LEGO has released a press release stating that they will not be dropping the MINDSTORMS product line and that it was a misunderstanding about future product policies. Good, would have hated to see this product go away!

I decided to spend a little money to ensure that my controls source code is thuroughly safe on my home server. The other week I purchased a APC BR800 and it came in today. I tell ya what, this isn't a huge monster, but it does weigh a substantial amount. I hooked it up at work just to try it out, and with no problems at all, well except for getting the battery back in after you connect it, I had it up and running and connected to my laptop & monitor.

Without a monitor, it could support my laptop for about 80-90 minutes, but as soon as you hook that monitor up, it drops big time...down to 39 minutes...I never knew a monitor could draw so much energy. Good thing I let my monitors go to sleep after 10-20 min...saving a ton on electricity.

Anyways, I decided to give it a power outage to see what happens. Well, it started beeping and whala!, it kicked in and supplied power...nice. Now, I just hope things go just as smoothly when I hook it up to my server tonight. So, if you're looking for a good, semi inexpensive UPS system for you home, check out UniStorage as I got this one for $140 shipped, cheapest on the internet.

I did my monthly check on CodeLib to find out that my version (5.7) was highly outdated and 6.2 was just released on 1/12. Its a good thing too, because I went from 5.6 to 5.7 and there were a TON of bugs, so I'm happy to see that they were all fixed. Ohh, and user administration is now fully functional.

What I would like to see for this product, and it may be too much work, would be a Server/Client just like Vault, so I could install a database on my remote server and have web service access without opening up SQL Server across my router. How about it?

With all the talk yesterday about what to do when a DataGrid receives no data, and how v2.0 of ASP.NET should handle this, I decided to sit down and see if I could implement this as a custom server control.

Well after a few short hours, I've got a working EmptyDataGrid that inherits and extends the current DataGrid. It adds 2 new properties, EmptyDataTemplate and EmptyDataStyle. The behavior for displaying the datagrid is different depending on your data source, however. For example, if you use a DataSet/DataTable, you will see the columns at the top, and the EmptyDataTemplate as a row beneath that. However, if you use a DataReader as the data source, then you will only see the EmptyDataTemplate displayed.

If you're extremely excited to see this in action, let me know and I can post a sample. However, this control will not be released until I release v1.9 of my control set. Though, if you're in dire need, I can create a custom assembly with only this control, just let me know.  A custom assembly has been put together, however you need to contact me to receive it.  Note that this is not an official release of the control.

I've been given a task of researching if I can retrieve POP3 email and store it to Exchange.  Now, before you go giving me a ton of links to POP3 to Exchange products, read further.  I've already found a ton of these products, and the way we need this process to work, those products will not work.  I have, however, found a .NET component from DevMail .NET that will allow me to contact a POP3 server, download email, and save the emails as *.eml.

Now, heres where you come in...does anyone know of any components or have any reference to source code that will give me an idea if taking that saved EML file and saving it to a directory on the exchange server will work?  Better yet, if anyone can give me an idea of the storage system behind Exchange, that would be helpful as well.

Just came across this new site named <uber:ASP.NET>.  It looks promising, so lets see where it goes.

Paschal points out a good problem when using the Datagrid. I personally would like to see a new Template where the developer could decide if nothing is displayed or a message is displayed.  As I stated in my comments, I don't know how many times we've had to create 2 panels, 1 for showing the data, and 1 for displaying a message saying they'res no data.  How about it Microsoft?  Can this be done?

Over the past few weeks, I found it very difficult for me to keep track of all the bugs or enhancements that I wish to put in place for my next release.  So, I set out to find a (free) task list program that would suit my needs.  Well after a small Google search, I came across a Microsoft side project named TaskVision.  This server/client based program was fairly simple to setup and start using.  There are some weird quirks that I don't like, like not being able to remove projects or users as well as not having separate categories within projects.  Another thing that bugged me, was that after the installation of the client, you had to manually modify the App.config file to point to your personal server.  To me, this is a pain, and should have a configuration within the application to allow this.

The good thing about TaskVision, is that it is open source...so I guess if I wished to take the source and modify it to my needs, I could...though I think I should spend my time working on my next release.  Either way, its a good starter utility that uses Web Services to handle everything.  Other cool features are the ability to go “Offline” if need be...which is something else I wanted since I develop on my laptop with no internet connection sometimes.

So, if you're looking for a good free task list program, I suggest using TaskVision.

For those of you who do not live in Illinois, this may be of no concern to you, but I do have a crazy assumption of why our Gov. pushed the “Left Lane Law” through, so please read on.  Those who don't know the law that was put into effect on January 1, 2004, it states that for any four or more lane highway, motor vehicles cannot drive in the left lane unless overtaking another vehicle.

To me, this is just crazy...why do we need a law for this type of thing...well I've come up with a few assumptions of why:

1. People are stupid, and some people like to drive the speed limit in the left lane, thus inhibiting other people to pass them on the left and make us pass them on the right.
2. It allows police officers to more easily determine the “speeders” out on the road (like me).
3. We just needed another stupid law to put some extra money in the senator's pockets.

Driving back to my parents house tonight numbers 1 & 2 were just plain obvious, as I had to pass several cars on the right hand side and slow down several times as my Valentine One started blaring in my ear.  Either way, I think this law is just plain stupid. What are your thoughts?

So if you're reading this, you're obviously wanting a sneak peak... well its more of a press release (even though I'm not press) in a way.  Right... the sneak peek...so you're wondering, what does Matt have in store?  Well, how about a new control added to the eWorld.UI Control Set!  WHOA! Another one?  Yes, another one...its called the AccordionPanel, which is a subclass of my popular CollapsablePanel control.

But Matt!?!? What so special about the AccordianPanel (AP)?  Well, the AP allows you to have 1-N number of CollapsablePanel controls, in which if another AP control is expanded, and you expand another AP, all other AP's in a group are collapsed.  But, whats the big deal...well it can make a really cool menu system, similar to that of GotDotNet or, it may even remind you of Outlooks sidebar, that is if you set it up properly.

The only thing is, its not available just yet.  I'm currently working on v1.9 of my control set, which will include the AP control, and a ton of updates to my CollapsablePanel control.  Not to mention my never ending expanding of the CalendarPopup.  So, I guess the only sneek peak you'll get is if you become a Beta Tester, but don't fret... my beta versions are usually released publically around 2 weeks after a beta release.  So, until later...