Personally I don't think so. Master Pages are very similar to the system I had devised in ASP.NET 1.1, but with the added benefit of integrating nicely into VisualStudio and ASP.NET. I find them very easy to understand and straight-forward. However it is nice to have a good page that explains them.

A professional web site will have a standardized look across all pages. For example, one popular layout type places a navigation menu on the left side of the page, a copyright on the bottom, and content in the middle. It can be difficult to maintain a standard look if you must always put the common pieces in place with every web form you build. In ASP.NET 2.0, master pages will make the job easier.

[ Master Pages In ASP.NET 2.0 ]

Master pages are seriously flexible too. The only bug I've found so far is that not all HREF or SRC attributes of controls that are "runat=server" will allow you to use ~ to home them, so far I've found that the <link> tag requires you to leave off the ~/ to do the same thing. Rather odd, but it is what it is.

Headed out of town this weekend, and I wanted to make sure I had connectivity no matter where I go. I know that theoretically my phone could be used to provide access for a PC, but I had never looked into it. This article has all I needed to know, for the most part:

It is not the ambition of this article to answer all your questions regarding the use of a Pocket PC as a modem but rather to show how to configure HTC Wizard and other devices that you need to connect to the internet[sic] over it. If you possess the same devices and follow the instructions, you should soon succeed. Considered strong similarities between all Pocket PC devices from HTC, it is likely that the same procedure would apply to in other cases, too.

[ PDAgold.com :: Article :: HTC Wizard as a modem (USB, Bluetooth) ]

I discovered this article by googling and finding this thread on "HowardForums". Later in that thread "Berniemac23" points out that on T-Mobile the APN is "wap.voicestream.com" and not Internet. I successfully connected via Bluetooth and USB cable, I'm sure both will prove useful at some point.

Next up is trying to power the laptop, and therefore the phone too, from my Jetta, thus allowing me to work anywhere I get GPRS/EDGE coverage.

A guy trades up a red paper clip for a house.

He traded a red paperclip for a pen, which he traded for a doorknob, which he traded for a grill, which he traded for a generator, which he traded for a keg and neon beer sign, which he traded for a snowmobile, which he traded for a trip to Canada, which he traded for a van, which he traded for a recording contract, which he traded for a year's housing in Arizon, which he traded for an afternoon with Alice Cooper, which he traded for a KISS snow globe, which he traded for a role in a movie, which he traded for a house in Saskatchewan.

[ Red Paperclip: Success : Joe Grossberg ]

I'm curious if he actually owned the paper clip or just swiped it from work. Could that potentially mean that his employer could sue him for the house?

God of War PlayStation2 Sony Computer Entertainment Mature

The first time I played this I was very unimpressed. Critics everywhere were heralding it as the greatest game since the bread slicer, but I found it to be trite, gimmicky, and a big hard to stomach.

I gave it another chance. This time I played it a bit farther than last time and found that the "hack and slash" play that dominated the first part falls away quickly to a "hack and slash and solve puzzles" game dynamic. Sure there was still tons of blood and gore and a bit of gratuitous nudity, but once you look past that, this is a really good game. After having to put up with dozens of GTA rip offs, I'm actually looking forward to a slate of God of War ripoffs...

Forgot to update this after my last trip:

create your own visited countries map

And I'm so jealous of some people:

• Chilln' Travel
• Democratic Veteran

I'm sure there are more people to be jealous of, I just can't seem to find them. Perhaps they are too busy traveling to make up these maps...

You cannot resist the über-cuteness of Hello Kitty! Cuteness factor 10, full ahead! She'll surf into your heart, and surf away with your money. Bow down and kowtow to her eternal cuteness. You think you are cute? You can't handle the cute!

Seriously, it's like printing money. And now they are combining 2 of the 3 great loves of 11 year old girls everywhere, Hello Kitty and Build-a-Bear Workshop. If they can tie in to Libby-Lu's, we're all up the creek.

Example:
:args *.[ch]
:argdo %s/\<my_foo\>/My_Foo/ge | update
This changes the word "my_foo" to "My_Foo" in all *.c and *.h files.  The "e"
flag is used for the ":substitute" command to avoid an error for files where
"my_foo" isn't used.  ":update" writes the file only if changes were made.

[ Vim documentation: editing ]

This one item is the timesaver that is my "killer app" for using vim above all other editors. If you combine this with searching in windows for all *.html files (or some such) and then right-click and "edit in single vim" you can set up the args to be all the files in a webroot or somesuch. Perhaps for changing links everywhere.

spent the day picking lemons and pruning back the lone lemon tree in my friend cyrano's backyard. we picked over 500 lemons--something like 8 milk crates of citrus.

[ meet me at the corner of third and fairfax.: lemony thicket. ]

Apparently after picking that may lemons, you can then make lovely delicacies like this:

 

Props to Slash Food.

Get downloads for Internet Explorer 7, including recommended updates as they become available. To download Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 in the language of your choice, please visit the Internet Explorer 7 worldwide page.

[ Internet Explorer 7: downloads ]

It seems to dislike the Google Toolbar, or the IE Developer's Toolbar, or both.

Or alone:

One of the things that I’ve been missing in Visual Studio 2005 is the user-configurable sound that played when the build succeeded or failed. In VS 2003 I had set up the sounds so I could switch over to another process while the build happened, and the sound would tell me when it was done.

From reading newsgroup posts, blogs, etc, it seems that the VS2005 just doesn’t support these sounds (even though the sounds can be set via Control Panel | Sounds). It just makes for a quiet build.

[ Silent Visual Studio 2005 > Codefez > Blogs ]

At least not on this subject. It drives me bonkers, I just want my "ta da" when it is successful and a "buzz" when it isn't. Not too much to ask I don't think. I had to alter the macro a tiny bit. I used the commenters suggestion to use the registry settings, which seems more finesse; and I altered the replacement to replace "==========" with "~~~~~~~~~~". I'm not sure why replacing 10 equals with 11 would do anything but loop endlessly (which is what mine seemed to do).

Update: I see now why they altered the 10 ='s to 11, but that doesn't explain why it just hangs with 11 =, but with my modified code it will not hang until the 3rd build or so. Any which way the code eventually (and usually quickly) causes my IDE to freeze, so I am on the hunt for another method to "fix" this.

Apparently there is a lot that I don't know about gateways for clearing credit card transactions. I was under the impression that there were only 2 real players in the space, Verisign and another which I could never remember. Apparently I was off by a few, and apparently John Conde is willing to share his notes with me:

I've researched some of the more popular gateways; I'll break down their features, costs, strengths and weaknesses...

Some of these gateways offer different features -- charge different prices -- depending on which method of integration you choose to use. I've listed each of these offerings separately, classifying each as its own, unique product for the sake of easier comparison.

[  eCommerce ]

If only I wasn't under a deadline, I'd have time to absorb this. Perhaps if I blogmark it, I'll remember to return and read the whole thing.