SaltyBlog

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Testing the “Duplicated Shuffle” Odds in SQL Server

    I recently became aware of the (kinda mind-blowing) fact that the odds are essentially zero that the order of the deck of cards you just shuffled has ever occurred before in the history of Earth (we’ll discard other planets for now as that variable is not quite yet known). According to this fascinating thread on […]

  • Good Riddance 2013

    I haven’t blogged in a while. In fact I haven’t done much of anything that can be considered creative or original for quite a while which is kind of a problem when you write code for a living! I’ve been pondering this post’s possibility for a few months, and finally having been inspired by other […]

  • I am a Friend of Red Gate

    I do a fair bit of public speaking. Perhaps not as much as some people, but more than others. I really enjoy it though I’m not going to lie to you, it’s a lot of work and isn’t what puts food on the table. A trend that has arisen in my technical talks over the […]

  • Augmented Reality using Appcelerator Titanium Starter

    Or, “How to write apps that turn your smartphone into a Terminator-style heads up display” If you aren’t familiar with Augmented Reality, it’s the fancy phrase for adding meta-information to the real-life objects around you. Have you ever been to the top of a very high point and read the signage that names those objects […]

  • Southwest Fox 2012 is History, but 2013 Announced

    Another Southwest Fox is in the bag, and let me tell you this conference is still going strong. We saw a lot of hands go up when they asked how many people were new this year, which was outstanding.  Folks are already starting to blog about their experiences, and Steve Bodnar from Geeks and Gurus […]

  • The Way of .Net – A Parody Song for Southwest Fox

    A couple of weeks ago Tuvia Vinitsky shot me a copy of a parody song he wrote and wanted to perform at the Southwest Fox conference. “Hey,” I thought, “we used to do a lot of parody songs back in high school. [Sorry, Big Smitty] I could totally do this.” So I took a few […]

  • Southwest Fox 2012 is Almost Here!

    This is The major annual conference for Visual FoxPro developers, and something that we all look forward to every year. The best part about this conference is the socializing with longtime friends who have followed a similar career arc. The focus each year is becoming more and more about expanding our skills beyond Visual FoxPro. […]

  • Telerik Reporting Review

    When it comes to using a Report Writer in my applications, I had heard talk for years that I should avoid Crystal Reports if possible. “It’s a behemoth.” Some said. “It’s more that you need.” “It’s frustrating.” Well up until recently I was able to remain happily ignorant of the power and fury that is […]

  • “Function Sequence Error” in VFP Remote Views

    This was a first for me. An application that had been working fine suddenly started throwing a “Function Sequence Error” when retrieving data from a remote view. That error message was a little misleading, as I didn’t have any functions in my view that could even be out of sequence! Googling around didn’t lead to […]

  • But What Do You *Do*?

    I’m often asked “What do you do?” Depdending on whose asking I’ll give an answer ranging from “I work with computers,” to “I design and implement custom solutions that help business operate more efficiently.” A common followup question is, “Can you design a website?” Well…yes, but that kid down the street can probably do what […]

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