Archives

Archives / 2004 / March

  • Speechless

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     Sometimes smart people say stupid things. Sometimes stupid people say smart things. And then there is Rory’s buddy-o Christopher Anthony.  I’ve not read insight as on-point as Christopher’s since I first read Time Cube….

    Now if you don’t mind I need to go bleach my eyes.

     

  • Scripting Goodies

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    While I was compiling the links for this post, I came across another article by Roy titled “Make your .Net application support scripting - a practical approach” that is a great example of how to use the tried and true Microsoft Script Control in a .NET application.

     I had thought about using scripting a while back but decided against it due to the complexity. But I hadn’t thought of using the Microsoft Script Control to accomplish it. Roy on the other had did just that.

  • Simple Plug-in Architecture

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    I was looking for a very simple plug-in architecture today so I “went a Google’n “.  Roy had a great little article (see “Add run-time functionality to your application by providing a plug-in mechanism” and “Search dynamically for plugins without Config Files”) on the how to build one that worked out perfectly.

    Most articles, on any technical topic, seem to spend most of their time talking around the subject rather than giving me a solution I can actually use. I’m sure some will argue that this is because “theory is important” and that is all well and good. But sometimes I think it has more to too with proving the author’s intellectual superiority than some the reader’s education.  Roy does not seem to have this problem. And whenever I’m looking for a quick fix of just the facts, Roy always seems to have the answer.

     

  • Bloated Fish and Pork Rinds

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    I installed the corporate edition of Symantec AntiVirus for the first time yesterday. And aside from the poor quality of their documentation (my god this thing is confusing) I think I like it. But I found their licensing model quite amusing.

    To license the product you go to a special website (the address for which is in .005 point type at the bottom of a page) and enter your license key. They then check that key and generate a license file, which they then proceed to email to you!

    I found it odd that with the vast majority of viruses being sent by emails these days, an Anti-Virus company would be using attachments in their licensing scheme. This is especially true when you consider that a number of virus experts are pushing companies to outright ban file attachments at the mail server!

    This got me to thinking about what it would be like were Symantec to take over the medical profession….

    Patient: Doctor, do you have a cure for cancer?
    Doctor: Yep. Just smoke 2 of these and call me in the morning.

    I’ll save you from my extended version which included an AIDS prevention involving sex with 42 heroin addicts.