Correct procedure for removing an item from CVS

1. delete the file itself (rm ...)
2. cvs remove FileName
3. cvs commit -m "Explanatory message" FileName
4. cvs log will show you what happened to it after it's deleted

How to pronounce "Opodo"

All the posh, successful people in the office pronounce it "Air-Poe-Doe", because they all either have or affect the English equivalent of a BCBG accent...
The Northerners pronounce it "oop-poo-doo". For sundry foreigners, it might be "OP-oh-do" (1st syllable emphasis).

What's happened to those super-reliable online sites?

Yesterday I tried to check my balance on Egg.com and got a message saying they were down for "routine maintenance". This was in the middle of the day! Bit later, I tried to move some money on First Direct - it took my transfer request and then I never got a response. So I tried to sign back in, and got some "server not found" pages. Once again, this is mid-afternoon. In my experience with First Direct online, this is unheard of! This morning (10:15-ish) I tried to check an order on Amazon.co.uk and got a "routine maintenance" page again! What's up at the moment? Are all the online sites being ultra-careful because of all the virus warnings around?

Good article on accessing MySQL databases from .NET applications here.

There are 3 main ways to do it: ODBC.NET, which is the industry-standard way; using MySQL <--> .NET providers like dbProvider and MySQL.Net; or (unofficially anyway) OLEDB.NET.

This whole .NET thang is quite an eye-opener - a free component you can just drop in to provide an interactive calendar... etc.

.NET

OK, I know I've always said that the Java framework is The Thing. I've been playing around the ASP.NET as well though, and it seems pretty powerful. OK, I keep having a right palaver making sure that IIS5.0 hasn't fallen over for some reason, but after a few reinstalls, and the decision not to fart around with the SQL Server Desktop Edition, which seemed totally incomprehensible even with the installation script, I am starting to get the hang of it. Studiously avoiding any of the VBScript gubbins, I have ploughed (I nearly wrote "plowed" - maybe I am turning into an American!) into the C# stuff. WebMatrix makes things very simple too, for adding components to .aspx pages just by drag'n'drop. Pretty cool.

Webloggery

Just found London Bloggers, the London Weblog Directory. It's laid out like a London Connections train map, so I attached my two weblogs to Knockholt station, which is the nearest one for me that's on that map... OK I don't actually live there but I didn't want to put Hammersmith, which is where I work...