For a "limited time" Microsoft is giving away free E-Learning course trials for 90 days.  I always wanted to try them out but never wanted to spend the dough so this will be a good evaluation to see if the money is worth it.

I am sick again. I am starting to think I have a weak immune system. The last time I was sick was the beginning of September and it took me until mid to end September to get over it. I could feel this one coming on Friday night at a going away dinner we had for my sister. If the bird flu gets loose I will probably be the first one to get it, probably even before the birds get it.

I tried taking ColdFX to stop the cold from setting in and it didn't work. Usually I wouldn't waste money on quick remedies like that but last time I tried it the stuff worked. Instead of buying a package I decided to drop 25 dollars on the super mega bottle. Now I have a super mega bottle of useless pills. Maybe I will finish off the bottle while i'm sick and see if it makes me recover faster but for now the ColdFX experiment failed miserably.

U2 is my favorite band but I was unaware that they had covered the classic Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes. I guess it's a DVD of rock stars doing nursery rhymes. Check it out at: http://www.mothergooserocks.com/

Update: Frere Jacque is a great. They have Dave Matthews' style down pat. 

Tonight I handed out candy for halloween. I grossly underestimated the amount of kids to candy ratio. I gave the first kids giant handfuls and the last kids 1 piece of candy each so hopefully I don't get egged tonight.

First prize for best costume award goes to the kid in the Spiderman outfit with the Frankenstein mask, pure genius. 2nd place goes to the cat princess (is it a cat or is it a princess??? I like the hybrid costumes). 3rd place goes to "the skeleton with the long purple hair". An hounorable mention goes to "kid in a jacket" because I felt sorry for him.

Mike dressed up Daisy in her Dinosaur costume and took her to the neighbors to get some free sympathy candy. I have never heard of cotton candy that turns into gum but apparently thats what passes for sympathy candy these days.

It is too bad that next year we are going to be in our condo because I had fun handing out the candy. I found a nice quiet spot by the door and studied for my 70-320 MCP exam.

Kenny Vs. Spenny is a Canadian TV show about 2 friends who go against each other in a new contest every week. The loser of the contest has to do a stunt that the winner devises. It is a great idea and is the funniest Canadian show i've seen in a long time. It used to be on CBC but now it is on Showcase so now they can swear a lot more.

Last week Catherine and I watched it. The contest was "who can stay naked the longest". Kenny ended up winning and tormented the crap out of Spenny. Kenny ended up leaving the house but before he left he looked up a bunch of gay strippers in the phone book and ended up sending them to the house to bug Spenny. Spenny ended up waiting out the rest of the contest in the basement with a knife and a book. This probably isn't selling anyone on the show but trust me its hilarious.

This week the contest is "who has the biggest balls" don't ask me what that means but I guess i'll see tonight. My best guess is who can do the most outrageous stunt. Check it out, it is on 10:30pm on Sundays on Showcase.

This weekend I downloaded the .NET 2.0 framework and the SDK. I think I will install the new SharpDevelop on my home machine for now and then install Visual Studio a little later. I am looking forward to playing around with the new System.IO.Ports namespace.

If you have some free time, check out the .NET Nuggets videos that show some of the new featues and give a good introduction/demo. I watched the Generics one today.

If you are a developer and want to make an easy $100 US go sign up at Microsoft Research. They end up sending out periodic emails to you which in turn ask you to go take a short questionnaire. If your answers to the questionnaire match what they are looking for they send you an email asking you to participate in a forum.

I ended up getting selected on Thursday for a Windows Mobile Development forum. They asked me 15 questions on Windows Mobile development and now they are going to send me a cheque for $100 US. In all the whole process took about 15 minutes.

LG came out with a breathalyzer phone today (via Engadget)

DonXML posted the Dating Design Patterns Book

A new FAQ on the next generations of the Microsoft Certifications has been posted. I had better get off my ass and get my MCAD (Microsoft Certified Application Developer) before it changes and then go for the new one. I think they are fun.

Currently I am a Microsoft Certified Professional in "Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET" so that means I can use this:

(This is probably the only time i've ever used it) I am about ready to go for my "Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Microsoft Visual C# .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework" but I just need to find the time to sit down and do a bunch of practice tests before I write the exam the practice exams really help you find your weaknesses.

I thought I would post this link to the Microsoft support article on Internet Explorer only giving you the option to save pictures as Bitmap since I have seen it happen to a couple of people as well as myself. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;810978

Well I started off the poker tournament well last Saturday. I managed to buy a couple pots when no one would bet. We had a pretty tough table, one guy was hard core bragging about getting 2nd in the last tournament but then he looked bad when he was the first one out.

Next out at our table was my buddy Will, he was fairly pot committed on a bluff and couldn't lay down his hand. He had almost caught his opponent with his bluff.

Next out was me. I made a stupid mistake. The dealer was shuffling the cards and showing us the bottom 2 cards, so when an A-7 suited came up to me I figured I had the nuts after everyone but me and another guy folded. I pushed all in and he called it. He shows his cards A-J offsuit. All I could really hope for were the hearts or a 7 and the flop came up rainbow and all I could hope for now was a 7! The turn comes and no 7, then what do you know, the river comes up Ace! I called it right that the odds of a King or a Jack coming up were slim but unfortunately for me he had the higher kicker and I was out of the tournament.

I was probably 10-12 out in a 30 person tournament but I was tired of playing passive since the 2 guys beside me were chip leaders at our table and bullying me out of pots.

After that I went to the bar with Will and we both had a shot of whiskey to help swallow the loss. After we were done we went back and watched for awhile. Catherine was at the final table and pushing everyone around with her massive chip lead and tight play. In the end no one could coax her out of any chips and she ended up winning the tourney. I was really proud of her she has really good patience at the poker table and would never go all in with a freakin' A-7 of hearts!

We won our game tonight 9-2. I think we are going to get moved up a division because even though we have had some close games we still blow teams out of the water.

I heard the best line by a sportscaster that i've heard in awhile. He announced a top shelf Alexander Daigle goal with the line "..and Daigle puts it top shelf where he used to keep his talent".

Ouch.

This is pretty much the same score as I got in grade 8, only further proving the point you don't learn anything as you get older hehe.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 7/10 correct!

Yahoo Search API C# Code:

YahooSearchConsole.zip (3.84 KB)

static void Main(string[] args)
{
            //Create a New Web Request to the API
            WebRequest restRequest;
            restRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://api.search.yahoo.com/WebSearchService/V1/webSearch?query=steven+rockarts&appid=MY_ID");
            restRequest.Method = "GET";

            //Submit synchronous HTTP restRequestuest to Web server
            WebResponse rsp = restRequest.GetResponse();

            //WebResponse provides stream-based access
            Stream str = rsp.GetResponseStream();
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(str);
            Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadToEnd());

            reader.Close();
            rsp.Close();
            Console.ReadLine();
}

Yahoo Search API VB.NET Code:

YahooSearchConsoleVB.zip (2.95 KB)

Sub Main()

'Create a New Web Request to the API
Dim restRequest As WebRequest
restRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://api.search.yahoo.com/WebSearchService/V1/webSearch?query=steven+rockarts&appid=MY_ID")
restRequest.Method = "GET"

'Submit synchronous HTTP restRequestuest to Web server
Dim rsp As WebResponse = restRequest.GetResponse

'WebResponse provides stream-based access
Dim str As Stream = rsp.GetResponseStream
Dim reader As New StreamReader(str)
Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadToEnd())

reader.Close()
rsp.Close()

Console.ReadLine()

End Sub

I haven't posted anything worth reading in the last little while because I have been a little lazy. So here is what I did this past week. 

Last week I quit my job because I got a new one. I think I spent the whole weekend filling out forms, or maybe it just seemed like it.

Tuesday night I went to the local .NET user group meeting. Dickson Wong presented on Visual Studio Tools for Office. It was a pretty interesting presentation because the content was a cool idea.

Download the slides and demo code from here:

http://edmonton.dotnetwizards.org/files/ProgrammingVSTO.ppt

http://edmonton.dotnetwizards.org/files/VSTODemo.zip

Our user group is probably going to enter the user group competition this year. But in order to be on the team you have to present an idea based on this year's theme "imagine a world where technology enables us to live healthier lives".

According to the document "a higher score will be given to the solution that improves developer's lives." Somehow I don't think a presentation where I say "get out from behind the computer and go for a run" is going to be very effective. Or maybe it will be if I come up with an application that forces developers to develop and run at the same time.

Wednesday night I read a book on Poker to prepare for the upcoming poker tournament next week. Check-Raise, Check-Raise.

Tonight I have a hockey game. Hopefully it will be more of a challenge than the last 17-2 game. I feel good today and have been watching nothing but hockey for the last week so I should have a good game.