Starbucks Hype

So why do people obsess with Starbucks?   I am currently sitting in a Starbucks in the airport, and if you can look passed the unique arrangement of people coming in, it comes down to two types:  the experienced, and the inexperienced.

 

“The Experienced”

These are those people who walk in and start listing off an order in some archeic overly complex language(Roman Numerals ring any bells? ).  Overlooking the fact that it would have been simpler to walk in and simply say I would like a  ”Large Ice Coffeee.”    The woman blabbers out Iced, Single, Vente, Iced Coffee. WHat?!

I dont know if talking in clicks similar to the native language of Tanzania Hadza  (look it up) you feel like a better person than I, but I believe one of the attractions of coming into Starbucks, versus Duncn Donoughts is the ability to be a complete bad ass. 

I think people like strutting in, ordering their coffee, tightening up their posture and then turning around and give you the.. oh yea.. i just ordered that!

Wanna Bees

Oh and then my favorite, the first timers, or the “wanna “bees.”  I just watched a woman order an ice coffee(not using those babby terms of course), walk over to the condiment stand and take a 5 count on the sugar, and about a 10 count on the milk. 

By the time she was done it looked like off-white paint.  There is no way she likes the taste of coffee, she could get the same results by ordering ice, then adding her sugar milk.

 

Before you all go and think i don’t appreciate the cult that is Starbucks. I do, i fully understand that they make a mean cup of coffee.  The difference is, i don’t want to be a bad ass, i am the dude that walks in and uses 7 syllables to order my drink. 

 ”I would like a large coffee,” and then they turn to me and say, “Vente“, house? I give them a mean look and say yes.

 

 

I know you all missed me, unfortunately a chaotic travel/moving schedule has caused me to go into hibernation, but with bad English and all I AM BACK.

BizTalk References ‘Gotch’yas

BizTalk Application References

Ever deployed something with biztalk, and got

Inner exception: Could not load file or assembly <assembly info> or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

When you know you installed it to the gac? 

BizTalk Orchestration References

Or when you are developing in Visual Studio, update a reference library, and then try to access something you changed?  Only to see that it isn’t an even an option in the auto assist?

Solution 

Well i have found that VS Biztalk Solutions do not* update references after you change them. As a result when you deploy it uses old assembly info, and when you are auto-assiting it does not populate with the new assembly info.   A quick/easy, yet really annoying, way around this is to unload your BizTalk solution that contains your orchestrations, and then reload.

 

Once you have done this, redeploy, and restart the biztalk host instance, and VOLIA!  Error gone.

BizTalk BRE Custom Functions

Creating Custom Functions

The other day i was using BusinessRules Composer and i needed to do something simple.  I needed to concatenate two strings.  I looked at the out of the box Functions provided saw an add, threw it in there dragged over my xsd string elements and BOOM!

My object wasn’t numeric so i couldn’t add.  You would think* you could be able to add any primative type, but you can’t.  So what i decided to do was add a .NET class to do it for me.  So i did and i used the static method below to accomplish my goal

public static string concatenate(string a, string b){ return a + b; }

Pretty simple huh ?

So i built my C# class library deployed it to the GAC.

So you would thing i could switch over Business Rules Composer(BRC) and see my newly created assembly.  WRONG.  Everytime you make changes to your library and re install to GAC you have to restart BRC.  Which really stinks.

Anyways, once i restarted i simply dragged my concatinate function into my rule, and then the strings… no errors … time to test.

BRE Static Code Execution

Well i went to test it and nothing happened.. WT*! so after about 30 mins went by trying to debug, write to the event log, or even write to a file i decided it really wasn’t executing my code.  So with some research i found that BRE will not execute Static Code unless

Either assert an instance of the class into the working memory of the BRE or enable invoking static methods without requiring an object instance by setting the value of the following registry key to 1 or 2: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\BusinessRules\3.0\StaticSupport (DWORD)

So obviously the easiest is to flip a bit in the registry, BUT you really dont want other people having to muck with the registry to execute your code?   So i investigated what “assert an instance of the class” one. 

I was executing these rules in a BizTalkOrchestration and here is what you have to do to accomplish the assert.  What i found was basically any variable type passed to the .Execute call in the RulesEngine will end up being statically asserted.  Knowing this i created a variable in my orchestration of the .net class type that i want to be asserted.  I then went back and edited my call rules shape and added at the end of my parameter list the variable i just created.

 

Volia!  It worked and executed my code phew!.  Anywho i just wanted to share those nuggets with you because there is a major lack of documentation about BRE customizations.

 

 

Take care.

Microsoft vs Yahoo

There is a reason I put them in that order, because Microsoft can exist in the absence of Yahoo, unfortunately Yahoo cannot say the same. The great debate continues, with a new plot twist, can Icahn convince the share holders that the current board at Yahoo needs to be replaced? Before I go to far, let me give those who aren’t up to date with the current situation some background.

February 1, 2008: Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo

In a deal worth around 45 BILLION dollars, about $31/share MS offered to buy Yahoo. Prior to the announcement January 31 2008, Yahoo’s stock was worth $19.81/share, with a little simple math MS offered right around a 60% more than the current value of Yahoo’s stock.

SO why would they offer to buy?

MS envisions that a joint company would bring together two important synergies the advertising realm and, what I believe is really important to them, “innovation in user experiences such as video and mobile.” Two other synergies they site are combining talent, and reducing redundancies between the two companies. The latter two I believe are minor.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-01corpnewspr.mspx

So what happened? Ultimately the offer was not accepted, MS retracted the offer and decided that taking the offer to the share holders would not be a good idea.

Its all over right? No. MS has now said that if Icahn, a very powerful investor who is upset at the board for not accepting the deal,  is successful in his battle to convince the shareholders that they need a new board of directors then the talks could be back on. If Icahn submits his proxy the vote would occur during the shareholders meeting on August 1^st.

So what do I think ?

Yahoo is a fool to not accept this deal. Days before the deal was announced around Jan 28, a 4^th quarter earnings that had declined 23%!, and was going to cut 7% of its work force. 3 Days later MS offers a 60% premium on their stock, and they claim that they are undervaluing the value of their company! That is outrageous.

Both companies when compared to Google, are behind in the state of the art Online Marketplace. All of us can think back to the AOL, and Hotmail dominated web, and we all know now AOL is barely alive, and Gmail is now the goto for email.  They have a better user interface and are constantly adding new features.

Yahoo can cling to fame with its YahooJobs and it does have a better online platform then MS, but Google trumps search,  excels in advertising, and is growing in all other areas, and haven’t been around nearly as long.

Google has investing power, they have more money laying around then they know what to do with. The have developers sitting around thinking, how can we do this better, what do people want… MS can provide Yahoo with money for R&D. Which is exactly what they need to compete with Google.

It all comes down to the fact that if Yahoo or MS wants to compete with Google they need to combine synergies. Obviously MS can help (donate money) Yahoos advertising compete with Google. MS has a respectable Finance site which with a little yahoo spice could instantly set them mile ahead of Google’s finance site(which needs a lot of work, they just added a stock screener)

MS’s true vision is for integration with their OS.  I honestly think MS is looking toward integrating OS and other their technologies to an online platform. They want fully integrate their OS to the web, and need a better, more complete, platform.  With out a proper online framework they can not achieve their Windows anywhere dream.

They want to plug into more “social” network sites, they want to produce a more integrated Picture, Video, and Music online marketplace.

If you join MS and Yahoos online platform they will be much more powerful and after a lot of painful integration might stand a chance to be a thorn in Google’s side.

I think MS can survive without yahoo but they need to do something about their online platform.  Its weak, their os is advancing, and it is very user friendly, but they can not take the next step in computing OS’s until they have a proper online framework to build into.  Yahoo has the subject matter expertise to develop the framework MS needs.

Do i think Icahn will be successful ?  Maybe yea i took the high ground, but i think the large investors, would be interested because they have already seen the huge jump in the stock based on talks* about MS buying Yahoo.  I think the people still left to convince are the small town peeps.  The ones who fear big business, who fear MS, and who would be the ones to “say” they would jump ship but who probably wouldn’t do a thing if MS purchased Yahoo.

I am interested to hear some thoughts about this…. i wrote this blog up pretty quickly, so i am sure i will spark some debate.!

The Global Climate Crisis

We shall  get to my thoughts but before we get there let me give you some info

Summary

So in ”theory” there has been a  noticeable trend in the rise of the ocean and surface temperature of the earth.  I will try not to be too condescending with my summary but we are talking about less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1850.  Regardless most scientist that believe in global warming contribute it to our “carbon footprint” on the word.  That has we humans grow our green house gas contributions grow which will result in another degree rise in temperature before the end of the 21rst century. Phew…   Side affects of global warming is the rise of sea level, increase in major storms,  glacier melting, species dying out, the world ending, etc (i threw in the last one). That is my crash course propaganda filled summary of global warming

 Al Gore

What can i say?  Sometimes i wish that he would have won the presidential election back in 2000 ? Wouldn’t that be great?  Its amazing how when u lose by so little, your life shatters and you have to find a new “passion.”  I.e. a way to make money, and unfortunately Al found Global Warming, and a lot of gullible human beings.  Anyways Dr. Gore wont a Nobel Peace price for his work with promoting global warming.  WHAT!  Seriously ?  How do you pull that one off ? I guess they felt sorry for his loss back in 2000.  Anyways

North Pole Melting This Summer

Okay so i am going to give you this one unadulterated.  THIS is what inspired me to write this blog.  So someone(scientist) today came out and set that as soon as this August the north pole might disappear.  Santa has recently been spotted packing up his stuff and moving toward Antarctica. 

They also gave a 50% chance that this was going to occur.  Seriously!  Okay i have a prediction there is a 50% chance that it will rain on Sunday, and the weather man says there is a 70% chance, but honestly?  If it doesn’t rain aren’t we equally wrong ?  

Anywho sorry…The article i read stated “this year’s northern melt is yet another example of the impact that global warming is having on the planet’s environment ” (CNN Article on North Pole).  So obviously if one of the caps to disappear last year, it was do to global warming… this is such a painful blog to write.

Finally… Scientist Capito’s view on Global Warming

Where shall i start.  First, if you are going to refer to something as a Global Crisis, you are going to have to produce some major facts, or i am going to look at you and refer to you as a moron.  I constantly ask myself where are the facts?  Back in January/December we had one of the coldest recorded winters, but that has simply been classified as an anomaly… Whose to say we are creating this warming ?  Don’t stars grow as they get older ?   Couldn’t the Sun be expanding and thus causing an increases temperature on earth ?   Couldn’t volcanos or Florida/California fires be contributing to global warming ?

I don’t dispute the fact that the temperature has risen in the last 150 years, i do dispute we were the cause.  How do scientist over look the fact that the world used to be covered by ice ? Did the 3 toed sloths produce such a large carbon pawl print that the caused all the ice to melt ?

Politicians are the ones that are driving this crisis they are the ones that are pushing ignorant thoughts (i like that term) about the crisis that is global warming.  I guess my real problem is the fact that people will believe anything that they read/hear.  People are lazy now days and don’t  do their part when forming their own beliefs.  The part that they are missing is 1 actually developing their own beliefs, and 2 researching the facts in order to form a valid belief. 

 

 

Bottom line, if you find your self in a crisis,for arguments sake lets say the crisis is Global Warming, don’t panic, don’t head for the hills, pick up a book read it, then pick up another book and read it, and then form your own educated opinion on the crisis at hand.

Microsoft’s Bad Rap

Microsofts evil empire?

I have been in the IT industry for a while now, and there seems to be a black cloud that has been cast over Microsoft.   Over the years i have become proficient in Java, C++, Python, and C (and in that order) i never had the opportunity to do any .net work.  People always talk about how crappy Windows has been coded, and there seems to be some people who live and die java, they think java is the greatest thing on earth.. but unfortunately.. its not.

IDE

Microsoft has an amazing platform for developing anything from WebServices to GUIs.  There IDEs are much more powerful then anything i have seen in the java eclipse or net-beans world.  Now i will say, of course, that you have to pay for the Visual Studio 2008 IDE, and i have never purchased any java ides but it just seems like the MS VS 2008 is well tested and mature.  You can tell it has been modified over the years for development and really makes your life easier.

 

Web Services

I was able to get a Web Application up and running within 15 minutes. THE FIRST TIME.  In java… good luck.  The .net framework is almost over simplified in design.  When coming from J2EE i was like where are all the XML files i need to create or generate ? ? Where is my Web.xml.. i was almost lost.. i wanted to hand jam some type of deployment descriptor in order to get it to work… but i didn’t!  ALl my boilerplate code was generated for me.. and i could move on with my life.

 Language in General

Now that i have touched the C# world its going to be long transition back to java.  C# really does give you more tools when it comes to coding… from delegates, to partial classes, to Linq.  It just seems like the language is experienced,  that the core foundation was layed a long time ago, and they now have moved on to enhancements.

Greatest Deficiency

Portability.  Hands down java smacks C# in the face when it comes to Platform Independentnesss.. So if you are going to need to run on linux, or be able to support linux breeds C# is not your solution.  The linux (mono) is just not there yet.

 

So in the end, to all those people who thing MS doesn’t know what they are doing.  MS has a sick suite of tools when it comes to developing software.  Much better then any suite i have seen to date.  They are way ahead of any other language or tool set, so i think it might be time to give them some props…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hyped out Linux

 

It seems like all the really cool techies like to cling to their Linux box and proclaim that Linux is the cure for any computer problem out there.  Don’t get me wrong, i love Linux, i have a Linux box at home, and my work laptop is dual loaded with Windows XP and Fedora 9.  I keep up to date with the latest Linux builds but i also respect the ease of Windows.

Simple Use

 I defiantly believe that linux provides a cheap and simple solution for those who are lookin for a PC to simply browse the internet/check mail/chat.  It is an optimal solution because linux runs light.  You can take an old computer load Fedora or even a “extra light” distro and it will run fine.  It will perform about as fast as anyone would need to chat, check email, and browse the web.  Now you take and load Windows on that same box.. and you will be struggling to make it through the startup sequence.

However lets say i take and old laptop and load a linux distro on it for my parents/sister.  Could you imagine what would happen if for some god forsaken reason it reboots to the console?  Or something goes wrong and you are now sitting at a console window and need to type startx, init 5, startkde ?  I mean that is just giberish to them, and the second they see any of that stuff… Ring… Ring .. Ring….. HEllo ?   Now i understand that is a rarity for that to happen, but it could happen.   Why do you think Microsoft pretty much got rid of dos?  I mean is almost impossible to start up and end up at the old school dos command prompt.  

 At the Work Place

Lets not joke ourselves… the size of the population that use linux is relatively smalled compared to the army of business users that are using Windows.    Can you imagine how much training would be involved if you tried to convert the average business to a Linux based solution?  Even the simple jump from MS Office to OpenOffice would be a hurdle.  All the functionality is there.. but its not in the same place, or doesn’t work the same way as it did in windows…

Dont get me wrong… if I could work for a company that everyone used linux.. i would.  HOWEVER i would only do so if the entire company were pure bred linux users.  In order to gain the full advanage of using Linux, you really want to make sure people have the tools they need to survive.   If not everyone is just going to want to to Windows stuff on a linux box.. versus taking advantage of linux for what it is…

Right now Windows XP rules the world, people like simplicity, and simplicity sells. 

Adavanced Use 

Anyways, for the advanced computer user, or a person wanting to learn i recommend Linux.  ITs a whole new world, nothing is more empowering than being able to customize your os, and once you have conquered one build… time to move on to a whole another distro… 

But i defiantly think Linux is for a special breed of people.  I work as an IT consultant and there are some people who are incredibly great at what they do… but the despise linux, because they love the simplicity of Windows.  There is no need to run any scripts, or even mess with the command line, in windows they can do everything via GUIs…and i don’t hold anything against them for it…

However i like the ability to keep my box pure, if i dont set any global variables.. i can have a bunch of different environments and with a simple script execution i can launch a Java 1.4 or Java 1.5 environment and once the console closes… back to a clean system.  (I recognized the fact you could do the same in windows, but it wouldn’t be as easy in linux….. Can you say windows registry  ? )

 

 

So in the end.. i love Linux and windows.. i like the ability to switch between the two.  In a way Linux can be ,out of the box, more powerful than windows, but don’t forget there is a huge market out there for all of those people who want Linux functionality out of windows….

EBAY

The Online Marketplace

What can i say, about 7 years ago i was a huge fan of ebay.   You go to www.ebay.com click search and find some of the coolest things ever.  I used to be able to post a bid, days in advance.. and actually win it. 

 

 Now ? Not so much.  Does anyone else ever get that feeling that the owner of the item has a secret second account, and the second before you go to win they go and post 1 cent higher then what you had bid? Seriously ? It has to be happening… there is NO way that everyime i bid in advance i get out bid. 

What is the deal with all of the online stores?  Seriously, its about bidding, not shopping, if i wanted to shop i would go to a store..  Ebay has commercialized, and now it sucks finding what you want out there.. type in Xbox 360, and you will get thousands of useless accessories, all hosted by some Chineese Store that is willing to sell you the product you want for 40% the price because it is laced with lead.

Shipping?

Can someone explain to me how shipping has gotten so outragous on ebay ? Seriously?  To ship a 3lb. item its like $20, ship a ring its like $10.  So you are like well i guess that means they are going to package it nicely, and it arrives in an envelope?

 

yea ebay is no longer for me, i am kinda hoping someone else starts up a new online market palce for auctions and keeps the automated bidding programs, online stores, and everyone else that is out there waiting to ruin my experience at bay.  I want a bidding site that is basically a yard sale.. for normal people, and not out there to try to scam us average joes.

 

 

PC. 

 

 

Pandora!

Pandora ROCKs.  If you dont have it… get it.  Its the cure for the comon piracy.  Its like napster without the risk or control.

 

Here is how it works.

1. Go to http://www.pandora.com
2. Create your self an account
3. Create a new station (enter your favorite band)
4. Add more artist you like.
5. While you are listening… if you like a song… give it a thumbs up.  If you dont like a song.. give it a thumbs down and it wont come back.

Its amazing…. and if you like it enough you can download a program called OpenPandora.  Which basically allows you to listen to the radio without some pesky internet explorer window open…

Want OpenPandora ? 

1. http://openpandora.googlepages.com/download
2. Run the program Start->Program Files->OpenPandora
3. Sign In.
4. Start listening!

 

 Make sure you check what i am listening to http://www.pandora.com/people/ncapito9

 

Samsung i730

I purchased a Samsung i730 almost 2 1/2 years ago, and it still seems like it is at the top of Verizon’s phones.

 

Pros:

1. Touch Screen + Stylus + Full Keyboard.  I think the true deal here is that you have a full screen, AND a keyboard.  Since the keyboard slides, it leaves you a full touch screen
2. Reliable  – the first phone i bought lasted over a year, until i decided to get it replaces because (mainly i had been paying $4 per month for insurance, why not use it) i had a small scratch on the screen.
3. Email – Easily configurable to tap into any exchange server.  As a result i get integrated calander, contacts, and mail sent to my phone.  All are synced so if i add a contact on my phone it uploads it to my computer and vice versa… the same applys for Emails and Meetings.

Cons:

1. Obviously it is a little bulky, but all things considered its not too much thicker than the old school blackberry.
2. It comes with Windows Mobile 2003.  Obiviously that is now 5 years old.  Luckly verizon offers a pactch to Windows Mobile 5, but even that is almost 2 releases behind.
3. Memory  it has very little on board and you can not upgrade the “physical memory” that runs the phone os.  You can however add a storage card ( i got a 4 gig one for like $40).