Troy Forster

The Bruce Trail

So I've been hiking sections of the Bruce Trail for the past few years in an ongoing goal to complete the 800+ km Canadian Wonder.  One of these days I'll tally up my distance.  Right now I'd estimate it at somewhere between 30 and 40%.  Still a long way to go.

My sister must have recognized my love of this incredible natural wonder and was inspired to paint this image for me for as a Christmas present.  I knew the moment I unwrapped it what it was.  The subtle white blaze was the giveaway.

Thanks Tam, it's an awesome picture.

How (not?) To Build A Beer Blind

Ok, Andrew thinks its going to be a deer blind.  But since I'm a vegetarian I'll just think of it as a place to hang out and have a beer during a midnight hike from the cottage.

Just prior to Christmas at my sister's I spent a few days at Andrew's cottage along with another friend Oliver.  Our "work project" this time was to build a beer blind near the South end of the property. 

Andrew had already scoped out a suitable trio of trees in a long forgotten clearing.  In addition he had also flagged a new and meandering trail from the back pond to the clearing.  All that remained was to build the ladder and the platform.

Earlier in the morning Andrew had trimmed two poles and he and Oliver had nailed split cedar rungs to them.  I showed up just in time to help them attach the base of the platform and lean the structure against the North side of a tree.  The picture to the right shows Oliver attaching a support about a third of the way up the ladder.

It looked as if we were close to finished.

Until an assessment of the stability of the tree/ladder combination was tested and left us all wondering who would be the poor victim to venture up it first.

So, with a lot of grunting, swearing and cursing we managed to move the entire, almost 20 foot ladder, 90 degrees into a more stable position.

On the left we see Andrew using his chainsaw to trim off the brace that Oliver had added earlier so that the ladder could be secured to a second tree for more support. 

More support being relative to the previous attempt.  The wind suddenly blew a slight breeze of about 10kmh and the resulting bending and shifting had us instantly discussing the third and hopefully final option. 

By the time we were done we had removed the platform, shifted the ladder 90 degrees, then another 90 degrees but finally had it secured.  It seemed like an awful lot of work to go to just to make a Beer Blind!  Let's just hope nobody falls off.  With a close to 20 foot drop it would be a long hobble back to the cottage with a broken leg.

 

Raid The North Extreme 2007 on the Telly!!!

Geoff just posted an update on RtNX '07 broadcast date.

Raid the North Extreme is coming to your television - on Network Prime Time!
Global TV has confirmed a broadcast time: Saturday, Jan 12 at 9:00 pm for the one-hour High Definition feature show on RTNX Prince Rupert & Haida Gwaii 2007.
After it airs on Global, it will appear on menTV, the Extreme Channel, PBS in the US, Helly TV online, and will be available on DVD and iTunes.
Racers and other AR enthusiasts are encouraged to plan viewing parties in communities across the country. Packages are available from FAR including 'how to' notes and prizing for the party - just email us. If you're having a party, post it on the Facebook page!

For those of you that aren't on Facebook try http://www.raidthenorth.com or send an email to info@raidthenorth.com.

help

test

Debugging .asmx Files

Came across something interesting that may help in debugging .asmx files. If you make a change to an .asmx it doesn't trigger the JIT compiler. If you rebuild your solution (ctrl-shift-b) the .asmx changes are not necessarily picked up, which is totally unexpected behaviour if you have forced VisualStudio to rebuild the entire solution. What I am doing now is making a change to the .asmx then picking any .cs file in the project and dirtying it by adding and then removing a single space and the building the solution. It seems that VisualStudio detects the dirty file and recompiles properly. I have a feeling, although I can substantiate it yet, that when you build the solution the assemblies are not updated if VisualStudio doesn't see a change in any of the source files (and its not checking the .asmx's). Dirty a source file and the assemblies get updated. T

Posting From MSN Messenger

Imified now has a Wordpress posting widget. See http://www.imified.com/index.htm for more information.

C# AND Assignment Operator (&=)

I came across this handy shortcut earlier today.  It is the AND assignment operator and works just like +=.  I've used += in various C like languages for years but it never occurred to me that the same syntax could be used with other assignment types.

For example if we want to test a particular bit we might write

  x = x & y;

when in actual fact we can save ourselves a keystroke and write

  
    x &= y;

This makes the syntax for flipping a bit in an enum as simple as:

  
    myEnum.bits &= ~someBit;

Understanding ASP.NET JIT

As a lazy developer I have come to rely heavily on ASP.NET's Just-In-Time compilation model to catch my typos and mistakes. Sometimes it is easier to refresh the browser and let the ASP.NET engine report the location of a compile error than to eyeball each line of code and ensure a clean execution every time. This becomes especially apparent after the ninth or tenth hour of a long tiring day. Today I've been battling a seemingly random error that would not react to source code changes properly. That is to say, I would make a source code change and not only would the expected behaviour not manifest, but the original behaviour would not disappear. I at least expected to see a different runtime error, not exactly the same one. After scratching my head for twenty minutes, completely restarting my machine and scratching my head for a further twenty minutes I decided to take a step back and see what was actually going on. It turns out it was a simple, obvious and down-right embarrassing mistake. I have a solution that usually contains a single project. However today I have added a second existing project to my solution. The second project implements an assembly that is not in the GAC and that the main project is dependent upon. I was making changes to the Assembly source code. Hitting F5 in Firefox triggers a JIT compile on the server for the project hosting the website but does not chain to the Assembly source code. In hindsight this is totally obvious. After all I am hitting the web project not the solution. The moral of my story? If you rely on a compiler to check your source code don't get too complacent.

Another Great Example of a Positive Campaign

From Australia comes this great spot promoting Carbon Emission Awareness.  It is a simple concept that delivers a powerful message.  Check it out.

The YouTube page hosting this video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Eg_SEAnE-M&eurl=http://www.google.com/reader/view/