Bit Coin

Understanding Bitcoin

Economists

John H. Cockrane Lecture
John H Cockrane Blog

Technical Ed

.NET Technical Guide Lines

Angular JS and Dan Wahlin Tutorial

Visual Studio Shortcut Keys

Test

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Will Power

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Blogs

Izi Smile

Entanglement

Traffic

Measuring site traffic, start with Alexa.  Simply enter in the URL of a podcast, blog or other site and Alexa will return an analytic report on the traffic.

As Andrew mentions on the Content Equals Money site, a podcast can provide good exposure (See the Apple FAQ on Podcasting).

Check out Brian Massey's article at the Content Marketing Institute for using tools to measure podcast traffic.  This article and others mention Feedburner as a source of analytic data.

Or you can pay for stats by creating an account with Blubrry or other services.

E-Commerce Open Source

Check out the reviews at WebAppers.

SAT Prep

Some online sample questions for Math:

• Major Tests
• Crush The Test

No New

The Mind and The Brain

Getting Started with Github

Git is a Distributed Source Management system.  

In order to understand the underlying ideas behind Git, please see Scott Chacon's excellent introductory video.

Below is hands-on tutorial on Getting Started with Github by AzamSharp.

To get started simply: (or see Roger Dudler's link) 

1. Establish a free account on Github.com
2. Install the local client software - Git
3. Create a new repository in the cloud
4. Create a local repository
5. Place a public key on both server and client
6. Learn 5 Git commands (init, add, commit, push, remote)

Simple Guide

Photoshop It!

Create a Drawing via Photoshop

And more tutorials:

• Retro Pop-Art
• Vexel Image
• 50 Web Designs
• B&W with Color Channels
• B&W with Partial Color (About.com)
• B&W from PictureCorrect
• B&W from PhotoDot
• ...And 30 more

Agile Project Management Tools

What is Agile?

After reviewing the multitude of Agile Tools, Pivotal Tracker appears to meet the requirements.  The online Project Management tool is free for personal, small project management and it completely web based.  Other tools included:

• QuickWick on Github
• APMT for Scrum Open Sourced on CodePlex
• Agile Planner 
• Review site Agile Tools
• Airgile
• Other CodePlex solutions
• The Agile Scout tool review site
• Smartbear
• PlanThatApp

And a tool called Bug Genie for tracking bugs.

Jargon: Iterations Sprints Self-Organizing Scrum Agile Cross-Functional Generative-Rules Daily-Meetings Scrum-Manager Project-Owner Team Backlogs Tasks Iron-Triangle Velocity

Organize Your Mind

An organized mind reduces stress, says Dr. Oz.

Techniques:

• Drawing
• Apps
• DeCluter
• Brain Dump
• Thoughts on Paper
• Video

Azure

Steve Sanderson gave fabulous presentation on Single Page Applications at TechDays.  Bart Jolling shows how to publish this application to Azure.

I was able to get the Delivery Tracker demo working on Azure after a few tweaks.  I've outlined the details below.  I believe the main problem was that the database gets created on the fly in code.  The Azure version never creates a database and this may be due to the "cluster index" on primary key issue.  Azure SQL requires a "cluster index" and the Delivery Tracker doesn't create one.

Issues to overcome:

• System.Net.Http version problem on my development system
• Get code working locally on the development system
• Preparation on Azure - create empty web site with database
• Change the Firewall settings on Azure to allow MMSM access
• Database is created in code, which did not work on Azure
• Connect to the Azure database in MMSM using server name and user account
• Export database from development to Azure will fail with Cluster Index error
• Primary Key needs a Cluster Index for Azure using MMSM script
• Download the proper publishing profile after all this is done
• Use "Publish to Azure"  in Visual Studio and load Azure profile

Working with Microsoft WCF

In working with the Microsoft .NET WCF Services it does require a bit of a learning curve, along with trial and error.  Here are some of my notes on the topic:

• I found it works best to create my WCF Service stand-alone with a new WCF Service Library.  That way I could use the WcfSvcHost from F5 to unit test the Service before including it on my SilverLight application.
• I open the IIS manager and select the top level web site, then perform a right click "open" to locate the proper place to insert the clientaccessproxy.xml (which I test with a wide open version)
• I used the WCF Configuration Editor instead of editing the XML by hand.  However, for some reason the WCF Editor doesn't always appear in the right click context menu for the *.config file.  In those cases, I had to actually go to the "tools" menu and specifically select the WCF Editor, then simply close it.  Afterwards, it appears in the context menu (weird).
• I had to always remember to update the "Web Service Reference" frequently, as changes to the WCF Service aren't reflected in the Reference.vb/Reference.cs file until an update is performed.
• DNRTV.com has wonderful videos to help you learn the tricks and techniques for .NET development, including WCF and SilverLight.
• I would run the debugger from both the client side in the XAML code and on the server side with the .XAP and WCF code.
• For some reason the MIMETYPE for all the SilverLight file types need to be specified in the root web site.
• I used the EventViewer and IIS log files quite frequently for debugging.
• I used the commandline "aspnet_regiis" from the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework version folder to verify proper ASP.NET configuration.

I've run into many, many gotchas during my recent dive into the WCF/SilverLight world.

Some of these links help with examples and explainations:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818364?wa=wsignin1.0

https://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Microsoft_.NET_Web_Services_Client_Examples

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xb5th1ba(v=vs.80).aspx

http://petarvucetin.me/blog/2008/06/7-hidden-gems-tools-everyday-wcf-wf-developers/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332338.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb924407.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericwhite/archive/2010/05/11/getting-started-building-a-wcf-web-service.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347733.aspx

http://carvingcode.blogspot.com/2010/04/creating-wcf-web-service-with-vs2010.html

http://www.tugberkugurlu.com/archive/getting-started-with-asp-net-web-api-tutorials-videos-samples

 dgp

Equality

The subjective measure of income equality is indeed tough calculate.  The Gini Coefficient is one attempt used to compare income across countries.

Jodi Beggs or Jodicongirl does a nice  job of explaining the Gini Coefficient in one of her impressive number of econ videos.  

Out-of-Body

Out of Body Simulation

Dr. Persinger's work with magnetic stimulation of the brain has resulted in his God Helmet.  The High-Tech motorcycle helmet fires directed fields at specific areas of the brain in order to simulate Out of Body experiences.

Some Philosophical Fiction

• Foucault's Pendulum
• Einstein's Dreams
• The Elephant Tree
• The Man Without Qualities
• The Wall
• The First Death
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• Beyond Good and Evil
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
• Waiting for Godot
• The Magic Mountain
• Faust
• Candide

Human Guinea Pig

Timothy Ferriss uses his body as a laboratory for testing mental and physical experiments.  He has it down to a science -- and lots and lots of data points.

The Public Domain

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. 
 -- Marcus Aurelius

There is no such thing as free lunch, however...

Gutenberg.org provides public domain writing like that of The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 

The Meditations of Marcus-Aurelius can also be found freely read aloud on LibrioVox.Org.

The Gleaners on Learn Out Loud

History of Philosophy Marcus Aurelius

Golden Book by Marcus Aurelius on iTunes

Listen to Genius.com Marcus Aurelius

Apple AAPL

Food for Thought

Good Reads

Book reading and reviewing.

Good Reads always you to setup your own book review site and build a community around your favorite subject or join other existing groups.  For example, you can join what-s-the-name-of-that-book or paranormal-kickass-chicks.  

If you have questions about a book, go to the Tomato Nation.

Photo Enhancements

Photo enhancement through technology.

His website is Stuck In Customs

Nam-A-Rama

Nam-A-Rama by Phillip Jennings
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Hill Air E Us. I brought this book to the beach not realizing it was a satire. The sting of his humor is directed not at the War or the soldier, rather the establishment. The writing is similar to Catch-22 and the lampoons are both sharp and subtle. It was a little embarrassing to find myself sitting on the beach and laughing out loud to no one in particular.

The author was a marine in Vietnam, so he is quite detailed in the events and culture of the time. As a side note, I found out later that he also wrote a serious book on the entire history of the war in Vietnam. He appears to research the subject well and brought to light many ideas and insights I had never heard before.

dgp

View all my reviews