February 2005 Entries
A year-and-a-half or so ago, I was working on an ASP.NET project that used SSL and forms authentication. No big deal, a pretty conventional setup, I'd expect. Anonymous users requesting any of the site's ASPX pages were redirected automatically to a secure login page, so usernames and passwords went over encrypted SSL to the server. Works great, the site's been live and working in the field for over a year. But there was one niggle that caused a few headaches during development. Basically, every time you opened the web project, VS.NET would complain that it was being redirected to a...
I've noticed a recent surge in technological development in the air-freshening business. There's fresheners that sit and sublime fragrances into your atmosphere, ones you stick on the wall and push to make them squirt, ones that plug into sockets and vapourise oils, and now some which emit bursts of fragrance on a scheduled basis. This seems like a lot of complexity for what is, essentially, a not very complex operation - mixing a few fragrant chemicals into the domestic air supply over a period of time - but I guess it's good to see competition fostering a little innovation.
What worries...
Nothing blogged this week - been busy learning more than any person should be forced to about DNS, domain registration, and a little known but intriguing XML-based protocol called EPP, which has some general applications, but is mostly used for communications between domain registrars and internet domain registries.
All of which is deeply fascinating to about three people, but to everybody else is, and should be, a load of gobbledegook. Mostly, it means I've been spending the last week doing something I really enjoy: learning about esoteric bits of technology. So in all, it's been a good week. Set to...
Seems Shell have announced record profits for a UK company - $17.5 billion. That's a lot of money. Some MPs are calling for a 'windfall tax on multinational energy companies' profits', which seems a mite specific to me. Surely a better approach might be to make sure that when a company announces a profit that large, they end up paying the right amount of corporation tax on it, rather than slipping through so many tax loopholes that they end up with an apology and a 50 pence rebate from the Inland Revenue.
Obviously unbiased reaction to these calls from Lib Dem...
We've just gone through a period of job interviews at work, hiring for C# and ASP development roles. It's been the usual mixed experience. We had one candidate pull out before an interview on the grounds that they 'refused to answer technical questions' - that was a low point. We had the usual fight with agencies over the level of experience we required (we ask for two years' C#, they send CVs showing 3 months.). We had, as usual, a generally very bland selection of CVs from average candidates to pick from. Luckily, this means that the really good candidates...
Time I found something to blog about that doesn't begin with me reporting the breakdown of an electrical appliance. I note that, according to the Frog Blogger...
The start of February brings with it many good things:
Digital Strawberry Girl and James.ToString() have joined the blogosphere - welcome, guys!
[Via The Frog Blog]
It also, apparently, brings the very bad thing, that is the unashamed public use of the word 'blogosphere'. It's bad enough to be accused of 'joining the blogosphere', but worse, now I'm posting a blog about a blog post about my blog, thus contributing to the navel gazing self absorption of...
Our hairdryer's handle is currently falling off. I wouldn't normally mention this (although if any of our neighbours read this in a week's time, after not seeing either of us for a while, it may provide a clue as to what that funny burning smell was), but it did lead me into Argos, to peruse what Bill Bailey called the laminated book of dreams...
They have many hairdryers in Argos. It was something of a revelation. They have a wide selection of 'ionic' ones, which are presumably so called because they have fluted columns and prominent volutes on the capital, or...
The volume control in my car broke a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I haven't been able to turn the radio up at all. So, after a few journeys home from work where I could only hear the bits of the News Quiz that happened while I was going downhill, I was forced to find a radio station that's just a bit louder than Radio 4. I've settled, for now, on Kerrang 105.2. Now, to me, the Kerrang brand conjures up images of the hair-metal equivalent of Smash Hits. And, to be honest, I've no particular inclination to read...
So if I'm going to start doing this blog thing, I figure I ought to do it properly. So, according to Dan:
... all hail wBloggar for being the great utilit (sic) it is alongside RSSBandit ... Now in its new version 4.0, wBloggar is much improved over v3 and thanks to this excellent plugin for RssBandit, makes for a great double punch when it comes to noting some of the better posts out there. ...
[Via Dan's Archive]
Well, I figure, if I'm going to do this, I have got to get me some of these toys. This post, then, is...
... first day of the month. And no returns.
So, it's February. February 2005, which is quite weird. That means it's almost exactly 10 years since I met Chris for the first time. Good a time as any to start a blog. Of course, Dave set this up for me yonks ago, and I forgot about it. This time, internet connectivity allowing, I'll hopefully try to post here semi-regularly. Or failing that, hemi-semi-regularly.