Big Warcraft News!
According to The Movie Blog, Blizzard has announced that the World of Warcraft movie will be released in 2009! I can’t wait …
8/5/2007 7:38:12 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

I finally have Orcas loaded

With the Beta 2 release of Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas), I decided that it was time to load it.  I’m really interested in Silverlight’s capabilities.  I think it may be the final answer to the problems of developing web applications in HTML and JavaScript.  Flash comes close, but ActionScript isn’t much differnt from JavaScript.  With Silverlight 1.1, I can write a web application in C#, not just an HTML/Javascript emitter (like ASP).

Great idea, but Orcas wasn’t cooperating.  I got an error -2147467259 when trying to install.  I played with the installer settings, no good.  I downloaded the Pro version instead of the Standard version, no good (and why do the installers for these two versions look so different???).  I checked the web for days, and no answers.  I even found a Microsoft feedback issue around this error. MS said that they couldn’t repeat the error and closed the issue  .

Finally, on Saturday, someone said to check if the Web tools were already installed, and if so remove them.  Well, I didn’t have Web tools installed, but I did have the CTP of Expressions Web Developer installed. So, I uninstalled that (and a bunch of foreign language dot net stuff).  Bingo, Orcas is now installed.  Now, I just have to figure out how to do anything useful .

8/5/2007 7:31:48 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  technology

Wii Adendum
An addendum to my previous Looking For Wii entry:  I found one.  I was in Best Buy at just the right time, and was able to snag one.  I like it.  It a lot of fun playing WiiSports.  However, traditional games don’t take advantage of the Wii’s unique interface. I’m hoping that more Wii-specific games come out soon. I can only play so much baseball and tennis …
6/29/2007 12:34:10 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

A Bittersweet night

Last night was a bittersweet night for me.  It was the season (and series) finale for Studio 60.  When this show started the season, it was the best thing on TV (no, really.  No hype.).  On the other hand, I thought its fraternal twin, 30 Rock was the worst show on TV.

In the following weeks, Tina Fey got her sitcom legs and the show began to get really funny.  It ended the season at the top of my list.  At the same time, Studio 60 was tanking.  The show meandered around, with plots that could be summed up as “who cares?”.  Ironically, it wasn’t until the end of the Fall season that the show started working its way out of the doldrums. It was too late.  NBC started sticking other shows in its time slot (none of which did any better, ratings-wise), until it became clear that Studio 60 was dead meat.  I started hearing stories that the actors were moving on, and even if NBC had a change of heart, there wasn’t a cast for another season. 

Then, after the regular season ended, NBC played the last shows.  They’ve been beautiful.  While they haven’t risent to the quality of the pilot, they’ve been top caliber TV. 

Now, it’s all over. I’m going to miss this cast; they were all stellar talent. I hope that I’m going to see them again soon.

6/29/2007 12:31:27 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Looking for Wii

Based on a friend’s recommendation, I decided a couple of weeks ago to get a Wii.  Since then, I haven’t seen a single unit in the stores.  Nintendo can’t be happy about this. I know my enthusiasm is waning.  I used to be a slam-dunk sale. Today, not so much.  It just goes to show how important a good supply chain is.

5/12/2007 2:38:45 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [1]  

Back in Business
Okay, it looks like I”m back in the Blog business. At least by still using dasBlog 1.8.  Now, I just need to find the time to write. I wonder how Jennifer does it…
5/10/2007 9:34:47 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [1]  

Another try
Trying to post from BlogJet again…. Let’s see if this works now too..
5/10/2007 9:32:34 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  general

Well, that worked

Okay, so deleting log files once again got the system to work. Maybe I need to purge old entries...

5/10/2007 9:30:06 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  

I can't seem to post

Okay, second try.  Posts don't seem to be working anymore.  Maybe its time to abandon DasBlog for a *real* blog system.

5/10/2007 9:29:13 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  

Nice.
Hey hey hey.  Posting worked this time, and BlogJet 2 is a huge improvement over the 1.6 I was using before.
2/19/2007 4:41:41 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

BlogJet 2.0

I was here yesterday.  Now that posting to the blog seems to work again, time to try BlogJet 2 again…

2/19/2007 4:40:27 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

It seems that I filled up my blog...

I finally got back to blogging yesterday, and what did I discover? 

My blog site no longer worked!!!!  After spending yesterday and now today trying to figure out why my site would spontaneously stop working, I discovered some strangeness in my log files.

I”m still not exactly sure what happened, but at least, blogging works again!

2/19/2007 8:36:07 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general

Yet another test
Yet another test.  Explanation to follow…
2/19/2007 8:34:07 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general

Test 3

Third test.

2/19/2007 8:32:24 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  

Simplicity isn't so simple

Today, Joel had a post about Simplicity. To me, his point was “it’s not simplicity that sells, its complexity”.  I find this an interesting perspective coming from someone who has a product (FogBugz) that is incredibly simple and whose simplicity is one of its biggest selling points.  Now, this is not a criticism of either Joel or FogBugz.  Hey, I love FogBugz. I use it all of the time, and it rarely gets in my way. And, it allows me to do things that more “complex” systems don't.  Because of its simplicity  .

I think people (and developers, especially) get seduced by “simplicity”.  It isn’t about simplicity, its about (first) usability.  Usability is a particularly personal thing.  To extend Joel’s example, what I do with a word processor isn’t necessarily what a Marketing worker will do with a word processor.  We both want the feature sets that we “need” to do our jobs.  What we don’t want is to have the features that we don’t use get in the way of what we do use.

12/11/2006 4:24:25 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  development

Significant Sci Fi

From Eric:
“This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished, and put an asterisk* beside the ones you loved.”

Additionally, I’ve put an “@” sign next to books that I’ve meant to read, but never got around to …

I’ve marked mine below, Eric. What about the rest of you?

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien *
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert *
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson @
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick @
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley @
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe @
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov *
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany @
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey *
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card *
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling *
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson @
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny *
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement *
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien *
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson @
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

Now, to go find out what’s significant about these books…

11/27/2006 8:20:20 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [1]