I am sure all of you have heard about kids getting a little out of control on the Internet.  Well, I can vouch for them needing to be watched like a hawk.  My son Colton, who is only 10 years old, took it upon himself to modify the Wikipedia entry for 'Colton, California'.  he thought it would be good to add the entry 'Colton Teegarden (1997-?) - Colton's last city-marshal ' under Famous Residents.  I can assure you my son Colton was never the city-marshal.  Luckily someone else has figured this out too, and removed the entry.  I did capture a screen shot before it was corrected.

Even though this is a very small 'hack', make sure you kids are not getting in to trouble on the Internet without you knowing!

My son and I are big XBOX fans.  We bought the original XBOX console sometime in early 2003.  It got quite a bit of use through the beginning of 2007 when we were disappointed there were hardly any new games coming out for it.  Finally in July of 2007 we talked Lanie's Mom into getting us a 360 Elite as a combined birthday present for me and Colton.  We got a few games and have been adding to the collection ever since.  We were stuck on Halo 3 for a while along with Guitar Hero III and Rock Band.  Ever since Call of Duty 4 came out I have had a hard time going back to those games.  Before playing on-line, I spent a few ours beating the game on veteran.  Some of the levels were quite challenging, especially Mile High Club, 60 seconds isn't very much time to get to the end of the level.

All was great in 360 land until the end of March 2008.  My Call of Duty 4 started freezing up.  It didn't matter if I played on line or in single player.  I tried some older games and had no issues so I thought it might be the disc.  After buying a used disc, I found out it wasn't that either.  Finally I got the dreaded "Red Ring of Death" - Ugh!

I called the 1-800-4MY-XBOX and went through the steps so they could send me the "coffin" that I would use to pack it up and send it back.  All went well with the process right up until the 17th of April.  That is the day I got a notification my console was being shipped back.  I checked the UPS site and saw the familiar message "Billing information has been sent to UPS. Check site later for updated shipment status or contact shipper for more details."  OK, no problem I will give it over the weekend to get updated.  I check back on Monday the 21st and it still says the same things.  After repeated (at least 6 or 7) calls to support and them telling me things like, "Call UPS, they can tell you where it is." or "A supervisor will call back and let you know where your XBOX is."  I finally got upset on the 28th - 11 days after they said it was on the way and said, "If you can't find it ship me a new one, I am tired of waiting."  I was able to talk to a supervisor and they said they would send me a new one, gave me a new tracking number and all.

I checked the UPS site this morning and it said it was out for delivery - Woo Hoo!  I could hardly believe it.  I got home and opened the box - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  They sent me a junky white box - I had the nice looking black elite with HDMI.  Another call to XBOX Service and another promise of them calling me back tomorrow.  They just can't get it right!  They are sending me another 'coffin', I told them I am holding this one hostage until I get my new console.  What a joke!

2008 National Jump Start Testing - Tulsa, OK

Olivia qualified at the state level to attend JumpStart testing at the national level, which was this past January in Tulsa, OK.  JumpStart is a a special program designed to identify future elite athletes, specifically in trampoline and tumbling, which is not even her primary sport, so when her coach first invited her to train for the program, I figured yeah right, whatever.  However, Olivia's Red Nan happened to take her to gym on the night when the official invitations were handed out, and made promises to her that she could do the program and Nan would take her to Tulsa if she qualified.  I wasn't thrilled to add a 5th night to her practice schedule, but Olivia was enthusiastic, and how could I say no to that?

In the beginning, I really didn't have a lot of information on this program, and wasn't expecting a lot to happen, especially because she was so new to the sport.  Her coach assessed her and she had the skills to attend the State meet, which happened to be at our gym.  Testing is closed, so I had no idea how she did, and it took a while for results to be official, because they needed to be posted by all the states across the nation.  When all was said and done, she qualified in tumbling for National Testing.  So, Olivia had this promise from her Nan that she would take her to Tulsa, and off we went, having no idea what to expect.  This is an annual event, hosted by USA Gymnastics, for kids between the ages of 7-12, coming from all over the United States, and of the many who come, only 21 are chosen.  They are tested on strength, flexibility, speed, skills and routines.  The top 3 from each age group (7-8, 9-10, 11-12) are automatically selected, and then the next top 12 are chosen regardless of age.  This 21 is supposed to show the highest potential of being successful elite athletes. 

Olivia, I could just squish her I was so proud, took 1st place in her age group, which meant she was named to the 2008 National JumpStart Team.  You can see her name on the official USAG website and everything, which was very exciting.  Because she was on the team, she was invited to attend the US National Team Training Circuit, with the US Pre-elite National Team and the National Team coaches.  Their training camp was in Sacramento, CA, this past March.  She got to travel with a good friend from the gym, make some new friends at the camp, sleep in a hotel, eat in restaurants with her coaches, get sparkly new leos and sweats, and see the Jelly Belly Factory - she had a blast.  At the end of it all, she had only one question... when's the next travel meet??

Extension Methods in VS 2008
If you ever wish you could add a method to an existing class without having to inherit, then you can rest easily knowing that this new feature in VS 2008 could save you some headaches. 

Let’s say for example you have the need to strip HTML tags from strings all throughout your code.  You could write a shared function and call it like so:

    Dim comments As String
    comments = WebUtils.StripHtml(Me.txtComments.Text)

Where the shared function to strip the HTML looks like:

    Public Shared Function StripHtml(ByVal html As String) As String
        If html Is Nothing OrElse html = String.Empty Then
            Return String.Empty
        Else
            Return Regex.Replace(html, "<(.|\n)+?>", String.Empty)
        End If
    End Function

Which isn’t a bad way to go, but what if you could extend that sealed String class?  What if you would like it to show up using IntelliSense?  Would that make things much easier?

    Dim comments As String
    comments = Me.txtComments.Text.StripHtml

I would say the code is even more readable then the previous example.  The only difference between the two methods is the added:  <Extension()> _

    <Extension()> _
    Public Function StripHtml(ByVal html As String) As String
        If html Is Nothing OrElse html = String.Empty Then
            Return String.Empty
        Else
            Return Regex.Replace(html, "<(.|\n)+?>", String.Empty)
        End If
    End Function

Once you have your [Extension()] ready to go, you can see the results using IntelliSense.  Notice your new extension method has a down arrow just to the left of the extension name?  Thus you will always know if you are calling an extension method, or a native method of the class.

The obvious downfall of using extension methods would be software engineers starting to use them like they are going out of style.  If the situation calls for it one should use inheritance, but this could be a quick way to add that one method you need without having to use the inherited class all throughout your code.

I took the first videos with the new HV20 on one of our camping trips to Ocotillo Wells.  I have a lot of practice I need to do with the camera, but overall it went pretty well.  I used all the default settings out of the box, no filters or equipment.  I did learn learn that slow panning and optical image stabilization can make the movement look jerky as you pan and it is trying to compensate.

I am pleased with the quality of the video coming of the camera.  I wish I had more time to spend editing video.  It can be such a time consuming process to get right.  I think for the first stab in HD format it came out pretty good.  Let me know what you think.