It is the branch that bears the fruit That feels the knife, To prune it for a larger growth And fuller life, Though every budding twig be lopped And every grace Of swaying tendril, springing leaf Be lost a space. Oh, thou whose life of joy seems reft, Of beauty shorn, Whose aspirations lie in… [Read More]
Archives for August 2011
Garmin 441 GPS Chartplotter
I purchased the excellent Garmin 441s chartplotter in the spring of 2011. So far, I really like it. I would not claim to have fully utilized it or played with every feature – there are many! I agonized over where to mount it. I have seen a lot of installations with the unit inside the cabin… [Read More]
What is SQL?
There are probably a hundred valid answers to this question. Nonetheless; I run into the question fairly regularly and also see some rather inaccurate beliefs about it. Let’s define some terms, I’ve attempted to order them in an order that helps with understanding. “RDBMS” is an acronym for Relational Database Management System. “SQL Server” is… [Read More]
IF or IIF
The IIF function in Microsoft VB is a statement that allows you to evaluate an expression and return one of two objects depending on the result of the evaluation. Neat. The problem that I had with IIF is that it always evaluates the true and false parts of the statement no matter the result of… [Read More]
Port Light Seals
The port light seals (gasket) on my sailboat were becoming dried out and would stick when I opened the window. I do not have any leaks (that I know of) though. I had read that the best way to freshen/recondition these seals is to work some white Vaseline into them. This past week, I took… [Read More]
Fuel Pickup
I removed the pickup line from the diesel fuel tank of my Hunter 34 sailboat. I was hoping to find an obvious problem that would explain my recent “out of fuel” problem documented here. The fitting/assembly came out of the tank easily and I didn’t break or lose anything!! Yeah! Sadly, the “obvious” was missing. Even under… [Read More]
MSMQ – Receive Remote Message
This is a continuation of how to utilize Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) in your application. The previous post on the subject is here. In most cases; the application, service, or web site that reads from an MSMQ will be local to that queue (on the same Windows computer or virtual machine). However; there are exceptions. … [Read More]
To be cold or not to be cold
I arrived back home after a week long trip to find my kitchen freezer working just fine but the refrigerator not very cool. This is the side-by-side type of appliance. A little research revealed that most kitchen refrigerator-freezer units send cold air from the freezer side to the refrigerator side. So, that was good news. I… [Read More]
LED Cabin Light Testing
This is very un-scientific but is yet another data point for me. I installed the festoon LED cabin lights mentioned here and waiting til it was dark outside. The results were ok but not what I was hoping for. The cabin was not well lit. Rather, very dungeon like. From this test, it is clear… [Read More]
Naked
I hated to do it but it seemed like the right thing to do. I removed the canvas from my boat. The Bimini and Dodger both came down and are safely stowed below. I happen to be at the boat in Florida this week and saw the storms building in the Atlantic. I figure if… [Read More]