Discovery

Just recently I was introduced to a great authors writing, in the past as I would stroll down the aisles at my local Barnes and nobles book store. I had seen a lot of books written by David Weber. Every so often I search b&n’s website seeing what new books are coming out to see if anything would catch my eye, a while ago I ran across a book by the name of Hell’s Gate at the same time another books title peaked my interest. The title in question was Off Armageddon Reef.

At first I was not too sure about this book, this was the first time I had ever read a book by David Weber. I picked up the book and very please, the book I feel was very well written. The way that Mr. Weber developed and maintained all of the individual characters in this book is just amazing. The transition from space age space battles to old style ocean sea battles was just amazing. The detail in how the ships worked, and how artillery would take the wood the ships were made of and make it into projectiles was just awesome. When I finished the reading Off Armageddon Reef I was just blown away, the cliffhanger that he left at the end of the book left me wanting the next book. I went online and found out that the sequel to Off Armageddon Reef was due out the 22^nd of July.

That was 5 days ago; well let’s just say that as of this evening I just finished reading the sequel By Schism Rent Asunder. What another great book Mr. Weber did it again if you have read the first book this continuation helps fill in more of the story; it also helps you understand better why the king the first book was not worried about Merlin’s visions. In Off Armageddon Reef when the android first is activated after 850 years, her commander long dead tells the android with the memory imprints of Lt. Cdr. Nimue Alban, that it has been over 800 years since they had been established but the colony had been subverted by the mission leader. In the second book they go into more detail on some of the back story about what happened.

In short all I have to say is Mr.Weber has done an awesome job with this book; I can’t wait till next spring to read the third installment of this series. If you have not yet picked up this series do, you won’t be disappointed.

Revelations

It is amazing when you are growing up how you let little things affect your life. Take for example having a negative stepfather, no matter what you do it is never good enough, or when you do something the person does not like they verbally attack.

I at 32 years of age have come of mental age, when we were growing up my stepfather made it sound like us school was a waste of time and just busy work not really worth the time. You can only hear the negativity so long before you start to believe it, at an early age you believe what your parental figures say even when they are not really in your best interest; you get into a mindset that something is just too hard or not worth the time to do it.

I have come to the realization that the reason for these comments was that my stepfather never did them, so he did not think we needed to do them. My mother was always working so she never was around to hear these comments; she was always the bread winner for the family. I feel that if I would have had a little bit of positive encouragement when I was growing, that I would have accomplished more and been a better student, but that is neither here or there.

I always thought in the past that, I had ADHD or a mild version of it, know that is bull shit I just was never really shown how to just sit down and focus on something that was important. It was always do what my stepfather wanted me to do even though I would get in trouble in school because I didn’t do my home work. When I went to college I was still in the environment of school is a waste of time, I see now that was a part of my problem. The problem was not with my learning, it was the where I was living at the time. I see now living on my own and not having to deal with my stepfather, and his negative attitude that I can accomplish anything.  That is why I am going back to school this fall, plus working on my book, now on to the reason for my post.

I have been on a reading feast that last couple of months. Reading a lot of different authors and story arks, starwars, 2 different series from Arthur C Clarke(Space odyssey, The Rama series). I just recently just finished reading Off Armageddon reef by David Weber, what an awesome book I can’t wait for the next one to come out on the 22^nd.

I never really understood when I was growing up what book reports were trying to teach, it was not until recently what they were trying. Yes I know they were making sure that we were actually reading the books, but they were also trying to get us to analyze the books the plot the characters and so on. I see now that and I understand that they were these were exercises enhance our analytical skills for later in life. I missed so many things growing up, that I plan to get by going back to school and learning how to do it the right way.

Another Personal Thread

Well it’s been over a month, yet again since I have posted. To recap from my last post, I presented with the help of my friend help the first section of my book to the group I belong to. It went over ok, it’s still pretty rough but there is one thing I learned from the presentation of the story, once you feel that the story is good read it out loud, it may sound good in your head but reading it out loud finds the flaws. The feedback the group gave me was wonderful it gave me hope. They said it has potential so I am happy; I spent the next week making some big modifications to the first section. As of now the first section of chapter one is complete, I am now working on the second section of the chapter.

In the past I used to get upset with my favorite authors. I used to think come on how hard can it be to write a book? Even if this book I am writing never gets published this alone will make me respect how are it is to write a good story/book.

On another note, I have come to a realization that at 32 years of age I want to return to school. As of this fall I will be attending Boise State University. Currently I am a non degree seeking student, my plan is to take the writing classes I want and get back into the swing of things. From here this will give me the foundation I need to go back and work on my bachelor’s degree in computer science. I really enjoy writing software but I know there is more to writing software than just Microsoft products, I know that the software development field is a lot bigger than just what I am doing. So by going back to school this will open up so many more doors that are currently closed to me.

Personal update

It’s been over a month since; I last posted on the forums minus the post about star wars books. Since my last post I have made some what I feel as decent progress on my first chapter. That was until I have my editor review it. I have since been doing a lot of reading about writing. I have also joined a very cool group here in Boise. Boise Speculative Fiction this is a great group. You can find a link to their website in my blog role.

I am hoping to have my first section of my book rewritten and ready to present to the group, our next meeting is the 15^th of the month so I am running out of time. I think taking the time to read the book HOW TO WRITE Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott card right now is a little more important though. I have also picked up, another one of the suggested reads my editor gave me HOOKED grab readers at page one by edgerton. I have not yet had a chance to read the second book mentioned but that is next on my reading list.

I want to thank my friend stef I am in this process new she is having to deal with a lot of my questions,  thank you stef bear with me for a little while longer I will get it.

Personal thread.

Back in high school I started writing a book. I found the manuscript of the book and have decided to start researching and rewriting the book. I decided that it would be a good start to research some of the idea’s in the book with real world examples. So right now i am doing a lot of research to try and make my book feel more real.

 Well wish me luck and i will keep trying to keep this topic updated.

ASP.Net 2.0 Client callback functionality

Back about 4 years ago I saw an article in my msdn magazine, this article was about new functionality coming out in what was then the soon to be released .Net 2.0. At the time I thought this would be some great functionality, to use in my projects.  We all know how busy we can all become.

 

Up until yesterday I had completely forgotten about this functionality. That was until I read a great article by Tony Patton (Limit postbacks with ASP.NET 2.0 client callbacks). This article reminded me about the client callback functionality they added into ASP.NET 2.0 client call backs. This is some really cool functionality. I could see using this functionality if you had a very heavy asp.net page with a lot of graphics.

 

You could setup your website with controlled sections; these sections would be expecting user interaction and returning data to the client. Because the page is so heavy and the load time or server travel time would take so long to come back. The client callback functionality would reduce the page load times. We all know that users do not like to wait for slow web pages. If the page is just slow enough they will move on or think the page is down. If all we are refreshing is a single controlled section of the page when the user asks for data. Having just that section of the page update would be so much faster.

 

There is only one issue I can see with this client callback functionality. In order for the webpage to just update a small section, the page has to be designed around this functionality. In the scheme of keeping the end user happy designing the user interface around this is not a bad thing.

Other posts talking about client callbacks in asp.net 2.0.

Limit postbacks with ASP.NET 2.0 client callbacks

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/programming-and-development/?p=642

Implementing Client Callbacks Without Postbacks in ASP.NET Web Pages

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178208(VS.80).aspx

How to: Implement Callbacks in ASP.NET Web Pages

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366518(VS.80).aspx

Script Callbacks msdn article 2004 august

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163941.aspx

Welcome

Welcome all to my blog this is a work in progress so watch as it changes.

It has been almost a year , since I have posted. I hope this is will change starting with just some minor blog postings about my entertainment. Look forward for some techincal topics that have stuck in my craw.