Thursday, July 29, 2004
creepy crawly
Just found a huge spider in the bathroom here at work; the thing had to be 2-2 1/2 inches across. Wish there were actually some decent sites out there to identify spiders, because I hate knowing that he's lurking around and wondering whether it's a poisonous one or not. I can't exactly Google for 'huge frickin spider' and turn up any decent resources. The best I can tell, our little eight-legged friend is a wolf spider, but I didn't dare get close enough to see if he was hairy or not. (I really hate spiders.) Besides, even if I knew, I still suck at identifying things like this, and I'd probably still be wrong. For now, as long as he doesn't make the trip to my office, we're cool. I'll just be using the downstairs bathroom for a while. :)
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
i, robot
No, not the movie. I just ran across this uber-cool biomorphic robot they're selling on ThinkGeek. It doesn't really look all that special until you see it in motion, so be sure to check out the movie [Quicktime] of it in action. I think I may have found something for my Christmas list...
[Listening to: Gamecube - Metroid Prime Title (Gaming FM - Modern Console) - Metroid Prime - ]
syndication
I've had the standard blogger Atom feed available at the bottom of every page. Well, now I've also signed up for a FeedBurner account, which means that your feed reader need not neccessarily support Atom. FeedBurner is able to convert my Atom feed to any other format, and then intelligently decide which format your reader can use. I've added the link to this feed at the right hand side of the page using the standard orange XML icon, so it should be immediately noticeable. I'm not really sure how many people actually bother to syndicate this site, but at least now, more people can if they want to.
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
vs.net 2005 express beta
I just downloaded the Visual C# 2005 Express Beta a few hours ago, and I have to say that I'm impressed. There are features in there that over the past 6 months could have saved me days, if not whole weeks. I'm finding that if we ever do convert our projects over to this version, we'll have lots to do to start making our app take advantage of the new features, but in my opinion, it would be well worth it. Besides, everyone needs to refactor now and again, right?
One of the more talked about features that I think actually lives up to the hype is the auto-expansion features that have been added to Intellisense. One of my most despised programming tasks is creating properties for private member variables. This is perhaps one of the more tedious things that I have to do on a day-to-day basis. With 2005, I simply type in "prop", hit the tab key, and then I get to fill in the blanks to create a property. Wow. It's just that simple. And there's plenty of other timesavers like this in there too.
Thank God they finally saw fit to include a proper webbrowser control as well. That old COM interop stuff was just garbage; it worked about half the time, and you were always wondering when your form layout would get hosed just because you wanted a web browser on it. The flow/grid layout panels are also a welcome feature.
Finally, I have to say that my favorite feature so far is something I haven't heard a lot of talk about. That's the ability to add a settings file to your project. It's a very simple concept, but if we'd had this one feature six months ago, we would've saved ourselves a few headaches. You can add a settings file to any project, and specify whether each setting should be scoped at the application or the user level. It took us a week to figure out our settings object and learn enough about Serialization in .NET to make things work the way we wanted them to. C'est la vie. At least we learned a lot during our time creating our settings object, so the time spent was not all for naught.
There's lots of other things that are really cool too; far too many to name here. There's also some things I hope they get fixed before these are out of beta as well (most notably the moving of panels; what moron thought to only allow moving by clicking the box in the top left corner?). At any rate, I can see I've got a lot to learn about the Framework changes that are coming down the pipe. Maybe this time I'll be on top of the changes rather than learning about them two years late!
One of the more talked about features that I think actually lives up to the hype is the auto-expansion features that have been added to Intellisense. One of my most despised programming tasks is creating properties for private member variables. This is perhaps one of the more tedious things that I have to do on a day-to-day basis. With 2005, I simply type in "prop", hit the tab key, and then I get to fill in the blanks to create a property. Wow. It's just that simple. And there's plenty of other timesavers like this in there too.
Thank God they finally saw fit to include a proper webbrowser control as well. That old COM interop stuff was just garbage; it worked about half the time, and you were always wondering when your form layout would get hosed just because you wanted a web browser on it. The flow/grid layout panels are also a welcome feature.
Finally, I have to say that my favorite feature so far is something I haven't heard a lot of talk about. That's the ability to add a settings file to your project. It's a very simple concept, but if we'd had this one feature six months ago, we would've saved ourselves a few headaches. You can add a settings file to any project, and specify whether each setting should be scoped at the application or the user level. It took us a week to figure out our settings object and learn enough about Serialization in .NET to make things work the way we wanted them to. C'est la vie. At least we learned a lot during our time creating our settings object, so the time spent was not all for naught.
There's lots of other things that are really cool too; far too many to name here. There's also some things I hope they get fixed before these are out of beta as well (most notably the moving of panels; what moron thought to only allow moving by clicking the box in the top left corner?). At any rate, I can see I've got a lot to learn about the Framework changes that are coming down the pipe. Maybe this time I'll be on top of the changes rather than learning about them two years late!
[Listening to: Playstation 2 - Excelsior (Gaming FM - Modern Console) - Dead Or Alive 2 - ]
Monday, July 26, 2004
thump, thump
My wife is about 10 weeks along in the pregnancy so far, and we went this morning for her second pre-natal doctor's visit. What was especially exciting about that was that we were first able to hear the baby's heartbeat! It was amazing to stand there and listen to the thumping sound of our baby's heartbeat. It was very rapid (they say that the baby's heart usually beats at around 160 bpm at this stage), but very strong. The doctor said that it sounded very good, and reassured us by telling us that when you can hear the heartbeat, the chances of miscarriage are drastically reduced.
Now, I can't wait for the next two months to pass. In two months will be probably the next big milestone when we get to have an ultrasound done. By then, we should also be able to determine the baby's gender, which both my wife and I are eagerly anticipating. We definitely want to know the gender so that we can begin to plan by getting the nursery ready. We also need to know so that we can return half of the clothes my wife and mother-in-law have already bought! They got a bit excited a few weeks ago and bought lots of clothes, half boy's and half girl's, and said they would return the half we didn't need after finding out if the baby was a boy or girl.
Now, I can't wait for the next two months to pass. In two months will be probably the next big milestone when we get to have an ultrasound done. By then, we should also be able to determine the baby's gender, which both my wife and I are eagerly anticipating. We definitely want to know the gender so that we can begin to plan by getting the nursery ready. We also need to know so that we can return half of the clothes my wife and mother-in-law have already bought! They got a bit excited a few weeks ago and bought lots of clothes, half boy's and half girl's, and said they would return the half we didn't need after finding out if the baby was a boy or girl.
[Listening to: Suteki Da Ne - Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy In Concert]
Saturday, July 24, 2004
summerfest in vana'diel
It's Summerfest in Final Fantasy XI! I've been having lots of fun watching the fireworks and getting all sorts of special prizes for going on moogle quests. Check out Karatina's yukata; pretty sweet looking, if you ask me! :)
Thursday, July 15, 2004
only one space after a period
This is something I saw a few weeks ago and have only now remembered to mention. I never had a clue that there was only supposed to be a single space after a period when typing. Turns out that it is simply a holdover from the days of mechanical typewriters. In light of this, I've been trying to change my habits of putting two spaces after a period. Breaking this habit is much, much easier said than done.
don't use our service
Seems like the hot new thing to give away to make people interested in buying a particular products is a DVD player. I've seen Sports Illustrated and at least one other magazine publisher giving away a player as a promotional gift for buying a subscription. When you think about it, it's a really great marketing scheme. I mean, DVD players (the ones they give away, at least) are dirt cheap to manufacture. But I think I just saw the most ironic free DVD player giveaway yet. I saw a commercial for a satellite TV company (might've been DirecTV, but I'm not sure) offering a free DVD player as a gift for switching from cable to their service.
Basically, it's like they're saying "Get great satellite TV 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We offer so much more interesting programming than cable. Oh, by the way, here's a free DVD player to watch stuff when there's nothing else interesting to watch." Strange....or maybe it's just me.
Basically, it's like they're saying "Get great satellite TV 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We offer so much more interesting programming than cable. Oh, by the way, here's a free DVD player to watch stuff when there's nothing else interesting to watch." Strange....or maybe it's just me.
good tunes
I find it amazing how finding the right music can make you so much more productive. At least that's how it works for me. I just recently got my hands on the soundtrack to Jet Set Radio Future, a game I've never had the pleasure of playing, and likely won't unless they port it to a system other than XBox. I'd heard several of the tracks on GamingFM a few times and loved them. I've already listened to the entire album several times through. It's definitely non-mainstream music, which is perhaps why I like it so much. But it's just the right music to put you in a good mood, being very upbeat. I'm glad I found it, since it's single handedly pulled me from my recent bout of apathy. :)
[Listening to: Like It Like This Like That - Hideki Naganuma - Jet Set Radio Future]
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Sunday, July 11, 2004
a must read book
I can't believe I've never read this book until now. The book in question is Tuesdays With Morrie, which I added to my Zooba reading list as I mentioned earlier. I happened across a paperback version while in Books A Million this weekend and decided to go ahead and pick it up instead of waiting for it. I started reading it later that night, intending to read just a few chapters. Before I knew it, I'd read nearly three fourths of the book, and finished it earlier today. I knew it would be good, because I'd read The Five People You Meet In Heaven a few months back and was enthralled by it. But I never expected it to be that good. It truly lives up to every bit of praise that is showered upon it on the back cover of the book. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
Just for a brief synopsis of this book, it contains just two principal characters: the author, and his old college professor, Morrie. Yes, that's right, this is a true story written from a firsthand account. Perhaps it was this fact that makes the book so incredibly endearing. Morrie has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gherig's disease) and the author is able to meet up with him in the last few weeks of his illness before his death. The two meet on Tuesdays and discuss many different aspects of life ranging from aging to money to marriage. This book will completely change your outlook on a lot of life issues.
Just for a brief synopsis of this book, it contains just two principal characters: the author, and his old college professor, Morrie. Yes, that's right, this is a true story written from a firsthand account. Perhaps it was this fact that makes the book so incredibly endearing. Morrie has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gherig's disease) and the author is able to meet up with him in the last few weeks of his illness before his death. The two meet on Tuesdays and discuss many different aspects of life ranging from aging to money to marriage. This book will completely change your outlook on a lot of life issues.
Saturday, July 10, 2004
hooray for reading
I just finished The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene yesterday. That book has completely enthralled me; so much so that I'm now 70 or so pages into The Fabric of the Cosmos, also by Greene. Both books describe superstring theory and the scientific revolutions that preceded it, including Einstein's theories of special/general relativity and quantum mechanics, in a way that is both entertaining and easily grasped, even by those without much inclination towards physics. I loved physics in high school and college, but only after reading these books have I gained that fascination with it that encourages me to continue my studies outside of a classroom setting.
In other reading-related news, I stumbled across an interesting site called zooba.com, which seems to be a very interesting book-of-the-month type service. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Netflix in the way that it lets you create a personalized reading list. For a $9.95 monthly subscription fee, they're going to send me the #1 book on my reading list, usually in hardcover format, and don't even charge shipping and handling fees! If I were to want more than one book a month, I can buy them for another flat $9.95 charge each, again with no shipping. Their selection may not be overly complete, but they do seem to stock most of the recent bestsellers and other popular books. I've already picked out my next 9 or so books, including Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, which I've been anxious to read for some time. And getting each for just under ten bucks is a pretty good deal as far as I'm concerned!
In other reading-related news, I stumbled across an interesting site called zooba.com, which seems to be a very interesting book-of-the-month type service. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Netflix in the way that it lets you create a personalized reading list. For a $9.95 monthly subscription fee, they're going to send me the #1 book on my reading list, usually in hardcover format, and don't even charge shipping and handling fees! If I were to want more than one book a month, I can buy them for another flat $9.95 charge each, again with no shipping. Their selection may not be overly complete, but they do seem to stock most of the recent bestsellers and other popular books. I've already picked out my next 9 or so books, including Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, which I've been anxious to read for some time. And getting each for just under ten bucks is a pretty good deal as far as I'm concerned!
Thursday, July 08, 2004
pot noodles
I'm not quite sure what pot noodles are, but this chick's got a problem! It was good for a laugh or two though, so I thought I'd share.
[Listening to: PlayStation 2 - RuLude Gardens (Gaming FM - Modern Console) - Final Fantasy XI - ]
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
having a baby
We found out on June 26 that my wife is pregnant! Both of us are extremely excited about the news; not to mention the excitement of our family. My mother-in-law has already been out shopping at least three times for baby items; even took my wife once. They bought both boy and girl items and claim that they'll keep the receipts and return whatever they need to. Of course, the coming of a baby means that we're really going to have to buckle down and clean up our extra bedroom to make space for a nursery. Right now, it's a storage room, and I have no clue where everything that's in there is going to go!
I think my mind has been slipping lately after hearing the news. I can't concentrate on much anymore, and things tend to run together. I was on the phone telling a friend the date of baby's arrival and slipped up saying something like "the release date will be...". I caught myself soon after saying it; guess I must have been reading too many gaming magazines and websites or something!
Anyway, the due date that we were given is February 21, 2004, which seems a little early, but works out based on the way they have to count the days. Since hearing the news, I've been reading all the information I can. I've found that Baby.com has some pretty good resources available, especially for soon-to-be dads. We've also been given quite a few magazines and other paper materials to look through as well, so I guess I know what my literature will consist of for the next year or so!
I think my mind has been slipping lately after hearing the news. I can't concentrate on much anymore, and things tend to run together. I was on the phone telling a friend the date of baby's arrival and slipped up saying something like "the release date will be...". I caught myself soon after saying it; guess I must have been reading too many gaming magazines and websites or something!
Anyway, the due date that we were given is February 21, 2004, which seems a little early, but works out based on the way they have to count the days. Since hearing the news, I've been reading all the information I can. I've found that Baby.com has some pretty good resources available, especially for soon-to-be dads. We've also been given quite a few magazines and other paper materials to look through as well, so I guess I know what my literature will consist of for the next year or so!
[Listening to: Playstation - Song of Mana (Ending Theme) (Gaming FM - Modern Console) - Legend of Mana - ]
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