I put my $500 deposit down today

Yippee !! Can't wait for that sweet smell of 7 new leather seats..

See more at the Captiva mini site . I'm getting the LX 7 seater diesel in Black.

.Net SQL Backend storage with Activex Uploader

Firstly : This solution uses an ActiveX control , so it is targetted at Intranet Applications for SOEs where IE is the standard browser.

In my previous post I talked about implementing the domino inotes activex uploader to talk to an asp .net application that could store the uploaded files in a sql database, well here is the C# vs2005 solution.

I am sure there are other activex file uploaders out there that provide similar (probably better) functionality but I knew how this one worked from previous work I had done with it in Domino using a java servlet to receive the files.

Basically in this solution I re-coded the servlet as a Httpmodule that read the request inputstream and processed the data coming from the activex control. The activex control thinks it is talking to a Domino Server, so the code is based around getting the functionality out of the control while tricking it into thinking it is being used with a Domino Backend. In fact the backend is the .net application which stores the uploaded files into the sql database.

The setup is as usually for my solutions. Just create a new sql database on your sql server/msde and run the DBSetup.sql code against it. Then edit the web.config so the connection string matches your database. Once that is done compile and run. The cab file that contains the activex control is in the project.

The inotes ActiveX control provides the following features:

• Drag and drop functionality from windows explorer/desktop
• File upload status bar
• Multiple file upload and deletions
• Each file upload uses an individual HTTP POST so upload limit is per file
• Windows explorer look and feel.
• Client side caching

Happy coding.

Activex fileupload revisit in .net

I have had a middle school korean exchange student staying at my home for the last couple of months. He uses the korean community site naver 네이버 . While he was composing an e-mail the other day I noticed that there was a activex fileupload on the "compose" page which looked quite similar to the IBM/Lotus file upload control that is available for inotes. It also has the same feature set ( drag and drop, local file caching, file upload status, etc ).

On inspection on my computer after he had logged-off I discovered that the activex control had the details as above. The feature set is almost exactly the same as the IBM control and lead me to think there was some code sharing or something of that nature between IBM and this company ?? The control itself is obviously unnoticed by most as a search on google returns nothing of interest

Anyway recently I have been trying to find a nice browser based file manager for .net and after trolling through thousands of pages about how to do this sort of thing in .net have come to the conclusion that there really is no replacement of activex in the .net world so I shouldn't bother trying to replace this functionality I should just embrace it.

So since I already have a servlet version of the server component of the IBM upload control I thought I would try and whip up one in .net and of course give it backend DB storage. I will post my working source in the next couple of days. I will base the project on the work I have already done here and here.

You know your old when....

You think it is exciting enough to tell the world that you have tickets to see The Police in concert.

The Police - Tue 22 Jan 2008 7:00PM - Suncorp Stadium

Hoping for a few Sting songs thrown in at the end.. But not hopeful, as I am sure one of the agreements to get all of the band back together was that none of them had to hear "Russians" or "work the black seam" during the world tour.

Off to Brisbane

I went to Brisbane on monday for a job interview and now have been told that I have the job. So it looks like I will be packing up in Townsville and moving to Brisbane. The new job is working on our corporate .net framework as opposed to application development. I am looking forward to the challenge, our corporate framework is pretty good but there is still lots to do. I also want to do a lot of work with code generation so that we can automate the code building application parts from the database level up.

Currently we use mygeneration to do our stored proc, DLC and BLC auto-generation, but I would like to get our framework and code-gen to a stage where it can support creating up to the presentation layer with working 2-way binding all via code generation. It is going to be a lot of work but I think it is achievable. We are currently trying to get our framework adopted as the whole of government one, so hopefully I can be of use in getting that done.

Anyway I have to wait for the "official" word on my job and then it will be time to pack-up the house and make the move. So a busy month ahead I think.

Tokyo Flash - Pimp

My favorite watch web site Tokyoflash has just release a new range of nerd watches.. And some of them are beautiful .. I think my favourite is the Pimpin aint easy SS but then again I don't think anything beats the Barcode SS with blue leds.

Korean Inter-country adoptions have begun again.

This morning we were contacted by the Queensland Government adoption agency asking for a follow up assessment because our file has been in Korea for so long. They also said that there have been 4 new allocations to Australia recently, so it looks like the Inter-country adoptions are underway again. This is not so good news for Korea as it suggests that their internal push for local adoptions has not been as good as expected. But for those prospective adoptive parents this is some nice news.

Our file has been in South Korea for our second adoption application since March 2006, which is already 8 months longer than our first adoption.

This is probably only funny to a westerner who can read hangul

This is a sign I saw in Christchurch for a korean hairdresser. The sign is attempting to say “City Hair” . The problem is they are using hangul but trying to say english words. But if you read 시티 헤어 in korea it actually sounds like “Shitty hair”.

The actually word for city in korean is도시( R: doshi ) and hair dresser/beauty salon is미용사(R: Me-yong-sa)

New Zealand – the land of beauty and people who say “wee” a lot

Just spent 2 weeks in New Zealand, we only did the south of the south island as we have been to NZ twice before. We did a loop from Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, Queenstown, Wanaka back to Christchurch. The highlight for me was the driving between Queenstown back to Christchurch through the mountains. You can really see why lords of the rings was shot there, the scenery is just magnificient.

Things I most liked about NZ:

• Scenery
• Good pubs
• Abundance of Black pudding
• People say “wee” instead of little/small (well at least south of Dunedin)

Here are few shots of the adventure:

why you don't ride your bike on the tram lines in christchurch

a very friendly seal at penguin place near dunedin
a yellow eyed penguin at penguin place
the view back to Queenstown from coronet peak skiing area
The beast itself..

Oh and the camera was excellent. I only managed to fill 1.5 GB of the 4GB card , but that stilll gave me about 45 minutes of movie and lots of photos. So $300 well spent.