Now that the Tourney Bracket Control is out the door, I've shifted my focus to the Tourney Pool Manager.

We have a pretty good idea of exactly what we want to do, but there are a few things still up in the air. Anyway,?we do have a few obvious things we're doing. Let's list out the new features we've settled on:

• We're implementing the new Tourney Bracket Control. As a part of that, we upgraded to ASP.NET 2.0.
• New scoring options. Last year, we added a "underdog" mode - where the TPM would multiply the round's value by the seed. Or you could just go with the round's value. This year, it's much, much more flexible. For each round, you can assign a round value, and then a seeding bonus. You can select to multiply by seed, or you can add the seed. Each round can be different! Ultimate flexibility!
• On the heels of the new scoring, we're also going to change the way our scoring engine saves results. Before, it was stored in the database, based on your licenses. We had some issues with that if the site was accessible from an alternate URL - the results could get calculated for a URL you didn't license, resulting in only 5 entries being scored, even if you bought 100 licenses. This year, the scoring is cached in memory by URL, so as long as you are coming from the valid URL, you'll see all results.
• A?new design. Much?nicer! And more flexible. We're using ASP.NET's Themes, so you can just create your own skin, and point the Tourney Pool Manager to use the new skin.
• A user page - yes, this means multiple entries per user! You can register once, and submit as many brackets as you want, and track them all in one place - a "Me" page.
• Edit your bracket - Not quite as sure about picking IUPUI to the Final Four? Now you can edit your picks up until the first game starts. We've had numerous requests for this one!
• RSS for standings. You have to have RSS, right?
• Better administration. Upload your custom header directly from the software. An HTML editor for the email message, confirmation message, and?the homepage message.

Interested? Want to give it a test run? Well, starting next week, we're running a beta for the Accenture Match Play golf tournament that starts on February 20th. We did this last year, and we are going to repeat it this year, as it went over very well. It gives us a great idea of how things are going for us, because the tournament is a 64 golfer tournament. Sound familiar? Once I get it up and running (we're to a point where it could be put out there), I'll post about it, and we'll get it on the web site. We're still determining what the prize will be, but we're hoping to offer something again this year.

Technorati Tags: Tourney+Pool+Mananger | NCAA | March+Madness | Basketball

So, did you hear there was a football game this past Sunday??I guess it was a pretty big game.

Yeah, of course I watched it. Let's get the important stuff out of the way first.?The commercials were disappointing to me. I liked a few, but for the most part, they were useless. No offense, but wasn't the Dove one a little out of place? My guess is that the majority of viewers were male, and while I'm sure more women watch the Super Bowl than any other game, it still didn't seem like it was very well placed. And, with all the supposed controversy about GoDaddy taking 14 tries to get their commercial approved, I expected a little more out of the commercial. It was pretty tame/lame. Take your pick.

• Seattle 10, Pittsburgh 21 (-3.5) (47 O/U) [P: $5.59, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.26, T: $24.85]: Ok. Enough about the commercials. When I opened my tracking spreadsheet, I realized I'd originally taken Seattle, when the spread first was announced. That's how the original write up happened - where I picked Seattle to win. Then I thought about the fact that Pittsburgh was 15-1 last season, and only fell off this year because Roethlisberger was hurt for part of the year. So I changed my mind - two weeks to make a pick will play mind tricks on you! Eventually though, I got it right. But no one cares about that. Let's talk about the game. Everyone is talking about the refs in this one. And I agree. The refs were horrible. The best commend I heard though: "Were those penalty flags the refs were throwing, or were they terrible towels?" So let's get the bad calls out of the way. Darrell Jackson's push off in the end zone. Yes, that's a penalty, but is rarely called. Should it have been called in this situation? Probably not, but you can't really fault a ref for calling it. Darrell Jackson's non-reception in the endzone. He had his left foot down, and his right foot hit the pylon. That's a touchdown, and it wasn't even reviewed! Next, the holding call that prevented Seattle from getting to the one yard line. Was it holding? Maybe, but it was no worse than any other play, and they don't call it every play, do they? They could - no doubt. But they don't, and it was a very ticky-tacky call. In case you didn't realize, two plays later, the refs strike again. Hasselbeck threw?a pick and made the tackle. Somehow, he was called for a chop block. Why would he be blocking in the first place? He wouldn't. Horrible call. That gave Pittsburgh an extra 15 yards, and that was when the Steelers ran their trick play where Randle El got the ball to Hines Ward. A sequence of five plays or so probably resulted in a 14 point swing. Given that Seattle lost by 11, do you see a problem there? Now, all the calls didn't go against Seattle. There was a pass interference call that I couldn't see against Pittsburgh too. Now, having said all that, were the refs the reason Seattle lost? Nope. It was Seattle. All around, really. Holmgren has a great offensive mind, but what happened at the end of the first half? Give him credit, though. His team so confused the Steelers that they took the timeout that Seattle should have. The 'Hawks wasted 20 seconds on that one play! Then, the end of the game, Holmgren didn't go for it on 4th down with less than seven minutes to go. You need two scores. Go for it! It doesn't matter if you lose by 11 or 18 - but being down by 11 or?3 (with a two point conversion)?is a huge difference! That's just a field goal. Speaking of special teams, does Seattle realize 1.) you don't have to boom the ball into the endzone when you punt, and 2.) if the ball lands outside of the endzone on a punt, you should down it? Seattle could have pinned Pittsburgh deep in their zone over and over early in the game, but didn't. Yes, it's only a difference of 15-20 yards, but it's really more than that. When a team is backed up to their endzone, a lot will go into a pseudo-panic mode when their quarterback is forced to back up into the endzone to make a play. But still, the offensive and special teams play for Seattle didn't lose the game (they didn't win it either!). It was two plays. Randle El to Ward and Willie Parker's 75 yard TD run. On both plays, the safety took too sharp of an angle to get to the guy, and by the time he got there, the offensive player was too far gone. Twice! That's 14 points. Take those away, and you have a 10-7 game. Include the other 14 point swing, and?the game could have been 17-0. So for all those people blaming the refs, it's time to take a look at the way Seattle played. They lost the game, not because of the refs, but because of a few bad plays on their part. And for all the Pittsburgh fans: your team didn't win. They just lost less!

Results Summary

• Picks (this week): 1 - 0 (100.00%) - Winnings: $5.59: Got this week perfect, but I picked the favorite, so it doesn't pay as well!
• Picks (playoffs):?6 -?5 (54.55%) - Winnings: ($20.69): Down for the playoffs. Picking winners is easy; making money at it isn't.
• Spread (this week): 1 - 0 (100.00%) - Winnings: $10.00: Got it right, so that's good.
• Spread (playoffs):?6 -?5 (54.55%) - Winnings: $10.00: And it put me up overall. Nice.
• Over/Under (this week): 1 - 0 (100.00%) - Winnings: $9.26: Once again, I did good on picking the over/under. I was honestly shocked that the number was 47. That seemed way too high for these teams - of course, I didn't realize Seattle had the number one offense, but the way the defense for Pittsburgh has been playing, it really didn't matter.
• Over/Under (playoffs):?7 -?4 (63.64%) - Winnings: $26.08: My most successful category all season. I'm not sure why.
• Total Weekly Winnings: $24.85: A nice positive note to finish the season.
• Total Playoffs Winnings: $15.40: Even better that it pushed me positive for the playoffs!

I think I'll throw together one more post for this season, with some cumulative results for the season. That may take a while to put together though. Too many other posts in the queue!

Technorati Tags: NFL | Super+Bowl | Pittsburgh | Seattle | Predictions

I have a gripe about web projects in Visual Studio 2005, and it's already come up to bite me in the butt a few times.

The idea that every file in the folder is part of the site never really sat well with me, but I couldn't put my finger on why. But, after using it with a development team, I now know why. When I delete a file, it's removed from my local site, and from source control, which, by the way, is awesome! But here's the problem: when one of the other developers checks in, it picks up that file I deleted (or renamed) as a new file, and adds it back in!

That's not good.

So, now everytime I delete a file, I have to email the team to let them know to remove it locally as well. Or everyone on the team has to watch for newly added files. Something they aren't used to doing. And in my opinion, they shouldn't have to.

I'm sure there are some very good reasons for the new model. I'm getting more and more comfortable with the whole idea of the App_Code folder, but I'm still stuck on the idea of including all files, i.e., no project file.

I know there's a new web project model coming, and that there's?an initial release out there, but until it's an officially supported model, it's tough to justify pushing clients that way. Once it's official, I'm?pretty sure that's the way we'll go, but until then, we have a few issues to iron out.

Technorati Tags: asp.net | web | visual+studio

I rarely post about SQL Server, which is odd, since that's the one certification test I've bothered to take. And I even passed it!

Anyway, I recently stumbled upon two very nice tips about using SQL Server for doing some things that are typically things that I struggle with. First up: dynamic WHERE clauses. Now, that in itself is not all that exciting, but doing it without?dynamic SQL is pretty exciting. It uses the (in my opinion) unknown COALESCE function.

If you don't know COALESCE, it basically takes a list of values, and returns the first non-null value, so COALESCE(null, null, 'test1', 'test2) will return 'test1'.

So how does help in a where clause? Imagine you have a parameter for CustomerFirstName and CustomerLastName passed into the stored procedure, among others. Here's your coalesce'd where clause:

WHERE CustomerFirstName = COALESCE(@CustomerFirstName, CustomerFirstName)
and CustomerLastName = COALESCE(@CustomerLastName, CustomerLastName)

How does that help? If you pass null for @CustomerFirstName you get the equivalent of CustomerFirstName = CustomerFirstName. It's always true, so you're not querying on first name at all - your query is on last name only, and if that's null, then you're getting all of them - dynamic where clauses!

The next one is also an article from Garth Wells, and it's about dynamic?ORDER BY?clauses. This doesn't use COALESCE. Instead, it's a different use for a CASE statement. Based on a?passed in parameter, you use a CASE statement to decide what to order by.

Example? Ok. Lets say 1 order's by first name and two orders by last name. Here's the code for the ORDER BY:

ORDER BY CASE
?? WHEN @OrderBy = 1 THEN CustomerFirstName
?? WHEN @OrderBy = 2 THEN CustomerLastName
?? END DESC

Nice!

Technorati Tags: SQL

RossCode Weekly - 02.08.2006

Intro - 0:00
Download this episode -?56:13 /?27.1 MB
Subscribe to RossCode Weekly

Previously On RCW - 1:22
Last week's homework review
RCW #035 in Carnival Of Computing 1.0.8
Real Networks CEO gets $2,900,000

News & Views - 4:54
Western Union drops Telegrams
Email tax from AOL and Yahoo
Verizon changes mind, offers tethering
ESPN mobile service launches
Eqo offers Skype / Cellphone integration
Google / BMW
BlogPulse Live launches
30Boxes.com launches
VideoBomb: Digg for videos
Anheuser-Busch to launch network
Super Bowl commercials everywhere!
Microsoft will stop Kama Sutra on Valentine's Day
Microsoft launched Windows Server 2003 R2
Federal Budget

The Cold Wars - 19:45
DOJ urges judge not to stop Crackberrys
RIM wins again, this time in the UK
Microsoft's Security suite launching in June
MSN Spaces updated again
Windows Live offers bookmark sharing
AT&T offering DSL for $12.99!
Vonage files for IPO
PS3 games on pre-order
A9 Guru heads to Google
Google allows archival of Google Talk conversations
Apple launches 1 GB iPod for $149
IBM building WiFi/Bluetooth killer
Intel and Skype to offer 10 way conference calls
Newsgator launches OEM online RSS reader service
SFGate.com - your content, our ads
FeedBurner offers FeedFlare API
DirecTV and EchoStar to build wireless network
Blu-Ray prices released
Aeon DVRs to have NBC Universal content
Songbird - the iTunes killer
Motorola to offer M-Wallet in US

The Cold Wars - 35:51
PayPal to offer mobile payment options
Amazon's AdSense
Gbuy rumors!
GoogleNet, again
Google pre-installed on Dells
FeedDemon 2.0 beta 2 coming this week
PS3 To include PVR?
VMWare makes VMWare server free
DVD Kiosk rentals?
Yahoo testing new homepage?
Apple to buy Palm
Wireless iPods?

Odds & Ends - 45:41
Engadget Awards
LAPD to use Pocket PCs to print tickets
Volkswagon to use Google Satellite imagery in GPS units
Bill Gates: IRS can't handle me!
Toy Story 3 is on!
Web Server on a stick
Gorilla Theater in a box

Bonehead Of The Week - 50:45
Anti-Bonehead: Feedburner apologizes for unsolicited emails
Frivolous lawsuits for Dummies
I'm suing Apple because my iPod is too loud!

Outro - 54:14
Polymorphic Podcast

Contact / Feedback
weekly @ rosscode . com
206-424-4729 (4RCW)

Production Notes
Background music provided by Chronos (Introvert 4) and the Podsafe Music Network.
Hosting of RossCode Weekly is provided by OurMedia.org.
Would you like to sponsor RossCode Weekly? Contact me at sponsor @ rosscode.com.

Technorati Tags: RCW | Podcast | Google | Microsoft | Technology | News | Amazon

It's been a great season, and the past 20+ weeks are going to culminate with one (hopefully) spectacular game this Sunday, when the Steelers take on the Seahawks.

By the way, have you heard that Jerome Bettis is from Detroit? Why isn't the media talking about this?

• Seattle vs. Pittsburgh (-3.5) (47 O/U): I'm going to take Seattle. They have not gotten the recognition they deserve all season, and they continue to be dogged by everyone. Don't believe me? They are an under dog to the six seed in the AFC. This is a team that finished with the second best record in the NFL, and got a win over the number one team (of course, so did Pittsburgh). I think that'll motivate them, and force people to recognize how good they are. Mike Holmgren is a tremendous coach, and once he finally gave up his GM reigns, Seattle really turned it around - Matt Hasselback is a great quarterback, the offensive line is awesome, and Shaun Alexander is, well, the league's leading rusher. Pittsburgh has a great defense, but they still won't be able to hold Alexander down all game. Now, remember, Seattle (Holmgren) was the one team to game plan for Steve Smith, so don't expect to see the same mistakes Denver made when the game starts. Denver was thrown off by an early passing game by Pittsburgh, despite the fact they did the same thing against Indy with great success. By the second half, all they had to do was grind out the clock with The Bus. Don't expect Seattle to be surprised. Of course, Cowher will know this, as he's a pretty good game planner too. This should be a nice little chess game early. For those who aren't hard core football fans, don't expect an exciting game - this should be a low scoring game, especially early.
• Seattle vs. Pittsburgh (-3.5) (47 O/U): You thought I was done, didn't you? Nope. I'm going to argue for both sides. Pittsburgh is the number six seed, and a lot of people are complaining that they are favored. Well, there's?a good reason, and one I forgot going through the playoffs. Roethlisberger missed a few games this year, and if it wasn't for those games, they probably would have been one or two. Remember, this team isn't much different than last year's 15-1 team - they added Willy Parker, and no one would say they are worse because of it. Roethlisberger is playing better than last year - and the coaches have taken notice. Early in the year, this was a run-first, pass-second team, and with the progression of Big Ben, they've completlely changed their game plan in the playoffs to pass early, get a lead, and then shut it down for the rest of the game, protecting the lead by keeping it on the ground. Had Roethlisberger not progressed, the Steelers wouldn't be able to do that. Now, they have a choice - do you run or pass early in the game? Better yet, if you're Seattle, what do you game plan for? The Steelers have the upper hand, and Cowher knows that. Mike Shanahan was supposed to be a great game planner, yet Cowher outcoached him. Why wouldn't he be able to do the same with Holmgren? It'll be a close game, but the Steelers will come out of this one on top. Plus, Bettis is apparently from Detroit!

How's that for wishy-washy? Yeah, I do have a real pick though. It was a very tough decision. This game could go either way, and my prediction is that Pittsburgh will win it, despite what I said about Seattle. They are a team of destiny! Beating the #1, #2 and #3 AFC seed and then beating the #1 NFC seed is tough, but Pittsburgh is up for the task!

One of the cool things about the Super Bowl is all of the different things that you can bet on. Here's a few examples, with the money line. But first, a quick money line review. If the line is positive, that means you'd bet $100 to get the money line. Example: a money line of +105 means you bet $100 to win $105. A negative line means you'd have to put the line amount down to win $100. So a line of -110 means you'd bet $110 to win $100. In other words, a positive line implies underdog and a negative line implies favorite. Anyway, here's a sampling from BetCris.com:

• Team to score first: Seattle (+100) or Pittsburgh (-130)
• Team to score last: Seattle (-115) or Pittsburgh (-115)
• Team to score first will win the game: Yes (-185) or No (+155)
• Will there be a score in the last two minutes? Yes (-260) or No (+210)
• Will either team score three unanswered times? Yes (-155) or No (+125)
• First score of the game will be: TD (-160) or FG/Safety (+130)
• Will there be a 2-point conversion? Yes (+400) or No (-600)
• Team to have most 1st downs? Seattle (+115) or Pittsburgh (-145)
• Will Seattle ever have the lead? Yes (-280) or No (+220)
• Team to commit first turnover: Seattle (-125) or Pittsburgh (-105)
• Which half will more points be scored? 1st (-110) or 2nd/OT (-120)
• Team to commit more penalties: Seattle (-125) or Pittsburgh (-105)
• Will there be a safety? Yes (+650) or No (-1150)
• Will there be OT? Yes (+800) or No (-1300)
• Largest lead in game? More than 13.5 (-125) or Less than 13.5 (-105)

And that's not all of them! It's amazing some of the ways you can lose your money! Some of them are so random. How would you pick them!? I'll stick to picking results.

Anyway, I'll review the game and my pick next week. Go enjoy the commercials!

Technorati Tags: NFL | Super+Bowl | Seattle | Pittsburgh | Predictions

RossCode Weekly #035 - 02.01.2006

Like I said in the show, it was a low-energy night. I lost the show notes due to my own error, and had to redo them. Not something I wanted to do, but the second time was quicker than the first at least!

And,?in case you were wondering, the Wings pulled it out, 3-2. I told you they shouldn't have been losing!

Intro - 0:00
Download this episode - 41:08 /?19.7 MB
Subscribe to RossCode Weekly

Previously on RCW - 1:28
Last week's homework
Gates agrees with Google's decision on China
Google removes Help Entry on Censorship
EU: Keep your source code!
Linus Torvalds "Just say no to GPL v3"
Digg & Yahoo? No...

News & Views - 6:19
AT&T sued by EFF
RFID enabled subway rides
Verizon rolls out GPS service
810,000,000 phone sold in 2005
Google misses earnings
Google Search results via RSS
RIM wins! (In Germany)
RIM USA judgement day: February 24th
Fifth and final NTP patent thrown out
Rocketboom advertising
Amanda Congdon on CSI
Vista beta cycle changes
Vista Server CTP Program starting soon
Show download Economics

The Cold Wars - 17:28
CBS goes direct with Survivor
Comedy Central and Nickelodeon do iTunes premeires
Google Video Store = a big mistake
New Google toolbar
Google to buy Napster?
Google Music store coming soon??
Google offering P2P?
Google OS
Netscape 8.1 released
Firefox 1.5.0.1 released
Internet Explorer Beta 2 Public Preview released
Attensa officially launches
Newsgator 2.6 beta 1 released
Google reader gets labels
AdSense tests rich media ads
MSN Spaces updated
Newspapers want search engines to pay

The Grapevine - 29:48
Google testing new search interface
Windows Defender beta 2 coming
Microsoft to buy Seadragon Software
Microsoft considering portable media device
iPod Shuffle headed for the gadget graveyard
Cisco to buy TiVo?
Amazon to offer movie downloads?

Odds & Ends?- 35:56
Wikipedia bans congress

Bonehead of the Week - 36:27
ESPN's Ad Snafu

Listener Homework - 38:27
Google announced their earnings, and missed projections. How much of a long term impact will that have on Google's stock price (it opened down 10% the next day)?
Are you more or less likely to invest in Google now?

Contact / Feedback
weekly @ rosscode.com
(206) 424-4RCW (4729)

Production Notes
Background music provided by Chronos (Introvert 4) and the Podsafe Music Network.
Hosting of RossCode Weekly is provided by OurMedia.org.
Would you like to sponsor RossCode Weekly? Contact me at sponsor @ rosscode.com.

Technorati Tags: RCW | Podcast

In case you didn't know, Scott Hanselman has a podcast. He's doing it with Carl Franklin of DotNetRocks fame. In case you don't remember Scott,?he's the "tool list guy" but he's much more than that. He's also very entertaining and his show is all stuff and no fluff.

Anyway, his 4th podcast is right up my alley. It's all about continuous integration - something I've been using for about two years now. I'm familiar with most of what he talked about, but it's still a great listen, and if you want a quick overview of CI - including automated testing, code coverage, etc. -?give it a listen.

One thing that made me chuckle. The show's file name: hanselminutes_0004.mp3. They are prepared for the show to hit 1,000+ episodes!

Technorati Tags: Scott+Hanselman | hanselminutes

...make it Waterfall 2006. I've only been to one major conference (Tech Ed 2005), but I'd like to trade that for this one!

There's two seminars I'm hoping will be publicly available: "User Interaction: It Was Hard To Build, It Should Be Hard To Use" and "Defect-Full Code: Ensuring Future Income?with Maintenance?Contracts"

Too bad April 1st is my daughter's first birthday!

Technorati Tags: waterfall2006

I like ego searches. I have a bunch set up for my name, which isn't all that effective, because, well, my name is Joel Ross. Technorati doesn't honor quotes, so I get a bunch of hits for '80s music lists - Billy Joel and Diana Ross. Not exactly what I'm looking for!

Anyway, every now and then, I do get a gem from the searches. Most of them don't involve my own personal ego searches either. I also have?a bunch set up for NuSoft and Tourney Logic. And the NuSoft one tonight showed me that NuSoft Solutions has a wikipedia entry. I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by that, but for whatever reason, I am!

Technorati Tags: NuSoft+Solutions | wikipedia