Head Explodes

So what if I blog every 5 months...

2008-05-16T13:23:07-05:00:00

So its been 5 months since my last post...

My wife is expecting! We'll be a family of 4 sometime in November
Work is still cruising along pretty well
One of my sites, http://halocharts.com, has grown significantly in the last 5 months. It is now getting 2000-2500 unique visitors a day and is tracking over 45,000 Halo 3 players and counting!
Been learning WPF and Silverlight and really like it a lot. Not so sure I want to do anymore Flash work when I can write C#. I'm sure there will be a ton of integration with Sharepoint down the road also. Looks like we'll have a big project at work soon for WPF.
My son is about to turn 4!
I redesigned http://frontlevel.com and there's some new desktops up
The Sharepoint Convention in Seattle was a great time. Highly enjoyed Game Night also and the Halo 3 crushing I did.
That's it for now

See ya in 5 months.

Trying my hand at Facebook Apps

2007-12-13T22:25:17-06:00:00

I've been playing around with Facebook's API and came up with a couple of Facebook Applications:

First, "Power Score" is a measure of your popularity and activity on Facebook. It currently has over 650 users and is growing steadily! Check it out and it only takes a second.

Second, "HaloCharts" which is an extention of one of my websites, http://halocharts.com. Basically, it adds a dynamically updated Halo 3 Stat signature to your Facebook profile page. It gets regenerated every night and shows off some of the most important Halo 3 multiplayer stats.

I've got some more in the works!

Tech-Ed update: I passed exam 70-361

2007-06-05T09:36:52-05:00:00

First, here at Tech-Ed 2007, I took and passed exam 70-631 - Windows Sharepoint Services: Configuration. The test itself was different than I expected. It focused a lot on network configuration and structure for a WSS deployment and not so much on the actual web app / site collection config. Overall, it wasn't too difficult. I now have a MCTS: WSS Config cert and a new logo!

Second, does anyone else think the chairs at the Orlando Convention Center are extremely uncomfortable?

Updated my art site: Frontlevel.com

2007-05-31T19:21:43-05:00:00

I finished a flash version of my desktop art site, frontlevel.com. The flash version is meant to "look cool", but not be extremely practical. Its got a fairly long load time thanks to some music and the number of pieces of art that load. I did this entirely to better learn flash and what its capable of doing and to attempt to be creative. I've got 67 desktop wallpapers available for download. Some of them are available in wide-screen resolutions and some will fit your Zune as well.

Take a look at the flash version and let me know what you think.

http://frontlevel.com

Big thanks

2007-03-02T17:28:00-06:00:00

I want to thank the person who visited my art site, Frontlevel.com, and alerted me of a cross-site scripting vulnerability on it. That has been fixed now. I am taking a guess that it was someone here on GWB, but if you're out there, THANKS!

My new art online on Frontlevel.com

2007-02-27T12:16:00-06:00:00

For anyone interested I've got over 60 wallpapers I've made up on my art site: Frontlevel.com Quite a few of them are available in wide-screen resolutions as well as a few Zune-sized. Take a look if you've got a few minutes to spare and tell me what you think.

Blue Screen of Death wallpaper (again)

2006-11-16T08:40:00-06:00:00

The BSOD wallpaper I linked to in a previous post got lost, so here are some more links:

http://www.frontlevel.com/art/bsod0800.jpg
http://www.frontlevel.com/art/bsod1024.jpg
http://www.frontlevel.com/art/bsod1280.jpg

Got my xbox 360 online

2006-12-27T10:14:00-06:00:00

I was at Wal-mart last night and found a Belkin wireless bridge for the xbox 360 for $60. I took it home, set it up on one of my PC's and plugged it into the xbox. Worked like a charm. I'm now online, part of xbox live and have my media center and xbox talking to each other.

I absolutely love how you can download demos of games and download other things like movies and themes and stuff. Its not all free, but a lot of it is. The media center integration is going to be very nice too. I highly recommend the belkin bridge over the Microsoft one for price alone since its $40 less.

xbox 360 & the non-existent wireless adapter

2006-12-26T10:14:00-06:00:00

My wife surprised me with an xbox 360 system (with a HD and headset, very cool). Its been a lot of fun so far playing "Call of Duty 3", especially in 1080i awesomeness. One BIG complaint though: How lame is it that Microsoft didn't include a wireless network adapter in a $400 console. Nintendo's $250 Wii has a wireless adapter built in!!! Now, I have to go out and spend $60-$100 more to get my xbox online. LAME.

With that said, I'm still extremely impressed with the system and thankful at the same time.

Awesome training with Ted Pattison

2006-12-18T12:50:00-06:00:00

I just got back from WSS/MOSS v3 training in NYC with Ted Pattison! It was probably the best training I've ever been to. Awesome instructor, awesome examples and very organized labs and lectures. I would highly recommend this training course to anyone looking to dive into developing with Sharepoint v3. Take a look at Ted's website for future training events:

http://www.gorillatraining.com

Vista RTM

2006-11-17T07:47:00-06:00:00

I'm surprised there aren't already a billion posts about how Vista RTM is available on MSDN subscriber downloads. Well, it is.

Blue screen of death

2005-11-07T11:26:00-06:00:00

In all of the years I've been using Windows XP Pro, I've never once had the blue screen of death.... until today.
It was beautiful....

http://geekswithblogs.net/solid/archive/2006/11/16/97271.aspx

Blue Screen of Death Wallpaper

2005-12-07T10:35:00-06:00:00

Many many people have found my blog by searching for “blue screen of death” on Google, etc. Since they are coming here looking for that, I have decided to provide them with one. With that said, here is a Blue Screen of Death desktop wallpaper I made real quick (1024x768):

http://geekswithblogs.net/solid/archive/2006/11/16/97271.aspx

Citrix & Flash audio

2006-07-07T08:22:00-05:00:00

Has anyone encountered poor sounding audio in a flash file that is viewed over a Citrix session?

Other file formats such as mp3 and wav stream ok and sound fine while through Citrix, but audio that is part of a flash movie sounds horrible. I've set our server's audio bandwith to high as well as setting the client's bandwith to high and the sound doesn't improve in flash movies. Speedscreen doesn't help either, it only improves animation in flash, not the sound. So far I'm stumped on a solution to this, if there is one.

SQL Server Reporting Services And Sharepoint V3 integration

2006-06-13T12:01:00-05:00:00

So I'm in Boston at Tech Ed 2006. Lots to see and learn... Its been a great time so far. I went to a session today on changes to improve the integration between SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 (SSRS) and Sharepoint V3 (MOSS & WSS). Here's a few things I learned:

The changes will be part of a SQL Server 2005 SP coming out a month or two after Office 2007 ships.
Reports can be stored in Sharepoint document libraries and use Sharepoint's security, including report-level (like item-level) security
Report management can be done completely in Sharepoint, including modifying report parameters, security and data-source management
Data-Sources can also be stored directly in Sharepoint libraries and managed as well
The report viewer web part has been cleaned up with some new functionality, parameters show up on the right-side now instead of the top, which IMO is a better location
Reports can be scheduled to generate and send results into a document library, new to this release.

So basically, you won't have to use the report manager interface anymore if you integrate with Sharepoint. You can still run them side-by-side, from what I know. There's supposed to be a CTP of this later this summer, so there'll definately be more to see from this in the months to come!