Andrew's Boiling It Down - Friday, April 27, 2007

Friday, April 27, 2007

www.d385d594-7ee2-49f9-bdc4-35eee98f6e9f.com

I am guessing that like most other blogs, people come across my piece of cyber space through a search engine. Just validating this theory.

Also thinking that I will try to post more frequently now that I have a really unique name!

-Andy

Friday, April 27, 2007 1:07:46 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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Monday, February 05, 2007

Netgear SPH200D (Skype)

http://www.netgear.com/Products/CommunicationsVoIP/Skype/SPH200D.aspx

I bought a Netgear / Skype phone and just love it. The real test will be if Jennifer is willing to use it over the long term. She tried it a couple of times over the weekend and I am guessing that it will all work out. $15 for the Skype plan and $150 or so for the phone.

I looked at a few of the Linksys phones but it just seemed silly to me that I needed to be logged on to my computer and running Skype to use the phone. That requirement was only slightly better than just using my headset and microphone. The Linksys 802.11 phone was an option but I didn't want a cell phone sized phone. That would have certainly caused it to fail the Jennifer test.

I also like that the Netgear phone uses standard AAA NiMh batteries. The sounds quality seems good. No noticlable echo or delay, only a bit of background static.

-A

Monday, February 05, 2007 1:35:15 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

C# Tertiary Operator Confusion

int? i;
object o;

// this is ok:
if (i.HasValue)
o = i;
else
o = DBNull.Value;

// This fails to compile. Error 1 Type of conditional expression cannot be determined
// because there is no implicit conversion between 'int?' and 'System.DBNull'
o = i.HasValue ? i : DBNull.Value;

// these also fail for the same reason
o = i == null ? DBNull.Value : i;
o = i.HasValue ? i : "ABC";

// but these works:
o = i.HasValue ? (object)i : DBNull.Value;
o = i.HasValue ? (object)i : (object)DBNull.Value;
o = i.HasValue ? i : (object)DBNull.Value;

Thursday, January 25, 2007 11:01:10 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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Monday, January 22, 2007

LINQ

I am getting very excited about LINQ! I love diving into new technologies and feel that LINQ is going to be a big one for .NET and a big one for me.

For a while, I thought that AJAX would play a big role in my bag of tricks but I never made the leap. This doesn't mean that AJAX won't be used in my applications but I just don't see myself becoming a strong resource on AJAX.

As for LINQ, I exchanged a comment or two with Scott Guthrie and while I am reading a lot into it, it looks like Orcas will RTM this year and I am guessing that we will see some stable betas soon and go lives mid year. I am currently playing around with the Jan 07 CTP.

-A

Monday, January 22, 2007 8:57:54 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

Aaron Rolls Over

Aaron is getting a lot of mileage out of this one:

aaron

Thursday, January 11, 2007 3:49:55 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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Thursday, December 07, 2006

We have a giant on our hands!

Aaron had his first ear infection. Not a big deal but we were really glad that we took him in for a quick doctors visit last week. Initially, we were pretty sure he didn't feel well and Jennifer had been sick for a few days but we never suspected an ear infection. I love that Madrona has hours until 9:00 pm!

We got a weight on Aaron. We were guessing abouth 20 lbs but he officially hit the 18 lb mark at 16.5 weeks. The doctor thought he should make it to about 28-30 lbs at one year. Good thing we bought the "on the large size" (Britax Marathon) car seat. I think that Britax makes some rally nice stuff. Aaron has out grown his "zero to one year" convertable seat at 4 months. I traded the Subaru for a Highlander and am now thinking the Audi is on the chopping block. (Jennifer loves the Audi and doesn't really want to think about it. Reality will set in at some point.)

aaron

Thursday, December 07, 2006 11:01:57 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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Friday, December 01, 2006

Oracle XE First Impressions

I am downloading and installing Oracle XE for a quick proof of concept for a job that I am working on. I haven't used and Oracle product since working for a company that was contracted to do a port of Oracle v5 to the Wang VS. A short time later I did some work for my father's company and came up with a contact management system using Oracle v6 and Apples HyperCard. Fast forward 15 years and I have a job that requires some data transfer with an Oracle Database. Thought I would give their express edition a try. All I can say is that the registration and download process was one of the most confusing processes that I have gone through in a long time. Click on the "accept lisence" button, select a download link, hit the browser back button and you are in UI hell. "You must accept the license agreement" only it is already selected. This was only the begining. I can't wait to see what the install throws at me?

The world would be in an uproar if Microsoft put out junk like this.

Update (Dec 6): It only got worse. Good thing I installed XE on a virtual pc. It made it very easy to just delete the whole thing. Hope my bias isn't too strong, but I feel good about continuing with MS SQL. Oracle might be a good product but it has a significant learning curve and I simple don't see a compelling reason to invest the time to get up to speed on it right now.

Friday, December 01, 2006 3:23:05 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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Thursday, October 19, 2006

My New Job

I gave notice on Monday and October 27th will be my last day. Having spent almost two years working the same job, I felt more and more that it simply wasn't working for me and I didn't see my job or that feeling changing in the future. I wasn't improving my skill set and I had little opportunity to apply the ones that I had. I wasn't learning or growing in a field that demands both.

After all of the excitement of Aaron's arrival quieted down, I spent some time thinking about and looking at other options. I did a bit of interviewing. I turned down one offer, decided not to pursue another possible offer and didn't make the cut with a third company. None of the possibilities really excited me.

In the end, I have decided to take an entirely different direction: That of the contractor / consultant. I think that I am getting a good start by loosely partnering with Dewaard and Jones. I have known Bob for 3 years and have always enjoyed working with him. Bob wants to move into more of a sales, design and architecture role which has opened up a coding role for me. I think these two roles should complement eachother nicely. I will also be working with Rob Schripsema and Dick Dewaard.

In addition, I plan on putting time into a couple of web based business ideas of my own. Things that I have wanted to try for a while but I never was able to put the time into them. My new position should give me a little bit more scheduling flexibility and provide me an opportunity to balance these different priorities.

I know that there is more risk in this new venture but the near zero risk of my previous job was driving me crazy.

Thursday, October 19, 2006 3:06:23 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

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IE7 OWA 2003 Send Save Exception

I just installed the RTM version of IE7 and still having an issue with OWA (Outlook Web Access) on Exchange 2003. I have tried two different servers from three different clients and IE generates an exception when I hit the send button after composing an email.

I found a few references to uninstalling the S/MIME control using the "Add/Remove Programs" Control Pannel but attempting that resulted in a rather comical error: "Another version of this prodcut is already installed... use Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel."

The short term solution is to disable the S/MIME ActiveX control in IE7. Tools -> Internet Options -> Programs -> Select the "Managed add ons" button at the bottom. Then select the "Add-ons that have been used by Internet Explorer" from the drop down list. Select the "Mime Control Version Class" from the list and disable it under the settings.

Seems to solve the issue for me.