MSFT corrected to 2001

today Microsoft stock (MSFT) "corrected" to its highest numbers since 2001. MSFT went as high as $36.03 after the company annouced that it would surpass revenue predictions.

I was hired by MS in 2001, so this is the first day since I was hired, that MSFT has been ahead. good thing I held onto most of my stock. although, it doesn't take a genius to see that the stock is still undervalued.

Gutenberg's 20,000 free books

it's amazing how Project Gutenberg has grown. more free books than anyone could possibly need. these are books that aren't covered by copyrights--so almost all of them are over 80 years old. ever wished that you could search war and peace for the word "bubble"? here's your answer...

getting individual books: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/

getting compilations:

"The August 2003 CD contains 600 of our best Ebooks. The December 2003 DVD contains 9400 of our first 10,000 books. The July 2006 DVD contains over 17,000 books from our first 19,000 titles. All of the books found on the CD can also be found on both DVDs and most of the files on the December 2003 DVD can be found on the July 2006 DVD. There are very few images on the discs, and no audio books."

XNA book base code article

the XNA Game Studio Creator's Guide co-author, Pat McGee, has written an article about the XNA base code that he wrote for the book.

essentially, this article breaks down how to create the simple first-person game engine that is the base of many of the examples in the book.


- a screenshot from the textures chapter

configuring BitTorrent for speed

a few people have asked me about boosting BitTorrent download speeds. while it's always going to take hours to download GBs from BitTorrent "torrents," you can improve your performance significantly. I used these resources to make my download speeds much faster:

- the BitTorrent FAQ and guide.

- I use the BitComet client. there are a number of speed guides for BitComet.

- another consideration is port forwarding for your router (e.g., NetGear Router Port Forwarding).

- you can also run an online Speed Test to see how your connection is faring.

BTW - if you can't find the torrent you're looking for, try BTJunkie. it boasts the largest torrent search engine.

disabling VS just-in-time debugging

do you have Visual Studio installed on a machine that you use for every day tasks? are you tired of canceling the just-in-time debugging when you know that you're never going to use it on the apps that are triggering it? well, here's your post... turn it off.

from: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k8kf6y2a.aspx

To enable/disable Just-In-Time debugging
- On the Tools menu, click Options.
- In the Options dialog box, select the Debugging folder.
- In the Debugging folder, select the Just-In-Time page.
- In the Enable Just-In-Time debugging of these types of code box, select or clear the relevant program types: Managed, Native, or Script.
- To disable Just-In-Time debugging, once it has been enabled, you must be running with Administrator privileges. Enabling Just-In-Time debugging sets a registry key, and Administrator privileges are required to change that key.
- Click OK.