It's the same for me (France, near Paris) although roads can be icy by this time. I think we call that "global climate change". Of course there is snow in the mountains in France from 1000 m, sometimes artificial. CHABAT Florent, France

I don't know what is the velocity of Mars around the Sun, but here is what I can calculate for the Earth (150,000,000 km away from the Sun) : 942,000,000 km in one year 2,582,000 km per day 107,588 km/hour 1,793 km/min nearly 30 km/second So, I don't know at which precision we know the position and speed of Mars and the asteroid in space but it seems like we would like to know if two corpses will collide or not while we know they are each one in a cube thousands kilometer wide (but not exactly where they really are in that cube). We maybe have calculated that the two "uncertainity cubes" will "collide" but we don't know if the two corpses will really collide or not. That's how I interpret the facts. While writing this message, Earth made a 10,000 km travel ! CHABAT Florent, France

Thanks for that link. I hope it will be useful ? But, as a french I have a big problem with automatic translation from english to french on MSDN online. Often it's unreadable (pour ne pas dire tout simplement incompréhensible, inintelligible, illisible !). I have to type the number of the KB in its english version to get the original text in english which unfortunately makes me loose some time as I take about twice the time to read the same text in french. Can't they employ human translators ? OK, they already have a huge amount of texts to translate but if they never translate it correctly, I'm sorry to say that they don't fit my needs. What do you think about that "language barrier" (english or die) ?

I have a project in Delphi 3, still modified from time to time. It consits of many programs that we launch as extensions (EXE and DLL) during InstallShield setups of products developped in Delphi 3 too. This project started in october 1997 and I'm the only developper on it since the end of 1998. It concerned up 12 products and 19 options (what we call "option" : product that need the presence of an other product to setup and run). Now only 3 products and one option are regularly updated once or twice a year. CHABAT Florent FRANCE

Ok, if it's the 1st version, let's wait for the second version : why not, version 1.0 may be bugged, but when version 2.0 is released then we should use it ! Why using version 1.0 when 2.0 is released : I'm puzzled too ! 1.0 may be bugged. Another idea that may be underlying is the following one : "If we use version 1.0, invest time and money in it, waiting from improvement in version 2.0 and that version 2.0 is never released, we may be the only one in our market who used that new technology and we coul'd loose much money and customers whereas the other companies in our domain choosed another technology that appeared to be more efficient. We have spent time and money and we lost customers." So, when version 1.0 is released they "wait and see" what happens and then decide to use (or not) version 1.0 depending on it's efficiency and fame. Oh, I see this may be a question of money too. In my company we developped a software with Delphi 3.0 and we didn't toggle to 4.0 or 5.0 because it as a cost and we don't need of the new components. And moreover we should then re-test all the application to see if there is a bug in Delphi 4.0 or 5.0 where it worked fine in 5.0. Lot of work for nothing. Moreover Delphi 3.0 is fine for our needs and we fear problems with the machines of our customers if we need too much memory or drive space (they have problems with money too ...) And now this software is being replaced by a new generation developped with Delphi 7.0 ... CHABAT Florent FRANCE

I don't know very well the Laws, but I think that if you create a businness "in a totally unrelated field" you won't be sued. But you should be warned that if you use any mean (phone, computer, xerox, fax, e-mail etc ...) provided by your company for your personnal use (private or for your business) you may be fired. If you use the contact that you have with a person (that person being employed in the same company than you or not) in your daily work for your own business, it could be risky too. If you separate well your work "at work" and your business "at home" I don't see on what basis they could sue you (unless you work all night for your business and you sleep at work).

For me, it seems non-sense as they didn't use our christian calendar. By the way, always look documentaries to the end : I have seen one about the fact that man didn't land on the moon and after the end of the documentary they explained that it was a joke.

Programming with Delphi (3.0 to 7.0) as a professionnal since 11 years. 1) Consistency : I agree My procedure names always start by a noun, my function names by a verb. Function name returning a boolean always start by "Is..." 2) Thoughtful naming : Usually my variable, procedure, function names are quite long, but their naming reflects what they really are and Ctrl-C / Ctrl-V keystrokes are used very often. "Sometimes - The names of things should ..." No, not "Sometimes", "Always" ! 3) "any tricky/hacky/weird code should be verbosely commented." That's what I always quote specifically in my code when I think that in a few months I won't remember why I wrote code that way. CHABAT Florent FRANCE

My tips to relax on or after work : On work, I sometimes make a break without coworkers, specially when I have a bug that I can't find or when I see that I don't see well how to achieve what I have to do (sometimes a piece of paper can help too in these two circumstances instead of typing for hours on the keyboard and then realizing that my code is non-sense). While going to (or returning from) work, I read a book or a magazine in the train. Of course, I try to avoid professionnal ones. For my concern, about coin collecting or books about financial history : perfect to think to something else than work. At home, in the evening and on weekends and holidays : reading, watching TV, and so on ... On saturday and/or sunday a little sleep in the afternoon for one or two hours if I fell tired. As I wake up at 6 AM, I try to go to bed before 11 PM to 11:30 PM seven days a week. Some other rules / tips : One simple rule : ABSOLUTELY NO WORK AT HOME ! FORBIDDEN ! Home is not my working place ! An other simple rule : to be able to say "NO!" to my manager. If I can't do a particuliar task (to short time or to difficult), I say simply "NO" to my manager. Of course, I try to say it to him as earlier as possible so that he can make a decision before it's too late. Try to talk to your co-workers. Sometimes they have information valuable to you that they didn't share and that can help you to solve your problem. Not always useful to stay late to try to solve a problem. I sometimes got the solution after the work while going to the railway station or in the train. If you don't agree with your manager or if you have any problem in your company, try to find an other one. When you go to bed, try to forget problems in your job. If you don't sleep well you can't be efficient. A tip if you can't get asleep after one hour in your bed because your are thinking to work (or something else that is worrying you) : 1. find a comfortable position in your bed (for example, on the back, right hand over the heart, left hand over the navel, one leg over the other making a "4") so that you don't have to move for the next few minutes 2. of course, close your eyes 3. breath SLOWLY and DEEPLY 4. think (SLOWLY !) in an endless loop "my breath is slow - my heart beats slowly - my eyelids are heavy - my legs are heavy" with one inspiration and one exhalation beetween each "-" and without thinking to anything else. About 30 to 40 seconds for each loop. Inspiration during the first words of each of the four parts and expiration