Just finished three by Linnea Sinclair. OMG! The first one I had trouble slowing down until I knew I could jump right into the second one. The second one I had trouble starting a bit because I was sick, but once I felt better, it was over just like that. So I started in on the third one. It was read in 2 days. And these aren't small books. They have WORDS.

Book Links
Gabriel's Ghost - read this one first
Shades of Dark - sequel to Gabriel's Ghost
Hope's Folly - the whole saga continues, but focuses on a major Minor Character from the first two.

There was a rumor a coupla weeks ago, when I had difficulty in installing SPD on a standalone, no internet system (gasp!), that MS would make SharePoint Designer 2007 free on April 1. Well, considering the date, I was semi-skeptical, but optimistic to the point in suspending my attempts to check.

On April 1, you still had to buy it. On April 2, it was indeed, free. I have now installed on the disconnected system with no issues.

You can get it here.

Three weekends in a row have been horrendous – stress, illness, weather. Although, my sister’s wedding was pretty good, it was surrounded by stress, illness, weather…

Children, on the other hand, have shown remarkable improvement in behavior - for the most part. Both have received kudos from teachers in the last two weeks about their improved behavior and actions.

It was my turn to be sick this past weekend, so I didn’t get much reading done, other than some blogs I keep up with and the news headlines.

I did watch the second Harry Potter movie with the girls this weekend – in two parts. It’s a little scarier than the first one. We’re going to acquire the books and begin reading them. They were fascinated by the world of magic. Although I constantly remind them that it’s all pretend. We do discuss how the computers have added the special effects, and how special camera shots make it look a certain way.

Hopefully, this will be a better reading week and I’ll be back with booklinks in the next day or two.

 

 

I got the annoying throat tickle yesterday, and today, the only thing keeping me going is Dayquil. I’ve had to miss so much work due to kids, that I’m trying not to miss any this week and actually have a real 40 hr work week. Nyquil last night, no TV, straight to bed. I’ve got Bones epis piling up on the TIVO.  

So even though I want to look at the new WPF Composite App guidance in VB.net, I only got as far as the download and install. Maybe when the 2^nd dose of Dayquil kicks in…

In the meantime, I’m attempting to document this crazy scanning app platform that I’ve inherited. Enterprise Records Management cots, Enterprise Scanning Server, Enterprise PDF Search Engine, and custom client that marries the three together in some very weird ceremonial way. Configuration is a pain, and coding, well, I’ve read the code. I THINK I know what’s doing, with whom, and when.

 

I entered a proposed presentation for Nova Code Camp. I’ve been attending for years, and I’ve been looking for something I thought I could either know enough about to give an interesting talk, or to find something that I could talk about that wouldn’t be more of the same.

And I’m nervous. If I get picked, I’ll have less than two months to perfect the talk, then speak in front of a bunch of guys (and a few girls – typical code camp ratio is 5–10% female), some of whom may know much more on the topic than I do, without looking like a complete idiot. (And if I don’t get picked, I’ll forever wonder why.)

Early on, I started in this crazy profession as a trainer, so you’d think I’d be okay. But it’s been over a decade since I’ve done any regular stand up and talk in front of people.

But it’s time. Time for me to start publicly declaring my technical knowledge I’ve accumulated. And continue to.

BTW, the book purchase dry spell is pretty much done. On Sunday, I picked up two Linnea Sinclair paperbacks from Barnes and Noble – in the store – and Tuesday I ordered WPF in Action (w/vs 2008). Book links below. However, I’ll still be keeping the actual purchases of new books to a minimum, since we’ve got disney world at the end of June.

Book Links

Linnea Sinclair – Gabriel's Ghost

Linnea Sinclair – Hope's Folly

Arlen Feldman and Maxx Daymon – WPF in Action with Visual Studio 2008

Crazy weekend after crazy week and previously crazy weekend does not a happy Leah make.

However, I waved goodbye to sick hubby, then ditched the girls with Big Sis, and caught a Clive Owen double feature yesterday – First Duplicity then The International. So, when I finally retreived the girls, and then had to feed them @ 7:30, I was no where near as cranky as I had been at noon, when I dropped them off.

Also, I caved and bought a coupla books. I had some time to kill before the first movie (Amazon link to the theatre apparently doesn’t know about EDT) and the bookstore is one level down from the massive theatre complex at the mall.

I’m making progress on my book app, and I’m figuring also how to apply the same methodology to my knitting app. Primarily desktop, but social features enabled upon demand. For the anti-social persons in all of us.

I’ll try to get pics from my sister’s wedding (this past Saturday) up in the next coupla days.

 

Hi, my name is Leah and I’m a bookaholic. It’s been 65 days since I ordered a book off Amazon dot com.

I’m still reading, though, just plowing through the ones I’d stocked up on, and enjoying the couple of pre-orders that came in. (All links go to amazon page for purchase)

Finished

Patricia Briggs – Bone Crossed (Mercy Thompson, Book 4). (Read in 4 hours in one sitting.) Excellent. Mercedes Thompson is a great heroine, and her adventures and her world are just down the street from my reality. Besides, my father is a mechanic, and grew up in Olympia Washington. Near enough to the Tri Cities area that I pass along the books and he devours them as well.

JD Robb – Promises in Death. Read over the course of two or three days. Mainly because exhaustion crept up on me. I want an Autochef. And Roarke, too, but don’t tell my husband.

Gail Carson Levine – Fairest. Bathroom book to start with, then I had to finish it the other night – stayed up til 1:45 am doing so. Sister book to Ella Enchanted (have, but haven’t cracked yet).

Currently Reading

Ted Bell – Assassin: A Novel. The second Alexander Hawke book. Alex is a spy with a great cast of friends that help him through his adventures. Like the first, the book started slow, and finally the action builds in the latter half of the book.

Elizabeth Moon – The Legacy of Gird (Trade Paperback) (surrender none and liar’s oath trade paperback reprint). Re read. Ms. Moon is finally returning to this world, and while I pretty much read the The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel at least every two years, I haven’t read this since I read the original books, so much of this I don’t remember, so it’s like new stuff.

Brian Herbert – Dreamer of Dune: The Biography of Frank Herbert the bio of Frank Herbert. It’s amazing how his ideas and thoughts were shaped by his life in the pacific northwest. Tacoma is another place my father grew up near, and I’ve visited. And the Dune saga is pretty much my favorite body of work.

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson – House Atreides (Dune: House Trilogy, Book 1) House Atreides. After reading the sequels, I’m going back and reading the prequels. Not quite the same as Dad’s work, but close enough so that the difference is not annoying.

Steven James – The Pawn (The Patrick Bowers Files, Book 1) Interesting. I picked this up a coupla weeks ago off the sale shelf in a Christian Bookstore. Much of the locale is western North Carolina, which I grew up taking trips to, and tried to go to school at Appalachian State before the great Cancer Experience decided to change my life’s course.

(There’s a book for different parts of the house, and always one in the car. Always reading more than one at a time. Computer reference books don’t count, but it’s still been a dry spell for amazon purchases.)

 

<geek alert>

Hi, I’m Leah and I’m a bookaholic.

In my quest to tame my addiction, I’m working on a little app to keep track of what I have and what I want. Kind of like Library Thing without any of the social stuff. And not necessarily a browser based system.

So, I’ve got a WPF client that will go out and touch four (so far) different web services to get the xml about a particular book – based on isbn or isbn13.

Getting the Data

There are some other choices out there, but I concentrated on the main ones, as far as information is concerned. In alphabetical order: Amazon, ISBNdb, Library Thing, and Library of Congress. Here’s how to get the XML from each service.

(note – blog jet is not the best at formatting the xml, and this is my first time at a serious tech post, so pretend all is properly indented until I get it cleaned up)

Amazon

First, get a key. Then make your url like this:

http://webservices.amazon.com/onca/xml?Service=AWSECommerceService&SubscriptionId=YOURKEYHERE&Operation=ItemLookup&ResponseGroup=Medium&ItemId=0441172695

Then, here’s what your xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
- <ItemLookupResponse xmlns="http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2005-10-05">
- <OperationRequest>
- <HTTPHeaders>
  <Header Name="UserAgent" Value="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; 
InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)" /> 
  </HTTPHeaders>
  <RequestId>38eed815-71e3-420b-902f-ade8746fb3ca</RequestId> 
- <Arguments>
  <Argument Name="Operation" Value="ItemLookup" /> 
  <Argument Name="Service" Value="AWSECommerceService" /> 
  <Argument Name="ItemId" Value="0441172695" /> 
  <Argument Name="ResponseGroup" Value="Medium" /> 
  <Argument Name="SubscriptionId" Value="YOURKEYHERE" /> 
  </Arguments>
  <RequestProcessingTime>0.0165120000000000</RequestProcessingTime> 
  </OperationRequest>
- <Items>
- <Request>
  <IsValid>True</IsValid> 
- <ItemLookupRequest>
  <Condition>New</Condition> 
  <DeliveryMethod>Ship</DeliveryMethod> 
  <IdType>ASIN</IdType> 
  <MerchantId>Amazon</MerchantId> 
  <OfferPage>1</OfferPage> 
  <ItemId>0441172695</ItemId> 
  <ResponseGroup>Medium</ResponseGroup> 
  <ReviewPage>1</ReviewPage> 
  </ItemLookupRequest>
  </Request>
- <Item>
  <ASIN>0441172695</ASIN> 
  <DetailPageURL>http://www.amazon.com/Dune-Messiah-Chronicles-Book/dp/0441172695_
      %3FSubscriptionId%3YOURKEYHERE%26tag%3Dws%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26_
      creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0441172695</DetailPageURL> 
  <SalesRank>8349</SalesRank> 
- <SmallImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL75_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">75</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">45</Width> 
  </SmallImage>
- <MediumImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL160_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">160</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">95</Width> 
  </MediumImage>
- <LargeImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">475</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">283</Width> 
  </LargeImage>
- <ImageSets>
- <ImageSet Category="primary">
- <SwatchImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL30_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">30</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">18</Width> 
  </SwatchImage>
- <SmallImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL75_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">75</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">45</Width> 
  </SmallImage>
- <MediumImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL._SL160_.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">160</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">95</Width> 
  </MediumImage>
- <LargeImage>
  <URL>http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/712XDW1BRHL.gif</URL> 
  <Height Units="pixels">475</Height> 
  <Width Units="pixels">283</Width> 
  </LargeImage>
  </ImageSet>
  </ImageSets>
- <ItemAttributes>
  <Author>Frank Herbert</Author> 
  <Binding>Paperback</Binding> 
  <DeweyDecimalNumber>813.54</DeweyDecimalNumber> 
  <EAN>9780441172696</EAN> 
  <ISBN>0441172695</ISBN> 
  <Label>Ace</Label> 
- <Languages>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Original Language</Type> 
  </Language>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Unknown</Type> 
  </Language>
- <Language>
  <Name>English</Name> 
  <Type>Published</Type> 
  </Language>
  </Languages>
- <ListPrice>
  <Amount>799</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$7.99</FormattedPrice> 
  </ListPrice>
  <Manufacturer>Ace</Manufacturer> 
  <NumberOfItems>1</NumberOfItems> 
  <NumberOfPages>336</NumberOfPages> 
- <PackageDimensions>
  <Height Units="hundredths-inches">120</Height> 
  <Length Units="hundredths-inches">670</Length> 
  <Weight Units="hundredths-pounds">35</Weight> 
  <Width Units="hundredths-inches">410</Width> 
  </PackageDimensions>
  <ProductGroup>Book</ProductGroup> 
  <PublicationDate>1987-07-15</PublicationDate> 
  <Publisher>Ace</Publisher> 
  <Studio>Ace</Studio> 
  <Title>Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2)</Title> 
  </ItemAttributes>
- <OfferSummary>
- <LowestNewPrice>
  <Amount>1</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$0.01</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestNewPrice>
- <LowestUsedPrice>
  <Amount>1</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$0.01</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestUsedPrice>
- <LowestCollectiblePrice>
  <Amount>1000</Amount> 
  <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode> 
  <FormattedPrice>$10.00</FormattedPrice> 
  </LowestCollectiblePrice>
  <TotalNew>42</TotalNew> 
  <TotalUsed>441</TotalUsed> 
  <TotalCollectible>10</TotalCollectible> 
  <TotalRefurbished>0</TotalRefurbished> 
  </OfferSummary>
- <EditorialReviews>
- <EditorialReview>
  <Source>Product Description</Source> 
  <Content>Paul Atreides, genetically bred and trained to become the leader of his planet, is still subject_
 to human frailties. The second book of the series.</Content> 
  </EditorialReview>
  </EditorialReviews>
  </Item>
  </Items>
  </ItemLookupResponse>

 

ISBNdb

Get a key. Then make your url like this (for isbn):

http://isbndb.com/api/books.xml?access_key=YOURKEYHERE&index1=isbn&results=details&value1=9780441172695

Here’s what they give back:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <ISBNdb server_time="2009-03-16T19:38:39Z">
- <BookList total_results="1" page_size="10" page_number="1" shown_results="1">
<BookData book_id="dune_messiah" isbn="0441172695" isbn13="9780441172696">
  <Title>Dune Messiah</Title> 
  <TitleLong>Dune Messiah (Dune Chronicles, Book 2)</TitleLong> 
  <AuthorsText>Frank Herbert</AuthorsText> 
  <PublisherText publisher_id="ace_charter">ACE Charter</PublisherText> 
  <Details change_time="2004-12-24T01:24:17Z" price_time="2009-03-16T16:59:06Z" _
            edition_info="Mass Market Paperback; 1994-11-01" language="" _
            physical_description_text="4.2"x6.9"x0.9"; 329 pages; 0.3 lb" lcc_number="" 
            dewey_decimal_normalized="" dewey_decimal="" /> 
    </BookData>
</BookList>
 </ISBNdb>

 

Library Thing

Another key needed. Make your URL like this:

http://www.librarything.com/services/rest/1.0/?method="librarything.ck.getwork&isbn=0441172695&apikey=YOURKEYHERE

Library Thing’s response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <response stat="ok">
- <ltml xmlns="http://www.librarything.com/" version="1.0">
- <item id="8183" type="work">
  <author id="54" authorcode="herbertfrank">Frank Herbert</author> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/work/8183</url> 
- <commonknowledge>
- <fieldList>
- <field type="13" name="disambiguation" displayName="Disambiguation notice">
- <versionList>
- <version id="848067" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230621463">Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:17:43 -0500</date> 
- <person id="501960">
  <name>alexdaw</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/alexdaw</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ A shorter version of this book appeared in Galaxy Magazine for July-September, 1969 ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="26" name="lastwords" displayName="Last words">
- <versionList>
- <version id="827623" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230087264">Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:54:24 -0500</date> 
- <person id="487278">
  <name>Grandeplease</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/Grandeplease</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ She led him back across the qanat into the darkness at the base of the massif and its Place of Safety. ]]></fact> 
  <fact><![CDATA[ Epilogue . . . He strides through the long cavern of time, Scattering the fool-self of his dream -The Ghola's Hymn ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="25" name="firstwords" displayName="First words">
- <versionList>
- <version id="827605" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1230087106">Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:51:46 -0500</date> 
- <person id="487278">
  <name>Grandeplease</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/Grandeplease</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact><![CDATA[ Excerpts from the death cell interview with Bronso of IX- Q: What led you to take _
          your particular approach to a history of Muad'dib? A: Why should I answer your questions? ]]></fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="2" name="placesmentioned" displayName="Important places">
- <versionList>
- <version id="672922" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1224171231">Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:33:51 -0400</date> 
- <person id="61056">
  <name>amweb</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/amweb</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Arrakis (Dune)</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="23" name="series" displayName="Series">
- <versionList>
- <version id="581299" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1220475254">Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:54:14 -0400</date> 
- <person id="47275">
  <name>PhoenixTerran</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/PhoenixTerran</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Dune (2)</fact> 
  <fact>Dune: complete chronology (9)</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="3" name="characternames" displayName="People/Characters">
- <versionList>
- <version id="289511" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1205984261">Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:37:41 -0400</date> 
- <person id="138345">
  <name>jmjackson</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/jmjackson</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Paul Atreides</fact> 
  <fact>Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife)</fact> 
  <fact>Chani</fact> 
  <fact>Princess Irulan</fact> 
  <fact>Duncan Idaho</fact> 
  <fact>Stilgar</fact> 
  <fact>Gaius Helen Mohiam</fact> 
  <fact>Edric</fact> 
  <fact>Scytale</fact> 
  <fact>Hayt</fact> 
  <fact>Bijaz</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="21" name="canonicaltitle" displayName="Canonical title">
- <versionList>
- <version id="278019" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1205206730">Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:38:50 -0400</date> 
- <person id="118708">
  <name>ATimson</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/ATimson</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>Dune Messiah</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
- <field type="16" name="originalpublicationdate" displayName="Original publication date">
- <versionList>
- <version id="96006" archived="0" lang="eng">
  <date timestamp="1194630684">Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:51:24 -0500</date> 
- <person id="303911">
  <name>michaelhehir</name> 
  <url>http://www.librarything.com/profile/michaelhehir</url> 
  </person>
- <factList>
  <fact>1969</fact> 
  </factList>
  </version>
  </versionList>
  </field>
  </fieldList>
  </commonknowledge>
  </item>
  <legal>By using this data you agree to the LibraryThing API terms of service.</legal> 
  </ltml>
  </response>

 

Library Of Congress

No key needed (yay!). Your URL like so:

http://z3950.loc.gov:7090/voyager?version=1.1&operation=searchRetrieve&query=9780441015610&maximumRecords=100&recordSchema=dc

And they give back:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
- <zs:searchRetrieveResponse xmlns:zs="http://www.loc.gov/zing/srw/">
  <zs:version>1.1</zs:version> 
  <zs:numberOfRecords>1</zs:numberOfRecords> 
- <zs:records>
- <zs:record>
  <zs:recordSchema>info:srw/schema/1/dc-v1.1</zs:recordSchema> 
  <zs:recordPacking>xml</zs:recordPacking> 
- <zs:recordData>
- <srw_dc:dc xmlns:srw_dc="info:srw/schema/1/dc-schema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
   xmlns="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" 
       xsi:schemaLocation="info:srw/schema/1/dc-schema http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/resources/dc-schema.xsd">
  <title>Dune messiah /</title> 
  <creator>Herbert, Frank.</creator> 
  <type>text</type> 
  <type>Science fiction. gsafd</type> 
  <publisher>New York : Ace Books,</publisher> 
  <date>2008.</date> 
  <language>eng</language> 
  <subject>Dune (Imaginary place)--Fiction.</subject> 
  <identifier>URN:ISBN:9780441015610</identifier> 
  </srw_dc:dc>
  </zs:recordData>
  <zs:recordPosition>1</zs:recordPosition> 
  </zs:record>
  </zs:records>
  </zs:searchRetrieveResponse>

 

Conclusion

Library Thing’s api is useless to me in this format. LOC is good, but a little terse. For my purposes, I’ll probably search ISBN db first, then if I can’t find it, look at amazon. Amazon’s info is designed, and licensed, for marketing purposes, so you’re supposed to be linking back to the website for purchases. If this becomes a public app, I may reverse the lookup order.

Feel free to let me know if there are other reliable, and sizeable, databases with web service access out there.

Next up, sometime – building an app in WPF, and LINQ to XML.

</geekalert>

I bought Kevin Rudolf’s In The City album – clean version.

Normally, I don’t do this, but this time, I want to be able to share the music with my children (7 and 5.5), and it was nice to be able to purchase the versions that will be played on the radio and not worry about having the cd in the car.

I like that there’s an option if I choose, especially in this instance. So far, I’ve been pretty good at shielding the little gels from cursing. In our house, the “s” words are “stupid” and “shut up.” There’s plenty of time for them to learn profanity and appropriate use thereof.

After logging in, be sure to visit all the options under Configuration in the Admin Menu Bar above. There are 26 themes to choose from, and you can also create your own.