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Tonight at work we had a discussion on who knew cats can get HIV, in cats its called FIV.* One girl, a classic of course, asked.* How can a cat get HIV?* Well my interpretation people found quite amusing so I figured I would go through the steps of how a cat gets the "disease that keeps on giving" A male cat sitting at home lounging decides to go out.* He hears of a party going on across town.* This get together is typically referred to as a "meow mix".* As he struggles to reach his mecca, dodging cars and pitt bulls, he arrives and sees this angel among cats.* She has the longest tail, the shiniest coat and the sleekiest legs that he recognizes can leap a 5 foot garbage pail in a single leap.* At first she blows him off, no chance in hell.* Well you know, catnip gets introduced and inhibitions drop.* Her tune changes and she starts thinking, this guy isnt so bad.* The dialog goes as follows. Male cat:* Meeeow Female cat:* Meeow right back at ya big boy They go off in a private area and she neglects to tell him 15 other male cats meeowed her in the last week.* he gets a little catnip, she gets a little catnip, he gets more catnip, she gets more catnip, he gets even more catnip, he gets a liiitle more catnip and its on.* He forgets about the kitty condom and they do the kitty tango.* He finishes up and goes home smoking the black and mild, meowing the lyrics of "Shawty got low" feeling a little victorious.* A little more like the alpha male of the Feline kingdom. A couple of weeks pass, his lymph nodes are the size of tennis balls.* he's dropping weight and not even trying.* He gets the dry cough.* Then it starts, gastrointestinal malfunction and he is feeling bad.* Just lays around can hardly move.* The owner takes him to the vet, a simple blood test administred and a couple of days go by and the results come in.* He's got the Feline immunodeficiency virus.** Now he's got a lifetime of drug cocktails, shots and possibly a bone marrow transplant if his owner decides to go through the expense.* What a shame.* A cat with so much to live for, thwarted by a night of unprotected leisure activities.* A future denied by the side effects of a byproduct of his night of fun. tsk, tsk. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

So, i need to preface this with a couple comments.* First, I'm so angry right now, and need to vent, and this was the first place i thought to post to.* Second, historically, i've been a pretty big Microsoft fan and have been using MS technologies almost exclusively for the better part of 10 years.* Onto the rant: Seriously guys, what going on at Microsoft.* I've just spent the better part of a week trying to renew my god-forsaken MSDN subscription, the better part of 4 hours today and it still isnt working properly.* It was a huge pain in the (I need to watch my language) last time (when i signed up for it), and now i'm bordering on the edge of sanity having to deal with the 20+ step process it takes to register my stupid subscription.* In the meantime, I cant install VS2008 to work on the projects I need to work on.* The people in charge of MSDN subscriptions and the eOpen website need to be fired and/or shot.* They are so abominably bad that (1 out of every 3 page loads results in an error page on the site) I'm considering getting rid of our subscriptions and just trying to deal with less and less microsoft software and buying only VS off the shelf.* But I'm at my wit's end. Next off, product activation.* At best, it's a horrible nuisance for us legitimate customers.* The Activation 2.0 changes are more onerous than Activation 1.0 (which is saying quite a bit), and numerous times, i've had WGA complain that I'm using pirated software when I'm not.* I wonder if this sort of BS is driving customers into Apple's open arms.* I'm seriously considering it for all non-work tasks. And then there's the .NET Framework.* Seriously guyh... 200 megs... What idiot okayed that?* MSFT wants adoption of it's new ui toolkit which is for building client apps.* So what does it do? It packages a 200 meg redistributable that you need to send with your app.* Sorry Microsoft, my app is 5 megs, I'm not about to ship a 205 meg installer.* Seriously, I wonder what those product meetings were like!* Was there broad agreement that this was the best course of action? Did you guys think that 200 megs was no-big-deal?* Well... you've pretty much guaranteed that my apps will be 100% wpf-free.* Now i'm even more irate that i spent so much time learning the platform.* I even went to a 2-day class on expression blend.* All useless knowlege. Finally, and i know i'm not being original here, but Vista... ugh.* I just got a new desktop and decided to install Windows Server 2003 on it instead of Vista, and boy am I glad i did.* My machine now runs seemingly twice as fast.* Gone are the 30 seconds it took to unlock the machine, the ridiculous slowdows when memory consumption reached 75%, inordinately long boot times, the black screens as the DWM spazzed out, the redesigned and ridiculously confusing network center, slow network performance, i could go on... I'm never going back. Ok... so i realize that this rant isn't exactly coherent, but up to 2005 i would have called myself a Microsoft "Fan".* That the beast has managed to irritate and alienate such a loyal customer is unfathomable to me.* I wonder how bad this is going to get.* At any rate, I'll be polishing my Mac development skills in case Windows users defect en masse, as I think that's actually possible now.* I guess a small part of me hopes they do.* That's significant for a developer that's staked a career on .NET.* I also hope that you guys get your act together. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

For the sake of “passion for technology” mantra, you might want to tri-boot your Windows Vista with Vista-XP-Ubuntu. I wouldn’t be doing that anytime soon with my laptop but you might want to try this one out. TheVistaForum posted this tutorial and in an excerpt: here’s a guide on how you can tri-boot your pre-installed vista! assuming that [...] More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Write caching should be able to increase performance of SATA disks and enabling it is recommended in laptops and computers connected to power supply regulators as the risk of losing data is nil when power suddenly shuts out. To enable your write caching simply: 1. Type “Device Manager” in the start button and run it. 2. In the [...] More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Simplicity is making waves in PC market Seattle Post Intelligencer - 1 hour ago However, Microsoft is doing that work with the older Windows XP, rather than Windows Vista, which has much more substantial system requirements. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Simplicity is making waves in PC market Seattle Post Intelligencer - 6 minutes ago However, Microsoft is doing that work with the older Windows XP, rather than Windows Vista, which has much more substantial system requirements. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Chapter 38: Hitting the Road of the book titled Special Edition Using Microsoft® Windows® Vista was published by InformationWeek with permission to the author. This chapter covers the mobility aspect of Windows Vista that allows you to utilitize features while on the road. In an excerpt of the chapter: Some people predict that some day, a global [...] More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft fixes three flaws with two patches; one is critical CNet News.com Blog - 30 minutes ago ... affects users of Microsoft Windows 2000, XP SP2, Server 2003, but not Windows Vista. The update addresses the vulnerability detailed in CVE-2007-5352. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft's Patch Tuesday Brings Two High Priority Fixes CRN, NY - 1 hour ago A security advisory on Microsoft's security blog stated that the first patch, MSA-001, was deemed critical for Windows XP and Windows Vista and was also ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

On today’s TechNet radio,we learn more about the support IIS7 has for running PHP applications on Windows Server 2008 as a first class application citizen. We will also cover how to run PHP on IIS6, a new addition.* We also have our January 2008 Security Bulletin with Kai Axford and Tim Rains. Eric Ostrowski - Your Show Host and TechNet Radio Producer Ruslan Yakushev – Senior Program Manager Mai-lan Tomsen Bukovec – Mai-lan Tomsen Bukovec is the Group Program Manager for Internet Information Services (IIS). Mai-lan is a seven year veteran of Microsoft, working in the Office and Windows Server divisions. She was part of the Microsoft Transaction Server 1.5 and 2.0 teams and started up the Visio development community in 2001 with its first two generations of SDKs and developer focus in the product. Mai-lan also participated in the “Centro” development effort to put together a Windows Server solution server targeting the mid-size business. Mai-lan is the author of two books on strategic planning around Web-based technologies, as well as numerous technical articles in MSDN Journal. Kai Axford – Senior Security Strategist Tim Rains - Security Response Communications Lead Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft's Patch Tuesday Brings Two High Priority Fixes CRN, NY - 59 minutes ago A security advisory on Microsoft's security blog stated that the first patch, MSA-001, was deemed critical for Windows XP and Windows Vista and was also ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Critical TCP/IP Worm Hole Dings Windows Vista eWeek, NY - 7 hours ago The bugs, rated critical for all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista, could be exploited by remote attackers to "take complete control of an ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

To start with, I'm a complete newcomer to the world of MSI's.* So far, I've messed around with a few simple install projects built in Visual Studio. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the basic terminology and methodology, so at this point I'm not ready for a lot of actual code. How can I add install reporting to the install?* Ideally, if the user is connected to the web, I'd like to know 1) if the install was completed, stopped by user intervetion or failed for some reson AND 2) in the case of a failure, get as much info as possible about why the install failed.* Is a "custom action" the right sort of thing to be investigating? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Ok started playing around with Groove for work as a document storage system or something at least better then what we are currently using.* We don't have a groove server or anything setup, just different people sharing files via groove. Anyways a couple of questions: 1.* Where do the documents get saved?* Can I change that folder? 2.* What about search, can I use Window Desktop Search to search those folders and files? 3.* Can I have a document in Groove stored in multiple folders or "tagged" somehow? Anywyas just looking for some help in Groove, any where to point me? Thanks More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Well, that's me FINISHED with Asus. Forever. Ever. Never, ever ever ever again will I buy anything from them. Maybe the EEEPC. Probably not. As you who follow know, I have an Asus WL700gE router. I used to think it was the bees-knees - it probably is for those who can get it to freakin' work. I plugged it into my Vista thinking this "State of the Art" router would work fine, and I'd be up and running in no time after reading glowing reviews on the web. Upon discovering it was incompatable with Vista I was 50% cheesed off. I accepted that I'd have to stick it on the dreaded "Family PC" where it would probably get whacked and dropped and whatever, so I'd been putting it off until this evening. After about 15 minutes messing with the damned thing, getting cables etc sorted, I booted and started the oxymoronic "EZ Setup" utility. Yeah. Right. EZ. Well, I got further than on vista. On vista I simply got "Network Error", which was reported to be the SAMBA not playing nice with Vista. On XP, it was a simple install, apparently. I started the install, inserted my settings, lalala, and hit Next. It began to configure... and after 10 painful minutes gave me "Errors Occurred" - not Error, Errors. Also, nothing else to help me - just errors occurred. No reason, no HINT at what the hell was wrong. *sigh*. So, do what the little troubleshoot guide says; reset the router and check all the cables. Everythings fine. I'm using stock cables and a DLINK DSL-320T. After about 5 attempts, and 5 "Errors Occurred", I'm sending the damned thing back, and I don't ever want anything to do with Asus again. Apart from the EEE. Maybe. 100% cheesed off. I'd use the P word but I'm not allowed. Asus just lost another customer, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not the last. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> How do I… Remote desktop to a Windows XP PC from Windows Vista TechRepublic, KY - 31 minutes ago Consumer adoption is taking place much faster than corporate network administrators are willing to roll out Vista in the enterprise. This blog post is also ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Critical TCP/IP Worm Hole Dings Windows Vista eWeek, NY - 41 minutes ago The bugs, rated critical for all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista, could be exploited by remote attackers to "take complete control of an ... Inside MSRC: Critical Windows flaw affects XP, Vista SearchSecurity.com all 3 news articles More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

It's been a while since we had one of these. http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7851/desktopdi7.th.gif (sorry the quality's so awful, but GIF appeared to be the only format that would compress it to within the upload limit) More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/08/directvs-pc-tuner-is-real/ now i would be very happy if i could get this for dish network. but if i can not then i am jumping ship to DirectTV.* anyone know about*a dish version? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/01/08/found-footage-they-iscrewed-me-again/ hehe... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Inside MSRC: Critical Windows flaw affects XP, Vista SearchSecurity.com, MA - 3 minutes ago Systems most at risk are Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista – given that IGMP is listening by default. In contrast, Windows Server 2003 does not ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Critical TCP/IP Worm Hole Dings Windows Vista eWeek, NY - 7 minutes ago The bugs, rated critical for all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista, could be exploited by remote attackers to "take complete control of an ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Sorry if this is old news, but ... Slashdot has picked up on an article written for a Defense Dept. journal by two retired CS profs from NYU (who now run an Ada software company): "Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?"* The article (online here) claims that CS students aren't being taught the basics: "Over the last few years we have noticed worrisome trends in CS education. The following represents a summary of those trends: Mathematics requirements in CS programs are shrinking. Thedevelopment of programming skills in several languages is giving way tocookbook approaches using large libraries and special-purpose packages. Theresulting set of skills is insufficient for today’s software industry(in particular for safety and security purposes) and, unfortunately,matches well what the outsourcing industry can offer. We are trainingeasily replaceable professionals." The authors claim that a big part of the problem is the use of Java as the first programming language taught in the curriculum. "Because of its popularity in the context of Web applications and theease with which beginners can produce graphical programs, Java hasbecome the most widely used language in introductory programmingcourses. We consider this to be a misguided attempt to make programmingmore fun, perhaps in reaction to the drop in CS enrollments thatfollowed the dot-com bust. What we observed at New York University isthat the Java programming courses did not prepare our students for thefirst course in systems, much less for more advanced ones. Studentsfound it hard to write programs that did not have a graphic interface,had no feeling for the relationship between the source program and whatthe hardware would actually do, and (most damaging) did not understandthe semantics of pointers at all, which made the use of C in systemsprogramming very challenging." More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Welcome to a new niner, hand crafted by moi in a school laboratory, using only a clock mechanism, Tensol 12 (glue), Acrylic and a Laser cutter! He's my little frankenstein... I call him frankenine! edit: http://lloydhumphreys.com/images/c9/hello9guy.JPG added a link because the pictures huge (and of terrible quality) and the editor doesn't seem to like http://lloydhumphreys.com/images/c9/hello9guy.JPG More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Geek to Live: The command line comeback Lifehacker, CA - 19 hours ago Microsoft is taking a page from Google's playbook with Windows Vista. In Vista, the Windows key summons the Start menu and puts your cursor in the search ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds