David Ortiz: “An IT pioneer who introduced open-source code to Rhode Island’s government Web sites is leaving after four years to return to his native New Jersey…” We’re going to miss you, Jim! Come back any time!
Archive for December, 2006
IT Pioneer Leaves Rhode Island
Saturday, December 30th, 2006UML and Patterns for Web Database Design
Tuesday, December 19th, 2006Several years ago, I wrote this tutorial and presented it a conference (The Bazaar) in New York. I had a lot of fun with it, and I think the students did, too. I posted the booklet and some cards that are used in some exercises associated with the tutorial. If anyone uses this in their own tutorial or studies, I’d be delighted to hear how it worked out.
How Long Are You Willing to Wait for that UAC Prompt to Appear?
Friday, December 15th, 2006Anyone who’s talked to me about Vista in the past couple of months knows that I’m impressed with it. And I’ve even been known to say kind things about how Microsoft cleaned up the User Access Control (UAC) prompts in post-beta versions of Vista. But I read today that an installation package with a lot of digitally signed files can take a long time for the UAC prompt to come up; up to an hour in this case:
When installing on Windows Vista with User Account Control (UAC) active, there can be a substantial delay before the initial setup dialog is displayed. During this time, a UAC function is verifying digital signatures within the installation package. This service pack carries a large number of files causing the process to take up to one hour in some cases.
This explains a lot, actually. I’ve run into this exact problem (well, not an hour, but sometimes a few minutes or more), and the result is that I ended up clicking the installer several times wondering WTF is going on. Even if there’s no quick solution to this problem, Microsoft might want to have some kind of progress indicator explaining what’s going on. Although it seems sensible to turn off UAC while I’m installing this package, I’m going to leave it on and see how long it takes for the prompt to pop up.
Update: it took only three minutes to appear.
Help Build and Play a Video Game System This Afternoon (12/6/2006)
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
I recently picked up an XGameStation Pico, which is a small video game system you can build and program yourself. I’m going to be coming up to AS220 around 2:30pm, and I’ll set up a little work area where I can assemble the unit, and if the darn thing works, I’ll even plug it into the projector for some big-screen neo-retro action before the Geek Dinner. Feel free to come along and watch, help, or give me moral support when I mess something up beyond repair!
P.S. If you have a Parallax SX-Key and a KeySpan 19HS USB/Serial adapter, bring it along. Those are the two accessories I forgot to order until last night (and without them, we’ll only be able to run the default video game that’s pre-flashed onto the system).
Last Providence Geek Dinner of 2006 this Wednesday (12/6)
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
The Providence Geek Dinner is back at AS220 (115 Empire Street, Providence, RI) on Wednesday, December 6, 2006. The fun starts at 5:30pm. I hope to see you there. See the Providence Geeks blog for details and RSVP.