I wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year 2008! Thank you for your support of the Open Source project, for your pacience if we did not get a bug fixed within a day and for the time you waiting to get your huge feedlist loaded - sorry for that

But as Dare Obasanjo wrote, we will get a new release 1.6.x running on CLR 2.0 only out these days so there is a good chance the annoying issues you may have considered get fixed meanwhile.

Also a warm welcome to the new team member Oren - looks like he was just waiting for the moment we start using the newest bits - CLR 2.0 and above - to jump into code, thanks Oren! Think, we will have a good time next year too...

I really like the two Sudoku games (one easy, one heavy) ever saturday in our local newspaper -  there are yet only three heavy games I could not solved over the last months and it is really fun. So maybe they are not really "heavy" - who knows.

But now I read this post about how to solve every Sudoku using XSLT (another variant), using SQL and regular expression. Ouch - where is the fun? If you know the algorithm to solve one, it can be expressed by every language poeple like to program. I would more like the algorithm to generate new Sudoku games...

YESSS! Unbelievable: at Friday last week I got a parcel - I'm the winner of a drawing by lots happened at the recent BASTA! So equipped with my experiences with the older XBox I started yesterday to get it work (the XBox 360 Core Set) - and my frustration growed over the time. Plugging all the cable was not an issue as I had help from my child's . But then: turning on - the usual configuration screens are displayed: create a profile, connect to XBox Live etc. - crap, switch over to just gaming!

Me: "Oh, it's loud. OK, Laura - can you provide your favorite game CD? Yes, just put it in - it is as easy as it was with the old one..."
Me (a half minute later waiting that something happened): "Laura, you don't flipped the sides of the CD?"
Laura: "No - the cover is at top."
Me: "Mhm, seems the old Cd's are not working..." (I guessed that before, because the older controller's did not match the new hardware)
Maike, Laura: "Oooah. We cannot play with the dancing pad anymore? And all the cool games we just played...?" - "No multiple players anymore? There is now again just one controller...".
Me: "Yes, sorry. Looks like you are right... BUT: let's start try the other new cool features..."
Maike, Laura: "But we want to start gaming...!"
Me: "... like Video and Audio streaming!"
Maike (the younger): "What's that?"
Me: "Listen: ..." (longer talk here, cut).
Me, meanwhile trying to create a profile we needed: "Crap. Looks like I cannot create a profile without the memory unit. But look: there is a USB slot - let's get a memory stick and put it in - then we can go on successfully." I was totally wrong: it does not accept any USB stick as a memory unit replacement! And the best: there is no memory unit in the core package! I really have to bye a memory unit for around 34€ (64 MB) to successfully start anything on that crappy new console! The same amount of money I need to bye a memory stick of 1GByte!
Laura: "It's boring..."
Me: "OK, wait. I will get my Laptop, plug in the network cable - and then we can start doing all the new cool things..." As the laptop starts up, I navigated to the network configuration dialogs on the XBox - "Look, there is a web address we can look at how to get it work!"
Maike: "Dad, can you read what's there?"
Me: "Yes, it is English. But no problem: I can read it...  Ah, we have to install streaming software... named Zune. We have to download the file." (I just saw the small "international" green on gray link today, where I can switch the language, but not at the time I installed)
Laura: "It's boring, how long it will take?"
Me: "Mhm, around 5MB - two minutes only."
Maike: "How long it will take?"
Me: "Look at this progress bar, if it is at 100 percent, it's done."
Maike: "Oh, such a long time -- and then we can start gaming?"
Me: "No, but we should be able to listen to music and videos that are on my PC!"
Maike: "Why? We can just start them there with the Media Player..."
Me: "For gaming Mom has to bye a game branded for this new XBox."
Laura: "It's boring. Can you call, if we can play something?" (both went up to start playing with their Barbies)

Summery: without a memory unit, without a starting game, without a (wired) Internet connection, without a PC running at least Windows XP or Media Center, without a men /woman able to read English - the core package is just a dead piece of hardware useful for nothing really new - play a CD (we already own a CD player) is the only (untested) feature you can use immediately! I was so excited - now I'm really frustrated. Mostly about that required (and expensive) memory unit! If there is a USB port: why I cannot use the USB memory sticks I already own? Maybe I should really start reading the f****** manual - maybe I can? But it was easier to just bye the unit (and a game) yesterday evening - at least: now we are "in".

Congratulation to Marco Buechel (the son of our CEO): he was the second with only a diff. of only 0.05 secs to the winner in Kitzbuehl (the legendary Streif race)!  Very nice, keep it on!

Dare Obasanjo, you are not as old as you feel now (remember our chat) :) compared to myself. Hopefully you will be part of the project as long as it lives.

is: Mother's Day:

The Canon PhotoStitch software isn't quite good enough (you may notice the shadow stripes where the images stitches together) but you should get the idea.

Yesterday it was raining the whole day, but we had a nice birthday party anyway - Maike is now 7 years old (young?). Unpleasant it is only that the Digital Dance Revolution did not arrive yet from the US, but the kids also had much fun without it...

Yesterday the "fool jump" took place here in Weissensberg. Below are some impressions.

   

PS: and not to forgot - happy birthday to Phil...

Small issue I detected yesterday in the current .NET 1.1 compiler. Try to compile the following code:

        public string MyProperty {
            get { return null; }
            set { ; }
        }

It results in messages like this:

D:\Visual Studio Projects\test\ThreadedListView\ThreadedListView.cs: 
Internal Compiler Error: stage 'BEGIN' 
D:\Visual Studio Projects\test\ThreadedListView\ThreadedListView.cs(1): 
Internal Compiler Error: stage 'BEGIN' symbol '' 
D:\Visual Studio Projects\test\ThreadedListView\ThreadedListView.cs(11): 
Internal Compiler Error: stage 'BEGIN' symbol 'ThreadedListView'
Internal Compiler Error (0xc0000005 at address 53630902): 
likely culprit is 'BEGIN'. An internal error has occurred in the compiler. 
To work around this problem, try simplifying or changing the program near the 
locations listed below. Locations at the top of the list are closer to the point at 
which the internal error occurred.

I just removed the semicolon in the set, and it compiles fine. Today I wanted to repro that: but now no problems occured... So sorry, I cannot post a bug to MS for it.

Nice little flash movie: Olympics. A Bruno Bozetto production [via Thiemo Mättig]

Happy birthday to my Dad...

Yesss, please download RssBandit 1.2.0.114 SP1 RC1 and give us feedback! Read more here. I'm just in a break between our street celebration and swimming..., CU

Today is my older daughter's birthday: 8 years now. Wasn't she born straight before a few days?

...to my wife and all the other people celebrating today all the best!

Yesteray we visited the island Mainau, Lake of Constance. Yes, we live at the lake, but it isn't just a trip of 10 minutes: a hour by car followed by a 20 minutes cruise. But the childs really like it! It has a huge playground, wild and animals to stroke, pony riding, a house full of exotic butterflys, last but not least: nice flowers bushes and trees from all over the world. And at that moment it does not have too much tourists Overall: nice weather and a nice restful day.