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My neighbours from hell are moving. Well, they've got their "For Sale" sign up. Yay! No more crap thrown into my yard from the kids bedroom window. No more knocking on my door asking for something to drink/eat. No more dog barking through the day when I'm trying to work. No more screaming matches when the mother tries to control her kids.
Things are on the up. Hopefully whoever moves in will be an old married couple about 75years old, with no kids/grandkids or pets.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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Michael P Butler wrote:
My neighbours from hell are moving. Well, they've got their "For Sale" sign up
How's that going? Have you got new neighbours yet. If the housing market near you is anything like it is up here in the Scottish Central belt you could have new neighbours move in a couple of weeks ago.
Michael P Butler wrote:
No more crap thrown into my yard from the kids bedroom window
 I'm lucky the most I get chucked in my garden from the kids next door is an occasional football, and they are always quite polite when they ask for it back - And if I don't answer the door quickly enough they run into the go into the garden anyway to retrieve it, but if I appear they run out quickly as if they'd been increadibly naughty. It kind of reminds me as a kid when I had to ask for stuff back from the neighbours if I'd done something similar.
Michael P Butler wrote:
No more screaming matches when the mother tries to control her kids
That would drive me mad. My ex was the expert at screaming matches. The only thing was she was the only one doing the screaming.
Michael P Butler wrote:
Things are on the up
Best of luck with the new neighbours.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar
The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September
Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way!
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Meant to post these on May the fourth, but forgot. Still, I can't wait till next year so I'll post them anyway.
Two fun Star Wars games that put you in the two of the classic trilogy battles.
The Battle of Endor[^]
The Battle of Yavin[^]
Just goes to show what you can do with a 3d-engine and a copy of Visual Basic.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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I've been working on a RSS reader recently, but got sidetracked when I realised that there wasn't an HTML display control as standard in the Windows Forms library. This was a bit of a disappointment because I'm trying to build apps that don't need to do any Interop with Win32.
Still it looks like WinForms 2.0 [^]will have a native control.
For the moment I guess I'll have to wrap the shdocvw.dll and borrow a few ideas from here[^]
Although, first I'll do some research and see if a Mozilla control exists.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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>Still it looks like WinForms 2.0 [^]will have a native control.
Though that seems to just be a wrapper around the Win32 control too.
Whidbey includes a new control named the WebBrowser control. The WebBrowser control is a wrapper of the IE ActiveX browser control. from windowsforms.net
Or am I misunderstanding that?
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Christopher Duncan quoted:
"...that would require my explaining Einstein's Fear of Relatives"
Crikey! ain't life grand?
XmlTransformer, my latest CP article.
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Paul Watson wrote:
Still it looks like WinForms 2.0 [^]will have a native control.
Though that seems to just be a wrapper around the Win32 control too.
I use native as in sense that it'll be part of the System.Windows.Forms namespace and as such will be distributed with the .NET 2.0 runtime rather than having me having to redistribute the Interop wrapper dll myself. Plus the bits in the other link should be included, rather than me having to handle them myself.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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I installed RealPlayer a few weeks back, mainly because I wanted to make use of BBC Radio 7's Listen Again[^] functionality.
And do you know what, it has been very well behaved. Okay, when I installed Real I had to go through the options pages and disable lots of their "extras". Once that was done, I've not had a single problem. No unwanted pop-ups or attempts to sell me a full version.
The quality of sound is quiet impressive too, even on my 64k line, certainly better than Media Player when listening to live streams. Media Player had an annoying tendency to "jump" when I used the my bandwidth for other things, where as Real manages to keep a smooth playback (with only a slight reduction in playback quality)
So Real isn't as bad as you think, providing you take a little time during installation to disable the features you don't want.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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I’m taking a break from writing my Customer Relation Management app to work on my CTI products.
I’ve decided to move from MFC front ends to using C# and MyXaml[^]. This allows me to make use of the code-behind feature of MyXaml, so that I can integrate easier with third party databases. Previously, it has either meant writing a plugin-dll or using the integrated VBScript engine. Plus the added advantage that the look and feel can be modified on the fly to suit the client’s requirements, without having to recompile the entire application.
My simple Desktop Call-Pop application has already been converted and works well, although I’ve had to work around a couple of issues with MyXaml and Notification Tray icons.
I’m now working on my main desktop telephony client app. This has a more complicated user interface and I’m having issues getting the right look and feel with WinForms. I’ve been playing with the Dock and Anchor properties, but find they are a little lacking. I was hoping not to have to write any code for positioning the controls, but so far I’ve not managed to do what I want. Still, it is early days.
Marc Clifton has posted another interesting article on using MyXaml and his Application Automation layer[^], which has given me food for thought on how best to build my CRM app.
It is becoming clearer that I need to find ways of reducing the cost of development and reducing the amount of time it takes to build a business solution. My company’s aims are to provide software solutions to people’s businesses processes, but the companies that could benefit most find the costs are too high. I’m going to try and implement some of the ideas presented in the AAL and see if they will help me to achieve my aims.
Michael
CP Blog [^]
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Seeing as Chris and the team have provided us with this cool blog, I might as well make use of it.
I've been trying to get my own blog setup on my personal domain. I've been trying to use dotText[^], but I am having technical difficulties getting it to work right. (a. I'm new to 2003 Server, b. Trying to do SQL user access via Osql is a pain in the ass)
My .NET knowledge grows slowly. I finally figured out how to get a data-grid to work like a listview (full rowselect/no editing etc). I was helped a great deal by the TaskVision Sample Application[^]. It has already done all the hard-work by creating its own System.Windows.Forms.DataGridTextBoxColumn derived class that disables the editing and draws a full-row select highlight bar. At least know I understand the principles of the DataGrid. There is nothing like a working sample to make the MSDN docs make sense. Thanks go to Heath Stewart [^] for pointing me in the right direction.
So I've now got a data-grid defined in MyXaml[^] that is filled with data from a stored procedure call, using databinding. All done via mark-up. My next problem to solve is how to pass parameters to the SqlCommand object. Setting up the parameters is easy, the hard bit is figuring out how to refresh the bound Data-Source and making it generic enough so I only have to write a few lines of code per data-form.
Useful link of the week
Windows Forms FAQ[^] - Very useful for the novice starting out writing Windows Forms code.
Michael
But you know when the truth is told,
That you can get what you want or you can just get old,
Your're going to kick off before you even get halfway through.
When will you realise... Vienna waits for you? - "The Stranger," Billy Joel
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A small landmark for myself.
Hopefully I've helped, informed, amused and entertained during the past 5000 posts. I know I've annoyed a few, (especially Lords of the Ring geeks and Michael Jackson fans)
Thanks to the community for reading and responding to me. Thanks for the questions answered and the inspiration given.
Michael
But you know when the truth is told,
That you can get what you want or you can just get old,
Your're going to kick off before you even get halfway through.
When will you realise... Vienna waits for you? - "The Stranger," Billy Joel
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Warm and sunny. Plenty of reasonable priced beach front property.
Opportunity to develop software solutions for small businesses.
English speaking would be nice - although willing to learn new language if the right country comes along.
Prefer non-hurricane, non-earthquake but would learn to live with it for right price.
Must have decent beer.
Michael
'War is at best barbarism...Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.' - General William Sherman, 1879
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Requirement #1: Sorted, we have plenty of coast and some of the best beaches in the world. You can choose from the warm Mozambique current side or the cooler (alright, bollock freezing) Atlantic side.
Requirement #2: Plenty of opportunity here plus there is the opportunity to work here, sell overseas.
Requirement #3: English speaking all over.
Requirement #4: Tectonically stable and the worst we get are mild storms.
Requirement #5: Sure do. Lot better than that American piss. And it is cheap too.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Brian Welsch wrote:
"blah blah blah, maybe a potato?" while translating my Afrikaans.
Crikey! ain't life grand?
Einstein says...
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So do they just let anybody in, or do I need a massive college degree to even qualify?
Of course, with these African countries, you never know if the next revolution is around the corner 
Michael
But you know when the truth is told,
That you can get what you want or you can just get old,
Your're going to kick off before you even get halfway through.
When will you realise... Vienna waits for you? - "The Stranger," Billy Joel
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It is getting out of South Africa that is the hard bit 
I actually don't know the hurdles one must jump to enter S.A. but I am pretty sure that anyone with skills bar Iraqis, Zimbabweans and Kenyans will be welcomed with open arms and good loans. We need skills here.
S.A. is pretty stable. The last revolution was in 1994 and was bloodless. Before that we were the pariah of the world for our apartheid policies. Before that we were British and Dutch. Next election is this year actually with a 99% guarantee that the ruling party will stay in power.
It is a good place to live though. Lets hope I can get my exit visa though 
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
South Africa
Brian Welsch wrote:
"blah blah blah, maybe a potato?" while translating my Afrikaans.
Crikey! ain't life grand?
Einstein says...
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Whiteboards.
I'm going to have to buy one. I really miss being able to draw out ideas. Paper just doesn't seem to cut it.
I wonder if you can buy the paint used by whiteboards in a tin. I could paint one entire office wall with the stuff and have a wonderful ideas board. Hmm, off to investigate.
Michael
'War is at best barbarism...Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.' - General William Sherman, 1879
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Check out my new "Virtual Whiteboard" service!
You just email me what you want on the board (ascii, pdf, gif, bmp. I'm flexible)
and I draw it, take a photo and email it back to you in your prefered gfx file format.
Just print the image and put it on the wall of your choice (tape or glue not included).
All this for only 119,95 USD/Month!
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Well it rhymes with clucking bell anyway.
For the first time in 2 years, I find myself doing most of my work from my home office. Or at least trying to work. What with the noise of the neighbourhood kids on school holidays and the dog barking next door. I'll be lucky if I've done 3 hours productive work all day.
I need a new house. Somewhere quiet and private... but need to do this one up before I can sell it. I hate DIY and I don't have the money to hire anyone.
Never thought I'd miss 'going to work' everyday.
At least the holidays are over tomorrow... least I'll be able to get some work done between 10pm and 3pm.
Michael
'War is at best barbarism...Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.' - General William Sherman, 1879
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Michael P Butler wrote:
Never thought I'd miss 'going to work' everyday.
When did this change happen? Did you quit your old job and strike out on your own?
And true, I could never work from home. Far too many distractions and excuses.
regards,
Paul
Bluegrass
South Africa
Ravi Bhavnani wrote:
it's sold on EBay and shipped from China (on how to inspire confidence in your product)
Crikey! ain't life grand?
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Paul Watson wrote:
When did this change happen? Did you quit your old job and strike out on your own?
I've actually been working for myself since the beginning of 2001. However I had a long term contract with a holiday call centre from March 2001 till July 2003. I was onsite their most days and it did start to feel like a full-time job. (Even though it was only a contract).
Anyway, due to a buyout by a big American corp, my contract came to a end for various reasons. My current contracts don't require me to be on-site all the time, which is nice in some ways but I do miss the office atmosphere.
Paul Watson wrote:
And true, I could never work from home. Far too many distractions and excuses.
I shut myself off in my little home office and try and pretend I'm at work. It is hard, too easy to get distracted when you go into the kitchen to make some lunch or to get a drink. I miss the office for the social side more.
I'm working hard to get enough money to create my own software house/ development team. The days of a one man band are gone. It's hard enough to do all the coding I have to do, without having to do all the testing and the business side too.
Michael
'War is at best barbarism...Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.' - General William Sherman, 1879
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