Williamo’s Blog.

While at a rather disappointing MSDN event yesterday, I came across one gem of C# 3.0 candy in the form of a null-coalescing operator. This is basically a short-cut for the oft seen:

string emailAddress = parsedValue != null ? parsedValue : “(Not provided)”;

OR

string emailAddress = String.Empty;
if (parsedValue != null) {
emailAddress = parsedValue;
}
else {
emailAddress = “(Not provided)”;
}

Using the Null-Coalescing Operator
These can now instead be re-written using the new null-coalescing operator as:

string emailAddress = parsedValue ?? “(Not provided)”;

This can roughly be read as “Set emailAddress equal to parsedValue unless it is null, in which case set it to the literal (Not Provided)”.

(via Null-Coalescing Operator)

Pompus Storm, originally uploaded by William WM.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at U Mass, and he’s highly regarded for his role in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine. He’s also an illuminating writer and speaker on the ways that mindfulness meditation can improve health and reduce stress.

(via 43folders.com)

User Interface

The S60 has always been walking a path of its own, and unlike the mass market offerings running the S40, aims at tech-savvy users in the first place. At some point in time, as the sales of S60-powered devices kept soaring up, they finally got to the mass-market, which provoked a decline in the average owner’s expertise in that new users seemed to get befuddled with the interface, menu categorization and so on. The FP2 signifies the first deliberate attempt to get the user interfaces of the S60 and S40 closer, figure out a guideline that would suit them both. In the future these two platforms will be borrowing core features and specific apps from each other. This way, the S40 is set to pick up Nokia Maps down the road.

Three-button interface. Up until the FP2 all devices had only two captioned soft-keys, while now there are three of them, with the key in the middle usually serving for item selection (OK, Select functions). In some sub-menus its functions may vary, but this is all another attempt to get the devices to be more user-friendly. This interface layout doesn’t have a huge impact on the ease of use, at least for those who already familiar with the S60.

(via S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2)

Ever wanted to test your website in various versions of Internet Explorer?

It is possible to run Internet Explorer in standalone mode without having to over-write previous versions thanks to Joe Maddalone who came up with a way of achieving that in November 2003. Basically, Internet Explorer is run by exploiting a known workaround to DLL hell - which was introduced in Windows 2000 and later versions - called DLL redirection.

Manfred Staudinger perfected the standalone versions by adding IE version numbers to the title bar of the standalone browser window. Moreover, by removing the “IE” key in the registry subkey [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Version Vector] Internet Explore defaulted to respecting conditional comments based on the version number prebuilt in the program.

It is not difficult to follow the instructions and get any version of IE running in standalone along side other versions. Most of you probably know of evolt’s archive of Internet Explorer which has them readily packaged in ZIP files. Now suppose you want to download them all. An installer that would conveniently automate the whole process would be great. Thanks to this comment for the idea.

So I made an installer which contains IE3 IE4.01 IE5 IE5.5 and IE6

(via Install multiple versions of IE on your PC)

Nearly there…, originally uploaded by production designer matt.

Nearly finished as of April.

To go into overly nerdy detail, this is a replica of one of the few “hero” GB1 packs that survived being used in both the first and second films. The original packs had extensive detailing, as well as electrical and mechanical features. These heavy, bulky props were disliked by the actors (Murray especially), and so were largely replaced by much less functional, sloppy fibreglass casts for the second film. Although it’s difficult to spot on screen, the GB2-made packs have a much duller, less detailed appearance and are somewhat “wonky”. The occasional GB1 surviving packs appear in closeup sequences. The GB1 packs originally sported a thick, unique ribbon cable whose source is unknown. By the time of the second film (as still today), this cable proved impossible to find, so was substituted by a cheaper alternative. The above prop reflects those changes, as well as approximates 5 years worth of wear - both fictional and accidental.