Mike-Ward.Net

Friday Links #63

Prepping to install Windows 7 while writing this. Multitasking, not just for computers…

Programming Computers

Vault 5.0 Released - SourceGear’s Version Control and Source Control Software - Having used and enjoyed Vault up until I started using Subversion, I wanted to mention that SourceGear just released Vault 5.0 and Fortress 2.0 if you are looking for version control and possibly application lifecycle management for your teams. Subversion, Git, and TFS are not for everyone, so it is good to know that other version control and source control solutions exist.

[Mastering CSS, Part 1: Styling Design Elements CSS Smashing Magazine](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/03/mastering-css-styling-design-elements/) - CSS is one of the most important building blocks of modern web design. Standards demand the use of CSS for formatting and styling pages, and with good reason. It’s lighter-weight and capable of much more than older methods like tables.

My Technobabble : The spirit of MVVM (ViewModel), it’s not a code counting exercise - Lately there is a lot of momentum and interesting conversation around Model-View-View-Model. There’s several good resources out there that discuss the basics of the pattern, who the actors are that are involved and what role the play. I’ll let those speak for themselves, including John Gossman’s great posthere, Martin Fowler’s post on the more general PresentationModel pattern and more recently Josh Smith’s MSDN article, Rob Eisenberg’s new series, and Ward Bell’s posts which touch on some of the deeper complexities involved.

Google Releases “Simple” Programming Language - Google has released a simple programming language called, appropriately enough, “Simple.”

Silverlight 3 Flip TriggerAction – It’s just so cool. I have to figure out how to integrate this into our app at work.

Using your Personal Computer

Switcher for Windows Vista - Switcher puts you in control of your windows. See all your windows on one screen, quickly search through them, even decorate them with your favorite colors and fonts.

Keep an eye on your system’s vitals with Yet Another Process Monitor – Nice, but I’m sticking with SysInternals.

[Printee: make any web page printer friendly with this Internet Explorer extension freewaregenius.com](http://www.freewaregenius.com/2009/08/04/printee-make-any-web-page-printer-friendly-with-this-internet-explorer-extension/) - Printee is a free Internet Explorer extension designed to remove elements of a webpage to create a perfectly printable page without ads or extra information.

Google Chrome Theme Gallery Open for Business, 30 New Themes Await - Google Chrome – Lifehacker - While themes aren’t exactly all about productivity, strictly speaking, it never hurts to spice things up a little bit and make your workspace a little friendlier. To that end, Google Chrome’s new Theme gallery adds a little spice to your Chrome installation.

Science and the Environment

By the Numbers: Energy-efficiency investments would pay huge dividends, says McKinsey & Company report - As the report details, an initial investment of $520 billion would be needed to reduce annual energy consumption by 23 percent by 2020, which translates into $1.2 trillion in savings and an end-use reduction of 9.1 quadrillion British thermal units.

leaf-main2-525-web

[Test Drive: Nissan’s Leaf, The Electric Car’s First Shot at the Mainstream Popular Science](http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009-08/hed-test-drive-nissan%E2%80%99s-leaf-electric-car%E2%80%99s-first-shot-mainstream-dek-nissan-going-manufacture-leaf-0) - Nissan is going to manufacture the Leaf in the thousands (maybe the hundreds of thousands). We took the first publicly drivable model for a spin.

From Graphene To Graphane, Now The Possibilities Are Endless - Ever since graphene was discovered in 2004, this one-atom thick, super strong, carbon-based electrical conductor has been billed as a “wonder material” that some physicists think could one day replace silicon in computer chips.

Scientist at Work - Stephen Kurtin - Making Eyeglasses With a Mechanically Adjustable Focus - NYTimes.com - glass element that is part of the mechanically adjustable eyeglasses he created.

[eSolar plugs solar plant into California grid Green Tech - CNET News](http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10302824-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5) - eSolar is doing what so many other solar start-up wish they were already doing: feeding electricity into the grid.
[A Cocktail of Diesel and Gasoline Runs 20 Percent More Efficiently Than Either One Alone Popular Science](http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009-08/researchers-discover-fuel-effciency-boost) - A team of gearheads at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed an engine that can handle a blend of gasoline and diesel fuel. It outputs low emissions, and offers up to 20 percent greater fuel efficiency.
[New Technology Could Drill Deeper Into the Earth Than Ever Before Popular Science](http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-08/new-technology-could-drill-deeper-earth-ever) - An adaptation of oil drills for deep water could bring scientists closer to the goal of drilling all the way through the earth’s crust to the wonders beneath.

All-in-One Nanoparticle: A ‘Swiss Army Knife’ For Nanomedicine - Nanoparticles are being developed to perform a wide range of medical uses – imaging tumors, carrying drugs, delivering pulses of heat. Rather than settling for just one of these, researchers at the University of Washington have combined two nanoparticles in one tiny package.

On the Web

Sony PRS300/PRS600 available for pre-order - MobileRead Forums - The Sony PRS-300 is priced at $199. Take that Amazon!

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 Upgrade Chart - Windows – Lifehacker - Windows 7 available to their MSDN and TechNet service subscribers, and to help prepare you for the impending release, the company has also produced an official upgrade chart. How about one version?

Stuff I just Dig

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics: Toyota’s running humanoid robot - The robot takes a step every 340ms and has no contact with the ground for 100ms of that. Notice in the video how the robot remains balanced even after pushed by the human. Note: Not Honda, but Toyota. Check out the video!

Wink3

[The Wink Glasses: As good as caffeine? Health Tech - CNET News](http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10300029-247.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5) - The USB-charged Wink Glasses are designed to keep you awake by making you refocus.
[Teague Unveils a Glowy New Bike Concept: The Pulse Popular Science](http://www.popsci.com/gear-amp-gadgets/article/2009-08/teague-unveils-glowy-new-bike-concept-pulse) – I so want one of these…

Pick of the Week

Comment Reflower – I’m not one for comments in source code. Most of the time they’re useless or worse yet, wrong. However, there are times when you have to document some assumption or use case. This tool makes it easy to wrap and format comments into something a bit more presentable.

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