Listening to: Useless> - Depeche Mode

Found on Additiverich.
mathowie celebrates the
true meaning of Christmas.

Listening to: This Room> - Dj Fitchie & Joe Dukie

Merry Christmas guys… thanks for everyone’s help and support over the last year.
2004 has been a hard year for everyone I know… and that makes someone else lending
a hand even more important.

Listening to: This Room> - Dj Fitchie & Joe Dukie

Day 76 of the
production diary is now available on Kong is
King

Listening to: Cool Scene - The Dandy Warhols

From an ACLU release on
the 20th of Dec:

The two-page e-mail that references an Executive Order states
that the President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation,
stress positions, the use of military dogs, and “sensory deprivation through the use
of hoods, etc.” The ACLU is urging the White House to confirm or deny the existence
of such an order and immediately to release the order if it exists. The FBI e-mail,
which was sent in May 2004 from “On Scene Commander–Baghdad” to a handful of senior
FBI officials, notes that the FBI has prohibited its agents from employing the techniques
that the President is said to have authorized.

Listening to: Sleep - The Dandy Warhols

Doogie Howser MD was given a Lego fire boat for Christmas. I kindly put it together
for him this morning. The thing I noticed was the kick ass little domes that you now
place on the bottom of the Lego models:

Being the son of an aeronautical engineer I only had problems with my models catching
on the carpet on take off and landing (which lent itself to me developing many VTOL aircraft).
Now that problem has been banished for ever.

Listening to: Mohammed - The Dandy Warhols

Both links found on Boing Boing.

The worlds largest solar site is due to go live.

PowerLight’s three Bavarian solar parks, consisting of 57,600 silicon-and- aluminum
panels, will generate 10 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 9,000 German
homes. The amount of electricity produced is much less than power plants fueled by
coal or natural gas, but with very low operating costs, the solar project is expected
quickly to turn a profit while emitting zero pollution. Schroeder’s left-of-center
Social Democrat-Green coalition has turned Germany into the world leader in renewable
energy since it took office in 1998. Billions of dollars have been spent on wind and
solar projects, and Schroeder, in a politically risky move, has sharply increased
taxes on petroleum products in an attempt to reduce consumption of conventional fuels.

Boing Boing src.

Indoor
tropics…in an ex zepplin hanger.

Here’s what it is: a tropical island paradise, with white sandy beaches, waterfalls
tumbling into tranquil lagoons, a rainforest, several restaurants, shops and all manner
of entertainments, protected from the freezing Brandenburg winter by the world’s largest
self-supporting hall. Raw numbers aren’t much help with something this size, but for
the record it’s 360m long, 210m wide and 107m high in the middle, enclosing a total
interior space of 5m cubed. You could slide the Eiffel Tower in on its side, or, if
you prefer, the Statue of Liberty standing up. It’s twice as high as the Millennium
Dome, and covers a comparable area of ground.

Boing Boing src.

Listening to: Godless - The Dandy Warhols

My Jeff Soto print has
arrived. Photos when framed. Either the woman at the framers likes me or I am a really
good customer ‘coz I got a discount on this print. Andy reads this blog so I
am going for the “really good customer” option.

Listening to: Hard to Tell - Old Crow Medicine Show

Well it’s official. XAML is at least as powerful as HTML. Here I have proof:

See! I am able to create truly ghastly windows apps in the same way I am able to create
ghastly web apps. This is a very, very good sign. If it allows me to create bad…
it will allow talented people to create good.

Moooha ha ha!

Listening to: Phobos - Rhian Sheehan

Here are a couple of articles on programatically loading XAML:

• Avalon
  Skinning  - Mitch Walker
• Yes
  Sam, it is dynamic…  - Chris Anderson

The secret sauce is:

Stream stream = File.OpenRead(styleName);
FrameworkElement resourceElement = (FrameworkElement)Parser.LoadXml(stream);
resourceElement.Resources.Seal();
this.Application.Resources = resourceElement.Resources;
stream.Close();

Listening to: Cosmology (Agent Alvin Remix) - Rhian Sheehan.

Again I have been a bit slow off the mark. Day 70 (link
to quicktime) and 73 of
the King King production diary is now available at Kong
Is King.