October 2005 Entries
I've just installed SQL Servewr 2005 on my main dev machine, and while I'm an admin (yes, I know it's bad but I [un]install lots of things so is just easier). However, since I had to reinstall my DC I haven't logged out, hence I don't have admin privs. Most of the installation passes, but some fail - Integration Services, VS IDE integration, SQL Books Online, and Workstation Components. Some I can understand, but Books Online? Why does that require admin rights to install? Weird.
Subtitle: Really, I mean it, backup your stuff.
Having installed the new disk, my task this morning was to make recovery disks and image the main disc on the server. Sadly I was a day too late, as the other disc has failed. The one with the OS on it; my domain controller and mail server. Bugger.
Currently I'm rebuilding a spare with Exchange, just so I can get email going again. I've also just ordered a RAID controller and 4 discs, so when they arrive I'll install the OS onto a RAID 5 array (or possibly 0+1 - I haven't decided yet).
On the...
A few weeks ago I rebooted by main server and because it was taking a long time to come back I went to the cabinet to see what the problem was. It was stuck correcting what seemed like a zillion disc errors and "correcting" the faults. I quote correcting because in reality this means "deleting any file we think is damaged". Luckily this was my media drive, which has continued to have problems (a new one is ready to replace it). Unluckily I've lost a lot of treasured TV and radio programs and a fair amount of music. The music...
Presentations from PDC 2005 are available for streaming or download.
[Listening to: What Is It Now? - Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed the Fish?]
Well, sort of. I'm using a SQL system to reduce comment spam, which is why comment entry is really slow - each entry is checked with a regular expression against a table of know keywords/sites. It's slow, but it works. After the blacklist issue, I updated the list, so there were more entries, and it turns out that it's a timeout issue - the command is taking too long to execute and there's no exception shown. There are two options:
1. Recompile the dotText source, adding in longer timeouts for comment insertion.2. The immediate solution, which is to remove entries from...
... are in London until March 2006, at the New London Theatre in Drury Lane. I've just booked tickets for early December, to go with Dan and Jane, who have only seen the show in German and although it's mostly music, some spoken and written word is used. They'll understand those bits now. If you like music and comedy, then I heartily recommend it. I have to say it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
It's a really odd problem this. Comments from the web UI don't work, and yet if I trace the SQL using the Profile, and copy the SQL being executed, and run than explicitly in Query Analyzer it works. What's changed? Well, I'm using dotText and have the comment spam triggers from here. This used the blacklist by Jay Allen (updated daily), who recently took it down, and my blacklist was just populated with his web page explaining his take down - something I didn't notice since I was away. I've repopulated the blacklist, but since the original replacement, comments don't work....
We already know that the Visual Studio 2005 designer doesn't support nested master pages, but it's worth pointing out other problems when setting the masterPageFile attribute of the element in web.config. There are two issues with content pages in this scenario:
1. The designer does not render the Content area. Instead you get a gray box with "Content controls can only be used in a content page."2. Schema information isn't available, and therefore IntelliSense is inaccurate.
The scenario is easy to reach:
1. Create a master page. No need to change anything.2. Create a content page and remove the masterPageFile attribute from the...
Never make a funnny face while Plip has a camera.
I recently bough the Microsoft fingerprint reader, after a recommendation, and I've been surprised by how good the package is. It doesn't work for logons in a domain, which is my configuration, but then I don't turn my machine off, so it's not a problem, but it does work for websites, and work very well. Any website that requires login you just place your finger on the reader, and the associated software prompts for the logon information for the fields. Subsequent visits you just use the finger and there's no prompting or typing. Very, very useful, for both the terminally...
Plip is talking about workflows, and I really think this is actually an important step in software design. We all build workflows into our applications, even if we don't realise this is exactly what they are. Building Workflow into the platform allows all aspects of applications, and indeed multiple applications, to participate in a workflow. Like several of the things I've seen over the last two weeks, I could use this now, however much of an alpha product it is. James, a friend of mine who is a DE on the workflow team, gave me a copy of the book...
It's been an interesting time. First the MVP summit, where I met many people I only knew by name or IM and email. It was my first summit and I didn't know what to expect, but I really enjoyed myself. A little too much focus on marketting stuff, but we did have time with the web team. The most interesting session was when we (the ASP.NET MVPs) were split into regional groups and given $1000 (virtual, not real) to spend on improving the web platform. What was interesting about this was that the three groups only had one or two...
I'll be there. I have two talks, one ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts, and the Programming the SQL Server 2005 CLR.
This was a great event last year, and shouldn't be missed - a free code camp and you don't even have to take a day off work.
[Listening to: Helen Mayhew - - ]