I spilt some coffee on my keybo`ar8d this mornin5g. Its not ex`actly typin5g correctly now. So I 5guess Im off to Visions this mornin5g to purch`ase a` new keybo`ar8d.

Stupi8d computers

-M`atty

*Warning - the following to technology, geek talk, feel free to read though you may not understand - thanks *

Last week MNP sent me to a Microsoft course on programming changes in SQL Server 2005. This was in preparation for our summer projects in which we are converting our major programs to sql server 2005. I’ll get more into that sometime.

Before this course even started, I was reading a bit about the new features, and was quite impressed. Microsoft needed to do something to catch up to the enterprise level of Oracle. Granted, SQL server 2000 worked wonderfully in our environment. Think about the difference between SQL Server and Access database. Why people would still use access databases for anything is beyond me, there’s so much more you can do with SQL Server.

But enough of that. The major upgrade of SQL Server is that it’s now written entirely from the .NET CLR. So one of the major benefits of that, is you can write any classes using C# or VB.net and it will work with SQL Server. i.e. SQL Server stored procedures/functions can now call .NET Classes. Now you may be thinking, so what? Well as an example, here’s what we’ll be using it for. We currently keep encrypted salary information in one of our databases. The only way to get that data out, is to decrypt it used Triple DES encryption. There’s no way for us to write a decrypter in SQL. So what we’ll do now, is call a .NET function decrypting the value. This will allow us to easily query the data for on-demand reports that constantly come in.

Another major addition is the addition of the XML Data type. Now instead of SQL Server holding XML as a large string. It holds it as XML. This allows you to use XML classes and manipulate the data easily right inside stored procedures, thus putting the work on the server and less on the client.

All in all, it’s and impressive release. There’s still a few things they didn’t quite complete, including Notifciation services. They are telling people all the classes (aka API’s) are there to write it yourself, but they have no front end interface to manage it. No big deal.

Came across this today on digg. It’s a full-fledge First person shooter (FPS) built entirely with shockwave flash.

Seriously.

This looks just as good as any simple FPS out there a couple of years ago and it runs entirely on the web. Like any normal FPS, there’s bots in the game that provide a little challenge, plus what kicks ass the most, the guy has even created a multiplayer aspect, allowing you to play anybody in the world.

Play everything here: http://www.rasterwerks.com/game/phosphor/beta1.htm

On Wednesday, Paul, Justin, Reuben and myself head to U of C to participate in Microsoft’s Develop Mental Tour. In this tour, they had a guy named Derek Pierson from Microsoft who basically showed you how you can write simple games using Direct X and C#. After the presentation was said and done, I was pleasently surprised at what you could do with free software.

This all brought memories of Dr. Richards Computer Graphics class. In the presentation he basically summed up what the whole computer graphics class was. Anybody who is thinking of just dabbling in game programming should take a computer graphics class (or at least buy a book about it).

What I’m liking more about Microsoft is they’re giving programmers something to do outside of “work”. They’ve built a whole minisite on coding for fun. The articles give countless examples of game development and windows apps. Kudos to you.
Do I think I’ll every dabble in it? Maybe. Maybe all of us guys at work can get together, make a game, make millions and then live in Bermuda for the rest of our lives.

Well some of us can dream!

-Mateo Laterns

So hot on the heels of the Windows Mail beta invite, low and behold I received an invite to the Windows Messenger Live beta. I decided to install it for shits and giggles.

Messenger Live is the next version of MSN Messenger (aka Messenger 8). I guess Microsoft is abandoning the “MSN” word in the front and adding the “Live” philosiphy. Now many people complain that the MSN Messenger client is bloated, runs slow, and just plain sucks. I’ve been running it for probably about 7 years (I don’t know, whenever they first came out with it) and it’s the only IM client I use.So after using it for a few weeks, what do I think? Well it’s still bloated (if you run it, turn off the video ads…seriously what are you thinking Microsoft). But all in all, I still like it. They are putting more emphasis on their MSN Spaces webpages as you can now sort by last updated space.

I haven’t used the video conference side of it yet, but plan to sometime. I was impressed how easily 7.5 connects, so 8 should be no different. Version 8 allows you to keep phone numbers and information about your contacts so that you can text message them from MSN.

What is really awesome addtion is the ability to share folders. Back in the old ICQ days (does anybody still use it) you could just drag a folder into the transfer window and all the files in it would transfer easily. Finally Microsoft got off their lazy asses and added the ability to do this.

All in all I’m impressed. I have 4 invites to give away if anybody is interested to give it a whirl. Just add a comment, or fire off an email.

Later