Livin' the life...

My PC seems to have some type of cancer thus I haven't been on MSN or blogging from Sunday. Right now it is undergoing heart and brain surgery, I hope to have it back up soon.

PS. I would've taken pictures... but... it's too gruesome to show online.. :\

Is it possible Jesus faced the same temptations you do?

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. (Hebrews 4:15-16 NLT)

But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it. (1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT)

We experience temptation every day. Jesus himself was tempted in every way, yet his temptation did not lead to sin. It is not a sin to be tempted, but to prevent temptation from becoming sin, we must use all the resources God gives us to recognize, resist, and flee the situation. Since Jesus knows what it is like to be tempted, we can turn to him in all honesty when we're having a battle with temptation. Have you talked with him lately about potential situations that would be difficult for you?

adapted from TouchPoint Bible with devotional commentary by Ron Beers and Gilbert Beers, Tyndale House Publishers (1996), p 1084

Thanks for the email A. Definitely a good way to start the week!

Found this site while browsing..

Top Web Tools for College Students

Personally, of these I've only used Wikipedia but I can definitely see how the others could come in handy, whether you're a student here in Barbados or anywhere else in the world.

Hmm.. I think it's about time I gave Del.icio.us a twirl though.. This weekend!!

Well yesterday was great and as you would expect, I've found some highlights! Enjoy!

Too sweettt!!! And what's that? Attendance was 88,000? !!!!

ESPNsoccernet front page reads:

"Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise put their troubles behind them with two goals that have given Liverpool a foothold in their Champions League tie with Barcelona. An early Deco strike had put the holders ahead but then Bellamy headed in (43) before setting up Riise in the 74th minute..."

I think the commentator said that this is the first time Barca have been beaten at home in the CL since 2003.

Guys, you did great.. Bellamy .. BRILLIANT!!!! Great first goal and sweet vision to see Riise and assist for the second goal! Riise .. you showed you can use your right foot.. SWEET!!

Final score at Estadio Camp Nou, Barcelona 1 - 2 Liverpool.

(Next game is Tuesday 6th March at Anfield. See you then!)

For other Champions League results including the ones from yesterday check The Official UEFA site.

When I first started thinking of creating my own blog, one of the main things I wanted was the ability to backup my blog and have a copy so that if anything went wrong, I wouldn't lose my stuff (you know, the entire 'going concern' concept). This is one of the main reasons I chose not to go with Blogger, LiveJournal or any of the rest. Even though they made things so simple and possibly even let you implement your own template.

Anyway, moving on from that, I recently received an article via RSS that addresses the topic of backing up data on Blogger. I think it's a great find and if I had known that before, I probably would have went with Blogger. Here's the article, enjoy!

Yesterday while walking through a store in Bridgetown, I came upon a book about mobile devices (pdas, smartphones, pocket pcs and the lot). As I flipped through the book, I started to have a really good understanding of the value of these devices. I mean, imagine a handheld device that can be with you virtually anywhere that can play media, take photos, hold your daily planner, let you view documents in Word, Excel, Outlook, let you browse the net and email and of course, make calls. To me, it's just darn cool! (Until someone steals that device.. then... its a darn nightmare! )

So based on that review and some stuff I've been looking at lately, when I got home I started to do a check on some of these devices. Some of the nicest ones I've found are the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 (only good one that has a camera), Palm Treo 750 (seeing it for £408.79) and HP's number, the HP iPAQ rw6815 (for £328.99).

Looking at these devices though, I think the touchscreen is a big +ve that the last two mobiles have over the Blackberry. Also, that Blackberry's screen isn't that big either... to be honest, I mostly included that due to its great features and not the size at all. After scanning the features of the other two though, I think it's the HP that grabs my attention more.. sadly it only has Bluetooth v1.2.. but the other features definitely make up for it!

Before I jet off,... while browsing the mobile phone sites, I had a little surprise as I found two updates to my moto! Now Motorola has the SLVR L7e and the SLVR L9. They are rather similar in design but at least in the L9, the camera has been bumped up to 2MP, Bluetooth is now v2.0, 20 MB of internal memory and an FM radio. Sadly the USB is still v1.1.. I guess that was pushing it??

loL!

Thanks for the vid K!

1...God won't ask what kind of car you drove,
He'll ask how many people you drove who didn't have transportation.

2...God won't ask the square footage of your house,
He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

3...God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet,
He'll ask how many you helped to clothe.

4...God won't ask what your highest salary was,
He'll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

5...God won't ask what your job title was
He'll ask if you performed your job to the best of our ability.

6...God won't ask how many friends you had,
He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

7...God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived,
He'll ask how you treated your neighbors.

8...God won't ask about the color of your skin,
He'll ask about the content of your character.

9...God won't ask why it took you so long to seek Salvation,
He'll lovingly take you into heaven,and not send you to the gates of Hell.

Remember these things.

I expect the next few months to be busy (work-wise) however, noting the fact that I refuse to continue development of my Mashup project until I'm completely satisfied with MS ASP.NET Ajax, I've decided to do a WAP site for jasonnurse.com.

This site is to be accessible from most reliable mobile devices (especially my moTo) and will contain what I consider, good stuff to have 'on the go' (i.e. when mobile). I'm not sure what else to put on there but I'm also going to try to make my blog viewable (it isn't viewable now, it has too much page content I believe), and just generally, to make a good WAP site/interface.

One downfall I noticed already which may not apply to all mobile devices, will be that there can be no JavaScript (as I don't think my mobile supports it). This is a big limitation but I'll work with it and see how things go.

I'm also going to try go setup http://wap.jasonnurse.com as the place for this site.

One of the best Christian sites I've seen online is Crosswalk.com (hence why its included in my Navigation list to the right of the page). Well now, they've updated their site and I must say I like it! It surely is no easy job to fit all that content on one page, and I think they've done a pretty admirable job!

If you've never checked out this site, I definitely recommend it, it has almost everything one can think of (as a Christian site) and even reviews movies, covers various versions of the Bible and *drum roll* .. has a WAP site!

Crosswalk.com people, have a view!

A while ago I blogged about the tool used to deploy web sites in VS 2005 i.e. VS 2005 Web Deployment Projects. Well now I'm back on that trail as I've found a little hole that people keep slipping into, which I myself was a victim of.

Now, the problem came about as I was trying to build a deployment web project and I was prompted with the following message in the Output mini-tab.

Target AspNetMerge:
Running aspnet_merge.exe ...
C:\...\WebDeployment\v8.0\aspnet_merge.exe "J:\...\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\test\test_deploy\Release" -prefix ss -copyattrs
C:\...\Microsoft\WebDeployment\v8.0\Microsoft.WebDeployment.targets(574,9): error MSB6006: "aspnet_merge.exe" exited with code 1.
Done building target "AspNetMerge" in project "test_deploy.wdproj" -- FAILED.

Done building project "test_deploy.wdproj" -- FAILED.

Build FAILED. (<-in a nutshell)

After checking the net for a while I found many forums and blogs with this error documented... The most common reported cause of this problem was the presence of duplicate classes within the project.

One solution suggested by a dude in ASP.NET forums was to "pick the option "Create a separate assembly for each page and control output" in the Web Deployment project property under Output Assemblies." (Ref). ... This works well however I just didn't like having each file/page with its own .DLL, seems a bit much for me (even though updating pages would be quite easier).

Another solution which really is the only RIGHT solution .. "hey, if there are duplicate class names, why not just rename the classes!". This is really a no-brainer.. however, what if VS doesn't tell you which classes are duplicated? This is what happened to me! Even though I followed this guy's advice and switched MSBuild output verbosity to Diagnostic.

I then tried using Diagnostic, Normal, but nothing would tell me what class names were duplicated! So I had to go through one by one to find the duplicate.

Lesson of the story? DO NOT COPY Pages or Classes without renaming them IMMEDIATELY! (This is what lead to my duplicate classes - copying pages for reuse.)

Over the last couple days I've had the opportunity of visiting another Caribbean island, namely Antigua (hence why my MSN nick was <nick>.ag as opposed to .bb) and even though it was a pretty OK trip, I'm glad to be back on "home soil". One thing I must say though, if ever you think that you've never experienced God's beautiful creation in this world, try viewing it from 21,000 ft above sea level! I kid you not!

As I was going up, and the plane was flying through the clouds it felt a bit.. scary at times, I mean these are the clouds I usually look up to!, and 20mins into the flight, I'm looking down at them casting their shadows on the ocean!

Barbados from that far up looks pretty populated in some parts, but in others just puuuree greenery. Sorry I don't have any pics to show but the camera was knackered.

Another interesting thing that hit me up there (or actually when we were descending) was that I was able to pick out a Banks logo on the roof of probably some "bar" located somewhere in Christ Church! Now I wonder... a logo on the roof.. this must be advertising targeted for airline passengers! I can't imagine many people will get to see the roof of that building in normal day-to-day transactions!

Anyway, sometimes seeing the world or.. at least where you live from soooo far up can put a perspective on things. That far up, you get a glimpse of "the bigger picture".. but also you say to yourself.. "Hmm.. if anything happens to this plane... it's curtains for me (especially when the plane shakes at times )".. but two things must come into play then.. 1. Your trust in God that everything will be how it should be, and 2. Your knowledge of being saved and thus, there being no worry about if you will be called home. Yes that's blunt but... that's how it is. Enjoy life people but remember, there is a "bigger picture".

Bless up ppl. :-)

Here you go! I surely hope this isn't real.

Thanks for sending me this one J.

Ah so, Thursday was my birthday and as is customary, I went to dinner! This time I tried out the Lukcy Horse Shoe. All in all the food was pretty ok, there was a refreshing live band as well so that kept the night interesting.

The highlight of the night however was the burger I ordered. For some reason I had to have the most expensive burger on the list... and that was the Hulk Burger, a 12oz choice ground chuck steak. My My My.. that... was... huge. The burger easily dwarfed the sesame bun, "no joke!". I tried to catch a picture of it, and that is what you see there to the right.

To finish off the night (btw, I didn't eat all of the burger, it was simply .. too much.. with that the fries, some wings, fishcakes, salad.. it just was too much), I had a Lucky Cocktail called a Three Wishes. It... wasn't all that great but it was sweet while it lasted. (You should note, of course I was NOT driving.)

All in all, a great night out! A good way to close out #24 celebrations.

It's been a while since I've posted anything related to my "professional" life... but alas I'm back, and sad to say, on a sour note!

This time I'm commenting on the "Control.FindControl Method (String)". This method just works.. soo.. unreliably! At first, I thought I was making some mistake in understanding its purpose but it clearly states on MSDN "Searches the current naming container for a server control with the specified id parameter.", so I'm left to wonder if it is a waste. I mean, I remember it working before.. but it refuses to work now!

My problem has come in my trying to find a control within a ContentTemplate (Read a bit more on that here) which I can clearly find if I loop through the collection of contained controls in the Controls property (of the template). When I try to use the FindControl method, the return value is a persistent "Nothing". I also have checked online for this problem and a number of other sites, especially forums have had persons complaining about it. One I quite like is this one, where the guy asking for help is absurdly sarcastic when he doesn't get his questions answered. Ways.. I've decided that if I'm looking for a control in a container the most reliable path is to do the following.

'Creating reference to desired control
Dim dControl As UI.WebControls.Xml = Nothing

'Looping through container to find desired control
For Each ctrl As Web.UI.Control In tempContainer.Controls

   'If control has been found.. btw control is identified by its ID, in this case, "Xml1"
   If ctrl.ID = "Xml1" Then
      'Save control since it has been found. Of course Ctype it first..
      dControl = CType(ctrl, UI.WebControls.Xml)      
      Exit For
   End If
Next

(i.e. loop through the controls manually... after all, this is what's being done by the FindControl method anyway! In my case, it's only about 3 or so more LOC.)

I just had this chat with a friend on MSN, I thought it was a bit 'fun', or at the least, 'interesting'.. so I thought I'd post it. (OF course I got the person's permission first! I'm a 100% legit character you know!). Enjoy! ... I did!

Jason says: mate, I'm online so much
Jason says: I mean, is there another world out there? Really?
Jason says: *jason starts to refLect*
benedict says: lol, there is, but, I've heard that you can't block and delete ppl that bug u
Jason says: , blasphemy!
Jason says: so u have to.. co-exist?!
benedict says: yehhhhhh ... pretty much
Jason says: how... 'cave man'-ish
benedict says: and when people give you viruses ... a system scan doesn't help
Jason says: !!! What a scary place to live! Online may definitely be the place to be! At least if anything happens here I can go and buy new internals/peripherals! . Those poor poor real-world people!

Well today, some.. many.. many years ago, I was brought into this world. So far, I've fallen and gotten up many a time but I've continued the journey towards Life Everlasting... I hope to see you there too.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

Taken from Jeremiah 29:11-13 (New King James Version).

These days numerous persons have tried to promote the unity between the Caribbean so I think checking news in other neighbouring countries every now and then is a good idea. ALso.. I've heard the following story about 3 times for the morning on Barbados news.

Here's an excerpt.

"What was supposed to be one of the most joyous occasions in Grenada's recent history has turned into perhaps the most embarrassing diplomatic faux pas the country has ever experienced.

Following two years of extensive work by the People's Republic of China to bring Grenada to a level of readiness for the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2007 tournament next month, a crowd of Chinese workers and carefully selected guests heard the national anthem of Taiwan being rendered by the Royal Grenada Police Force Band --- rather than the national anthem of the People's Republic of China." (Ref)

This... is like.. wow.. (by the way, to totally get this you may also have to check out this wikipedia article on the History of Taiwan but to my knowledge, essentially China doesn't "dig" Taiwan's independence at all).

No wonder the PM of Grenada is promised a thorough investigation into the matter (Ref) and I heard some persons' positions have been suspended pending the outcome of this investigation (Heard this on Barbados radio).

This video was sent to me by a Greek dude when I was in the UK and finally, I found it on You Tube.. so enjoy!

Lol!!

It's a dauntless task however, I really try to keep up with technology.. whether it be the latest cool, portable gadgets (eg. the Apple iphone I blogged about) or the latest non-pc related stuff (eg. this new in-car alcohol detection system by Toyota which I wrote about on this forum I frequent).

Either way, today I've been amazed again while reading the 'techie news'. Check out the following...

This is the Zink. The idea here is the towards developing the technology that makes printers small enough to fit in digital cameras!! (Yes, that's right! P R I N T E R S!)

How crazy is that!

Plus... As CNET News notes..

"The portable printer from start-up Zink is about the size of an iPod. It prints 2 x 3 inch pictures, but larger formats will be available in the future. The printer has no ink cartridges, which enables the small size. Crystals in the special paper change from transparent to colored when heated." (Ref)

Now this.. is just cool. .. To be honest though, I'm not sure I see this taking off as a big venture because why would I really want a picture so small? Hmm.. passport photos? ping pongs? That's the only way I can see this being used as opposed to just getting a "proper digicam" and a photo printer. I guess we'll see as time goes on though.. we'll see!

Until then, be amazed!

The Lord has brought us to another month. Give thanks!

Also.. as a lady friend of mine used to do.. "a *pinch* and a *punch* for the first of the month!"

Wait though... I've been told that this is the birthday month for me! I hope some nice things are in store...