I updated the Emotifier script so it supports some limited punctuation now. Check it out.

Okay, I thought I had the RSS updated, but it turned out it really wasn't. pMachine (the current blog package) is sort of a bitch to customize code-wise, so... sorry, folks. You're just going to have to visit the site to read the whole article for now.

I updated my RSS feed to include the entire article for all entries, so folks just visiting through RSS should be able to get the full... well, whatever it is I'm delivering here.

With the new look and feel, I've noticed that if I throw a picture in there and align it to the right, sort of like I do in some entries, if the picture is longer than the entry, you get some odd overlapping and such.

I've tried to fix it, but IE's rendering engine just can't seem to handle the CSS 'clear: both' directive correctly. That is, I tried to say "each entry should clear on both sides so you don't get overlapping entries," but when I do that, IE loads the page up then the top entry on the page blinks out of existence until you scroll it off the screen, then back on... then after a few seconds, it just blinks out of existence again. Obvious rendering engine bug. (Works on Firefox just fine, though.)

Long and short of it is, I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about the overlap in a browser-independent fashion (which is what I was hoping to achieve). I'll keep plugging away at it, but for now, I'll just have to watch my image sizes.

I've been watching the show Supernanny a bit lately, it being a total train wreck as far as the ridiculous out-of-control-nature of the kids on the show and whatnot, and over the course of watching I realized something:

I can't really quantify what it is, but there's something about Jo Frost that is just hot. I'm gonna have to take that one to the psychologist, aren't I? I'm sure Freud would be having a ball with me.

I think I have all the major kinks worked out. I may have to jimmy a few more things around as I see them, but for the most part, we're cocked, locked, and ready to rock with the new look.

I think the update is going pretty well. As I grab a moment here and there, I'm able to complete more and more stuff. There's still oddness, like the fact the site looks fine in Firefox but there's this weirdness in IE where the main page sort of slants off to the left with each new entry... and bulleted lists in entries are different in IE than Firefox... but it's not impossible to overcome. I'll keep working on it, but I'm pretty pleased with what it's shaping up into - Visual Paraesthesia .NET! Heh.

The site's looking like crap right now because I'm partially through the update of the CSS and whatnot. Sorry, I don't have a staging server, so you all get the brunt of it. Be patient, we'll be fixed up soon.

I don't really remember what I did on Friday night. I think I worked on the vest for my Wonka costume, but I don't recall, which sort of implies that it was inconsequential seeing as how I wasn't actually inebriated.

Saturday I took my car in for its 40,000 mile checkup. I was told when I scheduled the appointment that it'd take a couple of hours, so I scheduled it early (8:40a) and Jenn drove her car to the dealership to pick me up after I dropped my car off so we could cruise around that side of town, burn a couple of hours, and get my car when it was done.

We ended up going to probably three different malls, just wandering, and I picked up some Wonka TV Room Goggles, which fit over my glasses perfectly. I was wondering what I was going to do about my glasses, now I have an answer.

Long about 1:00p or so I was wondering what happened to my car, so I called the dealership and found out they'd "have it done by 4:00p, as scheduled." What? Two hours suddenly turned into eight. That's... that's great.

Jenn and I ended up checking out Flightplan, which is a decent film, if a bit of a one-trick pony. By the time that finished, my car was ready, so we picked that up and headed home.

Saturday night was spent feverishly working on my Wonka vest. I got it very nearly done, but at 1:00a I had to go to bed.

Sunday Stu and Tif came over. Stu and I played bongos while Tif and Jenn washed their cars.

At one point, Stu and I went to the store and while I was parking I ran over a (new) package of diapers that someone kindly left behind in the parking space for me. Normally I'd not mention such a thing except that the plastic packaging from the diapers melted to some piece or other on the undercarriage of my car and now when I drive it smells like burning plastic. I'm going to have to get under there when I get home tonight and scrape that off.

Oh, and I came up with a new look for my site, so I'll be implementing that soon. If you come in and something's messed up, that's probably why - I don't think it's going to be an atomic commit.

I noticed a couple of envelopes from the Office of Homeland Security came in the mail today, which could mean only one thing: my pyrotechnician license finally arrived.

After a few years of working on shows for Western Display Fireworks (usually with Greg running the show), Jenn and I both took the pyro certification test, completed the prerequisites, and applied for our Oregon state pyro licenses. It took a while (notice the issue date is 8/4 but I just got it in the mail today), but it's finally here.

Technically, that means we can legally buy professional fireworks and run our own show. Of course, there's a heck of a lot more to it than just declaring you want to "have a show," and I'm really not ready to take on that responsibility, so I don't think that'll be happening. But we're could, and isn't that what matters? (I think we'll stick to working with Western. Heh.)

In my excitement for the upcoming Firefly movie, Serenity, I've signed up with their fan club deal so I can get the inside scoop on some of the stuff they have going on.

Part of that is sort of a link/referral program. I can get five "credits" per click per link, to a maximum of 300 total "credits" per day, which I can use to, like, get a t-shirt or something.

So, help me get a t-shirt, and learn about a cool movie while you're doing it. Click the following links a bajillion times a day and rack me up some points. It doesn't cost you anything and you don't have to buy anything - just click 'em. I promise I'll be your best friend.

• Official Serenity movie site
• Test screener reviews of Serenity
• Another early review of Serenity
• Firefly forums
• FireflyFans.net - Official Firefly fan site

My Wonka jacket from Redballs arrived yesterday in size 2XL and it fits perfectly, so that part of the costume is now nailed down. I'll take it in to the dry cleaners tonight to get it cleaned and pressed (it arrived folded in a box, so it's got creases from that; it just needs to be freshened up a bit). If you're in the market, check Redballs out - they really rock, and the service is awesome. Any question, just email 'em and they will totally hook you up. Just note that the sizes, at least in the Wonka coat, run a little small - I normally fit nicely into an XL, but the 2XL is what I wear in the Wonka, and it's still just ever so slightly tight in the shoulders (not enough to worry about, but I thought I'd mention it).

That gets that part of the costume out of the way. I also verified that my suit pants still fit (yay!), so the pants are taken care of. That leaves the vest, which I've been looking at the pattern for and will probably commence work on tonight. Once that's done, I'll have it all taken care of.

This is going to be so cool.

UPDATE 10/02/05: The costume came out well. Here are the details.

I noticed that the movie Serenity was coming out, and I had previously heard how good the show Firefly was (before it was cancelled), so when I saw Amazon was having a half-off sale on Joss Whedon DVDs, I picked up a copy.

Damn, it's good.

That said, I can totally see why folks didn't take to it. It's a little... eclectic. When I heard people describe it as a "Western in space" I didn't think it was so literal. I mean, they'll ride horses then hop into their ship... or they'll haul cattle in the spaceship... or they'll pull a train heist on a mag-lev train using their ship... It's very much, very literally, a "Western in space."

But it's so good. You really get to know and like the characters, which is something sorely missing from many television shows nowadays. And the eclectic nature of the show is itself a draw factor for me, though I can see that it would be more of a turn-off to the standard boob-tube-watching population.

Plus, Tim Minear worked on it, and he (as well as Joss Whedon) always seems to work on shows that I get to love then promptly get cancelled. There are only two redeeming factors - first, I get to watch the show nonstop without commercials; second, they're coming out with a movie just in time.

If you get a chance, check it out. It's like finding buried treasure.

I finished up my Wonka walking stick for my Halloween costume so I thought I'd put out some instructions on how I did it. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Parts (along with where I got them and my original cost):

Cambria Gun Metal Paragon Finials (Bed Bath & Beyond) - Set of 2, $15

White spray paint and spray primer (Fred Meyer) - $7

Harvel Clear PVC 3/4" Schedule 80 Pipe (ClearPVCPipe.com) - $22.99 + $11.79 shipping

Invacare 1" Cane Tips, Product #INV408504 (HealthFancy.com) - $1.54 + $7.95 shipping

Rainbow sprinkles, about half a pound (Winco Foods) - $0.75

Silica gel packets (Found 2 sitting around the house; look in shoe boxes, purses, bags, medicine bottles...) - Free

Shoe Goo (Fred Meyer) - $3.95

First take the finials out of the package. You get two, you'll only need one.



You'll need to paint white swirling stripes on one of the finials. This is the hardest part of the whole project. I made a swirl template and measured out an even number of swirls, masked it off, primered it, painted it, and lacquered it. It took me several evenings to get it done, so don't expect you'll have it in an afternoon.

Note that the finial ball unscrews from the finial connector. You'll need to disconnect the finial you're painting from its connector.



The screw that normally connects the finial to the curtain rod comes off the finial connector. Remove it, but leave the screw that connects the finial ball to the connector.

Now it's time to cut the PVC pipe. To measure how long it needs to be, stand up and let your hands rest at your sides with a slight bend at your elbows, then have a friend measure from your wrist to the floor. That's how long the total length of the walking stick should be. Subtract 3.5" from that for the height of the finial and that's how long the PVC needs to be.

The PVC pipe fits inside the finial connector where the curtain rod would usually go, though there's a tiny bit of room to spare around the edge. That's okay. Use Shoe Goo to connect the clear PVC pipe to the finial connector. Don't use too much or it gets all over, plus a lot will go up inside the tube and it won't dry. That's actually very problematic because if it doesn't dry, you'll never be able to turn the walking stick upright. I ruined a whole section of pipe by not realizing the Shoe Goo was too thick (and, thus, not realizing it wasn't dry) and turning it over. A few hours later I came in to see a stream of Shoe Goo running down the inside of the tube and had to start over.

Let that dry with the finial connector at the floor and the pipe pointed upwards (the walking stick being inverted) for as long as you can. I left mine for three days. A day in or so, I took the screw that connects the finial ball to the connector and pushed it slowly into the tube through the connector just a short distance to stir around in any still-wet Shoe Goo in there (and there was some). I poked the screw through the dry layer of Shoe Goo to get air to the wet portion, then returned the screw to its original position. The point is, make absolutely sure the Shoe Goo is dry.

You may find it troublesome to have the screw poking out of the finial attachment and resting on the ground. Take a Dixie cup and poke a small hole in the center of the bottom, then put the screw through that. It makes it so the Dixie cup is sitting on the ground and the screw isn't oddly positioned.



Once that's dry, you can trim any excess Shoe Goo from around the finial connector with a knife and then connect your finished, painted finial ball to the walking stick.



Now for the really easy part. Get the rainbow sprinkles and your silica gel packets out.

You see I have like two pounds of rainbow sprinkles there. You don't need that much. I didn't bother doing the math or anything, but about half a pound should do you.



Using a funnel, fill the cane up with rainbow sprinkles. Fill it all the way to the very end, leaving only about a millimeter or two of space. It should look like you don't have enough room for the silica gel packets. Push them in the end of the cane, compressing the rainbow sprinkles. This tight fit will make it so the cane doesn't rattle when you move it - you don't want any extra space at all for the rainbow sprinkles to jiggle around in.

Now, pull one of the cane tips out of the box...



...and push it onto the end of the cane. It will be a pretty snug fit (the cane tips fit 1" canes and the outside diameter of the pipe is 1.05"), but it will go on nicely and won't come off.

That's it! You're done!



I've seen a couple of links out there to more authentic looking walking sticks. Unfortunately, I had already invested the money in materials before I saw these, and I'm not sure how much they cost. Pending on your resources, you could probably make this version pretty cheaply.

You'll note that both Schedule 40 and Schedule 80 clear PVC pipe exists. The difference is the wall thickness. The Schedule 40 pipe walls aren't as thick as Schedule 80. While the 40 is cheaper, the 80 offers more stability, which I felt was key for use in a walking stick. The above stick is done with Schedule 80 pipe. If you choose to try and save money using Schedule 40 pipe, this should all still work, you'll just need some more rainbow sprinkles because the inside of the pipe will have a larger volume.

UPDATE 10/02/05: The whole Wonka costume I made came out well. Here are the details.

The new version has been released and contains an optimization that stops the preview of documentation from being processed when the window isn't visible. (And you all wondered why things were running slow. So was I!)

Go get it!

For, well, quite a long time, I've noticed that Visual Studio .NET 2003 locks up hard when I try to pin/unpin the toolbox window. I chalked it up to some odd interaction between add-ins I was running.

Stu sent me over this article, though, and it turns out this is a known issue from .NET Framework 1.1 SP1.

According to the article, it's not the toolbox locking up, it's the Server Explorer (even if it's not showing). The solution? Dock the Server Explorer on a different side of the Visual Studio window than the toolbox.

I did it and I can now pin/unpin the toolbox with no issues whatsoever. YMMV.

The concept of the automatic content censor (a la Net Nanny or CYBERsitter) is, for people with kids or conservative attitudes, an intriguing one. It's like "anti-spam" for the web.

The thing is, they only mostly work, sort of the way spam filters only mostly work. That's actually a real problem because with spam, you don't have a choice - it floods into your email inbox without your asking for it; with web sites, you have the choice of visiting a site or not visiting it. Nobody's forcing you to visit that donkey porn site, you should just know better.

Again, for folks with kids, people like the idea of automated policing. I'd like to think education would be a better solution, but I'm not the parent of your kids.

What's got me incensed about this today is reading over at Raymond Chen's site, it seems that there's an Australian Internet cafe that is probably using this software and it's blocking access to his site. I'm not sure what reading about programming matters does against the sensitivities of a child, but some automated content censor has deemed it inappropriate. I'm sure I've probably been censored too (though I admit I've had my moments language-wise, so it'd be more understandable, if annoying).

While I'm not a fan of the whole content censor thing, I'd wager over-censoring is a far greater sin than under-censoring. Oh, well. Do what you gotta do, people.

UPDATE: CR_SortLines has found a new home with the DXCore Community Plugins project. Head over there to get the latest and read more!

 

Just like I use the "Join Lines" function a lot, I also sort lines a lot in text editing. That's another feature Visual Studio didn't have that I wanted - the ability to sort lines.

CR_SortLines adds a command ("Sort Lines") that you can bind to a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+F9 is what I use) and will sort lines in the code editor.



Installation is as easy as copying a DLL into a folder and adding the keyboard shortcut. The included readme.txt outlines installation, usage, and workarounds for known issues.

Requires DXCore 1.1.40 or later (DXCore is a FREE download from Developer Express - go get it!).

UPDATE: CR_SortLines has found a new home with the DXCore Community Plugins project. Head over there to get the latest and read more!

Download CR_SortLines 1.0.0.0906

Version History:
1.0.0.0906: First release.

For folks coming in from Wintellect (and people new to the site)... here are some things you might be looking for:

CR_Documentor: The XML code comment preview add-in for Visual Studio.

My Other Tools: A list of other tools I've written that might help you out.

Code Snippets: Little bits of code that might prove useful at some point.

Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Tools List: A pretty good list of additional helpful tools.

Day 3 has been the best of the three days, I think. The first lecture of the day I went to was on COM interop and had some really interesting stuff. Unfortunately, again, it didn't quite end on time and I had to leave before it was over in order to make it to a unit testing lecture.

The unit testing/code coverage lecture rocked. Great information on some unit testing and code coverage tools, suggestions on integrating it into your regular development and build process... very interesting.

I filled out my comment sheet (adding all of the information you've already seen here, so it's not like I'm just blogging and being passive-aggressive) and they gave us a copy of Programming .NET as well as a raffle ticket. The raffle, which happened after lunch, won me a copy of Threat Modeling.

Just before the third lecture, which was on .NET development tools, I sidelined the lecturer (again, John Robbins) and showed him CR_Documentor. I had looked at the lecture slides ahead of time and noticed he was going to talk about NDoc. I figured he might be interested in the preview feature CR_Documentor offers.

He was pretty psyched - enough so that I got a quick "guest lecturer" spot to present CR_Documentor in front of everyone at the lecture. This marks my first ever lecture appearance, and while I was a bit nervous, it felt good to get CR_Documentor out and about. Plus I got a free copy of Writing Secure Code. That rocked.

I sent the link and info over to John who will be putting CR_Documentor up on the Wintellect blog (actual entry here). So if you're coming in from Wintellect, hello!

After this there's one more lecture and then the drive home. It'll be good to be back, but let me tell you, Friday at work is going to be unproductive as hell.