So this last Tuesday I was able to go the local incarnation of the Visual Studio/Windows Server/SQL Server 2008 product launch. It was moderately fun and free. The training in the Dev track was pretty basic, so I didn't learn much except in the session on developing Office Business Applications with Visual Studio. I didn't know anything about that, so I learned some new stuff there. However, I don't ever do that kind of development (and don't really want to), so I'm not sure I'll be able to use much of what I learned. I should have taken a non-developer track. I probably would have learned more.

The greatest thing about going was the free software. I got a free copy of Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008, a voucher for a copy of SQL Server 2008 (not finished yet), and a copy of Vista with SP1 integrated. Getting the first three was the main reason I signed up. The last I didn't know about, so it was a pleasant surprise. Of course, at this point I don't have any hardware that will run it, so I need to find the cash to buy a new computer...

I think there are still some launch events happening around the country. So if you need the software, I recommend finding one near you if you can.

So I downloaded the new Silverlight 2.0 goodies and have played around with them a little. If you're using the Blend 2.5 preview, here's a tip. When you create a TextBlock it creates a TextBlock then puts the text in a Run element inside it. Afterwards, if you change the font size it changes it on the TextBlock and not the Run, and the changes don't affect the actual text. To fix this annoying bug, take the Text property of the Run and put it into the parent TextBlock element and delete the Run. After that you should be good to go.

But I guess this is what we get for using CTP's :)

If you are not a regular listener of .NET Rocks!, you should checkout the recent episode done (in part) with Scott Guthrie. He discusses a lot of the very interesting things coming down the pipeline for .NET developers.

If someone likes to blog, they probably blog most about what they are spending their time on. That has certainly been the case with me. Of course, I do spend a lot of time in tech. I do, after all, program for a living. But most of my programming as of late has been pretty typical asp.net programmer stuff, so not much to talk about. Instead I've been blogging almost exclusively on my other blog, Archaic Christianity. That's mostly because almost all of my free time has been focused on subject matter more relevant to that blog's audience (which is probably still quite small).

However, I am getting into more interesting techie stuff right now. Have you spent any time with ASP.NET MVC? I have for the last couple of days, and it is very interesting. I've already started gathering my thoughts on it so I can share. Maybe I can start doing that soon.

But, in general, I'm keeping myself very busy. The addition of a new version of myself named Samuel has kept me a little busy, though he is surprisingly low maintenance. His arrival made me miss the last NDDNUG meeting. I should be there next time. The last chat looked pretty interesting.

Anyway...later.

I have decided to split blogs and move my biblical studies related work to a new site, ArchaicChristianity.com. The blog is now basically functional and I have some book reviews up. I will continue to blog technical and personal thoughts here on this blog. When my biblical studies work crosses into the world of technology, you will probably see posts in both locations. If there is anything particularly important, I may crosspost that as well. But, in general, I think it is time for me to split my work.

If you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions, please drop me a note.

So what do you do with your spare time at work? I built an image viewer. Specifically, this image viewer is for viewing jpg files of New Testament manuscripts, digital images taken by the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. I have decided to make an installer and the source available, with a little description on my page about the application, which I call "Graphe".

Where did that name come from? It is from the Greek word γραφη, which means "writing", or "scripture". That seemed appropriate for an application with this kind of focus.

If you have any thoughts on improving the application, or questions on how to use it, please contact me. You can find my contact information here.

So what do you do with your spare time at work? I built an image viewer. Specifically, this image viewer is for viewing jpg files of New Testament manuscripts, digital images taken by the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. I have decided to make an installer and the source available, with a little description on my page about the application, which I call "Graphe".

Where did that name come from? It is from the Greek word γραφη, which means "writing", or "scripture". That seemed appropriate for an application with this kind of focus.

If you have any thoughts on improving the application, or questions on how to use it, please contact me. You can find my contact information here.

An organization that I work with, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, just this last summer took a trip to Patmos to take digital photographs of some of the biblical manuscripts there. I just uploaded the writeup of the trip. Fun times. One of these days, I hope to go on one of them. In the meantime, I will spend some time studying the fruits of their labor, the very interesting photographs. If you want to see the public images that they have available, you can view them starting from the manuscripts page.

This weekend I read an interesting book. Here's the summary from my book review:

Dungan has written a very interesting book in his Constantine's Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament. The point of the book can be summarized as follows: the idea of a canon comes from the Greeks, the early church used these ideas and came to a rough consensus, then Constantine jumped in and squashed all innovation and/or ability for the church to discuss this intelligently without fear of getting killed by said emperor. Now for a little more detail.

Read more...