Gathering Darkness

Trying to work with Johnny, MG, and Sideshow (?) on a side project, I recently came across the fact that Visio 2007 no longer includes the "Generate Database" option. You have to install "Visio for Enterprise Architects" - a product no longer available via MSDN subscriptions. Luckily, I still had a copy of the ISO laying around, so after mounting it as a device, I attempted to install it, only to be greeted by an error telling me that I have to install a supported version of Visual Studio.

A bit of google work indicated that the "supported versions" were 2003 and 2005 - since I already had 2008 installed, I didn't really want to go backwards, so I fired up procmon from "\\live.sysinternals.com" (which I recommend mapping as a shared drive on any Developer machine) and watched for the key it was trying to find in the registry.

Ta-da! In the key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Setup\VS\VSTD, it's looking for a String value "ProductDir". It doesn't seem to care what value is in this key (currently, I have "Microsoft, you guys really need to pull your heads out of your arses" and it works fine!)

Since I didn't ever install 2003 or 2005 on this machine, I had to create everything below the "VisualStudio" level using regedit.

(BTW: I finally fixed those annoying orange xdebug error boxes when you save your article - xdebug rocks, other people's code doesn't.)

I couldn't get past 49 - I actually hit 49 three different times, but each time I would then miss one and end back up around 47.

I have a bit of an issue with how they score, it though - I find it difficult to believe that they consider 'actuate' to be as unfamiliar as 'mingy'.

I know they're not fans, but they still blew it - they should have been the first to tell us that Spore's Creature Creator is now available for download.

This is GAMING NEWS.

Seems that the Firefox guys have finally fixed their scalability issues enough that most of you could upgrade to Firefox 3. There are a lot of improvements, including in both speed and memory usage.

I haven't had a chance to "vet" it yet, but probably will not so I'm posting it anyway. If you have been searching for a good backup solution, maybe Macrium Reflect, today's Give Away of the Day, will fit your needs. Mostly, it caught my eye because it claims to be

the only imaging solution to offer Linux, BartPE, and Windows PE 2.0 based system recovery options.

I like the TV show "Lost".

One of my favorite characters on the show, one Dr. Jack Shepard, has been derided by certain members of this blog for the way he behaves, while I have always felt he did exactly what was called for in the untenable situation in which he found himself.

As I was looking around the Intertubes today for more information on David Brin's new book "Through Stranger Eyes", I came across a review of the book "Alas, Babylon", by Pat Frank. One of the lines mentioned in the review caught my attention, and reminded me of this conflict regarding Jack's behaviour. So, in the spirit of conflict that this blog's constituency seeks, here's the line:

"When you had the responsibility, you also had the right to command..."

Spider-Man's Uncle Ben would put it: "With great power, comes great responsibility" - but is this transitive? Does great power come from great responsibility as well? Or, to put it in terms of "Lost": doesn't the fact that leadership was THRUST upon him give Jack the power and authority to do what he thinks is right?

Discuss.

Trying to fix a bug in the PHP zip library support, I came across a great article by Jean-Loup Gailly about an incredibly stupid patent someone has filed.

Reading this article talking about "one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes", I find myself unable to understand the assertion that:

we must respect their choice. Any contact they have with outsiders must happen in their own time and on their own terms.

Have they actually CHOSEN to remain "uncontacted", or are they simply ignorant that there's anything beyond their own tribal boundaries? Is a choice made in ignorance really a choice?

As one of the first people to purchase Enso, I was a little bit surprised to discover today that they have now released it as a free download. It may not interest you - not everyone prefers to use their keyboard to the degree I do. However, you should at least check it out.

Or, rather, their webs.