Celebrity Sighting!

I had a celebrity sighting today at lunch! I sat at a table next to Jane Kaczmarek (the mom in Malcolm in the Middle) at Mediterranean Cafe, my favorite restaurant!

Registering Visual C# Express

My trial of Visual C# 2008 Express Edition had run out so it wouldn't let me continue without registering. This shouldn't be too hard, I thought to myself... Well, first of all, I could have sworn I had a Microsoft Live ID with my personal e-mail address, but I guess I was wrong. I then attempted to create a new account so I entered all of my information and typed in the CAPTCHA, but it wouldn't take. It kept saying that the CAPTCHA was wrong. I tried at least 20 of them over and over, and finally it took me to a page that there was a problem registering in the account. In a fit of rage I hit F5 a bagillion times really quickly, and guess what! It took! Once hurdle number one was overcome I then actually tried to register. It was stuck with a spinning green progress indicator for about 5 minutes before I gave up. Then I realized my problem all along... I wasn't using Internet Explorer. I reluctantly fired up Internet Explorer, but I still couldn't get it to work. What I finally had to do was set Internet Explorer as my Default Browser so that I could click the button inside of the Visual C# software to launch the registration wizard and only then was I finally able to get through the process.

I do appreciate that Microsoft releases these Express Editions so that I can tinker around at home on personal projects. I just wish they would acknowledge that more than one browser exists in this world, especially in their QA department. Friggin Mircrosoft.