Street Reflections

Submitted by Philip Storry on Mon, 15/07/2013 - 19:51

I like light dappling things.

I have a version of this which doesn't have a person in it. I'm not quite sure which one I prefer, but my gut went with this one...

Blue Trees

Submitted by Philip Storry on Tue, 09/07/2013 - 08:09

Blue trees.

Yes, someone really did paint these trees blue.

No idea why, and my current theory is that people are crazy.

Cranes with contrail

Submitted by Philip Storry on Mon, 01/07/2013 - 20:24

The thing people don't do often enough in cities...

Look up.

I happened to notice this pleasing composition, which was gone moments later.

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - CTL3DV2.DLL and DLL hell

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 19/06/2013 - 21:02

In the beginning, Windows was remarkably flat.
Visually, that is.
It was hard to tell what could or couldn't be clicked on, as the screen lacked visual clues to help guide you. This was a particular problem for buttons, toolbars and other controls.
(I could insert a snarky comment here about repeating the mistakes of history...)

Then came CTL3DV2.DLL.
It changed everything.

Windows 3.0 was the first version to get some real 3D going, and Windows 3.1 continued the trend.

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - 4DOS

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 08/05/2013 - 22:13

Whilst writing about Utilities last week, the fondest memory wasn't one of the best known.
Well, kind of.
4DOS was a replacement for COMMAND.COM. Distributed as shareware, an older version was also licensed to Symantec as NDOS, which might be more familiar for some people.

The reason I'm so fond of it is that it made MS-DOS usable on a daily basis.
Remember, this was before Windows. No GUI here. So COMMAND.COM was your interface with DOS, making 4DOS the equivalent of replacing Program Manager or Explorer in Windows.

SMWS New List Tasting 2013-05-04 (Part 2)

Submitted by Philip Storry on Tue, 07/05/2013 - 23:02

Continuing from part 1...

SMWS New List Tasting 2013-05-04

Submitted by Philip Storry on Tue, 07/05/2013 - 23:02

A good list with plenty of competent whiskies on it. Very few sherry casks, but that seems to be the way these days...

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - Utilities, utilities, utilities...

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 01/05/2013 - 20:22

Some of my fonder memories of computing days of yore are those where I was working with utilities under DOS.

And boy, were we spoiled for choice.

SMWS New List Tasting 2013-04-05

Submitted by Philip Storry on Tue, 30/04/2013 - 19:18

A superb grain and some very decent young whiskies on this list...

Wasted Neurons Wednesday - COM and EXE files

Submitted by Philip Storry on Wed, 24/04/2013 - 20:33

These days, all Windows programs are .EXE files. But back in the days of DOS, there were also .COM files.

Why no .COM files anymore?

The answer lies with the precursor of MS-DOS - CP/M.

MS-DOS was not actually written by Microsoft - IBM had tried to get CP/M for their new PC, but couldn't agree on the royalty rates. As a hedge bet, they asked Microsoft for an operating system - so Microsoft first licensed, then bought outright someone else's CP/M clone and resold it to IBM!