Letters to God

Kids certainly do write the most interesting letters. Here is a bunch of Letters to God. Enjoy!

Always @ Work

I didn't realise that I was always @ work. Not until a friend of mine asked me if I was at work on a Saturday for no apparent reason---or so I thought. On the upside, my manager probably thought I was really dedicated.

Windows Live Messenger 8.1, which was released early this year, included a new feature---roaming Display Picture and Personal Message. This means that your display picture and personal message are stored on Windows Live server, and will always be the same regardless of which machine you're signing in from.

This sounds good as it means you only have to set your display picture once and it will be available everywhere else. However, I like my personal message to be different depending on which machine I'm signing in from. This allows me to have an '@ Work' message on my work pc, and a more personal message on my home pc without requiring me to constantly switch between the two. For a while, I thought those days are gone. Luckily, the feature can be turned off. The option can be found under File > Options... > General > Sign In. Uncheck Use the same display picture and personal message wherever I sign in and everything should be sweet again.

prototype.js

Prototype is a JavaScript Framework that aims to ease the development of dynamic web applications. Featuring a unique, easy-to-use toolkit for class-driven development and the nicest Ajax library around, Prototype is quickly becoming the codebase of choice for web application developers everywhere.

I was working on a web application at work when a colleague of mine introduced me to Prototype. Boy, is this great or what! Prototype version 1.5.0 is approximately 70KB in size. Quite reasonable considering the size of web pages nowadays. I find the CSS selector functions, such as getElementsByClassName and getElementsBySelector, to be really useful. I used to think of CSS as an excellent way of separating a document's content from its presentation. Now, I learned that CSS classes can also be used as tags for the various elements in a page. This makes some tasks a whole heap simpler, especially with the CSS selector functions. Prototype also has a nice Ajax library. It abstracts the browser specific implementations and provides a simple interface to code against. I'm looking forward to trying this out. I've been borrowing AJAX books from the library for the past few months but never seem to have the time to read them. To learn more about Prototype, visit the official website at http://www.prototypejs.org/. Quick Links Prototype Download Prototype API Documentation

Microsoft Home Use Program

I've recently discovered through work that Microsoft offers a Home Use Program (HUP) for some of its software products. The HUP offers the employees of Microsoft Volume Licensing Software Assurance customers the opportunity to purchase a licensed copy of the Microsoft product for a flat price of $20. That's 20 NZD for New Zealand users, and covers the postage and handling fees.

I don't normally pay for software I use. However, considering it's only 20 NZD, I thought I might as well get one. I purchased a copy of Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007. I had always been meaning to give Office 2007 a try. It took Microsoft approximately two weeks to process the order and ship the DVD from Singapore.

As with most things Microsoft, there is a catch. The HUP license is intimately tied to your employment and your employer's Software Assurance coverage. The license ends:

1. when your employer's coverage ends;
   
2. upon termination of your employment;
3. if you are no longer a user of the licensed software at work; or
4. if you install and use any other version of the software under the HUP.
   

Even so, I still think it's worth it. At the very least, it saves me the hassle of finding a copy of Microsoft Office elsewhere.

If you work for an organisation that uses Microsoft products, it may be worthwhile checking with your IT department to see if you're eligible to participate in the HUP.