Watched Kung Fu Panda last night on blue-ray. http://www.kungfupanda.com/

I actually really enjoyed the movie, and it really does look spectacular on blue-ray. I almost need to watch it again instead of looking at how sharp and crisp animation details such as ear hair on the red panda (master blah, blah or whatever his name was). Absolutely recommend this movie to watch if you haven't seen it. I did find it odd that it was released on Sunday the 9th instead of the usual Tuesday release schedule. I guess just an atypical marketing ploy...

 

Moving to .NET 2.0 based blog system BlogEngine.NET.

After a demanding schedule, the system has finally gone gold today! I didn't notice the fanfare too much, I have been working ahead with the rest of the architecture team on the next version...

Check out the release at:

 http://www.symantec.com/business/control-compliance-suite

 

We were fine. Little scary on Saturday morning, especially around 4AM with the west eye wall passing us. Just got internet access back. I cant complain, some people will be without electricity for weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXriZIvzlMU

<jest/>

 

A few months ago, I was given a project car. You know, one of those kit type cars that you build. The cars I am used to today have EFI fuel ejection, ABS brakes, etc… top of the line stuff, but this was different. This kit came with a duel barrel carburetor, no power steering, drum brakes, old technology. That’s ok, I know this stuff like the back of my hand and it is easy to work on (what I learned in high school auto shop).

 

The car has gone some phases and its first full iteration where I can actual drive it on the street (not quite safe though). Now it runs, I decide it is time to go get some rims. Well, I drive past “Consulting Hot-Wheels” and head over to “Pep Boys” to go look and see what they have. So, I go to the first sales person hanging over at the tire rack…

 

Me - “Hey, I want to look at some rims”

Tire guy – “Hold on, I want to bring in some new guys so they can learn and be part of the discussion”.

(two new Pep Boys guy from out of town show up. Both spark plug experts #1 and #2).

Me – “You guys ready”?

Tire guy + #1/#2 – “Yup. What do you need”?

Me – “I would like to have some rims, you have anything good”?

Tire guy – “Over here, we have all of this stuff. Pick what you want, I know about tires more than rims”.

Me = “something that fits my P-zero Pirellis”. “I like this over here… what does it cost”.

Tire guy – “I will have to get back to you” (waiting)…. “expensive, you want them”?

Me – “Yes, can I take it home today”?

Tire guy – “No, they are on backorder. However, you can get them today+90 days. You still want them”?

(meanwhile #2 is grabbed by a manager and is carted off to work on brake pads)

Me – “No, I need them now. What do you have instead”?

Tire guy – “Got some plastic hub caps with spinners. We stock those”.

Me- “Not what I want, but ok. I don’t have much time. Maybe when I build another car (let’s call it C2ar), I will do it right”.

#2 – “I’ll go get it. Which isle are they”?

Me – “Sigh…. Isle 7 next to the spark plugs”.

#2 – “Here you go”

Tire guy – “come back and see us again”!

(another Manager in background congratulates the tire guy for a job well done. Spark plug guy #2 is promoted to tire guy #2)

 I think to myself, maybe I will go to consulting hot wheels next time if I can get approval. They know there stuff…

Was at the Taj Mahal 10/20/2007 and taking pictures of some monkeys. I noticed a baby on the back of one of them and took a picture, but it was too dark. Decided to take some video instead, and caught this not so rare moment... baby is still on the back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwjciP5PNXs

 

After flying for however many hours, we stopped in New Delhi for the weekend on my way to Pune, India (business trip). The group decided to do a day trip to the Taj Mahal. The 120 mile (each way) trip took 7 hours to get there and almost as many hours back. I think I saw almost everything in one day including [sadly] someone being struck by a car in front of us and died on the road. This wasn't refreshing pit stop at all to get used to the 12 hour time difference, but I was completely exhausted after the trip (you can see it in my face) . And yes, it was a once in a lifetime trip... I will never do that again.

I have joined the Control Complience Suite architecture team working on the next generation project called CCS 9.0. Looking forward to working there!

 

 

 

I am using Vista for a while now and have not upgraded to a new DVD burning software. The one built in for burning files appears to work fine, but I can't burn ISO's from MSDN. Here is how to get around this:

 

use CDBurn.exe that is included in the Windows Server 2003 Support Tools.

 

ISO CD-ROM Burner Tool (CDBurn) is a command-line tool that allows the user to write (burn) data images from image files located on the hard drive to compact disc (CD) recordable (CD-R) and CD rewritable (CD-RW) media. The data image can be any kind of data, even raw data. This tool can also be used to erase CD-RW media.

 

Example: Burn a CD From an Image File When a Drive Letter is Assigned to the CD Burner. Type the following at the command line:

 

cdburn.exe d: c:\dotnet_usa_3678.IDS_x86fre_srv.iso

 

Press ENTER. Output similar to the following is displayed:

Number of blocks in ISO image is 3d1d6

| 25.6% done

/ 45.2% done

/ 55.3% done

- 68.9% done

\ 89.3% done

- 100.0% done

Finished Writing

Synchronizing Cache: burn successful!

 

Notes: The drive letter assigned to the burner in this example is D and the image file being written is located at c:\dotnet_usa_3678.IDS_x86fre_srv.iso

The default burn speed for this tool is 4x. The maximum burn speed is limited by the maximum speed of the burner. Use the speed parameter to set the burn speed. The max parameter sets the burn speed of the CD burner to maximum.

To debug Visual Studio Errors, use the /log switch in Visual Studio. This will write out a ActivityLog.xml file with more detailed information about what's going on inside VS. You can find this file in the user's Application Data directory (Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0).