I have been a loyal thinkpad user for around 7-8 years now.  I can't imagine going back to anything else at this point.  But with the announcement that IBM is selling their PC business to Lenovo out of China it looks like I am faced with that prospect.  Problem is I am just not overwhelmend by the reliability and/or form factor of a a lot of the machines out there.   I will certainly miss my Thinkpad when it is time to replace it later this year.  May have to move up the replacement schedule so I can get one of the last of the existing ones...

Wednesday, December 08, 2004 1:43:36 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

I am writing some code that I cross compile under both the full 1.1 Framework and the 1.1 Compact Framework.

It drives me nuts that objects that support IDisposable in the full framework don't always support IDisposable on the Compact Framework.  This means that if I have been a good kid and written code like this:

using(SolidBrush indicatorBrush = new SolidBrush(stationColor))
{
    using (Pen indicatorPen = new Pen(stationColor))
    {
        // Draw a path 
        g.FillPolygon(indicatorBrush, points);
        g.DrawPolygon(indicatorPen, points);
    }
}

Then my code won't compile on the compact framework because Using can't cast SolidBrush to IDisposable nor can it cast Pen! I know the compact framework is compact, etc. but come on guys this is an interface with one method, Dispose that for all I care could be a no op.  So I am left with two choices.  Wrap all the objects and add the dispose interface to my wrappers.  I must admit it doesn't sound like a lot of fun.  Or write the much uglier code that does the same thing:

// Declare the objects
SolidBrush indicatorBrush = null;
Pen indicatorPen = null;
// Wrap in a try/catch so we can dispose of them on the desktop
// This is because SolidBrush and Pen don't support IDisposable on 
// the compact framework
try
{
    indicatorBrush = new SolidBrush(stationColor));
    indicatorPen = new Pen(stationColor));
    // Draw a path 
    g.FillPolygon(indicatorBrush, points);
    g.DrawPolygon(indicatorPen, points);
}
finally
{
#if !CF
    indicatorPen.Dispose();
    indicatorBrush.Dispose();
#endif
}

Has anyone checked this out in Whidbey?  Has it changed?

Tuesday, November 30, 2004 4:13:48 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

I am currently renting space in downtown Seattle just to house a couple of servers and a DSL line. Since I spend almost no time in the office it suddenly dawned on me that I should check into CoLocation instead and get rid of the office.

I currently run a 1.1Mb/s DSL line into the office.  I probably have less than 21U of boxes.  I do tend to use quite a few IP addresses.  I currently have a /26 block.  Redmond area would be great but the only colocation I could find there was IsoMedia which offers anemic bandwidth options.  No 95th percentile billing and only 10GB of transfer a month included.

Love to find something in the Westin or Fisher plaza downtown but am open to other locations.  Just looking for space, power, good connectivity and a reasonable price.  Hopefully somewhere in the $400/mo range.

Any suggestions or am I crazy and should keep the existing office?

Thanks,

Chris

Monday, November 29, 2004 10:01:39 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]  

I posted a comment on Robert's blog about the Mirra backup device.  I wasn't real clear however in my comment.

I have a number of systems to backup every night.  My laptop with 80GB.  My desktop with around 2TB.  My Son's machine at 120GB.  My wifes Machine at 200GB.  My Daughters machine at 120GB. My other son's machine at 200GB.

Those are just my home machines!  That doesn't count the various test servers I have floating aroud, etc.

That comes in at around 2.72TB.  I will freely admit the 2 terabyte machine is a little large perhaps for the common scenario.  Let's say it is 250GB which is not unreasonable.  At that point I am close to 1TB still amongst all the machines.

How is a 250GB backup device going to help here?  Ignoring the paucity of capacity look at their offerings:

80 GB Device for $399

120GB Device for $499

250GB Device for $749

What is the difference in the devices?  The software is the same.  How much is that software worth?

Well given that I can pick up an external USB 2.0 drive from a major manufacturer for around $100 that must mean the software is worth around $299.  Obviously that is a little oversimplified since the Mirra undoubtedly has supporting hardware in their to run the software. But the supporting hardware is a fixed cost. What is the difference in cost of the drives?  Using www.froogle.com today to compare I get:

80GB = $49

120GB = $75

250GB = $125

So given that I know the difference in cost of the one component that changes is $75 what accounts for the $350 difference in selling price?  Greed.

Sell me a bare device for $350 that I can add my own drives to and I might go for it.  Sell me an 80 GB device for $399 with Firewire 800 or external SATA ports that I can add my own storage to and I might go for it.  Either solution would allow me to build a device to backup my systems mentioned above at a price that is at least in the ballpark for buying external drives to backup to.

I want to like this device however the economics of it look like they were designed by a VC bent on maximizing return...

Wednesday, November 10, 2004 9:43:43 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]  

I use post build rules as part of my typical build process to create a common directory to reference everything from.  Pointing build output to a common directory doesn't work because of bugs in Visual Studio.NET and file locking.

When I mentioned this recently at CAPAREA.NET Brian Noyes asked how to handle this in VB.NET.  I seemed to remember someone having an add-in that added post build command lines to VB.NET and found it here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3FF9C915-30E5-430E-95B3-621DCCD25150&displaylang=en

Thursday, November 04, 2004 10:10:08 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]  

On Tuesday October 26 I will be speaking at the Capital Area .NET Users group.

Here is my session description:

Do you write code as part of a team? Developing enterprise-level applications requires more upfront planning and more procedures, not only to coordinate the larger team doing the development, but to make sure the application is maintainable and deployable. Come to this session to pick up some tips on how to structure your development environment. We will talk about how to best structure a team development environment, manage dependencies, create a repeatable build process and do basic smoke/unit testing.

To answer the first question I always get, "Is this about Team System?".  No not particularly.  This session is more about the process and tools that you can use today.  Not to say that there may not be brief mentions of Team System along the way!

Directions

Friday, October 15, 2004 8:04:35 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]  

I have been thinking about putting a PC in the living room for some time. A friend of mine, Andrew Brust, did it and raves about it.  He used a standard Windows XP machine and loves CinemaNow as well as using it to play MP3s.

I have been on the fence.  I bought a Phillips Tivo the week they came out.  Hacked it of course and way happy with the 80GB capacity.  I then upgraded to a Hughes DirectTivo which I for the most part love.  The only part I don't like is my fault.  I immediately upgraded it to two 200GB drives.  What this translates to is that when I am navigating Now Playing there is a significant pause of sometimes two or three minutes while it reads the catalog off disk.  My understanding is that this is due to the limited memory of the device combined with how large I have made the file system.  There is at least one company offering a hack to add more memory to remove this problem.  However I digress...

I have wanted a way to play our MP3 collection in the family room for some time now.  We ripped all our CDs and then put them in the attic. I got rid of two 400 disc changers and pretty much just use my wife's iPod as our music source.  Problem is that it is a pain to pull it out of the cabinet to change playlists, etc and when she is gone I am SOL.  I have looked at a ton of options for this including the Roku  and others from a variety of providers.  The Tivo Home Media Option would work great however I have a Series 1 Tivo that doesn't support it and a DirectTivo that doesn't yet offer it because DirectTV hasn't decided to bless their subscribers with the feature.

Hence I yearningly look at the Media Center.  It appears it would solve the MP3 problem handily.  However last time I looked at one I couldn't justify spending almost $2000 for a media player that looks like I took a computer from my office and placed it next to my TV.  It looks like prices are coming down however and at least HP has gotten a clue and is now offering a Media Center that looks more like a stereo component at a reasonable price. The kicker however is ultimately I would like to replace my DirectTivo with it.  The only way however to do this appears to be to go back to my old cable receiver, use an IR blaster to control it, and then take the signal off the S-Video output of the receiver.  This is going back several generations to how my old Tivo Series 1 used to do it.  In fact it is going back even further since at least the Tivo could control the receiver via the serial port. The Media Center from what I can tell doesn't even offer that.  Furthermore I lose the fidelity of storing the MPEG stream from DirectTV directly. Instead it gets decompressed, converted to S-Video, and then re-encoded by the Media Center.

I guess what I am still holding out for is someone to make a DirectTV tuner card for the Media Center PC.  I am not holding my breathe however given how idiotic DirectTV can be at times...

Wednesday, October 13, 2004 8:29:12 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [3]  

I have been an AT&T Wireless subscriber for over 10 years now...

I know, I know you are probably asking why I haven't switched.  I was almost pushed over the edge tonight.

I have been on their TDMA service since Digital One Rate first came out due to how much I travel.  I have been holding off on moving to GSM America until their service plan expands, etc.  I already have a data plan that I use their Edge and UMTS service with I just haven't moved my voice over.  I had been waiting for the Motorola Mpx220 to come out but when I saw the announced Audiovox SMT 5600 today I realized my wait was over.  I actually prefer the candy bar phone style and was all ready to switch.

I went into the AT&T store in Woodinville and played with the phone.  I then said I wanted one and the salesperson hemmed and hawed and said, "Sorry that is only a demo unit.  I have no idea when we will have stock."  I figured I would do an end run and spoke to a nice enough gal who eventually transferred me to an idiot in "Web Migration".  Finally hung up with her and called back for one last try.  Spoke with an awesome rep in California who helped me attempt to order the phone.  The problem is that via the web I can't seem to upgrade to this phone.  I can as a new customer order the phone however as a long term subscriber it isn't available to me! 

Finally went to the AT&T Wireless store in Bellevue Square and picked up the phone.  Of course I first had to argue with the salesperson for a few minutes over the required data plan.  He tried to sell me a $40 unlimited plan even though the AT&T web site as well as their own product collateral mentions a $24.99 unlimited plan.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 10:03:08 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]  

I am currently at the Patterns & Practices Summit and Anil John just asked me for an update on the SAN.  I realized I hadn't written anything in a while.

I finally decided the iSCSI SAN stuff I was using just wasn't ready for prime time.  The SAN Melody target was great but expensive.  To get the features I wanted I was going to have to pony up around $7000.  The biggest problem however was the Microsoft iSCSI initiator.  It just had too many quirks to make me feel comfortable. Not mounting drives on startup, etc.  It just didn't feel like direct attached storage.

So for the moment the SAN target box is just becoming a large Exchange/SQL Server/File Server to use up the 2Tb I dropped on it.  Perhaps in another 9 months I will poke my head up and give things another look.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004 8:16:59 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [1]  

A client of mine has been checking out Identify Software's Black Box. 

It looks like a great product that can act as a flight recorder and track activity across all tiers in the stack.  Only drawback is that it costs the GNP of a small country to purchase.  As a result we are out there looking for alternatives.

What do follks out there use to do flight recording / root cause analysis?

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 5:22:50 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)         Comments [0]