DevBlog

For a couple of years now, a group of people and I here at work have played games at lunch. It's a great way to break up the work day and gets the mind to think in different ways. Our requirements for a game is something that can be played in an hour or less and by two, three, four, or more players. We typically have two or four players and two player games are good for days when there are only two of us. I've also taken some of the games and played them with friends and family. Some of our favorite games are:

- Carcassonne: This is a tile laying game, originally done in Germany. You lay out tiles to create roads, fields, or cities, and place tokens to designate what you own, and can then score points with. There are different versions of the game and expansion packs to add more tiles and features.

- TransAmerica: In this game you are building a railroad line to connect five cities in the US, each in a different geographic region. Once you connect your tracks to an opponents, you can use the opponents tracks to get to your cities. The mechanics are simple, but it takes thinking to connect your cities without allowing opponents to take advantage of your tracks. In fact, this game is recommended by Mensa. There is another version called TransEuropa, in which you build the railroad across Europe.

- Burn Rate: In this card game, you are running a .com company and trying to be the last player in the game. You give bad ideas to opponents, which they then have to hire developers to work on. Each developer and other staff member (marketing, finance, and human resources) costs you points each turn. The game was invented by two guys in Seattle who lost their jobs in the .com bust, so they have a pretty good idea of things that can go wrong.

- Carolus Magnus: Players are Charlemagne's heirs and are trying to combine the 15 different areas of his domain to be under their control. Lots of strategy is needed to outwit your opponent...and there is some luck involved too, based on how the dice roll. This has become one of my favorite games and it plays differently based on the number of players in the game.

- Where's Bob's Hat: This is a trick-taking card game, but with some twists. Trump is randomly chosen each hand...and the number of cards used is increased with each hand. Players bid on being the person to get the most number of cards of each color (red, black, and blue) or the player with the fewest cards total at the end of each hand. There is also Bob's hat. The dealer decides each hand whether Bob's hat will be worth +/- 10 points. As play moves, the player who has Bob's hat changes. The points for Bob's hat are added or deducted from the last player with the hat at the end of the hand. Unlike most trick taking games, this game also works well with three players.

- Queen's Necklace: You try to be the player with the most of a type of gem. Players can use cards to cause you to lose points...and the Queen's necklace protects you from the bad cards. But beware, another player can steal the necklace from you.

We've played other games at lunch, but these are some of our favorites. Do you have a favorite game? I'm always looking for new ones to add to the mix.

I'm glad to hear that fellow MVP Alex Feldstein survived Katrina when it passed over Miami last week. However, I have at least two coworkers here in SLC who are worried about family members that are directly in the path in both Mississippi and Alabama. To all those affected, our prayers are with you.

Microsoft Watch's Mary Jo Foley, in her latest posting says,

"In looking to the future for its Visual Studio tool suite, Microsoft is reaching back to the past. In Orcas, the version of the company's tool suite that is set to follow Visual Studio 2005, many of the new and innovative features actually borrow from Microsoft's FoxPro database, according to sources. Visual Basic 9.0 will gain some of the data-handling capabilities that long have been part of FoxPro. Microsoft is set to talk about all of this and more at the upcoming Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles."

I'll be at the PDC and will report here about what I learn.

Update: More information is available from eWeek article Fox in Microsoft's Tool-Suite Coop

As a Microsoft MVP, I've been invited to attend the "PDC Influencer Party" one night during the PDC. The event will be held at an LA area restaurant. The event invitation states, "Attire is relaxed formal". I have no idea what that means. Is it

- tuxedo with no tie?
- wrinkled tuxedo?
- wrinkled suit?
- suit and tie?
- slacks, sports jacket, button-down shirt?
- slacks and button-down shirt?

I have no problem with dressing up, but when the definition of how to dress keeps changing, along with the terminology, it's difficult to figure out how to dress. Where's Carson Kressley when you need style advice?

Today, Microsoft update informed me of a new patch available for download. I check the patch list and found the only thing available was an update to the Outlook 2003 junk email filter. After the download and install, I was informed that Windows needed to restart. THERE IS NO NEED FOR THIS!!! IT'S AN UPDATE TO OUTLOOK...NOT A SYSTEM FILE!!!!!!

You've just opened that new application you've been waiting for. You get it installed, and start to use it. You then decide that it sucks and in an attempt to recoup some of the $400 purchase price, you put the item on eBay. Then, you get a nasty-gram from the publisher, stating that you can't resell the software. It's a violation of the EULA. You provide proof of ownership, demonstrating that it isn't pirated. No go. The company won't budge. This recently happened to a woman attempting to sell her copy of Livingsoft's Dress Shop Pro software, as discussed here.

Some people on the ProFox list are discussing this scenario, stating things like, "I find it similar to buying a car, deciding to sell it, and then being told that I can do whatever I want with the car but transferring the keys to someone else is illegal." Nope, sorry, you're wrong. When you purchase a car, you own the actual car. When you purchase software, you don't own the software. You only buy the rights to use the software. The application is still owned by the publisher. Don't misunderstand me though. I don't agree with Livingsoft's hard-handed stance. I should be able to legitimately transfer the use rights to someone else.

Recently I blogged about trying to build a new computer. The reasons I chose to build one were 1) It's less expensive than buying one from scratch. 2) It keeps me up on the latest hardware changes. Rick now blogs about why he buys assembled computers. I agree with much of what he says. Getting the warranty, boxing it up when something goes wrong, and shipping it back on their dime is appealing. Rick also says, "I do software. I don't sell hardware." I totally agree with this. I don't build hardware for friends, family, or clients. I recommend where they go to get a pre-assembled computer. For example, my mom wanted to get a new computer last year. While I like both Dell and Gateway, I knew that wasn't the right choice for her. She needed to talk face-to-face with someone if it needed service. I also thought it best she get a name brand rather than something built by a local shop. I recommended that she go to the local Staples or Best Buy and get one. (Mom lives about 90 miles from me.) Five minutes after hanging up the phone, I knew I was in trouble. Mom wouldn't be able to hook it up, even though all the cables today are either unique or color coded. So, I called her back and told her I'd take some time off work, drive up, and help her. I'm glad I did that. She ended up with great Compaq desktop and a couple of hours later, the system was up and running.

I spent about $800.00 on my new system. I've compared what I got with $800 preassembled systems. I definately have a faster system with more RAM and a larger hard drive.

How many times have you found online content that you wanted to print? I do it all the time. But it just doesn't work! Five years ago, it was easy to find a web page, click print, and get the content. You can't do that anymore. Now, when you print, it cuts off the text on the right-hand margin of the page. This happened to me today while reading an article at vfpconversion. Please...if you have good content on your site, make it easy to print!

The PDC has sold out. I hope you made it. I'll see you there.

Microsoft has released ActiveSync 2.8, a tool used to synchronize your desktop with your Pocket PC. This release fixes one of the biggest annoyances with previous versions...the ActiveSync window pops up on top of everything else when you plug in the Pocket PC. For years I've complained about this, asking why it couldn't just quietly sync in the background and only pop up if a problem was found. Well, it's now fixed! And I'm a happy camper.

Sorry if I'm overloading your aggegator. Ever since I changed the blog format, permalinks aren't working. I'm trying to get them fixed. Hang in there.

Yay! The new computer is up and running. The problem was when I created my XP Pro boot disk using my MSDN Univeral ISO images, I got a bad burn. Creating a new disk solved the problem. I'm somewhat back in business. I have Windows and email now, but still have lots of stuff to install...and still need to restore data files from the backup of the old computer.

FYI, the SATA controller on the Intel motherboard doesn't need drivers. It emulates IDE and that's how Windows sees it. Also, the additional cables on the case are for the firewire connector. That's not supported on this motherboard, which is why I had extra wires.

Well, in the continuing saga of getting my new PC running, I've hit what currently is a major roadblock. I purchased a Maxtor 300GB SATA drive yesterday and easily installed it in the case and connected it to the motherboard. Getting Windows to see it is another story. It seems that Windows doesn't know about SATA drives. OK...I'll accept that. I need to load a driver. But...Windows will only load drivers from a floppy drive during the install process! Using Microsoft's new lingo, this is a super major mistake. Windows XP is not that old. There should be an option to install a driver from a CD. Hopefully Windows Vista will resolve this issue.

But there is more to the story. All the motherboard drivers on the Intel CD are in an EXE that...you guessed it... can only run from Windows....and only if the motherboard is an Intel board. How the hell am I supposed to extract the SATA drivers to get this stuff installed?

So, I still don't have a running PC. I'll be calling the computer store where I bought the parts once they open later this morning.

Do-it-yourself kits are always fun...not in the way of excitement, but in that something seems to go wrong. Either a screw is missing or one is left over and you wonder where it goes. We all know about the parents that stay up late on Christmas Eve, putting things together for the kids or finding out that batteries were not included. Well, my fun is still ongoing.

If you read my blog yesterday, you know that I just bought a new computer...not ready to go, but I bought the parts and am building it myself. I've always done my personal computer this way as it saves money and it keeps me somewhat up to date on the latest hardware changes. And, yup, there are some issues. The first is the cable on the front fan is too short and doesn't reach the motherboard. I'll have to find out what to do about that. The second problem is that the motherboard doesn't support IDE harddrives...only SATA drives...so my desire to reuse the old drives has been shotdown. There are also several wires from the case that don't seem to have a place to plug into on the motherboard...and I can't decipher what they mean. Since I have to run back to the computer store, I'll make sure to ask them.

I've been fighting hardware problems ever since I got back from DevTeach in mid-June. The computer would just hang at random times, sometimes with the BSOD, other times it would just lock up tight. At first I thought that one of the memory chips had failed, but swapping memory out didn't fix that. It started to look like a device driver. I uninstalled some drivers, updated others...and the problem seemed to go away. Then, yesterday, everything started happening again. It got to where I if the system locked up, it wouldn't reboot. Now I'm thinking it's heat related because if I let the system sit without power for a couple of hours, it will run fine for a short time, then shutdown. I got fed up. Today I purchased a new system...it's a "do-it-yourself" system, but the great news is I'm upgrading from a 1.2 GHz AMD Athalon to a 3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 and from 512 MB RAM to 1 G RAM. The drives from the old system all seem intact, but I'm still going to Freeman the system drive, just to totally rule out driver issues. I should be back up and running soon.

One of the great things about attending conferences is the new people you meet...the contacts you make. Not just Fox people, but many others. I spoke at DevTeach earlier this year and made lots of great contacts in the .Net and SQL Server arenas. Last night, while browsing the computer section at a local Barnes and Noble, I met M. David Peterson, or as many people call him, "M". M is one of the leading developers, authors, and even a pioneer in using XSLT. I was wearing an MVP shirt, and he asked which product I was MVP for. Seems that M used to work at Microsoft and is well acquainted with the MVP program. From the looks of his web site, it appears M is very much into Open Source today. Never pass up an opportunity to make new contacts. Some day I may need some help with XSLT. It will be good to have a contact that can help.