Never Underestimate Radical Vision

“Yakety yak, God’s talking back!”

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I often wonder if this is the MIT Ryan and David really went to. I wonder when registration starts.

Note: The file is a MP3 in a zip file.  Take a listen it is one of the funniest things I have ever listened to.

“Remember, fans, Tuesday is Die Hard Night. Free admission for anyone who was actually alive the last time the Indians won the pennant.”

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Last night we had our first softball game. We had an excellent game and won 18 to 4. Everyone really hit the ball well. Our fielding was the best I have seen it in a long time. We made all the plays we should have and even made some that we shouldn’t. There was one spot in the game that if someone would have had a camera they could have won some big money on America’s Funniest Home Videos. Unfortunately the situation involved yours truly…

I was up to bat with a runner on third. I had a real hard time waiting on the ball last night. I was out in front of everything. Well this pitch comes in a little inside and as usual I was out in front of it again. I hit a decent grounder between the third baseman and the shortstop. Even though it wasn’t hit very hard it should have easily made it through for a base hit, of course unless a great play was made. Unless is exactly what happened. After I hit the ball and saw it going right through and I started my jog to first, not being the blazing speedster that others are. Out of the corner of my eye I see the shortstop dive and stop the ball. Crap!!! Now I am going to have to run. Now being as big as I am when I start to run it takes a bit to get me to slow back done, even though my fast is everyone else’s slow. That being said I kicked it into high gear to make it to first. The shortstop threw the ball sitting on the ground and I stretched out with my left foot to hit the bag right before the first baseman caught the ball. All well and good you say, well not so…

The bases we have in this league are made to come out of their holdings relatively easy so that they will not cause injuries when sliding into them. Because of this design they are not entirely stable when stepped on. Well I hit the bag and it tilted slightly and with my momentum being at its peak I lost balance. I started to fall forward and tried to correct myself. But once this train gets to moving it is going to take a lot to stop it and the ground is a good way to do that. I fell over and did a couple rolls on the ground. The only saving grace is that I had enough momentum that I could pop right back up on my feet after the second roll.

Everyone that was there, thankfully not too many since the game was at 8 pm, started bellowing. I have to admit that it would have been a funny site seeing a fat guy like me beat out a play and start rolling on the ground. I of course got all the jeers from my teammates. I think Guy said it best when quoting a movie with a little humor in the voice, “That was awesome!” Man, why couldn’t I have just hit a homer instead.

I am not sure which hurt worse, the leg I scraped up in the fall or my pride. I am going with my pride. I guess it is just another reminder that I need to lose weight

You know that you have grown up in the 80’s and early 90’s if:

• You’ve ever ended a sentence with the word “SIKE”
• You watched the Pound Puppies.
• You can sing the rap to the “Fresh Prince of Bel-air”, and can do the “Carlton”.
• Girls wore biker shorts under their skirts and felt stylishly sexy.
• You yearned to be a member of the Baby-sitters club and tried to start a club of our own.
• You owned those lil’ Strawberry Shortcake pals scented dolls.
• You know that “WOAH” comes from Joey on Blossom.
• Two words: Hammer Pants
• If you ever watched “Fraggle Rock”
• You had plastic streamers on your handle bars… and “spokey-dokes” or playing cards on your spokes for that incredible sound effect.
• You can sing the entire theme song to “DuckTales” (Woo ooh!)
• It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
• You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
• You saw the original “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on the big screen…and still know the turtles names.
• You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
• You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
• You played the game “MASH” (Mansion, Apartment, Shelter,House)
• You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.
• L.A. Gear….need I say more?
• You wanted to change your name to “JEM” in Kindergarten. (She’s truly outrageous.)
• You remember reading “Tales of a fourth grade nothing” and all the Ramona books.
• You know the profound meaning of “WAX ON, WAX OFF”
• You wanted to be a Goonie.
• You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us… head-to-toe)
• You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.
• You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
• You took lunch boxes to school… and traded Garbage Pail Kids in the schoolyard.
• You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
• You still get the urge to say “NOT” after every sentence.
• You remember Hypercolor t-shirts.
• Barbie and the Rockers was your favorite band.
• You thought She-ra (Princess of Power!) and He-Man should hook up.
• You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.
• You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes. ( neon colors)
• After you saw Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure you kept saying “I know you are, but what am I?
• You remember “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”
• You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.
• You ever got seriously injured on a Slip and Slide.
• You have ever played with a Skip-It.
• You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.
• You’ve gone through this nodding your head in agreement.
• You remember “Popples”.
• “Don’t worry, be happy”
• You wore like, EIGHT pairs of socks over tights with high top Reeboks.
• You wore socks scrunched down (and sometimes still do…getting yelled at by “younger hip” members of the family)
• You remember boom boxes.. and walking around with one on your shoulder
• You remember watching both “Gremlins” movies.
• You know what it meant to say “Care Bear Stare!!”
• You remember watching “Rainbow Bright” and “My Little Pony Tales”
• You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot.
• You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
• You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool… and don”t even flinch when people refer to them as “NKOTB”.
• You knew all the characters names and their life stories on “Saved By The Bell”
• You know all the words to Bon Jovi – SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.
• You just sang those words to yourself.
• You remember watching Magic vs. Bird.
• Homemade Levi shorts.. (the shorter the better)
• You remember when mullets were cool!
• You had a mullet!
• You still sing “We are the World”
• You tight rolled your jeans.
• You owned a banana clip
• You remember “Where’s the Beef?”
• You used to (and probably still do) say “What you talkin’ about Willis?”
• You had big hair and you knew how to use it.
• You’re still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren’t you!!!

“At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.”

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NO SPOILERS AHEAD -

I was born in 1977 the year Star Wars was brought to the big screen. I am not sure when the first time it was that I saw the movie but like so many of my generation I fell in love, in love with a story of good versus evil, right versus wrong, light versus dark. I think the world was a little simpler place then and this story exploded through the hearts of so many young kids, myself included. Now the whole saga that I grew up with is coming to an end (at least on the big screen).

Last night I finished reading The Revenge of the Sith, the last episode in the Star Wars saga, novelization and I must say it is a great story. I could not put the book down. It definitely pulls the two sagas together in a way that makes you look at the first saga differently. It definitely portrays the tragedy that is Anakin Skywalker. It is a very dark story hence the PG-13 rating the movie is going to get, the first of the Star Wars movies to get this rating.

We all know that Anakin falls to the dark side and becomes Darth Vader; yet, the whole time I was reading the story I always tried to believe that he would resist in the end. I was pulling for the story to absolve Anakin even though I knew it wouldn’t. This left an impression on me and allowed me to connect to the scene in Return of the Jedi where Luke has to go to Darth Vader because he believes there is still good in him. The story allows you to see what it is like to be Darth Vader and brings a new twist on the character. By wrapping up this story I feel more connected to the original saga on a deeper level. It brings out great childhood memories for me.

I would recommend to anyone that reading the story will not ruin the movie. On the contrary, I believe reading the book will make the movie more of a holistic experience. The movie is not going to be able to get into the heads of the characters like the book can and this movie is all about emotions and how they can dictate our actions. By reading the book you can see the perfect plan in the Sith’s deception, as well as, its eventual demise in the first saga.

It is a great series of movies and now that it is almost over I am a little sad. It is just one more thing that reminds me I am already more than a quarter through my life and it keeps going down hill from here. Ah, to be a kid again.

“No. I want that feeling. The feeling that comes over a man when he gets exactly what he desires. I need that feeling!”

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Check out this video with Scott Guthrie and the latest tech preview version of Visual Studio .NET 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0 development here. I am a middle of the road kind of guy. I love .NET and I love Java. Java really needs a tool like this for its developer community. Eclipse and NetBeans are nice and if you could roll the two together you could have a nice editor but still nowhere as nice as the VS 2005 editor. I can not wait till it comes out. The video really excites me about doing some .NET development.

“You’re so wise. You’re like a miniature Buddha, covered with hair.”

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Scott Hanselman had a very interesting blog post, found here, about what great .NET developers should know. He broke it down into sections and I will attempt to answer Part 1 of the questions in this post. For those who are technically minded, go ahead and grade my answers and supply your answer.

Part 1 – Everyone who writes code

Describe the difference between a Thread and a Process?

A Thread is basically a path of execution through and application.A Process can have one or more threads. A Process will at least have one thread of execution when it starts but has the option to spawn more as needed.

What is a Windows Service and how does its lifecycle differ from a “standard” EXE?

A Windows Service is an executable that is conforms to a specific contract and is registered with Windows as a service. This gives the application the ability to run when the machine is started up within a certain security context. It is idle to use a Windows Service when writing server type applications because the app is able to run when the machine boots to Windows and does not need a user logged in. Its lifecycle is different in that it can launch when the machine boots instead of directly invoked from user logged into the system. It also has the ability to allow the app to Pause and Restart through the control application.

What is the maximum amount of memory any single process on Windows can address? Is this different than the maximum virtual memory for the system? How would this affect a system design?

The maximum amount of memory that 32bit Windows can address is 4GB. User processes can allocate a maximum of 2GB of memory. With a special switch it can be expanded to 3GB. You also have the option of paging memory to disk that can be a set size. I am not sure if this accounted for in the 2GB limit. The maximum virtual memory could me higher based on the maximum size of the paging file (which I am not sure of the maximum). If your application uses a lot of memory, server type applications, then you would make sure you had a good clean up mechanism for keeping you memory allocation within the physical memory constraints. If you use more memory than physical memory then it will start paging those items to disk which in the case of a database server would kill performance relative to RAM access.

What is the difference between an EXE and DLL?

An EXE is a executable program that can be run on a Windows platform. It has memory and a security context. A DLL, dynamically linked library, is a library of code that can be used in multiple applications that are linked in a runtime to provide extra paths of execution. A DLL is not executable by itself.

What is strong-typing versus weak-typing? Which is preferred? Why?

Strongly typed languages are those languages that demand their variables to be allocated a type at compile time. Weakly typed languages are those in which a variable’s type can be determined at runtime. I don’t believe one should be preferred over the other. I believe it should come down to the job you are trying to accomplish. Strong-typing gives you compile time checking possibly greatly reducing the amount of runtime errors and making the runtime code more stable. Weak-typing can possibly make the development of an application easier, quicker and more flexible but you trade a performance hit and possible brittle code to achieve this. It really comes down to the application requirements and what you are trying to accomplish.

(Note: I will skip the question about Corillian’s product as I know nothing about it and the term “Component Container” can be used differently depending on context. Since I know nothing about that particular product I am not sure of the context in which it is used. The COM+ container could be a good example of a type of “Component Container”)

What is PID? How is it useful when troubleshooting a system?

A PID, process identifier, is an unique identifier number given to a process when it is running. This identifier is useful when debugging applications and trying to kill applications as it is tied to this identifier. It is also useful when setting up logging using the Performance MMC.

How many processes can listen on a single TCP/IP port?

I believe the answer is only one at a time. If you could have more than that then one process could steal another processes data that it was waiting for.

What is the GAC? What problem does it solve?

The GAC, Global Assembly Cache, is a repository for .NET assemblies that can be used through all .NET code on a machine. This allows for common code that could be used in many .NET applications without having a copy of the assembly within its directory. This also helps with DLL Hell as the assembly is signed and versioned so you can have the same component but different versions accessible system wide running side-by-side.

So how did I do? Let me know.