March 2006 - Posts

• I want my 4 dollar bag of m&m's!

  << Theaters Unhappy About Faster DVD Releases I'm really getting sick of hearing about this crap. Who gives a *** if the theatres are unhappy about so called early dvd releases. The fact is, things have to change. If you want me to come to the theatre and watch a, usually shitty, movie, then don't charge me 9 bucks for a ticket, 4 bucks for a drink and then bombard me with 20-30 minutes of commercials and previews before the movie even starts! If your products sucks, having the dvd come out in 4 months instead of 6 will not change a thing. I say abolish the theatre monopoly and let the consumer decide. If I think V for Vendetta in IMAX is worth the 10 bucks (which it is), then I'll go to the theatre, If not, I'll throw it in my netflix queue and watch in on my ridiculous expensive home theatre system with a beer in my hand. common sense + money and time saved = crazy logical. Posted Mar 30 2006, 10:03 PM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: Movies, Rants

• Something redeemable about MySpace

  << Handling 1.5 Billion Page Views Per Day Using ASP.NET 2.0 Evidently, when MySpace isn't taking away the privacy if its users its busy building some serious .net web apps. According to Scott's post, their running asp.net 2.0 and IIS 6 to process their ridiculous amount of traffic. He also mentions that they will be implementing some Atlas stuff down the road, so i will be really interested to see how that preforms on a site on a site that gets more traffic than Google and MSN combined. Posted Mar 29 2006, 11:30 PM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: .Net, Internet, Rants, Software

• Wookie Blog Extension v2 Beta 2

  Beta 2 is now available over in the Files section, and is finally feature complete as of this release. I posted the release notes and a new FAQ to help answer some questions over in the forums. Posted Mar 28 2006, 02:03 AM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: .Net, Blogs, Internet, Coding, Software, Wookie

• The New ClickOnce Deployment...

  in Windows Forms 2.0 has really impressed me the last couple of days.  I hadn't even noticed this feature was there, and to be honest, would have probably dismissed it simply because I'm so used to msi/Installshield deployments. But, in deciding to use it on a small project, I can really see the benefit. Basically, within a few minutes, you can have your app published to website or a network unc where users can run the setup (or app, depending on your publish options) directly from the browser, no admin rights required! And, best of all, to get an update out, all you have to do is publish a revision and the users will automatically receive the update the next time they load the app (or, however you have the update configured). It's features are limited though, so for large or slightly custom deployments, Installshield msi or installscript projects are still the best way to go. Posted Mar 22 2006, 02:05 AM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: .Net, Microsoft, Rants, Software

• Clovers = Green = Spartans

  Happy St. Patrick's Day and go Spartans! Posted Mar 17 2006, 08:27 PM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: Beer, Humor, Personal

• Wookie Blog Extension v2 Beta 1

  I've just posted Beta 1 of the new Wookie Blog Extension over in the files section of the site under Beta Releases. Not all of the features I wanted are in there yet but its getting close. I've also posted a release candidate of the IBlogConnection interface, which is used to develop plugins for the blog extension. With the beta, I've included MetaWeblog and Community Server 1.1+ plugins which were working well during testing. MSN Spaces is also supported via the MetaWeblog plugin but I will have  a dedicated plugin with the next release due to a few quirks.  You can view the release notes over in the forums for more detailed info. My primary goal with this app was to develop an offline blogging tool/rss aggregator blog extension that would allow me to post rich content to my primary blog as well as syndicate that same content to my various other unused blogs. For example, this is my primary weblog where i currently post all of my (mostly boring) content; I also have an MSN space, because I use msn messenger, and I have a Google Blogger account from a while ago. With this new app, I'm now able to post that same blog entry to all all my blogs (via plugins) simultaneously, notify the various ping services that all sites have been updated, and append the syndicated post with a message directing the reader to my primary blog. To some, this might seem like overkill, but i just think its cool ;)...that, and I wanted something fun to do with winforms 2.0 in my spare time. Click here to check out some screen shots over in my gallery. Posted Mar 16 2006, 09:29 PM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: .Net, Blogs, Coding, Software, Wookie

• Snowmobiling out, March Madness in

  Its that time for the end of the prime snow season in Michigan. The season started out hopeful, in late December, but turned out to be as shitty as usual, with only one good month of riding. If it wasn't for February, there wouldn't even be a winter in Michigan...and I'm talking Upper Peninsula here, not D-Town. But, its time now to forget about the shitty winter and get in to March Madness! The Spartans were given a generous 6 seed and will face George Mason at 7:10pm on St. Patty's day. This is the time of year where Michigan State will redeem their crappy season or die trying. I should be sufficiently drunk for the victory on Friday with just enough time to recover for Sunday's beating of UNC and our entry into the sweet 16! Posted Mar 14 2006, 08:02 PM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: Beer, Humor, Personal, Rants

• Sql Server Upgrade

  I finally decided to upgrade the wookie SQL 2000 server to 2005 early Tuesday morning, and as you can see by reading this post, all went smoothly. I'm still running all of db's on the server in 8.0 compatibility mode just to be cautious; with the exception of the dotnetwookie beta site, which hasn't crashed and burned yet. There are a few things that i had to migrate manually, such as my maintenance plans and a few dts packages, but until you do, they will continue to run in legacy mode unless otherwise noted by the upgrade adviser. I'm no dba by any means, but you can't help but be impressed by the ease of administration in the new version. Within minutes I had my operators, alerts, and maintenance plans setup with little effort. So, fear not, if your contemplating an upgrade. Just make sure to run the latest version of the upgrade adviser beforehand, I know it saved me some potential headaches. Posted Mar 02 2006, 10:50 PM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: Microsoft, Software, Wookie

• I'm takin'em all back

  I just listened to the new Yellowcard album for the first time today and noticed a song titled "Martin Sheen or JFK"...the hook even has dialog from that scene in the movie. Quality reference for us hardcore Goonies fans! btw... the new album is awsome. Posted Mar 01 2006, 02:47 AM by Chris Kirby with no comments Filed under: Movies, Music, Personal, Reviews