04.13.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:29 pm by david
Long time no update this blog. I intend to fix that. But for now, I’d like to point to two articles I posted at CodeProject:
- Tracing Events Raised by Any C# Object—in which I describe a technique for tracing the events of any C# object using a very simple helper class, using .NET Reflection to get the event handlers of an arbitrary object.
- Password Field Unhider (and some C++ utility classes)—first I present a small utility that lives in the Windows notification area and stands ready at any time to unhide (that is, unmask) any password field on the screen, so you can see what you’re typing. And second, I describe some very simple yet useful C++ utility classes: a general message pump, an IPC mechanism using
WM_COPYDATA, and a work item dispatcher.
I intend to post more articles at CodeProject, the kind of useful tips, tutorial, explanation things, with source code, that are longer than the typical blog post.
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11.11.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:43 pm by david
You can use Word 2007 features to generate very nice looking mathematical notation. This feature is, for all practical purposes, completely undocumented by Microsoft. However, some information has been published by Microsoft employees and others on the web. This post is meant to serve as a convenient directory of that information. (This post will be updated as I learn more about equations in Word 2007.)
- To enter equation mode: Insert|Equation or Alt+= shortcut. Note that the Insert ribbon doesn’t have the Equation item when in Blog mode. Why not? (Question: How do I get it to appear in Blog mode?)
- Dataninja: Undocumented Word 2007 Equation Shortcuts—John Gardner created this very nice reference card with some useful equation formatted tips.
- Word Team Blog: Equations in 2007—an introductory post, with links to two screenshot-videos on how to use linear method. Unfortunately – she doesn’t explain, while she is typing, how to enter equation mode or how use the keyboard to move the cursor from one insertion field to the next. (This is currently the only post on the Word Team blog with the tag “equations”.)
- Word 2007 Help: Math AutoCorrect Symbols—I cut&pasted this from the Word 2007 Help—it is more easily used in this format.
- TechRepublic: Microsoft Office Word 2007 Inside and Out sample chapter on Building Blocks—TechRepublic offers this sample chapter of Microsoft Office Word 2007 Inside and Out—the chapter is all about Building Blocks, which is what the equations gallery is made of. It explains a bit about Math Autocorrect mode, linear equation entry, and how to add your own equations to the gallery. This chapter is pretty good—the book might be worth getting.
- Word Team Blog: Equation Numbering—a post on how to number the equations in your document. There is a video here too. (This is currently the only post on the Word Team blog with the tag “equations video”.)
- Murray Sargent: Math in Office: Using Math Italic and Bold in Word 2007—How using the ribbon’s italic and bold formatting buttons provides the proper math italic and bold characters for variables.
- UTN 28: Unicode Nearly Plain-Text Encoding of Mathematics—this document, an Unicode consortium Technical Note written by the Microsoft developer who implemented the feature, is a complete description of the linear entry method.
- Murray Sargent: Math Selection—a brief note on how selection works inside an equation, and the related post Murray Sargent: Using Left/Right Arrow Keys in Mathematical Text on how the insertion points works inside an equation.
- Murray Sargent: Breaking Equations Into Multiple Lines—A nice description of how to break equations onto multiple lines, and also how to align multiple equations on a specific character.
- David Carlisle: XHTML and MathML from Office 2007—David Carlisle provides instructions and an XSL stylesheet so you can take the HTML output of Word 2007 and run it through his process to get an XHTML document that has the math equations in MathML format (normally Word 2007 saves equations in “ECMA Math” format, OMML—apparently a Microsoft invention). Note that Word allows you to cut/paste MathML to/from the Clipboard (so you get get equations into or out of Mathematica, for example).
- Murray Sargent: User Spaces in Math Zones—On typing spaces into equations: Just don’t do it!
Interesting, but not as practical:
General places to look for information:
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10.04.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:35 pm by david
A bunch of items I ordered arrived today - hard disks to relieve my chronic space shortage, and USB 2.0 enclosures to put them in. I built everything at once and commenced transferring data. It didn’t take long before I remembered Jim Gray’s early warnings that as we moved to terabyte disks programmers would need to think of disks as sequential devices - that is, like tapes. (I read this in a presentation of his a long time ago, but right now I can only find later references, like in this interview, and in this paper.) Consolidating 500Gb of files from multiple smaller hard drives onto one larger drive takes a long time.
But the real point of this post is this: Can you help me figure out if I’m using one of my new USB 2.0 hard disk enclosures correctly? I thought installing the disk into the thing was obvious—but I checked the instructions anyway, which is my usual habit. The instructions seemed clear: place the hard disk in the USB enclosuer, plug in the cables, secure the metal case with four screws—all ok so far. But here is the last paragraph:
Is good with machine plank according to the right method conjunction the hard dish, lock the right and HDD, can immediately trust the usage.
Say what? A finer example of Engrish I have never seen. Thank you CP Technologies for your CP-U2S-3G Platinum Series USB 2.0 to SATA hard disk case instructions!
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