August 2005 - Posts

Ergonomic Mice (use two instead of one) - this is just silly

Ok, I've been looking at alternative input devices for a while, trying to find something that wouldn't set off my arm and back (damaged in a car accident many years ago), and I can see the benefit in a lot of them, but haven't found any that I'm ready to get... But this one (or two, I guess) posted on Gizmodo this morning, is just plain silly.

It's two mouse. One for the left hand for clicking, and one for the right for moving the pointer. And since you only "click" with the palm, instead of your fingers, it's supposed to prevent Repetetive Strain Injury. But, for crying out loud, I already have a problem with the fact that I have to move my right hand about six inches every time I reach for the mouse (to get over the number pad), now I'd have to move both of them to move the mouse. Ugh... And don't even think about gaming with it.... Someday, someone will build a better mouse, but I don't think this is it.

Posted Wednesday, August 31, 2005 10:46 AM by szurgot | 3 comment(s)

Windows Wishlist - X-Windows like functionality (individual windows from RDC)

As I mess with all of these betas and CTPs, one functionality I really miss from when I worked with Unix was/is the ability to send individual windows to a listening "X-Server". On a good X-Server (Hummingbird Xceed), you could have individual windows shwo up instead of the entire desktop. (This was always useful for getting through the firewall to run programs. Tunnel through, spawn xterm, and kick off any other program from there...) At any rate, it would be nice to fire up a virtual server session, and kick individual programs back to my main desktop, instead of having to run the entire server/virtual desktop.
Posted Sunday, August 28, 2005 1:51 AM by szurgot | 1 comment(s)

VS 2005 August CTP and MSDN Subscriber Downloads revamped...

On a hunch, I checked the MSDN subscriber downloads tonight, and was greeted with two things:

1) They've revamped the downloads site to include a search (I think I saw this mentioned a while back), and cleaned up the front page.

2) The August CTP of VS 2005 is now available. Let's see how many things got fixed that they keep talking about <grin>

Posted Sunday, August 28, 2005 1:38 AM by szurgot | with no comments
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XBOX 360 - Base (Core) configuration doesn't make sense

Been reading about the XBOX 360 pricing, and all the discussions around it, and I've been trying to figure something out... The Core package doesn't come with a HDD or a memory unit, so you've got no place to save anything. Which means it's going to cost $340 to really do anything with it anyway, which not just go with one package and be done with it.

And what's with only having HD cables in the premium box... Not that many people are going to have HDTV's lying around :)

Personally, I'll go with the Premium because I should have my HDTV within a few weeks, wireless controllers are a favorite, so it just makes sense anyway, but the core package doesn't quite add up...
Posted Wednesday, August 17, 2005 2:04 PM by szurgot | 3 comment(s)

Nice little SQL Server Cheat - Using GetDate() in a user defined function

As a rule, I prefer not to "cheat" when coding, but this one problem has pestered me enough, and has always seemed like something you should be able to do... Use GetDate() in a user defined function. You can't, because it's "non-deterministic" Bah. If I want to use the timestamp in a function, I should be able to. At any rate, a little digging on google today turned up this article, which basically says put the function in a view, and call the view from the UDF.

Thought I'd pass it along for anyone else who wants to do this.

Posted Thursday, August 04, 2005 12:28 PM by szurgot | with no comments
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