Code, coke and coins

Ah databases, now I’m no DBA by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve recently come across a new trend in database design which I’m pretty sure isn’t ideal.
When designing databases I’ve always taken the basic principle of using identity fields in each table and using foreign keys to ‘link’ the tables, a pretty standard [...]

So the Intel QX6700 is upon us, for those not in the know, it’s not really a true ‘quad’ core processor, but a dual-dual processor. Two separate pieces of silicon (each containing an E6700 Dual core CPU) on a single physical package. But for all intensive purposes it is four physical CPUs in one drop-in [...]

Like many I’m sure, I run my PC for long periods of time, on many occassions it runs 24/7 for particulary long downloads or FTP server access when I’m away. All this time the CPU is buzzing away, doing nothing for the large part, except comsuming power and generating heat.
One thing I was suprised with [...]

I recently built a new PC and was trying to decide which anti-virus software to use on it. I’d not had this decision to make for many, many years…. since 1990, when Norton Anti-Virus was introduced.
I’ve stuck with Norton Anti-virus all that time, happily paying my subscription annually in the knowledge that I was protected [...]

Over the past few weeks, for the first time ever, my ADSL connection at home started to play up. Nothing major, the modem would loose synchronisation momentarily (1 or 2 seconds) every few hours and then resync – Windows remained perfectly oblivious to this activity and carried on as if nothing had occured.
Past experience with [...]

My last 2 jobs have involved a large amount of Visual Basic 6 development (amongst T_SQL, C and various script languages), but have been very different in terms of design and implementation of code.
Prior to my current role, the VB6 code was about as cutting-edge as you can get with an 8 year old development [...]

Recently I finally took the plunge and installed the express editions of Visual Studio 2005 on one of my machines. The whole process was very painless I must say, the whole process of installing VC, VCS, VB and SQL 2005 didn’t require a single reboot, and didn’t present any installation options at all. It’s worth [...]

I’ve finally taken the plunge into the wonderful world of Microsoft Certification, having signed up for an horrendously expensive course for MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developer), and hopefully extend this to an MCSD at a later date. I had considered the books & exams only route, but it’s very tedious just sifting through a book, [...]

Since my initial introduction to LightScribe I’ve not had a great deal of time to do anything with it, real life has been getting in the way. In the meantime my desktop has become awash with Visual Studio Express downloads amongst other things, time for a little DVD/CD burning this weekend.
Keeping all my Visual Studio [...]

I’ve recently been steered towards a wonderful website called The Daily WTF which is maintained by Alex Papadimoulis. The site contains some of the most hilarious code you are ever likely to read, a lot of which is accredited with being source from ‘Enterprise level’ commercial packages.
It really is a site that every programmer should [...]