Windows users who need a command line connection to another system via telnet or SSH are big fans of PuTTY. It’s free, it has every feature you need, and it’s reliable. One thing many people would like to do is use PuTTY as a component in their program. Apparently this comes up so often enough [...]

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This article presents the algorithm that solves the Byzantine General’s Problem, as first described by Lamport, Pease, and Shostak in 1982 [1]. While Lamport’s algorithm is not particularly complex, programmers who aren’t used to working on distributed computation might find it difficult to implement. To accompany the explanation of the algorithm, I have included a C++ program designed for experimentation with the solution.

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This article shows how to embed Microsoft’s Windows Media Player in an ATL-based C++ program to create an MP3 player that adapts to your personal preferences. I use it to run a home jukebox that creates random playlists based on your personal preferences.

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Star-encoding is a transform that can be applied to text before compression, giving significant improvement in performance. This article discusses how Star-encoding works, and provides you with working code to create dictionaries, compress, and uncompress data using Star Encoding.

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Rendering GIFs with transparency under Win32. It’s gotten a bit easier since I first wrote about it for DDJ in 1998. This article shows a couple of ways to implement transparent GIF rendering: the IPicture interface, and GDI+.

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An article that takes a look at Intel’s free JPEG Library for Win32, and compares it to doing things the Microsoft Way.

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  PC Magazine July, 2002 Remember when PC Magazine used to give away their utilities for free? Ah yes, those where the days. The earliest PC Magazine utilities were distributed as PC-BASIC programs printed up in the Utilities section, which made good typing accuracy an important skill. Eventually this was supplanted by electronic distribution via [...]

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This article describes a Java program I wrote to scan through a URL database, flagging sites that have shut down, moved, or simply can’t be reached.

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A quick look at the STL function next_permutation(), with a practical example that demonstrates how I used it to solve a real-world problem.

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This article shows how to use Microsoft’s XML parser to validate XML against schemas.

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