Optimus: First Sign of Life
Those of you that are into computer gadgets have surely heard of the now quite famous Optimus keyboard – the (once) OLED powered keyboard that has caused quite a stir. Recent, word came from the team that Optimus will not be using OLEDs, the belief since then is that it will use LCD instead. Well, after many, many months of waiting to see proof that Optimus will live, finally, we see a key.
Read more…Internet Explorer 7 Released
For those of you that are interested, IE7 has been released. After following the progress of the next generation of IE since March of last year, I’ve got to say, I’m really excited to see it go public. The only real surprise for me with this announcement is that many expected the Mozilla Foundation to release Firefox 2.0 prior to Internet Explorer’s big release, yet no word from them. I’m wondering if there were more issues in the RC2 release that delayed the launch.
Read more…Startup Mistakes
For those looking to get into the startup/ISV scene, Paul Graham’s latest work is a great read. The 18 Mistakes that Kill Startups takes an interesting look at some of the larger issues to avoid while forming a new company. Personally, I’d call this one a must read.
bbPress Released
After 2 years, my favorite forum software has been officially released. I’ve been a big fan of bbPress since it’s early days, I even had at least one patch accepted. So I guess one could say I was a developer on the project (although, a very minor one). It’s great to see this project make it. If you’re looking for high-quality PHP-based forum solution without the weight of something like vB, then bbPress is the answer.
Read more…Final Vista Public Beta Released
The final public beta build (5744) of the next generation of Windows has been released (via shell: revealed). With this announcement it looks like Vista will indeed be on time. For awhile I was wondering if Vista had any chance of making it, but it seems that it will indeed. While this is certainly good news, the RTM build is the one that has my interest. Playing with a release candidate can be fun, there’s no doubt about it; but the real fun starts when you can see how things work and behave on the final – (hopefully) working build.
Read more…Not a good idea…
I’ve been both a subscriber and fan of Valleyschwag since it was launched, that is, until yesterday. And not by my choice mind you, they canceled everybodies subscription. When the second issue was shipped in late May, they reported having over 1,500 members each paying $15 a month for the service. I can only guess what the subscriber count would look like now, after having a few months to grow.
Read more…A look into Vista
Ever wondered how they do things inside of Microsoft? As a developer that makes extensive uses of Microsoft technologies and tools, I’m always interested in an insight into their development process. Well, if you’re like me, then I may have a real treat for you. Vinny Pasceri, the AERO Program Manager for Microsoft has posted an great insight on the (fairly new) Windows Client Team Blog. This is a great peak into what the design process looks like, and even includes what may be the first publicly released feature spec.
Read more…EventArgs: No need to pass a new Instance
If you look at the code I write, seeing a line similar to the following would be fairly common: RaiseEvent LoadComplete(Me, New EventArgs) Yesterday, I wouldn’t have given this a second thought, but today, the story is a bit different. A friend of mine pointed me to an interesting comment by David Kean (from Microsoft) on the MSDN Wiki indicating that the line above is actually wrong! So, based on his comment, I should be using EventArgs.
Read more…Make XP Pretty
While going through my (long) list of RSS-feeds that I monitor, I found this gem of an article: Vista Transformation Pack: Vista-ize your XP. The Vista Transformation Pack is a clever little application that moves your XP desktop several steps closer to the beauty that is Vista. While the ’transformation’ doesn’t give you all of the new UI goodies that come with Vista, it does add a fair bit of eye candy.
Read more…VB.NET 2005 Interop Toolkit
The VB Team has just announced the release of a VB.NET / VB6 Interop toolkit, complete with source. For those of us that work in shops that still maintain a fair number of legacy applications, this could be quite useful. Here’s the description straight from Microsoft: The Interop Forms Toolkit 1.0 is a free add-in that simplifies the process of displaying .NET WinForms in a Visual Basic 6 application. Instead of upgrading the entire code base, these applications can now be extended one form at a time.
Read more…
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.