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New laptop en route
I’ve been bantering around the idea of having a device for mobile writing for a while now. I had a list of specs that seemed rather impossible, initially. It needed to be small (less than a 12-inch screen), it needed to have at least a few hours of battery power, it needed network connectivity (for research purposes and managing the repositories of my stories), and it needed to be cheap. Cheap. I haven’t sold a novel yet, so I can’t fathom dropping $1000+ into a device that won’t actually make me a better writer. I was thinking more along the lines of, ya know, $300 or less. Preferably with a…
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Lower-casing URIs in .NET
A few months ago, a client asked that their .NET site have all its URIs lower-cased for search-engine optimization purposes. This was an existing site with a lot of files, already in SVN. SVN in Windows is wonky (by which I mean, terribly broken) when it comes to changing the case of filenames, so I decided to go for a programmatic solution to the renaming. I ended up with the following: void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e) { string currentURL = Request.RawUrl.ToLower(); if ((currentURL != Request.RawUrl) && (!currentURL.Contains(".axd"))) { Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently"; Response.AddHeader("Location", currentURL); } } The most important thing is the “!currentURL.Contains(“.axd”)” condition. .NET sticks its scripts in…
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James Spader’s Secretary
I just finished watching Secretary, a movie starring James Spader (of Stargate and Boston Legal fame) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (of Dark Knight fame). The movie is incredibly awkward — I spent a good bit of the movie curled up in a seat, eyes partially covered. It’s full of very broken people who don’t know how to deal with themselves or other people. It’s also about the two main characters’ sadomasochistic, D/S relationship, which is why I was watching it. Well, first because it was James Spader, and second because it featured D/S. I’ve always been fascinated by D/S relationships; it’s a power play/exchange/relationship that I’ve always wanted to partake in,…
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One credit card down!
With the payday last Friday, I sent in the final $500 to one of my high-interest credit cards. One more credit card left, then I’m down to student loans and money I owe my parents. Such a nice feeling… I haven’t decided whether I’ll cancel the credit card yet. There are good reasons both ways. I’m not overly worried about my credit rating in the short term, so I’d feel fine canceling it. I’m not tempted to use it, either, though, so it’s not like I need to cancel it to avoid the temptation. I’m more worried about service charges or annual fees. I should be able to knock out…
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What’s the bootstrapping process for this?
I’ve been spending a lot of time writing. Not here, obviously, but in a text editor whose contents only ever make it to my hard drive or a printer. I have a little editing circle with Gregory and Shun that meets weekly to trade chapters/units of our novels/screenplays for editing. As I knew I would back in college, I’m finding life as a code monkey uninteresting. I didn’t have an interest in sitting in front of a computer hacking out code all day back then, and it’s not so great now that I’m doing it. I know it’s a stepping stone, but what do I have to look forward to…