet Burning - Love Is The Loaded Gun (from Chosen)]

Posted by Steve at 11:53 AM | | Comments (3)

June 19, 2003

Pocket PC Progress

I've finally got my combo boxes binding to data pulled from SQL Server CE on the Pocket PC. Now for the tricky part of sync'ing SQL CE with the main SQL Server. I'm not quite sure yet if i'm supposed to be using RDA or Replication. Once I figure that part out, it should be relatively trivial to complete my timesheet entry program.

Incidentally, if you're binding data to a control using the .NET Compact Framework, you shouldn't bind the data directly from the dataset to the control - it's insanely slow. Have a look at this article first for an alternate method that is much faster (yes, I hate the sample code layout in this article too).

Posted by Steve at 10:10 PM | | Comments (0)

IBuySpy in COBOL

If you think VB.NET is verbose, have a look at IBuySpy written in Fujitsu NetCOBOL. Source code files are viewable here. [from Kent Sharkey]

[Listening to: U2 - Until The End Of The World (from Achtung Baby)]

Posted by Steve at 05:04 PM | | Comments (0)

June 18, 2003

Amanda's Tablet PC Blog

Amanda is trying out my Tablet PC for a week (or so) and is posting a daily diary here.

Amanda is a great person for the Tablet PC because she has the perfect combination of business and technical skills. She has a ton of business needs that are drivers for the technology, and she's not afraid to tackle new tech head on to make the most of it. She's already a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 guru! I think she'll be a Tablet PC guru in another few days.

Posted by Steve at 10:38 PM | | Comments (0)

O'Reilly Safari Bookshelf RSS Feed

Thanks to Phil Scott for pointing out O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf RSS feed!

Posted by Steve at 07:44 PM | | Comments (0)

June 17, 2003

Tips on Organizing Tablet PC Journal Logs

Loren has a great blog on all things Tablet PC and is writing some super cool Tablet PC stuff to boot! Here's a great posting on organizing Journal logs - something I've toiled over myself.

Update: I just noticed that Loren actually has a link to my site! I'm honored to have my insanely boring site linked by someone of such stature. I wonder what prompted the link?

Posted by Steve at 10:30 PM | | Comments (1)

What's New

It's been a very busy few days since I last posted an entry here. I've been head down in work - reams and reams of reading, and writing my app for the Pocket PC. I don't have much to report, but here a a few items of interest that I've come across recently:

  • O'Reilly's Safari Bookshelf. Our MSDN subscription gave the company a free 30 day trial to Safari. I visited a year ago, and only saw O'Reilly books. As much as I like O'Reilly books, I didn't think it was worth the investment at the time. Now it has over 1400 books from a bunch of publishers. I'm like a kid in a candy shop! Blame Safari for my blog silence.

  • VS.NET Posters. Here are PDF files of the posters that ship with the Visual Studio .NET. Since we get all our software from MSDN downloads we don't get these in printed format, so it's nice of MS to put them up for download. Great references for the various parts of the .NET framework. I printed them on our 11x17 printer, but I need to find someone who can print the full poster-size to make them readable from across the office.

  • Total Recorder. Remember my post on "drive time learning"? I wanted to find some tools for converting existing content into audio. Well Total Recorder is the tool. I purchased the Professional edition this week and used it to record a bunch of Microsoft Webcasts to CD. I'm in drive-time learning overdrive.

    Posted by Steve at 10:19 PM | | Comments (2)

    • June 04, 2003

    New Pocket PC

    The last time i was tempted to buy a PDA was on April 17. Today, I had to buy one. I've been very neglectful in entering time sheet entries for billable projects so I figure the money that we've lost in not billing my time will be made up in a few weeks of owning this baby.

    How? Well, I ended up with the Toshiba e740 with built-in 802.11 wireless. I also have Visual Studio.NET 2003 with the .NET Compact Framework, which means I can write Pocket PC apps using the .NET Framework and C#.

    Yeah, so? So... my problem with not tracking time is that I spend so much time in internal meetings that I never get a chance to enter my time properly in our custom built time tracking intranet app (well, that's my excuse anyway). I'm going to write a Pocket PC application that'll talk to our time tracking system via a web service so I can enter my time anywhere at work, or over VPN from home. On top of that, I'll be able to access my email from anywhere at work or home, and MSN Messenger too.

    There, I've convinced myself that I deserved it. That feels much better.

    ... now to get Quake installed.

    By the way, the Microsoft Transcriber system is amazing. Very, very good handwriting recognition out of the box. I'm amazed at how much better it is than my old Windows CE device circa '99.

    Posted by Steve at 09:18 PM | | Comments (0)

    Gee, Thanks for Protecting Me Rogers

    Last month I signed up to receive my monthly Rogers bill via the web. I attempted to sign in today to get the bill and mistyped my password on the first try. This is the message I got:

    Now I have to wait 24 hours to try again??!! It's a freaking cable bill, not my life savings.

    Posted by Steve at 10:27 AM | | Comments (0)

    June 03, 2003

    What Do Other Steve Clarke's Do?

    I did a quick Google on my name to see what other Steve Clarke's in the world do (ok, actually it was to see if my web log has been Googled - no, it hasn't).

    Here is a list of some of my favorite alternate universes:

  • Steve Clarke - Used Car Specialist
  • Stephen Clarke, PhD(SUT), MA(Lanc), BSc(Hons)(Melb), DipEd(Melb) - Mathematician
  • Steve Clarke - Bassist
  • Steve Clarke - Solo Drummer
  • Steve Clarke - Biochemist
  • Steve Clarke - Referee
  • Steve Clarke - Drag Racer
  • Steve Clarke - Associate Pastor

    [Listening to: U2 - A Sort Of Homecoming (from The Unforgettable Fire)]

    Posted by Steve at 11:00 AM | | Comments (4)

    • June 01, 2003

    The Future of Internet Explorer (Continued)

    There's an increasing amount of discussion about the future of IE in the weblogs that I regularly visit [see my comments from a few days ago]. Today Joel spoke out with some insights, but I think that Mike Amundsen has the most interesting take on the whole issue.

    I'm getting a stronger sense that Microsoft is up to something very interesting...

    Posted by Steve at 09:18 PM | | Comments (0)

    MSDN Magazine Available In HTML Help Format

    S.B. Chatterjee points out that MSDN Magazine is available in HTML Help format. Nice.

    Posted by Steve at 06:03 PM | | Comments (0)