February 2007 - Posts

• Ask Sara

  So, since I was a kid, I always wondered why the sky was blue. I asked alot of people and got various answers about bent and reflected wavelengths and blah blah blah. I've never believed in any of it, it all sounded like some crazy smoke and mirrors silliness. So the other day, I noticed Ask Sara, and Sara being all smart and stuff, I presented the question and finally got the true answer. Bob is left to wonder: Why is the sky blue? For you Bob.   The world makes alot more sense now. Posted Feb 28 2007, 04:39 PM by Bob with 2 comment(s)

• Community Server Ate My Posts

  So, I posted up a couple things over the last week or two and everything was fine. Last night I made a small rant about multiple monitor support, and its lack of, in Windows and my site went BOOM! Some trouble shooting with Jayson, and we realize that one of my connection strings (the 1.1 one, I am a 2.0 site) was pointing to the wrong database. And for the last couple of weeks, my data has been getting split between the two database servers, continuing to work until yesterday when it just gave up. I understand the excuse that both connection strings are needed for 1.1 compatibility blah blah but damn. What a slack excuse. Version control anyone? Keep 1.1 specific crap seperate until it is phased out next release. While I think Community Server looks sweet and is very powerful, I have never, in my whole life since owning a Commodore 64 in 1984, had an application cause me so much pain in so little time. Anyhow, I think I'll readd the posts later this evening, and maybe get my blogML on and what other software is out there. Between my constant pain and the weirdness going on with the licensing, maybe it is time. Posted Feb 28 2007, 04:27 PM by Bob with 1 comment(s)

• My Old Skin Calleth

  Way back in the day when I was on .Text, my favorite blog skin was Cogitation, and now it looks like David Vidmar of Bite my bytes has ported the skin over to subText...right after I move to Community Server. Just my luck ;) Maybe I will get lucky and someone will port it to Community Server as well, I doubt I could do it justice... Or, if all the crazy licensing snafu doesn't get worked out with Community Server, I might just end up back on subText. The licensing changes don't affect me, but you know how I get all caught up in the moment... Posted Feb 14 2007, 04:16 AM by Bob with 3 comment(s)

• Wikipedia Entry About Bob

  So, I noticed the other day they have a Wikipedia entry about me. A couple of choice quotes: ...fast, nonstop talking...raving thoughts...music stuck in their heads...high energy...talkativeness or rapid speech... ...grandiose ideas and plans (this blog of course)...decreased perception of need or ability to sleep... Other people just think that I drink too much Dew. Posted Feb 13 2007, 06:13 PM by Bob with no comments

• P5B-VM Users, Its Time for Vista!

  I've been running Vista on my laptop since, well, probably before Beta 1 and really enjoy using it over XP. I, like other P5B-VM users, have had a tough choice with Vista though. Give up Vista or give up RAID. During installation, Vista tries to trick you. It tells you it likes you and that, because it likes you so much, you can use your XP RAID drivers. It will do this just for you. You get all excite, slap in the USB stick (since in Vista you can load drivers from a USB stick instead of a floppy) and load the drivers. Vista is pleased, it has made you happy. The install completes, very success, everything in life is good.  Reboot....BAM! Blue Screen.  Reboot....BAM! Blue Screen.  Reboot....BAM! Blue Screen. I even tried a fresh XP install and upgraded it to Vista. Upgrade finished.  Reboot....BAM! Blue Screen.  Reboot....BAM! Blue Screen.  Reboot....BAM! Blue Screen. ARRGGHH!! I sent steveb and email, explaining that I don't think Vista likes me as much as it claims. He did not reply. I think he was embarrassed I was sad, but now, oh yes, now I have RAID drivers for Vista! Behold! P5B-VM WHQL RAID drivers. Get them before they find a reason to yank them. Posted Feb 08 2007, 04:29 AM by Bob with no comments

• What is Bob reading

  I've been studying for 70-554 upgrade test for all of us that have fallen behind in our certifications... and thought I would take a break to read something alittle lighter. The book is by O'reilly and is part of their Head First series, and I was originally introduced to them when I read the marvelous book titled "Head First Design Patterns". Their books are quite different in the way they teach, being more humoristic (did I make that word up), less on words and more on pictures and theoretical exercises you can just play along with, or run off and do if you think you need to practice a specific item. On of the advantages of the sparse layout of the book is, even though it is still a 600 page book, you can go through it several (6 for me) times in the same amount of time you would go through a 'normal' more word-heavy book. And most likely come away with a higher level of retention, if not from their unique format, at least from the repetition. Anyhow, now that I wandered somewhat off to the side, what *is* bob reading?   Head First - Object Oriented Analysis and Design I am still a juniorish programmer, but I have noticed one trend as I read more and write more code. The payoff from reading a design book seems to be much, much higher than a book on programming or a specific language. Why? If you build it right, you'll have more time to work out the language centric issues. If you concentrate on the language issues, you risk having a pile of unrefactored spaghetti code that is inflexible, unreadable and unmaintainable. Just 2 cents from someone who is just learning what the rest of you have probably known for years, cut a brotha some slack...and a sample page, borrowed from their site to give an idea of the books format. Posted Feb 08 2007, 03:33 AM by Bob with no comments

• Steve Jobs actually says something I agree with

  I never thought the day would come... <quote>So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.</quote> Steve gives an interesting read on his thoughts about DRM and where it should go in the future. Interesting read for sure, though it is mostly a defense of why iTunes is the way iTunes is. Posted Feb 08 2007, 03:23 AM by Bob with 1 comment(s)