So, I’ve been counting down the months and weeks. Now it’s merely a couple of days since I leave for Vancouver, BC. Canada. Still can hardly believe that I’ll be going to Canada on vacation.
Twenty years back I have lived behind the iron curtain and we dreamt about visiting these “exotic” places. Now we just book a flight and go there. It’s a strange world we live in, isn’t it? Constantly changing.

A friend of mine once said: “Nothing endures but change.” So true.

Well, make sure you keep following my travel blog, my Flickr photostream and the maps.

When you are developing .NET applications for your business you will need to deploy these to production at some point. Usually you will deploy the tool to a network fileserver and let the users run the application from there without local installation.
Of course one can use click-once since .NET 2.0, but sometimes the company developing the software will charge you a fortune for some minor changes like this (or digitally signing the application).

Well, I found another interesting way to configure the .NET security policies and deploy these via an .MSI installer file or even via a GPO (group policy object). Hence you can combine granting access rights to the file share with the deployment of the GPO. Nice.

Also, there are some really good Security Policy Best Practices at the MSDN site.

Follow the typical signs, the hand-painted lines, down prairie roads.
Pass the lone church spire. Pass the talking wire from where to who knows?

There’s no way to divide the beauty of the sky from the wild western
plains. Where a man could drift, in legendary myth, by roaming over
spaces. The land was free and the price was right.

Dakota on the wall is a white-robed woman, broad yet maidenly. Such
power in her hand as she hails the wagon man’s family. I see Indians
that crawl through this mural that recalls our history.

Who were the homestead wives? Who were the gold rush brides? Does
anybody know? Do their works survive their yellow fever lives in the pages
they wrote? The land was free, yet it cost their lives.

In miner’s lust for gold, a family’s house was bought and sold, piece
by piece. A widow staked her claim on a dollar and his name, so
painfully.

In letters mailed back home her Eastern sisters they would moan as
they would read accounts of madness, childbirth, loneliness and grief.

["Gold Rush Brides" by 10000 Maniacs]

Just a short summary of where I’ve been so far:

• New York (3 days)
• Mukilteo, WA
• Kettle Falls, WA
• Moses Lake, WA
• Tumwater, WA
• Los Angeles, CA – got the RV
• Huntington Beach, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Seaworld
• Seaport Village
• Twentynine Palms, CA
• Joshua Tree National Park
• Yucca Valley
• Mojave Desert
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Marble Canyon
• Springdale, UT
• Zion National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Las Vegas, NV
• Hoover Dam
• Death Valley
• Yosemite National Park

So far it have been 2050 miles in 10 days in the RV (California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada) and 1100 miles in Washington state in the first week of June.

What a great initiative! I was always a fan of street music and the flair it gives to big cities like Paris, London or New York. I listened to the Alex LoDico Ensemble at Times Square and 42nd Street subway station. It was great fun, I just hope these guys get famous one day, seriously.

I’ll be heading off to the US for the next four and a half weeks going on a road trip. Next stop will be New York City.

Expect some great photos here, in my photoblog, and on my Flickr photostream.

A while back I discovered a nice feature on Flickr where you can place your photos on a map if they don’t have geo coordinates in their EXIF meta data. Someone created a Flash application called Trippermap, so you can include a Flash in your own website with all your geo-tagged photos from Flickr.
As I’m into Silverlight now I was wondering if someone had already done the same thing in Silverlight or if I should start my own app.

What dou you think?

Silvermap would be kind of a cool name, aye?

What is it about airports and travelling? “Why is it always me who gets delayed, who’s stranded at an airport, who’s baggage is missing?” one might ask.
Well, I got stranded today, but let’s start from the beginning.
I got the opportunity to travel over to Microsoft Headquarter in Redmond, WA, USA and was sure enough to take this opportunity, as we vendors don’t get this opportunity too often. This would include a very stressful travel over 7000 miles and 9 timezones to and from Seattle within a couple of days.
So I got up this morning at 3:45, took a shower and had breakfast. I ordered (and got a confirmation) a taxi to pick me up at 5 a.m. to take me to the airport. Guess who didn’t show up! Right. So I rushed myself to the next train to the airport and while sitting in the train I said to myself: “This day is fucked up already and there’s more shit coming. I know it.”
I checked in and boarded the plane just in time. Just to sit there, waiting for another hour because of an engine problem.
Once I got over to Amsterdam, I got myself an extra large coffee as I would have to wait for about three and a half hours until the flight would be leaving and another 12 or 13 hours onboard the plane. I patiently waited until the flight was called and went to the gate just to find a huge queue. What you’re gonna do? Right. Wait. Once I got into the security area and passed the US immigrations questions our flight moved gates. This was strange and out of procedure. Even the Flight Attendants didn’t know what to do and moved all people who had already been screened to the new gate. There the flight was moved back to the old gate. Same game again.
After all the people had been screen the gate was closed and there we sat, waiting. Nothing happened and the time passed where the flight should leave. Still nothing.
Then a voice came on the speakers, trembeling: “Ladies and Gentlemen. I’m sorry to announce that your flight to Seattle has been delayed… to 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. Please move out of the gate and go to the KLM arrival service desk in the arrival hall.” All I was thinking was “Shit. One day less, but who’ll be paying for this?”
After waiting another 90 minutes to get my hotel voucher (at least), wandering around to find the shuttle bus I got checked into the Holiday Inn in Amsterdam. This is a very nice hotel with excellent service, I’ll have to admit. But that doesn’t give me my day back. Now I’m sitting here, rescheduling my meetings, hotel, rental car and all that stuff that you’re depending on when you’re travelling.
One day less. Thank you very much, Time Thieves!

Tags: seattle, security_area, flight_attendants, redmond, washington_state, usa, timezone, queue, airport, confirmation, gate, amsterdam, taxi, speakers, seattle, coffee, train

So I passed my exam on June 26th and got my private pilot license on July 5th. Last friday and saturday I did my last exam flight with my flight instructor and am now officially entitled to take passengers onboard. Well, one passenger as there’s only one passenger seat.
If you’d like a lift or need a very special present and are in the vincinity of Munich/Landshut, just drop me a note and you’re welcome anboard. There’s so many things to see around here. It’s just about 90 minutes into the Alps (Zell am See) or to Lake Constance (Bodensee).

The exam flight was from Landshut down to Leutkirch – thru the new controlzone of the Memmingen/Allgäu airport – and continuing to Lindau at the Lake Constance. It was a nice flight with a bumpy headwind though. On the way back the wind turned to a headwind again and slowed us down to only 135 km/h groundspeed so the journey took a bit longer than expected. But we touched down in Landshut just before sunset.

Sorry, no photos as I was busy flying the aircraft

I did a sightseeing flight with a friend of mine on saturday to visit the Liberation Hall in Kelheim (Befreiungshalle Kelheim). It was kinda strange to sit in the right seat, but so I could concentrate on taking the photos.

Just have a look at my Flickr Set.

I will have my final flight exam on saturday the 23rd and I hope I’ll pass the test.