Entries for ScanIAm

XML Serialization WTF? [XML Serialization WTF?]

ScanIAm — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:14:20 GMT

I have a class that contains a list of objects. I need to specify both the order that the list appears as well as the name of the elements in the list.

i.e.

public class outer
{
    [XmlElement(Order=0)]
    public string A {get; set;}

    public List<WronglyNamedObjectType> MyList = new List<WronglyNamedObjectType>();

    [XmlElement(Order=2)]
    public string C{get; set;}
}

I want to be able to

1) apply an order to how the serialization occurs such that MyList comes between A and C when 'outer' is serialized.
2) be able to tell the serializer to name the elements contained in the list something other than 'WronglyNamedOjbectType'.

1 is satisfied by placing [XmlElement(Order=1)] above the property
2 is satisfied by placing [XmlArrayItem("BetterName")] above the property

For some unknown and undefined reason, both are not allowed?

Any ideas?

in reply to XML Serialization WTF?

Why does light travel through glass [Why does light travel through glass]

ScanIAm — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:52:53 GMT

OK, folks.

So, most of you are smart or at least you play smart on c9.

I've looked this up, but I can't seem to find a decent explanation as to why light travels through glass.

Is the photon wavelength smaller than the distance between the silica atoms or is there some other mechanism that allows light to go through glass and not lead?

in reply to Why does light travel through glass

Comcast Cheats Network Neutrality [Comcast Cheats Network Neutrality]

ScanIAm — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 08:13:36 GMT

I hit C9 about 5 minutes ago, and noticed that it was running very, very slow. I tested a few other sites, and again, all surfing was running at a snails pace.

But.

I hit http://www.numion.com/YourSpeed3/ and didn't even get around to testing the speed, because as soon as I hit that site, suddenly, my surfing speed was back up to normal.

This is yet another reason why these jokers need to be forced into network neutrality. They will offer up shiite speeds unless someone actually tests it out.

b@stards.

in reply to Comcast Cheats Network Neutrality

theInfamousI on the Daily WTF [theInfamousI on the Daily WTF]

ScanIAm — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:14:38 GMT

I was randoming around www.theDailyWTF.com and I came across this gem:

theInfamousI and The Random Guy

The article was about funky naming that some of us do out of boredom, animosity, or both. But, what had me giggling like a schoolgirl wasn't the actual article, but the comment by mxksweeb

mxksweeb wrote:

I am *so* using theInfamousI++ as my default incrementer from now on!!

Development has a large number of inside jokes that we just don't notice any more because we've seen them thousands of times (bit, byte, nibble for example). So, two questions:

1) what have you done/seen in code that wasn't Correct(tm) but still pretty funny.
2) would it be ethical to take some of the more common themes and make them standards.

Afterall, if we all start to use 'theInfamousI++' in place of 'i++', it would become a defacto standard.

in reply to theInfamousI on the Daily WTF

The Eclipse [The Eclipse]

ScanIAm — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:23:42 GMT

I hope that those of you who were able to see the moon at night were also able to see the eclipse. A full, red moon is as fun a way to watch our solar system in action.

I can totally understand how it would cause fear and confusion in the distant past. Especially if they didn't understand how it works.

And by 'how it works', I mean the way that the moon is controlled by Wal*Mart and the rest of the capitalistic cabal.

I'm just saying.

in reply to The Eclipse

Florida schools are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century [Florida schools are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century]

ScanIAm — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:49:09 GMT

That's no typo, either, I do mean 20th.

It wasn't until recently I knew this, but apparently, my fine state was not allowed to use the term 'Evolution' in its science textbooks.

Now, of course, we get to use the term, but we have to have 'the theory of' just before it to avoid the delicate fundy sensibilities.

in reply to Florida schools are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century

US House Republicans taking a long weekend [US House Republicans taking a long weekend]

ScanIAm — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:41:30 GMT

It looks like enough people have 'written their congresscritters' and some of them have listened.

The US House of Representatives refused to bring up a vote on the recently Senate passed bit that gave immunity to the phone companies.

At first, this seems silly, but:

The Article wrote:

"There's no reason why Republicans and Democrats in the House cannot pass the Senate bill immediately," President Bush told reporters Wednesday. "The House's failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens." The House actually did pass its own legislation, the RESTORE Act, back in October, but it lacked the grant of amnesty for telecom companies, and contained a variety of oversight provisions the White House regards as excessively burdensome.

So, at least some of us would like to shed some light on this practice.

At a minimum, it needs to be investigated.

in reply to US House Republicans taking a long weekend

I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it NOW! [I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it NOW!]

ScanIAm — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:45:31 GMT

mmmmmmm....Spore!

It even looks better than the last time they demo'd it.

in reply to I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it NOW!

US Attorney General to US: We won't investigate Squat [US Attorney General to US: We won't investigate Squat]

ScanIAm — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:42:16 GMT

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, and since C-Span can be so very, very sleep inducing I was able to actually watch a good bit of this questioning:

I stole the bullet points from another blog, but:

No, the Justice Department will not be investigating whether the now-admitted-to waterboarding of US prisoners was against the law.

And, no, the DoJ will not be investigating whether the Bush Administration’s warrantless surveillance was illegal. Nor will the AG appoint a special prosecutor to investigate.

And, no, the Department of Justice will not enforce any contempt citations that Congress might bring against administration officials that have failed to honor subpoenas for testimony.

Simply amazing.

in reply to US Attorney General to US: We won't investigate Squat

Weird Cable Cuts [Weird Cable Cuts]

ScanIAm — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:45:32 GMT

I kept ignoring this story as coincidence and/or conspiracy craziness, but five (5) separate internets cables have been cut over the last few days...or lost power, whatever that means.

in reply to Weird Cable Cuts

Annoying software practices [Annoying software practices]

ScanIAm — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:45:53 GMT

We've had a few threads lately about things that are done to software that don't really have anything to do with the real purpose of the software. Someone asked how to add licensing, and I've got my own thread complaining about a certain music program's latest version.

The point of this thread, though, is to iterate, compare, and contrast the various injustices dumped upon us in addition to the code that actually does real work. Things like:

DRM/Licensing/Copy protection - this has been hashed, rehashed, and corned-beef hashed to death, but it does fall into the catagory.

Upgrade nagging - How about you only nag me once a week. Or maybe you could email me. Microsoft Money, for example, starts harassing in September for a program that won't even be usable till the following year. Have you ever run Paint.Net and not been told about a new version?

Browser propagation - Almost functional browsers inside of other programs that don't need a browser. This was big during the whole RSS feed craze, but it seemed to have died down, except in media players. I already have a browser, and your program should use it. Always. Only a retard would want to 'surf' through their media player.

Cute and Confusing - Every single motherboard that I've bought has had some weird monitoring program with rounded edges, weirdly located buttons, and a chronic inability to run at windows startup without throwing an error. Asus, you suck the worst at this.

Any others?

in reply to Annoying software practices

Winamp sucks a dry wind, and ScanIAm found a cool, moist breeze [Winamp sucks a dry wind, and ScanIAm found a cool, moist breeze]

ScanIAm — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:46:28 GMT

Good googly moogly, I installed the latest winamp, and it completely screwed me on all my music. I've paid for a large number of unknown and underground bands, but winamp decided that everything that I'd ever like to play must be illegal....

No sound, no nothing.

And even worse, I couldn't listen to raw mp3/wav voicemail files that didn't even have drm.

And before I get the "But, but, but, it couldn't be winamp, it must be a problem on your system"....how about you shut the hell up until you know what you speak of.

Uninstall winamp.

All sound works.

Reinstall earlier version, all files work.

Guess what, douchebagerinos, ScanIam ain't gonna buy your sh*t and after spending 2 hours trying to figure out why EVERY F*CKING SOUND OUTPUT ON MY COMPUTER WAS BROKEN, I don't expect I'll ever, ever, EVER, give you any money.

Sucks for you, since I was one of the earliest winamp adopters, and I paid a shareware amount on the software back when you still wondered if you could pay your rent.

F*ck you. F*ck your programmers. F*ck your marketers. F*ck your middle managers. F*ck anyone who has anything to do with you.

You fail.

FTL

in reply to Winamp sucks a dry wind, and ScanIAm found a cool, moist breeze

Winamp sucks a dry wind, and ScanIAm found a cool, moist breeze [Winamp sucks a dry wind, and ScanIAm found a cool, moist breeze]

ScanIAm — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:46:11 GMT

dupe

in reply to Winamp sucks a dry wind, and ScanIAm found a cool, moist breeze

Clap your hands twice and spin in a circle [Clap your hands twice and spin in a circle]

ScanIAm — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:02:36 GMT

I kind of stole the joke in the title from the first link here, but for the love of all that is noodly, WTF?

Ctrl-ScrollLock somehow stops Visual Studio's already buggy search from even working?

2 restarts, and I'm a bit annoyed.

in reply to Clap your hands twice and spin in a circle

Muahhaha...and now to dominate the solar system [Muahhaha...and now to dominate the solar system]

ScanIAm — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:44:15 GMT

Nano-radios.

So I had this idea a few years ago when the mars rovers went..well...roving.

Instead of requiring a powerful transmitter/receiver on earth, the plan was to sprinkle nano-tranmitter/receivers between here and there. 'There' could be mars, the moon, etc. the point being, that if they are small enough, and we can manufacture enough of them, then any larger space-based device can use them for communications.

Plus, the solar wind would push them out into the solar system effectively giving us greater coverage over time.

in reply to Muahhaha...and now to dominate the solar system

Could C9 endorse a candidate [Could C9 endorse a candidate]

ScanIAm — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:31:12 GMT

I'm not going to say who I like, and that isn't really the point.

In the past, newspapers would eventually pick a candidate as the one person that they feel has the ideas and morals that represent that institution.

C9 is a bunch of individuals who have their own ideas of how the US and the world should be run. But we are also the non-paid front end of msdn. And, if you take it further, microsoft.

Employees of MSFT are likely unable to express their political ideals and even if they could, it would be very soon that some PR monkey would ask them to not do so.

But the posters aren't under any kind of limitation. For every time that Charles has to hold his tongue, one of us can speak our mind. But the question is, does C9 have a consitent political ideal? It is very unlikely that we'll pick a USA candidate that we all can agree on, but what are the core values that we can, in fact, agree on. If we can't agree on monetary policy, or foreign policy or whatever, what can we agree on?

And given that we disagree on so much, is there anything that we can, in fact, agree on? Are we a group of people with some common ground, or is C9 a completely anarchic bulletin board?

in reply to Could C9 endorse a candidate

Scientology Website Hacked [Scientology Website Hacked]

ScanIAm — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:37:59 GMT

Ruh-Ro-Raggy:

http://www.scientology.org/

has been hackered.

in reply to Scientology Website Hacked

ViewState vs. Session serialization [ViewState vs. Session serialization]

ScanIAm — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:39:00 GMT

I've been able to solve this problem but I'm confused as to why it occurs.

If you store an object in Session, Cache, or most any other ASP.NET collection, the object will generally store without any problem.

If you use ViewState, however, it appears that you must specify [Serializable] on the class or you receive an exception that the object cannot be serialized.

Don't Session and Cache use serialization?

in reply to ViewState vs. Session serialization

Eval, Bind, etc. Functionality in ASP.NET [Eval, Bind, etc. Functionality in ASP.NET]

ScanIAm — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:11:05 GMT

I've been using this functionality in gridviews for a while, and I get the general idea of how it works, but I have the feeling that there are some features that I'm just not exploiting.

Are there any good online resources for what can be done with this construct in ASP.Net?

<%# Bind("Number") %>

I've see 'Eval' be used, but I'm not sure what the difference is. I was hoping for some condensed documentation on this, but I don't seem to be using the right google-fu to get this info to come up.

in reply to Eval, Bind, etc. Functionality in ASP.NET

Fat Kids [Fat Kids]

ScanIAm — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:38:48 GMT

Micky D's UK CEO may be right, but it's a bit hard to accept when the message comes from him

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/10/mcdonalds-uk-ceo-kid.html

My favorite comment:

W. James Au wrote:
Oh, I think Easterbrook is on to something. If kids today spent 14 hours a day pushing a plow or working at the cotton mill then walking 5 miles back to their village like they used to, they could totally burn off the calories.

in reply to Fat Kids

Response Time [Response Time]

ScanIAm — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:25:58 GMT

I don't claim to have the biggest, best, or fastest machine out there, but my compy certainly isn't a piece of crap, either. And yet, there are times when all 4Gig of ram, an 4400Ghz of cpu cycles sit there and do nothing for annoyingly long periods of time. Clicking on a link in outlook will cause the virus scan software to lock the entire machine up for 5-10 seconds. Previously, when I stupidly tried OneCare, it would take close to 20 seconds for IE to display a window. Boot time is a fun game of "Are you sure everything is loaded up yet, cuz sh*t won't work until it does"

I can't figure out how it is that an entire OS can be brought to it's knees by a malfunctioning IE window. Is there some reason why both cores on a dual core CPU need to be busy on the same task?

I'm using XP, but I fear that this hasn't improved in Vista, either.

Does your machine hang for unreasonable amounts of time at unneccessary moments?

in reply to Response Time

The Dutch are taking that whole 'tulip' thing a bit too far [The Dutch are taking that whole 'tulip' thing a bit too far]

ScanIAm — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:23:16 GMT

Actually, it's kind of cool.

In the spirit of the fine folks in Dubai, we may soon have tailored surface features.

It's a good thing this is so expensive, though. If you've ever seen 2nd life, you'll understand why :)

in reply to The Dutch are taking that whole 'tulip' thing a bit too far

Saving Viewstate in a Gridview [Saving Viewstate in a Gridview]

ScanIAm — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:27:28 GMT

I'm having some mental block here that is keeping me from being able to save viewstate in a gridview.

I'm using templates, and I've got a textbox on each row that should allow the user to enter some data. Then, once they hit 'commit', I validate the data, and set another label on that row to 'valid/invalid' depending on the data.

The problem is, though, that I can't seem to figure out how to keep what they entered in that original text box.

Originally, I was trying to use a CustomValidator to serverside validate the code, but it was never showing 'invalid' and I suspect it is for the same reason.

Is there some trick to forcing a gridview to keep the viewstate of it's controls? My current solution is to save off the data when a postback occurs and reload it when the row is databound, but it feels klunky to me.

in reply to Saving Viewstate in a Gridview

Pork! It's the meat of Kings! [Pork! It's the meat of Kings!]

ScanIAm — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:51:13 GMT

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Pork/

Most of his toons are better than average, and the music is always catchy.

This is no "Badger, badger, badger", but it's certainly catchy.

in reply to Pork! It's the meat of Kings!

I love christmas, but your god seems to get in the way [I love christmas, but your god seems to get in the way]

ScanIAm — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:04:50 GMT

As a child, I had an advent calendar, but I was mostly hoping for more and better chocolat. I spent my adolescence time in germany, and I would do it again. I had so much fun there, but again, most of the local fun-time was based around some form of "christ was born", "buy stuff". It seemed, at the time, like a giant money making machine.

So,

I love christmas. I love the lights. I love the fact that "if you have no money, you can still have fun". I love the lack of managerial monitoring. I love the fun that comes from going to a bar on christmas eve and drinking more than you'd ever expect. And paying for the rest of the bar. I love the fact that you can still pay for the night and when its all over, you try to remember her name, but she's not insulted, and you aren't embarassed. I love that when you decide to go get some food, you remember that most restaraunts are closed, and you laugh and then you try to make pancakes.

I just can't seem to find why god needs to be involved with all this fun.

I just want some damn pancakes.

in reply to I love christmas, but your god seems to get in the way