Based on comments to my earlier post, I put further work into Crystal Reports XI and SQL Server Reporting Services. Both seem capable-enough in terms of handling the data volumes and seem to have similar ease-of-use as far as the ultimate end-user goes (the inexperienced programmers who will be charged …

In this MSNBC article about the Boeing 787, the writer remembers "the noisy factory floors with handkerchief-clad mechanics clanging away on shiny metal." Was that one of those weird hippie things?

I was just reading "8 Tips and Tricks for Better BizTalk Programming" in the May 2007 MSDN when the word "Frisbee" in the author's bio caught my eye.

I was pretty good with a disc (3 world records, all of which have been long eclipsed), but Scott Zimmerman was the …

After Pele rolled over, she's gone into a deeper slumber and the Big Island is experiencing the lowest level of volcanic activity since 1983. Such pauses have happened twice before during the current 24-year-long eruption and previously lasted just a few weeks.

The effect on the Kona (leeward) side of …

I am setting the publish date of this post to tomorrow (6/30) at 6:00:00 AM, although I am publishing it on the 29th at 7PM.

Wii has announced that they will be opening the door to small developers on the Wii. The first take on this is that "WiiWare" is primarily about downloadable games a la XBox Arcade, but we all knew that was coming. More surprising is that Nintendo says that they will not …

Apparently, that my XBox 360 lasted from the day it went on sale until today is unusual. I was negotiating a turn in Forza 2 and the system froze. Rebooted, it froze during race startup. Rebooted, and now it's "the Red Ring of Death."

According to \<a href="http://www …

We have a database (SQL Server) that has a field in which we store fairly-hefty (1-4MB) XML documents. We need to create reports. Lots of reports.

The schemas upon which the documents are based are quite complicated and we have thousands of records.The reports need to be modifiable by …

Now that IBM has a petaflop supercomputer, the question becomes what to do with it:

10. Develop a coherent exit strategy from Iraq

9. Crank call Gary Kasparov at 3 in the morning and ask in that creepy computer-voice: "Would you like to play a game ... bitch?"

8. Write a …

Rationale is an interesting program that allows you to visually represent arguments:

It is essentially a domain-specific Visio or MindManager. Since it is domain-specific, it is faster to construct a complex tree and additionally export the structure as a text outline. This also limits it a little, in that I …