In C# it can be sometimes be confusing to know what exceptions to throw and which to catch. The ever insightful Eric Lippert has a great way of categorizing exceptions, leading to the simple answer: only catch the vexing exceptions.
Tesla said Merry Christmas in a particularly relevant way this year.
This is part of a weekly series where I share a song that I connected with in the past week. Send song suggestions to songoftheweek@colincwilliams.com. I post every Monday so you can enjoy the song over the course of the week.
Every generation has a unique experience during their childhood as technology and culture changes over time. The 20th century drew particularly distinct lines between generational childhoods, ushering in the eras of automobiles, flight, computers and much more.
Born in the last decade of the 20th century, the current world doesn’t feel that different from my childhood yet; however, I have always been interested in the childhoods of my parents and grandparents, in a time that was so dramatically different than the present. That interest is what captures me with Bucky Covington’s A Different World.
Covington touches on many of the key cultural changes between the past and present, including increased safety concerns and electronics usage, tastefully romanticizing the past. While objectively I realize that life’s complexities generally shift from generation to generation, not increasing or decreasing in severity or quantity, it’s nonetheless calming to look at the past as a simpler time with less worry and stress than seems so prevalent today.
I hope you enjoy the trip into the past, or even down memory lane, as much as I do every time this song comes on.
Purchase this song:
This is part of a weekly series where I share a song that I connected with in the past week. Send song suggestions to songoftheweek@colincwilliams.com. I post every Monday so you can enjoy the song over the course of the week.
Every artist has songs they connect with at a deeper level. Songs they wrote, which reference specific events in their past. For Dierks Bentley, I Hold On is one of those songs.
From the album Riser, I Hold On was written and produced after his father’s death. The authentic and raw emotion from Dierks’ loss can be felt with every word, with the music video further emphasizing it. This emotion quickly drew me into the song when I first heard it and still does with every listen.
Beyond the emotion, the lyrics present a person that I aspire to be. Someone who can be relied upon and perseveres through challenging times with those I care about most.
Purchase this song:
This is part of a weekly series where I share a song that I connected with in the past week. Send song suggestions to songoftheweek@colincwilliams.com. I post every Monday so you can enjoy the song over the course of the week.
If I had to pick one song that I wish I could dance to it would be Let’s Take it Outside by Johnny Reid. Every time it comes on I’m compelled to tap my foot with the beat and sing along, itching to get up and move.
I hope you have as much fun listening as I do. It’s one of Johnny Reid’s classics for me.
I was unable to find this song for purchase through major digital music retailers. You can find it in Johnny Reid’s album, Dance With Me.
This is a fascinating, anonymous account of jury duty for a homicide trial:
There are twelve of us left. The first thing the prosecutor did during voir dire was ask all the men of color whether we trusted cops. Every black man had a story: police harassment, spurious arrests, intimidation. They were all eliminated. I was asked if I had any experiences of this kind, and I said no. It was the truth. Perhaps this was the time to mention that having witnessed the murders of Eric Garner and Walter Scott on video made personal experience unnecessary. I didn’t mention it.
In the end, only two men of color make it to the jury, and I am one of them. The other is Latino. There are two Latina women, one African-American woman, and one Asian woman. The remaining six jurors are white.
Justin Trudeau, on Twitter:
I’m pleased to announce the first plane carrying Syrian refugees arrives in Canada tomorrow at 9:15 pm ET.
This is part of a weekly series where I share a song that I connected with in the past week. Send song suggestions to songoftheweek@colincwilliams.com. I post every Monday so you can enjoy the song over the course of the week.
I first heard Tiny Dancer, by Elton John, was in my grade 12 English class while watching the film Almost Famous. Beyond just being a good song, its use in the movie was perfect.
Almost Famous is a fictional story, set in the 1970’s, about a young journalist trying to document the new and upcoming rock band Stillwater for Rolling Stone. he leaves home to follow the band, finding himself along the way. The Tiny Dancer scene happens when the group has hit rock bottom.
Bernie Taupin wrote Tiny Dancer “to capture the free spirits of the women he met in California on his first visit to America in 1970”. In Almost Famous, that lighthearted tone brings the group out of their dreary mood, letting them have a fresh perspective on the situation. It’s a pivotal moment in the story, and is portrayed perfectly along with Tiny Dancer. As a viewer, I immediately connected with the scene and the song, remembering it ever since.
I’ve embedded the full scene from Almost Famous below, however Tiny Dancer starts at 1:23.
Purchase this song:
The embargo was officially lifted for Microsoft employees so they can now post videos made at home with their HoloLens There are some really good ones out there, with a Twitter hashtag bringing more in every day. Here are a few of my favorites so far.
Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft, though I have not been involved with HoloLens development.
While not the most practical, the video in this tweet is adorable. The tweet’s text, however, is powerful. Just like computers have always existed in my world, the babies of today will never know a world without holograms.
Holograms will have always existed in Hannah’s world. I’m proud to help make this technology real #MadeWithHoloLens pic.twitter.com/S1atqu0Dgr
— Brad Sarsfield (@bradoop) December 1, 2015
At first glance this is another marketing-focused vision video for the HoloLens. In reality it is a real person, using a real HoloLens, in their real house to watch a YouTube video.
Corny? Possibly. Cool? Incredibly.
This is a great demonstration of how powerful HoloLens is. HoloLens is completely wireless, so the ability to stream a game is quite impressive as there doesn’t appear to be ghosting or other visual artifacts. It will be interesting to see what the input delay is, as that is what will determine how practical this is for gaming.
Update: NUIWorld has more HoloLens videos.
Have you ever wondered why official, brand name device chargers cost so much more than the no-name ones, despite looking almost identical on the outside? Or just how they work?
Ken Shirriff has taken the time to methodically teardown a Macbook, iPad and iPhone charger with detailed pictures and descriptions of how everything works. He also compares them to a no-name charger from Ebay. It’s fascinating, and I know I won’t be buying a no name charger in the future to ensure the safety of myself and my devices.
Bonus: Ken also tore down the Magsafe connector itself, which is more complex than initially meets the eye.