I ran across this application a few weeks ago and have been using it since. It's a pretty slick replacement for the old Windows ALT/TAB application switcher. It has a lot more features and includes thumbnail previews of your windows. This works a lot better than the Windows XP Power Toy. Plus, you can configured it to minimize applications to the systray instead of the taskbar—which is useful for applications like Thunderbird which don't do that natively (although I use an application called ThunderTray for doing that w/Thunderbird.)
Oh yeah, it's totally free! For more information, click the link below:
I was reading this article earlier today. Pretty cool stuff. Wright-Patterson is about 15-20 minutes from the house I grew up in. It's the home of Hangar 18—where the Aliens from the Roswell crash were supposedly held. Anyway, this is pretty cool. Make sure to click the link to read the entire article.
10/17/2005 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- Engineers here are testing a new kind of transparent armor -- stronger and lighter than traditional materials -- that could stop armor-piercing weapons from penetrating vehicle windows.
The Air Force Research Laboratory's materials and manufacturing directorate is testing aluminum oxynitride -- ALONtm -- as a replacement for the traditional multi-layered glass transparencies now used in existing ground and air armored vehicles.
The test is being done in conjunction with the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., and University of Dayton Research Institute, Ohio.
ALONtm is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability. When polished, it is the premier transparent armor for use in armored vehicles, said. 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, transparent armor sub-direction lead
"The substance itself is light years ahead of glass," he said, adding that it offers "higher performance and lighter weight."
Traditional transparent armor is thick layers of bonded glass. The new armor combines the transparent ALONtm piece as a strike plate, a middle section of glass and a polymer backing. Each layer is visibly thinner than the traditional layers.
ALONtm is virtually scratch resistant, offers substantial impact resistance, and provides better durability and protection against armor piercing threats, at roughly half the weight and half the thickness of traditional glass transparent armor, said the lieutenant.
... more ...
Looking for help building Regular Expressions? The Regex Coach looks like a very promising tool for doing just that. The program is designed to specifically mimic the Perl RegEx Engine, but it should be helpful for other languages as well (like Java, Python, PHP, etc) that use Perl-like syntax. I came across this useful looking tool in a message that came across CF-Talk recently.
For all of you running Firefox, you really should upgrade your version immediately. The Washington Post has reported a severe security hole that can allow a malicious hacker to take control of your PC.
Upgrade to Firefox v1.07 now by downloading it from the Firefox Product page.
My boss wanted to make sure that on one of our servers we were updating our Symantec Anti-Virus definitions on an hourly basis. By default the Symantec Anti-Virus Client will only allow you to do a LiveUpdate once per day. Fortunately, there's a command line tool called VPDN_LU.exe which you can run to do silent updates.
Here are the command line options for the VPDN_LU.exe tool:
Came across this pretty cool little product called BlackDog. It's basic a 400Mhz PowerPC Processor with Debian-based Linux in a plug-n-play USB box. Could be very useful portable development server. Check it out.
BlackDog offers open source developers an exciting new platform for mobilizing software applications. BlackDog represents a new breed of device that redefines what a 'computer' is. It can be programmed to carry your applications, data, web sites, desktop look and feel, with you, wherever you may go.
Develop applications and deploy them on BlackDog then launch and automatically project them onto a Windows PC. Design an interface, spin and run a web site, run a video game.
Program It — Port It — Plug It — Pull It, throw it in your pocket and do what you will with it — With BlackDog you 'can' take it with you!
Ok, so while the "official" PSP v2.0 firmware for the US hasn't been released, it has been confirmed that the Japanese release that came out today will in fact work. Here's what you need to do:
I've just installed it. I'm so excited about being able to finally use the WAN feature. Up to this point I haven't been willing to move back from WPA-SKA to WEP.
There's a new PSP firmware on it's way.
Highlights:
Control your desktop and/or server using your PSP with this VNC hack.
Another day, another PSP hack. The madmen at PSPUpdates.com posted PVNC v1.1, a VNC client for the PSP that allows you to connect to and control other computers running a VNC server. The program recreates the desktop of a remote computer on your PSP screen, a boon for the busy sysadmin who doesn't want to leave the toilet stall where he/she is playing Lumines to check on a server.
In related news, they've also created a nice FTP client for downloading non-pirated ISOs. Non-pirated. Remember that.
- Gizmodo
I'm really digging Eclipse. There's very little I don't like about v3.1—about the only thing I don't like out of the box is the Find/Replace dialog box. I'd like to see something a little more like HomeSite+ Extended Find/Replace dialog box. The good news is, I'm sure I can probably find a plug-in that will do pretty much what I want.
Anyway, what I'm really digging is Subclipse, which is a SVN plug-in for Eclipse that plugs right in to the "Team" context menu. The one thing I didn't like about Subclipse out of the box was it's re-labelling in my Navigation Pane. It adds a bunch of information that some users will probably want (last user to edit a file, date/time it was edited, etc) but I really don't generally care. If I do, I can just view the document in the Resouce History pane and I'll get all the details I want about the file.
Fortunately, Subclipse allows you to edit the labelling. I really like the way TortoiseSVN labels things in Windows Explorer, so I set up Subeclipse to basic emulate that labelling (while as close as you can with just text.) Anyway, here's a screenshot of my setup:
After watching Rob Rohan's CFEclipse Intro Videos, I decided to give Eclipse another go around. I've played around w/Eclipse several times before, but I've always gone back to HomeSite+. Rob's video showed me a few key features (such as the Bookmarks and To-Do list) that are very intriguing to me. Following Rob's directions, install was simple and I was up and runing within minutes of downloading Eclipse.
One thing I ran into though, is I wanted to hide my .svn and .project entries from showing up in my Navigation bar. In order to hide those files/folders from showing up, you need to turn on the ".*" filter. Here are step-by-step instructions for turning on that filter.
Ok, so it's been a while since I've blogged anything useful—so I figure it's about time I do!
I've been using Thunderbird as my primary e-mail client for my new job. I figured I'd try making the switch away from Outlook to see how it goes. Overall there are a lot of things I really like about Thunderbird. It's definitely faster than Outlook and creating/sending e-mails definitely seems quicker. There are things I miss from Outlook—mainly the complete integration between tasks & e-mail. I've been using the Mozilla Calender project, but I'd like to see all the pieces integrated.
However, the biggest problem I've always had in every e-mail client I've used is that I hate, and I mean hate, HTML e-mail. I find it cumbersome and it's usually harder to read. It seems like everytime I get an e-mail in HTML there are several different fonts. I rarely get an HTML e-mail from someone that actually looks elegant. I also find creating inline responses (which is my preference) is much cleaner and easier to follow when done in Plain Text. That's why I always use Plain Text as my default send method.
My Grandmother sent me a link to some really great photographs of SpaceShipOne's First Flight into Space. For those of you who haven't been folloing this story, this is the first private venture to achieve reaching space—which is pretty damn remarkable.
Kudos to Michael Melvill for being the first private citizen to become an astronaut.
I was watching a re-run of The Screen Savers today and they had a guest on who showed off a browser toolbar addon called SpoofStick.
The idea behind this toolbar is that it will resolve the actual website you're on and display the name of the server. Some of you may be thinking: "Why is this useful? When I go to a site I know what site I'm on." Or do you?
One of the most commonly used techniques by hackers attempting to gather person information about users (such as your credit card number or PayPal account,) is to send an e-mail address that looks official which provides a link to "update your personal information." These messages often look legit and the websites they take you too often look they way you'd expect them to—however, they're not actually the official website; it's a copy of the site on a hacker controlled server.
I just noticed that Microsoft is now providing Security Bulletins in a new RSS feed.
Since I use my RSS reader just about daily, this seems like a great way to stay up-to-date on new Security Bulletins. Microsoft is also offering a number of other RSS feeds you can monitor. I'll also be monitoring the Microsoft SQL Server RSS Feed.