Category: Uncategorized

Last week, it felt like the calendar was stuck around the shortest days of the year, which actually took place on December 22 and 24.
In fact yesterday, Sunday the 28th, was the actual beginning of the consistent lengthening of days, as sunset gets later and later.
It won’t be until January 9 that sunrise gets earlier and earlier. We get to have longer days until the fourth week in June, when the descent to winter starts all over again.

I don’t like to shop, not even for groceries. I rarely buy on impulse and hardly ever pay full price. Even though diagnosed with major depression, I never succumbed to shopping addiction. In short, I am the retail sector’s worst nightmare, but yesterday, I had not one, not two, but three really good shopping experiences.

Continue reading My Bit for the Economy

It’s over, thank goodness, and the insufferable “Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays” pseudo-controversies like this one will go away for another year.
Only one more holiday before the relative serenity of January.

I spent Christmas Eve and am spending Christmas day in my sister and brother-in-law’s house.
It’s a small but significant cultural shock to be in a home where everything works and the rooms, uncluttered and well-organized, are serene and pleasant.

Continue reading Working Doors, Brand New Floors

This is a well-documented issue, but I’m saving these notes anyway because it took a while to figure out.
I’m doing some maintenance on a web application that uses Excel files as data sources.
The files require the JET Data Provider.
The app is running under VISTA on a 64-bit machine.
I was getting the error message “The ‘Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0’ provider is not registered on the local machine.”
For VISTA, the JET .dlls are located in the WindowsSysWOW64 directory, not Program FilesCommon FilesSystemOle DB
I tried re-registering the .dlls. No luck.
Turns out, Jet only has 32 bit versions, so you have to change the target CPU of the app to x86.
In C#, there is no “Advanced Compiler” project property, this is only available in VB.NET.
On IIS7, though, there is an option to run your app in 32-bit mode. In the Advanced Options under the Application Pools where your app is (mine uses DefaultAppPool), there’s an option to Enable 32-bit Applications (it was False by default). Changing this to True worked.
The C# project file does have a section “Platform Condition=” ‘$(Platform)’ == ” “>AnyCPU” It may be possible to edit this, but I didn’t try it.
List of JET .dlls: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278604
Excellent resource:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/adodotnetdataproviders/thread/45aa44dd-0e6f-42e5-a9d6-9be5c5c8fcd1/
Jet 4.0 db engine service pack download: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/239114

There’s snow on the ground with rain likely over the next couple of days, but for now it feels sort of Christmas-like.
For New Year’s 2008, the grandkids and I had a high old time in Newport, including Awful-Awfuls at the Newport Creamery, swimming at the Y, a boat trip to Rose Island, a really nice lunch at the Atlantic Beach Club, and fireworks. Thanks to a break in the weather, we got to Milton and back safely.
This year, kind friends and family have extended no fewer than four invites for Christmas day, but I can’t drum up much enthusiasm. Thanksgiving was a “downer” without Carolyn and now Christmas and New Year’s, probably the last in Milton, will forever be incomplete.

Continue reading Christmas Past, Christmas Present

The back yard, after 8.5 inches of snow:

This will likely be “it for 2008.
I finished the leaves – or as much as is going to get done this year – at Edgewater last Saturday, hauled a truck full to the transfer station on Sunday morning, and today, I finished the front yard at #20.
The winter’s first major snowstorm started just a few minutes ago.

A while back, Emme and I were traveling somewhat south and somewhat west, and we could see the sunset through the front windshield.
Emme is an artist. That fact is relevant because her eyes see things that mine at least cannot.
As she looked at the horizon, Emme told me that she could see multiple colors: orange, pink and green, maybe more. Me, I saw pink, that’s it. Which I guess is why she’s an artist and I’m a developer.

I wasn’t going to keep the appointment with my Primary Care Physician (PCP) yesterday, since the dry cough that had been plaguing me for 5-6 weeks had finally stopped.
I’d procrastinated so long about cancelling the appointment, though, that I figured her office would charge me for it, so I might as well go.
As it turned out, that may have been the best thing I’ve done for myself in a long time.

Continue reading Digging Out