The New Penny Doesn't Make Sense

The US Mint unveiled some pretty spiffy looking prototypes for next years new one cents pieces celebrating the life of Abraham Lincoln.
The only problem with the new coins is that, being shiny and all, they will start to renew interest in pennies, and some people might collect a few of them. No harm there, really, except it costs you and I money.
To produce a penny last year cost 1.67 cents, so every penny saved in a drawer somewhere is costing the US government, (i.e., you and me), 0.67 cents.
Now the new quarters with pictures of different states adorning them was pure genius. Many people bought the little blue books and started collecting all fifty of them. This is great for our country since it only costs 9.78 cents to make a quarter, we make 15.22 cents on each quarter taken out of circulation. (It's kinda like a tiny savings bond each time someone throws a quarter into the back of a drawer).
Unfortunately, with the penny, encouraging collecting just doesn't make sense.

Plastics - the Lead Wine Bowls of our Times

In ancient Rome the citizens enjoyed hot, spiced wine mixed in lead bowls. During preparation, the hot acidic wine would leach the toxic lead from the bowl and into the drink. No one paid the practice a second thought. With so much lead in their bodies, it's no wonder some of the emperors went crazy (see Mad Hatter).
My hunch is that plastics are the lead wine bowls of our time. Reports like this and this are coming out regularly suggesting damage from bisphenol A (BPA), an ingredient in some plastics.
The most damaging evidence so far is that people with the highest BPA levels were three times more likely to have heart disease.
Perhaps our descents will look back centuries from now and wonder in amazement, "They used plastics for drinking hot liquids?"

LHC Rap

I loved this new rap video by some scientists at the Large Hadron Collider. Perhaps this is the future of all science textbooks?

The Beauty of Sarah Palin's Underrated Experience

I hear a lot of concern in the blogoshere about how Sarah Palin does not have the experience for being Vice President. Well, she has a little discussed experience which is critical for the job and being ignored by the mainstream media - she was runner-up in the Miss Alaska Beauty Pageant! For an entire year she was a heartbeat away from the top spot. She had to be ready for that 3am phone call that the official Miss Alaska was somehow been disgraced (read: internet photos) and could no longer fulfill the pageant duties. Sarah had to be on top of her game and be ready for the press conference the next morning. Sarah is ready for the same type of challenge.
I get tired of all this Sarah bashing. Leave Sarah Alone.

SqlServer Timeout Expired Exception

One of our users emailed and said he got the following exception with a reporting query:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired.  
The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.   
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)

The exception just started happening because the database has slowly been increasing to where the report query fails to finish in a timely manner. The timely manner is 30 seconds, the default for .Net database connections.

You can increase the default time of 30 seconds by using the "CommandTimeout" field on the "Command" object as shown below:

using (connection) {
    SqlCommand sqlcommand = connection.CreateCommand();
    sqlcommand.CommandTimeout = 60; //default is 30 seconds
    sqlcommand.CommandText = sqlText;
    ... 

Don't be misled by the database connection string option, "Connection Timeout", e.g., "Data Source=myMachine; Integrated Security=SSPI; database=Northwind;Connection Timeout=60". That timeout is for getting the connection, not for how long it queries the database.

Car Buying Tips

I just bought a new car this weekend and wanted to share some tips:
1. Go to Edmunds.com to price your dream vehicle.
2. Get a small notebook (a physical paper-thingy, oddly enough, they still make them) and keep all your notes in one place. Staple business cards into the notebook. I had scraps of paper everywhere and it was a mess.
3. When you first visit a dealership, ask for someone from the internet department - they can get you the best deals. Better yet, phone ahead and make an appointment.
4. When you've got your car model, trim number, and options set, use Edmunds.com to send an email to all the dealers near you asking for a quote on a car. Ask for the Vin# of the auto. I had a car swapped out from under a deal at a dealership. It was suppose to have a certain option for the price, but oddly enough didn't.
5. Ask for the car price and the final "drive-out" price.
6. After getting the best deal, email all the losers and ask if they can meet the price.
7. After getting the best price, take a copy of the email with you to the dealership, just in case, like in my situation, the dealership forgot the low price quoted.

Find Duplicates of Your Images on the Web with TinEye

I like a new startup named, TinEye. It searches its archives of the web for the original or altered versions of your photos. I asked it to track down one of my photos and it found five unauthorized copies floating around on various sites. (Not that it matters to me, any publicity is good, but I could at least ask for a link back).