{balki Blog}
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We had a great time over this long weekend.  We took a (quite a long) trip to Florence and Gold Beach trusting the weather-man's forecast for a goregeous weekend.  We couldn't be more wrong! 

After we drove half the way to Florence, it started raining heavily and we lost all hopes for the weekend.  However, we got extremely lucky and by the time we reached Sand Dunes Frontier in Florence, the rain suddenly stopped.  We were still doubtful about the weather out there in the dunes, but we took a chance and rented the quad ATVs for an hour any way.  We had a blast of a time.  We took the quads up and down the highest hills in the dunes and even learned how to get the ATV out of the sand when it is stuck

We started driving further south around 3pm and reached the completely dead town of Gold Beach, OR around 5pm.  We checked into the hotel, had a very relaxed, calm and uneventful evening (something that does not happen in our hectic trips!).  I do not know if it was the day or the time but the streets of Gold Beach were completely dead and I hardly saw a dozen people in the 1 hour I was on the streets looking for food!

We woke up all excited early on Sunday morning to get to our day-long jet boat ride on the Rogue river.  We had a fantastic time on the boat and never felt bored throughout the 6-hour 104-mile ride. 

Again our concerns about the weather were unfounded and it did not rain a bit.  The weather was not perfect but we did not mind the clouds and the cold at all as we were awed by the beauty and the wilderness of the river.  We saw several animals including a bear, bald eagles, sea otters, sea lions, deer and fishermen proudly showing of their prize salmon catch!

Not everything in the trip was perfect, though.  Yes, I got a speeding ticket (freaking 141$ fine) again driving 45 mph on a 30 mph road.  Maanasa is giving me so much BS about how over-cautious I am when driving and hence end up with tickets like these while she gets to boast about 90 mph speeding tickets!  I am still waiting for a chance to get back at her…

Anyways, if you ever get a chance do not miss these two places.  I also highly recommend Jerry's Rouge Jets for your ride on the river.  They have fantastic service and knowledgeable/experienced pilots.  You have to trust me… you will have a great time!

Several friends questioned the validity of this whole blogging thing I have been advocating lately. I definitely believe I am a better person since I started subscribing to others’ blogs and writing my own (humble) blog.

I would have never known about people like Cliff Atkinson and his revolutionary Beyond Bullet Points concept, Dave Allen and his wonderful Getting Things Done concept. There are several other blogs I am currently subscribed to for personal, technical and professional reasons. Here’s a short list of my current subscriptions (list exported from my RssReader and viewed with XmlMarker):

You can also directly import the attached file (rssreader_export.xml) in your RssReader.

Again, if you search for and test-drive blogs in your area of interest, I am absolutely sure you will definitely find some winners that will change your life for the better. Take my word on this one and start/keep blogging.

For any of you that uses Peter Blum Validation & More, you already know it is pretty simple to validate the controls on the page from the server-side. Just use the Page.IsValid() method.

However, checking for validation is a little subtle and I did not find it in the otherwise exapansive User’s guide. Here is how you do it:

var vIsValid = VAM_ValidateGroup(’*', false);
if (!vIsValid)
{
return;
}

Update: Here’s an inevitable link to Scott H.’s blog with an a**-kicking reviewof Peter Blum’s Validation And More Suite.

Last weekend suddenly Maanasa had this irressitble urge to get an iPod. You see, she commutes to downtown on the Max train and has been watching numerous commuters stylishly show off their iPods. We had gift cards for 200$ and that would’ve been enough to buy a decent 4GB iPod mini. But, being the overambitious and think-ahead-in-time kind of guy, I insisted that we pay 350$ to get the brand new iPod photo. Believe me it was in very good judgment.

Anyways, I spent the first two nights playing with the different features on the iPod and the best feature I like is the way we can view the cover art while listening to a particular song. At first I started downloading the cover art from IMDB, amazon and yahoo for each song but soon realized that it was quite a daunting task. Then I found the iArt software which first catalogs all the songs in your iTunes and then goes out onto Amazon to find the appropriate coverart and embeds into the song. The software is slow but works very well.

I believe this is only the beginning of the usefulness of our iPod. Before Maanasa realizes, I intend to fill up the entire 30GB space on her iPod with geekier and geekier content syndicated from the various podcasts available via iPodder. Say good bye to Maansa’s 2-hour commute of fun-filled Z100-type music listening. Here comes iPodder!!!

The best way to keep track of the blog is to download one of the many good RSS content readers available for free (the one I like most is RssReader, available as a free download.

Then follow these simple steps to syndicate my blog:

1) Go onto my blog site and find the hyperlink icon called “XML” at the top of the left navigation bar, right-click and select “Copy Shortcut”.

2) Open the RssReader software and select the option “Add new feed” available in the Tool bar menu with a “+” symbol. The short-cut will be automatically filled in for you. Click “Next” twice and “OK” once to complete the syndication process. That’s all!

There are millions of blog sites available on the internet and you can add any of those to your RssReader and you will be notified immediately of any updates that happen to the particular blog.

Let me know how you like the blog…
You can always provide feedback as part of your comments.

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