Happy New Year

Happy New Year

Have a drink


But don't drink too much





Is that better?

Fix for 30GB Zune Crash, hard reset is the answer

If you are one of the people who have the first generation 30GB Zune and it crashed today, here is a workaround until Microsoft fixes it.

"Your zune will need a "hard reset."
To do this, use a small screwdriver to pop off the plastic shielding where the zune cable plugs into and remove the two screws on either side of the plug. Next pop the cover off and locate the battery plug at the top left corner of the zune, using your screw driver, pop the cable connection half way off, and do this to the other plug on the right side. Wait 3 seconds, then push down the right connector and then the left battery connecter. Your zune should start up immediately. Press the backing of the zune down (make sure headphone jack is aligned) and put the screws and cover back in place.
It's an easy process but if you're unsure don't attempt it if you think you'll screw it or something. :)"
Not pretty, but it might help those of you who have this problem.

Now remember do not try to sync the Zune after this or it will crash again, this seems to be a Y2K9 bug, the Zune thinks it is already January 1st but it is only December 31st (those damned leap years). Hopefully tomorrow it will just work again :-)

I have the 8GB Smaller Zune and it never failed

Here is the code that caused all this trouble

year = ORIGINYEAR; /* = 1980 */

while (days > 365)
{
    if (IsLeapYear(year))
    {
        if (days > 366)
        {
            days -= 366;
            year += 1;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        days -= 365;
        year += 1;
    }
}

So in 4 years this will hapen again if Microsoft doesn't fix this but then again how many people will still have a first generation 30 GB Zune then?

2009 resolutions or better yet my to do list for 2009

I was working on my resolutions post yesterday and was going to post it here 

I noticed last night on my twitter feed that Jason Massie tagged me
My list is more a to-do list for the year than new year's resolutions, since I am as perfect as Chrissie1 having a list resolutions would mean I wasn’t perfect, this clearly isn’t so.

Here is what I intend to do in 2009

Reading more books (at least 2 books a month)
When I commuted to New York City from Princeton I read about 60 books a year. This was easily accomplished because my commute was about an hour each way. Now that I have a 6 minute commute this becomes a little harder. I have three kids under the age of five; two of them just entered their terrible two stage. While they are awake you cannot read because you want to spend some time with them, then there is the wife who doesn’t want to be ignored either. Luckily I don’t watch that much TV a week, maybe 3 hours max. All this leaves me with about 4 or 5 hours to read per week at home. I could read at work during lunch for 30 minutes a day and surf the other 30 minutes. I don’t know yet how this will work out but somehow I hope I can manage it.

Answering at least 10 questions a day on various sites
This should be no problem; I should be able to do this at lunch, before I start working and just before I leave to go home. I still think participating in newsgroups is one of the best ways to learn and keep up to date on a technology

Learning Powershell
I have played around for a little with PowerShell lately and must say that I really like it, since it now also comes with SQL Server 2008 there is no reason not to learn it. I can already see where I can use it for a couple of different things

Mastering C#
I admit I am not nearly as good in C# as in SQL; this is of course because 90% of the time I am using SQL Server and not C#. I would like to change that by diving deeper into the language itself, I purchased 3 C# books last month and will read them and do all the examples. Just in case you wonder what those 3 books are, they are listed below
C# in Depth
More Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#
The C# Programming Language (3rd Edition)


Finishing the SQL admin hacks
This is another thing I just can’t seem to finish, I wrote the SQL Server Programming Hacks in the first half of this year; I started the SQL Server Admin Hacks the second half of this year but I am just pushing it off. just like Peter in Office Space I am thinking "Where is the motivation Bob?"

Eating better foods and not skipping meals
Sometimes during weekends I skip breakfast because I get too involved with the kids and just forget to eat. Of course later on I am famished and eat way more than I should and ruin my lunch. I also like to snack on empty calorie foods because I am too lazy to cut up an apple or make something to eat instead. This has to stop; I am not 20 anymore and have to improve by getting rid of some bad habits.


Starting to work out again
I have not worked out since the twins were born; so that means almost two and a half years. This is pathetic but there was just no way to do it, if you only sleep 5 hours a night and this sleep interrupted then you don’t want to work out period.

Having more patience with kids + wife
I am a pretty impatient person, I don’t like to wait and I hate when people are late. My wife is the master of being late. This year I will not get upset at that and just have more patience, some people are just not on time…ever

Drinking less soda
Soda is another of these empty calorie drinks that have no purpose except for the caffeine to keep you awake. I don’t drink coffee so my only option left is tea. There are only a handful of teas that I drink, I like Lady Grey tea and Green tea, I drink Lady Grey hot and Green tea cold.

There, that is all, nothing impressive but then again I don’t smoke/drink am not overweight so that eliminated 80% of what other people put on their list.

Great white shark circles kayakers and fishermen in Sydney

Great white shark circles kayakers and fishermen in Sydney
keep those feet in people :-)

Boobs on Things That Don't Normally Have Boobs

Who comes up with crazy stuff like this?

Here is an example with the Smurfs



See all 33 of them here: http://www.cracked.com/article_16918_boobs-on-things-that-dont-normally-have-boobs.html

SEC Modernizes Oil and Gas Company Reporting Requirements to Provide Investors With More Meaningful and Comprehensive Disclosure

I guess the SEC is feeling the heat on this one :-)

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has unanimously approved revisions to modernize its oil and gas company reporting requirements to help investors evaluate the value of their investments in these companies.

"In the more than a quarter century since the SEC last reviewed its rules in this area, there have been significant changes in technology that have increasingly limited the usefulness of current disclosures to the market and investors,” said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. “These updates to the SEC rules will help ensure more meaningful and comprehensive disclosure of information that, even though it does not appear on a company’s balance sheet, is of significance to investors in making informed investment decisions."

Get all the details here: http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-304.htm

The Madoff Tax Advantage, Some Good News For People Scammed Out Of Money

The Freakonomics blog has a nice article explaining that people who invested with Madoff can deduct their loses as theft, this has a more favorable tax treatment

Taxpayers who invested in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC directly, or through a fund of funds, have a loss that is most probably categorized as a theft loss for tax purposes. This loss has a more favorable tax treatment than theft losses of personal non-business property. Theft loss is determined and applied to get you back taxes for the current year of loss and the three years prior. These losses remain available beyond that four year period, and they can be carried forward for 20 years…

Read the whole article here: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/the-madoff-tax-advantage/

I am sure it won't make up for the loss completely but something is better than nothing when you are a victim of a Ponzi scheme