Totzkeeeeee's Blog

DevTeach Bonus Session

David Totzke — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:27:14 GMT

This year the bonus session (Wednesday May 14 at 18:00) will be a panel of speakers debating the Future of .NET. Where is .NET going? How will new development influence .NET and be influenced by .NET? Join Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell from .NET Rocks as they moderate a discussion on the future directions of .NET. The panellists include individuals who have strong visions of the future of software development and the role that .NET can play in that future. Attend this session and bring your questions to get some insight into the potential future of .NET! This bonus session is free for everyone. Panelists are: Ted Neward,Oren Eini, and Scott Bellware

DevTeach Toronto May 12 - 16 - 2008

David Totzke — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:24:35 GMT

DevTeach Toronto - one of the best developer conferences in Canada - is less than a week away! Are you going? If not, you'll be missing out on a keynote address by Scott Hanselman, a panel discussion featuring Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell, a highly-acclaimed "Party with Palermo" social event with Jeffrey Palermo, the ability to attend tons of sessions covering the latest & greatest technologies, and the opportunity to connect with many of your peers from across Canada and around the world. Now, why on Earth would you want to miss all of that?! Register today!

Party With Palermo

David Totzke — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:59:28 GMT

Jeffrey Palermo (MVP) is hosting Monday May 12th in Toronto is acclaimed ‘’Party with Palermo’’. This is the official social event kicking off DevTeach Toronto. The event is not just for the attendees of Toronto it’s a free event for everyone. It’s a unique chance for the attendees, speakers and locals to meet and talk with a free beer. The event will be held at the Menage club location and you need to RSVP to attend. Get all the details at this link: http://www.partywithpalermo.com/

LOLCode and the DLR

David Totzke — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:21:28 GMT

In a previous (failed) attempt at an April Fools post I mentioned that a new and hipper version of Visual Basic was being designed to take advantage of the DLR.

Little did I know how close I was. LOLCode on the DLR

Dave
I CAN HAS JUST BECAUSE...

Anyone? Anyone?

David Totzke — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:20:22 GMT

Bueller?

Perhaps I am the fool. Either that or nobody's listening; which is a distinct possibility as I haven't been posting anything much of interest in some time now. I thought that this would have at least garnered some half-hearted jabs.

I mean really. Where are all of those naive petitioners now?

BTW, the code examples shown in my previous post are actually from LOLCODE and yes, it's real. To be honest, I sort of like the way the code reads. There's even the beginnings of a .NET compiler for Lolcode and the LOLCODE Specification 1.2 is pretty complete.

Dave
Just because I can...

DOS - By No Means Dead

David Totzke — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:14:37 GMT

Back in March of 2005 I found myself with the unlikely need to print from a DOS-based program to a USB printer in a stand-alone environment. At the time, I documented the process, mostly for myself. That article has now accumulated one hundred and seventy-six thousand, six hundred and ~~two~~ ~~three~~ four hits during the intervening 3 years.

What this means, even to this day, as the hits continue to climb at a steady pace, is that about once every nine minutes (!!) somebody does a search on how to make this happen. I even get email via my blog asking me to "please me tell how print dos to my usb". Almost weekly. Seriously.

You people need to upgrade. At least give Windows 98 a go. I guess the old adage still holds: If it ain't broke...

Dave
Just because I can...

Visual Basic.NET - v.Next

David Totzke — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:14:35 GMT

Now that Visual Basic has broken ties with its COM roots it is free to continue innovation and advance the platform for the next generation. Microsoft has done a lot of market research and found that VB is being embraced by the younger generation and have embarked on a completely new form of the language.

The typical VB developer has long been associated with the "Mort" persona. Mort doesn't have time for fancy frameworks and elegant code. He just wants to get things done quickly and efficiently and move on to the next problem. Late binding and dynamic execution is king. Even in during inter-personal communication Mort will often use shorthand codes like "BRB" for Be Right Back. With this in mind, the new language is evolving to take advantage not only of Mort's personality but also of the forthcoming DLR. (Dynamic Language Runtime)

Still in the very early stages of development, it is at least two versions away and can't even be called pre-alpha at this point. Through some of my MVP connections that wish to remain anonymous, I have obtained a sneak peak and just have to share it with you. Following are some early examples of the new Visual Basic.

The canonical introductory example:

HAI

CAN HAS STDIO?

VISIBLE "HAI WORLD"

KTHXBYE

HAI - Signals the beginning of the program. Every program starts with HAI.

CAN HAS...? - This is a feature request and replaces the Imports statement. Similar to #include in C++ or "using" in C#.

VISIBLE - The print statement. Sends the output to stdout.

KTHXBYE - Closes the HAI block. Every program ends with KTHXBYE. Does not close any other code blocks.

Here is an example that retrieves a value from the user and outputs that value to stdout.

HAI

CAN HAS STDIO?

I HAS A VAR

GIMMEH VAR

VISIBLE VAR

KTHXBYE

I HAS A - Variable declaration. Currently all variables are of type BUKKIT (array) and BUKKITs are heterogeneous. Future type proposals include NUMBAR and YARN (string).

HAI

CAN HAS STDIO?

I HAS A WHOLE

GIMMEH WHOLE

LOL VAR R WHOLE

KTHXBYE

LOL <l-value> R <expression> - An assignment operator. The value of WHOLE is put into VAR and now I have a WHOLE in my BUKKIT! Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

GIMMEH - Get input from the user. Similar to Console.ReadLine() in .NET. Places the input into VAR.

File access and error handling:

HAI

CAN HAS STDIO?

BTW this file has a list of all my friends in it

PLZ OPEN FILE "FRNDZ.TXT"?

    AWSUM THX

        VISIBLE FILE

    O NOES

        INVISIBLE "ERROR!"

KTHX

KTHXBYE

BTW - By The Way. This is the comment indicator and replaces the single quote. Equivalent to REM.

PLZ...? - PLZ...? sets up the equivalent of a try/catch block. AWSUM THX begins the block of code that should be executed if the operation is successful and is implicitly closed by O NOES. O NOES is equivalent to a catch block. The block is closed by KTHX.

OPEN - OPEN handles non-standard I/O. FILE is simply a variable and in this example represents a file handle. Here we see the dynamic nature of this new version. We did not need to declare the variable FILE with I HAS A.

INVISIBLE - Used to output messages to the debug console. (stderr)

I hope you've enjoyed this look into this future version of Visual Basic. I for one am looking forward to the time when this language is embraced by the next generation of "c0d3rz" and "hax0rs" who will most certainly restore the language to its former glory and popularity.

Dave
Just because I can...

ASP.NET Pro Magazine Reader's Choice Awards

David Totzke — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:59:15 GMT

It's that time of year again. Every year ASP.NET Pro Magazine runs its Reader's Choice Awards to find out what the community at large feels are the best tools and components available. There are categories for such things as the Best:

Add-In
Charting Component
Component Set
Grid
Navigation Suite
Online Editor
Printing/Reporting Components
Scheduling Components
and more...

The final choice is for Best Overall Component of the Year. Voting is now open and only takes a minute or two to complete. Head on over and make your voice heard.

Dave
Just because I can...

Windows Live Writer

David Totzke — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:27:14 GMT

Ok, now that's cool.

I've been meaning to try out Windows Live Writer for making blog posts because one of the things that stops me from posting very much is that it's a bit of a pain. The editors that are embedded in blog software such as Subtext, a fork of the popular .Text software, are surprisingly good but can only take you so far. Things like inserting a picture can be a real pain and I always find myself switching to the source view to tweak things here and there.

I fired up the program after installing it and a wizard started up. I picked the option for an existing blog, gave it the URL of my blog, my username, and my password and then it did everything else all by itself! You mileage may vary depending on whether or not you blogging platform supports the APIs for which Live Writer is looking. (or Live Writer supports your blogging platform of choice - I'm not certain as to which way around this works)

Like I said, that's frickin' cool.

I think that the most attractive feature for me is the ability to save a draft of the post and come back to it later. I know that with Subtext I can save a post as unpublished and come back to it but that still requires me to be online. For me, the experience of a rich desktop program is just far superior to a similar experience that is web-based.

Raise your hand if you do this:

Write your post
Copy the text (if I can, I copy the actual HTML Source, just in case)
Paste it into Notepad or other suitable program
Submit your post

And why do we do this? Because we've all been burned when something goes wrong with the post and hitting the back button returns us to a blank form. Here in Live Writer I simply hit the Save Draft button and I have a nice safe local copy.

Often times when composing a post you want to be sure that it's going to render properly and Subtext doesn't have the facility to preview a post. (at least not that I can find) You can save it unpublished so that the public can't see it but that means that neither can you. All that remains is to publish your post unfinished and then have a look at it and then Shower, Rinse, Repeat. Annoying. You favourite (OMG it knows I'm Canadian!) Blog aggregator will likely detect these multiple edits and do something weird as well. This is where I discover the View menu.

In addition to the HTML Code view there is also a Web Layout view and a Web Preview. Web Preview shows me my post as it would appear on the actual site! That is super cool.

The final feature that is immediately noticeable is the [Set categories] area at the bottom of the UI just above the status bar. Clicking here shows me a list of the blog categories that it has pulled down from my blog. They're my categories. Let's see, there's "Ravings of a Lunatic". Definitely need to check that one.

Now, all of this assumes that when I finally get around to hitting the Publish button that the post actually makes it unscathed onto my blog. Given how smooth the experience has been thus far, confidence is high.

Time to Point Your Toes; We're Going In Deep.

Dave
Just because I can...

[UPDATE: Holy Crap It Worked!!]

There Will Be Code

David Totzke — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:42:07 GMT

Inspired via the Monkey. His Kung Fu is strong.

Ladies and Gentlemen if I say I am a SOFTWARE ARCHITECT you will agree with me. And I wish to speak to you today about DEVELOPING SOFTWARE. There are those who will say they can craft you an application, and that may VERY WELL be TRUE. But can they get you to ZERO BUG BOUNCE? Can they craft a decent USER INTERFACE. Can they craft a decent CONFIGURATION MANAGER? Will they rely on a creaky THREE-TIER ARCHITECTURE or have they mastered FIVE? It is these QUESTIONS you must consider.

I have applications running in the FORTUNE 500, you see. I have had meetings with executives both HIGH and LOW. You could go with someone from DEVRY, or someone who's developed an E-COMMERCE SITE, yes, for his UNCLE's fix-it business. But only I can have the FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION and the ARCHITECTURAL ROADMAP for your application by APRIL. I can do it, I can have it, and I can make it exciting, with an interactive help system and animated icons. YOU can GO WITH SOMEONE ELSE, that is your right. BUT you CANNOT say that you were not PRESENTED with the option to skip all that; to just DEVELOP WITH ME.

I await your decision. I will sit here and calmly wax my mustache. Please don't mind my son, D.W. He will be stepping out momentarily to procure a REDBULL.

NOW, what is for LUNCH?

Yes. There will be code. And there will be blood.

Dave
Just because I can...

Cross of Valour - Constable Chris Garret

David Totzke — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:52:37 GMT

Chris Garret was murdered in the line of duty in 2004. He was nominated for the Cross of Valour but denied it because the trial of his killer held up the application until the 2-yr time limit lapsed.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=125262

That such a callous and automatous application of the rules is even possible leaves me dumbstruck.

There is an online petition to correct this:

http://www.petitiononline.com/05142004/petition.html

Please take a moment to sign.

Dave
Just because I can...

Hidden, Non-Present Devices in Windows

David Totzke — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:39:18 GMT

Normally this isn’t a problem because you install Windows on a machine and that’s it.

Some IT shops will install Windows on a machine, seal it with Sysprep, and then create a ghost image of that machine, take that image and install it on a different model, ghost that; install it again on another model…well, you get the point. The net effect is that you can have a single image for many different configurations because the end installation of Windows has seen and loaded drivers for the hardware once before. IMNSHO* this is just lazy. Most large companies manage to cope with a machine and model specific image library. But that’s just me.

Ghost devices can also show up if you don’t “uninstall” the device with device manager before you physically remove the device when replacing it with a new one or removing it altogether. Windows won’t find it when it boots up and will simply hide the entry in device manager because it is assuming that it might come back some day. An example of a legitimate ghost device would be a thumb drive or other external USB device that you simply don’t have plugged in right now.

The downside of this is that all of the devices that are no longer present are still registered along with all of their settings in the registry. Windows is looking for those devices every time you start your computer. Aside from the startup issue, this shouldn’t really cause a problem however, I learned about this because I did have a problem with a network card on a system and left over settings were screwing it up. Until I learned about this and removed the non-present devices, nothing I did would make things work correctly.

Here are the instructions in a Microsoft Knowledge base article on how to see the hidden, non-present devices on your machine. Give it a try. You can’t hurt anything and you might be amazed by what you see.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

The good news is that once you can see them, you can uninstall them. Right-click and choose unistall. The usual caveats and disclaimers apply. Somethings it won't let you unistall and there was at least one thing I tried to uninstall under System devices that caused me to freeze up. A simple reboot fixes the problem.

Dave
Just because I can...

Gobsmacked by Irony

David Totzke — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:31:18 GMT

Gobsmacked*. That's what I was. There's no other word for it.

I wrote yesterday about the abduction of our cat from our back yard by a brazen coyote. Read that first.

TingTing was one of a litter of nine kittens born to a stray that was taken in by the local vet. She was the smallest of the bunch and while her mother and the other kittens were jet black, she was a dark grey. We waited until she could be weaned from her mother and then took her home.

We already had the big male Mimi and he was none-too-pleased to see another cat in his domain. We kept her isolated in the laundry room at first in an enclosure I had cobbled together from a few bits of wood.

She was not fully weaned when we acquired her and as such we bottle fed her while introducing solid food as well.

Wanting to be a good daddy to our new pet I did a little research on the Internet. They suggested that in order to ease the transition you should put a small stuffed animal in the bed with your kitten to alleviate any loneliness. I only had one small stuffed toy at the time; a gift from my neice JoJo.

Up until the day she was taken from us this toy stayed beside her bed. She never really played with it or anything and I have no idea whether she took any comfort from its presence but even so it had become a fixture. I had come to think of it as her protector.

The day after TingTing was taken from us I walked into our bedroom to get dressed when I spotted her little bed there and was litterally gobsmacked by irony. Here is a picture of her protector.

Dave
Just because I can...

*gobsmacked. Dictionary.com. WordNet® 3.0. Princeton University. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gobsmacked (accessed: July 26, 2007).

In Memorium - Beloved TingTing - 2002 to 2007

David Totzke — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:36:33 GMT

Monday morning at approximately 5:00 AM our beloved cat TingTing was snatched away by a coyote right in our own back yard and literally at the feet of my wife.

TingTing was an indoor cat but was not declawed and was in the habit of having a morning romp in the back yard. She never strayed away from the property into the open field behind our home.

We have a door to the back yard from our Master Bedroom and shortly after being let out there was a considerable commotion at our bedroom window. It was TingTing.

My wife opened the door to let her in and to her astonishment there was a coyote standing right there. Desparate for safety, TingTing jumped down from the window ledge and before she could make it into our home the coyote struck quickly and snatched her away. The unmitigated audacity of the creature is astounding. One would have thought that it would turn tail and run at the site of a human.

This is when I awoke from a very deep sleep to the disturbing sounds of the unfolding event and just in time to see my wife dash out the door.

I lept out of bed and went to the door as I yelled "What's happening?!?"

"There's a dog after TingTing" exclaimed my horrified wife and with that I was off.

I flew out the door and tore across the back yard with a shout and a clap like thunder hoping to startle the coyote into ceasing its molestation of our dear one. From the time I left the doorway until I was twenty or thirty feet into the field I heard only a single, terrible cry from her.

Then silence.

It was at this point I realized I was naked.

I ran back into the house and threw on some clothes and shoes, grabbed a flashlight and ran back out into the night hoping against hope that the coyote had released TingTing and she had simply gone to ground and was keeping silent to avoid detection. As time passed and the sun started to rise, what I already knew in my mind sank into my heart.

She was gone.

My wife was inconsolable with grief. To be so close and have your beloved pet snatched away left her shattered.

In addition to seeing TingTing taken away, there was also the dawning possibility that our other cat, Mimi, was taken as well. They had gone out together in the morning and usually returned together. He was like her big brother and almost certainly had witnessed the attack.

Big Mimi is far more worldly than TingTing and has been roaming the local area for 6 years and, at 17 pounds of solid cat and with a full set of claws, can take care of himself. The coyotes have been out there all along so there's no reason to assume that they had now captured him.

It's just that his belly usually brings him home like clockwork and as the hours pass doubt continued to cast its shadow over us. My wife and I took turns roaming the neighbourhood, calling his name in the hope that he would emerge from hiding.

Finally, at just around nine PM, he popped up at the window. He was clearly shaken and still very alert but otherwise completely unharmed. We scooped him up and whisked him into the house. Enveloped in my wife's arms he begins to settle but still snapped his gaze around at the sligthtest sound.

Once released from my wife's embrace he seemed torn between his food dish and something else. Hunger seemed to win out if only for a moment. After a few mouthfuls it became clear what else he was concerned about.

He is trying to find TingTing.

Normally she is right there to greet him upon his return and sample the scents from Beyond the Yard that still clung to him. He wandered through the house, pausing here and there at places where she could normally be found. He would stop at her little pile of toys near the fireplace, look at them and then look to us as if to ask "Have you seen her?"

TingTing had a habit of playfully ambushing Mimi at various points and it was heart-wrenching to see him pause at these locations; seemingly daring her to appear and pounce.

After a few laps of our home he settled sullenly on the back of the couch stairing out the window into the night.

Two days have now passed and Mimi will still not venture far and only goes anywhere if one of us is beside him. If we return to the house, he follows.

I still hold out some small hope that by some miracle TingTing made good her escape and has simply been lying low somewhere too frightened to return and will miraculously appear at the window. That hope however, fades with each passing hour. I fear that we must accept this harsh reality:

She was good.

And the good die young.

Dave
Just because I can...

D-Series Laser 917 Replica

David Totzke — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:43:36 GMT

This is crazy cool. Of course, the WAF on this is certainly approaching zero but if you're looking for a sports car to facilitate your mid-life crisis this may be just the ticket.

Dave
Just because I can...