*Words of Wisdom From The Elder

This weekend I spent some time investigating two of the top blog packages: SubText and DasBlog in preparing for a new site I launched (http://www.keithelder.net).  I’ve heard of each app equally it seems and each seem to be the top two players in the .Net blog space.  After downloading both of them and poking around the source and trying to get them to build I am no where further along in my evaluation this evening than I was when I started. 

DasBlog Installation Stumps Me

For starters DasBlog is still using VS2003 for its solution.  For me, this was a huge turn off right out of the gate.   I had to configure lots more out of the box to get DasBlog configured.  Ultimately I had something configured improperly with IIS and kept getting this error:

Server Error in ‘/’ Application.

---

Configuration Error

Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately.
Parser Error Message: It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition=’MachineToApplication’ beyond application level.  This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application in IIS.
Source Error:

Line 109:        <!-- <httpCookies httpOnlyCookies="false"/> -->
Line 110:
Line 111:        <authentication mode="Forms">
Line 112:			<!-- NOTE: If you want to run MULTIPLE dasBlogs on the SAME Domain Name
Line 113:			     include the path in each blog's Web.Config like path="/dasblog1" and path="/yoursite"

Source File: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\DasBlog\source\newtelligence.DasBlog.Web\web.config    Line: 111

After a stint of digging around and trying to trouble shoot things I gave up and decided to try to get SubText going.  I honestly don’t care which one I wind up with but I ultimately want to use one that I can contribute too. 

SubText Installation Stumps Me

After getting defeated by the DasBlog installation I decided to give SubText a whirl.  As soon as I opened the solution I had errors.  While SubText works with VS2005, it requires you have the web project addition installed, which also requires a VS2005 update to be installed.  After going through all of the required updates I thought I was on my way when I pressed F5 in VS2005 and it launched a web site that took me to the installation pages as outlined in the videos.  It was here where things got shaky because I started running into dbo.subtext_version issues.  I pulled up RssBandit and went to Phil Haack’s blog and found this entry.   It turns out I wasn’t the only one that had a SQL Server installation problems.  It is late and I have to work on Monday so I am off to bed.  I plan on trying the update tomorrow evening and I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Saturday was the Alabama Code Camp in Montgomery.  I didn’t get to blog about it too much since I spent most of my energy either updating my demos or driving (5 hour drive).  I finally got to meet Doug (the new DE for the area) as well as chat with a few of the other speakers (Bruce Thomas, Todd Miranda, Mark Dunn, Jeremy Chance (thanks for the ride!), Jim Wooley and William Howell),  at the speaker get together on Friday.   The turn out was really good, rumors are floating around 150 or so attended. 

It was also good to see some familiar faces from the Mobile User’s Group.  Several of them finally got to here the enterprise architecture session since we had to cut it short when I visited.

You can find all the material of the two sessions I did at http://keithelder.net/Presentations/DevelopingSmartClientAppsForEnterprise/Default.aspx.  This track will continue to grow and be updated as I add more material so stay tuned for updates.

Like most people I use Google for various tasks such as searching, finding local businesses, viewing maps, satellite images etc. However, as Google adds more and more services I find myself getting more and more discouraged trying to remember is the service a sub domain or is it a sub directory when typing the URL into a browser. Here are some sample URLs from the Google page that lists their offerings:

Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts
Blog Search – http://blogsearch.google.com/
Directory – http://www.google.com/dirhp
Finance – http://finance.google.com/finance
Picasa – http://www.picasa.com/index.php?tid=Y2NpZD0zNzQ4
Talk – http://www.google.com/talk

 These are just a few samples to show the inconsistency. As you can see some are sub domains while others are sub directories from their primary domain. I don’t get it. Come up with a pattern guys and stick with it! Another thing that drives me really crazy with their URLs is I use http://news.google.com quite a bit. Especially if I am traveling and don’t have access to a news reader. Why can’t I just type in http://news.google.com/scitech for example to get to the Sci/Tech section? It would be incredibly simply to add a URL rewrite for each category.  To read Sci/Tech news the way it is today I have to type in this:

http://news.google.com/?ned=us&topic=t

Are you kidding me? Aren’t we in 2006? Is it just me or is this utterly stupid? Almost all web sites spend some amount of time trying to make their URLs user friendly. In complete contrast to Google’s approach to URL madness I can type in http://something.yahoo.com and get to the service I want. Note to Google, wake up, and stop wasting my time typing &’s, and ?’s. It is 2006 and you have billions of dollars. Maybe your employees should take their “one day a week” and fix the URLs to make them easier to remember and more consistent.

As first noted by DevFish, Tech Ed 2007 is being moved to Orlando.  Previously it was going to be held in New Orleans.  This is kind of a bitter sweet move for me.  It is sweet because now I get to go fishing with DevFish since I got on the list first.  And it is bitter because instead of me driving 1.5 hours to New Orleans it is now a 595 mile trip.  Honestly I can’t say that I blame them for moving it.  New Orleans is just a wreck still (at least that is the word on the street here). 

“Announced at our all company meeting back last month, our Chairman, Dan Gilbert, is starting a non profit academy for people that have an entrepreneurial interest, but may not really know how to get going. The organization will be known as Bizdom U. They are currently taking applications for the academy to open in January 2007. Ten to twenty lucky people will get to learn about business inside and out. Live and breath it and in order to graduate you have to write a business plan. Once you do, your business gets funded by the academy. If you live in the Detroit area and want to start your own business this is a great opportunity. Check it out.”