JohnBs personal blog

I was working on a ASP.NET application lastnight and noticed when I published it up to my server (i was RDP’ed into it at the same time) I noticed a file got created named app_offline.htm in the root of the site, certainly not something in my application. When i then browsed to the application (Whilst Visual Studio was still publishing it) i got a really nice message saying the application was offline….so i did some digging.

Turns out app_offline.htm was introduced in the .NET 2.0 framework and the second one is found in an IIS application folder then the application is unloaded and SQL connections are dropped…pretty damn handy if you ask me! So being powered by BlueDragon.NET these days i thought i’d see if it worked in a CF app (no reason why it wouldn’t since afterall it bd.NET!) and sure enough it works….! What’s more the app_offline.htm can be made pretty so it’s not just a plain error message but can follow the look and feel of your website whilst maintenance is being performed!

When i first got my MeasureMap account I said to a collegue that it wouldn’t be long before the likes of Yahoo or Google bought them to add to their ever growing portfolio, turns out Google won the race and as of yesterday MeasureMap is now owned by Google.

So that just leaves http://del.icio.us/, I’m sure Google would love to get their hands on all that lovely bookmark data!

EDIT: Turns out delicious is already owned by Yahoo! - Thanks Al!

A true heli boy!

This is what my niece and my sister turned up at my front door yesterday evening…so i like helicopters I also got a voucher for a ride in one and we’re past the half way mark for the Xbox 360 - woohoo!

So we’ve all seen the customised Google Homepage right? If not, just put a /ig at the end of google.com login with a gmail account and start customising it with modules of your choice and RSS feeds etc.

Now you’ve started playing with the customised home page, what about Google Reader? http://www.google.com/reader - a web based RSS reader which really is cool…ahhh, now I’ve got RSS feeds coming into pods on my Google Homepage and i’ve got heaps of feeds subscribed in Google Reader - not good…what about getting them all together?

Have no fear, Google allow you to make your own modules for the Google Homepage and it turns out someone has already done it - instructions here so now you can have your Google Reader subscriptions showing up on your homepage…perfect! No more duplication of feeds…what’s even cooler is the Google Reader (as per most stuff) has an open API so you can work with your subscription from other none Google locations.

Happy Birthday to me….hopefully i’ll be well on my way to getting me an Xbox 360 with birthday cash

Google have added a new tool to their webmasters/sitemap offering - the tool allows you to paste in the contents of a robots.txt file and then see how Google will handle the file. Check it out at http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/.

As has been been predicted for a while now, Vmware has today released VMware Server (beta), replacing the former product VMware GSX server. The press release from VMWare can be read here.

VMWare Server Details

VMWare product comparisons

If you try and falsely boost your Google rankings then be prepared to feel Google’s rath - as bmw.de has just found out resulting in it being delisted from Google, similar action is expected to follow against ricoh.de the camera manufacture.

Read the full details here

This blog entry from one of the IE product managers caught my eye regarding the Windows RSS platform - it’s aim is to solve the problem many of us are likely to have run into, sharing feed subscriptions between multiple applications by creating a ‘Common Feed List’…interesting idea!

From yesterday former Dr Who, Tom Baker became the voice of BT’s BT Text. The service allows anyone to send a text message to a normal BT (British Telecom) phone line from their mobile phone and the service then reads the message back to the recipient via their landline….it’s actually remarkably clear, apparently taking 11 days to record 11,000 phrases - even going as far as to recognise text codes like gr8, m8 and x (kisses). Needless to say the Radio stations are having a ball with it!