I’ve been using Visual C# 2008 Express on my laptop (the full thing is outside of my budget at the moment), but it meets my needs quite well. However, while trying to diagnose a problem with one of my tests in NUnit (which I think is fabulous) I went back to Visual C# Express with line number in hand ready to find the problem. Of course, the line numbers aren’t shown by default in Visual Studio.

Fortunately I had dealt with the problem before (in the full version of Visual Studio) and knew that it was a “per language” setting, which I always thought was kind of odd, but maybe most people don’t like seeing the line numbers for all their files (why?). Anyway, I went looking, but I couldn’t find it. Frustrated I jumped on my favourite search engine and quickly found the solution to my problem. Under the list of option categories there is a little checkbox labelled “Show all settings”.

Checking this box gave me a bundle of extra options, including the ability to display line numbers (Text Editor > C#, then the “Line numbers” checkbox under Display). But I must ask, why is this some sort of advanced hidden option??

So in future if I’m expecting an option to be shown I will look for the magic “Show all settings” checkbox!

Wow. “Minimalist” is the first word that popped in my head after seeing the sound recorder in Windows Vista. It truly is nothing more. It really does nothing more than its name suggests, which is a shame, as some of the basic audio editing features of the old school sound recorder were fantastic.

When you stop a recording, you can save it as a Windows media file. Don’t expect it to do any more than that though.

Today I made the mistake of forgetting to put on deodorant. Fortunately I happened to have some in my bag, so the crisis was promptly averted.

It did however leave me wondering, what other useful odds and ends should one have in their bag. Currently my bag contains:

• Deodorant
• Handypack tissues
• A pen (and notepad)
• An 8GB USB stick for those large files
• Umbrella
• Other assorted junk

I’m thinking of adding the following:

• First Aid Kit (bandaids, panadol, etc.)
• Sunscreen (for the occasional time I am exposed to that horrible ball of fire)
• 4 x AA batteries (because they are always handy)

My question then is what other small handy items am I missing for the ultimate balance between bulkiness and preparedness? Do you have something in your bag that has saved your bacon?

What the hell is going on in China? I have to give some kudos to Kevin Rudd for trying to voice concerns of human rights abuses in Tibet, but I can’t help feel it went down a little bit like a comedy duo with Rudd as the straight man. He tells China about Tibet and they just reply back saying “No human right abuses” (and then perhaps making some sort of noise with a horn). Somehow the straight man always restrains himself from slapping the funny man silly.

Several countries (Poland included) have enough balls to boycott the olympic games because of the problems. I wish we could do the same, but not because I think it would make China change their behaviour, but because it would at least affirm our true position.

Seriously, picking on monks? That’s just rough.

I don’t like conflict. I tend to avoid it in day to day life, but sometimes conflict is necessary to reach a resolution. If Tibet wants to be free I say let them be free and we should support them in any way necessary to achieve that freedom.

Today I went with Andrew to Supanova 2008. It was a lot of fun. We saw Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) and I had Jewel Staite (Kaylee from Firefly and Dr Jennifer Keller from Stargate Atlantis) sign a photo.

Ando from Heroes was there too.