About 20 years ago, I remember reading the original 10 commandments for C programmers.  A lot of time has elapsed since then, and there are some things that needed to change as technology and experience have changed the developer’s world. So here is my modernized version for the sect of Microsoft C# developers in the […]

Back in 1999, the Y2K panic was reaching its peak.  Sadly, it was even starting to consume a few noted national Christian leaders (James Dobson included), which was a little disheartening.  And every church I knew had appointed some person within the congregation as the church’s Y2K representative, whether that person had any real knowledge […]

In an earlier post, I showed how to rethink the traditional MS-SQL CURSOR logic pattern, to minimize the number of maintenance points for FETCH statements (The lost art of break and continue). That post covered the while() { … } loop. Another equally-useful variant is the do { … } while() loop, which also supports the […]

Verizon filed a predictable lawsuit against the FCC this week, challenging the legality of the “net neutrality” rules the commission passed by a 3-2 vote. Not so ironically, excluding the commissioner himself, the 2 commissioners voting for the rules were Democrats, and the 2 commissioners voting against the rules were Republicans. Of course, the logic […]

Back in 2009, I wrote a post related to issues of mutating power settings in Windows XP Media Center (I’ve got the Power! … but not over power properties?!). Since then I have seen the problem also on Windows XP Professional, and on multiple manufacturers laptops (HP, Gateway and Dell). After digging a little further, […]

So that you know up front: I have neither purchased nor ordered the device yet.  I’m not promoting it.  I am just publishing this because so many people I talked to over the past few years really wanted what this device does and, like me, couldn’t find anything like it. I’ve been repairing my 5-year […]

MSNBC published an interesting article on the growing backlash against red light cameras in this country. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43521646/ns/us_news-life The core issue I see in this debate is balancing automated enforcement against public trust, and I’ve got some suggestions for that… based on some experience.  What we are doing right now with automated red light camera enforcement […]

Lately, I have been noticing a problem with Visual Studio’s local web development server and terminal services.  I use Windows 7 Professional, which works wonderfully.  Often, I will lock the workstation and remotely connect to the workstation via RDP when I am at home. Occasionally, I will have a problem getting to the desktop.  The […]

For the third time in three years, my Gateway MX laptop has a broken DC power jack connector on the motherboard.  I always fix this myself. It takes about 2 hours each time (after waiting for the new part to arrive in the mail from eBay) and, surprisingly, the repair time is quite relaxing for […]

I do much less with hardware nowadays, than when I was younger.  I no longer build entire custom systems from scratch. Still, the occasional simple maintenance task, like changing out a hard drive, is something that I enjoy doing.  And in fact, have done for years. But today, I was fearing that the worst thing that can […]