Interesting post here: XmlSerializer sans XSD about writing classes that will serialize to a specific xml format when you don't have an XSD. This seems like a lot of work though. Why not just use xsd.exe to generate the schema from the xml and then use that schema to generate your class(es)? Even if it isn't the exact end result you are looking for, it is a pretty good starting point.

I've had a laptop supplied through work for a while now. When I recently switched jobs, that wasn't part of the deal, so I decided to buy one myself. I have become too used to being able to take a computer with me when I go on vacation or to visit relatives, etc. Plus it's nice to be able to sit in any room in the house and use it.

I bought an HP Compaq Presario R3000T. I have had it for a week and I am very happy with it. I ordered it through Costco.com. When you order through them, you get to customize it. I chose:

• Pentium 4 3.4GHz w/HT
• WinXp Pro
• 1.0 GB RAM
• 80 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
• 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
• 15.4" WVA WUXGA Display (1920x1200)
• Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
• DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive

It ended up being about $2200. Not bad, I wasn't able to find anything with similar specs for the same price on IBM, Toshiba or Dell's sites. Apparently, this model has the same guts as the HP Pavillion zx5000, so if you like the case better on that, it is about the same price.

I've installed Visual Studio .NET 2003 and 2005, SQL Server Express, etc. and it runs everything great. No problems so far. Just one oddity though. Every driver was installed except for the Bluetooth driver. I find it strange that HP installed every other driver, but didn't install the Bluetooth driver. It wasn't an oversight either; the documentation talks about installing the Bluetooth driver as the first step in getting started using the Bluetooth functionality.  Go figure.

Wow, it seems like we just patched for some big IE vulnerability and now there are more again. Glad I switched!

Steele has an interesting post about some of the mis-conceptions about VB.NET. I agree with him about how outrageous the list is, but I still like C# syntax vs. VB syntax. Just a personal preference really. I feel silly typing things like "Friend" and "Me" when I write code ;)

Sveasoft is offering their WRT54G firmware for free. You can read about it here. I like it because it allows you to configure certain options that weren't available in the official firmware. Like being able to select the NTP server to use. It also adds some things like SSHD and a PPTPD server. Although, I haven't been able to get the PPTPD server to allow me to connect yet. Maybe this new version will have that fixed. I was using an earlier version and haven't installed the latest one yet.

I just finished adding FreeTextBox 2.0.7 to my installation of .Text. It was a little painful, but not too bad. FreeTextBox 2.x has support for Mozilla and FireFox. Since I have decided to start using FireFox, I wanted to be able to still use the rich editing for posting to my blog. Here's what I did:

• Get the browsercaps settings from here and place the one for Gecko in the web.config file
• Add this method to the Admin/WebUI/Utilities.cs file:

internal static bool CheckIsIE55OrGecko(){
 return ("IE" == HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.Browser && 
 (HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MajorVersion > 5 ||
 (HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MajorVersion >= 5 && 
 HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MinorVersion >= 5)) || 
 (("gecko" == HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.Browser.ToLower()) &&
 HttpContext.Current.Request.Browser.MajorVersion >= 1));
}

•  Change every instance of "Utilities.CheckIsIE55()" to "Utilities.CheckIsIE55OrGecko()" in Admin/UserControls/EntryEditor.ascx.cs
• Change line 95 in Admin/UserControls/EntryEditor.ascx to this:

<FTB:FreeTextBox id="ftbBody" runat="server" width="98%" visible="true" />

• Change all references to FreeTextBox 1.x in the DotText projects to reference FreeTextBox 2.0.7.

• Upload all the new binaries and the ascx file to your site.

I also switched to the "blue" theme, since "lighty" just doesn't quite look right with FireFox.

Seems like everyone is going nuts over Gmail. Its mail, big deal. OK, they do offer quite a bit of space, but do you really need (or want) to keep 1 GB of mail hanging around? Sure, it has a search feature, but I can search my mail in Outlook now. What's better about Gmail's search? I'm not trying to be smart, I really would like to hear about it. This site has some interesting things to say about it... Seems a little paranoid, but they do have some points.

If you have a PDA and a laptop, or you sync with multiple PCs, this cable is great. It will handle syncing and will also charge your PDA right from the power supplied by the USB port. I ordered one on the 6th and received it the 8th. I'm pretty happy with Meritline.com. The cable was only $15 including shipping and they shipped it the same day I ordered it.

I'd like to get my blog looking better in Firefox. I found a little tip here, but it still isn't perfect. I haven't done any serious cross-browser development in years, so I'm not even really sure why it is messed up in Firefox. Guess I'll have to do some experimentation and see what happens.