The June 28th Storms

Well, Friday, June 28, 2008 started like any other Friday. I went to work, but for the first time this week I forgot to bring my scanner. Every other day during the week I brought the scanner with me to keep an eye on the storms NOAA was predicting.

About 4:30 we were getting ready to wrap up for the day, when we noticed that the weather was looking bad. I quickly opened up the NOAA weather radio online so I could see what was going on. The National Weather Service was getting reports of golfball-sized hail in Fremont, Nebraska, which is only about 15-20 miles from where I live, Valley, Nebraska. I immediately called my wife to warn her and told her to get into the bathroom. Being in an office that was 50% windows that were facing the direction the storm was coming from, we decided to pack up our computers and get in the vault. (Our office used to be a bank, and the vault serves as our supply closet and storm shelter.)

Netflix Kicks Customers in the Groin

I’ve had Netflix for three years now.  I have always thought their site was a slice of pure genious.  For instance, my wife and I, like most couples, have different tastes in movies.  I like Japanese films from the 1950’s.  She prefers something that well…she doesn’t have to read.  So, we signed up for the “two movies at a time” plan from NetFlix and set it up so that she gets one movie and I get one movie.  We each have our own website profile and our own queue, but it’s all linked back to our single account.  Today, however, I recieved an e-mail from Netfilx that has me considering switching to Blockbuster.

.Net Dojo: LINQ to SQL – A Skeptical Approach

In September 2007 I attended a Microsoft seminar on the new .NET 3.0 libraries.  One of the sessions was on a feature called Linq (pronounced link).  It is best described as a .NET query language that lets you connect to any source (sql, xml, etc) and easily place the data into a custom class.

I have since seen some LINQ tutorials and have played with it myself. I’ll admit that I am an avid .NET fan, but LINQ (to SQL) is just one of those things I thinks is cool but offers very little advantage in most scenarios. There’s a lot you can do with LINQ, but for the most part, plain old untyped datasets and ADO.NET with paramaterized queries/stored procs are just faster, easier, and more flexible.

Vista vs XP – Dual Booting

First, let me start by saying I love Vista.  I love the look, I love the search option in the start menu, and I love the added security (read UAC).  For development, Vista seems to work great.  I have never had any issues with it as far as using VS 2005 or 2008.  For VS 2003, I have to run in administrator mode, but that’s not a big deal. Sql Server 2005 runs without issues.  Visual Studio 2008 - no issues.  My antivirus software has no issues.

My only issue with Vista, isn’t really even Vista’s fault.  It’s Dell’s fault.  I own a M1710 XPS laptop.  My video card is an Nvidia GeForce GO 7900 GS.  No matter who I get my video driver from – Microsoft, Nvidia, or Dell, neither of them work very well with many games.  Well, okay, they don’t work with many EA games.  I can run Guild Wars at full graphical awesomitude and have no issues.

Local Martial Arts Masters Hold World Class Seminar to Help Save a Leukemia Patient

If you live in the midwest, more specifically within driving distance of Omaha, Nebraska, there is a martial arts demonstration fundraiser going on this weekend put on by several martial arts masters, my sensei included.  This is open to anyone from any art who would like an opportunity to train with many great martial artists in arts from around the world.  The purpose of this event is to help raise money for a 14 year old boy with leukemia. Besides the martial arts demonstrations, there will be a garage sale and a bake sale.

Here is a message from Greg from the website.

“I have leukemia, a cancer of the blood. I underwent chemotherapy for 2 ½ years starting in May of 2000. I was in remission for fifteen months and then had a relapse. I underwent another 2 ½ years of chemo because a bone marrow donor was not found. I was in remission for 17 months after that chemo; unfortunately, the leukemia relapsed just after Thanksgiving this year 2007. This means that it is very resistant to chemo and is considered VERY HIGH RISK. The best chance for a cure for this disease is a stem-cell or bone marrow transplant. You can learn about Greg at www.greghatchey.com.

Well I’ve found a couple of cord blood units…but read on.

Translated: that means I’ll be in Seattle for awhile (possibly up to a year).

I’m told that the likelihood of finding a match for me is like winning the lottery, but in the last couple of years, they have made some significant advances with cord blood.”

-www.greghatchey.com