Englestone

Photography Competition Winner!

2011-08-05T18:00:00.003+01:00

I've never won a photography competition. Until now!

I've been notified that one of my entries into the Great British Summer Photo Competition has won the main prize (An HTC Mozart Windows Phone 7).

I'd like to take the time to thank everyone that voted for my photo. It was very much appreciated.

The Competition
The competition theme was 'Great British Summer' so photos submissions should have been along those lines.

Unfortunately, there were a large number of submissions that were of very poor quality which almost won, this highlighted the problem with having a photo competition based on public votes. Feedback was given by a number of people to encourage the competition organisers to have judges next time.

My winning entry
This photo is of a couple walking through an avenue of trees in Lyme park one summers day.

The prize - An HTC Mozart Windows Phone 7
I was intending on upgrading my iPhone 3GS to this very phone in September. I am very excited by the Windows Phone 7 operating system especially its latest update codename MANGO.

Help me win a Windows Phone 7

2011-07-28T08:35:00.001+01:00

Hi All,

Could you please help me win a Windows phone 7?

I've entered a competition ran by Windows Phone UK to win a Windows Phone 7. Basically it's a photo competition with the theme being the 'Great British Summer'.

The top 3 photos with the most votes by July 31st win a Windows Phone 7. So it's about popularity, not quality (you'll see what I mean). I've entered 3 photos.

Please please please vote on the 3 photos? My photos are currently in 4th place and 2 of the leading photos are shockingly bad! and are taking advantage of the fact that this has become a popularity contest and not a good photo competition!

The urls to the photos are below. To vote you press the thumbs up icon.

You'll probably have to register with LiveShare but it's pretty painless only requiring an email and password.

My Photos

Purple Flowers
http://www.liveshare.com/#&id=1433848&mediaid=282572

Sheep over Windermere
http://www.liveshare.com/#&id=1433848&mediaid=282567

Avenue of Trees
http://www.liveshare.com/#&id=1433848&mediaid=282566

Thanks,

-- Lee

Lee and Nats Wedding First Dance

2011-07-10T22:08:00.000+01:00

First Dance Songs Launched

2011-03-09T21:05:00.001Z

Struggling to find the ideal first dance song for my own wedding I put together a website to help others shortlist and choose possible wedding first dance songs. www.firstdancesongs.co.uk

First Dance Songs took about 3 days total to design, develop and launch and I hope others will find it helpful.

Wall Art Decoration Launched

2010-12-01T08:51:00.001Z

It gives me great pleasure to announce the launch of my latest venture. www.wall-art-decoration.com

This site came about because I wanted to help people choose Wall Art for their rooms after finding it difficult when moving house myself. I also realized that my own photography portfolio is somewhat limited so am inviting other photographers (both amateur and professional) to sell their work through the site.

Wall Art Decoration. Simple, beautiful, affordable Wall Art.

PS : As the site is brand new there will no doubt be changes made from provided feedback. Please bear with me whilst I implement your feedback to provide people with the optimal Wall Art choosing experience.

-- Lee

Great Windows Phone 7 Advert

2010-10-13T08:54:00.002+01:00

I love this Windows Phone 7 advert

First League Game : Lions V Green Sox

2010-04-21T08:44:00.001+01:00

It's our first Softball game of the Manchester Softball League tonight.

Lions v Green Sox

-- Lee

Crete 2009 Photos

2010-04-10T22:50:00.002+01:00

Finally put a few of my Crete holiday photos online.

Poker winner!

2010-02-09T12:50:00.003Z

Finally come first (out of 11 this week).

My dominating chip stack when we got down to three players.

Speed up Subversion

2010-02-02T15:42:00.004Z

Disable / Configure Virus Scanner

One way of speeding up subversion is to stop your virus checker from checking your working copy folders. (AVG is a big culprit of this).

AVG's Resident Shield scans every file that is added or update on your system, so it does this for every file retrieved in an update or checkout (which can be a lot) which slows down updates and checkouts considerably. Add an exception to ignore your working copy folders and Subversion will magically speed up.

Protocols

I did a benchmarking test to see whether the svn:// protocol was faster than the http(s):// and the results were almost identical. I could NOT find a difference in speed between them.

ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX Unleashed Book

2010-01-25T09:29:00.001Z

So far i'm very impressed by this book and it is quickly filling a gap in my knowledge base.

It serves as a great introduction to the topic and quickly goes into common uses of AJAX in ASP.NET applications.

Automatically Start Selenium Server in NUnit

2010-01-13T13:43:00.002Z

A nice post on automatically starting Selenium Server when using selenium to run web application interface unit tests.

-- Lee

New years resolutions for 2010

2009-12-24T11:39:00.001Z

- Read Dave Allens Getting Things Done
- Complete Business Administration diploma
- Do Microsoft .NET upgrade exam(s)
- Read every day

Make a button look like a link button in asp.net

2009-12-22T12:11:00.002Z

If you're tying to make an asp.net Button look like a linkbutton or a hyper link.

Try this css class.

.linkButton
{
background-color: transparent;
border-style: none;
color: /* Something nice */
cursor: pointer;
text-align: left;
text-decoration: underline;
display: table-cell;
}

Worked for me.

-- Lee

Free Database Compare

2009-11-30T13:30:00.002Z

I've found this database compare tool to be a rather useful tool to compare databases.

-- Lee

Ninja Cat

2009-11-23T22:05:00.001Z

I love this clip of the Ninja Cat!

How to darken an image on mouseover

2009-11-17T10:24:00.002Z

I wanted to make an image go darker on mouseover and go back to normal on mouseout. Here's how I eventually did it.

        1: <html> 

       2:     <head> 

       3:         <style type="text/css"> 

       4:         .outerLink 

       5:         { 

       6:             background-color:black; 

       7:             display:block; 

       8:             opacity:1; 

       9:             filter:alpha(opacity=100); 

      10:             width:200px; 

      11:         } 

      12:         img.darkableImage 

      13:         { 

      14:             opacity:1; 

      15:             filter:alpha(opacity=100); 

      16:         } 

      17: </style> 

      18:     </head> 

      19:     <body> 

      20:         <a href="http://www.google.com" class="outerLink"> 

      21:             <img src="http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/logo.gif" width="200" 

      22:             class="darkableImage" onmouseout="this.style.opacity=1;this.filters.alpha.opacity=100" 

      23:             onmouseover="this.style.opacity=0.6;this.filters.alpha.opacity=60" /> 

      24:         </a> 

      25:     </body> 

      26: </html>

-- Lee

Code that's easy on the eyes

2009-11-11T12:37:00.001Z

I've been using Rob Conerys Visual Studio colour scheme VibrantInk v2 for over a month now and I must say it is a joy to program with.

I recommend it to anyone who stares at a bright white computer screen for prolonged periods.

-- Lee

My Geeky 27th Birthday

2009-11-09T20:29:00.011Z

A very geeky 27th birthday indeed..

Check if in edit mode in EpiServer

2009-11-03T18:52:00.001Z

In EpiServer I've recently created a login page with all other page access behind it.

However obviously I want editors using the CMS editor to view & edit the site not to have to log in before proceeding to the rest of the site to edit it.

Anyway, here is how I'm checking whether the page being requested is being requested from edit mode.

public bool IsInEditMode() 
{ 
    bool isInEditMode = false; 

    if (HttpContext.Current.Request.UrlReferrer != null) 
    { 
        isInEditMode = Regex.IsMatch(HttpContext.Current.Request.UrlReferrer.LocalPath, "/admin/|/edit/", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase); 
    } 

    return isInEditMode; 
}

Another way of doing it is

protected Boolean IsInEditMode() 
{ 
    if (Request.Params["idkeep"] == null)
        return false; 

    return true; 
}

Manchester Guathon Videos VS2010 .NET 4

2009-10-20T19:23:00.003+01:00

Scott Guthries Manchester Guathon Videos

http://digg.com/u1Ecw2

Manchester Lions Make Softball History at B Nationals

2009-09-07T21:21:00.002+01:00

The Manchester Lions made British Softball history last weekend in Keele.

They became the first softball team ever to win the C Nationals and the B Nationals in the same year!

How is this possible you ask? Well due to bad weather the 2008 C Nationals were rescheduled to May 2009.

Check out the great tournament write up here.

Looks like the Manchester Lions are developing quite the reputation of a team to be feared.

-- Lee

.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.3082 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A035FC0) (80131506)

2009-08-22T11:50:00.003+01:00

Visual Studio 2008 kept crashing when trying to open any .aspx or .ascx file with no explanation other than in the event log which says

.NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.3082 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A035FC0) (80131506)

Faulting application devenv.exe, version 9.0.30729.1, stamp 488f2b50, faulting module kernel32.dll, version 5.2.3790.4480, stamp 49c51f0a, debug? 0, fault address 0x0000bef7.

The below hotfix solved the problem for me.

http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2009/03/03/hotfix-available-for-asp-net-mvc-crashes-with-azure-power-commands-resharper.aspx

-- Lee

Unit Testing in EpiServer binweb.config

2009-08-12T22:03:00.003+01:00

Trying to run some MBUnit unit tests in an EpiServer instance gave me the following message..

Message: Could not find file 'c:\SomeFolder\binweb.config'.

Type: System.IO.FileNotFoundException

Source: EPiServer

STACKTRACE>>>

Not quite sure why it is trying to find binweb.config however I got around the issue by programmatically declaring the web config to use. This is best going in a FixtureSetUp method.

EPiServer.Global.EPConfig = new EPiServer.ApplicationConfiguration(@"C:\SomeFolder\web.config");

-- Lee

Deploying SSIS Packages and ProtectionLevel

2009-08-04T16:42:00.005+01:00

I have to look into why a very large SSIS package developed by a contractor who had an actual phobia of documentation (began sweating when the word was mentioned) is not running in a certain environment.

Reading Changing the Protection Level Based on Package Life Cycle at the bottom of this page http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms141747.aspx..

When deploying it recommends changing the protection level to one that does not depend on the developer's user key. This makes perfect sense.. Right then, changing it to EncryptSensitiveWithPassword.

UPDATE : Found this useful (and more informative) post on the same subject
http://bi-polar23.blogspot.com/2009/04/ssis-and-package-protectionlevel.html

UPDATE : This MSDN documentation looks quite good.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966389.aspx

-- Lee

See Your XBOX Avatar

2009-08-04T15:19:00.003+01:00

An article on how to see your XBOX avatar online

View Your XBOX 360 Avatar Online

Mine (Englestone)..

- Lee

This is your LAST chance ReSharper

2009-07-22T09:59:00.005+01:00

After being bitten in the past by Jet Brains Resharper (major solution slowdown and random crashes only being solved by its removal) i've decided to put the past behind us and give one of Visual Studios alleged greatest plugins one last chance.

I know a few developers who have shelled out the £144 for a personal license. Something has to be bloody amazing for me to shell out that much for it and i'm not there yet.

Any developers got a case for ROI??

-- Lee

A message to recruiters

2009-07-09T10:23:00.005+01:00

Due to a high volume of interest and recruiters already trying to contact me.. I would appreciate it if they would read the following.

Firstly, I very much appreciate the efforts made by agencies to identify relevant positions and in order to help manage a large number of people contacting me at once i'd appreciate it if recruitment agencies bear in mind the following points.

- I will rarely answer my mobile phone during the hours 9am to 5:40pm.

- My preferred method of initial contact is by email. I would much rather this than a voice message left on my mobile phone (which I have to pay to listen to).

- Please indicate the salary and location as I will not proactively reply to recruiters that neglect to provide this information.

- I am contactable (hands free) whilst driving between 8:05am and 8:30am and 5:35pm and 6pm.

- Please do not contact me with positions not relevant to me in the hopes I will know someone that may be available.

Thanks again for all your efforts.

Kind regards,

-- Lee Englestone

Lions Win Bristol Tournament

2009-07-06T14:26:00.006+01:00

The Manchester Lions win the 2009 B-Comp Bristol Tournament beating both the best 2 teams in the Bristol Softball League (the LSDs and the Guppy Spotters).

Congratulations to Adam and Carol whom got MVPs.

This is third tournament in a row we have won, having previously won the C Nationals and Diamond 1.

-- Lee

Using CData to store html in xml c#

2009-06-30T11:13:00.002+01:00

I always forget this when I am trying to add html tags to an xml file.

using CDATA will allow this more easily preserving the html.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;

public class XmlCDataHtmlExample
{
public static void Main()
{
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml("");

//Create a CData section.
XmlCDataSection CData;
CData = doc.CreateCDataSection("Here is a paragraph and I wan't to save the paragraph tags in XML");

//Add the new node to the document.
XmlElement root = doc.DocumentElement;
root.AppendChild(CData);

Console.WriteLine("Display the modified XML...");
doc.Save(Console.Out);

Console.ReadLine();
}
}

-- Lee

Crete 2009

2009-06-27T18:56:00.009+01:00

Just got back from a week in Crete with my girlfriend.

Dripping in history and bathed in sunshine Crete was fantastic.

We visited Knossos, the palace of the Minoan King Minos as well as the cave where Hera supposedly gave birth to Zeus.

And on Wednesday I proposed to my girlfriend at sunset in a waterfront restaurant. She said Yes.

Packing the essentials

Sunset on the beach

Lovely seafront restaurants

Sunset on the harbour

Fantastic hotel and swimming pools

Waiting for the bus

Monastary

Zeus cave

Windmills on the plateau

Knossos palace

The local beer. Mythos, Yum

Business Administration Course - TMA 3

2009-06-17T13:52:00.002+01:00

Well I must be doing something right as I received an 'A' for my third Tutor Marked Assessment (TMA) entitled 'Team Based Leadership'

It entailed demonstrating a working knowledge of the differences between managers and leaders, team based leadership objectives, leadership pipelines, leadership skills, emotional intelligence and different types of decisions.

TMA 4 is titled 'Management Accounting'. I approach it with both trepidation and confidence.

I am finding the feedback from the tutors to be very encouraging indeed, and are part of the reason I am pursuing this course with as much vigor as I am.

- "..this was an excellent effort from you."
- "You have researched well and wrote a very good and detailed account of team based leadership."
- "You continue to provide thorough and interesting responses."

-- Lee

CSS Cleaner Class

2009-06-16T22:52:00.004+01:00

I can never remember this. It is useful for returning to the bottom of floated elements if placed immediately afterwards.

.cleaner
{
clear:both;
width:100%;
overflow:hidden;
height:1px;
margin-top:-1px;
}

-- Lee

Card Messages Website Created

2009-06-16T11:34:00.004+01:00

Looking for that special card message idea? Don't know what to write?

I've created CardMessages.net as an exercise to see how much footfall it gets compared to CardSuggestions.com.

-- Lee

New Edition of Ebusiness and Ecommerce Management Book

2009-06-15T14:03:00.003+01:00

Dave Chaffey has released a new edition of his much celebrated eBusiness & eCommerce management Book

The following page describes the changes. Most of which look promising.

http://www.davechaffey.com/blog/digital-marketing-strategy/new-edition-of-ebusiness-ecommerce-management-book/

I'm especially looking forward to..

"Chapter 1 starts with a look at the amazing innovation in business model that the web has facilitated. The introduction to different E-commerce concepts now covers different Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 concepts in more detail including a new case study on the Facebook business model."

and..

"Chapter 10. Scrum and agile methodologies introduced. Use of Web 2.0 for knowledge management through a case study on Janssen Cilag."

I'm also very impressed by..

"Chapter 12. Removed basic introduction to HTML and scripting languages as recommended by reviewers."

I certainly made this recommendation.

However I think I'll wait for the price to come down a bit before I buy it from Amazon.

I also Recommend Dave Chaffeys Twitter Feed. Follow him at: http://twitter.com/DaveChaffey

-- Lee

Generate Screenshot Previews with C#

2009-06-09T09:03:00.002+01:00

Want to generate a webpage screenshot preview from c#?

I find it amazing that this functionality exists within the .NET Class Library.

This allows you to generate a an image of a site that may be larger (width and height) than a browser can render. So it is very different from a screenshot where you can only capture what is on the screen.

I use this specifically with Snippet Compiler.

Note : This does not work with every website.


using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Threading;
using System.Web;
using System.Net;

using System.ComponentModel;


public class WebPageScreenshotCreator
{
 public static void Main()
 {
      ThreadStart ts = new ThreadStart(DoWork);
         Thread t = new Thread(ts);
         t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
         t.Start();

         // TODO find the proper way to wait for a thread
         // wait for the thread
         while (t.IsAlive)
         {
             Thread.Sleep(25);
         }
 }

 public static void DoWork()
 {
     Bitmap thumbnail = null;
  
     List<string> apps = new List<string>();
  
     apps.Add("http://news.bbc.co.uk");
  
     foreach(string url in apps)
     {
         Console.WriteLine("Generating screenshot for {0}", url);
      
         // Generate thumbnail of a webpage at 1024x768 resolution
         //thumbnail = GenerateScreenshot(url, 1024, 768);
         thumbnail = GenerateScreenshot(url);
      
         try
         {
             thumbnail.Save(String.Format(@"c:\screenshots\{0}_{1}.png", url.Replace("http://", ""),
DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy_MM_dd")), System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
         }
         catch (Exception ex)
         {
             Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
         }
      
     }
  
     Console.WriteLine("Finished generating screenshots");
  
     using (System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process())
     {
         process.EnableRaisingEvents = false;
         process.StartInfo.FileName = "explorer";
         process.StartInfo.Arguments = "C:\\Screenshots\\";
         process.Start();
     }

     Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to Exit");
  
     Console.ReadLine();
  
     System.Environment.Exit(1);
 }

 public static Bitmap GenerateScreenshot(string url)
 {
     // This method gets a screenshot of the webpage
     // rendered at its full size (height and width)
     return GenerateScreenshot(url, -1, -1);
 }

 public static Bitmap GenerateScreenshot(string url, int width, int height)
 {
     // Load the webpage into a WebBrowser control
     WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
     wb.ScrollBarsEnabled = false;
     wb.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true;
     wb.NewWindow += new System.ComponentModel.CancelEventHandler(wb_NewWindow);
     wb.Navigate(url);
  
     while (wb.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
     {
         Application.DoEvents();
     }

     // Set the size of the WebBrowser control
     wb.Width = width;
     wb.Height = height;

     if (width == -1)
     {
         // Take Screenshot of the web pages full width
         wb.Width = wb.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Width;
     } 

     if (height == -1)
     {
         // Take Screenshot of the web pages full height
         wb.Height = wb.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Height;
     }

     // Get a Bitmap representation of the webpage as it's rendered in the WebBrowser control
     //Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(wb.Width, wb.Height);
     Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(wb.Width, wb.Height);
     Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(0, 0, wb.Width, wb.Height);
     wb.DrawToBitmap(bitmap, rect);
  
     wb.Dispose();

     return bitmap;
 }

 static void wb_NewWindow(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
 {
     e.Cancel = true;
 } 
}

Poker Strategy in Business and Life

2009-06-08T17:30:00.003+01:00

What's Poker got to do with Business?

Well..
I got to thinking how many useful skills there are in poker strategy that can be transferred from Poker (Texas Hold'Em in this example) to the business environment.
I'll describe scenarios at your typical poker game and how i've seen it applied in the business world.

Disclaimer : The following may be read as very adversarial and 'you versus the world' however this is only because Poker is not a team or cooperative game.

I believe very strongly in team cooperation for mutual benefit and may even compare a Softball team to business teams in future.
I've noticed much difference in people in the work environment whom participate in team sports and those that don't.

Anyway.. Poker strategy in Business (and Life)

1 ) Knowing your starting hand strength
Each player is given 2 cards ('hole cards'). People usually decide whether or not to be involved in the round of betting depending on how statistically strong their hand is.

Different people may be willing to pay different amounts to see whether the flop increases their chances of having the strongest hand.

Lesson : Know what you've got to start with.
What are your strengths?, your weaknesses?.
Are you willing to see things through to the end? How far will you go?
Can your relative position improve quickly with little additional effort?
Or is there absolutely no point / or are unwilling to commit extra resources to see if youre situation will improve?

Stephen Covey said in '7 Habits..' "begin with the end in mind".

2) Know when you've got the nuts.
Having the 'nuts' means having the best possible hand possible considering the cards that are showing at a particular point in time.
This can be exciting, as you may realise there is no way you can lose. At this point a player must decide how to get the most amount of money out of their opponents,

Lesson : Know when you're in the best possible position, this may happen rarely so use it for the most possible gain.

3 ) Adapt and reassess your strategy after every new card / every new bet
Every card flop, turn, river it doesn't matter is a chance for:

A) you to improve your hand or
B) Your opponent improve their hand.

With that in mind its important to constantly reassess your strategy after every change taking every new variable into account.

Lesson : You must be able to adapt, adapt quicky and be used to others adapting.

4 ) If you don't have the strongest hand, you better think you can out bluff the other guy.
You certainly wont have the best cards every hand, don't worry you don't have to. But if
you decide to bluff you HAVE to bluff convincingly.

Lesson : Use other skills if you want too but be decisive.

5 ) Knowing when to fold
Sometimes it's obvious that other people hold a better hand than you. If you can't identify this situation, or decide to carry on regardless, you will loose chips quickly.

Lesson : Know when you are beat before you are beat, minimise losses.

6 ) Changing gears
Changing how you play, aggressive to non aggressive, tight to loose and vice versa is important as it helps disrupt patterns that other players may start to notice in you. But beware other players may also do this.

Lesson : Don't be predictable.

7 ) Respect
Give other players the respect they are due.

Lesson : If people have a reputation, they have it for a reason. Give them the appropriate amount of respect.

8 ) Reputation
Often other players reputations impact immensely on how you play.

Lesson : Be aware of other peoples reputations. This is useful information.

9 ) Stamina
Poker games can last hours, and a moments lapse of concentration can mean losing a great deal. Some people have greater capactities for stamina.

Lesson : Be in it for the long run.

10 ) Focusing on people
You can't go through life (or business) successfully without being able to relate to people.

Lession : Know people. Put them at the center of everything you do. It will benefit every aspect of your life.

11 ) Making difficult decisions
In poker you will be constantly faced with making decisions ranging from small to absolutely make or break.
In poker not only do you have to be able to calculate difficult decisions, you have to listen to your instinct, and be happy with the decisions you make.

Lesson : If you don't want to be put in a position where you have to make difficult decisions you will be limiting the things you do.
Make more difficult decisions to expand your comfort zone and learn to live with them.

When people say to me.. I shoudn't have folded I would have had XYZ.. I just say "You made an informed decision with a much information as you would have had at the time, at the time it WAS the correct decision". Saying it was a bad decision retrospectively is neither here nor there.

12 ) Gut feelings
When you're faced with a tough decision more often than not you will have an immediate reaction.
The more you become aware of these initial reactions, the more prominent they will become.
It seems the more you listen to your gut feelings, the more often they are correct and the louder they seem to shout answers to you.

Your gut feelings may have picked up unconciously on a 'tell' or sign of weakness / strength / act that another player has displayed.

Lesson : Take your gut feelings into account.

13 ) Taking risks
If you don't take risks.. I don't think you can actually play poker in fact.
It's gambling.

Lesson : You sometimes have to take risks, get used to it.

14 ) Knowing the odds
What are the chances of you winning with the cards you have?
What are the chances of other cards to come making your hand?

Lesson : By doing a little research and having additional facts, you will be better off.

15 ) Focus and attention
An airhead, someone whom has difficulty focusing and being entirely there for the moment is a bad poker player.

Lesson : Being able focus is one of the most important skills people can have.

16 ) Slow playing
If you have a fantastic hand early on in a hand and the chance of another person beating it is very slim, for goodness sakes don't advertise the fact and bet big scaring off the opponent. Bet small, hoping your opponents get cards that help them more even though they still can't beat you. You will be able to extract more chips by slow playing.

Lesson : Benefit from other peoples ill placed confidence

17 ) Stealing the pot
Feeling cheeky? Got a good read on people and don't think anyone has anything?
Put a large bet in and see if you can get everyone to fold. But this helps if you have at least an over card that may give you an OK chance of winning if someone does call. A half-bluff if you like.

Lesson : Bluffing is OK, but pick your moments.

18 ) Chasing
What if.. what if.. what if..
You know the feeling, you could potentially have an amazing hand if the next 2 cards are..

Lesson : Be careful you don't chase after and invest too much in something that may never happen.

19 ) Going on tilt
If you've made a bad decision and lost a load of chips, don't panic and try to play increasingly risky hands to try to made the chips back.

As one of my past GB Baseball coaches used to say.. "When things go crazy... YOU don't have to!"

Lesson : When things go crazy, you don't have to.

20 ) Playing agains irrational or inexperienced players
Irrational players may not play with any discernible strategy or pattern, you can assume they are going to be unpredictable. As are new players.

Lesson : Quickly identify irrational and unpredictable people

21 ) Constantly improve your game
A dedication to continual personal development is important in all aspects of life, business, leisure and poker is no different. If you don't try to get better chances are you won't.

Lesson : Put personal development high on your priority list

22 ) Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience
You'll only get better at Poker by loosing lots of hands.

Lesson : Do, fail, learn, grow and get better

23 ) Weighing up opponents. Their strengths and weaknesses
They say if you can't spot the sucker in the first 5 minutes of a game, it's you!

Investing more time in analysing other players play pays off a lot more than you would think.

Lesson : Identify what other peoples strengths and weaknesses are

24 ) Projecting Weakness denotes strength, Projecting Strength denotes weakness
If you have a very strong hand, people often act weak trying to get as many people as possible to stay in the hand.

Lesson : Watch out for misdirection

25 ) Be patient, know when to make your move
If you are not patient, chances are you'll go out much sooner than you would if you had only played very strong hands.

Poker is a game about position, that is you're position on the table relative to whom placed the first bet.

I remember playing against someone recently who folded all but 1 hand (he had a pocket aces) until 2 other players went out.

This meant..

A) That the odds of him winning any hand had potentially increased as there were potentially less people in each hand now
B) He had watched attentively how the rest of us played, what we bet on etc
C) He made everyone think that he only played very strong hands.

He was indeed patient.

Lesson : Be as patient as possible for as long as possible.

26 ) Know yourself
Are you a loose player? A tight player? Aggressive.
Knowing how you play is the first step towards adjusting and tweaking your play.

Lesson : Know yourself

Luck
All that said you should never understimate one important intangible factor. Luck.
Do some people make their own luck? Are some luckier than others?

Arnold Palmer (Golfer) once said, "the more I practice, the luckier I get"

Good luck!

-- Lee

What they teach you at Harvard Business School

2009-05-07T14:01:00.004+01:00

Just started reading "What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism". It looks very promising.

I especially like a quote at the very beginning of the book by John Adams

"There are two types of education. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live"

Business Administration Course - TMA 2

2009-05-06T14:45:00.003+01:00

Maintaining momentum with my course I've already submitted and received an 'A' again with high praise for TMA 2 - Human Resource Management. Team Based Leadership next.

-- Lee

Business Administration Course - TMA 1

2009-04-22T17:42:00.005+01:00

A fantastic start to the course has meant me receiving an 'A' with high praise for TMA 1 - Introduction to Business Administration. Only 9 to go now.

-- Lee

Business Administration Course

2009-04-20T14:06:00.006+01:00

Finally finished reading the content of my Business Administration Course cover to cover, structuring the answers to the 10 TMA (Tutor Marked Assessments) as I went.

Now just need to write them up and send them in.

I can't recommend this course enough. Its syllabus is very wide. It has been described as a 'mini MBA'

Unit 1 - Introduction to Business Administration
Unit 2 - Human Resource Management
Unit 3 - Team Based Leadership
Unit 4 - Management Accounting
Unit 5 - Project Management
Unit 6 - Consulting Skills
Unit 7 - Presentation Skills
Unit 8 - Strategic Planning
Unit 9 - Concepts of Organizational Change
Unit 10 - Managing in the Global Economy

-- Lee

Manchester Lions in Manchester Firstball

2009-04-20T10:49:00.000+01:00

Lions come second at Manchester Firstball Softball Tournament : http://tinyurl.com/csrns7

Software Development Quality Triangle

2009-04-16T15:35:00.005+01:00

I didn't want to have to do this but my hand was forced.

After having been brought onto a project running behind schedule, asked to develop something quickly and to a timescale that is inflexible and encroaching I have had no choice but to print out the following and keep at my desk to introduce to stakeholders.
This concept is as fundamental as physics. There's no way around it so I suggest better project planning to make everyone's lives easier please.

-- Lee

Poker Strategy in the Workplace

2009-04-15T13:42:00.006+01:00

UPDATED : I've just published the article : Poker Strategy in Business and Life

Coming soon.. Poker Strategy in the Workplace.

Since delving into the world of Texas Holdem Poker I can't help notice the number of parallels between Poker Strategy and the Business Environment.

I'm working on a rather long post about the similarities.

-- Lee

Winning Poker with 4s and 9c

2009-03-30T13:08:00.002+01:00

Having won another friendly game of poker with friends I seem to be on a roll.

Someone once said the "more I practice, the luckier I get" and this seems to be true in my case.

Format:
6 of us played a 3 hour timed game and depending on how many chips you had relative to everyone else you won a greater amount of the buy in.

I especially liked the last 2 hands..

Second to last hand..
I can't remember the cards from the second to last hand however I remember winning it and it putting me marginally into the chip lead.

Last hand..
Knowing it was going to be the last hand I knew I had some tough decisions to make.

Even though I have current chip lead it's only marginal so.. If I folded and 2 other players went heads up they could
gain the chip lead putting me into second place.

Hmm..

I decide to let the cards i'm dealt decide for me (whether I play the last hand or not).

I'm dealt.

No brainer right? Chances of winning with these cards are relatively low.
However, The blinds still being ridiculously small (we weren't raising them fast enough that day).

I call, everyone calls.. no one raises..

What does the flop bring?

4c 4d 9d. I flopped the flop house on rubbish cards.. I'm now playing the last hand.

The Turn brings 2d.

The River brings. 8d.

With myself and two other players remaining. The other 2 go all in.

I call (having everyone covered).

One lady shows a pair of 10s. She had 2 pair.

Next guy shows Qd and Ad. The nut flush. He think's its in the bag.

I turn over my measly 4s 9c to show the Full house, 4's full of 9's.
And I got it on the flop.

Luck was smiling on me that day.

-- Lee

sky wireless router connection issues solved

2009-03-24T21:41:00.003Z

I've been thrilled to bits with my new Latitude XT. The only thing that put a dampner on my limited time with it was its inability to keep a connection to my sky wireless broadband Sagem router from disconnecting randomly.

I obviously went straight to the Dell website and downloaded all the latest drivers.. no joy. Problem persisted.

I think I've finally put this issue to bed. All I did was log on to my router.
http://192.168.0.1. username admin, password sky and change the Broadcast chanel from Auto to 11. Thats it.

This comes as some relief considering I was very close to sending it back.

Now that I know that my Latitude XT is going to be around for the forseable future I can get on with developing some killer touchscreen & Ink WPF apps.

-- Lee

WPF Touch Screen Application Ideas

2009-03-08T18:22:00.004Z

Having just received my new Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC heralds a new era in how I shall approach solution design and implementation. Having quite a few ideas for applications for the Tablet PC it is going to be hard to prioritise them.

Not being an expert on WPF I think I'll start with something simple like a RSS news aggregator (Yes I know there are 100s already), but I want to create my own with touchscreen interaction in mind.

Can anyone think of any other ideas that may be cool to be implemented on a Tablet PC?

-- Lee

Why an eBusiness Strategy is important

2009-02-26T08:27:00.003Z

So your business does business online? Do you have an eBusiness Strategy?

eBusiness strategy defined, introduction, characteristics, imperative, planning

More : More eBusiness Strategy

E-Business Succes 2007

View more presentations from Gijsbert Van der sleen. (tags: maturity web)

-- Lee

Who Moved our Cheese?

2009-02-07T19:57:00.003Z

Geez there's been so much change at my workplace recently that perhaps I should give my copy of Who Moved My Cheese another quick read?

With the current economic climate employees are seeing more change than ever before in their place of work. It's a shame that it takes an economic downturn to encourage businesses to streamline, adapt and innovate. Shouldn't we be doing this all the time?

For me personnally; the change has meant the loss of a wise and inspiring mentor whom i'm sure will not only land on his feet but thrive. I wish him all the best and we will try to make him proud.

-- Lee

Amazon Web Service Limited in UK

2009-02-05T11:33:00.003Z

I thought it would be a good idea to hook into the Amazon API to retrieve the reviews of books I have made to show on my website.

There is an object called CustomerContentLookup that can include a ResponseGroup called CustomerReviews.

Unfortunately it looks as though the CustomerReview ResponseGroup is empty unless the User Account is from the US?

I find it somewhat limited and frustrating that this API functionality is trimmed down for UK webservice calls?

Please fix this Amazon.

-- Lee

HP TX2 Laptop finally released!

2009-01-29T20:05:00.002Z

Having found no information about the TX2 release date I ended up checking every day.. only recently realising it's now on sale at PC World

HP TX2 Touchsmart

VS2008 crashes with EventType clr20r3, P1 devenv.exe

2009-01-28T11:37:00.004Z

All of a a sudden I started getting the error message
EventType clr20r3, P1 devenv.exe, P2 9.0.21022.8, P3 47317b3d, P4 mscorlib, P5 2.0.0.0
whenever I tried to open an existing Visual Studio Solution.

This took me the better part of the day to correct.

I could launch Visual Studio in Safe Mode but it would crash when trying to open ANY solution normally.

I tried.

Repairing the VS2008 installation
Uninstalling and reinstalling ALL the .NET Frameworks

With no success.

It turned out to be my VisualSVN plugin causing the crash.

Tip: When the error message occurs, press the 'Debug' button and review the Stack Trace and objects.. thoroughly.. this is where I eventually found a reference to VisualSVN.

After uninstalling Visual SVN.. I could open my solutions once again without any bother.

-- Lee

Wikinomics Book Quote

2009-01-19T17:40:00.003Z

"The world is teeming with possibilities for education, work, and entrepreneurship-one just needs the skills, motivation, the capacity for lifelong learning, and a basic income level to get connected" - Wikinomics (2008, Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams)

Card Message Suggestions

2009-01-16T18:17:00.000Z

If you're like me you never know what to write when you're given a card to sign.

Why not get some suggestions for all occasions at www.cardsuggestions.com next time you have a card to write?

-- Lee

Futuristic Interfaces WPF

2008-12-19T18:00:00.002Z

With the growing popularity of WPF & Silverlight I hope we start seeing User Interfaces different from the ones we're used to on a daily basis i.e. Windows, MAC, Linux and more like the ones we see in Sci Fi films.

I'm personally itching to get a Tablet PC (if i'm lucky a HP Multitouch) and run some purpose built touch screen WPF application on there.

26th Birthday Paris Trip

2008-11-12T19:00:00.003Z

Just got back from a suprise city break holiday to Paris my girlfreind took me on for my 26th birthday. It was an amazing experience having never been before.

Paris Gallery

-- Lee

New website design!

2008-11-02T08:17:00.002Z

I've finally launched a new version of my website.

There are still a couple of bugs here and there but not enough to postpone launch (80/20 rule).

New:

More professional / cleaner look
Hooks into Blogger API to get all my blog posts

To Do:

Rewrite photo galleries in Silverlight
Tag cloud?
SEO effort
Picassa API plugin?
Additional Blogger hook-ins (i.e. comments)
Search functionality

Exciting.

-- Lee

BackgroundWorker Example C#

2008-10-22T12:30:00.004+01:00

Knowing that the BackgroundWorker class is featured heavily in the 70-553 Upgrade exam I thought i'd better play around with it a bit.


using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.ComponentModel;

class Program
{
   // Declare the Background Worker
     static BackgroundWorker bw;

     static void Main()
   {
       // Instansiate the Background Worker
       bw = new BackgroundWorker();
      
       // Allow Worker to Report Progress
       bw.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
      
       // Can be cancelled
       bw.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
      
       // Method to do during Execution
       bw.DoWork += bw_DoWork;
      
       // Method to call when Progress has changed
       bw.ProgressChanged += bw_ProgressChanged;
      
       // Method to run after BackgroundWorker has completed?
       bw.RunWorkerCompleted += bw_RunWorkerCompleted;
      
       // Call RunWorkerAsync to start, optionally with an object argument.
       // Any argument passed to RunWorkerAsync will be forwarded to
// DoWork's event handler
       bw.RunWorkerAsync ("Hello to worker");

       Console.WriteLine ("Press Enter in the next 5 seconds to cancel");
       Console.ReadLine();
  
       // If BackgroundWorker is Busy
       if (bw.IsBusy)
       {
           // Request Cancellation
           bw.CancelAsync();
       }
      
       Console.ReadLine();
     }

   static void bw_DoWork (object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
   {
       Console.WriteLine(e.Argument);
      
       for (int i = 0; i <= 100; i += 20)
       {
           // If Cancel has been pressed
             if (bw.CancellationPending)
           {
               e.Cancel = true;
               return;
             }
          
           // Report Progress
             bw.ReportProgress(i);
          
             Thread.Sleep (1000);
       }
      
       // The Result
       e.Result = 123;    // This gets passed to RunWorkerCompleted
     }

   static void bw_RunWorkerCompleted (object sender, 
RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
   {
       if (e.Cancelled)
             Console.WriteLine ("You cancelled!");

       else if (e.Error != null)
             Console.WriteLine ("Worker exception: " + e.Error.ToString());

       else
             Console.WriteLine ("Complete - " + e.Result);      // from DoWork
     }

   static void bw_ProgressChanged (object sender,  ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
   {
       Console.WriteLine ("Reached " + e.ProgressPercentage + "%");
     }
}

Business Administration Course

2008-10-11T10:00:00.006+01:00

I've just started a distance learning course for a Diploma in Business Administration from Oxford College Distance Learning.

I think its important for more business inclined developers to be allowed and even encouraged to gain a wider range of skills and knowledge which if correctly applied hopefully compliment their technical knowledge ultimately benefiting the business and leading to business improvement.

A more business aware developer may be able to better identify which bug, feature or project have a greater or lesser effect on the Business. I can see how an innovative business aware developer could be a very good asset to a business.

The wide reaching syllabus seems to include sections on Human Resources, Accounting & Budgeting, Project Planning, Presentations, Consulting, Leadership, Global Economy Strategic Operations. I'm thinking of it as a kind of Mini MBA.

-- Lee

Create aspnetdb

2008-10-10T18:00:00.001+01:00

I can never remember this..

C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regsql.exe

-- Lee

Book : WPF Unleashed

2008-10-10T13:47:00.005+01:00

My copy of Adam Nathans WPF Unleashed just arrived.

This book looks fabulous. Both content wise and visually.

Full color screenshots and code samples are certainly the future. NO more greyscale!

Get a hold of a copy, don't care how.. go to your nearest Borders or Waterstones, thumb through it then buy it.

Or better yet, just order it online and then proceed to pat yourself on the back.

-- Lee

C# Learning Mocking with Rhino Mocks Example

2008-10-07T18:00:00.001+01:00

I've really got to start learning Rhino Mocks.
Mocking really comes into its own setting up expected behavior in Unit Tests, handling the setting up of objects / environments to Rhino Mocks and allowing the user to really test the piece of functionality in mind.

Fortunately it looks relatively simple to get ones head round and I like the way it encourages the use of Interface programming. Plus this example uses MBUnit for Unit Testing.

For a downloadable example / tutorial of how to use Rhino Mocks example try :
http://aspalliance.com/1400_Beginning_to_Mock_with_Rhino_Mocks_and_MbUnit__Part_1.all

Book : Tycoon (Peter Jones)

2008-09-30T20:00:00.002+01:00

... First thoughts ...

You know what its like arriving way too early at the station for your train..

Wandering around W.H. Smith I noticed that no fewer than 3 Dragons from the Dragons Den have released books recently.

I flipped through them all but this one seemed to be the kind of book I was looking for.

... Weeks later...

Heaving read this book now, I don't know if I like it or not. There are some useful tips in here. Definitely don't rush out and buy it thinking it is going to be a Bible for Tycoons.. it's not.

There were one too many lists in here for my liking.. Things like.. his checklist of Tycoon qualities then his checklist of what makes up one of those qualities etc etc.

I almost found this more interesting from a biography point of view talking about his past and mistakes then the business tips. Though there is a constant stream of self congratulatory references which I certainly don't mind considering his success.

Throughout the book he maintains his likable character throughout and I think this is one of the least mentioned reasons he is successful as he is today.

I'd give the book 8/10.

-- Lee

C# IoC Windsor Example

2008-09-19T18:00:00.000+01:00

I'm still trying to get my head round how to implement Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control (IoC) that many people have been talking about.

However I've been a bit dissapointed with the number of usable code samples to download and play with. Many only half explain the idea and provide a partial code base as an example. Quite frustrating.

I found one that example that explained the concept quite well with a usable sample.

So if you're a beginner to IoC like me try

Windsor IoC Container in a Lunch Break

-- Lee

C# Shuffle Generic Objects

2008-09-12T17:07:00.001+01:00

I needed to shuffle a List of Generic objects. This works quite nicely.

public class ShuffleHelper
{
public static List Shuffle(List entities)
{
Random rnd = new Random();

for (int i = 0; i < entities.Count; i++)
{
int r = rnd.Next(0, entities.Count);

T tmp = entities[i];
entities[i] = entities[r];
entities[r] = tmp;
}

return entities;
}
}

Edinburgh Softball Tournament 2008

2008-08-27T17:30:00.000+01:00

The Manchester Lions win Edinburgh Softball Tournament 2008.

Undefeated all weekend (9 games) and scoring a total of 105 runs while only conceding 16 means we will probably be asked to enter the higher competition next year.

Quotes :

"Wattahh!"
Swear Down!

-- Lee

sql server 2005 change database schema

2008-08-05T12:43:00.001+01:00

How to change a tables, stored procedures or views schema to dbo.

ALTER SCHEMA dbo
TRANSFER Sales.FilterSales_P
GO

-- Lee

Microsoft Money Shortage!

2008-07-28T18:00:00.000+01:00

After learning that my online bank account (Not telling you which) can export statements that could be imported into the latest versions of Microsoft Money, I decided this was enough of an excuse to start a geeky plan of taking control of my income, saving, expenditure and budgeting.

However looking online I can't seem to get hold of a copy of Microsoft Money!

PC World : Sold Out

Amazon : Sold Out

Having thought i'd found one from WH Smith.. I was told that my order is still processing.
It's been over 2 weeks now. Has online distribution failed me? Will I have to resort to traipsing through stores?

Why??
The looming recession?
A new version being released?

The entrepreneur in me wants to buy up as many copies I can get hold of and resell them.

If anyone knows where I can get a copy in England, please let me know.

-- Lee

IE7 Overtakes IE6!

2008-07-23T18:00:00.003+01:00

Looking at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp we can see in June 2008 IE7 visitors just overtook IE6. With Firefox way out in front (of course)

Browser Statistics Month by Month

2008	IE7	IE6	IE5	Fx	Moz	S	O
June	27.0%	26.5%	0.5%	41.0%	0.5%	2.6%	1.7%
May	26.5%	27.3%	0.7%	39.8%	0.7%	2.4%	1.5%
April	24.9%	28.9%	1.0%	39.1%	0.9%	2.2%	1.4%
March	23.3%	29.5%	1.1%	37.0%	1.1%	2.1%	1.4%
February	22.7%	30.7%	1.3%	36.5%	1.2%	2.0%	1.4%
January	21.2%	32.0%	1.5%	36.4%	1.3%	1.9%	1.4%

This might explain this.

"Please note: If you are using Internet Explorer 6.0, you may experience a problem downloading files. We recommend that you use a browser other than IE 6.0."

on

http://freetextbox.com/download/

I remember a time when everything was designed for IE6. Guess I'm getting kinda old.

-- Lee

Large Text File Editor / Viewer

2008-07-22T12:30:00.001+01:00

If you have to deal with text files that are hundreds of Megabytes in size or even Gigabytes and you're looking for a free large text file editor that wont timeout like notepad.

Try http://www.swiftgear.com/ltfviewer/features.html

-- Lee

Restart SQL Server 2008 via command prompt

2008-07-15T13:10:00.002+01:00

My SQL Server 2005 seems to take up >1.5GB memory sometimes.

Restarting SQL Server brings this back down to a more forgivable <100mb> run --> cmd -->

net stop mssqlserver
net start mssqlserver

-- Lee

Command Line Development : Build, Test and Deploy Solutions in C#

2008-07-10T14:46:00.008+01:00

Introduction
This is for .NET developers who wish to develop c# using the command line.

We have all sorts of Visual developing tools. But every now and then I like to remind myself
that most things like compiling, deploying and testing can all easily be cone via the command lines.

Stick these in .bat files and away you go.

Build
c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild 'Entire Path to Solution'.sln

Test
Run unit tests (MBUnit). You can do mbunit command line testing.
"C:\Program Files\MbUnit\MbUnit.Cons.exe" [path to Unit Test dll]

Code Coverage
"c:\Program Files\NCover\NCover.Console.exe" "c:\Program Files\MbUnit\MbUnit.Cons.exe" [path to Unit Test dll]

Deploy
Usage:
xcopy source destination
use xcopy /? for options

Example:
xcopy c:\OriginalLocation \\Server\Share\

Batch file commands
Output a comment
REM Comment Here

Change Color
COLOR A
color /? for usage

Pause for user input
PAUSE

Set Window Title
Title=I'm a title!

-- Lee

Book : Think & Grow Rich

2008-07-08T23:23:00.008+01:00

I took some time out from reading '7 Habits' to read 'Think & Grow Rich' by Napolean Hill.

Originally written in the 1920's, the reason I like this book is that it is not a get rich quick book. It is almost a historical piece of work containing the findings of one man during his lifetimes study of successful business people.

It contains the stories of people like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin and Carnegie.

I'd recommend this book over more present day 'Get Rich Quick' books.

-- Lee

Bristol Tournament 2008

2008-07-07T09:00:00.000+01:00

Lions certainly Leave their Mark at Bristol with a fantastic result coming 2nd in Lower B, losing marginally in the final.

With heavy rain on the Saturday afternoon / evening Sunday was almost written off.

Saturday
Lions 24 - Clapham Thunder 4
We bat round the order 1st inning.
LE. hit grandslam HR.
Gordon hit 3 HR.
Darell hit 1 HR

Moscalitos 4 - Lions 6
3 outfield catches ended the game in the final inning. Guess they didn't want to base hit.

Lions 16 - Spitting Camels 8
Gordon 2 HR
Gill toasted Paul Fagin in the Outfield

Lions 18 - Chargers 7
Darell 1HR (into the equipment tent)
Gordon 3 HR
Adam 1 HR
Charlie 1HR

Sunday
Lions 10 - Breakers 7
Ang hit her first home run? and cried.. set everyone off.

Lions 2 - Oddsox 7
?? We lost !! ??

Semi Final
Lions 12 - Oddsox 3
Darell 1 HR (down the hill!)
Lee with diving catch

Final
Bristol Creamers 4 - Lions 3
Neither team batter particularly well.

Result : 2nd place!

Lower B MVP
Was won by no other than our own Gordon Milson. Probably had something to do with the 13? Home Runs he hit over the weekend.

Quotes

Is a flaming ga-la like a phoenix?
I wish I was a Mexican

-- Lee

Subtle Boldness - Website Design - Speed Dial Website Previews

2008-07-04T08:38:00.004+01:00

I can't help but notice a pattern amongst the page previews on my speeddial firefox plugin.

The sites that I find most visually appealing both in this view and once on the site themselves are the ones with a block of color at the top of the page.

Sites that have this

dictionary.com / thesaurus.com

StevePavlina.com

Scott Guthries blog

Ayendes blog

Josh Smiths Blog

Scott Hanselmans Blog

Digg

Guy Kawazakis Blog

My Blog (Englestone)

Lifehack

Cruise Control Dashboard

google Analytics. Which I love.

I even like the coloured bar that floats across alltop.com.

Sites that seem to miss out on this include.

Wikipedia

Coding Horror (But I do like the logo)

Steve Yegge's blog

Entrepreneurs Journey.com

del.icio.us. which I hate the design of.

Amazon.. whose design i'm sure all will agree is getting more and more busy.

Google. But i'll let them off

So what I take away from this is that.. perhaps its better to be bold. So long as its subtle.

Aesthetically pleasing Subtle boldness.

Blog visual re-design coming up I think..

-- Lee

Active Directory memory leaks c#

2008-06-26T18:00:00.000+01:00

I had to debug some major memory leaks recently because of over reliance on c# Legacy code and the way it accesses Active Directory.

A warning to anyone using .NET to access Active Directory in C#.

The following classes have memory leaks so must me explicitly disposed of either by using 'using statements' or .Dispose().

I had memory leaks with these classes in System.DirectoryServices.

- SearchResultCollection
- DirectoryEntry
- DirectorySearcher

-- Lee

SSIS Truncate Date DT_DBTIMESTAMP column

2008-06-18T17:32:00.000+01:00

As SSIS solution i've found when trying to truncate a datetime column.

Want to know how to truncate date / DT_DBTIMESTAMP column in the format 25/12/2008 13:42:08 to 25/12/2008 00:00:00?

Well one way of doing it is using a Derived Column Data Flow Transformation.

Cast it as DT_DBDATE. So in the Expression field put.. (DT_DBDATE)COLUMN_NAME

If this is valid it will be black if not it will be red.

-- Lee

SSIS AcquireConnection method call Password issue

2008-06-17T19:00:00.004+01:00

In SSIS A couple of times i've had the message..

"The AcquireConnection method call to the connection manager.. failed with error code " making me think it can't persist / remember the password.

And wondered why this is..

Well in my case it was because although I was specifying the database connection password in the ConnectionManager properties.. I had missed it out of / it had dissapeared from a custom configuration file i'd already created.

To check this..

In the Designer view Select the 'Control Flow' tab.
Right Click background
Select Package Configurations. That will tell you the physical location of the configuration file.
Open the configuration file in notepad..
Do a text search in the config file for Password and you should find..
Make sure you put the connection password within the appropriate 'ConfiguredValue' XML Node.
Kick off the Package again and hopefully you wont get the error message anymore.

This wont solve everyone's problems with this error message, but hopefully it will stop me from doing this again in SSIS!

-- Lee

CSS Zen Garden Star Trek LCARS interface

2008-06-17T18:00:00.001+01:00

Ages ago I created a CSS Zen Garden design based upon the Popular Star Trek LCARS interface.

It's nice to see that it's still there.

http://csszengarden.com/?cssfile=http://www.leeenglestone.co.uk/zengarden/zengarden-sample.css

For some reason or other they didn't class it as an official design.. I'm guessing either it didn't validate 100% or for copyright reasons. Will have to look into this.

It's about time I created another Zen Garden design i think..

-- Lee

Serialize object to XML

2008-06-17T12:05:00.001+01:00

How to serialise an object to XML in C#



using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

public class MyXmlSerializer
{
 public static void Main()
 {
 Car c = new Car();
 c.Registration = "XABC 123";
 c.YearsOld = 20;
 
 // You can get the Type this way
  XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(c.GetType());
 
 // Or You can also get the Type this way
 // XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Car));

 // Here you can output to console the result of the Xml Serialization
 x.Serialize(Console.Out,c);
 
 // Or This way you can output the result of the serialization to xml
 //TextWriter w = new StreamWriter( @"c:\car.xml" );
 //x.Serialize( w, c );
 //w.Close();
 
 // Deserialization Example from xml
 Car newCar;
 TextReader r = new StreamReader(@"c:\car.xml" );
 newCar = (Car)x.Deserialize( r );
 r.Close();
 
 Console.WriteLine();
 Console.WriteLine(newCar.Registration);
 Console.ReadLine();
 }
}

public class Car
{
public string Registration { get; set; }
public int YearsOld { get; set; }
}

-- Lee

Turn on Tracing ASP.NET Trace

2008-06-13T12:20:00.003+01:00

Admittedly I sometimes forget how to turn on tracing in ASP.NET

Single Page Tracing
To turn on Trace on single ASP.NET page add trace="true" to the Page declaration

<% @Page language="C#" debug="true" trace="true" %>

However if you want to..

Turn on Tracing for all Web Pages

pageOutput
If pageOutput="false" then http://localhost/webapplication/trace.axd will show the trace.
else if pageOutput="true" the Trace will appear at the bottom of the page.

localOnly
Only users viewing the site via http://localhost will see tracing output

requestLimit
Specifies the number of trace requests to store on the server.

-- Lee

Lions v Greensox

2008-06-13T08:43:00.001+01:00

With both Teams having 5 wins and 0 losses this was always going to be a good game.

Lions batting first. The second batter injured the Sox second basewomans hand bringing her out of the game and the Sox needing to borrow
a woman from another team.

Lions seemed to be carrying on their awesome batting from the weekend and had a great start winning 6-1 going into the second inning.

Some other stuff happened innings 2 to 7.. Including Vicky toasting Left field.. again!

14-14, top of the 7th inning I hit a missed catch to right field went for the headfirst slide at home only to be tagged out / and mash my face against
Kellys foot.

The score was 14-14 with the Green Sox having the last bat in the bottom of the inning.

Final Score Greensox 15 - Lions 14.

This was a very close game with the Lions commanding the game all the way through.

Next Week Dodgers

-- Lee

Databinding boolean to yes no

2008-06-12T12:05:00.000+01:00

Are you Databinding booleans and outputing 'True' or 'False' when you want 'Yes' or 'No'?

Here is the ASPX solution.

<%# Convert.ToBoolean(Eval("aBooleanProperty")) ? "Yes" : "No" %>

-- Lee

Lions Rock Diamond 2 Softball Tournament

2008-06-10T23:24:00.002+01:00

Overview
Having won a Diamond Tournament in C Comp last year the Lions decided to try their luck in B Comp.

Little did they know that they would finish a solid 3rd and only missing getting into the final marginaly.

B Comp teams were amazed that we played in C Comp last year.

Highlights
* Dereks 3rd/4th play off game winning home run landing just short of the left field fence.
* Daryls debut in the infield resulted in some amazing plays.
* Strong fielding from the outfield getting the ball in quickly.
* 8 home runs from Adam! And usual amazing pitching
* Carols first Home Run!
* And solid hitting from the rest of the team

Thanks go to Ang for organizing the tournament for the Lions.

Needless to say we will be in high spirits when we face the Greensox on Wednesday.

-- Lee

VS2008 Keyboard Shortcuts

2008-06-09T12:49:00.001+01:00

Useful Visual Studio 2008 / 2005 Keyboard shortcuts I use frequently

Search / Navigate
Find all References Ctrl + F12
Incremental Search Ctrl + I
Go to beginning brace Ctrl + [
Go to end brace Ctrl + ]
Go To Line Number Ctrl + G
Navigate Backwards Ctrl + -
Navigate Formard Ctrl + Shift + -

Build
Ctrl + Shift + B Build Solution

Debug
Debug F5
Start without debugging Ctrl + F5
Step Into F11
Step Over F10
Stop Debugging Shift F5

Format
Format document Ctrl+E, D
Format selection Ctrl + E, F

Comment selection Ctrl + K, C
Uncomment selection Ctrl + K, U

Refactor
Extract Method Ctrl + R,M

Regions and Method collapse
Collapse all Methods / regions Ctrl + M,O
Expand all methods / regions Ctrl + M, P

-- Lee

Best Firefox Extensions

2008-06-06T13:00:00.000+01:00

I think these are the best Firefox Extensions / Add-Ons and use them regularly

- Speed Dial
- Download Them All
- Web Developer
- Nuke Anything

Also keen to try..

- GSpace

-- Lee

7 Habits - 2# Begin with the End in Mind

2008-06-05T20:01:00.002+01:00

7 Habits - 2# Begin with the End in Mind

An overview of the 2nd Habit from Steven Coveys '7 Habits of Highly Effective People'

Begin with the End in Mind
Ultimately, this means to use the End of your life to be a reference point that you want to achieve.
We can be as Proactive as we like (Habit 1) but will not be effective unless we have the end in mind.

All things are created Twice
A mental / First Creation. A Physical Second Creation.
If the first creation is flawed .i.e. There is an issue with the envisaging phase the Second creation (end result) will be flawed.

By Design or Default
The 'first creation' part of our lives has already happened
The 'second creation' is either a result of our own proactive efforts or due to reactive factors i.e. someone elses agenda, / our circumstances / past habits.

Leadership and Management
Leadership is the first creation. Management is the second creation.
Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.

A Personal Mission Statement
A personal Mission statement is a recommended way of trying to 'begin with the end in mind'.
It encourages us to better understand ourselves and figure out our direction, whats important to us and pro actively pursue our goals based on our values.

Identify your centre
Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power.

What is at the center of your life?
People centre their lives around different things including..
Spouse, Family,Money, work, Possession, Pleasure, Friend, Enemy, Church, Self

Steven Covey suggests that if we have a centre based on correct Principles we can be more effective.

I didn't quite enjoy reading about the second habit as I did the first.

Habit 3# to come..

-- Lee

Lions v Speeders

2008-06-05T20:00:00.002+01:00

Lions 9 Speeders 5

A win against a fairly decent team. This was a lot closer than we would have liked.

Kelly set the tone catching a difficult right field hit from the lead off Speeder.
Lins had a great game in Outfield making 2 catches in a row??
In fact the outfield did a great job of getting the ball in quickly.
Derek had a great game pitching considering being hungover and nervous in the first 3 innings; walking only 1 batter.
We also had a great play at home, Angie making the tag to prevent the run.

Hope runs from Charlie and Gordon.. I think

This makes our record 5 wins - 0 losses. With the Greensox, Mavs and Dodgers coming up.

-- Lee

How to Find an object in a Generic List without iterating

2008-06-04T15:57:00.002+01:00

How to Find an object in a Generic list without iterating

I can never remmber these..

With delegate
Car c = List<Car>.Find(delegate(Car someCar) { return someCar.Attendee.Registration == "ABC 123"; });

With Lambda expression
Car c = List<Car>.Find(someCar => someCar.Registration == "ABC 123");

You can paste the following straight into Snippet Compiler.




using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class MyClass
{
  public static void Main()
  {
      string registrationSearch = "ABC 123";
    
      Car c = GetAllCars().Find(blah => blah.Registration == registrationSearch);
    
      Console.WriteLine("Car with Registration {0} is {1} Years Old", c.Registration, c.YearsOld );
      Console.ReadLine();
  }

  public static List<Car> GetAllCars()
  {
      return new List<Car>
      {
          new Car { Registration="ABC 123", YearsOld=3 },
          new Car { Registration="123 ABC", YearsOld=15 },
          new Car { Registration="DEF 456",YearsOld=8 },
          new Car { Registration="BATMOBILE", YearsOld=20 }
      };  
  }
}

public class Car
{
  public string Registration { get; set; }
  public int YearsOld { get; set; }
}

-- Lee

New Glove! Easton Redline RLS61

2008-06-04T08:00:00.002+01:00

When people ask me how long I've had my Baseball mitt I think..
well i've had it since I first played Baseball for Great Britain and that
was around age 13.. so.. over 12 years.. whoa.

I'm talking about the Easton Redline RLS61 11.75 inches of leathery goodness.
With me playing SS, 2B and Pitcher it was ideal.

It has served me well during my foray into Softball and until now i've managed to survive with it solely. It has maintain its character and grown old gracefully much like Hollywood starlets of old.

It is an excellent glove but now it's starting to show its age, no longer holds its shape, and has become too used, broken in and saggy.. again, much like Hollywood starlets of old.

So I began my search for a replacement and decided to get the exact same model.

After not very long this task seemed impossible, with the fact that I was in the UK
meant I had a limited number of suppliers and I was after a model first manufactured
at least 12 years ago.

Covee.nl came to my rescue. My arduous search steered me towards this Dutch supplier.

85 euros (£67) dollars seemed like a bargain to me and I get away cheaply with 15 euro (£11) deilvery charge. Assuming there are no hidden import fees. Import fees from Holland??

Total ~£80. Lets hope the shipping goes according to plan so I can get it in time for Softball tournament season.

Next.. Getting the ultimate batting gloves..

-- Lee

Master Page Life Cycle

2008-06-03T09:01:00.003+01:00

Master Page sequence of events / Life Cycle

1. Master page controls Init event
2. Content controls Init event
3. Master page Init event
4. Content page Init event
5. Content page Load event
6. Master page Load event
7. Content controls Load event
8. Content page PreRender
9. Master page PreRender
10. Master page controls PreRender
11. Content controls PreRender event

-- Lee

7 Habits - 1# Be Proactive

2008-06-02T20:00:00.001+01:00

Chapter Review.. Habit #1 Be Proative

As Steven Covey says, there is more to being 'pro active' than just 'taking the initiative'

Circle of Concern / Circle of Initiative ..
Our Circle of Concern (CoC) is that which we have a vested interest in. Within everyones Circle of Concern is a smaller Circle of Influence; The area within our Circle of Concern of which we have direct control. Steven Covey states that Proactive people focus their energies within their CoI having the effect of enlarging it. He also states that Reactive people focus their energies outside of their CoI, spending precious energy on things they cannot influence; their CoI therefore begins to shrink.

We can see this at our workplaces, other people focusing their energies on things they have no control over / not focusing enough on their own jobs and their own work being neglected effectively shrinking their Circle of Influence.

PC/P (Production Capability / Production)
We're a society that demands results always focused on the results or finished product. Steven Covey in this section reminds us of the Production Capability / Production balance. Basically.. by focusing too much on Production (the end result) the Production Capability suffers.

We can see this in our own lives. If we work too much we get stressed. Sometimes if we relax we will be more productive. If we invest in training

Circumstances/ Reactions
We sometimes cannot help the circumstances in which we find ourselves. However we are the masters of how we respond / react to our circumstances. By Proactively responding to our circumstances we can better change and influence them.

-- Lee

7 Habits - Introduction

2008-06-02T19:00:00.000+01:00

As promised..
A Chapter by Chapter summary of 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' starting with the Introduction, well.. at least the main points.

Inside-Out
Personal development /making yourself more effective starts with yourself. Only you can change you. You can't wait around for someone else to change or improve you. You can't change your surroundings / the way you interact

He goes on to say that we should take a look AT the lens through which we perceive the world.
By this he means looking at ourselves and acknowledge the fact that how we see the world can differ slightly or immensely from person to person.

Paradigms
A Paradigm is a way of looking at the world.

As there are many ways of looking at things there are understandably many paradigms.
Steven Covey states that whilst there are many paradigms there are certain unwavering static consistent Principles that span paradigms and it is these principles on which the 7 Habits are based.

He introduces Paradigm-shifts.. By changing the way / angle we look at a problem / the world can result in a minor or major Paradigm shift.

Principles / Habits
Steven Covey says that the more we recognize Principles and the more we include them in our every day lives the more effective we will be.

A habit something that requires desire, skill and knowledge.

Character / Personality
One of the first things you read is "This is not a quick fix book".

He goes on to talk about the Character Ethic and the Personality Ethic.

He talks about how todays personality quick fixes / social tools, techniques and the masks we wear, can be attributed to the Personality Ethic and how these can be useful but are at most secondary traits to ones Character. We've all met slimy salespeople who ooze charm, have fake smiles are complimentary claiming to have the customers best interest at heart all the while believe absolutely in the product they are selling will change the customers life. These people have tried to develop a personality which aids their business needs but which does not reflect their true character (hopefully).

People with a Personality ethic often come across insincere and shallow, 'acting', yes-men.

Whereas people with strong characters see Personal Development as a long term evolutionary practice/process. They are true to themselves and others. Their characters are more eloquent than the Personality driven individuals with Public Speaking training can ever be.

Reading this was very self affirming as I believe myself to have a good and descent character with strong ethics and morals. One can immediately identify with the writings; knowing people with both ethics in our social and business lives. People we instinctively know are good, or don't trust.

-- Lee

UFO Enemy Unknown

2008-05-30T19:00:00.000+01:00

This is my all time favorite game of all time. A classic. Sooo old.

X-COM UFO Enemy Unknown

UFO Enemy Unknown Abandonware

-- Lee

CreateUserWizard Control / XML Membership Provider

2008-05-30T08:55:00.003+01:00

Been looking for a way to run the CreateUserWizard control with XML storing user details?

Try one of the following..

http://www.codeplex.com/aspnetxmlproviders

http://blog.madskristensen.dk/post/XML-membership-provider-for-ASPNET-20.aspx

-- Lee

Get Stored Procedure Info

2008-05-27T16:25:00.003+01:00

(SQL Server 2005)
Me and a colleague have been looking for this for ages.

Simple i know..

sp_help @objName = [Stored Procedure Name]

This returns Name, Owner, Type, Created_datetime and Parameter Information

[Update]
sp_helptext returns the DDL

-- Lee

Difference between Cache.Insert and Cache.Add

2008-05-22T11:50:00.003+01:00

Cache.Add
Calling the Add method returns an object that represents the cached item.
If the key already exists in the Cache the method will fail.

Cache.Insert
Calling the Insert method does not return an object.
If the key already exists in the Cache it will overwrite the copy in the Cache.

ssis remove package password

2008-05-22T09:10:00.003+01:00

If you're trying to install an ssis package and you keep getting the 'Encrypted Packages / 'specify the passwords for the encrypted packages' prompt and you want to remove the Package Pasword from your Package. The 'Protection level' property is probably set to EncryptSensitiveWithPassword.

Set it to EncryptSensitiveWithUserKey, rebuild, try to install again and you should no longer get the Encrypted Packages window prompting you for a package password.

-- Lee

SSIS Send Mail Task Change SMTP Port

2008-05-20T12:00:00.003+01:00

If you need to change the SMTP Port you can't use the 'Send Mail Task'.

You need to use a 'Script task' with the following in the Script --> Design Script.. section.



Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Math
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime

Imports System.Net.Mail
Imports System.Net

Public Class ScriptMain
    Public Sub Main()
        Dim myHtmlMessage As MailMessage
        Dim mySmtpClient As SmtpClient

        myHtmlMessage = New MailMessage("from@from.com", "to@to.com", "subject", "body")
        mySmtpClient = New SmtpClient("smtp_server_name_or_location")
        mySmtpClient.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials
        mySmtpClient.Port = 24
        mySmtpClient.Send(myHtmlMessage)
        Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success

    End Sub
End Class

Convert .Net color to hexadecimal

2008-05-20T08:56:00.002+01:00

Want to convert a System.Drawing.Color to its Hexadecimal equivalent?

Try


System.Drawing.ColorTranslator.ToOle(System.Drawing.Color.White).ToString("X6");

This will return FFFFFF

-- Lee