Understanding AES

How to understand Advanced Encryption Standard (also known as Rijndael)?

Moserware knows.

Google Sync - Now With Push

Google Sync had support for synchronizing both contacts and calendar events over ActiveSync for quite a while now. Finally support is extended to e-mail account.

Instead of IMAP account that gets “pulled” for updates every X minutes, real “push” e-mail is supported. This both speeds up process of getting actual e-mails and decreases cost since TCP/IP traffic is almost non-existent when there is no new e-mail waiting.

Whole thing integrates perfectly into Windows Mobile as direct replacement for Exchange Server and only thing still missing is support for tasks. I am sure that this is coming sometime in the future.

Creating Location-Aware Applications for Windows Mobile 6.5 Devices

I gave presentation at Mobility Day 2009. Since I was traveling from Berlin this morning (started at 5:00) I was quite tired, but presentation went mostly fine.

As promised, here is code download:

• samples

There are few prerequisites:

1. Your emulator needs to have Internet connection.
2. You need to have GPS support in Windows Mobile emulator. FakeGPS will do.
3. Do not forget to put your Bing Maps user ID and password in Program.cs. If you do not have developer account, you will need to request it.

P.S. As a bonus, download also contains desktop application that speaks with Bing Maps. It is much faster to test various setting this way.

P.P.S. NMEA stands for National Marine Electronics Association and not, as I said, “Nautical something”. :)

Enjoying Physics

Richard Feynman is well known bongo drum player who happened also to be a great theoretical physicist. His areas of work included quantum mechanics and electrodynamics.

Thing that separates him from great deal of big names in Physics is his passion for explaining complex things in simple manner.

Microsoft Research collected some his lectures (The Messenger Series given at Cornell University) in Tuva project. These lectures are definitely something everybody should take a look at.

Lectures are:

• Law of Gravitation
• The Relation of Mathematics and Physics
• The Great Conservation Principle
• Symmetry in Physical Law
• The Distinction of Past and Future
• Probability and Uncertainty - The Quantum Mechanical View of Nature
• Seeking New Laws

Firebathero Humiliated

Firebathero is player most known for his rituals after a win. Those rituals usually include dancing, throwing rice, going for a swim or just having fun.

He is both loved by fans and hated by his opponents for this. Usually, this act of his goes unpunished, but sometimes he gets taste of his own medicine.

Bellow is firebathero’s game against Much, a teammate of sAviOr. While this game seems like normal protoss vs terran, it is what happens as game is nearing to end that makes it special. Revenge is sweet.

Here are all parts (1, 2, 3 and 4).

P.S. Yes, I know that this video is quite old, but I am living in past. :)

Is Valencia Race Worth Watching?

Michael Schumacher will not rejoin Formula 1 circus because of neck injury sustained earlier this year.

I am Ferrari fan but I never gotten to like Raikonnen much and with Massa not driving, there is no point in even watching a race.

I think that I will go out on ice-cream…

Il Ritrovo-Cucina Casalinga Popolare

Where

Wühlischstraße 29, 10245 Berlin N52.50957 E13.45804

Location is at corner and during summer whole sidewalk is filled with tables. There are some tables inside but it is just too hot to sit if you come during sunny day. Whole place does look a little bit shabby.

What

I had pizza that will remain unnamed and I do hope that my forgiveness wasn’t side effect of eating it. On other hand, it may be worth of this little nuisance since pizza was quite good. I cannot say that it was best in Berlin since I haven’t check all other places, but I must admit that it was best pizza I had lately (in any country).

Cost

Pizza is around 8 € which is not too expensive when you take quality into calculation. Beer at 3 € is quite costly but those German beers (I had Berliner) flow so nicely that is impossible to mind too much.

Verdict

I’ll be back.

Schumi

It seems that Michael Schumacher is back in F1 racing. While this is just temporary arragement until Felipe gets better, I will enjoy seeing him again.

I started following F1 while he was in Benetton (1994) and I enjoyed his driving since. While some of his competitive actions were doubtful at best, he was always one who made race worth watching.

I do hope that he will pass physical examinations and that I will have at least one more chance to see him in action.

ESports Heritage Classic

For those hungry of old style Starcraft players eMooseSC is casting eSports Heritage Classic games. For all Boxer fans, it is time of joy since he is actually doing quite well (or was - I know about first games and I am hiding from results myself).

First video of tournament can be found here.

P.S. Sound is quite lousy. :(

Google Voice

Yesterday I got invitation for Google Voice service and I must admit that I was delighted. Those who know me also know that I am sucker for testing new things. Everything can only get better when I get invite from one of my two favorite companies (yes, I love and use both Microsoft’s and Google’s products).

However, this service is limited to US and my Google profile clearly states Croatia, so I must wonder why Google sent me this in first place.

Same situation happened to me with invitation for Microsoft Hohm and that makes me wonder…

Are they just showing me what I cannot get?

[2009-07-19: I gave my invite away. I do hope that he will enjoy it and that Google would not mind it.]

[2009-07-19: It seems that my invite is linked to my e-mail and cannot be used by anyone else. :(]