SPS Blog - General

What's Popping...

Craig Boyd — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:40:22 GMT

Busy, Busy, Busy

I'll spare you the daily details of a series of months that flew past in some sort of blur that I can only describe as exhausting, surreal and extremely fast. For keystroke's sake, "Busy, Busy, Busy" says it all. That having been said, even though family emergencies and pressing deadlines are not yet a week in the grave, I feel good.

What's up with VFP Studio?

It is completely my fault (lack of communication) that this question is yet being asked. With the VFP Language Service finished, Bo Durban and I were headed directly into the Visual Studio designers (the next things we were creating for VFP Studio). We then found out that the designers were being revamped in VS2010 (not like upgraded... I mean completely revamped) which meant that we would have a suspect upgrade path for anything we created in VSX prior to VS2010. That, added to the already super-intense world of Microsoft's VSX that Bo and I were living in, and both of us being buried in work, convinced both of us to shelve VFP Studio for awhile.

Other interesting or not so interesting VFP Studio related Fast Facts: I am not opposed to diving back in to it (VSX and VFP are very cool). I am still on the VSX-Insiders list at Microsoft. I have other things to do and learn at the present moment.

Current Interests and Work

Languages: VFP, XAML, C#, and VC++
Databases: VFP and SQL Server
OS: Windows 7 (new APIs, services, elements, etc.)
Technologies: (WPF/Silverlight 4.0 - creating presentation layers for data-centric apps)
Protocol: OData
Pattern: MVVM
Conference: SWFox (presenting sessions on Windows 7 and OData)

Until Next Time

There are some cool things I could post with this. But, then I'd sit here editing, and re-editing, this post until it was the way I wanted it and the example, FLL, or whatever I posted met my cool-enough-to-post checks. So, for now, I think I'll just post this short entry. If nothing else, it should prove whether this "Post to Weblog" button still works.

This weblog is sponsored by SweetPotato Software, Inc.

Tornado less than 10 miles from our home...

Craig Boyd — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:26:47 GMT

I'm sure you've seen it on the news by now or somewhere else on the internet, but if not then here is a link...

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=143041

I was on my way back from my daughter's baby shower while Claire and my two youngest children sought saftety in the basement of our home in Forest Lake, MN. It was a scarey deal. We were fortunate in that everyone is safe and the power was only off for about 12 hours which we sat out at a motel across from the Mall of America. Others in Hugo (just south of us) were not as fortunate. Our prayers are with everyone effected by this severe weather event.

I've been through Hugo, MN twice since the tornado went through. There are lots of downed trees and houses that are completely demolished as if a bomb struck them. The local authorities have most of Hugo roped off with Police tape and are detouring traffic around it. All-in-all it makes a person so grateful for what they've got. How blessed most of us are.

Here are some pictures of the devastation...

http://www.startribune.com/galleries/19251959.html?location_refer=East%20Metro

This weblog is sponsored by SweetPotato Software, Inc.

SPS Weblog Upgraded

Craig Boyd — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 07:24:40 GMT

Well, not too long ago I posted an entry saying that I had upgraded to the latest release of dasBlog, but then shortly after that they came out with another new version. I was late to upgrade the last time, and instead of getting behind again, I downloaded dasBlog 1.8 Gold (version 1.8.5223.0) today and set about the job of upgrading my blog once again.

The upgrade wasn't quite as smooth this time as it was last time, but I did finally get everything figured out after about an hour (most of the problems I experience in upgrading have to do with bringing forward custom modifications I've made, not necessarily that there is anything inherently wrong with the dasBlog upgrade process). I haven't had an opportunity to go through everything yet, but I'm trusting it's operational given the fact that they put "Gold" in the name of the version. The number one thing I liked about this upgrade was that it got rid of the Spam trackbacks I was seeing from all those online casinos.

I'm a big fan of dasBlog and have been very pleased with their product so far.

This weblog is sponsored by SweetPotato Software, Inc.

The SPS Blog Updated

Craig Boyd — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 07:37:28 GMT

As my younger brother Daniel was reading my weblog tonight, he messaged me and told me that the "poker spam comments on your weblog are bogus". One of the online casinos had obviously thought that my blog might make a good place to advertise. So, I've taken this opportunity to not only clean up the spam, but also update to the latest stable version of dasBlog (version 1.7.5016.2) since I was going to be in here messing around anyways.

The upgrade was fairly painless. I followed (to the letter) the instructions given, ran the upgrader command line utility, copied the relevant pieces over the top of my old version and ran headlong into a known issue with the titleList macro. A quick Google search and a single line edit in the source made quick work of this problem. Total time to upgrade 15 minutes... not bad, especially considering that I've customized a few different areas of my blog. I haven't been through it end-to-end, but on quick review everything appears to be working correctly.

As for the spammers, while they can still post manually (there's always a way for the determined) there are new security features and blacklists to help prevent as much as possible. And now, rather than having to edit the xml files (that make up the content of this blog) to remove comments, I can now delete any spam comments directly using the administrative functions (an obvious must for any serious blog engine). All in all it appears to be a pretty good release.

I noticed that another new feature I could turn on is permalinks that use the title of the blog entry instead of a guid. However, with the number of blogs and websites pointing to different entries on this blog already, I think I will stay with the guids, even if they are considered a little long in the tooth by some.

So, a big thank you to both my brother Daniel (for pointing out the spam) and the development community surrounding dasBlog (for another good release). I have something to say to the spammers as well, but decorum prevents me.

This weblog is sponsored by SweetPotato Software, Inc.

Jumping on the Blog Bandwagon

Sun, 31 Oct 2004 06:38:18 GMT

I've just finished setting up this blog to be used for the SweetPotato Software site. It runs on the dasBlog weblog engine with a few custom modifications I made myself. Now, I finally have a place to put all the odd bits and pieces that float around in my head from time to time. It's my hope that I will be able to provide some useful and interesting content, and maybe even give SweetPotato Software's customers (current and potential) some insight into the insomniac who helps produce their software.

Topics covered will be greatly influenced by my work, past and present, and whether I've had enough coffee yet. Most posts will be centered around Technology and the Custom Software Business in one aspect or another with certain entries being developer oriented (code, problems, and tips for various languages and technologies). There may be a certain amount of “six degrees of separation”, but I will try to keep that to a minimum and when possible provide enough information that the reader can see the segue clearly. Sometimes it is hard to guess what “snow drifts and moon boots“ have in common with computers.

I could ramble on, but I have a few more things to set up and tweak on this blog before it will be ready for prime-time, so I'll bid you good day and be on my way.

This weblog is sponsored by SweetPotato Software, Inc.