June 2004 Entries
If you are starting a .NET project in today's world of impending Longhorn/Whidbey domination you are probably asking yourself: "Should I use ASMX, .NET Remoting, COM+, MSMQ, Enterprise Services?" or "Isn't Remoting dead?"I know I did all kinds of reading going back to the PDC in October, but I could have just watched this and been done. Richard Turner, program manager on the Indigo team, gives developers advice about what to do today to get ready for tomorrow. Hint, it's spelled ASMX.What if you've already invested in remoting? Richard talks about what to do.Watch the Video[via Channel 9]
On my XP Build List I have two items: MaxiVista and UltraMon.I've been using multiple monitors since my days at BondNet in 1995. There are lots of documented productivity improvements with multi monitors and I say with certainty that once you go multi-head you won't go back. I am able to keep my Outlook tasks and calendar open all day long on the second screen. I keep MSN Messenger and Winamp open there too. This way I don't have to stop what I'm doing to look over at my calendar and interrupt, click, click to get back to what I'm...
New .Text skin today. I somehow borked blockquote in CSS and couldn't fix it so I figured I take the opportunity to add a little slickness. I found this here. Credit for HabaHaba 0.95 belongs 100% to: Author: Christian NordbakkDate Created: 5/22/2004 1:40:08 PMAuthor's Website: http://anothereon.net/weblog/ Christian Nordbakk's HabaHaba 0.95 skin based on his original AnotherEon001 skin that is now packaged with .Text. You can see it in use at his blog (link above).
Your humble blogger is just a bit humbler -- I did not pass the Who Wants to be a Millionaire quiz.
There were about 100 people in line when they let us in, many daytime tv watchers in town on vacation, a few postal working jeopardy wanna-be types, and miscellaneous others. They lead us all into a cafeteria type room, hand out the scantron, #2 pencil and individually numbered envelope with 30 questions inside. Ten minute time limit. I made it through the first half with a really good feeling that I nailed almost all of them. The second half was...
Downloading the pictures from Beach Party 2004 using the normally stellar XP Picture transfer wizard thing I pointed the files to be saved into a folder that doesn't exist anymore (partially my fault, partially MS's) with the "delete pictures after copying them" checked on. So you know what comes next, the pictures vanished. Fortunately I have experience with undelete and the memory cards on cameras. Basically its pretty easy to do. I purchased Undelete from Executive Software makers of Diskeeper - which I swear by. Downloaded the installer and chose the "emergency recovery" option when the installer runs - you don't...
My evite to "Beach Party 2004" said Milford, CT, Saturday 1pm-5pm. I show up, burgers and dogs come out, get grilled and eaten, drink some beers etc. When the host made a comment like "we are going to have a keg later" at around 3pm I figured either, the party (of around 20 people) would have to drink an entire keg in one hour or the party was not ending at 5pm. Actually we ended up having a fantastic time through sunset, dinner, dance party, nightswimming, late night calzones, sleep-over, breakfast, and more lounging by the pool in the sunshine. Many thanks...
Via Consumer Whore My favorite mix is Grape Nuts and Pop Rocks, I call it Jon Bon Denver. Cereality is a breakfast cereal bar and cafe; they serve 33 cereals and 34 toppings, the employees wear pajamas, but the best part is these Chinese takeout-style cereal bowls. Currently they’re only in Tempe, but they want to come to your town. And yes, they have soy milk.Comments: How are they going to address the low-carb crowd? Do they need to?
Plaxo is a friend of a friend type contact management system. Essentially everybody that downloads plaxo and signs in (it's free) becomes connected and gets automatic updates anytime anyone updates their contact info. Plaxo 1.0 has always had the side benefit of syncing contact lists between systems. This was all working great for me and everyone should join plaxo just for the contact management, but Plaxo 2.0 has filled the final piece of one of my techno-puzzles. I've got Outlook at work, Outlook at home and a Motorola MP200 MS Smartphone. Using Exchange 2003 I can synchronize my phone to the...
I bought Paradox of Choice (mentioned previously here) and it has been illuminating on several fronts.
... as choices proliferate, people have a harder and harder time making decisions. And they end up less satisfied with the decisions they make. They are filled with regret over those that turned out well but might have been better; they develop unrealistically high expectations; and when decisions disappoint, as they almost always do because of these expectations, they blame themselves. The result is stress, unhappiness, and in extreme cases, clinical depression.
One of them is what I suspect to be a under-discussed secret...
I haven't been watching South Park as religiously as I did through the first five seasons or so, but based on Vinod's recommendation I tivo'd the A.W.E.S.O.M-0 4000 episode. Nice to see Matt and Trey still got it.
For those fans of Dr. Katz out there, you'll definitely want to catch Home Movies on Cartoon Network Adult Swim. I especially like Jon Benjamin as Coach McGuirk who also played Ben on Dr. Katz. Link to adult swim siteIMDB linkAnd this all ties together with my frequent (1, 2) Tinkle references as Jon Benjamin is a co-host of those events.
Does this happen to anyone else? "I will workout/run six times this week" : Actual result = twice"As long as I get two workouts in this week I'll be good" : Actual result = zero"I will complete eight items on my todo list" : Actual result = two"I should do two things on my list" : Actual result = maybe oneSeems there's a pattern here. What's the better strategy - Revise faux goals upwards to get more results or go with the "do what you say at all costs" revise down plan?
On a whim, I applied to be a contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. This is to confirm that you are scheduled to audition for Who Wants tobe a Millionaire on Tuesday, June 29th at 5:00 PM. Please arriveat 4:30 PM outside of 30 West 67th street between Central Park West andColumbus Ave.The email comes with a questionnaire I'm supposed to fill out beforehand. Please answer the following questions:1. What would Meredith Vieira find most interesting about you?2. What is the first thing you would do with one million dollars?3. Complete this sentence – You’d never believe it...
Coworker Ian now blogging! Check it out. http://erithtotl.com/Blogs By sub-blog-section: Sports Politics Gaming Culture Tech & .Net D&D Me Or just subscribe to the main RSS feed and get everything like I did.
I'd heard about this before, but finally had a need for it. Behold Winbolic. From the docs: Windows has the ability to create folder links, which allows you to create "alias" folders whose contents are really from another folder. Links essentially allow access of one copy of data from several locations on your computer. For those familiar with Unix symbolic (symlink) and hard links, Windows has a somewhat equivalent link type for each. Unfortunately, Windows does not include any tool to create these types of links; that’s what Winbolic Link was created to be. Links may be created to allow...
Cheap art idea.
The Rasterbator lets you take any image or photo, rasterize it up to a 5 meter long/wide poster size.
Raise your hand if you used to make banners in PrintShop as a kid. Can you believe they still make PrintShop -- version 20! Bonus fact: It is actually one of the first, few .NET based shrink wrapped software packages.
[via Chris Pirillo]
.
TINKLE FOR KERRY!! A night of comedy to benefit the presidential campaign of John Kerry. Friday, July 9th 8pmSouthpaw125 Fifth AvePark Slope, Brooklyn Hosted by:DAVID CROSS, TODD BARRY and JON BENJAMINother guests TBA check our website (tinkle.info) for updated show information Tickets: 25$(go to concertsforkerry.org to purchase tickets)Comments: I've been to these Tinkle events before and they are always very funny. This one promises to be special and will probably feature some very well known comics. Plus it's for a good cause. Vote Kerry.
Directly from MetaFilter:South Park does the "Aristocrats" joke. (WARNING! Windows Media file, very very not safe for work.) "The Aristocrats" is a long-lived comedians' in-joke--or, rather, an extraordinarily filthy joke that's not really a joke. (Gilbert Gottfried knocked 'em dead with it shortly after 9/11.) Now it's going public (sort of): Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza are making a movie featuring over 100 comedians telling their own versions. The South Park version linked above is "not even in the top 5 for dirtiest." Yikes! Comments: The first link video is safe for work, its just the south park gang, the...
Here's how to play a fantastic team quarters game Setup:Buy a large quantity of domestic beerGet a large table, clear out all the chairsPick two teams of around four people each on opposite sides of the table(tournament style play is ok for more than two teams, but single-elimination is recommended)Place eight cups in line parallel to the teams in the middle of the table. Fill the cups with approx 1/3 of a beer canPut a large pitcher in the middle of the line of cupsFill the pitcher with approx 1.5 cans of beerProcure two clean quarters (pre-fancy state quarters bounce...
The New York Times has an article about modern F1 technology. It just skims the surface of the massive amount of technology that goes into the sport.also noted on slashdot[via my brother Kevin]
Joel Spolsky, noted software development guru has finally gone off the deep end. His latest rant is a classic example of a certain syndrome we've encountered many times in computing history. Certain people have this thing happen to them where they become so comfortable with a specific technology, so in tune with the ins and outs, best practices, invented cool workarounds, that they hit some brick wall when it comes to accepting that they have to move on. Joel is finding himself in this situation now. He's very proud of his many years of VB, COM, ASP experience and probably finally...
Over the weekend I attended the Formula One Grand Prix of Canada in Montreal. I went with Hollie's brother and his friends who have been going annually for ten years. Ten years of experience resulted in a well-honed fun machine of a weekend. Virtually no decisions to be made and lots of "stay to right through the turnstyles" and "this bartender pours the best drinks" etc.
Like many venues, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve gives out the good seats to loyal fans and our seats were fantastic. This picture is on the cool down lap after the race. (I could only...
(hmm, this one reminds me of someone)I don't remember how I found these originally, but this guy makes cartoons on the backs of business cards. His site is GapingVoid.comI get the cartoons through Ben Hammersley
This is what happens when people repeatedly tell you how great you are... (you start to believe them).
Last night Hollie and I went to see Matthew Dear perform at Joe's Pub. Going in I had been a huge fan of his work. Get a sample of his tune called Dog Days here. The guy has a gift for creating intricate, beautiful techno/minimal songs.
So what does he do? Comes out and sings. One song even featured him with one of those Richey Sambora, circa 1987 plastic backed guitars. Quote "I'm not even making that much electronic music anymore". Granted...
Newsworthy stuff from ZAGAT's newsletter.
BED: The trendy South Beach restaurant and lounge where patrons eat their meals on beds is readying a Chelsea offshoot located above the club Spirit, in a sixth-floor space that leads to a roof terrace (530 W. 27th St.).
New York Burger: This modern-looking Park Avenue South fast-food shop will feature high-quality ingredients, including burgers made of Coleman all-natural beef, homemade dipping sauces, freshly cut fries and real fruit smoothies (330 Park Avenue South / 24th street).
Starwich: The first of four branches to open by the end of the year, this hi-tech sandwich shop...
Creed breaks up! This means we have avoided the apocalypse for now.
When receiving an unsolicited call I have found the absolute best response it to quickly, politely cut the person off and say "I'm sorry, this is a mobile phone, please remove it from your list." (yes, even if it is a land-line)
They are surprisingly courteous and willing to get off the phone quickly in this situation. I believe there is some kind of rule about calling mobile phones since the customer is paying for inbound calls.
I learned this after I had forwarded my home phone to my mobile and was receiving telemarketing calls on it.
(sorry about the following extraneous...
Memorial Day Monday stop #1 was Fairway Cafe, which is the informal cafe situated atop the Fairway market. When you live in Manhattan on a budget "grilling" means George Foreman style and that's just not going to cut it on a national holiday (one of them anyway) built around grilling meat. Fortunately Fairway Cafe has one of the all-time greatest hamburgers anywhere. I am fond of the Monterey Jack w/ avocado and sprouts + a little mild horseradish sauce. The strange part about Fairway Cafe burgers is that they don't seem to want you to order them. They don't give you a separate burger...
I am in no way disparaging Hollie's or Suekhee's water-gun shooting skills but....
Perhaps the shoot the water into the clown's mouth game is more than a combination of water balloon structural integrity combined with water stream intensity/integrity. Next time I'm going to shoot my gun into my neighbor's clown's mouth and avoid mine entirely just to see what happens.
Like I said about a million times after this theory o' mine first surfaced - its only a theory and I'm quite happy to let it die when I'm proven wrong. Plus look how happy these girls are.
Everyone...
Well this isn't quite bulletproof, but it is good sleuthing.
via Boing Boing, Alex Boese of the Museum of Hoaxes may have solved the Rance mystery.
I think Rance is a cartoonist/filmmaker/screenwriter named Keith Thomson. Here's my reasoning. What immediately struck me about Rance's weblog was that it attracted a very high number of comments from very early on. Within two hours after Rance posted his first entry on December 29, 2003, four people had left comments on his site. Most weblogs, by contrast, struggle to get anyone to read them, let alone leave comments. So how was he attracting...