Today, from IDEP, in Bali Indonesia, with whom I worked very closely during the aftermath of the disastrous tsunami two years ago. This is urgent and not on their website yet:

How you can help…

IDEP is urgently seeking immediate support for family support kits, temporary shelters, field kitchens, water an sanitation supplies as well as distribution and search and rescue logistics.

For emergency supplies IDEP is working with our partners CV Sarawsati (CVS) who helped us with supplies and delivery for the 2005 Tsunami, as well as the Jogyakarta and West Java Quake responses earlier this year. CVS can supply us with aid kits such as the following immediately should support be available...



To make a donation please go to our website: www.idepfoundation.org/idep_donate.php

Currently, IDEP can accept donations by two means:

1) Online Credit Card Donations through the National Heritage Foundation

Visit www.idepfoundation.org/idep_donate.php and select the ‘On-line Credit Card Donation’ option. You will be directed to the National Heritage Foundation website where you can process your donation through their secure site. Donations are accepted on our behalf by the National Heritage Foundation in the USA which is a registered 501-(c)(3) charity. Donation made through NHF are tax deductible in the United States.

Don’t forget, when you register your donation on our website, if you wish to earmark the funds for a particular project please indicate the project name.

2) Wire transfer to our bank account

Our bank account details:


If you are wire transferring funds please notify IDEP by filling in our donation registration form  on-line at: www.idepfoundation.org/idep_donate.php or emailing donate@idepfoundation.org. Please indicate the amount, the originating currency (i.e. US  dollars, UK pounds, etc), bank name and city from which the transfer was made, your name (as you would like to be listed on the donor list), and the date of the transfer. A receipt will be sent once the funds have arrived. Also, if you wish to earmark the funds for a particular project please indicate the project name.

Thank You so much to everyone who can help make this emergency response possible and for any support you are able to  provide.

While Jay Peak, in it's very own weather zone, is boasting snow (only 60 miles north of us) and Denver is getting another 30 inches on top of the coupla feet they got last week, poor little Mad River Glen (the reason we live in Vermont) is finally going to open this weekend with a minimal base and minimal snow on top of that. Most of the other resorts around here are suffereing as well, but now that the cold has set in at least they can confidently make snow. Mad River actually has some snow making equipment as well, but oh, how I hate skiing on that. There are about 2 inches of snow in our front yard and I just can't take it any more. I'm going to put in my old tele "rock skis" and go ski around the yard, grab the mail and then get back to work. No point in going out into the woods as there's never as much snow in there as there is out in the open. For that, I can't even justify snow shoes, though flip flops would be pushing it....

Charles in 3D on WPF on the web! Read more

[A DevLife post]

"LOCAL GIRL DOES GOOD"

Okay, can't be helped. She lives very nearby. So that means to me, she's a local yokel. Although, as I don't know her, I suppose that merely makes me a fan. (blush)

Alison's book, Fun Home, which I have blogged about, recommended and given to number of friends is on top of Time Mag's 10 Best Books for 2006. I dont' read Time, but I do peek at her blog occasionally which is where a typically hilariously titled post when she learned about this.

But it's not just Time. It's on a LOT of lists. From another of Alison's posts:

Doug Reilly, along with his family, has fought an invansive cancer for a number of years. This never stopped Doug from being one of the smiliest guys at TechEd, answering posts on ASPAlliance listserver from the hospital and writing and sharing so much with so many through many ASP communities. Doug passed away today, quietly and peacefully, at home with his wife and children at his side. His wife Jean has been keeping his blog updated with his status and even today, somehow, she took the time and love to share with us this very very sad news. Even still, this evening she added another post about arrangements.

While does was still physically strong, he was cycling and fundraising for the LIVESTRONG foundation. He never let up and he truly lived strong right up until the end.

We will truly miss you Doug. Thanks for everything.

I've written some more about Doug over here on my DevLife blog.

I only discovered the ability to initiate remote assistance from my end, rather than having my client's go through the "ask for remote assistance" steps in WinXP, using Remote Desktop and kicking the clients off, using PCAnywhere or using a Live Meeting/WebEx type solution. Read more...

[A DevLife post]

There are some beautiful falls that I can get to from my backyard, though they are a little off the beaten path.

I finally brought my camera back there yesterday. It's really hard to capture the full impact of the falls which are about 20 or 25 feet high, fall into a beautiful small pool of water and then go down a stream to meet a larger stream. So in addition to these pics, I took a short video. The high quality video is 24 MB, the low quality version is about 4MB.

is the American Heart Association's campaign to raise awareness of the fact that women get heart disease and heart attacks, too! We need to educate ourselves. A friend of my sister's had clear signs of a heart attack in her early 40's (along with a family history of both her father and grandfather dying from heart attacks in their 40's and the fact that she was already on heart medicine), but the obvious warnings were ignored by her doctor because she was a women and women don't get heart attacks. She called 911 when she was having her heart attack and they basically told her to take some indigestion medicine. She managed to get someone to take her to the hospital where doctor's had to immediately perform open heart surgery on her, which saved her life. So, I'm definitely a big supporter of this campaign.

There will be a Go Red for Women luncheon in Burlington on Feb 9th. A dear friend is one of the local Chairs of this and I am sponsoring a table of 10.

You can learn more about the Burlington event here, if you'd like to participate or donate a silent auction item.

Burlington's airport (BTV) just turned on free wi-fi today. Yay. Here's more from the Free Press

The January 8th VTdotNET meeting is shaping up with a LOT of people demoing their favorite tools.

Here's the roster so far:

VTdotNet'ers show off Developer Tools We Love
Chris DeGuise: ReSharper (20)
Dave Burke: CodeSmith (20) 
Rob Hale: Beyond Compare (10)
Bret Griswold: Code Charge Studio (10)
Julie Lerman: SnagIt, PureText, TimeSnapper & 2 PowerToys(15)
Mike Soulia: XMLSpy (xpath features) (15)
Bob LoCicero: NotePad++, ExamDiff, SyncToy, XmlNotepad & Toad Free Modeller (15)

It's going to be fast, furious and fun!

Thanks to Altova for steppinig up to sponsor the pizza and soda for the meeting.

Datamann is looking for a seven geeks!

Visual Basic / SQL Programming:
Seeking experienced SQL / VB Programmers. Candidate must be proficient in: Microsoft Transaction SQL programming language; SQL Server Enterprise Manager; Visual Basic programming of interfaces to SQL Databases; Microsoft Access programming with VBA. Should have knowledge of SQL database design and administration. Should know how to program database updates in T-SQL Stored Procedures with full input/output/error logging

Access / Crystal Reports Programming & Support:
Applicant must have in-depth experience with Access and/or Crystal Reports, basic IT experience, excellent written and verbal communication skills, and strong organizational skills.  

Database Administrator:
We are looking for an experienced Database Administrator to design and manage multiple Microsoft SQL Server Databases. The right candidate must understand relational database structure and possess the programming skills to develop and maintain customized databases. Must be proficient with Enterprise Manager, Query Analyzer, Transaction-SQL syntax, Data Transformation services and all Microsoft Tools relevant to the DBA role. The candidate should be able to assess databases with tables of 50,000,000+ rows for structural integrity and performance. Knowledge of Primary Key-Foreign Key relationships and ERDs is essential. Competency in Microsoft Office Suite products--particularly Access and Excel--required. Ability to program in Visual Basic, VB Net, VBA and other languages is desired. 

List Technician:
Wanted for first shift at data processing service bureau. Person needed to convert and process data files through merge purge and postal presort software. Knowledge of Windows 95/98/NT operating systems and MS-DOS required. Direct Mail experience preferred. Must be able to work quickly and accurately in a fast paced environment. Salary commensurate with experience, full benefits & 401k. 

PC Hardware Technical Support:
Applicant will be responsible for implementation, service, and support of customer networks. Will provide consultation and training to users on best practices for maintaining system integrity and more. Must enjoy working with others, be a fast learner, and have excellent diagnostic skills. Should be an enthusiastic individual, committed to customer satisfaction, able to juggle multiple tasks, and be able to manage a fast paced environment, as well as down times. Will require some weekend pager support. Must have experience in Microsoft networks. Experience in Unix, Linux, and WAN a plus.

Retail Point of Sale Software Support:
Applicant will be responsible for supporting CounterPoint software solutions. Will provide consultation and training to users on best practices for these software packages. Must enjoy working with others, be a fast learner, and have excellent diagnostic skills. Should be an enthusiastic individual, committed to customer satisfaction, able to juggle multiple tasks, and be able to manage a fast paced environment, as well as down times. Should have experience with CounterPoint. Knowledge of the retail industry and business/accounting is a major plus. 

Every time I go to check out the Vermont Flash User Group's site to see what their upcoming meetings are, I get flashed with envy at how groovy their website is. Even rescheduled meetings look cool!

Sadly, looking at VTdotNET (done by not-a-designer moi) and then looking at theirs, kinda makes me think of those "hi I'm a Mac... and I'm a PC ads". Bah...

January 09, 2007
SQL Developer Demo & Discussion
Come see SQL Developer in action.  SQL Developer is Oracle's FREE GUI PL/SQL Development tool.

www.gmoug.org

Here in Vermont, at least in my neck of the woods, power outages are a fact of life and we generally expect them. Whenever the wind starts blowing hard, we fill up the tubs and water jugs. We have a few gas stoves in the house and our cooking stove is gas. Most thankfully, we have this great little generator that can run the whole office (what else do I need?) or if need be the refrigerator and a bunch of lights upstairs. So we are prepared mentally and strategically. One of the reasons for this is that there are poplars everywhere and the come down easily and take the lines down with them. Although the last big wind storm a few weeks ago was taking down big big pines.

There was the big ice storm in 1998, but we didn't live here then. But I know it was nasty.

Even so, I just still can't imagine what my friends in the Seattle area are dealing with. They've been without power for nearly a week and are still expecting about another week without power. But loss of power seems to be only a small part of what they are going through. So many falling trees, flooding and now the problems related to people trying to find alternative means of heating and lighting their homes such as the carbon monoxide tragedies.

The trees there are taaaaaall. Chris Kinsman told me that a number of houses in his neighborhood were basically split in half by falling trees - not to mention the cars that got smashed.Other friends are holing up at hotels or with good fortune have gotten out of town. I think it was Eliot Graf from the Mobile PC team who told me "it looks like Godzilla's playground".

Reading someone's quote about listening to the trees falling through the night made me remember living in the New York State's Hudson Valley during what I think is the same storm that became the "big ice storm" in New England. I remember crying as we listened to hundreds of trees in our forest crashing down all night and running out many times during the day and night to unbury the tops of the bent over birch trees so they could try to upright themselves. We were without power for a whole week that time. It took a few summer's worth of work to cut the trails open again through our woods. (Though it certainly wasn't me who did that job!)

There was a story this morning on NPR about the woman who died trapped in her basement, making her more than "the woman who died", which becomes too sad.

The national news is focused on other things (I know I've personally been intent on the Mt. Hood climbers), but you can certainly find a big reality check just by going to local sources like the Seattle Times. I've perused blogs.msdn.com a bunch of times and haven't really seen very much there about the impact of the storm.

(OH NO! I think I reinstalled the wronng version now that I'm looking at the time of this post! Oops!)

A change in dasBlog pointed out a small problem with the Blink! off-line blogging tool I wrote two years ago. I originally wrote the app as an experiment in trying to make it fun to use on a TabletPC, but I have been using it to write almost all of my posts (98% of them not on a TabletPC) since then. There are a few minor itty bitty glitches that I will have to work out someday, but since there are probably 10 other people in the world using it...it gets low on the priority list.

Back to the dasBlog change. Pre 1.8 versions of dasBlog timestamped posts as they were posted, but as of 1.8, I noticed that all of my posts were getting the time 2 a.m. That was because I was only adding the current date to the post. So I modified the app to date and time stamp the post with the universal time. Now that I am on dasBlog 1.9 (happily), these posts are getting the proper creation time again.

The original Blink! app was a .NET 1.1 app, but when making this change, I recompiled it for .NET 2.0.

Get it here: www.thedatafarm.com/blink.aspx

There's some unusual white stuff falling out of the sky this morning. The air is thick with it. White fluffy little flakes like someone's shaking a huge box of those old fashioned laundry flakes. The wierdest thing is that it is sticking to the ground which is now mostly white with little bldes of grass sticking up in it.

Wait - I think... could it be...we just haven't seen it for so long here in Vermont.

Snow?

It's pretty sad that it's Dec 19th and there's no real skiing yet. Poor Mad River Glen still hasn't opened yet. The bigger places that can make snow have been struggling against the unusually warm weather. There was an article in the paper this weekend about the alternate activities the ski resorts are coming up with for people who made their reservations and just came up anyway.

From the VT Tax website:

"The majority of states with sales tax and the businesses who sell into most of these states developed an agreement to simplify sales tax administration for states and to reduce the burden of tax compliance for businesses. The Agreement primarily focuses on businesses with limited or no connection that sell to the states’ citizens through mail order, catalogs and the Internet."

and...

Will canned software become taxable even when delivered electronically?
Yes, effective January 1, 2007 canned software delivered electronically is subject to the sales tax in the same
manner as software purchased in tangible form (CD-ROM, disk).

Group looks at keeping workers in Vermont

Published: Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Minding Our Own Business
(published 12.06.06)

Ideas for fortifying Vermont work force praised

Published: Sunday, December 17, 2006