Friday, September 09, 2005
New born calf

We had a new calf born on the field yesterday night, so far its doing really well after a some what difficult birth.








General
9/9/2005 5:43:38 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Thursday, September 08, 2005
Peer Guardian 2

If you value your privacy, especially when using P2P applications to must get yourself a copy of Peer Guardian 2. It uses a dynamic ip database to block known addresses from touching your machine. It is not a firewall but an ip blocker. You'll be amazed at who is snooping on your connection! Remember share, not steal.



Security
9/8/2005 11:52:35 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Serialization bug? (AdomdConnectionException)

In a project I'm working on using ADOMD.NET there is some code that is throwing an exception when we try to serialize a adomd connection exception object. The error is show as:

Invalid cast from Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.ConnectionExceptionCause to Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.AdomdErrorCollection.

[InvalidCastException: Invalid cast from Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.ConnectionExceptionCause to Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.AdomdErrorCollection.] System.Convert.DefaultToType(IConvertible value, Type targetType, IFormatProvider provider) +1228 System.Enum.System.IConvertible.ToType(Type type, IFormatProvider provider) +9 System.Convert.ChangeType(Object value, Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider) +1097 System.Runtime.Serialization.FormatterConverter.Convert(Object value, Type type) +25 System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationInfo.GetValue(String name, Type type) +148 Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.AdomdConnectionException..ctor(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context) +60

Using Reflector, there would appear to be a cast that is invalid in the constructor:

private AdomdConnectionException(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context) : base(info, context)
{
 this.exceptionCause = ConnectionExceptionCause.Unspecified;
 this.exceptionCause = (ConnectionExceptionCause) info.GetValue("ExceptionCauseProperty", typeof(AdomdErrorCollection));
}

Has anyone else seen this? Or have a workaround?


I've posted an article on an MSDN forum just in case someone from M$ spots it!

If you find this post via google hopefully someone has answer my questions.

.NET
9/8/2005 2:22:14 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Halo 2 Pro at work

If you want to see a halo 2 pro at work, check out Orge in the attached video. 41 kills to nothing! Unfricking believable!
Gaming
9/8/2005 8:07:51 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback

OGRE1_41-0.wmv (45.61 MB)
New word: blogxercise

blogxercise: the act of exercising your mind by reading web logs.


General
9/8/2005 7:49:58 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


No one reads my blog

I'm thinking of getting this T-shirt.

I'll let the comments decide!
General | Humor
9/8/2005 7:47:11 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [3]  |  Trackback


Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Halo 2 podcasts

Grab these great Halo 2 postcasts by Podtacular. Also worth a read 2old2play if your reaching that age!

More quality here by xboxmixradio. Not forgetting my favourite Halo 2 site of all time HBO



Buy the "Fight the Flood" T-Shirt and help raise money for the storm victims
Gaming
9/7/2005 12:12:19 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Tuesday, September 06, 2005
What makes a great Halo 2 multiplayer gamer?

I think most people realize that things like accurate aim and snake-fast reflexes sure are important, but that they aren’t the most important factor. Take two equally technically skilled players and the best one will be the one with the best strategy and tactics.

Check out What makes a great Halo 2 multiplayer gamer?
Gaming
9/6/2005 10:00:43 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Talk Like A Pirate Day

Mark your calendars - 19th September - International "Talk Like A Pirate" day.

check talklikeapirate.com for more details. Arrrrr! me hearties!
Humor
9/6/2005 9:57:42 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Application Pool Identity setting in IIS 6.0

Configuration Objective: Create an IIS Site with its own Application Pool with that Application Pool's Identity being set to a local or domain user.  Not a problem...?

Service Unavailable

The specific steps which liberated me from the [worthless-and-why-can't-MS-give-a-clue-when-this-happens] “Service Unavailable” message were:

  1. Adding the user account to the IIS_WPG group of the server
  2. Give the IIS_WPG group Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read permissions to the Web site directories

TechNet
Security
9/6/2005 9:14:28 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Monday, September 05, 2005
DJ downloads

For those of you without a set of decks (or record player if your really old skool) and would still like to keep upfront with dance music, might I suggest that you visit DJdownload.com.

They sell some really excelent tunes which release almost as soon as the first white labels and dub plates are cut. You can listen to previews as well but its not the same as grabbing a big stack of vinyl and spending the best part of your weekend in a tiny record shop.

Update:

    My other favourite stores online are:
         
          Hard To Find Records
          Global Groove
Music
9/5/2005 10:40:40 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Announcing Solidstore BitTorrent Tracker

Finally setup up my promised BitTorrent tracker server. Feel free to use. I have uploaded torrents for my recent trance mixes for leeching...


Share dont steal. Give and ye shall receive.

http://tracker.ryanstevens.co.uk:6969/annouce
General | Hosting
9/5/2005 9:29:21 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Saturday, September 03, 2005
Happy 1st Birthday Blog

My blog is one year old today. Many thanks to all my readers for their comments over the past year.

SummaryPeriod: 365 Days
  Daily Unique:     Totals:  
    Today       17  /  05 Sep, Mon, 2005     Unique Visitors      6567 - 70.95% 
    Yesterday       42  /  04 Sep, Sun, 2005     Visits incl. Reloads      9255 
    Average       19     Reloads      2688 - 29.04% 
    Highest Day       125  /  18 Aug, Thu, 2005     Visitors via Referrers      1313 - 19.99% 
  Weekly Unique:        Website Referrers      333 
    Current Week         17  /  Wk 36, 2005     Javascript Enabled      6366 - 96.93%
    Last Week          416  /  Wk 35, 2005    
    Average       121   Most accessed:  
    Highest Week       680  /  Wk 33, 2005     Browser      MSIE 6 
  Monthly Unique:          Operating System      Windows XP 
    Current Month    253  /  Sep, 2005     Screen Resolution      1024x768 
    Last Month          2131  /  Aug, 2005     Screen Color      32 Bit (16.7M) 
    Average       505     Searchengine      Google 
    Highest Month       2131  /  Aug, 2005     Keyword      halo  
  Highest Hour of the Day       20:00 - 20:59     Domain/Country      .com / United States 
  Highest Day of the Week      Thursday     Continent      North America 

dasBlog | General
9/3/2005 11:03:42 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Friday, September 02, 2005
DCOM, XP SP2, and Remote Debugging

Debugging remote machines with Visual Studio .NET 2003 from Windows XP used to be a dream. Then along came SP2 to spoil the party. Now its a nightmare.

After a lot of googling I've finally got it working again. Save yourself some time and use these links:

DCOM, XP SP2, and Remote Debugging
(This guy deserves a medal - and his page should be ranked much higher in google)

The VS7.x(Visual Studio 2002 Visual Studio 2003) Debugger doesn’t work. What can I do?


.NET | Security
9/2/2005 11:28:08 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Web Site Updated

Just completed some changes to my web site, if your reading this via my RSS feed you might like to fire up your browser - Firefox of course.


These controls were added to dasBlog without recompiling - pretty cool. I did however fix a number of bugs in dasBlog which I'll upload when totally complete - mainly to do with XHTML compilance.
.NET | General | Music | Wallpaper
8/31/2005 5:13:56 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback


Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Go-go Hamster Power

A 16-year-old boy has devised a way to charge his cell phone with the help of his hamster. Peter Ash of Lawford, Somerset designed a hamster wheel that utilized gears and turbines to charge his cell phone. According to his tests every two minutes of wheel time gives his phone 30 minutes of talk time. If only the hamster knew how he was being exploited for free energy he would be going on strike demanding bigger carrots and more wood bedding.

Now I just need him to develop a USB version to charge my laptops!
General
8/30/2005 2:29:05 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback