My Story

I have lived in Utah my entire life, born in a small farming community, in Morgan, and was raised by my mother, who was a single mom raising five children in what I will refer to as litters. My half-brothers were at least a decade older than me, and then a decade later she raised her two grandchildren. In Morgan, Utah it is difficult to find diversity, and even more difficult to be different. Morgan is a small, predominately Mormon, town, in which there are certain expectations of the role of a woman. Men are regarded very highly in the Mormon religion. Women in Morgan are expected to be a homemaker, handling all of the responsibilities of taking care of a loving home. My Father was an alcoholic and left our home when I was 1 1/2 years old and moved out of state.

My Mother never went to college and did not have any dreams of owning her own business; she did her best to provide for her children while remaining within the expected role of a woman. She worked at an Air Force Base where promotions were generally given to women who would do sexual favors for the boss. My mother chose to not lower her standards and therefore struggled to make ends meet by not receiving promotions.

Of my family, I am the only one to dream of owning my own business and the only one to have pursued higher education, thus breaking from the family mold and becoming a success in the business world. I have exceeded any expectations of my family and never let the various challenges and obstacles associated with being a woman impede upon my path to success.

Living in a small town for most of my life, I was expected to follow into the traditional role of a woman, and in some memories of my childhood, I remember how my family and I were socially biased. I can remember being wrapped in a socially acceptable "pink" blanket, how my mother spoke to me with a soft voice of understanding, and how I was given a baby doll to play with instead of a truck, all because of my gender. As I became older, I already understood what were "acceptable behavior" and the tasks and responsibilities for girls, which did not include owning my own business.

It was not socially acceptable where I lived for girls to have technical skills or design anything that was not fashionable. Becoming a software engineer was not socially acceptable in my family, my town, or the business world. Many girls in adolescence go through changes which negatively affect self-image and future choices. As a result, girls often refrain from asking questions and sharing answers. Many girls feel inferior to others or wish to mask their leadership abilities and intelligence and decline opportunities to take part in student government, clubs, or challenges that may cause failure. These issues also discourage some girls from taking part in higher track classes in math, science, and computer science. These are all biases, which were not always this obvious; I had to overcome in order to become successful as a software engineer.

I remained in Morgan for my education through high school, experiencing the same environment, interacting with the same people, and following the path I was expected to pursue. I then married out of high school and only attending one semester of college before beginning to work full time. I underestimated the difficulty of breaking out of the stereotypical role I had been following, graduate high school and get married. It was not until 1995 did I return to college, while continuing to work full time and raise three children, and begin pursuing my degree in Business Information Systems, graduating from the University of Phoenix in 1999.

During my employment at various organizations, I was indeed the subject of blatant gender discrimination, which propelled me to other companies in which I succeeded. It is interesting to note that this gender discrimination did not hold me back and in fact may have made me stronger on my pursuit of higher potential in my career and ultimately my own business. Unfortunately this progression to entrepreneur did not allow my marriage to survive.

I decided to start a business, Sensory Technology Consultants, in 2006 after having a great friend offer me a contract with Nasa to do some software development work. The purpose of the ChemSecure Phase II pilot (NASA) was to control item content and staff credentials based on real-time information, to ensure safety and security of personnel and chemicals, and to push organized mission critical data to emergency responders when addressing chemical accidents. The ChemSecure Phase II pilot enhanced the HMMS application using sensor based technology and real time response technology to track hazardous materials using radio frequency ID tags.

Today Sensory Technology Consultants is a multi-million dollar business and we are thriving and growing. You can choose to make something of your past or you can become a victim of your past. The choice is yours and I chose success.

Double click of mouse not working in Windows XP

I recently could not double click on a folder and have it open the contents.

Run Regedit, find HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Mouse.
Delete the value data in DoubleClickHeight, DoubleClickWidth and DoubleClickSensitivity.

Go into Control Panel, Mouse, Doubleclick speed, move the pointer to a very slow position.

Simple Print Window in WPF (PDF and DOC)

I struggled with this for a few hours because the window would not close when the application closed using a WindowsFormHost and the solution was tons simpilar than I thought to begin with.

You make a window:

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
WindowState="Maximized"
Icon="/MyProj;component/Images/favicon.ico"
Title="MyProj - Print">





Then the code behind is simple:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
namespace MyProj
{
///

/// Interaction logic for PrintPDFWindow.xaml
///

public partial class PrintPDFWindow : Window
{
private System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser webbrowserOne;
public PrintPDFWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public PrintPDFWindow(string filePath)
{
InitializeComponent();
Uri uri = new Uri(filePath, UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
this.webBrowser.Source = uri;
}
}
}

You call it like this:

PrintPDFWindow ppw = new PrintPDFWindow(currentMarketingPath + currentMarketingMaterial.MarketingMaterialURL);
ppw.Title = "MyProj - " + currentMarketingMaterial.MarketingMaterialName;
ppw.Show();

That is it!

WPF Horizontal Listbox Bad Keyboard Behavior

What a pain in the arse. Took me hours to find this.

I have a horizontal listbox resembling a filmstrip. It had images on it. A mouse click on the next item in the scrollbar produced a correct onselectionchanged event. Arrowing right or left did not product the correct selected index. An Arrow Key Right it went to index 0. An Arrow Key Left went to the last item in the list.

I overrode the listbox class with the following code:

public class HorizontalListBox : ListBox
{
protected override void OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs e)
{
KeyDownHandler(this, e);
e.Handled = true;
}
void KeyDownHandler(object sender, System.Windows.Input.KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Key == System.Windows.Input.Key.Left)
{
MoveUp();
}
if (e.Key == System.Windows.Input.Key.Right)
{
MoveDown();
}
}
void MoveUp()
{
if (this.SelectedIndex > 0)
{
this.SelectedIndex = this.SelectedIndex - 1;
}
}
void MoveDown()
{
try
{
this.SelectedIndex = this.SelectedIndex + 1;
}
catch { }
}
}

Happy coding!
Linda

WPF Application Icon when StartURL is a Page

Create an LoadCompleted event on the application (App.xaml).

LoadCompleted="Application_LoadCompleted"

private void Application_LoadCompleted(object sender, System.Windows.Navigation.NavigationEventArgs e)
{
System.Drawing.Bitmap bmp = global::Docs.Properties.Resources.favicon.ToBitmap();
MemoryStream strm = new MemoryStream();
bmp.Save(strm, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
strm.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
PngBitmapDecoder pbd = new PngBitmapDecoder(strm, BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.Default);
//((System.Windows.Navigation.NavigationWindow)(Application.Current.MainWindow)).Icon = pbd.Frames[0];
Application.Current.MainWindow.Icon = pbd.Frames[0];
Application.Current.MainWindow.Top = 0;
Application.Current.MainWindow.Left = 0;
}

Took me a couple of hours to find this one.
~Linda

Bailout

The bailout is intended to rescue bankers from the bad loans that threaten to derail the economy and plunge the country into a long depression.

What about people like me who have paid their loans on time every time. I haven't taken out a loan that I could not pay back. I have been turned down by banks in favor for someone who would not pay their debts.

Disgusting!

I heard Debrah Orman on Oprah this week saying to only place your cash in an account backed by the government nothing else. She suspects some of the banks will go under. This is very scary!

Myself? I am stockpiling a bit of food.

Define Success

So a friend of mine gave me a book for my birthday. It is called "The Secret". She has told me many times that I am already living my dream. After I have made some lucrative business deals, purchased a big house, purchased beautiful furniture and made sure my kids are healthy and happy I have to wonder what is next on the agenda for me.

I try to help people realize the value of positive thinking. If you are constantly in the negative zone then you will be extremely unhappy. Another aspect of positive thinking is to make sure you are grateful for what you have. I think at any time a person can hit rock bottom.

I want people to realize there is so much out there if you believe in yourself and help other people to do the same. So how do I define success?

First I would break it down into several areas of success.

Professional Success

If I am successful professionally then I have not only climbed the career ladder and am well respected in my field but I have also helped others to do the same thing. By helping them improve professionally I am also improving myself professionally. I can inspire and motivate even the lowliest person to do better in their career.

Personal Success

I define personal success as having the ability to love myself. Putting my professional success aside and realizing what is important in life. Family and friends should remain at the top and their happiness and well being is very important to me. To live a long life I also think a person is successful by making their mind, body and soul healthy.

Human Success

I am successful in the human race if I have shown compassion and service to others. I am also successful if have brightened the most depressed person on earth with my smile. I want to make a positive influence in people's lives and make them glad that they met me. Making people laugh is the greatest thing on earth. Even if they are laughing at my corny jokes or reading the constant stream of humor email I send out.

Overall

I want to go to bed at night and sleep because I know I have achieved success that day. I want to die with no regrets. There is that old saying about sliding into the grave not saying "Geez I can't believe my life is over" but saying…"GAWD…what a ride!" I want to take risks and never have regrets.

The point is success is not about the money I have made or the places I have been. The best success in life is how well I respect myself. If I have done the things that I know are right then I will respect myself and others will respect me too.