Older blog entries for binaryfoo (starting at number 26)

IIS web applications -- the drama of suckiness

Well talking with the east coast developer about his deployment process, I now can say the the dharma transmission is complete, I now know that he should have done that a long time ago! Better later than never I suppose. At least his process is documented now. Why does M$ insist on hiding key aspects of a process in options, tab bars, and menu drop-downs? There's no logical flow to it, you just have to 'know' where all these things are.

Anyway. The development team is making a shift from CVS to PVCS, our company standard now. Unfortunately, the powers that be didn't consider that a lot of the developers on the web team use Linux -- which PVCS is in the process of making available for linux developers, I think the PVCS group is feeding us their alpha versions. But I actually had a chance to go back to my Linux roots and play in console land at work. All I can say is ahhhhh.... Give me more, I want more!

Ilan, thanks for the tip, I was really hoping for some activeX help tho, I know that I at least have some chance of success with that. That should at least give you some indication of how fargone my lovelife is. ;) I mean, what am I doing working with this doomed technology? Actually, I won't have to work with it too much longer, this is purely for maintenance, most of our apps already run on unix systems, and we're using JSP, which I kinda like.
Never admit to knowing about something you never want to work with.
-binaryfoo out

grrrr... activeX caca

Anyone work with deploying WebClasses to an IIS server manually? Here's what I've done so far:

• compiled the dll
• created a Standard Setup package
  • added all the necessary files
  • placed it in a separate deployment folder
• passed the newly created package to the webserver using pcAnywhere's encrypted file transfer mechanism
• ran the setup program
• restarted the services

OK, so the app still doesn't work, and I've only made a tiny, tiny change, insignificant by most standards. What happens is that the database calls are no longer working. Is there something special about using the package and deployment wizard vs manual installation? I'm about fried, ready to consider working in a bakery again. Ah the smell of bread...

so my wife has decided that she wants me back. that after kicking me out, carrying on a lesbian relationship, and moving over 500 miles away. what do you think? Should I pack up my things, move to a place where I'll live in poverty, and give it another shot? The thing is, I've met an incredible woman that really likes me for who I am, and I feel like I can be completely honest with her. Bonuses all around. :) But I'm still married legally... Not sure where the suckiness ends and the coolness begins.

ANYWAY, activeX sux, unless someone can convince me otherwise.

peacefully praying para perl permutations
-binaryfoo

Sunday

Times bring change
Constant spinning.
Up, down,
Off, on,
1, 0.

 Every action the beginning,
of a new thought
every thought the beginning,
of a new action.

 I influence you,
you influence me,
separate from our actions,
yet one with them.

a toast to new thought.
a round for the thought that got us here.

Wednesday

Determining what needs to be done about an inherited NT Server. Learning the wonders of vb and Web Applications, and parallel development with people who don't know what version control means.

Home is where the linux is. Or something like that. Seems like most of my work time development has slowly been shifting towards a windows based la-la land. Home however is another story. Hope to have my apache server up and running quickly and then the real fun begins ;)

ASP programming isn't so bad actually. It's just that most of it runs on Window$, but there's ChiliSoft! of course, so there's options anyway.

O.K. back to work

--binaryfoo

Thursday, and thing change

Well, it's been a crazy month or so. Absorbing activeX how-to info -- whether I like it or not. Completed building my new gzh machine. The case is crazy, 5 fans, aluminum, and slick looking. Installed Linux Mandrake on there. Nice OS, but no web servers on it. At least one that I recognize, (ie, no Apache). No internet yet, but had a copy of apache lying around, at least now I can play around with some basic web dev.

Hoping that dsl will come soon, I am in serious withdrawls since I have been booted from my home. Appears she has taken a liking to one of her teachers. She's taking my place now, and they're keeping my old machine. Argh. And I'm paying for their internet service too. Lame. That will end soon enough.

New roommates are kewl. Tribes2 mania going on at the house. Dune and AO too. But I need to get a windows box to play some of those. Either that or I keep tinkering with writing device drivers, writing C and honing my perl. I think I'll keep tinkering.

l8r,
--binaryfoo out

trial by code

it seems strange to think
that time heals.
What exactly is it healing?
Is it a balm of sorts?
Or are we just forgetting,
with enough events and people interspersed
in between the bad time
and the now time,
that the bad doesn't seem so bad anymore?

 How do we learn?
Preventing the bad from happenning again,
requires remembering the bad,
reliving it,
daily,
like a pill.
There ways of living in which we don't
have to concern ourselves
with remembering evils done,
but simply live an existance
where water rolls down stream,
and trees grow straight and tall,
and the sun rises and sets.

 Here there is no learning,
it is doing,
breathing,
coding,
building,
but learning happens anyway.
And the balm of time feels like icy-hot,
and smiles become a treasure.

 these are times to live
and these are places to begin
never forgetting,
never remembering.
Be.


 

--binaryfoo out

Reading Time

Code Complete

Numerical Recipes in C

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to grasp the info in Code Complete. So far I'm almost to chapter 4, and there's been nothing but good info. As for the recipe book, taking a quick glance has revealed to me many things I don't understand. This is going to be a good one. :)

Well it's been a couple of days since I've written, just didn't want to disappoint you all out there dying to read my next words. arg. If only that were true... lol.

Gotta get back to my books. I'm tempted to plot my reading progress here, but then I know there's many of you out there that can polish these books in a week, so maybe I'll hold off, I'm not exactly the fastest read in the west ya know.

--binaryfoo out

Wookin punub

Looking for a kayak partner, anyone interested? No special conditions except the following:

• Need to be able to roll, or you're close to getting it.

• you live in California
• you have a kayak
• you want to go paddling down some not too crazy rivers (class III for now, but to some people my class III is a IV, whatever)
• you have the time
• talking computers doesn't kill you, nor does not talking about computers :)

That's all
Email me

In other news, I'm getting the hang of xml transformations using saxon. Xt wasn't cutting it on the laptop I've been using. Nor was Xalan, but of course I'm using a company laptop with windows98. But my home machine will run them fine.

--binaryfoo out

Happy Fridayness!

Just finished a crazy week at work. Got handed an integration project, converting the previous company's website to look like ours. Of course, it's a different platform running a different web server, and the content is generated from binary files, and no source code...

Decompilers are a great thing. :)

So the code is now in assembly. Working to convert it into a higher level language. Anyone know of an Assembly to C++ Converter?

Also handed a variety of word documents to convert into XML. Eventually they'll go up as HTML on the intranet server. Found majix. Hopefully it will be able to what they say it can do, transform Word and RTF Docs to XML.

We'll see

Well it's time to find a new place to live. My significant other has decided I'm too boring. Needs her space away from a comp geek. 7 years together. argh.

--binaryfoo out