The project that I'm wrapping up at the end of July has been working with Reporting Services and SOAP-based web services. It's not the first time I've worked with the combination, but the unique combinations for how the services are being generated, combined with how Reporting Services tries to "magically" do lots of stuff "for" you has been leading to unique problems.

Whenever dealing with SOAP or AJAX (or anything else that sends its data over HTTP), your best friend should be your friendly HTTP packet sniffer. And, when your technology stack is Microsoft-centric (as it is this time), Fiddler fits the bill.

It shows you nice explanations of the requests as well as the responses and really lets you see what's going back and forth. That part did its job. However, Fiddler got in the way of other parts of the project.

See, Team Foundation Server, Microsoft's source code management solution is integrated tightly with the solution files. When you edit a report, it checks out a working copy and when you're done with it, you check it back in.

The thing that isn't immediately obvious when you start using it, however, is that it uses the extended HTTP verbs in WebDAV to do all of that file manipulation. That causes a problem because Fiddler hijacks all HTTP traffic that is done by the Windows/IE objects, which includes all of Visual Studio.

So, you launch Fiddler to figure out what's wrong with a report, see the error in the Fiddler logs and then go to change the report only to get an error that the Team Foundation Server is unavailable. The first few times this happened, there were several others all using Fiddler at the same time, so we thought the server actually was down.

However, after checking a little closer, we saw that Fiddler was fouling up those non-standard requests and stopping the functionality. So, if you shut Fiddler off, Team Foundation Server cooperates, but you can't watch HTTP traffic. And, if you can watch HTTP traffic, you can't manipulate the files that are broken. It's kind of an irritating Catch 22.

While there are other tools like WireShark (formerly ethereal) that can replace Fiddler, they aren't nearly as easy or handy to use. At any rate, I thought someone else might benefit from knowing what's going on so you can either do the choppy workflow of shutting it off between file changes or choose another tool. At least instead of wondering what the heck is going on.

A couple of months ago, I pointed out the utility of keeping track of the things you accomplish on a daily basis. I've been keeping mine in just a notebook. However, making something that can be used to extract reporting information for the eventual inclusion in resume's, status reports, etc.

It struck me that keeping track of that stuff on Google Calendar would be a reasonably good way to centralize it and make it accessibly from any of the computers that I work on (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.) without depending on software. So, I took a quick look at the PHP API for using GCal's information.

It requires the Zend Framework, so this was an opportunity to install that as well. The instructions on installing the Zend Framework were a bit vague. What it boils down to is this. The "Zend" directory inside the "library" needs to be on your "include_path" for PHP. On my Ubuntu development boxes, that means putting that Zend directory as "/usr/share/php/Zend" and the existing configuration picked it up.

I then grabbed the Calendar.php sample file. There's lots of stuff in there I'll (and you'll) want to change in it for ongoing use (like lots of the defaults). However, it works well to get up and running. I stripped all of the stuff at the end of the file (the stuff that wasn't inside a function), thus turning the Calendar.php file into more of a library to be included.

After including that file in my "createaccomplishment.php", I set up a really basic form for creating an entry.
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It's been well established that I have a completely defective internal GPS. At several different points, I've looked at getting the equivalent of a navigational wheelchair: a dashboard GPS. Every time, something has stopped me.

Then, this week, with Dell delaying the new laptop I wanted until the end of August, I re-evaluated my tech spending. I canceled the laptop and ordered a replacement keyboard for the 700m I already have. If, in September, I have other reasons for wanting to replace my laptop, I can take advantage of the Back-to-School sales. However, with that purchase canceled, and me having tons of meetings with potential clients and recruiters over the last couple of weeks, the GPS made a lot more sense.

So, I dug around and bought a refurbished TomTom GO 700 for $250 or so instead of the $379 it goes for new or the insane $700 that the MSRP is listed at. I picked this one because of the bluetooth capability. While my current phone isn't bluetooth, this thing can be a speakerphone as well as use a bluetooth phone for getting traffic info, etc. down the road (sorry, bad pun).

At any rate, it came today and I had to give it a try. It took a bit of wetting to get the suction cup to stick to my windshield, but after that, it worked like a charm. I set up the home location to my address and went out for a drive. I wandered around a bit and then pulled into a parking lot to set up a route. I told it to get me home and it gave me great directions, kept an updated estimate of when I'd get there (changed when I was slowed down by red lights) and announced upcoming turns.

An added bonus is that it gives directions the way I like them. When I take a left hand turn, I like to know whether my next turn will be right or left, so I can get into the correct lane. Lots of people don't give that information, but this thing does. I'm sure that the failings will be the same with anything based on mapping data. It includes restaurants that have been torn down in my town and probably has outdated or missing addresses for some stuff.

However, those shortcomings are against a perfect ideal rather than the imperfect present reality. As it is, I hobble around by using Google maps in advance, where I have to have a PC and a printer before I get in the car. This is WAY better. I should have bought one of these a long time ago.

Heck, it even gets a sporadic signal here in my *basement*. The GPS in my old Nextel phone practically required climbing on the roof to get a lock.

Today was stressful and went longer than I wanted, resulting in a trip home right at 5:15. Given that it's road construction season here in Minnesota and the bonding bill went through (meaning more money to *do* road construction), that was the worst possible time to go home.

So, I sat on Hwy 100, staring at a proud parent of an honor student who was also the owner of an exceptionally long middle finger and a strongly held belief that sharing it with the Ford Taurus in front of her would clear out the 15 miles of non-moving cars in front of her.

As I sat there, I developed a craving for pizza. This was the kind of craving that can't be explained, but MUST be obeyed. However, I didn't want crappy frozen pizza as the craving wouldn't be pacified with that. However, as it was going to be nearly 6:30 by the time I got home, I knew that ordering for delivery was just going to put me in another long line, quite likely with some of my companions on the road.

Since I had to stop at Target anyway on the way home, I thought I'd buy one of their deli pizzas as a possible solution. I put one in the cart and walked over to the deli meats to buy stuff for grilled cheese sandwiches tomorrow night. For the last month or so, Shelly's been doing a lot of traveling and I usually just eat a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner on those nights.

Anyway, as I was standing in front of the counter, waiting for the meat to be sliced, I saw fresh mozzarella (the stuff that's packed in water). In that moment, I decided that even the deli pizza wouldn't suffice. No, I was determined to have homemade pizza for one, within 45 minutes.

I succeeded and it was delicious. In case you are interested, here's how it goes:
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Photo: Steve Jurvetson

I just caught myself having a thought I've had before. This time, however, I had a little bit of a different perspective on it and it made me realize what a black hole procrastination can be for me. Not only does procrastination mess with the task I'm specifically avoiding, but it sucks down nearly all productivity in its vicinity. Particularly troubling is the fact that I manage to avoid this problem in my billable work.

Here's the thought process that happens. I'll illustrate with a hypothetical instead of the real instance. Let's say, for the sake o example, that I have 5 relatively big tasks on my to do list (things like filing tax paperwork, cleaning my office, etc.). Beyond that, I have 10-20 items/projects that I think are worth doing (things like working on my memoir software or re-designing this site).

Now, one of the items on the big to do list is what I should be doing right now and I don't want to do it: classic procrastination scenario. However, when procrastination rears its ugly head, I often look to the "B" list of tasks for something to do instead. That's when the thought in question pops into my head. See, I think about doing one of those "B" tasks. However, I find myself deciding that I can't do one of those things, because, if I'm going to *do* something, I really should just be doing the primary task.

This is evil because what I end up doing is essentially "nothing". I not only end up avoiding the initial task, but turn down the idea of anything else off of my lists because I "really should be" doing that initial task instead.

Hopefully, by framing this thought process, I can catch myself. It worked this time, because one of the things on the "B" list was to write a new post on this site and here we are.