I'm digging into SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to see what it offers in terms of application / server monitoring.

The specific scenario I have in mind is the monitoring of queues in MSMQ for our NServiceBus windows services. We need email alerts to be triggered if a message is moved to the error queue or if the number of items in a queue exceeds a certain threshold.

I'm working on a Windows 7 x64 laptop so the first thing I had to do was install the SNMP service (Under CP > Programs and Features).

After that was installed I had to restart the services applet and right click > Properties > Security on the SNMP Service and create a "public" community.

After this I had to download a command line tool Net-SNMP for issuing SNMP queries to test all was well.
I opted for the basic installation and uncheck all the other options.
Open a new command prompt so that it picks up the PATH variable added during installation then run the following command

snmptranslate -IR -Td IF-MIB::linkDown

See the README.txt for the correct response but if you see no errors you are in good shape.

Next download SnmpTools Follow the instructions. I opted to install the 32bit version using the regagentWow6432.reg
Restart the Microsoft SNMP Service then run the command:
snmpget -v1 -c public localhost 1.3.6.1.4.1.15
If all is well you should see:
SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.15 = STRING: "snmptools by erwan.l@free.fr"

That's all for now but I will update this post again.

As Promised Part 2

I have made a little more progress accessing the MSMQ Performance counters

I have added the following two lines to the Counters.ini file and restarted the SNMP Service:

[1.3.6.1.4.1.15.5]

counter=MSMQ Queue\Messages in Queue\acerbotic\private$\distributordatabus

Now when I issue the following snmpget query from the command line:

snmpget -v1 -c public localhost 1.3.6.1.4.1.15.5

I see the response:

SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.15.5 = INTEGER: 2

Thus indicating there are two messages in the private$\distributordatabus queue on my laptop.

The End Game

At time of writing it seems that in order to allow our SNMP monitoring software to access this OID I need to supply it with a MIB file.

The story continues...

I have found this page that talks about using a MIB editor to create such a file.

Conclusion

SNMP is a great way to monitor your application, but it involves a good deal of upfront investment if you don't already have a developer on your team who is proficient. We don't have such a developer so have decided to use the .Net framework to expose peformance counters and use WMI to monitor those counters. If the thresholds we set are exceeded we will get alerts.

Yesterday I attended my first UK SQL Server User Group meeting.
Event web page

Topics

- SQL Server I/O - Tony Rogerson
- Understanding how Sql performs Joins with NestedLoops, Merge & Hash - Ami Levin
- DbSophic QURE - Workload Tuning - Ami Levin
- SQL Streaminsight - Allan Mitchell - twitter: @allanSQLIS

I was most interested in the first topic but missed the talk as I did not arrive till 18:30 and the evening started @ 17:30. I don't finish work till 18:00 and had to get across town. Of the three talks that I caught the content and delivery was at a very high standard.

Understanding how Sql Server performs Joins with NestedLoops, Merge & Hash - Ami Levin

If you write a lot of SQL queries or are often called upon to tune SQL Server then you should learn how/why the query optimizer selects from three physical operators to perform joins and how sometime it can be caught out. This talk was given by Ami Levin who is a SQL MVP and works for DBSophic. It was really interesting and the first time I have had any understanding of what these terms that appear in the execution plan mean. One really interesting thing that Ami pointed out is that sometimes the method Sql uses to estimate the number of rows and actual number of rows will differ by a large amount, this can result in a sub optimal operator being selected to perform the join. If when tuning you spot this sort of discrepancy further investigation is warranted. The following is a scenario that Ami gave when this can occur:

SELECT *
FROM SalesLT.SalesOrderHeader SOH
INNER JOIN SalesLT.SalesOrderDetail SOD ON SOH.SalesOrderID = SOD.SalesOrderID
INNER JOIN SalesLT.Product P ON P.ProductID = SOD.ProductID
WHERE SOH.TotalDue > 1500
AND SOD.UnitPrice > 300
AND P.StandardCost > 300

So in the SQL above the optimizer will use statistics to estimate roughly how many rows it will return by looking at each table in turn and estimating how many rows each where clause will return. In this case say that each Where clause will return ~1% of the rows in a table containing 100k rows so the optimizer estimates the number of rows to be 1% of 100,000 = 1000 rows then, 1% of 1000 = 10, then 1% of 10 < 1. So the optimizer thinks 1 row or less will be in the results set. Unfortunately what the optimizer cannot know is that the where clauses are releated to the data, in this case ORDERS that cost more and have more expensive unit cost and a higher so the actual number of rows returned will be nearer to 1000, hence why sometimes the optimizer can choose a sub optimal physical operator to perform a join.

If you think the wrong operator is being chosen you can use the OPTION keyword this article discusses in more detail:

I am interested in the Microsoft MVC framework so with a view to understanding it properly I decided to pick an open source project that uses it to help me understand what a real implementation looks like. I heard Phil Haack talking on the Herding Code podcast about subtext and it sounded like it is using some interesting technologies, MVC, Lucene & URL routing^.

Installation on Windows 7 for Development

My Development Platform
- Windows 7 64bit
- Visual Studio 2008 Professional
- Sql Server 2008 (10.0.2531) - 64bit Enterprise
- SVN Revision Number: 4007

Here are the steps I had to complete to begin debugging subtext.
1) Check out the source code - follow this link: http://code.google.com/p/subtext/source/checkout
    or if you have an SVN command line client you can try the command below but it may become out of date.
    svn checkout https://subtext.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ subtext-read-only
   
    TIP: When I attempted to checkout the code on my laptop with a 3g dongle I kept getting the error:
         svn: Server sent unexpected return value (400 Bad request) in response to OPTIONS request for 'http://subtext.googlecode.com/svn/trunk'
         Change the URL to HTTPS://... resolved the issue, I think the cause was a silent proxy.
2) Setting up the database.
    If you have Sql Server installed on your dev machine I think that the idea is that the database will install the first time you run the solution.
    On my machine I had to manually attach the database myself.
        - Open up Sql Server Management Studio and select 'Attach Database'.
        - Navigate to the sub folder <SVN Checkout Folder>\src\Subtext.Web\App_Data
        - If a Log file appears with a message not found delete it then hit ok.
        - Then I updated the connection string to "Data Source=LOCALHOST;Initial Catalog=Subtext2.5;Integrated Security=SSPI;", this can be found in the          Subtext.web web.config
       
3) At this point if all is well you should be able to run the soltion and get the "Installation Wizard" page:
    Step 2: Configure the Admin Account (I just followed the instructions and completed the form)
    Step 3: Create A Blog (I just clicked the button)
   


Some useful reading
http://code.google.com/p/subtext/wiki/DeveloperGuide - Some basic info on getting started with development
http://subtextproject.com/Features-and-Requirements.ashx - Details of features and resources.
svn checkout https://subtext.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ subtext-read-only

Installation on specific Hosting Sites

softsyshosting

Go Daddy

These are listed best first, if the app is only relavent to UK users like myself it will have #UK after

Ebay

The Ebay iphone app is awesome, with only 480x320 pixies Ebay have managed to create a user experience that blows away it's own website. Admitedly the the Ebay website does not set the bar very high. The UI is clean and functional search is easy and it remembers your searchs. Once you have found the item you wish to bid on or buy it takes only 3 clicks to enter your bid and one more to confirm. For me this is the app that all other shopping app's should aspire to.

Tube Map - #UK

A great tool to help you navigate Londons Underground

Ping

Great tool for techies allows you ping, tracerout and telnet.

Twitterific

One of several twitter clients available very handy for catching up on twitter.

Facebook

No explanation necessary

OS: Windows 7 64bit Home Premium
VPN Client: Shrew Soft

Updates installed:
Definition Update for Windows Defender - KB915597 (Definition 1.75.1050.0)
Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB971468)
Cumulative Security Update for ActiveX Killbits for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB978262)
Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB975560)
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - February 2010 (KB890830)
Update for Rights Management Services Client for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB979099)
Security Update for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB978251)

Solution:
Turned off firewall for internal / private networks

We have been recruiting lately and so I have been interviewing lots of developers. We need a good all rounder someone who has a good grasp of building public websites in an OO style and is comfortable with TSql, Unit Testing, Web Services etc.

Most of the candidates interviewed have been technically strong enough as the skills required are fairly common. The other key part to this role is to act as a sounding board for brainstorming the options on how a new piece of functionality could be implemented e.g. how long it is likely to take and the options available. To do this a good high level understanding of the structure of the application and the object hierarchy would need to be developed first so were looking for a candidate who can quickly get to grips with the existing codebase. Finally we need someone who can work closely with the product manager with the specs and can interpret the specifications and fill in the blanks.

So on the face of it, not to demanding a job spec, but on top of this the position calls for some great interpersonal skills and professionalism. These are my own thoughts on what constitutes a 'professional' developer.

• Does not rush code into production.
  
• Knows when code is ready to be deployed to staging.
• Understands the importance of system security
• Understands why writing code that is testable is important.
• Knows how to write useful unit tests.
  
• Assumes newly written code will fail until this has been proven not to be the case by testing it.
  
• Understands why a development team needs coding standards.
• Understands why logging is important and what to log.
• Makes life easy for those who must deploy the application
• Understands the importance of documentation and how to write and maintain useful documentation.
• Makes code as readable and understandable as possible.
• Develops a good understanding of the business in which they work.
  
• Is open to new ideas and enjoys debate.
• Adopts a realistic & optimistic attitude to new business ideas.
• Enjoys solving problems and working together with others.
• Understands the value of prototyping and production experiments.
• Offers support to co-workers
• Is passionate about writing software
• Continuously strives to improve their own skill set.
• Is constantly evaluating new tools and technologies.
• Has an opinion.
• Admits when they do not know something or are weak in a particular area.
• Admits when they make a mistake and identifies ways of not repeating the same mistake.
  
• Can evaluate the risks of a particular approach.
• Is fun to work with and enjoys their job.
• Takes responsibility for solving a problem regardless of whether they caused it or not.
• Communicates when a project is falling behind and takes action to remedy the situation.
• Is enthusiastic.
• Is proactive at suggesting new / better ways of doing things.
  

Well Santa very kindly got me a new laptop for christmas, I will record my user experience here.

Firstly let me clarify which version of this machine I have and it's spec, Acer have not marketed this product and it's cousins very well.

Spec:

• Screen 13.3" 16:9 - Max Res: 1366 x 768
• Weight 1.6 Kg
• No Optical Drive
• Battery 5600 mha - claimed life 8 hrs
• CPU dual core ULV 1.3 Ghz U4100
• RAM 4GB
• OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
  
• HD 250GB
• Built in Webcam
  
• PSU 65w
  

Cost ~£500 can be found cheaper on a few sites.

First Impressions

It is light and feels well put together. The keyboard is very different from my old dell x300, it has mac style flat keys which I am starting to prefer. I will be using it mainly for development in visual studio and Sql server 2008. Installing these applications took some time but not too long.

I removed most of the software that came bundled with the machine I find this a nuisance but I'm sure it allows manufacturers to reduce prices. Windows 7 is a breath of fresh air but as I have never used vista there is a steeper learning curve. The first thing I did was setup a quick launch toolbar. It is starting to become clear the quick launch bar is redundant now you can pin programs to the task bar.

Second Impressions

I have been using this laptop for just over a month now so have some feedback. Generally I am enjoying one annoyance is the single button pivoted mouse buttons. The main problem is the action of the button require too much pressure and you cannot feel if you are ove the left or right click. Other than this one annoyance it has been a very positive first month, I think most of this is down to moving from XP => Win7. Battery life is impressive on light duties 8 hours is achievable with constant use 5 hours no problem.

How to create a factory default disc

Acer do not supply a recovery disc, instead they supply software to allow you to create your own discs. If you have an external DVD burner and three blank DVD's you'll have no problem. If not you can download the demo version of Virtual CD v10 (google it) this will allow you to create a virtual DVD burner and create three ISO files that should be kept somewhere safe or burned to DVD using another PC. Should you need to recover your machine you will probably have to go and purchase an external DVD drive to perform the recovery process.

Cisco VPN on Windows 7 64bit

This is probably an edge case but I could not get my hands on a version of a Cisco VPN client that would run under my OS. Our IT guy pointed me to the Shrew Soft Vpn (google it) Client. If you have .pcf files for your VPN connections these can be imported. I have only just tested it and I have just had a BSOD so watch this space to see how I get on. One negative point is that you have to type in your username + pwd each time you connect. In the Cisco client it remembered your username.

Upgrading to an SSD

When I got this laptop I decided that as soon as prices for SSD drives became more reasonable I would upgrade. The drive that shipped with with it was a Segate momentus 5400.6 250GB  PN: 9HH132-188. Looking at the version of this laptop that ships with and SSD it seems Acer have selected Intel's X25 80GB SSD. I need a minimum of 160GB due to one large DB that I need to work on currently the 160GB version of these drives cost ~£300 so I am wondering if now is the time to take the plunge or wait a few more months to see if prices fall.

http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/12/help-saving-mysql.html

Sun acquired MySql now Oracle are trying to acquire Sun, this could be bad for companies that use MySql. It seems likely Oracle will kill off MySQL by starving it of resource in order to protect it's current database products.

So if you are using Microsoft Sql Server and have a big smug smile on your face I would urge you to think about what Microsoft's reaction to the death of MySql will be. Ask yourself would they be offering all the free / low cost versions of Sql Server if MySql had not been around as a viable alternative?

It looks like the only hope is the EC who are worried about the effect Oracle buying Sun will have on competitivness in the market place, if this effects you read the blog post linked to at the top of this post it advises you what you can do about this.

If like me you listen to spotify at work on speakers and would like to allow your workmates to be able to select tracks then you can use the collaborative playlist feature.

One person in the office needs to create a new playlist, call it somthing like 'Office' then right click on the playlist and check 'Collaborative playlist'. Then right click again and select 'Copy Spotify URI' then simply paste the link into an email and send it to your work colleagues. They have to paste it into their spotify and they will be able to see the playlist, add to it and re-order it. They cannot pause or skip the track though. When the last track in the playlist has finished the music stops.

When we started using this feature we discovered some of the team had eclectic taste so you might want to be selective about who you send the link to. If you use this in conjunction with the spotify remote tool that I blogged about a few weeks ago, your colleagues can have complete control.

Here is a great tool for testing several versions of internet explorer at the same time on the same PC.

Currently it supports versions 5.5 - 8.0

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

This occurs when you use Response.Redirect inside of a Try / Catch block.
Your code will work and the browser will be redirected but you may wish to prevent the error if you are monitoring and getting lots of alerts.

You can prevent the error by overloading the method and passing false like this:

Response.Redirect ("nextpage.aspx", false);

The reason for this behaviour is interesting and is explained here:
http://www.c6software.com/articles/ThreadAbortException.aspx



Microsoft Article that explains the workaround.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312629/EN-US/

We have recently started using IIS 7.0 in our test environment when we deployed our application that uses the BotDetect Captcha control the image stopped being displayed.

So far we have found one way of fixing this, we switched the default Integrated Application Pool Pipeline Mode over to Classic.

To do this simply go into the properties of the Application Pool in which your web application resides inside and change the setting, refresh your page and bingo you should see the Captcha image.

I was just looking at the technical FAQ on the Lanap software website and they suggest that you can make changes in the web.config to achieve the same result without moving to Classic mode. Below is there suggestion I have not tested this but expect is should work.

<system.webServer>

<validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />

<handlers>

<remove name="LanapCaptchaHandler"/>

<add name="LanapCaptchaHandler" preCondition="integratedMode" 


verb="*" path="LanapCaptcha.aspx" 


type="Lanap.BotDetect.CaptchaHandler, Lanap.BotDetect" />

</handlers>

</system.webServer>

This is a cool little app that allows you to control the next and pause buttons on your spotify client.

We have it running in our office.

http://degero.se/spotify/

One of the devs in our team here at Wonga came accross this useful tool.

If you find the need to install an SSL cert on your local machine for testing purposes, such is the requirement for testing the WongaAPI, you can download the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools from Microsoft, which contains a tool called SelfSSL.

This is a simple command line utility which will install an ssl cert on localhost.

the tool kit can be downloaded from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56FC92EE-A71A-4C73-B628-ADE629C89499&displaylang=en

For your enjoyment a ringtone of the Southern Service to Ashford International, oh the automated announcement goodness.
Warning this may confuse your fellow passengers unless you happen to be on that train to Ashford.

AshforInternationalSpeed.m4r (192.71 KB)

Before you let Steve Job's and his posse firmly place their arm up your back passage here's a few things you should know.

Firstly Apple have effectively fitted the iPhone with a chastity belt, if you want to have your wicked way with it you will have to Jailbreak it first, if you don't the following is a list of things you will have to put up with.

1 - You'll have to pay for custom ringtones and you can only choose from the songs / tones available on iTunes.

2 - If you want to make use of App Store and download apps (even free ones) you will have to setup an iTunes account, you will need a credit / debit card and have at least £1.50 in your account.

3 - If you want to load your own mp3's (not purchased via iTunes) you will still have to install iTunes to do this.

I have only had the phone a short while so  there may be more gotcha's to come.

Update:
It turns out iTunes is lying about No 1. you can use itunes to convert mp3 / Wav files in to AAC then rename the extension to M4R, reimport the file and it will appear as a ringtone.
+1 for it being possible -1 for lying to your customers Apple

I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago, to use on my commute to london.

The Good:

• Uber convienient have BB on the move
• Signal on the train is good without to much drop out.
• You can plug in a 4gb mcro sd card and turn it into a memory stick
• In a good signal area the downloads are fast 170kbps
  

The Bad:

This is a relatively expensive way to roam the WWW at 15 quid per GB but it only costs 39.99 to buy and you only pay for what you use unlike the pay montly alternatives. Perfect for me as I will only use it for small periods.

The Ugly:
The vodafone software that installs when you plug the device in to your Pc/Laptop is possibly one of worst programs I have had the misfortune to encounter in a long time.
If you plan to use this device whilst stationery and in a good signal area you will not have any problems. If you use it on a train / in a car then expect constant pop-ups that cannot be minimized.

The unecessary:
Adult Content Blocking is on by default, included is Skype.com ???
WTF Vodafone since when do Skype serve adult content.... Hmm they do however offer internet telephony, I wonder if that could be the real reason.
Which ever knob jockey at vodafone thought up this trick should be shot. It just annoys paying customers who can download skype the moment they are connected via WiFi, seriously misjudged move by Vodafone.

Update: Tip
You don't have to use the crappy vodafone software, after you have installed it open network connections and right click on the Vodafone connection and select connect. It is also possible to prevent the vodafone software from launching when you plug your dongle in, just go to the options in the app. The only thing you lose is the usage meter.

I have decided to put a shed in the garden this is an account of what was involved and what the various bits cost.



Here she is a 5m x 5m Conrad from Factory Cabins Direct. She cost £2300 inc vat with 44m thick walls and double glazing and took about four weeks to arrive. I notice the price has just gone up to £2700. The shed arrived on the back of a truck with a Hiab crane, the driver was able to hoist the pallet off the truck an on to our drive. As you would expect the pallet was about 5m long and 1m high by 1m wide.

Leveling the site and running services to the shed

I found man with a digger who came and spent a day leveling a 5.0m x 5.0m site, he also dug a trench and laid an armoured cable and water pipe from the shed to the house, for this he charged £180. I wasn't able to be on site when he was working which was a mistake as he did not do a great job of leveling the site. I should have put up some visual markers for him to work to.

UPDATE:



The shed is up and part painted, it took about 10 man days to get to this stage.
The biggest lesson I learned was that it would have been much better to do this in the dry. A couple of times water got into the roof and floor boards causing them to expand and lift.

The total cost of the project worked out at five grand. About a thousand for the concrete base which required 10 tonnes of concrete due to the gradient. 800 for the cedar shingles. The rest went on paint, electricals fittings and fixings.

I have recently changed job, I have moved from the relative safety of Tradeweb to Wonga an 18 month old startup. It's a very exciting place to work offering a very dynamic working environment.

The company is very focused on becoming the number one source of cash on demand. It offers cash direct to your bank account with in a few minutes of being accepted if you apply before 3pm. This presents a lot of challenges as nearly all customer scoring and verification has to done automatically.

The service is for people who need to borrow a small amount of cash for a short period of time (up to 30 days). It is only designed for use in emergencies. If you are accepted for a loan and repay on time your Wonga Trust rating increases and so does the amount you may borrow.

It's good to be back in a small company where I feel I can make a difference.

Every now and again I stumble across a tool that does exactly what I am looking for no if's or but's just exactly what I need. It is a rare moment and something to savour.

Today it happened and the tool is Microsoft's Log Parser. This is a tool that knows how to read IIS and Windows event logs out of the box, it allows you to specify filters and columns using a SQL-like syntax and dump the result straight into a SQL server database. How freakin amazing is that! To build this yourself would involve writing scripts that use WMI or .NET to interrogate the logs then produce text files in a BCP friendly format then shelling out to the BCP utility to import to a DB, in other words lots of work. This can now all be achieved in one line of code:

LogParser -i:EVT -o:NAT "SELECT * INTO c:\Output.txt FROM System"

The example above takes all the fields from the Windows System Event Log and places them into a text file called Output.txt. Once you have installed Log Parser you can copy that line of code into a command prompt on any windows machine and if you have the necessary permissions you will dump the entire system event log to a text file. It's quick too I processed ~2600 log entries to a text file in 0.7 secs on my laptop.

I am still investigating all the features, if you specify the SQL output format -o:SQL you have either to setup a DSN to your database or supply the Sql server & database (if using Sql Auth you also need username & password). After the INTO you specifiy the table name, when the command executes if the table does not exist it will be created for you using the columns in the input format. If want to import into an existing table the column names, data types and order of columns must match. Read the excellent help file that comes with the install. See the example below.

Finally there is one more cool feature I would like to mention, if you wish continually upload log entries from a log file as it grows but you wish ignore records you have already processed you are in luck! Use the iCheckPoint parameter and Log Parser will create a file where it stores the position it last read up to in the log file you are processing. This removes the need to clear out the database and reload everything which means a lot less horsepower will be required for processing your logs. You can reduce the intervals between log uploads to make your database more current.

It also has a Com+ api so you can call it directly from C# or VB. I can't believe it took me this long to discover such a useful tool.

SQL Server Example:
LogParser -i:EVT -o:SQL "SELECT * INTO EventLog FROM System" -server:Laptop\SqlExpress -database:Keeper -driver:"SQL Server" -createTable:ON

UPDATE:
If you have IIS set to create Daily log files (the default) then a bit of code is needed in your batch file to determine what the current filename will be. The following example will work on an XP/2003 server that has is local date format set to the UK. If you are deploying to a server with US date format you will need change code that sets the CurrentLogFile variable.

REM Use on servers set to UK date
SET CurrentLogFile=ex%date:~8,2%%date:~3,2%%date:~0,2%.log

REM SET the path to the IIS Log Files Folder. NOTE: If your IIS server has multiple Websites you may have to change the path.
SET LogFilesFolder=%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\Logfiles\W3SVC1\

ECHO Attempting to process IIS Log File: %LogFilesFolder%%CurrentLogFile%

PAUSE
LogParser -i:IISW3C -o:SQL "SELECT * INTO IISLog FROM %LogFilesFolder%%CurrentLogFile%" -server:Laptop\SqlExpress -database:Keeper -driver:"SQL Server" -createTable:ON
PAUSE

Update: Found a Gotcha
I discovered a gotcha with using the flag -createTable:ON when importing IISLogs into SQL server, this will set the column length to 255 max. Often columns like csReferrer, csUriQuery, csUriStem and csUserAgent will exceed 255 chars. To fix this problem simply increase the length of the columns.
I used csCookie: varchar(5000), csUriQueryString: varchar(5000), csUriStem: varchar(1000), csUserAgent: varchar(1000)

I am a big fan of Mark Steel's, I loved the "Mark Steel Lectures" series that he did for the Open University. He is very good at explaining ideas in plain english, de-jargonising them and adding touch of humor to the learning experience. The majority of the series seems to be on you tube, just search for his name and you will find them.

In his latest book he talks mostly about the last ten years of his life, the birth of his two kids, his split with his partner and the end of his membership of the SWP. If your thinking what's so interesting about that well i'm 35 year old and he is 46 so I am just about to go through what he is talking about in his book (hopefully not splitting with my wife and I'm not an SWP member). My wife is eight months pregnant with our first child. The book is honest and amusing and very reasuring that my complete lack of preparedness for becoming a father is the norm.

The book is an entertaining read and well written, I took it on holiday and it only lasted three days a good sign for me. I don't share Mark's views on Capitalism but enjoy reading his arguments, which do have merit because they are well thought out.

4/5 for me.

I have a friend I'll call him Aaron because that's his name.

He has joined the company behind a new social networking site focused in the gaming community.

The have just revamped their site, it is still in beta though you wouldn't know it.

The have areas for all the major consoles and of course pc games.

Check Playfire out here.

The interesting thing about playfire from a developers point of view is that the platform is developed on Django a web development framework developed in Python. It is based loosely on the RoR MVC framework and seems to be gaining some traction. I intend to check it out soon.