James Manning

Running on my home Vista box, I decided to try and publish a quickie app to the local IIS7 instance and got:

Error: Unable to create the Web ‘http://localhost/’. The Web server does not appear to have the FrontPage server extensions installed.

As it turns out, this was a UAC thing - as long as I ran VS elevated, it published fine.  A permissions error would have been a nicer (or at least more accurate) error than “not installed” :)

Just logging this here so I can find it later :)

My precious daughter is 18 months old today!  (About an hour from now, in fact, will be *exactly* 18 months).  Kneel before ZodSarah!

This is pretty cool - I went to uninstall the Onfolio add-in and it can both shut down Outlook for me and also (attempt to) restart it after the uninstall is done.  I’m guessing this is a Vista-ism, but I’m not sure.

I totally got 2 emails from Dave Matthews today!

Ok, so this one works on the Shell team (part of Windows) and we were discussing a Vista upgrade issue.

But still!

On the internal PowerShell mailing list, I wrote this earlier today, reflecting a sleep-deprived state.  In reading it after the fact, it strikes me as “what was this guy smoking?” kind of comment.  Hopefully it’ll provide some amusement for others as well.

[...] communicating the Right Way to use this new set of Batman Utility Belt Cmdlets that you hand them is important.

I’m personally in the camp of “just try the pipeline/expression you would like to have Just Work (and be amazed and how often it does)” camp, but not everyone will be – some will want a bit more guidance along the path to Cmdlet Nirvana, that blessed of states where you have become one with all cmdlets available on your systems and your objects flow like water to the ocean.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3174402031490999477

Around the 5:30 mark

the good feeling doesn’t last…
we get used to having a Mercedes
it’s spectacular
it’s better than sex the first week
it’s better than a meal at a great restaurant the second week
it’s pretty damn good the third week
and after that it’s just your car
and people aren’t satisfied with good, they want to feel great
we stop getting a big kick out of the good things we already have

It makes me wonder why CC companies bother having the strip on the back still?  It seems to have little value these days, and the 2 most common actions (leave it blank or sign your name) both have problems.  Removing the strip (potentially just putting the below phrase on there preemptively) seems more sane.  Of course, that’s assuming a non-cynical view of CC companies and their relationships with theft/fraud. 

Here’s our official advice on signing the strip on the back: Don’t sign it. It’s useless as a deterrent, as anyone who takes your card then has a sample of your signature which they can not only use on any charge slip, but on your checks as well. However, do not leave the white strip blank. In that space, write: “Ask For Picture ID,” and be prepared to back that up someday when you’re in a hurry and the clerk wants to see a driver’s license as well as the card. It makes the charge transaction a little longer, but a lot safer.

Source: The Straight Dope Mailbag

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3653114296815352489

It still makes me wonder how we could really get from here to there (meaning legalization of at least marijuana).  It’s clear that the Democrats should do quite well in the 06 and 08 elections - would this be part of their plan?  If civil liberties were to ride the pendulum, would it be realistic that along with reinstating some that have been lost (here’s hoping that’s a min bar), things like this would also sweep in?

I really wish Mexico (well, President Fox) had stood up and made their legalization stick.  It still amazes me the amount of saber-rattling that “we” get away with.

• Mexican senate passes legalization
• U.S. freaks out
• President Fox vetoes his own proposal

I may be off in the weeds again, but:

Input #1 - Google is willing to pick up the slack on new/alternative/renewable energy sources.

Google.org, plans to develop an ultra-fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid car engine that runs on ethanol, electricity and gasoline.

Input #2 - there’s about to be some new slack in the geothermal and hydropower energy worlds

Together, high-tech hydropower and geothermal resources could contribute at least enough power to replace more than 100 medium-size coal-fired power plants with emissions-free electricity - about the number now on the drawing board.

Now, certainly, there are plenty of other ways Google.org may decide to go, but Water and Power (mmmm Tank Girl) are clearly long-term wins - for those that can get there first, especially.

I finally got a few minutes to track down why the cron.daily script was breaking after the upgrade.

http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?11,81998,87723#msg-87723

If you change this line in /etc/cron.daily/mysql-server
filename=`tail -n $KEEP_BINARY_LOGS $tmp | head -n 1`
change it to
filename=`tail -n $KEEP_BINARY_LOGS $tmp | head -n 1 | awk ‘{print $1}’`
This is due to the SHOW MASTER LOGS; command now printing out file size as well as the file name for the log files.