Channel 9 - Discussions by pepper

Coffeehouse - Come Work on Our Team

pepper — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:59:58 GMT

Rory wrote:

Plus, if you think Jeff won't hire from the outside, then somebody here has the opportunity to definitively turn your "NO" answer around. Remove Jeff's post, and it'll be much harder to accomplish the goal.

I've heard the interview process involves robes, candles and secret handshakes.

I'll pass, thanks.

Coffeehouse - XP Until Next Summer!!!

pepper — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:43:10 GMT

Microsoft Extends Sales Availability of Windows XP

PressPass wrote:

REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 27, 2007 – In an effort to respond to feedback the company is hearing from its customers and partners, Microsoft is extending availability of Windows XP editions among original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and retail channels for an additional five months to June 30, 2008. In addition, the company will continue to offer Windows XP Starter Edition in emerging markets where it is currently available for the rapidly growing class of hardware-constrained ultra-low cost PCs until June 30, 2010.

Coffeehouse - It's Quiet

pepper — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:33:58 GMT

eagle wrote:

A Silverlight contest is a great idea!

How do you build a contest around a notoriously buggy product?

Coffeehouse - Police State - It's Coming?

pepper — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:19:54 GMT

I wonder if now would be a good time to buy stock in surveillance equipment companies?

Coffeehouse - Silverlight...meh

pepper — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:12:30 GMT

AdamKinney wrote:

Did you see the Showcase? http://silverlight.net/showcase/

The newest samples show up there.

Thanks...

But it's buggy, too! I hovered over an AOL gadget, and it turned into the "MSN extra free time" gadget. Then when I moved the mouse away sometimes it would turn back into the AOL gadget, and other times it would remain as a MSN thing. This happens on several other things I hover over.

Not ready for prime time, methinks.

Coffeehouse - Silverlight...meh

pepper — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 01:31:08 GMT

I installed the vaunted Silverlight tonight. :O

I first tried it out in Firefox, and tried to view a few of the creations in the Silverlight 1.0 gallery. The piano demo was kind of flat, because it didn't even play music (I thought it would) and only a few of the keys worked.

Then I downloaded some of the demos to try them offline (Page Turner, Silverlight Pad). Both of them half-launched and then broke with Javascript errors. wtf? Sparkle Ball worked, but most of the time the ball disappeared and reappeared just as it passed my paddle.

I went back online through IE6 to the Silverlight main page and bam! I get a message box with a 1001 error. Works fine in Firefox, though.

NOT a good first impression.

P.S. And why are there so few examples in the gallery anyway?

Coffeehouse - Come Work on Our Team

pepper — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:35:25 GMT

Nice spin! You're hired!

I see they've trained you well.[6]

First, young Jedi, agree with the offending poster.

Jeff wrote:

You are right.

Then, proceed to bury the rest of the post with a bunch of irrelevant examples, and top it off with the classic "This of course is how we ensure there is new thought, ideas and perspective" line.

Do you do corporate earnings presentations by any chance?

I think there are some great posters here. Worthy candidates, no doubt. Please don't tell you me you look down on the community here...say it ain't so...!

Coffeehouse - If you could ask only 1 question

pepper — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:01:01 GMT

potatoe

Coffeehouse - Come Work on Our Team

pepper — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:42:03 GMT

W3bbo wrote:

pepper wrote:
Yeah, but have you EVER hired a long time Niner/REGULAR contributor onto your team?

Answer: NO.

http://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Channel9.TheBorgCollective

I'm not talking about being hired by Microsoft (like PaoloM); I'm talking about being hired onto Channel 9. AND from OUTSIDE Microsoft.

Coffeehouse - Come Work on Our Team

pepper — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:39:50 GMT

Yeah, but have you EVER hired a long time Niner/REGULAR contributor onto your team?

Answer: NO.

So why post this here?

Coffeehouse - What did you do while studying at university?

pepper — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:50:04 GMT

[POST REMOVED]

Pepper, this is your last warning.

Coffeehouse - Good Morning! Not.

pepper — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:49:33 GMT

Russian president dissolves government

Israel Snaps Photos of Nukes?

Jakarta 8.0 Quake

Coffeehouse - Football Season :)

pepper — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:52:44 GMT

Camera confiscated after claims of Pats spying on Jets

ESPN wrote:

NFL security confiscated a video camera and its tape from a New England Patriots employee on the team's sideline during Sunday's game against the Jets in a suspected spying incident, sources said.

Coffeehouse - The first book on Silverlight-Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed

pepper — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:04:59 GMT

Thanks for the links. But is this going to be a case of a book being obsolete just as its published? I thought Silverlight 1.1 was just around the corner...

It kind of reminds me of a Java core book I once owned.

Coffeehouse - REMOVED

pepper — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:31:35 GMT

!Object Reference

Coffeehouse - MFC Wizard Overload

pepper — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 22:28:40 GMT

Ugh.

I was putzing around in VS2005, and trying to build a small, special purpose graphics tools for manipulating bitmaps in specialized ways. After what seemed like HOURS of Googling, I finally cobbled together some routines that were sort a mishmash of ideas in C++. I then picked up an older book on Visual C++ 6.0 (old, I know), because I thought there might be a slightly easier way of going about this. I then thought "hey, why don't I give the MFC wizard thingy a try? It's gotta be better than this."

A few checkboxes later, I produced a basic MFC application. It looked real nice, too.

But then I started digging around.

I was appalled that it generated so many files, and then when I tried to work through each file to see what each part did, I was like "wow, wtf does half of this stuff even do? Do I really need all that?"

Is MFC wizard-generated code always a pain to work with?

Coffeehouse - My Video Card

pepper — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:42:56 GMT

Hi...I've been working with some graphics-intensive applications lately, but I'm trying to figure exactly how my machine is performing, specifically the graphics card. I tried looking through my Control Panel, and at the device manager, and it seems to indicate I have a "Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" installed. I know this is a default setup that came with my PC (yay), and I looked here for more info. But is there a good place on the net where I can look at and compare the performance of various video cards?

Thx.

Coffeehouse - Nutball/Beer28 suing C9?

pepper — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:32:46 GMT

That's an interesting way to run a company. I'd change the name for starters, and then the rhetoric. It makes him look desperate and unwilling to negotiate.

Say, where are all the other "trolls" by the way? Perhaps they are spending their energy in more constructive ways (i.e. building something useful)...?

One could only hope!

Coffeehouse - id's Rage

pepper — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:15:55 GMT

Thanks for the links...on a related "game tech" note, here's a project to watch:

http://www.farrarfocus.com/atom/

I'm not sure how to describe it...and the screenshots are really weird. It would be nice if the guy put up a video or something.

Coffeehouse - Blythe Status Report

pepper — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:46:51 GMT

Any updates?

Coffeehouse - Worst thing you've signed up to

pepper — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 00:08:36 GMT

Channel 9!

Where's all the deep academic discussions on programming language paradigms?

Coffeehouse - WTF rant

pepper — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 21:08:59 GMT

DigitalDud wrote:

Vista pre-emptively schedules the GPU so the DWM and any 3D apps running on your desktop run smoothly at the same time, Linux does not.

Vista virtualizes display memory so you can practically run the DWM and 3D apps and not have resource contention. Linux does not.

Vista can remote the whole composited desktop experience over a low bandwidth network connection (Remote Desktop). Linux cannot.

Vista uses pixel shaders to render cleartype fonts and avoid expensive reads from the video buffer in a composited environment. Linux does not.

On Linux you choose between their two best desktop environments available, KDE and GNOME, each with their own distinct problems. But hey you get a 3D WORKSPACE SWITCHER. Whoopty-do.

Big deal, someone did that on Windows: http://chsalmon.club.fr/index.php?en/Yod-m-3d-about

But I'm sure if Windows really supported multiple desktops it would be a usability disaster. Just because YOU love multiple workspaces doesn't mean it would go over well with 900 million Windows users. I personally hate multiple desktops, just give me more monitors.

I hear about Compiz/XGL/Beryl/blah blah all the time, but I think its a huge waste of time for the Linux dev community. It doesn't solve any real problems, it just creates new problems in the form of driver support. Microsoft built the DWM to solve the issue of making WPF apps run well on Vista and simplify the graphics pipeline. On Linux this stuff deverts development resources from solving real problems in making GNOME or KDE a better desktop environment and user experience and instead focuses on eye candy.

Preach it man! Vista is non-stop pure genius and goodness throughout the stack.

Coffeehouse - The Amnesia Pill

pepper — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 23:20:20 GMT

New Drug Deletes Bad Memories

LiveScience wrote:

Researchers at Harvard and McGill University (in Montreal) are working on an amnesia drug that blocks or deletes bad memories. The technique seems to allow psychiatrists to disrupt the biochemical pathways that allow a memory to be recalled.

This could be really useful. I can see it now: "memory of breakup: cancel or allow?"

Coffeehouse - Which Language Is Best?

pepper — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:11:42 GMT

littleguru wrote:

Both languages are compiled into MSIL (the .NET intermediate code). There is no real performance gain if you use one or the other.

I would go with C#, if you have background in C++ or JAVA.

I have made the switch from VB6 to C# and found it really easy to learn - well I had also some experience in JAVA, Delphi and C - but it could been seen as a switch from VB6 to C#, because I wanted a language to replace the old VB6.

Has anybody tried comparing the performance of a VB6 program with a VB.NET program?

Coffeehouse - Which Language Is Best?

pepper — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:09:12 GMT

Dr Herbie wrote:

If you've used VB6 before then perhaps VB.NET might be the better option to start out with, although it is very different from VB6. I suspect that the job opportunities are better with C#, partly due to the old 'VB stigma' that's taking it's time to go away.

You lost me here. I was under the impression that VB.NET was more of an object orientated approach. How is that different from methods, properties, and all that? Maybe I'm getting my terms mixed up.