NASA Picture of the Day

I like to have a look at the NASA picture of the day every once in a while. I was just catching up and ran across this one:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070819.html

Amazon Unbox

Since I don't have TV service (yes I do have a TV but it is only connected to a DVD player), if I have time and feel like it I've tried some videos from online services such as iTunes, NetFlix and now Amazon Unbox. The only reason for testing out Amazon Unbox was the new Bionic Woman pilot was free so I figured why not. Oh NBC why did you leave iTunes. Amazon Unbox had to reboot my computer 3 times each time not restarting the install, the UI is poor and the video quality is lacking. For half the show there was a horizontal line through the video and the sound was not in sync with the video. Note that I did run this over a VMWare VM running Windows XP on my MacPro. iTunes, NetFlix and many other applications and videos as a comparison point have had no such problems so I doubt it's the VM. Anyway, it was a mildly entertaining show that I won't be watching so here's a link to check it out for yourself:

Paint.NET

I wanted to add the application to the list of Useful Applications As Suggested by Blog Readers. I recently started using Paint.NET for any graphics work I need to do at work since it is free and Photoshop is overkill. It does a lot of the basics, does them well and is way better than Microsoft Paint.

Delphi\C++ 2007 Bug Fixes

tregsvr now works on an Assembly again.

Import Component, browse GAC Assemblies now actually shows Assemblies! Recently I ran across Delphi users having problems with the Import Component Wizard thinking the wizard doesn't show any assemblies that are registered in the GAC. The truth of the matter is the Import Component Wizard displays assemblies registered in the GAC that have a CodeBase property, but the bug fix changed all this so any GAC assembly registered for 32-bit will show up (these are the Assemblies that live in the GAC_32 directory).

C++ Remote Data Module doesn't register each time it is run which caused problems for Vista or any limited user account. Note that the registration code (/regserver) caused the exception, but for some reason the unregistration code (/unregserver) does not throw an exception.

There is a bug where if you are working on a COM project all the units in your project would be opened taking considerable time and memory. This has now been fixed.

September Photo of the Month

Copyright © 2007 Chris Bensen. All rights reserved.

It's that time again, the first of the month and time for a new photo. This months photo I took over the Labor Day weekend just days ago in Yosemite National Park. Click on the photo to see it larger. The photo is of a Western Screech-Owl that I tracked down over and managed to get really close to snap this great photo. This is a case where the latest technology allowed me to take a photo that wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago. The photo is taken with a 400mm hand held at f5.6, 1/50th, ISO 800 with image stabilization. What a surprise it was to get home last night to find this one sharp photo.