Roody.net Blog

Another New Toy

2008-05-09T00:29:00Z

After thinking about getting one for a few weeks, I finally pulled the trigger a couple days ago and got my first smart phone, the Samsung Ace. I kept finding situations where centralized calendar and contacts would be useful. Or times where access to my email when not in front of a computer was also a need.

Dealing with Sprint to get the new plan deal was slightly less than very painful. One of my co-workers recently joined Sprint from Verizon, and they gave him a great package for the same price I was paying per month for my old phone plan. I've been a loyal Sprint customer for 8-9 years now, and they weren't even coming close for the same price. Essentially, new customers get treated far better than veterans. I found this to be unacceptable.

Two and a half hours on the phone (over a span of two days), and I was able to get the deal I wanted. 500 minutes, nights and weekend minutes that start at 6:00 p.m., unlimited text, data, and web for $29.99 a month. It wasn't a pleasant journey, but the end result is. And what did I take away from all of it? If you need something beyond the standard fare, go straight to their account services (customer retention) department. Their normal customer service reps really can't help you with any out-of-the-box requests. In fact, I'd say they were rather useless in my situation. I'd elaborate on that, but it's just too much to type.

So far I'm impressed with the phone. I especially like the Active Sync capabilities, and how it wirelessly updates your contacts and email inbox without having to do anything extra. If you were like me and used to go through the painful process of "hot sync-ing" a Palm Pilot to a computer, you know what I mean. I'm also pretty psyched about the voice recognition technology. Very cool stuff.

Impressionable Youth

2008-04-30T02:01:00Z

So tomorrow morning I'm off to Marion Central High School for their annual Career Day. I'll be speaking to them about what it's like to be a web developer in today's business world.

I'm excited, and nervous at the same time. I've done a couple webmaster interviews before, but nothing where I had to speak in front of a group. I have some ideas for talking points, but for the most part I'm gonna wing it.

Should be fun.

Comments RSS Feed

2008-04-11T01:55:00Z

I kept thinking that I liked the idea of giving my three blog readers an easier way to interact with the comments. After some thought, I decided to setup a comments RSS feed. Now you won't have to check back to see if someone has responded to one of your comments.

The feed will get the 20 most recent comments, regardless of which blog entry they were posted to. You can click here to subscribe, or just use the button on the right side that looks like this:

Useful SQL Server Query

2008-04-04T15:24:00Z

If you're like me, maybe you've run into the following scenario: you've got some code that runs on your intranet and it touches multiple database servers. For the longest time those servers were all SQL Server 2000 databases. But, in the past year or so, some of those databases started to get upgraded to SQL 2005.

For the most part, your code works fine - unless you're creating databases and need the default schema set to dbo, or if you're querying data from certain tables in the master database. Microsoft changed a few things around from 2000 to 2005.

The solution to this is to find some way to tell what version of SQL Server you're hitting. It turns out that this is actually rather easy to do, and can be accomplished with the following query:

SELECT TheVersion = cast(cast(SERVERPROPERTY('productversion') as varchar(4)) as decimal)

If the number returned is 9 or greater, you're on SQL 2005. If it's 8, it's SQL 2000. Cool eh?

It's Ugly Enough Already

2008-03-28T00:52:00Z

It hasn't been a good week for my head/face. Last Thursday I started to notice my left cheek swelling up. After a trip to the doctor the next day, I was told that I had a blocked parotid gland. For you non-medical types that's the saliva gland. It looked like I was storing up nuts for the winter. The doctor even warned that I could experience "excruciating pain" if it got worse. Lucky for me, it didn't.

Then yesterday, I was in the gym locker room getting dressed to work out. I leaned over to tie my shoe and and then went to stand up and caught the top of my head on the bottom corner of the locker door. Surprisingly, it didn't bleed as much as I would have thought, but it hurt like a mo' fo. I am left wondering if this one's gonna leave a visible scar.

Probably won't make me look any tougher.

Dot-NET-ified

2008-03-20T02:33:00Z

Notice anything different about the site? Most of you (ok, three of you "regulars") might not think anything looks different. And you'd be half right. But being half right also makes you half wrong.

As part of my learning experience for work, I decided to re-write this site from traditional ASP and convert it to C#.NET. I actually had fun doing it. And I'm looking forward to seeing how efficient this compiled code really is. My guess is we won't notice much of a speed difference. Time will tell.

Good Quote on Global Warming

2008-03-15T20:20:00Z

By Chip Gillar, founder of Grist.org:

"So-called "global warming" is just a secret ploy by wacko tree-huggers to make America energy independent, clean out air and water, improve fuel efficiency of our vehicles, kick-start 21st-century industries, and make our cities safer and more livable. Don't let them get away with it!"

A Four-Piece Golf Ball?

2008-03-02T17:47:00Z

I was looking through my latest issue of Golf Digest, and came across a special advertising section for Callaway Golf. In there they highlighted their new golf balls for '08, the Tour IX. It's a four-piece ball, and up until now I had never seen anything more than a three-piece ball.

Most of the "high-end" golf balls are three piece technology, and they have the hefty price tag to boot. Out of curiousity, I stopped at Dick's yesterday to see that a dozen of these were going for $45, which is about what the three-piece balls are going for at the moment. So the questions are:

How long until the other companies follow suit and develop their own four piece balls?
Will four-piece become the top standard? Or is it just a fad?

The good thing is this might drive down the price of the three-piece balls, which seem fine to me. Will I be able to get a box of Pro-V's for less than $40 now? Will the four-piece balls make much of a difference in a 15-handicap's game?

Poker Room Comin' Together

2008-02-09T21:08:00Z

Picked up a new poker table today. It's identical to the one that my buddy Matt has, and I got it for a great price. $64 after coupons at Dick's Sporting Goods. It's a nice little table, seats 8 people comfortably and could probably hold up to 10 if needed. There's nice padding on the outer edge, and cup holders for all.

I also ordered some poker chips the other day, and I hope to be ready to start hosting regularly pretty soon. I still need to get the basement organized and I need to pick up a bar style light to hang over the table as well. It's all in hopes that I can get enough regular guys to host poker at least once a month, maybe slightly more.

Now if I can just find a table light that is decent quality, and won't take too big of a bite out of my wallet. Jodi and I saw a real nice golf-themed one at Clover Home Leisure center earlier today, but that was $600. I'd love to get a nice stained glass light with some sort of poker theme, golf theme, or beer-related theme on it. I'm not sure where to look in Rochester. If anyone has any ideas, they are welcome.

Photos From XLII

2008-02-05T01:17:00Z

Looking at replays of the game from yesterday still hasn't gotten old to me yet. Neither has reading all the news stories on it. They're calling the final drive by Eli and the Giants one of the greatest in Super Bowl history. They're also calling this play one of the greatest plays in history as well. I have to agree, and I think because of the magnitude of upsetting an undefeated team, this game may be even better than the 1990 Super Bowl when the Giants beat the Bills on a last-second field goal miss by Scott Norwood.

Anyways, I snagged a few pictures from the internet today. Here are a few of my favorites. I especially like the one with Brady making the pouty face. Priceless.

Super Bowl Champs!

2008-02-04T04:17:00Z

What a great game. I think I am losing my voice from all the yelling. I knew they could do it, especially after how close the Giants played them last time. And it seemed like just about every media jockey in the country picked the Patriots. Any caveman could have made that pick. It would actually have taken some guts to pick the Giants. The only guy in the media I knew of that picked Giants was Mike Wilbon. My hat's off to you.

The best part? Tom Brady is probably crying. Bill Belichick too.The Giants pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history. Congratulations on an epic season.

Feature Request?

2008-01-31T03:30:00Z

For the past couple of weeks I've been wondering to myself how I could make the blog more interactive. The one prevailing idea I have is to allow commenters to create an account in order to access extra features. Things like the ability to be notified by email if there are replies to your comment or new comments in general. Or if you were a "registered user" you wouldn't have to fill out your name, email, and the image verification each time you posted a comment. Registered users also wouldn't have to wait until I approve the comments before they appear on the site, etc.

These are just a few of the ideas I'm tossing around. This site doesn't have a lot of regular visitors, so I'm not sure if it's worth the bother to set all this up. So this is a shout out to the few visitors my site does get: what do you think? If I created a registered user feature, would you even use it? Or is there a better way to allow for interactivity with the comments to blog posts? Your thoughts are welcome.

I Just Can't Decide

2008-01-29T02:54:00Z

Our state's primary is coming in just a little over a week. I must admit, I am still undecided. I mean, I know I'll be voting Democrat, I just don't know which one. I could probably be happy with any of them in the White House.

But I'm battling demons inside. My thought process is something I know it shouldn't be. I'm letting myself be drawn into the "who's most electable" game. Can you blame me though? After the past 7 years of republican-controlled government, I have this loud voice inside me saying "please not another republican". Maybe down the road, but not now. America is in need of change, and putting republicans back in control is not change. It would just be more of the same.

That said, I've got a three-headed monster standing in front of me. Two of the heads need to be chopped. Who to choose? Going back to the "most electable" game, it seems like Obama is the man. Especially when compared to Hillary and Edwards. I would have to say that even Edwards seems more electable than Hillary.

And therein lies my dilemma. I think Hillary could make a good president, but I'm afraid that by giving her the Democratic nod that we're doomed to repeat the same thing that happened in 2004. The Dems threw Kerry at Bush, and Bush ate him alive. I am left to wonder if Howard Dean had been given the nod, would things have turned out differently?

I don't even know why so many people dislike Hillary, but it seems like she brings out the anger in a lot of moderates. Even more so in Republicans. I can understand why Republicans hate her. It's probably the exact sort of hatred that Democrats have for Bush. But I'm not sure why moderates dislike her so much. They say if she gets the nod, that alone would enrage and rally the republican base in a strong effort against her.

So what to do? Even by ignoring the "most electable" issue I have, I still could vote for any of the three. Of course, if they changed the stupid primary system so that my state could get to vote first, or vote with the other states, then I'd be able to vote for Joe Biden like I wanted to in the first place and I wouldn't be blogging about it now.

Sometimes I wonder why I even follow politics as much as I do.

Goin' To The Show!

2008-01-22T01:16:00Z

That's right! The New York Football Giants are heading to the Super Bowl. The Big Blue Wrecking Crew, the G-Men. NFC Champions. That was a great game last night. And I know if there's a heaven, my mom is up there and she's smiling and happy. She's the reason I'm a Giants fan in the first place.

Hopefully the Giants can pull it off. Nothing would be sweeter than to watch Brady crumble to his knees and cry, knowing that they were one game away from perfection. And Randy Moss doesn't deserve a Super Bowl ring. The guy's a punk. He only acts like a model teammate when his team is winning. Remember all his selfish antics of teams past? When his team isn't winning he behaves like a jackass. Very much like Terrell Owens, but probably worse. I can't stand to watch him hold up the Lombardi trophy.

Personally, I think the Patriots are not playing as solid as they have been for most of the season. Conversely, I think the Giants have hit a hot streak and are playing some of their best football of the season. Hopefully that converts into a win.

New: Blog Search

2008-01-19T02:41:00Z

Have you ever sat there and wondered quietly to yourself "hmmm, I wonder if Roody has ever blogged about the ballet?" Yeah, me neither. But now you could find out if you wanted to since I added a new blog search page.

The search will always be accessible from the top right corner of the home page.

Cross That Off My List

2008-01-13T14:34:00Z

I did something last night that I had never done in the 34 years I've been on this earth. I actually played a game of Monopoly all the way through until the bitter end.

It's true. I remember playing Monopoly quite a few times as a kid, but we always got bored and never finished it. Last night we went to Matt and Stacy's for drinks and we ended up pulling out their new version of Electronic Banking Monopoly. It's like the old Monopoly, but instead they give you credit cards to manage all your money.

Anyways, Jodi ended up winning. She owned just about everything on the board and had hotels on most of it. It was a huge drain on my bank account every time I had to roll the dice.

The Joys of Home Ownership

2008-01-12T23:15:00Z

This past Wednesday morning, we here in Rochester had a fun little wind storm rip through our area. The news reports are saying that the winds reached gusts of over 75 mph. Over 33,000 people were without power for at least a couple of days afterwards. Jodi and I ended up losing our power for over a day and a half.

Another result of the storm is one of the big trees in our back yard dropped another very long branch. As you can see in the pics I took the branch was pretty big. I'd estimate it at somewhere around 35-40 feet long.

So Jodi, her parents, and I got to spend part of our Saturday chopping it all up and clearing it away. This is the second large branch that has dropped from this tree in the past 3 years. Now we're wondering if we're going to need it taken down completely. Ahh the joy of owning your own home.

Don't get me wrong, the bad is stil far out-weighed by the good though.

Rock On! Literally.

2008-01-11T19:45:00Z

Looks like Amazon will now be able to rival ITunes for online capacity:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22608470/

"Online retailer Amazon.com said on Thursday its digital music store will now offer songs from Sony BMG Music Entertainment without copy-protection technology, or digital rights management.

Amazon said the deal makes it the first retailer to offer customers DRM-free songs from all four major music companies in the MP3 format."

This is exactly what I've been waiting for. I've already purchased a few MP3 songs through Amazon's service exclusively because they don't have the restrictions. Now this puts the pressure on ITunes and other services to ditch the ridiculous Digital Rights Management on their downloads. Mucho kick-ass news.

Traitor To The Cause?

2008-01-03T01:58:00Z

Is it a bad thing that I like the song Tessie by the Dropkick Murphys? Seeing that I'm a long-time Yankees fan, and Tessie is a song about the hated Boston Red Sox?

I've actually come to like a few of the songs by the Dropkick Murphys. They make for good workout music. I must have more, and no matter what anyone says, it doesn't take away from my love for the Yankees.

Am I Hip Now?

2007-12-26T15:30:00Z

How did it happen? The guy who refused to buy anything Apple now has two of their products in his house. Two IPod Nanos.

Turns out, Jodi had asked for one for Christmas. So a couple weeks ago, I ordered hers from the Apple Store. Got her the red 8GB version. When it came, I couldn't resist opening it up to take a look. I thought it was pretty slick, and I wondered if I should get one myself. But my listening habits didn't really dictate it. I listen to most of my music while in the car, or on the computer. In the car I already have the built-in MP3 player, and on the computer I just use Winamp. I don't really listen to music anywhere else.

But this past Sunday, I decided to take the initiative and join a gym again. And after working out there a couple times now, I quickly decided that I needed to be able to listen to my own music. It was probably just a good excuse, but nonetheless I think I am happy to have taken the plunge.

Now I just have to get some more music for it. I think I am going to go with Amazon's music service over ITunes though. ITunes still has that ridiculous digital protection on their music. Makes it hard to port my music to my work computer, or to a cd for playing in my car - both of which are perfectly legal options. But maybe I'm missing something, so if any of you Mac experts can steer me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it :)