CompiledMonkey.com - Chris Stewart's Blog

I wanna write some code!	Posted by: Chris at 1/31/2005 1:07:33 AM

Over the past few weeks I’ve been writing code that basically models the design of our database schema. As any programmer reading this can imagine, some of the code is very redundant and copy/paste has become my best friend. Outside of some object specific methods, the sql statements, and the object variables, the structure of the code for each object is the same. I spent some time today using my best friend to find code generators that do generate classes from an existing database structure. After looking over some of them, I noticed the complexity of using the program is overwhelming. Sure, many features exist but I’m really not looking for everything some of them provide. I also noticed the style just isn’t me, which for programmers, style is everything. People refer to programming as an art form; I guess this is where that reference comes from. I guess it’s time to start planning out a code generator that has my style.

A Real Person Answers the Phone at Oracle

Posted by: Chris at 1/29/2005 5:46:10 PM

The company I work for has a pretty large Oracle installation and we’re looking at migration and upgrade paths. Not knowing much about our current licensing situation, I figured I’d just give Oracle a call and see what I could find. As I think anyone would these days, I was expecting a long “conversation” with an automated telephone system and a few hops across the globe in the process of finding what I was after.

I dialed the 800 number on Oracle.com and someone actually picked up the phone on the other end. At first I was half shocked and half thinking it was just a really good phone system that came with an American accent. I asked to speak with Oracle Sales and the real live person on the other end said he could help me with that. After about 2 minutes of explaining what I was after and giving him the company name and address, he said he’d locate our account representative and have them call me back. How’s that for customer service?
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Tell IE8 to render like IE7

Posted by: Chris at 1/25/2005 11:09:32 PM

With the upcoming release of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and the recent flip-flop on web standards support, a lot of web developers will likely have some upgrade pains once IE8 does hit the mass market. I have a few spacing issues I need to address but am simply swamped with other things at the moment. Until I can get to those issues I wanted a solution to tell IE8 to render the site as if it were being viewed in IE7. After some searching around, I came across this meta tag that will do the trick:

Smartphone vs. Pocket PC	Posted by: Chris at 1/24/2005 11:42:42 PM

Part of being the Microsoft Student Ambassador to VCU is getting the opportunity to win prizes every month based on our efforts. Generally the prizes are $100 or a Pocket PC. Well in November I won the $100. In December I won my choice between an iPaq Pocket PC or a smartphone. The smartphone option was a surprised considering it hasn’t been offered yet, and a welcomed surprise considering I’ve wanted one forever! Of course there’s a catch, the specific model uses a GSM network and my cell phone provider (Verizon) doesn’t support it. So I chose the Pocket PC with the idea of selling it and buying a smartphone my provider can support. I went up to Circuit City and discovered a few new models are coming out in the next few weeks. Apparently I can get a device that looks like a Pocket PC, has a keyboard that slides in and out, contains a camera, and has phone capabilities. Looks like I’ll have a fun new toy in the next few weeks.

Resource for ASP.NET

Posted by: Chris at 1/16/2008 4:06:09 PM

I want to create a community resource for ASP.NET knowledge and help. I’ve been writing web applications in ASP.NET since 2002 and have learned a bit about the technology along the way. What I’d like to do is either branch out this blog into something for ASP.NET related content only, or perhaps something different altogether, like a public wiki, screen cast series, or some kind of web site that would help enable new ASP.NET developers in their learning experience. So as you can tell, I’m very open as to what I want this to turn into, but I know I want to create a helpful utility from my experiences.

Speaking of ASP.NET, I ran across CodeCampServer today and immediately subscribed to the mailing list. CCS is an open source effort to build a web application for code camp management using some of the cutting edge ASP.NET technology, such as the ASP.NET MVC framework.

Oh, and one last ASP.NET note, we deployed our new company website yesterday. Check it out at www.xperts.com.

How is the Playstation 3 for Blu-Ray?	Posted by: Chris at 1/12/2008 11:55:14 PM

Now that my HD-DVD player will no longer receive new releases, I have to move forward in purchasing a Blu-Ray player for my high definition movie enjoyment. After searching around some yesterday I’ve discovered that most people suggest buying a Playstation 3. It’s one of the cheaper players, is the most “future proof”, has a large hard drive, have Internet connectivity, is powered by a monster of a computer, and has a next generation gaming system to boot. What do you think?

I now own a collectors item	Posted by: Chris at 1/9/2005 3:44:16 PM

I saw this morning in my mass of RSS feeds that the Xbox HD DVD add-on has been officially discontinued. So I guess that means I actually have one of those collectors items I’ll be able to show Carter in 10 years. I’ll talk about the days of HD DVD like our parents talked about Betamax. Sigh…

Google Special on CBS	Posted by: Chris at 1/8/2005 1:30:49 AM

I got the chance to the see the Google special that was aired on CBS a few nights ago. Pretty awesome look into the company we geeks know and love. Take a peek but beware, it is 60MB and will take awhile to download.

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