Blogger D: 2005

2005-12-07

This was a GI Joe collection on display at the Denver Airport during the Christmas of 1999.

2005-12-06

Here we are at the 2005 Texas Renaissance Festival.

2005-11-09

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

2005-10-30

Debian

I’ve tried several Linux distributions: Redhat, Coral, Suse, Mandrake, Damn Small Linux, Knoppix, Gentoo and finally Debian. Of all of these I was most loyal to Gentoo because it was the distro I learned the most with. The problem with Gentoo though is you spend so much time getting it to run and tweaking it that you don’t really get to use the machine for what you want to.

For example, I tried and successfully setup a Gentoo desktop on a couple of occasions. But, I will never do it again. I have no desire to spend a week or more building KDE or Gnome when I can have a fully running desktop in less than an hour with other distro.

My main file server is Gentoo and I am leary of updating it. Every time I emerge -u system I have to spend another hour or two cleaning up config files. Then when I reboot the machine I cross my fingers and hope it comes up.

I have started using Debian and so far I like it. Simple to install, apt-get is just as good as emerge and I don’t have to wait days for a compiler to build my system. The plan is to convert the file server to Debian at some point.

2005-10-21

Doomed

Those Who Ignore Standards Are Doomed to Reinvent Them

The most Prophetic words I have ever heard.

This has come into play several times where I work and where I have worked. It boils down to each developer thinking his set of Standards is better then my set of Standards.

The others should just face reality: I know best so do it my way.

2005-10-20

This is a totally random picture I yanked off my computer and blogged using Picasa2.

Is this cool or what? Well, maybe not that cool but I like it.

2005-10-19

On the Road Again...

I’m sitting in a Dallas Hotel watching the Astros play the 6th game of the play offs. Hope they win!

I hate traveling for this type of work. It is not challenging at all but it is etremely boring. Jez…

2005-10-06

Katrina Response, Day x

I am back in Dallas working at the EPA RRC, assisting with the data management for the Hurricane Katrina and Rita response. It is not something I want to do since I am having to use MS Access.

My loathing for MS Access is growing on a hourly basis. I feel like an amature doing mundane BS all the while dreaming of building an Eifal Tower. One day….

There is desention amoung the ranks and the captions are unaware…….

2005-09-24

Hurricane Rita, the Day After

Rita landed further East of us then originally projected. We survived with no apparent damage.

We now have to find some gas so we can get around, find a store that is open.

It could have been far worse and I don’t plan on doing this again.

2005-09-23

Hurricane Rita

I am getting ready to ride out Hurricane Rita. We have a room set up with food, water and other supplies.

We tried to evacuate but got stuck in traffic; in six hours we only went five miles. By that time we were down to half a tank of gas so we opted to return home. We even thought about attempting it again later that night but the roads were still clogged and there was no gas to be found.

The winds are just now starting up and the power has flickered several times. I don’t think I will get much sleep tonight.

2005-09-02

Ruby/.NET Bridge

Ah yes, a way to do both at once…..

2005-09-01

NOAA Satellite and Information Service Good place to find imagery of Hurricanes.

2005-08-30

Thomas

2005-08-15

Rob Caron's Blog - A Team System Nexus : Suggested Reading - 2005-07-31

Saving and Restoring the Location, Size and Windows State of a .NET Form

A list of must read articles. Go forth and Read.

2005-08-10

The Kindly Ones They Ain't

I finished reading Sandman #9, The Kindly Ones. This was a very complicated Sandman, and for the Sandman saga that is saying something. Almost all the old characters returned and a lot of loose threads were tied or cut. Then Neil killed Dream.

I thought, how inappropiate. I didn’t think he would acutally kill him, just make him wipe out the furies. But no, Dream goes bye-bye.

This was actually forshadowed in the previous Sandman, with the storm and the funeral march.

I am trying to avoid reading any reviews of the final Sandman just so I don’t know what is going to happen. After I finish the final I can go back and re-read the Endless Nights.

2005-08-08

At a loss...

I am at a loss on how to solve a problem. I have a solution in my mind but I cannot seem to put it down in code. I hate it when this happens.

I’m an amature programmer at best. I wish I could just spit this stuff out without thinking.

2005-08-06

Power Collections for .NET

Power Collections: http://www.wintellect.com/powercollections/

The Power Collections Library is an open source collection class library for the next version of .NET. The philosophy of the library is to extend the base class library (BCL) of collection classes that will be available with .NET 2.0 rather than provide a complete and separate set of classes from .NET.

2005-08-04

if we got this far, then everything is working properly

Comment found in a code that I was reviewing:

if we got this far, then everything is working properly

Why does this send shivers up my spine? The procedure is 91 lines long and this comment appears on line 43. What about the other 48 lines? What if they fail?

I should add the following comment to the end of the procedure:

if we got this far then there is a God.