DigbySwift

C#, Musings and Moggies

Santa Satch and Chad Smith do Elf!

clock January 17, 2010 22:24 by author Kieron

Satch is just cool isn’t he? And why can’t someone just give me his guitar?!! Surely I deserve it for being generally ace?

http://bit.ly/7qFAGn



So many projects, so little time – NHibernate membership provider first

clock January 17, 2010 22:17 by author Kieron

I know I have to finish off building my NHibernate-based Membership provider – its about 75% there, but I also want to start writing a bug tracker, a CRM (which may as well include the bug tracker), a light weight CMS and actually post relevant stuff to this website …

First things first. I’ll get the membership provider out of the way.

Hopefully I’ll post something about that later. Basically, the Membership provider that ships with .Net2.0 is fine but I need it to do more.

I need mine to be able to:

  • Handle user session objects as well as simple logged in/out cookies;
  • Have a more robust security question/answer model;
  • Handle a slightly more complex user model, i.e. one with multiple addresses, contact details etc.
  • Be more compact and contained, i.e. I don’t want to have to keep writing the code that should already be in the provider.

I know these are straight forward but I want them to be out of the box when I plug my provider in.Finally, an ex-colleague implemented a means of preventing session hijacking which I want to have a stab, and do it at without using databases if at all possible.



The Furminator

clock December 30, 2009 09:32 by author Kieron

My mate Rob really wants a cat. Really wants a cat. So I guess he was displacing his need with a super-generous Christmas pressie, the Furminator for my cat, Lady.

Ok it appears as being a little pricey for what is essentially a comb but my god! This is no ordinary comb, this is a “deshedding tool for cats”. Its a tool! Which not only means that its safe for a man to use, but it also works better than ANY other brush/comb I’ve ever tried on Lady.

Seriously, just check out the pics and videos! Awesome!



Delivery doesn’t get much quicker

clock December 30, 2009 09:20 by author Kieron

So I ordered a printer cable from Ebuyer yesterday just before 7pm and it arrived at 8.45am today.

I didn’t even choose the quickest delivery option. I chose the cheapest 5 day delivery slot.

Wow.

But this is obviously only contributing to why so many people now get frustrated when things ordered do not arrive by the time their next breath is drawn.

I can’t complain about the service, quite the opposite, but they’re not doing retailers any favours by being soooo quick!



Red Ring Of Death – The Solution?

clock December 30, 2009 00:55 by author Kieron

So following my Xbox’s RROD I’m told that Microsoft offer a 3 year extended warranty for this failure. They will pick up and return for free and you can book a super fast collection with UPS. This is only fair. But I was led to believe that my later model of the Xbox Pro with its later chipset shouldn’t succumb to the RROD? Apparently not.

So I bought an Elite. And I’ll sell the Xbox that Microsoft fixes on EBay.

Am I a mug? Possibly. Probably. Ok, yes. The phrase “What you own, owns you” spring to mind.



Red Ring of Death - Impeccable Timing

clock December 23, 2009 18:47 by author Kieron

So it’s December 23rd, I’m looking forward to seeing my brothers and generally spending Christmas playing games and having fun.

Then I get the red ring of death.

Great. Can’t afford to buy a new console at 200 squid so guess I’m just going to have to take it up the proverbial like a man and play cards instead.

Thanks Microsoft. No really, thanks.



Database Publishing Wizard

clock December 18, 2009 09:38 by author Kieron

One of the draw backs of SQL Server 2000 and 2005 is that although you can script individual objects (tables, stored procs etc.), you can’t script multiple objects in one go – well, not that I’m aware of anyway.

The Database Publishing Wizard (DPW) solves this issue by allowing you to:

  • script all objects from a database in one go;
  • script specific objects;
  • script all data or data from specific tables;
  • script to a specific database version;
  • do most of the above from command line.

I now use this almost daily combined with .bat scripts or NAnt with CruiseControl to keep my development databases “clean” but also for deployment purposes.

Microsoft released a v1.1 of the DPW in 2007 which has some frustrating bugs at times and released a v1.2 and a v1.3 in 2008 which I believe is also installed as part of VWD 2008 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 – so you may already have it! These updated versions as far as I can tell simply provides support for the later SQL Server versions’ database object/data scripting.

So, I recommend reading the documentation for v1.1 as well as the known issues list too.

The odd thing about DPW is that Microsoft don’t seem to publicise it. Maybe they don’t want to have to support it? I only found v1.1 originally because I needed the functionality it offered. Apart from the v1.1 Codeplex home, the associated Microsoft page and the v1.2 direct file download I can’t see any info regarding the product at all. How strange …



Maru: hours of feline-tertainment

clock December 17, 2009 16:04 by author Kieron

This cat is seriously entertaining. You only have to see his box jumping antics – ok I can hear my mates “You know how I know you’re gay?” but y’know this is quality cat stuff. And then there’s the “trying to fit through hole that’s too big for him” pictures. Even the photos are really good quality! If you like cats, check out Maru’s blog.

There’s quite a bit on Today’s Big Thing too …

For cat-lovers only.



Run The Red Light – Opening for the Stone Temple Pilots

clock December 16, 2009 10:00 by author Kieron

I’ll be posting more of these guys in time but they opened for the Stone Temple Pilots in November and it looked like an awesome gig.

Check out their site www.runtheredlight.ca or more stuff at www.youtube.com/runtheredlight.



Windows Live Writer - Finally hooked up

clock December 16, 2009 09:41 by author Kieron

Jeez, how long have I been putting off getting this hooked up. Not that I knew it was difficult – it wasn’t. But it was just another thing in a long list of things to do.

Plus I’m procrastinating sweeping up the cat litter, going to the bank, the charity shop, writing Christmas cards, clearing the drain, changing the light switch and then doing some reading …

So I feel justified in dicking around.