September 2004 - Posts
Today I got someone a 1GB flashdrive (since I'm a registered dealer as well) for a collegue. Except for the fact that I (and about everyone at work) is envious about this it made me thinking how 'things' have progressed in the last few years. Only two to three years ago if someone told me I can be walking around having something as small as a pen with the capacity more than a CD I would'nt believe them. Now its becoming 'everyday' stuff. Goodbye CD's one of these days....just like the stiffy drive.
For the meanwhile my 'old' 128MB flashdrive will have to do :p
In the last week I discovered again how some 'basic' concepts of development can be wrongly/differently interpreted by developers. Take Object Orientation for example. On an acedemic level most of us have an idea what it should be (lets hope so) but when it comes to actually implementing a designed system it seems to break down.
[names changed to protect the innocent]
Say you have a design on paper that seems fairly ok - according to the system architect A...
Now the developer D that 'implements' this design either don't have the same idea on how it should work or don't have enough experience with OOP comes and implements a design that does not correspond to the original design. Sounds familiar?
I've been trying to get into training for a while (but the time, resources, energy and time just wasn't there so far). A session on Object Orientated design and HOW to implement it seems a good idea.
I've been having a dream/vision to create something like this for a long while. A place where potential and upcomming Sci-fi writers can contribute to a larger story line or just make use of it. I've used this idea as an idea at the suggested sadev/saarchitect collaboration project. Regardless if it is selected as the 'project' or not I want to persue this idea anyway. It will be a long term project as I (or anyone) cannot possibly do this quickly and the concept itself must grow by itself as time goes on. The first itteration would be simplistic (mostly manual) and text based.
Initially the idea is simply an online place authors can post stories (short, long, tiny, huge...whatever) and being able to share ideas and contributes to the existing 'base'. Each story will form part of the relevant 'universe' and 'history' of that universe. I have written two and two halves (complicated story) books of a sci-fi story already that describes 'A' universe with its own locations / events. This could form the base where others can contribute. There is just one tiny catch to it (the exiting books are written in Afrikaans and will take some time to translate). Additionally I've been keeping a 'diary' of events in this 'universe' which in itself will describe/dictate what happens in this universe. This 'universe' is open enough to allow other contributors freedom to add content without changing 'history'.
One of the first things I have to do for this idea is to write the 'rules' or 'laws' of this universe down. This will include both physics and logical laws.
Wish me luck.
Today is monday. That describes it all (almost)....
Ok, so I'm feeling not so bright. Can't say what if any could be wrong. Ok, I know what it is but I can't tell anyone. Just one of those things in live.
Hey, at least I got t suggest one of my cool ideas on saarchitect
I've been playing with the idea of a community Sci-Fi story board for some time but the time.... need I explain more.
Damm, if only I did'nt feel the way I do.
This months Western Cape sadev meeting was around a (usually) non business topic : Managed Direct X.
I was aware of some stuff u can do with it but Deon blew me (and the rest) away with this awsum presentation. The demos is fantastic and I think I wanna quit business development - if only the finances would allow it - what can I say - we have to eat at the end of the say :-D
Here are some pics of the session:
http://dotnet.org.za/rudolf/gallery/495.aspx
Thank you Deon!!
Ok, so I tried setting it up. This was suppose to be easy but alas, nothing comes easy in this world...
So, I plugged in the power, fine.
Plugged in the flyleads (to my machine) - no pain yet
Change my machine to use DHCP (as I currently use static IP's) - but of a grieve here - I want to use static IP's
Do the ipconfig /release and /renew (as they state in the manual) - fine got an IP address.
Open IE and connect to it - ok, this seemed to work but it then moaned because the WAN cable was not in yet.
Plug in WAN cable - the red lead from the wireless.
Ok that worked and prompted me to fill in my ISP's username and password which I did
Then it asks to reboot the rooter... starting to field grieve
After this nothng works. I cannot connect to the router, DHCP does not work anymore
Switch off, on unpluged wires, plugged in wires again. Dance around the table. Shout at it. Swear at it. Threaten to smash it against the wall.... Nothing - its as if it died. I tried the manual 'reset' button which should reset it to factory defaults - nothing. Ok, give up. throw it back in the box. Switch back to my old reliable PII as gateway server. Its old but it still works.
I have over the year developed this philosophy or believe, If u don't have trouble with a new thing the first time it won't be so good. Come to think about it, all my hardware that turned out to be the trustworthy type I first had to have some big trouble with it to sort it out. Its almost as if 'it' tells me to first develop some respect for it before it starts working properly.
Why Me???
Ok, once I've cooled down I'll try again.
Yesterday I got a Gigabyte GN-B49G wireless router for home use. This will be a first for me and I've yet to install it. So, is there anyone out there with tips or warnings around using it?
Now I just need some wireless devices to connect it to ;)
I posted an article about Exception handling on Sadeveloper.Net. Its one of those topics that can create heated conversations for some or yawning responses from others.
A funny or bizarre one we picked up (where I work) is that once u have installed MSN messenger 6.x u cannot unregister any COM+ component on ur machine anymore!!
The solution is simply to edit a registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Assemblies\Global
and delete
the contents of the (default) value.
This is a bizarre one!
Something that bites me often as well is converting a byte array to a string. By now it should be second nature but each time I have to refer to the docs - duhh :$
You can use String System.Text.UnicodeEncoding.GetString() which takes a byte[] array and produces a string.
I found this tip from MS Community blog posts.
Hopefully I'll start remembering it now.
Today I spoiled myself again and got a Logitech USB headset. At least now I can code or work on my computer while listening to some better quality sound. Now all I need is the time to do it all....
Check it out :
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/support/products/details/ZA/EN,CRID=1832,CONTENTID=6856
This weekend was the planning workshop for Sadeveloper.Net and it was an absolute blast! (and I'm not refering to all the booze and food that was for free)
Watch out for this space as some pics will be available soon!
Update:
Check http://dotnet.org.za/rudolf/gallery/479.aspx for the pics.
This weekend would be like no other (for a while). I'm going to Jhb for meeting of SAdeveloper.Net and meet all the 'other 'famous' people from the site. The last couple of months weekends have not been quiet and there was little time for family or friends.
Hope the weather would be nice up there as its gona be rainy and cold in the Cape.