Category: Uncategorized

I spent the morning examining the M$DN info that I could find about Visual Studio 7 and M$ .NET. I found a number of links and articles. I’ll only bookmark the ones that don’t crash Netscape 4.73. Here we go: the C# starting page will get you started with white papers and the like. The C# intro has more details. There is also a C# language reference available in Word format. Which I have not read yet. The next thing that really does sort of intrigue me is the ATL Server development platform using C++ as a rapid application deployment system. Interesting in that IIS and C++ are finally working together for a web client platform. Cool. More on the next generation of ADO. Finally, there is .NET overshadowing all of this stuff… browse for yourself I didn’t have the patience and lost interest by that time.

Bottom line… M$ is about 6 years away from going the way of the dodo. The general lack of public enthusiasm coupled with the bad media and lack of trust (I.E. Viri and the like) are the beginings of the end, I think. It doesn’t have anything to do with the government, Oracle, or Redhat. I think that people are generally loosing interest. At least I am. I probably should not speak for everyone. Make your own judgements.

It looks as though M$ is at it again:IE 5.5 angers Web standards advocates “…As if to illustrate the predicament, the download page for version 5.5 came up blank for Netscape users yesterday and this morning. Microsoft has since fixed the problem…” (link via zeldman) I think that the DHTML functionality is wonderful. The big concern here is that it will incourage developers to create things that are not cross browser compatable. I guess that could suck, but AOL could get off of it’s ass with Netscape 6. Or the mozilla team could stop trying to create the Mt. Olympus of browsers, get off the prozac, drink a cup of coffee, and get the fucking thing done already! IT”S BEEN TWO YEARS!!! I swear to god… I think that I’m the only guy in the world who is still hoping for the best from these guys.

Lockergnome – free windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 help, wonderful resource.

I’ve created a mailing list today. Everyone who has registered to post here is already on the mailing list. I promise not to fill your mailbox with junk, just a newsletter every month or so.

If you aren’t registered for paxtonland… please do, we’d love to hear your comments.

current results

I installed I.E. 5.5 yesterday as well… I’m also on a dialup account. Dan was laughing at me. We were both on ICQ as I was doing the install via the windows update site. I had about 40 minutes left when he started his install with a cable modem. He was done in under 3-4 minutes… reboot and all. What a show off.

I’m still not using I.E. as my daily browser though. I’m still a Netscape person. From what I can see I.E. 5.5 is a bit faster, but I’m having trouble seeing the changes. Since I use pretty standard tools, code, and very little dhtml/layers/css… I could care less if it adheres to the w3c standards or not. For most, I think they will agree with me. Uh-oh, time for another poll?

I downloaded I.E. 5.5 yesterday and have noticed a big difference in the speed (yes, I’m still connecting via dial-up). From a developer standpoint, I like the new features. Here’s an article about the new DHTML support features. Of course you need 5.5 to view the samples.

Just two clicks and I’m posting….once on the favorites and once on the “tell dean” button.

Yeah, I’m not sure why the I.E. toolbars in the paxtonland blogger post page yields mixed results. The “tell dean” button works, but it’s ungainly… sorry.

Seen on arstechnica, Minds@work has developed digital wallet. I love this idea, but it is mostly marketed as a smart portable storage device. This is good but, I see much more potential in something like this as a real replacement for a wallet. In fact, I would like ONE device that holds my personal information, medical records, licenses and registrations, etc… and can interact with financial instutions and handle debits and credits. As well as keeping my schedule, contacts, and appointments. AND act as my pager/cellphone. When, oh when is this coming?

I’ve often wondered why this has not happened. We have been conditioned since Star Trek to expect a communicator type device that will do everything. I’ve often wondered if they were cost prohibitave to develop tnd manufacture. Or, if they are too complicated for our technology. But, then again… that’s not true at all. We do have the technology, and the more pricy, high functioning ($799.00 and up) PDA’s have shown that consumers will spend that much. What they can’t do, is understand things that are too complicated. More reasons to hate technophobic baby boomers. More on that later.

Here’s a slashdot piece about MAME. They must be suckin’ for news over there. paxtonland users have know about this gem for a long time. In fact, here’s a link to the best ROM site I could find out there… which someone also pointed out amidst the nasty snipes that are typical of /. discussions. But, don’t stop there. There are many many resources out there for MAME, Retrocade, and others… if you are into this sort of thing. Check out Arcade@home for a great listing of ROMS, front-ends and more that will make using this thing way easier and more enjoyable. Go ahead dive in, it’s worth it. Where else can you bring back so many memories and only use up like 5 megs for a few hundred games? I was thinking of putting together a MAME CD with ROMS for distro… I’m sure that will break all copyrights that are out there, but that does not stop the warez puppies. Or these guys who have done that CD already.

Hehe, yep. Vans are indeed for the practical. Either using them to haul stuff, or even as a whooptie-mobile/mobile bachelor pad. There is probably a utilitarian use for them. But, I like the size… I like the idea of a Ford Excommunicator bouncing off my back bumper with two black eyes.

Our van is still the biggest non-commercial thing on the road. We like it and we use the hell out of it. Besides that, it’s great being bigger than those “empowered” yuppie types trying to muscle around those god awful SUV’s. And judging from the amount of them I see bottomside up waaaaay in the ditches, we can handle our van a lot better too.

Well, one need only look to the dictionary for a wealth of potentially hilarious variations on the prefix “EX.” For example; excavator, exerbator, exaggerator, extracator, exclaimation, exception, excelsior, executor, exhilarator, exhumor, existentilator, exodus, exonerator, expander (for that variable size SUV), expectorator, expenditure (for those who want to make a social statement), extrapolater, exterminator, exposure, and many, many more… of course my personal favorite is the exploiter, but don’t forget the exricator, or the extroversion. Wow, what a potential for humor. There’s a whole website just right there alone. Lawsuit ‘ex’tra.

ABCNEWS.com : Seed Spitting, Armpit Music Rock Redneck Games, wow… Aren’t you glad you live in the good ‘ol USA? Stuff like this makes me want to live on Mars.

I once heard a comedian say that if he ever got hit by a truck, he hopes it would be a Steelcase truck. I can see why, I see so many of these things on the road it’s not funny. Also, while we are ont he topic of transportation, a very humorous piece about the new Ford Exorbitant from BBspot.com.

Here’s a link to Kaliber10000 { The Designer’s Lunchbox }, in case you hadn’t seen it. This site makes my head hurt… there is far too much coolness in there. Go if you have a couple of hours to kill.

New! Summer 2000 Pictures.

How to Obscure Any URL found buried in a metafilter discussion. Cool.

I’m in the middle of some revisions and reorganizing. You can browse around and find some of the changes. Some things aren’t working just yet, I’ll let you know when the newest areas are available and working properly. Meanwhile, a lot of content will be added here as well as being organized in a sensible manner. Welcome to the ground floor.

Welcome to ComputerProblems.com got this link from the guy who runs analogx.com. This is a free computer help service that is run by college students in which they receive credits for helping you. A good idea, that I once had and did not follow through with.

Have been taking it easy. My brain is pretty much fried. I took Friday off and I’m taking tomorrow off too. I needed the time to put myself back together again. Sorry that it’s been dull around here.

Thanks Dean! I downloaded both and will play with them later.

Dave, I’m still trying to get a job so I am trying to learn or at least understand all of the latest. It seems this town is a heavy MS town so when I combine XML and ASP maybe I’ll be on to something. I am particularly interested in XML because of the ease of page creation when I update and add companies to my business listing (directory) on Belleville Online. Also because of the query capabilities of XLINK and XPOINTER. In the XSL sheet you’ll find several null divisions because I have them as place cards.

For now though I have started to build the “database” with this JavaScript Searchable Database that I found on HTML Goodies. On my existing site I am using a simple JavaScript pulldown for my hot links and have to update up to 40 pages just to add one company to the listing. What a lame approach that was! I didn’t know any better at the time.

A Metafilter post on the moderation movement. Interesting.