I have got to get me one of these Ok, ok...I'll save you clicking on the link...it's the iCat....some people will not like the cat aspect, but I think it's pretty darn nifty. Pathetic, ain't I

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Neil Gaiman, in his blog, offers the following as an explanation of why he writes the stories he writes.... Very, very cool

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I am still working on my TFS/VSTS install. No comments from the peanut gallery about how long this is taking, please. Trying to get our Help desk folks to create the domain accounts, and provide installs of the support services (SQL Server 2005, Sharepoint, etc.) has been....problematic. However, I did want to mention that I like the install checker that runs as part of the install. Basically, before you ever get busy actually installing anything, it runs a comprehensive check to look for issues...

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Working With Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System ISBN: 0-7356-2185-3 Author: Richard Hundhausen Microsoft Press I got this book at the Greenville Code Camp. I have been very curious about VSTS testing capabilities, which isn’t much of a surprise, I suppose. I read this book to get a feel for what it could do, and to prepare myself for potentially being a good advocate for its usage at my employer. It turned out that my VP had also read it, and we had some very good conversation about the book...

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BeyondCompare is a file/folder comparing tool by Scooter Software. I've used quite a few file compare tools in the last few years in an automation capacity. Very handy to create a template file that contains what information you expect to be produced by code that will produce a file, then later repeat the process and make sure the file either doesn't change or changes as expected. Ultimately not the best approach sometimes, but often the most eloquent. So, I was interested in looking at this new...

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Sheri and I have tickets to see TSO on Nov. 14th!!! If you haven't seen them, check them out....very nice

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Neil Gaiman posted a link to an article about authors who produced 6 word stories for Wired Magazine...some of these are hilarious, and brilliant. Frank Miller's is so wonderfully Frank Miller that it almost brings a tear to the eye

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Just a short post to request something of the Web community at large. Basically, here's the deal: I love your long, detailed, carefully crafted Flash animation. Really. I mean that. I can appreciate that it was time-consuming and difficult.. Really. I mean that. I really love it the first time....and probably the second time. If it's especially cool, probably the third time as well. However, after that, it probably begins to lose its "freshness". Eventually, it may get to be so tiresome, I'll just...

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”Nothing Else Matters” can be found here. Very, very cool...if you like Classical and Heavy Metal. This string quartet rocks

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I've been talking a lot lately about how to use the XMLDOM to interact with elements in complicated structres to make finding them dynamically easier. This process is something I literally do everyday, and is the most reliable method I've found. However, sometimes, I have found it most useful to use a combination of the two to get some work done. For example, I had an occassion where there was code executed when I selected a value in a WebSelect using it's Select. However, simply setting the value...

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My buddy Maryanne told me this (it's from Prarie Home Companion). Why do they call it PMS? Because Mad Cow was taken My fiance Sheri almost passed out laughing about that one. :-)

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This is pretty darn cool. A vid demonstrating some new software that is used to illustrate physics. My buddy passed me the link, and reports that the software is available for download on Microsoft's website...pretty nifty, says I. Ah, ha! Found it here and it's apparently for the tablet....sure wish I had one to check this out....very slick...

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BlogusMaximus, A fellow GWB poster, posted a link of blogvomit in his blog, illustrating someone else guilty of it. I think this is certainly worth repeating, and worth taking note of the comments on the linked post. The GWB guys won't tolerate this sort of behaviour, it would appear. Thanks to BlogusMaximus for pointing this out; good to know. Did I mention that BlogusMaximus gets credit for this...

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I am going to end my subscription to the Mercury Forum Listserv. Recently, someone posted a question and entertained replies for 4 days (or so it seems). None of the suggestions would work, or met their need. The saga unfolded. I finally wrote a detailed reply to help them out. I get “wow that too much code and this would be my last resort”. WTF?? I do 96% of the work and it's too much code??? I felt wildly unappreciated. This happens far too often. If you don't know the location of the...

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Yeah, I finally clicked on the cool graphic located in my blog. It said “5 GB free” on XDrive. Seemed liked an interesting deal. So, I signed up. Some observations: 1. It's free. Free is good 2. It does require an AOL screen name, but that's free, too. Not like I am actually going to use the email address anyway. 3. Our corporate firewall blocks it. Pity, that. I thought it would be a great way to move files back and forth between work and home, and provide a convenient place to put non-secure...

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A user on the QTP forum posted this question. I tried to provide an example on the forums, but alas, too many characters. So, thought I'd post it here, but off the main feed. Dynamic Link problems I'm having problems clicking a dynmaic link while playing back a QTP 9.0 script. The location of the link I'm clicking on can vary each time the script is ran. Also, there may be many links on the page with the same name. The only unique attribute changes each time the dynamic link is created. Help!! Dynamic...

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WebList objects support an EntendSelect method to allow you to select more than one value. However, trying to express this in QTP can be a pain. How to make this simple? Well, here's how I implemented this: I created a procedure (located in an external VBS file) that will accept the object (since it's registered to the WebList object), a delimited string of the values to select, and the delimiter. As you can see from the code below, it will parse the string, and select the values. As an extra option,...

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Been a lot of buzz on the Mercury forums this past couple of weeks about QTP being no longer supported. Just thought it worth mentioning here: QTP is *NOT* being dropped, and will continue to be supported. Reports of it's demise have been great exaggerated, wot

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I've preached tons on my blog about using the XMLDOM on webpages rather than the tools installed in QTP. I still feel this is much more reliable most of the time, since it allows you to incorporate more powerful, adaptive logic into you scripts. Who cares, for example, if the dev changes the structure or formatting of a page if you can write code that anticipates it? However, sometimes, in pages that are more or less unlikely to be changed, you can get away with a shortcut. For example, I have a...

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I've been seeing lots of questions on this in the forums on the MIC support site, so I thought I'd provide an example of how to do this via a resource (VBS) file. Naturally, this can be hacked up and used a needed. Public Function MapRemoteDrive(ByVal strDriveLetter, ByVal strPath)'******************... Name: MapRemoteDrive'* Author: Theo Moore'* Assumptions: None'* Inputs: '* - strDriveLetter - Drive letter to use'* - strPath - The path to...

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Programming Sudoku - Wei-Meng Lee ISBN: 1-59059-662-5 I’ve been a fan of sudoku for some time now, and have, since playing it the first time, been very interested in writing my own version for the .NETCF. I’ve been looking for a good reference on the subject for some time now. While at the South Carolina Code Camp 2.0 (I was a speaker on .NETCF game development), I saw this book (Apress sent it as giveaway…thanks for that), and flipped through a few pages. I was very impressed,...

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First, let me tell you that I am not someone who uses support very much. Years ago, I worked in a cell center supporting a software product. I used to grouse that the larger percentage of those people to whom I talked weren't very savvy (read as: seemed to be idiots), it drove me nuts. That said, I did talk occassionally to someone with some skills who tried all the easy stuff first, and I honestly loved those calls. Fun to figure out, like a puzzle. I never minded the time to help someone who at...

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I was recently turned on to "abandonware". If you've never heard of it, it's interesting...although I'll admit its legality seems a little...questionable. Basically, abandonware is software which the original publisher has ceased maintenance and support, and no longer sells. The website I was directed to suggests that since the software doesn't involve a loss of revenue, the publisher and the law "ignore" the fact that distribution is occurring. I'd never heard of it, so I started looking around...

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