Digital Serenity

Download Order Form Here

The time has come for the Stars Fanatics Rally Scarf ... Thanks to Mohawk Andy and the countless hours he and a handful of other fanatics spent creating the AWESOME design that is our new 2008/09 Rally Scarf it's finally time to order it! Presale is going on now, with current delivery scheduled before the New Years Eve game (just in time for that Dallas Winter!) - but order quick before pricing goes up!!

WHAT: Stars Fanatics Rally Scarf Presale
WHEN: Oct 1 - Oct 31
WHO: Any Stars Fan can buy them
HOW: Payment with cash or through PayPal - Download Order Form Here

SPONSOR A STAR How cool would it be to see one of these on the players? Ralph & Razor? Coaches? Maybe even Brett Hull? Help us get one of these on each of them and Sponsor A Star today! On the order form is a place to put how many scarves you are buying for the Stars.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS With these coming just in time for Christmas be sure to remember all your favorite Stars fans when purchasing your scarf - buy one for everyone on your list! And nothing says "I hate you" more than buying a Red Wings fan than buying them a "DALLAS 'TILL I DIE" Rally scarf! These will be here just in time for Christmas so be sure you remember them when buying too!

Download Order Form Here

While trying to backup a client database today I kept running into an error regarding the Full Text Catalog that was part of the database.  I checked with our SQL guy, admitting my SQL n00b-ness, and he explained a bit about the catalog & indexes.  Suffice to say, for what I'm working on I don't need the index (it's kinda in the way, to be honest).

With some new knowledge of what to Google I set off to remove my issue.  And here is the 3 step process to remove that pesky Full Text Catalog for your backup purposes:

1. To find what tables are using the Full Text Catalog for their indexes run this script on your database verbatim:
   
   SELECT name, ftcatid FROM sysobjects WHERE ftcatid > 0
   
2. TO remove the Full Text Indexes on the tables found, run this script for each table found, replacing "NAME_OF_TABLE_FOUND" with the, well, name of the table!:
   
   EXEC sp_fulltext_table 'NAME_OF_TABLE_FOUND', 'drop'
   
3. Once you've completed step 2 for each table connected to the catalog run this script, replacing "NAME_OF_CATALOG" with, you guessed it, the name of the catalog; Note you do NOT need quotation marks for this part:
   
   DROP FULLTEXT CATALOG NAME_OF_CATALOG

Scott Watermasysk posted this video today, a video from the guys at devshop.  It's absolutely genius, a fantastic mockumentary of what it's like to be an in house developer ... it does hit consulting, just not in the same way, WE are who your project got consulted out to; hopefully you never get our product back half-done though.

For years now people, as a whole, have gotten more and more status quo.  We stop thinking for ourselves; worry too much about the opinions of others; act in ways that would be appeasing to others.  How rarely now we actually do things because WE think it's cool.

Every time you hear someone to act/think "outside the box" [ phrases.org.uk ] you are hearing societies admittance that as a society we are too often not ... too often acting/being/thinking along the status quo.  Let us not forget the catch-22 here, however, act too much your own person and we get comments like "why can't you act like..." or "that's how it's always been done" [ jeff bridges ].

Tell me you don't remember television trying to make us all (or your kids all)want to be "like Mike" [ adverblog.com ]?

I should say, before I go any further, I love these sayings.  It's taken me quite a long time to become my own person, as much as I can that is.  As great an upbringing I have had, and as many opportunities as my parents gave me, there are two people in particular that I look at and say "they helped me realize to be myself":  my cousin James and my college photo professor Sarud-din Shah ("Shah").  James taught this by example, often to the extreme, but I've never forgotten that example.  Shah had a saying, I'm sure others have used it before him, "Do you"; he said it constantly, always with a warm, kind tone.  It truely helped changehow I think and act now and to this day I use it myself.

Back to the reason for today's blog inspiration ... Volkswagen would like us to See Films Differently. Yes, the car manufacturer ... wants us to see Films differently.  Over the random connection?  Actually it makes quite a bit of sense: they support independent films and filmmakers (6 years running); independent films, albeit becoming the "in" thing over the past decade or so, are not status quo; Volkswagen gets people like me to think of their name when thinking of not status quo because of their support of the "not" status quo.  It's rather convoluted and if I had a flow chart it would wrap back and forth again and again ... but you get the picture.

Check out the videos, they are fantastic and, while they aren't necessarily how I feel about these movies, they give us reason to think ...

Allow me to onclude by placing my opinion on the broader topic: BE YOURSELF, DO YOU, THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, DON'T BE A LEMMING!  Whatever phrase you prefer ... Just Do It! [ CFAR ]

QueryOverrides allow great customizations to lists (WeblogPostList / IndexPostList / etc) including page sizes, sections to search on, sort instructions and much more.

In this particular case I need to search by multiple sections.  While the SectionApplicationKeysToSearch or SectionIDsToSearch options would work, Community Server has blog groups, making it easy to group blogs together.  Conveniently the QueryOverrides have the option GroupsToSearch ... should be easy, and in fact it is; once you know what to put there.

The amazing wealth of information over at GetBen.com has about 99.9% of everything you could need to know about CS controls ... including the instructions that CS expects a string value for this option.  What took me hours to figure out (because, apparently, my head wasn't in quite the right frame of mind) was that the GroupsToSearch is actually looking for a comma (see? string!) separated list of integers, the IDs of the groups you wish to search on.

So, while I was putting in: GroupsToSearch="MyGroup,MyOtherGroup"; what was expected, and the reason I was getting the Input string was not in a correct format error, was GroupsToSearch="3,5"

I hope this helps someone save a few minutes compared to what I lost this evening ...

We recently had a client who required a custom post page for workflow purposes:

Please create role "DraftPosts" and allow them to create posts in the "Workflow" blog but only save drafts, not publish.  Also, please make sure they use the site skin, not the control panel skin

Fairly simple with a few "gotcha" steps.

1. Create the new role "DraftPosts"
   
   
2. Update "Workflow" blog permissions to allow "DraftPosts" to manage content
   
   
   

That's fairly simple, but step 2, which I forgot, can cause quite a bit of headache if missed.  The next step is creating your Post Editor page; it's also fairly straight forward.

1. From /ControlPanel/Blogs/ copy CreateEditBlogPost.ascx and PostEditor.aspx (and associated .cs & .resx pages) to your new location.  You'll want the new location to have access to the appropriate theme, so I put it in /Themes/leanandgreen/common/.
2. Update both pages so the class names are unique.  I renamed them to DraftPostsPostEditorPage  and DraftPostsCreateEditBlogPost respectively.
3. Update both ASPX pages: inherit from the updated code behind pages and pointing them to the correct master pages.  ex.:
           <%@ Page language="c#" Codebehind="DraftPostsPostEditor.aspx.cs" AutoEventWireup="false"
           Inherits="CommunityServer.ControlPanel.Blogs.DraftPostsPostEditorPage"
           MasterPageFile="~/Themes/leanandgreen/common/master.Master" %>
4. Assign the Workflow blog section ID to the CSContext:
   
           override protected void OnInit(EventArgs e)
           {
               .......
               MyWeblogSectionID = Weblogs.GetWeblog("Workflow").SectionID;

            CSContext.Current.SectionID = MyWeblogSectionID;
            .......

        }

Lastly, remember they only want the user to be able to save, not publish.  There are various ways of doing this and by far likely better ways than I chose to.  That said, I just hid the "Publish" button!

Good luck, and don't hesitate to let me know if the above steps didn't work for you!

Friday I saw a presentation at Rotary called "The Coming Tsunami - Health Care and Retirement Crisis".  It got me thinking a great deal and I have a handful of notes that I want to discuss, things I need to research so I can talk more factually about the subject, rather than just putting thoughts down.

Then I got an email from an acquaintance of mine with the subject "Ala. To Charge Obese Workers $25 Monthly" and this got me thinking a great deal ... and yes I actually found a news article to back this email, more than one, but here's a link for you [ clicky ] thanks to News 5 Kansas City.

I'm all for things like this to a point ...  as long as they are focusing on HEALTH and not WEIGHT than yah, cool.  The issue being most people define obesity by number of pounds.  My bone structure will NEVER fit the healthy model. 

There are many different calculations out there, "Metropolitan Life", "Devine", "Robinson", "Miller", "Hamwi" ... I'm sure many more that I am missing.  However they all suggest that, as a man of 6'2", I weight between 160lbs and 200lbs, approximately.

Allow me to divulge a bit of personal information to help prove my thoughts.  As of my last BMI measurements I weigh 305lbs; I carry approximately 116 pounds of fat (that'd 38%, down from my previous 42%, go me!).  Now, the process I use to take my BMI is guaranteed If you take my total weight (305) and subtract every pound of fat I carry (116) you get 189lbs, towards the high end of the SUGGESTED weight: that's 0% body fat.

With minimal research I am unable to find proper citations for this, however, for men it is recommended to carry between 8% and 17% body fat ... NOT 0!  Taking my 0% weight (189) that's between 204lbs and 222lbs.  As you can see at 8% body fat I'm still ABOVE the recommended weight for my height.

Let me take this one step further still ... at 222lbs, just 17% body fat above my estimated 0% measurement, I would be 22lbs over the suggested weight for my height.  That's an EXTRA 10% body fat, which puts me at 17% body fat, which calculates me as OBESE when you only consider weight.

What I haven't mentioned, btw, is that in the past when I have applied for solo coverage health care (not part of my company, but all on my lonesome) I have been disqualified PURELY based on my height and weight - this is not a claim, it was the process that occurred.

In short, what we are seeing is a culture of people who feel like they have no choice but to be overweight because we have a capitalistic society that uses the most beneficial calculations for the success of the business owner, instead of a society that looks at the benefit for the society at a whole.  Yikes, I know, it sounds kind of socialist doesn't it?

*AHEM* Does anyone still read this thing?  Not sure why you would, but thanks if you do!  Scott and I are going to be getting together in the coming month to begin planning for, what we hope to be, our best (and most complete) season covering the Stars yet. 

Logistics will be more difficult as I now live more than 60 miles from where we have been recording over the past 2 years, but I have faith we'll come up with a solution you can be proud to listen to!

But really, as we get into our 3rd (4th overall) season of covering the Dallas Stars, and the NHL as a whole, I ask you, our dear dozen or so readers, what do you want from us?

Is consistency enough?  Do you want specific interviews?  Do you want us to cover more/less of the NHL?  More/Less game details? More AHL news? A new host? One of us gone (too bad)? Do you have ideas that you could contribute regularly yourself?  Would you like to be part of our news blogging team?

Tell us what would make the Dallas Stars Podcast something worth visiting more; what would get you to tell your friends about us; and we'll do our damn best to get it done!

So swing by the Dallas Stars Podcast website, give us a read, and check out our live podcasts ... we'll be recording again soon!

Yours in Hockey

Jay 'The Wall' Leask

Community Server saw a major overhaul to the user profile public display page.  One of these newer features is the Shared Feeds.  Shared Feeds allow a user to put any feeds they find worthy of sharing into their profile and have them displayed, per the sites layout, on the profile page.

The screenshot above is from my personal profile on dev.communityserver.com - as you can see there are two feeds shown here, each with the latest posts from that feed displayed.  The default CS theme displays 5 posts there, though that can be changed using the QueryOverrides  "PageSize" property of your TemporaryRssFeedList control.

But really this isn't what made me think this was a good blog post.  Allow me to put the Search Engine Optimized phrase here: Why does my Community Server 2008 Shared Feeds only show 5 feeds?

The answer, my friends, is blowin' in th...nevermind that.

It's simple, CS08 has a limit to the number of feeds you can share, not just that are displayed, but in fact share; the magic number being 5.  If you try to save 6 items CS actually removes the 6th item from the list before saving, but never tells you this:

I learned this the hard way, of course; I spent an hour trying to troubleshoot why only 5 of my feeds were displaying even though I saw my profile save after entering 6 items - Moral of the story, always make sure what you thought saved actually saved (yes, only 5 items saved).

[ cross-posted from the Dallas Stars Podcast ]

Before I actually get to the schedule, allow me to reflect a bit, in no great detail, about this years Dallas Stars:

• Marty Turco continued to prove that he is a clutch goalie and that he has it in the playoffs.  While he had a rough bout against the Wings, he not only pulled the team 3 rounds deep, he finally got his first win at the Joe ... ever ... in the playoffs.
• The freshmen are AMAZING.  Who would have expected a group SO chock full of rookies to make it as far as they did.  Barch, Erikson, Grossman, Fistric, Niskanen, Peterson, Stephan ... I know we saw more guys, but these guys really impressed me this season.  I can't wait to see what happens with our backup goalie situation next year - and how about Grossman with his first career NHL goal being in the Playoffs ... no ... in the Western Conference Finals???  Nuts I tell ya, nuts!
• Oh captain, my Captain.  When the "C" was abruptly and rudely taken from Mike Modano many people questioned the move, and also the choice of Brendan Morrow as the replacement.  If there are ANY doubters left, allow us to reflect, without me digging up the stats, how well Morrow did this series.  First and foremost, if we had made the finals, he would have, in this bloggers opinion, won the Conn Smyth this year.  Second, was there a player with more heart, more drive, and better to model the rest of your team after this series?  How about his injuries?  (yeah, we'll get to that in a moment).  I admit, when I first saw Morrow I questioned him as Captain.  I knew there had to be a reason, but I wasn't sold.  I will never question him again after this year.
• Shoulder surgery, sports hernia, torn shoulder, bum leg, concussion.  And this is just the list of players who PLAYED WITH THESE INJURIES this playoffs; for the Stars.  We knew about Boucher, Zubov, Barnes & Fistric, but how about Morrow & Norstrom?  That's right, for the entire Playoffs Norstrom did everything he could to ignore a sports hernia; and it was, in my opinion, the most alive he has been as a Dallas Star.  As for our Captain, he was "basically laying on one leg" since the final game against the Sharks, not forget the partial tare in his shoulder.
• Mike Smith was an amazing backup goalie; Jussie Jokinen a clutch on the breakaway/Shootout; Jeff Halpern a quiet leader; and we saw all of them leave this year.  It was a sad day for everyone, not a single fan I know was happy to see all 3 of these players leave, and I'm certain the team had a rough time of it too.  However, Brad Richards and 3 years of contract came to Dallas.  This will be HUGE in the coming years as we see some of our vets retire.  It was huge in the playoffs as he was tied for second in points and led the lines of not only Mike Modano but also the rookies at different times.  B-Rich will be a major player next year, the year after, and going forward.
• Brett Hull and Les Jackson were placed into the first ever co-GM experiment in the history of the NHL.  They relieved an unspoken pressure between the players and their concern for job security; they relieved a similar unspoken pressure of Dave Tippet and his team of coaches, who just hadn't proven themselves in the playoffs (don't believe me?  Look at San Jose's head coach; oh that's right, they don't have one anymore).  They placed a few minor pickups in Iowa; and they tailored the deal that got us Brad Richards without giving up our entire future (can anyone say Marion Hossa to Pittsburgh?).  Rumor has it that Tom Hicks is actually trying to convince the two to stick around together another year; wow.
• Fabian Brunnstrom; this years hottest free agent; a supposed #5 overall draft pick, without the draft pick and without the ramp up time in Iowa.  Need I say more about next year?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boy and Girls, it's time to look at 2008/2009.  Hold your heads up high because the Dallas Stars were a team to be proud of in 2007/2008 and will be a team to reckon with next year.

GO STARS!
--j

Because I Can, I'm 5 hours behind.  Like it, or bugger off :-)

Friday, Day 16, I'm thankful for good music.

A legend of a local DJ here in Dallas and I have become friends over the past year.  He is the Music Coordinator / Entertainment Director (last time I called someone that she was a Madam in Vegas, but I digress) for the Dallas Stars, and also the liaison at the Stars for the Fanatics: Jeff K.  Jeff, who doesn't DJ as much these days did a set tonight at Whiskey Bar on lower Greenville - while the place was small and not as busy as I expected (the whole area was dead tonight), Jeff was fantastic in bringing back some good, old fashioned (aka - old school) dance music - the stuff that made me fall into the techno/hypno/trance/dance genre back in the day.  While not as many of us showed up as I had expected (and boo on you sir, boo on you) it was still an awesome time.  So today, I think I shall end my day with a note for you, sir Jeff K: Rock on, sir, Rock on!

As seen in my post, Because I Can, here is what I'm grateful for, today:

Today, Day 15, I'm grateful for second chances.

Yup!  Tonight the Stars showed up in Detroit and acted like a bunch of prospects.  Talking with Streakgrl from the Dallas Stars official boards we (probably she) commented it was like watching the annual Pros vs Prospects game.  It's simple, guys: you have the talent, you have the skill, you have demonstrated the ability to play the level you need to.  However, tonight, you chose not to.  You were nervous, star-struck, afraid even.  Who showed up?  Morrow showed up.  Turco showed up (you really can only blame one of those goals on him alone).  Zubie & Robie kinda showed up, but their defensive pairs were too flaky to produce enough.  And Daley ... oye.  One play he kicks ass, deeks the wings, does a few fans over the puck and makes a beauty of a shot; the next play he acts like it's his first AHL game ... yeah that's right, AHL, not NHL.

So here's to tomorrow, when the Stars will practice hard so when they come out Saturday the team that shows up is the same team that beat Anaheim & San Jose, not the prospects we watched tonight - so they don't blow their Second Chance.
 

As seen in my post, Because I Can, here is what I'm grateful for, today:

Today, April 7, Day 14, I'm grateful for the Internets and all of it's splendor.

The list is FAR too long to actually list them all, however, here are some the most important, life changing parts of the internet (this, of course, being a family safe list), in my opinion.

• E-Bay - I recently gave in, after much peer presure, and purchased myself an X-Box 360.  My biggest deturrant has always been the cost associated the console, however, once the pressure got hard enough I thought I'd see what I could find.  Thanks to the world's most popular auction website I found one, plus a wireless controller, for an amount that didn't entirely break the bank.  E-Bay has brought many changes to the world of person to person sales: it has made internet selling easy and almost garunteed if you follow it's best practices; it has made the weekend garage sale an every day (quite literally) occurance; it has also spawned many brick-and-mortar stores that afford people who are afraid to sell things themselves online the opportunity to do so.
  
• Google - It's hard to argue that any company has had more effect on how the internet is used.  From mail, calendar and business applications to their flagship search application (which includes topical searches for blogs, images, news and many more) Google has revolutionized every aspect of using the internet.  They even have their own video sharing site - YouTube, eat your heart out (ok, maybe the video sharing site is lacking).  And for all you MAC/Apple Fan Boys, I am a Google Fan Boy.
  
• Evite - I don't have quite the praise for Evite that I do for Google, but Evite was the first (that I knew of) publicly available internet event planning system.
  
• Wikipedia - No one said everything you read on the internet is perfect, and this site has had more than it's share of mis-information; however, if you are looking to learn something quick this is a great place to start.  START being the key.  I have, on many-a-night, been watching a historical fiction on TV (most recently The Tudors on Showtime) and found myself skimming Wikipedia's database for more information.  I do sugges,t however, if you're using this for any fact-finding you find other sources; this user-driven content is not always the most accurate.
  
• Craigs List - Craigs list, too, has been around for quite some time.  It, like E-Bay, has brought the garage sale to the internet, however, it's lack of restrictions has given it as many negatives as it has positives.  Oh, if you're a regular Craigs List user, I suggest ListPic.com: a site that displays Craigs List results using their photographs ... a very cool site to use.
• IMDB - The Internet Movie Database.  Want to know what actor was in what movie and who co-starred in it?  How about some reviews?  Maybe photographs from the movies.  How about Television shows?  The list goes on, and this site has all the data you could need on your favorite star, or starlet.

Like I said, there is PLENTY more, but these are some of the sites that, I think, have revolutionized the internet, and our lives.  What would you add?

Sunday I woke up thinking "Don't forget to post your Being Grateful article today" and as the day wore on I thought "No no, you can post it when you get home from tonight's game, you'll have plenty to be thankful for then.  And I was, MORE than grateful.  I had a bleeding split upper lip (damn plastic horns), sore fore arms (damn drum) and no voice (damn screaming) ... but allow me to continue my Being Grateful series by telling you that on

Day 11 I was grateful for Tailgating.

What, you didn't expect me to be thankful for the NHL Conference Finals, did you?  Come on, that game didn't end until 1:30 Central time.  No, no, Sunday the Fanatics had our second Tailgate and, I think I can safely speak for all 40+ attendees, it was awesome.  We even had people not attending the game join us for the tailgate ... and non-fanatics asking about it at the game (so I'm told).

Day 12 I was (and am still) grateful for Marty's sticky fingers ... and toes ... and his back ... and his helmet ...

... Seriously, is there a spot Marty Turco did NOT make a save off?  You see, Sunday night into Monday morning, for over 5 hours, the Stars played hockey against the Sharks.  This game, the 8th longest NHL game ever recorded, cost the Sharks their opportunity to continue onto the Conference Championships, and afforded the Dallas Stars their 2nd trip to that hallowed round since winning Lord Stanley's Cup in 1999, the previous time was 2000.  Marty made a franchise high 61 saves that game; the game winner by Brendan Morrow came in at approximately 1:25am - almost 5.5 hours of hockey.  Bliss my friends, pure bliss.

Day 13, catching us back up to Today, I am thankful for a good nights sleep.

When I was 21 I convinced my parents I needed a new bed, and they helped me buy one.  I love this bed, it's a pillow-top style (brand/model I can't seem to recall), that's not too fluffy, not too firm; that combined with my Brookstone Tempur-Pedic Pillow AND my feather pillow and Eddie Bauer Goose Down Comforter ... After Monday mornings hockey shenanigans I needed a strong nights sleep.

As I drove around today to:

• find out status of part for broken cell phone;
• get refund for part that isn't coming for broken cell phone;
• go to AT&T store to get broken cell phone fixed;
• go to AT&T support center to get broken cell phone fixed;
• find out broken cell phone is out of warranty, thusly not able to be fixed by support center;
• go back to AT&T store to buy new cell phone
• go to friends house to pickup house keys (note to self: never lose house keys again);
• go to other friends to get smoker for tomorrows Game 6 tailgate;
• go to office to make up for lack of hours during normal M-F hours

... I came to realize something that fit perfectly in my 30 day writing experiment; I realized that ...

Today, May 3, aka Day 10, I am grateful for Sunlight.

It may sound silly but I love the Dallas weather.  First, we don't have weeks of rain.  Rain comes and within 36 hours even the worst of storm fronts are completely gone; usually you only have to wait 6 to 12 hours for it to clear ... if that.  Something similar to what we northerners call Snow comes and 6 hours it's 60 degrees and the ground is dry.  Humidity comes, and well that sucks because it's 100 degrees when it comes, but it's gone in 24 hours.

Seriously, I don't mind the 105 degree summer days (even when they are 60 days straight).  While I do miss my snow and the changing of the seasons (don't even try to tell me there are "seasons" in Dallas), I wear shorts and sandals 8 months out of the year; and almost NEVER say "gosh I just wish [insert next season] would come already!"