I picked up a Bluetooth based GPS the other day for a project I am working on.  I decided on the Pharos bluetooth model and while the hardware appears slick boy does the MapFinder software for installing the maps suck!  The maps are delivered on three CDRoms as .ZIP files and the map finder software is intended to let you select a portion of the country and extract those maps to your PC or Pocket PC.  Cool I thought.  Since I travel a lot I told it to extract all the maps to my laptop so that I could download the relevant maps based on where I was.  Whoops.  150 CD Swaps later the maps are all extracted.  The developer of the feature never thought about the fact that they shoud perhaps extract the maps in CD order.  Instead from what I can tell the developer decided to iterate across the sections on the map meaning that when you are on a border between the content on two CDs you get into this West, then Northeast, then West, then Northeast loop that makes you want to throw the CDs against the wall.  What should have been a 15-20 minute install wtih 2 disk swaps turned into a 2 hour ordeal with an inordinate number of disk swaps.

I won't even start in with the UI which is "challenged" at best.

Friday, July 09, 2004 9:08:48 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]  

If you have been following my blog you know that I have been working on building a low cost SAN for some time now.  DataCore were the first folks to offer a purely software iSCSI target (SANMelody) that I know of. The product started out around $1200 for the base level product and appeared to be fairly full featured if you were willing to pay up to $8000 to get all the features.

Now a company named RocketDivision has come out with an iSCSI initiator called StarPort and an iSCSI target called StarWind.  They are claiming 155Mbps over Gbe which is awesome compared to the typical 25Mbps of CIFS NAS style sharing. The biggest feature however might be price! $19 and $39 respectively! The features are quite honestly nowhere near as rich as SANMelody but it appears they are actively working on the product to round out the feature set.

The only thing I am not clear on is why use their initiator as opposed to the Microsoft supplied one.  Waiting for an answer on this one.

Friday, July 02, 2004 1:52:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [2]  

Rocky Lhotka hasn't been blogging for awhile however on return from TechEd he started writing up a storm about CSLA.NET his business object framework that is now in it's second iteration.  This post was especially interesting as it talked a lot about the thorny issue of how business objects do data access and the tradeoffs involved.

Wednesday, June 02, 2004 9:48:13 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Jim Blizzard my buddy out of Portland posted about the strategy that must be employed to actually score yourself one of the coveted Dove bars.

I have found that is the strategy you must employ to score any snacks!  At the PDC the snack tables were the stuff of every 12 year old (or developers) dreams.  Mountains of junk food piled high at all times.  Candy bars, cookies, chips and soda.  Pretty much the four food groups for most developers.

Admittedly it isn't the healthiest stuff but when you need some sustenance to sit through another 75 minute session it hits the spot.  Someone however got the crazy idea that TechEd should go down a healthier route.  What does that mean?  One of two things.  Either the tables are stocked with things like Granola Bars, PowerBars, Atkins Bars, Apples, Oranges, Bannanas, Popcorn, Dried Fruit, Nuts, Carrots and Celery or you got there to late and the only thing left is the fruit! It is like they decided not only are we going to get you eating healthy we are going to make sure we limit your intake.

I heard rumors of a few candy bars but they proved nearly as elusive as the dove bars Jim mentions.

Now I am sure all of this is great.  I actually am loving it since I haven't snacked almost at all since I got here (Well I did score one of those elusive dove bars). I am sure that this is probably in response to some feedback they received at PDC. The part I don't understand is why not have some variety?  I have to imagine the vast majority of developers would rather eat Twinkies and Cheetos than Celery sticks and Fruit. Once they have the variety thing out of the way make sure those tables are full at all times. Going out to get a snack after a long session and just seeing bare tables with a few pieces of fruit left is ridiculous.

</rantoff>

Thursday, May 27, 2004 7:05:18 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Here is Ted and Rocky at the GAPP cabana session.  I can barely be seen in the extreme right of the picture. Hard to compete with these two guys when they get going!

Monday, May 24, 2004 6:17:10 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Remember the post when I mentioned the extermination of the speaker room in an attempt to get the speakers to hang out with attendees?  It appears to be a failure. 

There is still a speaker room and when I checked in this morning there was probably ~70 speakers in the room instead of out attending sessions or hanging out in the cabana.  Pretty much no change from previous conferences.

One contributing factor may be that it appears that the wireless network is no better than PDC.  It was great yesterday during the precons but now that all attendees are on site it has gone to heck.  Might be a reason all the speakers are hanging out in a room with hardwired network connections!

Monday, May 24, 2004 10:07:47 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

I am at TechEd 2004 in San Diego, CA speaking at a pre-conference session on Guidance about Patterns & Practices.  Things are going great, the weather is good, etc.

Saw a hilarious new session:

Picture is terrible but loved the session title.  Programming for the non-Programmer...

Sunday, May 23, 2004 1:25:32 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

I guess I am not the only rider out there.  Martin coincidentally posts his CBR today.

I believe Eric Gunnerson is also a die hard rider.

Friday, May 21, 2004 8:43:50 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Bill Evjen posts that this is his third TechEd.  That just didn't sound right for me so I thought back and realized the first TechEd I attended was in 1993!  In fact in I believe it was 1991 or 1992 I attended the pre-cursor to TechEd called the Tools Forum at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle.  While I will freely admit to not attending every year I have spoken at I believe four of them and attended a few more. Hard to believe that time passes so fast...

Friday, May 21, 2004 7:45:30 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

Crazy RD Scott Hanselman is at it again.  This time he is helping out with a promotion for the RD Community booth.  It is taking on an apprentice theme:

You'll want to stop by and see if you have the intellectual horsepower it takes to be the Apprentice.NET!  The Winner will receive a ticket to the EXCLUSIVE INVITE ONLY .NET Influencer's Dinner and rub elbows with various .NET Illuminati.  Truly a lifetime chance, and only possible to those with chops enough to be the Apprentice.NET. 

For those of you who are more 'Survivor'-brute-force-scavenger-hunt types src="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/smilies/wink.gif"> don't worry, we'll have RD Bingo for you to play.  You'll have a card with the faces of Bloggers and RDs that you know and love.  Get that individual to initial over their face.  Getting Bingo (or Blackout Bingo) wins prizes (plus it forces you anti-social bastards to network!)

Thursday, May 20, 2004 8:42:11 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]