The latest edition of Tech News Weekly:

• 1. Vandals Slash Silicon Valley Fiber Optic Cable (Thanks 40hz)
• 2. P2P Eavesdrop 'Guilt by Association Attack' Developed
• 3. Conficker Botnet Stirs to Distribute Update Payload
• 4. Court: Congress Can't Put Public Domain Back Into Copyright
• 5. Shocker: Aussies to Build Own Open-access Fiber Backbone
• 6. French "3 Strikes" Law Suffers Shocking Defeat
• 7. Sun Holds Its Breath But Doesn't Turn Blue
• 8. Worm Infiltrates Twitter

-Ehtyar.

This could be a good way for anyone who was interested in learning to code using Microsoft's Flash Killer, Silverlight:

Welcome to Dr. Dobb's Challenge Deuce, a special game competition brought to you in association with the world-renowned Dr. Dobb's for software developers and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Use Dr. Dobbs and his team of friends to play the game and collect Visual Studio power-ups -- or team up with your own friends to develop your own games and levels!

You can win from a prize pool of $10,000 in two ways:

1. Use the "Create" option to make new in-game levels in the Silverlight application itself, and be automatically entered into a 'best level' competition, with Dr. Dobbs Bobblehead doll prizes given out weekly, plus monthly 'best level' prizes of $500!

2. If you really want to flex your creative muscle, download the Silverlight sample application and modify the code and art in a free trial version of Visual Studio to make your own completely custom game, then get it showcased on the Dr. Dobbs Challenge Deuce site.

http://dobbschallenge2.com

Jonathan Jarvis has made a simple to understand video about the credit crunch. (i've ignored all the ones that have been on TV so maybe this is overkill for some of you that are sick to death of these things).

Watch it, then you'll be able to transcend your confusion about this mess and simply start being incredibly angry instead.

http://www.crisisofcredit.com/

Edit: here's a more interesting link with background to the video: http://jonathanjarvi...com/crisis-of-credit

I did a little bit of searching and surprisingly didn't find anything to do this (except for music-related circumstances), so here goes...

I have a Downloads folder on my home server machine that is past 7GB and climbing (yes, I actually DO clean it out ). I need a program that I can run that sorts the files into various folders based on their types (or file extensions, it doesn't matter one way or the other to me). It would need to be able to identify and place all of these file types into folders:

• Folders (thereby making a folder of folders, but if the folder of folders already exists, don't put THAT folder into a new folder... )
• EXE
• MP3
• MP4/FLV
• ZIP/RAR/7z/JAR
• ICO
• PNG/JPG/GIF
• INI
• PDF
• and more, preferably in a (user stupid) editable format

In addition, INI files that have an EXE counterpart with the same name should both be placed in a folder with that name (for coding snacks and whatnot).

Anyone able to take this?

After posting some pictures with lightsabers added to them in the Silly Pictures thread here, here and here, I found myself compulsively firing up the Gimp and adding lightsabers to pictures that caught my fancy in travels around the 'net. Most of them I threw away, but I saved a few and put them up here:

I’m not even a great Star Wars fan, but I have this weird compulsion to draw lightsabers into random pictures from the web, especially if it lends a humorous slant to the picture. Hopefully this blog will cure my obsession…

http://moarlightsabers.wordpress.com/

-Edvard

Looking to post a few helpful resources for those looking to work on individual dev projects/temp work for companies. Here's what I've found.

What others are out there that are helpful?

Sologig
http://www.sologig.com/
Sologig.com is a niche website specializing in connecting contract-to-hire, contractors, freelancers, and consultants with quality employers looking for independent professionals. Registration is free, and unlike other project based websites, we never charge you project fees. There’s also no bidding on Sologig - you choose which projects you are interested in and negotiate pricing directly with the employer.

Guru.com
http://www.guru.com/
Use Guru.com's free service to search for and find Freelancers. Post your project. Get free quotes within hours. Outsource your contract work today.

VisualCV.com
http://www.visualcv.com/
VisualCV.com has revolutionized the resume forever by radically improving the ways in which resume data is presented, accessed and shared. Use video, photos, demos, etc. to enhance and demonstrate your skills to employers. Also, it's free.

Glassdoor.com
http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm
No matter what career field you're exploring, you'll want to do your homework. Glassdoor.com has anonymous company reviews and employee ratings as well as real time compensation data.