July 2004 - Posts

[Human Factor] In Honor of a Different Kind of Code Hacker
30 July 04 08:15 PM | CSharpener | 3 comment(s)

Francis Crick, who, in 1953, unravelled the structure of DNA along with James D. Watson, died on July 28, 2004. Crick and Watson's discoveries led to our present understanding of the genetic code, which is arguably far more important to all of us than the computer code we celebrate on our weblogs every day.

For details and an appreciation, see Francis Crick, DNA Helix Discoverer, Dies at 88, Francis Crick one of the most brilliant and influential scientists of all time MRC statement, and Remembering a DNA pioneer.

Let us all pause for a few nanoseconds to give thanks for a life of value, one that was truly well-lived.

I must hasten to add that we should equally give thanks for the unfortunately short life of Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958), who should rightfully have shared the glory for elucidating the structure of DNA (also, see this article contributed by a commentor to this post: Rosalind Franklin: Unsung Hero of the DNA Revolution). Perhaps it is not too late to redress her ommission from the historical credit for this great scientific discovery. Surely, Rosalind Franklin's name should be recorded as one of our many "Great Women of Science!"

Filed under: [Human Factor]

[Languages] IronPython is out and OpenSource!
28 July 04 10:39 PM | CSharpener | 2 comment(s)

I am *so* stoked! Python, one of my very favorite languages, is now a real .NET language. The incredible Jim Hugunin has just released IronPython-0.6. Furthermore, IronPython is Open Source, under the Common Public License - v 1.0. Here is one Pythoneer's sincere "Thank you!" to Jim!

NOTE: As of August 2, 2004, Jim is going to work for Microsoft on the Common Language Runtime (CLR) Team. It will be awesome having someone of his caliber on that team to present the case for the needs of dynamic/scripting languages. Congratulations, Jim!

Filed under: [.NET General], [Languages], [Tools]

[Languages] o:XML Object-oriented XML, the Language
24 July 04 01:10 PM | CSharpener | with no comments

Check out this new XML-based programming language, o:XML. I have long anticipated something like this but am embarrassed to admit that I didn't discover it two years ago, when it got started. Version 1.0.0 was proudly released on the project's second anniversary. I only found about it because it was featured in the Daily Python URL (on 2004-07-23), one of my favorite non-.NET information sources (Rss 2.0 feed).

Filed under: [Languages]

[SoftDev] Cleanly start and stop Windows Explorer
24 July 04 10:20 AM | CSharpener | with no comments

See how to cleanly start and stop explorer.exe at Jeffdav's Weblog for some obscure Windows knowledge on how to deal with Explorer crashes, etc.

[General] Is SBC's cfd.exe Spyware or Adware? SBC says, "No."
18 July 04 03:05 PM | CSharpener | 9 comment(s)

Several sources on the net have reported that cfd.exe is spyware or adware. The "BroadJump Client Foundation" software is automatically installed with SBC's DSL kit. I, myself, have wondered about this and was on the edge of uninstalling it when I decided to chat online with SBC support. The SBC support professional has certified to me that cfd.exe is only being used for network management purposes.

For the benefit of others, and to put that answer "on the record," the following is a transcript of that chat session. Please note that I have only replaced my SBC email address with "Customer." "Filbert" is the name of the responding SBC representative.

How can we assist you today? Filbert: Hello Customer, we have received the following information from you, upon entering this session: Operating System: Win ME Email Client: Yahoo Mail Computer Type:Acer Aspire Processor Speed: 333Mhz - 450Mhz Ram:64MB - 128MB Modem Type:SpeedStream Modem Speed:DSL Browser:Netscape 6.x Customer: Hello! I am trying to clean all spyware and adware from my machine. One item that shows up on the Internet as spyware is the BroadJump Client Foundation software (cfd.exe). This was automatically installed with SBC DSL. Can I safely remove cfd without impairing my SBC DSL service? Filbert: I understand that you want to uninstall cfd from SBC DSL services, is that correct? Customer: Yes. BTW, BroadJump.com is now Motive.com Filbert: I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced and will try my best to assist you. Customer: AFAIK, I just need to shut down cfd.exe in TaskManager and then uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs. What I want to know is will that impair my DSL service in any way. Filbert: Please know that CFD is not a spyware, it is internal file in DSL connection manager. Filbert: It is used to check your system settings and also network settings associated with your computer. Customer: Other sources say that it is transmitting information from my computer that can be used to target advertisements. Customer: If the information it transmits is not being in any way used to drive advertising to my computer, I do not have any problem with that. Can you certify that it is only being used for network menagement purposes? Filbert: To remove that file, you need to uninstall DSL connection manager from your system. Customer: My message timed out. I repeat it here: Filbert: Sure. Customer: If the information it transmits is not being in any way used to drive advertising to my computer, I do not have any problem with that. Can you certify that it is only being used for network management purposes? Filbert: Please know that file is not used for advertising purpose, it is only used by connection manager for network check and your system settings. Customer: In that case, I will leave it be.

Filed under: [General]

[The Human Factor] OK, I'll byte.
18 July 04 02:06 AM | CSharpener | with no comments

Originating from the demented mind of some bemused induhvidual, the "Page 23 Meme" has been spreading wildly. I was fascinated by memetics, when I first encountered it, so I'll participate in the experiment. However, the real meme I am spreading is the meme of memetics, itself! Oh, and I just recognized that I also seem to be heavily propagating one or more Google memes, as well. Do notice that I have not merely propagated "Page 23." I have also added some sort of content that took some sort of thought. Whenever I become conscious that I am spreading some meme, I usually try to add value.

Call to action

There is a meme making the rounds of blog-space. Here are the steps to take if you want to follow it.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

My entry:

• Book: Tufte, Edward R., _Envisioning Information_
• Sentence: "(As statisticians explain, marginal distributions are not wholly informative with regard to joint distributions.)

Note: Instructions are never quite good enough, are they? Tufte's page 23 starts with part of a sentence carried over from the previous page. Should that be counted? Should it be counted if over half of the sentence is on the target page? Oh, and that partial sentence was part of a block quotation. Should material from a block quotation be considered or only original sentences contributed by the author? I decided to skip that sentence and start with the first sentence that began on the page. Oh, and the sentence I selected, you may have noted, is parenthesized. Should I have skipped that and gone on to the next non-parenthetical sentence? When we give instructions to computers, we must be really careful. Perhaps we should exercise the same caution when ordering people around!

BTW, I caught this meme from this post.

PS, if you got this far: Did you notice that my meme links in this post were all different? Have a look at the URLs.

Filed under: [Human Factor]

[SoftDev] Kent's Rules for Refactoring
17 July 04 07:22 PM | CSharpener | with no comments

Over on the Trivial Thoughts Weblog, Michael Kent posted some very non-trivial thoughts on refactoring. You can do worse than to follow Kent's Rule for Refactoring Code.

Filed under: [SoftDev], [Refactoring]

[The Human Factor] Score = 42 to 6 ... oops, make that 42 to 2
17 July 04 04:56 PM | CSharpener | 1 comment(s)

I lost! We lost! Who won? spammers! (I refuse to capitalize them).

Noise = 42. Signal = 2. That's a 0.0476 signal-to-noise ratio, folks!

Can't we all really get serious about spam? Today, a web mail box I use (I thought) for technical information had 42 bulk mail messages and 6 inbox messages, of which four definitely should have been in the bulk mail. The bulk mail has been sufficiently offensive that I don't even want to check that folder to see if anything worth reading went in there accidentally -- I just click "Empty."

I'm absolutely certain I'm not the only techie who is losing the email game that badly. This is partly why I'm reading feeds now instead of email lists; but, it really, really irks me to lose to the kinds of lowlife creeps who think spamming is fun or profitable.

Arrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhh!

Filed under: [Human Factor]

[Tools] Visio .NET Enterprise Architect Edition conflicts with Visio 2003 Professional
14 July 04 11:32 PM | CSharpener | with no comments

Courtesy of a kbAlertz RSS feed, I just discovered this alert: "This file cannot be opened because it was created with a newer or unrecognized version of Visio" error message when you try to open a Visio drawing by using Visual Studio .NET.

I ran into this one just the other day, when I wanted to use Pavel Hruby's fine new Visio Stencil and Template for UML 2.0. I had to install Visio 2003 Professional, which is now part of the Microsoft Office Suite, apparently. That enabled me to load the stencils and then I could export them to the format expected by the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect Edition. This was a very tacky solution but it worked. Lo and behold! Now, it is the official Microsoft answer. I wish I had seen this alert before I had to think it out for myself!

The actual Microsoft home location for this notice is here: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 870571.

BTW, the RSS feeds at kbAlertz are very helpful and I highly recommend them. See HOWTO: Access RSS feeds for kbAlerts.com? for details (free registration required).

Filed under: [Tools], [SoftDev]

[.NET - General] .NET doesen't belong at the Microsoftian Core!
14 July 04 11:03 PM | CSharpener | 1 comment(s)

Sorry, fellow .NET aficionados, but this recent advice from Microsoft is highly important: KB# 841927 - Do not use .NET Framework Class Libraries or other framework libraries in core operating system processes. It's only common sense, really, but they gave me a hammer for my birthday and now they don't want me to use it on the OS! Shucks! Durnit!

Filed under: [.NET General]