I’ve never played Allegiance. I’ve never even heard of the game. But Microsoft is releasing the source code rather than abandoning the game. It’s a large download, but an interesting look at the full source code for a game.

I usually ignore the spam that I get (and I get a bunch), but I read one of them a bit more carefully:

We hereby inform you that your computer was scanned under the IP 194.90.37.141 . The contents of your computer were confiscated as an evidence, and you will be indicated.

Umm… I think that the author was probablyÂlooking forÂâ€inditedâ€.

Quick, what’s the hex code for question mark? How about the ampersand? Since, like me, you probably don’t waste valuable space in your brain with that type of information, I have a little trick for you to quickly look up the hex encoding (or URLEncoding) for a character that doesn’t require you building an ASP or ASP.NET page and calling Server.UrlEncode().

So this kid has a dorky moment alone at school in a little studio where he films himself. Next thing you know, his friends upload the tape to Kazaa and this kid is everywhere! People all over the net are remixing the video. Here is the Original and a remix:

Port knocking is a method of establishing extra security between a networked computer and the outside world. It seems like a great idea. For hosts that are running private services that need to be connected to the net, require clients to make a specific series of connection attempts to various ports. After the correct sequence is made, the firewall opens up the port for the client. This would be very difficult to uncover via a port scan.

My coworkers have been sending me some funny videos to get me caught up with pop-internet culture. Click on the “Humor” category to the left to see the latest funny videos. The Dave Chappelle one is especially worth watching.

Can somebody out there point me to a reference that explicitly says whether or not we can count on the underlying order of a DataTable rows to be the same order that is returned by a SQL statement or a Stored Procedure?

It’s amazing the fallout over the Janet Jackson breast incident.

It’s a bit painful to watch. But you gotta love this kid’s attitude. WilliamHung.wmv.

Erik would like to point out that http://www.network-tools.com can also be used for url encoding. I still like my trick. It’s faster. However, network tools does have a nice collection of commonly used tools for the web or network programmer.

This is why I always recommend Spybot Search and Destroy.

I’m working with a third party component (I will not name the guilty party) that has a method with the following signature and implementation (with no overrides):

So what is up with this ugly new site? Basically it is one of those “Oh gawd, a developer is trying to design” designs. It is one of the default designs that comes with a blogging back-end that I am now using. You’ll also notice that my URL is some funky long piece of work with “europe” in it. No, I haven’t moved to europe. My good man Erik pointed me towards free ASP.NET hosting with SQL Server access. I’m trying it out and hosting my blog here. As for the design,don’t worry, it is temporary. I have some underground monkeys working feverishly hard to produce a mind blowing, head splitting, taste bud exciting new design. Some new features to note: