GDI+ Widen Bug

So when developing our very graphic intensive GDI+ mapping product, I ran into this problem back in July 2004. If you have a GraphicsPath with two lines, all the same point (in this case at 100,100) and you try to run a widen on the path, GDI+ throws an out of memory exception. Not cool.

Essentially you have a point, and you want to widen the point to create a "circle". However, because the Pen is drawn like a highlighter and the widen call creates a path that outlines the shape created by the pen, it seems that the code to widen doesn't work nicely in this scenario.

Here is the C# code:

GraphicsPath gp = new GraphicsPath();
gp.AddLines(new Point[]{new Point(100,100),new Point(100,100), new Point(100, 100)});
gp.Widen(new Pen(Color.Black, 1F));

I have run into a lot of similar issues with GDI+. Hidden bugs that only show up under intensive graphic manipulation. I hope someone at Microsoft is listening because it's exceedingly difficult to create enterprise applications with GDI+.

Your Holiday Turkey Might Be Just That

Here's a scary article outlining how dangerous Turkey Fryers are. Please be careful this holiday season and only use a Turkey Fryer if it's absolutely mandatory.

Bush like a mouse in a maze

Here's the story and video behind US President Bush's failed attempt to escape a press conference on Sunday.

Coloured Bubbles

This is an amazing read all about the quest for coloured bubbles, and why many thought that it was an impossible venture. I can't wait to see the products that come from the research into colouring the simple soapy bubble.

The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles

Rogers Annoys Customers

I pulled this off BoingBoing.net:

"A very short thread on Apple's website notes that Rogers/Shaw ISPs in Canada are blocking podcast downloads because of a policy against multiple downloads."

Over the past month Rogers (ISP) in Canada has put some software on their networks that prevents activity for BitTorrents, P2P, IRC, and also along with that is a rule that if you are trying to download a large media file from more then 1 server it will be dropped. When you download a Podcast from iTunes it downloads that file from multiple servers in the background (I confirmed this by watching my cable modem logs). As soon as it tries to use more than 2 different servers for the download, it just stops. That's the reason why Podcast downloads stop at random places - it's the point where a 2nd server is involved in the download. The same issue causes timeouts and cut-offs in the iTunes music store.

Here is the problem - when anyone calls Rogers about the problem they say it is either a router, firewall or Apple problem and they shrug you off.

Hundreds or thousands of people in Canada can no longer get Podcasts or purchase music from the iTunes Music store. This is BAD. Please, Apple, contact Rogers and sort it out. So many people have called Rogers with no luck.

It's Mario & Luigi, Again

It seems that the new rage is to take an old video game theme, and reproduce it in some play, recital or presentation. Of course, the most popular theme is the Super Mario Bros. theme, but any will do.

• Here's the Marimba version. Quite entertaining.
• Here's the 11 String Bass version. Cool instrument.
• Here's the blindfolded piano version. That's nuts. Wait until he takes off the blindfold :)
• Here's a bunch of Nintendo themes. The first one that I saw.
• How about an acoustic guitar?

As with anything, some people have taken this too far. Here is the Super Mario Bros. Remix.

A little story.

I recieved this e-mail today and then later in the day read the article at the link below. Interesting.

CLASSIC VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

THE END

CANADIAN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. So far, so good, eh?

The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like him, are cold and starving.

The CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home
with a table laden with food.

Canadians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer while others have plenty.

The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural special from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts the demonstrators singing, We Shall Overcome.

Sven Robinson rants in an interview with Pamela Wallin that the ant has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers and calls for an immediate tax on the ant to make him pay his "fair share".

In response to polls, the Liberal Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant's taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as helpers. Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

The ant moves to the US, and starts a successful agri-biz company.

The CBC later shows the now-fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the ant's food, though Spring is still months away, while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain it.

Inadequate government funding is blamed, and Roy Romanow is appointed to head a commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000.

The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Toronto Star blames it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity.

The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders - praised by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural diversity - who promptly set up a marijuana grow op.

THE END

CBC Article that I read after reading the joke (I wasn't searching for it).

Tom Arnold & Caffeine Don't Mix

I love watching Leno and Letterman. There's just something about the stars getting interviewed that I find uncomfortable to watch. If I'm lucky, one of them will come out drunk, wired or better yet, stoned.

Tonight, Tom Arnold wouldn't shut up on Leno. He just kept on telling his stories without stopping to even breathe. He's really got to figure out how to control his caffeine content :)

Competition Drives The World

I was reading something in Forbes yesterday that struck a chord with me. The reason I say that is because it's almost like Rich Karlgaard was reading my mind. The topic, Goofy Contests. The subject, NASA. As I've said to many people before, as a by-product of any competition you get better products and processes.

You get better weapons. Throughout the early 20th century "war" (the competition) drove us to develop better weapons, climaxing with the hydrogen bomb. Lately other contests have us developing smart missiles and UAVs.

You get better operating systems. The battle between Microsoft and IBM in the mid 90's produced two products, OS/2 and Windows. Eventually we all know who the winner was, but it was that battle between the two companies that saw 6 major releases of (DOS based) Windows in a little over 6 years. Now, what has happened since OS/2 dropped off the face of the earth for home users? We haven't seen nearly the frequency of releases or the innovation.

You get better internet browsers. The battle between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator saw major advances in browsing technology that we haven't seen since IE6 was released mid-2001. It looks like FireFox is getting the competition going again with IE7 on the horizon.

But all of the above competitions are business or politically related. What about competition for those companies or products that have no competitors? NASA for example?

JFK's push towards the moon in the 60's was a commitment by the administration to fund NASA and get humans to the moon before the Soviet Union did. NASA accomplished that feat in under a decade.

Some 40 years later, NASA is committed to getting a human to the moon. They say that the money has been budgeted. The president is on board. But why is it planned to take some 13 years to get a man BACK to the moon? Have we not learned anything over the last 40 years? Were all of the X projects a waste of money?

I think that the space race should once again be put into a competition. Put up some money for the first team to successfully return a sample from the Moon's surface. Reward the first team to successfully return a human from the Moon. Make it worthwhile for private corporations to build space vehicles. Maybe then we'll see some real advancement in space technology.

It's obvious that NASA is too bloated to effectively reach their goals anymore. Let someone else fire up the human spirit of adventure and exploration!

Google Image Hosting

I'm a big fan of Google. I always suggest that people Google this and Google that. Aside from Google Mail, Google Suggest might be the best product they have ever come out with. I always try and run the latest and greatest Google tools too. If someone asks me about something, I usually just Google it and find the answer for them. I've gotten so addicted that I've been referred to as "Neo".

So, Neo just bought a digital camera as a birthday present and I was looking for some way to share the photos with friends and family without cramming up their inboxes with hundreds of pictures. So, being Neo, I decided to look towards Google for my image hosting needs. I mean, Google is trying to organize the world's information, right?

Well, surprised as I was, the best I could do was the Picasa project. Even though I can upload a whole whack of pictures to a blog with Picasa, it isn't really what I wanted. I just wanted an online photo album.

I suppose the real question as to why Google doesn't already have an online photo album is, "Does it help them corner the 'information' market?" Probably not, which is why we haven't seen such a product yet.

I guess I'll have to feel all guilty and create a free photo album somewhere else. Maybe Google will buy that company out? Any suggestions?

The NFL and it's minor league -- The CFL

So here I am, trying to launch into a successful internet shopping experience. The problem? I'm shopping from Canada. Now, I am Canadian through and through, but often when I'm trying to buy stuff online I wish that I wasn't.

For the most part outdoor Ultimate season is over (it's over for me because I suffered a Grade 1+ sprain of my MCL), but now is not the time to stop thinking about Ultimate, it's the time to start thinking about next season. It's time to search for and buy some Nike Speed TDs (alongside GAIA's shoes, they are arguably the defacto standard of Ultimate Cleats).

Where to head? Well there are two places that I have gone before looking for this stuff, eBay and EastBay.com. EastBay has them for $49.99 USD and in my size. If I purchase them, it'll end up being $60 CAD plus shippinng. Say the shipping runs $14.50 CAD and duty on top of the shoes will make it close to $78 CAD. The total for the shoes is all of a sudden $92.50 CAD. Hardly a deal, but maybe the price to pay.

eBay is hit and miss. They don't have any Speed TDs today, and hardly ever do.

I saw an ad yesterday about a new website that is promoting shopping just for Canadians. So I thought that I would surf on over there and see what kind of shoes they had. They had 37 Nike shoes listed. No Speed TDs.

GAIA, who manufactures Ultimate specific cleats with the same cleat pattern as the Speed TDs, charges between $65.00 and $97.50 CAD if you are a member, and $81.25 and $130 CAD if you're not a member. This doesn't include shipping, so it's best to try and find a local GAIA rep to purchase them. As far as I know, these aren't marketed towards football players, so if you play football you wouldn't know about these.

If you live in Canada, where do you buy decent football cleats? You can get heavy Nike or Adidas cleats at most sports stores, but they are hardly the best shoe (although I wore them for a year).

I can't find any good places to buy cleats. I've even driven down to Buffalo, NY to see if I can buy some at Champs or other local sports stores. No luck. So, the ultimate question is (pun intended): "Ultimate aside, where do serious Canadian football players buy their cleats?"

This doesn't bode well for future Canadian football superstars. Without the right promoting and equipment available to Canadians, there is no way that Canada is going to produce quantities of decent football players.

Here is the real kicker. The CFL mandates that each of its franchises carries a requisite percentage of Canadian players on their rosters (as it should) ... which means that most of the CFL's players are growing up in a system where sports equipment and marketing is directed towards sports that compete with football. It's sad, but it's also the facts.

The CFL will always be the minor leagues of the NFL, not because of the teams or the fans, but because Canadian companies and government don't support football in Canada.

Maybe I should buy myself a ticket to a CFL game, and support the importing of Nike Speed TDs?

The standard "Welcome" message

I'm supposed to welcome you to the site, which seems a bit weird, as nobody will really care enough to read this. However, I'm going to go through the motions and write this up anyway... just for you (if you've gotten this far, then I guess you care).

I'll be mostly writing about .Net development as that's what I like to do. I came from a background of Java, C and the first language I learned in depth, Turing. Other things that might turn up here are ramblings about Ultimate, life with technology, and of course corporate structure (which I think everyone can relate to).

...Mark