Evil Monkey Visor

Entropy Key to work with Fedora

2011-06-21T15:43:00.004-04:00

If you don't know what this device is, it is a small USB key that is inexpensive TRNG (True Random Number Generator) device. If you decide to get one of these things and you are not computer, programmer, linux savvy you may have a little trouble getting it up and running without some clear guidance, so I have put together some reproducible steps for installing:

1) I didn't bother trying the provided RPM packages since none were packages specific to fedora

2) Lua is already installed on most systems but you will also need lua-socket, an add on for lua that provides sockets support. You can't just install the lua-socket from yum- you have to make small changes to lua-socket and install manually. The changes required will (a) install lua to the correct place for fedora, (b) add configuration for UNIX domain sockets for lua, which are not enabled in the fedora package.

I did a google search to find the changes I needed (google: lua socket unix diff). The result I found was for FreeBSD but it works the same:

[1] on freebsd-8 (CURRENT):
/src/localcode/lua/luasocket-2.0.2
0  # hg diff
diff --git a/config b/config
--- a/config
+++ b/config
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
# Compiler and linker settings
# for Linux
CC=gcc
-DEF=-DLUASOCKET_DEBUG
+DEF=-DLUASOCKET_DEBUG -DUNIX_HAS_SUN_LEN
CFLAGS= $(LUAINC) $(DEF) -pedantic -Wall -O2 -fpic
LDFLAGS=-O -shared -fpic
LD=gcc
diff --git a/makefile b/makefile
--- a/makefile
+++ b/makefile
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
INSTALL_SOCKET_LIB=$(INSTALL_TOP_LIB)/socket
INSTALL_MIME_SHARE=$(INSTALL_TOP_SHARE)/mime
INSTALL_MIME_LIB=$(INSTALL_TOP_LIB)/mime
+#
+INSTALL_UNIX_LIB=$(INSTALL_SOCKET_LIB)

all clean:
      cd src; $(MAKE) $@
@@ -45,6 +47,8 @@
      #cd src; $(INSTALL_DATA) $(TO_MIME_SHARE) $(INSTALL_MIME_SHARE)
      cd src; mkdir -p $(INSTALL_MIME_LIB)
      cd src; $(INSTALL_EXEC) $(MIME_SO) $(INSTALL_MIME_LIB)/core.$(EXT)
+       cd src; mkdir -p $(INSTALL_UNIX_LIB)
+       cd src; $(INSTALL_EXEC) $(UNIX_SO) $(INSTALL_UNIX_LIB)/$(UNIX_SO)

#------
# End of makefile
diff --git a/src/makefile b/src/makefile
--- a/src/makefile
+++ b/src/makefile
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
      usocket.o \
      unix.o

-all: $(SOCKET_SO) $(MIME_SO)
+all: $(SOCKET_SO) $(MIME_SO) ${UNIX_SO}

$(SOCKET_SO): $(SOCKET_OBJS)
      $(LD) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $(SOCKET_OBJS)

3) Install the patched lua-socket (command: make && make install )

4) Follow the rest of the original instructions for generating a key and running the provided daemon.

To test that your key is working you can run one of the stat tools or just cat /dev/random..

Frontier Airlines "Upgraded Seating"

2010-06-08T10:38:00.003-04:00

I recently spent a long weekend in California hiking around in the parks and was completely exhausted by the time we were leaving. At check-in the kiosk asked if I wanted to upgrade seating to a 'stretch' row seating. I elected yes, put in my card for the charge, and was on my way to be seated in the plane.

The row they placed me in was one that the seats had LESS leg room due to the position in front of the exit row and the seats did not recline!

I called Frontier Airlines customer service that said: because there was no charge on my card that they could not reimburse me, and that for whatever reason they moved my seating at that time- probably because I elected to have my seating moved.

Frontier Airlines has a horrible policy to rearrange their seating by calling them "upgrades", and then do nothing for customer service. If anyone else had a similar experience or knows how to be reimbursed or compensated for this shady behavior, please let me know.

XBox 360: Project Natal

2009-06-03T02:12:00.003-04:00

Project Natal aims to be pretty much everything I was working on with cameras and stereoscopic vision in college. The setup is eerily the same too, with dual fixed cameras negotiating the 3D scene. Youtube video here. Since I have walked this path, however short it was for myself, I do have some thoughts about this project and potential limiations:

Camera speed and synch:
Both camera's have to synch frames (ideal) or do some extra processing to negotiate and calibrate themselves for the difference. This is a bit processor intensive to have a perfect synch of the scene and to negotiate the differences if they are not hardware synched.

Camera resolution:
I am hoping that Microsoft realizes how much money thay can make from this type of system and invest some real money to help offset the costs for the consumer on the hardware. High quality (resolution/fps) cameras don't come cheap and are what is needed to have this system accurate.

Camera auto focus/ auto brightness and color calibration:
The operating space for these cameras will likely be in very bright rooms with constantly changing lighting situation- between daylight with constant change in brighness due to clouds, to directional and poorly lit indoor lighting. I have a feeling infrared light projection may be ok for motion and object detection and tracking, but change in lighting situation or ambient artifical light may cause innaccuracies.

Processor intensive, highly parallelizable:
I am guessing this system will not be on xbox 360 considering hardware limitations, and will likely instead be on some platform that can take full advantage of the latest in parallelizable technologies and stream computing- such as nvidia CUDA or OpenCL. I can see this being the ideal application for next generation hardware consisting of hundreds of processor cores chugging away at image processing.

I really really hope this hardware comes out because it is exactly the setup i had been playing with years ago and it would be a dream come true to see it in its final/finished form the way I had designed it.

Terminator Salvation (I give it a 4 out of 10)

2009-05-23T17:18:00.005-04:00

I went to see terminator salvation the other day. If you go to see this movie you will notice that Christian Bale is a horrible actor in the very first scene. You will also hate whomever decided to make a terminator movie with seemingly little consideration for the previous terminator movies. The moview is worth watching if you are into unrealistic action sequences. The mile thick coating of plot flaws and poor acting combined with atrocious acting across the board will make you wonder why they decided to further ruin the Terminator franchise. The only redeeming points of this movie were some mildly entertaining (yet unrealistic) action sequences and (spoiler) some old school songs from the soundtrack from T2 are notable.

What I hated most (spoiler): In previous Terminator movies the mood of the film was always a constant chase from almost certain death. In salvation it seems that the terminators won't really hurt you if they get their hands on you, only throw you through some walls and punch you. What I liked most about the Terminator movies was that you knew with absolute certainty that if the terminator got close enough then the people would die- except with salvation where the worst that will happen if they catch you is throw you through some walls. By far the worst plot flaw was that the terminators big plan was to capture Reese (John's father who goes back in Terminator 1) to lure John to save him. Why didn't they just kill him?

Stitched tabs? Mozilla ( my mozconcept )

2009-05-19T03:09:00.013-04:00

I can't think of a good name for it but the idea is simple: all tabs are stitched together at the seams and allows for viewing more than one web page at a time and to scroll through open pages. Here are the core concepts:

Watch the VIDEO here which explains it much better:
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4723419

All tabs are stitched together. The open pages are visible from one to the other and parts of adjacent pages may or may not also be visible.

Borders between pages are adjustable to reflow the layout of the page.

Scaling of each page independently from eachother so the user can work with them completely separately.

Bottom horizontal scroll bar is the default scroll for moving between tabs.

Scrolling for each is independent from the rest

Sidebars can be used to export parts of selected text from one of the browser panes to perform complex actions- like perform a google search in the pane when it is selected or dragged.

Dragging from favorites on sidebar creates new tab- dragging action defines width of the page (as it is loading).

New tabs created in the center with default width, pushing contents to left and right.

Colors flash when the default page changes (the one that has focus in the center) to illuminate which pages are which and which one has focus on the address bar.

Tab labels become editable or accept new addresses.

Border between pages AND border between sections of horizontal scroll bar can be used to adjust widths of the pages.

Width of the tab on the bottom width relative to the page that is being displayed.

Update: I just saw a video about weave- a new feature targeted at mobile synching of tabs. I think my idea would be a good fit for use in a mobile browser and would make weave more powerful. See the video I saw here: http://vimeo.com/2569344

Me using Windows 7 RC1 on my Lenovo T61p

2009-05-12T22:03:00.002-04:00

This week when I bought my X25-E I spent an entire day playing around with different configurations of software: XP, vista, and Windows 7 were all at my finger tips. I started by installing XP from the Lenovo recovery disks. I figured to get the driver support and all the IBM drivers I would want to stick with this setup. After running the restore and trimming the fat I went through installing a bunch of crap and then realized the install was messed up. The security manager for Lenovo had the wrong password and I would need to restore again to fix this. I decided to play with the drive briefly and then looked over to my shelf with Windows 7. Why not.

After installing windows 7 (straight forward) i was worried I wouldn't be able to have acceleration for the onboard video. I had trouble in the past obtaining drivers because the nvidia drivers don't always work if they don't come from the manufacturer (I have no idea why they do this). Luckily it just worked out of the box. Windows update found all the drivers for my hardware and I was good to go! Of course, I hadn't realized at the time that I was wrong. I still have no microphone which I have not yet looked into. I realized this when trying to skype a conference call today and had to resort to using the macbook.

So far- I like it. Windows 7 seems to be snappy and fast. The interface is nicer than vista (yet familiar) and the UAC settings are easier to access and adjust. The distinct feeling is that microsoft realized with this releas that they could not go down that road they tried with Vista- which was to make software inately incompatible in an effort to try to force all developers to write software for it. The only things I dislike are moving files on a remote share gives a warning each time with no visible way to disable this. I have also noticed some hickups- where the mouse seems to stick for a moment or the keyboard keys keep pressing by themselves. It seems almost daily that there are updates for the system and I can't actually remember the last time the sticking happend (this morning maybe?). I had updated earlier today, and for all I know It could be fixed by now.

Me and my Intel X25-E

2009-05-12T21:52:00.003-04:00

This week I purchased and installed an obscenely expensive 64 gb drive for my laptop ($800). I had read an article from Joel Spolsky about the 160gb X25-M drive that he test drove. He was looking to see if he could cut down his compile times by using a faster drive- which didn't happen. His description of how snappy things ran on the solid state disk drove me to thinking I had to have one. I looked into the specs and found that the X25-E had a considerable performance lead on the X25-M. The E also did not exhibit slowness as the drive filled as the M does which is common with Solid State disks. The E is also more reliable for top speed being sustained over the ownership of the drive and was much more likely to last longer. All that being said I just went for it.

Performance? This thing is great! My main purpose for buying this drive was to quickly be able to index and perform queries on development databases for data mining projects I am working on. I noticed a tremendous speed increase here. Unfortunately, no numbers- but I did notice that when I was running a very large query that took several minutes the CPU was 50% (100% load on a core) and my system was still extremely fast and snappy. Finally I can run my machine into the ground with work without having usability issues with other apps. I was able to open a very large VS9 solution in les than 2 seconds even after high CPU load, as well as all my other apps.

For a long time I have been resisitant to using FireFox since it became as bloated as it is today. It would take a considerable time to start so I opted for running chrome instead. Now that firefox starts under 1 second, I can again use firefox as I did back in teh early days of its existence.

To anyone who may be reading this that is not sure if it is worth it: it is. At least get the X25-M drive which is considerably less expensive. I am not sure if the E really makes all that much of a difference (read Joel's blog post).

First look: Visual Studio 2008

2009-05-12T21:46:00.004-04:00

Today marks my second week using Visual Studio 2008. I primarily use VS for C++ programming for work using MFC. I have noticed a few glitches such as some of the slowness that affected VS 2005 pre service pack. I then installed SP1 For 2008 and things were good. The only thing I can really say I enjoy about VS9 over VS8 from my perspective (which is severely limited) is that ctrl+j actually works in this version (initiate intellisense). It actually things for a moment and rebuilds the intellisense database where as with 2005 I would usually exit the program and delete the ncb file to rebuild. Besides this I can't say that I have yet to find a major difference between 2005 for the type of work that I am doing. Everything is in the same spot and I'm glad it is.

C# Samsung TV Remote with Serial RS232

2009-03-17T16:06:00.006-04:00

This Sunday I was bored, so I made a remote control for my Samsung LC-52SE94U.

The code I have is incomplete (I didn't implement all the functions, some of the buttons are place holders) but if anyone is interested I have put the source code here.

For Power On/Off to work properly you must first disable the Energy saver- which is under the 'Power Settings' tab.

Please let me know if you have found or know of any other codes- I had put in a routine to check all tv codes but I didn't finish running it.

This software controls the TV using the RS232 port on the back of the set connected directly to a PC. This does not work with infrared.

Why not: "Windows sold separately"

2009-01-27T10:52:00.004-05:00

An operating system is essential for the use of all computers- but Microsoft Windows is not. I read a while ago about these embedable linux environments that run off of the BIOS or something, so that when the machine boots it has an option to go into a very minimalistic environment to do basic things such as browse the web. Why not make that standard, and have Microsoft Windows the option? What if the standard for all new computers was to have this embedded free environment to do most tasks such as Browse the web and an office suite (OpenOffice). Could we then say 'Windows Sold Separately'?

While we are at this- we could also mandate that proprietary software operating systems be 'loaded' as a memory module (much like expanding memory in my notebook) . This should make complete sense:

1) Load time will be extremely fast for the operating system if contained on read only flash.

2) Read only flash will prevent hacker problems and make restoring the operating environment easy.

3) We could finally do away with having Windows computers loaded as standard. What if I want to keep my 'old' windows from my old computer? If it was on a flash card, I could re-use my previously purchased copy.

4) Since it is installed as a memory module would- it can still be 'custom configured' at the manufacturer- and will be secure enough so that no one can just remove it without unscrewing your computer (literally and figuratively).

Linux dead on netbooks?

2009-01-27T10:36:00.004-05:00

I saw some flame bait over on some website about Windows 7 'killing linux on "netbooks"' and based on the article and some of the comments I decided I had to say a few things:

1) It is often the case people claim there are too many distributions of linux which causes the problem. This is true and false. There are too many, but the problem is just that- it makes things seem confusing. When they are installed they are identical except some extremely minor differences. 2) People say 'windows is beating linux on 'netbook' (not to mention the term 'netbook' is copywrite of psion, which runs neither windows nor linux). This is also true- because most people want windows. This would not be true if Microsoft decided to give XP away for next to nothing (actually, I think it cost $0 in china now) in which case it is at least in a $ case, on equal footing. If this is always going to be the case, good. But if these manufacturers actually pay for windows- then theres a problem. At least offering a 'no operating system' version should be customizable, but since they often package everything at assembly time this actually adds costs as well. I think the ideal solution would be for XP to come on a SD card- and it can be sold separately. 3) People not only say (obviously this article was flame bait) but also think that this is the 'final nail in the coffin.' This has been said every day of every month of every year since before 1.0 was in the early 90's, so it doesn't surprise me. "Linux" is not a company, which many people forget about. It's like thinking that since Henry Ford is dead there will be no new and improved cars.

So- in conclusion: Manufacturers were handed nearly free (or absolutely free) versions of XP- on the condition that they also increase the minimum specs of the processor, memory, and hard disk space. Since this made all the XP only machines look like the more powerfull ones, people no longer cared that it may cost them an extra $50 - 100 to have something they are familiar with. And guess what- it worked. People look at the Linux only versions as the low end model (which of course no one wants to have low end) and it only cost a few dollars more to upgrade. For people saving hundreds (or even thousands) on a subnotebook - they may as well have the 'best'.

I like Stackoverflow, except...

2008-11-10T18:09:00.004-05:00

I have been using stackoverflow.com for a few days now, posting and answer questions. I find it fun, easy to use, and extremely helpful for getting detailed attention to questions. Even though I do love the service, I have recommended or voted for several ways they can improve their service:

Narrow questions don't get voted up:

This is one of the worst problems- that the more narrow the question, the less attention and votes it receives. This is likely because fewer people feel they can 'participate'. Most of the 'participation' that people do is on the squishy questions that anyone can offer their opinions about. Also, the people reading them are also the general population of people visiting the site. Personally I would prefer that all of those questions be deleted- and all rep assigned from them be removed from the site.

Rename 'Questions' to 'Popular'

This is a suggestion I had for reorganizing the site so there would be more of a primary focus on unanswered yet highly viewed questions.

View / Answer based rep scoring algorithm:

This is my suggestion for a rep based system based off of highly viewed yet unanswered or un-upvoted answers, basically assigning more rep for harder questions

API for creating custom rep system

Since the rep system I would like to see is not here it would be neat if I could create my own portal to the site for people to view and assign reputation. Although, at the core I wold not be able to reassign rep and to give people different abilities- I could however 'revoke' rep through the portal by limiting abilities of people who have only answered to fluff questions and had been upmodded because of this.

Will Windows 7 threaten Linux desktop adoption?

2008-11-09T01:08:00.007-05:00

No. I liked this post so comment on Digg that I decided to put it here as well:

Linux and new versions of windows have the same problem for future use and adoption: Supporting existing windows applications. Microsoft will always be ahead of that game because they can easily change the playing field with a new release of windows.

However, timing is everything. Since not many people have yet to adopt those new methods for creating software for the windows platform targeted at Vista, Linux still has a chance to stay alive and compete regardless of how nice and flashy new versions of windows may become.

Once the Wine 'catches up' there will be next to no reason for home users to use windows anymore. And considering the new developments on SMB for activedirectory integration, it is only a matter of time before windows can be phased out at the workplace.

SQLite with MFC

2008-11-06T14:21:00.002-05:00

I recently responded to a question on stackoverflow regarding SQLite with MFC. This is something I am currently working with. I am currently implementing a system to manage all the files in one database with references to other external files in a directory structure. The database file itself is essentially a state of using the other external files which remain unchanged- so that any changes or modifications are recorded to the one database file. This design is actually quite annoying because I want the user to be able to drag/drop their files to the application in whatever structure they currently have and maintain that organization- but also have my database file aware of the structure and to label the structure for use within the application (tagging directories as container names, etc). After I get past this hurdle (or maybe before it) is to create an online backup by doing the following: When the user is connected to the internet, the application can optionally send updates while the application is running (and receive updates) of records from the database. Each record is a 'file' which has all the chagnes the user has done to the file. As they make changes in the application and 'save' (or auto save) it will send those changes to the online backup. If the user is not online- it won't send, but next time they go online it will prompt them and ask if they would like to sync with the online database (possibly performing differencing in the future). The convenience is that I could implement the same database logic on both ends instead of having 2 implementations to read and write from the databases.

Bluetooth Security: Why do people try to discredit it?

2008-05-21T05:20:00.004-04:00

It seems for years there have been many apparently damning articles (or at least the headline only) attempting to discredit the security of Bluetooth. The latest of such had recently been featured on digg. For those of you who did not watch the video (or simply read the headline), the guy pairs to a device that is inherently flawed. It is not bluetooth that is insecure, it is the device which apparently uses a guessable PIN and doesn't require a pairing sequence. The 'hacker' does not listen in on a phone conversation- he pairs to the device and listens to (and 'injects') arbitrary audio. This is not a hack, it is a remote pairing to a device that apparently breaks all published bluetooth spec's.
For those who are still worried about bluetooth security or eavesdropping, the only way for this to happen is:
(a) some severely under developed device such as the headset mentioned in this article,
(b) someone eavesdrops during a pairing procedure, which is most likely performed within the owners own home- which the only thing that would be discovered would be the pin- not the device info. Once the device had been paired, there would be no way to 'unpair it' which would present the risk of anyone with a bluetooth host to capture any device at random.

Why stop at headsets? Phones and even PC's have bluetooth functions. BlueBug is a blog which features articles about 'bugs' in bluetooth devices, which are actually just implementation flaws on the part of the company that implemented bluetooth in their device- not in bluetooth itself. I look at these problems and have come up with a good analogy: it is like having a sports car with a key that can never be copied and without it the car can never be operated, but the manufacturer decided to glue it in the ignition.

Electronics Madness

2008-03-16T23:57:00.002-04:00

In the weeks I haven't posted I had purchased and played with a few electronics labs and a bunch of parts- making weird noise generators, a connection to my parallel port to display numbers on 7 segment display, and a bunch of fun DTMF fun with a basic stamp doing the tones and the timing. Besides just playing around I didn't really get much of anything accomplished- besides realize that I need more time and pats... unfortunately when it came time again to invest more parts or time I found myself knee deep back in my consulting projects. More to come on the electronics/playing with stuff part of my life- when I am free to do that again.

The last of the wiimote fun for this weekend

2008-02-25T01:02:00.002-05:00

I had one last go at working with wiimote stuff today. I decided I would make a reflector for my wiimote pen for the whiteboard application. Took a pen cap from one of those bic pens that are semi-transparent and covered the LED and took pictures with my cellphone camera (to see the IR light). The entire pen cap 'glowed' which was a good sign. The pen cap was long beyond the tip of the pen with the LED so I decided to cut the length of the cap in half, and then add a small cut section from a CD superglued to the end. In test this worked beutifully, making a bright glowing tip for the pen. Using a dremel I cut the square piece from the CD and then super glued that piece to the pen cap end. Using the dremel again I rounded the end. The problem now is that all the dremeling made most of the reflective paint of the CD piece come off and the super glue clouded the inside part of the cap, causing very little reflection. Next idea will be to take some filings from the CD and glue them to the LED to make it reflect in random pattern- but will have to wait until I have more time (likely next weekend).

More WiiMote Fun: VR Desktop

2008-02-24T16:34:00.002-05:00

I hooked up VR Desktop to my roommates 65" HDTV to try head tracking. I think due to the wiimote 45 degree receiver area combined with the angle I was using caused for a jittery experience and walking close to the TV caused the signal to be out of range because my WiiMote was directly in front of the TV. For a headset I used old bulky 80's style headphones with IR LED's strapped to teh sides with a cable running to USB for power. Next week I will be receiving some more components for a wireless setup (as well as for testing Johnny's finger tracker) to have better results. For anyone else tryin this at home I suggest placign the wiimote behind the tv if possible at head height facing forward. Either that or try angling the wiimote up on bottom of TV. Also don't forget to adjust calibration settings in the .conf file for the height of your display and the width of the sensor bar (distance between IR LED's). I have also noticed the aspect ratio setting seems to not work 100% and I have better results when running the software under visual studio in debug mode (not sure if that resets my settings).

(Friday!) Wii-mote Tracker Fun!

2008-02-23T04:06:00.005-05:00

It's friday night, which means I get to do something non-work related, and tonight i'm shut in due to a blizzard. Today I came across a cool video of some neat tricks using wii-mote C# libraries to create awesome human interactive display devices so tonight I decided to implement the infrared pen used in these demo's to try them for myself. The results are amazing! I suggest everyone who has a wii to run to radio shack and buy some parts to build a pen. Mine is very 'ad-hoc' so to speak with a switch controlled with my off hand, but it still works great. Check out the site here. I've also added it to my new links section (*its the only link so far). So far I have tried the 'whiteboard' application on both my laptop (14") and desktop (30") monitors. At close distances (of the wiimote) the resolution of the wiimote is acceptable for all but fine resolutions. At a large distance when the wiimote is 10+ feet from my 30" the display starts showing characteristics of its limitations. In the image in this post you will see a grid- which was 'drawn' by my light pen when the wiimote was ~10 feet away on the -> right side of the screen. It is visible that the resolution becomes worse on the left hand side of the screen and is better on the right (as seen by the squiggle marks, it appears it is able to 'draw' between boxes). The angle here is likely due to calibration.

A few Top Tech of 2007

2008-02-21T01:38:00.004-05:00

I know its a bit late to mention favorites for 2007 but I was one of them just now and I still can't believe how much time and effort it has saved me. In no particular order, here are a few of my favorites for 2007

(Software: Application) - XML Notepad

It is a small simple application called XML Notepad. It is available from Microsoft as a free download so I suggest at least taking a look. Before using this software I would look at and sometimes write raw XML by hand for many strange reasons. XML Notepad does a few things great that I use all the time:

1) Viewing XML documents is much easier and faster using the interface of XML notepad. It is much easier to condense large sets of data and to also quickly read and understand the structure in this format.

2) Validation of XML notepad tells exactly where the document breaks and offers to open up notepad of the same file if it can't parse properly. This has saved me many times when creating custom components that generate pseudo XML. This came in handy the most when creating automation for constructing custom XAML interfaces.

3) Creating or editing XML documents is much easier with the interface here. It took some getting used to how it copied/pasted and moved nodes but after it helped me so much when creating test documents for applications.

I use it almost daily for looking at XML formatted configuration files, log files, or anything else which adheres to the same structure such as certain web document formats.

(Software: Technology) - WPF
This markup based 'foundation' is an interesting approach to building out interfaces, but it works. I was very surprised to find that most things 'just worked' for nesting controls to have weird behaviors- like having animating buttons and other strange effects. Sadly, I don't have the need or the time to work with WPF and I haven't worked directly with it since mid 2007, but I still remember some of the great things I was able to do with it and the ease of development it offered. Some of my favorite parts were databinding controls in XAML and creating highly customized applications almost entirely within the markup language itself without need for much code behind. I had only wished that there were native controls for performing some logic so I wouldn't need any code behind at all, but it wasn't necessary anyway. And another missing feature was some advanced image manipulation which seemed strangely missing- such as performing advanced cropping and translations for images within markup. My use for this would be to cut pieces out of an image to skin components from a master file. Instead I had settled on clipping the file into many small images which would ultimately load faster anyway.

(Hardware: consumer) - iPhone
Although I don't have one and had no real desire to own one I can't help but love its slick interfaces and multi purpose nature. I have a great desire and respect for handheld technologies which elegantly wrap together several technologies together. I feel that mobile technology is at a point where I essentially wouldn't need anything else if it could do the following:

Tell time, make phone calls, browse internet easily, keep contact information, keep schedule, access corportae networks for accessing other persons info (contact info, schedule, etc), read all document types, run flash and any other relevant web extension technology, be able to manipulate cursor of a mobile computer or as a presentation aide, unlock and start car either in car or remotely, play music and movies, have capacity to never be full of disk space, act as general purpose external storage, act as operating system replacement- such tht I could boot from it wirelessly with full speed, act as remote controller for television, dvd player, and any other set of components for home entertainment- including game consoles, able to play latest mobile game titles, home automation tool.