Blog posts for 2008

1. Modify this registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlTerminalServerWinStationsRDP-TcpPortNumber Enter a new value for the port you would like.

2. Turn off the option in my computer properties to enable remote access.

3. Turn on the option in my computer properties to enable remote access.

4. Verify via command prompt that RDP is working with the current information: telnet localhost If a blank prompt comes up RDP is listening on the new port.

5. Configure your firewall/NAT to allow outside connections to this port.

Shannon and Brian are having twins, 10 weeks pregnant :)

I used this program to do my taxes (and my wife's). Once done using the program, it will give you a .tax file which you can use to file your taxes online. You simply upload the .tax file to the government's online site here.

I found a VS plug-in that allows you to define solution level build environment variables. This is something I've been wishing Visual Studio had built in for several years now. One of the reasons that it's so important is that you can easily define include directories for all of your projects while keeping them in sync. This is important when administering multiple build configurations.

Typically a simple project only has 2 configs (Debug, and Release) so the problem is not that apparent. But a production level product has at least (Release + Debug) * (x64 + x86 + ia64) = 6 configurations that you have to try and keep in sync. You can download the Solution Build Environment plug-in here.

Also it is important to patch Visual Studio because they have a bug in VS2005 SP1 where plug-ins don't work if you run via command line. You can download this fix here

A quote from Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ programming language:

I think of math as a splendid way to learn to think straight. Exactly what math to learn and exactly where what kinds of math can be applied is secondary to me.

I've always said that math teaches you above all how to think.

Everyone states that putting 2 companies together who are not leading will not take over the leader Google.

This is true, but only for search. Yahoo is a great company with a huge community that reaches much further than search. In many ways Yahoo beats Google, just not in search.

Most advertising money is spent on search. Even if Microsoft-Yahoo doesn't have the majority share of search, it doesn't matter. Aggregating both portals into the same advertising service, will simplify advertiser's management of their budget. It will also be a bigger market share, and so people will take more interest in advertising on Microsoft-Yahoo.

There exists a subset of users who advertise with Microsoft but not Yahoo. Likewise, there exists a subset of users who advertise with Yahoo, but not Microsoft. Putting Microsoft-Yahoo together will expand on both of these subsets of people, by broadening their advertising base.

It is a great move by Microsoft in my opinion. That is, just as long as they can properly integrate the parts of the company that should be integrated. For now, phase 1, this should only be the advertising portal.