Don Draper

Thanksgiving - a Government Holiday to Give Thanks to God!

don — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:30:00 -1000

Below is a copy of the FIRST Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, given by then President George Washington. It reminds us how sad it is that our great country has moved so far away from God since then. Can you imagine our government creating a holiday to acknowledge and give thanks to God today?

Our country’s founding fathers not only had strong faith in God, they honored him by basing the creation of this country on his laws and statutes and worked to ensure that government would always be subject to HIS authority. Can we say that is true today? A government that is not subject to any authority is only subject to itself and its own preservation. Yikes… is that one frightening thought!

Please take a moment and read the proclamation of George Washington as we approach the wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Many of us still celebrate this day in honor of our country and the awesome, powerful God it was intended to honor.

Can you imagine our government creating a holiday to acknowledge and give thanks to God today?

This historic proclamation below was issued by George Washington during his first year as President. It sets aside Thursday, November 26 as "A Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer."

Signed by Washington on October 3, 1789 and entitled "General Thanksgiving," the decree appointed the day "to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God."

The Proclamation

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

George Washington

Has the Demise of RIM’s Blackberry Already Begun?

don — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:09:15 -1000

UPDATE: Leaked copies of Blackberry Desktop Version 6.0 was leaked to various sources near the end of July and made publically available around August 10. The new version does support syncing with Outlook 2010 32-bit version. Finally!

The software is easier to use that previous versions and appears to be a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, going without sync capability to Outlook got me out shopping the wonderful new Android phones. Pretty soon, my Tour will be retired for the next generation of phones.

In the new, highly competitive world of Smart Phones, staying on your game and ahead of the competition is everything. Not doing this can result in disaster. Look at Palm for example, the company that led the way to PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and Smart Phones but could not keep up with rapidly changing landscape around it. Even after coming out the Palm Pre, which is actually a nice Smart Phone, it was too late to make a dent in the marketplace.

What? I Can’t Sync with Outlook Anymore?

Now RIM, the maker of the popular Blackberry’s, is showing signs of fatigue. How? Blackberry is mostly popular with business users primarily due to its “push email” feature (more on that later). These same business users are also heavy users of Microsoft Outlook. But any Outlook users who have upgraded to the latest version, 2010, are not very happy. In fact they are angry. Why? Because the synchronization software that allows them to sync their contact, calendars and more between Outlook and the Blackberry does not work with Outlook 2010. Now, the important data you rely on daily is no longer available in your Blackberry. Suddenly your expensive and powerful Blackberry phone is no more powerful than a free phone. The iPhone can sync with Outlook 2010 as well as the Android devices (Android is the newer and popular OS for Smart Phones developed by Google). So why is my Blackberry now unable to do this necessary function?

RIM is not a stupid company and they had access to beta versions of Outlook for quite a long time before it was released to the public. So why were they unable to provide synchronization capability to Outlook by the time it was released? Well you can safely assume it was not because they wanted to aggravate and alienate their customers. So why?

Anyone in Charge?

One possible reason is fatigue and a lack of internal leadership. Someone is not performing and it is beginning to show. To allow a new release of Microsoft Outlook to hit the shelves and not provide customers a way to synchronize their phones to their Outlook data is sort of like going to sleep at the wheel while driving down a crowded interstate highway at top speed…the outcome cannot be a good one and shows significant irresponsibility.

Now RIM will get a their software upgraded for Outlook 2010 compatibility. But the fact they missed the date means things are getting worse for them, not better. Some customers, like myself, will simply take this as a queue to begin looking again at the new Android phones. I simply cannot trust my Blackberry to help me run my business anymore. I need to be able to upgrade to the newest “released” versions of mainstream software and know my Blackberry will continue to function. That is no longer the case. And with the new Android phones reaching maturity and the fact that the iPhone might someday be on Verizon offers lots of viable choices.

But I Need my “Push Email”

One reason for the popularity of owning a Blackberry has been the concept of “push email”. This is where your email arrives to your Blackberry in real-time rather than the device having to poll the email server every few minutes. However, this capability is actually limited to corporate users where a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) is employed and is still not much an advantage and in fact can be worse.
Why? First of all, for non-corporate users, the Blackberry servers simply poll your personal email server every few minutes looking for new mail that has arrived. It then forwards that email to your Blackberry device. But any phone with an internet enabled mail client can do the same thing. That how most mail clients work…they periodically poll the server and download any new messages. Just be sure your email client is polling your email server as often as possible and your email will arrive about the same time as if using a Blackberry.

In addition, the Blackberry servers are know to go down and often for hours at a time. They represent another layer of technology that when fails, your email stops. Having your own email client poll your email server directly eliminates a whole layer of technology and thus reduces your chance of problems getting your email. The point is simply that “push-email” is not all that great and can even hurt you when the system is down.

Blackberry Alternatives

Many Verizon users have been waiting for the iPhone to come to their network and will leave RIM for Apple when that occurs. Like myself, they used to be AT&T customers and after switching to Verizon, would rather use a paper cup and string than switch back to AT&T. But to the detriment of Apple, they have been slow to make this happen and now Verizon customers are realizing that the Android phones are not only mature but quickly surpassing the iPhone in features and speed. The application market for the Android phones is quickly gaining ground on the iPhone and nearly all of the more popular iPhone applications are already available for the Android phones.

Why is this important? The iPhone is an awesome phone but now has antenna issues and when your battery goes bad…oh well no need to rehash that one. And now that Blackberry is beginning to struggle to keep up with its own software development to support their “existing” phones, (can you say Palm), the Android phones will continue to grow in popularity and market share. I know this is true because I was a very happy Blackberry user who now needs to find a platform that can keep up with me and not suddenly become useless.

This is my opinion. What’s yours?

Visiting Lauren and Maddie in Ashville, NC

don — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:45:03 -1000

My daughter who lives in Ashville, NC recently became the proud owner of a new dog named Maddie. Maddie was purchased as a small puppy but is now 40 pounds and still growing. Since we were due for visit, we drove up to visit her, meet Maddie and to take them both for a hike. Liz researched the area and found many hiking trails that welcomed dogs.

Hiking Little River - Triple Falls and High Falls

Our choice was a trail on Little River that offered several water falls and lakes. This trail located in the Dupont State Forest about 45 minutes south of Ashville near Cedar Mountain and the airport. The hike was only about 3.7 miles total in-and-out and not too strenuous. But the falls are spectacular and well worth making the trip.

Triple Falls

Starting at the first parking lot we crossed Staton Road and began going up the river. The first falls is named Triple Falls since there are three primary cascades. There were stairs that take you from the trail down to the base of the one of the cascades and offers lots of space for a picnic or relaxing in the sun.

High Falls

Further up the river you come a spectacular view of High Falls, named for it’s 150 foot drop. At the top of the falls is a large covered bridge on Buck Forest Road. It’s only a short hike further up to reach the bridge and trail takes you around a ridge so the climb is gradual. But the best part of High Falls is hiking down to the foot of falls. Although the trail down does not have stairs, the descent is well worth your time. At the bottom you can get within a few feet of a large wall of water where the mist is just perfect for cooling you off. If you having a bathing suit on (unfortunately we did not), there is one of the best swimming spots I have seen. There was a large group there who were swimming and even sliding down the rocks into the pools at the bottom. Lots of flat rocks to picnic or relax on make this a spot where you will want to spend some time.

Next we hiked up to the top of the falls to see the covered bridge. This huge structure was built to be the grand entrance into a new development but apparently the State won a legal battle and preserved the land as a protected park area.

We hiked back down the cars and by then the parking lot was nearly full. On the other side of Staton Road, you can see Hooker Falls which is only a short hike down the river. Hooker Falls feeds into the Cascade Lake which is a privately owned lake that offer camping, canoeing and more.

We plan to go back and spend a few hours swimming at High Falls, then make a longer hike up past the covered bridge to a couple of small lakes. We also want to visit Hooker Falls if we have time and energy left. We recommend this easy hike if you are ever near Ashville. The elevation is from around 2200 to 2600 feet.

More information

Photos of our Trip

Oliver North giving honor to our courageous soldiers.

don — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:14:55 -1000

“This video tribute to those on the front lines is the story of true patriots, told by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North at the NRA Annual Meetings in 2009. It’s a stirring profile of the spirited, courageous guardians of our precious freedoms. America’s best…” (Authored by Wayne LaPierre)

Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is a retired United States Marine Corps officer best known for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. Currently, he is a political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author.

North was at the center of national attention during the Iran-Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s. North was a National Security Council member involved in the clandestine sale of weapons to Iran, which served to encourage the release of U.S. hostages from Lebanon. North formulated the second part of the plan: diverting proceeds from the arms sales to support the Contra rebel group in Nicaragua. North was charged with several felonies and convicted of three, but the convictions were later vacated, and the underlying charges dismissed due to the limited immunity agreement granted for his pre-trial public Congressional testimony about the affair. (Wikipedia)

The Next Generation of GPS Navigation

don — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:18:44 -1000

Well Garmin and Magellan had better be looking ahead or they might just get left behind. Why? Because smart-phone navigation is quickly accelerating past conventional GPS navigation units. Google is one such company pushing this new wave of capabilities.

Static Databases – What There is now is all you Have

Most GPS units today from Garmin and Magellan (two major GPS manufacturers for GPS for automobiles) use a static map database along with a static Points of Interest (POI) database. The POIs are all the addresses, business locations, restaurants etc that you can locate using the unit. New maps along with an updated POI database are released annually and often with a charge to update. I have paid up to $75 just to update the map for a single unit. If you have more than one unit in the family, prepare to pay more.

Smart Phones with GPS

However, many smart phones can now download applications such as Google Maps that will lookup locations and obtain directions that use current information and full power of the Google databases. Many phones are now coming with built-in GPS reception too so combining this with the power of the Internet opens up a much more powerful navigation solution. Using the power of Google’s database means that you can find almost any location including all those that are not listed in the POI database of your expensive GPS unit. While this is really great, the problem up to this point has been that your dedicated GPS device could provide visual and audible navigation directions, a must for navigating while driving. However, Google is about to change that.

Navigate to Anywhere Anytime with just your Phone

Imagine if your smart-phone could provide audible, turn-by-turn navigation instructions, turn-by-turn directions on the visual, graphical map, just like your current GPS unit but also had the power of real-time Google Maps lookup. What if you could use your smart-phone to…

Hear and see turn-by-turn directions

Look up locations simply by name or related information

Have maps that are updated continuously

Lookup addresses or locations using your voice

See satellite views or street level views all along your route

Well Google is about to bring this to the Android based smart phones. This means these phones will not only work like your expensive GPS units but will make finding and navigating to your destination even easier due to real-time access to Google’s massive information. And best of all its all free assuming you have an unlimited data plan on your phone which of course you do.

Watch this informative clip from the Google developers.

More Mobile Technologies from Google may be found here:
http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/

Official Twitter App for Blackberry now Available

don — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:26:54 -1000

Well if you like to tweet and or keep up with all those you are following while on the go, then it just got easier if you are a Blackberry user. Let’s face it, many of us are using the Blackberry for business needs or because we won’t give up our great call quality with Verizon to get an iPhone with AT&T. But Blackberry users need applications too and while Facebook (also available) and Twitter are not necessarily business applications, they do allow us to track our friends on the social networks from anywhere.

Features include:

automatic URL-shortening
easy photo-sharing
push and message list integration
search filtered by geolocation

You can learn more about the new Twitter application for Blackberry from this article at Mashable.com. Happy tweeting!

Do not use AlternatingItemTemplate Just to Change Row Color

don — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:57:00 -1000

Very often when using either a DataList or Repeater control, you will see folks using an <AlternatingItemTemplate> template section just to change the background color of every other row. While this is perfectly acceptable, it can become time-consuming , especially if the templated row contains a significant amount of HTML. When it does, you have to ensure that any changes to the HTML in either section (<ItemTemplate> or <AlternatingItemTemplage>) are duplicated except for the background color of the table row of course.

If all you are doing is changing the alternating row color but don’t want to have to keep two sets of row level HTML in sync, there is an easier way. You can just use the primary <ItemTemplate> section so you only have one set of HTML to maintain, yet still have the background color of alternating rows change. Here’s how.

For Repeater Controls

First, turn the <tr> tag of the primary ItemTemplate template into a server control by adding ID and runat=”server” attributes.

<tr>

becomes…

Next, add the following code to the ItemCreated event of the repeater. Note that it simply locates the row tag you modified above and adds changes the back color.

If e.Item.ItemType=ListItemType.AlternatingItem Then
Dim cTableRowTag As HtmlTableRow = CType (e.Item.FindControl("row_itemtemplate"), HtmlTableRow)

If cTableRowTag IsNot Nothing Then
cTableRowTag.Attributes.Add("bgcolor", "#cccccc")

End If

The code in the ItemCreated event fires for every row created in the Repeater. It first checks if the row is an alternating row and if it is, it then locates the HTML <tr> tag and adds the alternating bgcolor attribute for you. Presto! Instant color change and all without duplicating your HTML layout in a second section.

For DataList Controls

Since the DataList is rendered as an HTML <table>, its DataListItem instances have style-related properties where you can apply a specific style to the entire item. This this makes it easier to accomplish our goal. Simply create a CSS class that defined your new background color, then reference that class as follows in the same event at above.

e.Item.CSSClass = “myBGColorClass”

You can also use the same approach as the Repeater control if you prefer.

How to stop inheritance of Web.Config files

don — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:21:00 -1000

By default, the Web.Config settings placed in a root or parent folder are inherited by child folders. This is true even for virtual directories and Application sites with their own local Web.Config.

Problem

At first, this seems helpful. But when developing with a local IIS installation on a workstation OS, you may quickly find this becomes problematic. You may have multiple sites running locally for development reasons that will be stand-alone sites once deployed. You later discover that the deployed site no longer works since it now missing the values it was inheriting from a parent Web.Config.

An example could be where a connection string was defined in the root application and was inherited to your child Web.Config. Once the child site is deployed away from the parent, it fails as the entry is missing. What we want is to have more control over other Web.Config files and exactly what they are inheriting from above, if anything.

Work-Arounds

In your local development environment, you may want the same named attribute in the child Web.Config but with a different value. But then ASP.NET complains because that name is already defined in the parent. You can then use the Remove and Clear tags to effectively override the parent entry. Remove effectively removes the named value so you can then redefine it with an Add tag. Clear will effectively clear all of the inherited entries in that section.

A quick fix could be to use the Remove tag so you can re-add the entry with the same name but different values.

<connectionStrings>
 <remove name="MyDBConnString" … />
 <add name=”MyDBConnString" connectionString="Blah" />
 </connectionStrings>

You can also use the Clear tag as well but this will effectively remove all inherited entries in that section.

<connectionStrings>
 <clear />
 </connectionStrings>

Stop Inheritance Completely

If you would prefer to simply stop all inheritance and know that each Web.Config stands alone and contains everything it needs when you deploy, try this next suggestion. Adding this code to your root Web.Config should prevent any values from being propagated down to to other sites. This gives you the confidence that any individual site can by deployed to a server and the Web.Config will not be missing needed entries.

Use the <location> tag with an attribute of inheritInChildApplications equal to false in your root Web.Config file.

<location path="." inheritInChildApplications="false">
 <system.web>
 ...
 </system.web>
</location>

You can wrap a single section of your web.config file in <location> attribute or you could enclose the entire <system.web> as shown above. This will cause ASP.NET to not inherit settings from that section to child applications or folder web.config files.

Using Separate Web Sites and Host Headers

Another approach to by-passing Web.Config inheritance is to use completely separate Web Sites for each site. To differentiate each site, you have to give each site a different IP address or designate a unique Host Header value. Since you probably don't want to create separate IP's for each, using Host Headers is the easiest approach. This is added to the site inside IIS Manager. For example, I could then call a test site as http://mytestsite/ with mytestsite being the designated Host Header name for that site. You will probably need to edit your local HOSTS file and make sure that the Host Header names are added and point back to 127.0.0.1. Otherwise, the browser will think you are looking for this site on the internet and of course not find it. Perhaps I can go into more detail in a future post.

Tip on Formatting Validation Control Display Text

don — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:14:00 -1000

Sometimes you may want the text from a validation control to appear below a control such as a TextBox rather than next to it. So you might find yourself adding a tag between the TextBox control and the Validation Control. However, you later realize that the tag causes unwanted white-space or alignment issues even when the validation text is not displayed. If so, try adding the tag to the beginning of the Validation Control text itself.

For example rather than….

 
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" runat="server" ErrorMessage="New Assignee is required." />

it might be better to use…

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" runat="server" ErrorMessage=" New Assignee is required." />

Notice that the   tag has been moved to inside the ErrorMessage attribute text. This way the tag is emitted and effects formatting only when the error text is displayed. When using client-side validation, be sure to set Display="Dynamic", otherwise the text will be marked as hidden using CSS but the break tag will still be in effect in the HTML.

Rafting the Chattooga River - Section IV

Don Draper — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:08:00 -1000

My wife Liz asked for one thing for her birthday this year…a rafting trip on the Chattooga River, Section IV with her family. We have rafted other, nearby rivers including the tame Nantahala and the more challenging Ocoee in the past. But the Chattooga River Section IV is where the movie Deliverance was filmed in 1972, a thriller film starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, and Ned Beatty. The movie provided a new level of popularity for the river and especially for thrill-seeking whitewater rafters. Around this time, the river was restricted to commercial development and only three rafting companies in business there at the time were grand-fathered in and allowed to continue providing white-water rafting trips on river.

The river follows the Georgia – South Carolina border and this section covers level IV and V rapids which in rafting lingo is code for difficult and dangerous (expect to go swimming)! But the other rivers were just too tame for my thrill seeking wife so I got my son Matt and daughter Lauren in the loop and plans were completed. I had recently rafted with my men’s discipleship group on the Nantahala earlier in the summer. Fortunately, the water in the Chattooga is significantly warmer than the Nantahala which gets its water from the bottom of a lake making it too cold for me.

This was an all day event beginning at 8:00 am and going until about 3:30 pm that afternoon. We drove to the Wildwater campus in Long Creek, South Carolina where you board a bus for about a 20 minute drive to the river. Once there, we had to all pitch in and carry the rafts and equipment about 1/4 of a mile down to the river’s edge. This is because there is a protected barrier along the length of the river so you will not see any signs of civilization on this trip.

We were one of few rafts that never flipped and we only lost my daughter once when we entered a rapid with no warning. Most of the other six rafts in our group were not so lucky with many folks getting to swim part of river without a raft under them. Fortunately, the water was warm and we stopped at several locations to jump off the rocks into the water, some spots being around 30 feet high. At one point we got out and each person who wanted to could crawl down into a water-filled hole about 6 feet deep and about 4 feet of water. We would then hold our breath, go under-water and swim through a hole in the rock about 2 feet in diameter and come out on the other side under a water-fall. This was an unusual experience and nearly everyone tried it.

Family Portrait in Front of Falls

At one point, there is a beautiful waterfall from a stream that enters the river. We stopped there and had our photo taken in front of the falls. Other stops included more swimming, jumping off of high rocks into the river and a final stop for lunch on a sandy beach. At the end of the trip, the rapids end and the river enlarges into a broad, deep and sleepy flow. There, all the rafts are tied to a small motorized fishing boat that pulls them further down river into beautiful Tugalo Lake, formed by a damn just beyond our pull-out point.

This trip was truly a great one and am so pleased my wife chose this as her birthday treat. We all had a great time and now look forward to when we can do it again.