The Greatest Song in the World

No, unfortunately, none of this week's songs have been either the greatest song in the world or The Tribute to the Greatest Song in the World (which is what I'm listening to as I post this....), but they are pretty darn good songs in their own right.

Check 'em out...

Monday: F-Stop Blues, Jack Johnson (Yes! finally, some JJ!!)
Tuesday: I'm a Terrible Person, Rooney (Great Friday afternoon rock)
Wednesday: Life for Rent, Dido

I did wake up with a song in my head on Sunday this time, but for the life of me, I haven't been able to remember it. It's another one of those random songs that gets played occasionaly on KNIN, but isnt even remotely in my "library of cool." All I remember about it is that somewhere in one of the verses, its talking about "Sally," but not the Mustang variety. Oh well...

Jorin

Ketchup

Man, even with daily occurences, I still can't seem to post daily. Sorry, anyone who is actually reading this.... I'll try to play catch up today.

Well, to my defense, no music graced my awakening on Friday morning, so there was nothing to post. But on Saturday, I had one of the most random Limp Bizkit songs in my head, A Lesson Learned. In fact, it only has a Play Count of "2" in my iTunes and 1 of those was me listening to it on Saturday morning to make sure it was the right song....so there is no telling why that popped in my head. It's kind of a depressing song too....

Now, the only thing consistent about any of this is that no songs are in my head on Sunday mornings. This Sunday was no different.

However, Monday was fun because I woke up with track 11 of the Snatch Soundtrack in my head. Ironically, however, it's not even a song. Just a line from the movie, as spoken by Alan Ford:

"Do you know what nemesis means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personfied in this case by a 'orrible c***..... Me!"

If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. Brad Pitt (the slut) is quite good in it, and it's probably Guy Ritchie's finest...although I haven't seen Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Tuesday I woke up with another commercial jingle in my head, and thankfully it left me before I could record it somewhere. This morning Cassie's alarm disturbed my final moments of slumber so I don't think I had one today either.

Sorry the last few days have been fairly boring and sorry that the songs that I do come up with are fairly random and obscure...but what do you expect when you listen to iTunes party shuffle at least 8 hours a day while staring at a computer screen?! Oh...and any new music samples will be greatly appreciated from any generous donors. In fact, Stevo owes me some Rage already, so we'll see how that goes...and Peter Gabriel is as good a guess as any, Rick. I haven't heard the commercial again, but I will remain vigilant and increase my TV watching.

You gotta do what you gotta do....

I am Jack's....happy song?

Today's music was brought to us courtesy of The Who. Happy Jack...perhaps best known for use in a very funny Hummer commercial (one of the only funny Hummer commercials).

Speaking of commercials, I keep hearing this new commercial that has an awesome song as its music. It sounds like the Beatles, but I'm not sure. Also, I am not watching the TV usually when the commercial comes on, just listening in the background. Either way, the song rocks and I'm gonna need to get that somehow.

If anyone knows what song it is from this very elaborate and highly-detailed information I just provided, please hook me up. Otherwise, I'll keep investigating and then post/google when I know more.

Done.

Only the blue cars?

Today's "selection" contributes further to the confusion of the songs in my head and where the heck they come from....

Counting Blue Cars by Dishwalla

I cannot remember the last time I heard that song played anywhere, much less why I would have it playing in my dreams.

Until tomorrow....

Musak in my head

So, I've been too busy to post lately, but I have been keeping track of my waking music. Here's how the last days have broken down:

Thursday - See Last Post
Friday - Out of My Mind, James Blunt
Saturday - I think there was something, but it was very weak and soon forgotten...
Sunday - Maybe my weekend dreams just don't have music?
Monday - Place for My Head, Linkin Park

Now, today is the real kicker... It wasn't a "song" at all...

"Don't let allergens or irritants do you in...
Ask your doctor 'bout Astelin!!"

Wow...

(Oh yeah, and Rick... You too can be mondo sleek and link to iTunes like me. Just find a song in the iTunes Music Store and right click and "Copy iTunes Music Store URL" then paste that as the link in Blogger. )

My New Thing

So, every morning, I wake up with a different, seemingly random song in my head. While I am chopping vegetables for Cassie's salad, I can think of nothing besides this song.

I just realized that I may be unwittingly holding the secret to man's greatest problems in analyzing the human psyche. To perform my civic duty, I shall record for posterity, in the form of an iTunes playlist (what else?) these songs. Independently, these songs are nothing more than whimsical tunes and perhaps the soundtrack of my dreams. But together...together, these songs will undoubtedly combine to form some sort of message revealing the answer to life, the universe, and everything (42?) Maybe I'll even make it an iMix and see how many stars I can get for my wonderful contribution to science...also, I will use this as incentive to continue to have something to post to my blog.

Beginning today, with O-zone's Dragostea Din Tei, the project shall begin. Check back with me later to see what I am able to discover. If Cassie and I can't crack it, maybe Russell Crowe can help...nah, he looks busy.

J to the Izzo...

Replication and Transmogrification

For those of you who find this blog too erudite and are craving something more pedantic and fun, I encourage you to visit my new MySpace over at www.myspace.com/mojorin. Consider it a transmogrification of this blog.

I have been pressured into this by the closest of friends and have been assured it will be fun.

We shall see.

-Jorin

P.S. Also, check out the funniest site online at www.chucknorrisfacts.com.

I'm Rich. I'm Rich.

It has been a while since I last posted, but what can I say, it's been incredibly busy at work and my free time has been focused entirely on losing fantasy football. I believe I am now second, only to Brian, in the ratio of time spent researching to number of marks in the win column. But, I am on a 2-game winning streak, and Stevo is next on the chopping block. Oh, and per request, then there is Rick...who so kindly became the first to bow to my impending greatness.

Halloween is 6 days away and its time to start carving pumpkins. Well, its actually probably well past time to start carving pumpkins, but since when have we ever been early to do anything? Here is the technique I am going to try this year. It will undoubtedly make quite a mess and be very fun.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8102_carve-fancy-pumpkin.html

Also, check out how much the ol' Slayblog is worth! (It's on the right side of the page) I'll be accepting offers from all interested purchasers. No reasonable offer will be refused!

Have your people call my people,

Jorin

Monkey See, Monkey Do

So, I haven't done the best job of keeping up with this countdown. Only one person is reading it anyway.

THE DAVE CONCERT IS TOMORROW!!!!

My last link is to the Dave Matthews Band "Road" Site where you can see images, find out more about the tour, as well as see the set list for each concert on the tour. It is updated live, so you can see what songs youre missing by not going to the concert as he plays them.

Road Site: http://www.davematthewsband.com/road/index.html

LIVE Setlists: http://www.dmband.com/road/SetlistsDir/setlist.asp

Jorin

Shoes Untied; Tongue-Gaping Stare

5 days left!!!

Check out the Dave Matthews Fan Radio Station here: http://music.yahoo.com/ar-303943-launchcast--Dave-Matthews

This will help some of you cram for this weekend :)

8 days and counting….

So, who’s writing this blog anyway??  And how did you know that today I was gonna cover the opening act??

Oh well, steal my thunder as you may, I shall not be deterred.

The opening act is scheduled to be Victor Wooten of Bèla Fleck and the Flecktones.  Bèla’s band has long toured with Dave (in fact we ran into them at a hotel room when picking someone up in Dallas before the concert one year).  The Flecktones and DMB have similar “earthy,” “instrumental” sounds, and Victor is more of a Jazz musician (read: “boring”).  I’ve heard Victor on several Dave live tracks, and he’s good accompaniment, but hardly an opening act.  In other words, he’s nothing worth missing a good quality Dallas dinner for (hint hint).

Today’s Trivia:

Dave Matthews Band has 2 ice cream flavors named after them.  Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies and One Sweet Whirl (a play on words from one of their cooooler songs, “One Sweet World”….this one seems to no longer be a flavor, but it once was…I assure you!)

Black Kettle Countdown - 9 Days

So, Rick has reminded me that I haven’t been providing due attention to my blog.

Journal Entry – 11:24 AM : Pot called Kettle “black.”

Just Kidding, but I didn’t even think to post a “giddy” countdown for the Dave Matthews Concert up here, but now that it has been brought to my attention….a countdown you shall have.  Let them eat cake.  (wow, that sounded kinda sinister…)

Anyway, Dave Matthews and his Band will be playing at the Smirnoff Music Centre on Saturday, September 3rd – 9 days away.  Rick, Tina, Cassie, and myself will be in attendance and dancing like fools.  If you were cool, you’d be coming too….

I figure in lieu of some sort of grand pomp and circumstance that would have required much more preparation, I will just provide daily links and trivia that will serve to edify all and continue to impress upon the world that Dave Matthews is one of the greatest singers, songwriters, and performers that this generation has known.

Today’s Trivia:  Dave Matthews’ father was a Physicist.

Check out these videos for his two most recent singles off his latest album: American Baby & Dream Girl  (youll never guess who the “dream girl” is…)

http://music.yahoo.com/ar-257048-videos--Dave-Matthews-Band

(I know, I know…I don’t like Yahoo! either, but for some reason iTunes doesn’t have any Dave videos and they don’t have any Dave songs besides the latest album!)

Until next time,

Jorin Slaybaugh

Dave Concert

Dave Matthews actually decided to make a stop in Dallas on this year's summer tour. Tickets go on sale Tomorrow, July 23 at 10:00 AM. (Sorry for the late notice...)

Cassie and I will be attending, and if anyone else is interested, let me know and I'll grab your tickets so we can try not to get burned so badly by Ticketmaster's order fees. Just comment on this post and let me know. I don't think it will be sold out right away, so I may hold off a few days to see if anyone is interested. We will be getting lawn seats since its at the Smirnoff Music Centre (The Starplex for you old fogies...just kidding...last time I went it was still the Starplex, too).

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C003AE5AFFB437D

Prices:
Lawn: $40 (+ applicable Ticketmaster Fees)
Terrace: $58 (+ applicable Ticketmaster Fees)

-- Jorin

The Beer Man

For those of you who check this blog, but maybe don't regularly check Stevo's, now's as good a time as any, because he's talking about beer again :)

They finished bottling the beer they brewed over the Independence Day weekend, so head over there, leave some comments, and maybe you'll score one or two.

His Beer Post
Causedawg's Blog Homepage

Jorin

Podcasts and Pictures and Google Earth....OH MY!

Podcasts

First, Podcasts are now available on iTunes (version 4.9 or later). For those of you who aren't familiar with podcasts, they are someone's clever play on words for "broadcasts" that you can download and store on your iPod to take with you. Basically it is just an mp3 (or AAC) file of some previously recorded broadcast such as a basketball game or yesterday's news. The cool thing about them is that through iTunes you can subscribe (some are free, some cost) and then when new episodes of that podcast are available, it automatically downloads them so you can listen to them later on your computer or iPod.

Free iTunes 4.9 download
iTunes Podcast Directory

---

Picture Posting

For those other bloggers out there, Blogger lets you upload images directly now instead of making you use that infernal program, "Hello." Just click on the picture icon when composing to upload a picture.

More Information

---

Google Earth

Last but not least, last week Google released their new 3D Mapping software, Google Earth. This is awesome! It is an extension of their already cool mapping software that can be found online (http://maps.google.com). Online, you can find directions and locate places just like you can on MapQuest and Yahoo! Maps. But Google also allows you to view satellite images of the place once you have found it.

Now, the cool part about Google Earth is that it renders those items in 3D. AND it still has all the features of a program like Microsoft's MapPoint that shows you where hotels and restaurants are in the area. (But it can also show you cool things like where earthquakes have happened!)

Either way, you just have to see it to believe it:

The Grand Canyon (click to enlarge)

Mount St. Helens (click to enlarge)

So, if you're not impressed by that, I'm not sure what it will take, but you should at least download it for yourself at http://desktop.google.com/download/earth/index.html. Now, the product is still in Beta, so if the site says you can't download it right now, you can either wait or click here to download the copy that I downloaded (10 MB).

NOTE: You will need a good graphics card to truly enjoy this software.

More About Google Earth

---

Jorin Slaybaugh

8766 days...

So, here I am, seven minutes into the 24th calendar year of Jorin Slaybaugh...

Exciting.


Thinking back, the 23rd birthday had me a little worried about the future. I mean after all, look at what these very "intelligent" people had to say about it:

Twenty-three and so tired of life / Such a shame to throw it all away. / The images grow darker still / Could I have been anyone other than me?
      -- Dave Matthews, Dancing Nancies

A decade ago / I never thought I would be at twenty-three / on the verge of spontaneous combustion / woe is me.
      -- Incubus, Pardon Me

And that's about the time she walked away from me / Nobody likes you when you're twenty-three / And I'm still more amused by TV shows / What the hell is A.D.D? / My friends say I should act my age. / What's my age again? / What's my age again?
      -- Blink 182 / Whats My Age Again?

So, understandably, I was slightly concerned I might grow tired of life, develop A.D.D., and ultimately burst into spontaneous combustion. Woe is me, indeed.

On the contrary, however, I have to say it was the best year of my life. I started a new career (first time its not just another job) that I love. We just recently moved into our new house. I had a blast in San Antonio. We got Cassie a new car. I started a blog. I mean, really, can you ask for much more?

So, I'll take this opportunity to publicly give credit where credit is due without anyone having to see me get all gushy.

I'm thankful for all my friends and family to whom I don't say it enough. I love you guys.
I'm thankful for the way that history has been controlled for my benefit.
I'm thankful for my job.
I'm thankful for my life.
I'm thankful for all the things that I have.
I'm thankful for all the things that I don't have.
I'm thankful for Google and Dell.
I'm thankful for cookies.

I think that about covers everything, so its high time I get on living (read: "sleeping") and see what 24 has in store for me.

Jorin Slaybaugh

P.S. I don't know of any songs talking about being 24, so if anyone has any insight on some, it might be really helpful :)

Currently listening to: Sweet Baby James, James Taylor.

Words of Wisdom

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

-- Samuel Johnson

Microsoft Update

So, its just some more techno-babble, but something some of you may find interesting/helpful.

Most of you are familiar with Windows Update, the technology that searches your computer and notifies you if there are any available critical updates or software patches for your computer. This can either be done by turning on automatic updates and you will get a small icon in your taskbar that tells you when updates are available or by manually visiting www.windowsupdate.com.

However, the problem was always that your windows was updated and secure, but your other Microsoft products such as Office or other applications were not updated through that process. You always also had to visit sites like http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/default.aspx to update that software manually.

Well, with version 6 of their Updating tools, Microsoft has released "Microsoft Update." This searches for applicable updates for all Microsoft products on your computer. So, with one fell swoop, you can update Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, etc to the latest, patched version.

I recommend that you install the Microsoft Update tool by going to http://update.microsoft.com. However, it is imperative that you understand several caveats:

• Please ensure that you have a legal copy of your Microsoft software. Or, if you don't, and you still download this software, please have a plan in place that involves sending your children somewhere safe besides my house while you are in prison. I will, however, keep an eye on any money that you want watched while you are in the clink.
• You will have to install several ActiveX controls and agree to several License Agreements. Please read carefully and ensure that anything you install is published by a trusted source such as Microsoft Corporation.
• I recommend that you back up any and all critical data before installing any of the updates. Many of these updates are system critical and can have adverse effects on your system if not configured properly.
• I recommend that you NEVER install any of the recommended Hardware updates. Only install driver updates from the manufacturer of your computer. (I have had serious, unrecoverable issues from installing these driver updates--in particular, Video driver upgrades. It is very tricky to recover from an issue when you cannot see anything on your screen.)

Any other questions, post them here.

Till next time,

Jorin Slaybaugh

iTunes in the Taskbar!!

So, as I've already mentioned, I love iTunes. However, there was always an excellent feature of Windows Media Player that I missed while using iTunes. Microsoft actually turned the table on Apple this time and thought of something creative and brilliant first. However, fortunately, Apple has taken a page from Microsoft's book and learned to copy quickly.

The feature I am referring to is the ability for play controls to still be available even when the media player is minimized to the taskbar. This is great for someone like me who listens to music in the background all day long while working on other stuff. This way, when the phone rings or a song comes up that I don't like, I can control playback without restoring the application to full size.


Microsoft's Genius Idea

And now, as of version 4.7, iTunes has provided the same functionality!


Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V from the folks at Apple

For those of you who use Windows XP/2000 and want to use either Media Player or iTunes in a similar capacity, first download the latest version of either software by clicking on one of these links (Windows Media Player, iTunes). Then, once the software is installed, right-click in an empty part of the taskbar and choose the "Toolbars" option. Select either "Windows Media Player" or "iTunes" from the submenu that appears. Now, simply minimize your media player, and you're in business.

Who knows, maybe one day Apple will start putting Intel chips in their machines, too..... :)

Jorin

Bureaucratic Intelligence IS an oxymoron

For those of my readers who live in Wichita Falls, I am going to perform a public service and announce a silently passed city ordinance that is the epitome of idiocy.

I just had a truck load of wood, cardboard, and trash from our recent move. It was all contained in boxes and strapped down with bungees. However, for our fair Gotham, that is not good enough.

As part of a new city ordinance passed by our City Council (not sure if this was part of the New and Improved City Council 2.0 or not) all loads terminating at the Transfer Station must be covered entirely by a tarp or some other covering. If you do not meet this criteria, you will either be turned away without remorse or charged $25--with a similar lack of remorse.

This new ordinance is plastered all over the entry to the Transfer Station (which doesnt help me when I'm loading my truck on the other side of town, btw). The kicker is that the ordinance states that the objective of the law is (obviously) to keep all loads contained. So, I argued with the gentleman at the weigh-in station that I had actually conformed with the objective of the law because nothing had fallen out during my drive all the way across town, so please allow me to drive the additional 300 feet to properly dispose of the load. Instead, he turned me around to potentially lose all this ever-so dangerous debris as I returned on the 7 mile trip back to my house.

I asked what I should do if I don't have a tarp. I had more bungees and tie downs and could sufficiently cover my load with them. Perhaps that would work? After all, I was only going another 300 feet...

No.

He said I could use anything that I had to cover the load: a tarp, old carpet, a blanket, anything. Now, I ask you, which is more dangerous: allowing me to continue for 300 feet to dump the debris or drive all the way back from my house with old torn carpet and bedsheets haphazardly covering my truck?

Clearly, someone important got hit by something coming out of someone's truck while that second someone was on their way to the Transfer Station. Also, clearly, the someone who got hit doesn't drive a truck and/or understand the beauty and simplicity of the open bed design which allows the contents of the bed to extend well beyond the 6.5' x 4.5', 5-sided container. Instead, they would rather we all drive a hybrid Toyota Prius that bottoms out when we sit in it and never emits any harmful materials from the engine or the enclosure of the vehicle itself.

Oh well, as is usually the case, one idiot has ruined it for us all. Hopefully this saves someone a trip to and from the Transfer Station.

Jorin

Closing Time

No, its not the song from one-hit wonders Semisonic, today was Closing Day for Cassie and I on our first house.

Yes, we have finally crossed the last (financial) barrier into adulthood. I guess this means that the last social barrier (children) is the next landmark on the horizon. Granted, it's still a small speck in the distance that is quite indistinguishable through the fog of future history, but we're growing ever closer.

But overall, we are very excited about the new house and the prospect of finally owning our dwelling rather than simply renting (which you know I'm not fond of from my musical post). We closed today at 1:00 PM and we will start painting the office at 5:00 today when she gets off work. After that, we slowly move some critical items over to the new house throughout the week (refrigerator, etc) and then the big moving day is Sunday afternoon after Bible Class.

Hopefully by the end of that day, we'll be out of our current house and truly moved in to our first home (wow). Then Monday (Memorial Day) is for unpacking and getting settled down so that hopefully life can return to its normal--but slightly improved--conditions.

So, all of you who actually know us personally are invited to the new house to check it out!!

Thanks for reading,

Jorin Slaybaugh

The BlogMaverick

Mark Cuban's Web Log. Check it out...

http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000923044184/

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and SQL Server Reporting Services

After installing 3 updates on our servers (Windows Server 2003 SP1, SQL Server 2000 SP4, and Reporting Services SP2), the only big problem encountered was an annoying "The request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized." error when trying to view the Report Manager Web Interface to view reports.

Regardless of the account used and the priveleges of that account, this message would be displayed. It was clearly only a function of the Report Manager because if you navigated directly to the ReportServer virtual directory, you could find the reports and run them, but browsing to the Report Manager or trying to access it from our application via Web Services failed with the 401 error mentioned previously.

Well, a full day later, I owe many thanks to this post and it's authors, who explain that a simple security change by Microsoft to prevent "man in the middle" attacks as a part of W2k3 SP1 could be ammended by a simple registry addition to get my Report Server working again.

THANKS GUYS!!!

(I wonder what the security implications of the change are? Probably not serious enough for me in the scope in which we operate and the means through which our clients have access to their reports on our server....)

More on Music

This is sort of a follow-up post to my previous post about renting music.

After posting, listening to my music, and speaking with some other audiophiles, I realized that some music with unintelligible moaning is good and I may have been too harsh in my first post (case in point: Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter and the large majority of R.E.M.'s music.)

So... I guardedly take back some of my statements. On a similar topic, it has also come to my attention in the last several days that James Taylor (a.k.a "Sweet Baby James") is a genius songwriter and performer. Now, clearly I'm no James Taylor expert, and I'm probably preaching to the choir for most of you, but I've been familiar with some of his work for years (Fire and Rain among others). However, after borrowing his greatest hits album, I've discovered the true scope of his genius. He is one of the few white artists who can actually choose the perfect words and sing with such emotion and soul that you can feel his pain--especially if you understand the pain that was his life.

In the modern day, there are few songwriters like him, however I also have recently been listening to Jack Johnson and, while he reveals nowhere near the emotion of Taylor's music and lyrics, his didactic, conversational music also invites you into his world.

So, for those of you who are interested and not familiar with one or both of these artists, you should check them out. It will be money and time well spent, I assure you.

Jorin

P.S. Check back soon for a GENIUS idea I have for some aggressive (read: "well-funded") entrepreneur to use the iTunes Music Store to make more money...

Renting Music

So, of course, downloading music has been a hot topic for years now....ever since my first year of college when Napster came out and everyone started downloading illegally. Then all hell broke loose and the RIAA started complaining about artists losing money and the feds started arresting little kids.

So now, we live in a world transformed by iPods and iTunes. (Which actually has supplanted Media Player on my computer as my primary media player app....not bad for a dedicated Microsoftie like myself.) But this last week Yahoo! introduced its Music Unlimited program where you can download as much music as you want* (note asterisk) for only $4.99 a month if you pre-pay for a year ($59.88). Anyway, this unlimited* (again, note asterisk) download is actually a over-glorified rental service where you can download any of these songs to your computer or portable device for a period of time. If you actually want to own the song, you have to pay $0.79/song to buy it. Still better than $0.99/song that iTunes charges, but only if you actually enjoy renting songs.

I'm posting about this because I just can't understand the fascination with renting songs like this. I don't have a problem with paying for songs as long as I can own them...but i don't get the renting thing.

Music isnt like movies where you only want to watch it once because you know what happens in the end or you're sick of laughing at the same punchlines. Music is emotional and instills a feeling in you each time you hear a song. I dont know how many times I have found a song in my library that i havent listened to in years like The Verve Pipe's The Freshmen or Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight and immediately been transported back to the first time I heard the song or some memorable experience while the song was on. Without having that song in my collection, I would never hear those songs on Internet Radio, much less traditional FM Radio.

Maybe it's because with today's music we are overrun with drippy teeny-bopper lyrics that actually contain no substance, so there is no need to listen to the song again after the initial period of infatuation with a hypnotic drum beat and unintelligible moaning (compare Britney Spears with Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, and Coldplay).

So, what do you think? Will renting music catch on? Can someone explain to me how it actually works/expires after a given time? Would you rent music like this?

Jorin

Pocket PC

Howdy!

Just checking out this new PocketBlogger Software on the Dell Axim.

Pretty Cool!

Wednesday's Wisdom

I don't have a problem with anger. I have a problem with idiots.

-Hank Hill

Today's Motivational Minute

Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in.

-- Andrew Jackson

Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging on the web server. The project is not configured to be debugged.

For those of you who have received this error message with Visual Studio and IIS, hopefully this will save you some time...

I recently was reorganizing some of my applications on my computer as my company is about to begin developing a new version of our e-commerce ticketing software. In restructuring, I was going to name my virtual directories according to my namespace in the application (e.g. "Ecommerce.Application"). Then, underneath the parent directory, i would make new virtual directories for each version of the application (see image below; click for larger image)



I didn't even think twice about putting the dots (".") in the name of my virtual directories, because I have done it many times before with no problems. However, this time, when I set up the virtual directories as I did above, and then tried to build and debug the application, I got the following error: Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging on the web server. The project is not configured to be debugged.



I made sure my "debug" attribute of the "compilation" tag in my web.config was set to "true". I made sure that the "ASP.NET debugging" option was selected in the project properties. I tried every other suggestion I found online. Finally, after about four hours of frustratingly searching the internet and trying anything to make it work, I finally realized that I had never used dots (".") in the virtual directory name when the application was running more than one virtual directory deep.

Sure enough, when I changed the name of the parent virtual directory to not include any dots (see image below; click for larger image), the problem went away.



As far as I know, this hasnt been mentioned anywhere else online and it seems like a bug with Visual Studio to me. (I am using .NET 1.1.4322 and VS.NET 2003).

Hopefully this will help others with the same problem and maybe MS can figure out what the problem is in the debugger that wont allow this and fix it in future versions.

--Jorin

Water under the bridge

Well, since my last post, two HUGELY MOMENTOUS events have transpired.

First, I actually persuaded someone else to get involved in this blogging thing. Check out Stevo's blog here.

Second, we have had some water problems here at the casa. I called the landlord today becuase of a simple problem with the faucet in my back yard: The knob was broken so it was sharp when we tried to turn on the water. I thought it would be a simple fix...

Well, 3 hours and a huge hole in the back of my house later, we have no water and will be taking showers at all of our friends houses for the next 24 hours.

Later,

Jorin

Inaugural Post

Ok, well...my first blog wasnt that much of a success, so I started this one.

The problem probably wasnt with the first blog, but I think it was a little too complicated for most people to understand what was going on.

Anyway, thanks to Brian for the name and to Stephen for reminding me of the name since my short-term memory isnt the best.

I'm going to try to keep this one up, so check back frequently.

Later,

Jorin