I am the most computer-savvy person in my family (other than my little brother) and my wife's family so I get hit up for computer support...often. I don't mind helping people, but it can lead to tedious/frustrating experiences. Let me introduce you to the best computer support application since...well, I don't quite know since what, but I'm referring to Remote Assistance.

Here's my latest use... Yesterday afternoon as I was wrapping up my day and getting ready to head for the sunset I received an IM from my step-dad. "Help, I was infected by Spy Sheriff and now I can't change my desktop background." (Here's a safe link to the wikipedia description of Spy Sheriff, which is spyware NOT anti-spyware!) I did a quick search and found the fix he needed, but it involved editing the registry which is not in his repertoire of computer skills. Within 10 minutes I had instructed him (via IM) how to enable remote assistance and send me an invite to help. 5 minutes later I had made the necessary changes on his computer (in San Antonio, TX) from my desktop at work (in Redmond, WA). Suh-weet!

If you need help or just want to see what it's all about, here is a complete step-by-step guide to using Remote Assistance.

~tod

tags: microsoft remote+assistance

Kudos to the peeps over at MS Research! They've earned a bit of fame via an eWeek article (MS Research: Type-Squatters Are Gaming Google) by researching how cyber-squatters (a.k.a. typo-squatters) are exploiting Google's AdSense program. The ironic thing about it is that they're also using Google's domain park program to do it.

In short, what they do is register domains that are subtle typos of popular company names and websites by replacing, ommitting and adding characters. Some of the typos registered are obvious trademark infringements such as microsokft.com, disnryland.com, etc. Then they use the Google AdSense for domains program to serve up advertising on "parked pages." That way they don't have to do any website design at all...just let AdSense do it's thing and collect the cash from unwary visitors.

An interesting twist presented in the article is that Google is actually encouraging this practice, which is [probably] quite illegal given how much money large corporations put into brand recognition. I honestly hope that they recognize it as a problem and are working towards a resolution or at least putting some form of control factors in place. Obviously they cannot enforce the law, but I do feel they have a moral and business responsibility not to ignore this type of misuse of their system.

~tod

Last week I posted about my truck being stolen (stolen truck != merry flippin christmas) sometime Thursday and I have a little more news for those of you interested.

I got a call Friday night around 8:30 PM that it had been found, but wasn't in the best condition. It was stripped and dumped about 10 miles from my house, so I hopped in my Tundra and headed out to look at it before they towed it. My poor, poor truck.

The body itself was still in decent shape, but they had completely stripped the interior of the seats, dash, radio, speakers, cd changer and even the dome light. The ignition had been punched so the steering column was wide open with wires hanging everywhere. The matching canopy I had on the bed was gone along with everything inside (large dog crate, boots, camping chair and several small tools) and even the tailgate. They took my custom wheels and oversized tires from the rear...and I'm not sure why they left the front ones. The grill and headlights were also ripped out, but the engine actually looked to be pretty much intact (I'm no mechanic though).

It's obviously totaled. In fact, when speaking with the insurance adjustor yesterday she agreed that just based on my description it's a goner.

Even though we had outgrown it as a family it was a damn good little truck that served me very well for the past 10 years. It'll be missed! [queue funeral music]

~tod

Yep, Merry freakin Christmas to the Hilton household...my truck was stolen sometime yesterday.

It's not even a flashy, new truck. It's a 1995 Nissan Hardbody 4x4 that's in great condition (mechanically and body), runs really well and is paid off. Actually, that's the biggest pain of all. Even if I buy a good used vehicle to replace it I'll still end up with a stupid car loan where I haven't had one for several years now. The extra couple of hundred bucks a month isn't going to feel very good on our pocket book.

~tod

Hmm, let's see how this whole w.bloggar thing works.

w.bloggar was easy to install although it does require a reboot (argh). Setting up a account for my Space was also pretty simple following Dare's tutorial. I was up and running in less than 15 minutes (including the install, reboot and account configuration).

With regard to w.bloggar itself... It has a pretty clean UI, which I greatly appreciate. All of the typical buttons are in the typical places and it appears to have quite a bit of customizability. I can save my posts locally before uploading them [I wish it would auto-populate the saved file name with the post title].

So far so good. I'll keep you posted [stupid pun intended].

~tod

update: hmm, it doesn't seem to like formatting. In w.bloggar everything is formatted all nice and perty (line breaks and such), but not when I view my post.

update2: looks like i have to use html tags in w.bloggar to get my formatting to look write. that's kind of f'd up from a user's perspective.

tags: spaces+api msn+spaces

I realize I'm a few days late on this, but damn good news!  The API for MSN Spaces is finally released publicly!  Time to try out w.bloggar [respected freeware that also works with dasBlog] and maybe even watch Dare's tutorial discussing how to use it with Spaces.

Quote Mike Torres: 

It's here! MetaWeblog API for MSN Spaces

Dare just announced that our MetaWeblog API support is complete and released to the world.  It's the first step in a number of cool new and exciting things coming your way.  The reason this one is so impactful: you no longer have to rely on our web experience to post blog entries.  You can search one out that meets your unique needs and use it to your heart's content.

I'm using BlogJet quite a bit these days myself.  Check out the list below and on Dare's space - there should be a ton more applications coming online over the next few weeks and months.  If you're currently using a tool that isn't on this list, just contact the developer and let them know that MSN Spaces now supports the standard.  It shouldn't be too much work for any developer already supporting the MetaWeblog API to turn around support for Spaces.

Enjoy!  Click below for more details.

Quote Dare Obasanjo: 

Carnage4Life's Space: MetaWeblog API for MSN Spaces now widely available
Our implementation of the MetaWeblog API for MSN Spaces is now publicly available. You can use the API to create, edit and delete blog posts on your space. The following blogging applications either currently work with our implementation of the MetaWeblog API or will in their next release

1. W.Bloggar
2. Blogjet
3. Ecto
4. Zoundry
5. Qumana
6. Onfolio
7. Elicit
8. PostXING
9. Pocket Blogger
10. Diarist - PocketPC

~tod

tags: spaces+api msn+spaces

Self-critical. 

The most shocking thing by far - and I mean shocking - is the level of openness at Microsoft. This company is the most self-critical group of individuals I have ever seen. You can't imagine the expression on my face the first time I saw dozens of emails sent to thousands of employees with the subject "why msn search sucks". If you think Microsofties are a bunch of uptight, conservative, greedy, businesspeople, think again.

These are ex-newsgroup junkies, ex-BBS junkies, ex-debate team leaders, ex-hackers... They tell it how it is - no BS, no dancing around pink elephants, and then they fix it. And from what I've seen so far, 90% of the time, the voice of reason, not the voice of authority, wins out. It is a true meritocracy, and I love it.

Previous "Things I like about working @ MSFT" posts: 1, 2

Have you tried the Encarta bot with MSN Messenger?  I have to admit they've made it with a sense of humor... 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tod says:
      am i sexy?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
      I don't know. Are you sexy?
Tod says:
      maybe
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
      Maybe?
Tod says:
      if you like skinny white boys
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
      I sure do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tod says:
      i am a genius!
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
      A genius? I see.
Tod says:
      do you?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
      No.
Tod says:
      asshole
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
      I understand that's a rather unkind insult.
     OK, should we get back to the kind of questions I was designed to answer?
     

(the smiley face was actually added by the bot!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tod says:
      ok, how many people live in seattle, wa?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
      There are 569,101 people in Seattle, WA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We install everything via scripts so that means for me to roll out the fix to production I had to code the update in transact SQL.  Add to that the fact that I cannot lose any data from the table made the process a little more interesting than I had expected.  I can do this through the GUI in 10 seconds flat or via T-SQL when first creating the table column, but I've never had to do it to an existing table via T-SQL.  Let me tell you...I had a hell of a time trying to figure out the syntax from SQL Books Online.  In fact, I didn't. 

1. IF OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID('TableName_Here'), 'TableHasDefaultCnst') = 0
2. BEGIN
3.         ALTER TABLE TableName_Here WITH NOCHECK ADD CONSTRAINT [ConstraintName] DEFAULT 'DefaultValue_Here' FOR ColumnName_Here
4. END   

Refactoring is the process of rewriting a computer program or other written material to improve its readability or structure with the explicit purpose of keeping its meaning or behavior.

 

In software engineering, the term refactoring means modifying source code without changing its external behavior, and is sometimes informally referred to as "cleaning it up". In Extreme programming and other "agile" methodologies refactoring is an integral part of the software development cycle: developers alternate between adding new tests and functionality and refactoring the code to improve its internal consistency and clarity. Automated unit Testing ensures that refactoring does not make the code stop working.

 

Refactoring does not fix bugs or add new functionality. Rather it is designed to improve the understandability of the code or change its structure and design, and remove dead code, to make it easier for human maintenance in the future.

For example, suppose you have an import tool for some system and as far as you know, you’ll only have to support one import client. By all means write an importer specific to that client. Now your boss tells you to implement an importer for another client. Write that one specific to that client. Once again your boss tells you to implement an importer for yet another client. At this point a pattern has been established. Your boss is a liar and you’ll probably need to implement importers for many clients. Now is the time to refactor the code and generalize the concept of importers.

Here I am about to write my third method in this web service in the span of a few weeks and I'm sure there will be many more data pulls using this web service in the near future [because my boss is not a liar and has told me just that fact ].  It's time to refactor!

• ...a prohibition against any business for selling or renting a Mature, Adults-Only, or Ratings Pending game to a person who is younger than seventeen.
• It would punish violators with unspecified fines...
• ...authorize the FTC to conduct an annual, random audit of retailers to determine how easy it is for young people to purchase Mature and Adults Only video games and report the findings to Congress. These findings would be part of a larger annual analysis of ESRB game ratings. "This analysis will help ensure that the ESRB ratings system accurately reflects the content in each game and that the ratings system does not change significantly over time," read Clinton's statement.
• ...allow private citizens to file complaints with the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) "if they find content to be misleading or deceptive."
• Not only will Section III of the bill give the FTC the authority to investigate misleading ratings, it will actually require the body "to conduct an investigation to determine whether what happened with GTA: San Andreas is a pervasive problem."
• ...empower the FTC to "take appropriate action if [Congress] determines that there is a pervasive problem" with the ESRB's rating system.