Random Thoughts of Jorriss

Last week at the San Diego Comic-Con Lucasfilm released the title of the next Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Some might say it's cheesy, but I like it. Remember Return of the Jedi was originally called Revenge of the Jedi. Let's hope that Revenge of the Sith is a return to the type of Star Wars movie that we all remember. Not that the prequels are bad, but they're just not great like the originals.

I found an interesting thread on Channel 9 discussing String and StringBuilder. In short, when you use string method it creates a new string method. StringBuilder does not create a new object when the string is modified. Here's a blog post with some good recommendations.

I can remember when we were rewriting our site in .Net last year. I was reviewing some code for a control that a consultant wrote and found some interesting stuff:

Dim sb As New StringBuilder

My question is if you are using the StringBuilder to concatenate strings then why are you using the & operator? One of many questions I found in this code.

Duncan Mackenzie has gives a clear explanation of partial classes. Code generation just got a whole lot easier.

If you are an MSDN subscriber then you can download the SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 now. This will change everything. Or at least give you something to play with. Props to Sam Gentile for the 411.

On Friday, I went to the gym to workout my triceps and chest. After the forty-five minute workout. I was still waiting around for Lucy to finish up her workout so I attempted to play ball. Big mistake. I couldn't make a shot since the workout killed my arms. Literally. All I had were runners. Wahoo.

Saturday my Dad and I played wiffle ball, as usual. Of course my arms were still a mess. But that didn't stop me from pitching nine innings. And I chalked up the L as I struggled 5 - 4.

Sunday, my Dad got me into a doubles tournament with him. After the four game qualifying round we were leading the tournament by 150 pins! After the second, one game, qualifying round we were still in the lead. During that fifth game I started to tire...greatly. My triceps were absolutely killing me. We go into the second game and win by thirty. The seventh and last game was a killer. I missed a five pin, ten pin and a split in the tenth. My arms were burning! We ended up losing that game by twenty pins. Damn. The final results are here. I did pick up second place in the optional scratch division. And I won all of my brackets. That's the first time I've ever done that. I just may bowl in the next tournament on August 8th.

But wait! That's not all. I get into the office yesterday and started to feel a pain in my neck. It felt like something wasn't in place. So I call my chiropractor, Dr. Gentile. He fits me in that afternoon and with three cracks of my neck I'm good as new. Whew! Busy weekend. After all of that I still can't wait to get to the gym tonight. Boy, am I stoopid.

How in the heck did I miss this?? On July 14th id released Doom 3 to manufacturing. Yup, that's right boys and girls you can pick up Doom 3 on August 5th at your favorite retailer. I did catch a special on G4TechTV last night covering Doom 3 and all its goodness. And I must say I'm impressed. It looks absolutely fantastic. I only hope my little Shuttle workhorse has enough *umph* to play it at hi-res.

I have update the blogs skin to Christian Nordbakk's excellent Haba Haba 0.95. Christian is the guy who wrote the AnotherEon001 skin that I was previously using. Now I want everyone oohh-ing and aahhh-ing at my pretty site. Do it now!

I found this link a few minutes ago. It's written in ASP.Net and it generates a banner image with your gamertag! I'll be posting mine shortly.

This weekend I jumped into the world of online console gaming. Yes, I am now on Xbox Live. For those of you interested my gamertag is Jorriss. I don't have my setup completely the way I want it yet. I'm using a twenty-five foot CAT-5 cable to connect my Xbox to my wap until that new wired-wireless-bridge-USB-print-server-analog-optical-audio-source-thingie from Apple comes out. But I'll live. I also picked up NCAA College Football 2005. Time to have the Hurricanes win another national championship again! And MrNeoMatrix...I'm coming for ya!

Yesterday I finally gave in and joined a gym. I chose LA Fitness mainly because it was the closest gym to my house. But its really nice. It's not the Wellness Center (few things are) but it does have a pool, jacuzzi, sauna and an indoor basketball court. I'm looking forward to stepping up my training in this facility. But I won't do my plyo training there I need too much room for that and well I look like a complete tool when I'm bouncing around in my weighted platform shoes.

I admit it. I'm a Internet Explorer bigot. Oh, I've got Firefox on my machine but I never use them for browsing, just testing. I'll also say that I love the tabbed browsing concept. At any given time I'll have four to five browser windows up and running. Tabbed browsing makes managing off of that easier. I really thought that I would have to wait until IE 6 to see tabbed browsing for IE. Ladies and gentlemen IE tabbed browsing is here today. Maxthon is a browser that works with the IE engine. It incorporates high end features such as tabbed browsing and mouse gestures in an easy to use skinable interface. And best of all it's free! I have encountered a few issues with it but its been more of annoyances than real issues. I definitely recommended it.

Here's an interesting post on why people leave a company.

Personally, I have worked for some real slave drivers. I've also worked with some of the finest managers I've ever met. I guess sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Currently, I'm winning!

Let me see the Heat are trying to acquire Shaq? Great idea! But they better get it done. Everyone is expendable except Wade...The Cubs have dropped the last three and were swept in a three game series for the first time since Dusty became manager. Things are not looking good in Wrigleyville. Currently, the Cubs are six back and aren't hitting a lick. They better get it going soon. They start a three game set with St. Louis tonight...I shot another 279 last night. That's three 279's and a 278 in a span of a month. The bad news? I posted another 166 in the same series, again. I've got to stop doing that...I've started playing NHL 2003 again. In addition to creating a magnificent player named Jorriss Orroz I've also created a defenseman called Happy Gilmore. He hits, fights and has a terrific slap shot that he can't control. He also can't skate a lick. I think the Panthers are on their way to a championship. Only in video games...I've also decided to buy the Apple wired-wireless-bridge-USB-print-server-analog-optical-audio-source-thingie as well as Xbox Live. Yes I'm jumping into the online console arena. NCAA 2005 & Crimson Skies here I come!

I haven't posted an update on my 'getting fit' pursuits so here one is. To date I've lost fifteen pounds. That equates to two notches on the old belt. Not bad. I've been working out three to four times a week always starting off with a one to two mile run and ending with a half-hour ab workout. I've also cut my plyometric routine down to once a week. It was becoming too much of a hassle to execute the workout twice a week. So I've replaced it with an upper body workout. Now let's see if I can gain muscle weight!

This absolutely floored me when I saw this last night. Channel 9 posted this video earlier this week. Here Robert Green, program manager on the VB team, demos some of the coolest drag-and-drop data-binding I've ever seen. This ladies and gentlemen is what we've wanted for years. Let's hope it works exactly as shown.

UPDATE 7/8/2004 10:53 AM -  I've just noticed that this is my 100th post! Wow, I didn't think that I'd make it this far. I've also made my first blog roll (as far as I know). Peter of Peter's Blog has added me to his blog roll! Wahooo! I found the link by searching technorati for www.jorriss.com. (BTW, I've added my blog to technorati yesterday.) Thanks Peter!