OK, had a short interruption in service when I setup the new router. Between Cox reassigning my IP and issues with the port forwarding, I couldn't get everything synced up. Got it now so everything should resume as normal.
I optimized my server a bit to get this running a bit faster as well. Let's see how that works out. I will plan an upgrade for it later this year, when I have some time to work on it.
Sometime last night, my wireless router went south. Weirdest thing, too. Just suddenly went dark, no blinky lights, nothing. It was a great little router; a D-Link DI-624, the early model. Very reliable, fast, worked well with mixed b/g networking and 100BT wired and a second hub strung off the side for my server. It will be missed.
Oh, and I don't know if the router puked or its power supply. It uses a 5V 2.5A DC adapter, and I don't have anything close to it. I could go get a universal adapter and try it out, but this is my opportunity to finally upgrade to something better. So for now I am on my old backup router, sans wireless, until the new one gets here.
And oh what a treat it will be! Presenting the new D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit router! 802.11b/g/pre-n (no I do not have n capability yet, what's your point?), GIGABIT! (1000Base-T) for great speed from my primary to my server (yes 100BT is not saturated yet, but it might...), MIMO for better distance and such, and its cooler looking. Can't wait!
BTW, saw a great idea on Lifehacker the other day for cable/device management: Get a cheap pegboard, stash it behind your desk and attach everything to it. Voilà, no clutter, and REAL cheap! Gonna try it.
Where do they find the instructors for IT? I am attending a respected local university in their IT program currently. The reasons why range from my wife is a teacher, to I never finished my degree 15 years ago. IT is an easy course load for me since I have been doing it for nearly 18 years now.
However, the instructors I have experienced are wildly variable. My personal advisor doesn't like to have a computer, or even a phone, on his desk. It messes with his Phung Shui. And his information filing system consists of a desk drawer filled with scraps of paper. My general IT class instructor may have been current once, but never within my career span. Not to mention the vast hero worship issues she has with women and fringe industry individuals. Wow, I can't imagine life without Grace Hopper, who is single-handedly responsible for computer usage! Forget Thomas Edison, "he had a lab full of assistants", so his contributions are negligable to modern technology.
I wouldn't care, but the other students drink it up like gospel. AND she keeps giving advice about IT jobs and the industry in general that is just wrong. Ah well, my future competition will be light...
Because the AJAX.NET hadn't been finalized yet, and because the app I was trying to "AJAX up" was a 1.1 app, I chose to roll my own AJAX backend. It's extremely simple and lightweight, and really wasn't difficult to do. The only problem that I had was in an Intranet setting with Windows Authentication security throughout. The first time the client would initiate an AJAX call, the browser would throw a login credential request up. I tried many different security settings to defeat that but was not successful. Until I came across an article that mentioned it in passing. Here's my altered code block:
<snip>
req.onreadystatechange = processReqChange;
req.open('POST', szURL, true);
req.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
req.setRequestHeader("Content-length", data.length);
//req.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close"); /// Fixes AJAX Authentication Issue!!!
req.send(data);
</snip>
Note, line 5 is commentted out. I don't know why this works, but it does and seemingly without any impact on either the client or the server. All sessions are closed successfully and there is no data leakage that I can see. So until I upgrade the app to 2.0 and use the official framework, I'm going with it.
If you'd like my AJAX backend .js file, it is only 60 lines and meets simple AJAX needs. Just drop me a comment or email here with your address and I will get back to you.
If you've had enough of Adobe's PDF Reader software, I know I have, then get a free alternative called FoxIt Reader. It does the same thing that the free Adobe Reader does, only it unloads itself from memory when you are done, has a smaller footprint, is faster (for me), and doesn't constantly ask you to register or upgrade or buy anything. I recommend it to everyone who needs simple PDF support, which is nearly everyone.
What are you waiting for? Here the link!
This will be the last post on this address. I have moved my feed to my home server as posted below. As of February 1, 2007, the feed is also being served from Feedburner at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/UsingHagen
PLEASE UPDATE YOUR ADDRESS! I hope to see you there!
 My wife and I watch the TV show The Unit every week. It is a great mix of military drama and human interest that makes the show a good marriage saver. Inside Delta Force is the book that the show is based on. It is interesting that the show never mentions the fact that is Delta Force involved, which is probably for the best due to the way Hollywood has inaccurately portrayed this unit in the past.
This is an autobiography of Sgt Major Eric Haney, one of the original members of Delta Force, from the time of his selection to his retirement. Obviously, there is not much detail about actual missions accomplished, as I am sure many of them are still highly classified. But the selection and training stories were riveting enough. He also included the best description of the Iran Hostage Rescue attempt in 1980 that I have ever read. His insights as one from the inside was remarkable.
Inside Delta Force is an excellent read from a citizen soldier in our time. He spends very little time discussing political motivations, disgust of superior officiers or denegrating fellow combatants except where integral to the story at hand. I really enjoyed this read and recommend it to anyone that is the least bit interested in Special Forces during our generation. It is a very interesting insight behind the scenes of many of the big news stories in the '80s and '90s, especially the Beirut Barracks attack, Panama, Grenada, and the Iran Hostage incident.
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