Last Sunday I was teaching the lesson in Elders Quorum and was teaching about Financial Preparedness.  To prepare I had been listening to the book-on-tape of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” which was a very interesting book so far as it points out that wealth is the ability to control ones financial destiny.  When I thought about what wealth is the first thing that comes to mind is wealth = materialistic items.  A nice, large set of tools!  A Plasma TV!  Nice cars and other nice things.  This is one of the first times the definition of wealth has been challenged.  I started to think that really the materialistic items were not really what wealth is about, but perhaps it’s a little more.  Perhaps wealth = power?  Power could include a more general set of things that define wealth. 

I got word this week that my old friend, Warren Ludlow, has passed away.  I use the term old friend because I haven’t seen or heard from him in almost 10 years but he lived just a few houses down the street for most of my teen-aged life.  The image I think of when I think of him is at scout camp one time I came up to the cabin and heard someone choking!  I went to see if whoever was going to be okay when I saw Warren choking on some skittles.  He started breathing again so I breathed a sigh of relief.  Just then Russ King came around the corner, also responding to the distress of chocking.  He assured us he was okay and continued eating skittles.  Almost immediately he started chocking again!  We again rushed over to his aide.  He re-gained composure and informed us he was fine.  He said that skittles make him choke.  Russ asked, “Why do you keep eating them then?” to which the reply “Because they’re good!” eventually came between chocking and gasps for air.  We shook our heads and walked away.  That was Warren. 

Warren and I were in very similar stages of our life.  He was only 1 year younger, married, and with a kid on the way.  It’s a little shocking to lose someone so young, 26.  While on my 1,600 mile journey to Montana this weekend I thought a lot about what it must have been like for him and his family.  It was really easy considering our circumstances were so similar. What would I have done with the time I had left? The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, tried to prolong his mortality any way possible and at any cost! 

 By the end of my journey I really started to miss my wife and kids when all of the sudden two thoughts mixed.  I thought what would I do if I had a bunch of money and I was about to die?  If I could “purchase” or otherwise bargain for more time would I, could I?  What would I be willing to pay for just a few moments?  I suppose I would pay a million bucks or more!  In fact, every moment I do spend with them is worth a million bucks if I am seconds away from death or not!  It’s worth a million bucks if I have many millions or not. I get to spend lots of time with them so maybe there is some grandiose “bar tab” being tallied.  Perhaps the price has already been paid for the time we share together; like some large inheritance the cost of time is suddenly diminished.  Perhaps this was the case.  Suddenly a new, better, definition came for wealth.  Wealth = Happiness.  That is to say wealth is only a state of mind.  You feel wealthy if and only if you look for it in the right places.  We all know that money cannot buy happiness but wealth has nothing to do with money!  To be wealthy is to look at what you have with gratitude rather than looking for what you don’t have with envy.  We are all blessed so abundantly that it is easy for anyone, anywhere to be wealthy.

--Nathan Zaugg

I have run across the need to encrypt some connection strings in a web.config file.  ASP.NET provides a handy way to do this using Protected Sections.  They allow you to encrypt the connection string based on machine or user.  The best part is that it is transparent to the application so if you have an existing application that uses the connection string block you can encrypt the strings without having to add any lines of code or re-test your application. 

Here is what it boils down to:
Encrypting a connection string in a virtual directory using DPAPI (machine specific):
aspnet_regiis -pe "connectionStrings" -app "/MachineDPAPI" -prov "DataProtectionConfigurationProvider"

Encrypting a connection string in a physical directory using DPAPI (machine specific):
aspnet_regiis.exe -pef "connectionStrings" C:\Projects\MachineDPAPI –prov "DataProtectionConfigurationProvider"

Encrypting a connection string in a virtual directory using RSA (user specific):
aspnet_regiis -pe "connectionStrings" -app "/MachineRSA"

Encrypting a connection string in a physical directory using RSA (user specific):
aspnet_regiis.exe -pef "connectionStrings" C:\Projects\MachineRSA

Here are the links:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998280.aspx
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998283.aspx

 

--Nathan Zaugg