"Personal" archive
Monday 29 January
- Paved with good intentions (22:07) - Almost every day I think "I really should take some time today and post on my blog." It looks like today is finally my lucky day. I see another month has gone by. But boy has it been busy! My brother (the one that I work for), his wife and my two nephews came for an extended visit (they live overseas). Fortunately, cell phones, email and other wonderful technology has made it easier than ever to have flexible work time,...
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Saturday 30 December
- Merry Christmas to me (20:19) - If you're like everyone else in my family, you're really going to think I'm crazy now (if you didn't already before). I just bought a $300 keyboard, the Kinesis Advantage USB Qwerty/Dvorak Black. See It. Here were the factors that went into my decision (in no particular order): 10% off sale when ordering before Dec. 31. My current keyboard is going on 9 years old (amortize $300 over 9 years and it comes to $30/year or about 8.2 cents per...
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Monday 25 December
- Merry Christmas! (11:13) - Merry Christmas to everyone. May peace be with you on this day....
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Tuesday 28 November
- Breaking the silence (20:30) - It's been a long time since I last posted, I know. I think about it every day. If I even have any readers left, I'm sure all three of you have noticed that my posts have been slowing steadily since the beginning of the year. Rather than let the silence continue, I wanted to update everyone as to why there's been such a change in my posting habits. The original purpose of my blog was mostly to chronicle my developments...
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Saturday 22 July
- First editions: Miamians in print (19:05) - First off, a shout out to all of the Miami University (OH) grads who read my blog! Go RedHawks! Aside from Miami being a totally awesome school, there is another motive for today's drivel. When all of you fellow Miami grads get your Summer 2006 edition of the Miamian, be sure to flip over to page 42 and check out yours truly listed on the First Editions: Miamians in print page. Look at the bottom-right of the page and you'll...
Thursday 1 June
- A wee bit of plumbing advice (20:19) - I would like to offer up a bit of free advice for anyone considering a plumbing project: Do not commence a plumbing project on a national holiday. This is especially true when the plumbing project requires that you shut off the water to your entire house because the thing you're working on (e.g. my bathtub) does not have its own shutoff valve. This leads to my second bit of [somewhat less useful] advice: When you build a house, be sure...
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Tuesday 25 April
- To LASIK or not to LASIK, that is the question (16:32) - Last Friday, I was evaluated for the LASIK vision correction procedure and found out that I was a good candidate. That is, I have sufficient corneal thickness, my eyes are healthy, my vision is correctable with LASIK, etc. My vision is fairly bad (about -4) and while I don't really mind glasses, they can be inconvenient (such as at the water park, amusement park, when exercising, etc.) and it would be nice not to be dependent on them. The high...
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Friday 3 February
- Friday Special: Professional Entertainment (13:00) - Checking the PO Box is usually a fairly boring experience. Insert key, open door, pull out mail, close door, remove key, flip through envelopes. "Bill, payment, payment, bill, magazine offer, payment, payment, bill, hmm, not sure what this is." What this is turned out to be the highlight of my day it was so amusing. Inside the plain envelope was this sheet of paper: Click for full size With that ad, this company has fully earned my trust. Just look...
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Tuesday 17 January
- Celebrating freedom by doing... taxes (19:13) - I understand it's only natural for people to ask, "How was your weekend" or "what did you do special over the 3-day weekend?" In my case, however, I wish I had something better to say about my 3-day weekend. The calmness of the long weekend gave me a great opportunity to do... taxes! No, not my personal taxes, corporate taxes. Curse my Accounting degree! (I was a double-major in college.) The next time I start a business, I'm going into...
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Monday 2 January
- Hot, sweaty and writhing in bed to ring in the New Year (09:51) - Get your head out of the gutter! I'm talking about how I got to ring in the New Year with a nasty Strep Throat infection. I spent most of Saturday with chills, nausea and fatigue, and then spent the night tossing and turning and not sleeping well. I spent Sunday morning looking for open Urgent Care facilities in this little corner of Ohio (on New Year's day!). The doctor thought Strep almost right away, and was so concerned about the...
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Sunday 18 December
- I choose the sarcastic away message sub-culture (17:16) - I'm convinced that there is an entire sub-culture in IM away messages. As some of you know, I very much enjoy psychology and sociology, so I find the social (or is it non-social?) element of away messages quite intriguing. One of my favorite "categories" of away messages are the sarcastic, scathing social commentary kind. I recently had the pleasure of making a new acquitance that has transferred from the real world into the virtual, and I have to say that...
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Tuesday 22 November
- From the City of Constellations (20:37) - Today can be best summed up by a picture: Amarantine is not Enya's finest work (that award still goes to The Memory of Trees, at least for now), but as a whole it is one of her stronger albums. There are more above-average tracks than usual, but nothing that really stands out from her collective works. Nonetheless, I'm not complaining... Amarantine is a beautiful musical journey that will be in my daily rotation for quite some time. If you haven't...
Saturday 29 October
- Are you allowed to gloat after being internationally published and translated? (10:37) - Co-writing the wxWidgets book was an amazing opportunity. I was lucky enough to find a followup opportunity by using my leverage as co-author of the book to write an article about wxWidgets that was accepted for publication in Software Developer's Journal. Even more amazing, the article was translated into Polish, German and French, and included in each country's corresponding version of the magazine. The original English article will be published in SDJ's electronic-only English magazine in November. If you live...
Thursday 20 October
- An audio CD is just an audio CD after all (22:56) - Last fall I ranted up and down about copy protected audio CDs, and how I couldn't rip the tracks off of a copy-protected audio CD to mp3. I have since learned that there's a really easy solution: don't allow copy-protected CDs to auto-play. It turns out that the copy protection software is loaded when the CD auto-plays (they are hybrid audio / data CDs) and if the CD never auto-plays, the copy protection software isn't installed. The CD drive then...
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Thursday 6 October
- In Kevin-Euchre, Enya is the right bower (19:05) - I would hereby like to announce that I will have limited availability on November 22nd (date subject to change). On that day, I will be making a beeline for the closest store that sells CDs and be snapping up a copy of the new album, Amarantine, by Enya. It's been 5 years since her previous effort, A Day Without Rain, was released. BitWise didn't even exist back then (the horror!). Any other big Enya fans out there? Maybe I should...
Sunday 2 October
- The Kool-Aid Point (14:14) - I was reading the latest issue of Wired and came across a very interesting blulb in a side-panel. Excerpt from: Head First Design Patterns You don't really have passionate users until someone starts accusing them of "drinking the koolaid." You might have happy users, even loyal users, but it's the truly passionate that piss off others enough to motivate them to say something. Where there is passion, there is always anti-passion... or rather passion in the hate dimension. If you...
Sunday 25 September
- Prison Break (20:36) - Despite my recommendation for last year's TV season (Jack & Bobby) didn't pan out to predict a long-running series, I'm going to go again and hope that I don't create a Sophomore curse. My pick for the new season is the Fox mystery/thriller Prison Break. The basic premise is that Michael commits a crime that lands him in the same prison as his brother Lincoln, who is on death row for killing the President’s brother and scheduled to executed in...
Tuesday 6 September
- Pontiacs everywhere! (10:18) - The service for my grandmother was Sunday afternoon up near Chicago. It was nice to see some family and friends that I haven't seen in a while. I was reminded by the pastor that even though funerals are sad events, they are also a celebration of life. How can you not celebrate 98 years of life? The trip up and back was largely uneventful, but driving along I-65 I think I saw more Pontiacs per capita than I have ever...
Tuesday 30 August
- Death is a natural part of life, rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force (10:48) - My grandmother (my mom's mom) died in her home this morning between 7:00 and 7:45 a.m. CDT in Aurora, Illinois. She was sleeping and was not in any pain. She was 98 1/2 years old and had a long, full and rewarding life. Her death was not unexpected; she had taken a sharp decline in health last week and had been in failing health for quite some time. If I may, I'd like to ask that you remember her and...
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Saturday 27 August
- A few slices of Kevin pie (10:27) - I don't have one major thing to post about today, but since I haven't posted since Wednesday, here's a smattering of short blurbs: - BitWise is now "leetware." Check it out. Look at the August 25th entry. - The BitWise Wiki got a nice start on life earlier this week. I think all of the documentation could actually be gradually moved over, and the wiki easily allows other interesting documentation, like a index of BitWise terms. - BitWise Plus got...
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Saturday 20 August
- Don't bother stealing my mail anymore (14:55) - A word of warning to any budding entrepreneur: registering a business is your ticket to an untold number of credit card solicitations arriving via mail. I put up with this deluge for a while, but one day when I got four solicitations in the same day, I decided that it was time to take some action. Instead of just shredding the offers, I started calling the 800 numbers and requesting that my name be removed from the mailing lists. Every...
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Saturday 13 August
- San Francisco is a lot like fun and success (19:28) - Sorry, I couldn't resist wrapping up with a last San Francisco is a lot like thread now that I'm safely back in Ohio. It was great to be away but it is also nice to be back! The LinuxWorld presentations were definitely a success, and I'm glad I went because I got to meet many of the people involved with the book on the publisher's side as well as interact with many interesting people. I was encouraged by the number...
Wednesday 10 August
- LinuxWorld Brief Update (22:43) - Today was the second day of LinuxWorld, and was the first day of my presentations. I actually got to go twice, presenting over the lunch hour at 12:30 when no one else was scheduled. May as well make the best of it, right? The talks have gone very well, and I have been very happy to sell and autograph quite a few copies. Perhaps one of the most interesting coincidences was the Kirix Strata booth being next to the Prentice-Hall...
Monday 8 August
- San Francisco is a lot like Antarctica (11:29) - Well, it's turned even cooler here--I actually had on a sweatshirt over a t-shirt today. In August! Of course, back home I'd probably be panting in the sweltering heat and humidity, but it just doesn't feel like summer when you're bundled up like it's winter. It's true: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"-- Mark Twain Sightseeing continues to abound. I certainly have enjoyed being away, and I am reminded why vacations are so important:...
Thursday 4 August
- San Francisco is a lot like Instant Messaging (10:32) - Here's the security you get with other IM programs: Pier 39 in San Francisco (no privacy) Here's the security you get with BitWise: Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay (high security) Maybe it's a bit lame, but at least I managed to link my San Francisco trip with BitWise. "A" for effort, at least? :) I've already hit a lot of the touristy stuff--including Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square, riding the Cable Cars (all 3 lines, both ways!), the Cable Car Museum...
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Tuesday 2 August
- Getting out of the heat! (08:11) - It's been really hot here. In Ohio we had several weeks of almost 100 with high humidity, and while we had a few days of low 80s last week, we are headed right back into misery this week. Good thing I won't be here to, um, "enjoy it." That's right--I'm outta here! The 10-day forecast for San Francisco says highs from 65-70--wonderful! Especially since that's where I'll be. The first part of the trip will be pleasure, but at the...
Saturday 30 July
- Ultimate Boot CD (22:10) - This is too cool: Ultimate Boot CD. It's a tech person's dream come true! It has hard drive diagnostic tools, installation tools, wiping tools, cloning tools, sector editors, partition managers, and file tools, plus other great stuff like CPU and memory test suites, network tools, free anti-virus tools and much more. Why haven't I discovered this before now? This will make so many things easier!...
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Thursday 21 July
- This could be the stupidest thing I've ever heard (19:20) - Attention teenagers: It's not cool to suffocate. I was reading in the paper yesterday about teenagers who are intentionally choking or suffocating themselves or their friends in order to induce a 5-10 second high from lack of oxygen / fainting. There have been 10 or so accidental deaths in the past few years that have been determined to be the result of this practice. It has these horrible nicknames like "Suffocating Roulette" or having a "Passing Out Party." This could...
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Tuesday 5 July
- Accomplishing nothing, and everything (17:54) - This weekend was a wonderful combination of my birthday on Saturday and the Fourth of July on Monday. I know that this is going to come as a huge shock from the owner of a small business, but I actually did almost nothing business-y the entire 3-day weekend. I think I did about 30 minutes of "work" responding to emails and forum postings, that was it! Using really backwards logic, that's a huge accomplishment for me! Yay for accomplishing nothing!...
Saturday 2 July
- Books, not a DOS attack (10:24) - Well, here it is, another year older and another year wiser. Last year, someone out there must have thought I wanted a DOS attack for my birthday (remember this?). Fortunately, this year, someone figured out that I would much rather have a book published. With an upgrade like that, what's due for next year? A private jet? :) Here's the final scoop on the availability of Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets. The book is scheduled to be delivered to the...
Thursday 16 June
- Presenting at LinuxWorld in San Francisco (10:18) - Over a week ago I posted that I will be presenting at LinuxWorld in the Prentice Hall booth to talk about wxWidgets and the wxWidgets book. I will be giving my presentation twice during the Expo:Wednesday, August 10th at 4:30 p.m.Thursday, August 11th at 11:30 a.m. Registration for the Expo is free if done in advance. You can register online. I invite anyone to come and see the presentation and to visit before or after the presentations. Or, let me...
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Sunday 12 June
- PC = Personal Computer (13:48) - Here's one conversation element that really drives me nuts: Me: Are you running insert common software category here on your PC? Mac User [but I didn't know it]: I don't have a PC, I have a Mac. Oh really? A Mac isn't a Personal Computer? I've never heard anyone say, "I don't have a PC, I have a Dell." Wouldn't that be the same thing? I have no idea why "PC" has any connotation towards the Windows platform, and I...
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Tuesday 7 June
- Arthritis of the battery (20:18) - So far another successful BitWise Beta, maybe the other shoe won't drop this time. ;) Yet the beta wasn't the most memorable event of the day. I had uploaded all of the new files, then got up for a few minutes to do something away from the computer. When I came back, it was completely turned off, and even the monitors were off (not just asleep). This seemed very odd and I think my blood pressure went up dramatically. Some...
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Sunday 5 June
- The book and LinuxWorld (14:42) - As originally slated months ago, the book is on schedule to go to the printer this week. A recent message from Julian implied a release date of July 8th, but I don't think it's final or confirmed. You will see that I have added a link to the book at Amazon.com in left sidebar; if you are purchasing the book, I would kindly ask that you purchase it through this link as it will keep a small portion of the...
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Monday 30 May
- Successes and (mostly) good news (21:57) - A smattering of good news tidbits:Still so far so good with not locking up in Windows since Friday's driver update. Knock on wood. It is wonderful to be able to log in to Windows in 10 seconds instead of 15-20 minutes. (This is after Windows boots and shows the login window.) I got the rear speakers working in Linux. Took me long enough to find the "New DSP (EXPERIMENTAL)" support in the kernel configuration. It seems even more odd that...
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Saturday 28 May
- Back up and running... maybe.... (16:26) - What a week! Between the now-finished book proofreading, the computer rebuild, and some personal matters, the BitWise 1.0.5 Beta release obviously didn't happen this week. However, I'm now motivated to get it out on May 31st, so that's the new plan. The newest wrinkle in the computer rebuild that may or may not yet be resolved is the semi-frequent random lockups in Windows. :( I'm hoping that my latest effort, locating a newer driver for the onboard Highpoint controller (which...
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Thursday 26 May
- My love/hate relationship with Linux (22:55) - Procrastinating is so much fun. Although in this case, extremely frustrating as well. In the midst of proofreading, I've been tinkering around with my new Linux install (and the new Windows install, too, but that's not so much tinkering as it is setting up). Speaking of proofreading, this last round of proofreading is finally done, and the next stop is the printer! Anyway, let me give you the extremes of my love/hate relationship with Linux. Love: I found this great...
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Monday 23 May
- A weekend vacation into being a nerd (21:14) - How touching that some people were concerned enough to inquire as to why I was offline the entire weekend. :) I actually took the weekend and dived into being a nerd. In the interest of averting a disaster, I'm replacing my 5 year old hard drive with a newer one, a shiny new 250GB Seagate 7200.8 SATA NCQ. Really great deal at newegg, it was only $137! The nice part about getting a new drive is that you can work...
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Thursday 19 May
- Connect with the originals, it does (22:53) - There are no spoilers in this post. Unless you either live under a rock or have pretty much no interest in any pop culture, you probably are aware that the final Star Wars movie was released today. Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith lives up to the original trilogy much better than Episodes 1 or 2. I had been looking forward to its release for months and this afternoon I saw it. The acting is better, the pacing is better,...
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Wednesday 11 May
- Bury the tower, give me a break-out box! (20:01) - I was helping someone with their computer recently, and we found something very interesting about an older IBM Aptiva they still had: the original receipt. This computer was purchased just prior to Christmas 1996, and had a 166mhz Pentium, 16 MB of RAM, a 2.5 GB hard drive, 2 MB video RAM, 8X CD-ROM, 33.6k modem (I think), sound, etc. A 17" matching CRT monitor and HP printer were purchased at the same time. A staggering 5 year warranty was...
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Monday 9 May
- Extreme Makeover: BitWise Icons (16:56) - In my April 23rd post, I talked about some of the changes for 1.0.5, centering mostly around the icons used in BitWise. A recent comment in the user surveys said something to the effect of, "The icons look like Windows 3.1 and need to be updated." Sadly, it is true, but everything is about to change. After releasing 1.0.4 last week, I was eager to see what kind of difference some newer icons could make for BitWise, and I am...
Friday 15 April
- "Medicine" Ball? (22:19) - So here's something I've always wondered and just went and looked up tonight: why is the heavy ball used for exercise called a "medicine ball?" Google wasn't being very helpful, so I tried Ask Jeeves and came up with this result: "Legend has it, that the term medicine ball goes back to their use on transatlantic ships during World War I. They were promoted by navy medics who stuffed kapok and rags into a leather basketball for the seasick or...
Wednesday 13 April
- Come visit me at my PO Box! (20:10) - This is another one of those problems that really should have been solved a long time ago by databases and intelligent programming. Has anyone else ever received a catalog addressed similarly to this one that I received last week? Kevin Hock OxONet Inc Or Current Occupant PO Box 331 Even if I had the largest PO Box size available, I still don't think anyone could be an "occupant." How hard would it be to do a search and replace, looking...
Saturday 9 April
- X's or Y's? (14:47) - This is the "bring your little brother or sister to campus" weekend at the local University, and I was reminded of one of my long-standing questions about life. Assuming that you are the younger of only two children, is it better to have an older brother or an older sister? If you like, I can make it even more complicated by asking that question separately for the younger child being a boy vs. being a girl. I have two much...
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Saturday 12 March
- George Lucas on 60 Minutes tomorrow (22:59) - While I wouldn't classify myself as a "Star Wars nut/freak/whatever," I do like Star Wars. I haven't ever really gotten in to the post Return of the Jedi stuff, mostly because everything seems so nicely wrapped up that it seems a shame to learn about all the turmoil afterwards. Anyway, I was eager to see the trailer for Episode 3 that was shown for the first time the other night on Fox (after the O.C., which I didn't watch, of...
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Wednesday 9 March
- Will you be my moo? (21:23) - You know it's a good day when you ask someone, "Will you be my moo?" The best part is I don't know what it means, I just thought it sounded funny. Plus I really need to start living up the craziness of the aoeu message from last week... :0 Potpourri this evening: - The wxWidgets book manuscript has finally been submitted after a series of extensions (remember it was originally due March 1st). We also have received a first draft...
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Sunday 6 March
- The answer to the aoeu/asdf riddle (22:30) - I promised everyone an answer to the "aoeu" message, and gave the clue it began with D. The full answer is "Dvorak" because I use the Dvorak key layout. If you hit the keys that makes asdf on Qwerty but are using the Dvorak layout, you get aoeu. :) I just needed some text for a message, which was supposed to go only to me, so I used my left hand to quickly generate some text. So despite popular opinion,...
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Friday 4 March
- asdfasdfasdfasdf! (23:42) - I can't believe that my recent post about the "aoeuaoeuaoeuaoeu" message has become one of the most commented-on posts. Does that mean that the posts with real content are boring? :( Anyway, I wanted to clear up the mystery, but instead of directly clearing it up, the title of this message is a rather significant clue. If you know the answer, put the first letter of the answer/reason in a comment. That way we'll know if you were right or...
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Saturday 12 February
- Inverted sliders will make me famous yet, darn it! (22:59) - On January 24th, I posted about the slider widget and the concept of inversion; rather than the slider having the maximum value at the bottom, having the maximum value be at the top. The short recap is that someone submitted a patch for wxWidgets to add inversion, the patch pretty much sucked, and because I needed inversion for BitWise on OS X, I went ahead and worked on the inversion. On Thursday, I finally added inversion for the Windows version,...
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Saturday 1 January
- Kevin's little Grammy ceremony (09:56) - Happy New Year! To kick off the new year, I thought I'd have my own little mini Grammy ceremony celebrating some of my favorite music from 2004. They are a bit over the top, but why not start the new year in a grand way, eh? Best New Artist: Howie Day. While technically Howie made his first album in 2002, it wasn't until late in 2004 that he was discovered by much of a mainstream audience thanks to his song...
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Thursday 30 December
- If I made resolutions... (23:13) - ... I'd resolve next year to not go three days without posting in my blog. As it is, I'm not usually one to make resolutions because I don't see any special reason to wait until afetr January 1st to improve myself or my life. So I'll just try and do better. :) Hmm, "Do, or do not, there is no try..." Things are good; I've been working on the book and it's going well. I actually added about 7-8% in...
Monday 27 December
- Update on the wxWidgets book (22:43) - On October 8th, I announced my participation in the first-ever wxWidgets book, being chiefly authored by Julian Smart, creator of wxWidgets. I haven't really said much about it since then, so I thought I'd briefly write about it again. It could have something to do with my using this week between the holidays to wrap up my chapters with finish touches and a last round of significant revisions. :) I have all of my four chapters written (sockets, data structures,...
Friday 24 December
- Merry Christmas! (08:24) - I was reading an article the other day that there is growing backlash against "Happy Holidays;" that political correctness has gone too far and there is nothing harmful, insensitive or worthy of censorship in "Merry Christmas." I definitely agree. Christmas may be at its root a Christian holiday, but the spirit of Christmas is something everyone can celebrate: times with friends and family looking forward to the New Year, taking time off from work, gift-giving, enjoying the 20 inches of...
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Monday 29 November
- OS Libraries and Development (16:57) - One of the questions I get asked when others find out that I work on Windows, Linux and OS X is "Which platform is your favorite to develop for?" I haven't really had a good answer until today. The criteria for my choice: the amount of time spent fighting the compiler, the OS, or standard system libraries. From this perspective, my favorite platform for development is OS X. Back story: regardless of how you feel about Microsoft, you have to...
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Saturday 27 November
- I'm thankful for old BitWise screenshots (23:14) - I hope that everyone in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I've certainly been enjoying some time off, but I thought I'd post a fun little set of screenshots of BitWise version 0.1.7.9, released October 1st, 2002. As primitive as it was, I still have some very fond memories of those early versions... Click on any thumbnail for the full size picture. Buddy ListChat WindowFile Transfer PS: The file transfer shot was taken with only a single router between the...
Thursday 11 November
- Firefox hits the front page of USA Today Money section (09:10) - I'm not particulary anti-Microsoft, but I always like to see a healthy dose of competition. I was really thrilled to see a front page article in yesterday's USA Today Money section about Firefox, which this week released the long-anticipated Version 1.0. It is almost unanimous among users and experts alike that Internet Explorer is beyond stagnant: it is dangerous. I hope that you will join with me, millions of users worldwide, and the companies and governments that have denounced Internet...
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Sunday 31 October
- My favorite London picture (23:43) - Without a doubt, my favorite picture from my recent trip to England is the one of London's Tower Bridge open for ship traffic. Perhaps it's overly sentimental of me, but one of my strongest memories of being in London when I was 6 years old was Tower Bridge opening on my birthday. When we went into London a few weeks ago, I hoped that I would be so lucky, and even though it wasn't my birthday, it was still a...
Tuesday 26 October
- Jack & Bobby (23:33) - No, I'm not talking about the Kennedy family. What I am talking about is the new show on the WB called Jack & Bobby about two brothers growing up, one of whom serves as President of the United States from 2041 to 2049. Fortunately, the mystery of which brother it will be was revealed at the end of the first episode. The story of Robert McAllister's presidency is told both through stories of people close to him--his wife, the vice...
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Monday 18 October
- 7 days without Internet access -- bliss! (21:56) - I have returned alive and well from England. A good time was had by all, the wedding was nice and I really like Sian's groom. He seems like a nice guy and I'm sure he'll treat my 2nd cousin well. It was nice to visit with family and see everyone that I haven't seen in a long time (or at all--Claire, Sian's older sister, now has 3 girls of her own!). I am glad to see that BitWise can survive...
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Monday 11 October
- I need a vacation... oh wait, I got one! (09:38) - I'm sure that this is an absolutely horrifying thought for many of you: it's entirely possible that I may not post for a whole week. ;) Naturally, I'm thrilled about this because the reason is that I'm going to England! One of my 2nd cousins is getting married, and so my mom and I are going for the wedding. My brother and has family are also going, and since they live in Moscow, Russia it will be a great chance...
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Friday 8 October
- Kevin Hock, author (23:02) - I have some very exciting news to announce: I have recently joined Julian Smart, original founder of the wxWidgets C++ GUI framework, as a co-author of the new wxWidgets book to be released next year by Prentice Hall. I will be contributing chapters on sockets, data structures, installing wxWidgets and creating cross-platform projects. It is an honor to contribute to this book alongside Julian and other core wxWidgets developers. This truly is an amazing opportunity for me as a developer...
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Wednesday 15 September
- Ridiculous magazine publishing cycles (13:33) - I'd just like to note how ridiculous it is that the November issue of PC Gamer arrived in my mailbox today. I don't have the time for games anymore, but I still like to read about them, that's close enough for me. :)...
Monday 13 September
- I've been wxPromoted! (23:05) - Some of you know that BitWise uses the wxWidgets library to work some its cross-platform magic on Windows, Linux and OS X. We first started using wxWidgets for BitWise when BitWise was rewritten (that major effort began May 2003 and ended March 2004). One of the advantages of using an open-source collaborative library like wxWidgets is that when you find a small bug that affects you, you can take the initiative to fix it yourself, and then submit a patch...
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Friday 10 September
- Humanity through a 17" rectangle (23:36) - It is undeniable that the Internet has opened avenues of communication that did not exist just 10 years ago. We now have the ability to "reach out and touch someone" half the world away with the touch of a few keys. Cameras and microphones allow us to see and hear people instantly. Or, for the true multitasker, text-based IM lets you communicate with multiple people all at the same time, none of them knowing that they don't have your full...
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Monday 6 September
- Nature Boy (22:21) - As many of you probably know, this weekend was Labor Day here in the US. For the first time in a many years, I actually participated in Labor Day this year by taking time off, which isn't always easy for the "self-employed" entrepreneur (or as a student not too many years ago). As much as I like my work, being away from it does wonders sometimes, especially when the time off takes you somewhere far outside of your normal environment....
Saturday 14 August
- His swimming, my computer science (23:10) - Unless you live under a rock on the moon, you probably heard that the Olympics started yesterday. I've never been a huge sports fan, but there's always something alluring about the Olympics, so I always watch a bit of it when I need a break or have a few minutes to spare. Like a good lemming, I have bought the media hype surrounding the swimmer Michael Phelps and how he is poised to possibly beat Mark Spitz's 1972 record of...
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Thursday 5 August
- Asinine Restaurant Rules (11:21) - Two nights ago, I went with two other people to eat at local-area chain, a pizza / subs / pasta type place. This particular restaurant has a Monday and Tuesday special where you can get a large garden salad, rolls and all you can eat spaghetti for $5.49 (which was only $4.99 until recently). This is a nice deal when you don't feel like cooking. The other night, all three of us got the spaghetti all you can eat special....
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Saturday 3 July
- DOS attacks, birthdays and desks (00:31) - As announced two weeks ago, BitWise 1.0.2 was scheduled for release on July 2nd (my birthday!). Some of you may have noticed that July 2nd has come and gone, and 1.0.2 isn't out. There's a very good reason. On Thursday, July 1st, through the night and into the morning we were experiencing some severe slowdowns and connection anomalies. Our upstream provider switched off the IP address to our main web server, which, of course, caused services to be inaccessible. The...
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Wednesday 16 June
- Releasing software on your birthday (17:19) - I'm a person that is always enamored with "milestones" and "landmark dates." It shouldn't be too much of a surprise then that I like to have BitWise releases, if possible, on dates that have had some significance in the past. While we didn't make the date, the original release date for BitWise 1.0 was going to be exactly 2 years since we first conceived the idea of BitWise (February 17th, 2002). BitWise 1.0.2 is currently planned for a July 2nd...
- Today's mail could change your life (11:18) - "Mommy, what's this?" I asked as I held up a 5.25" floppy that I had picked up from the table as I sat down for dinner. "That's something that they're trying to sell me, it goes along with a magazine I get," she said as she continued serving. "But what's on it, are there any games?" I asked. Looking back, it's clear that my cut-to-the-chase brutal honesty was something that I developed as a child. Truth be told, two games...
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