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Karen Watterson's Archived Destinations and Diversions (D & D) |
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28 November 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
Browsable
- Digital Black Belt site.
- Jason Turgeon's site with links to free textbooks.
- (SQL) MSDN's SQL Server 2005 Management Studio portal. Related: SQL Server 2005 Management Studio Virtual Lab registration and SQL Server 2005 Server Management Objects (SMO) Virtual Lab Registration
- Tim Shakarian's architecture blog.
- SOOP Portal, a free-for-all ASP Portal featuring Forums, Polls, News, Page Creator, Guestbook, Skins/Themes, Personal Calendar, Events Calendar, Country Info, Private Messenger, Stats, Banner Management, Buddy List, etc. etc.
- Amazon's top-selling VB books (Rod's new book was #2 when I checked 11/26!)
Jargon Alert
- VBL. Virtual Build Labs. Used by Microsoft's development teams as part of software development process.
- COSD. Core Operating System Division.
- DITA. IBM's Darwin Information Typing Architecture.
- Headless system. One that doesn't require a keyboard, mouse, or video graphics adapter (VGA) card during operation.
- OOo. OpenOffice.org. Here and
here.
- Strong inference plus. New paradigm for hypothesis testing, based on J.R. Platt's seminal 1964 Science paper, where he said that "Certain systematic methods of scientific thinking may produce much more rapid progress than others". See Platt's paper and an updated discussion.
Heads Up
Question to Ponder
- Charles Lindbergh once posed the rhetorical question: "Isn't it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most." Do you agree?
Misc
21 November 2005
Readable/Watchable
Downloadable
Browsable
Heads Up
Questions to Ponder
- Think about the term mercenary. Are armed contract workers in Iraq mercenaries? Are coalition troops who are under the command of US or British commanders in Iraq or Afghanistan mercenaries? To some extent, are some US troops who re-enlist only because of tax-free reenlistment bonuses - say $15,000 - also "mercenaries?"
- Ted Koppel, who joined ABC at 23, will anchor his last "Nightline" on 11/22. Which TV news anchor was your parents' favorite? Who is yours?
- "Man is by nature a political animal" said Aristotle. "Man is an animal that makes bargains," said Adam Smith. Which trait is dominant in you - politics or deal-making?
- Epictetus said that "the pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us the greatest delight." Do you agree?
Misc
- Cartoons I've enjoyed recently: 1) Manager standing under banner about Wal*Mart's health care cost-cutting plan to employee who has just sneezed and is blowing her nose, "You're fired." 2) Woman to florist in garden shop: "Do you have any that thrive on cigarette smoke and near-total darkness?" 3) Mouse at desk to coffee-drinking mouse colleague in an office," Finally, the cat's away, and I get stuck with the Davidson account." 4) Prescription air fresheners (complete with descriptions such as "Light, yet effective. Perfect for everyday use." Valium Bouquet, Prozac Mist, and Throazine Meadow. 5) Banner above the door at "All Nude, All Nite": Random Mutation or Intelligent Design? You decide."
- Worried about avian flu?
- Article excerpted from How to Hack RSS and Atom.
- Excerpt from Chapter 26 (Googling Your Genes) in David Vise and Mark Malseed's new book, The Google Story (336 pages, $26).
Another excerpt: Chapter 1.
- Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose new book, Team of Rivals, about the Lincoln presidency, was the featured author in a recent C-SPAN2 BookTV show. Listen to the replay.
- Google's free analytics tool is now free.
- NASA: World Wind - another mapping program.
- A refreshing article on what *not* to buy for the holidays.
- No, it's not from O'Reilly's (DIY) MAKE, but ExtremeTech offers advice on how to build your own Intel Mac.
- Noam Chomsky On The Spontaneous Invention Of Language.
- Interesting interview with theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, author, and Templeton Prize winner Paul Davies about astrobiology.
Related: Prof. Davies' home page.
- Interesting article about harnessing your own employees in "internal markets".
- Southern Wetland Flora.
- Remember all the hullaballoo about managanese nodules back in the 60s and 70s?
- 65 online poems by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953).
- Nice news: baroque Dresden church destroyed in WWII reopened. Related: monumental Swaminarayan Akshardham temple featuring ancient Indian "vastu shastra" inaugurated.
- Blog entry with my interview of MVP Wei-Meng Lee.
13 November 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles - good selection of How Tos
Selected SQL KB articles
Downloadable
Browsable
Heads Up
Questions to Ponder
- Aldous Huxley once noted that "The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude." Do you agree?
- In the 10/27/05 issue of the WSJ, Murray Hiebert wrote about how China is splitting the US Replican party - some taking a hawkish line that China represents a military threat, others saying that we need to take advantage of trade with China. Muddying the issue, of course, are concerns about human rights and Taiwan. If *you* were involved in policy or legislation, which side would you be on?
Misc
6 November 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Selected SQL KB articles
Selected SQLCE/SQL Mobile KB articles
Downloadable
Browsable
JARGON ALERT
- SIPs - software isolated processes, a feature of Microsoft Research's Singularity OS.
- Erdos number. A measure of the collaborative distance (in terms of published mathematical papers) between an author an the late Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos. Erdos has an Erdos number of zero. The Erdos number of author M is one plus the minimum among the Erdos numbers of all the authors with whom M coauthored a mathematical paper. Related.
- OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language).
Heads Up
Questions to Ponder
- Ernest Hemingway once said that "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know." Do you agree with him?
- A lot's been said about the correlation between music and math/programming. Do you "visualize" music as it's playing? How do you "visualize" your programs? As flowcharts? Or do you "see" code?
Misc
30 October 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
- My.Blogs - a collection of VS 2005 sample code that shows you how you can provide programmatic access to blogs in your apps. Full source code is provided along with Windows Forms, ASP.NET 2.0 and a Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Outlook Add-In. Related: Getting started with My.Blogs.
- Google Maps API.
- MapWindow, open source mapping software with samples using VB, VB.NET, and C#.
- Visual Haskell (a functional language) available for .NET.
Misc
23 October 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
Browsable
Travelable
Jargon Alert
Question of the Week
- Do you remember the last time you wept? Was it a physical or emotional cry?
Misc
- Third time's a charm? DOD's efforts to forge an Enterprise Architecture.
- Sounds cool, esp. for technology-challenged relatives - AMD's Web device Communicator (runs Windows Mobile 5.0).
- Thought-provoking article (from IBM, promoting it Rational tools) on compliance-driven development.
- Cool innovations: giant grass (think energy source), Miscanthus. Would you believe 60 tons/hectare yield?
- Light bulb joke (with thanks to Jon Price): How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the light bulb really has to want to change.
- Cartoon I've enjoyed: The scene: Orthodox Jew talking on cell phone (apparently at an airport, walking towards the waiting area for his flight). "And remember, if you need anything, I'm available 24/6."
- Joshua Landis' SyriaComment.com.
- I've read several curious articles recently about South Koreans' taste for Spam (the food) and how it's packaged as an upscale gift.
- Discovered while trying to read the 6000-word letter from Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant on the dni.gov site: a bibliography on US intelligence.
- Discovered while trying to figure out what "postmodern sociology" was all about.
- Radio France Internationale.
- Popcap games.
- Shopping site for handmade stuff.
- Oct 17 Newsweek feature on the Mormons.
- Great site on advertising.
- Pete Townshend's online novella, The Boy Who Heard Music.
- Might be useful: David Meerman Scott's new book, Cashing In With Content: How [20] Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers Into Buyers.
- 2005 World Food Prize Laureate, Dr. Modadugu Vijay Gupta, for freshwater farming technology.
16 October 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
Browsable
Jargon Alert
- Xlinq - in-memory XML API (part of LINQ - Microsoft's new Language Integration Query).
- EAP-TLS - Extensible Authentication Protocol-Translation Layer Security. Used to create a secured connection for 802.1X by pre-installing a digital certificate on the client computer.
- CMAK - Connection Manager Administration Kit.
- PUR - Product Use Rights. This is the 7/05 "plain language" version that replaces the previous 100+ pager.
Heads Up
Questions of the Week
- The late Susan Sontag once said that "The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions." Do you agree?
- In 1806, William Wordsworth wrote a sonnet beginning with these lines:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours.
Is the world (still) too much with us? Or, perchance (think of the environment), not enough with us?
Misc
- Microsoft's effort to patent the FAT file format are stymied.
- Okay, it was herps a few weeks ago. Ready for ants?
- UK public libraries page.
- Directory of open access journals.
- Move over, Rube Goldberg. Try this and this.
- Move over, Christo. Here and
here.
- Quills Book awards (Half-Blood Prince, Freakonomics, and 1776, among others). Related: Pinter wins the Nobel for literature here, here, and here. Also related: 375K new books published in English in 2004.
- Howard Schmidt's thoughts on international cybersecurity. (Schmidt was chief security officer both for Microsoft and eBay and also served as special advisor to the White House on cyber-space security)
- Rocky Flats cleanup completed. Price tag - about $7 billion (not counting litigation). Moved to a Carlsbad, NM site (near the Mexican border, but presumably secure) - 21 tons of weapons grade plutonium.
- Students Taking Action Now: Darfur.
- Information about landmines. Related: Afghanistan's landmines and the US position.
- Anti-rape diaphragm-like condom.
- Botany and plants: 1) Autumn Foliage Changes, 2) Hydroponics (soil-less gardening - science fair project potential!), 3) AP Biology: Plant Biology, 4) UBC: Botany Photo of the Day.
- ScienceBlog. Related: online premiere issue of Nature Physics (free registration required to view contents).
- According to Jane Eisner's 10/13/05 Philadelphia Inquirer column covering the Pennsylvania court case on intelligent design, only 12 percent of Americans think that "human beings evolved without an assist from God." She also commented on the statistics about the relationship between income and attitudes toward evolution.
- Recommended book about dams: Jacques Leslie's Deep Water.
- Find a flu shot by zip code.
9 October 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
Browsable
Travelable
Jargon Alert
- MSS - Microsoft Solution Selling. (The Redmond Channel Partner September issue also has interesting articles on the $199 InfoPath, Groove, and Microsoft's services strategy.)
- ULSD - ultra low sulfur diesel fuel with <= 50 ppm sulfur. (Current on-road diesel has about 350 ppm.).
- SWORD - Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System.
- NaN - Not a Number, IEEE representation for error values. QNaN = quiet NaN. SNaN = signaling NaN.
Heads Up
Question of the Week
- It has been said that by the time we turn 40, we get the face we deserve. Do you agree?
Misc
- What does the Google/Sun alliance mean to .NET developers, if anything?
Speculation abounds, etc. Related: would GoogleOffice be a Microsoft killer?
- Info on Daylight Saving Time, aka "summertime period."
- Nationmaster.com. All kinds of stats (most taxed, most miliaristic, etc.) presented in graphical format.
- There are Nobel prizes...and IgNobels.
- Retro (single gear) bicycling.
- Sample Astronomy Hacks. Autumn is often a great time of the year for
viewing!
- American Chemistry Council's site.
- IBM Alamden Research Center's Hippocratic Database, a contract database based on ten principles, including "above all, do no harm".
Related: IBM Almaden Research Center, Intelligent Information Systems.
- Interesting article about Credit Suisse First Boston's Disruptive Technology Portfolio (DTP) - and the stocks it's based on.
- Imagine carving *that* - 1,469 pounds.
- Interesting article on the US "Do Not Call" registry (43 percent of the US's 240 million phone numbers are in its Oracle database).
- The September issue of Vanity Fair had an interesting article on Swede Niklas Zennstrom and Dane Janus Friis (Kazaa and Skype). (The same issue had another interesting article on the historic 1938 boxing match between Max Schmeling and Joe Louis)
- Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. (Pugwash's co-founder, Sir Joseph Rotblat, died last month. The organization's name comes from the Nova Scotia town that was the site of its first meeting.)
- JetBlue's Mormon CEO relies on stay-at-home moms to "man" his virtual call center. And here
- US National Biodiesel organization site.
- Who knew? 1) GE is the world's largest landlord. 2) Queen Mary 2's ship whistle can be heard for 10 miles. 3) 275,000 (give or take) companies make up the ranks of Microsoft's Partner Program.
- Find out how some major corporations are using Linux.
- Cartoon I've enjoyed recently: One dog, feeding papers into a shredder to another dog: "I know it's unconventional, but there's only so much homework one dog can eat."
2 October 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
Browsable
Microsoft blogs
Travelable
Jargon Alert
- TKIP: temporal key integrity protocol.
- Cassini: the Visual Web Developer Web server. Also of interest: JPL's Cassini-Huygens site.
- Xoml: the version of XAML that's in the current beta of WWF (the 'o' being an artifact from Orchestration). Related: very cool WWF site. Check out the Workflow Designer Control!
- Bubble talk: voice SMS, based on technology developed by Bangalore-based Sunil Coushik and a partner. The WSJ's Cris Prystay wrote a good article on the technology in the 9/29/05 issue. Related: this.
- Centro: forthcoming Windows Server the combines the Longhorn version of Windows along with forthcoming versions of SQL Server and Exchange. (See the 9/12/05 issue of Information Week, "Rethinking the Midmarket.")
Heads Up
Questions of the Week
- The Australian Consumers Association lists a variety of "useless" objects, such as hot dog makers, facial saunas, and so on. How many do you own, and are there others you'd like to add to the list?
- I read that the USDA impounded food donations to Katrina victims that came from abroad in order to test them. Assuming that's true, do you think that was an appropriate action?
- According to an English proverb, "A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder." Do you agree?
- According to Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney, "Public opinion has a short list of bad guys, and the drug companies are on it." (He was quoted in a recent LA Times article about California's forthcoming Prop. 78). Who's on *your* current short list of bad guys today?
- If you were a billionaire, would you spend $20 million as a space tourist?
- If you had to perform, say two years of government service, would you opt for the military (complete with a bonus and, probably combat pay as well), a gig with the Peace Corps (or your country's equivalent), or a low-paying teaching job in one of your country's "inner cities"?
Misc
- Nice list of stylistic devices such as antistrophe, anaphora, prosopoeia, syllepsis, and so on, used in English, along with an example of each.
- Article excerpted from Chapter 2 (Security the Database) of David Knox's 2004 book on "Effective Oracle Database 10g Security by Design."
- Sample chapters 1, "Workflow Tomorrow's Application Logic," and 3, "March Through the Activities" from Presenting Windows Workflow Foundation. Here and here.
- Snakes and other herps.
- Short report from Elliott Masie from the Chief Learning Officer conference.
- Good interview with Chris Mooney, author of "The Republican War on Science" by environmentalist Grist Magazine's David Roberts. Related: Chris' blog.
- "Maths and science education gets animated and collaborative online" about UK effort aimed at 10-14 year olds. Uses ToonTalk. Also this.
- UK-based Sir. Nicholas Shackleton and USA-based Dr. Hisashi Sato shared this year's Blue Planet prize awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation.
- "One-pot" recipe for nylon.
- Sounds good: Katherine Eban's book, Dangerous Doses: How Counterfeiters are Contaminating America's Drug Supply. Related: her 12/9/02 article, "Waiting for Bioterror."
- Diamond nanorods unseat osmium as the hardest material in the world.
- Where religion and the environment meet. Here, here, and here (about tikkun olam).
25 September 2005
Readable/Watchable
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
- Four
slide decks about VB 2005 from PDC.
- MSN
Virtual Earth SDK. Related: Chandu Thota's MapPoint-centric blog.
- HTML-Kit>.
- Wordpress> (blogging software).
- Microsoft's free
SyncToy for Windows XP. Helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files
between folders, devices, and computers. Related: documentation>.
- (SQL) Excel add-in for
detecting anomalies using SQL Server 2005's data mining.
- x-tensive.com's DataObjects.NET
3.6.1 for .NET (1.1/2.0) and Mono. It's an intriguing ORM tool.
Supported DBMSs: SQL Server 2000/2005, MDSE 2000, Microsoft Access, Oracle,
Firebird (formerly Interbase), and MaxDB (formerly SAP DB).
- Sonogram
2.4.
- TWiki> - Enterprise Collaboration
Platform.
- CBL Data
Shredder.
Browsable
Travelable
Jargon Alert
- Force majeure. Force majeure allows parties to not honor obligations to
deliver certain products and suffer no liability or penalty. (Preceding
Rita's landfall, the New York Mercantile Exchange declared force majeure
Friday (9/23/05) morning on remaining September natural gas futures contract
deliveries Friday following the shutdown of the Henry Hub in Louisiana, its
key physical delivery point, in this case natural gas due at the end of
September). Related: Yale Library
reference.
- DSE - dynamic string execution. A risky technique that makes you
vulnerable to SQL injection attacks (see Rod's 8/05 VB-Helper column in VBD
about "Avoiding a Lethal Injection.")
- BRBs>
- buckling-restrained braced frames. Steel frames that are being used in
seismic retrofit projects, for example.
Heads Up
Questions of the Week
- Microsoft is on a mission to provide us with role-based software -
whether we want it or not. Do you like having what amounts to filtered views
of help, functions, and so on?
- Who or what do you think will be the superpower that ultimately replaces
the US? China? The EU? A global military-industrial complex?
- Part of Microsoft's modus operandi seems to be always having a #1 target
enemy in its sights. Java has been there, as have Netscape, open source,
Linux, and so on. Google seems to be there now. Do you think it's possible
Microsoft might lose? If not, who or what will be next?
- Steve Jobs reportedly scorns focus groups; Microsoft seems to rely on
them. Have you ever participated in one? What do you think of them as part
of a business strategy?
- President Bush stresses an "Ownership Society" for Americans. Do you
think that's a noble vision or an overly materialistic one that risks
marginalizing "invisible" ones who become part of an Entitlement Society?
- In his 9/24/05 presentation to a standing room only crowd at the US
National Book Fair, "The World is Flat" author Tom Friedman stressed the
importance of kids knowing how to learn. (Most programmers are good at
that.) When asked by a student how to learn how to learn, Friedman
recommended they ask their friends who the best teachers/professors were and
take courses from them - no matter what the subject was. The enthusiasm of
such teachers is bound to be catching; kids will want to learn - and will
figure out how to do it. Do you agree? Related: Excerpts
from Jonathan Kozol's book, "Amazing Grace" at and the Summer 2005 issue
of The American Scholar (issue title: Science Matters). Unfortunately, the
quarterly journal of the Phi Beta Kappa society is only online to
subscribers.
- US
House OKs faith as Head Start hiring issue. Should this become law?.
(BTW, several readers have suggested that I provide an email where you can
reply. You're free to email me, and I'll pass them on to Rod to post as he
sees fit. karen_watterson@msn.com>.)
Misc
- Info about Microsoft's
"raw" image thumbnailer and viewer. (The unfortunately non-standard
"raw" image format is popular with many serious digital photographers.). More RAW info,
this mainly about Minolta's RAW file format. Also of interest: this>
and this>.
- According to a Table 1.2 in the sample
chapter from "The World's Largest Wetlands: Ecology and Conservation,"
the Mississippi River basin (which include the Louisiana coastline
devastated by Katrina and 193,000 barrels of oil - Exxon Valdez dumped
240,000 barrels) watershed is the world's 7th largest wetland. (The West
Siberia Lowland is the largest, followed by the Amazon River basin and
Hudson Bay Lowland.). Related: the Ramsar database of 1462
wetlands and Ken Wells' 9/23/05 WSJ article, "Oil, Saltwater Mar
Louisiana Coast, Threaten Future."
- Interesting 27-page white paper/case study from the Microsoft
Architecture team about managing
connected systems. Describes Everett, Washington-based Northern
Electronics efforts to architect an SOA-enabled supply chain.
- Portal to
the Sept 17-22 Oracle OpenWorld - on demand keynote replay, etc.
- Draft
chapter of Edward Tufte's "Corrupt Techniques in Evidence Presentations:
Beautiful Evidence."
- Download
calculator (how long will a download take?)
- Don't know your skateboard
from a snowboard?
- Who knew? Starbucks CEO Harold Schultz says he spends more on employee
healthcare insurance than on coffee beans. Related: a
case study about Starbucks using Microsoft's MapPoint.
- Books
for Katrina victims (FirstBook is a charity I've contributed to in the
past - even before Katrina.)
- MacArthur Foundation's 25 "genius" awards for 2005. here>
and here>.
- Profile of
Micahel Wermuth, Director of Homeland Security for the RAND
Corporation.. Related: info on RAND
experts.
- Apply for a 90-day
MapPoint web service developer account.
- New free electronic magazine for
InterBase/Firebird developers.
- Cartoon I've enjoyed recently: 1) Backpacker, out enjoying "nature,"
walks past a tree upon which is nailed a "Suggestions" box.
- Who knew? Intumescent paints expand when exposed to very high
temperatures and they form an insulating layer that can protect the
substrate from fire.
- Who knew? 34 percent of US births in 2004 were to unwed mothers.
- Loebner
Prize (most convincing computer conversationalist) winner Rollo
Carpenter.
- Google
Code Jam winner Marek Cygan announced.
- Good article about Google's 30-year old Marissa
Mayer, "a geek whose clothes match." Excerpt: "What Mayer does is help
figure out how to make sure good ideas bubble to the surface and get the
attention they need. The task is becoming more complex as Google grows, with
a workforce of 4,200 now and revenues on track to hit $3.7 billion this
year."
- Heartening stories about IBM
funding employees for future careers as math/science teachers. (lots of
additional news coverage).
- Heartening
article about treehouse project for kids with special needs. Kudos to U
of Michigan Professor Peter von Buelow and his students and to the others
who donated time and services that kept project costs to $88K.
- Books I've enjoyed recently: 1) Harm de Blij's Why Geography Matters.
Interesting insight: There are three ways to view events: spatially,
historically (linearly), and systemically (focusing on how and why).
Americans favor the historical view.. 2) Andrew Carroll's War Letters.).
3) Author/prof/philosopher/jazz musician David Rothenberg's Why Birds Sing.
- MathTrek on 1) knots and
random walks and 2) Fermat's
natural spirals here.
18 September 2005
Readable/Watchable
- As always, start
here. Then check out gotdotnet.com's user
samples.
- Juval Lowy's What's New in .NET 2.0 for Assemblies and Versioning?
- Dan Ragle's article on Nested Data Structures: A Perl Primer.
- On his Windows CE site, MVP Chris De Herrera has posted an excellent Overview of ActiveSync 4.0 Features and Installation. Designed to replace the current ActiveSync, version 4.0 only works with Windows Mobile 2002 devices and above.
- PDC 2005 material: 1) Transcript of Bill Gates' 9/13/05 keynote. (Webcast also viewable). 2) Transcript of Jim Allchin's 9/15/05 keynote, The Next Step for the Windows Platform. 3) Official Press Releases.
- 15-minute interview with Craig Newmark, founder and customer service rep for Craigslist. Craigslist, which, BTW, is celebrating its first decade, has 18 employees, about 11 million unique visitors/month, and sites for ~ 190 cities in 34 countries.
Selected KB articles
Downloadable
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