My other ride is a blog!

I've decided to create another blog. I don't want to keep this blog updated with all my links to sites that talk about programing so I made a new blog at: http://learningcode.blogspot.com/.
I'll basically use that to post up tidbits about my progress of learning, or I should say, relearning to code. It may be kept more up-to-date than this one.

By the power of GreySkull…. I HAVE THE POWER!!! 300W of Power that is…

FINALLY!!!
This whole week I have been battling my computer trying to get it to work. Its been unstable eversince my Hard Drive Crashed a month ago. I finally decided to reinstall Windows on it to make sure that everything installed was fresh and uptodate.
that's when my problem came in. After formatting the disks XP would install with out a hiccup. So I would go through the routine of getting all the windows updates, this is where some of my problems would pop up. Some times I would get windows errors while installing the updates, so I would reboot and do the update again and it would work flawlessly.
Then I would go to install my software. Every single time I installed my copy of VB.NET 2003 Pro(Legal Copy, which I can't say about all my software) I would get a point during the install where it would say "Generating Script" and show a progress bar. I would get about 80% through the progress bar and then I would get either an error, the setup would shut itself off, or my system would reboot. After spending a few days of repeatedly doing reinstalls of Windows XP and scan disks to get through these and other oddities I thought that maybe my last hard drive was nearing its end too (This and my HDD that died are Western Digital's). So I went out and bought a new 120 Maxtor HDD. I formatted the new drive and setup partitions confident that my problem was now resolved.
I was doing this one night around 10pm (an hour after my bed time) and was completely exhausted from the day. After Doing a clean install of XP SP2 and starting the updates again… The same damn errors happened!!!!
I was pissed.
So now I've established that it wasn't a corrupt hard drive, so what was it?
I disabled the BIOS quick RAM check to see if maybe it was a problem with my RAM, I didn't think it was, and it wasn't.
Think Mike think!
What changed since my old HDD crashed?
I installed a new Sony DVD burner and a USB controller card. But both worked fine after installing them….
Hmm….
Thinking about how all the different components work in the computer I remembered that about 5 or so months ago my Power supply on this computer died and I replaced it with my power supply from my older computer… My 250 Watt power supply!
Now it made since, after installing the additional hardware in the computer pushed my 250watter to its edge. So I removed all but the required components to start my computer, thus reducing the required amount of power needed for my system. Then I installed windows again… and then went to install VB.NET….
Flawless install.

I cried. (Figuratively, of course)

So yesterday I was able to leave work early due to my cubicle being worked on. I went to BestBuy before class and was in luck, they had a 300 Watt power supply on discount due to it being an open box for $42, It was their last one. After class I installed the new 300, reinstalled the components I removed and for the last time reformatted my HDD's and installed XP.

So far all software, updates, and system changes when through with out a hitch.

Any one want a 250 Watt power supply?

Prof. Michael Youssef.

While searching google for tutorials on creating C# Classes I found an artical by Michael Youssef that is pretty good. He has a list of other articals that I want to read so I can catch up on C# and .NET. His profile and articals are posted on this link:
ASP Help, ASP Tutorials, ASP Programming,
ASP Code – Author Biography – Michael Youssef

Funny Link

I found this link on a blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/

http://home.cwru.edu/~cdt3/Funstuff/qantas.htm

I also just realized that I never faxed that information over regarding the SPCA.

Paint ballin’

I wen't paint balling today and it was a blast! I've always been cuirious about it and today I finally got my chance. It's pretty much like playing a First Person Shooter like Team Fortress but here in the real world, and let me tell you… in the real world you get tired! I realize how out of shape I am, I need to start heading back to the gym and cut down some of this extra baggage.

I'm tired right now and don't have really anything interesting to say about it except that i'd love to go again.

Scott Wiltamuth’s C# blog : Recommended Reading for Program Managers

Here is another Microsoft Blog i've come across that has what looks to me like a fairly good list of books to read for developers and managers.
Scott Wiltamuth's C# blog : Recommended Reading for Program Managers

Note to self

Just a reminder for myself, I need to fax Jim a reciept for taking back Bailey to the SPCA, Fax# 808-5386

ZabaSearch.com Free People Search

This site is pretty good at finding information, although the address it has for me is about 3 years old and it says my birth date was in 1950!

ZabaSearch.com Free People Search

MSDN Blogs

MSDN Blogs
Instead of posting links that I find from these blogs i've decided to post the 'big kahuna'. this is an extreemly interesting site if you're curious to the inner workings of the development end of Microsoft.

Underused Visual Basic Operator

Here was an interesting artical I found that helped me out with a class program I was writing.
http://www.devx.com/vb2themax/Tip/18578