Visual Studio Shananigans

Encountered some shananigans this morning when trying to open a DotNetNuke project. Got some rubbish error saying that VS couldn't open my project. This Post by R. Aaron Zupancic helped solve my problem straight away.

Arcade Lovers Unite

Nothing like pimping your own blog. Come check out my progress as I blog my efforts to build an arcade machine from scratch.

Drop This

I'd spruce this up but I'm still hammered from last night and CBF'ed, so if you wanna add drop shadows to a form in .NET, do this: Drop Shadows

Still Hungry?

In case you're still hungry after that turducken, maybe you should consider having a geek dinner? After all, these guys couldn't make it any easier to organise now could they. Embrace your nerdiness and have a geek dinner today!

Who's Hungry?

Unfortunately I haven't tried it myself, but this wonderful meal comes highly recommended. It's known as the tastiest meat you could ever lay your hands on. So what is this magical tasty animal? Well, its a turducken. What's a turducken you ask? Why, it's a chicken, in a duck, in a turkey! That's right - get a nice sized duck and stuff it with chicken. Then get an even nicer sized turkey and stuff it with the chicken stuffed duck, and there you go - turkducken!

Oh and don't forget to check out the funky theme song

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Tonight i was driving back from sarahs house when a chicken ran out in front of my car. I hit its leg and it hopped into the bushes across the road and slept there for the remainder of the evening.

Look Out Ladies

Whether your hitting it up on the dancefloor, or just working the dance machines in the arcardes, you really better look out for this bloke. I got no idea what language he's speaking, but I would say the message is fairly universal. If you think you're a hardcore dancer, you need to check out this video!

Dance Dance Revolution!

Mmmm My Ding Ding Dong

Following on with tonight's theme of good looking fellas, I challenge all the ladies out there not to get a little excited over my good friend Gunther over at Gunthernet. Make sure you have the volume cranked up for this one peoples!

Sarah's a Lucky Girl

I have a question for all the girls out there - would you go out with a bloke who has bigger boobies than you do? Yeah yeah, I know. It's "personality" that really matters. Well you might like to watch this little clip before you make up your mind.

The Titanic Pimp

Google Desktop Who? Copernic is where it's at

If you thought Google Desktop Search was the best thing since sliced Google, well you better jump off the google bandwagon and head on over to copernic. Copernic Desktop Search not only does the job better, its much more user friendly and has oodles more features. I was a huuge google desktop fan, but after using Copernic I shant return. One of the best features is the "Quick Preview" where you can preview exactly where in a document or file the search query occurs. But my greatest joy is the speed with which it delivers. Before you even finish typing results are flying up on the screen think and fast.
All these features are nice but the best one IMO is you don't get that knot in your stomach everytime you use it becasue you no longer need to wonder "Is google really just indexing my data"

South Park Eps

For those of you looking for the South Park Eps, check back in a couple of days, we'll have a nice surprise for you...

In the meantime, please click our Google banner to help out with the costs!

I hate linux Part 1

Neowin.net -> This is a perfect reason why i hate linux. Not because the keyboard and mouse don't work but the seriously in need of help approach to USB Ports. I've tried for days, weeks and even months at times to get a variety of USB devices ranging from generic mice, keyboards and printers, to more exotic devices such as PDA's and writing tablets. At times i get things to work, but its never a simple case of plug it in and it works, usually i'll have to install things, remove things, modify other things and then stand on my left foot and hold my right ear for 30 seconds while rebooting and it might work. Seriously, if you're gonna make an operating system, it should at least operate. I think its time Linux either gets with the program or stops beating the open source drum and get the hell outta the kitchen.

Individuals free to copy?

In a recent APC Magazine article, Michael Speck, head of ARIA's Anti Piracy unit was quoted as saying: "I can assure you, as the head of the ARIA anti-piracy unit for the last decade, that no-one gets prosecuted for private copying - as a rule we only prosecute infringers whose activites are significant"

Does this give the green light for individuals (in australia at least) to copy music without fear of prosecution....

Jobs Shortage, Family and Health Problams Blamed on Vivendi, Rockstar and EA

UK Contracting AgencyContractor UK says that there is the very real chance that there could be a shortage of IT jobs in the UK in ensuing years. However in Australia, this holiday season is shaping up to be far from merry for many IT Companies who are facing a resource shortage that they are finding hard to counter.

This year has seen some of the biggest releases in gaming history and as many of the much anticipated releases are about to hit the shelves, employers are saddling up for what is expected to be a rocky ride.

Australian software consultancy company DotDuck has already begun the hunt for staff in preperation for the Gaming silly season, as releases such as Microsoft's Halo2, Vivendi's Half-Life 2 and EA's Need for Speed Underground 2 approach.

A spokesman for the Industry has been quoted as saying "Annual leave for the weeks following November 16 have sky rocketed as it was confirmed that Half Life 2 would indeed be released on that date"

Further to these statements, CEO of IntelliWAre John Smith reported that staff were in fact leaving their jobs to cater for their gaming needs. "Some staff already used their annual leave with the release of ID Soft's Doom3, and Rockstars GTA: San Andreas, and rather than face the prospect of minimising game time to 5-6 hours per day we're finding that employees are just leaving. It sounds absurd but it really is happening"

Rather than try and compete with games, one IT company based in Sydney declared a company holiday the day GTA: San Andreas was released.

With a crisis looming, IT companies are starting to point the finger, and the consensus is that John Howard is to blame.
It is the belief of many companies that the Australian Welfare system is tailored to the simple lifestyle of the hard core gamer.

Most of the gamers are able to survive on the so called "Minimum" living allowance due to the fact that for the cost of a broadband adsl connection they are able to download more games than you can poke a preverbial stick at. Not only this but the minimalist lives led by a gamer is inexpensive as a Melbourne gamer "Randy" explains.

"Usually i game 20-22 hours a day, i expend very little energy so i don't need to sleep. Food is a snap as i can order pizza using vouchers for as little as $5 and because i dont shower i have no water bill. Electricity is a little pricy, as i have my xbox, pc, ps2 and plasma screen running 24 by 7, but this is offset by my phone bill. I have no friends so I don't make any calls. My parents occasionally call but I have caller ID so I don't need to talk to them."

"The last time i went outside was to buy a new stash of DVD-R's after my adsl connection was out for 3 days."

IT companies are saying this trend is on the rise with employee's realising that work offers little to no incentive when you can "get by" on the government handouts.
Colin Jones from ITSecure in Hobart argues "Even the best marketing in the world can't compete with free, and thats basically what the government is doing. Giving people free money"

The problems with employment however are not the only ugly heads raring with the gaming explosion. Mary from downtown Adelaide reports that her husband left her for his PS2.
"He simply said that his life as 'Carl Johnson' was much more exciting and Carl didn't nag like she did, let him play with guns and sleep with ho's"

A similar story was told by Donna of rural town Dubbo, who said the family's farm is being auctioned off this week after her husband Darryl refused to work on the farm after his copy of Doom3 arrived. "He just sat there and played for about 36 straight hours when it first arrived. We tried to get him to stop by turning the power off at the mains, but he got violent and tied us up in the bedroom. Luckily a neighbour found us and let us out, but Darryl barely batted an eyelid when he was summoned to appear at Dubbo court. He simply reloaded the BFG and said i'll be out when i finish this level"
That was 6 weeks ago, and Donna has since left.

Welfare groups are also joining the uprising, urging that legal restrictions be imposed on children playing games as one 14 year old was found slumped over his PS2 after having a heart attack. He had drunk 14 Red Bull energy drinks in less than 24 hours after going 38 hours without sleep. The coroners report said that "His 128kg frame just wasn't built for that sort of gaming"

Doctors have also begun receiving cases of children as young as 12 are getting arthritis in their thumbs, elbows and hips as their bodies cave in under the pressure of intense gaming. "Even boiling an egg for these children will become a chore" not that it will matter as 131166 can be assigned to any speed dial, and even the most arthritic 12 year old can muster the co-ordination to hit one key.

Dean Brown, the Federal Minister for Gaming announced on monday that "we are working with gaming vendors on staggering release dates to give gamers an oppurtunity to finish games, within a reasonable time frame. We are also looking to incorporate timers and other devices that will limit game play to 4-5 hours a day"

Gamers are not happy tho and a picket outside parliment house yesterday turned ugly as flaming controllers and sharpened DVD's were flung at riot police. One gamer said "I haven't been out in 32 weeks, but if these pigs think they can stop me from gaming till i drop then they are violating the most basic of rights of every human being to have a recreation"

Those Crazy Chinese

Ever thought the Chinese were a little slow? Perhaps a little bit, how you say, technologically incapable? Think again.

Fatboy Slim - Palookaville

I got this album a while ago ago and have listened to it the last 2 or 3 days. After listening to it at work, i'd have to put it into the "Yeah i'll listen to it once i've finished this one" category. It's not a bad album by any means, but at times it lacks creativity and the fatboy slim flair that put his first album on the map, has been reinvented so many times since then that this album would have to be classed as uninspiring.

The beats and samples that are worked into Palookaville at first seem involving and provide a strong intense listen, which if you feel like listening to some music is just the ticket, however after just a few cycles, the tracks become mundane and don't get any of that refreshing familiarity that you like to get from at least one or two tracks per album.

Despite this, it's the type of album that the first time you listen to, you'll say "cool... i can dig it" then once its finished, u go grab a coffee, put on the tv and you won't listen to it for a good year or two, but when you do, you'll be back saying "i can dig it....:

So here are my 10 questions that i've decided to use as my album mini review:

1. Would i buy it: No - but i'd go halves with a mate
2. Would i recommend it: Only to those that like a mixed beat
3. When would i listen to it: between 8-10 friday/saturday night
4. Who would listen: 17-36 year old metro's
5. Whats a good track: El Bebe Masoquista
6. Number of tracks worth ripping to my ipod: 6 (50%)
7. Listen to alone or with friends: Best served with friends
8. What to put on after: MOS Annuals
9. Summed up in one word: Convential (ie doesn't break any new ground)
10. Stars : 3

A Different Kind of Hash

Now don't get the wrong idea, but I think hash is very cool. This years biggest news in Crypto is of course the discovery of collisions in a number of hashing algorithms, so if you're a little rusty on your hash knowledge, give this article a read.

Kill Em All

Ever had trouble deleting a file because it was "in use" due to some crashed app, or some shoddy 3rd party software? Well then here is the answer you've been looking for. Process Explorer can tell you which applications have a handle on which file, so you can kill em and delete the file without further troubles.

The Irony of it all

Is it just me or is it rather ironic that after the big hullabaloo over Halo 2 being released via bittorrent sites that they continue to run ads for halo 2 on certain sites that support the distribution, not necessarily of halo 2 but of other.... backup copies of software?

What's the time Mr Nerd

If you're gonna dress like a nerd, talk like a nerd, walk like the nerd, you're probably gonna want to tell the time like nerd. With this watch you'll be nerd envy of all your nerd friends.

Dress like a nerd

If you're gonna look like a nerd, for goodness sake, at leastdress like one. I hate a nerd that doesn't dress the part. And if you're a fat nerd, don't think you aren't cateredf or

Protecting Your Valuable Data

Need to store some credit card details on your machine? Maybe your bank password? You cant go past this article for a thorough summary of cryptography in .NET.

Digital Photo Frames

Ever wanted to make a digital photo frame? Well, this article isn't the be all and end all, but its certainly an interesting approach to sharing photos among your friends and family.

You want Datagrid... you got datagrid

This has to be one of, if not the most comprehensive article i've seen dedicated to the datagrid. It would have been the most comprehensive article on any topic ever but the rat vomit essay takes that crown

Fun With Microwaves

Hands up anyone who has never put something silly in the microwave? I know I've sure has some fun with mine! Well, I think perhaps these people have a little too much fun with their microwave, but it sure makes for entertaining reading. Check it out here. I recommend you use your neighbours microwave for these experiements...

You have Gmail

I Got me a Gmail account today. Can't say how good it is yet, but i do know i like the idea of a GIG of storage. Can't complain about that. It could act as an offsite backup sort-of. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out, but so far no complaints

How Hypnotic

All Glory To the Hypnotoad!

Grand Theft Auto

After 5 years on the easy coast...its time to come home baby. The highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is getting released tomorrow, and if you don't own a PS2, then you need to buy one, and now. This game is sensational, as well all knew it would be. I'd tell you more, but I'm having cravings for the game already and I've only stopped playing for 10 minutes. Go buy it now!

Now Thats Crazy

I've got to say, this is one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time. It aint for the kiddies though, there's a little bit of colourful language.

Why rat poison is so effective

This essay is dedicated to why rats can't vomit. Its quite interesting, and at the end of the day makes me feel better knowing that when i shove rat poison down a rats throat, it's all one way traffic.

Square Melons

Square Watermelons are all the rage in Japan as fridge space is becoming increasingly hard to find. Don't worry about the fridge tho because you'll have plenty of space in your wallet after forking out up to $82 a melon for one of these square beauties

Cool Cubes

Have you ever tried to solve a Rubik's Cube? And got annoyed 5 minutes later because clearly you don't have the mental capacity to solve it? And then given up 10 minutes later, because your random moves weren't getting you anywhere? Well, I know I have. But now I can turn my life around and show everyone how smart I really am!

Introducing....The Cubesolver!

Once you boost your skills, why not try a little bit of Speed Cubing

The Flying Lawnmower

Having troubles cutting that 100 foot high grass? Bored of your remote control plane? Maybe you want to give your neighbour a fancy haircut? Well then, have we got the thing for you:

Sky Cutter 40 V2

For those too lazy to read the site (like me), take a look at this video instead.

Those Strange Singaporeans

Well, well, Singapore is an interesting country, with some equally interesting customs. How about a $10,000 fine for importing 5 or more packets of chewing gum? Or what about the ban on picking flowers, or dancing in public places? And dont forget the restaurants that sell "meat" dishes. Not beef, not chicken...just "meat". Funny how there is a rather large amount of cats patrolling the streets in Singapore, of which a large proportion are missing tails.

But! I digress. You like water? It's good on a hot day right, cools you down, nice and refreshing? Well how about some water with a little extra kick, a little bit of zing? Check this out

What can I say....

This was found on a member site of aspxconnection.com . I've been surfing the net for quite a few years and i've seen stuff from bumfights to adult flash games, but this takes the cake. What would possess someone to make a keychain out of a kangaroo scrotum is beyond me. What would possess someone to then sell a kangaroo scrotum keychain is nothing short of unbelievable.
The site also has a kangaroo scrotum purse

Paintball done right

Anyone out there play paintball? Well then check this baby out:



Here's some choice quotes:
"You Can Mount It on A Jeep Or Carry it around Like Arnie"
"It is capable of 48 balls Per Second Per Barrel"
"Waying in at 75 Kg Un Armed and works from A Compressed Air Tank Built Within The Back Pack, The ML9 will hold Around 4000, 0.68 cal Paintballs in its 52 hopper feed lines."

Here's the original link

Multiline Tabs in VS2003

When programming in VS2003, if you want to insert a TAB at the beginning of a number of lines of code, select all the lines that you want the tab to occur on, and press TAB. All the lines will then conviniently have a tab inserted at the start of each line.

Help me get EmailCash and i'll buy u a donut

If you click the link on the right and I you turn out to be a successful emailcash referral I’ll buy you a donut, no questions asked, no strings attatched other than the emailcash ones.

Why IE can't be replaced by 3rd party browsers just yet

This article on slashdot highlights one of my biggest gripes with the contenders for best Browser. No matter what your non-IE flavour, be it opera, firefox or some homebrew creation you came up with yourself, none of them have the robust page handling that IE has. Sure they have bells and whistles up the wazoo, but what use is Mozilla to an asp.net developer who can't display a page let alone debug it, and not to mention opera's shananigans when you try and do client side error validation. All in all, these browsers are nice in their own way, i've tried most of them and i have to say they have features that you yearn for in IE, but at the end of the day, they aren't a true 100% IE replacement. Perhaps a thought for these developers should be that no matter how many features, plugins and ding-a-lings u cram into ur browser, if it can't display a web page, its useless as a browser.

Theres no news like Sharp News

If you like your news and you like it coming in from a variety of sources but hate checking multitudes of websites when you log on each morning, you would probably have heard of RSS Feeds. In short they’re excellent. If you want a slightly more detailed explanation you can go here.

Anyway a great tool for getting all your daily feeds is SharpReader.

It does have one drawback in that you will need to have the .net framework installed, but if you’re up with your Microsoft updates which you all should be this is a very small drawback, but aside from that it’s a small, simple easy to use tool that does what its supposed to and nothing more.

To start you off, here's a high quality listing of informative nerd news.

What to buy if you got too much cash...

Whether you got cash to splash or you just like being referred to as “The geek in cubicle D” head over to www.ThinkGeek.com and get your hands on their high quality, if not socially unacceptable merchandise

Get Sliding With Slide Menu

Slidemenu is an awesome ASP.NET control that lets you make funky looking menu's that are easy to control and even easier to make. Best of all the price is right as its a free download. Get in on the slidemenu action here

Stop SQL Injection Attacks Before They Stop You

This is a top article on how to minimise attacks on your website from losers that think its "1337" to try and break ur stuff. Its got some good encryption code samples and a real easy to follow tutorial to set up a real secure login.
Click here

DateTime in SQL Server

Info on the standards to use for DateTime's in SQL Server
Click here

And here's some info on formatting dates that I find useful:
Click here