Author Archives: Steve

Five reasons I’m a PC

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The following are a few of the reasons I enjoy the PC, and thus Windows. While I also use Linux, it’s only a small part of my PC experience.

#5 Custom Build

Not long after learning what a computer was I found out how to take them apart, upgrade the memory and processor, and ultimately build an entire PC from scratch. It’s one of the great aspects of the PC market, as opposed to Apple, is being able to choose from a wide range of components and parts, which also means lower prices due to competition. There was fun in figuring out how powerful a computer my money could buy. It seems that this era of hacking together a machine is slowly coming to an end as the computers of today are becoming more specialized and built in smaller form factors.

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No more spam with Mailinator

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Do you hate every time you have to give your email address just to activate your registration only to receive a bunch of spam related to that service. Well now you can use Mailinator to view email sent to any username @mailinator.com you like. You just go to their site and enter the username you chose and they will show you any mail recently received at that address. There is no privacy, you can see the mail for any mailbox that has been created with them.

A neat feature is that you can subscribe to the RSS feed for any mailbox so that you can easily keep an eye on the mailbox for when new email is received.

Check out their FAQ for more information and features, especially the one near the bottom with the question “What are ‘Alternate Inbox Names’”.

Zune Dies and Resurrects Itself

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So on Dec 31, I got to work, hooked up my Zune and was ready to listen to some fine podcast/music, when I noticed the loading screen was not going away. After searching all over the place I realized many other Zune 30 owners were having similar problems.  After awhile, I found out that Zuneaggedon was upon the entire population of Zune 30 owners (all 5 of us, right?!) and our Zunes were bricked, or seemingly so.  Finally I receive update that the Zune will arise from the dead, without doing anything, after seemingly hanging itself over a measly leap second.  Well I’m glad to say Microsoft responded well, but didn’t show a great standard of software development (especially after events like Y2K).  I now have mixed feeling about the Zune, though I think I shall get the Zune Pass Buy 10 deal for a while and then decide whether to stick with what I previously viewed the superior music/audio listening platform.

The Zune team was very quick to respond, and gave some relief that they were at least looking into the problem, and official came out with the solution of waiting for Jan 1, 2009 to roll around (Patience is a virtue I guess).

Zune Team’s official update
Some great commentary about this fine New Years Event can be read on a TechFlash article

Microsoft marries jQuery for VS 2010

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According to Scott Guthrie, jQuery will be integrated into Microsoft’s Asp.Net platform including Visual Studio 2010. They plan to basically just give developers a much better experience while using it along with Asp.Net AJAX, but they will use the main branch from jQuery and adhere to its MIT open source license.  Javascript intellisense is already implemented in the 2008 line of Visual Studio, but this will enhance the jQuery library with better intellisense documentation. This is definitely great news.

Correct Click Event on Typing Enter

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If you work with ASP.Net and have multiple buttons on the form that correspond to different textboxes you’ve probably run into the problem of a user pressing the “Enter” key and submitting to the wrong button’s server “Click” event.

I finally found the solution @ http://forums.asp.net/p/1292662/2501472.aspx using Panel and DefaultButton.

You can put TextBox and Button inside the Panel and use DefaultButton property. In that case you will not need any javascript:

<asp:Panel ID="Panel1" runat="server" DefaultButton="Button1">

Half Way Point

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Previous Post: New-years-resolutions-and-goals

2008 Overall Goals (ie: Resolutions):

  • Determine my career focus Just started my new full-time position as a Web Developer
  • Ski 30+ days Jan-May Got in all my skiing needs during the season!!
  • Reduce Balance on Credit Cards to zero by June now probably Nov
  • Lose weight to achieve goal weight of 185 lbs (~30lbs to go – Christmas did not help)
    • 20lbs to go – going home where lots of home cooked meals are provided does not help
  • Attend a Video Games Live concert. I still need to document this awesome experience.
  • Continue keeping Inbox @ zero. No more than 10 emails ever in the inbox last six months ;-D
  • Get rid of anything I don’t need (give to goodwill or auction off on ebay) In time for the move in 2 weeks
  • Vox once a week or 50 times (these include only substantive posts with real content)
    • Not sure exactly how many I’ve completed (approx 19), but definitely behind schedule.
  • Complete first professional version of tranbonium.us, and my personal site stevetranby.com
  • Finally for once and for all determine and organize my online identities (merge and split where necessary)
  • Enjoy each and every day! Enjoying it for sure! Still a whole 5+ months to go though.

2008 Development Goals: I didn’t really do well here, I guess I had too much fun outside enjoying the weather that Colorado has to offer.  I really should Vox about some of that stuff, eh?  Plus with the new job and a few trips I didn’t take the time to research anything in particular.  I hope that work actually lets me get back on schedule.

iPhone Gains Speed and .mac Mobilizes

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Apple announced the next version of the iPhone with the tag line “Twice as fast. Half the price.” The new unannounced, but heavily rumored features are 3G (HSDPA), GPS, and MobileMe. The rest of the story is the new 2.0 version of the firmware that includes Enterprise features, support for 3rd party applications, and worldwide support (ie: 70+ languages). Thanks to MacRumorsLive I was able to read the keynote information through live streaming.

Price (Purchase Page)
The price with AT&T 2-year contract is now $199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB, which should allow for a much wider adoption.  I would consider getting one if it were $100 cheaper for the 16GB.  I really think with a 2-year agreement, Apple should take their losses on the purchase of the phone, knowing they’ll make it up due to their cut on the monthly fees in the required contract.

Features (Apple’s Feature Page)
To quickly run over the features they include: 3G, GPS, Bluetooth, App Store, Exchange support, push contacts, push calendar, push email, instant contact search, VPN, WPA2, MobileMe, email attachments, additional languages, better email management, scientific calculator, and more. All software updates will be available to current iPhone users.

3rd Party Apps (App Store Info)
This will be the killer feature for sure. The new application support will be a great improvement. I’d love to test out development if only I could afford a new Mac right now, or if they supported development on Win/Linux. People have already been putting apps by hacking the phone. The interesting thing Apple decided to do was create a Push notification service that will allow the iPhone to connect only to apple to get notifications for ANY application, and will relay the information from the 3rd party to the iPhone user.  This will allow IM to feel like it’s running in the background, even though technically it is not. I believe this will be a great feature, and will as they claim keep stability and battery life in check.

MobileMe (MobileMe Info)
The last, but not least announcement was the upgrade to the service previously coined “Dot Mac”.  This service allows you to sync Email, Calendar, Contacts, Photos, and more across computers, the iPhone, and the Internet. They give you 20GB of space now to store everything. Finally this is a service that is almost complete enough to merit the price of $99/year. Apple touts it as Exchange for the Rest of us.

There is much more to be found on Apple’s website, as well as many other sites. Check out TechMeme for the flood of information.

Daaa-da-da-daaaaa … I Give You the Memristor!

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HP announced in April 2008 that they had developed a switching memristor. This is supposedly an electronic device that falls under the fourth, previously unknown and now debated, fundamental circuit element.  In 1971 a link between charge and flux was missing from the four fundamental electromagnetic quantities (charge, voltage, current, and magnetic flux), and the element that linked them was named “memristor”, but was not developed.

It is an interesting technology due to the fact that it could create non-volitile memory that is both cheap and many can fit in a tiny space. Part of the discovery is due to the new capabilities with regard to nano-technology. The uses are not fully known, but it might never see the light of day due to the domination of the transistor and other non-volatile memory that already exists.

Basically a memristor is fundamental a charge-dependent resistance element. This means that the magnetic flux over the element is a function of the amount of charge that has passed through it, simply changes resistance as it is “(dis)charged”. However, don’t take my word for it, as I understand the subject, but have done no research. Instead take a look at some other reports:

Golden Compass and the Subtle Knife

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Jen suggested I read the Golden Compass and the rest of the trilogy of His Dark Materials written by Phillip Pullman. It took a little bit, like many books, to really get into it, but once I had read the first couple chapters I knew this was going to be a fun and exciting ride.

I enjoyed the Golden Compass (or Northern Lights as it was originally titled) once I finally got into it through to the last page turn, and it had me excited to begin the second.  There is dramatic character development, as well as lots of interesting and exciting action with definite plot twists along the way. Definitely a great start.

The subtle knife started out not directly where the first leaves off, but rather begins the tale of another child named Will. Quickly the storyline comes in sync with the first, and the exciting journey is whisked off to another world (literally). The story quickly builds to an even greater level in this book, but unfortunately for me is a sort of “to be continued” ending, and thus I now have the need to find time to finish the last book of the trilogy.

Overall the reasons I love this story are many. I love the incredibly interesting scientific and theological undertones and overtones that this series revolves around the soul, dark matter, and multiple parallel universes. The writer has a great ability to write for kids on the surface, while giving adults the ability to dive deeper into the substance of the content. I also love books where multiple plot paths are taken, thus causing an inherent need to read the next page or chapter.

Proof that Music Connects Us All

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A video from TED showing new ways to think about, and experience music.

Tod Machover of MIT’s Media Lab invented the musical technology behind Guitar Hero, and at TED2008 he talks about what’s coming next. Listen for some brand-new ways to interface with music — to play it, compose it, enjoy it. Machover then introduces Dan Ellsey, a composer with cerebral palsy who uses the lab’s tools to write and perform his own music. Ellsey conducts his “My Eagle Song,” in a soaring performance that underscores music’s power to give you chills.