Pete Brown's Blog (POKE 53280,0)
Pete Brown writes on a variety of topics from XAML with the Windows Runtime (WinRT), .NET programming using C#, WPF, Microcontroller programming with .NET Microframework, .NET Gadgeteer, Windows on Devices, and even plain old C, to raising two children in the suburbs of Maryland, woodworking, CNC and generally "making physical stuff". Oh, and Pete loves retro technology, especially Commodore (C64 and C128). If the content interests you, please subscribe using the subscription link to the right of every page.
Archive for tag:
Rants
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So, I got this in my mailbox, entered in to the "contact me"
form on my site:
Dear Dell Web Team: Please learn to internet. The fact that you
emailed people (manually, as it's unlikely you scripted my contact
form) who linked to pages you've moved, makes me wonder how you've
made it this far. Did you also email someone at
Google/Bing/Yahoo/Ask/Excite/Lycos (blast from the past) to...
Published
Monday, July 9, 2012 |
Tagged:
Rants, Web |
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I log into my local bank's website quite often. I transfer money
between accounts and all the usual things. Today, when I logged in,
I saw that they've decided to dump the security questions they had
us answer earlier this year and replace them with a completely new
and obscure set. If you don't set the security questions,
you can't get to your bank account.
Don't get between me and m...
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Today, due to a bug in their website which put my order through
without my credit card info (d'oh!) I got this unfriendly and
suspicious email from lego:
My first thought was this was a Phishing scam email. Why? Well,
the subject was somewhat strange, the message was plain text, but
in HTML format, it didn't contain any actual information about my
order, and it told me to take som...
Published
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 |
Tagged:
Rants, Web, Lego |
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The whole Facebook "Like" button is getting out of control. I
don't really mind sharing the "like" information with websites, but
I do mind websites that try to trick you into liking something.
It's the same lowball approach the sites that have invisible ad
click areas in the whitespace to the left and right of the page.
They aren't accurately capturing intent. You might think it's just
...
Published
Friday, November 11, 2011 |
Tagged:
Rants, Web |
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Ok, that's it. I've had it. I want my pixels,
damn-it!
For a while, screen resolution has been going up on our desktop
displays. The trend was good, as I've always wanted the largest
monitor with the highest DPI that I could afford. I mean, I used to
have one of the first hulking 17" CRTs on my desk. I later upgraded
to a 21" inch job that was so huge, that if you didn't stick it in
...
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You too can be part of the internet fun. Just pick one of these
comments at random and post it to any blog post, youtube vid, or
anything else with a public comment field. Guaranteed to work 100%
of the time. Bonus points if you trigger a comment war.
10. Lame. Go look at <url>, they did it better.
9. <insert instant godwin's law trigger here>
8. OMG LOL YOUR...
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I completely get why this happens, but installing just an IM client (I opted out of all the other apps the installer listed *) shouldn’t require me to shut down 3/4 of the programs running on my machine. I hope future versions of Windows come up with a better solution to this annoyance. It was different when installing apps was a single-tasking activity and installers threw up full-screen ugl...
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After trying to work for months as a normal user on my Vista Ultimate install at home, I finally got tired of the problems and decided to run as an administrator like I did in previous operating systems. I gave it a good go, but have just found that environment unsuitable for a developer. Main issues: UAC prompt every time you install something. Annoying, but not fatal. Apps that for som...
Published
Friday, April 11, 2008 |
Tagged:
Rants, Vista |
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Everyone loves to hate Internet Explorer. Microsoft was originally late to the browser game, but eventually won out over other browsers. Think of that what you may, but I have to admit that the competition at the time was made up of some pretty crappy browsers. It wasn't until the battle was pretty much lost that the alternatives started getting interesting. The IE folks sat on the browser fo...
Published
Thursday, April 3, 2008 |
Tagged:
General, Rants |
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So I'm trying to complete registration at this site today, and I noticed that there is no textbox next to state. I figured maybe they pulled the state from the zip code. So, I fill everything else in and submit, and get this wonderful screen telling me State/Province is required - even though there's no field for me to input into. Refreshing the page didn't fix the problem. I had to close ...
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Ok, I've imbibed more Microsoft Kool-aid than most people. I love working with Microsoft tools and with Microsoft employees. However, Windows Live ID (Passport) is starting to really get on my nerves.The other day, right before I was to demo a Silverlight site (www.heroeshappenhere.com) as part of a Silverlight talk for a CIO audience, something at Windows Live ID went down. I couldn't ...
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This is something I just don't get. The iPhone is arguably one of the most expensive phones you can buy. Granted, it has a great user interface, but at $500-$600, it's pretty expensive for a locked phone. I personally find the phone (from my limited use) quite usable, very attractive, but by no means a revolutionary device in any way other than the user experience. Abilene Christian Univer...
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I previously blogged about why I stopped coding in Silverlight 1.1. I want to make it clear that that is in no way an indictment of that technology. It's just that I've learned from it what I wanted to and have moved on.While I find 1.0 great for web gadgets and media, and found 1.1 very interesting to learn from, Silverlight 2.0, is what really excites me. It does for several reasons, ...
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Why can't Adobe Acrobat Reader, arguably one of the most essential pieces of software out there, just play nice with the rest of my systems?Through several browser versions on three different systems, over several system rebuilds, running three different operating systems (XP Pro, XP Media Center, and Vista), one thing has remained consistent: Acrobat reader has been and continues to be a s...