I struck a small issue with one of our old apps here at work today.

I’ve got an app that calls a web service which executes a MS SQL stored procedure to do some processing.

The webservice call in the app was bombing out after 30 seconds. Unfortunately I found many places to change various timeouts through the web service and the app and none of them helped me with my 30 second issue.

The 30 second issue turned out to be the CommandTimeout setting on the SqlCommand in the webservice.

SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["WBConnectionString"].ConnectionString);
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("Transfer", conn);
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ListNumber", listNumber);
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Date", date);
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@ListDate", listDate);
cmd.CommandTimeout = 300;
cmd.Connection.Open();

return (string)cmd.ExecuteScalar();

Additionally I found you can also set another timeout for the web service calls at the client end, this must default to a more than 30 seconds (100000 milliseconds I think)

using (PayeesService svc = new PayeesService())
{
    svc.Timeout = 300000;
    statusTB.Text += "Connected!" + Environment.NewLine;

We’ll see how this goes in the future, it’s fixed up the couple of large batches that needed to get through.

I’ve been mucking around the past couple of days with my old full poly boom idea, many years ago I wrote one for my old combat racing game (openGL… never finished). The boom effect was probably the best element in the whole game.

Tonight I focused on some shader variations for it, it’s not looking too bad at the moment but I think a subtle outline will finish it off.

I’m going to also add some shrapnel trails to give it some more oomph.

I figure if I make the explosions over the top enough it’ll make up for the lack of additional game play mechanics.

Back at work today, none too productive seeing we only got back home from South Africa at 1am.

Spent most of the day cleaning out my inbox and generally catching up on what’s been going on.

The best thing I did all day was grab a copy of Super Mario Galaxy from Target on the way home, it even turned out to be on special, definitely $82 well spent it’s a blast.

I’ve nabbed the first 10 of 120 stars so far and have had a ball, they’ve taken the 3D platformer to the next level, it uses all three dimensions, twisting and turning gravity on it’s head… the amazing thing is that it’s not a pain the azz to control while all this is happening.

It’s all broken up into delicious bit sized chunks also, you ping around between planets like an ADD humming bird, some stars involving half a dozen or more jumps (with mini goals at each stop) to reach the final goal.

Absolutely brilliant so far!