Friday, April 25, 2008

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Poor Man's Exception Handling

I've used similar code before, but this link is a good reference to a quick and easy way to handle ALL your ASP.Net exceptions. I've found good stuff over the years from Peter Bromberg's post both both on EggHead Cafe and now his "UnBlog" over the years. I highly recommend his RSS feed.

Read on about Exception Handling here-

http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com/2008/04/aspnet-quick-dirty-exception-logging.html

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Vigilante Robot Patrols Bar Parking Lot

Well, maybe not as glamourous as the picture, but still armed with a spot light and a water cannon, read below about an ex-marine's vigilante robot's battles against vagrants.
Robot Vigilante

LA Now a Third World City

I remember when I left California, a friend of mine joked, "Last man out take the flag."

I've got nothing against poor Hispanics that want to try to make a better life for themselves. If I was broke down in Mexico I would head North too. But essentially this migration is becoming an invasion, and Los Angeles has now officially fallen. No surprise to anyone who lives in SoCal.

Read more here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/23/wla123.xml

I think Mexico needs to fix its problems, and as long as there is a place where its people can run to and send money back home, Mexico is in no real rush to deal its problems. If the border isn't tightened, the Southwest will become an adjunct of Mexico. Does that really benefit either country?

But not to worry, our elite globalist friends want to lump us all together under NAFTA.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Professor's Team Publishes 200,000+ Books Using AI

A professor, with the help of a few programmers and a computer grid, has come up with various algorithims that scower publically available information on a given subject and then through an automated process produce a book on that subject. Pretty cool. I guess in the works is an automated romance novel maker. Is techno music next?

Read more here-

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/business/media/14link.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5124&en=12d5e7b40bbb1a09&ex=1365825600&partner=digg&exprod=digg

Sourced from Digg.

P.S. Another interesting thing about this article is that is talks about BookSurge.com, Amazon's publish on demand publishing service that anyone can use.

F-117 Stealth Fighter Bids Fairwell

Another Cold War American technological marvel, the F-117 Stealth Fighter, heads for the history books.


Source: Zonker at Slashdot

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Truth, Liberals, and Power: Case Study South Korea

Here is a great article on how the left leaning teacher's union in South Korea influenced anti-American sentiment amoung students and how conservatives in South Korea are attempting to turn the tide back student opinion to a realistic appraisal of the United States.

Read more here-

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Analysis_Testing_S_Korea-US_alliance_999.html

Friday, April 18, 2008

Ghost Video

Not sure if this is legit or not, but whatever it is, it scared the heck out of me.

You be the judge.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Time for the Ron Paul Banner to Go

I don't agree with some of Ron Paul's positions, but I think he would have been the only real choice for change in the upcoming election. I was looking at my blog with Paul's "Hope for America" banner displayed, and the irony of it stuck me. The only candidate worth anything didn't get the nomination and isn't going to run as a third party candidate. So our "hope" is history, at least for the next four years.

The banner comes down this weekend.

Adobe Air for Javascript Developers Free Download

The Ajaxian website is offering a free download of the new book, Adobe Air for Javascript Developers.

You can download it here-

http://ajaxian.com/archives/adobe-air-for-javascript-developers-pocketguide

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Enivronuts at it Again

I'm not against trying to find ways of doing things that have less of an impact on the environment and what not. But I see the radical left, once again driven by emotion rather then logic, creating a crisis by not thinking things through.

Now we have biofuels. We will quit using as much oild and start using more biodiesel the left says. And in their facist manner they make it a law that x amount of today's gas has to be derived from bio fuels.

Well, turns out, that poor people around the world are starving because what they would normally eat is going to biofuels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/worldbusiness/15food.html?ei=5065&en=9e715f242c497f48&ex=1208923200&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Once again, great job left.

Second Life

I found an interesting and balanced article on Second Life evangelism. You can read it here -

http://ied.gospelcom.net/secondlife-evangelism.php

The article points out the dangers of Second Life without being overly dramatic about them, but covers them thoughtfully none-the-less. Today I almost killed my Second Life accounts permanently. I was home sick, hopped on, started chatting with a few people, told some woman I was home sick, and the next minute she wants to call me and cheer me up. Ummm....I'm married. I said that wasn't possible and broke off the conversation, but it got me thinking, Second Life is primarily a social networking scene, where people live out their virtual fantasies, and many of them lie on the sinful side. Should I even be in Second Life? The answer is easy...no. Sarah is always suspicious of me online in SL, and rightly so I guess considering how we met. I've still got some good friends I met online there that I'd like to keep tabs on, and I still like to take a peak at what University of Phoenix is doing with the Second Campus Islands that I got going for them, but other than that, I have no need to be on SL. Part of living a good life is trying to minimize your "surface area" to temptations, rather then relying on your will power to square off with sin. I love Sarah dearly, and I don't want to even appear to be up to no good in Second Life. Sometimes just flying around in that virtual world will have you innocently stumble upon things that a wife looking over your shoulder would not be pleased with. So, I pledge to stay out of Second Life unless-

1) I'm there for some pre-planned business activity with other professionals (unlikely at this point).

2) Am there to build or script specific items (again, unlikely unless one happens).

3) Am there to cyber evangelize and I am not alone on my end.

4) I am with Sarah or some other friend who will make sure everything is on the up and up.

I also pledge to stay our of areas like virtual bars, pubs, dance clubs, etc..., basically places you wouldn't go alone if you were married in real life unless there is some reason that Sarah would approve of or she is with me (don't see this happening, but leaving this clause in just in case).

To be honest, I think until the HTML on a prim and stability issues fully get worked out, there isn't much of a need to be in a business in Second Life (I know, there are some opportunities, especially in marketing, but none that I need to be in). Sarah and I have plenty of other things to do for entrainment then griefing in Second Life, So it is time to move on, unless I'm there on God's business and I'm not alone.

Food Prices on the Rise

Food prices in the US are going up an average of 4% a year, instead of the steady 2.5% over the last three years. Hopefully this isn't a trend.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080414/inflation_squeeze.html?.v=4

Friday, April 11, 2008

SQL Tip

I've had to create a lot of dynamic queries in the past, and today I stumbled upon something so simple I can't believe I missed it before. Let's say you are doing a query with 100 parameters. In the past sometimes I would generate a dynamic sql statement either on the client side (less then desirable) or in a stored proc (still undesirable). Here is a simple technique that helps eliminate MOST (not all) instances where you need to do this.

set parameters that may or may not exist in the query to default to null in your stored proc.

Then you can do things like...

where
(mytable.value = @myparameter or myparameter is null)

Amazingly simple!

So I get a big Duhhh for not using this in a few projects in the past.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

The Internet II...Reality or Fluff?

Well, the next generation of the internet, called imaginatively "The Grid", is on its way. Essentially a parallel network of academics and corps that uses internet technology but with all fibre optic cables and new switches is how the grid is described.

Will this network replace the internet? I doubt it, but the internet, over time, will be upgraded to the tech standard of the Grid.

Read more here-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3689881.ece