So, this is the code I was writing:

string pathToFile =                    Server.MapPath(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get(”SmartCardMaker_PathToPdfForm”));

FileStream _stream = new FileStream(pathToFile,FileMode.Open,FileAccess.ReadWrite);

Seems pretty straightforward, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why the code would run locally and on the dev server, but not on the staging environment, where I was getting a SecurityAccessException. Here’s the catch;

I’m using a WebDeployment Project on this gig (like I nearly always do) with sections of web.config being overwritten based on build configuration. I forgot to add the key for the path to the replacement files and the call to Server.MapPath() was returning the path to the folder of the page that was making the call.

I didn’t find it on the dev box, because I was using the “publish” function rather than the deployment script, so the same web.config file was being used locally and on dev.

It would have been nice if the call to ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.Get had thrown an exception on the missing key item rather than failing silently, but it would have been smarter for me to make the changes to web.config replacement files in the first place.

Some days, I’m a real dummy.

So, since late last year I’ve been back in the game full-time. And now I will be transitioning this blog to more technical matters. For those who like web programming, Agile development practices, and long discussions about how to properly caffeinate oneself for a long night of coding, welcome. For the few of you (and you know who you are), many thanks for the time that you did hang with me here.

There, that feels better already.

Things have dropped more than a little since then, mostly because I have less time to write. But also because I am, in the real world, trying to be less argumentative. Or at least less of a jerk about it.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Howie ol’ boy, but this has nothing to do with courage. This has to do with saving your own ass and the company you built. Here’s a little test for you: go to one of the people you just laid off and tell them how courageous you are for fucking up their life.

I won’t hold my breath.

Every horse he sees he calls Barbaro. He talks about how he can run now, something I agree with.

I distinctly remember that Kentucky Derby and KJ yelling for Barbaro to win. I think he just like the sound of the name.

He’ll probably learn about Santa before this.

Haven’t we been here before? Like many things, Monty Python says it best…

I’d dearly love to find some reference to an Iraq War supporter who doesn’t modify “withdrawal” with “precipitous”, but I doubt there are any to be found.

Anyway, I clearly remember the last episode of ER that I watched. It was when the helicopter landed on Romano, killing him. I didn’t think sharks that big could be jumped. One of the problems with any drama series is that you have to keep raising the stakes. Eventually what happens is the show devolves into farce. Anyone remember the lawyer going down the elevator in L.A. Law?

So, my theory for the last couple of years is that the only one good way for ER to end is nuclear holocaust. Here’s how it should be scripted:

Some wacked out pay-for-play reject attempts to blackmail Blago with a MIRV cone that he stole from somewhere in the Nevada desert and hides it in the Loop. Clooney, having spent the last five years as an on-call doctor for the NEST guys in Las Vegas, is deciding whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire. Fade out to a mushroom cloud and Anthony Edwards welcoming the entire cast to heaven.

Now that’s drama.

Let’s ignore the fact that letting the market take care of it is what got us swirling around this toilet to begin with. I took way too many math classes in college and what I see when people talk about the unfettered market is an undamped oscillator. A system that swings from high to low uncontrollably until disaster strikes and the system collapses. For the canonical example of the problems with undamped oscillation, see this:

That’s what I see the role of the government as. Yes, people will not be able to make as much money as they could without the government putting the brakes on. But neither will the system fall through the floor as it has in the last year.

I am tired of hearing about how smart the market is, how efficiently it operates. Someone is going to have to explain to me how being in the free market makes you a smarter person. As near as I can tell, smart people are in every field (well, maybe not GOP political consultants) and having forces in opposition to each other leads to equilibrium.