Just got back from Americas Conference on Information Systems. It was pretty good. My networking skills was a little lacking. I think I did more networking on the flight home than at the conference. In any case it was interesting. Lots of good talks. The demographics of the conference was interesting. (I often count races at things like these). Roughly speaking it was probably:
40% Caucasian
35% Asian
20% Indian/Mideastern
2% African American
1% Hispanic
2% Other

I am working on a research project that will include some text to speech and (once again) Microsoft has come to my aid with some managed code.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/coding4fun/inthebox/TTS-HW/default.aspx

Spent the summer working on research projects. Just really burned out now. I have been writing a paper on wavelet-based decision support. This is some work I did last novemeber, not very exciting stuff anymore. Just really want to finish it. Getting closer though. I think I need to take a break.

I am really digging the VPC thing (see post below). I am now getting into the Live CD thing. I have installed MONOPPIX, which gives you preconfigured MONO with a web server and IDE. Pretty sweet for testing .Net apps in UNIX. In any case, this sent me off to look for more live CDs and I can across this list:

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

I am thinking about using virtual PC (VPC) images for more stuff. I am finally beginning to see the benefit of doing this. For example, instead of installing new apps on my regular machine to try them out, I install the program in my virtual PC and test it there. If I find I like it then I install it on my "real" machine. Keeps my stuff clean and friendly (with no wierd un-install after effects) Whoo!

Guess what? Now MS is making VPCs full of trial MS stuff like VS 2005 etc... pre installed (YUMMMMM!) I am eager to try this stuff out... downloading a 2G image right now. Can you imagine I used to dedicate whole machines to various OSes and configs... I had like 8 of them for various configurations (never know when you need it). I still have 1 multiboot machine that has Window NT 3.1 Server, OS2 3.0, Linux, and windows 95 on it...

Going to start using differencing disks now. Here's a URL on howto:
http://dotnet.org.za/matt/articles/2413.aspx

and a link to what works and what doesnt:
http://vpc.visualwin.com/

and of course a blog on Virtual PC:
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/

You ever get e-mail from firends or associates, that are kind of annoying... like those jokes, or mail about a virus spreading around and to "be careful?" Well a study recently found that e-mail forwarding can be linked to your social status:

Forwarding a genuinely amusing or interesting link to a friend, for example, shows that you are thinking of them and are aware of the sort of content they like, Gross says. But passing an irrelevant or out-of-date link on to contacts can be annoying, thus lowering the sender's social status in the recipient’s eyes.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7662

Arrrrrggggg!!!! I love my new Fujitsu T4010D! But is was awful to move into. I moved out of my Acer C310 tablet into this one. The high resoution is smokkkinnnnn! The move really sucked tho... I spent about 48 Man hours (actually working) to move into it. I have so much software and tweaks and creature comforts... its just not worth it, I can't believe I am saying this but I really dont want a new computer ever again... (ok I am lying....) I just dont want to have to move into a new computer.... too much downtime.

Anyway the new comp is sweet. Specs: 100GB 7200RPM HD 2GB RAM 1400 x 1050 Screen Intel 745 1.8Mhz Aetheros 802.11abg Bluetooth Std ports and other stuff

Whoo! Someone finally figured out how to make nice checkboxes in a web form! You can check it out from here... http://www.gamingheadlines.co.uk/wod/formstyle/index.html (ohhh BTW wanted to try the tablet snipping too so... here's an image of what I am talking about)...

Ever had to insert alot of data into SQL server and did not want to write each record, one at a time? Here's a tip:

INSERT INTO [TABLE] (column1,column2)
select ('Value1','Value1A')
UNION ALL
select ('Value2','Value2A')
UNION ALL
select ('Value3','Value3A')

Note: UNION ALL versus UNION -- UNION ALL does NOT perform a distinct. UNION without ALL eliminates duplicate records (in the resulting recordset) in SQL Server.

Also the maximum batch (query) length in SQL server is (65,536 * 4K) characters long. It would be prudent to avoid passing that limit.

Finding images for various projects can be quite the challenge. Robin Good, provides a very good list of resources on his blog. Most are free for both commercial and non-commercial use.

http://sxc.hu/
http://www.morguefile.com/archive/
http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/
http://www.openphoto.net/
http://www.imageafter.com/
http://www.stockvault.net/