newt2

2006-10-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

This is an attempt to publish a blog from Writely ...

Moved ...

2006-09-24T12:38:00.000-07:00

This site has moved to www.newt3.com.

Paralles on Mac Pro ...

2006-09-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

Paralles continues to struggle getting their product to work on the Mac Pro.

I first purchase Parallels for my Mac Book Pro, and on that system it works great. When Apple announced the Mac Pro workstation I ran right out and purchase one. My rational was that the added power of the dual Xenon chipped workstation would significantly improve my productivity, including the .NET C# coding. Thats the beauty of Parallels. It lets you run Windows XP in a window on a Mac running OS X. Its so cool. I can code C# .NET on a Mac.

Parallels runs perfectly on my Mac Book Pro. But either causes a kernel panic, or delivers a meaningless error message of "Unable to communicate with hypervisor!" on the Mac Pro. From a users perspective, what is the value of this message? How does this help get Parallels to work? In disgust I fired off a complaint to Parallels which will most likely do as much good as their error message. Maybe they will surprise me and email back a fix. I won't hold my breath.

There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon though. VMWare announced that they will release a version of their workstation product for the Mac. I have used their PC workstation product and it is excellent. When they enter the Mac market, Parallels is gone.

WriteRoom ...

2006-09-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon an very interesting writing tool called WriteRoom. What's interesting is that it isolates you from the multitude of distractions of working in our digital environment. It does this by controlling your entire screen. In the default mode you are presented with a black screen. Typed words are green. For those old enough to remember, its reminiscent of the mainframe terminal days. Very retrograde. WriteRoom uses the escape key to toggle between its default display and your cluttered desktop. Its a free download ... give it a try, it may surprise you, as it did me with how well it improved my focus.

One job ...

2006-08-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

I am back to working only one job. The timing could not be better. Next weekend is a three day weekend and I have no work commitments. It all belongs to me... YES!

Status of the ASP.NET, C# reading/study spree (pages read/total pages):

Pro C# 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform, Third Edition by Andrew Troelsen (616/954)
Programming C# : Building .NET Applications with C# by Jesse Liberty (320/612)
Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 by Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta (605/1210
Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference by Dino Esposito (100/703)
Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics by Dino Esposito (0/629)
Head First Design Patterns by Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman, Bert Bates, and Kathy Sierra (206/629)
CLR via C#, Second Edition by Jeffrey Richter (648/648)
Design Patterns in C# by Steven John Metsker (12/430)

Status: (2507/5815) 43% complete.. Not to shabby. I did add Design Patterns in C# to my reading list. It was referenced to often to ignore. Jeffrey Richter’s book, CLR via C# was so good that I had a hard time putting it down. This is a must read for all C# coders.

MacBook Pro CD problem is back...

2006-08-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

Problem not solved. While attempting to install DSL service using a provided CD I got the three whirrs eject response. Doing the “option”, “apple”, “p”, “r” keys on a restart had no effect this time. I called Apple technical support, who concluded that the CD drive is defective. They sent out a prepaid shipping container which arrived the following day. The system is now with Apple for repair. Fortunately, I purchased one of the new Mac Pro systems so am not experiencing the dreaded Apple withdrawal pains.

MacBook Pro CD Problem ... Resolved

2006-08-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

Problem solved. The solutions was simple, and I should probably have known what to do. To put it simply, on restart, after the initial audio announcement, hold the “option”, “apple”,”p”, and “r” keys until the startup audio announcement sounds a second time. Did this, and now when I insert a CD the MacBook Pro no longer gives me the three whirrs eject response.

MacBook Pro CD Problem …

2006-08-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

I am having problems with my MacBook Pro CD drive. It can’t read some CD’s. Specifically, the Apple CD that came with the new wireless Mighty Mouse just gets ejected. I experienced this same problem while attempting to install Windows XP Pro in both Bootcamp and Parallels. I also experienced problems ripping CD’s with iTunes. In every case, the system attempts to read the CD three times … I can hear the whirr of the drive spinning up at each attempt. Then the CD is ejected.

When the system can’t read a CD in iTunes, iTunes freezes up and the disk just spins… Force Quite iTunes is required to eject the offending CD.

There is no mention of this problem on Apples web site. However, a little searching on the Internet yields a few others with similar experiences. I did discover a work-around. Its not a good one but it works. What I do is make a copy of the CD on my Dell work computer. For some reason the MacBook Pro will accept the copied CD. Now that’s a good advertisement for the Dell and not so good for Apple.

My intention is to contact Apple for resolution. I hate the thought of having to ship the system off for repair or … replacement.

Two jobs ...

2006-07-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

This has been a very busy month. Started a new 12 month contract while continuing 1/2 time putting the final touches on the last one. As the saying goes, “It never rains, but it ...” I do love it though. Both of these opportunities allow me to write lots of C# code. It just doesn’t get any better then this.

On top of all this great work, my Mom is visiting. She lives in Florida, not far from Disney World. She is used to the heat so our Phoenix temperatures really don’t bother her. Actually she enjoys our heat since our humidity is so low. It’s really great that she could come. We have lots of Mom’s cookies, and her world famous beet soup and home made noodles. We will be traveling to Florida for her next birthday, which is this coming February. Mom will be 90 years young. It will be a big bash with lots of family and friends.

Cool Vacation ...

2006-07-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

The last few days were spent in a little cabin north of Payson, AZ, elevation about 9000 feet. So while the temperatures soared to 107F in Phoenix we enjoyed a nice 76F. The nearest civilization was some 17 miles away. We really roughed it in this 2000 sq/ft, three bedroom, two bath home, with all the amenities, i.e., electricity, hot water, AC, phone, etc.. The only thing we lacked was high speed internet. This was that longest I have been without an internet connection in years.

It was really good to get away and just relax. At this altitude and with all the fresh air I slept like a baby. Even took afternoon naps. The only computer time was spent on my daily journal entries. I did have some quality reading time. Made excellent progress on Pro C# 2005 and CLR via C#. Expect to complete each this month.

To top off this vacation, I purchased Sid Meier’s Civilization IV. I really wanted this game, however, should not have made the purchase. It’s a superior game, but a huge time sink. My first game took almost 3 hours. I love the game but it should come with warning label on the package; DANGER: TIME BLACK HOLE.

Parallels ...

2006-06-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Its been a very busy two weeks since my last post. We are in the final weeks of of completing a major development project at work. Its been a fun project, with lots of challenges, however its time to make an end. I only have two more features to code, then some cleanup. There will be some bug fixes and the typical last minute changes once the complete product is viewed by management. Overall its been a really fun project which has sharpened my ASP.NET C# skills.

I have added two more books to my reading collection. They are “A Developers Guide to SQL Server 2005”, Bob Beauchemin and Dan Sullivan, and “Design Patterns in C#”, Steven John Metsker. Both are excellent in my view. Of the 9 books now on my reading list, I have read a 1601/7004 pages or about 23%. I need to pick up the pace some to meet my end of the year goal.

My MacBook Pro seems to get better every day. I purchase and installed Paralles which gives me the capability to run virtual operating systems. I tried Apples Bootcamp, but did not like having to reboot the machine to run Windows XP. With Parallels I can run Windows XP in a OS X window. The product is reasonably priced and runs fast. Currently I have installed the Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Express and find it runs faster then my PC system at work. Now I have one computer that really meets all of my computing needs.

Speaking of computing needs... my 3+ year old Compaq Presario desktop HDD died. The machine suddenly got very slow ... checked it for spy ware, root kits, and viruses and found it clean. Purchased SpinWrite, but all it reported was “immanent disk failure ... backup now”. As I attempted to move files it died. No! I did not have a backup. So all is lost. Fortunately it was not my main computer so the loss was not catastrophic. The MacBook is on a backup schedule that I check in light of this incident.

To long ...

2006-05-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

Noted today that Technorati reports its been 91 days since my last post to this blog. While a little out of date, the number 91 really hit hard. Its is a not very remarkable number as blogs go. Many blogs start with a flurry of entries that slowly fade to none. Like so many projects, we start with such grand intentions. But over time life's events lead us in other directions. The number 91 hit hard because I saw myself as being different. I would post often with interesting, meaningful, witty, bla-bla-bla,.... articles. But alas, I failed... However, I am committed to push on.

For the past couple of months I have been of a ASP.NET, C# reading/study spree. Currently I am reading and working through the following:

Pro C# 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform, Third Edition by Andrew Troelsen

Programming C# : Building .NET Applications with C# by Jesse Liberty

Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 by Matthew MacDonald and Mario Szpuszta

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference by Dino Esposito

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics by Dino Esposito

Head First Design Patterns by Elisabeth Freeman, Eric Freeman, Bert Bates, and Kathy Sierra

CLR via C#, Second Edition by Jeffrey Richter

The overall page count of these books is staggering... to get done I just make sure I read at least a few pages every day. So far it looks like I am something like 20% done. At this rate, I won't get done until the end of the year. I am approaching these readings a little differently then my 7 book CSS reading spree last September. This time I am reading a little from most books every day. I find each book to be excellent. Really note worthy is "CLR via C#". The author Jeffrey Richter, has a writing style that makes the most complex concepts simple to understand.

Back to Mac ...

2006-05-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

Last December I made the transition from Mac to PC. It was painful, but I did it. As it turned out it was just to painful and now I am back to Mac.

My new Mac is a Mac Book Pro, Dual 2G with a 7200rpm 100G Hard Drive and 1G RAM. This is one fantastic machine. What is spactacular is that I can dual boot into Windows XP for those times I need to code .NET stuff. This system runs cool and quite and ith the dual core processor and 7200rpm drive it handles .NET, no problem.

The HP Pavilion ZD8000 was my first step away from Mac. Of all the PC's I evaluated, this was the best. Howeve, having said that I found several annoyances that made me change. This system is heavy 9+ pounds, and runs very noisey (three fans) and hot. Its great if you live in a cold climate because it can also function as a space heater. Here in Arizona it quickly heated my office to uncomfortable temperatures.

I next moved to a Compaq V2000. This is a really nice little system. Runs cool and quite. Its light weight and easy to transport form place to place. However its a little underpowered. Bumping memory to 1.5G helped, but when using the .NET development environment it made you wait while it did stuff. With a dual processor, this would be an excellent system.

Login frustration ...

2006-02-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

I am rewriting my-list.com in ASP.NET 2.0, C#. The original version was a Perl CGI web application, principally because at the time I was working for a company whose development environment was Perl. I have since changed employers where ASP.NET development rules. So ... that prompted me to do a rewrite. Overall the ASP.NET development environment is orders of magnitude easier and faster then Perl. This of course assumes one knows both.

Now to my frustration. The LoginStatus control does not work in my instance. Specifically, I added this control to my splash page with a text value of "Member Login". Clicking on the link redirects users to the login page. The login page uses the Login control with it's DestinationPageUrl set to the proper page. The problem is that a successful login redirects the user back to the site splash page and not the DestinationPageUrl. When I remove the LoginStatus control form the splash page a successful login gets redirected properly. I am not sure why my original configuration will not work ... a search of the internet did not help. If you have any ideas your comments would be appreciated.

The Journal ...

2006-01-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

I found a really nice journal application for the HP laptop. It is called "The Journal". It is simple to use and from my perspective feature rich. The Journal contains two main section. First is the daily journal and the second is a notebook. Text entry has a look and feel similar to Microsoft Word. The realtime spelling checker is really nice. I really depend on the spell checker to help me not look stupid. Navigation among entries is a simple matter of moving through a tree view of entries presented in the left margin of The Journal's window. The addition of tables and images is a snap. There are many other features, and if you are into journaling you should really check this one out. One feature was the ease of importing journal entries form other tools. In my case I imported entries from MacJournal. In my case I just exported the MacJournal entries into a rich text file format, change the file name with some Perl script to a date format of mm-dd-yyyy, emailed them to myself, and within seconds imported each to The Journal. Another feature I really like is that I can post notebook entries to my blog. The notebook is a great editor, and the page provides a nice history of what I have blogged.

Here is the Perl script ...

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use vars qw($dirtoget @thefiles $file $newname @filenameparts $filenameparts);
$dirtoget="C:/Documents and Settings/Michael/My Documents/My Journal";
opendir(IMD, $dirtoget) || die("Cannot open directory");

@thefiles= readdir(IMD);

closedir(IMD);
chdir("C:/Documents and Settings/Michael/My Documents/My Journal");
foreach $file (@thefiles)
{
unless ( ($file eq ".") || ($file eq "..") )
{
@filenameparts = split / /,$file;
#$newname = $file;
#$newname =~ s/([a-zA-Z ]*[0-9]*)[a-z]{2}(, 2005\.rtf)/$1$2/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/January/01/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/February/02/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/Februry/02/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/March/03/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/April/04/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/May/05/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/June/06/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/July/07/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/August/08/;
$filenameparts[0] =~ s/September/09/;
$filenameparts[1] =~ s/,//;
$filenameparts[1] =~ s/th//;
$filenameparts[1] =~ s/nd//;
$filenameparts[1] =~ s/rd//;
$filenameparts[1] =~ s/st//;
$filenameparts[1] =~ s/ //;
if(length($filenameparts[1] < 10)){$filenameparts[1] = "0$filenameparts[1]";}
$newname = "$filenameparts[0]-$filenameparts[1]-2005.rtf";
print "$newname\n";
rename($file, $newname) or warn "Couldn't rename $file to $newname: $!\n";
}
}

Transition ...

2006-01-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

My transition from Apple Mac OSX to PC Windows is almost complete. Today my iBook G4 sold on eBay and I have 8 bids on my Mac-Mini. By the end of this week I will be Mac less. It's a scary feeling. I have not been in this position for many years. If the withdrawals get to bad perhaps Sandy will let me use her iMac G5. From now on I will only have this HP Pavilion zd8000 ...

I expect this transition to be short lived. Once Apple completes its move to the Intel architecture I plan to transition back to a new Powerbook. One that will, hopefully run windows natively. As a .NET developer I really need the native windows feature. Virtual PC was just to s l o w.

Vacation - Travel Day Three

2006-01-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

We are back in the Holiday Inn in Las Cruses, NM; only 5 hours from home. It will be so good to get home ... 20 days away is a long time.

For this trip I took along a new HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop instead of a Mac PowerBook G4. I love my Mac, but must admit that the HP performed admirably. I burned the book "Linked" to CDs using iTunes, three times faster then on my Mac. Windows Movie Maker was disappointing when compared to Apples iMovie and iDVD. However, I purchased Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4.0 and Premier Elements 2.0 and found they provide all the features of iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD, and more. They were easy to use and fast. The HP has the serious advantage of duel Pentium 4, 3 Mhz processors while the PowerBooks is only a 1.2 MHz G4. The operating system, Windows XP Professional is OK, OS X is much better. The constant threat of worms, viruses, Spyware, Rootkits is really a pain. As a Mac user I am just not used to all these threats. The HP is running Symantec AntiVirus, Internet Security, and AntiSpam, along with Microsoft AntiSpyware. Am I protected? Doubt it ...

Vacation - New Years Day ...

2006-01-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

Spent New Year’s Day at Moms. She fixed one of her great dinners, after which we played cards for several hours. I managed to win the first game while Sandy eked past Mom to win the second. Mom is really getting good … if we could spend a few more days with her she would start winning on regular bases.

Tomorrow we begin the drive home. Our visit with Mom has been wonderful, Christmas and New Year’s was great. We really hate to leave, as it seems like we just arrived. But every visit is to short. For our trip home, I have scheduled stops in Mobile, AL, Kerrville, TX, and Los Cruces, NM. We have only one long driving day of 713 miles.

Vacation – Days Nine & Ten …

2005-12-31T17:14:00.000-08:00

Spent these last two days at Mom’s just relaxing, playing cards, and cruising the internet. I did acquaint myself with Python. Downloaded, installed and tested PyXML.

I finished listing to an audio book about Google. This was really an enjoyable book … once started it is very hard to stop. It’s totally amazing what Google has achieved in just a few short years. I have since gone totally Google, moving to gmail adding Google toolbars to my browsers, and installed the Google desktop. The local search feature is fantastic … seems like everything is now at my fingertips without having to really organize my stuff.

Vacation - Day Eight ...

2005-12-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Cypress Gardens. While there we toured the remnants of the original gardens, watched a water ski show, toured its minimalist animal exposition, watched some wild alligator’s sun bathing in the rose garden, and toured their new amusement park. We saw a few brave soles free fall for three seconds on a platform caught at the last moment before crashing onto a concrete apron. There are seven other rides, all designed to spin and flip one over until sick. The Ferris wheel was our ride of choice. At it’s panicle it towered over everything in the park.

Entering the park was an experience. We had to pass through metal detectors and have our bags inspected. Only problem … when the metal detector alarm went off you were allowed to pass without further examination. Not sure what they are really checking.

Overall I was disappointed it what the new owners have done with Cypress Gardens. My previous visit was so very different. Then the original owners were in charge; then the entire park was dominated by manicured gardens. It was such a please to meander through its many paths and enjoy the beauty. The original park entrance included some really excellent gift shops and a large fudge factory. The fudge factory had glass walls so you could watch as the fudge was folded and cooled on huge marble tables. There is one thing at the gardens that has not changed and that is the huge Banyan tree. It is over seventy years old. Walking through its many trunks is a most peaceful experience.

Spam Blog ...

2005-12-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

Today I discovered that this blog has been identified via fuzzy logic as a potential Spam Blog. It is this designation that prevents "Performancing for Firefox" from working and why I have to type in the contents of a graphic password for every post. I never really questioned why the password was required. Just assumed it was a security thing ... that was dumb.

More great info from mamamusings.net ...

2005-12-27T14:52:00.000-08:00

Downloaded and installed Performancing for Firefox after reading mamamusings praises. I am a regular reader of Elizabeth's blog ... and find her a great source for some very neat tools. Thanks Elizabeth ... tomorrow morning Mom will be treating us to her version of latkeys.

Vacaition - Day Five & Six ...

2005-12-27T07:58:00.000-08:00

Two lazy days ... just visited and played cards with mom, cruised the internet, and read. I am sad to report that Sandy won all games.

The new HP pavilion zd8000 combined with a Verizon broad band access card is working well. This ais more like a desktop, and the internet access is really good. The download rates have been averaging around 140 kbps. which sure beats the previous dialup used during previous visits.

We did go out long enough to pick up a cable, (IEEE 1394/DV cable), to transfer our Christmas video to the laptop. To my surprise, when I plugged the camera into the laptop, Windows Movie Maker poped up. I found it really easy to upload 120 minutes of video. My only question is about the upload quality. The resulting video file size seems small. Also I noticed some distortion as I played back parts of the video

The creation of this years Christmas DVD will be a good comparative test of the movie making process between Mac and PC. For the last 4 years we used a Macintosh and found the process feature rich and simple.

Vacation – Christmas Day …

2005-12-25T07:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas was wonderful. Mom fixed a really great breakfast. We then opened our presents. I recorded the entire event on video. Later in the evening I recorded our Christmas dinner an our evening card game. We had a couple of retakes of Mom opening her last present … the tape ended just as the cover came off from this last gift. It was fun restaging the event and getting a surprised reaction. I typically record our family Christmas, and create a DVD production for play as we eat or Christmas dinner the next year. Since we are with Mom this year, I plan on sending copies to Mary (sister) and Tom (brother).

This year I will be creating the DVD on a new HP Pavilion zd8000. My previous DVD productions were done on a Macintosh, so this will really be a new experience with me. My first concern is what software to use. From what I know today, it looks like I will have to purchase something. First though I will Google for details.

Sandy won at cards again tonight. So sad …

Vacation – Day Four …

2005-12-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve … Sandy and I went to church with Mom. There were some 1100 people in attendance. This was an opportunity for Mom to introduce me to all of her friends and her new pastor, Father Charles. I like him. He gave a very meaningful sermon and seems friendly. Early today Mom received a yellow rose floral arrangement from Father Charles. It was his way of thanking her for her help at the church. She was really surprised and pleased.

Mom opened a few gifts this evening. She wanted to be ready for her early call with Tom (my brother).

Played cards in the evening … Sandy won.

Vacation – Day Three …

2005-12-23T11:32:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday. Received two very nice gifts. First was a set of glasses with a card design. These will be great for our Friday night card games with Bill & Bev. The second was a Logitech camera for my new laptop. It’s a great little camera … easy to install, works well, and is small for easy transport with the laptop.

Spent most of that day visiting with Mom and cruising the web. Later we played cards, and to my surprise I won. This means I am one game ahead of Sandy in our all time stats. I will enjoy this lead cause it won’t last long … she has a habit of winning this game. It’s only in Florida do I seem to hold my own. Mom made an angle food cake with a special pineapple frosting for my birthday cake. It was wonderful. All in all it was a really nice birthday.

Vacation – Day Two …

2005-12-22T10:39:00.000-08:00

Today we are off to Disney World. We started with Epcot then transferred to the Magic Kingdom then back to Epcot. Access to the parks has changed. They now check all backpacks, camera bags, and other carried items before you even get to the ticket counter. Then, as you go through the entry turnstile, they now have a finger print reader. This new system ties individuals to tickets to prevent lost tickets from being used by their finder. We found that it works when we changed parks. Sandy attempted to enter with my ticket and it refused her entry. Wonder if they do anything else with the data they collect.

We visited all our usual places … plus found a new ride, Soarin. No fast-pass tickets were available, so we waited in line for almost one hour. As we left we noticed the line was even longer. To me it looked like at least 1.5 hours long…

Next we strolled through the world pavilions stopping for perfume and wine in France, Tea in England, and Bratwurst, sauerkraut and beer in Germany. From there we took a boat ride and mono rail trip to the Magic Kingdom. Where we enjoyed the sights and a barbequed turkey leg. The Magic Kingdom was a madhouse … loads of kids. After a short stay we returned to Epcot. Sandy was a little under the weather about 6PM so we called it an early evening and returned home to Mom’s. After a little rest she felt much better. Overall we had a very good time. I think we might plan another trip for next week. While there we did check into the Disney Vacation Plan. I found it very appealing … if time permits we will attend their one hour tour and discussion of the plan.

Vacation – Day One …

2005-12-21T10:32:00.000-08:00

Today was a lazy day. Spent the day visiting with Mom and enjoyed sampling all her Christmas treats. Of course we played cards till 2 AM. Some how, I managed to squeak out a victory in both games. This allowed me to tie Sandy with 13 wins each.

We did get out of the house for a few minutes to do some chores. The roads here in little Winter Haven, FL were grid locked with holiday shoppers. Seems like many people have moved into the area since we were last here, or maybe it’s just the season and everyone is out shopping. There is a lot of construction her so I suspect its just more people. You have got to wonder why people would move to a hurricane prone area of the country. It must be the beautiful weather.

Vacation – Arrival Day …

2005-12-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

Today we arrived at Mom’s. Our stop, last night was only 336 miles from her home. I am so very happy to see Mom. It’s been 18 months since our last visit and this will be the first time we visiting over the Christmas holidays. Mom’s house looks great … she painted it this summer. It smells wonderful, as she has prepared for Christmas with lots of cooking and baking. One of my favorite is beet soup and home made noodles, which she served this evening. As usual it was wonderful. After catching up on the latest news we played our first card game of Hand & Foot. Sandy won. She pulled ahead as our all time winner with a win total of 13 games to my 11 and Mom’s 4.

In June of 2003, I purchased a little notebook to record our score as we play each game and record win stats. It’s fun to look back at our previous games. Mom only plays during our visits. We play a little more often with family back in Phoenix.

The Verizon card works well. I have noticed that it has a tendency to stall during downloads that take more then a couple of minutes. It doesn’t happen every time … it’s a little annoying as I can’t download some of my favorite podcasts. However, email works great. Overall the product works for me.

Vacation – Travel Day Three …

2005-12-19T19:49:00.000-08:00

Once again, we got back on the road at 7:00 AM, after a nice breakfast at the Holiday Inn. The weather was great, clear skies all day. Traffic overall was light. However, there is a real bottleneck in Beaumont, TX. The geniuses who plan road maintenance have shutdown all but one lane of I-10 east bound. This resulted in a 5 mile backup, and one hour delay. Because of this bottleneck we were only able to average 78 mph today. We are only 340 miles from Mom’s, so tomorrow will be a short driving day.

We stopped for the night in Marianna, FL at a Best Western Motel. Once again we are on the first floor. However, there is no noise from the unit above us. Have good internet tonight; two bars on the Verizon card. I did not try the card while we were on the road as I did all the driving today.

We finished the audio book The Children of Men by P.D. James. It turned out to be another very good book.

Vacation – Travel Day Two …

2005-12-18T18:47:00.000-08:00

We got back on the road this morning about 7:00 AM, after a nice breakfast at the Holiday Inn. The weather was a little overcast but no rain. There was not much traffic, so were able to average 78 mph. For lunch we stopped at Cooper’s Barbeque. What a wonderful place. The first things you see upon entering are huge piles of pork ribs and thick chops, sausage and beef briskets. Sandy had the beef brisket sandwich; I had a pork chop and a small piece of sausage. The food was fantastic … only wish I had room for more. This is one place we must stop on the way home.

We arrived at our second stop about 5:30 PM Phoenix time. This time we are on the second floor and it’s much quieter. No internet tonight. The Verizon card can’t find a signal. Last night the signal was great. Tonight nothing; the phone service is also minimal. The service should be good tomorrow as we will be in Florida where Verizon coverage blankets the state. If possible I will try using the card while Sandy is driving.

We finished Alen Aldan’s audio book today. A great book once stated you don’t want to stop. Our second audio book is the Children of Men by P.D. James. So far it’s a little difficult to follow as the reader speaks with a heavy British accent.

Vacation – Travel Day One …

2005-12-17T18:48:00.000-08:00

We are off to Florida for Christmas with Mom. This year we decided to drive. In preparation, I downloaded 40 + hours of audio books from Audible. In addition to seeing some of the country we will catch up on our reading … well listening. We started late this morning 11:00 AM to our first planned stop in Las Cruces, NM. It took almost 6 hours to get here; a Holiday Inn Express. Wonder what the Express stands for? We have a very comfortable room. Only issue is that we are on the first floor and can hear the people above as they walk about. Sounds like a herd of elephants. They did have fresh warm cookies and coffee ready when we arrived. From Phoenix, we started listening to Alan Aldas new book, Never Stuff Your Dog. It’s the story of his life. So far it’s very good. His life as a young boy was wild as his parents were in show business. Sandy kept busy knitting a baby blanket for her sister’s new, very cute grandson. Her goal is to have it complete by the time we get to Mom’s. From there she will mail it off …

Today we ran into more traffic then I expected. The trip from Phoenix to Tucson was really slow. So much traffic and too many trucks. At one point we came to a complete stop in the middle of nowhere. As we screech to a stop the fourth car behind us rear ended the vehicle ahead of it. Because of the high speed it was bad. We could not see if anyone was hurt but the front end the car was badly smashed. For the next 40 miles we moved at no more then 20-30 miles an hour. South of Tucson things opened up and we were off. Set the cruise control to 80 mph and down to road we went. We only had to slow when encountering truckers pass other trucks. We did see a few that rode the left lane, making traffic pass on their right. These folks need to find another line of work …

Our next scheduled stop is Columbus, TX … some 750 miles away. It’s going to be a long day on the road with plenty of book listening time.

Decision ...

2005-12-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

After much thought and evaluation I purchased an HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop. I really like this system. It has a very bright 17” screen and a great keyboard. It’s big enough to have a full keyboard with a number pad. It’s also a rotund 9+ lb. I purchased the system at Sam’s Club, my preferred provider … because of their 6 month return policy. I really wanted a new 17” Apple powerbook. The problem is, as a .NET developer its tough to work on a powerbook … Virtual PC is so … V E R Y S L O W. I have big hopes for the upcoming Intel machines. In the interim I’ll just use the HP.

The first thing I did with the new laptop was upgrade the operating system to XP Professional. In spite of this change SQL 2005 Express would not install. It continues to hang at the point of “Searching for IIS ...” My search of the internet and Microsoft’s site revealed no information, workaround, or fix. Am I the only one having this problem? My work around was to install Personnel SQL Server 2000. Installing Visual Studio 2005 was a breeze. Just don’t let the installer attempt to install SQL 2005 Express. If you do, it will just hang the system.

Laptop Woos ...

2005-12-11T15:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend I purchased a new HP Pavilion zv6203cl PC laptop. It uses an AMD 64 Athlon 2Ghz CPU, with 80G HD, 1G RAM, running Microsoft XP Home. Great little machine. Beautiful screen. Problem is that it would not connect to a Linksys wireless router. It would connect a Apple Express wireless router. Go figure. The second problem was that Microsoft SQL Express would not install either as a stand-alone or with Visual Studio 2005. The was the straw that broke the proverbial camels back. So I returned the computer and purchased an HP Pavilion zd8000 with a Pentium4 3Ghz CPU, 100G HD, and 2G RAM, running Microsoft XP Home. Experienced the same problems. So back it went. I am really disappointed cause the zd8000 is a beautiful machine.

Saturday, I stopped by CompUSA, to look at a laptops. Found a nice Compaq running Microsoft XP Home. It has a AMD 64 Athlon 1.6 Ghz CPU, with 60G HD, 512M RAM. It was connected to the internet so I downloaded SQL Express and .NET 2.0 redistribution kit, installed both, and found everything work. Now why did it work on the Compaq and not the HP. Now that HP owns Compaq you would not expect much difference. Verified that CompUSA had six in stock ... just wanted to think about it first. Not sure but may go back and purchase it tomorrow. My only reservation is their return policy. They will not return your money only in store credit. Not a good policy. The first two I purchase from Sam’s Club which has a 6 month return policy. My plan is to contact HP and see what they have to say about my problems.

2005-11-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

Bulletproof Web Design, Dan Cederholm. I completed the seventh book on XHTML and CSS. Again, I have not been disappointed. This book was excellent. Tabbed some 25 items for implementation on my next project. I highly recommend this book. The last chapter is really great. Here the author combines everything presented in the previous chapters into one big example. Working this last one really drove home all the presented material.

I tried to read The Mac Xcode 2 Book, by Michael and Dennis Cohen, and Andy Ihnatko the series author. But could not do it. The series of books on XHML and CSS were really well writen. This one is just a drag. Will give it a shot later.

Sarah's - White Chili Recipe

2005-11-06T16:16:00.000-08:00

1 lb navy beans (soak overnight and discard water)
6 cups chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube
2 tsp garlic powder
4 tsp cumin
2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne (however much you like)
2 (7 oz) cans of chopped chiles
2 med onions, chopped
4 whole chicken breasts, (cook separately), cubed
2 cups sour cream
3 cups jack cheese, shredded

Combine first 9 ingrediets. Bring to boil and simmer for 3 hours. Before serving, add last 3 ingredients (keep hot but do not boil)

Serve with garnishments: olives, tomatoes, green onions, avocado, etc...

Yields 6-8 servings.

We tried Sarah’s recipe today and it was wonderful. Soup and Chili are my favorite winter foods. This is really a simple recipe that exudes a wonder aroma throughout the house.

2005-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I took the test and found that I was;

Elrond - A stern yet benevolent organizer who often knows best, your wits are keenly fixed on aiding efforts you deem worthy. Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril to Mordor. Elrond is a character in the Middle-Earth universe. TheOneRing.net has a short biography.

2005-10-06T19:53:00.000-07:00

Web Designer's Reference, Dan Cederholm. I completed the sixth book on XHTML and CSS. Once again, I have not been disappointed. This book was excellent. Tabbed some 60 items I plan on implementing on my next project. What really found useful are the appendices on XHTML and CSS. I highly recommend this book. It is well written, easy to follow and contains some really great examples. In addition, it serves as a great reference.

I am now reading Bulletproof Web Design, which is another book by Dan Cederholm. For a change of pace, I am also reading The Mac Xcode 2 Book, by Michael and Dennis Cohen, and Andy Ihnatko the series author. This book was purchase some weeks ago and am finally getting around to reading and working through the exercises. I really want to code for the Mac. In my work world, I code in C# ASP.NET and XHTML/CSS. Love that environment. But as a long time Mac enthusiast, I really want to code with Cocoa. Have this vision of creating something ??? just everyone wants to use. Thats my dream...

2005-09-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

CSS Hacks & Filters, Joseph W. Lowery.This is the fourth of five books and another great read. Once again, this is a well written book. The style is straight forward. It contains a really great collection of methodologies for solving many of the tricky CSS cross browser issues. As I read thorough the book I placed tabs on 19 sections I know will be helpful near term. Oveall this is a highly recommended read.

One more book to go... Actually, in my CSS readings I discovered several other books I want to read, like The Zen of CSS Design, More Eric Meyer on CSS, etc.. Before I can start these, I need to reread/review some UML modeling text in preparation for an upcoming major project. So much to read, so little time...

2005-09-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

Stylin' with CSS : A Designer's Guide, Charles Wyke-Smith. Another great read. This is the the third of five books I committed to read before the start of our next project. Charles book is stuffed with examples that one can apply immediately and make a real difference. This book has made a significant contribution to my understanding and use of CSS. His explanation of the underpinnings of how things work is excellent. If you do Web development you really need to read this book.

2005-08-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

designing with web standards, Jeffrey Zeldman; A must read before the start of your next web project. It is written in a down to earth style that grabs your interest. Jeffry provided examples that really hit home for me. This is the second of five books I have challenged myself to read before the start of our next project. From the info gleaned in these first two books I have started writing XHTML and CSS Standards for our use on all future projects.

2005-08-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

The Art & Science of Web Design, Jeffrey Veen; Highly recommended reading before the start of your next web project. It is written in an easy style that holds your attention. Jeffry managed to pull the full spectrum of web development together to get one thinking about how it should be done. This is one of several books I am reading in preparations for a major project starting next month. It was a great choice and a great read.

2005-08-01T19:03:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Alexis ... Murali, Tony and I said our goodbye's to Alexis over dinner and some great martinis. Alexis is leaving us for a job with Lockheed in Maryland. Her big desire has been to move back east. Come middle of January Alexis think about us here in the Phoenix valley enjoying our 80 F weather while you FREEZE in Maryland. Just remember, you can always come back. Seriously ... best wishes to you and your family on this move and your new live out east. Don't forget your friends back here in Phoenix.

2005-07-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

Rainbow Camp, Big Lake ... It’s been along time, years actually, since we have been camping. So we did it ... we packed up the truck and drove to Big Lake elevation 9200 ft. Jayson came along. This was his first camping/fishing trip. Spent four wonderful days in the woods communing with nature. Unfortunately we did not catch any fish ... but nest time we will get them all. The weather was beautiful. Warm days ... cool evenings. While back it Phoenix it was 115 F. This was my first opportunity to use the Avalanche tent. It made for a very comfortable nights rest. We need to do this more often ...

Operation must use an updateable query...

2005-06-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

Using Access for a web application data source has been challenging to say the least. Its security is unnecessarily confusing and is the cause of much frustration. The latest curse has been “Operation must use an updateable query.” You got to wonder who thinks up these meaningless messages. Perhaps it’s an ancient from the inquisition period.

The “Operation must use an updateable query.” message follows an attempt to update a table. A search of the internet found that many experience this problem and are as baffled as I on the cause. There are also many who offer solutions. I tried several with no success … until I stumbled onto Doug’s FAQs. Within seconds my problem was solved. All I did was grant USER full access to the directory containing my access mdb file. Thanks for the help Doug. I have added your site to my favorites list.

DataReader Error. Can't Return Db Records ...

2005-06-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Don’t forget to include the connection object in the OleDbCommand, i.e.,
“OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand("Select * FROM Node",conn);” or you will receive the friendly error of “DataReader Error. Can't Return Db Records” or and unfriendly error of “ExecuteReader: Connection property has not been initialized”.

Helen experienced this problem, solved it, and was nice enough to post the fix. Thanks Helen for your help.

Response.Redirect not working ...

2005-06-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

Its something new every day. Today Response.Redirect won't work. Now I have written this code more times then I am willing to count and it always worked. Example:

private void btMemberLogin_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{

Response.Redirect("login.aspx);

}

What is wrong ... well this code will not work if Page.Smartnavigation is true. Found this out from Dave who stated "... response.redirect() does not work if Page.Smartnavigation is true. Make it False the line prior to the redirect".

The following code works.

private void btMemberLogin_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{

Page.Smartnavigation =true;
Response.Redirect("login.aspx);

}

Enter Key ASP.NET Click Event ...

2005-05-31T13:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it’s the simple things that are difficult. For example … while developing an ASP.NET web application it became necessary to catch the enter key and cause a page submit button click event to fire. There is code behind that must execute when the page is submitted. The enter key functionality just improves users experience. So how to implement …

After a couple of hours searching around and testing various options I found the following works perfectly. Just add to the page body tag and replace "btLogin" with your button name.

onkeydown="if(event.keyCode == 13){document.getElementById('btLogin').click();}"

The credit for this code snippet goes to the jsckol's den.

Mothers Day ...

2005-05-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

Ray & Edee prepared a wonderful dinner to celebrate Mothers day. Ray grilled steak, and Edee prepared a really great salmon, baked potatoes and two great deserts. Looking back at this meal I sure could go for another serving. Afterwards Ryan & I played a game of Generals. Working together we destroyed the enemy.

This dinner picture was taken by Ray with his new Canon EOS 20D digital SLR camera. I now have a serious case of camera envy. The past few weeks I have been checking out various camera’s and settled on a Canon PowerShot A95. Now that I have seen the EOS 20D in action ... don’t know if I can settle for the A95.

Test Blog From MacJournal ...

2005-04-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

Just installed the latest version of MacJournal. This is a test to see how well it will post to my blog. Works great ... easy connect and fast post.

EOModeler ...

2005-04-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

I have been having the most difficult time getting EOModeler to connect to mySQL. It worked great on my PowerBook. However, on my iMac it will not connect. Connection attempts result in the message:

JDBC connection failed for driver :'org.gjt.mm.mysql.Driver'. Driver not found in Java Runtime! Please verify your CLASSPATH environment variable. The current CLASSPATH for your application is : /Developer/Applications/EOModeler.app /Contents/Resources/Java/
eomodeler.zip:/Users/MikeD/Library/Java:/Library/Java:/System/
Library/Java:/Network/Library/Java:/System/Library/Frameworks/
JavaVM.framework/Classes/classes.jar:/System/Library/Frameworks/
JavaVM.framework/Classes/ui.jar:/Developer/Applications/
EOModeler.app/Contents/Resources/Java/eomodeler.zip

So downloaded the latest stable JDBC from the mySQL site, and copied the jar to the /Library/Java/Extensions/ directory. Still could not connect. However, the error message had changed to:

java/sql/Savepoint

I tried alternate entries for the URL and Optional Driver value but nothing worked. Even created a small java class to verify the JDBC Driver worked. It did. I could connect to mySQL create a new database, add tables, and create a new user. After a couple evenings of failed attempts to get a connection, I emailed a request for help to
Webobjects-dev mailing list. Received several responses. One responder(Jacky Gagnon), suggested:

Try on another computer with 10.3.8...Or try another version of mysql-connector-java-3.1.x like 3.1.7.

Since I did not have access to a sysem with 10.3.8, I opted to tried another version of the driver. Downloaded
mysql-connector-java-3.0.16-ga.tar.gz and placed
mysql-connector-java-3.0.16-ga-bin.jar in my /Library/Java/Extensions directory and EOModerel immediately connected to mySQL.

Yahoo! What a wonderful feeling when one resolves an irritating problem like Java connections. Once again everything is right with the world ... well at least it seems that way for the moment.

New Machine ...

2005-04-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

Sold a 12-inch 1 GHz PowerBook on eBay. With the proceeds, purchased a new iMac G5, with a 17-inch screen, superdrive, wireless keyboard and mouse. Had planned on getting a Mac Mini. Just love its small footprint. However, with the desired upgrades it just made more sense to get the iMac. So far I am not disappointed with this decision.

Initial setup was a breeze. The mistake was using Apples system utility to migrate data from the PowerBook to the iMac. It successfully migrated everything. Unfortunately it configured the iMac to run like the PowerBook. All my efforts failed to correct the situation. Ended up rebuilding the system to return it back to its original condition. Following the reinstall, the system could not find bluetooth. Ended up contacting Apple via web chat. It was a great experience ... they quickly provided the solution. That is “remove all USB connections, disconnect the power cord for one full minute, replace the power cord and start the system back up” the resultant startup recognized bluetooth and reconnected the keyboard and mouse. Like magic everything was working great.

Lesson learned ... do not use the migration tool between a PowerBook and iMac.

Blog from MacJournal ...

2005-03-14T18:54:00.000-08:00

This post is from MacJournal. The original purchased version would not post. However, upgrade v3.02 works. Now I can blog from MacJournal and save the content in my Journal. This could provide some additional security.

Journal ...

2005-03-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

This January I started using MacJournal. Have tried several other products. However, for me this works best. Tried to convert my last digital journal without success. Did manage to convert it to text. However, all the dates were lost. From the subject matter reconstruct the approximate dates ... This exercise pointed out a major problem with digital journals. That is, they are only as durable as the software used to create them. With my first two, I never considered archiving content in a format readily imported into other applications. I did create backups. Problem is these backups require the original application... MacJournal provides multiple export options including saving in HTML.

Spent a few enjoyable hours recovering a digital journal covering the period from September 1999 - June 2003. Reading this record events and my thoughts brought back so many memories. Its like time traveling back to the past. Think I would like to add some notes like from an outside agent who knows how it all turns out ...

Change ...

2005-03-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks I have been very busy winding up affairs with my current employer. Monday, I start a new job ... Starting a new job is exciting. The feeling is like the one you get as you approach the crest of a hill. For what is on the other side is a world of possibilities.

Wrap image with text ...

2005-02-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled</title>
<style>
.himg
{
float:left;
margin:10px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>first cell</td>
<td>
<img src="newt2100.gif" width="190" height="241" alt="" title="" class=himg /> <p>
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</p>
</td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

Here is the link for skmmenu:

2005-02-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the link for skmmenu

The Z's in London ...

2005-02-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

Silliman's Blog

2005-02-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

Silliman's Blog

Test from mail ...

2005-02-05T09:05:00.000-08:00

This in one of the reason motivating me to change my blog, and that is
gaining the ability to easily publish a blog entry from other products
such as Mail. Now can I blog from it.....

I need a change ...

2005-02-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

In January, 2003 I installed MT and began blogging. MT is a great product. From the very first day I have had no problems. So why change? It is a time issue ... and blog administration is something I can eliminate. So to this end I am giving Blogger a try. So far it seems simple. Did notice that spell check does not work. My browser is Safari 1.2.4, perhaps that the cause. The help screen is not clear as to what functionality is supported.

Took some time off from work this morning. Not by choice... Have two appointments. The first is with our home builder. Seems like we have several drywall cracks we want repaired. Second, our Sprint Broadband internet is down. Have had this service for the past 6 years and this is the first hardware problem. If you can get their service its the best. Fortunatly we have QWest DSL as a backup. Its OK but not a reliable as Sprint. Cox service, at least in my neighborhood SUCKS. Its downtime was in excess of 50%.

ASP.NET Load User Controls Dynamically ...

2005-01-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some code snippets which I used to load usercontrols dynamically
--The way to load
protected override void OnInit(System.EventArgs e)
{
// Add the header and footer controls
header hdr = (header) LoadControl("/include/Header.ascx");
if(hdr!=null)
{
hdr.AppTitle = mySettings["ApplicationTitle"].ToString();
hdr.ID = "header";
this.Controls.AddAt(0,hdr);
}

--The way to find
//_ctl0_lblTitle
header hdr = (header) this.FindControl("header");
if(hdr!=null)
{
hdr.PageTitle = value;
}

ASP.NET Load User Controls Dynamically ...

2005-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some code snippets which I used to load usercontrols dynamically
--The way to load
protected override void OnInit(System.EventArgs e)
{
// Add the header and footer controls
header hdr = (header) LoadControl("/include/Header.ascx");
if(hdr!=null)
{
hdr.AppTitle = mySettings["ApplicationTitle"].ToString();
hdr.ID = "header";
this.Controls.AddAt(0,hdr);
}
--The way to find
//_ctl0_lblTitle
header hdr = (header) this.FindControl("header");
if(hdr!=null)
{
hdr.PageTitle = value;
}

Datagrid selecteditemstyle-backcolor ...

2005-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Using a datagrid OnItemCommand event the following code will trigger its selecteditemstyle-backcolor:

int Index = e.Item.ItemIndex;
yourdatagridid.SelectedIndex = -1;
yourdatagridid.SelectedIndex = Index;

Just another item I don't want to forget...

PHP Windows installation …

2004-12-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

How can something so simple be so difficult? I downloaded the PHP Windows Binaries from www.php.net and performed the recommended manual installation. According to the instructions a manual install was suppose to provide a learning experience that would be of future benefit. Well the learning experience was php did not work. Next I downloaded the PHP 5.03 installer. Running the installer was no help. Next a search of the internet lead me to an O’Reilly page. Following these instructions worked. Is it me or is doing anything on a windows box one big pain in the ....

Just not ready ...

2004-12-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

It’s Christmas Eve already and I am just not ready. This has been a year of “Just not ready...” Seems like there was never enough time to get anything done or at least done to the point where one is satisfied with the results. It’s just slam it together and move onto the next thing. I need some real down time. However, that ain’t going to happen anytime soon. Just now I am under the gun for a PHP gig that is job one for my customer. Also, as usual for this time of the year, my wife’s family priorities rule. As the bedlam of our family gathering builds tonight, my plan is to sneak away to my office for some quite code time. Maybe they won't miss me ...

Microsoft IIS Reset/Rboot ...

2004-12-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a neat little script to reset or reboot an Microsoft IIS server. It's neat because we have a sever that crashes after a days use ... we don't know why ... Microsoft does not know why ... so we set up a job which runs every night to reset or reboot the server. Crude but it works.

iisreset < your server name > /restart /rebootonerror

pause

Sandy's Baby ....

2004-11-28T20:03:00.000-08:00

We found the perfect Yorkshire Terrier for Sandy today. Its from a breeder in Tucson, AZ. Met halfway to check her out and ended up making a purchase. She is not quite weaned so will not be able to bring her home until next Sunday. Now we need to locate a tea-cup sized male … we intend on becoming amateur breeders.

Ripped Off ...

2004-11-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

Friday was a special day. Our Yorkshire Terrier was to arrive from New York. However, she was a no show. Turns out that the Manny A. Cruz using an address of 45 Broadway Suite 1401 New York, NY, puppyfind.com, AOL email account Yorkieb2k@aol.com, and phone number of (646) 294-2725 defraud us. It was a heartbreaking experience for Sandy. She had invested so much time and effort into finding just the right dog. We have filed a complaint with the IFCC, AOL, and puppyfind.com. Sandy will file a complaint with our local police, the New York city police, and the US Post Office on Monday. Our son will be in New York next week on business and will check out the address.

An internet search of the address Manny provided found it to be ...
Katz Realty Group
45 Broadway
Suite 1401
New York, NY 10006
Tel. 212-269-1900
Fax 212-269-4515

I don’t hold out much hope for the recovery of our money… at this point I only want to bring this individual(s) to justice.

Thanksgiving ...

2004-11-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

Enjoyed another Thanksgiving with the family. As is our custom we stuffed ourselves with turkey and all the trimmings. Seems like whenever our family congregates, the resulting collection of food is sufficient to feed three times our number. Friday I roasted a 13 lb. turkey at our house... The only problem with a family Thanksgiving is no leftover turkey. Now we have enough till Tuesday. Then its turkey soup.

Nisus Writer Express …

2004-11-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

Found a really great word processor for the OS X. It’s Nisus Writer Express. As a long time Microsoft Word user, I found this product really easy to use. The price is particularly nice. Download the demo and give it a try.

OneShot Javascript Rotater ...

2004-11-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a little script to cycle a rotater once.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Untitled Document</title>

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"></script>
</head>

<body>
<img src="C:/Documents and Settings/md00037/Desktop/1.jpg" width=468 height=60 border=0 name="banner"></a>
</body>
</html>

Halloween …

2004-11-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

The little ghosts & goblins are at the door again. It’s a joy to see the little one’s having such fun. Ninja turtles seem to be the boy’s favorite this year. Jayson is ninja this year and Christion is a Giraffe. Jayson was over a little earlier this evening helping his grandma make cupcakes for their party tonight. He brought his ninja transformer over to show me. Seems like it can transform from a baby turtle to a ninja turtle.

Thank God, only one more campaign day left this season. Will be so glad to get the election behind us. Caught a little of the news this evening to discover the poles have the election dead even. I fear our president may lose this election … it’s incomprehensible that this country could elect such an unprincipled man like Kerry. I have talked with a number of his supporters and find their only motivation is an irrational hate for Bush. None could explain why they hate him or an understanding of Kerry’s positions. I fear that it is going to take a most significant event to wake this country, just hope it is not to late.

Second Annual Team Meeting ...

2004-10-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

While on vacation our team held its second annual meeting. Attending for the first time was Jayson and Melissa. This was Jayson's second visit to Disney World, and Melissa's first. Both are shown with Mr. Lightyear.

More Vacation Stuff ...

2004-10-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a great video clip ... from EPCOT.

Politics ...

2004-10-18T23:21:00.000-07:00

Only 16 days till Election Day … in this election campaign we failed to address any real issues. Instead, this election is about hate. It’s about the Bush hates and the Liberal haters. Each side blames the worlds ills on the other … and takes credit for the good. Why can’t we just discuss the issues?

In a discussion with a very staunch Democrat, I asked, "Why would you vote for Kerry when he promised to raise taxes?" There initial response was "Well he wont be raising my taxes." I then asked, "So you think it's OK to raise taxes as long as they are not your taxes?" There reply was "He won't really raise taxes." I quickly responded, "So you would vote for a liar?" They responded "No!" I asked once again "Why would you vote for someone who promises to raise taxes?" There was no response ... they walked away with an over the shoulder comment of "I hate Bush."

I contend, that the more money our government collects from us the more control they can exercise over our lives. This control is a direct threat to our individual freedoms. I urge everyone to get out and vote against the Kerry tax plan.

Vacation Last Day ...

2004-10-17T23:17:00.000-07:00

Vacation Pictures

Vacation Day Four …

2004-10-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Spent the day at Mom’s. She cooked some great meals, and we played lots of cards. Did pick up the Day After Tomorrow DVD. Its fantasy … but fun to watch. I really liked the part where Americans became illegal aliens as they crossed the Mexican border to avoid the cold weather.

Vacation Day Three …

2004-10-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

Monday morning bright and early we departed Mom’s house for Disney World. Arrived just as the parks were opening… and it was raining. In fact it rained most to day and it was great cause it held the temperature down to the low 80’s. We parked at Epcot and took the bus to MGM Studios. Our first stop was for some rain gear then it was off to the Star Wars exhibit and a star ship ride to the planet Endor. Then we watched the 3D Muppet Show followed by a Back Lot Tour that included Catastrophe Canyon. Along the way we ran into Buzz Lightyear and Woody. Stopped long enough for a chat and pictures. Our next stop was the Greatest Movie Tour. The best part of this ride is the Wizard of Oz set where robots replay the “follow-the-yellow-brick-road” scene including the green wicked witch of the east. Next we hopped the bus back to Epcot and had lunch. We next walked through all of the cities of the world followed by a ride on the Test Track. Sandy & Melissa then went on the mission to Space ride while Jayson and I visited Imagination and designed, built and raced a robot. The day ended watching fireworks & light show. Sandy wore a pedometer this visit … it reported that we walked 12 miles. No wonder we were so tired. Vacation pictures.

Vacation Day One ...

2004-10-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

We had a great flight to Tampa ... with one stop in St. Louis. We adopted two kids for the flight who were traveling alone. With four kids it was a fun flight. I reserved a compact rental car for our vacation. However ended up with a PT Cruiser for the same price. With four of us on this trip ,we need the extra room. It was dark as we drove to Mom's, so did not see much hurricane damage. Arrived around 8:00 PM. Talked until the wee hours of the morning catching up on all the events. Jayson, Melissa, and Mom managed to play 3 games of old maid before going to bed. Sunday morning the card games resumed. While Mom, Sandy, and Jayson played cards, I sorted and organized yesterday's pictures. Today the plan is to just relax, visit, and prepare for our Disney World visit tomorrow. See latest vacation pictures.

Vacation Time …

2004-10-09T23:10:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow it’s off to Florida. We will be visiting my Mom, in Winter Haven. This small community was hit by four hurricanes this year. Two passed right over the town. Mom sustained virtually no damage. Just lost a few shingles. Looking forward to seeing first hand how the town held up. We have a late morning flight, so won’t get to Mom’s until around 8:00 PM Florida time… Sunday we will relax and visit with Mom. Then Monday it’s off to Disney World. Plan a return visit on Wednesday. The balance of time will be spent visiting with Mom. Expect to spend a lot of time playing cards. She loves to play “hand-and-foot”, and is quite good at it. This trip we are taking our Melissa, our granddaughter and our grandson Jayson. Jayson traveled with us last June when we visited Mom. It was his first trip to Disney World… he is an old hand and expects to be his cousins guide. Jayson is five and Melissa is seventeen. Will post updates with pictures later next week.

Cocoa Delegates …

2004-09-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

Last week I picked up the Aaron Hillegass Cocoa Programming fro Mac OS X, Second Edition book. Thought I might work it through and gain some proficiency with Object-C. So far I have completed the first five chapters including the Challenge exercises. Most of my time has been spent working the challenge exercises in chapter 4 & 5. Actually, the time was spent looking at the class documentation and figuring out how to implement a Delegate. Completing the exercise really made me feel stupid. It was actually so simple, but took several attempts over a three-day period to get it to work. Part of the problem is that at work use MS Visual Studio and code .Net C#. In this environment I use intelle-sense and seldom need to look at class documentation. However, the xcode IDE does not have this feature.

Today I learned that if I made a connection between my application window and the instance of my application using the window delegate, added the delegate definition to the .h file

- (NSSize)windowWillResize:(NSWindow *)sender toSize:(NSSize)frameSize;

and implemented it in the .m file I could control the widow size as the window was resized by the user.

- (NSSize)windowWillResize:(NSWindow *)sender toSize:(NSSize)frameSize
{
frameSize.height = frameSize.width * .5;
return frameSize;
}

What it really amounts to is the adding the definition of the delegate and returning its frameSize in the implementation. The coding paradigm is so different in Cocoa.

Think Different ...

2004-09-05T23:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a great little video … takes a few seconds to download but well worth it.

Think Different

The Boys...

2004-08-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

Christian Michael, Jayson’s brother is a real charmer. Yesterday, he walked Grandma out to her car and insisted they go for a ride. Now Christian can’t really talk yet but he was insistent that Grandma get in the car with him. You got to wonder what is going through that little mind.

Jayson has started school. He is in Kindergarten. Where has the time gone? Seems like only yesterday that he was this cute little baby. Now he is a big boy. Every day he amazes me with his growth both in physical size and understanding of the world around him. If you listen he really has some interesting insights. Our current big interest besides swimming is playing Halo on our Xbox. We are on the last level and looking forward to Halo 2.

Control DataGrid Edit Mode Textbox Width...

2004-08-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

The following code controls the width of a datagrid edit mode textbox:

protected void DataGrid_ItemCreated(object sender, System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridItemEventArgs e)
{
if(e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.EditItem)
{
TextBox txtBox =(TextBox)e.Item.Cells[1].Controls[0];
txtBox.Width = 50;

}
}

.NET DataGrid Edit w/DropDownList ...

2004-08-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

The following example code details how to use the .NET datagrid edit features with a dropdownlist.

<%@ Page language="c#" Codebehind="WebForm1.aspx.cs" AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="eform.WebForm1" %>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<title>WebForm1</title>
<meta content="Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 7.1" name="GENERATOR">
<meta content="C#" name="CODE_LANGUAGE">
<meta content="JavaScript" name="vs_defaultClientScript">
<meta content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5" name="vs_targetSchema">
</HEAD>
<body>
<form id="Form1" method="post" runat="server">
<TABLE id="Table1" cellSpacing="1" cellPadding="1" width="300" border="1">
<TR>
<TD>
<asp:Label id="Label1" runat="server">Label</asp:Label></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD><asp:datagrid id="DataGrid1" runat="server" OnUpdateCommand="DataGrid_Update" OnCancelCommand="DataGrid_Cancel" OnEditCommand="DataGrid_Edit" AutoGenerateColumns="False">
<Columns>
<asp:BoundColumn HeaderText="Employee ID" DataField="emp_id" ReadOnly="True" ItemStyle-Width=150 HeaderStyle-Wrap=False ItemStyle-Wrap="False" />
<asp:BoundColumn HeaderText="Last Name" DataField="lname" ItemStyle-Width=200 HeaderStyle-Wrap=False ItemStyle-Wrap="False" />
<asp:BoundColumn HeaderText="First Name" DataField="fname" ItemStyle-Width=200 HeaderStyle-Wrap=False ItemStyle-Wrap="False" />
<asp:TemplateColumn HeaderText="Job Title" HeaderStyle-Wrap=False ItemStyle-Width=200 ItemStyle-Wrap="False">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:Label ID="JobTitle" Runat="server" Text='<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "job_desc") %>' />
</ItemTemplate>
<EditItemTemplate>
<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlJobTitle" Runat="server" DataSource="<%# GetJobDataTable() %>" DataTextField="job_desc" DataValueField="job_id" />
</EditItemTemplate>
</asp:TemplateColumn>
<asp:EditCommandColumn ButtonType="LinkButton" CancelText="Cancel" EditText="Edit" UpdateText="Save" />
</Columns>
</asp:datagrid></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</form>
</body>
</HTML>

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.SessionState;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using Microsoft.ApplicationBlocks.Data;

namespace eform
{
///

/// Summary description for WebForm1.
///

public class WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label Label1;
protected System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGrid DataGrid1;

private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
if(!IsPostBack)
{
GetData();
BindData();
}
}

private void GetData()
{
string ConnString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["PUBSCONNSTRING"];
DataSet ds = SqlHelper.ExecuteDataset(ConnString,"pr_GetEmployees");
Session["EmployeeDataTable"] = ds.Tables[0];
Session["JobsDataTable"]= ds.Tables[1];
}

private void BindData()
{
DataTable dt = (DataTable) Session["EmployeeDataTable"];
DataGrid1.DataSource = dt;
DataGrid1.DataBind();
}

#region Web Form Designer generated code
override protected void OnInit(EventArgs e)
{
//
// CODEGEN: This call is required by the ASP.NET Web Form Designer.
//
InitializeComponent();
base.OnInit(e);
}

///

/// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
/// the contents of this method with the code editor.
///

private void InitializeComponent()
{
this.DataGrid1.ItemDataBound += new System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridItemEventHandler(this.DataGrid_ItemDataBound);
this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.Page_Load);

}
#endregion

protected void DataGrid_Cancel(object source, System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridCommandEventArgs e)
{
DataGrid1.EditItemIndex = -1;
BindData();
}

protected void DataGrid_Delete(object source, System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridCommandEventArgs e)
{

}

protected void DataGrid_Edit(object source, System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridCommandEventArgs e)
{
DataGrid1.EditItemIndex = e.Item.ItemIndex;
BindData();
}

protected void DataGrid_Update(object source, System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridCommandEventArgs e)
{
string ConnString = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["PUBSCONNSTRING"];

string val2 = e.Item.Cells[0].Text;
string val3 = ((TextBox)e.Item.Cells[1].Controls[0]).Text;
string val4 = ((TextBox)e.Item.Cells[2].Controls[0]).Text;
int val5 = Int32.Parse(((DropDownList)e.Item.Cells[3].Controls[1]).SelectedItem.Value);

SqlParameter[] arParams = new SqlParameter[4];
arParams[0] = new SqlParameter("@EMP_ID", e.Item.Cells[0].Text);
arParams[1] = new SqlParameter("@FNAME", ((TextBox)e.Item.Cells[1].Controls[0]).Text);
arParams[2] = new SqlParameter("@LNAME", ((TextBox)e.Item.Cells[2].Controls[0]).Text);
arParams[3] = new SqlParameter("@JOB_ID", Int32.Parse(((DropDownList)e.Item.Cells[3].Controls[1]).SelectedItem.Value));

try
{
SqlHelper.ExecuteNonQuery(ConnString,"pr_UpdateEmployee",arParams);
}
catch(SqlException sqlEx)
{
Label1.Text = sqlEx.Message.ToString();
}
DataGrid1.EditItemIndex = -1;
GetData();
BindData();
}

private void DataGrid_ItemDataBound(object sender, System.Web.UI.WebControls.DataGridItemEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.EditItem)
{
DataRowView objDataRowView = (DataRowView)e.Item.DataItem;
string CurrentJobDesc = (string)objDataRowView[4].ToString();
DropDownList ctlDropDownList = (DropDownList)e.Item.FindControl("ddlJobTitle");
ctlDropDownList.SelectedIndex = ctlDropDownList.Items.IndexOf(ctlDropDownList.Items.FindByText(CurrentJobDesc));
}
}

protected DataTable GetJobDataTable()
{
return (DataTable) Session["JobsDataTable"];
}

}
}

Testing Meme Propagation in Blogspace: Add Your Blog!

2004-08-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet (Permalink: http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/08/a_sonar_ping_of.html) – results and commentary will appear there in the future.

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate — the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst (this GUID enables anyone to easily search Google (or Technorati) for all blogs that participate in this experiment). Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)

* (1) I found this experiment at URL: http://wrt-brooke.syr.edu/cgbvb/
* (2) I found it via “Browsing the Web”
* (3) I posted this experiment at URL: http://blog.my-list.com/
* (4) I posted this on date (day, month, year): 03 August 2004
* (5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 21:00:00 (UTC-8)
* (6) My posting location is (city, state, country): Phoenix,Arizona, USA

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):

* (7) My blog is hosted by: myself (personal MT installation)
* (8) My age is:
* (9) My gender is: Male
* (10) My occupation is: Programmer
* (11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software:
* (12) I use the following software to post to my blog: Moveable Type
* (13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): January 2003
* (14) My web browser is: Safari
* (15) My operating system is: Mac OS X (10.3.4)

Earthlink Continues to Suck …

2004-07-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

The crack service team at earthlink has managed to fail again. Contrary to their repeated assurances, my account was not cancelled. Once again I called, and once again was promised that this time my account was cancelled. The refund of charges for the past ten months has still not been processed. It exists in their system. However, has not received a supervisor’s approval. This is their story and they a sticking to it. Did I mention that earthlink has outsourced their customer service to another country? Now these people don’t have a clue. They have a script, which they follow. Suspect that is why they are all so good at telling the same story. You get what you pay for…. earthlink pays some poor smuck 25 cents and hour and their incompetence drives customers away. Have now initiated a fraud complaint with my credit card company. Will see how that goes.

WARNING: EARTHLINK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR WALLET.

Upgrade …

2004-07-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

Took the plunge last night and upgraded this site to Moveable Type 3.01D. The process was simple. However, I did have to upload some files several times to get everything to work. It was worth the effort. The new features are great.

I have been getting a lot of span under version 2.6; so have instituted the system registration process. To comment, one now needs to register. Have also added all the spammers to the block list. Hope this cuts down on the spam. Don’t know why anyone would span a blog. They offer nothing but annoyance.

Completed a fun piece of code at work yesterday. It provides offices across the country with the ability to search for suppliers within a specified mile radius. The resultant list leads to product/contract/pricing details. Using these suppliers saves big bucks for the company. The code uses Zip code latitude and longitude to calculate mileage. The project is written is ASP.NET C#. Have been seriously considering moving www.my-list.com to this architecture. Currently my-list it all in perl-cgi. The biggest hurdle is that I also host this blog on my-list. Does MT support the windows platform???

Mob boss ...

2004-07-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Found a great site, mamamusings.net while looking for advise on installing TOMCAT on OS X 10.3. Besides great advise, there was a link to “20 Questions to a Bette Personality.” This peaked my interest. So after answering the 20 questions, to my surprise … I’m a mob boss type.

Here is the actual report….

"Wackiness: 0/100
Rationality: 56/100
Constructiveness: 40/100
Leadership: 64/100

You are an SRDL--Sober Rational Destructive Leader. This makes you a mob boss. You are the ultimate alpha person and even your friends give you your space. You can't stand whiners, weaklings, schlemiels or schlemozzles. You don't make many jokes, but when you do, others laugh out loud. They must.

People often turn to you for advice, and wisely. You are calm in a crisis, cautious in a tempest, and attuned to even the finest details. Yours is the profile of a smart head for business and a dangerous enemy.

You have a natural knack for fashion and occupy a suit like a matinee idol. Your charisma is striking and without artifice. You are generous, thoughtful, and appreciate life's finer things.

Please don't kick my …. "

Could it be true?

Earthlink is a black hole …

2004-06-30T19:49:00.000-07:00

Have used earthlink.net for several years. In all that time I never experienced a problem. Last year I traveled to Florida to visit Mom. For this trip I signed up with earthlink for a dialup connection. It worked great. When I returned home I called earthlink and cancelled the service. Last month I noticed a charge on my credit card for earthlink. I called and discovered that they had been charging me for service, which I cancelled last August. The service rep seemed very helpful. Gave me a issue number in case of further problem and advised that my card would be credit for all of the charges since last August. This month I noticed there was another charge from earthlink. I called again and was advised that the refund had not been process. They gave me a second issue number and advised that my card would be credited for the new charge and the previous promised refund would be processed for approval. To prevent further charges they stated that I had to talk with some one else to cancel the account. The transfer resulted in a connection to a closed office. What a great way to spend an evening, talking with an offshore service rep that does not have a clue… I now need to call earthlink again and try to resolve this issue. Will also call my credit card company and file a fraud charge against earthlink. What I have discovered is that earthlink is a black hole. Once you get in you can’t get out. My best advice is NEVER EVER USE EARTHLINK.

Disney Montage ...

2004-06-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Vacation Ends ...

2004-06-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go? Seems like we blinked and our vacation is over. We spent our remaining days visiting with Mom, playing cards(I won twice...), walking, and just generally relaxing. Managed to get some quality Cocoa coding done. Did achieve my goal of writing code to access a web service from Cocoa. Now need to refine this process to duplicate the functionality of www.my-list.com.

Returned to work Thursday, June 10, 2004. Not much happened in my absence. No big problems with any of my customers. Towards the end of the day I started feeling pretty rough. When I got home Sandy took my temperature and it was 103.5 F. Nothing hurts, and I feel fine except for being cold. Guess I will have to take a sick day tomorrow and visit our Doctor. I hate going to the Doctors…

Vacation, Day 5...

2004-06-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Spent another quite day at Mom’s. Once again I did some Cocoa programming while Sandy and Jayson slept in. Mom had a great Breakfast, and the three of them played some cards…Our big event today was going to see Shrek 2. Great movie. Jayson and I thought it was just as good as the first. Afterwards we went out to find a hot spot. Have had no Internet connection since leaving home. Had a local address for a spot that I found on the Internet. However, when we got to the place we found that it was a home in a gated community…NO HOTSPOT. Using KisMAC we then did some WAR driving. I have only done this once before, but was again surprised on the number wireless connections even in the small town of Winter Haven FL. Ended up in a parking lot just outside of a medical building with a very fast internet connection. Posted a blog, and retrieved email. No issues from work. Will be nice when we can all connect with wireless from everywhere. Then it was back to Mom’s for dinner, and some card playing. Sandy won again….

Vacation, Day 4...

2004-06-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

Spent the day at Mom’s. Jayson and Sandy slept in late. I spent the morning doing some Cocoa programming. Love the language and platform. It would be nice to have a job using this platform. Jayson, Mom, and Sandy played cards. Old Maid, and Go Fish.
When Jayson was three, he wanted to play cards with the adults. I told him he had to be five years old before he could play cards. He never forgot, and now that he is five he reminds me that he is now old enough to play. Actually he is a good card player. Caught on to the rules fast and won a good share of the games. The Ladies were surprised that a five year old was beating them. Mom fixed a great dinner…watched some TV, played some cards, which Sandy won again…then bed. Tough day!

Vacation, Day 3...

2004-06-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

It’s off to Epcot today. We arrived at 9:15 AM and parked in the last section of the first parking lot, just a short walk from the entrance. The weather was beautiful. The humidity was much lower today. The forecast is for rain in the afternoon. Our first stop was at “Mission to Mars”. It is a simulated trip to Mars that begins with a blastoff in a rocket from earth, a slingshot maneuver around the moon and finally a tricky landing on Mars. It is my favorite ride. Jayson loved it. He was the captain and was required to perform several activities throughout the flight. Jayson performed each flawlessly. Thus we had a very successful mission. From there Jayson played a video game, crawled through some jungle style mazes, and composed a picture of himself as a monkey and emailed it to his Mom & Dad.

Our next stop was Test Track where we stood in line for 35 minutes with out moving. Jayson convinced us to get a fast track ticket and move on to Innovation. There we rode the ride and saw the presentation of Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Jayson and Sandy were scared by the three-d snake and mice which ran through the audience. You could feel their tales as they passed. Next we visited the Land and rode the Living Land, On this ride we saw baby alligators, hydroponics gardens and a fish farm, From there we detoured through the Cold Spot, an igloo like building, sponsored by Coke. Here we enjoyed various drinks from around the world. Jayson enjoyed trying each drinks. We visited this place three times during the day. Next we used our fast-track ticket at Test Track. This is a ride in a mock NASCAR vehicle on a test track that simulates the g-forces a driver encounters. Great ride. Jayson was thrilled.

We pretty much did everything at Epcot…even watched the fireworks at the end of the day. Jayson was so tired that he took a short nap in Germany. However he did wake to see all the fireworks.

The Magic Kingdom ...

2004-06-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

Vacation, Day 2 ...

2004-06-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Time does fly when you are having fun. Our flight to Tampa was very pleasant. The plain left on time and we arrived about 15 min early. From Tampa we drove about 80 mi. to Mom’s house. Stopped and picked up a bouquet of roses for her. Arrived at Mom’s about 6 pm. Spent some time catching each other up with the latest family news…then got to bed about 11 pm Florida time or 8 pm our time.

Tuesday was a big day. It was Jayson’s first trip to Disney We got up early and arrived at Epcot at 9 am. After two monorail trips we arrived at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. We purchased parkhopper tickets with the intention of returning to Epcot for the evening fireworks. But Jayson never made it past 6 pm when we took a break; he just fell a sleep on his Grandma’s lap. He jut could not wake up after that. He did have an exciting day. We road Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, The Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, and Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. We watched Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration, the Galaxy Palace Theater and Country Bear Jamboree shows, and visited with Diana the littlest mermaid. Enjoyed Mickey Mouse ice creams, hotdogs, and french-fries. The weather her in Florida was 92 F and very humid. We were dripping wet all day… drank gallons of water and soda. All in all it was a wonderful trip. Jayson chose the Buzz Light Year space ranger pistol for his gift and a Goofy hat.

Today Jayson and Sandy slept late. I did some recreational Cocoa coding. Later we went Wall Mart and picked up a small TV with a built in DVD player. It will serve to entertain Jayson when we are not at Disney’s. We then visited the local mall so Sandy could get her shopping in. They have a full size carrousel in the food court. Jayson rode it several time the last of which was with Sandy. He managed to get her to sit in one of those seats that spin as the carousel rotates. Sandy got a little motion sickness. That night we played cards. Jayson, since he is now 5 years old, was able to play also. He lost interest and watched some TV before retiring early…. Tomorrow is another day at Disney.

Off to see Mickey ...

2004-05-31T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well it’s off to Disney World again. Seems like only a few weeks ago when we last made the trip. This time we are taking our grandson Jayson. It’s his first time. He is very excited. I remember our first trip. It’s been close to twenty years ago. On that first trip I remember how new, colorful and clean everything was. Disney has people handling down to a well-honed science. We waited in many a line, but each was organized such that you could not see its full length. Along the wait path interesting displays were strategically placed to distract your attention from the wait. Over the years we watched the theme parks change and grow from three to five … they have included so many resorts I have lost count. One day we will stay at one of these resorts. For now, we stay with Mom. She lives just a short 30 minutes away.

Will be taking my trusty powerbook. Hope to spend some quality time writing Cocoa code. This will be a nice change from my every day work in C#. Don’t get me wrong I love C#…its just that the Mac is my favorest, and bestes machine. Have a goal in mind to write an application in Cocoa that will access the www.my-list.com database using web services. Really am disappointed that Apple has not included in Cocoa the ability to connect to mySQL. That is one of the nice things about the Microsoft platform, the ability to easily connect to a database. Have looked at some of the ODBC stuff for Mac to mySQL. However, found installation confusing, difficult and POORLY documented. I could get none to work. Even tried the Java stuff with the same result. Now perl and php connect easily to mySQL. So with perl SOAP should be able to create a web service to do the connection, data retrieval, insert and updates an make it all work.

Plan blog my progress…thats if I can get to a local hot spot.

Microsoft CMS Installation Instructions ...

2004-05-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Here it is ... fresh from Microsoft Training...

Steps to Install MS-Content Management Server
Prepared by Murali Kothapalli Date : 5/27/04

Assumptions
You are installing it on
Window 2003 Server with IIS 6.0 installed (in a Lockdown mode)
Or Window 2000 Server with IIS 5.0 installed
– we shall refer it as WEB_SVR and there is an external SQL DB Server available to be used. – we shall refer it as SQLDB_SVR

Prerequisites
Has a Window domain account eg(CMSadmin with password as P@ssword) with Admin permissions on the WEB_SVR

Steps
1. Install SQL server Client Tools – from the SQL server CD
   a. Choose Install Database option and finally choose Client tools only

2. SQL Server SP3 (Servicepack 3)
   a. Run the setup.bat

3. Install Visual Studio.NET 2003(or 2002) (optional – if you want develop on this PC – you may need it initially)

4. Adjust IIS Permissions (2003 only)
   a. Choose Web Service Extensions
   b. Allow Server Side Includes

5. Create Database for CMS
   a. Connect to SQLDB_SVR and create a new empty database say name it as CMSDB

6. Install IE Webcontrols
   a. Run setup for IE Webcontrols - from the CMS2002 install CD/ms web

7. Install CMS – base version
   a. Run setup.exe and choose all defaults
   b. When prompte for DB point it to SQLDB_SVR\CMSDB

8. Apply SP1a (not SP1) for CMS
   a. Run the setup for Service Pack 1a for CMS2002

9. Run Setup again from Installed folder
   a. Look under C:\program files\Microsoft content Management Server\Setup.exe
   a. Run this setup.exe
   b. Choose all the relevant components
   c. download and install the Sample sites
   d. download and install Office Authoring Connector

10. Remove SSL for Admin site (2003 only)
   a. Launch IIS Admin tool
   b. Look under Admin Web properties
   c. Open Directory Security Tab
   d. Edit Security (last button)
   e. Uncheck SSL enable (remove SSL security)

11. Verify Installation
   a. Launch http://localhost/woodgrovenet
   b. Login as administrator

12. Allow Woodgrovenet to Guests
   a. Launch Site Manager
   b. Launch User Roles
   c. Subsribers add new group ‘Guests’
   d. Add Doman Guests as members
   e. Add Required channels to be viewable under rights tab
   f. Launch SCA – Site Configuration Application
       i. Security tab
       ii. Allow Guest – Yes
       iii. Change context as IUSR_{WEB_SVR} account