Skowronek

Archive for the ‘Off-Topic’ Category

Odd wrap positioning

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Odd wrap positioning

Originally uploaded by skowronek


Truck Engulfed in Flames on I15

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On the way home today I witnessed a wicked fire on the northbound lanes of I15. I was headed southbound, trying film while not crashing myself, so I do not want to hear about the thumb!

Still though, in spite of the thumb distraction, it was a spectacular site.

Truck Engulfed in Flames on I15 from Skowronek on Vimeo.

Flickr

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This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Greatest Wife on the Planet

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Really quick, I wanted to proclaim to the world (okay, to my few but consistent readership) that I have the greatest wife in the world. Not only did she remember fathers day, but she made it wonderful day for me!

It started with me sleeping in…WHOO HOO!!! Next, I was treated to our new family favorite, Strawberry and Banana covered German Pancakes, complete with Strawberry and whip cream toppings. (Owen, eat your heart out.)

The day then progressed with me lounging around the house, doing whatever floated my fancy (mostly sleeping as I was exhausted from late night freelance work), and hanging with the kids.

There was more, but that alone was a day to remember. Thanks my hot wife!

LUM

Another Gift Card Down the Drain

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A couple of years ago I wrote about a situation in which I was planning on redeeming a gift card given to me for my birthday only to find out the balance of the card had been whittled down to close to nothing and basically useless by monthly card management “fees”. Apparently I did not learn from that experience as I seem to have run into another situation where I am getting swindled out of yet another gift card balance, this time at Borders. I recently (within the last year, I think) received a Borders gift card from someone (I do not remember who). I was not really in a rush to redeem it as they apparently have a “never expires” policy on their gift cards. Well tonight whilst attempting to redeem my Borders gift card online, I found out it was yet again, without balance.

Now wait a minute. I am pretty sure I had not spent it as it had been sitting on my desk for the past however long waiting for me to actually do something with it.

I decided to give the Borders “gift card” customer support a call. So I called and found out the scoop. According the them, and unbeknownst to me and most likely my unsuspecting gift giver, the card had never actually been “activated” or “loaded” with any balance. Which meant, yep, good ol’ Skowronek gets shafted again out of a gift card birthday present.

Moral of the story (I believe in Tennessee or Texas), fool me once … shame on you … the fool me … can’t get fooled again. Perhaps I should not accept any more gift cards as gifts, they appear to be bad karma.

By the way, if any of you reading this did happen to give me a Borders gift card recently, please let me know so I can track down whether or not you also, are getting the shaft (having been charged and not actually having received anything in return.)

Ektron and Localization Tags

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I ran across an interesting API library deep in the Ektron API framework that allows you to pull the actual localization tag (e.g. en-US, en-GB, etc.) for the current language type id of the site (e.g. 1033, 2058, etc.). Previous to this, we had to create our own associative, key/value pair XML file that stored the relationships. Since I could only find a single reference to this library on the Ektron site, I hoping this information proves useful to others. Enjoy.

// get and instance of the current site API object
Ektron.Cms.SiteAPI sAPI = new Ektron.Cms.SiteAPI();
// retrieve the language date for the current site API instance
Ektron.Cms.LanguageData ld = sAPI.GetLanguageById(ContentBlock.LanguageID);
// assign the localization tag
string langTag = Ld.XmlLang;

Another Transformers Meets Big Brand Auto Manufacturer

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Yes, yet another commercial/ad with a well inserted transforming automobile to sell product. Boy, that was original.

How to Delete a Windows Service

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I have used the service controller command line tool for years. I have finally decided to write something up on it briefly since I have been working with various frameworks/systems that are not completely removing their services after uninstalling them.

  1. Open services applet/application: Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Services
  2. Locate offending Service
  3. Double-click OR Right-click | Properties
  4. Copy the ‘Display Name’ property
  5. Stop the service
  6. Exit service information screen and services applet
  7. Start | Run | cmd | OK
  8. Type: cs delete “%PASTE OR TYPE THE SERVICE NAME HERE%”
  9. Hit enter key
  10. Service has been deleted

You may or may not be able to delete the service depending on it’s dependencies. You will need to follow the chain down to any child services if that is the case and delete them first. You may also be required to reboot.

Feedback welcome.