Hosting provider (Godaddy, not our new host BoundGrid.net) has just killed the database before even the first backup, the grand opening will be delayed!

It is official (the http://www.dasblog.us User Forum is on-line).

I understand the format is beta or draft and I am sure the community will make a lot of changes over the next few days to weeks, but it's "here now" to support the DasBlog user community!

Check it out! http://www.dasblog.us

For reasons outside the scope of this blog entry I decided to a host a forum in support of the dasBlog software project. After tacit approval by the real powers that be in the dasBlog world, I went looking for appropriate forum software and hosting companies.

Again for reasons outside the scope of this blog entry, we decided to try a PHP forum. I was very impressed with phpbb and that is what I setup to support. I spent some hours doing the prep work, and even decided to create some custom graphics and mods for a theme for phpbb in support of dasBlog. (Those hours are not of the lost 12, unless we finally do drop phpbb)

Next, a brain storm hit me; I saw that Godaddy.com was offering both ASP.NET and PHP on the same Windows Server box. I then decided that it would be nice to have a sample dasBlog forum for a potential user to see, it could be linked from all the different dasBlog web locations, SourceForge.Net and the Wiki system etc. More bang for the buck on one hosting site. I opted for the professional hosting with lots of bandwidth etc.

So my Godaddy saga begins. I called tech/pre-sales support twice on Friday evening to confirm that they truly indeed had PHP and ASP.NET on one box and I could setup the site I envisioned at http://dasblog.us. They even had a reasonable price for a full years’ support, so I bought it. Around midnight after all my phpbb prep support efforts were finished I tried to install.

Well to shorten this Rant a bit, after talking to 7 techs and the effort lasting into Saturday afternoon. I found I had wasted 12 hours. The install crashed, the techs didn’t know why, and said they did not support phpbb. I finally determined that Godaddy runs PHP in safe mode with no database support of any kind, MySql or Sql2000.

Did I mention I spent several hours trying to get the install to work with Sql2000 after MySql crashed and support didn’t know why it would not work, or that the SQL2000 generation took hours? The final resolution was that if I was going to use phpbb, it would have to be on a Linux box, I have yet to find a host that will support the full dual environment on a windows box.

So right now, I have canceled my Godaddy hosting account, got a refund!

I might mention the Godaddy.com support guys and gals were extremely nice and professional, but they really don’t know what they support and what they don’t, and if your requirements are a bit technical, then their systems and polices are not up to the task.

Having said the above, I may use their Linux hosting, if we go that way! Now my weekend is shot, my wife has other plans for what’s left of it, and I probably won’t get back to this effort till next weekend!

(UPDATE TO THIS RANT)

I tried to go with Godaddy once again, via the linux route, got the entire forum running and Godaddy killed the database, after working with them for 7 days, I gave up on them forever and moved everything to BoundGrid.Net. I hope to never have a reason to rant about hosting again!

Very interesting article:  "The reason is very simple: Capacity. There’s a limit to how much information an individual can process and I think that by now, Microsoft managed to push the feature depth to the point where I can’t fit Visual Studio and related technologies into my head all at once any longer....."

Visual Studio Overload And The Specialization Gamble

Of course Clemens calls himself a generalist, when in actuality it's all relative. For me as an IT operations manager type, Clemens looks like a real specialist.

While I am no programmer, I do dabble, but I try to keep up (a little), in all the camps, .NET and J2EE (MS vs Linux). It's bad when you have to support customers in either camp or some who have projects in both. I work with/for the Department of Defense who has .NET and J2EE systems not to mention a ton of other technology old and new.

I have to keep conversationally aware of issues around DB2 and SQL2005, not to mention some who use MySqL or Oracle. And issues like Oracle's recent raid (purchase) of MySql contract teaming partner. It's enough to make your head spin. I would love to focus just on MS products.

OK here is the most exhaustive list of geek tools I have ever seen, it's true that if your not a Windows centric developer some will be of little value. I had no idea some of these even existed! 

Love this list: RoboSapient approved!

Thanks Scott!

Scott Hanselman's 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List

OK, here is an entirely new freeware MP3 player I wrote, (open source helps), it does not have any support files. Just put from 1 to 15 files named "track1.mp3" to "track15.mp3" in the same directory, and call it with the appropriate flash html, (sample file in the download) and away you go!

This sample plays the Wired CD from Nov. 2004 (Rip.Sample.Mash.Share) I particularly like #2 “My Fair Lady” by David Byrne.   Enjoy!

The other day I was talking to my mother via cell phone (she lives a 1,000 miles away in FL and I call her two or three times a week), and we got to talking about quotes.

She professed to have never heard the phrase “Quotable Quotes”, now you have to know my mother, there is not much that she either doesn’t know or hasn’t learned in life, but that phrase was new to her, or at least she had forgotten she had heard it.

I told her that “quote” tag lines were all the rage on forums and blogs, it was a computer geek thing, I least that’s what I said. Yes, I know Quotable Quotes has been in the Reader’s Digest for a million years, but I didn’t think of that then.

Now my mother is pretty computer literate, she has an e-mail account, and pays her bills on line etc. but bloging or “forum use” much less something like chat is not something she’s into. I went on to tell her that my use of forums and blogs over the years had sort of crystallized what I considered to me to be some of my favorite quotes, and that I used a number of them, something she was a little amused and maybe surprised at.

So here are some of my favorites as told to my mother, and a little of why they are special to me!

•     "Everything is relative"

While this is not only a truism, it fits my whole personality and sums up how I feel about just about everything. This is concrete in its own inscrutable way, I can deal with this.

•     "Carpe Diem" – Seize the Day

Enough said!

•     "All who wander are not lost" (JRR Tolkien)

Have you ever just Googled a random word to see where it would take you? Try it!

• "Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have. "

I am still working on this one…..

I could go on but having more than three or four favorite quotes is “Quote” Bad form…so says I.

Here is another freeware MP3 player version that I wrote, (open source helps), it features some funny audio, (32 mp3's)to show it's capabilities! Enjoy!

Player Download Link(Zip 137.83 KB)

Please note a txt file defines the songs and attribute banner info!

This is a freeware flash MP3 player that I created (with open source help), in one of my weekends of programming for fun and stress relaxation. It works and you can play it here!

The sample features a few songs my son wrote, sings and produces. I, like my son have not yet figured out where to use our talents, so we are posting them here!

If this wasn't so true it would be funnier!

I get these everyday in my e-mail from http://comics.com, I am probably jumping over the line of fair use here, my one and only Dilbert post, so go see comics.com.

Wes is really my daughters dog, but I have never liked a dog more than Wes, he is smarter than most people, and a whole lot nicer!

Well he’s really not a mutt, he’s a Siberian Husky.

By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 6, 1:02 PM ET  Yahoo News

DOVER, Del. - In a decision hailed by free-speech advocates, the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a lower court decision requiring an Internet service provider to disclose the identity of an anonymous blogger who targeted a local elected official.

It's too early to see if we have anything interesting to say?

Hello Video