At long last, KW has posted the recordings from his band’s Cinco de Mayo gig (see my writeup here). Get ‘em while they’re hot!
And while you’re at it, if you come up with any good band names, be sure to let us know.
Monthly Archive for May, 2005
Tim Sneath, one of the Avalon evangelists, has written a great article for MSDN entitled “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Avalon Beta 1 RC.” The article contains a wealth of information on what is new for this release, including sample code and instructions for best utilizing these features through Visual Studio.
Until it propagates through and makes it to an MSDN server near you, you can access it here. Be sure to check out Express apps and video!
At long last, the best roommate ever has a blog and a gallery! So now you can look forward to reading and viewing content all about dancing, the show Friends, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, life at Amazon, and killing radio stars. Enjoy.
I kind of liked it! Yes, the dialogue was cheesy (as to be expected), but I do agree with Matthew, who argues that it was not quite as bad as the dialogue in Episode II.
The special effects were stunning, the fights were entertaining, and I actually found the story compelling — i.e., I found myself feeling some of the emotions that the audience was supposed to feel. This is certainly more than I can say for Episodes I or II. While not a great film, it was quite enjoyable and a fitting end to the series.
The Avalon + Indigo May CTP (aka the “Beta 1 RC”) is now live on microsoft.com and ready for your consumption. You’ll also want to install Visual Studio Beta 2 before you start playing.
Drew Marsh has already started a change log to help those of you who plan to port your projects from the March CTP to this release.
And I will point you to other resources as they materialize…
Some Thursday evening geek humor for the hax0rs and Star Wars nerds out there (is one of those a subset of the other?)
Slate reviews Episode III, and they don’t hate it. I’ll let you know how I feel after Friday afternoon.
(And for those of us who are not big Star Wars geeks, they also provide a nice little guide to refresh the memory on what this whole saga is about anyway…)
I realize that I’m really late to report on this, and 10 days equals about a million years in blog time, but I just learned that there are plans to convert the Space Needle into a giant WiFi antenna.
And perhaps it’s just another sign that I’m a really big geek, but I think that’s awesome.
Every now and then (perhaps to remind myself why I rarely pay $10 for a movie), I spend $10 and go see a movie. So last night I saw my first film in the theater in almost 7 months – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I don’t think my expectations were unreasonably high, and I had already read a few lackluster reviews, but I was still more than a little bit disappointed by the film. Perhaps if I hadn’t reread the book yesterday, I would have enjoyed the movie more (for one thing, I wouldn’t have noticed just how much the movie’s plot strayed from the book’s). But really – it just wasn’t that good.
The crappy Hollywood-ized romance between Arthur and Trillian was perhaps the worst part.
It did, however, have its moments. I thoroughly enjoyed the dolphin song in the opening scene. It’s actually pretty common for people who move to a different team at Microsoft to send out mail with the subject line “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish”; I expect that I will never be able to read such emails again without breaking out into song. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find an mp3 of the song anywhere – anyone have any leads on this? ;)
This promises to be a banner week for me, because not only did I already see a movie in the theater on Saturday, but I’ll be seeing another one this Friday! (I have even lower expectations for that one, but it’s one of those films you are required to see, and work is taking us to see it anyway…)
To follow up on the travel discussion: we decided on Argentina and Chile for December — flying into Buenos Aires and out of Santiago. Here’s some fun stuff that my first quick web search about Argentina and Chile turned up:
Argentina
- When To Go (from Lonely Planet):
For residents of the northern hemisphere, Argentina offers the inviting possibility of enjoying two summers in the same year, but the country’s great variety and elongated geography can make a visit in any season worthwhile. Buenos Aires’ urban attractions, for example, transcend the seasons, but Patagonian destinations, such as the Moreno Glacier in Santa Cruz, are best to visit in the summer months (December to February). The Iguazú Falls in subtropical Misiones province are best in the southern hemisphere’s winter or spring when heat and humidity are less oppressive. The winter months (mid-June to late September) also offer the opportunity to go skiing.
- Attractions:
- Buenos Aires – Supposedly a great city for tourism, “European flavorâ€, nightlife; New Year’s Eve?
- Cordoba – second-largest city, famous colonial architecture, large historical museum
- Iguazu Falls – Huge waterfall… ruins of historic Jesuit missions, subtropical rainforest
- Mar del Plata – Huge beaches lined with mansions and resorts
- Pampas – “Agricultural heartlandâ€, large national park and lots of wildlife; Rosario and Santa Fe have museums and churches
- Maps:
Chile [& Easter Island?]
- When To Go (from Lonely Planet):
Chile’s geographical variety can make a visit rewarding in any season. Santiago and Middle Chile are best in the verdant spring (September through November) or during the fall harvest (late February into April), while popular natural attractions like Parque Nacional del Paine in Magallanes and the lakes region are best in summer (December through March).
Conversely, Chilean ski resorts draw many foreigners during the northern summer (June through August). Easter Island is cooler, slightly cheaper and much less crowded outside the summer months. The same is true of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, which can be inaccessible if winter rains erode the dirt airstrip; March is an ideal time for a visit.
- Attractions
- Santiago – Chile’s “modern metropolisâ€, large commercial city, but supposedly tourist friendly; nearby whitewater rafting
- La Serena – Beach city with “colonial airâ€, museums and quaint villages/vineyards
- Parque Nacional Puyehue – popular national park, volcanic scenery, thermal springs, nature trails, “strange plant lifeâ€
- Puerto Montt – settled by German colonists, middle-European architecture; access point to Lakes District, island of Chiloe, and Chilean Patagonia
- Valparaiso – port and second-largest city; cobbled streets, cliffs, hilltop suburbs; “maze-like strollsâ€; lots of museums
- Easter Island?
- Maps: