HD, TV, XBox

Ok, so I've kept this a secret for a little bit. Gotta get my quality nerd time before I go and share with the world. I purchased an XBox 360 a little over a week ago. While I'm glad I waited past the "crazy" release of last year, I'm glad to have it now. Games purchased: Gears of War (because if you have a 360 and don't have this game, you should just give your 360 to charity, loser!), Madden NFL 07 (to play with the locals), Burnout: Revenge (to play when we've been drinking...it increases the fun factor by at least 3 times), and Viva Pinata (b/c Daryl and BJD SUCK!).

The xbox was a sudden departarture; pretty much unplanned. I came into work one day and received an email reminding me of our company's holiday bonus. The amount of the bonus was only $19 shy of what it would cost to purchase the xbox setup I wanted. So happy holidays to me from my company!

Around the same time I was already budgeting for an HDTV. I was looking at the Olevia 532H (32 in) from ZipZoomFly. I decided to wait a week because Black Friday was only a week away. After a few days of further research, I found the Olevia 537H (37 in) and an online coupon for target.com that brought the price difference to less than $100. After a visit to the local Comp USA for a sales floor view and a "you're not getting screwed" thumbs up from Big'J, I ordered the 537h.

The TV arrived today before lunch. Big'J helped me get it into my apartment (wanted two sets of hands so I didn't drop it on the stairs) and of course I was immediately ordered to set it up and test it. So we did. I've only had the chance to mess with it for about an hour, but I'm already very happy with the purchase. Back at work now I've called my local cable company and added HDTV channels to my current package (and the DVR as well, since it can record HD content...that's right, LOST, Heroes, and Prison Break in HD beyotches!!!) which should be set up on Sat.

So Happy Holidays to me, from me. Hope yours turns out as well as mine has so far.

100

100th post

Application "Who am I?"

For a while I've been thinking about trying to determine a few usefull pieces of information about a progam and the machine it is running on via code (C#).

EXE directory:
Because of the nature of the programs we write where I work, there is a VERY large amount of directory changing and file manipulation. One thing that has bit me in the butt, is not paying attention to what directory the program is using when it creates a file (specifically a config file that is written as the program terminates). Generally we can get away using absolute pathing, but in this case, we want the file to be placed directly in the directory containing the exe.

Unfortunately I rarely ever use logic and look in the right place for this information, but I've finally took the time to think about it and write it down:

string appPath = Application.StartupPath;
string fullPath = Application.ExecutablePath;
string appName = fullPath.Substring(appPath.Length + 1);
string appVersion = Application.ProductVersion;

MAC Address:
Another piece of information that I've been looking for is how to determine the mac and ip address of the machine a program is running on. I discovered that there are several network adapters on most machines but only one or two that are actually active. The following code (C#) grabs the mac & ip addressses for each ip active adapter:

//add System.Management to the project references first
query = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT MacAddress,IPAddress FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration where IPEnabled = TRUE");
queryCollection = query.Get();
foreach (ManagementObject mo in queryCollection){
if (mo["MacAddress"] != null){
ipAdd = ((string[])mo["IPAddress"])[0];
macAdd = mo["MacAddress"].ToString();
break;
}
}

No fool proof and it only returns the first adapter, but good enough for what I need done. I also understand that this is much easier to do using vb script, but that's not in my bag of tricks.

15 Things I Learned at BEST

15 things I learned while in Mobile helping with BEST this year:

1. The right shoe makes for the right end of day result.
2. Cool people like crab rangoons.
3. Ryan vs. 4 year old girl and retarded little boy = Ryan loses, poor guy
4. Enzo should never be given an air horn.
5. Never let politicians announce things that you have tried to plan.....it just doesn't work.
6. Yankee's are funny.
7. There is really no such thing as a "fun competition". An event can be fun or it can be a competition. Never both.
8. Be aware of the "Curse of the Monkey" trap.
9. Sometimes it's not such much about what you roll, as it is how many hands you need to roll all the dice at once.
10. BJD was never a sailor, though he may have once owned a sailor hat.
11. Cover is a very nice thing to have during a firefight.
12. The Pinata Doc is expensive.
13. Buses can make for GREAT anologies.
14. No matter how impossible it may seem, a kid's robot can (and now will) jump over whatever obstacle it is NOT supposed to jump over.
15. Always put your trust in people that get things done, not the people who say they will.

Turle shell nerd powers activate....

Finaly Fantasy XII was released to the U.S. market yesterday. I intentionally did not pre-order because I knew it was going to arrive right in the middle of high-streess super-panic time for B.E.S.T. However, I just so happen to be near an EB Games in the course of my regular errand running, so I figured maybe I'd see if they had a copy. Mistake....

Needless to say, I'm now in "Super Skrubby Ninja Stealth" mode as I battle the evil forces besieging Ivalice (the world in FF12). So if I happen to not answer my phone, check my emails, or arrive at an appointment in the evenings, please understand I'm getting my inner nerd on.