ahhh, Christmas and Chinese food from Shanghai Garden.

Trying to get the h1n1 vaccine for my family. The system is a fucking disgrace.

will be in San Diego for a brief business trip Wed-Fri, and maybe going back the week after.

posted a new version of xPollinate that works with the latest version of LiveWriter: http://ping.fm/z4DxF

laughs when his 4yo calls a "wedgie" a "wedgit".

is trying out Google Voice. Very cool so far.

wonders why the Microsoft Partner program websites have been completely disorganized and in shambles for so long.

is having fun at work with the world's worst website, http://ping.fm/Vmox8

rode light rail to a baseball game last night with the family. Kettle corn, ice cream, and a Griffey home run. Good times!

is holding a design contest for the family vineyard website. Which one is your favorite? http://ping.fm/WmVWM

wife looking at menu: "What's a Triple Chocolate Meltdown?". 4yo answer: "It's when you have a lot of chocolate, and then start to cry."

is on the plane using in-flight wireless. Pretty damn cool.

has to travel to Houston tomorrow for an interview with a client about a SharePoint project.

shot some hoops for the first time in a while. Terrible...

wonders why $HRBN took a beating today. Pretty positive long-term earnings. Bought more at $15.12.

won at rock paper scissors, and didn't have to change a poopy diaper.

found out my shitty Mazda pickup gets a MPG rating just good enough to disqualify me for the cash for clunkers program.

has a 1yr old that has learned if she pinches us really hard, she will get a reaction.

listened to an old funny clip, "Joe Lieberman or Alf's dad?". Forward to 1:10:08. http://ping.fm/3nns4

thinks "business casual" attire for women is much cooler in the summer than for men.

It figures that the day they reopen I-90 and my commute should be good, I sit in traffic for 1.5 hours due to a bad accident.

doesn't believe that Claritin is anything more than a placebo.

Quote of the day: " Discipline is like a muscle. The more you build it, the more you can rely on it." http://ping.fm/oGFoq

has a son that is keeping me up later and a daughter that is waking me up earlier. Sleep time is shrinking on both sides.

can never seem to remember which pocket I placed my car keys in.

blogged: http://ping.fm/vxm3M - Review - Accessibility Kit for SharePoint Half Finished Product?

blogged: http://ping.fm/uN4zr - Review - Accessibility Kit for SharePoint Half Finished Product?

My 3yo on a trip to the park: "Daddy, I'm going on the swings this time, and I don't want to argue about it".

blogged: http://ping.fm/DODxI - Give Your Phone Company the Middle Finger with ooma.

really enjoys Hank Williams Sr. He has a song for everything in life.

Now that the baby sign language has started, Elsa can tell us - five minutes into dinner - that she is "all done".

thinks saving the rest of a milkshake in the freezer for later never works out.

made it to the final cut of vendors on the SharePoint RFP I worked on.

is very pleased with the Seahawks drafting so far.

has a new laptop, fresh OS, and reorganized file system. Ahhhh.

would be happy if the Seahawks picked anyone but Sanchez tomorrow. Curry, Crabtree, Monroe, Smith, all good options.

has been digging out old rhodie bushes. Good riddance to plants that only look good one day a year.

spent the morning helping in Isaiah's classroom.

came home to find out that my nice everyday shoes had had a bottle of bubble soap dumped inside them by my son.

blogged: http://ping.fm/l1tsQ - NBA Playoffs 2009 � Online Bust

NBA Playoffs 2009 – Online Bust

Note: Cross posted from Life on Planet Groove.

Permalink

As much as I hate David Stern and the NBA for moving the Sonics, I still enjoy watching the best players during the playoffs. Since I don’t have cable TV, and am often too busy on weekends to catch the network television games on ABC, the last two years I’ve purchased the playoff games online to watch on my PC. Forget about it this year, as the NBA Download Store is closed for business.

To turn this off is just plain stupid for them. It’s like refusing royalty checks for music or books you’ve created. The last two years, each playoff game was available for download one or two days following the live game. To offer this service for a fee simply extended their revenue generation from each game.

The NBA really does have a flawed business model. I hope David Stern continues to screw it up and run it into the ground so everyone can see what an idiot he truly is.

Thoughts on Passover and the Exodus

Note: Cross posted from Life on Planet Groove.

Permalink

Every year but this one, I seem to catch the TV when the movie The Ten Commandments is on, and I’m always reminded how much I like the story of Passover. It’s such a fantastical tale, so far out of reality in so many ways. I always wonder what the hell really happened at that time, because so much of it is over the top.

Lots of questions such as:

• How could a mass exodus of over 600,000 people not leave a single piece of archaeological evidence?
• Just where was the Land of Goshen? Nobody knows.
• Which pharaoh was the oppressive one in Exodus? He is never named, and no one knows for certain. Seems like an important detail.
• Why would the Jews start worshiping a golden cow (an ancient Egyptian goddess/god, Hathor/Apis)? Weren’t they JEWS?
• How could slaves, who only knew how to make bricks, immediately begin fighting battles with Semitic tribes in Sinai and win?
• How did slaves have gold to make a golden calf? The bible also mentions that the slaves had slaves themselves. Huh?

Over the last year I’ve read a few books dealing with Egyptology and links between ancient Egypt and the ancient Hebrews, which have painted a more realistic picture of what might have happened. There are of course some books, such as this one, which try to explain the miracles/plagues in the Exodus with natural causes, but the books below take the bible less literally, and combine to describe a much more plausible scenario.

• Secrets of the Exodus – The Egyptian Origins of the Hebrew People
• The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran

What I Believe Probably Happened

Based on my readings, I believe a more likely account of what happened is the following:

• In the 18th Dynasty, Pharaoh Akhenaten (Akhenaton) turns Egypt upside down:
  • He moves the capitol to a brand new city (Akhetaten),
  • disbands the ancient priests,
  • destroys old gods and statues in the ancient temples,
  • creates a new monotheistic religion worshiping the solar disc Aten (Aton),
  • establishes a cult following that flocks from far away lands to live in the new capitol.
• Akhenaten’s religion is more approachable now that the leadership hierarchy is abandoned, making for more avid followers. Sexuality is not oppressed, animal sacrifice is banned (implying tolerance to living things), art of this time is more emotionally expressive, and individuals can take a more active role in their own spirituality (houses at Akhetaten have been discovered to have prayer niches in entry ways to worship the Aten).
• Akhenaten’s capitol becomes a multilingual, cosmopolitan hub, attracting people from Persia, Babylon, and more. Everyone wants to see this utopia.
• With his focus on the new capital and religion, the rest of Egypt is neglected and becomes bitter and estranged. The priests who once had much power are angry.
• Akhenaten’s right-hand man, the grand vizier Ay (also revered as a god), is placed in charge of the rest of Egypt, travels the country, and gets an earful from the disgruntled Egyptians.
• Akhenaten dies after a rule of 17 years, and is succeeded by Smenkhkare (possibly his brother) for just a few years before death. Smenkhkare attempts to continue the religion of Aten.
• Tutankhaten (King Tut) is too young to effectively rule, so vizier Ay acts as the real leader.
• Ay understands the current state of affairs in Egypt. Much of the population is angry, the border lands are being attacked by invading tribes, and he needs to do something about this strange cult (that still reveres him) occupying this newly built city. The other Egyptians are ready to attack and destroy the heretics and their city, and Ay does not want civil war.
• His solution is to give the Atenists their own territory, in Canaan, and use them as a proxy army to help reinforce the Northern border that has been under attack.
• They need to leave quickly, the city is to be abandoned.
• Possibly under the direction of generals Horemheb and Ramesses (future Pharaohs), the Atenists are led north, across the Red Sea, and into Sinai. They are given military aid, supplies (manna? quail?), and training.
• While in the desert, some Atenists revolt and desire to return to ancient Egypt (the Golden Calf episode).
• Tutankhaten changes his name to Tutankhamum, moves the capitol back to Thebes, and abandons the new religion, reinstating the old gods and priests. Ay declares Akhetaten a “cursed city” and it is abandoned (not destroyed), lost and forgotten, much of it buried under sand, until the 1700’s when finally rediscovered again.
• Time and distance begin to separate the Atenists from their Egyptian past. The strange blend of multinational Atenists evolve their own language based on Egyptian. Lack of knowledge to train scribes in hieroglyphs leads to Hebrew as a shorthand version of Egyptian. Monotheism is continued.
• More time and distance. The Babylonians destroy the Jewish temple, battle and push into Egypt, and exile the Jews to Persia.
• Under Babylonian rule, where it is not permissible to speak favorably of their Egyptian past, the Jewish scribes are forced to alter their stories. Figures from Babylon (Abraham) play a more prominent role in history, and Egypt’s role is deprecated and made negative.

Justifications

The justifications for this are numerous. A few are listed here:

• Tutankhamun’s tomb contained several artifacts similar to Hebrew ones:
  • An ark, with wooden poles, similar to the ark of the covenant. One inner box contained gold foil panels with angelic figures having wings facing each other, similar to the angels on the ark of the covenant.
  • The ark was covered in a fringed shawl, similar to tzitzit.
  • The mummy had a golden skull cap, similar to the Kippah. The mummy also had a headpiece, bracelets on the arm, and rings covering the middle two fingers, similar to Tefillin.
• Ay and Aten (Aton) are linguistically related to the words for God in Hebrew. Ay is spelled with two reeds in hieroglyphs , similar to the word God spelled in Hebrew with two Yods י י . The yod is the “Y” sound, and so God in Hebrew is essentially unpronounceable (“YY”). In order to make it audible, it is pronounced “Adonai” instead. “Adon” means lord in Hebrew, and is very similar to Aten/Aton. Adon-Ay (Aton-Ay) is a natural fit here (Lord Ay).
• Many linguistic similarities between Hebrew and Egyptian (e.g. “Ra” the old polytheistic sun god means “Bad/Evil” in Hebrew).
• Similar mythology (Adam and Eve’s snake (similar to snakes in Ancient Egyptian mythology), the tree of life (lots of references in Egypt to sacred trees, including at Akhetaten), parting of the red sea (parting of the primordial waters myth), Moses and the basket down the Nile (predated by a similar Egyptian tale).
• The Copper Scroll of Qumran - An account of buried treasure, inscribed on copper, and found with the Dead Sea scrolls, has generally been seen to describe treasure possibly hidden after destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, although no treasures have ever been found where described. Makes more sense if you assume that the treasure came from Akhetaten as the Atenists fled, and was buried while leaving the city.
• Similarity between the Great Hymn to the Aten and Psalm 109.
• Similarity between the tablets of the ten commandments and royal cartouches.

 

When you start to follow this line of thinking, it seems that more and more evidence can fall into place and support this.

has a 10 month old that eats more than the 3 yr old. She ate 6 meatballs, noodles, and some squash tonight.

SharePoint Field Names have 32 Character Limit – So Do Replicated Profile Property Names

Note: Cross posted from Life on Planet Groove.

Permalink

I ran into a situation where I created a User Profile Property with the Replicable checkbox set, which had a really long name. There were no errors when saving the profile property, however later on I started receiving errors in the Event Log:

failure trying to synch site [guid] for ContentDB [guid] WebApp [guid].  Exception message was A WSS internal name for profile property 'ProfilePropertyWithReallyLongName' could not be found..

Apparently SharePoint has a limit of 32 characters for Internal Field Names. This will also apply to Replicable User Profile Properties since they will get synced down to the WSS Content DB in the UserInfo list.

: oh boy, rough night sleep so far with baby crying.

blogged: http://ping.fm/crInH - How to Wall Mount an HP TouchSmart IQ800

How to Wall Mount an HP TouchSmart IQ800

I just finished wall mounting my HP TouchSmart IQ800 series, and wanted to write it up to help others who are interested in doing this. There is another great post about this with pictures here, so hopefully looking at both will give you a good solid understanding of the process. The other poster mounted with a swivel arm mount, but I used the fixed mount that you can purchase directly from the HP site when you buy your TouchSmart.

Overview

When we remodeled our kitchen a couple years ago, I envisioned a television or other media device wall mounted in a particular spot opposite our refrigerator. When I first saw the TouchSmart, I knew exactly what needed to go there.

 

During the remodel, I wired ethernet/phone/coaxial ports up the wall near the light switches in anticipation of this.

Note: Quick word of advice - mounting this thing is not for the faint of heart. If you have any hesitations about attempting this, I’d recommended enjoying your computer and its warranty on your desk :). For the brave, read on…

Planning

Remember the old saying, “Measure twice, cut once”. Okay, some things to keep in mind:

1. You have to mount this into a stud. Don’t try to use drywall anchors, the unit is too heavy for that.
2. If your stud very far off-center from where you want to mount, you’ll need to consider a swivel mount instead of the one HP offers.
3. If your stud is slightly off center, you may be OK, as you can put the VESA hanging bolts off to the right or left a bit (I’ll show that later).
4. At first glance, the mounting bracket looks uneven, but don’t get concerned. The flange on the left is shorter than the one on the right. However, when you slide the bolts into the holes, they slide back to the left and everything is centered.
5. Lay everything out first and do some dry runs, seeing how everything will fit together.

Some things you’ll need:

1. Corded power drill with 5/32” drill bit
2. 7/16” socket and ratchet
3. 7/16” hex stainless steel lag bolts (2 1/2” long)
4. Level
5. Philips and Regular screwdrivers
6. Measuring tape
7. Short ladder
8. Stud finder

Attaching the Mounting Plate to the Wall

Using your stud finder, locate the stud and mark both sides at the approximate height where you want the center of the unit to be.

My stud was about 2 inches off center from my ideal spot for the unit, but after laying the mounting adapter out, I realized I could place the mounting bolts on the adapter off to the right or left instead of in the center, which would help bring it closer to where I wanted it. The pic below shows the six holes you can use. You can either use the four corners, or the group of four to the left or right.

 

Using a level, hold the mounting bracket up to the wall so the holes in the center align with the middle of the stud. Use a pencil to mark each hole on the wall.

Get on a ladder or chair and using the 5/32” drill bit and power drill, pre-drill the holes as straight as you can.

The mounting bracket came with Philips head screws. The directions show a person manually using a screwdriver with force to screw these in. This might be fine on newer homes with softer studs, but my house has 80 year old fir, and that stuff is hard as rock and doesn’t budge. When I tried to screw these in, it was too tight a fit. I re-drilled each hole to ream it out and widen the hole a bit. I tried again and stripped one screw, and a second one actually broke in half inside the wall, just from using the manual screwdriver.

Frustrated, I took a trip to McLendon’s Hardware, and purchased 5 stainless steel lag bolts with a hex head. These are much stronger than the chincy zinc ones they gave me, and won’t strip if you use a ratchet.

With the broken screw still in the wall, I had to move the holes down a little and re-drill. The lag bolts were much better and went in so much more easily.

  

Attaching the Mounting Adapter to the TouchSmart

The VESA mounting adapter from HP comes with some great instructions on how to add the adapter, remove the legs, etc. I just followed to the letter, and marveled at how well the whole computer was designed and engineered for this. Grab some towels or a blanket, and place your TouchSmart face down on them on a flat surface.

 

When it comes time to put the mounting bolts on the adapter, you use the shortest and smallest screws it comes with.

You can mount these in four holes either left-of-center, right-of-center, or four corners. I chose left-of-center to bring the unit closer to the center of the wall space, since my stud was off-center to begin with.

Finally, get someone to help you hold it, and mount it up.

 

Wiring

The power supply brick is absolutely huge, and needs to be considered. If you only have power at an outlet down near the floor, I’d recommend fishing some wire and putting an outlet on the wall behind the unit.

Luckily I have some light switches below the unit, so I can tap into the power from there and run a short cable up for a new outlet. I’ll post another picture of cable management when I’m done with that.

Reaction from my Wife

So after all this work, and finally getting this thing up with no major screwups, what was my wife’s reaction?

“I can’t reach it, you put it up too high.”

Oh brother…

washed the dog, and got soaking wet.

would carry his kids to the ends of the Earth on his shoulders.

SharePoint May Break Hyperlinks in Workflow Task Emails

Note: Cross posted from Life on Planet Groove.

Permalink

I ran into an issue where hyperlinks in workflow task emails where being automatically changed by SharePoint from absolute hyperlinks to relative ones.

Scenario:

1. You create a custom Visual Studio workflow and use the CreateTask activity.


2. You set your SPWorkflowTaskProperties.Description property to some HTML text.


3. In your Description HTML text, you have an html hyperlink <a> tag whose href=”” attribute contains an absolute hyperlink to a resource in the same SharePoint farm (i.e. a list item).


4. Example: “Please review <a href=”http://yourserver/site/lists/yourlist/dispform.aspx?ID=1”>contract #12345</a>”.

Goal:

Users will receive the task email, and be able to click on the absolute URL in the email body to navigate to the SharePoint resource.

Problem:

It appears that SharePoint parses this HTML and readjusts the hyperlink and makes it relative.

Example: “Please review <a href=”/lists/yourlist/dispform.aspx?ID=1”>contract #12345</a>”

This effectively breaks the hyperlink in the email client.

The only workaround was to get rid of the <a> tag and write out the hyperlink in full. For example:

“Please review contract #12345 (http://yourserver/site/lists/yourlist/dispform.aspx?ID=1)”.

In this manner, SharePoint did not adjust the hyperlink at all.

BDC Error - Type does not match DotNet type of TypeDescriptor

Note: Cross posted from Life on Planet Groove.

Permalink

I ran into a BDC error, “Type does not match DotNet type of TypeDescriptor”, with a particular application definition I wrote. In this case, I had a specific finder method that took one input parameter (the identifier) that was of type System.Decimal. It turns out I didn’t specify a default value in the TypeDescriptor for this input parameter in my XML definition. It looks like when you don’t set a default value, it will automatically set one for you and assign it a type of System.String. I was able to see this when I exported the BDC definition fresh, and noticed that SharePoint automatically added this default value and type for me.

Rule of thumb, always specify a default value for each input parameter.

loves spring. The Clematis is in full bloom and smells great.

just received his HP TouchSmart, and will now start learning how to program for touch screen computing.

blogged: http://ping.fm/JMlh2 - Workflow Task Locked when AssignedTo Changed to Support Multiple Selections

is suffering from football off-seasonal affective disorder.

cannot understand how NBA teams like the Clippers and Kings can be so bad for so long and still exist.

thinks we may have turned a corner. Elsa has slept through the night 4 times in a row.

blogged: http://ping.fm/J7VzR - xPollinate 1.0.0.0 Beta Released

xPollinate 1.0.0.0 Beta Released

Note: Cross posted from Life on Planet Groove.

Permalink

I’ve just released a beta of xPollinate, my Windows Live Writer Cross Post Plugin.

You can download the installer at the CodePlex site, and I’ll shortly post it on the Live Writer plugin gallery.

As an example, I’ve used it to cross-post this entry to my old Blogger account, as well as via Ping.FM to my Twitter feed (status method) and as a full blog post to my Tumblog.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer

needs some good weather so he can start gardening.

blogged: http://ping.fm/317pb - SharePoint Document Converter to PDF Using Oracle Outside In (How-to)

finally found the unicode character for a long 'O' (Ō), so he can spell his name Tōth and people might pronounce it correctly.

is patiently waiting for his tax return so he can buy some things.

got his Live Writer plugin approved by Ping.FM. Now I just have to post it on the Live Writer plugin gallery.

is streaming the Husky game.

is watching the MIX 09 keynote.

wishes he was at the MIX 09 conference.

really wants an HP TouchSmart. I have the perfect place for it, wall mounted in the kitchen. http://ping.fm/XCXX5

is re-learning how to make cool paper airplanes: http://ping.fm/2mgxt

is cleaning the grime off of a high chair.

upgraded his MediaSmart server to 2GB of memory. Much snappier now streaming audio and video.

is enjoying listening to Dinah Shore. Great jazz singer from 40's and 50's.

hates it when the kids are sick, but it does seem to be the only time they sit still and snuggle.

Testing shortened, bookmarked URL in HTML via Ping.FM

Test Link

Testing non-shortened, bookmarked URL in HTML via Ping.FM (2)

Life On Planet Groove Testing non-shortened, bookmarked URL in HTML via Ping.FM

Testing shortened, bookmarked URL in HTML via Ping.FM

Life On Planet Groove Testing shortened, bookmarked URL in HTML via Ping.FM

Testing non-shortened, bookmarked URL in HTML via Ping.FM

Life On Planet Groove Testing non-shortened, bookmarked URL in HTML via Ping.FM

is tempted to get this USB powered missile launcher: http://ping.fm/9qYRW

is done. Stick a fork in him.

is writing a response to an RFP.

ordered a 2GB memory stick for his HP MediaSmart Windows Home Server.

http://ping.fm/kEHFJ

can't wait for the title fight between Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans.

struggles to do the snaps on the outfit of a kicking baby.

wonders why spring training takes so long. Is there anything about baseball that doesn't go at a snail's pace?

had a fun night with two kids having pink eye, stomach aches, and no sleep.

is watching UFC 96.

wonders why your kids always have to see a doctor on a Sunday, when your options are so much more limited.

finally took down the Christmas lights. Hazardous...

blogged: http://ping.fm/IxjOk - Using Feature XML Files to Store Timer Job Configuration Settings

blogged: http://ping.fm/KxxPY - Helper Method for ASP.NET Wizard Controls

is in a crummy mood. Maybe some good music will help.

Yum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mint_Julep

thinks that bad radio commercials are so much more annoying than TV ones.

blogged: http://ping.fm/8lx1a - Performance Optimizations for Large Programmatic User Profile Imports

is starving.

is watching Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War.

got the kids down early, and is now enjoying some bourbon.

blogged: http://ping.fm/2XKvw - Access Denied When Editing SharePoint Designer Workflow Task

is happy that Elsa slept through the night for the first time.

wonders when Isaiah will tell me about a dream he's had. He has yet to recall one for me.

worked on the lawn this weekend, threw out some grass seed and starter.

is thankful to have a good sleeper. Isaiah slept almost 15 hours last night.

washed the dog. Twice. She was nappy after weeks at the vineyard in the dirt with no baths.

doesn't even want to think about how much baby drool has dripped onto the nice living room rug.

finally started on my taxes. Ugh...

is waiting for his son to wet the bed, after going down for a nap at 4:15PM without going potty first. He's still sleeping.

took a nice long walk around Seward Park with the family.

is struggling dealing with high-pitched baby girl screams.

has to clean up a drowned squirrel after it fell into a yard waste bin full of water trying to get into my garbage can. Nice...

ate worms in dirt last night for dessert (gummy worms in chocolate pudding with crumbled cookies on top). Isaiah made it.

noticed the squirrels chewed a hole in my garbage can lid, and have been climbing in and snacking. Prepare for war, bastards.

is feeling well rested for the first time in months.

was floored when his 3yr old reflected on watching his friend get pushed at school, and later told us, "I should have protected him."

is puzzled that Isaiah will pick at food we cook for him, but will take down an Egg McMuffin in less than a minute.

is getting out for soccer practice early today.

went to get Elsa a passport. Had every document ready, photos, all parents present, but didn't bring a checkbook. They don't take debit, dammit!

is going to the Zoo today with the kiddos.

wishes his first name didn't start with "A", so that he would quit getting pocket-dialed as the first entry in everyone's address book.

just signed the papers on a refi. 4.875% baby!

took the family out to pizza last night, after disaster struck when a plastic cutting board somehow made it into the hot oven and melted.

saw Slumdog Millionaire. Incredible film.

thinks it's bullshit that stores don't sell paint in half gallons, only quarts and gallons.

enjoys listening to music on good headphones after the kids go to sleep.

finally has a moment to himself.

has been trying to get details from Isaiah about his very first school field trip to a puppet show. Hard to piece together the fragments.

finds it very hard to work on the house after dinner, dishes, baths, books, snacks, teeth brushing, pajama changing, potty, tucking in...