So I got my 3G iPhone the other day, and yes it is worth the money. I like to settle my sports bets on who did what when on what team in less than 2 minutes that I had to wait for on my 2G phone. 3G keeps my ADD in full form, get after it.
Ok back to bread newest nemesis. When I got the phone I figured I could take advantage of some of the internet radio station while on the road. The app I had heard about the most was Pandora. So I downloaded it and started playing around. WOW I am blown away by how good it is. Not only the amount of music, but by how accurate it is on your selections. The way it works is you vote on songs you hear. From that voting it fine tunes exactly what you like to hear on that channel. The music is categorized by 400 different categories and from you votes it figures out what you do and dont like. After and hour of voting I started to realize that every song I was hearing I liked. Amazing. Even artists that I had never heard of that played a song that fit my category, blamo I got it.
And all that for free. Pandora pays the music industry for the music you listen to and currently they have enough funding to pay all the bills. My guess is that this project is partially funded by the industry itself to break down music in a way that they can learn to premote better. But who cares, its perfect.
#1. Get an iPhone 3G.
#2. Get pandora.
Done.
I ran into a problem recently where some pages on a site were rejected without my knowing it. I needed a quick fix to go and locate all those pages. Here is my answer:
As you crawl through a site by list or by PublishingSite, send the SPListItem into this. It will tell you if it is denied.
private static bool moderationPendingFix(SPListItem curItem)
{
if (curItem.ParentList.EnableModeration == true)
{
SPModerationInformation moderationInformation = curItem.ModerationInformation;
if (moderationInformation.Status != SPModerationStatusType.Denied)
return true;
else
return false;
}
else
return true;
}
First of all I would like to welcome me back. I really only blog when I am learning anything new. I had a good run where I was learning new stuff every week, but then work became my main squeeze again and we spent six months in a hard core relationship AKA projects.
Soooooo, we are at that point in the year where me and my work talk about certifications and my need to complete them. So now I needed to spend some time putting my lists together of tests that I have taken and need to take to get my certifications. So here goes with some links.
MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional)
You only have to take one test to get your MCP. The prereqs are here. You can take any of the tests here to get your MCP. I took 70-315.
MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developer)
MCAD is a little tougher. It required three tests to be taken. The list of required tests can be found here. There tests basically have a VB and a C# counter parts. I took 70-315, 70-316 and 70-320.
MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer)
MCSD takes all the tests from MCAD and adds one more Core and one Elective exam. The requirements are here. I already have me MCAD, so I am going to take 70-300 and (70-229 - SQL 2000) or (70-340 - C# security) or (70-431 - SQL 2005).
This last one is really just for me, but hey I’ll list it.
MCTS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Configuration)
The details can be found here. It only requires one test, 70-630.
Hope this list helps someone somewhere and sometime. 
UPDATE:
For .NET 2.0 the certification is MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer). If you have your MCAD you can upgrade to MCTS (Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist) by taking one test 70-551. After that you take 70-547 to get MCPD.
If you dont have MCAD you need to take 70-536 and 70-528.
I have been dealing with a problem for while in Entity Framework. When I compile the EF models the ssdl, msl, csdl files are put in the solution. Then I put my connection strings to those files in my web.confg. The issue I have is that we do a lot of work on MS Terminal Server. Since we have a lot of other people on there, I force the users to save the models to a separate and unique folder. They then reference the models in their web.config. Once in a while the user will accidentally check in that web.config into TFS. That causes chaos because now I am using their models in my running environment. Any change they make breaks my project. Any change I make I don’t see. Then I have to go in and change my web.config to reference my models locations. Simple but a pain.
Well thanks to Jonathan Carter I have now solved that problem. With a small change to the model properties the schema files get embedded into the assembly. Then you change reference in your web.config to the compiled versions. Tada no more head aches.
You can read all about it in Julie Lerman’s post.
Because you get excited by things like this, SharePoint Conference 2008. Holy crap I need a girl friend before I start using pocket protectors. But hey, I have a great job and knowing as much as I can makes it even better.
For some unknown reason when Microsoft decided to release TFS for trial and WorkGroup (5 users) but not for a version for the larger companies that are supported by Microsoft. They decide to make use wait until January of 08. I want to get off of Beta 2. WAITING??
You can read the details on Brian Harry’s blog.
Today I got an early Christmas present, a server 2008 virtual server tour. If you are like me, and there are a lot of us, you are a programmer / network admin for your company. I get to spend half my time working code and the other working network issues and development. That is why you will see a lot of post from me that involve a lot more than programming.
Well Microsoft finally did the readiness Live Meeting for server 2008 virtualization. Now let me tell you have have played around with 2008 a little bit and I like it as much as I like Vista. I dont. It seems bloated and very cumbersome to me. I have a very hard time doing some of the most simple tasks. I really hated it and swore it would be in SP1 before I started to install it on my network. Well that is not longer true. I have been getting more and more involved with virtual servers ever since MicroSoft came out with MSVS 2005 R2. That was a uge step in the right direction for MicroSoft and there virtual server platform. You see, I once got a chance to play with VMWare aka my Cadilac. And man what a dream to get behind the wheel of a WMWare ESX server. It has everything I could ever need. It was fast, smooth and packed with goodies. But dad wouldn’t give me the money to buy that Caddy, I only had enough money to buy the Yugo, and it was what I thought it was. So I crowned it’s ass. It was slow and unimpressive but good enough to get me to work. It worked, and that was it.
But now that Yugo has turned into a 2008 Corvette. And man is it sweet!!! Dad gave me the keys Microsoft Server 2008 virtual server which is now built into Windows Server 2008. It has everything you need and it is a direct attack on VMWare stake of the virtual server market.
Virtual Server 2008 now directly links to Intel VT and V-AMD chip’s virtual technology to allow the guest server direct access to hardware. The hard drives are now writing data directly to the host hard drives. Not thru a software layer in the host os, slowing it down. Guest servers can now be clustered with other host servers for a fail over of the guest OS. Handling the fail over of the host OS is still up to you. You can now move a live guest server from one server to another to load balance the host server at will. I am sure that like VMWare they will build a utility that will move the guest server for you for an automated load balancing platform. Multi processors are now supported inside the guest server. 64 bit is also supported in the guest servers now. VS2008 will let you take snap shots of your guest severs for a scheduled backup. The snapshots are a lot like DPM 2008 in that it is a byte level backup of the data on the disk on a changing bytes basis. I haven’t loaded any virtual servers up on 2008 yet because all of my 64bit servers are in production use. I only have older 32 bit servers for my testing. But now seeing this, I will get a 64 bit server in to load up with RC1 2008 and test out the servers. I am sure I will love what I get, fast, easy and reliable.
We currently have about 30 servers in our company. In the last year I have created 10 virtual servers and saved my company about $20,000 in needed hardware. With VS 2008 I am hopeful to get one more AD, Exchange 2007, SharePoint, TFS and some dev servers into VS enviorment. This is going to be a great year. Below are some images from the preview.
Oh how the mighty have fallen. I have been a FSU fan since the birth of Christ and this year was bad. But now Florida throws 45 on FSU like they were Syracuse. God this has to get better from here. But at least we still have Jen Sterger!
Well well, I am a member of the blogosphere. I would like to that Jonathan Carter @ Lost In Tangent for leading my to this awesome software, Word Press. Works like a champ and lets me play with PHP/MYSQL again. Brings back memories.
