That little fat kid on South Park is crazy. lol ...

This clean install crap is a pain in the ass! Unfortunatly it was getting around that time of year when I do yet another fresh install of windows.

Have not got much done the last few days on my tutorial series, but at least my fresh install of windows allowed me to identify a serious bug in my WamPosterCL app. I have uploaded the fixed code.

Goto webcam page!  <link no longer availible>

I have been trying out VB.NET 2005 Express the last few days, all I can say is Wuhoooo, Weeeeeee, YeeeeHaaaaa and oh ya, DOH! I will be making a blog entry about it soon so stay tuned!

It's been a slow week, have not got much done, did some more work on my tutorial series, was reviewing some of the old code I downloaded, and now I find myself pondering the god awful experience of doing a clean sweep and fresh install of my operating system. :( Yep. Slooooow week.

Just thought you should know. :p I guess I should mention I will probably be moving in the next 1 to 3 weeks, so heads up, I may be unavailible for a few days. :o)

Turns out the earthquake hit the northern queen Charlotte islands, at a magnitude of 6.7! So what I felt was only the very edge of it. Still cool though!

NEWS: Strong earthquake jolts B.C.'s Queen Charlotte Islands

Holy shit it actually happened! Earthquake! It just happened at around 2:53am PST. My first earthquake! Wuhoooo! That was cool! It was not a very strong one, just enough to feel the earth rock back and fourth gently a few times. But still awsome none the less. Sure glad I took that mid after noon nap, other wise I'd be asleep by now, and would have missed it.

Back on May 8, 2004 I made a blog entry describing how you could get a free copy of VB.NET standard from Microsoft. Well it just arrived in the mail today! And I got more than just vb.net! Check this out ...



... Cool huh! I got vb.net 2003, Windows 2000 professional, windows 2000 server and windows 2000 advanced server, visual studio.net cd, A 100 page tutorial book adapted from the full book titled "Microsoft Visual Basic.NET step by step", I also got 3cds containing the MSDN library.

And I was just expecting vb.net not all this other stuff. I'm going to get started installing vb 2k3 and report back later...

GO check it out at VB.NET at the movies!

I took a trip today to Kleanza creek, and took some photos. I also took the oportunity to get some photos of a local forest fire a few kelometers from where I live! You can find them in the Photo Gallery on the side bar.

BTW, here is some updated stats for my running times...

June 17, 2004	2.58km		12m53s	12.0kh		With no breaks
June 18, 2004						Did not run. No excuses.
June 19, 2004						Did not run. Prince Rupert WOT. 
June 20, 2004 	2.41km		14m01s	10.3kh		With no breaks
June 21, 2004	2.42km		13m26s	10.8kh		With no breaks
June 22, 2004						Did not run. Did 3 hours of cycling instead to kleanza.

I forgot to mention this a few days ago, but yahoo finnaly implemented there new 100mb free email account. My account went from 58% full to only 5% full. Cool. One big problem. Yahoo disclaimers state that they do collect personal information. Poopy :(

Right now I am going over to google and siging up...

Whoa! That was easy. Eerily easy. But I got a free gmail account! Only took like 2 minutes MAX! from the link on the blogger site until I was looking in my gmail inbox. Sweet. That's how free email setup should be! I could have signed up for gmail over a month ago but I just decided to check it out now. Hmmm mabe I shoulda signed on earlier...

The problem is that I have been using createdbyx@yahoo.com for so long now and I have numerous uploads of source code refering people to my yahoo email address that it means I will now have to manage/juggle 3 email accounts. createdbyx@yahoo.com, dlunz@yahoo.com, and createdbyx@gmail.com. Not only that but I have to think about changing all of my fourm accounts that refer to my yahoo email accounts.

I am looking over the gmail system right now as I write this and from appearances it looks good, clean, and NOT cluttered. Very slick. Just the way I like it. With yahoo you always get banner adds which are a pain. Some of the items like the "search options" link slide out rather then having the page reload. I like that, no more page flicker. I also like the idea of having your mail messages displayed like a message board system.

Admittedly, and I'm sure I am not alone on this, but I'd rather prefer a automated program to search through my email. Rather then yahoo with there "We collect personal information" disclaimer.

Not only that but I find the google advertisments are much more non intrusive, like a little news scroller that's is set off to the side, something you glance at from time to time. Also google adds are not as invasive as regular banner adds because google adds are only text and not big flashy graphics that distract you from your intended purpose. It is all this as well as the fact that all the sites I goto where I see google advertisements, the advertisements are relative to the content being displayed on the page! ... Well most of the time.

If google and google gmail stays "good", even after google goes public (IE: this is a bad thing) then you may one day start seeing createdbyx@gmail.com on this site!

Gmail! 1gig baby!

Dam It! The problem with my WamPosterCL app is worse then I had thought. Not only does it stop taking pictures after while but if you unplug the camera and then replug it in, (to reset it) it can cause your system to crash and restart! It caused my system to restart last night and it just caused a restart again a few minutes ago.

Craaaaaap!!

So as promised I have uploaded it to my web site, capture and reset bugs included. :p
You can find it under the Visual Basic.NET Projects category in the Development archive.

WamPosterCL

Holy crap I hope I don't have to do that again for a while. This morning I decided move my desk/bed combo to the basment as it is getting way too hot during the day upstairs. Well I started at 10 am and did not stop until 8pm. This custom build desk/bed combo is alot of work to dissassemble then re-assemble. the thing has to weigh 200lbs. Well every thing is finnaly setup up in the basment now but I still have to tidy up my room upstairs. urghh! I'll leave it for tomorrow.

So... Any one enjoying the peep show the last few days? hehe. There be boobies on my web page! <link no longer exists> Bloody hot weather. :( You could sweat just doing nothing!

Anyway I have been delayed uploading my WamPosterCL (Webcam image poster/uploader) application because it seems it only wants to capture a few images before it starts having problems. I have it set up under the windows task scheduler to capture an image every ten minutes. Then I use the built in windows ftp command line to upload the captured image to my web site. I have been trying to track down the problem and if I can't figure it out by monday I will post the app anyway. Capture bug included. I also have not dismissed that it could be my web cam that is at fault as well.

DLink DSC-350F <link no longer exists>

To use FTP from the command line click start run and type "cmd". then type ftp at the command line to start the ftp app. I believe the ftp command line is availible as far back as win98 but I could be wrong.