Rudolf Henning

For those not yet aware of it astronomers have found an object larger than Pluto beyond the planet's ( if you consider Pluto a planet..) orbit.
Actually it is the second 'big' object discovered in a short time but it’s only now confirmed. Currently named 2003UB313 it still needs to be given a proper name. If it is accepted as a real planet of our solar system it would be the 10th planet. However, many astronomers and other people doubt that even Pluto could be considered a planet. That will mean we actually still got 8 planets and a couple of dirty-icy objects of which Pluto and this new object that is 3 times as far as Pluto are only the biggest samples.
At the moment there is some uncertainty about just how big this new 'planet' is. Some estimates make it as large as the planet Mars. Even if it is that big it will be very small compared to the other outer planets like the gas giants.
Perhaps they must call it Mickey, the bigger brother of Pluto. Or is that Goofy? Whatever...

Just saw the movie stealth and I'm impressed. Well, the super stealth jet fighters makes is a very nice and interesting movie. There are scenes about an aircraft carrier that looks so 'real' it might as well be real. Things like the planes landing and being catapulted of the ship looks like the real thing. Even small effects like the wings bend and move because of the acceleration.
If anyone likes planes and fancy technological things you'll love this movie. Even the Top Gun fans won't be disappointed. There are a few sequences where they dual it out with Russian Sukhoi SU-37 (basically the best planes in the world currently).
If you want to have a peek at what these planes look like have a look at this
I've been reading some up afterwards and there are speculations that these planes are based on some real top secret stealth planes the US navy might have. Ok, perhaps not 100% the same but you never know what they really have...

We're all aware of the 'things' Telkom are doing (or at an insanely big price) but here is another article about 'just how bad things are'.
From the Mail and Gardian
I hope most of you can view it as it may be only available to mweb/m&g subscribers.

This is just something interesting I noticed. I tried opening one of the kmz extension GoogleEarth files in notepad - like any good geek trying to see whats 'inside'. I noticed the first two letter PK with some binary stuff following it. That is a tell-tale sign of a zip (like in the original PKZIP) file format. I opened it in Winzip (being a bit more modern and lazy type...) and sure enough there was one 'doc.kml' file inside. Opened this file and quess what's inside? Good old xml like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0">
<Placemark>
  <name>Microsoft</name>
  <LookAt>
    <longitude>-122.1284052656094</longitude>
    <latitude>47.63970651744342</latitude>
    <range>782.6218675479483</range>
    <tilt>22.30320699709647</tilt>
    <heading>-0.8336073281773209</heading>
  </LookAt>
  <styleUrl>root://styleMaps#default+nicon=0x307+hicon=0x317</styleUrl>
  <Style>
    <IconStyle>
      <Icon>
        <href>root://icons/palette-3.png</href>
        <x>160</x>
        <y>160</y>
        <w>32</w>
        <h>32</h>
      </Icon>
    </IconStyle>
  </Style>
  <Point>
    <altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode>
    <coordinates>-122.1284052656094,47.63970651744342,86</coordinates>
  </Point>
</Placemark>
</kml>

And yes, the location happens to be the Microsoft head offices in Redmond. Seattle, Washinton. You need GoogleEarth to view it.
The one thing I like about this is that the competition between Google and Microsoft is giving us better 'cool' software. GoogleEarth is one of 'those' programs why I initially got excited about computers. To see and play with real 'cool' stuff that show us what the world really looks like (literally and figuratively). Why must we get stuck on boring business software that does not even have a user interface? Really, that is the stuff some automated routine must be able to handle and no one deserves to spend a 'lifetime' on it.
One other such program was Celestia - an astronomical 3d application similar to GoogleEarth. It was way ahead at its time but that was 3 or 4 years ago. I'm not sure it is still available anymore.
One day when I have time again (from work/family) I would like to create something like that myself. Right now I'm so swamped with work and 'stuff' that its impossible. I use to do things like that at varsity but that too was ages ago! (more than 10 years ago! sh1t)
Perhaps now with more powerful hardware like 3d graphics cards it has finally become possible to the 'average' developer to start thinging of creating truely 'cool' applications. I'm still 'recovering' my breath over the awsum nature of GoogleEarth.
May truely 'cool' and funcy software live on for much longer!

They just had to do it? In an attempt (not very good one) to copy Google maps the boys from Redmond created another free map browsing web site. Only problem is they did not think of it first and it lacks features the 'opposition' *cough* has.
http://virtualearth.msn.com
And no, I cannot even zoom in past 20mi resolution in my country - that sucks. And what's the deal with only having miles? No one outside the U S of A uses it (except some similar clowns just accross the Atlantic that invented it)
The only two things Google still lacks are an OS and some developing tools. Hey wait, perhaps they use Linux and C++ :p
And now for some real news... How come a strike cost SAA (only) R25m and one at Pick 'n Pay strike R50m ? Ahg what, who cares...
[Update: The maps they use must be terribly outdated! You can even see the twin towers still standing... Maybe MS did really become like IBM...] [Update2: After playing some more with 'their' maps I must admit that it is not as bad as I made it sound. Well, its still not as cool as GoogleEarth that is in 3D but... So MS don't shoot me for my first impression. I Just hope they (and Google) can update their maps where I stay. Now that would be cool!]

Found this as a comment to a Mozilla announcement about Firefox 1.5...

Open source calls it:
alpha testing Microsoft calls it: 1.0 Google calls it: shhhh ... top secret. Apple calls it: unsubstantiated rumors

Open source calls it: beta testing Microsoft calls it: 2.0 Google calls it: beta testing Apple calls it: rumors with possibly some substance to them

Open source calls it: release candidate Microsoft calls it: 3.0 Google calls it: beta testing Apple calls it: copies are circulated to the usual suspects, who eagerly publish reviews describing it as the "most innovating product yet!"

Open source calls it: 1.0 Microsoft calls it: varies. Previous names have included 3.1, 95, 98, 4.0, 5.0 or X. Google calls it: beta testing Apple calls it: released to the market place, Steve Jobs goes on record to say that it is "insanely great".

Open source calls it: 2.0 Microsoft calls it: SP1,2,3... Google calls it: beta testing Apple calls it: a recall

Hey, this evenings sadev social was a winner. We may not have been a huge crowed but we had fun and enjoyed chatting (and drinking and eating...)
Only sad about Hilton that was involved in some accident on his way to us. Apparently someone drove into him - probably because the roads are so wet. We hope he will be fine and that everything would be ok.
It seems Sven is becomming quite a familiar face - that's a goog thing! We won't repeat all the jokes he told us (there were ladies in the conversation...) hehe.
Luckily some 'secrets' about someone planning some big move in his life did not leak out (yet...). We're thinking of you Neo...

One of the biggest icons of Sci-Fi has passed away. Canadian actor James Doohan, best known for his portrayal of engineer Montgomery Scott on the original Star Trek series has passed away at the age of 85.
More available here
Although the original Star Trek series was a little bit before my time I did get to see some of the reruns and thanks to Sci-Fi literature the phrase 'Beam me up Scotty" has beccome one of those famous 'sayings' in the movie world.

It seems our blog spam protection is working too good. I can't even post a plain simple reply to one of my own entries. So much for comments...
Can Armand explain to us what 'involves' a valid entry (in an email or so).
[Update: Hi, sorry. It was'nt intended as a rant/moan or blaming anyone. I just thought I mention it. No hard feelings. It just seems that no matter what I 'post' in any comments gets disallowed with the message' 'Spam, Bugger Off'.
Not sure what is causing it. Actually, it was more intended as a little humour but I must admit it didn't come over as such - sorry again. You can shoot me (with a water pistol) at Tech Ed Armand.]
[Update2: It seems it happens to any comment even that I try to make to other's blogs on the site. Perhaps its got something to do with my connection or something. Would there be any reason our(site) validation routines would block connections because I'm behind a corporate firewall or something? Just wondering.]
[Last Update (hopefully). Asked Angie to try posting to the site for a test (she's working at the same place as me) and she gets the same error. Seems we cannot post any comments to the site at all. Well, at least it also blocks the spammers ;) ]

For those needing directions to this Thursday's social event I have a map/screenshot thanks to GoogleEarth. Please go to http://dotnet.org.za//images/dotnet_org_za/rudolf/332/o_Starlitedinner.jpg
The blue line is the N1, yellow Durban road and the Red arrow shows the place: Star light dinner (hope spelling is right). It is right next to the Bellville Velodrome which is next to the Tygervalley shopping centre.
See sadev site for more details on the event.
PS: The image was made thanks to GoogleEarth 3d maps. It is awsum and everyone should check it out!

Microsoft is having a competition whereby you must write something 'cool' for the community (sadev) using .Net 2.0 framework. The prizes are not something to dismiss easily. A ticket to Tech-Ec this year (1st) or MCSD study kit (2nd) or MS keyboard and mouse combo.
I actually have a cool idea but I'm having a slight problem 'thinking' how to do it using .Net 2.0... The solution to the problem would make the problem the solutioh... or something like that. I desperately need a time machine to get to everything (including work and fun stuff) but it seems to become very hard to find that magical 'solution' of finding time to do everything I still want to do with my life.
Anyway, back to reality... to get more into about the competition go to the sadev site.
happy coding and if someone do manage to invent a time machine... please tell me (and do please make it open source :p)

This is just for the humour but it is a face many of us almost have gotten use to... :|

Perhaps we should put up such a sign on the N1? It would fit so nicely.

Ok, so the actual training session itself did not materialized as planned but we did have a great social (mini nerd dinner) thanks to it.
At least Swen and Hilton met and find out how small a world we live in. Turns out a former 'collegue' of Hilton recently (2 days ago) started working at Swen's place. They had some great chats about that (and about the guy involved ;) ...)
Also, at least Angie, Jannie and I got to plan some upcomming sadev events for the next month and some general ideas around Tech-Ed bookings...and how Jannie wants to share a room with Angie...(don't tell the boyfriend... hehe)
A fun and succesful evening - me think.

Ok, so I got my copy on friday and started playing. So what do I think?
Hmm, so its not yet a perfect simulation (perhaps thankfully) but I'm starting to like it. It does seem to be a bit 'heavy' on resources - but they did say so on the box. Graphics wise it seems to be very good. I have'nt pushed all the settings to max yet. Unfortunately I 'only' have a GF 6600GT.
One thing I did notice is that the AI definitely seems to be better. The 'bots' actually seems to kinda 'think' and when they have control of a vehicle they actually don't get stuck. Having said that I think we're not yet at the stage where they can replace experienced fellow players as team mates.
And then there are the vehicles... Actually more specifically the planes and choppers. They are just as hard to control as in the previous versions. No 'improvement' here. I much better like the 'primitive' controls of a game like Comanche that actually handled like a FPS. Just imagine how I can hurt the enemy with such a thing in Battlefield. Perhaps that is why the controls are so hard, to give the guys on the ground a chance.
I have yet to find any 'jet' planes as these always seem to be taken by someone else. It is really irritating that I can never get to the vehicles I like - suppose the AI is clever enough in that way to take the best first.
Anyway, I just started playing and there is alot to discover yet. I only hope we can actually have a LAN soon and that others want to join this game.
[update: I seem to have developed a taste for the special forces... always take out the enemy HQ first hehe]

This is a topic that both inspire or deter people. This morning I noticed there was an update for the motherboard I have (Gigabyte K8NXPSLI f8). Actually I don't really need the update as it was only to add dual-core support to the motherboard (and I don't have a dual core CPU yet... damm).
So I downloaded the update with good intentions. I've done several bios flashes before so this one should have been just 'routine'. After extracting the bios update and saving it to the hard drive I ran the bios windows utility to flash the bios. All went well so far. Bios flashed ok and I needed to reboot, but then the horror started. On reboot my SATA drives 'disappeared'. My motherboard has the option that the 1st and 2nd SATA drives can be seen by the bios as plain 'IDE' drives.
Hmm, initially I thought it could be just that the 'new' bios defaults was set to a combination that only looked at IDE drives to boot from. Poked around the bios but I could not find such an option. Then I started to worry a bit. I should have made a backup of the previous bios version on stiffy but since I don't have a stiffy drive on the machine anymore I did'nt bother.
I looked on the net to see if someone had similar issues but no luck. Hmm, then I started making plans to open the machine and put in an old stiffy drive and boot into a Dos session and try to reflash the bios back to an older version. Luckily I did make a backup of the previous bios update version which did work. I created a bootable stiffy in my older machine, and 'installed' this update on it. Reboot and then reflashed. Reboot again with the 'older'version of the bios... Sh1t same problem...
So I realized that somehow it must be like my initial thoughts and a combination of settings that is causing the SATA drives to be invisible because the onboard raid utility did pick them up (both of them). So, back into the bios and looking around what could cause this. After some more poking I realized I previously had the SATA raid options disabled since I don't use them. I disabled them again and wholla! I could boot again. Then I figured perhaps the new version had the same stupid problem. Again did the flashing to the new version, reboot, enter bios, disable raid for the SATA drives, reboot and wholla again!
So it seems that the 'new' version of the K8NXPSLI(f8) bios enables both 'SATA as IDE drive' and 'SATA Raid' options. If you enable both of these options together then you cannot boot from your SATA drives if you have a single SATA drive to boot from (aka no raid). Stupid but that is what seems to be happening.
At least now the machine is running again. I would have thought they should have made booting from SATA drives the 'default' since most newer pc's should have SATA (single boot drive) and not IDE anymore.