« November 2004 | Main | January 2005 »
December 23, 2004
PAD for Shareware
Some links for information and creating a PAD file to allow our software to be listed on many shareware sites.
PAD (Portable Application Description) is a new standard of passing program information that make easier the registration of programs for the authors, but it also should enable the archive administrators to update the programs automatically.In order to use the advantages of PAD, you must produce a PAD-file (.xml) for each of your programs. Then, you can register your programs only with the information of the URL of the PAD-file and the wished category in the archive.
http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/
http://www.padgen.org/
http://www.brothersoft.com/pad.asp
http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/pad_validate.html
http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/pad_validation.asp
http://www.padspec.org/padfaq.php
http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/authors.asp
http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/help/pad.html
Posted by mikel at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 20, 2004
Santa the disc golfer
Santa and Mrs. Clause play disc golf!
http://msn.foxsports.com/pgStory?contentId=3261140&pageNumber=3
Posted by mikel at 04:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 17, 2004
ISVs vs. Consultants
Chris Hawkins comes back to Joel Spolsky's comment about one man consultants.
http://www.christopherhawkins.com/12-16-2004.htm#63
via Scoble
Posted by mikel at 08:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 15, 2004
Indiana Civil War
There's a little debate on the Basketball in Indiana Yahoo group about high school basketball. I thought these numbers were interesting.
I'll define the north vs. south divide as being north or south of the center of Indianapolis.
Here is the IBCA's Top 20 Poll
http://www.ibcahoopscoaches.com/top_20/index.asp
75% are from the north.
Here's the top scorers and rebounders
http://ihsaa.org/b-basketball/0405Leaders.htm
80% of the top 10 scorers are from the north (the top 8 are all from the north)
The top 10 rebounders are split 50/50.
Posted by mikel at 09:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Application Updater Block
This post is a listing of resources about the application updater block. I'm thinking of adding this to Swooshand future projects and I was passing some deployment resources on and I realized I hadn't blogged these before.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnbda/html/updater.asp
http://www.theserverside.net/articles/showarticle.tss?id=UpdateAppBlock
And for bundling the .NET framework and/or MDAC all in one
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/tools/bootstrapper/
Posted by mikel at 03:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Eric Sink on finding ideas
You probably won't find a good software product idea until you stop thinking so much about software.
Posted by mikel at 07:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 13, 2004
Mike Zintel's new blog
Mike Zintel, the .NET Compact Framework's Group Manager, recently found CPT 355. Thanks Mike!
Posted by mikel at 08:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Health care for small business in Indiana
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=12492
Among the bills Simpson will introduce is a measure to aid Indiana’s small businesses by allowing them to purchase health insurance through the state. If enacted, the Private Employer Health Insurance Program would provide small businesses, those with 100 or fewer employees, with access to the state employee health insurance plan or a separately established pool.“All too often health insurance is an impediment to economic investment and job creation, particularly for small businesses,” said Simpson. “This is no longer just a health care issue, it’s a jobs issue, it’s an economic development issue and it’s a quality of life issue.”
With 109,000 eligible small businesses and more than 886,000 employees throughout the state, the legislation requires the State Budget Agency to develop and implement a program no later than July 1, 2006.
Posted by mikel at 03:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
press release
Some info on writing a good press release.
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showpost.php?p=15366&postcount=3
Posted by mikel at 09:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 11, 2004
Frontline on WalMart and Credit Cards
Frontline has two interesting shows online.
Secret History of the Credit Card
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/view/
WalMart
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/
Posted by mikel at 12:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 09, 2004
CPT Open House
If you're around West Lafayette, Indiana tomorrow be sure to stop by the CPT Open House. You can check out the student projects from CPT 355.
[Update] Here's an article from the Journal and Courier about the open house.
Posted by mikel at 07:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 04, 2004
Smartphone buying advice for CPT 355
I am a lecturer for CPT 355 Software Development for Mobile Computers at Purdue. The class has been offered for several years using Pocket PCs and the .NET Compact Framework (starting when the CF was still in beta). One reason the class has been popular is that the students get to keep a Pocket PC for the entire semester. The newness of the Pocket PC is starting to wear off (at least for me) and we're considering offering the course using Smartphones.
Any suggestions on what phone or phones we should buy to give the students? Robert Scoble and others seem to love their Audiovox SMT 5600. Any other suggestions? Or what other different mobile devices do you think we could use to teach the course? I'm roughly familiar with what's out there but I haven't used any of the devices personally.
Email me or leave a comment. Thanks!
Posted by mikel at 09:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 03, 2004
Smart Clients with Billy Hollis
.NET Rocks had on Billy Hollis to discuss smart clients.
http://www.franklins.net/fnetdotnetrocks/dotnetrocks.aspx?showid=92
Lots of practical advice about smart clients, software development in general, and interesting that he works in the medical field and his thoughts on Tablet PCs.
Posted by mikel at 02:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 02, 2004
Geek Humor for the Holidays
A little geek humor for today.
Top 10 Things to be Thankful for in .NET
http://www.theserverside.net/cartoons/TalesFromTheServerSide.tss
A Christmas card for smart people.
http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/2004/12/01/
Posted by mikel at 10:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 01, 2004
Mono Bundles and a linker
Maybe Joel will switch to Mono so he can get the linker.
http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/archive/2004/Dec-01.html
Posted by mikel at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack