with the controversial accomodation that Google has made to the chinese goverment, I thought it would be interesting to see if my sites came up.  Apparantly I am chinese approved:

its been forever since i've updated.
The book is moving right along.  I'm a little behind, but i have a week of vacation coming up that will help get things back on track.  Its a grueling, but rewarding process.  Quite possibly the toughest thing I've done, professionally, in my lifetime.  Fortunately the support and advice that I receive from Apress (www.apress.com) makes it bearable.
On top of the 50-60 hours of the work project, the 30 or so hours a week on the book, I'm also attending Jim Wilt's BizTalk 2006 class.  Its a few nites a week and we'll probably go a month or so on the current track.  Its an awesome experience.

Tonite was a slight change of pace from the normal “lab work” that we've done in previous sessions.  Keith Bauer (Tech. Program Manager - Biztalk - Central Div) was kind enough to stop by and lay out a good foundational understanding of BTS messaging.  Not only did he break down the various diagrams, but provided good “real-world” illustrations for each of the various messaging components.  Some in depth conversations spawned during the question/answer portion of the class and he was able to address a majority (if not all) of the questions asked.  As we progress thru the class, I'm reminded of why I became fascinated with the product in the first place.  There is so much to learn and so many layers of architecture that Biztalk brings to the table, that I'll be entertained for years.  Its the perfect product for an obsessive compulsive personality.

Well back to the book.  I still have an hour and a half left before my cutoff time of 2 a.m.

fun fun.

PopularMechanics.com has called Ajax one of the top 15 tech concepts to know in 2006.  Thats awesome that the technology is getting that kind of exposure.  Hope the excitement continues well into the summer.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/specials/features/2076876.html?page=4&c=y

Ajax
When you use Google Maps, the Web site doesn't pause to reload the page each time you zoom in or pan to the side, and the URL remains "maps.google.com" instead of the meaningless string of letters and numbers you see at older sites like MapQuest. Google Maps is using a new technique that Web-watcher Jesse James Garrett has dubbed Ajax, for Asynchronous JavaScript + XML. Weaving together existing technologies, Ajax will help make Web services feel more like programs that run on the user's own computer, Garrett says, releasing Internet content from the limitations of conventional Web design by reimagining the browser as an operating system.

sounds about right to me except for the part that says its a "new technique."  This technology isn't really new.  Just a little more compatible with modern browsers.  But hey, we'll take the recognition anyway.

i've begun the process of upgrading danwoolston.com to dnn4.0.2/asp.net2.0
i'm also in the process of moving all of my sites to webhost4life.

at this point in the game, i have nothing but praise for these guys.

being sick sucks.
i've been wiped out for a few days now and its killing me.  I have so much stuff to do that i dont have time for this.
reminds me of the quote from Predator:

“I ain't got time to Bleed.”

its 2 a.m. and i'm still researching for the book.
I'm in a groove now, i believe.  a few days researching and note taking.  a day of outlining and then 2 days of chapter writing.  aggressive and deservedly so.  this book is turning out to be the hardest thing i've ever done in my professional life.  and will most assuredly be worth every minute of effort i expend.  i'll probably stop at every bookstore on any trip i take, just to see if its on the shelf there.  assuming i have anything left in me, by the time i finish the thing.  took a break and goofed off in photoshop for a bit:

I have to say that the encouragement that i receive from peers/co-workers and friends has been motivational and a definite boost to morale.  its a very sustaining force when you're running out of clock, energy and vision at 2/3 a.m.
Attended the .Net Users Group meeting tonite at Waterworks.  It was a pretty good turn out tonite.  A few Nusofters (I believe 6-7 or so), Teksystems Reps and various others.  The pizza was good and the service outstanding.  I'm excited for whats in store for us next year.  Bill announced a tentative speaking engagement schedule for the coming spring, including yours truly as presenter of all things Ajax.  We'll also have a code camp coming up, that will include various gurus and a multitude of topics.  Nick and I will be there as well.  Although we have yet to really nail down some topics.  I'm sure that I'll probably be dishing out Ajax and hopefully Nick can get into some Community Server stuff, or possibly Asp.Net 2.0.  Its an exciting time to be a software developer.

Ranjan: Hi
daniel: hello
Ranjan: how may i help you?
daniel: it appears that i have been hacked
daniel: i have fix.asp, fix.htm etc... in every directory on my sites
daniel: the files say "hacked by eno7"
daniel: i'm the only administrator on these sites
Ranjan: what is your domain name?
daniel: i have a few
daniel: www.danwoolston.com
daniel: www.bishopsoftware.com
daniel: i've been deleting for a while
daniel: but there are so many files that theres no simple way for me to delete these fix.* files from all of them
Ranjan: if you are only administartor
Ranjan: please change your ftp password. database password
daniel: i'm about to do that
daniel: my main concern was getting the files off
daniel: it doesnt appear that theres any files other than the fix.* files
daniel: so theres nothing being served from the site
daniel: is there a faster way to delete all of these fix.* files from my sites?
Ranjan: you can delete through webshell
Ranjan: just login in your control panel
Ranjan: and click on ftp manager
daniel: k
Ranjan: then webshell windows will come
daniel: i'm there
Ranjan: then you will selete all files which are you want to delete
daniel: does that mean i have to go thru every directory one at a time?
Ranjan: yes sir
daniel: thats going to take forever because i have a bunch of dnn sites
daniel: i just did a search for fix.* and it says 3500 files
Ranjan: but there is a no any options to delete faster
Ranjan: you should going to directory one by one and delete all these files
daniel: well as an admin you could right click on the root folder, do a search for fix.* and then delete them
Ranjan: yes i knoiw
Ranjan: but that is risk
Ranjan: so i request to you if you will delete that through web shell or ftp client software
Ranjan: it will be better
Ranjan: ok Sir
daniel: not for me it wont
daniel: it will take me days to do it this way
Ranjan: you can download domain directory at your end
Ranjan: and delete it by search at your local machine
Ranjan: then upload it
daniel: won't that blow out my bandwidth usage for the month?
Ranjan: yes bandwidth will calculate for this month after download and upload
daniel: o.k. well i guess that's what i have to do. it's unacceptable and poor hosting.

o.k....so i work with web servers everyday.  i have a pretty good idea on how server administration should work.  i've been “hacked” or there's been a security breach at jodohost.  its a rather harmless hack.  just some crap files tossed around to every directory on my site.  well over 3500 files to be exact.  All of the files are named fix.asp or fix.html etc...(they all start with fix.*)  so deleting them from a root level is as simple as right clicking on the server root name, choosing search (for fix.*) and selecting all the search results and hitting the delete key.  would probably take about 2 minutes.  but jodohost wants me to hit every directory, manually, and delete the files, or, download my entire hosting package, do the search and destroy and upload them back to jodohost.  in the meantime, all that download and upload counts towards my monthly bandwidth.
i'm discouraged by this lack of support.  this is, as the saying goes, the straw that broke the camels back.  I'll be moving my sites to another host.  totally unacceptable.  avoid jodohost like a disease.

Given the rather disturbing trend of Xbox 360's overheating, I found it rather ironic when I came across this article on bloombergs site:

read the article for yourself at:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=aoslPl1.6C7U&refer=home

Guess you gotta be careful what you say about your products.

o.k.  this is a non-tech post, but here goes anyway. I hate stupid criminals.  its bad enough that they're doing something dumb in the first place, but to be blatantly stupid in your response to getting caught is just too much for me to handle. Take this idiot in Georgia (the country not the state), who chucked a grenade at President Bush is a total loser.  Read this quote from CNN.COM:

 Arutyunian acknowledged that he threw the grenade in the direction of the tribune and said that he would try again to kill Bush if he had the chance.

He has refused to testify before the court and demanded the presence of rights monitors.

"The verdict is preordained," he said Monday. "I demand that the international organization Human Rights Watch be present."

o.k. so another united states hater.  no big deal, theres tons of those morons out there.  whats interesting is his demand at the end there.  He demands that the Human Rights Watch organization be present.  I guess nobody filled him in on the fact that the HRW was born and based in the good ole' U. S. of A. (www.hrw.org).
idiot.

if anyone knows of a really good DTS packages backup utility, I'd sure love to here about it.
our current product, does an almost-decent job of migrating them from server to server, however its screwing up the visual aspect of the job and losing a few workflow processes along the way.  Case In Point:

The original package:

And now the ugliness it became, post migration:

I would pay good money for a tool that not only preserved the layout, but didnt orphan work flow process too.
There is a serious lack of decent third party DTS tools out there.  Hopefully sql2k5 will make migration a bit easier.

A Happy Customer At Spout.Com:

Our first generated order has run full cycle.  definitely cause for celebration!