Before PowerShell I would open up VS.NET and start quick projects attempting to test the length of strings, concatenation, padding or creating file\folder manipulation app's that are good for one use. Every few months I would slog through tens of half used applications ... that was before ... now I open the PowerShell console.

Imagine writing a recursive file search function in C# that would only select files that begin with a specific subset of characters. Now image writing that function in one line:

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Windows -Include *.dll -Recurse -Exclude [a-g]*.dll

Priceless.

"There is only one cure for gray hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine." - P.G. WodeHouse

I was once, in my youth, a lover of outdoor activities. My favorite was mountain biking. These guys have set the bar a little too high even for the most daring among us.

I was never this good ... not even close. These are some wonderful pictures that I thought I would share. No idea who these guys are but I hope they made it home!

There is a web site dedicated to this crazy trail blazing bikers. Check it out!

"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd." - Miguel de Cervantes

With the release of Vista I am very seriously considering the upgrade ... I have only a few peripherals that I am worried about, but what is of greatest concern to me is whether my home based PCs can handle the transition. In the past Microsoft has always grossly underestimated, IMHO, the required hardware specs.

So this time round instead of making an educated guess (AKA suck it and see) I downloaded the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor! This application starts to scan your hardware and verifies which version of Vista, if any, is right for you. In addition it scans your software, and peripherals for potential issues.

For my laptop, Upgrade Advisor recommended the following:

The Advisor allows you to save a report and complete a checklist of TODO's, a lot of thought went into this and because Windows is an open bucket for virtually any hardware, and therefore driver (unlike the Mac), this kind of application is critical to upgrade success.

"Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not." - Henry Fielding

I blogged almost a year ago about wanting my music collection available in my home, car and office and only got part way there until this weekend when I purchased the Belkin Tune Cast II Mobile FM Transmitter. Unfortunately I was having all kinds of problems selecting a FM channel that wood give me clear reception. I had the tuner taped, cocked and pushed into every conceivable part of my car before quitting.

Coincidently a couple of mainstream blogger's Travis and Scott were having similar problems and discovered a web site that gives list of radio stations by zip code. In addition to the radio stations you can find out which frequencies are free to be used by your own miniature FM Transmitters. Based on the list below I had selected a channel from the 'Third Best' list. Who knew?!

"If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I have wanted to have a peek at Windows Vista for a while, but simply do not have the daring to install it on my well preserved home machine. Well here is a comprehensive, but slow, alternative for you techies without spare hardware. You can preview Windows Vista Business Edition via Virtual Labs. You can check out many of the key features e.g. Schedule Automatic Backups, Restore Old Files, Windows Side Bar, Gadgets and much more.

You may also want to install Office 2007 on your own machine for a 60 day trial, be warned after 60 days you will no longer be able to create, save or print files and I am not sure about rollback options.

"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." - Gilbert Chesterton

Service oriented development is dominating my current programming landscape. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can be defined as loosely coupled software services that support requirements of a business process. SOA is also characterized by being technology agnostic, that is, the underlying service can be implemented in a variety of ways RPC, DCOM, CORBA or Web Services without worrying about the source.

Currently most of the projects I am involved with consume web service where the underlying technology is completely unknown to me. As with all banking systems security is always key so I wanted to review some of the options available for someone using ASP.NET.

Windows - Basic: Used for non-secure identification of clients, as the user name and password are sent in base 64-encoded strings in plain text. Passwords and user names are encoded, but not encrypted, in this type of authentication. A determined, malicious user equipped with a network-monitoring tool can intercept user names and passwords, this type of authentication is generally limited to secure networks.

Windows - Basic over SSL: Used with secure identification of clients in Internet scenarios. The user name and password are sent over the network using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, rather than plain text. This is relatively easy to configure and works for Internet scenarios. However, using SSL degrades performance.

Windows - Digest: Used for secure identification of clients in Internet scenarios and uses hashing to transmit client credentials in an encrypted manner so the password is not transmitted in clear text. In addition, Digest authentication can work through proxy servers. However, it is not widely supported on other platforms.

Windows - Integrated Windows: Uses NTLM or Kerberos. Uses a cryptographic exchange with the user's Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser.

Windows - Client Certificates: Use for secure identification of clients in Internet and intranet scenarios. Requires each client to obtain a certificate from a mutually trusted certificate authority. Certificates are optionally mapped to user accounts, which are used by IIS for authorizing access to the XML Web service.

SOAP headers – Custom: Useful for both secure and non-secure Internet scenarios. User credentials are passed within the SOAP header of the SOAP message. The Web server, regardless of the platform hosting the XML Web service, provides a custom authentication implementation.

"The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop." - PJ O'Rourke