BootBlock.co.uk

As well as general rantings, one of the main purposes of this site was for me to blog about the ins and outs of working on software. It hasn’t quite worked out like that, has it? The main reason is the speed at which my development goes; two to three hundred projects (in Visual Studio alone) can make someone a bit quick at getting something designed and developed. Because of this, blogging would just slow things right down.

The only real good shot I’d have at blogging the development of an application would be to work on something using a new technology (eurgh – I don’t like applying the technology term to software) that I would have to learn as I go.

Here enters WPF. Despite messing about with it and getting three or four apps at a good stage using it, I’m still not completely sure on quite a few things, such as best design practices. Besides, the app-to-blogged-about has already been to an advanced state-of-being in Windows Forms, but the direction of both the application and the source wasn’t quite where I wanted them to be. These two reasons, among the “new tech” reason and possibly others, are why I will artificially slow down its development to a degree that I can make blog posts about what I’ve done that session/day/period.

It’s FluidBar that I will be working on in .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate RC. At the time of this post, that link reflects the WinForms version (take a look at its Requires field).

The next blog post should be about FluidBar and Visual Studio 2010, so stay tuned if that kinda thing does it for you, I guess.

About fifteen days ago I placed an order at Lenovo.com (UK store) for nice little IdeaPad S10-3T netbook. Or, at least I thought I did. The ordering process failed multiple times, but hey – I want that netbook! On about the 5th go or so, success! They accepted the order and I waited.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have new releases! Rejoice, and such.

The first one is Profile Relocator. This allows all newly-created Windows profiles to be created in a user-specified location. This is great if you’re not a nutter and want all of your profile data (including application data, desktop, favourites, etc) in a safe place in case you want to re-install Windows (not really required any more since Vista) or it somehow gets wanked and jizzes over everything.

The second is Wake On LAN Ex 2. Added some feature requests and squashed an exception on start-up.

Finally, the original Wake On LAN Ex was seemingly not providing the latest v0.96 release, but instead v0.95. No idea what the hell happened there, but it’s sorted now. You should be using WoLEX2 anyway.

But you’d know all this if you were following my lame Twitter crap.

Thank you, and good night.

Bit quiet around here, innit?

It may be here, but it isn’t so quiet on Twitter. I’ve been posting there about my latest projects, such as Glassix (the 4th rewrite) and audioFlow (a rewrite of Hydrogen), along with work-in-progress screenshots. Along with occasional rants, because that’s what I do.

A quick summary of the current in-development application:

audioFlow is a suite requiring no third-party software that turns a PC into a web-enabled jukebox and streaming media centre. This is a rewrite of Hydrogen which I started almost a decade ago. For live updates on its progress, see Twitter here.

Oh, and you may get glimpses of my Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t antics. Which I haven’t bought yet. But will do. Why the hell are the buying options for it so limited on the UK Lenovo store? Grr.

I stopped eating sugar and starch about eight months ago for various reasons, so this upcoming Christmas is going to be somewhat different. I’m going to splurge on foods that contain very little carbs. It’s going to be a meaty Christmas (not gay).

I haven’t really planned it as such, but it’s going to include:

Pork, lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, chicken liver, lamb liver, pancetta, bacon, sasuages, meatballs, king prawns, scallops, Gouda cheese, Gorgonzola blue cheese sauce, parmesan cheese, Roquefort cheese, mozzarella ball, cauliflower, spinach, small amount of diced onion, and garlic butter. Let’s not forget the freeze-dried chives that I’m so fond of.

This is going to be hard to proportion as I don’t really eat that much since cutting out all of the carby crap. The temptation to make a huge ball of meat with a cheesy centre and crunchy pork coating has been resisted. Just.

A nice chilled glass of diesel will be the finisher. Or just water, as that’s the only thing I drink now.

I’ve started posting the odd picture and photo to my Twitter crap, so look out for any pics of my disgusting mess there.

Edit: Just had the idea of blending the whole lot, a la paté, and making it into a ball. The only problem is that this idea is making me feel queasy. I’d hate to see what it looked or smelt like. Yetch.

It has been brought to my attention that this current site theme isn’t girly enough. Due to having spent an inordinate amount of time picking out a Wordpress theme for another site, I’m not really in a hurry to go and do it again.

While I do like the nice smooth rainbow colours of this one, it does unfortunately seem to suggest I like to be bummed. So it must be changed.

While standing in the exact same spot in-front of the bathroom mirror I do every day to brush my teeth, seeing the unkempt mess that was surrounding my mouth confirmed that I need to have at it with a trimmer, I had a thought.

One day soon, I should shave it all off except for the bit directly under the nose.

Just for a day. See what people say. The Charlie Chaplin look hasn’t been seen in a very long time and should at least be given a chance for revival. It’s a very classical look. One that reminds us of an earlier time. A more simpler time.

And by Charlie Chaplin, I mean Adolph Hitler.

For one day.

Just one.

Alright, here’s my review of Windows 7.

Fast boot is good. Systray not saving icon information is shit. Fast shut-down is good. Still no way to fully relocate user profile is shit. Taskbar is good. Taskbar is shit. Swishy effects is good. MSI Media Live fucking up and repeatedly resetting its graphics adapter is shit. Fast in general is good. File associations not saving is shit. ClickOnce apps not working is shit. VERY SHIT. Stop using ClickOnce, you dopey fucks. Users don’t like it, and I can’t even use it now.

Review complete.

This is wrong. Accounts were not leaked.

It seems the sites that are reporting the story that tens of thousands of account details have been publicly published aren’t being clear. These details have been obtained due to phishing, and not due to details being leaked from the respective services.

If you haven’t been stupid and entered your account details where you shouldn’t have (on a website; the most popular one being some thing where you can see who has blocked you on MSN Messenger), then you are fine – no need to change your password or anything.

Preface: This was originally written back in February 2009, but I never finished it as I didn’t try the Guinness Stout. It needs a little bit of proof-reading and more teh-funnies injecting into it here and there, but here it is anyway.

Alcohol is the liquid of choice for people that want to die. At least that’s how I think the tag line should go. I sort of bypassed the whole drinking-til-you-spew phase that so many teenagers go through, which is why I haven’t accepted the alcoholic taste as something a human should have to endure without torture of the plums being involved.

Read the rest of this entry »