June 2004 Blog Posts
So last night was the G3 concert, which was pretty damn amazing. The whole event was made more exciting because of the 'meet and greet' tickets Dan had won. So, we pitch up at the venue and pick of the special package, only to find there is one backstage ticket. Bummer. But, if crunch comes to crunch then Dan goes as he's the real fan, but we decide to see what can be done at th end of the concert. Dan has brought his guitar with him to be signed - he's got a whole raft of other sigs on...
So last week I went to see Show of Hands play, and was really impressed. I'd not heaerd any of their stuff before, but Karli is a big fan so I decided to give it a punt. And pretty damn excellent it was too. Really talented people.
This weekend I'm off so see Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Robert Fripp all in one concert. Dan is a huge fan of both Joe and Steve (one of those people that's talented enough to play guitar along to their music), and he booked the tickets. What's ultra-cool is that through the website we've...
Is it just me or does anyone else not like the new search features in the help system in Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005? What don't I like: Paging. Breaking down the search results into pages means I can't scan the entire resultset. Yes you can change the number of records per page, but that means I have to set it artifically high to automatically include all results. There are no paging controls at the bottom of the search pane. What if the controls at the top are off the screen? Sorting. There are no headings, so...
Marcie is talking about multi-author books, with a particularly extreme case. I was never really a fan of large multi-author books, even though I've participated in a few. 4 to 6 authors is manageable if you can work well together. Wrox Professional ASP.NET is a good example, 5 authors, but we spent a day all locked in a room together (one of the labs at Microsoft) working out the spec down to level 5 headings. That way we all knew exactly what the other was writing about. And we'd all written together before so pretty much knew each others style....
Wrox are holding an author event at Foyles in London on Tuesday 22nd, from 6pm so come along and say hello. There will be a bunch of Wrox authors hanging around and Foyles are, I believe, having reductions this month on Wrox titles. I might have made that up though, so don't quote me on it.
Was in Birmingham on Sunday night for a Bic Runga concert, which had both high and lowpoints. Before the gig started I bought her latest CD. Then came the first support act Pete Murray, an Australian who was frankly amazed that there were more than 10 people around for the support, especially given that England were playing. He was great so after his set I bought his latest CD. Then came David Mead, who was fantastic. Really engaging, funny and fantastic song. Unfortunately I'd run out of money so couldn't buy his CDs, but I received some money for my...
Spent the weekend entertaining my 3 year old niece Katie. Phwew, exhausting stuff, but great fun. I always find it fascinating how they see life and what they've picked up. Playing the park on the slide, which is made up like a tractor, so has a seat and steering wheel. I'm asked to drive, but before I start the "brm brm" stuff, she stops me and says "put seatbelt on". Everyone should play with children, it puts an interesting perspective on life.
Ah, life with beta products is fun. Just installed the May build onto my laptop and it finished really quickly, probably because it failed. The error displayed is exceptionally helpful. Not.