I know I have been slow to post tech talk on this blog lately. The ironic thing is that I have been doing more .NET work over the last couple of months than I have done over the last year. I even completed my MCSD for .NET last week. Although I took all the .NET exams last year I needed to pass my one elective, which for me was the SQL Server exam. I previously took the 4.2 and 7.0 SQL Server exams and I was worried about the 2000. But it turned out to be the easiest of the three, the most developer focused, and I was able to pass by not studying, playing Xbox, and drinking beer the next better. Go figure.
Hopefully I will get back into posting on this blog soon. My customer work is very exciting and gives me lots to talk about. For example, we have extended WSDL to support our own binding, written tools for generating a proxy class to our own services, and are building out a framework by which developers do not need to write code for middle-tier component that most retrieve information from various backend resources. Exciting stuff.
Melanie and I with friends enjoyed our fire escape view of this year’s NYC Gay Pride March. It was one of the best parades we even seen. Lots of excitement, good music from float to float, but best of all, our first row seats on the fire escape. It was the best way to see a parade.
Pictures in the gallery.
Jake Burton Chases Winter Across Six Continents: “Burlington, VT - Most of us can only dream of setting off on a world tour. This year, Jake Burton and his family will be living the dream, embarking on a 10-month trip to snowboard all over the globe, covering six continents and following winter the whole way.”
Those using thecave.com RSS feed will notice that I am using Blogger’s new full feed feature. Unfortunately it is setting the resource link incorrectly for my site. Guess I might need to generate the RSS file myself to have complete control. Until I do, the link will be invalid. Sorry Charlie.
New photos are in the gallery. Photos include a cookout at Chris and Sarah’s, Adina and Justin’s wedding, and our recent Garden City, SC trip. Enjoy.
After many months of no Xbox, I finally replaced mine this week with a brand new one. Now I can start playing video games while I am sitting in the hotel. But there’s one problem. Most hotels do not allow you to connect game consoles to the room TV.
To get around this problem, I decided to try a couple of different mobile monitors. The first was the Xbox Mobile Monitor from Intec. This gives you a 5.6 inch LCD TFT screen. The entire device snaps to the top of the game console and includes built-in speakers. The problem I have with the Mobile Monitor is that the screen is too small to see while sitting back in a chair. Also, the graphic quality is awful. And finally, the overall size is too big for such a small screen. I’m not able to keep my console stored in my carrying case with the Mobile Monitor installed. The only pro was that I can use any controller for game play.
The other device I tried was the Hip Screen Pad from Hip Gear. The monitor is much smaller, only 2.6 inch TFT screen, but the quality is excellent. It’s like looking at a very small TV. Also, since the monitor is attached to the game controller, I am able to sit back in a chair, get comfortable, and play for hours. My only compliant is with the controller’s play action. It is not as responsive as the S-controller. The X button is slow to respond as is the left directional arrow on the cross hair pad.
So after spending a night with each monitor I decided to stick with the Hip Screen Pad. The overall size is much smaller, making it easier to carry when travelling. And it’s $80 cheaper with better screen quality. I don’t recommend Intec’s Mobile Monitor purely based on the crappy screen resolution.
I have started playing with the latest build of the Mozilla Firebird browser and I must say “Daddy likes.” It has some very cool features including tabbed browsers, which I am starting to really like as it keeps my desktop clean. My only compliant so for is using it with the latest Outlook Web Access, which I use to access office e-mail from the customer site. Mozilla repeatedly prompts for my user name and password over and over for each resource being download. Aside from OWA, I have not found any problems and I am considering making it my default browser.
Next week, the “cousins” from my family are getting together in Garden City, SC for a fun on the beach vacation. Historically I have not been a fan of beach time vacations but I am actually looking forward to this one. Not only will I be trying surfing for the first time, but I get to hang with the couzs and they get to meet Melanie.
Beach vacations are something fairly new to me in my adult life with the first one being last year with Melanie. So I am by no means an expert on what one needs for the beach but a flurry of e-mails have been going around between the couzs about the need of an iron and ironing board. Admittedly this has me baffled. Why would one need an iron and ironing board for this type of vacation?
Ironically, I will be the first to admit I bring an iron with me on most of my snowboard trips, but for a very good reason. I use the iron to wax my snowboard. Wax is the secret to a sweet ride. But I doubt we need an iron to wax a surf board. And even if we did, why would we need an ironing board.
I did a few searches on google.com in hopes to understand this ironic puzzle. Searches for things like “101 uses for an ironing board” and “Why would you bring an ironing board on a beach vacation” resulted in nothing. It is probably the only topic that does not yet exists on the Internet. The irony here is that now the topic does exists on the Internet and others in search of the reasons behind the need of an iron and ironing board for a beach vacation will find this posting but still have no clear answers.
Now, I do agree that if you are going on a fancy beach vacation where you plan to dine at finer restaurants, you might have a need for an iron and ironing board. But our vacation is all about the beach, grilling out, miniature golf, and beer. And of course there will be some personal interest as well, like my attempt at surfing. But who would want to take the iron board to the beach and iron clothes?
Hopefully the answers will become clear to me next week as I am drinking my beer, listening to the surf, and watching someone pressing their swim trucks.
I learned a new skateboarding trick tonight. I discovered if you attempt to roll over a little piece of metal tubing small enough that you don’t even see it while riding, and you are going down a slight hill at a nice cruising speed, you can lock your back wheel, drag the piece of metal for 10 inches or so, and do a hand first slide on the asphalt as if your were sliding hands first into third base. Can you say “Ouch?” I did. I really gotta start wearing pads. And yes, I got back on the board and rode for a bit more.
STLtoday - business Seattle company buys tech-wreck survivor G.A. Sullivan