New things onto the Web Site

So, these are not new... look under Oldblog... I just added a bunch of entries from previous years....

~cse

Some interesting code I had to create to send email via am ASP.net page.... it works well:

First off...you need a:

imports System.Net.Mail

In a sub or etc do:

DIM Mail as New MailMessage()

 Mail.From = new MailAddress("some name", "some address")

 Mail.To.Add("emailAddress")  'Yeap the ; does work between addresses

 Mail.Subject("Something Cleaver here")

 Mail.Body("Yack Yack Yack") 'a textbox is a good input choice here

 Dim SMTP as new SMTPClient("the smtp client address")  'there's other options here google it

 SMTP.Send(Mail)  ' and you are done.

There's a async method for sending a message too...there's places to look it up...

Enjoy 

~cse

Given the last mid-term elections...looks like the country is headed in the wrong direction....gee ya think? The secret "W" government....a pointless war....no energy policy...the middle class disappearing...abuse of the large corporations.... and that's the short list? Don't even get me started on small-minded people telling everyone how to feel, work and live!

Maybe things will change now that the people have spoken... it's time that the government of those poeple started to listen! If not...vote them out!!!!

~cse

Ok...I've almost have the support framing up for the fence....all 240 feet of it! I'll have to put up some pictures on the main site....soon... the only big issue is the heat! Yeah, nothing like Global Warming...

Speaking of which....way to go BP! Let's make BIG money and not take care of the environment or our pipeline...but when we screw up...we'll just say we are sorry .  How about a fine? If it were anyone else...they would be put in jail and big chunks of their money would be taken away! But no...the talking heads in our gov't will do? ...yeap, nothing! Gee, ya think that the rich people care? Yeah Right!

~cse

Well,

This week I'm doing (as the talking heads say)...the "deep dive" into Vista and WCF. Oh what fun!

The only really thing about all of this is the fact that most of it is Beta...hey you get what you get with betaware! So, why I'm I doing this? It's a project for work...I get to go head to head with the JEE folks and proof the .Net technology. Ok...a moment of laughing here... Maybe someone will actually starting using my .Net stuff. At least it won't cost $1000's per CPU to run an app server...

I'll keep the chronicle posted...

Meanwhile.... I have two 64-bit systems up. One has LongHorn 64-bit and one has Vista 64-bit...so far the bigest issues:

Hard to find driver for the on-board sound card. Really annoying, but I found a workaround. Use the non-Vista 64x drivers for XP. The control program doesn't work but the system makes noise.

Vista out of the box puts you into a non-Admin login...yeap! I can understand why MS wants you to do that...but for use power users...it could be easier to install and give a choice. Oh well....

Can't change the login picture on the Vista system...looks like that code is not implemented... you click on the place to change the picture...and you get sent into a circle that takes you back to manage users...???? Ok, so there's still some tweating needed...

Loading and running the .Net 3.0 framework/SDk/ etc is confusing. The problem here is that MS is in the middle of releasing and making changes to what you can deploy where... It can only get better? Or at least a bit more confusing....

Anyway...that's the shortlist for now....

~cse

Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici

  By the power of Truth, I, while living, have conquered the Universe....

One can understand why some would dislike such a phrase...after all it threatens them for whom the “truth” and “Universe” are defined by their belittling beliefs that they wish upon everyone.

Why such words hold such power? They are a battle cry to be sure…but really in there honest way…such ideas stand up against those who use fear, hate, and injustice to control and keep their power over people.

A note for our times…and a warning for the little minded people who put themselves in charge…

~cse

Well after trying two very different sets of readers and software...neither one seems to want to work with Firefox. I expected the MS reader/software not to work, but the other brand didn't work either. Oh well, so much for that.

~cse

Ok, Just got and have been playing with the fingerprint reader and MS password manager software... it seems to work well, especially with MS only stuff like IE, Passport, and Windows Applications....and it works well for login dialogs.... as long as you are talking MS complaint password entry.... The two major places where this hardware and software WILL NOT WORK are Firefox (anything) and MovableType... not even the IE extension for Firefox will allow the reader to supply login information to the window. Hey, that's MS for ya...so is it useless? worth the $35? Well, if you don't do everything in Firefox and you're willing to give on that point...the reader and software is a good choice...but it would be more effective if MS would make it work for non MS-ware...then it would be an excellent choice.... I would give a 4 out of 10...with this device and software losing most points due to fact it will not work with non-MS features. Btw, it does work with IE 7 Beta 3...that surprised me... (Of course the one issue I found was that the Pizza ordering site that I wanted to set up a finger touch login with...that Pizza company won't work with IE 7 ) ~cse

Ok... some time with the laptop has been done.... Bottom line...there's a lot of good, some bad, and some "what the hells?"

First some bad...or at least some "I would have done it different" Btw, we are talking about the New dv8000z laptop I just upgraded to. The placment of the USB ports.... two on the left and two on the right.... not a bad solution to crap being plugged into the back of the laptop...I always hated that...but the current placement is not perfect... Now I'm right-handed, but I think this statement holds true for both lefties and righties... putting the USB ports on the side is a good idea, BUT....putting them at the front of the side...not so good. The issue is that now I have USB crap hanging off the sides towards the front and (in my right-handed case) the stuff plugged into the right front is in the way when I want to use the wireless mouse that sits to the right of the laptop.... I know it's a habit as to where I place and move my mouse (which is not likely to change any time soon)...and Yes I could try to get use to the built-in touch pad...but I would be nice to have the USB ports more towards the back of the laptop...

One solution I though...and I'm going to need one anyway...is to get a USB 2.0 hub...plug it in on the left side and plug all of the USB stuff into it and place it behind the laptop out of the way...gee kinda makes me wish there was at least one USB port on the back side ... It's a minor thing...but I have to be honest...the USB ports could have been placed better... As far as everything else.... it's a great laptop for the money....it's has everything you need (minus an over the edge display card that some will whine about).... for a general all around purpose laptop...kudos...

Now, the only real complaint...and I know now...it's a marketing issue... the dv8000z has a 64-bit processor...I got the Z on purpose because I would like to move to 64-bit come Vista...well, and here's where I should have read the specs better...I was expecting that a 64-bit Windows XP would ship with the 64-bit hardware...Yeap! you guessed it...this laptop does not ship with a 64-bit OS...well, if you read closely you get the option of Windows XP Home or Professional, or Media Center...not WindowsXP 64-bit That's right...I got caught in the marketing imply one thing while selling something else trick.... Oh, well... I guess I'll suffer the Vista upgrade to 64-bit at some point (and expect half to of everything to stop working)....... Now, some good but gee did I have to work to get it running....

Wireless- I have a wireless Access Point (802.11 b/g) now getting the wireless to work was a somewhat of a challenge....the wireless assistant does help somewhat...but I had to reconfig the wireless AP and after running the wrong wireless driver on the laptop...finally got it to work... Well, that's all for now.... I'll write something soon about the wireless mouse and the new bio-reader I got.... Later, cse

Well, the new laptop will be next week... I decided on a HP dv8000. I'll have to write a review and give the up's and down's. From what I have read it looks like a good performer with the exception of playing games at the high-end (yeah, like that what a laptop is for). Anyway, more on this later.

~cse