Its about time

Its about time I posted something again.
Its been 9 months.

Its also time for a new and worthy activity.

I've been training martial arts with the same instructor for 8 years.
For the last few years, we have been doing less and less martial arts, and more fitness-related activities.

I've got nothing against fitness, but I'm not 20 any more. My doctor reminds me that every time I see her. I have no ability, and NO desire to be pushed like a 20-something athlete.

I started training to get into better shape, and to have fun.
Martial arts was a way to do that. I made some great friends, learned some good skills, and improved my balance and confidence.

My friends have moved on because they too enjoyed martial arts, but we're not doing that any more. I think I may have to move on as well.

I respect my instructor because he's my friend. So I'll do the right thing, and tell him how I'm feeling. Rather than just quitting and going to train some place else, I'll see if he's actually willing to bring martial arts back into the curriculum.

I miss forms. I miss sparring. I miss my sword and my bo-staff.

VOMIT and BARF

I heard a couple of interesting acronyms that fit the medical imaging industry.

VOMIT

Victim
Of
Medical
Imaging
Technologies

and

BARF

Brainless
Application of
Radiological
Findings

I felt compelled to record these here for posterity.

The Duct Tape Programmer

I have been reading Joel Spolsky's stuff for a long time. He has a particularly unique common sense approach to software development. His outlook tends to support my own feelings on 'big business' and software development.

His latest article hits particularly close to home.

The Duct Tape Programmer talks about 'practical programmers', that is, programmers who are more concerned with just getting the job done, and less concerned about being flashy. I have worked with a number of astronaut developers who work far above the actual product. These people are more concerned with using the latest tool or technique. What the customer wants, or WHEN they want it, is a secondary concern to them.

Read Joel's article and gain a little insight into blue collar software development.

SQL Server, Windows locales, and the default user

I've run into this before, so I'm writing it down now.

I have a package of software that contains an interactive component, as well as several services. All pieces add and update SQL server database entries that contain dates. These dates are of DateTime type.

We ran the package on a machine that was originally configured with a Canadian locale, and its associated date formats. At some point, the admin user account had its locale changed to US and then SQL server 2005 was installed.

The problem was that the interactive component created database entries with correct date formats, but the services were trying to update with incorrect date formats. Both pieces got their date values using the DateTime.Now function.

Turns out that the services were running as the LocalSystem user, and the interactive piece was running as the logged in admin user. The LocalSystem uses the locale associated with the Default user. The admin user had been configured with a US locale, and the Default user still had the Canadian locale that was set during the initial Windows install.

To fix this,

- Open Control Panel
- Select Regional and Language Options
- In XP, select the Advanced tab
- Select the check box "Apply all settings to the current user and to the Default user profile"
- Click Apply
- In Vista, select the Administrative tab
- Click the "Copy to reserved accounts..."
- Click Apply

You will need to restart any services that are running as the LocalSystem user for this to take effect.

Whew!!

A Car Show In Cedar Falls Iowa

I recently took a driving vacation with my family to see Mount Rushmore. It included a stop over in Cedar Falls Iowa for a day off from driving and a chance to check out their annual car show.

Here are some pics on the way to, and at the show.
Flickr

I especially liked the Corvair pickup I saw in the parking lot of a neighboring hotel when we went to leave the next morning.

Why Tape Measure Claws Move Around

I always wondered why the claw at the end of my tape measures never seemed to be riveted on securely. My favorite tool blog has the answer!
Toolmonger

Specify a Date Format on The Fly

I write DICOM migration software in C#, and was recently faced with the task of setting a date format on the fly so that I could convert any date to DICOM format.

After much Googling, I found that DateTime has a TryParseExact() method that will allow you to specify the source string date format and put the successfully parsed date into a previously defined DateTime object. Once it was here, it was easy to use ToString() to format it DICOM-style.


CultureInfo enUS = new CultureInfo("en-US");
DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(txtDateToConvert.Text, txtDateFormat.Text.Trim(), enUS, DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
if (null != dt)
txtDICOMdate.Text = dt.ToString("yyyyMMdd");
}