Darkfalz.com

Wow, it looks like I’ve gone for around 2 weeks without posting anything. I guess I’ve been busier than I thought. With all the stuff that’s been going on I seemed to have neglected the site and for that I’m sorry.

Where are things at:
- The book has it’s first drafts, for all chapters, handed in so I may have a little breathing room now before chapter revisions kick-in. I should be getting some more info from the publisher with some public links for information. When that happens I’ll be sure to keep you all informed.
- Darkfalz Radio. As mentioned in other posts this took a back seat because of the other commitments. I’ve gotten the recorder in and even lined up a 1st-seat co-host (more on that later) so I’m just finishing up with who else to have on for the premiere episode and some basic outlines/topics. If all goes well I’ll get this baby up and running soon (yeah, I know I’ve said that before).
- Personal life. The wedding plans are pretty solid now and the house is settled into. We’ve still got work to do on these things but it should be diminishing as time goes on.
- MMO. Ok, yeah… I’m still an addicted to LOTRO, doubt that will change too soon but I have been trying to limit the time spent on it.

Anyways, that’s where I’m at right now. I’ll try to keep up with the site more and see what can be done, who knows I’ll even try to post more “useful” stuff for you. Maybe even a programming tip/trick or two :}

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I received the following email earlier today:

"Dear Curt Christianson,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2009 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in ASP/ASP.NET technical communities during the past year."

Thought I would share with you all. As many of you may know I was a Microsoft MVP from Oct 2002 through Sept 2008. Well it looks like I'm back :}

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In preperation for my, finally, getting Darkfalz Radio launched I decided that the recording equipment that I was trying to use was simply insufficient. Trying to get the multiple inputs simply didn't work right. With that in mind I did a little research and found that the Zoom H2 Digital Recorder (http://tinyurl.com/cszf48) seems like a great starter device. The multiple inputs and easy to use interface (based on the reviews) seemed like a great option. With that I took the hit and ordered one. It should be here sometime soon and at that point I'll gather the people and see about getting Episode 1 up on the site.

I'll keep you all informed on the recorder and the broadcast.

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Ever since I started working on an option to switch my site's backend over, and off GraffitiCMS I ran into the issue of getting my data OUT. While Graffiti uses the BlogML standard for Importing it doesn't support it for Exporting. When I made the switch to the BlogEngine.Net backend I decided I needed to write my own Exporter. With that I plugged away at a simple .Net Windows App to do just that. It worked "good enough" for me and I had a number of others asking me about it. I've been sending them out a Zip file but since I'm lazy, and not always at my PC I figured I'd put it up on the site for you to grab.

There are a couple issues to take into account.
1) This is source...so you'll need to compile it to run it.
2) Some of the values are hard-coded for my site, mostly because Graffiti didn't expose them.
3) It's setup for the VistaDB database, which was the default in Graffiti. If you are using SQL you'll need to tweak it.

If you have any issues feel free to shoot me a line.

GraffitiToBlogML.zip (2.28 mb)

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This week I broke down and decided to replace the Hard Drive on my laptop with a new Solid State Drive (SSD). I opted for the OCZ Sata II 2.5" drive in the 60gb size. It all plugged in just fine to the laptop, which was running a Western Digital Scorpio 5400rpm SATA ATA drive (250gb). While the size difference is big I'm not too concerned yet. I'm really doing it for testing first-most. While I was at it I've also opted to install Windows 7 Beta. Thought this would be the opportune time.

So far I have to say...it's all good. Some pieces of it I'm not sure how to attribute (to Win7 or the SSD) but it's WAY faster. Basic system ops are all zippy (that'd be the Win7 improvements I'm thinking) but I've also installed some games that have large load times....and man do they fly (that'd be the SSD I think). I'll keep playing with it off and on for the next couple weeks and see what happens but so far I think I may be sold! Now I just need to find a way to add a second, internal, drive to the laptop.....I'm thinking the CD/DVD Drive is gonna have to come out :}

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To compete against the Apple Store on the iPhone both Windows Mobile and Blackberry had announced they would be launching their own App Stores “soon”. Well the emails have started coming out and it looks like Blackberry has launched theirs. Go to http://www.blackberry.com/select/appworld, get yourself setup and start checking it out. If you find anything “super cool” feel free to post here and let me know.

I’ll try to keep this thread updated if I buy/download anything cool myself… first I need to go update my Blackberry though. Woot!!!!

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