I even made a little logo I mean icon - for the representatino of the app on a desktop and for the corner of the window.

Ain't it cute?

I am not going to make excuses for playing hookey today after working day and night, seven days a week for few years trying to learn .NET. So I played hookey today. Yesterday was notably one of the best ski days ever at Mad River Glen as reported by many many locals who have skiid there for years. So we went today since it is only 7.5 miles from our house to the parking lot . Got right on the [famous, landmark] single chair to go up to the top and ski the absolutely magical Antelope and Lower Antelope. Just past the mid-station, the lift stopped. I was about 25 feet in the air. It was probably about 20 degrees. Two and a half hours later, I was lowered down from the chair lift. Something had broken and they had to evacuate everyone on the entire chair lift. I was the 2nd to last person off. Brrrrr. So much for a play day. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to get us all safely down.

Have you been waiting and waiting and waiting for a response to your application to participate in the reporting services beta? (Like I was?) I just happened to go to Beta Place today and there was Reporting Services in my area of “active programs”. I know I get a gazillion emails, but I can't imagine I would have missed/deleted the typical “welcome to the beta” email. So if you are waiting, go check www.betaplace.com, you may actually already be in the program.

Waitaminutehere! Lonestar is listed there, too. Now why didn't I get any kind of notification? Hmmmmm...

I had some difficulty figuring this out. ALthough the ink can interact with the clipboard, I wanted to have an explicit place to tuck away my strokes and retrieve them again. A few hints in the Tablet Newsgroup pointed me in to some interesting methods and I was able to come up with the following solution. Take a look at the functionality of ink.CreateStrokes, ink.ExtractStrokes and ink.AddStrokestoRectangle to better understand this code.

(DeletedStrokes is just a ListArray created elsewhere in the class)

Case "undo"

With (InkPicture1.Ink)
Dim id As Int32 = .Strokes(.Strokes.Count - 1).Id
Dim ids() As Int32 = {id}
Dim delStrokes As Strokes = .CreateStrokes(ids)
Dim storeInk As Ink = .ExtractStrokes(delStrokes, ExtractFlags.RemoveFromOriginal)
DeletedStrokes.Add(storeInk)
.Strokes.Remove(.Strokes(.Strokes.Count - 1))
End With
InkPicture1.Refresh()

Case "redo"
If DeletedStrokes.Count > 0 Then
Dim storeInk As Ink = DeletedStrokes(DeletedStrokes.Count - 1)
InkPicture1.Ink.AddStrokesAtRectangle(storeInk.Strokes, thisink.GetBoundingBox)
DeletedStrokes.Remove(thisink)
InkPicture1.Refresh()
End If

Another generator day. We had about 1.5 more feet of snow last night. I had a client call me and say “why aren't you skiing?  GO SKIING!”. But unfortunately, I have to figure out how to print out a 300 page report for another client even though my printer doesn't work to well on the generator and get it to FedEx before they close tonight. I may have to pick up my printer (uggh - an old LaserJet IVsi) and go somewhere else.

your message has been received and will be replied to when J Lerman returns

I wonder if anyone will ever get the sick joke that is my blog title... heh heh heh

note: I gave up on the webclient class and used Vick Soulios' VB FTP class on GotDotNet. It hangs for a few seconds when it's making the connection, but the upload works like a charm. Thanks Vick! But if someone can explain WHY the webclient.UploadFile was failing - translation ...what was I doing wrong...I'd love to know and share the answer.

I have been having some fun with the WebClient.UploadFile method for the last few days. My IIS Admin is joining in as well. According to the docs, this is the non asp.net way to emulate the HTMLInput file posting methodology. One advantage you have in asp.net is that if you are posting the file to the same domain, then it's easy enough to set the proper permissions to let this happen. However, when you are trying to do this from outside of the domain, it ain't so easy. IIS doesn't see a referral page, so it blocks the request. The only suggestion I have found anywhere is to bag the UploadFile and go with TCPClient and a network Stream. Sure I can do that if I have to, but then what's the purpose of the UploadFile? When I am setting the proper credentials using my ftp login and password, I can't see how this is any different than using a standard FTP app such as WS_FTP.

Another thing I have found in my queries is a number of people trying to upload files to web services. Someone always asks - “why on earth do you want to upload a file to a web service?” Now I know the answer! Because the web service will have all of the same authentication that the asp.net app does.

But I will figure out how to use the WebClient.UploadFile because now I'm determined to make it work and I'll definitely share the solution here.

If anyone was wondering what ever happened to BLInk!, my tablet blogging app, this (and work and some damned fine skiing snow) has been part of the holdup.

Seems like everyone's quickly willing to accept that it truly is Saddam they have captured. I'm a bit of a skeptic. Even my husband noted that he had one heck of a beard for only 9 months of not shaving. It is clearly an advantage politically to have us think that this is indeed Saddam - especially since he is suddenly being referred to as “the biggest terrorist on earth“ - but I will wait a bit longer. Remember that Saddam had a large number of look-a-like stand-ins that were used for public and televised/taped appearances.

add: I wasn't the only person to wonder about this... Though the raid occurred Saturday afternoon American time, U.S. officials went to great length to keep it quiet until medical tests and DNA testing confirmed Saddam’s identity. I guess by now, they are pretty sure.

Gulp. Guess it's official. I'm only doing the talk once, but maybe they just wanted it to look like they've got lots of women speakers by putting me on that home page twice! Just kidding. There are at least two others that I can see. My task is to pack a laundry list of what's new in the Whidbey CLR into a very short period of time. I am still trying to decide if I should whiz through the list (boring), or just pick out my favorites and focus on them. I think a combo of those two would be the best - though timing will determine this. I'd also like to get a little into how these classes relate to WinFX. This is NOT the same as doing a talk on something you have great experience with - since it's all new stuff. But it's a great means of making sure I get my ass in gear!!

...when it's time to get out my ruby red slippers for hiking...

Anybody that I have ever met that has these boots (http://www.koflach.com/Koflach Degre) feels the same way about them. My magic boots.

I noticde dasblog.com a few weeks ago and wondered why newtelligence was wasting their time with webhosting and since I hadn't seen an announcement, did not mention it myself. The real site for dasBlog is dasBlog.NET. This morning I see this from Clemens Vasters assuring us that this is just some unknown person using the dasBlog engine, but it is not associated with them (newtelligence) at all.

Well the time has come. I can put it off no longer.

My new hard drive is here. I have my win2k3 server software (msdn universal) and I have run out of space on my little server.

My two possible plans of action are this:

1) Install new drive as the slave drive. Copy the current drive completely to this new drive. The current system is win2k server wtih IIS5 (many test websites) and SQL Server 2000 on it. Once that is in place then I change that drive to the master drive and upgrade to Win2K3 server and hope all stays well.

2) Install new drive as master drive. Reformat it (just in case) and install Win2K3 server, SQL Server 2000 and IIS6. Install .NET Framework 1.1 and remote debugging tools. Then copy my databases and my websites over and recreate all of the virtual directories. Actually not all of them. Many are garbage tests that can disappear.

I know that MS recommends migration over upgrading, but I think in my envronment (I only have the server so that I have a good test environment to emulate my clients) a plain old upgrade might be sufficient.

I am not looking to the physical part of this - installing the drive, doing the master slave thing. I did that a few years ago on my development machine when I switched to a new hard drive and at the same time went from win2k to winxp. When you only do this stuff every 2 or 3 years, it becomes a mystery again.

The sadder part is that I have come to the conclusion that my dev machine is really just maxed out and could use more memory and a new processor. I've got a screamin' 160gig hard drive in there so that's no problem. I don't want to contribute to the computer graveyard so I'll probably just upgrade the box. I tried that a few years ago on my server and ended up having to get a new motherboard and a new case as well.

Stephen Forte asks if Reporting Services will be an Access Killer.

Of course we have all giggled about how it looks like Access for SQL Server. But it won't kill Access. Many people will not need or be able to justify the cost of a SQL Server license as well as [what I have been led to understand is] the current required design tool - Visual Studio .NET.

Based on Phil Scott's comment I should clarify that I am talking about situations where Access is already a viable tool - limited number of users and limited resources.

From Mike Gunderloy

Longhorn Readiness Program for ISVs - The people who were unhappy to see the PDC Longhorn DVD shipping for $499 are going to be really unhappy to find out that it's now available for free.

I (and at least one other person that I am aware of) signed up for the reporting services beta about 3 weeks ago. It mentions a wait of a coupla days to hear back. I'm really eager to get a good look at it. So is my client who is considering the alternatives as well (hint hint). Any chance?

Today's NPR Commentary by the ever-enlightened and very entertaining poet, Andrei Codrescu, talked about blogging. I have been a fan of Codrescu's for years, though I can't say his take on blogging is too flattering! But that's okay by me. Listen here.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu talks about a spider in his backyard and how it relates to Internet web logs, or blogs. The blogger is at the center of a web, like a spider. Both eventually die -- from the cold or from being unable to pay the server's bill.

I received this email today (well this is a slice of it...). I hope this means good things to come!

The TabletPCDeveloper Web site is moving, and you can move with it!

On December 17, TabletPCDeveloper.com content will be moved to its well-established peer site GotDotNet.com.

You have received this notice because you are a registered user on the TabletPCDeveloper.com Web site. Part of the process of moving content to the GotDotNet site includes moving the TabletPCDeveloper user registration and related Samples. Unless you instruct us otherwise, on "moving day" (December 17), we will move your TabletPCDeveloper User Samples to their new home on GotDotNet. We will also automatically create a user account for you on GotDotNet (unless it appears that you already have one).

see Devin's post here for more information...