I was having this problem with builds of a new product I’m working on. I would make a build to a network drive and the program would be unable to connect to Oracle. If I copied the files in the build directory to a local path it worked fine.

Note: The build directory was “N:\Build (Debug)\16″.

The sqlnet.log file held the key to this problem.

***********************************************************************
Fatal NI connect error 6413, connecting to:
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=ora2)(PORT=1521)))
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=DEV9A)(CID=
(PROGRAM=N:\\Build (Debug)\16\IntegrationUI.exe)
(HOST=E153-JSC)(USER=jsc))))

  VERSION INFORMATION:
	TNS for 32-bit Windows: Version 8.1.7.0.0 - Production
  Time: 20-JUN-2006 11:31:46
  Tracing not turned on.

If you notice the connection information for Oracle includes the executing program and the parenthesis around “Debug” in the path are not escaped properly.

I did some more experiments and confirmed that 8i client Oracle apps will not run if they are in a directory with parenthesis in it. This includes ADO, ADO.NET apps and native Oracle applications like SQLPLUSW.

Grrr. I was very lucky to have caught this as soon as I did. The symptoms were rather sneaky.

Reference: here

Pocket hole jig

Originally uploaded by charsplat.

I’m a big fan of pocket hole joinery. It is a nice easy alternative to more complex joinery. It’s not as strong as a proper mortise and tenon type joint but it is much faster to make and can eliminate clamping. It has similar uses to a biscuit jointer except that pocket holes make a mess of one of the faces so it only really works well on hidden surfaces.


Here is a sample pocket hole joint.


My first project to make serious use of pocket holes was my bookshelf. It was a bit of a learning experience. One thing I learned is that hand holding the pocket hole guide doesn’t work so well. Unless you are very careful it has a tendency to skate sideways as the bit starts to grab. I saw an article in “The Pocket Hole Drilling Jig Project Book” book that discussed building your own pocket hole drilling jig. This seemed like a fun project and likely very useful for me.

I bought a Task single Pockethole guide from Lee Valley for $16. I already have a pocket hole bit and depth stops for it. Aside from that all the parts were scrap. I used a bit of 5/8″ MDF and small piece of 3/4″ plywood, a foot or so of 1/2″ threaded rod, a couple nuts, and a pop bottle cap. That’s it. For me the only thing I didn’t have kicking around as scrap was the drilling guide.

Most everything should be fairly obvious from the photo. The board is about 8″ wide and 10″ deep. I uses braces for both the pocket hole fence and the bolt fence as well as gluing them to the base and screwing from underneath. The pocket hole guide is elevated about 1/2″ from base surface which is the recommended height for 3/4″ material which is most of what I’m using this for. I used hotglue for attaching the drilling guide so I can pry it off if I want to adjust it. A nut is epoxied into a hole in the bolt fence. The handle on the threaded rod is another piece of threaded rod welded to it put there are lots of other ways to do that.

The version in the book used a much fancier DeStaCo Toggle Clamp but I figured the threaded rod would work fine (although a bit less convenient) and I’d save about $25.

Bookshelf 1

Originally uploaded by charsplat.

I finally finished my bookshelf project. It’s a pretty basic unit made from oak plywood and some hardwood. It used one sheet of 3/4″ and most of a sheet of 1/4″ plywood. I also used a fair bit of 3/4″ oak boards. All my lumber just came from Home Depot (I’m sure not the cheapest way to do this).

The bookshelf case was a tongue and groove type setup. The face frame was built using pocket holes and then glued and nailed to the front of the case. The shelves are all plywood with 1.5″x3/4″ oak strips glued and screwed front and back (pocket holes again). The finish used was a light walnut Watco danish oil.

I had plans that I used for the case itself but I pretty much just did my own thing for the face frame and finishing as I didn’t really like the plans all that much.

A few things to watch out for next time:

1. Use a proper plywood blade when cutting plywood and keep the good side up. I didn’t. It shows. I think one of those zero clearance type setups would also minimize tearout.
2. Watch squareness. Unfortunately the case wasn’t quite as square as it could have been. It’s not too bad but it’s alright.
3. Don’t sand plywood too much. That veneer is pretty thin! Ooops. Luckily I only did that in a couple places on the shelves so it’s all hidden from view.
4. When using an air nailer try to aim such that brads to not come out of side of your work piece. It looks sloppy.

Kyle and I were noticing that I have a pretty large list of less than entirely safe activities. Here is a partial list that I dub the “Don’t Do What Jeff Does” list.

1. Welding in sandals (I just did that last night actually. ouch. Good thing I wore socks though.)
2. Closing your eyes / looking away when using chop / table saw so you don’t have to wear glasses.
3. Building your own airgun from ABS pipe and an air compressor. Bonus points for not using it to lob AA batteries straight up into the air!
4. Flame thrower in the office
5. Operating projectile weapons within the confines of my garage
6. Firing rockets in my garage
7. Cutting / Sanding MDF in a closed garage
8. Drilling holes in model rocket engines for “science”
9. Building my own table saw and using it
10. Not tightening router chuck sufficiently when changing bits
11. Using chop saw on really small pieces of wood (I have several dents in my garage door from said piece of wood getting flung by the blade)
12. Building a prototype potato gun out of dumpster scraps and using it to shoot a wooden plug with a sharpened nail embedded in one end (within my garage). Also shooting a screw driver in same (lots of ricocheting). And finally using 120VAC across a twist tie as the ignition mechanism.
13. I do most of my household wiring live for the challenge and excitement. I also have have a pair of side cutters with a big notch burned in the blade. I’m sure the two are unrelated.
14. Cut the tags off our mattress.
15. My lawn mower was missing the dust collector blade. Instead of replacing it I removed the chute entirely and cut the wire to the safety switch preventing operating in such a situation. I did wear safety glasses while using it though.
16. I also removed the deadman switch from the lawn mower and replaced it with a standard household electrical switch. Much more styleish!
17. Wiring a 120 outlet incorrectly so I had a 240 outlet. Not so good for the appliances. Luckily I know what I’m doing now
18. Switching from a nice safety razor to a straight razor (just to spite Gilette)
19. Went for about two months on only 2-3 hours of sleep a day so I could finish some projects involving power tools. Hmm.. No sleep + sharp power tools. What could possibly go wrong? (I did stop driving during that time though).
20. My air compressor tank, which I bought second hand, says “Discard after 1988″ and yet I’m still pumping that up to 100 PSI. Hmmm.

I plan to add to this list as new things come up

When I was growing up I pretty much always have owned a bike. Living in the country it would get a reasonable amount of use. I would use it to ride to friends houses and my family would, fairly frequently, go for bike rides in Kananaskis.

Maintenance for a bike seemed to pretty much consist of not leaving it in the rain, too much, and giving a shot of WD-40 when something squeaked.

My current bike is probably 10-15 years old now and until last year it looked almost brand new. No rust. No wear. Nothing. Then I started commuting 50km a day with it.

Now maintenance is much more of an issue than it used to be. I learned the hard way that you really have to watch your bike and take care of it.

For a while I’ve been reading that chains will wear (and cause damage to the rest of the drive chain if left that way) but I never got around to checking if mine needed replacement. A month ago on the way home from work my chain skipped while under load (which is a sign of worn chain) so I stopped by Bow Cycle and asked if my chain needed replacement yet. They brought out their fancy little guage and measured my chain stretch and it was way way off the chart. Oops! Not only was my chain badly worn but I’d also caused significant damage to my front chain rings and rear cassette. Doh! The advice at the time was just to ride it until it became really annoying and then replace the whole drive train.

Over the last few weeks shifting has been getting worse and worse so it was time to get after it. I bought most of my replacement parts from MEC since they are a lot cheaper than specialized stores. From MEC I bought a new 7-speed rear casette, pulleys, shifter cables and housing, brake cables + housing, and a new chain. From “The Bike Store” I picked up a new set of cranks + front chain rings for about $70 (my old chain rings are not replaceable hence the new cranks). Since I have never done this before nor do I own a couple of the specialized tools required to do the job Terry, a co-worker and avid biker, offered to help me out. We ended up doing it over lunch hour one day sitting in the parkade. The drive train only took about 30min to replace. Cables were much more difficult just because my grip shifts are hard to switch cables on. We ended up spending another 20min the following morning getting my shifting working enough that I could ride it home.

This weekend I finished replaceing all the cables, cleaned the bike, and spent about an hour fine tuning my shifting and breaks so that everthing is very smooth. It rides like a new bike again!

Roughly what we did was this:

• Broke the old chain with a chain breaker and removed it
• Removed both pedals using a normal adjustable wrench
• Removed the dust seals on my cranks using a 8mm-ish allen key
• Removed the cranks using Terry’s crank puller
• Pushed new cranks into place (making sure to get them 180 deg to each other) and installed new dust covers which pulls them into place.
• Using chain whip to hold casette, unscrewed the lock ring on the rear casette using a special casette socket. Removed the casette.
• Installed new casette and lock ring
• Cut new chain to a little shorter than the old chain (the old one had stretched from optimal size)
• Install the new chain
• Make sure that in the most stretched out position (big gears front and back) that the chain is long enough.
• Replace the cables. I’ll elaborate more but the tricky-ish parts were (1) to make sure to cut the new casing to roughly the size of the old casing and (2) to adjust the little barrel tension adjusters on your handle are at a half-way-ish position and install the cables so that they just feel tight. Then you can use the barrel adjusters to fix the tension.

Today’s Dilbert is so appropiate. I hate Blackberries!

See it…

This is way better than when Jon, Steve and I tried this!

Science with Diet Coke and Mentos

I finally got some of my photos developed from our second splashening. The shots so far are all shot on 35mm Kodak C-41 B&W film. I have a bunch more shots on HP5+ (real B&W) but haven’t developed those yet.

On Flickr

Local Album

Catchy too…

Animation + Song on NSA wiretapping