OK, everyone knows that spam (the email kind, not the canned meat product) is evil. Here's a thought, though...spam may serve a purpose!
For example, consider the following text, which is copied from the body of an unsolicited email I received recently:
Dear Home Owner,
After resolving the canvas we are elated to put forward to you as we will specify,
Your current mortgage meets the criteria to get more than a 3.7 lessened tariff!
------------------------------------------------------------------
!! FINDING THE BEST RATES IN THE US IS OUR SPECIALITY !!
------------------------------------------------------------------
It followed up with a web site link that would presumably allow you to collect on this great deal. Here's my thought, though. If someone falls victim to a sales pitch like this, they might just have it coming. It's 'natural selection' via email.
I thought I might put my home-grown 'accounting' system to rest and give Microsoft's new Small Business Accounting 2006 a try. I'll try to post back here with an opinion when I've had a chance to try it out.
I ordered the free trial CD from Microsoft and installed it tonight. If anyone else tries this, make sure you turn off your firewall software. In my case, ZoneAlarm didn't allow the installation to finish correctly, even though I 'Allow'ed everything it asked about. With ZoneAlarm shut down, the installation went smoothly.
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I recently found (and signed up for) Flickr, which provides a really nice way to upload, share, and manage photos on the Internet.
Flickr even lets you create a Flash badge representing a 'set' of your photos - the one on the right is from our annual 'Camping with College Friends' trip this past summer.
Hopefully, this will inspire me to get more pictures online for family and friends to view! |
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A recent upgrade of the ZoneAlarm firewall software on a desktop PC knocked me off my Windows (2003) Domain. I was (suddenly) unable to connect to File and Printer shares on the server, where before they had worked perfectly.
After too much headache, it seems my server's IP somehow disappeared from ZoneAlarm's 'trusted' sites list when the update occurred...thus, ZoneAlarm was blocking File/Printer sharing with that machine. Adding the server's IP as a trusted site (and clicking that obscure little 'Apply' button) did the trick. If you use ZoneAlarm (or any other software firewall?) and suddenly lose access to network resources, you might consider checking for a 'trusted sites' or 'trusted zone' setting in the software...
Several weeks ago, my Windows XP installation started 'studdering' almost any time it played any audio; Windows start-up sounds, mouse clicks, pretty much any sound...would drag on for a second or two too long. Playing media files was impossible because videos would pause while the audio studdered, then try to continue, then pause, etc.
I just ran across this post where Matt Warren recommended to another guy that he reinstall the codecs from the Microsoft site. It works! Thanks Matt!
[edit date="2005 Sep 19"]
OK, the above solution only temporarily resolved the problem. After several weeks of living with this, it finally seems to have resolved with, of all things, new drivers for the sound card, NIC, and flash for the motherboard. The MoBo in this system is a Abit Duramax AA8, and it turns out the audio (chipset?) is "Realtek High Defnition Audio". Somehow, a very recent Google search found this page, where the solution was waiting
[/edit]
Exactly 4 days after picking up our new travel trailer, we hauled it 2,000 miles to northern Florida to visit the mouse. Except for the short trip home from the dealership, I'd never pulled a trailer that size before heading out on our maiden voyage.
We were on the expressway about 3 minutes when we got passed by a tour bus doing Mach 1.5. I saw him coming, and having thought this all out in my head, expected the rush of air from the front of the bus to push us off the right side of the roadway...so I braced for that.
What actually happened, though, is that when the bus was about halfway past my trailer, an impressive PULL TO THE CENTER of the road hit our rig. Not expecting that, I overcorrected (to avoid smacking into the side of the bus) and promptly drove way out onto the right side shoulder...
And so it is every time a larger vehicle passes our truck and trailer...and apparently every truck and trailer...after a few hundred miles, you don't even notice it much any more. Still, that would be good stuff for the prep crew at dealerships to pass on to new RV owners.
For three years, we've been trying to decide whether to buy a boat or camper...in April this year, we finally made a decision. Here's how we've been spending most weekends this summer:
[OOPS: Broken image link here, sorry.]
As always, we have exceptional timing. This happens to be the year that gas/oil prices have tripled and continue to climb almost daily. That makes towing hurt the wallet, but at least we're comfortable when we finally 'get there'.
If I get the time, I'd like to blog some of the trips we've taken...we've learned a few lessons in a short time that might help someone else...
If anyone cares for details: The camper is a Cougar 301 BHS Travel Trailer by Keystone Corporation (link).
Josh pointed out a pretty fun online store that sells exactly one (1) item per day. That item changes every night at midnight, the prices look to be pretty competitive, and shipping is always $5. It's worth an occasional visit for the witty item write-ups.
http://www.woot.com/
Sheesh. I'm getting HUNDREDS of 'trackbacks' on this blog from spammers....Cialis, Viagra, and Texas Hold'em peddlers, mostly. When the trackback service is enabled, my inbox dings every minute or two with a 'trackback notification' from some jerk-wad spammer.
I just read through the comments on Anil John's blog entry on the same topic, and there's a note there from Scott Hanselman (one of the dasBlog programmers) that implies they may have solved this problem with a recent software update.
I can't wait to get the new version up and running....Thanks Guys!!!
I won't be surprised if someone can look at this and point out the problem right away, but I'm also ashamed to say how long I've been looking at it and trying to make it work...
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("id",typeof(int)));
dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn("name",typeof(string)));
DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
dr["id"] = 6;
dr["name"] = "City1";
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
dr = dt.NewRow();
dr["id"] = 7;
dr["name"] = "City2";
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
this.ddLabList.DataSource = dt;
this.ddLabList.DataTextField = "name";
this.ddLabList.DataValueField = "id"; this.ddLabList.DataBind();
}
The this.ddLabList.DataSource = dt; line gives an 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object' error.
Help!
Be sure to visit all the options undfer "Configuration" in the Admin Menu Bar above. There are 16 themes to choose from, and you can also create your own.
I stumbled across this site accidentally one day...it does a really nice job of archiving web sites (and preserving a historical record of them). It's like Google's sites cache feature on steroids...and a really good way to find information from sites that have gone off-line.
I've had a number of clients complain that they just want their computers to 'work', without having to worry about new virus definitions, Windows updates, updated anti-spyware software, and firewall patches. "Just fix it so I can use it and not worry about it", is the common theme.
Those days of carefree Internet use are GONE. To some degree, these things can be automated, but for the most part, you will have to learn to watch over them (or you'll be taking your PC in for 'cleaning' frequently). Here's a good article at PCWorld that helps explain why.
It took a while for me to find enough examples to put together a
method that will calculate the distance between two GPS points (using
C#), so I thought I'd post my end product in the hopes it will shorten
someone else's search. Credits to 'The Math Forum' for the
formula (http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/51879.html)
The code looks terrible in a browser, so I've attached it as a text file. DistLatLong.txt (1.54 KB)
Thanks to a recent newsletter editorial from SQLServerCentral, I ran into Password Safe, which is a small program that allows you to protect all your passwords for web sites and online accounts, keeping them handy and safe at the same time. There's no install, just a small executable to run, and it will even enter your username/password combination to complete your login for you!
I've looked at other electronic 'wallets' in the past, but this one is the best I've seen to date...simple, direct, FREE!, and good at what it does. Being ignorant of the apparent power of the Blowfish algorithm, I'm still a little nervous to put 'all my eggs in one basket', but it sure is convenient.
I'm not any of these John Bowen's...but I can go one better. I'm not the John Bowen that wrote the "I'm not ANY of these guys" page either. Somehow, this is creepier than laughing at oneself...
Congratulations to Kerri and Chris! Olivia Kristine Bowen was born Saturday (June 18) afternoon. I'll update this post (soon) with a couple pictures from the big day.
Jeremy Esland has just added a slew (yes, slew is a real word...look it up) of new features to the Rainbow core and/or documentation. They include:
- A much improved portal alias retriever: you can now host 'sub-domains' on the same Rainbow installation as 'regular' sites...so support.example.com and sales.example.com can exist happily alongside example.com, example.co.uk, and www.example.com (even when the latter three point to the same site). It seems simple, but this is a huge step forward, IMHO.
- A new smarterror handler that provides much better interface for the end user when a page doesn't load (404, 403, 500 errors, for example).
- Terrific CSS documentation to support the Zen layout framework...though it also serves as a pretty good tutorial for those with only a basic understanding of the power of CSS.
- MagicUrls: These will allow a site admin to avoid complicated URLs, simplifying targets from (for example) www.example.com/site/2271/default.aspx to www.example.com/articles. Much better for the typical human user, eh?
- Much improved behavior for search engine optimization...amond other things, this should prevent spiders from indexing error pages!
All this (and more) is in the Dev build right now...watch for it in a (hopefully near) future release!
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