Our trip to Florida and the Daytona 500 plus other stuff

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that this is being posted shortly after the conclusion of the California race. What can I say? I'm a procrastinator.

We got back from a little mini-vacation in Florida a few days ago. While there we went to the Daytona 500. It was the first NASCAR race we've been to outside of Atlanta. We had a lot of fun ... here are some pictures. Unfortunately, all the pictures I got were pre-race. Our seats were "good" in the sense that they were close to the track, but the downside was that we really couldn't see much of the track. You could feel the air turbulence from the cars as they whizzed by but they were pretty much a blur. Next time I'm definitely going to make sure we're farther back and up in the stands.


The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was in the mid 70s with just a few wispy clouds. The place was packed. The pre-race pictures we took were from going to "Fan Zone" which was an extra-cost thing. I doubt I would pay for it again, but to do once, it was pretty cool. We got to stroll through the pit areas and walk on the tracks. Donna wrote a "Go Jeff"-type message on the wall in Gordon's pit stall on behalf of her parents. She also wrote one on Mikey's wall. The one for Gordon worked, apparently. ;)

We hated to see Mikey's engine give out. It looked like he had the win within his grasp. That disappointing finish made today's California finish even harder to take. Two blown engines in a row? DEI seems to really be struggling. Dale Jr. finished pretty strong in the Daytona race but then he had that weird problem today with the left front tire and dropped 11 spots in the driver's standings. Of course, Hendricks had its fare share of problems too. Lots of cars with Hendricks engines had problems, too -- including Jeff Gordon. At least Jimmy Johnson's car held out for a 2nd place finish. If the race had been one lap longer, either his engine would have blown up too, or he would have won. :)

Well, I shall keep this entry rather brief. Mainly wanted to get a quick entry up and post the pictures from our little Florida getaway before yet another weekend managed to slip past.

A Case of The Mondays / Traffic Rant

Atlanta traffic sucks when it rains! It took me an hour and a half to get to work this morning, and I left EARLY.

Who am I kidding? Atlanta traffic ALWAYS sucks!

That is all. As you were.

I'm afraid. Please hold me.

So yesterday's sordid tale began with me mentioning that when I ran the updates on my primary machine (my laptop) I didn't have any of the problems that are mentioned in the remainder of the tale. Sadly, I noticed the little yellow shield in my laptop's system tray today. I clicked on it, and guess what update it says I need? "Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 1.1 Service Pack 1 (KB886903).

I'm afraid. Very afraid. Please hold me.

I should also mention that an OS X update was released today. I downloaded and installed it. End of story. :)

In other news, Enterprise has been officially canceled. This is bumming me out. Yes, the first couple of seasons weren't spectacular, and last year's alien-Nazi's-in-past-earth season cliffhanger (don't ask) was pretty lame. This season has been really good, IMHO. It definitely has potential for some good story lines. Ah, well. So it goes. I'm bummed, but nowhere near as bummed as I was when ST: TNG was canceled. I think that was by far the best post-TOS Star Trek.

Fortunately, there are some other shows drawing me to the hypnotic tube de la boob. (Didn't know I spoke one of those fancy foreign languages, did ya?). My friend Mike finally wore me down and got me hooked on 24. SeDonna and I have really gotten in to this season. It's gotten so bad that we actually started renting the DVD's of the first three season's through the Walmart DVD rental service. We just finished season one this past weekend. Season 2's first two discs arrived today.

Last night I stumbled across another show, House. I'm a big fan of ER so I was intrigued by another medical drama. It is very, very different from ER, but I think I'm already hooked. The season pass in Tivo was created within about 15 minutes after the show started. :)

One other thing I wanted to share. Another friend of mine turned me on to a service called "Bloglines". If you follow several blogs and/or news sites, it's a great way to keep track of it all, and be informed of new items without having to check a bunch of individual sites all the time. Best of all, it's free. It's not perfect, though. The most annoying thing I've found so far is that it can't seem to handle Kevin Rose's site. Even though there are 66 other subscribers to his feed on bloglines, every time I try to look at it through blogines it shows a little error thingy and says the feed doesn't exist. If I delete and re-add the subscription, it doesn't seem to have any problem finding the feed during the setup phase. When it comes to actually polling for new items, however, it continues to get an error. Also, I subscribe to my own site just for grins and giggles, and today it informed me of a "new" post that was from back in January. But for the most part, it works really well.

(One [More] Reason) Why I Hate Windows!

So today I learned of the latest round of security updates available for Microsoft Windows. Like a good little Windows user, I decided to be proactive and go grab 'em right away instead of waiting for them to be automatically downloaded.

So I fired up the browser on my laptop and went to the good ole Windows Update site. Of course, the first thing it did was complain about my browser (Firefox) and recommended that I update to the latest version of Internet Exploder. OK, I'll play along ... I fired up IE and went to the update site and told it to give me the latest and greatest.

Everything went perfectly. So how is this an illustration of why I hate Windows? Primarily because of what happened when I went to apply the same updates to my desktop machine at the office.


Everything appeared to be proceeding smoothly after initiating the usual "download and install" routine, until it decided it needed to update something with the Microsoft .NET Framework. At some point in the process, Windows had what us technical types like to refer to as a "brain fart". A dialog popped up which dutifully informed me of the following:

The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package 'netfx.msi' in the box below.

I thought it a bit odd, since this file is apparently so darn important to the update, that it wasn't packaged with it. But who am I to question Microsoft? The dialog further indicated that it was expecting to find the file in question in the directory C:\DOCUME~1\easberry\LOCALS~1\Temp\IXP000.TMP. The first thing that I wondered was what IXPooo smelled like. The second thing I wondered was if the directory actually existed. It didn't.

"Where oh where shall I find the legendary netfx.msi file?" Since Google is my friend (we have fascinating conversations almost daily), I did a bit of searching and arrived at what seemed to be the solution. What I needed to do was download the .NET Framework "redistributable" from Microsoft. I could extract the netfx.msi file from the compressed EXE file and point the update installer dialog there.

It was a well-researched and brilliantly conceived strategy. Needless to say, the plan's execution resulted in abject failure.

I used trusty old WinRar to extract the indvidual files from the EXE. My sunny optimism was further bolstered when I saw that, indeed, one of the files was called "netfx.msi". "Victory shall be mine!" I thought aloud, provoking a concerned glance from anonymous coworker #516 who happened to pass my cubicle at that moment. Perhaps it was the subdued yet maniacal laughter that accompanied my thought. But I digress.

That nice little Windows update install had been patiently waiting all this time for me to point it to the proper location of the netfx.msi file. I've always believed that patience should be rewarded, so I pointed it to the freshly extracted file. The install churned for a minute or so, and in an act of complete and utter thanklessness for feeding it the file, it told me:

The file 'netfx.msi' is not a valid installation package for the product Microsoft .NET Framework (English). Try to find the installation package 'netfx.msi' in a folder from which you can install Microsoft .NET Framework (English)

"Try to find the package"? Are you kidding me? I just told you where it was! I thought perhaps I had stuttered or something when I hit the OK button, so I told it to look there again. Because, as we all know, when you do the exact same thing over and over it's only natural to assume that subsequent attempts will yield different results. Especially if you repeat the action angrily. In this case, my attitude didn't seem to have any effect, as it kept repeating it's request over and over.

I decided I wanted out. Maybe something was corrupted and I needed to install that "redistributable" doohickey, and re-run the update. So I told the dialog to cancel the install.

First it told me:

Error 1706. No valid source could be found for product Microsoft .NET Framework (English). The Windows installer cannot continue.

What happened next was truly magical! The progress bar started moving backwards! I was traveling back in time! I don't believe I've ever seen a progress dialog go backwards before. Perhaps it's some kind of subtle Windows metaphor. I discovered, unforunately, that when you travel back in time with Windows, when you hit the point in time where you can travel back no further, it's as if you hit an invisible trampoline. Or one of the walls in my padded cell. Time immediately begins rushing forward again!

The once full grown progress dialog turned into a small child, then a baby, then a fetus and finally disappeared completely. But then, like magic, the flow of time resumed in the forward direction. The fetus reappeared, then the baby, the small child, and finally, once again the senile adult appeared (I'm still talking about the dialog here, not myself) and it prompted me for the netfx.msi file again. And the reincarnated dialog didn't like the file I pointed it at any more than its predecessor did.

So, I quickly concluded that this dialog was an evil demon from hell and was never going to go away. I thought, perhaps, while it was prompting me for the file, I should try to go ahead and run that "redistributable" install. Maybe the "redistributable" would run through and do its magic, and then once it was done, I could let the demon-from-hell update finish and everything would be fine. Oh, how comically naive of me.

When I started the "redistributable" install it told me that "Another installer is running" and refused to go further. But it did give me the option to "Retry" or "Cancel". What happened next was much like playing a finger twitching video game. I canceled the first dialog and let it start traveling through time again, while at the same time clicking the Retry button on the second dialog, hoping that it would get a chance to run at that instant in time after the fetus disappeared but before it reappeared. Following me?

So, the demon-fetus disappeared, and the redistributable installer fired up. As it started churning, Windows informed me that the demon-update ....

Application has generated an exception that could not be handled. Process id=0x284 (644), Thread id=0xcc4 (3268). Click OK to terminate the application. Click CANCEL to debug the application.

No problem. I canceled the update. The second install finished after only a few moments and informed me that "Installation of Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 is complete." I was a little suspicious, because the install ran really fast. But I decided since there were no errors, surely all must be well.

The update process seemed to have halted completely as a result of canceling that first dialog (the hell-spawn, as it were). So I clicked on the little yellow security shield to finish the update process and it told me that the updates had failed to install. Boy, that was some useful status information!

I went through everything again with the updates, got to the point where it prompted me for the netfx.msi file and, surprise surprise, it told me it still didn't like my file. I was suddenly struck with divine inspiration. "Maybe the file has to be located in that non-existent directory it's pointing to for some bizarre reason". So I created the directory, copied the netfx.msi file there, and continued to get the same result. So much for inspiration.

I went through the cancel/"updates failed"/"Installer crashed" routine again. I really wanted to get these security updates installed so I decided to try, try again. This time I chose a "custom" update install, so that I could pick which updates to actually install. I looked at the details for all the updates to see if I could figure out which one of the was causing the .NET Framework update. None of them seemed to be obviously tied to it, but on a hunch, I opted not to install the "Malicious Program Removal" utility. After all, if I ran that, it would probably erase Windows entirely, and I was having enough problems! It seemed to be a good choice, because I finally managed to get all the way through the update process for the remaining updates.

Windows prompted me to reboot to put the new updates in effect. After the reboot, I checked Windows Update again, and it informed me that I needed the following updates:

Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 SP3
Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 SP1

Hmmm. I wondered if maybe the problem was that I had a 1.0 and 1.1 version of the .NET stuff installed. So I decided to try something new. I went to Add/Remove Programs and told it to uninstall the entries for .NET 1.0 and .NET 1.1. Then I checked Windows Update again. It told me there were now no updates needed.

Now, were I bright, I probably would have declared victory and stopped right there. But I decided I really wanted to get this .NET stuff going. So, I ran that "redistributable" thingy that I had downloaded earlier. I was encouraged, because this time it ran for a few minutes instead of a few seconds, and I could see that it was copying files and writing registry entries. Once it completed, I decided to check Windows Update again, and now it told me I needed .NET Framework 1.1 SP1. Obviously I was on [to] something!

I crossed my fingers and told it to apply the update. And this time, by golly, it didn't prompt me for any silly files at all. Instead, it popped up a dialog which started out:

Application has generated an exception that could not be handled ....

Yeah, I was definitely getting to the point where I couldn't handle it anymore. "Wait!" I thought to myself. I just installed the framework. Obviously I needed to reboot! I mean, this is Windows, right? So, I rebooted, re-ran the updates and ... same a' ting.

I give up. I hate Windows. Bill Gates is the anti-Christ, I'm sure of it. I guess it's time for a complete operating system reinstall. Or maybe I'll just ignore it. I don't think I even need the stupid .NET stuff anyway. This kind of crap really makes you want to go live in a one room shack in the woods.

And this, my loyal reader, is one (more) reason why I hate, despise and utterly loathe Microsoft Windows.

Apples are yummy!

So, my Mac Mini arrived this week. I am LOVIN' it! Tonight's the first opportunity I've really had to play with it much. In fact, this very blog entry is being entered from my new Mac.

The first thing that struck me when I unpacked it was that the power brick (it's power supply is external) is almost 1/3rd the size of the actual box. The thing really is small. The second thing that struck me is that I need a better way of concealing all my various cables. It doesn't look nearly as sleek when you can see all those darn cables hanging off the back of it.


OS X is gorgeous. I've seen it before on my nephew's Powerbook but that's about it. I've never really had an opportunity to sit down and play with it. In fact, this is my first Apple ever, Mac or otherwise. One thing that's great about this box for me is how seemlessly it integrates with my Linux boxes. Once I downloaded X11 from Apple (I was surprised that it wasn't already installed) I was delighted to be able to connect to my Linux boxen and run X apps on this beautiful desktop. I've always been a big fan of Linux, but OSX sure is a much nicer client desktop, IMHO. Yeah, you can make some really purty desktops with Linux, if you are willing to put a lot of effort into it. OSX looks purty right out of the box.

The machine seems to perform pretty well. I haven't run any really heavy apps on it so far, so it's probably too early to judge fairly. But the desktop seems very snappy and responsive. My first "project" that I have planned is to make a DVD of our wedding video using iMovie and iDVD. Our original video is on VHS. My father-in-law was kind enough to make us a copy on DVD using their standalone DVD recorder. It's great for just watching the whole video through. But I think it'd be neat to make one with a nice menu, chapters, etc, etc. Maybe also digitize our wedding photos and put them on the DVD too.

One thing I am a little confused by is networking with XP SP2. When I browsed for network shares it could find my Linux boxes but not my XP box. I even tried making the connection directly. I double-checked my XP firewall exception rules, and they were setup correctly, so far as I could tell. And in fact, they must be, because my other Windows boxes don't have a problem browsing/connecting to each other. And I can also connect to them over my OpenVPN link. But try as I might, my Mac couldn't find them. As an experiment, I turned off the XP firewall completely. Sure enough, the Mac was able to connect straightaway. So, obviously I'm missing something here. Man, I hate Windows.

One small disappointment. No Java 5 for OSX! What is up with that? I guess Sun leaves it to Apple to release the JVM for OSX and Apple hasn't caught up yet. From what I've seen doing some quick searching, Apple normally lags JVM release by a few months. Apple has also apparently decided to tie the release of Java 5 to the next release of OS X. Well, that kinda sucks, to put it mildly. I was quite unpleasantly surprised to find all this out. I don't mind the lagging release nearly as much as I mind not being able to get it AT ALL for the current release of OS X. Oh well, at the very least I can do my Java 5 stuff on Linux for now, and use X to do the display on my Mac desktop.

So, much as I'm lovin' my new Apple, I won't be abandoning Windows anytime soon, I suppose. For one thing, there's the games. I am EAGERLY anticipating the next round of RTS games such as Age of Empires III and Empire Earth 2. I'm not sure but I doubt they will be release for Mac OSX for a long time, if ever. Second, even though my professional and personal software development is done in mostly Java, two reasons I can't do it on Mac. (1) We have already migrated to Java 5. See above. :( (2) The product I work on uses SQL server, not to mention a bunch of JNI crap. So no way to ditch Windows altogether for development either.

Well, that concludes my preliminary review of the Mac mini. :) In closing, let me just say I hope to keep the blog posts more regular again. My schedule has been pretty tight lately but (hopefully) it will be easing up some now that I've reached a project milestone at work. Though if today is any indication that may be false hope. Here's to looking forward to the weekend!