Jim Clay Weblog

Working on a few new sites

sales@jimclay.com — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:30:00 GMT

So while I am working like crazy trying to make progress on our in house app rewrite that I am succeeding in getting further and further behind on, I need a few distraction. A couple of people have asked me to host and design new sites for them. So I am in the process of getting them up and running.

A buddy of mine and his family started a new part time business and had me put up www.doggonecrazyhotdogs.com for them.

There is a new local resteraunt that I have the domain up, just waiting for content from the owner. That site is at www.jettygrill.com.

A friend of mine who does promotional products (www.shamrockad.com) got me in touch with a new car dealer in town and I am just getting started on thier site at www.sandpointcars.com. I think it is looking rather nice.

Now off to bed so I can get up in the AM and start programming!

Re-Writing Our In-House management system

sales@jimclay.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:18:00 GMT

Although under the gun and stressfull, I have decided to rewrite our in house app that I have been working on for several years. This is actually pretty cool as I get to change a lot of things that I wish I would have done differently that were causing issues.

The original app was an Access program that I wrote for the company as a consultant in '99. We went through several additions and changes and then I came on board as an employee in '02 and converted the data over to SQL Server, while leaving everything else in Access. This was OK other thans some limitiations and compatibility issues as the newer versions of access came out. Now, the system is just getting slow and Access 2007 is a dog. SO...Its time for a rewrite.

Since I came on board as an employee, we have tried a couple of differenc CRM packages that just didn't work for us. So I wrote our own in VB.net. No I am getting proficient in .net and have added a DevExpress Enterprise subscription to my tools and the time has come.

It's pretty cool being able to redo everything and learn from the past. The amazing part is that I am expecting to do this in a fraction of the time that it took to write what we have now.

Off to code....

The state of the USA scares me

sales@jimclay.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:04:00 GMT

I am torn...Being a Christian, I am not supposed to worry as God will take care of me and my loved ones (as well as all believers), but living in todays happenings really makes me wonder.

I truly believe our country is completely messed up. It is nothing like what was intended by the founding fathers (yep...fathers...pretty sexist huh??) Congress was never meant to be a career, but what do we have, career politicians that have completely lost sight of reality. The Court was never meant to make up laws and use foreign laws as references, but they sure due now. The President...Hmmm...What can I say about that? Not sure.

I struggle with mandated term limits because really, voting should be the term limits in my mind. But these congressmen get so entrenched in the system, that it is nearly impossible to get them out. And the money they raise and spend on campaigning is beyond ridiculous. On the other hand, the should never be a senator that is on his 5th, 6th or longer term. It just isn't right. It is career politicians who are not in the real world that mess everything up.

Look at the ethanol mess. They mandated turning our food into fuel. DUMB!!!!!!! Now look what is happening. Food costs are going through the roof because we the tax payers are subsidizing the farms to grow fuel rather than food. And it is not a very good fuel to boot. It takes more energy to make, it produces less energy than gasoline so you get less mileage and burn more. And it is water based so it can't be piped. It has to be transported by truck, thus burning more fuel...AND airplanes can't fly with ethanol because of its water based nature and the risks involved with engines vapor locking. AMAZING

And then there are the "Bush Haters". I actually feel sorry for these people. To hate someone so badly to wish him harm and to constantly lie about him is sad. These people are true hypocrites. The justify the lies that people they like make, but then say that "Bush Lied." I certainly don't agree with everything Bush has done, but I do believe he is a good man and has not blatently lied like these people are saying. Most of the supposed "lies" are the same things many other people said and believed. Did they lie too? I don't think so.

So now that I have rambled on in random directions, I should probably wrap this up and go to bed. The problem is that I have all these thoughts popping up randomly. It's like I can't keep focused on one issue because there are so many that they just bury you.

Hmmm....Back to the Christian in me that is not supposed to worry...Maybe I'll just go back to my programming and try and get my big work project done.

Until the next time I decide to type my random ramblings........

Been Busy

sales@jimclay.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:20:00 GMT

So, I keep thinking of things I would like to blog about...Doesn't happen!

I have been very busy at work trying to build up steam on the complete rewrite of the original Access based system that we run the company off of. I am moving it to VB.Net with DevExpress controls. I am using the Xpress Persitent Objects (XPO) as the basis of the new programming model for our systems. WOW! Majorly cool stuff. XPO is a business object model tool that allows you to create the business object that you are dealing with including associations (one to many, many to many, etc.). You define what database you want to use and it creates and manages the schema for you. No more creating tables, creating a datalayer, creating stored procedures, etc., etc. So far I am very impressed and am loving it. I am also using thier controls for all of my Win Forms. Their grids are amazing and I was extremely excited when I saw the Vertical Grid. It is a huge time saver for me.

I am hoping to start using thier ASP.Net controls sometime in the near future. Been thinking of writing an interface to my domain registration system that I use. Since I am big on DotNetNuke (DNN), I figured I would write it as a DNN Module.

My problem is time. I have work all day and then come home and want to spend time with the family. By the time I can sit down to the computer, I really don't have a lot of time to get too heavy into something. Plus, I am tired and ready to go to bed. I guess I need to start small and work my way up. Any chance I can get I need to set some plans in place and get started.

Looks like it is that time...Of to bed.

I Hate Spam filtering Services you have to register with

sales@jimclay.com — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:57:44 GMT

If you are in busines, DON"T use these spam filter services that force the sender to click on a link in the response email, put in some info and then you email will go through. I consider these COMPLETELY unprofessional. I can't believe businesses are buying into them. If you need spam filtering use something that the sender doesn't have to deal with. At our office we have spam software that works with our Exchange server. Catches probably 95+% of our spam. Through my hosting business, for those who use my hosted email, there is some basic spam filtering in there, but I also offer an add-on that puts your email through a Barracuda spam filter appliance. These things work great and the cost is worth it.

Congress is a joke!

sales@jimclay.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:45:50 GMT

Why is congress concerning themselves with steroids in baseball. This has NOTHING to do with their constitutional duties and has nothing to do with the things that I think that most people consider important. Things like...Hmm...maybe national security, or taxes? They can't do anything useful so they have to look important and bring big names in to hearings to get attention.

I love DotNetNuke

sales@jimclay.com — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:04:06 GMT

I started using DotNetNuke (DNN) a couple of years ago. Can't even remember how I came accross it. I had been working on writing a framework for my own sites when I discovered it. This was way beyond where I could go on my own. So now, if I have a site of any consequence to do, it goes on DNN. As an Authorized Reseller for Parcom Internet Services through my other site at www.SandpointHosting.com, I am trying to develop a bit of a niche for myself. We'll see how it goes.

My intention is to work up a couple of screen videos of setting up a base install, uploading modules and doing an upgrade. Hopefully I will have some time in the relatively near future. Having an almost 1 year old and a full time day job doesn't help with time for these extra projects. But, we'll see how it goes!

For now, I need to work on getting Google AdSense set up as well as Amazon Associates links to some of my favorite books.