Shiny Donkey!
Shiny Donkey! Shiny Donkey! Shiny Donkey!
                  Fake Banner Ads!  Mini-Sites!  
    New Shiny Donkey Posts  more >>
* BREAKING NEWS *  9 out of 10 lepers recommend a crown of thorns instead of shinydonkey.com
Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/31/04 03:00 PM EST
posted by Blearns email web

Why would SVG have anything to do with Shiny Donkeys?

I'm rather confused.

But I'm glad that Jim got shiny-donkey.com and that he's done so much more than Jerry has...

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/31/04 02:54 PM EST
posted by Blearns email web

Outstanding. Now I can participate with little to no exertion on my part.

Which is basically my goal in life.

 

Announcement
[reply]   

01/31/04 02:11 PM EST
posted by JER email web

RSS feed has been updated to include distinct links and two new fields.

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/30/04 03:42 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Looks like I bought this domain just in time:

Transcript #1 (Run a find for "shinydonkey.com")
Transcript #2 (Run a find for "shinydonkey.com")

The race for the shiniest donkey is on...

 

Bull
[reply]   

01/30/04 02:13 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Bull @ the Coldplay ConcertI was listening to Coldplay's "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" yesterday and immediately started hearing a bull-ized version: "Bull Blew a **** Upon Your Face"...

Sorry to everyone but Alex for that joke, but it was just too funny not to mention. And yes, we have a problem.

 

.NET
[reply]   

01/30/04 11:09 AM EST
posted by JER email web

The .NET Framework's ThreadPool management leaves much to be desired. My assumption was that a managed threadpool would grab a small subset of the total threads given to the CLR & give/take from this pool intelligently.

Instead what I've found is that this is true only until "number of threads in the pool" = "max allowed threads." By using the managed methods ("ASyncCallback / BeginInvoke & EndInvoke" or ThreadPool's "QueueUserWorkItem") it's very easy completely exhaust your thread limit, at which point all other processes within your application are blocked until the thread pool queue is clear.

The only way to get the behavior I expected is to use the "ThreadStart delegate & threadInstance.Start()" approach. This hands-on approach allows you to manually monitor the total number of threads started, stopped, etc. and prevent the system from overallocating & using up my target # of resources.

Here's a pseudo code comparison:

Approach #1, managed thread pool:

1: Add 1000 threads to the thread pool that start via thread pool manager
2: Send info to the user about current thread status

Approach #2, threadInstance.start()
1: Create & start N threads, wait until #1 completes before starting #N+1, etc., work until 1000 threads have been created
2: Send info to the user about current thread status

W/ Approach #1, everything goes smoothly until the Max threads limit is reached, at which point line 2 is blocked & placed at the back of the queue. Since the thread pool does FIFO, the user does not receive feedback until the # of active threads falls to MaxThreads-1.

W/ Approach #2, I am always able to send feedback to users because the 1000 worker threads & user interface threads never battle for the same resources. Far less elegant but far more effective.

 

Announcement
[reply]   

01/30/04 10:48 AM EST
posted by JER email web

Alex & I have been granted a tentative interview with Mikey of "Hello My Future Girlfriend" fame & are compiling a list of questions. Send submissions to myfuturegirlfriend@shinydonkey.com.

 

Miscellaneous
[reply]   

01/30/04 10:16 AM EST
posted by nate web

A shiny donkey to the first person to find the black market tiger web site. I'm so in the mood for a black market tiger.

 

.NET
[reply]   

01/29/04 11:12 AM EST
posted by JER email web

I was capturing some data from the CIM repository & the numbers I was receiving were just huge, so I wanted to make sure no data was lost when I brought the data into scope. I had no clue what the max/min values of each type were, though, so I wrote the following code & thought it was worth sharing.
//Get all publicly available Type Codes (System.Int32, System.Char, etc.)
MemberInfo[] availableTypes = Type.GetType("System.TypeCode").GetFields();

Response.Write("<p style=\"font-family:Arial;font-size:9px\">");

//loop over each type & print all available fields
foreach(MemberInfo m in availableTypes){
	try{
		//Get all publicly accessible fields
		FieldInfo[] allFields = Type.GetType("System." + m.Name).GetFields();
		Response.Write("<br><br><b>" + m.Name + "</b>");
		foreach(FieldInfo f in allFields){
			Response.Write("<br>  " + f.Name + ": "
		+ Type.GetType("System." + m.Name).InvokeMember(f.Name,
		System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetField,
		null,
		null,
		null).ToString());
		}
	} catch(Exception ex){
		Response.Write("<br><br>" + m.Name + " blew up: " + ex.Message);
	}
}
The preceding code produces the following results:



value__ blew up: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Empty
  Value:

Object

DBNull
  Value:

Boolean
  TrueString: True
  FalseString: False

Char
  MaxValue: ?
  MinValue:

SByte
  MaxValue: 127
  MinValue: -128

Byte
  MaxValue: 255
  MinValue: 0

Int16
  MaxValue: 32767
  MinValue: -32768

UInt16
  MaxValue: 65535
  MinValue:

Int32
  MaxValue: 2147483647
  MinValue: -2147483648

UInt32
  MaxValue: 4294967295
  MinValue: 0

Int64
  MaxValue: 9223372036854775807
  MinValue: -9223372036854775808

UInt64
  MaxValue: 18446744073709551615
  MinValue: 0

Single
  MinValue: -3.402823E+38
  Epsilon: 1.401298E-45
  MaxValue: 3.402823E+38
  PositiveInfinity: Infinity
  NegativeInfinity: -Infinity
  NaN: NaN

Double
  MinValue: -1.79769313486232E+308
  MaxValue: 1.79769313486232E+308
  Epsilon: 4.94065645841247E-324
  NegativeInfinity: -Infinity
  PositiveInfinity: Infinity
  NaN: NaN

Decimal
  Zero: 0
  One: 1
  MinusOne: -1
  MaxValue: 79228162514264337593543950335
  MinValue: -79228162514264337593543950335

DateTime
  MinValue: 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM
  MaxValue: 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM

String
  Empty:

 

Miscellaneous
[reply]   

01/29/04 10:40 AM EST
posted by alex email

Anyone without this album in their CD collection should run right out and buy it. Of course I am talking about the "Looking For-Best of David Hasselhoff [IMPORT]" CD. I must say, it is simply a work of art. Hasselhoff becomes music's own Michelangelo while painting this auditory Sistine Chapel of melodic delight. Starting with the fast paced “Looking for Freedom,” the track made famous by Duke of Hasselhoff when it was sung live in Berlin. Each of this superb disc’s tracks build upon the last to an uncensored and Bull-like climax with "Everybody Sunshine", track 17. Reluctantly but appropriately track 18, "I Believe - Laura Branigan" is provided as a simple way to recover from the high created from the preceding songs that are almost addictive enough to be illegal. The absence of "Hooked on a Feeling" doesn't hurt the CD in the least, but it does leave you hungering for another greatest of compilation of Hasselhoff HITS!!! Hopefully, with the creation of higher density media such as DVD, we can hope to some day reach the terabyte capacity mark for easily portable storage, as that would be the only true way to compile all of the 21st Century's version of "The King" of Pop & Roll's hits onto just one disc. So do yourself the true favor and purchase this CD. If you already own one, buy five more, it is just that good.

FYI, Track 6, "Hot Shot City" is particularly good.

 

Sports
[reply]   

01/28/04 06:56 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Can you spot the REAL headline?

Browns appoint Art Modell Community Relations Director

Yankees invade Poland, UN mulls action

Gay Porn Star / Cleveland Indians Pitcher claims "I'm not gay"



See alex's recent post for a hint -- D*mn it...

 

Sports
[reply]   

01/28/04 01:48 PM EST
posted by alex email

If would have to be with the Indians. Damnit, why is it that the most the tribe will get mentioned about them in the offseason is the appearance of one of their farm team pitchers in a Gay Porn video?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/baseball/mlb/01/27/indians.gay.porno.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

 

Bull
[reply]   

01/28/04 01:38 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Bull, if you're looking for a new CD to sample, try Ryan Adams' new album "Rock n Roll." Track 5 ("So Alive") is sweet.

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/28/04 08:54 AM EST
posted by JER email web

Just for Nate, I've added the ability to type "" or "all" in the "Max" box to display all messages.

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/28/04 08:33 AM EST
posted by JER email web

An RSS feed of the past 2 days worth of posts is now available at http://www.shinydonkey.com/feed.xml

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/28/04 07:42 AM EST
posted by Blearns email web

And by that I mean the <BODY>

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/28/04 07:42 AM EST
posted by Blearns email web

The seriously needs a BGCOLOR

 

Politics
[reply]   

01/27/04 08:42 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Dancing Bull

VICTORY!!!
Kerry cites "Dancing Bull's endorsement"
as key turning point in New Hampshire.

 

Miscellaneous
[reply]   

01/27/04 10:15 AM EST
posted by JER email web

In what may only be a minor blow to the no-carb Atkins nutballs, the AP is reporting that a new study links high carbs to weight loss.

Maybe someone should do a study linking "not stuffing your face like a d*mn pig" to weight loss.

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/27/04 09:09 AM EST
posted by JER email web

There is a hidden link in the bottom left hand corner that allows you to "View All". I added it to help Google index the site until I develop a paging system.

Or you can enter "-1" in the "max" box to view all.

 

Announcement
[reply]   

01/27/04 09:01 AM EST
posted by JER email web

Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God!!!!

Santa & I were going to put up a site to track this guy down but there's no need -- "My Future Girlfriend" has returned!!!!!!!

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/27/04 09:00 AM EST
posted by nate web

The max textbox makes you choose the total number of posts returned, but i'd like to have an option for all. Perhaps leaving it blank or typing 'all'?

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/27/04 07:50 AM EST
posted by JER email web

The smallness of the icons was intentional -- and EVERYTHING could use a tooltip. I've added that to the list. And yes, RSS will be available at some point for aggregators who for some reason haven't made this their home page.

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/27/04 06:39 AM EST
posted by Blearns email web

More featuers like RSS?

I generally don't read much on sites that don't have RSS, my current exceptions are Nintendo.com and ShinyDonkey.com, but I find that these are hard to keep up with from my inability to remember to check...

And, IMHO, the category icons are a bit small, and could use a tool tip...

 

Announcement
[reply]   

01/26/04 10:40 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Cutesy category icons have been added. Hopefully I'll do something about the rest of the layout in the next few days -- more user features will probably be coming first, though.

 

Miscellaneous
[reply]   

01/26/04 10:18 AM EST
posted by JER email web

Hobo BullI drove into the city this Saturday at around 11:00 am and saw that Hobo Jack is working weekends now (note: Hobo Jack is the scraggly bearded homeless man who sells papers on the 14th St bridge exit ramp). I guess even hobos need two incomes these days... Interesting side note. I've often wondered how American society came to a point where a family really does need two incomes to get ahead. A new book "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers And Fathers Are Going Broke" attempts to answer that question and provides one interesting observation, if I may paraphrase: The Women's lib movement added 20+ million workers to the job market. The combination of this expanded workforce & wage equality efforts drove median incomes down. So while net income for a two-worker family rose slightly, income for a one worker family took a sharp hit. The law of unintended consequences can be nasty sometimes...

 

Bull
[reply]   

01/26/04 07:20 AM EST
posted by JER email web

DC got a few inches of snow last night -- the kind of weather that makes you wish Bull were in town so he could "toss his back out" trying to unbury his car.

Ah, times...

 

Announcement
[reply]   

01/25/04 10:02 PM EST
posted by nate web

Just for the record, I am a little late to posting. Oh, and I'm not gay.

In other news, I googled myself and found nothing. Well, at least nothing pertaining to me. Apparently there is a nate that asks a lot of VB and DB questions in groups.

 

Miscellaneous
[reply]   

01/24/04 09:43 PM EST
posted by JER email web

So I googled myself the other day, and what did I find? A newsgroup post from my first week of college in which I was flamed for asking if a Billy Joel newsgroup would deliver news once I subcribed.

I suppose the question was a bit silly, but it was 1997 for God's sake! Who knew what the #$@#*@(# newsgroups were for.

If anyone has any information leading to the capture or sh!&-kicking of Jason Barrie Wood of Calgary, Canada, I'm offering a $0.04 reward. I'd offer more, but @$$holes like Jason Barrie Wood are a dime a dozen. ;)

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/24/04 09:39 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Blate has been conspicuously absent from this forum -- what's the deal, gay?

 

.NET
[reply]   

01/24/04 09:38 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Never use the System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter class if you can avoid it. If you still want to use the framework, WMI provides the primary performance counters in either the Win32_PerfRawData or Win32_PerfFormattedData classes. Using WMI, you can get all processes running on one machine in a snapshot instead of remotely querying for each instance of the "Process" counter and querying each instance. DCOM sucks...

 

Miscellaneous
[reply]   

01/24/04 09:29 PM EST
posted by JER email web

What's the deal with Meatloaf's song "You Took the Words Right Outta My Mouth?" All this "offer your throat to the wolf" stuff turns the song from above average to creepy.

 

.NET
[reply]   

01/23/04 12:25 PM EST
posted by Blearns email web

In case anyone is building in .NET and needs a reference to bulid an RSS library, check out http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss.

Or just use an "off-the-shelf" product like RSS.NET.

You know, just in case...

 

Politics
[reply]   

01/22/04 02:31 PM EST
posted by JER email web

I've been looking for it on & off all day, but here's the moment you've been waiting for:

The Dean Goes Nuts Remix

 

Bull
[reply]   

01/22/04 07:32 AM EST
posted by JER email web

Bull's in Australia for the next few weeks but he's still having sex with your girlfriend in America RIGHT NOW...

 

Politics
[reply]   

01/21/04 10:43 PM EST
posted by JER email web

I would comment, but nothing I say could make this any funnier...
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!"

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/21/04 10:11 PM EST
posted by JER email web

The filter functionality is complete on the front page, enjoy switching between such exciting categories as ".NET" & "Bull".

 

.NET
[reply]   

01/21/04 08:22 AM EST
posted by JER email web

Which is better, Convert.ToInt32(string s) or int.Parse(string s) ?

At the IL level, they work as follows:

Convert.ToInt32 (string)
--> calls Int32.Parse
int.Parse (string) (really Int32.Parse(string)
--> calls Number.ParseInt32

So if you have a string to convert to an integer, it seems calling int.Parse is probably better.

Now this difference in performance is so negligible that this is more academic than practical -- you're safe either way.

Btw, "Number" is a private class, so you can't call it from your code w/o using reflection. :(

Also, the other 18 or so overloads generally behave similarly, calling their respective parse methods.

 

Shinydonkey.com
[reply]   

01/20/04 11:50 PM EST
posted by JER email web

Well, the world's shoddiest blog is sorta halfway kinda online. Expect to see random C# & .NET ramblings, uncomfortably candid insights into my personal life and lots of "jokes."

 



"And remember, a shiny new donkey for whoever brings me the head of Colonel Montoya..."
e-mail webmaster