Monday, March 31, 2003 It's been a year since I changed thecave.com to a weblog, and it's been interesting to watch how it has evolved from what I thought would be more technical related posting to more personal postings. I guess it's a direct reflection of what is going on in my life. My job has been anything but technical over the last six months or so, which may explain the lack of tech postings. On the other hand, the personal postings have been well received by my friends and family who check the site on a regular basis.
When I first setup this weblog last year, it was basically static HTML with some ASP. Today, it's a full blown ASP.NET application using C# with an XML backend. It also exposes Web services such as the one for the daily snow dumps. The site has given me the opportunity to not only keep in touch with friends and family, but it has given me the opportunity to do something I rarely do at work. And that is to write code; something I really enjoy doing.
I'm curious to see what will happen over the next 12 months and how I will evolve the software for the site. For example, I have two other sites, melanieandkirby.com and wastedboarding.com, which are based on the same software. This work is giving me ideas for creating a framework for certain types of web applications. Who knows. Maybe it's time to port geeklogs.com to ASP.NET.
Thank you to all who have visited this site over the last years. And special thanks to those continue to return on a regular basis. Your encouragement gives me motivation to do more. posted by Kirby | March 31 04:57 PM | comments (3)
melanieandkirby.com is online and DNS replication should be done through most if not all of the U.S.. Enjoy. posted by Kirby | March 31 08:37 AM | comments (0)
I should have watched that weather yesterday. There were snow flurries in New York but I didn't think about further north. Killington got 4 inches, Stratton 3 to 4 inches, and Stowe got 6 to 8 inches. Today would have been a good day to call in sick. posted by Kirby | March 31 07:16 AM | comments (0)
Thursday, March 27, 2003 I'm in the process of setting up a new wedsite for all the latest news about our wedding. We will start publishing wedding details in a few weeks. Meanwhile, you can see photos of Melanie's ring and pictures from our engagement night in Nice in thecave's gallery. posted by Kirby | March 27 06:17 PM | comments (0)
I just returned from Nice with Melanie, and we have big news! We're engaged!!! I asked her to marry me and she said yes. Well, actually she said "Of course." But I didn't hear it so she had to yes again. More details to come very soon.
Meanwhile, check out the new photos in the gallery including St. Patty's Day fun, Nice, and Saint Paul de Vence. posted by Kirby | March 27 03:16 PM | comments (2)
Monday, March 24, 2003 Melanie and I just returned from a great weekend in Killington. The snow was perfect, soft and fun. Spring time conditions. I had some of my best runs of the season over the weekend.
We're back in NYC for only a short time. Melanie flies out to Nice today and I have decided to join her. I need to see how she works on these international flights. I can't wait to start pushing the call button just to get her attention. We're back in NYC on Thursday. posted by Kirby | March 24 08:03 AM | comments (2)
Monday, March 17, 2003 The possible answer to my Xbox problems. I found a How-To that explains step by step how to adjust the laser with a Thompson DVD drive, which is the drive I have in my XBox. Interesting note, there are three different DVD drives that can come with an Xbox, Phillips, Thompson, and Samsung. From what I have read, Thompson is the worse drive to have and the Samsung drive is the best. If tweaking the laser does not work then I will look at replacing the DVD drive itself. posted by Kirby | March 17 10:17 AM | comments (0)
Friday, March 14, 2003 After 5 days in 5 cities, I am finally flying home. The week has been fun albeit tiring with days running 14 to 16 hours. Admittedly, even with the long days this was one of those weeks that left me thinking "I like my job." Granted, I would not want to do this every week.
Speaking at the councils definitely improved my public speaking skills and gave me increased confidence along with an ego boost. If giving the opportunity, I would definitely do it again.
There were many highlights from the week. One of which was Vito's Chop House in Orlando. The steaks were amazing and mine was perfectly cooked to my preference, which is hard given that I prefer blue or black blue as they call it at Vito's. The Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando was also a highlight and is a very cool hotel. Sadly we did not get to stay the night though. Guess Melanie and I will have to make a weekend trip to Orlando soon. I know where we will be eating and staying. And the Renaissance Hotel in Boca was great and offered excellent wireless access to the Internet for free. However, I do not recommend the restaurant Porter's, which is attached to the hotel.
My favorite comment from the week happened when Tom asked the group "What is a 'dirty read'?" I whispered Hustler and Sluts with Big Thingies. When asked "And what is bad about dirty reads?" Ian whispered "Sticky pages." LOL. Oh too funny. Guess you have to be a geek to get it. posted by Kirby | March 14 09:10 PM | comments (0)
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
I've said it before and I will say it again, I enjoy working with the folks from Microsoft. I am one of three speakers at the Microsoft Architect Council in the Gulf States. My talk is on Interop with Web Services, and I'm having a good time interacting with the audience.
For me, the week started at 4 am on Monday. I flew down to Birmingham, AL, to meet up with the rest of the group, Ian, Tom, and Dan. BTW, Ian is a pretty cool guy and his book "Designing Enterprise Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET" a must read for those developing enterprise applications using .NET. So the first Council was in Birmingham, which went well. The group was interactive with the speakers and everyone seemed to get a lot out of the talks.
Day two was another "start at 4 am" day. Bags packed, we flew to Jacksonville, FL. Yep, my return to good ol' Jacksonhell. When I started the tour, I left NYC where temperatures where around 20 degrees. Jacksonville felt like the start of summer with the temp at 81 degrees. Strangely I missed the chilly -10 of Killington. Anyway, the council was attended by a much smaller group, around 6 people, but the sessions were good. The group seemed to have similar concerns and the interactions between the group and speakers led to some very interesting conversations.
We got to sleep in on day three, waking up at 6 am. Trust me, that two hours makes a difference. We headed further south to Boca Raton, FL, where it definitely feels like summer time. Of course, all I can think about is the wintery mix weather in Vermont and the start of the US Open in Stratton, which started yesterday. We had a large group joining us for the council and the talks were right on. After three days, I feel I got the story down and I feel comfortable sharing it with others.
The team actually gets to sleep in tomorrow, waking up at 6 am again. We head to Tampa where I had hoped to see Darren and Jeff. But that's not going to happen because we have to head to Orlando once we are done in Tampa.
Most of our nights end around 10 pm, but I'm guessing tomorrow will end around midnight. But hey, what's 18 hours between friends.
So Orlando will be my last day before returning to New York. I'm really enjoying this tour and the Microsoft guys are great. But I also have to add that I miss Melanie, who is doing her own thing in Paris this week.
posted by Kirby | March 12 10:05 PM | comments (0)
Sunday, March 09, 2003 On the road again tomorrow visiting my two least favorite States, Alabama and Florida. The 5 day, 5 city tour begins in Birmingham, followed by Jacksonhell. I don't know why this city rubs me wrong. It just does. Wednesday I will be in Fort Lauderdale, Tampa on Thursday, Orlando on Friday, returning to the city Friday night. Should be a fun week. posted by Kirby | March 9 06:38 PM | comments (0)
Friday, March 07, 2003 Whew! What a day. I lost all my demo code for next week but I finally got it all re-created. Definitely some cool things happening in Java with regard to Web services. My favorite tool is Wsdl2Java. This generates a set of proxy classes for consuming a Web service and is a great time saver. Java2Wsdl on the other hand is a pain in the ass. I never got it working, but luckily Axis will auto-generate a WSDL for your service using a ?WSDL parameter on a HTTP GET request.
I finally have a demo environment setup that illustrates inteorp between .NET and Java 2 Platforms, and I have WS-Security working between Microsoft's WSE and IBM's WSTK. I must say that WSKT is poorly documented at the moment, which was a pain. Oh, and it seems that WSTK does not like the MustUnderstand attribute. Be sure to set that puppy to false if you are digitally signing a service request where the producer is using WSTK.
Overall, cool stuff. And I am glad I finally have a decent work environment for showing off the various technologies. posted by Kirby | March 7 06:07 PM | comments (0)
Okay, I'm depressed. Next week I am joining Microsoft for a 5 day/5 city tour to talk about interop with Web services. I have spent the last couple of days writing sample code for my demos and was nearing completion when I lost everything.
How did I lost it all? Simple. I re-ran the wstkconfig.bat from the IBM Web Services Toolkit to deploy the last Web service I planned to show. The other code was manually deployed but this time I decided to use the configuration tool just for fun. Little did I know it would delete the entire webapps/wstk directory, which contained the majority of my code that I manually deployed. All that work gone. Guess it's time to start over.
Be warned: If using the IBM Web Services Toolkit, keep your original source in a safe place on the hard drive. That is, keep it in a place not under the live webapps. posted by Kirby | March 7 11:02 AM | comments (0)
Webservile.com: SOAP Spec Authored During Beer Bust
Don Box revealed today that the so called Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) was the outcome of a drinking session that got out of control. SOAP is now supported by vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Sun and is seen as one of the technological lynch pin of the Web Services industry. More...posted by Kirby | March 7 09:16 AM | comments (0)
Thursday, March 06, 2003 Pictures from Killington Spring Break are finally online in the Gallery. Enjoy. posted by Kirby | March 6 07:11 AM | comments (0)
Wednesday, March 05, 2003 Day 4 on Killington was very nice. The snow had soften up a bit. Runs of the day: Rim in the morning and the Chute in the afternoon. Also Great Bear was a blast and was the only trail I know of that still have evidence on Sunday's snow storm. It's un-groomed and has soft powder bumps.
Melanie and I leave Killington today. She flies out to Brussels tonight and I have to finish work on my demos for next week's 5 day/5 city tour with Microsoft. I had planned to hit the slopes this morning for a few quick runs before leaving because the weather forecast was calling for a wintery mix, but it's looks like that will not happen. And if I am going out for only an hour then I want to see new snow or at least a change in the conditions. Oh well. We will be back very soon. posted by Kirby | March 5 07:01 AM | comments (0)
Tuesday, March 04, 2003 Melanie and I joined the rest of the Davis family for fun in the snow at Killington, VT, for an extended weekend. Saturday was spent at Pico and was the return to the slopes for Brenna. She was taking it easy on her first day out, but by the next day she was skiing down Outer Limits.
Day two was a wet day for most at Killington. But the good news was the new snow. Officially 3 inches fell, which was okay by me giving that I have not seen new snow on the slopes in over 16 snowboard days. Also, the conditions were perfect for me to try out trails I have not yet ridden at Killington including Outer Limits, Vertigo, and Ovation.
Day three was the return for very chilly temperatures to Vermont. The thermometer on the deck was showing -10 degrees. That's Fahrenheit not Celsius. The very cold temperatures combined with the nightly grooming of the trails made for less-than-ideal conditions [in my opinion] on Killington, but Melanie and I braved it out for the afternoon. It's strange how one day the snow can be so soft and powdery and the very next hard packed with no signs of any new snow.
Look for pictures to be posted sometime Wednesday night. posted by Kirby | March 4 07:41 AM | comments (0)
Killington is offering an All East Spring Pass for only $199. This pass is for unlimited riding/skiing at various ASC resorts in the Northeast. And best of all, your meTicket balance can be used towards your purchase of the pass. Now that I have my pass, looks like Melanie and I will be spending much more time in Vermont over the next couple of months. posted by Kirby | March 4 07:41 AM | comments (0)
