Power Users, Rejoice!
At long last, Windows has a real, power user’s shell; and it’s been officially done. PowerShell is the new, highly flexible and extremely powerful shell for Windows (XP SP2+). From my first experiences with it, I’m quite impressed. This is a great tool for developers, system administrators, and just about any other power user. While PowerShell doesn’t offer the power or flexibility that a traditional *nix shell does, the power is impressive.
Read more…Microsoft Office 2007 Pro Available via MSDN
For those interested, and those that have an MSDN subscription, Office 2007 Professional is now available for download. The 411MB ISO contains the following applications: Microsoft Office Access 2007 Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007 Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 Microsoft Office Word 2007 Hopefully the Ultimate edition will be made available soon. Update: Microsoft has announced that Windows Vista will be available on Nov.
Read more…Monkey Powered Search Engine
We all know that Google is PigeonPowered™ – now, we have a search engine ran by trained monkeys. Well, not exactly monkeys, but semi-trained people. Yes, you heard that right. When you do a search, it doesn’t hit some massive database containing every web page known to man, it goes to a human for them to figure out. If I didn’t know better, I’d call it an April-fools’ joke. But, alas, it’s not.
Read more…Like Power Toys?
The Sandcastle team just announced a new toy for users of Visual Studio, the Power Toys for Visual Studio Pack Installer. This is a unified installer for the various Power Toys released; no more downloading a dozen installers to get what you want, this one does it all. If you like pushing VS to be all it can be, this is worth looking at.
.NET Framework 3.0 Released!
Yup, it’s here! The next version of the .NET Framework has been released, while this isn’t a major release (as not much has changed), it is a milestone. This release adds support for the WPF, or Windows Presentation Foundation, the new presentation framework that will enable a new generation of remarkable interface designs. If you’re a developer, get going and get started – this is going to be fun. 🙂
What Motivates Developers?
Developers have jobs for the money, right? If you want a developer to work hard, give them more money, right? Wrong. For many developers, money has little effect on motivation. Being an odd creature anyhow, developers are a bit different in that the things most people seek in a job means little to most developers. A developer is motivated by a completely different set of factors, and I believe I’ve ran across a great definition of the things that really matter.
Read more…Is Vista Gold?
The legendary Robert Scoble has just posted word the Vista may now be gold. It’ll be interesting to see when we get official word. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t wait till Vista hits the MSDN Subscriber downloads so I can start playing with the final.
Starting a Business?
I just ran across an announcement for a new Microsoft product, Office Accounting 2007 Express. This is a free, and surprisingly full featured accounting package aimed at small businesses. If you run a business, or plan on starting one, this looks like a great addition to your tech-toolkit. I’ll post more on this again once I have time to review it more thoroughly.
Vertical Column Indicator for Visual Studio
The coding guidelines at my job have a rather interesting requirement: code must be wrapped at 100 characters. If you fail to meet this on any line of code, you fail the code review. In the year I’ve worked at this company I’ve learned to guess how long a line is quite well. As of today, no more guessing. Here’s a quick registry hack to add a vertical line in the editor at any column you wish, just double click the REG file and you’re set.
Read more…Site Updates
This weekend I’ve made a few upgrades to the site, a software upgrade, a few new plugins as well as some tweaks to clean things up. Hopefully these changes will make the site a bit more useful, and remove some clutter from the main page, so that you are presented with content, and all the ’extras’ will be tucked away. WordPress 2.0.5 I’ve upgraded to the newly released WordPress 2.0.5, the software that power this site.
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About Me
Security researcher, engineer and software developer with more than 20 years of experience.
Work: I primarily focus on application security, usable security, secure communications, and cryptography. I build and lead strong and dynamic teams, who cover all facets of security and privacy.
Writing: I write about my research, security in general, development and software design, and leadership through my blog, essays, and various publications. I also engage in some creating writing when I can.
Photography: I am a purist fine art photographer, working primarily in black & white, and focused on sharing new perspectives of the world. Limited edition prints of my work are available on my online gallery. I also have a background in photojournalism, and volunteer in this field when I can.