Fail, ASP and other misc stuff

Today was a mixed bag as far as things go. First off, I had some car trouble. The engine malfunction light came on, there was some beeping and the engine started shuddering while going over 60mph. So I pulled over and switched off. Started again and the light came on. So I called AA, got my dad to take my brother to uni and hung about until the AA arrived.

They found nothing wrong so I moved off the motorway at the nearest junction. No problems. The guy was on his way to Dundee so he escorted me until my turn off. No problems. Got back with no problems as well.

What I think happened (I am not a mechanic, this is not meant to be accurate info) is that the lambda sensor (monitors CO2 emissions) went wonky and the engine computer decided to let me know. In the time waiting for recovery, the system reset and all was good. A similar situation happened a couple years ago, took my car to the garage and they said it was the sensor misfiring.

While in Dundee waiting for the last class of the day (3 hour gap is a bit of a pain) I went for a bit of a shop. I have been needing some new shaving soap as the stuff I have has pretty much run out. I went to Lush to see what they have and the assistant suggested to use some “snowcake” soap which seems to be made from almonds. The lady said it lathers up well so I went with it. I also got a sample of some “Prince” soap stuff. Will report on how well they work.

In the union, I found some Ubuntu Cola (site needs flash), 80 pence for 2 cans which is not bad. It is not the same folk who make the linux distribution but they do use fairtrade sugar. Unfortunatly, the taste is the same as a certain cola maker who will not be named. Had caffeine as well which is a downer for me (causes headaches, I don’t drink much caffeine at all). I have a can on my desk, not sure what I will do with it. Anyone want it?

Now for some more technical stuff. As part of my uni course, I have a module called “Enterprise Internet Solutions” which involves using ASP.Net. Initially I balked at using it but I am warming up to it. There are some niceitys to it, such as piss easy form creation and processing. It is mainly drag and drop (as is typical of Microsoft development) but you can use the code window exclusivly if you want.

What I really like about ASP.Net is that the processing code is seperated from the html/xml code used for output in the browser. ASP uses xml tags for the user interation widgets (buttons, input boxes etc) in the form

<asp:controltype ID="something" attribute="something"></asp:controltype>

This can be shortened to

<asp:controltype ID="something" attribute="something" />

so you have well formed xml empty tags. If you remember all the different attributes and control types then you can use a plain text editor which brings me neatly to my next point.

ASP.Net aparrently works with Mono on linux so that is where I will be going if it works. Won’t be using a huge clunky expensive IDE, I will be using vim instead (emacs users, direct flames to /dev/null). Hopefully I can get it working with MySQL as well.

On a further tech note, Stanford university has released a bunch of courses online.

Car fixed

Serenity, my car, was put into the local garage earlier this morning to get the starter motor replaced due to some problems I have had. For some reason the guy i spoke to earlier this week ordered an alternator instead of a starter motor which was somewhat iffy. I corrected the guy at the desk and was on my way.

Picked her up an hour ago. No need for any major parts. A nut holding a wire had come loose which stopped the starter from functioning. An indicator was replaced and something to do with the brakes was slackened off a bit.

Next car task: service and MOT.

Cars are great when they work

But a pain in the ass when they don’t. Had to get the AA out to give me a hand again with Serenity (my car)(guess where I took the name). Guy prodded the starter motor with a crowbar and she started up. Booked her into the local garage for next Friday. Lets hope she holds up until then.

In other news, my presentation went pretty well (aside from the technical difficulties at the start) mainly because I never spoke. I suck at presenting stuff so it was for the best that I remained silent.  Bonus: the lecturers never figured out that the program doesn’t work properly.

Exams next week…*headdesk*

Back Home

Short story, I am home along with my car. A tech showed up at about 3, fiddled about then rolled my car down a hill and it started. Yay!

Thankfully I had my laptop and an SD card of music to etertain me. I think that the problem is with the battery in the key being nearly dead. I have been meaning to replace it when the range of the door lock thing was decreacing to the point that I have to be next to my car to (un)lock it. If it doesn’t work then I have to take it to Peugot for lots of money.

Rage At Car

Stupid fucking car won’t fucking start. Fucking phone is nearly dead and a mechanic won’t be here till 3.10. Fuckshitdamnarrrrrrrgggggghhhhh!

Late

I think I left a bit too late for class today. Got a text in the car while I was driving, checked it when I was parked and found I was 15 minutes late for class. Left home an hour too late. Oops.

Sitting in the union just now, trying to dry off. The rain is a bastard at times. The front of my trousers and my boonie hat are soaked.

Should have checked the time before waiting for lunch. Oh well.