I mean really psyched! As well he should be!

www.devconnections.com

Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org

Here's an idea: go fill it up with supplies for Katrina victims and find a drop off center in your area that is arranging to bring stuff down. Check your local Red Cross chapter - they should know of any such efforts.

Don't Forget: www.acehaid.org

Well, it was really FEMA's boss, Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security, who had the most astounding interview with Robert Seigel yesterday afternoon on All Things Considered. I listenened in the car on the way home. Seigel asked Chertoff why the thousands of people at the convention center with no food, water or officials in charge were being completely overlooked. Chertoff responded with disbelief - that the people were even there. Seigel said that NPR reporters were there and that is what they are reporting and it was a nightmare. Chertoff said well, you can't believe all of the rumors. Oh my god. So Seigel replied that these are not rumors. These are experienced reporters that have covered wars and have been in refugee camps. Chertoff said, well, I'm not going to argue with you and the interview ended. It was astounding! Why couldn't he just say "oh my god, nobody has come to me with this information. I will get on it immediately." It was like he was a robot. The entire interview was incredible. Chertoff was on the defensive and kept saying "there's food, there's help...we have staging areas." You can listen to it here. Siegel deserves a medal for keeping his cool. It's a shame that it has to be this way. Our government could have been heroic.

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According to this page of the US Census Bureau stats for New Orleans:

 In 2003, New Orleans city had 181,000 occupied housing units - 92,000 (51 percent) owner occupied and 89,000 (49 percent) renter occupied. Seven percent of the households did not have telephone service and 21 percent of the households did not have access to a car, truck, or van for private use. Twenty-six percent had two vehicles and another 6 percent had three or more.

21% of 181,000 is about 38,000.

38,000 households represents a lot of people who have no access to a vehicle.

Think about that when reading this statement from the FEMA director in response to the predicted death toll.

"Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN.

"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said.

"And to find people still there is just heart-wrenching to me because, you know, the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there."

I wondered too, at first. Why did so many people stay? But then the more you saw on the news, the more you realized that many people just didn't really have any way to leave. And nowhere to go. And nobody came to get them.

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Nearby in Boston, taught by Keith Brown and Aaron Skonnard. But way too rich for my blood. $2000 for 3 days. Oh well.

www.acehaid.org

I don't have a Costco membership, but I just called and got permission to come shopping there for the Vermont National Guard trucks going down to the Gulf Coast that are collecting today and today only. (More info on that here if you are from Vermont.) If you are someone that I know and you would like to make a contribution, email me and let me know how much you would like to contribute. I will purchase that much more when I go this afternoon.

www.acehaid.org

The ads that play in front of the video clips on CNN.com are getting pretty offensive. The latest is an ad for DOW that talks about how clean they make the water, how great the crops are, how much wonderful medicine there is and how much wonderful food they can preserve. And then cut to the tragedy that is New Orleans. Disgusting. I know the ads are rotated randomly, but hello, is someone paying attention?

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One of the nice things about having a smart client blogging app that let's me store posts is that I can write to my hearts content about how I feel about what is going on in the Gulf Coast and rant  to my hearts content about the government's slow and deadly response. I can get it out of my system and then save it and never even post it if I don't want to.

www.acehaid.org

A few days ago, I blogged that the local chapter of the American Red Cross was headed south. I had seen it on the television news. Those volunteers are blogging their experience here http://nvtredcross.blogspot.com/

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A message from the Northern Vermont Chapter of the American Red Cross

"A hurricane of this magnitude is a true act of nature, something totally beyond our control. We can make a difference, though, by responding to those who so desperately need our help now," said Rob Levine, Executive Director of the Northern Vermont Chapter. "With an upsurge in calls from many people who want to assist the Red Cross, we are offering training sessions over the next week to anyone who can commit to a two week deployment and who can meet the criteria of our volunteer recruitment system. In addition, we welcome new volunteers who might not be able to make a commitment to travel to the affected region but would be interested in learning how they can make a difference right here at home by attending the training sessions."

Anyone interested in learning more can contact the Community Involvement department at the Chapter by calling 802-660-9130- ext. 104 or by e-mail at mikeh@nvtredcross.org.

by way of Cathy Resmer's blog: 802 Online

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Hooray, I have been looking for this all day. I was even starting to fantasize about hiring a trucker and making this happen, but I'm thrilled that the state of Vermont is doing this. I have lots of clothes already piled up and am going on a shopping spree tomorrow.

From the VPR.NET website

Vermont offers hurricane assistance; Guard deployment to Gulf Coast

 COLCHESTER, VT (2005-09-01)

(Host) At this hour, Vermont officials are outlining a plan to offer assistance to Gulf Coast states in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Governor Jim Douglas and National Guard Adjutant General Martha Rainville announced earlier this hour that about 125 members of the Vermont Guard will be leaving for New Orleans over the next three days. The first of the soldiers will leave in the next 24 hours.

The Guard deployment is one part of the assistance that the state of Vermont if providing. Governor Jim Douglas is calling on Vermonters to donate to the following items at collection points around the state, emphasizing that only items on this are accepted:

• Bottled Water (Size: Liter and larger)
• Non-Perishable Food
• Clothing (new or like-new condition only)
• Infant Supplies (Formula, Diapers, etc.)
• Snacks/Protein Bars
• First Aid Kits
• Transistor Radios
• Batteries (Sizes: AA, C, D, 9V)
• Flashlights
• Hygiene Products (bar soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.)
• Dog/Cat Food

The drop-off locations for Friday's collection drive are:

(update: for a more detailed list of addresses of drop off sites visit the Northern Vermont Red Cross website here)

Bennington County: Bennington Town Clerk's Office

Orleans County: State Police Barracks in Derby

Windsor County: Hartford Fire and Police Department

Washington County: Statehouse lawn

Franklin County: Collins-Perly Recreation Facility in St. Albans

Caledonia County: St. Johnsbury Municipal Office Building and Fire Station

Windham County: State Police Barracks in Rockingham

Rutland County: State Police Barracks in Rutland

Addison County: Vergennes High School

Chittenden County: State Police Barracks in Williston

Drop locations are accepting goods from 11 am to 8 pm on Friday.

© Copyright 2005, VPR

 

This is the online edition of VPR News. Text versions of VPR news stories may be updated and they may vary slightly from the broadcast version.

 

 

www.acehaid.org

Earlier this month, myKB launched "Help for Helpers", offering their flagship Knowledgebase software free for non profit corps.

One example of a non-profit that has already benefited is the Down Syndrome Network, which is building their knowledgebase here with the help of myKB and hosted on myKB's website.

For more information, check this press release.

www.acehaid.org

This one had me scratching my head for a while so I thought I would put it out there.

I have a computer that I installed some software on using an ISO file and therefore had attached it to a Virtual DVD player (Daemon Tools).

Recently I received a newer version of the software on a DVD. I wanted to install this in a VPC and not affect the other installation.

I created a VPC and popped in the disc. The install wizard came up and I went ahead with the installation.

When all was said and done, I went to run the new software but it was not the new version! I bagged the vpc and started again. Same thing.

In the VPC, I browsed to the disc. There were two DVD players both with the same contents. Neither had file dates relating to the new dvd.

I left the VPC and browsed to the disc from the host computer. There were two DVD players, one with the old version, one with the new.

I removed the instance of the virtual dvd player. Then tried to do the install again in the VPC and the proper software installed.

So, somehow, the physical DVD was firing up the AutoPlay but on the wrong disk. Go figure.

I had a VPC that I created on my computer. I needed to install something from a DVD. A prior version

www.acehaid.org

www.acehaid.org

http://www.wwltv.com/

Considering the picture of the flooded American Red Cross vehicle in Mississippi on the home page of CNN, I'm happy to know that an ACR vehicle left Burlington this morning to head down south to help.

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from Thom Robbins' blog

We are pleased to announce Weekly Fast Tips a new subscription service to help you use the Visual Studio Team System 2005 more fully for Microsoft East Region developers, the Weekly Fast Tip.  Upon subscribing you will receive in email (upon subscribing) each week a short (5 - 8 minute) video link which will present a useful Visual Studio 2005 Team System feature, such as code analysis, testing, or IDE enhancements and so much more!  You can view the video from your PC, at your convenience. Each week, you will receive an email from info@fasttips.net which will have a link to view that week’s 5-minute video/tip.  We will randomly select subscribers monthly to win a FREE Microsoft prize; you simply have to complete the video and submit the survey!!   Make sure to add info@fasttips.net to your Safe Senders list in Outlook so you will receive directly the Weekly Tip!		To subscribe, click here . You will be routed to a customized  subscription site where you can subscribe to the Weekly Fast tip.   Subscribe One Time Only, and be entered into a drawing for a Pocket PC!
The first weekly Fast Tip email will be sent September 12. Subscribe now for a chance to win a Pocket PC from Microsoft, and view each tip weekly for a chance to enter into the drawing for future prizes from Microsoft. To continue receiving the most up-to-date Visual Studio Team System, subscribe to the Microsoft Weekly Fast Tip for Visual Studio 2005 Team System today!

 

You will be able to unsubscribe from this service at any time by clicking here. 

 

August VS2005 CTP is now online with MSDN Downloads. I definitely can't get SQL Server June CTP to install alongside of VS2005 August CTP. You'll probably have to stick with the SQL Server Express bits that come with the VS2005 CTP.

www.acehaid.org

Next time you go out west to visit Microsoft HQ, live it up!

www.acehaid.org

There are now 37 BOFs (my best count) and I can't really tell exactly which are new other than my two  (Going Solo and TabletPC: If you build it, will they come).

I did notice sessions by William Tay (aka Softwaremaker) and Mario Cardinal that I didn't see before.

And there's a definitely bound to be great BOF by self-proclaimed Mort John Cavnar-Johnson. I hope that's not scheduled at the same time as mine!!

You can vote for your idea of the top 7 best BOF ideas here.

www.acehaid.org

Although there are some understandable glitches on the new MSDN Subscriptions site, I was able to get into the download page a few times today (though not too far). At first, there was nothing to see at all. Finally I tried "manage my subscriptions" and discovered that I had to configure my downloads. Once they were confiigured (which nodes do you want to see and what language) the familiar treeview on the left showed up - filtered based on my selections. I can't get back in there at the moment (the glitches), but have already seen people asking this question.

www.acehaid.org