Illusory Follies

Today on the way back from work I stopped at the wonderful oasis of Fry’s. I was kind of stressed out from a long and not terribly rewarding week of work and I figured that for once I’d actually just buy a game.

Well, I ended up with two games! I drove home, slightly faster than usual. After some much-needed mowing in the back and dinner I figured I’d get down to installing them. But wait, the computer I intend to install them on is in pieces after I’d tried swapping some parts around. 45 minutes later it’s all assembled (I had to reattach the motherboard and everything) and booted it up. But wait, I had Ubuntu on these disks, not Vista or XP so I’ve got to install the wonderful Microsoft product before I can start. Vista installs quickly (I was actually sort of impressed. But not that much.) But wait, although the video card is detected and installed, the audio drivers aren’t. A hardware scan doesn’t even see them I power off and pop in a spare sound card that I have lying around. The audio drivers get installed and the game begins. I start with the tutorial. Patrick (who has been very patient this whole time) is interested. He especially likes when the guys I’m controlling open fire on an opposing team. Explosions, gun fire, this is great stuff. We finish up the tutorial and start the first mission. Within 30 seconds the sound card starts crackling and 10 seconds later the sound dies. I check the connectors and then check the software settings. When I try to save the software settings, the game crashes.

So, despite being home by about 7:45pm, it is now 11:45pm and I’ve barely even started playing the game since I’ve been too busy working (again). How depressing.

The worst thing is that the game felt a little confusing and difficult (I’m sure it’s not — it’s just me getting old). I’m pretty sure that Patrick understood it. If I’d let him, I’m sure he’d be on there for the rest of night.

Or maybe the worst part is that I just spent the last 10 minutes writing this blog entry. So much for crazy wild 7+ hour gaming sessions. I’m lucky if I can clean out my inbox.

I’m exhausted. Time for bed.

This is my second post to Illusory Follies, and I wanted to extend my thanks to Andrew for allowing me to post on his blog, Thank you Andrew.

This year TechEd was again in Orlando, FL. For the first time they split it up into two weeks; the first for developers and the second for IT Professionals. This was my third TechEd (I went to San Diego in 2004, and Boston in 2006. I guess I only hit even years).

The keynote was interesting. It was delivered by the man himself; Bill Gates, and was his last one as he retires July 1st. There was a funny video they put together called “Bill’s last day” that was rife with cameos of everyone from Jay-Z to George Clooney to Steven Spielberg and a workout session with Matthew McConaughey. The rest of the keynote talked about Internet Explorer 8 (due in August), Silverlight Beta 2 (releasing this week at TechEd), VS2008 extensions for SharePoint, to name a few. This link has video of the keynote if you want to watch it, and several other blogs have details of the keynote, so I won’t repeat them here.

One other new thing they did this TechEd was not to provide bottled water. Apparently Microsoft is going green and as a result of thousands of empty water bottles going into the landfills in previous TechEds they decided this year to give everyone a nice refillable bottle to carry around with them, and provided water dispensers throughout the convention center. There was no shortage of water available, and they still had soft drinks and juice. At first I was apprehensive as I love my bottled water, but after a few refills I adapted to the idea, and rather enjoyed being able to refill anytime I wanted. Green is a good thing after all.

Another thing I noticed was the lack of snacks. In past TechEds there were tables throughout filled with fruit, granola bars, chips, etc., things to boost your energy throughout the day. This year, not so much. Around 3 PM or so they started rolling out some popcorn and a few snacks, and some fresh baked cookies (they baked them right at the table in little easy bake ovens at around 6 at a time). Of course there were 200 people waiting in line for their shot at chocolate chippy goodness (I happened to walk by a table just as they put some out and snagged one, they were warm, chewy, and indeed delicious).

Breakfast and lunch were decent as they usually are. They had their selection of fresh items, cereal, yogurt, eggs, bacon, bagels, etc. For lunches they had salads, and the prerequisite starches, vegies, and meats. The convention center employees took their jobs way too seriously though. Their job was to usher the TechEdies around like cattle, and they did it well. They stood shoulder to shoulder in lines to make sure no stray geeks escape the herd, imaginary tasers in hand just hoping for the lone non-conformant to decide they want to get their food from “this” table instead of “all the way to the end”, as though they were told if anyone allowed a nerd to wander, they would be docked a day’s pay. On two occasions my colleague and I defied them and stood in a line we were walking by, they weren’t quite sure what to do, so they frantically yelled to everyone else, “All the way to the end!” in hopes others wouldn’t revolt as well. Most were compliant.

At the keynote Bill commented that the developer week was more successful than they had anticipated. They estimated around 3000-4000 would register, but instead it was more than 6000. Yet, without the additional IT people around, it seemed more like the last day of a traditional TechEd, where most people have jumped on their planes home, and the remaining stragglers are wandering around searching for scraps of techie treasures left behind. There just weren’t as many people as I am used to. Also, to me, it just seemed like there was not a lot of excitement this year (maybe it’s the missing IT people, I don’t know, maybe it’s just me), it just seemed like something was missing this year. Although, the last couple days did seem to pick up in the energy level a bit. I guess it makes sense though, as traditionally developers are more low key, and IT people are more intense.

The breakout sessions I have gone to were mostly full, as I obviously picked the same topics everyone else did, and every room I have been in was extremely warm. A couple of the sessions that were so full they were standing room only, however, the over zealous room monitors would not allow anyone to stand this year, as the fire marshal may pop in any time and shut down the convention as a fire hazard. I was tossed out of one room as there were no more seats available, and I wasn’t allowed to stand in the back. As a result, I spent a fair amount of time in the Hands On Labs this year, and happy I did, I learned a lot about Silverlight and Windows Presentation Foundation as a result. I must say, the HOL were my favorite part. Other than a fairly slow network (at one point it took 20 minutes to restore a saved session), the labs were done very well. And there were no shortage of helpers around to assist and train. Well done on the labs MS.

A couple years ago I tried my hand at Windows Presentation Foundation development using XAML, and while it was interesting, everything was manual (i.e. you had to edit the XAML files directly). In VS2008 however they have built a XAML designer, and it’s pretty nice (except you can’t sort properties yet). In addition, XAML has Intellisense! If that wasn’t enough, they have added Intellisense to Javascript for Silverlight 1.0. Also, they added Ruby to the .NET family, and it also has Intellisense (see here)


Silverlight 2.0 beta now has the ability to use the .NET code, so you can develop in C# or any other .NET language, which is pretty cool. I went to a couple sessions about Silverlight 2.0 and media, and it looks like it will be pretty easy to create very robust web sites with great controls and media capabilities.

Other areas of focus for many have been on the new Visual Studio 2008 extensions to SharePoint, Microsoft has created a web site here that gives details.

So, was it a good TechEd? I think it was actually. While it felt more empty without the IT people, it was a pleasant change not having to compete with so many people. I like the Orange County Convention Center (MS must too as they did it two years in a row here). It was laid out just right, easy to get around, Breakout Sessions were all grouped together (unlike San Diego in 2004, where everything was on opposite ends of the center from each other), and the ambiance was very nice. TechEd 2009 will be in Los Angeles.

Also, with the time I spent in the labs, I really have a new appreciation for Silverlight. I came in not really knowing much about it, and now am excited about creating a few Silverlight projects. Also, I met some great people this time as well. With all developers this week, there were more like minded people to interact with, and isn’t that what it’s all about, finding like minded people to connect to?

Well this is priceless… Someone has written (apparently a while back) a console-based front-end for Domino’s QuikOrder web-based system allowing you to order pizza with a simple command-line. Here’s the site. Here’s an example of a command to order (this assumes that you have initially set up an account with Domino’s):

pizza_party -p -m 1 medium

This will order 1 medium pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms.

But just think of the options… you could plug this command in as a cron-job and run it daily (or even multiple times a day!) More pizza quicker and even less human interaction! What’s not to like??

Update: Users beware! There’s a multiple vulnerabilities post on Insecure.org!

Well I finally got sick of my small MacBook screen (useful while traveling but no fun at home when you have a lot of windows open). The new monitor is a 26″ Westinghouse LCD with a max resolution of 1920×1080. The color and brightness are outstanding and a hunt for dead pixels turned up none.

With the new screen I can more realistically deal with multiple large windows than before with my small laptop screen. I’m considering also getting a DVI-enabled KVM to allow my work laptop to easily be plugged in.

With the new monitor in place I feel like I’ve breathed some new life into my MacBook — it’s still plenty fast enough for most of what I do (the exception is running a Windows XP virtual session at a realistic speed). The big memory hog on this machine is still Microsoft Office (no surprise) which I only really use because it’s the only way to check my work email on this machine (using Entourage).

Overall, I’m quite pleased. Our main TV is a Westinghouse and despite it’s “off-name” brand for TVs and sneering remarks from the “big name” brand owners, I’ve been quite impressed with them.

Well, I don’t normally function as an advertising agency, but I thought I’d mention to anyone using OS X that there’s a splendid new application out by Lighthead Software. It’s call Papaya and it’s purpose in life is to make sharing files easy and effortless.

Sharing can be such a pain because of problems between Windows and Mac or even just silly things like firewall rules, security, etc. It would be nice if there was a reasonable way to share files that was:

1. Straightforward — don’t make me click around a lot
2. Easy to share — let me IM or email something that people can easily reference in order to access the shared material
3. Used standards that work regardless of your friend’s operating system

Papaya seems to be the answer.

Sharing files locally is automatic. Depending on your router/firewall, sharing files on the Internet may be just a tiny bit complicated but you only have to configure it once. For my own needs, this is beautiful. I can drag and drop files into Papaya, instantly get a link to share with friends and be on my way. No need to email large files, worry about acceptable formats or whatever else.

Papaya is priced at €20( $31 USD as of 5.26.08). If you have a Mac and need to share files, I definitely recommend this.

Also, Lighthead Software also makes the extremely handy Caffeine application that will keep your laptop from sleeping, having the screen dim, etc. It’s a free program and it’s operated with just one click on turn on, one to turn off. I use it often.

To Lighthead Software, thanks for some excellent programs!

I normally do not participate in this sort of thing. But this one is a little bit more interesting and I have precious little information about myself on this blog. So when my lil’ sister Alison “tagged” me to write up 7 random things about me, I’ve decided I’ll actually do it. I’ve made it slightly more interesting (scary?) by making them things that I’d not terribly proud of about myself.

7 Random Things About Me That I Don’t Normally Admit

1. I’m red/green colorblind. My wife (and my oldest kid) are incredibly color oriented. I’ve wondered many times if my wife has tetrachromacy. This random fact is one that is used to the infinite amusement of family and friends as in “Hey, what color does the carpet look like? What about the blinds? Wow! That’s weird!”. Please stop — thank you.

2. I’m a terrible cook. This has not stopped me from trying. I’d like to take this time to apologize to my family especially and the close friends that I have caused to suffer. I assure you, my intent is delicious food.

3. I have a dream… that one day I will be an author. I don’t feel particularly gifted nor do I have anything particular interesting to share with the world but I think that it would be fun to work from home all the time, wake up late, and write off trips to exotic places as business expenses. I’ve also considered writing technical books like those in the O’Reilly series. Most of the authors write terrible drivel so my title would fit nicely. (By the way, I like O’Reilly better than any other tech-book publisher — I just think most of the authors are better coders than writers).

4. I like ABBA (the dance/pop group). I’m sorry Sarah.

5. On a related note, I have taught my oldest son to dance. I’m sorry Patrick. Very sorry.

6. I think that binary is really cool. I fantasize that I have an audience who cares about me explaining it to them. In fact, I regularly “test the waters” by attempting to explain base n number systems to those around me. This explains why I rarely get party invitations.

7. Speaking of numbers, I like them a lot and try to memorize them. I still know one of my good friend’s Social Security Numbers (Sam, you should have NEVER let me get near your wallet) and I can assure you that the largest size of a signed, 32-bit integer is 2,147,483,647. They’re fun. I’m worse with numbers and letters together (as in license plates) but I’m trying to hone my skills (my brother said he knew/heard of someone who could keep a queue of 7 or so in his head while driving — I’m not there yet, but I practice regularly.)

Supposedly I should “tag” others but I don’t like the idea — people shouldn’t be forced to share. If you’re in some way influenced to share about yourself by reading this post, just let me know and I’ll link to it. There — that’s nicer.

…Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

I find little time these days and I noticed with some annoyance that I was behind with my Wordpress updates. I run a number of sites (13 Wordpress sites alone) and updating from 2.5 -> 2.5.1 is sort of painful and tedious.

So I made a script (most of the domain names are removed but you could add to the list):

sites=(illusoryfollies.com
       flanaganclan.com
       sarahflanagan.com)
 
base_path="/var/www/vhosts"
wordpress_download_url="http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz"
wordpress_download_file="latest.tar.gz"
wordpress_download_directory="wordpress"
wordpress_database_update_url="wp-admin/upgrade.php?step=1&backto=%2Fwp-admin%2F"
jailed_directory="httpdocs"
temp_directory="wp-temp"
 
number_of_sites=${#sites[@]}
 
 
echo "Updating $number_of_sites websites with the latest version of Wordpress."
 
for current_site in ${sites[@]}
do
  echo "Now processing $current_site..."
  echo "  Setting up directories..."
  if [ -e $base_path/$current_site/$jailed_directory ]
  then
    echo "  !!Detected a jail'ed website..."
    mkdir -p $base_path/$current_site/$jailed_directory/$temp_directory
    cd $base_path/$current_site/$jailed_directory/$temp_directory
  else
    mkdir -p $base_path/$current_site/$temp_directory
    cd $base_path/$current_site/$temp_directory
  fi
 
  echo "  Downloading latest version of Wordpress..."
  wget -q $wordpress_download_url
  echo "  Uncompressing..."
  tar zxfv $wordpress_download_file > /dev/null
  cd $wordpress_download_directory
  echo "  Copying into existing directory..."
  cp -r * ../..
  cd ../..
  echo "  Updating database..."
  wget -q "http://$current_site/$wordpress_database_update_url" -O /dev/null
  echo "  Cleaning up..."
  rm -rf $temp_directory
  echo "Done processing $current_site."
  echo ""
 
done

Now it takes about 15 seconds to update everyone’s site and it even performs the “Database Upgrade” step (at least for now).

Automation is a good thing. Speaking of which, I’m interested in Capistrano but I still haven’t really done anything with it. It looks like fun… I’ll have to add a post if I have any luck experimenting with it.

… at least in some cases.

It’s easy to store information on your cell phone by typing some text in. It’s more advanced to be able to send text messages. But what about providing a “universal” interface (meaning a web services interface) that can receive text and makes text available?

This is what Twitter does. I wasn’t very impressed when I first heard about it a while back because it seemed so… simplistic. Anyone can write a simple database with users and allow them to post text messages. But I was missing the point.

I can now use my cell phone to send a message to Twitter (there’s a program called MobileTwitter that I just downloaded and installed. This text messages pretty much instantly wings its way to the Twitter servers. From there, people can subscribe to my “stream” of messages using desktop-based clients (I use Spaz on my MacBook and my Windows PC). However, I’m not stuck using one companies application — all I need to do is poll the web service. A simple curl call will easily retrieve my latest Twitter message

curl -u andrewflanagan:mypassword http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline
/andrewflanagan.xml?count=1 -s -o /var/twitter/andrewflanagan.xml

and a few lines of PHP will make it displayable on my web page:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('/var/twitter/andrewflanagan.xml', 0, true);
$status = $xml->status->text;

Alternatively I could have the PHP script directly call Twitter but I ran into some problems since it takes longer to load the pages each time someone visits and Twitter unfortunately limits requests to 70/hr which results in ugliness when I get too many hits on my site. So instead I set up a cron job that runs every 5 minutes (using the curl call above) and updates the locally-stored XML file.

But anyway, the point of this is that you can easily define new interfaces for entering, receiving, and displaying text. It’s simplistic, yes. But it means that on my way back from work (in the car) I can update the front page of my blog with a message using my cellphone. I can also be pulled over by a state trooper. They have no appreciation for the depth and usefulness of this technology!