I read this article about the RIAA shutting down muxtape, an online mix tape provider. It was quickly replaced with Opentape. Buzz Out Loud, a technology podcast, called Opentape a more virulent form of muxtape that is more difficult for the RIAA to stop. I don’t believe the RIAA understands that they are slowly making themselves irrelevant. I don’t think that they truly understand how music propagates.
People share music because it is so much a part of them and they want to share that experience with others. This is the purpose of mix tapes, or sharing what you’re listening to with others. The RIAA wants to shut this type of sharing down. They are making music as antiseptic as a hospital. It is a shame.
Artists are starting to learn that their money is made not by CD or download sales but by performing live. It is becoming possible that an artist could exist without a record company. Internet distribution of music is taking over, and marketing of artists could be handled by concert promoters because that is where the real money is.
I don’t think music sales will stop. People used to buy vinyl because there was value in owning the album cover and having the liner notes. I think that there will be reasons for artists to invest in this type of value added to their music sales. Maybe the sale of a CD gives the buyer exclusive access to the CDs web site. Perhaps the sale would provide a discount to the live show or a coupon for a local amusement park. The Internet provides the opportunity to make promotions regional in ways not used before. I’m sure there are many ideas that would work for value added music sales.
If an artist’s money is made through live performance and the artist would want to get their music in as many hands as possible then the current tatics of the RIAA would be antiquated. Think of thousands of podcast or live streaming Internet stations popping up and sharing music with others. Think of music sharing as not outlawed but actually encouraged. I believe this day is coming. It will be the artists that make it happen. The old paradigm of music sales will die and the RIAA, at least as we know it, will too.
I went all over the Internet searching for this solution and could not find it. So this may be of some interest to someone.
Our corporate installer uses a script file to call an installer program. The script file is VBScript that uses the WScript.Shell.Run command to launch the installer. This installation I was to called to debug called a web service to verify some information about the user before allowing them to continue to install. The script code that ran the installation application looked something like this.
set sFile = fsoFileSys.Getfile("C:\Prog Source\ProgramName.exe")
wshshell.run sFile.shortPath,,False
The program ProgramName.exe is what calls the web service. The web service call passes user credentials to a Tivoli web seal and then to the service. The service uses that information to perform the user lookup. The .NET 1.1 code to call this service looks like the following.
WebserviceCall proxy = new WebserviceCall();
proxy.PreAuthenticate = true;
proxy.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;
bool rc = proxy.WebserviceStatus("SOME PARAMETER");
The problem was that when the installer ran through the script the web service would return incorrect information. When we called the installer directly the web service would run without any problems.
The problem turns out to be what the script does to the program name. The call sFile.shortPath returns C:\ProgSo~1\Progra~1.exe and that is the problem. The installer program cannot find its configuration file, because it won’t be able to find a file with the same shortened name.
The solution to this problem is to use a short program name for the installer and to place it in a directory without any spaces in the name. This solves the problem of the missing configuration file.
I listen to audio books and podcasts when I drive to work each morning. My one-way comute is about an hour so these formats of entertainment keep me from losing my mind. There’s really not enough mind to spare anymore.
My iPod resets itself to a random song when I synchronize it with my computer. I’m not sure why this happens, but I’m used to it. I have a car stereo that I hook the iPod directly to. When the iPod starts playing a song, I navigate to what I was listening to and play it.
This morning I started my car and Eric Clapton’s (when with Cream) Crossroads started to play. I thought to myself, “Oh I can’t turn that off.” I jammed to Crossroads and then got my previous podcast going. This brings me to my question. What songs will keep you locked in? These are the songs that will keep you in your car a couple of minutes longer so you can finish it.
Here is my first Silverlight application. It is a simple breakout game. You have to click on it to start it. Your left and right arrow buttons control the paddle, and you launch the ball with the space bar.
I did this originally in Silverlight 1.1 Alpha back in November 2007. I just recently updated it to Silverlight 2 Beta 2. Microsoft indicates that Silverlight 2 is now stable enough to code production things without the worry of dramatic changes.
I leaned heavily on Bill Reiss’s Silverlight demos in order to get this done. Please visit his site Silverlight Rocks for more information. Thank you Bill.
Here is a list of features that I still want to add to this application before moving on to the next thing.
- Add the support for the ‘A’ and ‘D’ keys to move the paddle left and right. This helps with laptops that don’t have arrow keys.
- Add the support to store a high score list online. I thought this would be fun and provide me with an example of client/server communication.
- A friend from work suggested full screen support. I have it on the maybe list.
- Support for real physics with the ball. It currently just bounces around like a billiard ball in a vacuum.
Do We Need Another Flash?
I keep hearing people say that they don’t get the reason for Silverlight. They see Silverlight as nothing more than a replacement for Flash - why would we need another Flash. The simple answer to this is that Flash is a pain to write code in.
I did a simple Flash object for my music teacher. You can see it here. The animation was very easy to do, but creating the buttons to start and stop the music playback was extremely painful. It made no sense to a me why I had to manipulate the objects in such a round-about manner.
It’s my belief that Silverlight is going to be big because of the development medium. In my opinion it is easier to develop code in Visual Studio than it is to develop code in Flash. Expression Blend is also getting very good at developing the visual assets of an application. I’m not an artist, but I know there is an ability to bring Illustrator files into Silverlight. So if Expression doesn’t do it for you perhaps Illustrator will.
With the ease of coding I think that we’re going to start seeing a new way to visualize data on the web. We’re going to be able to provide an new experience for our data-centric applications that we weren’t able to before without much pain and frustration. Flash has this ability, but I’m afraid that the barrier to entry for developers is just too high.
I hope you like the game. My next Silverlight application is going to have something to do with the Amazon API, but I’m not sure what yet.
About a month ago I purchased a Kindle from Amazon. The Kindle is an electronic book. An electronic book uses a technology that writes to the screen once until it is changed by a page turn.
I love my Kindle. It is the coolest and most useful device that I have purchased in some time. I’ve read several books on it.
Smiley Stuff
The screen looks very good and only has glare if you hold it at a severe angle. The text looks crisp and is easy to read. I like the idea that I can change the size of the text. It makes it easy for me to find a size that is comfortable to read rather than a publisher trying to make a page count.
Kindle book prices are cheaper than their print counterparts. This is a big bonus with as many books as I buy each year. It also helps offset the Kindle price.
I love being able to preview a significant portion of a book before making a decision to buy. This has helped save me from my impulse book buying. I often buy books because I think I’m really interested and then they sit on my shelves for months. Now I can get the preview and if it sits for a period of time I just delete it. I also use this feature to keep a reminder of books I want to look check out. For instance if Tim Ferris mentions a book in his blog then I can go to Amazon and download a preview.
Whispernet is great. This is the Kindle’s wireless connection to Amazon. My favorite feature is looking at books on my computer and with a button click having the preview delivered to my Kindle. Later, if I decide to purchase the book, I can complete the purchase on my Kindle. It is convenient and has made book buying online a much improved experience.
It is a wonderful conversation starter. I take my Kindle with my everywhere I go. People are constantly asking me what it is and how it works. It’s fun to show off new technology to people, and this device peaks people’s interest where ever I go.
Click on a line of text and the Kindle does a dictionary look-up of the significant words on that line. I remember how my early teachers would emphasize figuring out unknown words by context. I’m amazed of how many words I knew by “context” that I was completely wrong about.
Grrr Stuff
My Kindle kept locking up when I first got it. I’m not sure why, but I made it angry several times and had to reset the device with a paper clip. Then the problem just evaporated. It has not locked up since those first couple of days.
The Kindle has a keyboard to help with book searching, but it’s in an annoying place. Someone with small hands would have difficulty holding the Kindle and not mashing down on these buttons. It would be cool to have a keyboard you didn’t have to reach over to hold the book.
Some books on the Kindle don’t do so well. Software books have a hard time formatting their code examples. I’ve also seen cases where an image on a page will throw the paragraphs out of order. However this is more likely the publisher’s fault and not the Kindle’s.
Indexes on books, at least the books that I’ve read, don’t link to anything. This makes the index useless. Perhaps as more books are put on the Kindle this issue will be fixed. But it makes it hard to read technical books without and index.
The main menu doesn’t have a skip to the index either. This would be helpful and is something they could add to the Kindle operating system.
Stuff I’d Like See
Besides adding an index option to main menu there are some things that I’d like to see on my Kindle. I don’t call these things disadvantages because I believe the Kindle does what it is designed to do admirably. These are nice-to-haves that would make my experience even better.
I would like to have a way to search for text in a book. No one really needs this feature in their novels, but in technical books it would be invaluable.
I’d like to see the dictionary look-up speed improved. It takes too long to look up words. I love the feature and use it often, but it needs to be faster.
Do something with the keyboard. Even just doing some keystroke to lock the keys would be cool. That would allow me to hold the book in a different manner and not accidentally cause things to happen.
A better carrying case. Really I could wrap the thing in a sock for a better case. A four hundred dollar device needs a slick, cool case.
Conclusion
I hope I wasn’t vague or misleading. I love the Kindle - go buy one. I love that I can carry a small library around with me everywhere I go. It is a pleasure to read on.
The History
I recently decided to change from DSL back to cable modem. Charter will combine phone, television, and Internet service for cheaper than phone, television, and DSL separately.
The technician arrived at noon on Monday, and he and I quickly hooked up the cable modem. Everything worked great, and the technician left. Later that afternoon I tried to access the Internet, and cable modem had dropped the signal. I fussed with it for about an hour, but couldn’t get it going. I called Charter service and read some numbers from a status screen to the support person. “You’ve got a bad signal,” he told me and scheduled a technician to come out on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning I woke to find the service connected again, but still thought the technician could do some troubleshooting on the line. The technician arrived at 10 AM and did little more than reboot my router. “Everything is working,” he told Lucy, and then left.
Between two and three in the afternoon the modem dropped the connection again. I was frustrated when I got home and I fussed with the modem for about an hour again. I called Charter service one more time, and they assured me that their diagnostics all showed good signal coming to the house. They scheduled a technician for Wednesday.
The Solution
I knew the Internet dropped in the afternoon. The afternoon means more people using the cable signal in our neighborhood (I thought).
I also knew that cable coming into my room was split for the Internet and the television. This was easier to test so I started there. I removed the splitter and ran the cable directly to my modem. Immediately the modem connected. Then I wondered if I had bad equipment. I traded the splitter, and lost the connection. Then I traded the splitter cable, and lost the connection.
I decided I would document the numbers that the technician asked me to give him on Monday. I connected to the modem diagnostic page and found the non-split downstream power was -7.6 dBmV. With the splitter connected the signal dropped to -10.1 dBmV. I’m not sure what these numbers mean, but I’m guessing smaller is bad.
I knew the splitter is a problem, but also knew I needed it. I wasn’t going to give up TV in my room. After some reading I realized that these splitters have a value on them called insertion loss. This is maximum amount the signal will degrade when split. This number is not absolute, but rather a maximum. The two way splitter in my room had an insertion loss of -3.5 dB.
I further read that a 3 way splitter has one output with smaller insertion loss than the other two. I went outside to look at the cable connection and noticed that it was on a 3 way splitter. I discovered that the line running to my room was on the -7.0 dB insertion loss output. I switched it so that it was on the -3.5 dB line and solved my Internet problem. Now the modem power reads -7.0 dBmV, and that is allowing the modem to run with the television.
So why did the thing go off during the afternoon. In Texas our afternoons are hot. Today it was 98 F. I’m not an electronics expert, but I know that hot slows electricity down. So it is my guess that my cable signal is much better in the morning when it’s cool, and slowly gets worse in the afternoon when it’s hot.
Conclusion
The technician should of had some basic troubleshooting skills, and gave due diligence to diagnose possible problems. He would’ve identified that the outside split was on the wrong output. I read that it is common for the cable company to put the Internet on the -3.5 dB insertion loss output.
For me it shows how some basic knowledge, an Internet connection, and basic problem solving techniques can help solve a problem. This includes problems when I don’t know what all the numbers mean.
It’s been a while since I’ve wrote anything, but the family and I have been very busy. I bought the kids (and me) season passes for Six Flags in Arlington. It is well worth the price. A couple of weeks ago they opened their latest ride, Tony Hawk’s Big Spin. It’s a roller coaster that lets the car free spin. This ride includes a video camera that records you through the ride. Lucy was screaming so much that it caused me and Briana to laugh and laugh. Check out our video’s. First is Lucy and her scream fest. Second is Briana and I on the same turn.
So here is an example of using the lazy web. The concept is that I can post a concept that I don’t fully understand, and through the comments that I get the full answer that I’m looking for. This would probably be better served in a Wiki format, perhaps I’ll create one. Hopefully knowledge gained will extend beyond just my own knowledge.
I’ve gathered through my reading that Network Load Balancing and Server Clustering are two different things, and that they can’t be mixed. What I can’t understand is how these two technologies relate to setting up a Web Farm.
I got that a cluster is a group of independent computers that host a common set of applications and present the image of a single node to a client and applications. The cluster is physically connected to each other via cabling, and programmatically connected via clustering software.
It also seems that session management on a web farm must be handled with a state server. This prevents node (server) affinity during a session.
It’s not clear to me if an application in a web farm is configured on a single node and then the cluster propagates the application to the different nodes, or if you must setup the application across all the nodes. Also how does this stuff relate to a Web Garden.
Microsoft Certification
A friend of mine, James, was the only person close to me that had his Microsoft certification. I look up to those that have achieved this level of documented competence. Since my beginnings in programming I wanted to take the tests to get certified. I haven’t done it.
Some people tell me that the certification doesn’t mean anything other than the person with the credentials knows how to test. Perhaps that’s true, but if it was easy then everyone would do it. I’ve put it off.
I want to get MCPD certified by the end of this summer. In order to do that I must study like mad. I’ve taken the Microsoft assessment exams online and scored 66-70%. That is very low, so I certainly need some work. I would love to hear advice from anyone about study materials (keep in mind I haven’t much money) and preparation techniques. I’ll keep this web log current with my progress.
Ubiquitous Outlook
I work on my personal laptop, my work laptop, and my home desktop. For programming and documents I’m able to keep my computers synchronized. I keep portable information on a USB drive or Jungle Disk, and therefore I can work anywhere.
Outlook is my conundrum. I want to synchronize my versions of Outlook so I have my email, address book, calendar, and to do list in one place. I know there are online services that I can do Outlook’s functionality, but I like having the application on my computer with some off line capabilities. My latest idea to achieve my goal is get an Exchange service through someone like Mail2Web, and point my home computer and personal laptop at the service. The problem with this approach is figuring out where to put my archived email so that it isn’t in multiple places.
My work computer is tied to an in house Exchange server. I won’t be able to remotely connect to that server except through OWA or VPN. Our VPN is specialize so I can’t VPN into our servers through my personal machines. This nut is too hard to crack. I would like at a minimum to synchronize my calendar and to do list. I’ll keep researching and post back if I find an answer.
Book Reading Plan
Scott Hanselman’s blog led me to a post on Gray’s Matter - How I’m Becoming a Better Developer. I like the idea of pushing through a number of books in a short period of time, and working to understand what’s in those books.
I figure with my time constraints that I can read 50 pages a day from a technical book. Given that the average technical book is about 600 pages long this means that I can finish about one book every 12 days. So my goal over the next 180 days is to read 15 books.
This goal ties in well to my goal of becoming Microsoft Certified by the end of the summer, so you can bet that some of my books will be to work towards that Microsoft goal. Let me know your recommendations.
It’s amazing what a cookie can do. My wife brought home some Mother’s Cookies yesterday. Taffy has always been my favorite, and for whatever reason the hardest to find in our area. After dinner I grabbed some milk and a couple of cookies, and was instantly transported back to grandmother’s house as a kid. I remember sitting at her kitchen table dipping these cookies in milk. She’d be cooking something for dinner or perhaps she and I would be playing dominoes. Wow what a cookie!