Tales from a Trading Desk

Bill Gates at Davos: 'Blair' doodles amuse Number 10

Here

Search Clustering

Toolbar and Microsoft Research paper..

VS 2005 nears beta 2

Here - I've heard rumours that some ex-Microsoft employees don't believe VS 2005 will ship this year - take this with a pinch of salt.

Cell Architecture Explained

Interesting stuff - Azul on a chip.

NTL and Windows Media Center

Useful page on STBs here. Some general info on Media Center and the UK here.

My Life as a Quant

Here (via Slashdot)

DSDM

DSDM

The principles:

1. Active user involvement is imperative.
2. The team must be empowered to make decisions.
3. The focus is on frequent delivery of products.
4. Fitness for business purpose is the essential criterion for acceptance of deliverables.
5. Iterative and incremental development is necessary to converge on an accurate business solution.
6. All changes during development are reversible.
7. Requirements are baselined at a high level.
8. Testing is integrated throughout the life-cycle.
9. Collaboration and cooperation between all stakeholders is essential.

PVR

Ever since a colleague showed me MythTV I've been considering installing a PVR myself.  MythTV runs on Linux, whereas GB-PVR (via Brad) runs on Windows using .NET.  Since my Linux box isn't that powerful, whereas my Windows box is, my preference is to install a Windows based PVR.  From a hardware decoder viewpoint, I think I'd go with the Hauppauge PVR350.  Is anyone running GB-PVR with NTL?

I've also looked at Windows Media Center, and based on a quick bit of research, the Eversham ebox looks the most unintrusive - but it does cost £900 for the basic model.

MSN Messenger 7.0 BETA

I finally got time to install the latest beta of MSN Messenger.  7.0 looks a little cleaner from a UI perspective than previous version of MSN Messenger.  Handwrite is a nice feature, but I'm not sure I'd use it much given that I don't have a Tablet PC - although having a Tablet PC isn't a requirement.  Given the recent Halo 2 release, it's no surprise that Microsoft offer a Halo 2 UI Pack for MSN Messenger.  I also see subscription services creeping in - MSN Photo Swap.  MSN Web Messenger works quite nicely as well. Web Messenger will also make life easier for most of my colleagues who work for various corporations on locked down PC's and restricted firewall access.

One question for Microsoft - is MSN Messenger now written in .NET ?  If not, why not?

Tracing System Calls

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