Cactus Juice

I decided that I might need a new cordless phone system so I used my Consumer Reports online subscription± to look at which cordless phones were rated best.  I also read through reviews at Amazon and other web sites.  It was quickly obvious to me that if I wanted a cordless phone it was going to have DECT 6.0 ...

 I own a lot of .NET books, including about 10 C# texts. What sets Illustrated C# 2005 apart is that it reads as if I were watching a professor draw on the chalkboard in class. That is the best analogy I can think of. It is hard to find a page without some type of flow chart, code snippet or diagram on ...

My opinions on how to name files and directories that will be part of a URL or accessible via the web. First off, for anyone new to web publishing the most important rule to remember is do not use spaces in your file name. You can run your words together or separate them with underscores, periods or dashes, etc. Dashes, IMO, is best practice ...

[video]My friend Eric turned me onto this video. It is an amazing comparison of demographics from the United States, China, India...and much more!  Click it to watch.

Hands down my favorite C# book this year. This book is not an introduction to C#. It is not a “bible” nor is it a “cookbook of C# recopies. Accelerated C# 2005 by Trey Nash is a concise map that navigated this reader safely (and enjoyably) through C# territory. Nash is an excellent guide, providing relevant information in a clear, ...

Windows Media Player 11 is a clunky piece of crap. To use it is a frustrating and completely unejoyable experience. It sucks. If you have a choice between Windows Media Player 10 vs Media Player 11, do not upgrade. This pop up window should be a warning dialogue. Reason #1 why Media Player 11 blowsWhen I drag-n-drop songs onto the lame ...

Back in the day, rock magazines like Circus and Hit Parader would have nondescript ads listing bootleg concerts on VHS or cassette. There would be one or two full pages, all the popular bands playing festivals I had never heard of in cities and countries I had never been to. A tape might cost between $15 and $30 depending upon the quality and ...

In the world of SQL Server coding (T-SQL) there are two forms of syntax used when writing a join: Explicit (good) and Implicit (evil). Please, I implore you, do yourself (and those who read your code) a favor and use Explicit joins. OK I can hear everyone in the Implicit camp starting to cry. What's the big deal you ask? Implicit JOINs are ...

There seems to be a lot of “talk” regarding the new browsers: Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7.0. Here's some of what I've learned from sifting through the chatter over the past couple weeks... Firefox 2.0 employs the same rendering engine as Firefox 1.5. So if your page looks great under 1.5 then it should be golden when viewed ...

Nice collection of Windows Vista resources that was circulating through campus email last week. Just thought I'd share with my 3.5 readers... Windows Vista Home page Get Ready siteGet Ready for Windows Vista, Windows Vista Capable and Premium Ready PCs, Express Upgrade to Windows Vista, Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor RC, Windows Vista Editions, ...