The NSA Questions My Lifestyle
The National Security Agency (NSA) has a video about their polygraph testing, which was critiqued by AntiPolygraph.org, and recently reported about on Slashdot. In 1991, while still a college student, I applied for a summer internship with the NSA, so I got to take one of these tests myself …
MessageBox: Just Say Nein
The Windows MessageBox is really convenient to use. A single line of code gets you a dialog box with a caption, a message, an icon and a set of available buttons that cover a lot of possible input scenarios. Unfortunately, the text on the buttons is supplied by the system …
This solution contains a web site...
I kept getting a message from Visual Studio 2008 when opening a solution saying:
This solution contains a web site at 'http://localhost/Services'. There is already a web site at this location on this computer. Do you wish to use this existing location for your web site (existing files …
Consumed by Technology
Despite the fact that I earn a living with technology, and that even many of my leisure hours are spent in front of a computer, I'm feeling especially consumed by technology lately. By "consumed" I mean more of the "waste or burn away" sense.
I'm beta testing a wireless music …
It's Just UI
Maybe I've just imagined this -- created my own straw man to take down -- but I've sometimes sensed some disparagement of user interface programming. "It's just UI," the architect will say. "It's not like it's a hard or interesting part of the system." As I've done more and more UI development …
Succumbing to the Smartphone Siren
So shortly after crowing about how cheaply I was getting cell phone service, I've sailed headlong into the rocks of an \$80 a month smart phone plan. In spite of all the Android buzz of late, I went with the Palm Pre.
As I've posted before, I used to be …
New Depths of Printer Evil
I frequently say, only half-jokingly, that printers are evil. Actually I love my HP LaserJet 1320, but my Canon Pixma 620 is just plain E-V-I-L.
OK, pretty much any inkjet printer is devil-spawn, with the well-cited fact that printer ink is the most expensive liquid on the planet. Canon has …
.NET Color Struct Equality
When is white not white? When one is Color.White and the other is
Color.FromArgb(0xff, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff).
I was trying to data bind a list of colors to a ComboBox and
have the SelectedValue property bound to a particular color. The
frustrating thing was that even though …
Defeating Antivirus System Pro
Antivirus System Pro is an irksome piece of malware that holds your computer hostage until you pay a ransom. It is nothing short of extortion. I just spent a few evenings removing it from a friend's computer, and the dozens of articles on the web (and even YouTube videos) were …
Transparent WinForms Label
Easy control transparency isn't exactly a hallmark of Windows Forms. If you have a form with a background image or a gradient, the stock controls paint with a solid background to give a criminally egregious aesthetic.
If you search the web for a solution, you might come up with a …