This will finish the "what do you read this summer" posts.

Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson is basically a Bill Gate biography up to about 1993.  It focuses mainly on Bill's interaction with computers in general and then Microsoft specifically, but it also includes not necessarily Microsoft related information about Bill.  I think it is a good source of "how did Microsoft get started" information...if you are looking for that type of info, that is.

The Interpretation of Financial Statements by Benjamin Graham and Spencer Meredith is a primer on common financial terms.  If you aren't too familiar with how financial statements work or what their line items mean, this book is a good place to start.

Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies was quite the conversation piece last year when it was released.  It is a first person account of the counter-terrorism efforts of the United States government over the last 20 years or so.  As Clarke says himself in the book, it is written form his perspective, but that aside, it provides a glimpse of where we stand and how we got to where we are.  If Clarke's account of Clinton's efforts are to be believed, it also gave me a bit of respect for him.

The Supreme Court by William Rehnquist is a detailed history of the United States Supreme Court up to the (almost) present day.  Like All the Laws but One, it is written for those without a background in the law.  It explains the history, the purpose, and the day-to-day operations of the Supreme Court.  It was a very interesting read and I am saddened that he is no longer around to write similar books in the future.

Apple Confidential 2.0 by Owen Linzmayer is a history of Apple from its founding to about 2003.  For the most part I found it very informative, though two things stood out as annoying.  First is the style of the book.  Rather than taking a time line approach, the author takes a topical approach and then does that topic chronologically.  This makes the book a bit disjointed.  For instance, if you have never heard of "Copland" (and I hadn't), you have to wait till near the end of the book to understand how it fits in the time line.  The other thing is that, though the author is critical of Apple general and Steve Jobs specifically, he often makes incorrect claims about market share, product performance, and the like.  It's not annoying Apple fan boy literature, but it isn't exactly unbiased either.  Then again, it's hard to find a book on either Apple or Microsoft that feels unbiased.

It's My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America by Christine Whitman was of interest to me, because she was the governor of New Jersey when I lived there.  The book describes Whitman's opinion on what it means to be a Republican, where the party stands right now, and where it needs to go.  It was an interesting read, though I think her logic is flawed in many cases.  One major instance of this is brushing aside issues such as gay marriage and abortion as though her position is the only logical and acceptable one.  If such things were so obvious, the issues wouldn't be hotly debated as they are.  That aside, it is an first person account of roughly the last 50 years of Republican politics.

For the last little while, I've intended to review the books I've read lately.  Of course, I was so involved with reading the next book that I never quite got around to it...until now.

The first book on my list is Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card.  I made the mistake of reading Ender's Shadow a few years ago, which resulted in my getting hooked.  I subsequently read Ender's Game, Shadow of the Hegemon, and Shadow Puppets.  The long awaited Shadow of the Giant is the final book (I hope!) in the Shadow series.  It was quite the page turner for me.  The scenarios are a little contrived (as they are in the other books), but plot is more engaging.  If you've read the others, I'd certainly recommend reading this to round out the series.

Next up is The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh.  Hersh has become a favored author of mine, which is a bit odd.  He writes, presently, for the New Yorker to which I once subscribed.  When I was a subscriber, however, I hardly read it.  Hmm.  Anyway, this is written in sort of a "tell all" biography of John F. Kennedy.  I got the impression after reading Chain of Command that Hersh was anti-Republican.  I think now that he is simply a blunt muck-raker and will point out flaws he finds in either party.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins is somewhat of an odd choice for me.  I read it, because it appeared to be a book about an insiders' view on world economic trends.  It turned out to be a not-too-thrilling auto-biography.  Perhaps I'm a victim of the economic machine that Perkins describes, so his book is lost on me.  At any rate, it wasn't too inspiring.

The late William Rehnquist's All the Laws but One is a history of US civil rights in war time.  Rehnquist takes a balanced look at the needs of the government to protect the people in time of war and at the rights of the people that government is there to protected.  It is a scholarly work but one that is suited for a common, non-lawyer audience.

Antonin Scalia's A Matter of Interpretation, however, is a work that is likely more suited for lawyers.  While much of it made sense to me, I can't help but think I missed some points due to my lack of background in the law.  The format of the book is Scalia's view on how the laws should be interpreted, followed by response by four others, followed by Scalia's counter-response.  I make note of this, because I expected this was a single author text when I got it.

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was better than its predecessor Order of the Phoenix but still left a bit to be desired.  The plot felt contrived just as it did in Order of the Phoenix.  For instance, I couldn't help but think that Harry and Dumbledore didn't meet too often, because it would have threatened the plot flow.  In reality, however, I think they would have met together more frequently, shared more information, and accomplished much more.  This is fiction, however, so it is still a must read for those who have trudged through the first five books.

Rich Dad's Prophecy by Robert Kiyosaki is a book I picked up at an airport on a return flight from North Carolina last year.  Shortly after returning home, it settled on my bookshelf and began collecting dust.  Like other books in the Rich Dad series, it is a guide to money management.  It warns of an impending stock market crash as a result of mandatory stock sales in ERISA-based retirement accounts in the coming years as baby boomers hit retirement age.  The goal of the books isn't doom and gloom but rather awareness and preparedness.  I'm not sure that I subscribe to Robert's logic, but I recognize he's richer than I am by a long shot and is worth listening to.

Potential Revenge of the Sith spoiler alert.

Much has been made of the overt allusions between the Sith and the George W. Bush administration and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.  My only issue with this is that no such allusions exist.  I think it would be easier to produce evidence of Matrix Reloaded bashing albinos.

I have a hunch about the hubbub, but let me digress for a bit.  Back in high school I wrote 10 or so papers dealing with literary criticism.  I'd go and find the mythological, historical, and biblical allusions, the rhetorical devices, and so forth.  I'd then paint my opinion of the author's intent based on the allusions, devices, etc.  The one thing I want to emphasize here is that what my papers claimed and what the authors' opinions really were didn't have to match.  It was entirely possible that I was mistaken, that the overtones really were coincidence, that an editor had modified the original text, or whatever.

Back to the Sith...my thought is that Lucas, and his own words confirm this, wrote a story that follows historical precedents regarding dictatorships or warfare.  Is there a comparison between Spartacus's Crassus and Star War's Palpatine?  Absolutely.  Both were conniving politicians who subtly and violently came to power exterminating their opponents as they went.  I'm not so sure this sounds like a picture perfect W to me.  Is there a comparison between Anakin's (now Darth Vader) line "If you are not with me, you are my enemy" and Jesus Christ's line "He that is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12: 30)?  Absolutely.  Both refer to a mindset that is common in time of war (Anakin's war was political, and Christ's was spiritual).  This does parallel W's statement about the war on terror, but I think it is more likely that W was alluding to Christ's statement, so even if Lucas was alluding to Bush he was indirectly alluding to Christ.

All in all, I think that Star Wars was abstract commentary on human nature and not focused on any specific government or time period.  Certainly the ideas Lucas addressed as causes of dictatorship - pride, lust, envy, and greed - are as old as humankind and not new since W took office.

For the non-Mormon readers, I thought I'd post a small scale glossary of missionary terms that I'm likely to use.  This is certainly not exhaustive and is molded by my personal experience.  The reason I decided to post this now is that I have been cooking up a blog post for the last few days that draws on an experience from my mission.  For greater understanding of this and future posts, I thought I'd provide some definitions.

Missionary - Worthy and desirous Mormon men aged 19-25 and women 21-30 (? forgot the upper bound) can be full time missionaries.  Men's missions are for 24 months and women's for 18.  The title for a man is Elder and for a woman is Sister.  Most missions are proselytizing though humanitarian aid-only or other service-only missions exist too.  Missionaries are volunteer only and are not materially compensated for their time.  Typically, the missionary and his/her families pay for the missionary's support in the mission field.  There is also a church missionary fund that ensures all missionaries have funds for the necessities - housing, food, etc.

Mission / Mission field - this the place where a missionary works.  The mission name is a specific place but the term "mission field" is a general term.  For instance, I was a missionary in the Russia Moscow Mission, so for me Moscow, Russia and a few other nearby cities were the mission field.

President - each mission is headed by a mission president and his wife.  They are the priesthood authority for the missionaries and the top of the chain of command, so to speak.  The president's title is President and his wife's is Sister.

Assistant to President (AP) - typically, the mission president has two APs from the rank and file elders.  Their function is at the president's discretion.  Typical tasks for APs include - the top of the chain for gathering weekly statistics, training (missionary skills and language (for foreign missions)), and event organizing (conferences and other large scale meetings).

Zone Leader (ZL) - a mission is divided up into one or more zones.  Each zone has a zone leader who is similar in function to an AP but only for the scope of his zone.

District Leader (DL) - a zone is divided up into one or more districts.  Each district has a district leader who is similar in function to an AP but only for the scope of his district.

Area - a district is divided into one or more areas.  An area is a geographical location within a district where a single companionship of missionaries work.

Companionship - missionaries typically serve in pairs (though sometimes in threesomes).  A pair of elders or a pair of sisters are called a companionship.  Companionships are not mixed gender.

Trainer - when new missionary enters the field, his first companion is his trainer.  The trainer's responsibility, along with the standard duties he/she has in the area, is to train the new missionary in missionary skills and to help learn the language if it is a foreign mission.

Senior companion / Junior Companion / Co-companion - generally, the senior missionary (the one who has been in the field the longest) is designated as the senior companion while the other is the junior companion.  Senior companion is a title (like DL, ZL, or AP) and can be given to the companion with less time in the field.  If the two companions are not united in their opinion of what to do, where to go, etc., the senior makes the final call.  Some missions have co-companions or co-senior companions.  Here, there is no tie breaker vote, so to speak.

Stats - missionaries keep weekly stats on their activities.  These include metrics such as total proselytizing hours, non-proselytizing service hours, number of first time contacts, number of baptismal commitments, number of baptisms, etc.

Transfers - roughly once a month, new missionaries enter the field.  This is also the time when in the field missionaries might be assigned to new areas.  Transfers occur differently depending on the mission (more than anything how they happen is a function of the geography).  The one thing that is common is this - the assignments for companionships, areas, and leadership change during Transfers.

Office staff - the function of the mission office is dependent on the president.  Typically, the office takes care of things such as missionary apartments (when rent is due, the contracts, etc.), transfers transportation (getting to different cities or countries some missions span countries), cars (if applicable), referrals, membership records, etc.  The office staff take care of the day-to-day grunt work, so that the other missionaries can focus on proselytizing.  Office staff is often made up of two to four companionships of either elders or senior couples (that is, a husband and wife couple).

On the trip north a few weeks back returning home after a weekend of playing Settlers of Catan (I'm sure we did other stuff too), I discovered the best price for gas that I'd seen in weeks.  It was an out of the way Flying J in Salt Lake.  It seems this price is a regular occurrence.  I just checked Flying J prices for the state of UT, and the only prices below $2.20 are in Salt Lake.

In case you aren't aware of it, Flying J publishes its fuel prices on its web site, filtered by state.  To check prices near you or near where you'll be see http://www.flyingj.com/fuel/gasoline_CF.cfm

Thanks to amazon.com and the magic of ebooks, I spent most of the last day reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. (unlike yesterday, I now know that Da Vinci is not spelled DaVinci).  For the ten people out there who've not read it or been told what it contains, consider this a spoiler alert.

Overall, I liked the book.  It was adventurous, pseudo intellectual, and generally playful.  One of the main points, however, struck a nerve.  I speak, of course, about the sacred feminine so often referred to in the text.  First, let me state what I understand to be the author's point, then I'll state what my issues are based on that understanding.

The Priory believe in the sanctity of women, their innate ability to produce life.  They exult them, as did many religions prior to Christianity, as goddesses.  They believe that man's (the gender, not all humankind) ability to commune with Deity happens only via woman.  In short, woman is divine and man partakes of that divinity via union with woman.

The reason that I take issue with this line of thought is this - despite the numerous overtones and undertones of balance - yin / yang, male / female, black / white - humankind, the Priory perspective is not balanced.  The female is divine and the male is not.  That seems more than a little unbalanced to me.

What I would consider balanced is this - believing in the sanctity of man and woman, that woman cannot produce life without man nor can man without woman, that ultimate communion with Deity (creating life, thus becoming a creator like unto Deity) for man requires the woman and for woman requires man.  If one is divine, then so is the other.  If one is not, then neither is the other.  This is balanced.  This more correctly reflects the difference between man and woman.  Each needs the other to be whole.

This in no way is meant to disparage woman or the sacred feminine but simply to recognize that woman is only half of the equation.  Had the text reflected this as well, I think the ideas that seemed radical would have been much easier to swallow.  Then again...it's only a work of fiction, perhaps Brown was after a good thriller and not trying to be an ideologue.

I think I'll have to put up a page devoted to the books I've read / am reading.  I just finished 7 Habits of Highly Effective People this week and figured I'd read The DaVinci Code for a change of pace.  There are two points that I want to make about 7 Habits.

First, I'd say that some of the supporting arguments feel a bit contrived (perhaps that's just my skepticism), nevertheless the points are valid.  I think perhaps the most striking thing I'll remember from the book was near the beginning when discussing integrity.  The basic idea was that if you don't act with integrity, in time, everything you say or do will be viewed sceptically.  I have, arguably, a suspicious nature but for some people significantly more so than others.  There are some people I won't trust to be honest about anything unless I have at least one other source to verify the claim.

Second, it's very idealistic.  There are things that would be difficult to pull off.  Covey even acknowledges this himself.  At one point he says that if you practice this (I believe it was habit 5 seek first to understand then to be understood) others will likely feel you are trying to manipulate them.  (That's something I can well relate to, since I've heard it often against me and other missionaries.)  He recommended explaining what you were doing before doing it.  Something like - I'm trying out a recommended practice from the 7 habits...

I definitely think it was worth the time to read it.  It reminded me of another Covey book, Spiritual Roots of Human Relations, which I started reading back in high school.  One of these days I might even finish it.  :-)

I just finished reading Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command : The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.  As regular readers of my blog will know, especially last fall, I'm not a George W. Bush fan.  This book does not paint a stunning picture of him or his administration.  However, I don't think it is a simple matter of gravitating toward like minded opinions.  Hersh makes several compelling arguments.  If nothing else, it gave me a better understanding of the United States' relationship with countries of the Middle East.

Two weeks ago I was introduced to the Settlers of Catan board game.  I'd played a few electronic versions in the past and was not disappointed in the "real" thing.  Naturally, I couldn't resist getting my own copy.  Keith introduced me to a wonderful web site that had pricing with which I was pleasantly pleased - http://www.fairplaygames.com/.

As of this writing (and barring a lucky break on eBay), this site has the best prices that I could find.  If you want the whole kit and caboodle (as outlined below), you'll even get free shipping.

• Settlers of Catan
• Settlers of Catan 5-6 Player Expansion
• Settlers of Catan: Cities & Knights
• Settlers of Catan: Cities & Knights 5-6 Player Expansion
• Seafarers of Catan
• Seafarers of Catan 5-6 Player Expansion

(For those unfamiliar with the game, Cities & Knights and Seafarers require the base Settlers of Catan game.  In like manner, the expansions require their respective base games too.)

I finally finished Kenneth Pollack's The Persian Puzzle today.  It is a book about US-Iranian relations.  It gives a brief look at the Iran over the last several thousand years, then focuses on the past fifty years or so.  It concludes with Pollack's advice, for lack of a better term, for US foreign policy with Iran.

One reason I'd recommend this book is that as a result of it, I have more respect for both Presidents Clinton and Bush (W) than I had before.  Regular readers of my blog know my feelings about Bush, and those who know me personally know that I feel similarly about Clinton.  I found this book to be unbiased, notwithstanding that it was written by a US citizen and non partisan.  If you're looking for a good read, check it out.

Now it's time for me to get back to 7 Habits, Code Complete, and Expert C# Business Objects...

Today marks one year and one day since I began blogging.  It's been an interesting experience.  I've fancied myself as a writer for quite some time, but knew that I'd never do much writing professionally.  After about 12 months of writing imagistic poetry in high school, I lost the knack (if I ever had it) of writing anything that a decent sized audience would find interesting.

12 months ago I was working on working for a software company a fair distance from here.  I was also in school working on finishing my degree.  The insane amount of snow that had fallen around Christmas and New Year's was finally melting allowing me to see the 25 saplings that I'd planted a few months earlier.

Today I'm working for a transportation services company headquartered in my own town.  I'm still schooling and hoping I don't burn out between now and a little after this time next year when I should be finished.  The sapling were uprooted (along with everything else in my yard) to lay the sod that now greets me each day as I return from work.  I'm reading Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and am planning to read Kenneth Pollack's The Persian Puzzle in the near future.

12 months from now, I'll likely still be working for Flying J and will likely still be in school (though nearing graduation).  My sod will probably be leveled out and have had a spring and summer of mowing.  I just might be an agile developer and write test harnesses before implementing design specs.  I'd like to get into TDD or XP, 2005 just might be the year.

I've been playing with Money for a few days.  Overall, I'm happy with it, but there are some annoying items.

• A good deal of text is not selectable.  I should be able to select any text (especially account info, amounts, payee names, etc.) and copy it elsewhere.
• If you select "Online Registration" from the About dialog, you can't close it without registering.  There's no "x" to close it.  There's no cancel button.  Not even alt+F4 works.
• It includes items that a common person wouldn't consider as income as income items.  I'd guess that if I make a credit card payment, that most people wouldn't consider the credit of that payment to my account as income.  I realize that it is from an accounting perspective, but I'm not interested in GAAP here.  I just want to know how much money I have coming in from work (e.g. what regular people consider income).

On the upside, they fixed a huge bug that previous version had (the last version I used was 2002).  If you have more than one account with a financial institution, Money is OK with that now.  In the past, I had to play games to make Money happy because I had two cards from one lender.

I've finally been able to get back to web dev lately.  I started using XSLT in fall 2000 and every few months I find a project where it's a good fit.  I'm thinking of doing up a starter guide to XSLT.  I found that a lot of developers don't seem to know too much about it.  I'm hopeful that in doing the guide, I'll learn it better myself.

I just wrote to a friend of mine that I'm going to school fooltime.  I wonder if my subconscious is trying to tell me something.  ;-)

I just saw The Incredibles.  It's a good flick.  It seems that Pixar wrote their own rendering software - Pixar Renderman - to produce it.  I noticed they gave props to Intel CPUs, but I didn't notice an OS.  At a Steve Jobs company, I'd guess X-Serve but that wouldn't run on Intel CPUs.  My next guess is Linux.  Perhaps I'll buy the DVD when it's out, so I can read all the movie credits.

I just finished bashing Rush for not understanding democracy or for understanding but being a poor citizen.  Since I'm guilty of this as well, let me explain my context.

Back in '92, a candidate I did not approve of was elected president.  For the next eight years, I continued to not approve of him.  It so happens that I listened to Rush back then (I've long since changed that behavior).  Four years ago, a candidate that I originally approved of (and voted for!) was elected president.  On September 11, 2001, I lost respect for him and have looked with intense scrutiny upon his actions ever since.

While arguing on AW about something during the 2002 election season, I said something along the lines of this - I don't agree with the practice (I don't remember now, offhand, what the practice was), but so long as it's legal, I defend any citizen the right to do it.  That was the beginning of codifying what democracy means to me.  We differ widely up until the time that we vote...then we all (winners and losers) agree to abide by the outcome.  I've not been too good about abiding by this doctrine, but it is one that I should live by and will work to live by.

To come a little cleaner, I should also add that it is not my place to judge other citizens.  I can judge for myself what it means to be a citizen, but I speak for myself only.  If Rush (or whoever) feels that president bashing is patriotic, then they should go do it.  I personally disagree and will abstain, but they have the right (by the first amendment) to do so.  For me to pass judgment, as I did in my previous comments, is to violate my own rule about respect.

I asked a few months ago what a true patriot should do to right the wrongs of his country.  I think the approach I was taking in that post was off base.  It's not an issue of venomous words or no words at all.  The “love the sinner, hate the sin” concept, I think, is the answer I'm looking for (and an answer that might be useful to those who supported a losing candidate on Tuesday).  In our case, I think we should go for something like “respect the sinner (or at least his office), hate the crime (rank injustice might be a better term here)”.

What do we do now?  We don't go around attacking Bush.  We go around obeying the law, defending others rights according to the law, and working our tails off to improve laws that need improving (even laws that Bush or others might think are perfect as is...Patriot Act comes to mind).  This last part might be opening the eyes of our neighbors to “how things really are”.  It might be opening our own eyes to how things really are (perhaps by going to the trouble of trying to understand where the other side is coming from rather than making personal attacks and cheap shots).  In short - be proactive and respectful rather than reactive and disrespectful.

That's my thought for now.  I'm a bit tired though, so I'll have to see if I agree with my reasoning in the morning.

In responding to yesterday's post, Mike called me on my conciliatory tone.  I don't think I represented myself too well before, so let me try again.  Everyone else can speak for himself.  I speak for myself alone.

I'm not a leftist.  I think that PC is largely a ridiculous idea.  I think the basis for it - having respect for people - is good, but it's implementation is often absurd.  I think that showing respect for a man who won the electoral and popular vote is a good idea - not leftist, rightist, or centrist, just good. 

This does not mean at all that I agree with his policies (I don't), his agenda (I don't), or his execution of them (I don't).  Still, as a citizen, I have a duty to uphold the office of the president.  I'm aiming to do that by getting more vocal about where I stand on things than I am now and by reducing my ad hominem slurs at those who have opposing points of view (including our president).  If I'm a true citizen, and not a hypocrite, then I should respect those with differing perspectives and approaches.  That's the ideal that I'm aiming for anyway.

A few years ago, for some reason, I all but swore to never shop from amazon.com.  As time went on, they've won me over.  Mind you, I still compare prices on other sites - buy.com, samgoody.com, walmart.com - before buying, but amazon nearly always has the best deals.  Lately, I've been taken by swift shipping.  I went on a buying spree last Saturday evening (1 DVD, 1 CD, 1 air purifier, 3 replacement filters, 1 heat resistant spatula), chose the FREE Super Saver Shipping (e.g. the slowest option available), and got ready to wait a week or so for my stuff to arrive.  My order arrived yesterday and today.  Kudos to you, amazon, for getting me my stuff at a better price than your rivals and several days before I expected it.

Seems I'm not alone with the Bush related conciliatory tones.  Glad to hear that others are focusing on moving forward rather than dwelling on the past.  Of course, reports of record numbers of Americans looking for a new home in the North is good for a chuckle too.

Prior to my resolution to limit Bush bashing, I was directed to a left leaning blog - The Carpetbagger Report.  So far, I've enjoyed the read.  If you're not opposed to a presentation of leftist views coupled with jabs at the right, I recommend it.

It's really draining to be so emotionally, mentally, and politically invested in an election and have it not turn out as you'd like.  I think every candidate I voted for lost.  This doesn't come as much of a surprise, because I live in Utah and voted mostly for Democrats.  Oh well.

One thing really pleased me about the election - Kerry gracefully bowed out.  The election, he said, should be won by voters not by litigation.  Kudos to you, John!  In his concession speech, he said we need to heal the wounds of division.  I quite agree.  On that note, I resolve now to cut back (eliminate, if I can muster sufficient self-discipline) on my Bush bashing.

So, intraVnews lost my state.  Losing state was the same reason that I dropped SharpReader several months ago.  To be honest, I've got other gripes against intraVnews.  It often can't seem to read feeds.  After a few tries on a feed, it permanently ignores it (you have to explicitly re-enable the feed by reseting feed history or something similar).  It doesn't tell you when it's ignoring feeds.  It doesn't have an easy to find and explicit means to update a feed right this second!

So, I've switched.  I've been a faithful reader (other than when intraVnews was ignoring the feed) of Dare's for about a year now.  I've read all about the great RSS Bandit and have decided to give it a second chance.  (I tried it a while back and was less than happy about it for some reason.)  Here's to hoping it maintains my state!

Over the past few days, I've seen the outlook.exe process eating up 300 MB + RAM.  A few times, I'd get dialogs complaining of OOM exceptions.  I've got 1 GB RAM on this box, why the heck does Outlook need more?!

I've got Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP 1, intraVnews 1.0.1468.32636, and Lookout 1.2.0.1924 installed.  I know intraVnews is written in a .NET language.  Perhaps Lookout is too.  As it turns out, I installed Whidbey beta 1 this week.  My Outlook addins now bind to it rather than 1.1, which they were compiled against.  I'm guessing a combination of Whidbey being a beta product and differences between 1.1 and 2.0 caused my problem.  After uninstalling Whidbey, all was well again.  OK, mostly well, intraVnews lost all the state info for my feeds, but that's another story.

Back in the day, I used home+home+down to get to the bottom of a document.  That was in WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.  I should probably go to the trouble of finding out if Word supports a “go to the last line of the last page” feature.  For the time being, I use the time honored control+g.  For those that don't know, this brings up a dialog asking you which line you'd like to go to (this works in notepad, notepad2, Word, and probably many other applications).  Word (at least in version 2003) also allows you to navigate a certain number of pages from the current page using the control+g (aka Find, Replace, Goto) dialog box.  So, +1000 was all I needed to quickly get to the end of my 4574 page document.  Cool, huh?

I've got a pet peeve.  OK, two of them.  One is improper usage of the word myself the other is improper usage of the word went.

Improper myself usages:

Give the report to John, Bob, or myself, and we'll take care of it.

Myself , John, or Bob will do the report processing.

Proper usages (not using myself):

“Give the report to John, Bob, or me, and we'll take care of it.”

“John, Bob, or I will do the report processing.”

Proper usage (using myself):

I will do the report processing myself.

Improper went usages:

We could have went to the park, but we decided to take a walk instead.

I should have went at lunch, but I'll go after work instead.

Proper usages (not using went):

We could have gone to the park, but we decided to take a walk instead.

I should have gone at lunch, but I'll go after work instead.

Proper usage (using went):

I went to the store.

Last week I bought a new CD player.  The player it replaced had served me well for 10 years, literally.  I was a senior in high school when I bought it.  I even had to fight with UPS to get it a day early (very long story that I don't fully remember).  Anyway, my new player is a Panasonic SC-PM29.  My requirements were few - MP3 playback, WMA playback, CD swapping while a disk is playing.  My old player wouldn't do any of these.

I have 1448 WMAs (ripped from about 100 CDs) and 1621 MP3s (audio books, all but a few purchased at ldsaudio.com).  When I commenced burning CDs for play in my new player, Windows said, “hey, how 'bout HighMAT?”  Since my player does HighMAT (I discovered this after purchase...a nifty bonus), I burned Gospel Doctrine in HighMAT.

All is well, right?  WRONG!  I couldn't HighMAT'ify several of my other MP3s, because apparently it requires 44 kHz or greater sampling rate and my files were 22 kHz (does voice really require that much more?).  I tried converting to a higher sample rate but with a low bit rate.  Nope.  It seems I need a way-too-high-for-my-audio-needs sample rate and bit rate to be HighMAT compatible.  (For instance, my 14 MB files are now over 100 MB.) All I want is the playlist support.  Is this HighMAT being obnoxious or is there a good reason for this?

Yesterday, I received an IM from someone not on my contact list.  I might have considered responding with a “who are you”, but since the sender wasn't on my contact list, I couldn't send or receive messages for that person.  Oh, but wait, I just received one?!  If you're confused, you and I are in the same boat.

My context is this:

• Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2
• MSN Messenger Version: 6.2.0137
• Only people on my Allow list can see my status and send me messages
• The sender was not on My Block List but is also not on My Allow List.

Ideas?

In no particular order

• Access to the only search engine I use
• Their results return very quickly
• Their results are pretty accurate
• Filters like site: are very easy to use
• Page caching...you can get your results even if the site itself no longer has the page
• Memory of my last 20 searches
• Drag and drop searching - just drop a word or phrase into the search box...you don't even have to hit enter or click Go
• Display of a page's Google PageRank
• One click to see who links to this page (Info Button | Backward links)
• Toggle-able highlighter for all search terms

There are others, but these are the biggest for me.

Back in '99, I settled on the position of my toolbars in IE.  I've changed a little since then, but only slightly.  Whenever I first use IE, I do these things -

1. Right click, Customize...
2. Text Options: No text labels
3. Icon options: Small icons
4. Remove all separators
5. Leave only forward, back, stop, refresh, home, and history.
6. Close
7. Unlock toolbars (of running on Windows XP)
8. Move the icon bar next to the menu bar (overlapping it)
9. Move the address bar next to the icon bar (overlapping it)
10. Remove the GO button
11. Lock the toolbars

Once the toolbars are locked, the toolbars learn that they weren't really overlapped and they make room for each other.  It usually takes a time or two to get just enough (but not too much) overlap.  My goal - maximize screen real estate and let the address bar have enough space to display the URL.

The additions I've made to this configuration are for Fiddler (goes next to History) and for the Google toolbar.  Google toolbar is not an option.  I only do Fiddler, if I'm going to be doing web dev on the box.  The Google toolbar goes just below the Menu | Icons | Address bar.  It is so important to me, that I'm OK with giving it its own row.  That's probably the largest compliment I could give to the programmers who wrote it.

My issue with Mozilla and Firefox, as stupid as it sounds, is that I can't get exactly what I've had with IE for the last five years with either of them.  I can get pretty close, but not an exact match.  Part of this is that the Google toolbar isn't made for Gecko based browsers.  (I'm less than satisfied with the search bar that is included with them...my Google bar on IE is worth the real estate, the search bar on Moz and FF isn't.)  The other part is that Moz's/FF's Menu | Icons | Address bar is too big.  Just too big.  IE's is nice and compact.  This coupled with not having the many functionalities of the Google toolbar (I use it more than any other IE feature except forward and back), is a large handicap.  I'd rather have this than 10,000 tabs and mouse gestures (just an Opera thing?).

Thanks to n4cer, I was reminded to listen to .NET Rocks! live show tonight.  A few minutes later (I was very late in joining), I won an FM Transmitter.  Minus the car, I'm guessing my usage will look something like this.  Glad to see other folks using a Nomad and not an iPod.

I know I'm one of the last people on earth to do this...I setup my Gmail account today.  Now, I have 1 GB of mail storage.  This is rather funny, because I just received an “over the limit” notice on my first hotmail account today (it's my very first email account, opened in '98 just before returning from my mission).  Not sure exactly what I'll use my new account for, but at least now I can be cool like everyone else. :-)

Windows XP Service Pack 2 has given Internet Explorer the ability to block installed ActiveX controls.  You can access this functionality by opening IE, and selecting Manage Add-ons... from the Tools menu.  In the last few weeks, I've enabled and disabled Flash several times.  A few sites that I visit actually need it, while most of them only use it to annoy me (ads that make noise, ads that expand and contract, etc.).  Unless the site needs flash (like the games on the zone), I disable Flash.

The problem is that I'm quite tired of going to the menu, selecting Shockwave Flash Object, selecting disable/enable, clicking OK on the message box, then clicking OK to close the Manage Add-ons form.  I Google'd for a bit and found out where the block list lives in the registry.  (Thanks MVPs.)  It lives in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings.  There is a key for each blocked control.  Rather than using IE's dialog, I now click one of two .reg files to either enable or disable Flash.  I'll probably write a little app to do this, so that I can avoid the message box that comes up when importing into the registry.

To create the enableFlash file, copy the following into a file called enableFlash.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}]
"Flags"=dword:00000001
"Version"="*"

To create the disableFlash file, copy the following into a file called disableFlash.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Ext\Settings\{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}]
"Flags"=dword:00000000
"Version"="*"

To import them into the registry, simply double click on them.

Obligatory Registry Disclaimer:  Editing the registry can harm your computer.  Do so at your own risk.

Now there's a whole collection of penguin games.  My current top score is 1987.76.  Thanks FurryGoat.

Yet again, my IM contact list policy has been misunderstood.  Since I'm not really into offending people, I think I'll explain myself here.  It's pretty simple - if I add a person due to a specific relationship (fellow co-worker, student, etc.), then that person stays on my contact list for as long as that relationship exists.  If one of us gets a new job or class ends or whatever, I'll more than likely delete the contact.  If during that relationship a personal relationship develops, then that contact moves from the “co-worker” or “school” list into the “friends” list.  No offense intended.  Nothing personal.

I've taken one major step to resolving this issue in the future.  When I started at Flying J, I created a new passport.  I only use it for work, and specifically for work as a Flying J employee.  Only co-workers are on it.  It's just like my Flying J email account or domain login.  Nothing personal.

Ever wonder why IE remembers all the invalid URLs you type in?  Me too.  I typed in http://www.lpark.com/blog (which gives the equivalent of a 404) yesterday, and for some annoying reason, IE remembers it.  What's up with that?

I just renewed my complimentary eWeek subscription.  I can't say that I'm extremely impressed with them.  One of their author's bugs me so much that I punch his picture whenever it makes the front cover (don't remember his name offhand).  That said, I decided that there was some value in it (especially at no cost to me), so I thought I'd renew.  I was pleasantly surprised with their use of DHTML on the renewal page - http://renew.eweek.com/ ...when you mouse to the text box for customer ID, an image appears showing you where to find it on the mailing label of the magazine.  This is far more elegant than having a static image or a “click here to to find out where this number is” link.

I've been using the RTW of Windows Media Player 10 for a few days now.  Generally speaking, I'm happy with it.  The “I'll keep appearing when you mouse near me“ menu bar bug (or was that a feature?) is now dead.  You can now open an AV file from the Internet and still resume what you were listening to before (big kudos on this!).  Here are a few gripes..

At last count, I had 1460 wma files and 1621 mp3 files.  The files were ripped from CDs I legally own or were legally downloaded (mostly audio books in mp3).  So, all my stuff is legal, yet WMP10 prompts me at every available opportunity to buy the CD of the currently playing song.  Is there any reason I should buy something I already own?  Does WMP10 think that I have illegal songs?  I'm all for helping people to be legal and I'm all for letting people know they can buy music directly via WMP10, but I'm not for the implication (or waste of screen real estate) that my stuff is not legit.

I don't really like the embedded IE in WMP.  OK, I don't know for sure that it's IE, but I'm pretty dang sure.  IE or not, I'm annoyed that I have to use WMP's menus to navigate stuff.  No forward/back via my mouse (IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0).  No alt+right arrow/alt+left arrow.  No right clicking.  Grr.  You know it's a browser.  I know it's a browser.  Let's stop playing games and let me use it as a browser.

I wonder why Play Count is still not in the standard set of displayed columns.  I care far more about it than I do about genre or whether it is DRM'ed.  What I'd like is a “make all views look like this one” so I can set the columns I want to see in the order I want to see them.

I like the new color schemes, but I think they need a bit of polishing.  First, altering colors still requires too much menu navigation (View | Enhancements | Color Chooser).  What happened to that paint brush icon in the lower right corner that WMP9 had?  Second, the colors are a bit too, well, I'm not a graphic design guy, so I don't know what to call it.  I know, though, that white text on a shiny gold-ish background is really hard to read though.  I know that the mini player looks a bit too much like over zealous use of lens flairs.  Third, why is there no option for the player's color to match that of the currently selected Windows XP visual style?  Fourth, in mini player mode, why does the volume control background color not reflect the color of the rest of the player?  My color is currently gold-ish (I'm trying to match the Olive visual style), but the volume control is light blue.

I really don't like the popup “This is what's playing“ that happens when you mouse near the player in mini mode.  I'd like to disable that.  I don't need to know what's playing (I can hear it), and I don't need to see a mini visualization window.

All in all, I prefer it to WMP9 (and all other players I've used).  Still, there are some issues that I hope are resolved in the next release.

This time (OK, I'm ignoring the time zone offset) six years ago, I was about to board Moscow's metro for the last time.  I was about to learn that the price for a zheton (boarding token) had increased that very day from 2 to 3 rubles.  I had perfectly budgeted my whole mission until the very last night, when I lacked a ruble to get back home.  Happily (walking home would have been less than desirable), my companion, Elder Browning, kicked in a ruble, so we could get home.  Thanks, Dave!

Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack 2 (RTM)

Default browser: Mozilla Fire fox 0.9.2.

Application in use: MSN Messenger 6.2.0137

Problem: When I click a hyperlink in a messenger conversation, the link opens in IE not in Firefox.

Problem with attitude: I'd think that after the whole hoo-haa Microsoft had to deal with over bundling IE in Windows, that it would reign in its applications and make them obey the settings in Set Program Access and Defaults.  MSN Messenger, Outlook 2003 SP 1, and Outlook Express 6 Service Pack 2 all quite often ignore my default browser setting.  I'm not amused, Microsoft.

I tend to participate a lot at school.  I've got seven posts and one assignment waiting in my outbox for UoP's servers to get back up and running.  Our classroom newsgroup server (I think an Exchange 5.5 box) just went red (up from orange) on the server status page.  I think that means - the poor box is down and has been for some time (around 15 minutes, I'd guess).

I'm not sure that I should have said I had stories to tell, but I do have some context to share about my earlier days of blogging.

Around the time that I started blogging, I was talking to a software company that I wanted to work for.  If I recall correctly, I had my first live (non email) contact a few days after I started the blog.  In a few days, that company appeared in my logs, so I knew at least one person there was reading me.

From that time on, well until I hooked up with Flying J and the other company and I cut our ties with respect to employment, I always had them in the back of my mind when posting.  It was kind of funny.  The perspective I had to take, which I also used at Flying J when I was contracting and not yet an employee, was that I didn't want them to have any surprises if they hired me.  I told my team at Flying J that they could expect me to be the same person I was when contracting - in humor, boisterousness, opinion, coding ability, etc.

That's a bit of context for my earlier days.  Now, I'm writing (when I actually post, that is) whatever I feel like writing without too much thought for how current or future employers might see it.

When I get some time, I've got some blog stories to tell.  For the time being, I thought I'd at least post an entry per month...a bit less than the “at least an entry per day” target I had when I started my blog.

Two of my friends were married and I neglected to give them shout outs.  Congrats to Jeremy and Lauren.  Also, congrats to John and Emma.

One of my classmates posted a link to a nifty tool - http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html  Among other things, it catalogs all the software on your machine.  For all my Microsoft software, it not only listed the Product IDs but even the installation keys.  Pretty slick.  I didn't know that the installation key was retrievable.

It began as such a happy day - off to the big, climate-controlled, hulk of a technology center.  The monitors glared my code at me.  Linkin Park and Enya whispered sweet nothings to me via my MDR-NC5's.  My fan purred quietly blowing air at my head.  Life couldn't be better...

A few hours later and I'm weeping for the loss of my office fridge.  It was a noble box.  It preserved my bagels, my cream cheese, my Symphony bars...even my lemonade.  Now, it's banished without a socket in which to plug itself in.  Farewell, my fridge.

At work yesterday, we discussed adopting a new (to our team) development practice.  Rather than focus on the issue itself, I want to focus on one argument.  The argument is this - we must all do it to get any benefit from it.

I disagreed with that in the meeting, and I think that upon re-evaluation I still disagree.  I think that there are many developer gimmicks (that's probably the wrong word) that benefit from a whole hog approach.  TDD, defense in depth, principle of least privilege, documentation, etc. are all better if they are consistently applied throughout a product.  Does this imply that such practices are of no value unless universally applied?  I argue no.

Let's look at defense in depth.  Defense in depth is a term that has gained popularity since Bill Gates' Trustworthy Computing initiative was announced back in 2002.  In brief, it is the idea that you should have many lines of defense.  If someone gets through your firewall, they still face your anti-virus software.  If they pass by the AV software, they still can't do too much damage if you aren't running as an administrator.  Etc.

Does defense in depth work better if each layer is doing its best to prevent malicious code from penetrating?  Yes.  Does DID fail if the programmers on one layer were slackers?  No.  Even if the application author (let's say of a web site), didn't validate inputs that doesn't mean all is lost.  There is still the input validation of the ASP.NET v1.1 runtime.  There is still IIS running in an underprivileged account.  There are still parameterized queries / stored procedures to guard against SQL injection.  There is still the stored procs (or anyone else in the data access layer or business logic layer) doing their own parameter validation.  In short, the whole does not fall apart even if one part does.

I just realized that DID is too easy an example, because it fits perfectly with my argument.  That is, its argument and mine are the same.  Still, if we just looked at input validation (and not as part of a DID strategy), we'd see that if the presentation layer slacks off in validating, then the other layers can still pick up the slack doing their own validation.  If we looked at testing procedures, we could say that just because one part is tested more than some other part doesn't mean that we should not test at all.  As my mission president used to say, “A little something is better than a big nothing.”

I've been playing (no pun intended) with the Windows Media Player 10 beta for a while now.  I just had a happy moment that needs sharing.  One of my biggest beefs with WMP in the past is that you can't have two instances of it going at the same time.  This becomes a problem when you're in the midst of listening to some audio book (one track is more than an hour long), and you click on a link to hear a 30 second music clip...suddenly you've lost your place in the book.  Ugh.

WMP 10 now has a “Previous” feature to solve this.  At any time, you can click Previous (if you're in standard mode (non skin, non task bar tool bar mode), it's the same as the back button you'd hit for going back one track in a playlist) to return to your previous track.  It'll begin playing as if you had just hit Pause then Play.

One other really annoying bug from WMP 7 - 9 is the “hide my form title bar, unless you mouse over me, in which case I'll reappear even though you told me you didn't want to see me” bug.  In WMP 10, when you tell the title bar (which includes the form border) to disappear, it does.  Period.  You can get it back if you want it, but it won't come back until you tell it to.  Thanks WMP 10, for finally obeying the user.

Generally, it has more fit and finish than previous versions.  Kudos to the Windows Media team for the enhancements and for releasing a pretty stable beta.  I think this is the only beta of a WMP version (other than perhaps the refreshes of 9) that has been stable.

What do you do when somebody looks you in the eye and says, "Would you like to be a [Microsoft] MVP?" ?  I know what I'd do...get a bewildered look on my face and wonder what was seen in me that I didn't see in myself.

I've heard for some time that one's greatest strengths can also be his greatest weaknesses.  That has never had much meaning to me.  I suppose this is in part due to my evaluation of the word strength.  My first thought is invariably physical strength, though I realize this isn't the only area in which one might be strong.  When was the last time that I looked at a person, who was physically strong, and thought, “hmm, what a weakling!”?  Never.

One of my greatest strengths, arguably, is that I'm a smart guy.  Another strength is passion.  If I go to the trouble of committing myself to a thing, I'm more than likely passionate about it.  The passion and the knowledge, however, have gotten me into trouble more than once.

Twice today, I jumped into a conversation to add commentary on Visio and on Virtual PC.  Now, it so happens that I've read about and have used both of these products, so I wasn't speaking from a position of ignorance.  However, in hindsight, I think it would have been a better idea to say nothing at all.  Was it really necessary to correct my manager and our network admin?  Probably not.  Was I right?  Well, I think so.  In fact, after doing a bit more research, I'm more sure that I was right than I was when I jumped into the conversations.

Chomp, chomp, says my strength (or was that my pride?) as it takes bite after bite out of my common sense.  It is true that I do a good deal to stay current on all sorts of Microsoft related technology issues.  It is true that I'm skeptical of the stuff that I read, listen to, or watch in my pursuit of staying current on Microsoft related technology issues.  As such, I credit myself with being pretty knowledgeable and accurate about a good deal of stuff.  Want to know when IE 5 had its second public beta?  I believe it was late '98 / early '99.  How 'bout beta one of Visual Studio .NET 2002?  Fall '00.  What does Anders Heijlsberg think of virtual methods?  C#'s methods are non virtual by default for a reason...

Of course, this know-it-all behavior isn't always a bad thing.  I think that more than once it has landed me a job.  (Perhaps this is because if I don't know what I'm talking about, I try not to talk.)  However, I'm quite annoyed with myself that I have to have things just so.  This makes me a great software tester, and arguably a good software designer, but it can make communicating with me a not always pleasant experience.  Perhaps the next strength I acquire will be the ability to keep silent.

I was just beginning another rant, errr response, to a post of one of my classmates, when I thought that I had chosen the wrong forum in which to vent.  I'm not sure that my blog is the correct forum either, but at least my blog is about me, and only those interested in what I have to say will read it.

The setting is this - I'm currently enrolled in University of Phoenix's Bachelor of Science in Information Technology undergraduate degree program.  My current class is DBMS 380.  It's a class, which UoP calls upper division, but which I find very lacking.  One of my chief annoyances is the text book.

Our text is Database Design for Mere Mortals by Michael J. Hernandez.  It is my opinion that the author should spend less time trying to convince the reader that he's a smart guy and more time actually teaching the “mere mortals” how to design databases well.  Among the things that annoy me are these:

• The author spent far too long on a rant about the difference between data and information.  Considering the majority of those in the industry use these terms interchangeably, I thought the author's pedantry was unneeded.
• The author, while saying that redundant data should be avoided, uses very redundant writing style.  Here's an example from Chapter 5 - If you work for a small organization that employs only a handful of people, or if you are only creating a database for yourself, you'll conduct "self-interviews." In other words, you'll still conduct the interviews described in this book, but you will act as the interviewer and the interviewee. You will be the one who provides the answers to the questions.  Does the author really need to explain three different ways what self-interview means?
  
  Here's another example from Chapter 6 - Typically, [a paper based] database  contains inconsistent data, erroneous data, duplicate data, redundant data, incomplete entries, and data that should have been purged from the database long ago.  Hmm, I thought that “redundant" and “duplicate" meant pretty much the same thing.
• The author has a bit too much faith in his writing.  From Chapter 6 - Unfortunately, sometimes the people who created [legacy] databases didn't completely understand the concept of a relational database. (After you have read this book, you won't fall into that group.)  I wish that all it took to obtain a complete understanding of a relational database was to read a single 480 page book.  Methinks the author has slightly (OK, extremely) exaggerated the utility of his book.

Another student responded that the text was for mere mortals.  The assumption, it seemed, was that the book was for mere mortals and not for me.  Here's what I had to say to that, but which I didn't feel I should post there.

Not sure how I've presented myself, but let me dispel a myth that just might be gaining popularity...I'm a mere mortal too!  : - )

 

What bugs me is this - when I look at a person who presents himself as an authority on a subject, and I see what he seemingly presents as a finished product, I expect high quality.  I expect consistency.  If he is proud and high minded, then I expect his work (the text, the code, the musical composition, or whatever) to be of such stellar workmanship that I'm compelled to say, "wow, he's proud with good reason."

 

What I feel from this author is this - look at me, I'm a smart guy, but I'm going to condescend to your lowly level to impart a morsel of my great knowledge to you.  This sentiment, and granted it could be entirely imagined on my part, annoys me.  When an author puffs himself up, the reader's time is wasted by the author's indulgence.  When an author presents his ideas as the only way to do a thing, he insults the reader's ability to find a better way of doing things.  When an author is so picky on very unimportant things, he sets the stage for the reader to expect a work of great quality and polish.  I see the author doing each of these things, yet I fail to see the quality or the polish.  In fact, I fail to see the logical justification for many of the author's assertions.

 

As a defense of myself, let me state that I'm very critical by nature.  This is one reason, in my opinion, that I'm a good software tester, designer, and developer.  I very often challenge widely held assumptions.  I offer new solutions that seem outlandish, but that quite often, at least in part, are part of the final solution.  Also, and perhaps most important, I'm at least as critical of my own work as I am of the work of another.  If anyone can produce a logical and well reasoned response which contradicts any of my assertions, I'll gladly change my mind and learn from him.  Then again, at least as far as UoP is concerned, I've never presented what I call my best work.  Instead, I've done a decent job (and one that I expect will get me an A).

I've been carded.  I realize this is an experience that many other people have likely had, but it is new to me.  Yesterday, I took a trip to a liquor store with a business associate.  Upon reaching the cash register, I was informed that I needed to show ID, so my shopping companion could purchase his wine.

26 year old me has never had a drink but has been carded.  I love life's little ironies.

Yep, I'm still alive.  The FlyingJ experience has gone well.  Last week they invited me to upgrade from contract to employee status.  I'm in the processing stage now, so soon I'll be a normal employee again.  Wow, it's been a while.

I've got some unrelated items to post about, so here they are in no particular order -

If you are doing WinForms development and need borders on your custom controls, you might consider inheriting from System.Windows.Forms.Form rather than from UserControl.  You'll have to remember to set TopLevelControl to false and to set ControlBox to false, but otherwise, things will be very similar to deriving from UserControl (with the exception of a much richer set of properties and events).  Oh, one other thing, remember to explicitly set Visible to true, when you add your new control to the Controls collection of a form or control.

Two weeks ago, I dreamed that Robert Scoble stopped blogging.  He declared that he just didn't see the point of it any more and had better things to do with his time.  I guess my mind didn't see that as too strange considering some of the other things that have happened lately - Microsoft and AOL settled and stopped throwing mud, Microsoft and Sun settled and stopped throwing mud, W3C and many others came to Microsoft's aide in their fight against Eolas.  I don't know what in the tech world would surprise me at this point.  Perhaps Ellison could publicly call Bill a nice guy?  Hmm, some things are just too far fetched.

I picked up two new (but old) CDs - 10,000 Maniacs Unplugged and The Cranberries Unplugged (a compilation of several live/unplugged events).  With the 10,000 Maniacs purchase, my music collection is now fully legal.  I've had one dubbed tape, which I received about 10 years ago, that was holding me back.  Horrah!

I finally watched, for the first time, the movie AI.  Not sure what I think of it.  It was interesting and certainly far better than Anti-Trust, another movie from a similar time frame.

Last but not least, after fighting with the beta team on a previous Microsoft beta that same team invited me back...oddly enough, it seems the structure of the beta has changed somewhat and is now in line with what I suggested.  I doubt it was me that made the difference, but I'm glad to know that Microsoft learns even from folks who fight with them.

I'm writing this from Windows Longhorn build 4074.  I finally downloaded and installed it.  So far it's worked out much better for me than the PDC build did last fall.  It definitely needs a lot of work, but it looks good considering it's pre beta.

One less than happy thing is that FreeTextBox (the default input method for dasBlog) doesn't seem to like me typing in it.  Not sure if it's a Longhorn issue or a Longhorn via Virtual PC issue.  Either way, it's very annoying.

While I'm being annoyed at things, here's something else.  I'm annoyed at DVD players that require remote controls to work.  I've got buttons on my player, shouldn't I be able to use them to navigate a menu if I lose my remote?  I think so.  Toshiba didn't.  I was talking to my brother about this issue last night.  Tonight, ugh, I lost my remote.  Fortunately, it only took me about 10 minutes to find it, but...I'd still prefer to not need the remote to play a disk.

I'm also hot and bothered by my sunburn.  One advantage of living in the desert is that I can get a sunburn in about 15 minutes.  Yesterday, the sun had me for several hours, so my arms, face, and neck are quite red.