June 20, 2006, 11:00 pm
Vista has built-in voice recognition capabilities. One of the things that really jumped out in the Tablet PC was that the correction interface makes all the difference when it comes to using alternative input techniques: a service pack released for the Tablet a year or so after the initial launch was a landmark in the usability of handwriting for text entry. I’ve just begun using voice recognition in Vista and am very impressed with the correction interface. It may have reached the tipping point for usability (at least with a sound-cancelling headset).
June 20, 2006, 7:00 am
I take it as a given that every stock touted via spam is, in fact, the subject of some sort of pump-and-dump scheme. That is, someone currently owning significant amounts of the stock (or options) is praising it, with the intent of causing upward motion, at which time they will sell their shares. So stock spam should be a reliable leading indicator of a loss of value. Therefore… Oh, you can’t sell penny stocks short.
Never mind.
June 20, 2006, 7:00 am
“[Wayne Kelly is] pleased to announce the preliminary Beta release of the Gardens Point Ruby.NET compiler. Note: this is not just a Ruby/.NET bridge, nor a Ruby Interpreter implemented on .NET, but a true .NET compiler. The compiler can be used to statically compile a Ruby source file into a verifiable .NET v2.0 assembly or it can be used to directly execute a Ruby source file (compile, load and execute). Our implementation is not yet fully complete, but it is the only Ruby compiler that we know of for either the .NET or JVM platforms that is able to pass all 871 tests in the samples/test.rb installation test suite of Ruby 1.8.2.
Complete source code of our system can be downloaded from: http://plas.fit.qut.edu.au/Ruby.NET/Download.aspx
June 20, 2006, 3:00 am
The blog is too cluttered with marketing-speak, but the accompanying 22-minute video is very good in conveying what “Project Glidepath” is about: guidance (including, but not just code templates) for “MicroISVs” (1-10 person SD teams), integrated into the IDE. Too much “software factory” talk has been very rarified; it’s nice to finally have an instantiation of the concept.
June 20, 2006, 1:00 am
Apropos of yesterday’s blog entries (XML: Unix Pipe or ASM? and WS-* vs. REST/POX: Revenge of Worse is Better): the always interesting Peter Coffee paints a picture of how WS-* approaches to SOA lead to success. Contrast with Brian Marick’s Three Ages of Programming blog entry.
June 20, 2006, 12:00 am
If we’re to have any defense against the zombie hordes, it will be by the innovative work of a generation of master roboticists. This vanguard of humanity will, perhaps, learn their skills using the new Microsoft Robotics Studio, available for free download . The only excuse to not check this out is if you are enrolled in a certified Summer program for ninjas.
