I was recently trying to find the best price for internet service in my area and came across a question asking me how much RAM my computer has. I was surprised by the options in the dropdown.
32MB, really?
Luckily I had at least the minimum requirements.
I forgot to post a link to this earlier, but I wrote a blog post on using jQuery and YQL to get an RSS feed from a web site. The code uses YQL to grab the content of the external site and then jQuery to find a link tag pointing to the location of the RSS feed. This is similar to how Firefox displays the RSS feed icon in the address bar.
I finished up a post over on my company’s development blog. I describe an issue I had with using multiple connection strings with LINQ to SQL classes.
You can read the whole article over at http://lanitdev.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/using-the-web-config-connection-string-with-linq-to-sql/
After using the Windows 7 RC for the last few months, I finally had to update it once March 1st rolled around. I had been using the 32-bit version but decided to go with the 64-bit for the full version.
Since I work from home sometimes I was going to need VPN access to my work machine. I went to install the Cisco VPN client that we use and found that I couldn’t install it since it only came in a 32-bit flavor. I figured it would be easy to just get a 64-bit compatible version and I would be on my way. I soon found out that Cisco doesn’t offer a 64-bit version unless you purchase their “AnyConnect” software which is an additional charge.
Since I was already at home and needed a solution immediately I started searching around. I soon came upon a piece of software that some people of the forums said would work. The software is ShrewVPN from Shrew.net.
After I installation it took me a minute to figure out how to run it since it didn’t add an entry into All Programs. I browsed to Program Files/ShrewSoft/VPN Client and found a few application files to run. I eventually found that ipseca.exe was the file I need to run.
Once the app loaded up it was pretty easy to configure since I had the Cisco configuration file (.pcf) from work. I selected File/Import from the menu and browsed the .pcf file. Once it was selected I was able to connect to my work VPN without any problems!
While starting development on a new project in Windows 7, I ran across the following error when trying to access the database.
Cannot open database "<Database Name>" requested by the login. The login failed. Login failed for user 'IIS APPPOOL\DefaultAppPool'.
I initially Googled the error and found this forum post that helped me solve the problem. The site is in some other language so I will go over what you need to do here.
First, find the site that your application running under in IIS.
Select the site and click on “Advanced Settings” in the column on the right. See which Application Pool your site is running under.
Now, click on “Application Pools” in IIS and select the application pool that your site is running under. Click on “Advanced Settings”.
Scroll down to the “Process Model” section and click on the identity field. Once it is selected, click on the “ellipsis” button. In the dropdown under “Built-in Account” select “LocalSystem”.
I recently replaced my battery in my 2004 Infiniti G35 6MT and found the lack of instructions annoying so I am posting the steps I took to replace the battery. I hope this helps others that either don’t live next to an Infiniti dealer or just want to do it themselves (I fall into both categories). Any image can be clicked on the get a larger version.
Step 1
Remove the rubber lining around the battery cover that is closest to the windshield
Remove the rubber lining from the edge of the cover
Step 2
Remove the pins from the battery cover using a flathead screw driver. These should pop out rather easily. There should be 5 that you have to remove.
The 5 holes where there are pins to remove
Use a flathead screwdriver to remove the pins
Step 3
Remove the battery terminals from the battery using either a wrench or a socket. The negative cord should be easy to move out of the way, but the positive cord was a little tougher since it had some extra hardware on it.
The negative terminal has been removed and moved to the side
Preparing to remove the positive terminal
Step 4
Unplug the two plugs from the bottom of the positive cord in order to maneuver it out of the way a little better. Using a flatehead screwdriver push in on the little bracket that is holding each plug in place.
Push the clip in to remove the plug
The first plug has been removed
Both plugs have been removed and the main terminal is moved to the side
Step 5
Unbolt the crossbar holding the battery in place. I only unbolted the end that is clearly visible and then unhooked the other end by twisting it around until it came unhooked.
Unbolt the crossbar holding the battery in place
Step 6
Remove the battery. This can be tricky since there is very little clearance. You may need to bend the plastic covering a little in order to have enough room to get it out.
Very little clearance to move the battery out
Now that you have the battery out, you should be able to reverse the steps to put everything back together. Back in step 1 when you are replacing the pins, make sure to slide the pin up a little before pressing it into the hole. The image below should help out.
Keep the "disc" of the pin around the middle when you insert it into the hole
After I got everything hooked back up I fired up the car and I was back on the road.
Each year A List Apart conducts a survey targeted towards people who consider themselves web professionals. I have taken the survey each year and enjoy looking over the results to see how my current situation compares to everyone who takes the survey. To take this year’s survey, just go to A List Apart’s Survey Page. The survey only took me about 4 minutes to complete.
If you are interested in seeing the kind of data the survey collects, you can view last year’s results.
Occassionaly my co-workers and I like to go out to eat for lunch. We tend to usually go to the same places in a rotation. One of the places we frequently eat at is Fuddruckers. Some of you may be familiar with it from the movie Idiocracy where it eventually ended up as “Buttfuckers” if I remember correctly.
Since I am pretty frugal with my money, I tend to try and use coupons whenever they are available. My frequent visits to Fuddruckers had earned me a VIP card which was a reusable card that gave me 10% off my meal. I always found 10% off a good deal and never bothered trying to find other coupons.
On this particular day though, I noticed a co-worker had gotten a coupon in his e-mail. He mentioned he signed up for the “Fudd Club” and he received the email after signing up. I proceeded to sign up as well and I too received the coupon in my e-mail.
After we both received the coupon, we took a look at the coupon and noticed that it didn’t seem like a very good deal. The coupon was for a 1/3 pound hamburger, fries, and a drink for “$7 flat”.
The coupon I received in my e-mail from Fuddruckers
We thought the meal was only about $7.50 or $8.00 to begin with and the savings of a dollar wasn’t worth using the coupon since I usually don’t get a soft drink anyway. I decided to still print out the coupon and bring it anyway.
After arriving at Fuddruckers we immediately noticed that the meal the coupon was for was actually $6.99. Basically the coupon was for 1 cent more than the actual meal cost. I then approached the cashier and mentioned that I had a coupon for a hamburger meal and it was actually going to make me pay more than the meal cost. The cashier responded immediately stating that the coupon should have read “$6 flat” instead of “$7 flat”. I figured with my 10% VIP card I could still get a meal for $5.40 plus tax. Not too bad.
I went ahead and ordered the meal and presented by VIP card. The cashier then looked up at me and said my total was 31 cents. I thought I misheard her and asked her again how much. She responded again, “31 cents”. I quickly gave the cashier a dollar and got my change.
When I got to my seat I started looking over the receipt to see how I managed to only pay 31 cents. What happened was the cashier took off $6 instead of charging me $6. That essentially lowered the price down to $1. Then the 10% off for my VIP card was taken off the $7 meal instead of the $1. That lowered the total down to 30 cents.
I soon received my food and started enjoying the best 31 cent hamburger I have ever had.
After setting up this WordPress blog, I noticed the URLs my posts were given were absolutely terrible. In no way did they show any valuable information about what the page displayed. For instance, here is what the URL of my previous post looked like before I updated them “http://www.thetimbanks.com/?p=15″. If you saw that as a user you would have no idea what is going to be on that page.
After going through some of the settings in the WordPress administration, I came across the “Permalinks” section. I have to admit, WordPress makes it really easy to change the structure of your blog URLs. On the settings page there are 4 structures already setup for you to select from and there is a custom option as well. The option I opted for was the “Day and Name” option which shows the date and the blog post title in the URL. Now the URL for the previous post looks like “http://thetimbanks.com/2009/09/22/jquery-custom-selector-for-selecting-elements-by-exact-text-textequals/” which now gives the date the post was published on and the post title.
If you plan on using the custom option you may want to take a look at the WordPress Codex page on using permalink structure. There are some tags on that page that aren’t used on any of the default options that may help you out.
I just finished up writing another short blog post over on my company’s development blog covering a jQuery custom selector I wrote to find elements based on their exact text. There was a particular case where I needed to select elements in jQuery based on their exact text and not on whether the text contained a certain string. That ruled out the possibility to use the built in contains() method.
Lanit Development Blog – jQuery Custom Selector for selecting elements by exact text :textEquals
