.Net Meanderings

Just found out that I've been awarded MVP status again for this year so this is just to say thanks to those involved and you never know - I might even get the logo on to my website this year ;-)

After more than a month of my blog offline I've finally got it back up and running.

The server I share with Ian Griffiths died horribly at the end of November. However, Ian being far more concientious than me got his blog up and running fairly quickly after the server was repaired. i got snowed under by alot of teaching and the Christmas season but finally I've spent some time copying files around and changing server configuration settings.

Its good to be back online

Many readers will remember the incredible richness and ease of development when writing COM IDL. Microsoft quite high handedly decided to dispatch it to the sidelines of history with this .NET *thing*. Well some of use have decided to try to get IDL reinstated as a first class development language - come and join the massed ranks at www.classicidl.org

I just got back off vacation in Florida where I did my PADI Advanced Open Water certification. I took it with Ocean Divers who are a great, very professional, outfit. My "Deep Dive" was on the Spiegel Grove which was an absolutely stunning dive. That ship is huge and its sheer size is quite overwhelming. I really must do my Enriched Air specialization so I can spend more time on it next time. And yes, I am definitely going back to it.

Well I just had to take the test and I must admit I'm quite releieved I was a way off King Nerd (let alone King Nerd God)

I've just taken delivery of a new 250 Gb LaCie d2 Extreme external hard drive to run my VPCs off. The nice thing about this is it has a USB2, FireWire and FireWire 800 interface (for when I get around to getting a FireWire 800 card for my laptop). Its awesomely fast and my BizTalk VPC is just flying now. Recommended.

A while back I posted that I'd downloaded WMP10 only to find there were no online stores available for my location. I discovered today that I can now access MSN Music, napster and tiscali.music from my location - wahoo!

Of course, having just heard WIlliam Shatner crucify Pulp's Common People maybe its not such a good thing ;-)

I decided to move my blog on to my consulting website as my blog gets far more traffic than my consulting website. So hopfully this move will generate more consulting traffic too. Anyone need a .NET, SQL Server or Biztalk consultant? ;-)

I've just seen a news item about a solar powered data centre. Now as laudible an aim as this may be, it seems a pretty unreliable power source for a data centre. But then I live in the UK (read very cloudy weather) maybe they're running it in San Diego or something. This is definitely one idea that won't catch on in the UK.

I just downloaded and installed Windows Media Player 10 - looking forward to trying out MSN Music

I run it up and click on the Online Stores button and see the following message:

There are no online stores available for your location

OK, I know I haven't blogged for a while - well hopefully this is a bit of a rennaisance.

The important this I want to announce today is I JUST PASSED MY PADI OPEN WATER CERTIFICATION!!! :-)

My new laptop has arrived

I ordered it last Thursday and 3 working days later it arrives! - I love Dell (although I know some of people have had issues in the past)

I wouldn't be that shocked if it ad been something that they might have off the shelf but heres the spec:

Pentium M 1.7 Ghz
1920x1200 WUXGA display
2Gb RAM
60Gb HD (7200 rpm)
DVD RW
all the usual other stuff too

So thumbs up to Dell for the service

I had a very strange experience with one of the latest "Critical" updates from Microsoft. I always check to see what's in them and found out this particular one was relating to the symbols in the Bookshelf 7 font. Intregued, I looked it up in CHARMAP.EXE - and found out that one of the symbols was a swastika (amoungst things like chinese characters, various crosses and the star of david). So I was pretty sure what the update was all about and I installed it - low and behold, on reboot, I found there was no swastika.

Now I need to make something very, very plain. I am not coming at this from a "hey fascists have the right to have their symbols in fonts" standpoint. I am a committed anti-fascist and have put limb (if not life) on the line several times to stop the bastards peddling their filth.I will quite catagorically state that as far as I'm concerned fascists have absolutely no right to free speech whatsoever and I will do damnedest to make sure they are hounded from the planet.

<takes a deep breath>

OK, so what about this swastika ... well the guy down the road who runs our local grocery store is an Indian guy call Nanj. A couple of years back I went down to his shop during the Hindu festival of Diwali. Now this was at a time when a Nazi group called the BNP were trying to make an impact electorally in the UK. So when I found a swastika on Nanj's doorstep I was horrified - I went in going "Nanj have the BNP been round?". However it turns out that the swastika is a Hindu religious symbol (and I'm pretty sure it's not a case of which way round the symbol is - but I may be wrong). So removing it from the font doesn't stop fascism as far as I can see, but it does make it harder for Hundu's to find a religious symbol of theirs in the standard font offering. I have also been told that the swastika is a buddhest religious symbol and is also known in native american culture.

Now I am not going to play down the significance of the swastika as a symbol of Nazism is western society and I will argue with people from other cultures that see the swastika as a positive thing that there is another side to the symbol they need to be aware of. However, I do not see the removal of the symbol from a font that Microsoft distribute as anything remotely "Critical"