I guess it is probably a good idea to avoid the word conservative in your post titles as well.  Unless, of course, you want Google Adsense to start showing political links featuring Bush, McCain (note spelling below), Romney, etc…

The following defect was logged yesterday: Each day at 4pm PST our users are denied seamless access into [third party website].

Though I am sure the author of the code may be of another opinion, aren’t these types of defects kind of fun?  They are like brain-teasers which you want to solve without looking at the answer — in this case is the code.  As a bonus, you can bring these riddles home and share over dinner with family and friends.  Everyone gets to play along.   

Here’s the answer:

// Encryption uses GMT time in verifying timestamp.
DateTime    dtNow      = DateTime.Now ;
string      sMonth     = “0″ + dtNow.Month.ToString() ;
string      sDay       = “0″ + dtNow.Day.ToString() ;
// Do not make changes to hour when switching to daylight savings time.
DateTime    dtUTC      = dtNow.ToUniversalTime();
string      sHour      = “0″ + (dtUTC.Hour).ToString() ;
string      sMinute    = “0″ + dtNow.Minute.ToString() ;
string      sSecond    = “0″ + dtNow.Second.ToString() ;

// timestamp t, in format “yyyymmddhhmmss”
string sTimeStamp = dtNow.Year.ToString() +
    sMonth.Substring( ( ( sMonth.Length == 2 ) ? 0 : 1 ) , 2 ) +
    sDay.Substring( ( ( sDay.Length == 2 ) ? 0 : 1 ) , 2 ) +
    sHour.Substring( ( ( sHour.Length == 2 ) ? 0 : 1 ) , 2 ) +
    sMinute.Substring( ( ( sMinute.Length == 2 ) ? 0 : 1 ) , 2 ) +
    sSecond.Substring( ( ( sSecond.Length == 2 ) ? 0 : 1 ) , 2 ) ;

Neat formatting routine, eh?

Now that I’m a dad, I had to laugh at the comic below, but the truth is these fighting words aren’t going to come out of my kid’s mouth.  “My blog gets more traffic than your blog” is more likely.  This will, of course, be accompanied by a heated exchange of blog statistics served up by a couple of 5-year-olds. 

Since June of last year, I’ve helped setup four blogs for families with newborns.  My son’s blog, which is as old as he, has been online for 7 months.  You might say that I enjoy updating his blog more than Johnnycoder.com.  You might say it is because his blog gets a greater and more enthusiastic response. :)  OR it’s the best way a techie dad can show off his son to family and friends all over the country all of the time.  It’s the best.

To all the blogging dads and dads-to-be out there, do yourself and your kid a favor and give them something to fight with their friends about.  This is how I did it.