I am against putting ads into RSS feeds. Here is a good argument not to put them in:

Occasionally when you are programming and you see code that was auto-generated you see this message in the comments section of your code: “This Code was Generated by a Tool”.

The first time I saw that I laughed and I thought someone had changed the comments section from someone else's name to say “This Code was Generated by a Tool”. About 2 seconds later I noticed that it was generated by a development tool we were using.

Microsoft is coming out with a new version of it's main development platform and taking bug suggestions from users. I had to laugh when I saw this bug suggestion:

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/viewfeedback.aspx?feedbackid=deb33595-a59f-41ae-b73f-70a3b2e34cf3

For anyone to lazy to click the link I will summarize it, even though I recommend you click the link:

“Autogenerated code in Visual studio is preceeded by the comment section that includes:
<autogenerated>This code was generated by a tool.</autogenerated>

The word "tool" may be used as an insult, describing someone who is being manipulated without their knowledge - implying they are na ve and ignorant. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_(insult)]

I don't mind this showing up in code that others write and in fact when I first saw that phrase I started laughing. "What a tool!, I can't believe he(she) wrote that code - no wonder it doesn't work!!!". However, when it shows up in projects that I'm developing, it's kind of insulting. "Are you calling me a tool?"”

Further down:

“Proposed Solution: I would change the line: "This code was generated by a tool" to:

1) "This code automagically appeared here" - automagically is a great word.

2) Or for a more serious solution: "This code was autogenerated" - Maybe move it underneath the runtime version and just above. "Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if the code is regenerated." so it's not immediately underneath the tag.

3) Just remove the line - the comment is enclosed in an autogenerated section. - Note: I checked Faster Development below because I develop code faster when I'm not insulted.“

So I guess I wasn't the only person who thought that way when I first saw that comment.

Ok this puts a damper on my recent MCP certification! But congrats to her! Very impressive!

Yesterday we went to Science World. It wasn't as cool as the last time I was there and I think we were older than everyone else there by about 20 years.

Catherine figured out after getting schooled on a grip strength test by an old lady that she needs to work on her grip. I figured out that I need to work on my flexibility, good thing an old man didn't do the flexibility test after me!

Some Video taken from my camera:

Into the Heart

Bullet the Blue Sky (you can see the film crew in this one)

I should probably post a picture or two that I took last night but I am on vacation and editing them would take long and stuff. Ahh well, it's raining outside right now so I will post some:

Ok, sorry about the quality of those but now Catherine and I are off to visit Science World.

U2.com article on the shoot

Pictures:

I am on the very left in this shot of the crowd. After I moved towards the center of the crowd for a better view.

Hello! Hello!

I just got back from the City of Blinding Lights video shoot at GM place in Vancouver. The atmosphere at the shoot was like seeing U2 at a club show. Bono commented "This is like a club show, I hate club shows, except here tonight."

During some of the breaks Bono did the hokey pokey with the crowd. He also did a mock pop idol where he went to each band member and asked them questions. He went up to Edge and asked him if his mother knew he was here and if he was nervous. Edge replied to both questions with a quiet/kid like "yes sir". Then Bono said Edge looked very cute in a beard.

Next he went to Larry and asked him what he wanted. Larry replied "world peace", which drew a huge response from the crowd.

After Larry, Bono went to Adam and asked him why he wanted to be the next pop idol. Adam replied "so I can travel and meet people" which drew an even bigger response from the crowd, so I guess that means Adam is the pop idol.

The band played City of Blinding Lights around 7 times and the video should be a live video with a lot of fans in it. Bono rises out of the crowd at the beginning and the rest is just a straight upi band performance.

After the band had played the song a bunch all of the fans moved to the floor from the seats and they reshot with all the fans on the floor. At one point the camera cut through the crowd the camera was right on me so maybe I will make the video!

After the shoot wrapped up the band played Vertigo and Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own as a thank you for our cooperation in the video.

[Update] In my frenzy to post last night I missed posting that they also played All Because of You. Thanks Jamal!!!!

[Update 2]Here's the setlist as posted it on U2tours.com:

City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
Hokey Pokey
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
All Because of You
Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own (encore)

I just found out I get to party with BP Fallon at the Skybar in Vancouver as part of a U2 concert package I bought. Very cool!

Tomorrow I am taking off to Vancouver for a holiday. It will be a nice break from work which is boring me to death lately. You can only write so much COBOL code before you want to jump out of a window. I think I have mastered the MOVE TO statement, if you have any questions on the MOVE TO statement I would be glad to answer them. I was thinking about creating a code generator using C# to generate the standardized JCL that is required to execute my COBOL code.

The U2 concerts on Thursday and Friday are going be awesome. I packed tonight and I leave in the afternoon. I plan on finishing my object thinking book on the flight there. It is a really good read once you get past the historical chapters at the beginning. If anyone reads this and wants to join the virtual book club and discuss it, you are more than welcome.

Me and my biggest fan. There are some more pictures of Daisy on Catherine's blog. I tried installing nGallery over the weekend and I ran into all sorts of file permissions problems. I was not impressed. The Community Server stuff never seems to be easy and always seems to be lacking in support.