understructure

“Cannot generate SSPI context” error message - SQL Server connectivity issue

2008-04-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

We were doing a ton of stuff to a named instance of SQL Server at my office yesterday, our QA SQL server to be exact, which sits on the same hardware as our development server. We didn't really do anything to our development (default) instance, other than reboot both nodes of the cluster about six times. Granted, this is going to cause some issues with connectivity, but as there are only two other developers, we were able to keep busy with other projects during the multiple failovers.

For some crazy reason, after I left last night, one of my developers couldn't connect to SQL Server anymore. I put a screenshot up from an application she's developing that connects Access 2007 to SQL 2005 (don't worry, this is a very small application connecting to a database with a very small user base).

I tried running NET TIME on her machine and on the node of the cluster that had ownership of SQL, but that didn't work. I couldn't imagine that the time was different between two nodes of the same cluster, so I didn't bother running it on the other node.

I tried a tracert to the server name, which went out to the Internet. That was strange but not the issue, I don't think.

I deleted and recreated the alias to the server in Configuration Manager. No luck.

I logged onto her machine as me, and was able to connect. Out of curiosity I checked her default database. When I tried to run SETUSER in that database to impersonate her account, it wouldn't let me, giving me an SSPI context error.

I set her default database to one she had user rights in, and that fixed the problem.

I'm really not sure how this could have happened, but it did. I'm just glad to have fixed it relatively quickly. I know there can be all sorts of causes of the dreaded SSPI error, and I just wanted to share what worked for me.

Homebrew Progress - Day 2

2008-01-21T21:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a video I made of the homebrew today. Enjoy!

Cherry Ale - Plan B

2008-01-20T21:07:00.000-08:00

So when I went to get the cherries for my Black Cherry Ale, I noticed that they were a little more per pound than I'd expected. I also noticed that there weren't as many pristine pounds as I'd hoped. Some were a bit wrinkly, some looked a little beyond prime, and some had mold growing on them.

Yuck.

So I headed to the Ballast Point Brewery's home brew store, and stood in line. After only a few minutes, one of the guys behind the counter recognized me as a brewer, and not just an avid fan of micro brews, and pulled me out of line. I explained my plight, and that I was looking to totally change my beer plan.

He pointed me towards some cherry puree, and I figured I'd go ahead as planned. They were out of the UK Progress hops, so we went with Bramlings Cross hops, a similar type of hop in that they're from the UK and have a relatively low alpha acid rating (6% i think for this batch).

Also, the guy who gave me the recipe for my light German ale that everyone's raving about suggested I not add the puree until the fermentation was complete, so I've decided to add it into the secondary fermenter.

I'll keep you posted.

Black Cherry Ale Recipe

2008-01-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

I've been brewing my own beer on and off for over 15 years now. I took a break after my friend Jeff moved to Japan and I replaced homebrewing with marathon training as my main hobby.

At this point, I'd had a hand in brewing about 12 different types of beer. This was my favorite.

This is a recipe for a beer I did towards the middle of my original stint as an avid homebrewer. I've just brewed my first batch in many, many years, and it turned out very well. But now, it's time to go back to a classic.

This stood out back then as the best beer I'd ever made. I'm excited to see how it will turn out this time.

Name of Beer : Black Cherry Ale
Original Date of Brewing : 1995-06-17
Volume of Beer : 5 gallons

Ingredients

8 lbs pale malt syrup
2 oz. u.k. progress hops (5.9 aa)
4 lbs black (Bing) cherries
2.3 ml readily pitchable California Ale Yeast

Details

Boiled water, added malt, added malt, added 1 1/2 oz. U.K. Progress Hops after returning mixture to boil

Nothing in the original instructions about adding finishing hops, but I'm sure it's 1/2 as nose or 1/4 as nose and 1/4 as finishing (5 minutes and 1 minute left in the boil)

Also nothing in the instructions about when to add or remove fruit, but I'd assume you wash the fruit first, then add it to the pot when it starts to boil again. Strain it out again before it's time to pour into primary

Move to secondary after about a week, then bottle after another week

Gravity and Alcohol Content

Original Gravity : 1.036

Final Gravity : 1.012

Alcohol Content : ~3.1% ABV

Google Sidebar launches non-default Web browser in Vista

2007-08-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

I finally tried out Google Desktop, including Google Sidebar, on my laptop running Vista. I really love it, especially the fact that I can tell it to Big Brother me and tailor content based on my Web surfing (and program use, possibly).

The one pain I found is that, even though FireFox is my default browser, it always launches links in IE. Apparently, it's a known issue and Google's planning to fix it in the next release.

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Desktop_How-do-I/browse_thread/thread/96ff7be4fa9f38e6/b4ff327f534b047e

ColdFusion Tutorial - Looping over a list

2007-08-05T09:46:00.001-07:00

This is a basic ColdFusion tutorial on how to loop over a list. It's pretty simple once you get the gist of it, but getting started can be tricky. Another reference can be found at Adobe LiveDocs.

Basically, there are five steps:

Define the list
Create a CFOUTPUT block
Create a CFLOOP block inside the CFOUTPUT block
Do something in the loop block
Show the results

This tutorial will show you step-by-step what to do.

1. Define the list

To loop over a list, you must first have a list to loop over. A list is a combination of different or same-typed values. Usually, lists are separated with commas, but you can use anything to separate lists. I usually use a bell character, but the default is a comma.

NOTE: Make sure that you do not have any spaces between your list elements.

<cfset radioList = "one,two,three" />

2. Create a CFOUTPUT block

A CFOUTPUT block consists of an open and a close CFOUTPUT tag. This tells the server to interpret anything between those two tags as ColdFusion code, so any string surrounded by pound signs (#) will be interpreted as a variable. If the variable hasn't been defined, CF will let you know it by crashing.

<cfoutput>
</cfoutput>

3. Create a CFLOOP block

You can perform a loop over many different things, including collections like arrays and structures, lists, and queries to name a few. You can also loop over stuff coming from COM objects, but that's advanced stuff.

To loop over a list, you have to define what list you're looping over, and what variable you're going to use to refer to the position in the list (here called the "index").

NOTE: Make sure that you use the variable called radioList ("#radioList#") and not just the string "radioList", because CF doesn't know that "radioList" is a variable here unless you tell it.

<cfloop list="#radioList#" index="i">

</cfloop>

4. Do something in the loop block

Between the opening and closing CFLOOP tags, you may define what will be done with every item in the list. I'm setting a few variables in the attributes scope to zero if they don't exist, like this:

<cfparam name="attributes.#i#" default="0" />

NOTE: Because this is inside a CFOUTPUT block, the code will render like this:

<cfparam name="attributes.one" default="0" />
<cfparam name="attributes.two" default="0" />
<cfparam name="attributes.three" default="0" />

5. Show the results

One of the greatest things ever in any language, machine or human, is CFDUMP. No, it's nothing disgusting, it's actually quite beautiful. What it does is spit out a structure, no matter how simple or complex, in a human-readable format. This helps when you've got a structure that might have arrays nested in other arrays nested in structures n levels deep (ever try dumping application.fusebox in a Fusebox 4+ application?).

<cfdump var="#attributes#" label="Results" />

Your full code should look like this:

<cfset radioList = "one,two,three" />

<cfoutput>
<cfloop list="#radioList#" index="i">
<cfparam name="attributes.#i#" default="0" />
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#attributes#" label="Results" />

Save the page with a .cfm extension and save in a test area of your development Web server. When you browse to the .cfm page you've created, the results should look something like this:

Now, if you add this line of code at the very beginning of your existing code:

<cfset attributes.one = 1 />

And browse to the page again, your results should look something like this:

CFPARAM just sets a default value for something, so in the first dump, all default values were assigned. In the second dump, we see that attributes.one already existed, and was assigned a value of "1". Because it already existed, the value was not overwritten.

L'il Bush Sucks, but not as much as W

2007-07-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

I watched this about as wasted as I could get, with my other brother Shawn, and I tell you what, no amount of enhancement could make this seem like a good idea. We were slurring our words, telling each other, "You know, we really should be checking out that infomercial on Fox News about how to live guilt-free and vote republican even though you know it's wrong."

Yeah, it's pretty bad.

I'm Just Here for the Carnage - RoboGames 2007

2007-06-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

So here I am in San Francisco, right on the water at Fort Mason for one of the "top geek events" in the U.S. (as proclaimed by Wired magazine). Let me tell you, if you've never had a cocktail mixed by a robot, you haven't lived.

Last night, some dudes brought in a serious robot - a biotech machine - that allowed them to make perfectly-layered B-52 shots. Each layer was measured out in picalitres.

Today, Roboexotica's Cockbot 1 is mixing and serving daquiris, Campari/oranges, and screwdrivers.

This is actually Cockbot 1.

I can't wait for tonight, when a flamethrowing 151 and Kahlua bot will be shooting a yard's worth of fire to ignite highly-flammible liquor.

Stay tuned...

Yes, Virginia, There Really Is an Open Parking Space in Hillcrest

2007-04-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

Man, my neighborhood is getting cracked out. At the liquor store tonight, everyone smelled like fruity vodka. But I did find a parking space tonight within 1/2 block of my apartment, which was nice.

p.s. I found this picture by searching Google images for "Fruity Vodka Barf"
p.p.s. If you see girls like this in my neighborhood, they're probably guys.

Tonight's Menu - Indian Night at Studio A

2007-04-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

I'm cooking for my friends at IbizaWestStudios tonight. Here's the menu:

Bombay Potatoes
Naan Bread
Mint Chutney
Chicken Tikka Masala Curry

Everything is homemade from scratch, with love. Even the curry powder and the tandoori powder are homemade. I've been up since 7:30 a.m. gathering secret ingredients and going to store after store in search of a few key things I've run out of. I always like to keep the kitchen stocked with ingredients for a few different cuisines:

Indian
Italian
Thai
Mexican

As well as having ingredients on-hand at all times to bake bread.

I honestly believe that if you've got a little arsenal of ingredients you'll want to cook more.

Get Me Out of Hillcrest

2007-04-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

I've known ever since I moved here three years ago that one day I'd get the hell out of this neighborhood. I came here by mistake, and I leave by fortune.

What I like about Hillcrest

I can walk anywhere I want
Lalo's Tacos
Bronx Pizza
My bank has a branch nearby

What I dislike about Hillcrest

I'm heterosexual
It's expensive as f*ck
There's too much frigging construction
I can never find a parking space

So finally, the fabled "right time" came to pass. Yes, even for a middle-class guy like myself, it finally happened. I'm getting the hell out of here and moving to a neighborhood no one's ever heard of.

Escrow closes in about three weeks. Wish me luck.