Atlas Project

This looks like it will be useful. As Mike Gunderloy put it: Microsoft (Re)discovers AJAX

Magic Mapper

Magic Mapper lets you enter the link to a page containing geographic information (like http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2176rank.html) and displays a map illustrating the data

Google Maps API

OK - I HAVE to do something with this: Google Maps API Documentation

Outcome Grim at Oil War Game

The problem: Outcome Grim at Oil War Game
A (partial) solution: Plug-In Hybrids

On the Fly Code Translation From VB.NET <-> C#

AJAX powered CodeTranslator: Free Code Translation From VB.NET <-> C# by Carlos Ag. Via Darrell. Very cool - if you're a geek.

Google - Personalized Search

Google has for a while allowed users to view their search history through their personalized search. Now they've taken that feature to the next logical level: your Google search results ordering is affected not just by the page rank, but by your previous searches - a personalized page rank, so to speak:

Google - Personalized Search Help (Beta)

Prepare for privacy advocates to get their panties in a wad

Tip of the Day: Enum default values

If you have an enum declared like this:
enum Days {Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri};
and in your code you have a member variable defined like this:
Days _day;
you might not expect that _day would have a value at this point. Unfortunately you’d be wrong - _day would equal Days.Sat. The default value of an enum E is (E)0, which in this case is the first Days value, Sat.

You might think that you could get around this feature by initializing the first Days value to 1, like this:
enum Days {Sat=1, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri};
Now, surely _day would have no value? Nope – enums are value types, integers to be exact, and their default value is always 0. So in this case _day would simply equal 0. Additionally, if someone attempted to set the value of _day to 8, you might think this would cause an error. Again you’d be wrong. The value of _day would simply be 8.

The lesson to be learned here is to never assume that an enum variable will have a value limited to one of the values specified by your enum. Additionally you may want to explicitly create a first enum option None, giving yourself a visual clue that the enum variable has not had a value set. And lastly, use a switch/case statement when you check the value of an enum, and always include a default: statement

For more on enums, see the help file: Value Types - enum

Spam, powered by Yahoo!

I received an otherwise uninteresting spam email today, with an interesting link:
http://rds.yahoo.com/S=1933683/K=computer/v=3/SID=y/l=WS1/R=1/SS=49221344/IPC=us/SHE=0/H=0/SIG=91234gwS08/EXP=564103787/*-http://google.com.mtg****.net/home.asp (I have ****'ed out the final domain name to avoid giving them any additional advertising).

The above is a fully valid url - ending up at Yahoo!. Yahoo then is kind enough to redirect the unfortunate user to the spammer's site: http://google.com.mtg****.net/home.asp

Yahoo actually allows this without any questions. Try http://rds.yahoo.com/*-http://google.com for example. Or http://rds.yahoo.com/*-http://msn.com.

As best I can tell, Yahoo uses this service to redirect (and track) clicks on ads, etc. They have another service that does the same: http://rd.yahoo.com, but at least it's smart enough to check the final destination: http://rd.yahoo.com/*-http://google.com (or maybe it just uses a different scheme).

Google Maps - beijing, china

Cool: Google Maps - beijing, china

Justices, 5-4, Back Seizure of Property for Development

This is just wrong: Justices, 5-4, Back Seizure of Property for Development from the New York Times

RSVME Press Release

I blogged about RSVME earlier - it is a nice tool - but I didn't expect my blog-post to become part of a press release: WebSurveyor Announces RSVME, Personal Feedback Tool

Not that I mind, but as the traffic report for this blog indicates, I don't exactly have a ton of readers...

stock.xchng - free stock photography

I may need this one day: stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site

The EFF Action Center

The Electronic Frontier Foundation fights a number of important battles against special interests on behalf of the public. Through their Action Center you can send e-mails and faxes to elected representatives, voicing your concern over, or support for, an issue.

As Toyota Goes ...

Thomas Friedman endorses hybrids: As Toyota Goes ... - New York Times

A Nagasai Report

From the Mainichi Daily News: A Nagasaki Report, by George Weller.

American George Weller was the first foreign reporter to enter Nagasaki following the U.S. atomic attack on the city on Aug. 9, 1945. Weller wrote a series of stories about what he saw in the city, but censors at the Occupation's General Headquarters refused to allow the material to be printed.

Scott Hanselman's 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List

ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog - Scott Hanselman's 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List

TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook

I'm gonna HAVE to look into this some more: TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook

11 Clients You Need To Fire Right Now

From Christopher Hawkins: 11 Clients You Need To Fire Right Now

It's the Batteries, Stupid.

From The Committee on the Present Danger: OIL & SECURITY by George P. Shultz and R. James Woolsey

Deep down (maybe) I am an Azeri

• The Azerbaijan Connection: Challenging Euro-Centric Theories of Migration by Dr. Thor Heyerdahl
• Scandinavian Ancestry: Tracing Roots to Azerbaijan

PCWorld.com - Secret TiVo Tips and Tweaks

To try at home: PCWorld.com - Secret TiVo Tips and Tweaks

Huh? Why does Books Online require .NET at all? Did they change the Help format?

css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design

Amazing how a little CSS can completely transform a site: css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design