Brian Jepson’s Weblog

Scot
Gellock posts some observations how well Virtual PC runs on a
1.25 GHz Power Mac, and wonders how the performance of Virtual PC
compares to Remote Desktop Connection. Since Virtual PC is affordable
($99 with PC-DOS, great if you have licenses for the operating systems
you intend to run), I’d suggest doing both. When I’m at home, I usually
use Remote Desktop Connection. When I’m on the road, or when I have to
work with something other than Windows XP (that’s what’s currently on my
Thinkpad), I use Virtual PC.

The only problem I’ve had is with the speed of my Wi-Fi network. Remote
Desktop runs fastest when I tether my Thinkpad to the access point
using one of 100 BaseT ports rather than using Wi-Fi (but I use Wi-Fi in
my PowerBook, and since I don’t need to touch the keyboard of my
Thinkpad, this works fine).

Pocket PC Thoughts has a
review of a $99 Compact Flash adapter that lets you plug your Pocket
PC into a VGA monitor or projector for displaying presentations and
slideshows.

Sam Gentile: Why Haven’t I
Seen the Matrix Reloaded Yet?

I’ve posted my
pictures from the 2003 Fools Ball.

Tonight is the night to be in downtown Providence on Empire St. AS220 is
holding its annual Fools Ball. The two-building house party (music,
games, and more) starts at 9pm and is $20. Here are the directions to
AS220. I’ll be checking email during the day, so feel free to send
me a message (bjepson at jepstone dot net) if you need any more
information.

Jon
Udell: “Ted Neward, author of the forthcoming book Effective
Enterprise Java, brought it all rushing back: expert systems,
declarative rules engines, predicate calculus, backward- vs.
forward-chaining evaluation.”

Brad
has some notes on what happens when a developer tries to run Windows
as a non-admin. I tried it myself, and a lot of stuff didn’t behave
(pretty much a similar experience to his, but I didn’t take as
detailed notes).

This is one place where Windows needs to catch up
with Mac OS X, which defines an admin user as someone who has
sudo privileges: simply enter your password to execute a
command as the superuser. What’s more, GUI apps know when you need to
invoke this privilege, and they (installers, preference panes,
utilities) prompt you. In the Windows world, which seems
overrun with malware (worms, spyware, etc.), it would be
comforting to know that the operating system is trying hard to protect
me from the bad stuff out there. Windows is real
close in this respect; in fairness, it looks like third-party apps are
in need of taming as much or more than Microsoft’s own.

ranchero software points to a nice
webmonkey
article on RSS.

David Stutz:
“I’ve always thought of hacking as a *craft* rather than as an art.”

I’ve posted some recent
pictures of Spring in Rhode Island and New York City.