Automatic Snap Grid for Monitors

I was reading a story about the Large Display Paradox on Coding Horror and found out about these cool tools that allow your windows to snap into place. I have two 19" monitors and I'm constantly moving, minimizing, maximizing, and resizing windows.

I decided to go with GridMove. It's free, comes with preset templates and you can make your own templates. Click on the image to see a demonstration.

Improve Your Life

I found this article that lists 10 ways to improve your life. It really will improve your life; through logic, rationality, and compassion. It is written by Adrian Savage the author of "Slow Leadership: Civilizing the Organization".

This list is posted at lifehack.org: improve your life

Eurlist.thesol.com

... let it go ...

Time's 50 Best Web Sites for 2007

I've been perusing this list and I gotta say... it rocks. I found some very very cool sites. Here's the list. Take a look for yourself.

Get out of (break?) your cell phone or wireless carrier contract!

I was reading the 50 Best web sites on Time.com and read about www.cellswapper.com. You can post the cell plan you would like to get rid of and transfer it to someone that does want it i.e. "swap out" your plan. There is a transfer fee ($15-$40) and that varies by carrier, but you won't be paying any early termination fees!

You can also search for a cell plan to "buy" i.e. "swap in" to a new plan. Some of the terms are very short too. I've seen one with only 3 months left. This site is great for all of us that like the latest and greatest phones, but don't want to pay full price for them.

Speaking of new phones and getting a great price, don't forget to check out www.letstalk.com.

-Hank
Eurlist.thesol.com

J.J. Abrams - Cloverfield - Ethan Haas Was Right

OK, J.J. Abrams is the master of intrigue, puzzles and creating hype for his works. Like Lost, "Cloverfield" (codename) comes with web sites that seem to be revealing clues. In true J.J. Abrams style, it does answer some questions, but for each answer two new questions arise. These two web sites have popped up in reference to Cloverfield, Ethan Haas Was Right and Ethan Haas Was Wrong.

The first site takes you to a puzzle. After you figure it out (I won't tell you) you see a video of a man (presumably Ethan Haas all scanlined and fuzzed out) and he says some interesting things, but most importantly, he wants to test you one more time.







Here is the second puzzle. This is as far as I have gotten. I'm guessing the clues to solving this riddle is in the blog.

So I did a search and found at The Braxcave, the solutions to what looks like all of the puzzles. Good for me, now I don't have to try and figure them all out :).

DRM Free music and MP3 music available here...

For all of those fans out there that used www.allofmp3.com, that site is shut down. But never fear, they have reopened another site called www.MP3Sparks.com. I just tried to log into MP3Sparks with my credentials from AllOfMP3 and they are not working... sort of. I had my username/password sent to my email address and that worked fine, but even with the credentials that are stored on their database, I can't log in.

The reason I was trying to login was to find out what type of payment they would accept. So, I created a new account and attempted to add money to my account... alas, it is not possible at this time. I'll keep you all posted on my progress.

Flickrdown - Batch Download Flickr Photos

OK. I got an email from Yahoo today telling me I need to move (actually Yahoo does it for you) my pictures from Yahoo Photo to somewhere else and Flickr of course is an option (and the one I chose).

Well I stopped using both Yahoo Photo and Flickr after I starting using Google's Picasa and the Picasa Web Albums. The point being I wanted to move my photos on Yahoo Photo to Picasa. I needed to download all of my photos, add them to Picasa, and then decide if I wanted to post these to the web album.

I searched both Yahoo Answers and Google for ways to batch download files from either Yahoo Photo or Flickr. I found it! It is called Flickrdown by www.Greggman.com, you can get it here, and it works for Flickr. It is both easy to install and to use. I wonder if can make one for Picasa's Web Album? :)

HTC TouchFlo - iPhone (or iPhoneness) on the HTC Wizard

So the bad ass developers at XDA-Developers are porting the TouchFlo interface to the HTC Wizard a.k.a. the MDA. It is now in Beta 2b and you can read the forum post here and decide if you are brave enough to flash your MDA.

Check out the video to see TouchFlo in action (HTC Touch).

Save on your energy bills!

I just read a cool article on what I would think would be an easy no hassle way to save money on energy bills. I think it is a win-win situation for the consumers and power producers. Basically update the lame electric meter so it can record when energy is being used and the power companies can charge different rates for power at different times of the day (peak and off-peak).

Everyone would have a monetary incentive to use energy at non-peak times. Here is the article. This is technology at its best.

MDA with Windows Mobile 6

Wooohooo my MDA now has Windows Mobile 6 installed!!! Go here to do it yourself (not for the faint of heart). The (for me) best thing about it is power management. My F'n battery would die within 6 hours w/o any real usage and would never sit overnight without completely draining the battery.

Now, it's great. I left my MDA unplugged (with a 100% charge) ALL NIGHT and still had 78% battery power left in the morning. It could never do that before.

After following all of the instructions, in addition to the battery life, you get cool applications like Pocket Screen Capture which I used for the above image.

Under the settings --> system tab, there is an application that is called "X-button" that you can use to actually shut down the apps you are using, by tapping on the "x" button (or tap and hold down, depending on your settins).

Another application I fell in love with is the Audio Manager. It is just a very cool interface for playing your music on you MDA. The interface reminds me of the Zen Vision M player. In addition to letting you find and listen to you music easier and faster, you can hold your stylus down on a song and open the context menu and then choose the song as your ring tone... SWEET!

Anyway, if you are brave enough, follow the instructions METICULOUSLY and you too will be wowed by Windows Mobile 6.

ASP.NET 2.0 ReportViewer :: Continued...

I have one report viewer wired to two different local reports and users can select the report from a dropdownlist. Here's the code to show the correct report:

protected void DropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// remove previous report viewer if it exists
if (Panel1.Controls.Count > 0)
{
Panel1.Controls.Clear();
}

// create new instance of reportviewer to get around lame bug
ReportViewer rv = new ReportViewer();
ReportDataSource rds = new ReportDataSource("dsCustodians_Custodian", this.objDSRptCustodians);
rv.LocalReport.DataSources.Add(rds);
rv.Width = new Unit("100%");
rv.Height = new Unit("400px");

// set the reportpath dynamically
if (this.DropDownList1.SelectedValue == "Custodians")
{
rv.LocalReport.ReportPath = Server.MapPath("rpt_GroupedByCustodians.rdlc");
}
else if (this.DropDownList1.SelectedValue == "Departments")
{
rv.LocalReport.ReportPath = Server.MapPath("rpt_GroupedByDepartment.rdlc");
}

// add the dynamically called report to the panel
Panel1.Controls.Add(rv);
}


-Eurlist.thesol.com

ASP.NET 2.0 ReportViewer :: Failed to enable constraints

I'm using the ASP.NET 2.0 ReportViewer in local mode for the first time (and it ROX). Here are two excellent tutorials:

• ASP.NET 2.0 ReportViewer in Local Mode - this one is great for getting setup. You need to run reportviewer.exe file on your web server. You can get the reportviewer.exe here.
• Drill Down Reports with ReportViewer ASP.NET 2.0 - this one is also excellent for demonstrating a 3 level drill down report.

After you get everything set up and are running the tutorials, you may get this error message:

An error has occurred during report processing.
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
Failed to enable constraints. One or more rows contain values violating non-null, unique, or foreign-key constraints.

You can go here for the solution to this.

One last piece of code that will save you from a migraine :)

this.ReportViewer1.LocalReport.Refresh();

Good Luck!

-Eurlist.thesol.com

Lost Season Finale

Great ending!

Q&A

Is Charlie really dead? Not sure, but likely IMO

Who is in the coffin? My friends and I think it was Ben

What's up with a "flash forward" and was it actually a flash foward?
The Funeral Home where Ben's viewing was, is called Hoffs/Drawlar, which is an anagram for "Flash Forward".

In addition, Jack tried to get a prescription filled by his Dad and the pharmacist was going to call his Dad's office to confirm. Also, when Jack was arguing with the chief of surgery, Jack told the guy to go get his "Dad and see who was more drunk". Isn't Jack's dad dead????

T-Mobile Wing - MDA Replacement - Windows Mobile 6

There are reviews and pics all over the web for the T-Mobile Wing, the newer, thinner and sexier MDA.

PC Magazine - Details and a review
Engadget - Details and pics
T-Mobile - Get it here!

Looks sweet, although I've not seen one in person. I like that it is thinner, has Windows Mobile 6, the LED indicators for Caps and Alt, and the 2 megapixel camera. I don't like the same old CPU.

Eurlist

Hi All!

I have created a web site where you can create lists to your heart's content. Why would you want to create a list you ask? Because other people want to read them and you'll become famous!

Create a Life List!

Check out these lists:

• TOP MUSIC ALBUMS (and favorite song)
• Secret Ingredients you will never see on Iron Chef America
• THE WORST MOVIES

History of the World

HISTORY OF THE WORLD:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals
2. Conservatives

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girliemen.

Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.

Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, Marines, and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That's why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history: It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it. A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to piss them off.

Pandora.com

Pandora is one of the coolest music listening sites I have ever been to. If you've not heard of it, please go and try it here.

The site allows you to create a "radio station". You choose an artist or song that you like and it will randomly play songs or artists that are similar to the one you chose. A radio station with no commercials and music that you will actually like. What more could you ask for?

Here's an article on Techdirt that shows once again how stupid the music industry is: http://techdirt.com/articles/20070502/200120.shtml

Pandora already pays fees to play the music, in addition, the listeners, if they like an artist, have the option to buy the song or album. But the music industry is trying to limit who is allowed to use Pandora, even though Pandora helps them advertise new music and artists. What idiots!!!

DRM and the Movie and Music Industry

The Movie and Music industry feel they are losing sales to illegal copying. They blame that as the major reason for all of their recent declines in sales.

Here's why sales are really declining:

Movies:
The current movie experience suxors and I mean really suxors! I won't go to the movies because of the noisy people talking, the cells phones going off, the lights from cell phones as texting is going on. In addition, my HD TV has a better picture and my sound system sounds nearly as good and NetFlix delivers to my house for a lot less per movie.

Music:
There are very few new bands out there that are any good. I mean how many albums have you bought recently where you only like 1 or 2 songs on the whole thing. It's just better to go to iTunes or any of you other favorite music download sites and just get the song that doesn't suck. I mean that too... not the good song, the song that doesn't suck.

Bottom line is instead of making a good product or experience, i.e. fixing the real problem, they found a scapegoat and blame it on "illegally" copied music or movies.

HD-DVD DRM Crack (and maybe BluRay too)

This article was all over the place in my usual haunts on the web. So I thought I'd chime in and spread the word too.

Over in the Doom9 forums, one of its users discovered the crack for HD-DVD DRM and posted it. This was in the beginning of February. This may also work for BluRay DRM.

You can read the forum post at Doom9 or on this blog's title to get all the juicy info.

Have fun with it!!!

WiPeer - Serverless Peer to Peer Collaboration

This is some super cool and FREE technology. It allows computers to link up via the Wi-Fi software without a router. The range is supposed to be 300 feet inside and up to 900 feet outside. You can share files, swap photos, chat, or play multi player games!!! No router needed.

You can download the FREE software here: www.wipeer.com

Here is where I first read about it.

Download it and install it. Maybe the next time I'm out and about w/my laptop, we'll link up :)

Goal-Directed Design

I'm a web developer by profession and I just read a book by Alan Cooper called, "The Inmates are Running the Asylum". Basically it is book giving a fairly detailed overview of Interaction Design for software, where it fits in the development life cycle, and its importance to the overall success of producing software. Everyone that is involved with the Software Development Life Cycle should read it.

So, this brings me to a comic strip that I thought was spot on funny:

http://www.bugbash.net/comic/37.html

Enjoy!

Flat Tax, Choice of Schools, Social Security, and Health Care

I just read a great article by Steve Forbes. Click the title of this article and you can read it too.

The core of it is we pay too many taxes!

He describes a typical day of paying taxes for almost every person. It goes something like this: you wake up and turn the light on (utility tax), brush your teeth (sales tax on brush and paste), use the water (more utility tax). Get dressed (sales tax by you indirectly by the manufacturer). Drive your car (fuel is taxed) on a road (city/state tax), possibly go through a toll. You get the idea.

I hate taxes and a flat tax if the most fair.

His article also includes his opinions on Education, Health Care, and Social Security. I agree with the points he makes.

300 Nearly Perfect say the FANS

So I read a review about 300 being "far from perfect", but the reviewer in the article points out that on IMDB, it got an 8.6. An 8.6 on IMDB is a superior rating and as I say in my title, "300 is Nearly Perfect say the FANS".

I have not seen this movie yet, but I am anxiously awaiting it. I am also glad the FANS like it and it makes me want to watch it more.

This is a couple of the reviewer's complaints: "it looks more like the inside of a computer game" and "with its macho militarism, seems out of step in a war-weary time". Uh yeah, the CGI is part of the draw to the movie and this guy is "war-weary"? Stop whining! The movie is entertainment and keep your perspective.

His last paragraph is: "All of which may be beside the point, I know: the kids just want to have fun. Many of them will. But what does that say about another Greek contribution -- Western civilization?" What??? Really? Does anyone believe this movie is supposed to be some history lesson? No, its "blood and thunder", just the kind of fun we want.

Here's a couple of cool links...

Interview with director Zack Snyder

Gallery of pics and their relation to the novel by Frank Miller

Go see the movie and tell me what you think!

Winforms Mouse Wheel Not Scrolling

I am working on a fairly complex .Net 2.0 Winform application and the mouse wheel would not scroll on a user control. Lucky for me LockerGnome had a posting for just this issue by aiKeith. This saved me what I would expect to be hours of troubleshooting for something that one would expect EVERY windows application to be able to do.

AND... it is an easy fix. Just give the user control focus: ControlName.focus();

Google Misspelled

I like when Google does cool little designs for their logo. This Valentine one is odd because it is a chocolate covered strawberry that replaces the 2nd "g". But where is the "L"? Is the stem on the strawberry supposed to be the "L"?

IMO, this image spells Googe :)

Here's the pic, decide for yourself...