03.05.2008
Having recently upgraded to Windows Server 2008 to be able to fool around with IIS7, my main argument was the improved extensibility and ability to inject .NET-code into the IIS-pipeline. Today I gave it a try.
Objective? Get IIS7 to log all requests to a database of my choice. While the regular log-files can provide all the info I need, searching them manually for specific information is just hopeless. Setting up a SSIS-job to import the logs would probably also work, but it would involve external agents polling information, not IIS pushing it.
More...
04.02.2008
Programming MOSS can be painful and tedious. It really can.
I'm not talking about the feature-files, element-files or all those other manifest-files you need to make and maintain. I'm not talking about the endless directory-structures which you have to set up exactly correct.
I am talking about the pitfalls when working with Sharepoint programatically.
CAML-queries
We have CAML and God knows writing CAML makes one long for any other way to process data, including using VBScript to iterate multi-dimensional arrays.
More...
25.08.2007
Believe it or not, but these pages are hosted on a server hosting over 10 websites and a ADSL-link with only 400kbps upstream. Pretty weak stuff.
Granted, I remove most of the major load from my link by hosting static, bandwidth consuming stuff on a 100mbps offsite server. But still: 400kbps doesn't leave you much to fool around with when you include applications like Bittorrent.
In essence I capped my webserver at 200kbps and I capped Bittorrent at 200kbps to make sure that one service didn't consume the bandwidth needed for the other service to function properly. The net result was that for most of the time I could only utilize 50% of my already shitty connection. Not optiomal.
More...
04.06.2007
Before going to Japan, I quickly setup the new general-purpose blog site just to be able to keep people up to date with what i was doing at any given time. For the time being I also redirected the old RSS-Feed for this site to the new one.
I've now removed the redirection, so if you want to keep up to date on the non-technical posts I make, I suggest you go to www.feedmebacon.com and add the new feed there.
This site will from now on be reserved for all the technical posts I decide to make.
04.06.2007
Being a MCT pretty much involves staying up to date. Depending on how much stuff you otherwise have to do at work, this can easily turn into a big pile of TODO which because of dependencies and hiarchy just snow-balls itself into a huge mess.
Given Microsoft's release of Windows Vista with .NET 3.0 and all that involves, the upcoming release of .NET 3.0 with actual 3.0 languages (.NET 3.5), a flourishing set of Visual Studio and SQL Server add-ons, AJAX components and other handy libraries, you can pretty much say my snowball has been heading towards avalanche-dimensions.
More...
21.03.2007
Right. I've setup my new server. Almost everything worked out, but I managed to lose the private key for my SSL-certificate in the process, so no more https://. Oh well.
In the process I freed my old Pentium 3 which was used as my old main windows server. Now that I finally had a dedicated box to fool around with I did just that. My project? Manage to setup something to use my wireless PCI-card and act as a wireless access-point. In the process migrate my old virtual Linux-setup to a dedicated machine, so I don't have to reboot my Linux-machines whenever Windows update hits my main server.
More...
24.02.2007
When working as a IT-consultant and a developer you are often called out to check out or fix things for less capable clients. Sometimes this involves watching pretty ugly things.
Not ugly as in ugly people, but as in mind-numbing application-design, ugly code, horrid abuse of APIs and generally 30 year old principles applied to modern technology where these decades-old concerns shouldn't even be an issue. You see stuff you as a professional developer find revolting. Ugly things.
More...
26.01.2007
Since I started in my new job, I've set up a new laptop with all the tools I need, and also tried to comply with company standards regarding software. Company being a rather noticeable Microsoft-partner, new software are to be tried and getting familiar with and I'm feeling pretty BETA right now.
Let's describe my current setup: Windows Vista RTM, Office 2007, Adobe Acrobat 7.0, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP1 and Visual Studio 2005 SP1, not to mention Virtual PC 2007 RC.
If that means nothing to you, this may not be the article for you, but in any case let's break it down even further:
More...
08.01.2007
Around the time Ubuntu Linux had reached the early betas for release 6, people seemed all up in rave about it, so I thought I should give it a try. I left a 5GB partition on my laptop and tried to get it up and running. Long story short: A total failure, and 5GB wasted idle space on my laptop.
What happened back then was that automatic hardware detection failed miserably on my ATI adapter, and no amount of tweaking, despite finding certain workarounds that had worked for others on the net would get me a working Xorg or GUI for you people not really into *nix.
More...
26.12.2006
While I did a short write-up about my views on Vista and the cost involved in the system-wide DRM and licensing that is to be enforced in it merely to make Hollywood happy, someone else evidently have the full specs and did a much better one.
It's long, it's technical and probably covers every angle there is on the subject. Quite depressing, so sorry for posting this during christmas.
I do however like the conclusion:
Here's an offer to Microsoft: If we, the consumers, promise to never, ever, ever buy a single HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disc containing any precious premium content, will you in exchange withhold this poison from the computer industry? Please?
More...