It looksl ike MSN Virtual Earth is out, I have been playing with it and I would say it is cooler thatn Google Maps!! Saint Cloud, you can actually zoom in and see to the max!!
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Category: Geeky/Programming
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Microsoft Beta Testing
In the last 2 days, I have been asked to test the new MSN Messenger 7.5 and the new Mail Beta (Next version of Hotmail). What a cool oppourtunity. I am running the new Messenger, but I am still waiting for my Hotmail to transfer to the new layout, hopefully within the week.
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Firefox and Internet Explorer
The debate between FF and IE is a hot one. Firefox is good, nice tabs, etc, etc. IE integrates well with Windows. I like FF, but one thing I don’t like is it is a 3rd party app. The more stuff you install on your machine, no matter what it is, is more upkeep, more problems can happen, etc. And, everytime you redo your machine you need to install everything again, etc.
Some people think that FF is a paneca for security. Well, it is not. That isn’t saying that IE is fort knox either, but they both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Lately I have been using IE and I am actually excited for IE7 and what IE has to offer in Longhorn.
In any event, it is your choice. Just like if you want to use ITunes or MusicMatch or Winamp to play your music. I choose to use Windows Media Player. I just like it. It integrates tightly with the OS, I like that.
It is analogous to a vehicle. You don’t go putting a Ford engine in a Chevy trunk, it just doesn’t happen. 3rd party after products are usually only used in a case where nothing else is available. Usually after some time, things catch on and the manufacturer creates the part and you can get it from them.
I see FF as an aftermarket part for my computer. I see IE as something like the CD player that comes with your vehicle, and FF as the cool pioneer CD player with all the add ons.
Scoble has been getting major flack for his post today, which I think is kind of wrong. He is just bringing to light news about a tech product. There are flaws in a very popular extension for FF, and also another programming issue about localization, so the FF team is having some problems this week. When Microsoft IE Team has issues, it is all over the news, and people talk about it. If the google toolbar has a flaw in just in IE, I am sure there would be rumblings all over the blogsphere.
The problem is the mindset of people that promote FF and Linux, and anything not Microsoft, they think that whatever they say is the only way, the correct way. They don’t think people should have a choice, they think that if you don’t use FF or Linux or OSS that you are less of a geek, less of a developer, things like that.
I think people shouldn’t be forced to use anything they don’t want to. Free will. I should be able to use whatever browser I choose, and stand behind it.
It reminds me of fights about C# vs VB.Net – neither one is better, it is a choice to use one or the other. The thing is, people that use VB.net are laid back, and don’t get all blown up about people that use C#. On the other hand, people that use C# look down on people that use VB.net, they think they are better than VB.Net developers. When it comes right down to it, C# and VB.Net are the same, why are we even fighting about it? It is your choice to program in whatever language you see fit.
Anyways, I am going off on a tangent, but the bottom line is, FF and IE are both good products, check them both out. Use whichever one you think it the best. But don’t be closed minded. When a new build for either comes out, check them out, see what is new, try them out. That is the fun of having a computer and being able to customize it. If you like one better, choose to use it!
Happy Geeking!!!
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Red Hat 9 – Firefox Install
So I installed Red Hat 9 today on a machine, and I was going to install Firefox (instead of using the built in Mozilla). I was in a terminal, trying to run ./firefox-installer-bin and I was getting a stupid xpistub error. Found out that you just need to run ./firefox-installer
doh!
Anyways, all is well 🙂
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AJAX
Well, AJAX is the new buzzword these days in the development world, so I figured I should see what it is all about. Most of the web work I do is in classic ASP, so I figured I should see if I could do some async jscript in classic ASP. I got it working and I do have to say that it is pretty cool. Opens up alot of possiblities and could make the end user experience alot nicer. It should be easy to implement in ASP.Net or PHP too if you so wished.
If you use Microsoft Outlook, you know that when you set up a meeting or appointment, you can select an option like “The 4th Monday of every month�. Well, today I had to correlate this to a SQL statement and it through me for a loop: Well, yeah, I used a loop. Check it out
DECLARE @tempDate DATETIME
DECLARE @maxDate DATETIME
SET @maxDate = ’07/01/2006′
SET @tempDate = ’07/01/2005′
WHILE @tempDate <= @maxDate BEGIN
SELECT DATEADD(wk,3,
DATEADD(wk, DATEDIFF(wk,0,
DATEADD(dd,6-DATEPART(DAY,@tempDate),@tempDate)
), 0))
SET @tempDate = DATEADD(mm,1,@tempDate)
END
I am getting the first Monday of the month in @tempDate and adding 3 weeks to it. Then I just loop through from @tempdate to @maXDate. Works like a champ.
So, I like I said earlier, I have been playing with the Personal Web Site Starter Kit (PWSK) in Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. I read these two articles:
· Introduction to the Personal Web Site Starter Kit
· Extending the Personal Web Site Starter Kit
I wanted to see if I could get my blog feed on the main site under the “What’s New Lately� section on the main page (default.aspx). Well first, I took the atom.xml file from my blog, and got the URL. In the process of doing this exercise, I noticed I couldn’t get the Atom feed to work, so I found a site (FeedJumbler) to convert the Atom feed to straight RSS feed, which works.
Then I dragged the XmlDataSource item from the toolbox to the page under the ObjectDataSource that is there by default. If you set the datasource to the URL and the XPath to “rss/channel/item�
In the HTML code for default.aspx, if you add this code
<h4>My Blog Latest Posts</h4>
<asp:DataList ID=”DataList2″ runat=”server”
DataSourceID=”XmlDataSource1″>
<ItemTemplate>
<p>
<h5><%#XPath(“title”)%></h5>
<p>
<%#XPath(“description”)%>
</p>
Posted by <%#XPath(“author”)%> @ <%#XPath(“pubDate”)%>
<a href=”<%#XPath(“link”)%>“><i>Link</i></a>
<hr/>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>
Then you should see your blog posts on your PWSK front page!
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Visual Studio .NET 2005 Beta 2
I have been playing with VS.NET 2005 Beta 2 all night, the Personal Web Site Starter Kit. I have been modifying it and playing with all the new controls. Pretty sweet so far. Easy to consume RSS feeds, and get data from SQL. The master-detail page relationship is really cool, especially if you use templates for pages.
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Malware
This week, I worked on a PC for someone, and wow, was it infected with Malware/Spyware, bad stuff. Couldn’t stop it with Norton, MS Antispyware, other tools, etc. I found some forums saying to follow these 20 steps and it might work – forget it, just redo the PC.
That stuff is nasty, you need to watch what you install, especially from the web, stuff that pops up. I have seen that kind of stuff dissipate since XP sp2, but this computer didn’t have that, and must have gotten something that way.
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Old School Computers (Kinda)
Yesterday I got to work on a couple of old school computers. They weren’t too old, but one Windows 98 and one Windows ME. Microsoft has come a long way. They both had 56k modems, and they were having issues connecting.I suppose I should give a plug for Jeff Orbeck, owner of Kim-Built Propane in Kimball – that is where I was helping out. They had some awesome grill’s there – I wish I didn’t live in an apt, or I would probably have one. For your propane needs in Central MN, give Jeff a call at 320-398-3420 – he’s a good guy.
P.S – this is my first post from Outlook using NewsGator!
Steve Novoselac's Blog 