Random Thoughts of Jorriss

I just did something that was bound to happen. I deleted data from a production database. But it wasn’t just any data; it was the user’s role information on our website.  It wasn’t just some, a little, or most of the data; I deleted the whole freakin’ table. Good job. Yay me. I was performing some routine user maintenance and was trying to delete a single role but I forgot to comment out my test SELECT statement in the DELETE query. So when the script ran the table data got whacked. I reviewed the row counts and immediately saw what happened. My stomach quickly knotted up and I imported the role data from the staging environment as fast as I could. You see, without role data the website effectively shut down. Total down time: two minutes. Of course the staging data was a week old so we had to restore the table from the previous nights backup. The lesson: even the most careful of us make mistakes, so handle them as professionally as possible and never try to cover them up! Also, don’t delete production data.

The new PSP v2.0 firmware is now available for download. This is what we’ve been waiting for people. This is the update that installs a web browser on your PSP. From the sounds of it the browser might actually be pretty capable with sizing features and *gasp* tabs. Grab this one folks. Via Scoble.

Update Instructions:
- Connect your PSP to your PC via USB cable.
- Goto the directory /PSP/GAME/ in your memory stick.
- Create a sub-directory named "UPDATE" (MUST be uppercase)
- Copy the downloaded PBP file into this directory.
- Rename it to "EBOOT.PBP" (MUST be uppercase too)
- Disconnect the PSP from the PC
- In PSP's XMB interface, goto "Game" -> "Memory Stick"
- Browse to the Update file and start it.
Note: You need to plug in the AC adapter.

Scoble reports that there are a whole bunch of videos on Visual Studio Team System at TeamStystemRocks.com. See everyone, Scoble can be right about some things. Keep doing what you do Rob.

Sony announced that the new PSP v2.0 firmware will have a web browser. My response? ABOUT FREAKING TIME! A web browser should have been included at launch. I was so disappointed when I read the reviews that it did not have one. With this upgrade the world’s best bathroom buddy just got better.

In related news, Ken Kutaragi has gone mad! Seriously, he has. The head of the PlayStation division is now using other people’s feet to put into his mouth since he’s has both of his mouth-bound for some time. He’s now said that the PS3 is going to be expensive. Really? Thanks Ken, are you trying to give me more reasons not to buy your hardware? Analysts are placing the PS3 street price at $400. I don’t see this happening without cutting some features that were shown at E3. Who needs three gigabit ports anyways? If Microsoft can have the 360 come in at $300 - $325 we might have ourselves an interesting little battle. And as of right now Sony has no answer to Microsoft’s biggest feature, Xbox Live. Live's subscription base has doubled in the past year. So what are you going to do Sony? Let me guess, tell me that I need to work for my PS3. Somebody fire Ken, please.

I’ve been playing NCAA 06 and have been wondering who where the bands that were featured in the game. Well, here they are:

De La Soul - "Me Myself and I"
The Clash - "Train in Vain"
The Pietasters - "Out All Night"
Jawbreaker - "Bad Scene, Everyone's Fault"
Superchunk - "Hyper Enough"
NOFX - "Jeff wears Berkinsocks"
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - "Kill Your Television"
Lush - "Lady Killers"
Bad Religion - "Atomic Garden"
Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI
Pixies - "Debaser

We’ve always had a problem in our family room. You see, the family room is a converted two car garage. When they did the conversion they did the unthinkable, they didn’t level the floor. This was a problem for us from the beginning since we have a TV wall unit that always looked like it was going to fall over. We added shims to the bottom of the unit but it never looked right. Also, if a drink was spilled the liquid would slowly roll to the back of the floor. Now that we’ve removed the tile we have a decision. Do we level the floor? Luckily for us I’ve found this site which shows how to level a floor. I hope I can find the time to do it.

ESPN.com is reporting that the Cubs are interested in obtaining Juan Pierre for minor league prospects. C’mon Jim! Pull the trigger! Juan could be just the spark the Cubs need for a second half run. Imagine someone actually being on base when Derrick Lee comes to bat!

Last week, EA Sports released NCAA 06 its latest effort in the college football gaming arena. After playing a few games I must say that it is quite good. I only wish that they updated the in-game commentary. Hearing Corso and Kirk say the same banter over and over is a bit tedious. (I suggest that you input the rosters of your favorite team(s) before starting a dynasty or a Hiesman race.) The release of the game harkens the beginning of a new college football season. And that means excitement all over the country for fans. In Miami, this means that only one question needs to be asked, “Is this the year that the tradition deepens?” I don’t want to hear the “Is Kyle Wright going to follow in the footsteps of Berlin?” arguments. Nor do I care about the “Is the offensive line going to hold up?” banter. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is “Will a championship be won?” That may sound strange to millions across the country where only one or two games against rivals matter. At Miami, they need to win them all or the season is lost. Sure, games against FSU or Florida (when they decide to play us) hold a lot more weight but FSU hasn’t beat us this century and the Gators haven’t beat us in twenty years. How can you call it a rivalry when the opponent can’t beat you? With that I give you the 2006 University of Miami Football preview courtesy of ESPN. Clearly, we have something to prove on the offensive side but the defense looks stunning. Will the tradition deepen? I don’t know. I think this team looks more like the 2000 Hurricanes who had their only loss at Washington then the 2001 Hurricanes that took it all. But they’ve got a shot to be great. I do admit my incessant rambling is a bit braggadocious but what can I say? I’m a Cane. We have a tradition to uphold.

I’ve been a using Newsgator for almost two years now. I love the way it integrates with Outlook and Newsgator Web Edition. One of the benefits of using Newsgator is the ability to post your blogroll to your website. Newsgator supplies you with a link to place on your site and you have an instant blogroll. Now if I add (or remove) a blog from Newsgator Outlook Edition it automatically shows up on Jorriss.com. Beautiful. 

The best show on television starts its second season tonight at 10pm on Sci-Fi.  And if that wasn’t cool enough, Ron Moore has posted his audio commentary about tonight’s episode via his podcast. How cool is that? It seems that Ron understands that fans are the best promotion tool a show can have. You don’t believe me? Just ask Joss Whedon. His excellent Firefly series was canceled and now is being made into a major motion picture, Serenity. Why? Because the fans wouldn’t let Joss’ series die.

I had a question. How do I launch an application after installing it with a Visual Studio deployment project? Luckily, the newsgroups know all.

To achieve this, we can add the primary output of the application (the EXE file) to the "Install" custom action. We also need to change the "InstallerClass" property of the custom action to "false".

As a result, when the installation is finishing, the application will be lanched. However, the Windows Installer Session will be suspended to wait for the return of the application. This "Synchronous execution" behavior of the custom action is by default. If we want the Windows Installer Session to finish without waiting, we need to change the type of the custom action outside VS.Net:

1. Download and install the Windows Installer Platform SDK at the following site: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/

2. Install "Orca.msi" included.

3. Run Orca and open the MSI file we have generated.

4. Go to the "CustomAction" table and locate the row with "Type" = 1042. This shall be the custom action we have created to run the EXE.

5. Change the type from 1042 to 1234.

6. Save the MSI and quit Orca.

Please give it a try and see whether this achieves your goal or not. If you have any concerns or new findings, please feel free to post here.

How to use the ASP.NET utility to encrypt credentials and session state connection strings 

More to come…

I’ve got to check the Channel 9 Video feed more often. Channel 9 posted a ten minute chat with MS head honcho Steve Ballmer. It’s an interesting video. The one thing that I found surprising was Ballmer’s energy. I always thought that his energy level was more of a sales pitch thing than anything else. Kinda like the way radio DJ’s are always over exaggerating things. But it seems like he’s really like that. Now it could be that he’s just hamming it up for Channel 9 but I don’t think so. Note to self: a good leader should be passionate and full of energy. Maybe not to the extreme of Ballmer but you get the point.

Here’s some interesting news. Best Buy will have the Battlestar Galactica first season DVD a full two months before the other retailers. So here’s my question. Will the “exclusive retailer” start becoming a trend? Could the publishers start taking bids for the exclusive rights for some games, movies, music? How will this affect consumers without the exclusive retailer in their area? It seems to me like this is going into a bad direction. So what if Fry’s obtains the right to be the exclusive retailer for the next Zelda. Will those of use without a Fry’s around be forced to wait? Probably. It sounds like the consumer loses again. The Battlestar Galactica – The Complete First Season DVD drops at Best Buy on July 26 for $69.99. It arrives everywhere else on September 20. Via Slice of Scifi.

Update 8/2/05 4:17 PM: Best Buy is selling the UK version of the season one DVD. This version skimps out on the special features such as commentaries and the mini-series but adds a preview of the movie Serenity. If this doesn't excite you, wait unitl September 20th for the US version.