Well the wifey is up in Seattle this weekend, hi sweetie and I have the whole weekend to myself.  What do I do now though?  Honestly, I'm fucking bored. 

I do have things to do today and I'm actually quite busy (take the dog to the vet to have stitches removed, mail some things, etc) so I'll be out and about but when I get home it'll be quite.  Of course I'll turn on some radios, one upstairs and one down, to make it less empty... feeling. 

Then later on today it's computer time!  No shameless plug this time, if you haven't heard of my side project too bad.  I talk about it enough so you avid readers should be in the know.  I'm hoping to get the free (Basic) version live this weekend but that might be asking a bit much.  It will be coming soon, I assure you.

Looking at my log files, I notice one person in particular in Redondo Beach, CA, who's been checking the site out waiting for it to go live.  Fadere, you know who you are.  And incase you read this send me an email and I'll hook you up with the Premium version free for life.  Before you ask, Fader is a friend of mine from L.A. so don't get your panties in a wad about having to pay for the Extended or Premium version.  Be my friend and then we'll see.

Damn, that non-plug went longer than I thought.  Honey, I miss you and I'll see you online later on today.

Love ya!

Wow, it's Thursday already?  Where has this week gone?

Things at work here have picked up and I'm now busier than ever.  What does this have to do with my blogging?  Plenty.  For the most part, I like to take small breaks here and there, because I'm not an indentured servant or out right slave, and when I do I usually blog a little.  Now, that things have picked up here at work, I find myself taking less breaks throughout the day opting for a 15 minute walk around the grounds instead (Geez, sounds like I'm in prison).

At home, it's actually not as busy but when I'm there and I get computer time, I usually work on my side project; www.pytheus.com.  So blogging at home doesn't always work out although it may be a necessary evil because I do enjoy it so.

Anywho, I just wanted to inform my readers (all of whom I basically know by name) of my lack of entries this week and perhaps next week... and the week after -you get the picture.  Unless of course I change my ways and start blogging at home… which I need to start doing.  Oh, did I mention that I'm a procrastinator?  If I didn't you should see the irony.

I just couldn't resist*

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*He'll get it

Today marks the first day of many in which our house will be professionally cleaned.  I dislike the term "maid" because it won't be just one person, rather a small group of cleaners.  Good lord, it sounds even worse now... we don't have just a maid, we have maids -plural.  Does this make my wife and I a bit snobbish?  Personally I don't think it's a bad thing nor do I think it makes us elitist in any way, shape or form.

We have a fairly big house with 7 cats and 3 dogs... and 2 birds... and 2 aquariums, so keeping up the cleaning is not an easy task.  We do our best with maintaining but with me working full-time and her going to school full-time we don't seem to have time to really clean.  Example; we've lived in this house going on 2 years now and we've mopped the kitchen floors a handful of times.  Don't ask my wife how many times we've dusted, she'll give you an exact number and believe me, you'll be able to count it on one hand and it doesn't make her happy that she can do that. 

So... let the cleaning begin.  Cleaners, start your vacuums; it's time to suck!

I know we live in the Pacific Northwest and I know it rains here but come on already.  I haven't seen this much rain since... well, never. 

Granted, this is only my third year here and the first 2 winters were mild (so they say) so this is my first real, wet winter.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining I like the rain but throw in a sunny day here and there.  Make me feel warm and fuzzy for just one day and I can stand the other 2 weeks of rain. 

Luckily, the weather report I receive via email every morning from Intellicast.com says that it'll be partly cloudy tomorrow, sunny Sunday then mostly sunny again Monday.  Oh how nice that would be.  Come on weather predictor please be right.

Bring on the sun.

Problem:
While working on a custom Windows Service today I ran into a situation where I couldn't uninstall it (via the .msi, installutil /u, or "add/remove programs").  Countless installing/uninstalling lead to this but I had to get it off so that I could complete the task.  

Solution:
Delete the registry key associated with it
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/[service name]

Note:
This is and should be used as a "last resort" for removing a service if all of the below options don't work:

1. InstallUtil /u [service name] fails.
2. The .msi setup package cannot "remove" it.
3. "add/remove programs" fails to remove the service as well.
   

Also, You'll have to reboot for list to update in the Service Control Manager (SCM).

Despite their pleas that there is nothing "wrong" with them, 2 of our beloved pets are going to be "fixed" today by the good folks at Rose City Veterinarians.

Tsuki (Tink for short)



and Nikko (Little goat-girl-that'll-eat-anything for short)



Be brave little ones.

Problem:
When using System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient to send email I received the following error with the resulting stacktrace:

System.Net.Mail.SmtpException: Failure sending mail.

Failure sending mail. Unable to connect to the remote server
An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)
at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.InternalConnect(EndPoint remoteEP)
at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address, ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Int32 timeout, Exception& exception) System

Solution:
If you run into this error from your dev (local) host try disabling any anti-virus software.  The software is blocking email from being sent by mass emailing worms and it treats the request above as such.

Notice this line in the stacktrace

    An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine

This is the anti-virus software blocking your request.

Credits:
After reading this thread from Microsofts forums, I found the solution near the bottom.  Oddly enough, it was not set as the "accepted answer" like it should have been hence this posting.

Damn!

For some reason, I woke up thinking today was Wednesday but I just realized it's not; it’s only Tuesday!  For 2 hours I've been thinking that it’s the middle of the week and that the weekend is just around the corner.  

I need to go back to sleep.

Nice!

A co-worker, John Batdorf, I used to work with who now works at Corillian (a respectable company), has landed his picture onto Scott Hanselmans blog (before you ask, Scott is the lead architect at Corillian). 

Here's the picture:



above: John Batdorf
below: Scott Hanselman

The blog entry is about 2006 being the year of video chat.  Unfortunately, I don't and have yet to use video chat.  I don't knock it; I just don't need it right now.

Congrats John!

Dell PowerEdge 6350

• Intel CPU: QUAD P3 XEON 550MHz w/512K Cache
• RAM: 2GB of ECC EDO Memory
• Floppy: 1.44 Floppy Drive
• Hard Drive: 3 x 18GB 10K SCSI Hot Swap Hard Drives
• Backplane: 1 x 3 Bay 80Pin SCSI Hot Swap
• On-Board SCSI: AIC 7890 U2 LVD & 7860 USCSI
• RAID: PERC 2 w/64MB Cache
• CD: Internal CD-ROM Drive
• LAN: 2 Network Cards
• On-Board Video: ATI Rage Pro 3D 2MB SGRAM
• Power Supply: 3 x 275 Watt Redundant Power Supplies.
  

It came last night.  My new server; Xerratus' new home.  Aint it pretty?  I'll get it up and running over the weekend and convert my old 1u server into a mail server. Hehehehehehe I can't wait!

Well, it’s been a little over 2 weeks and my father-in-law is going home today.  I must say that I’m getting used to him being here and I will miss him.  When we go to the store or a movie or out to eat, who’s going to bitch about leaving on time, the distance it takes to get there and why the hell it’s still raining (welcome to Portland).  My wife will miss him more but that goes without saying, it’s her father, he raised her and they are very close. 

The little air purifier we bought just before he got here worked very well (Ed is a pipe smoker) and helped me out tremendously.  Usually the smoke and ash tray smell turns my stomach within just a few minutes, surprising since I am myself an ex-smoker.  

We had our ups and downs and we all got on each others nerves but hey, that’s family… or at least that’s how I know family to be.  Oddly enough, since the New Year I have been very patient.  If you know or knew me very well, you’d understand what I’m referring to.  After all, 2006 is the Chinese Year of the Dog… I’m a dog person so this works out well.  At the same time I just found out that 2005 was the year of the rooster.  Hmm, might explain my over abundance of cock jokes this year.  Honey, kudos to you for putting up with me and my cock… jokes.  Damn, I need to stop.

Anyway, I hope Ed gets back to Pittsburgh safely and on time.  Honey, rent some cheesy movies and relax today, you deserve it.

Funny... I could've sworn that the end of the world was supposed to happen 6 years ago (5 actually for those extremists out there).  Where are all of the people who said the world would end in 2000?  Are they living in caves or have they finally come to the realization that perhaps they were wrong.  Wonder if their rations will run out soon prompting them to leave their bomb shelters?

Dumbasses!

For the record, lets get one thing straight.  Saying the world will end when humans become extinct is a fallacy and a bit arrogant in my opinion.  The world was here billions of years before humans and it will be here billions of years after we're gone.  

We revolve around the earth; the earth does not revolve around us!

... today, we gamble!  Just as our ancestors did.  Right?