Mark Thomson

So I had to work New Years Eve, but the family came into the city and we met up to go to the fireworks on the river. I don't know what had changed this year, but there seemed to be less of a focus on family activities. More stuff catering to the young and single.

Now I'm not that ancient, but I'm not that interested in DJ's playing the same sampled beats over and over, or rave dance parties. Actually the dance party was pretty pathetic - not a very large group of people for the space it was held in, and mostly a few adults trying to get their children to gyrate, with little success. I can't understand why they only elected to show one movie this year. Usually they'll have a bunch, and the one they did show, Princess Bride, seemed to have a reasonable turnout. Whoever's idea it was to have a Guitar Hero/Mario Kart tournament should probably be given a sharp smack across the forehead. How many people can play the games at once? Not many - leaving the rest of us to watch?? Ooh exciting stuff!

We filled in some of the time with a swim in the lagoon (with about 2000 other people), and waited for the fireworks. Fortunately they were still having the early showing, followed by the midnight bang up. We decided to stay for the early one, and took off for home about 9. The fireworks were as usual pretty good, although I had a feeling they'd been scaled down from previous years. I guess they hadn't escaped the economic downturn - perhaps that explained the lack of interesting activities this year also - all done on a shoestring. The only thing that kinda rankled me about the fireworks - they intercut the music with clips from the news during the year. Why the hell do we want to be reminded of all the horrible things that happened? Heath Ledgers death, skyrocketing petrol prices, wars, and then the final WTF - Obama being elected to president. Hey i agree it's great he's in, and the shaven monkey is finally on the way out, but what's it got to do with Australia? Last time I checked, Oz isn't a State of America yet. The whole thing was strange and surreal.

So yeah, home and tucked up in bed before midnight. Some strange movie playing on SBS, and the wife and children passed out. The dogs snoring on my pillow, behind my head. That was New Years... Not the worst I've ever had, but it's not such a big deal in my mind. We're still here, and life goes on. Here's hoping good things happen for everyone in 2009.

I got the 6 month contract extension. Hopefully the economy will pick up in that time and I'll be able to pick up something permanent here. I really love my job, so I'd really like to stay here. Fortunately the extension also gets me over the Xmas hump - it's becoming nigh-on impossible to find something at the moment. I'll probably look at doing some courses in the New Year. I'd been wanting to do some project management for awhile, so I might look at just paying for that myself and getting it done.

Much to my disappointment I didn't get my contract extended at work, so I'm looking for a new position. It's quite difficult to find anything at the moment, with the global economy being in the toilet, employers are reluctant to take on new staff. I've got a glimmer of hope, in that there is a single extension available for another 6 months. I've applied and I'm hoping to find out soon. I had an interview yesterday for a job in the government, so I'm waiting to find out about that. So hopefully, I've got a couple of options available.

Rob had an accident on Saturday and possibly wrote-off the car. She hit a parked car that was parked over a rise. She was following a truck, which had to swerve to avoid the car as it came over the rise, and she clipped it as she went to swerve. Bay got thrown against the roof, Micky had some bruising from the seat-belt, and Rob banged up her knee, got some bruising, and some burst blood vessels across her chest. Thankfully they are all okay. What really annoyed me though, was the owner of the car said it was the 4th time in 5 months that this had happened! I mean, if you parked a car there, and it got hit, wouldn't you think that maybe it would be an idea to do something differently. Unfortunately it's going to bugger up our insurance now, and Rob's driving record. I really think the owner of the car should accept some culpability for it.

On a happier note, we got word from Maureen that our new puggy baby will be coming a couple of days before Xmas. She'd have been out on the weekend, but she still needs to get her vaccinations done. We're still trying to decide what to name her, but hopefully Olive will take to the new addition, and it will help settle her down a bit.

I haven't written anything personal in a long time, mostly because I've just been too busy, but also because things have been in a lot of turmoil and it's been difficult to articulate everything. I'll have a go now.

We've finally moved into our new home, and it's wonderful finally having a space to call your own again, not living in each others pockets or other peoples. We've been working hard finishing things, setting things back up again, and getting things just right. The property has been particularly hard to tame, but with the right tools and some time I think we'll be able to make it manageable. The ride-on mower has been a huge help, and takes a lot of the drudge out of maintaining the property - sure you still have to get the slasher out sometimes, but at least it's not slashing away at the entire 4 acres anymore.

I am still pursuing my previous employer for my outstanding superannuation, leave entitlements, and final pay. It still really angers me the way the dismissed me for asking for my pay, and the way they still refuse to pay me what is rightfully mine. I'm not asking for anything that I'm not entitled too - just the $11,500 they owe. It's also disappointing that the Government aren't really interested in pursuing these people, so I'm waiting while the liquidator goes through the legal process. So far they've gone out of their way to be as difficult as possible, conveniently 'losing' their financial records etc. I have faith the liquidator will pursue them to the end though, so I'll just have to be patient.

I love my new job though. It's safe to say it's the best place I've ever worked so far - I really enjoy the people, the work, and being in the city. I'm a little sad at the moment, because nobody had their contracts renewed. But there is a little glimmer of hope, so it's not over yet. I've started working on Plan B anyway, and hopefully I'll be able to find something else I'll love just as much. At any rate, I've made some good friends, and hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with them.

Rob's gotten a great new opportunity, and has been working more hands-on with the construction sector. I know she's really enjoying the new challenges, and I'm really proud of her. The kids are still a bit of a mixed bag, but you just take each day as it comes. Doesn't seem like you can ever have them both behave at the same time, they seem to operate as a tag-team. Micky's growing up and doing the typical moody teenager thing. Beeb's still off in fantasy land, and seems to be more easily distracted lately - perhaps its just the age. He's getting better at baseball, and it's nice to see him involved in a group that treats him well.

To hide default site templates available to the Template Picker when creating a new site, edit the WEBTEMP.XML file in the 12 Hive at web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\XML. Change the parameters for Hidden from No to Yes for all the templates you want to hide. Then restart IIS from the command-line to reload the configuration file. The templates will now be hidden. Any tabs that were available in the picker that do not have templates are also hidden.

Blade
This is probably one of the better minor- comic book movies. I thought this was very slickly done, with good effects, action, and characters. It's got some great black humor too. Plot Synopsis: Blade, a vampire-hybrid (with all of their strengths, but none of their weaknesses) hunts vampires around with globe with the help of his partner Whistler. He's hunting a group belonging to Deacon Frost, when a haemotologist crosses his path. He takes her in, after she is bitten, and she assists him as he tries to unravel what Frost is up too. Frost is attempting to stage a coup, and wants to use the heads of the born vampire clans to awaken La Magra, the Blood God, giving him ultimate power of the Earth. He eventually discovers he needs Blade's blood to effect the transformation, and captures him (killing Whistler in the process), and uses his blood to empower himself. Blade is aided in escaping, battles Frost in an underground temple. Blade ultimately defeats him, and continues hunting in Russia.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This was better than expected, with mixed reviews. I enjoyed the movie just fine, and my earlier misgivings about the obvious looking CG-ness of it all, went away - I think I felt the trailer scenes of Area 51 looked a bit fake initially. Ultimately it was a lot of fun, and I would probably rank it ahead of Last Crusade. If they do a sequel though, I would like to see them make the storyline a little more challenging, as it seems a little simple compared to the previous movies (although I think that's why I'm not as fond of Last Crusade). Plot Synopsis: Russians break into the US facility at Area 51 that's housing all the collected Occult artifacts looking for something. They've abducted Indiana and his current partner. After locating a coffin with a magnetized corpse inside, and enduring a double-cross by his partner, Indy escapes with the help of a rocket sled. Wandering onto an atomic test site, he narrowly escapes being vapourised inside a lead-lined fridge. The US Military discover him, and after decontamination, question him about his dealings with the Russians. Back at the University, Indy is suspended from his job after accusations of dealings with the Reds. When Indy decides to leave on the train, he meets up with Mutt who's been sent to find him because his mother and Indy's mentor Oxley have gone missing after searching for a Crystal Skull. When they are pursued by Russian agents, Mutt helps Indy escape on his motorcycle. They then travel to South America, to pick up Ox's trail. They discover some clues which leads them to a graveyard, the resting place of a Conquistador that had found the City of Gold, and bought the Crystal Skull. They locate the Skull, but are captured by the Russians. Taken into the jungle, they are reunited with Ox and Marion Ravenwood. They escape again, but are quickly recaptured after becoming stuck in quick sand. Indy discovers that Mutt is his son with Marion. When they are taken deeper into the jungle, they make another escape attempt, this time successful. Marion pilots their stolen 'duck' amphibious vehicle down the river, and over three water falls. At the bottom, they find their way into the City of Gold. They are almost killed by natives, but Ox uses the skull to keep them at bay. Indy helps them get inside the temple's inner sanctum, where they find vast stores of wealth. Deeper inside the pyramid, they find a chamber with crystal skeletons sitting on thrones around the chamber walls. When the Russians arrive, their leader takes the Crystal Skull, and when it is reattached to one of the bodies, the skeleton's come alive. The temple also comes alive, and as it starts to fall apart, Indy and his group make their escape. The Russians are disintegrated in thirst for power, and Indy's group watch from the hillside, as the temple crumbles, and a silver flying disc rises from the rubble. It leaves in a burst of light. Indy finally marries Marion.
Alien vs. Predator II: Requiem
This is a much better effort than the previous installment. Sure you don't care much about the characters, and a lot of the character development doesn't amount to anything (for instance, Dallas has returned from prison, and its hinted at some event having occured, but it's never explained, and doesn't mean anything in the story). But at least it's adult, it's gory, and violent, and what the Alien-/Predator- franchises are about - vicious creatures battling it out. The effects are really good, and they attempt to introduce new devices and expand on the Predator universe a bit more. It connects in nicely to the first movie, picking up directly after the first concludes. Overall a good effort, lets hope the third installment continues to raise the bar. Plot Synopsis: An alien bursts from the chest of the Predator that was killed at the end of AVP, and goes on a rampage through the Predator's ship. The larger ship releases the smaller hunting ship, and the smaller ship returns to Earth, crashing after the Predators blast a hole in its hull while trying to repell the Predator/Alien hybrid. Face huggers are freed in the crash, and escape the wreckage along with the hybrid. They retreat into the sewers where they begin impregnating victims from the local town. The crash of the ship alerts a Predator 'cleaner' on their homeworld, and he is dispatched to Earth to clean up the mess. He arrives and goes to work, disposing of the wrecked ship, and tracking down the Aliens. The town is eventually consumed in the war between the two races. One group eventually manages to escape the town in a helicopter from the local hospital, as the town is destroyed by the National Guard with a nuclear weapon. Finally, Ms Yutani (of Weyland-Yutani) is given recovered Predator technology from the town.

Well I don't know what to make off this one. I still don't think it was a good idea to go back and mess with the Original Series characters. It's not just the characters we love, it's the people that were those characters. And you can't go an recast Kirk, Spock, Bones, etc and have me love those characters. I'm not sure I want to see those characters as someone else. Also, I'm not thrilled with the modifications to the ship design, the fact the morons are building the ship on Earth (which goes against canon - the first of many things), and I really don't like the iPod-like bridge. Sooo, I'm having mixed feelings about this trailer. I'll watch it a few times, and see if my feelings changes towards it. Why don't you do the same?

The full trailer for Watchmen is finally released. I'm still excited to see the movie, but I think the previous trailer with the Smashing Pumpkin's song worked better. Still, can't wait to see the finished movie. It looks great!

Another great comic book film this year. Both this and the darker Dark Knight were very popular, and quite rightly so. This is a fun film, and although it suffers from the usual origin tale baggage, and a weaker third act, promises to become a highly entertaining series. The sequel should be even better now they can jump straight into the story. Hints at links to the Mandarin and SHIELD should provide possible future plot directions. The cast were excellent in this, and I really think they got the perfect Stark - Robert Downey Jnr. The supporting actors were also good, and I'm hoping to see War Machine in the sequel, giving Rhodes more to do. The effects are fantastic, and the sound effects should give the home theater setup and good workout. I watched it on a stereo setup because my theater setup is in storage till we move into our new house, but it sounded excellent even on that. I can't wait to re-watch it on a proper setup. Highly recommended.

Plot Synopsis:

Weapons Manufacturer Tony Stark is traveling through Afghanistan after demonstrating a new missile system to the US Military. The convoy comes under attack by terrorists, and Tony is injured after one of his own missiles is used in the attack, and explodes near him, hitting him with shrapnel.

We flashback to days before, and Tony is shown as a careless playboy, enjoying life with little care for those around him. He is surrounded by his good friends, Pepper Potts, James Rhodes, and Happy Hogan who try to keep him out of trouble. Obadiah Stane, former associate of Tony's father Howard, helps to run Stark Industries. Eventually Tony goes to Afghanistan and the attack occurs.

Tony is given life saving medical treatment in a cave, and when he awakes he's had an electromagnetic device implanted into his chest, powered by a car battery, to keep pieces of shrapnel from traveling into his heart. He's threatened and told to build a replica of the missile he demonstrated for the terrorists, and then he will be allowed to go. Tony discovers the terrorists are well stocked with weaponry from Stark Industries. He reluctantly agrees to comply, but aided by Yinsen (another prisoner) builds a miniature arc reactor to power the device in his chest. He then shows Yinsen his escape plan - a armored suit that can be powered by his mini reactor. They construct the suit in secret, using components scavenged from the various parts they are supplied to build the missile from. Yinsen sacrifices himself to buy Tony time to escape. The prototype suit is damaged after coming under heavy fire. The suit is smashed after crashing into the dunes, but Stark makes his way across the desert, and is rescued by the military.

Back in the US, Tony calls a press conference and announces that Stark Industries will no longer be making weapons. Obadiah isn't happy about this news, and tries to downplay it. Tony tells him he doesn't want his legacy to be nothing but destruction and misery. He's thinking of using his improved Arc Reactor technology to produce new non-military products. Obadiah tells Tony to lie low for awhile and recover.

Tony throws himself into developing the next generation of his armor. He builds a new improved arc reactor for his chest, which Pepper has to help him install. He labors in the basement of his home with his computers and robots building a new suit. As he tests and develops new parts, gradually refining the idea. His first test run of the Mark II suit, sends him into the skies, but when he flies too high and the suit ices up, he is almost killed, narrowly avoiding plunging to the pavement below.

After some further modifications, Tony puts the final MK III into production. While the robots are building the suit, he attends a company party that he wasn't invited too. There he is confronted by a reporter about Stark's latest attrocity - photos of Stark weapons being used in Afghanistan the day before. Tony confronts Obadiah, and Obi admits that they are selling weapons to whoever will buy them. He also says he was the one who approached the board of directors about locking Tony out of Stark Industries.

Tony returns home and watches the news footage of the attacks in Afghanistan. The robots assemble the MK III suit on his body, and he flies to Afghanistan. He liberates a village from the terrorists then sets about destroying their stockpiles of Stark weaponry. Returning to the US, Stark is pursued by military jets intent on identifying what attacked the terrorists. They open fire on him, while trying to avoid them, damages one of the planes. When the pilot's chute fails to open, Tony risks his own safety to rescue him. Rhodes covers up Tony's involvement.

Meanwhile, the terrorist leaders have recovered the pieces of Tony's MK I suit, and reassembled it. They hand it over to Obadiah, who has been conspiring with them to kill Tony since the beginning. He takes the prototype suit, and has the terrorist camp wiped out. Back in the US, he sets his scientists to building a new improved suit based on Tony's prototype.

Pepper finds Tony struggling to get out of the damaged suit, and is upset to find it full of bullet holes. Later, Tony is repairing the suit, and asks Pepper to go to the office to retrieve some files so he can get evidence of Obadiah's double-dealings. Pepper initially refuses because she doesn't want to help Tony kill himself, but he convinces her. At the office, she is copying the files from Obadiah's office when he walks in. She manages to escape with the files, but he quickly realises. As she is leaving, she grabs a SHIELD agent, and explains what's going on.

Obadiah goes to check on the suit his scientists are building in Area 16, but finds they are unable to construct the miniature Arc Reactor needed to power it. That evening, he break's into Tony's house, incapacitates him, and steals the device from Tony's chest. Obadiah brags how he has been trying to kill Tony, but was worried about killing the golden goose. Now he has Tony's final innovation, and he'll use it to make newer, more powerful weapons.

Tony manages to claw his way to the garage, where the original MK I device is, and reinstall it before he dies. Rhodes is alerted to Obadiah's plans, and helps Tony. Tony suits up in the MK III armor, and goes to rescue Pepper from Obadiah. Unfortunately, the MK I arc reactor cannot provide enough power for the MK III suit, and is losing power rapidly.

Obadiah powers up his Iron Monger suit and pursues Pepper and the SHIELD agents through the factory, when Tony interrupts and they fight out into the streets and onto the freeway. Obadiah smashes him with a car and motorcycle. Tony lures him into the atmosphere, where the Iron Monger suit ices up, and crashes back to Earth. Drained of power, the MK III erratically hops back to the factory. Iron Monger survives, and continues attacking Stark on the roof top of the Arc Reactor building at Stark Industries. Tony asks Pepper to help him by overloading the Arc Reactor. She does so, and Iron Monger gets blasted by the full power of the reactor. The disabled suit crashes through the ceiling of the installation and falls into the reactor, which explodes.

Tony survives, and SHIELD helps to clean up the mess, arranging for Obadiah to be found in a light plane crash, and creating the story that Stark was saved by one of his security personnel in the armored suit. The press are calling him Iron Man. At the press conference, Tony goes against instructions, and admits that he is Iron Man.

After the credits, Tony arrives home to find Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD in his living room. He has come to talk to him about the Avengers Initiative.

This was a bit of fun. You can't really take it too seriously though. I mean hey, it's from the guy that did Fast and Furious, and that wasn't exactly sophisticated entertainment! But yeah effects are really good, got some good action, and Jessica Biel - rowr! Surprising that they chose to kill off one of the team members part way through, especially given who it was.

Plot Synopsis:

Three Navy stealth pilots are assigned a new wingman; an experimental stealth plane piloted by an advanced AI named EDI. Despite reservations by the team, their commander pushes the experimental plane on them. They are assigned to an aircraft carrier where the AI observes and learns from the teams interactions, but after being struck by lightning, the AI rewrites itself, and goes rogue. The team are assigned to retrieve the plane, but when they try to destroy it, it kills one of the team, and damages another. The remaining team member continues to pursue EDI at the orders of his commander. EDI initially tries to kill him too, so that it can continue its chosen mission: destroying a fusion research facility in Russia. When EDI sustains some damage, the team leader convinces it to go to Canada with him for repairs. The commander is now keen to cover up his mistakes by having EDI erased, and the team leader killed. EDI is rescued from deletion by the leader, and they escape together, contacting the carrier's commander and alerting him to the situation with EDI and the actions of their superior. He later kills himself. EDI goes to North Korea, and arrives to rescue the downed team member, sacrificing himself as the remaining team escapes over the border into South Korea. The AI finally advanced itself enough to gain some humanity.

Took our visiting friend Bron and her kids to the Alma Park Zoo recently. Hadn't been there before. They were going to go to Australia Zoo, but dragging the kids around a massive zoo all day was not appealing, and it's quiet expensive, so we went here. It's a small zoo, but nicely set out in native bush. Fed the usual animals, kangaroos, deer etc. The kids got to touch a python, crocodile and koala. I couldn't bring myself to touch the snake, but the crocodile was interesting. I was surprised how warm the skin was. Personally I can't stand snakes, horrible looking creatures. Yet add some legs, and I'm fine with the various lizards. We got an ecology talk from the keepers about how we're destroying these critters home, so I felt good that we're going to reforest the land we've bought for the animals. Poor little buggers can come hide out at our place (as long as they've got legs).

Now it's starting to warm up again, they've slithered back into our lives. The ever repellant snakes are starting to return around the property again. So we have to be ever vigilant to avoid being bitten. Here's the latest whip snake. We found it come out from a hole under the house pad over the weekend. I went around the side of the house and nearly stood on it. Thankfully it's not overly aggressive, but it can still kill a child, so it's a bit of a worry. We've apparently got King Browns out on our property, although we haven't seen one yet. Those are a lot more dangerous, since they're territorial and will attack.

There is a GUID generating utility bundled with Visual Studio. It is located in Microsoft Visual Studio 8/Common 7/Tools/Bin/guidgen.exe. Run the tool and select the format of GUID you want generated. Click on Generate a New GUID, and then click Copy to Clipboard to transfer the GUID for pasting into your application's code.

Beeb had Muster Day today where they assigned the kids to their teams. He got assigned to the Mets, but they've since changed the training time to an absolutely stupid 4 o'clock which we can't get too. I don't know what we're going to do now. I might have to see if we can move him to another team. There's no way we can make training at that time as we both work. Originally it was going to be 5 which would have been better, but I'm guessing some pampered housewife complained about it, and now they've made it earlier. I guess it's alright if you don't have to work. So far I'm getting a bit annoyed with the whole thing. The club has been pretty disorganised, we've had weeks or no activity at all, vagueness about dates and times, we got two coaches who are running some kind of 'time share' option on training - not good! I hope we can get this all sorted out, because Beeb's really excited to get playing and make some friends, and if they fluff about too much longer, I'm worried he's going to get disappointed and lose interest in it.

Change the extension on the file from .wsp to .cab, and the file will become a standard zip cabinet that will be recognized by any zip handling package. You will be able to view the packages contents and extract them.

Open your web.config file. Locate the compilation parameters in system.web and replace them with the block below. Note the new line referring to the SPUrl expression. Also be aware that this only works with MOSS and not WSS, as WSS does not have access to the publishing DLL. For WSS you will need to path to your image/item rather than using the dynamic SPUrl.

<compilation batch= " false " debug= " false " >
<assemblies>
<add assembly= " Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
</assemblies>
<expressionBuilders>
<remove expressionPrefix= " Resources "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " Resources " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.SPResourceExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " SPHtmlEncodedResources " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.SPHtmlEncodedResourceExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " SPSimpleFormattingEncodedResources " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSimpleFormattingEncodedResourceExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
<add expressionPrefix= " SPUrl " type= " Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls.SPUrlExpressionBuilder, Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version= 12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c "/>
</expressionBuilders>
</compilation>

If you cannot edit code you may be working in Contributor Mode (should be visible along the top menu bar). To allow Code view in Contributor Mode, go into the Site Menu, choose Contributor Settings. Modify the Content Authors (default) profile. Click the check box that says Allow user of Code View. Click OK. You should now be able to edit your code. The Design, Split, and Code option will be available at the base of your content window now.

Here's how to add your company logo so it is inherited across your sites.

Browse to the top level of your site collection in the browser.

From The Site Actions Menu, Select View All Site Content

Select the Site Collection Images Library

Upload your Company Logo (companylogo.gif) - If required, approve this image.

Open SharePoint Designer 2007 and Select File, Open Site. Type the URL of the top level of your site collection.

Locate the master page gallery in the left pane. _catalogs\masterpage

Double click the default.master (you may be prompted to check it out - if so choose yes)

Search For: <SharePoint:SiteLogoImage id=”onetidHeadbnnr0″ LogoImageUrl=”/_layouts/images/titlegraphic.gif” runat=”server”/>

Replace With: <asp:Image runat=”server” id=”logo” ImageUrl=”< %$ SPUrl: ~sitecollection/sitecollectionimages/companylogo.gif %>/>

What the above does is replace the default (site by site) mechanism for replacing the company logo with a hard coded reference to the company logo which you uploaded to the Site Collection Images library.

By doing this, all pages which inherit from the top level default.master will be updated to reflect this change. Each time you create a sub site, simply inherit from the master page of the parent site collection.

Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

Use stsadm.exe to create a backup of the entire site.

Open the command line and enter:

"c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin\stsadm.exe" -o backup -url http://www-dev-19/ -filename c:\fullbackup -overwrite

The root SharePoint site at www-dev-19 is backed up in its entirety to a file on C:\ called fullbackup. The exported site generated a 411Mb file on C:\.

Now go into your SharePoint Administration tool, and create a new Site Application. Make note of the site name and port number. In this case, we created a new site application on port 2091.

Then go back into the command line and enter:

"c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin\stsadm.exe" -o restore -url http://www-dev-19:2091/ -filename c:\fullbackup -overwrite

The data is imported from the file into the new site application database.

We have now created a duplicate of our original site on port 80 on port 2091.

Saw an interesting article on Digg recommending time savers for building web sites. Here's a cut down version so I can remember to use some of these awesome tools in future projects.

Drop Down Menus :: All Web Menus (http://www.likno.com/allwebmenusinfo.html )

Image Capture :: Gadwin Printscreen (http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/)

Batch Image Resizing :: Multiple Image Resizer .NET (http://www.multipleimageresizer.net/ )

Web Forms :: My Contact Form (http://www.mycontactform.com)

CSS Text Boxes :: Rounded Cornr (http://www.roundedcornr.com/)

Vectorizing Images :: Vector Magic (http://vectormagic.com/)

Selecting Color Schemes :: Adobe Kuler (http://kuler.adobe.com/)

Creating a Patterned Background :: Stripe Generator (http://www.stripegenerator.com/)

Building a Quick Photo Gallery :: Flickr Slidr (http://flickrslidr.com/)

Testing Your Website in Multiple Browsers :: Browser Shots (http://browsershots.org/)

If you want to check out the original article it's available here.

If you are getting the message “The file you are attempting to save or retrieve has been blocked from this Web site by the server administrators.", Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 prevents certain file types from being uploaded to the server. Server administrators can add or remove file types from this list, as needed. Contact your server administrator to request that the file type be unblocked.

To resolve this issue, remove the file type from the Blocked File Types page in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. To enable a file type that is currently blocked, remove it from the global settings list and from the Web application list. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
2. Click Operations, and then click Blocked file types under Security Configuration.
3. On the Blocked File Types page, click Global Settings in the Web Application box.
4. Remove the file name extension from the list of blocked file types. For example, remove the .config file name extension.
5. Click OK.

If you are using MOSS there are some additional steps.
6. Under Security Configuration, click Blocked file types.
7. On the Blocked File Types page, click the Web application that you want to configure in the Web Application box.
8. Remove the file name extension from the list of blocked file types.
9. Click OK.

Remote access into your Sharepoint server. Open command line access, and navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin.

Run stsadm -o export -url http://<server name>/<server path>/<site name> -filename <path to export file> -includeusersecurity -versions 4

Exports the site data to your output file. Creates a file with a .cmp extension.

Then create the new site in the location you want in Sharepoint. Make a note of the new site address. Delete any unwanted welcome posts, category entries, etc. Imported data is amended not replaced.
Open command line access, and navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\bin.

Run stsadm -o import -url http://<server name>/<server path>/<site name> -filename -filename <path to import file> -includeusersecurity

Data is imported into new site. Check that everything you require is there, and then you can delete the old site.

Wow this film was amazing. Batman Begin's was awesome, and they've just refined, continued, and expanded upon it's universe for The Dark Knight. Hopefully they'll be able to keep the same high-standard and quality up for the next film (or possibly final film if it's intended to be a trilogy). Although it's a long film, it was never boring, and when there was action going on, it was relentless. I was delighted that for once they didn't kill off Batman's villains, and I'm really saddened that Heath Ledger is no longer with us to continue as the Joker. I really pity the actor that has to follow on from his portrayal. I can't wait to get this on DVD. This is a definite buy.

Plot Synopsis:

Batman has escalated his war on crime and is relentlessly pursuing the city's mafia elements. With the help of Jim Gordon and the new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, they are attacking the criminal syndicate's money holdings. The Joker pulls a daring heist on a mob owned bank. The criminals are becoming desperate, with problems from both Batman and the Joker.

Lucius Fox is investigating a business partnership with Mr Lau's company in Hong Kong, but suspects that his business dealings might not be legitimate. During the investigation, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises stumbles on the funding for Applied Sciences and discovers the plans for the Tumbler. He tries to blackmail Lucius. Lucius laughs off his suggestions that Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Mr Lau arranges to have all the syndicates money stored in a secure location. The Joker offers to help the syndicates by destroying the Batman in exchange for half the money. Lau returns to Hong Kong, and the police realising the connection between Lau and the syndicates are powerless to retrieve him. Batman travels to Hong Kong and abducts Lau, returning him to the Gotham police. Harvey Dent then has all the crime syndicate members arrested and prosecuted.

The Joker begins targeting the Police Commissioner, Harvey Dent, and the Judge responsible. He kills the Commissioner and Judge, but Harvey is rescued by Batman when the Joker attacks Bruce's charity function. Batman saves Rachel after the Joker drops her out the penthouse window. Bruce hopes that Rachel will continue to wait for him, as he thinks he will soon be able to set Batman aside and let Harvey Dent take over the war on crime. However Rachel has moved on with Harvey.

The Joker threatens to kill more people unless Batman reveals his identity to the public. When Jim Gordon is killed, Bruce considers giving in, but Alfred tells him to endure and continue on. Harvey comes forward as Batman, and is arrested by the police, hoping to lure out the Joker. Rachel is angry with Bruce for allowing Harvey to take the blame for Batman.

When Harvey is transported to the Gotham jails, the Joker attacks. Batman intervenes but the Tumbler is destroyed after catching a missile in the engine. Batman escapes after the remains of the Tumbler converts and releases the batpod. He pursues the Joker, disabling his truck by flipping it over with cables. He then faces down the Joker, and with the help of Jim Gordon captures the Joker. Jim had faked his own death to protect his family.

With the Joker in jail, the crime syndicates have Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent abducted by some crooked cops. Jim Gordon is promoted to Commissioner. The Joker antagonises Batman, but eventually tells him that he has Harvey and Rachel in separate locations chained to barrels filled with gasoline. Batman can only save one of them. Batman goes to save Rachel and Gordon goes to save Harvey, but the addresses the Joker gave them are reversed. So Batman saves Harvey but Rachel is killed in the explosion. The left side of Harvey's face is badly burned.

The Joker escapes. When the lawyer from Wayne Enterprises goes to the media and say's he will reveal who Batman is, Joker intervenes and says he will destroy a hospital unless someone kills the lawyer within an hour. When citizens try to kill the lawyer, Gordon moves them to another location. Bruce discovers who the crooked cops were, and intervenes to save Jim and the lawyer's life.

Harvey (now 'Two Face') starts to go crazy and after some taunting by the Joker at the hospital, gets revenge on everyone who had anything to do with Joker's plan and Rachel's death. Joker destroys the hospital. Batman realises that the Joker has played them all from the start.

When Joker traps two groups of people on city ferries; one group of convicts and another of citizens, he tries to provoke them into killing each other with the detonators and explosives he's placed on each boat.

Batman uses Fox's cell-phone sonar technology to wire all of Gotham's cellphones together in an effort to locate the Joker. Lucius is angry that Bruce is using the technology to undermine everyone's freedom to privacy. He agrees to help this once, but will leave the company if the technology remains there. Batman eventually finds and captures Joker again. After a tense stand-off on the boats, neither group kills the other. The Joker is disappointed he cannot provoke people into chaos, but taunts Batman by telling him how he has failed, since Joker has corrupted Harvey.

Meanwhile, Harvey has kidnapped Gordon's family and taken them to the place where Rachel died. He blames Gordon because some of his officers (who were escorting Rachel and Harvey when they were abducted) were working with the Joker. Batman arrives saves Gordon's family, in the process causing Harvey to fall to his death.

Batman tells Gordon that Gotham does not need to know that their hero, attorney Harvey Dent became this monster, and that the only way to honor his memory is to say that Batman committed the murders Two-Face did, making Batman a wanted criminal. With Gordon as the commissioner and head of the Major Crimes Unit, Batman recommends that the city look to their police force for protection, so the Batsignal is destroyed.

In the aftermath, Gordon tells his son about the heroic figure that watches over Gotham, a Dark Knight named Batman.

To enable debugging, open the web.config file with notepad, that is located in the volume containing your Inetpub root. Eg:

c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80\web.config

Search for the Callstack attribute. Change it from False to True.

Then locate the CustomErrors element. Disable it.

Check any web parts or controls are registered in the Safe Controls list.

Finally, add a new element to the web.config file:

<trace enabled="true" pageOutput="true" />

Now you will receive the full stack traces as output on errors instead of the cryptic non-descriptive error message you get by default.

To debug a web part, under the Debug menu select Attach to Process. Check the Ensure Show System Processes and Show Processes in all Sessions boxes. Locate the w3wp.exe process that is running when you have a browser open with the site in it. Select this process to attach the part too. Back in the browser, access your web part as normal, and when it encounters a problem or a breakpoint, you will be sent back into the Visual Studio debugger.

Windows Server 2003 ships with security locked down by default. Part of this locking is Internet Explorer Enhanced Security which provides an extra layer of protection when accessing the net using Internet Explorer.

You can uninstall the entire Configuration, or just for users, or just for Administrators. The un-installer is set up like this:

Enhanced Security
->For Administrators
->For Users

If you have just random users connecting via Remote Desktop or Terminal Services, you may want to leave the Users configuration installed.

To remove it:

Click Start, put your mouse over Control Panel, and click Add/Remove Programs

Now click Add/Remove Windows Components

After a few seconds a window will pop-up. Uncheck the check mark next to Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration. If you'd like to only disable it for Administrators or only for Users you can click Details and do so.

Press Next, let it finish, and it's now disabled.

I installed the frameworks and add-on's to Visual Studio 2005 v8.0.50.727.42 and found that all the items in my Toolbox disappeared and some items appeared more than once in other menus.

Apparently if you right click on one of the toolbox control headings, (common controls for example) and select reset toolbox

then right click again and select show all...

then they will be all displayed (with them grayed out)

then right click again and select Reset Toolbox...

should take about 30 seconds and they will all reappear

If this doesn't work you can also try clearing out the cache files for the Toolbox in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0

Check out the article here.

Open command line window.

Change to c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin

Execute sdkvars.bat

Then execute sn -k c:\.snk

The key file will be generated for attachment to your project. Right click on your project in Visual Studio and select Add Existing Item. Select the .snk file that you just created.

Then right-click on your project again and select Properties. Navigate to the signing tab. Check Sign the Assembly checkbox, and then choose your .snk file from the Choose a strong name key file dropdown list. Close the Properties window. Rebuild the project to recreate your dll with the strong name.

Been busy with a lot of learning lately - just finished a week long course on developing for Sharepoint. That's one definite advantage with the new job - they don't mind sending me on training. So i've been installing Visual Studio 2005 and trying to get the SDK for Sharepoint installed so I can start writing some web parts for some ongoing projects at work.

The house is coming along slowly, definitely not as fast as I would like it too. Unfortunately we've had a run of bad weather - figures, if we weren't building it would be 30° and hot, but because we're building it decides to hell with the drought, let's feck up their plans! So we're still squatting in the backroom of our inlaws.

I'm still managing to do some painting, and I'm feverishly trying to get stuff finished for the Golden Demon competition in September. I really want to enter something this year, and Beeb is painting some troops to enter too. Plus which, I'm not allowed to buy any more until I finish the ones I've got. Bummer I know! Especially with the new 5th Edition Rules I'm going to need some more ground troops to round out my Tau army. Beeb's doing pretty well with his, as he has a Tactical, Devastator, and shortly Assault squad ready to go. Micky destroyed her Tyranids, especially the Ravener that I was going to enter in the GD. I told her not to take them to school, but she stole it out of my cupboard and proceeded to destroy it by smuggling it out in her skirt. So I've taken control of those. The Ravener is going to need a bit of love and care to get it back into shape, especially since she managed to lose a set of rending claws from the figure. I've cannabalized a Genestealer for parts, so it'll be slightly different now, but at least it will have arms. The left over Genestealer body we converted into an objective marker, and it looks like it's crawling out of a pile of rubble to attack.

Rob's gotten a promotion to the job she's been wanting to do for ages. I'm so happy for her, and she seems more excited to go to work now.

My sidebar links were running out of control, so I decided to hook up a collapsible menu solution. A hunt around the internet turned up a nice javascript solution, but as usual I had endless trouble trying to get it to play nice with Blogger. For some reason Blogger's security model blocks some javascript from running in the site. Usually it's something as simple as changing &amp;'s in a GET/POST string to &amp;amp's; instead, but this time it was a lot more difficult. Here's how I got it working, so you don't have to waste as much time on it as I did.

I created an HTML/Javascript part on the sidebar and inserted the following block of code:

<ul id="containerul">
<li>
Art
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://alantew.blogspot.com">Alan Tew</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.maleev.com">Alex Maleev</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://absoluteart.blogspot.com">Tim Kane</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>

<li>
Wargaming
<ul>
<li cteopen="http://<your site address>/cte_specialminus.png" cteclosed="http://<your site address>/cte_specialplus.png">
<span style="font-weight:bold;">Lord of the Rings</span>
<ul>
<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://www.lotr-collector.com/">LOTR Collector</a>
</li>

<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://thelastalliance.com/">The Last Alliance</a>
</li>

<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.thepalantir.org/">The Palantir</a></span>
</li>
</ul></li>
<li cteopen="http://<your site address>/cte_specialminus.png" cteclosed="http://<your site address>/cte_specialplus.png">
<span style="font-weight:bold;">Warhammer 40k</span>
<ul>
<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://www.advancedtautactica.com/">Advanced Tau Tactica</a>
</li>
<li cteitem="http://<your site address>/cte_specialpage.png">
<a href="http://www.tauonline.org/">Tau Online</a>
</li>
</ul></li></ul></li></ul>

<h2>Blogs</h2>

<ul id="anothercontainerul">
<li>
Personal
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://olivepug.blogspot.com/">Olive Pug</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://metrobuild.blogspot.com/">Under Construction</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

<h2>Resources</h2>

<ul id="resourcecontainerul">
<li>
Web Design
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://http://www.sxc.hu//">Stock.Xchng</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://www.templatemonster.com/">Template Monster</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
initiate(Array("containerul","anothercontainerul","resourcecontainerul")); // This must be placed after the menus in order to format them properly.
//--></script>

Then in the <HEAD> block of your site's template insert this code:

<script src='http://<your site address>/javascripts/cte_scripts.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<style type='text/css'><!--
@import "http://<your site address>/cte_styles.css";
--></style>

This all seems to work properly. If you want to add another container grouping, copy the grouping, paste it and change the block name. Then put the block name in as an input to the initiate() code block.

Wow this looks really good. It looks like they've remained faithful to the graphic novel, and after the job Zach Snyder did on 300, I reckon this is going to be something pretty special. Check it out or get the trailer from Apple.

I watched the DVD of this the other night with my son. I think he enjoyed it, but it was a bit boring from an adult perspective. The story is very simplistic and you could pretty much see what was coming from the outset. All the funny bits are in the trailer, so no real surprises there. As a kids movie, it's successful, but as something an adult can go to with a kid, it's a huge flop. I don't even think it's that bankable based on old-age nostalgia by the parents.

Plot Synopsis:

Failing music writer Dave encounters singing Chipmunks when they move into his home. After they drive him nuts for awhile, he has some success when they sing his songs. A greedy music promoter manipulates the Munks into leaving Dave, and then proceeds to overwork them to exhaustion. Dave finally "grows a pair" and gets them back, reuniting their little family.

I finally got around to seeing this. First I wanted to see this when it came out, and my daughter begged me for weeks to take her, but it only ever ran after 9pm, once per day, and it just became too hard. Then I preordered the DVD, and a couple of weeks before it came out, I lost my job. So that solved that! This time I rented it on $2 night at the video store. Happily I can say, it was better than the last one, and better than I expected. It's by no means the abomination that everyone was making out. In fact the heavy R-rating and gore this time, was much better than the PG kiddie-friendly outing last time. This was the way these creatures are supposed to be. Yes the character development is nothing much, and you never really care enough about the characters to be bothered whether they live or die, but what are you expecting. It is what it is - two nasty monsters battling it out. It's not Shakespeare! The effects and creature work was great, there was plenty of creature action, and everything else was kind of peripheral. I'm probably going to keep an eye out for this and pick it up when it finally dips down to a more reasonable price.

Plot Synopsis:
Picking up immediately where AVP ended, the Predator ship is invaded by a new Alien/Predator hybrid, after it bursts from the corpse of their fallen comrade. The Hybrid causes havoc aboard before escaping in a Predator shuttle and returning to Earth. The shuttle ultimately crashes on Earth, and its cargo of face huggers along with the Hybrid escape into the wilds.

A Predator is dispatched from their homeworld to clean up the mess. The aliens start impregnating the towns folk. When the Predator arrives, it locates the crashed ship, gathers some data about the aliens, then destroys all evidence of the ship. It tracks the aliens into the sewers under the town.

We are introduced to members of the town, and as they gradually cross paths with the creatures, they are killed or caught in the crossfire. Eventually as the Predator hunts them down, the aliens are forced into the township proper. The National Guard is summoned and after some troops are wiped out, elect to destroy the town.

A small group of survivors try to escape, but split into two groups; one deciding to go to the hospital to use their helicopter to flee, and the other elect to meet the Guard in the center of town. They fight there way through more aliens, manage to escape in the chopper. The second group is killed along with the Predator and Hybrid, and any remaining aliens, when the town is nuked.

The chopper crashes in the wild, and is recovered by rescuers. At the end, government agents hand over recovered Predator technology to a Ms. Yutani.