Lost!

Coders are notoriously lazy - seriously. We’d normally rather find someone else that has developed the same thing or something close to what we want, copy it, then hack it up to do what we want. Its normally not like the movie Swordfish where you see some guy dancing and singing in front of a multi-screened computer just thinking up code (although, if you catch us late at night, around 1-3AM, you might see such a sight). We typically think up a few lines of code, then look at the news and then go back to coding a few more lines. If we need a big block of code like a function, we’d rather go searching, sometimes for hours, for someone that’s already done it for us.

Search engines for coders have been non-existent until the last year or so and looking for code in normal search engines is like a trip to the dentist and talking to a lawyer all rolled into one. Krugle and a few other Vertical Code Search Engines came out very recently to help the lowly developer on their quest to borrow, learn, steal and use from others - that is, of course, the Open Source way…

But what makes Krugle stand out from the others? How do they rank their searches? How many projects do they actually have? Luckily, I was able to talk to the core AJAX developer and the company founder via email and both had several interesting things to say. I got so comfortable talking with these guys that if I actually blogged full time, I might have asked to fly in to see them in action… Continue reading…

Over the last month, I’ve slowed down on my posts quite a bit. I even started to make my posts smaller in size to try to pound them out a little quicker, but in doing so, post quality suffered. In typing this, I feel like saying sorry, but at the same time, I really wanted to offer a reason.

On top of my posts slowing down, I’ve neglected a few stories a bit (although, I’m working on a few good sized stories, its just slow going), but I’ve also neglected my email contacts a bit as well. To the people that have emailed me and expected a reply, I’m sorry I haven’t responded very fast or at all. I actually do know who you are and have plans to respond as soon as I can sit in front of my main computer on a normal basis or when I have more time. Continue reading…

I’m in uncharted territory. I need a new computer for development work (IIS, MSSQL, SharePoint, etc) and for just keeping up with life now. While I’d like to have a new desktop, I need a laptop due to a 1 hour commute plus the fact that this thing needs to go to work with me. So, I need a desktop replacement…

Now, the uncharted territory is that I need power and features I’ve never even thought of in the past. I need a top of the line laptop, not a mid-weight or light-weight. In the past, I would look at the lowest prices and search between those. Now, I find myself looking at the top of the line stuff. I hate to say this because I’ve written stories where I’ve said completely opposite, but price doesn’t matter.

At first, I looked at NewEgg, but now I’m doing something I haven’t done in years - Alienware. It was all great until I saw the weight of the computer I was looking at: 15 lbs with battery. I might as well mod my case to include backpack straps so I can carry my desktop on my back.

After its all said and done, I’ve managed to put together a laptop that, up until last week, I could only dream about…for approximately $4,000. My desktop that was custom built with 2 displays (and throw in the third I’m about to buy) doesn’t even come close to that.

In an effort to actually save money, but buy a decent computer, does anyone have any suggestions?

So I fired up my blog today in an effort to pound out a story or two and work on a huge story I’ve had sitting for awhile. To my surprise, I have two comments sitting in moderation that are for different stories, different authors, same Blog URI, and the content of the stories matches the blog posts. What gets me is both are Support requests for Firefox and WordPress. I hit the link to check out the website first and I was met with a Flash Obituary of a dead singer.

After checking out the source, I found out that the blog was there, but something else was up. Continue reading…

Once again, the US Patent Office lets something through its doors thats causing problems all over the place. Patent Number 5487069 seems to have the following abstract: Continue reading…