Archive: 2009

88 entries. 25,517 words.

February, 2009

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 2009-02-10 3:47 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m ambivalent and skeptical about this latest stimulus bill. On the one hand, the idea of more government spending is kind of repulsive, but on the other hand, if they’re determined to throw money away, I can see where a mix of tax cuts and infrastructure projects is the best way to go right now. At least it’s better than buying “toxic mortgages.” 281 words.
• Droves Leave The Frederick Bandwagon. 2009-02-11 2:40 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Just saw this tidbit on technology industry wizard and RPV Chairman Jeff Frederick tonight: Key Party Switch in Virginia? Shaun Kenney’s analysis: NRO Campaign Spot: Loose Twits Sink Shifts. 78 words.
• Get Microsoft Virtual PC. 2009-02-16 12:01 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve heard about “virtualization” for years, but I never thought it was anything I needed to worry about. I just thought it was something for network engineers to tinker with in big, expensive data centers. It turns out there are plenty of handy uses for virtualization, using Microsoft’s Virtual PC, in your everyday computing life. 377 words.
• Recent Aggravator Updates. 2009-02-16 10:48 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  In case anyone uses it, there’s been some minor changes to the Aggravator lately. 197 words.
• How to Rename a Windows Service. 2009-02-17 10:27 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I came across a situation where I wanted to rename a Windows service that had already been installed. (In this case I wasn’t able to rebuild the application to alter the service installation properties, which would of course be the ideal solution.) Google was spectacularly unhelpful, so this is how you do it. 164 words.
• Zune Obtained. 2009-02-24 3:06 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I bought a Zune last week. Yeah, a Zune. Big woop. 615 words.

March, 2009

• Development Software I Use Now. 2009-03-01 2:55 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve setup a new development PC, so I thought it was time once again to review the software I normally install and use for development (I last did this in December 2007). 254 words.
• Virginia 2009 Statewide Candidates. 2009-03-01 5:16 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I finally sat down and made a list of the announced candidates for statewide office in Virginia this year. These are all the candidates I could find, which is not to say there aren’t any more out there that I missed (like third party candidates, which I found zero information about). 193 words.
• Comment Model. 2009-03-13 1:36 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Just so there’s a record of it, here’s how I’m planning to implement comments in the new blog platform. It’s geared toward a small community size. 413 words.
• Upgraded to AMD and Vista x64. 2009-03-15 7:38 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I recently upgraded my home computer to a 2.6GHz AMD Athlon X2 5050e with 4GB of memory. Parts for this upgrade, including a whole new case, motherboard and hard drive, cost about $350. 297 words.
• Eclipse and PDT for PHP Development. 2009-03-20 12:39 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I started looking for a PHP IDE again to replace the venerable TextPad. Last year I looked at NuSphere’s PhpEd, which was actually not bad but I couldn’t bring myself to spend $100+ on it just to get a little Intellisense. Now I’m looking at Eclipse with PHP Development Tools (PDT), which is free and open source. 1,782 words.
• New Web Site Live. 2009-03-22 2:44 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  The new web site is live. Old links should still continue to work, but the preferred site link is http://thomaskrehbiel.com or http://thomaskrehbiel.com/blog if you want to go straight to the blog. Let me know if you have any problems. 39 words.
• uvBlog 2.0 Code Released. 2009-03-23 2:42 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I posted uvBlog 2.0 (the PHP code that runs thomaskrehbiel.com) on Google Code under the GPL3 license. That basically means you can use it as long as you release the source code, too. 129 words.
• No Agenda Podcast. 2009-03-24 2:42 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  My new favorite political show is the No Agenda Podcast. It’s sort of a subversive, anti-government, rambling talk show with Adam Curry (the former MTV VJ) and John C. Dvorak (the technology columnist). 139 words.
• This Week In Tech Snobbery. 2009-03-25 1:44 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve been listening to a lot of tech podcasts lately, and I find it fascinating to hear that there is just as much of a “bubble” in Silicon Valley as there is inside the Beltway. 293 words.
• My URL Shortening Service. 2009-03-26 9:53 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  As part of my continuing effort to take over the world, I’ve created my own personal url-shortening service: http://uvurl.net. 80 words.
• Belated Goals for 2009. 2009-03-28 3:00 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I found it helpful last year to enumerate some goals and check back in with them from time to time throughout the year. So this year I’m trying it again. I actually started this list in January but am only just now getting around to posting it. 319 words.

April, 2009

• Mish Mash of Economic Topics. 2009-04-05 2:09 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  This is a collection of thoughts about the economic crisis, from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about economic theory and has no intention of learning anything about such a fundamentally unscientific, faith-based system. 544 words.
• Planning a Move to Hostgator. 2009-04-07 12:40 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I think I’m going to start working on migrating my home page to Hostgator.com. It’s quite a lot faster in terms of both latency and generating PHP pages. Omnis.com has been a great host for lo these many years but I’m getting weary of dealing with their general sluggishness. 64 words.
• Sun VirtualBox running Ubuntu. 2009-04-09 1:32 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Some time ago I wrote about the merits of Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007. This time I’m going to write about Sun VirtualBox, which has an advantage over VPC: It can run Linux distros without crashing. 300 words.
• The Best Tea Party Wrapup. 2009-04-19 2:29 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Normally I would write something about those silly partisan social gatherings aka. “tea parties,” but in this case, all I have to do is write: See The Daily Show, April 16. 37 words.
• Setting Up CruiseControl.NET. 2009-04-22 12:59 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  As an experiment, I’ve been working on setting up CruiseControl.NET at work, but I’ve run into a few annoying snags. 359 words.

May, 2009

• Tea Parties, Two Weeks Later. 2009-05-03 8:35 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Speaking of tea parties, it’s been roughly two and half weeks since the big FOX News Tea Party thing. As expected, all of those people that “weren’t going to take it anymore” meekly went back to their homes having accomplished absolutely nothing. Presumably they’re now sitting comfortably in their homes, watching YouTube and American Idol. 58 words.
• Obama’s First 100 Days. 2009-05-03 10:22 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I don’t really have much to say about Obama’s First 100 Days. There was some good stuff (stem cell research) and some bad stuff (bowing to that Saudi king). All in all, it was pretty ordinary for a presidential administration, as far as I’m concerned. 369 words.
• FarCry. 2009-05-03 10:44 PM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I picked up FarCry from Steam for $9.99 a couple weeks ago. It’s pretty cool, but it’s not blowing me away. 207 words.
• Grand Theft Auto. 2009-05-03 10:45 PM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  During most of the huge gap that I didn’t post anything about gaming, I was usually playing Grand Theft Auto 3 and GTA: San Andreas, which I got in a big Steam package for like $29.99. Now I understand why everyone thought those games were so revolutionary and awesome. 145 words.
• Lessons Learned from the New Blog Platform. 2009-05-04 12:21 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Recently I upgraded the software running my home page. I spent a fair amount of time adding a feature I called “nano posting,” which was essentially a way to insert Twitter-style updates into the stream of posts. In the intervening time I’ve discovered that I don’t much like my implementation of that feature. 236 words.
• Incorrect usage of SUBQUERY and feature is disabled. 2009-05-09 10:32 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I just looked at my home page to find it reporting a database error. “Incorrect usage of SUBQUERY and feature is disabled by allow_view_trigger_sp_subquery in /etc/my.cnf”. 115 words.
• Amiga Web Browsers Still Not So Great. 2009-05-10 12:04 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  One of the reasons we all had to leave the Amiga behind as our main PC was the inability of the tiny Amiga developer community to keep up with the armies of Windows developers and consumer demand. 252 words.
• BasicState Uptime Graphs. 2009-05-10 12:09 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  The following graphs show why I need to move my home page to another web host. 81 words.
• Police GPS Trackers and Clean Water. 2009-05-11 11:25 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I probably mentioned this before, but I’ve been listening to the No Agenda podcast a lot during my commute lately. The show is not very polished and it goes off the rails quite a lot, but it’s still very refreshing to hear a perspective on current events that isn’t rooted entirely in Democratic or Republican talking points. And hey, it’s free. 234 words.
• Just Say No To Patented Genes. 2009-05-14 12:35 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  The ACLU is often criticized (rightly, in some cases) for going overboard with their lawsuits, but this is one case where I fully support them: ACLU: Human Gene Patents Infringe Speech. 150 words.
• How To Fix IE8 Links Not Working. 2009-05-18 11:34 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  If you’re having trouble with Internet Explorer 8 not opening links in Vista, try running IE once as an Administrator. 240 words.
• Moving In Progress. 2009-05-21 9:04 PM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Tonight I hope to be moving the site to a new web host. 42 words.
• Moving Complete. 2009-05-22 12:29 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  The switchover is complete. 52 words.
• Call of Duty: World at War. 2009-05-27 12:21 AM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I finished the solo campaign of Call of Duty: World at War (PC version), which I picked up from Steam for half price last weekend. It’s another excellent Call of Duty production, but gameplay-wise there was nothing innovative about it. It’s just new stories and new locations. 428 words.
• Importing Twitter Posts Soon. 2009-05-27 1:46 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m working on some updates to the home page. In the process I’m going to import all of my Twitter posts, so at some point in the near future you’ll see a blitz of new messages appear on the page and in the feed. 94 words.

June, 2009

• Two Hands. 2009-06-03 2:49 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  This is a comparison of the personal convictions of two people. On the one hand, we have Dr. George Tiller. He was a doctor who worked for what he believed was the good of his patients in a quiet and unassuming way. 289 words.
• Virginia Primaries this Tuesday. 2009-06-07 12:30 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  This Tuesday is primary day in Virginia. 168 words.
• Site Update 2.1.90612. 2009-06-13 2:57 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Published an update to the blog software which adds a blacklist table to ban IPs. 38 words.
• Sending Signed Emails from Windows Live Mail. 2009-06-14 2:57 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out how to send digitally signed emails in Windows Live Mail (or Windows Mail) in Vista. Both consistently reported, “The message could not be sent. An error has occurred.&rdquo. 168 words.
• How to Create and Manage Certificates with OpenSSL. 2009-06-15 1:27 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Lately I’ve been on a crusade to digitally sign my emails. I tried some free email certificates from StartSSL and Thawte, but neither one was quite what I wanted (they just show an email address with something like a generic “free member” as the common name). So I decided to try making my own certificate authority with OpenSSL. 2,316 words.
• uvBlog 2.1.90615. 2009-06-16 2:09 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Published a minor update tonight which cleans up some cosmetic problems in the RSS feeds. 45 words.
• uvBlog 2.1.90621. 2009-06-22 2:46 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Published a new version tonight with mainly internal changes. 36 words.
• Huckabee’s Divisive Argument Against Abortion. 2009-06-24 2:25 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Mike Huckabee appeared on The Daily Show last week to discuss the touchy subject of abortion, and Stewart brought out what I find most annoying about the pro-life argument. 268 words.
• Gave Up On Ubuntu. 2009-06-28 8:09 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Recently I put an old 1.8GHz P4 computer in the living room to use as a dedicated media player for music, pictures and video. As an experiment, I first tried to install Ubuntu Linux as the operating system, thinking the Linux desktop had surely matured enough by now to perform this simple task. 320 words.
• A Router Firewall In Action. 2009-06-28 11:09 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Is this normal for a home router? :) I get a report every week filled with scary-sounding log messages like the ones below. I guess it’s good to see that these things are caught, but it makes one wonder what kinds of things are not getting caught. 89 words.
• What We Didn’t Have For Amiga Development. 2009-06-29 1:38 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  While using Cloanto’s Amiga Forever to massage the source code for Rend24 into something that actually compiles*, I was amazed at the basic functionality we had to live without during the time I did Amiga development. 285 words.

July, 2009

• On the Climate Bill and the Worthless Congress. 2009-07-02 1:13 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m no fan of Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) - in fact, I typically can’t stand the sound of his voice. But I applaud him for taking an hour to try to call attention to the way Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) Climate Bill (H.R.2454) was recently ramrodded through the House without anyone reading it. 319 words.
• Quick Thoughts on Sarah Palin’s Resignation. 2009-07-04 6:31 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Blogs on the right are saying Gov. Sarah Palin resigned because the left’s smear tactics finally got to her, blogs on the left are saying Gov. Palin quit because she’s dumb and irrational. 311 words.
• uvBlog 2.1.90704. 2009-07-04 10:55 PM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Published a new version today with one experimental new feature: Twitter integration via. OAuth 1.0a. This allows the site to access Twitter account data without ever needing to know Twitter credentials. 59 words.
• uvBlog 2.1.90712 – Now with OpenID. 2009-07-12 10:02 PM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Published a new version of uvBlog that includes experimental OpenID support. You can now register and login with an OpenID, and attach as many OpenIDs to your account as you want. I used the Zend Framework to implement it, which turned out to be relatively straightforward (once you figure out the necessary files to include). 65 words.
• Things Unrelated To Michael Jackson. 2009-07-14 2:31 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Here are some things I’ve learned recently from the No Agenda podcast, which I have not seen mentioned anywhere else in mainstream media. (The podcast is a terrible production but at least they have interesting topics - usually.) Investigations on any of these subjects would make it much more interesting to watch the news. 357 words.
• uvBlog 2.1.90715. 2009-07-16 12:51 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Published a new version with a redesigned page heading and some code changes to support the menu. Also encapsulated the encryption routines into classes so I can swap them out for new ones later. 40 words.
• Catherine Crabill and the Erosion of Democracy. 2009-07-20 1:24 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I feel compelled to write a little bit about Catherine Crabill (R), who is running for delegate in Virginia’s 99th district against incumbent Albert Pollard (D). Normally you don’t hear much about local delegate races unless you happen to live in the area, but in this case she’s caught the attention of the mighty Huffington Post after her ballot box and bullet box remarks were caught on tape by a tracker. 408 words.
• About. 2009-07-24 1:54 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  […] Krehbiel’s Korner is the official home page of Thomas Krehbiel. Accept no substitutes. 282 words.
• Deeds v. McDonnell: The First Debate. 2009-07-25 11:12 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I thought I’d write a little review of the first debate between Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds (D), which hopefully will not sound exactly like the hundred other partisan debate wrap-ups out there. 660 words.
• uvBlog 2.1.90725. 2009-07-26 12:46 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I know this will disappoint the brute force attackers and the hordes of people clamoring to register on my site, but I’ve disabled user registration for a bit until I finalize the security model I want to use. 75 words.

August, 2009

• Fallout 3 – A Bit Disappointing. 2009-08-17 10:59 PM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I basically finished* with Fallout 3 a few weeks ago, which I got from Steam for like $25. I’m actually glad I didn’t pay full price for it because I didn’t think it was that great. 253 words.
• The Buddy On The Mend. 2009-08-19 11:01 PM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  The Buddy is back to eating regular dog food after a week featuring vomiting, diarrhea, trips to the vet, IV fluids, antibiotics and bland food. Since he couldn’t eat, he also couldn’t take his pain meds so his arthritic hips flared up pretty bad. Don’t really know what happened to him but he’s getting back to his normal cheery self. 86 words.
• Technology Bits. 2009-08-20 2:02 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Updating the status of technology in my life, in no particular order. 366 words.
• Aggravator 3.0 Plans. 2009-08-20 2:07 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve started working on a major update to my RSS feed aggregator. With this new 3.0 version, I hope to resolve a lot of outstanding problems and polish things up. 76 words.
• An Actual Recording: Loop 90823 1.0. 2009-08-25 1:40 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m trying to get back into recording some music, so I’m starting with short loops to get the hang of it again. This particular piece consists of bass and electric guitar, along with my relatively new Roland V-Drums, which are quite fun to play. I’m licensing this recording under the Creative Commons BY-SA license… click the button below to find out what that means. 78 words.
• “Grudgingly Committed”. 2009-08-25 10:05 PM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I heard this excerpt on Gamers With Jobs Episode 149 and I thought it was so funny I should post it. They were responding to a listener who asked what their families thought of their podcast and gaming. 81 words.
• Jim Moran’s Town Hall Meeting. 2009-08-27 1:45 AM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I recorded about half of Jim Moran’s town hall meeting from C-SPAN Tuesday night and just finished watching it. Am I missing something, or are these things a total waste of time? Have they always been this animated or is this a recent development? 439 words.

September, 2009

• World in Conflict – PC Killer. 2009-09-06 7:02 PM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I picked up World in Conflict (with Soviet Assault expansion) for half price from Steam a couple weeks ago (yeah, I’m pretty fond of waiting for half-price weekend specials, if you hadn’t noticed). 329 words.
• Russia’s New Holiday: Programmer’s Day. 2009-09-13 12:20 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Happy Programmer’s Day! 3 words.
• Exploring New Programming Fonts. 2009-09-13 2:36 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve been a Consolas user since it came with Visual Studio 2005, but now I’m exploring some new programming fonts. Unfortunately, there are surprisingly few choices out there if you want a nice anti-aliased font that scales well. 257 words.
• F.E.A.R. 2 on the PS3. 2009-09-20 12:37 PM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I finished my first game on the new PS3 Slim last night: F.E.A.R. 2. 359 words.
• All Good Things. 2009-09-22 3:32 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  We had to put Tristan down tonight. It was a hard decision but we think it was the right one. The combination of old age, arthritic hips, giardia and pneumonia was just too much. 39 words.
• Windows Live Writer, Remember Password and Atom Authentication. 2009-09-26 1:25 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I was working on an Atom publishing API for my blog, since I want to use more secure authentication than is possible with the MetaWeblog API. But I had no luck getting Windows Live Writer to authenticate against my API even though it tested out correctly in every other way. I finally discovered it was a quirk of Windows Live Writer. 410 words.
• Silverlight 3: Web App Development That Doesn’t Suck?. 2009-09-30 2:15 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve had some ideas for a more, let’s say, “animated” web site, but frankly large-scale Javascript development is tiresome and the thought of delving into Adobe Flash or Flex or AIR or whatever they call it now is too depressing to contemplate. With the release of Silverlight 3, I figured it was a good time to take a hard look at the Silverlight platform to see what it can do. 310 words.

October, 2009

• It Happened Just The Other Day. 2009-10-07 1:38 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I almost cut my hair today. No wait, I actually did. On Saturday. 106 words.
• Playing Need For Speed SHIFT. 2009-10-08 2:01 AM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m currently playing Need For Speed SHIFT on the PS3. It’s pretty good but it takes a lot of work to turn off all the silly music. 450 words.
• Gubernatorial Smackdown Tonight. 2009-10-12 9:58 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  There’s a Virginia gubernatorial debate tonight at 8 PM (see Creigh’s writeup and Bob’s writeup). This one will actually be broadcast on local television (I think this is the first one but I’m not sure) so you won’t have to fight with streaming video to see it. 170 words.
• Google Wave. 2009-10-13 11:08 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Google Wave is all the rage among the digerati: If you don’t have a Google Wave invite, you are a nobody in the industry. (The super-elite even have more than one account!) LifeHacker is already running tips and tricks even though nobody can access it. My opinion on Google Wave? 497 words.
• Changing Ids. 2009-10-21 1:57 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  If you’re reading this in an RSS feed reader, you may have noticed duplicate entries because I keep changing things in the feed. 47 words.
• ASP.NET Can Be Annoying. 2009-10-23 12:21 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve been working on a new ASP.NET app at work, which gives me a new opportunity to complain about ASP.NET. 168 words.
• Playing FarCry 2 on PS3. 2009-10-25 2:57 AM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Normally I only play one game at a time, but Need For Speed SHIFT is pretty one-dimensional so I’ve also started FarCry 2 for the PS3. The story is nothing like the original FarCry, sharing only a name that honestly has nothing to do with anything. This time around you’re running (and driving) around an enormous chunk of Africa. 186 words.
• Exploring Java Web Development, Part 1. 2009-10-25 3:39 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Out of curiosity and recent disgruntlement with ASP.NET I decided to look into Java web development. I haven’t done this since around 2002, so of course I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew about it. Herein I will attempt to document the knowledge I uncover. 480 words.
• Exploring Java Web Development, Part 2. 2009-10-26 12:28 AM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Day two of reacquainting myself with JSP development, wherein we learn that IDEs are powerful tools but they are not very friendly to newcomers. 422 words.
• GridView, UpdatePanel and PopupControlExtender. 2009-10-26 10:56 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  This is a nightmarish combination to deal with in ASP.NET 3.5. I will attempt to document what I learned today about how to get this combination working. 690 words.
• Exploring Java Web Development, Part 3. 2009-10-29 10:32 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m happy to report that I’ve completed resurrecting JWebTrack, the terribly feature-incomplete bug tracking project I did for a Java class oh so long ago. After building an appropriate database and populating it with some data, the app worked like a charm. 167 words.

November, 2009

• A Peek at Google Web Toolkit. 2009-11-01 1:20 PM.
  • Technology
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  So I’m looking over this Google Web Toolkit thing since someone around here thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. I hate to disappoint but it’s conceptually the same as the much-hated ASP.NET WebForms - it’s a framework to abstract HTML and Javascript away from the programmer. But instead of .NET and Visual Studio, Google’s version is based on Java and Eclipse. 250 words.
• November Novelist. 2009-11-05 11:22 PM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’ve joined NaNoWriMo and will be writing a novel this month (NaNoWriMo is a “contest” where you try to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and November 30). I almost tried it a couple of years ago but didn’t go through with it. This year I’m going to win! 212 words.

December, 2009

• Modern Warfare 2 on the PS3. 2009-12-03 2:47 AM.
  • Gaming
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  Modern Warfare 2 is one of those rare sequels that is actually an improvement over the original. The single-player campaign took me about 7 hours to finish on regular, so don’t buy this game for single-player. The lasting value is in the multi-player experience, which is similar to, but subtly improved from, Call of Duty 4. 677 words.
• New Puppy Adventures. 2009-12-08 2:29 AM.
  • Blog
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  After Tristan’s passing, Cynthia and I both decided we wanted to get another dog. Cynthia wanted another collie and I was interested in a short-haired hound. We thought it would be fun if we each had a dog and did some kind of activity like agility training together. 891 words.
• Recent Climate News. 2009-12-13 5:30 PM.
  • Commentary
  • thomaskrehbiel.com
  
  I’m hesitant to write about Climate-gate, because I don’t want anyone to think that my beliefs align in any way with the beliefs of the myopic conservative mob. Still, there have been three recent incidents regarding climate change that further my own skepticism about what we were told was the “scientific consensus.” 763 words.