Blogs|Jan 22, 2009

Blast from the Past: How Son-Of-FDISK Saved My Computer

You can tell how long someone has been around computers by mentioning “FDISK” and seeing if you’re met with a blank stare. Not many people remember FDISK. But for those that do, that knowledge can still come in handy today. Two weeks ago, I was packing my bags to head for the airport when my…
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wintellect-blogs|Jan 13, 2009

It Could Only Happen to Richter

I had dinner with John Robbins and Jeffrey Richter tonight, and after an hour or so of chit-chat, I asked Richter what time it was. He checked his watch and found that it had blanked out. Turns out he’s wearing a solar-powered watch, and it’s been so long since they’ve seen the sun in Seattle…
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Blogs|Jan 2, 2009

PC Magazine: 1982-2009

It’s old news by now, but I couldn’t let it go by without saying a few words about an old friend who’s no longer with us. PC Magazine began life as a print magazine in 1982. And what a magazine it was! In the early days of personal computing, which were like the wild west…
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Blogs|Dec 15, 2008

Setting the Record Straight on XamlReader.Load

Many Silverlight developers (myself included) have found out the hard way that applications that use XamlReader.Load often don’t work on PCs in Europe and other parts of the world. I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago but had some erroneous information in my blog entry. I have since conducted more rigorous testing and…
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Blogs|Nov 13, 2008

Survivor: India

International travel can be a joy or it can be a pain. As I pack my bags to return to Hyderabad, India this afternoon, I’ve tried to pack my carry-ons smartly but lightly. My carry-on items include: Spare pair of short pants (it’s hot in Hyderabad, even this time of year) and a T-shirt in…
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Blogs|Nov 12, 2008

Silverlight Enigma Simulator Updated

Thanks to a comment left in my blog, I realized that my Enigma simulator didn’t perfectly replicate the operation of a real Enigma. I have updated the code and you can download it from here. If you simply want to run the simulator, click here. You’ll notice that the letters on the rotor wheels now appear…
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 11, 2008

IE7 Running Slow as Molasses? Try This

A few weeks ago, IE7 suddenly slowed down on my main PC. Each time I’d start it up, IE7 would take several seconds to get past the “Connecting…” message, meanwhile leaving me staring at a blank window. Once I got to the first screen, performance improved, but occasionally clicking a link would produce a 404…
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 4, 2008

Introducing the Silverlight Enigma Simulator

Thursday is National History Day at our local high school, and just in time for the competition, my son and I put the finishing touches on a German Enigma simulator to complement his display—written, of course, in Silverlight. Here’s what it looks like:   Enigma machines were used to encrypt Axis military communications in World War II.…
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wintellect-blogs|Oct 29, 2008

Page-Turn Framework Updated for Silverlight 2

I just returned home from the PDC after a marvelous few days in sunny L.A. Sunday’s Silverlight precon was a blast, and if you attended, I hope you felt it was worth your time. I could have easily filled out two more days with Silverlight fun and games, but I tried to hit the high points…
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wintellect-blogs|Oct 24, 2008

Cool Silverlight Trick #5

I leave for the PDC tomorrow morning, but there’s time for one more cool Silverlight trick before I leave. One of the features added to Silverlight 2 late in the development cycle was the CompositionTarget.Rendering event. CompositionTarget.Rendering is essentially a per-frame rendering callback that lets you build high-performance animation loops driven by logic executed in…
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