Joe's Blog

Super Tank Action!

Today we built a Tank.

JT and Hannah also made grenades out of tin foil and threw them around the house.

Mel and I took turns throwing tin foil grenades at the kids, then finally they started throwing them at each other. They also colored some "camo" colors on part of the tank until it was decided that JT's blanket was enough cover for inside the house.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Mel and I went to see Sky Captain last night. Our movie choices also included Resident Evil: Apocalyps, as we had seen Resident Evil on the SciFi channel within the past week, and Hero which we had only seen previews for, but is on my list of movies to see.

I was impressed with the graphics, though slightly annoyed with the blurry effect they used through much of the movie. I don't feel this is a must see movie, but it was entertaining.

I'm hoping to get a group of interested friends to go see the other two as Mel doesn't seem too interested in those.

UAS Support Tool and a new project

Well, I haven't worked on the application in a couple days as I'm waiting for the server to be set up for it. I met with Mona, and she's agreed to get it set up, however since it's not critical right now it's not going to be done as quickly as I would like (ie. yesterday).

I showed the application to Jeff and Arlo today, and got some feedback about it. I'm eager to get more feedback once it's working and start working on providing new/better functionality.

I'm looking to fill my time with a new project, a DVD sharing database.

I figure it should be fairly easy to get a simple database working with what I've learned developing the support tool. The trick is making it attractive to all my friends to start using.

Initial deliverables I'm planning are:

• Database with DVD title and basic information
• Indicator of who, if anyone, currently has the DVD

Future idea's:

• Ability to allow friends of the owner to view the DVD collection
• Feature to link to IMDB for the video
• Request que to allow friends to request movies

vbscript part 3

Well, I couldn't resist working on the application again.

Michael has told me that I should hold off working on adding new functionality and work on getting it into people's hands to allow the eventual users to drive the development of new functionality. I spent a few hours tonight working on adding authentication to the system by looking up users and passwords from a MS Access database. I also set it up so that a user in the database can be marked with a priviledge identifier so that they can manage the security database. That consists of allowing them to add users and set passwords. Basic, but enough for now.

I have a meeting scheduled with Mona to talk about setting up a "real" system to run this from, rather than my development laptop.

vbscript part 2

What a weekend. This afternoon I worked again on the VBscript application I've been developing.

I tried using it to control a machine other than my office desktop and found a problem. Turns out there's a problem with some Windows XP systems at the campus where a certificate needs to be regenerated. I'm not clear on why, but it was in a MS Knowledgebase article. I ended up working with Cody at the helpdesk to test and troubleshoot the problem. I also showed Cody how to use it by connecting to my development laptop from the helpdesk computer. He was able to remote control my main work laptop and from his comments it seemed like he was pleased with what he saw.

I'm hoping to make this available for the helpdesk and my staff soon to test it, find bugs, and see what other functionality we can provide through this type of solution.

VBScript, ASP, and HTA applications

Last week I began writing an HTA application. Essentially this is an HTML document that doesn't have the security limitations/mechanisms of Internet Explorer.

The application is what I hope to be the start of a tool for the UAS helpdesk and NDS (the area of IT Services I manage) to remotely manage workstations on the campus. It's written in vbscript for both server side and client side functionality.

The basic functions right now are:

• Lookup devices (Windows workstations) from an access database updated hourly.
• Identify the current user signed into the machine.
• If the machine is Windows XP, configure it to allow Windows XP Remote Assistance connections.

I finished this at 5am after begining to write the ASP pages at 9pm Saturday. (initially written 9/22)

BattleField Vietnam

Well, I've spent most of the past 2 days playing Battlefield Vietnam. For those who haven't played it, it's a pretty sweet game. The UAS Computer Gaming Club is allowing me to host a BFV server. The address is: 137.229.196.196

We also have TeamSpeak running on that server for anyone interested in joining for some voice chat.

Jonathan in School

Yesterday was the end of Jonathan's first week in school. He seems to like his teacher, Ms. Canaday. Jonathan is in a K-1 class, and is buddied up with a first grade boy when he's at school. He has been unable to remember his buddy's name all week, but we expect to know it sometime soon.

Jonathan says that every day he's at his new school is a good day. We're hoping that feeling remains throughout his school years.

Babylon 5

Years ago a cousin told me about the new series, Babylon 5. He even sent a VHS copy of the pilot episode. I never got into it.

After jumping into the DVD sets this summer, Melissa and I just finished season 4 last night. We're eagerly waiting for the arrival of season 5 to show up so we can start in on that.

I would recommend anyone interested in Sci-Fi shows take a look at B5. While the cost for each season is pretty high, I think it's well worth it.

Joseph