Learning new things is almost always fun, and one must try to check one's assumptions at the door.  However, what if your brain assumes something and doesn't come right out and say so?  That's interesting.

Keeping in mind that I am new to ASP.NET 2.0...

I'm experimenting, and here I have a neat little master page with a hidden field on it that I want all the other pages to use, so one page puts data in the field and then transfers control to the next page.  The next page then checks that hidden field and doesn't find anything.  This had me wondering what the darned problem was, until suddenly it occurred to me how on earth I could expect anything to be there?  The master page is not stateful, and it is generated from scratch each time.  Doh!  Somehow it had gotten into my head that the master page was some sort of repository -- despite the fact that I know there is no state preservation or information passing beyond query strings, forms, and session/application variables.  Amazing what assumptions one can make with no justification whatsoever and contrary information and experience in rich abundance from past encounters.  Makes me feel like I just called up customer support with the complaint that my computer's cup holder had broken. 

Doh!

Among the trials innovators in teams are expected to go through is the convincing of skeptical team members that a particular technology is something worth considering.  And when that technology is mature, but unfamiliar except through what skeptical team members see as "trendy" buzzwords, the task might be especially difficult.

Take RSS, for example.  Real Simple Syndication provides a pull-model for content that beats static-content models all hollow.  What if you want your users to be able provide content blurbs that only their own customers can see, and allow them to be able to submit the content themselves (going through moderation, to save you from inappropriate content)?  Well, a syndication model works best!  Examine this particular entry, and you will see why!

And what if you are trying to create a way for your customers to put content into an application that their userswill see (and only their customers).  With the additional proviso that their entries have to be approved by a moderator, and that their content can expire. 

One model that could be used is the model of a blog -- with the content accessible via RSS.  It's a thought, at least.

Val came up with an idea for a night out, and that was a visit to Red Wind Casino (the Nisqually Tribe casino) to listen to an Elvis impersonator!  I almost could not contain my dismay at the idea, but inasmuch as I know that she is a big Elvis fan, how could I refuse to attend?  I wanted to find some excuse, but this seemed unwise.

I am glad I didn't.

The first interesting thing was the casino itself.  We've seen it before, though we've never gambled, because one of our daughters worked there when it first opened, but it is now enormous. It's also a lot more impersonal looking -- it was homier when smaller. 

The Elvis impersonator was Danny Vernon, and he was very good and quite an entertainer.  I was not sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.  When he took a break, another impersonator took the stage, but not another Elvis impersonator, but a Billy Joel tribute artist.  This was Brian Lloyd, whose apparent usual stock in trade is New Age, but he did an excellent set of Billy Joel hits.  I really enjoyed listening to him, more than Vernon, as Billy Joel is more my cup of tea.  I've always thought of Elvis as fairly cheesy. 

In what amounts to a matter of Why Is This Important? (to which the answer is, It Isn't) I happened upon Amicable Numbers (see Wikipedia on this) and apparently this was some project that the great mathematician Leonhard Euler devoted some time to.  Euler discovered 59 pairs, adding to the three that were then known to exist.  But there are now apparently 11,446,960 known amicable pairs, and the largest of these has 24,703 digits!  See the website devoted to giving all of them: http://amicable.homepage.dk/knwnc2.htm.

While fascinating to a certain extent, one has to wonder what use amicable pairs are.  A paper I found on the net, at http://ftp.cwi.nl/CWIreports/MAS/MAS-R0307.pdf discusses amicable pairs in depth, but never says anything about any possible practical use of research on the subject.  Mathematics at its purest, I suppose.

Just as an interesting exercise, I built a program to discover, by brute force, all amicable number pairs smaller than 20,000.  I let the program run to completion and at the end it had found the following pairs:

• 220, 284
• 1184, 1210
• 2620, 2924
• 5020, 5564
• 6232, 6368
• 10744, 10856
• 12285, 14595
• 17296, 18416

Which check out nicely on the AP website.

That was an experience.  The wife and I came down with the flu and for past couple of weeks have been miserable.  I got it first, but recovered last.  I am still way down because of it.

Yuck, next year I am definitely getting a flu shot.  It will be the first time.

And on top of the flu, spending so much time horizontal put my back out, too!  I am staggering and limping everywhere, and heaven help me if I have to walk any distance, like fifty yards.

I am pleased to announce that this morning, at 9:20 AM, our new granddaughter, Summer Ruth Clark, made her entrance into the world! 

She was not really as red in the face as the photo seems to show, in fact she is quite the lovely little lady.  And she was so very alert and observant!  It is sometimes said that girl babies tend to want to connect, and it surely is true in her case.  She would hear the voice of someone talking to her, and she would turn towards the sound already.  Just two hours old in this photograph.  It's also a good shot of Daddy Jason's ear, by the way.

I do note that I can see her great grandmother Ruth's eyes in her, so she is well named.  She was a most healthy baby, too.  Vital Stats: 8 lbs 11 oz; 20 inches long.

Well I have great news!  And that news is a new Grandson.  He was born to my son Daniel and his wife, Linda, this morning at 5:40 am.  A nice weight, 7 lbs 3 oz, length 21 inches, and the docs couldn't find a single thing wrong with him.  His name?  Oh, yes:

Daniel John Clark

When your children start having children, THAT's when the fun begins.  And a few weeks from now, maybe right at Christmas, our son Jason and his wife Larene will be presenting us with another grandbaby, this time a girl, whose name has already been picked out: Summer Ruth Clark.  I can't wait!

I just heard of the Object Test Bench in Visual Studio 2005 (in Kevin Hammond's blog), and hurried to use it, but ran into a small problem, in that the context menu off the class diagram I don't have a "Create Instance" item!  Am I perhaps doing something wrong, or is this OTB tool only available in a higher version of VS2005 (I'm running VS2005 Professional)? 

Here's a picture of what I get, which does NOT include the Create Instance:

Anybody with any clue is invited to comment...