August 2005 - Posts
I assume if she’s blogging about it, I can as well :) Those of you who follow her blog would know, for those who don’t - famous blogger Julia Lerman is coming to South Africa for Tech Ed. She's going to talk about:
- What's New in Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0
- Introducing Indigo Integrated Innovation:
- Using ADO.NET 2.0 with SQL Server 2005
And along with her we are going to see one of her friends and a top speaker at last year's Tech Ed: Kate Gregory. Her talks:
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2005: A Look at the New Features for Building Fast Native and Managed Code
- Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: Application Frameworks and Advanced Language Features
- Windows Forms: Deploying Applications with ClickOnce
This is excellent, I LOVE to see women talk at these events. It will be a while before I build up the courage. Respect!
Found this cool blog post on how to display formatted XML on a web page: Kirk Allen Evan's Blog. If you don't need to format the XML, very simple solution: just do a replace on the string you want to display. Replace the < and > with < and > :)
Yeah! The company I work at had a power failure so we were able to go home early!!! And I only got there at 9... The best is Armand works a block from me, so now both of us are sitting at home and I have time to blog a bit.
Yesterday we found a bug in our system where when a user refreshes the page the modal window opens which has been used already, instead of only refreshing the page. I didn't really look at it further as I scheduled time to work on it today. So last night when I got home I went through my mail and opened a newsletter from ASP Alliance and guess what was the first thing I saw... an article called “Preventing Duplicate Record Insertion on Page Refresh“ by Teri Morton - lol, not exactly, but what a coincidence!!!
PS: The company I work at is Eskom!!! (Nice place for a power failure ;)
PSS: This project is in its final testing phase, please let me know if any of you know of cool jobs around... :)
Today I read an article in The Star about poverty and blah de blah de blah - same story we've heard over and over again the last couple of weeks. I am tired of hearing the same story, partly because you don't have to bombard me with all those facts as I already know it is bad out there and really want to help. But I have always had an excuse to actually go out there and help: time, money, this, that...
The difference about this article was that it showed me how easy and cheap it is to help, there is not one person reading this blog who have an excuse anymore:
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Donate
You'd be amazed at how a little bit can make a big difference!
R5 buys lunch for a school child through Buskaid, a charity that helps young musicians in SA townships.
Call 011-442-9676.
R8 buys a pack of disposable nappies for Othandweni Children's Home in Soweto.
Call 011-984-4117.
R10 buys a sticker of support and helps someone with a disability on Casual Day, September 2.
Get your sticker from any ABSA outlet or visit www.casualday.co.za
R40 buys one evidence bear for sexually abused children. Operation Bobbi Bear gives the child a bear. The child draws what happened to them on the bear. The bear is then bagged and kept as evidence. The child is also given a bear to keep.
Call 031-205-0080.
R100 buys a karate outfit for a child joining The Topsy Foundation's karate class. The charity, in partnership with rural communities deals with the effects of HIV/Aids.
Call 011-709-6806.
R150 buys jerseys for a child at Little Eden, a home
for mentally and physically handicapped children.
Call 012-808-5412.
Per Day
R22 feeds a needy family of five through the South African Red Cross.
Call 021-418-6640.
Per Week
R56 keeps a child fed at Cotlands, a home for abused, abandoned or HIV-affected children.
Visit www.cotlands.org
Per Month
R35 buys medical supplies for an abandoned baby in the care of Esimphiwe Transition Home for Abandoned Babies.
Call 031-561-7478.
R100 buys toiletries and transport for a mother and child arriving at Choc.
Call 086-111-3500.
R300 pays for the expenses of a child at Save the Child.
Call 031-266-2288.
R560 covers school fees for five rural children.
Call Starfish 011-259-4000.
Volunteer
No money?
That's no excuse! Give your time, care and love. Call these organisations to help.
One hour a week
Help out with homework or bathtime at Durban's Ethelbert Children's Home, which cares for children waiting to be placed in adoptive or foster care.
Call 031-464-6555.
Two hours a week
Feed, change, and play with an abandoned baby at Johannesburg's orphanage Door of Hope.
Call 011-432-2913.
Three hours a week
Help Feed SA by transporting toddlers from crýche to Ernest Ullman Park for playtime. Feed SA is a community outreach programme that works with impoverished communities in Gauteng.
Call Lisa on 083-227-2722.
Four hours a week
Help tutor Grade 11 and 12 learners from Cape Town at the Nazeem Isaacs Library in Khayelitsha on Saturday mornings or Wednesday afternoons.
Call the Ikamva Lisezandleni Zethu project 021-362-7771.
One Afternoon a week
Make a dream come true for a terminally ill child by assisting Joburg's Reach For A Dream.
Call 011-781-0133.
One Afternoon a month
Help with field trips for KZN Kids Care, a daycare and residential care centre for visually-impaired and multi-disabled children.
Call 084-511-7504.
Five Days
Help build houses for needy Cape Town families with Habitat for Humanity.
Call 021-683-6336.
One Year
Volunteer at Choc, (Childrens Haematology Oncology Clinics) the Childhood Cancer Foundation, and assist with activities for children in the ward, take their mothers for tea or help with administration and fundraising events.
Call 086-111-3500.
For more information, visit How 2 Help's website at www.h2h.info for a guide to worthy causes in SA |
What a blogging hiatus!!! (I've always wanted to use that word ;))
I had a deadline last week and we made it - now we have entered our testing phase and the worst is over. It feels like this large weight has been removed from my shoulders. During this project I also realized how useful test driven development can be... no, we didn't use it, but I ran into a problem where I had to change a huge part of my DAL and I had to go through everything again to make sure everything works :( Now, if I was using tests, this would not have been the pain it was.
I have also learned to like Oracle :) I was very skeptic when I started out on the project, but that was mainly because I came from a SQL background and didn't know it. At the beginning of the project we used TOAD to interface with Oracle, but later on switched to PL/SQL Developer - which is definitely my preference. The UI looks very much like Query Analyzer so I immediately felt at home.
The thing that I missed the most when I switched back to SQL from time to time is the Code Assistant (basically intellisense) - it really helps a lot when you don't know a database's structure all that well. Another nice-to-have is the 'Code Beautifier', especially if you know one of those people (or maybe if you are one of those people) who for some reason write their whole query on one line. - it drives me nuts!!!
And I think I've mentioned it previously, but Oracle & hierarchical data – just so easy to work with!!!
Those of you following my blog will know that I had a shitload of headaches with NDS and Groupwise - all of those have been sorted out, and if you want to know how to interface with NDS or Groupwise - just freaking ask, no use another person has to go through all of that as well, hehe.
The last couple of weeks I have hardly been reading blogs and hope to get back into the swing of things now, I have made a few notes of stuff that I wanted to blog about but didn't have time - so expect a few posts :)
(It's nice to be back)