Dezember 2006 - Posts

• On the Meaning of the Word Dictator and the (lack of) Merits of Capital Punishment

  The word "Dictator" finds its roots in the Latin word "Dictator", which is the name of a function in the government of the Roman republic.  The Romans chased away their last king and founded a republic when their king proved to be a jackass who abused his power.  To prevent such abuse from happening again, the Romans created a system where all positions where held by two men (2 consuls, 2 praetors, ...), office terms lasted for one year and people had to take a break from official functions after serving a term.  The Romans recognized that some crisis situations required the efficiency of a single person in charge, however.  When such a crisis arose, a Dictator was appointed: he held absolute power for 6 months, and could not be brought to court for abuse of power until after the 6 months.  If the people judged that the Dictator had abused his power, he was crucified after those 6 months. So the original meaning of the word "Dictator" is something like "He who dictates what has to be done" - a crisis manager if you will. Viewed in this light, I feel confident saying that in all but name, DoubleYou is a dictator.  And I feel that he's been abusing his power.  So do we put him to death after his term?  I don't think so.  Capital punishment is a sentence that should be carefully weighed, and applied only in the most extra-ordinary circumstances.  It is a kind of punishment that in my opinion has more disadvantages than advantages. For example: the death penatly is irreversible.  If you put somebody to jail and later you find out he was innocent after all, you can release him and say "sorry, we were wrong, we'll pay you a pension or find you a job where you can be happy".  More: if a person has really commited a terrible crime, then the death penalty is a far too easy way out for that person.  Wouldn't it be much more punishing if that person had to live out the remainder of his life in disgrace?  And more: if a person commits a crime, that costs society a lot of money, physical energy and emotional energy. Putting that person to death means that society will never get the money or energy back.  If that person is set to do civil service, then at least part of all that can be repaid. So let's put DoubleYou into civil service after his term ends.  That way, he can really serve his country and the world. Posted Dez 26 2006, 08:37 by Dirk with no comments

• Eragon

  Eragon grows up on a farm. Both his parents are dead. One day, a gleaming, blueish stone comes into his life. A stone that holds the key to his heritage. When circumstances demand it, he sets out from the farm, accompanied by an old, itinerant story teller. He encounters the twins, two powerful magicians. Sounds familiar? Eragon grows up on the farm of his uncle. Both his parents are dead. The country is ruled by an Empire, and its leader is a cruel and evil man. One day, his uncle is murdered. Together with an old man, Eragon leaves the farm and discoveres he is the heir of an ancient tradition that predates the empire. Eragons learns about a Rebel group, and rescues a girl. At the end, there is a climatic battle where Eragon emerges victorious. Sounds familiar?  If not, take a look at this summary of the plot.  A boy whose name sounds like Aragorn grows up without knowing that he's the heir of an ancient tradition. He learns about his heritage in a world filled with Elves, Dwarfs, evils beings whose name starts with Ur, and places with names that sound like Mordor, Imladris or Something-Dûr. Sounds familiar? I don't think that I'll read or watch Eragon. I've read and seen the originals, that's enough for me. Posted Dez 26 2006, 08:15 by Dirk with no comments

• Silly Season: update 2006.12.22

  Key: bold is confirmed, italic are rumours, and normal are current drivers (if nothing else is "known"). Today's update confirms Sutil for Spyker.  Albers was confirmed some time ago.  Surprising is the fact that Toro Rosso did not confirm Liuzzi and Speed to the FIA in spite of Gerhard Berger's repeated assurances that he would continue with his current drivers. Renault Fisichella Kovalainen McLaren Alonso Hamilton Ferrari Räikönnen  Massa Toyota R. Schumacher Trulli Williams Rosberg Wurz Honda Button Barichello  Red Bull Coulthard Webber  BMW Sauber Heidfeld Kubica Spyker  Albers Sutil  Toro Rosso Liuzzi Speed Monteiro Super Aguri Sato Davidson Updated 2006.12.22: Sutil confirmed as second Spyker race driver alongside Albers. Posted Dez 22 2006, 11:24 by Dirk with no comments

• Office 2007 Ribbon Guidelines

  I admit that at first, I was more than sceptical about the Office 2007 Ribbon.  My thought went along the lines of "why do they feel the need to introduce yet another UI variation?".  Jensen Harris's blog helped me understand the rationale behind it.  In June, I finally got the chance to try the Ribbon for myself and I was hooked.  My enthusiasm was soon accompanied by a concern, though: there were surely going to be many control vendors who would offer a Ribbon control, but how could we be sure that those Ribbons would be as good as the original one?  I was concerned that a lot of "watered down" ribbons would appear, tarnishing the Ribbon Experience.  I event went as far as sending Jensen Harris an email expressing my concerns. It seems he and Microsoft listened to me (or at least I like to think so ;-) ).  Microsoft have created the Office UI Licensing site, where people should register if they want to use a Ribbon control in their own programs.  Microsoft also made available a large and detailed work of guidelines and requirements that people must follow when using a Ribbon control.  I think this is a great idea - by setting very explicit rules, Microsoft helps ensure that users will have real Ribbon Experiences rather than tarnished versions.  To paraphrase a German saying: strict rules make good friends.  What is perhaps most amazing is that Microsoft developed the UI Licensing program together with several control vendors, so we can be relatively sure that those ribbon controls will be compliant with the guidelines. And yes, I did read those guidelines.  I wanted to see if it would make sense to incorporate a ribbon on my own programs. I can't talk about the content because I signed a confidentiality agreement, but I think I can say that the guidelines are very, very detailed.  Which is A Good Thing. Posted Dez 22 2006, 08:55 by Dirk with no comments

• Cats: One Year After

  It's been one year since we welcomed Frodo and Sammy in our home.  It was a year filled with joy, love, occasional worries and many surprises.  I just reread the first blog entry I wrote about Cats and Post-Feline Depressions.  A lot has changed since then.  Sammy is no longer afraid of me and he likes to be caressed by my big hands.  If he had it his way, I'd probably be spending half my day caressing and massaging him.  He still doesn't like abrupt changes like unknown people or sounds.  Frodo is still "my" cat and he wants to play all the time. If he had it his way, I'd probably be spending all the day playing with him.  He copes better with abrupt changes and is quicker to give his trust to people.  He likes chewing on my fingers. Cats are surprisingly intelligent animals, and they are quick to catch up on ritual: If you do something a couple of times in approximately the same order (like taking a Vitamine C capsule and then filling a glass of water), then they learn to anticipate that.  Frodo likes the sound and sight of running water, so whenever Tatjana takes a Vitamine C capsule, Frodo runs to the sink so he can listen and watch Tatjana filling her glass of water.  Sammy knows very well that he receives a bit of Malz after playing, so when playing is finished and I say "Malz", he runs to the cupboard where the Malz is stored. Sometimes I wonder how Tatjana and I managed to get by without cats.  Life must have been pretty boring, but fortunately, I can't really remember it. Posted Dez 22 2006, 08:41 by Dirk with no comments

• Applications >= Code

  I finished reading Part I (Code) from Charles Petzold's latest book Applications = Code + Markup.  I haven't had time to study to code samples in detail, however.  Charles Petzold recommends that people type the code samples themselves, and I think that this is a good idea.  However, since Vienna's Underground trains don't come with workstations, all I can do while commuting is reading. I decided that I will create a WPF program that mimicks the Office 2007 Ribbon.  My goal is to get a feel for automatic resizing, panels, dependency properties and so on.  My goal is not to create a commercial-grade Ribbon control - there are probably developers from control selling companies working on just such a control, and they have a lot more time to devote to it.  I have a couple other "spare time projects" as well. Nor is it my goal to create a control that fulfills every last one of Microsoft's requirements for Ribbon controls.  My goal is purely academic.  Should somebody want to pay me a lot of money to create a "real" WPF ribbon however, I would be willing to talk about that :-)  Only joking - I have too little experience with WPF yet to make a realistic (as in off by no more than a factor 10) estimate about the time I'd need. Posted Dez 21 2006, 11:41 by Dirk with 1 comment(s)

• ASP.NET Repeater control, event bubbling and OnItemCommand

  This is probably nothing new, but every once in a while I'm struggling with event bubbling in ASP.NET, so I decided to write it down once and for all. Maybe somebody else will find it useful too. When using buttons in the item template of a repeater control, it often makes sense to handle the click events of those buttons in the page class rather than in a user control that maybe is used as item template or in a subclass of repeater (yuk).  Event bubbling comes to the rescue here: when an event occurs, it bubbles up the control hierarchy until some control sees fit to handle it.  Now here is where it gets tricky when using a repeater: the repeater eats those bubbled events, and the OnBubbleEvent method of the page is never called.  The thing to do is handling the OnItemCommand event of the repeater class, which is raised when a button is clicked inside the repeater and the event bubbles into the repeater.  OnItemCommand has an event argument that derived from CommandEventArgs, so you're spared the tedious "CommandEventArgs typedArgs = e as CommandEventArgs; if(typedArgs != null) {...}" code that usually goes into OnBubbleEvent. Posted Dez 20 2006, 10:46 by Dirk with no comments

• Link Roundup 2006.12.13

  Announcing the release of the first "WPF/E" CTP Adobe Illustrator XAML exporter for "WPF/E" The Outlook Gadgets are here!!! Drag & Drop with attached properties - Part 3 Cool SharePoint Tool: SharePoint Inspector Drag drop library Drag & Drop with attached properties - Part 4 Warning? XSD? XAML? Whatever... WPF/E ASP.NET Server Control Update on Internet Explorer 7, DEP and Adobe Software Posted Dez 13 2006, 10:02 by Dirk with no comments

• I know it's called Star *Wars*, but isn't this a little pointless?

  Spoilers ahead for the Legacy era, so read at your own risk! There's a reason why Star Wars is called Star Wars, and not Star Fairy Tales or something like that. It's the same reason why Utopias are dull and interesting stories have a conflict as basic premise.  But the new Legacy era of Star Wars seems pointless and unimaginative to me.  Roughly 140 years after the events of Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, the galaxy is ruled by the Empire, a Sith Lord sits on the imperial throne in Coruscant, and the Jedi are extinct save for a single male descendant of the Skywalker line.  Isn't this where we came in? Posted Dez 06 2006, 07:37 by Dirk with no comments

• Link Roundup 2006-12-04

  Edit: corrected date in title. Windows Presentation Foundation Recommended practices for WPF Custom Control developers Drag & Drop with attached properties Drag & Drop with attached properties - Part 2 GiveFeedback event in Windows Presentation Foundation Drag/Drop Another Adobe Illustrator to XAML Exporter Required Reading: Optimizing WPF Application Performance Bag-O-Tricks : RTM Edition Office 2007 Custom Edit Forms for SharePoint 2007 Lists Announcing the Return of the SmartPart WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 RTM SDK's WSS 3.0 on SBS White Paper Released Office 2007, VS 2005 Tools for Office, and VS 2005 Extensions for SharePoint Getting Ribbon XML Intellisense in VSTO 2005 SE Development Resource Refactoring Tool Extending the ASP.NET 2.0 Resource-Provider Model Extending the ASP.NET 2.0 Localization Model with a Database Resource Provider Web Development Helper and ASP.NET Ajax Supporting Custom tags in Sandcastle MSBuild / Visual Studio aware error messages and message formats Miscellaenous Entfernen von Duplikaten im Outlook PowerShell Prompt Here PowerToy Using Virtual Server on Windows Vista without running IE "as administrator" Running SysPrep on a Virtual Machine with SQL Server Installed Posted Dez 04 2006, 12:37 by Dirk with no comments

• 7 Letters: I-M-P-E-A-C-H

  Those who know me, know that I intensely dislike DoubleYou, the current president of the USA.  Eric Foner rather eloquently presents a very convincing set of reasons why he's the worst ever.  If DoubleYou were president of my country, I'd try to get rid of him. Posted Dez 04 2006, 07:45 by Dirk with no comments