Looking at this MSDN page, I’m not sure what audience Microsoft is trying to reach? The “offer” is already ending tomorrow, so I think it was a big success: I only read about it today!
Apr 292006
Apr 262006
Microsoft is adding their Office product line to the Genuine Software Initiative, to lower the number of illegal installations of Office, like the initiative also lowered the number of illegal Windows installations (*cough*). Will this be the final push for people to switch to OpenOffice.org?
Read Microsoft’s press release about the OGA.
Apr 262006
Please comment: do you like the weather widget or should I remove it? In other words: cool or crap?
Apr 222006
Thanks Steve, member of the Blog-o-sphere, for pointing me to this superb FireFox extension. This is probably the most usefull extension there is when your are a webdeveloper. It shows you the layout of a page by using colored boxes. Look at this picture, then you’ll know what I mean.
Click on the image to go to their website.
Apr 222006
Sorry folks, but this weblog was unreachable for a couple of days. I could not find out why, because I did not change anything. Like a configuration on the server, or something on my router. I restarted some of the processes, like Apache and my nameserver, but only to find that the situation did not improve.
Until I found out yesterday that my ISP for some reason at some point in time (probably the 19th) decided that my dedicated IP-address needed a change. That’s why the client requests a dedicated IP-address, isn’t it?
So I changed the nameserver configuration, changed the nameserver pointer at DirectNIC, and things should be in working order now. Let me know if you experience strange behaviour.
Apr 212006
I was looking for something about Python and remembered that I followed a link on the Python website for it. So I went to the address bar, typed “python” and pressed CTRL-ENTER. OMG! In this particular case: OMFG! FireFox finds the .COM domain first. Ouch.
Apr 212006
Microsoft announced on this page that the Express editions of their Visual Studio IDE will remain free. For simple (web)applications a very adequate tool, but the fact remains: the Express editions don’t support remote databases (so no client-server or n-tier), no support for mobile device development and no Office development support. If that does not bother you, VS Express Edition is one hell of a bargain.
Apr 142006
Does it ever stop? Oracle’s buying spree? Now they bought Portal Software, which is a global provider of billing and revenue management solutions for the communications and media industry. Guess they have to change either the name of this new application, or Oracle Portal will soon get another name.
Read Oracle’s press release for some info.
Apr 132006
When switching to WordPress, I changed the URL of my counter as well, and included the scripting part in the footer of the page. It creates this icon 
, and when displayed, you’re counted. But when experimenting with themes or other settings, I view my own pages a lot. So yesterday was a day with a lot of hits. Today I added some code to the template, to show the icon only to people not logged in, which basically counts me out.
The code:
<?php if (!current_user_can('edit_posts')) { ?>
and right behind the scripting part:
<?php } ?>
Apr 112006
Yesterday I completed my first course. That is, a course I have given (as opposed to following one). When I switched to my current employer, I told them that I experienced some great fun in coaching people. Teaching them how to work, or teaching them how to solve a problem. Because our company started as an Education Center, I was asked to think about giving courses. If I wanted to, and only when I was ready for that. Last Thursday I was ready, and I gave my first PL/SQL course to a small group of people.
The first ten minutes I tought I was going to die. It felt like hell. But I didn’t die. In fact, it went fairly well. And with each hour passing by, my confidence about giving a course grew. Yesterday was the final day of the course, and the attendees had to fill in an evaluation form. This is a standard routine. I swear I did not bribe them, but still they gave me high ratings. Yeah. That felt great.
To get into the teaching, I decided not to do courses about subjects I don’t have a ton of experience in just yet, so I can concentrate on the teaching part instead of the technical stuff in which I’m supposed to be the expert. Next week I will be giving a course in SQL. That’s the one you should do BEFORE the PL/SQL course. The challenge with this course is that it’s not given in our Education Headquarters, but at a remote location.