Whew!

Turns out you just need to add an IIS 7 specific section to your web.config file to get Blogengine back in the land of the living.

Gory details here: http://www.codeplex.com/blogengine/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=21124

Glad it was an easy fix because I don't know how long it will take to get my software to the self-hosting point, and it would suck to lose the links to this blog.

Good news! I figured out how to get MVC working on Godaddy hosting! You just have to tell IIS 7 to run in integrated mode.

Bad news! When you tell IIS 7 to run in integrated mode, BlogEngine.net gets bent!

Once I get farther along with my own MVC comic/blog software, I plan to switch this blog over to it. Until then it will look ugly and only sorta work.

I don't think anyone actually reads it, so I'm not going to interrupt the MVC work to try to get this one back up and pretty...

It's been a couple of months since I announced I was starting work on an MVC version of the webcomic hosting software and now it is time for an update!

Um. About that.

A number of things have de-railed that project until now.

First, I've been learning a ton of new technologies at work. Sharepoint, SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Reporting Services, Performance Point, MDX, various-other-alphabet-soup-of-acronyms. We are pushing boldly forth into the world of Business Intelligence. Very cool stuff, but it limits the old free time at home.

Second, my family took advantage of the really good deals Walt Disney World has been offering. We did the "stay four days, get three days free" package. Long story short: best... vacation... EVER! I really hate to admit how much I like Disney World. I would love to tell you that I am a jaded world traveler who finds Disney World trite and blah blah blah, but I am not. Expedition Everest is my new favorite roller coaster. Not the fastest or biggest, but the most fun one I've ridden. The attention to detail is staggering. The imagineers spent serious time in Nepal and it shows. Artist Point is also my new favorite restaurant. Sci Fi Dine In is my second favorite restaurant.

Third, I've been dabbling in XNA game programming. I am a total sucker for games. I've been gaming since the Atari 2600.

Time to focus and get back to the MVC project.

I'm going to post a second update with thoughts on that project following this update (trying to keep them short).

You know that game where everyone sits around and talks about what they’d do if they won the lottery?

Bob would go to Fiji, Carol would own houses all over and Fred would head to Montana, create a compound and start a cult. Yeah that game.

I know what I would do. Oh, I’d give some to charity, but a HUGE amount would go to buying electronic gadgets.

Well, I decided to write down the April 2009 list of gadgets I’d like to have right now to play with. Oh, I’ll tell myself some of them would make me more productive, but the truth is they are the 21st century, all-grown up version of the Tonka Trucks and Matchbox Cars I had way back in the 20th century.

Oh, and should you feel a burning urge to buy one of these goodies, just click the picture to jump over to my Amazon whatchamacallit site where I'll get a couple cents on each dollar. I figure if i can convince a few hundred people to buy these things, then I'll be able to buy one myself! Kind of like a Tupperware party. But with stuff I like.

Kindle2

Yeah, I want a Kindle. No, I'm not willing to shell out $350+.

I’ve been drooling over e-Ink for more than a decade. I followed all the stories back in the 90s about how it was being developed. Heck, I followed the stories about how it SHOULD be developed.

Back in my PDA totin’ days I read a slew of books on the Palm Sized Windows PDA then Sony CLie/Palm and then Dell Axim/Pocket PC.

Crazy cool feature: built in cell modem to download books darn near anywhere.

You know what I really want? I want to get Kindles for myself, my wife and my two kids. Yeah, for $1,400 we could READ BOOKS. No way to do that any less expensively… oh, wait. The library. Riiight. Paper. Seriously? Sure, you COULD read that way, but who would want to? Pfft! I just might as well be illiterate until Amazon drops their price.

Sony EBook Reader

OK, next best thing to a Kindle? Sony Reader Digital Book.

Yeah I have an ebook fetish. Bad.

Down side? $300. No cell connection.

Upside? More formats without having to pay for every frickin’ blog you want to read.

Nintendo DSi

Dual screen (one’s a touchscreen) game machine with built in wi-fi and Opera browser. That's pretty frickin' sweet!

The dual cameras are of dubious value to me. Until someone creates face tracking software for interacting with the apps.

Oh, and Nintendo needs to turn their new app store into a real app store like Apple’s App Store. No stupid restrictions on who can develop for it.

Downside? Stupid Nintendo stupid restrictions on stupid developers! Hopefully this will change. Didn’t we say that back in 1998?

Apple iPod Touch

This is the sweetest PDA to come along in a long time!

You know what would make this REALLY cool? If it were a CELL PHONE TOO! Think about that! Wouldn't that be TOO COOL? Maybe someday Apple will get on the stick and make a cell phone like that.

They what? Oh my.

Enough!

That really is enough for now. I’m starting to hyperventilate.

More gadgets and goodies later.

No news to report on the Brains-On-A-Stick front because I've been seriously sidetracked with a number of projects and events. Hopefully I'll get back to it before long, but I don't expect much chance in the next few weeks. Stay tuned. Or not.

I do have some unrelated posts coming, however. The first will be about SQL Server 2005 partitioning. You can stay tuned on that one, because I'm about to write it now...

At the recent Atlanta Code Camp (awesome, blog more about it later) I met David Silverlight who was talking about a Microsoft User Group that meets in Second Life, the massively multi-user thing-a-ma-bob.

That sounded pretty cool to me, but I had only tried Second Life (SL) once and it was NOT a positive experience.

For those who haven't ventured outside their first life, let me paint you a picture: you start on what amounts to Reject Island with all the other people who just signed up and have no idea what's going on. During my first foray (I'm guessing this was around 2006), the lag was so bad it was like The Island Of The Reject Narcoleptics. I tried for about thirty minutes before uninstalling the client in disgust.

Now, however, David had piqued my interest and I decided to give it another go.

That spawned the epic motion picture-like-experience I call: Return To Reject Island. Or maybe The Accidental Tramsssexual... (note I spelled that wrong to try to avoid Google Adsense hilarity).

Whilst trying the various tutorials I managed to dismiss my tutorial box and failed to find it again. That meant no more instructions. I had made it just to the point of figuring out how to change my little avatar's appearance. Well, HALF WAY through learning that.

You can spend your Linden Dollars (the local currency) on all manner of fancy schmancy clothing, jewelry, etc., but I WILL NOT PAY A LOT FOR A MUFFLER! Oh, no, not I! I decided to get creative with the default clothing options. I started with a fire-fighter. Woudln't it be funny if I mixed in some of the Little Red Riding Hood clothes? What a laugh riot! Right up until my big, strapping firefighter sprouted boobs and became a petite woman!

Evidently changing clothes in Second Life can be a life (and sex) altering experience!

So I tried to switch back, but Second Life was having none of my second guessing. It would, however, allow me to be a female firefighter with no hair and a stark, black beard. Not being committed to this game, I decided to give up the effort and wander around the island, talk to the other rejects and see if they would make me their king or queen based on the fact that I was in fact the biggest reject of them all.

I met a female avatar who said "Hi" in Spanish, and I thought that it would be cool to try to have a conversation in a language I studied briefly long, long ago.

We muddled along and I found that she was in Mexico and very interested in drinking. Everything was fine until a fellow from Venezuela happened along. He seemed to have a thing for bald headed, black bearded female firefighters.

Hmm. First year Spanish did NOT include the sentence, "Hey, I'm a guy who accidently changed himself into a girl by trying on some clothing to try and be funny." Go figure. Much more useful than nattering on about the color of my pencil, but NO, they just don't teach it.

As Don Juan got friendlier and friendlier, I decided to go for the approach of FIGURING OUT THE DAMNED SYSTEM and changing back into a guy.

Eventually I morphed back into a tall, masculine firefighter right before their astonished (and in his case horrified) eyes.

Fortunately between three people and two languages, we got across the fact that I was in fact King of the Rejects and not the Queen.

I'm still hoping to make it to one of the user group meetings. If you're there, look me up. I'll be the big firefighter who NEVER, EVER changes his clothes...