Archive for February, 2011
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/28
Hier wat linkjes omdat ik de huidige thermostaat van onze CV door een WiFi variant wil vervangen.
Domotica dus 
We hebben nu de iSense thermostaaat dat via het OpenTherm protocol de CV aanstuurt: http://shop.kamerthermostaat.com/epages/62028128.sf/nl_NL/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62028128/Categories/Remeha
Remeha Recom software: http://nl.remeha.com/index.php?id=203
EcoBee heeft een interessant product, maar het is onduidelijk of ze OpenTherm ondersteunen: http://www.ecobee.com/
Quby interfaced niet alleen via OpenTherm met je CV, maar ook met je electiciteitsmeter: http://www.quby.nl/index.php/hoe-werkt-quby
Bwired heeft ontzettend veel informatie over domotica: http://www.bwired.nl/weblog.asp?cat=Bwired
Digit’s domotica blog: http://blog.hekkers.net/; hij heeft een Remeha monitor http://www.hekkers.net/domotica/Monitor_Remeha_Calenta.aspx
Tweakers.net thread: http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1346842/10
Radiothermostat in gebruik
–jeroen
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/25
After not having taken a look at NTFS for Linux for a while, I recently found out that NTFS-3G supports many platforms: Linux, Mac OS X, Android, etc.
Oh: and it supports Compressed Files too.
–jeroen
Posted in *nix, Power User | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/25
A seasoned Delphi developer friend in NZ (near Christchurch) seeks work, preferably if he can work remotely.
Please drop me an email to get more information.
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/25
While some of the names on the Microsoft Trademarks list are very generic (Windows, SideWinder, Arc, Expression, just to name a few), be careful when using them in a product name.
When a company with such deep pockets comes after you, you need a have a lot of persistence and be very patient.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/24
Often I explain to people that there are a lot of .NET languages, because the .NET IL is rich, so the individual languages can focus on the IL pieces they do best.
This also means, that most languages have some support for specific pieces of IL that other languages do not have support for.
The IL Exception Filter feature is one such thing. It is supported by for instance VB.NET but not by C# as Junfeng Zhang explains:
C# does not support exception filter. However, VB and IL support it. To add exception filter to C#, we can build a function in VB or IL, then call it in C#.
Read his full article for the complete code.
–jeroen
via: Exception Filter – Junfeng Zhang’s Windows Programming Notes – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, Development, Software Development, VB.NET | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/23
Many, many nice sayings have been done about Programming, Software Development, the people that do the work, etc.
I collected a few links to nice lists of them, and used some of them at my talk on The Best C# Extension Methods at the BASTA! Spring 2011 conference this week in Darmstadt, Germany (yes, I do speak German, don’t ask me about my German writing though <g>).
A few teasers:
Programming is similar to a game of golf. The point is not getting the ball in the hole but how many strokes it takes.
~Harlan Mills
If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
Edsger Dijkstra
They don’t make bugs like Bunny anymore.
~Olav Mjelde
So here it goes:
Enjoy 
BTW:
You can download all the sample code on my session from our bo.codeplex.com sourcecode repository.
If you want a PDF of the slides, just drop me an e-mail.
–jeroen
Posted in BASTA!, Conferences, Event, Opinions | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/23
For a project, I got a preconfigured VM for a client.
Certain projects they used gave this message:
—————————
Microsoft Visual Studio
—————————
The selected file cannot be opened as a solution or project. Please select a solution file or a project file.
—————————
OK
—————————
It appeared the didn’t do a full Visual Studio installation, so certain project types didn’t load.
This case it was Visual Studio 2008 and VBPROJ types, as Visual Basic .NET is way easier to do Office automation than C#.
In C#, you need truckloads of Type.Missing, which you do not need in VB.NET; Visual Studio 2010 made this easier, but you still often need them.
Lesson learned: always build all projects when you get a development VM, and prefer to install the VM yourself.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, C#, Development, Software Development, VB.NET | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/22
Often you work with projects not having the latest stuff.
Sometimes that is a good thing: latest stuff is not always best
In this case, the client had Office 2003, and needed to do some Excel automation from .NET.
The development systems however had Office 2007 on it, so importing Excel defaults to the Office 2007 Primary Interop Assembly: Office version 12 in stead of 11. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, Delphi, Development, Prism, Software Development, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/21
Most tips (like this one) I found to sync multiple Google Calendars to your iPad/iPhone don’t work any more.
This iPad Quick Tip: Enabling Multiple Google Calendars by Geoffrey Goetz works well.
Summary:
- if you have iOS 3.x, then you need to sync using CalDAV
- if you have iOS 4.x, then you can sync using Google Calendar Sync.
In both cases, you need to visit the iPhoneSelect page to enable the calendars you wish to see on your iPad/iPhone.
Tthe actual iPhoneSelect page depends on how you use Google Calendar:
- Regular Google Calendar:
https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect
- Google Apps Calendar:
https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/your_domain/iphoneselect
replacing ‘your_domain’ with your actual domain name.
Simple when you know how
Now hopefully Geoffrey Goetz’ tip becomes more popular in the search rankings.
–jeroen
via: iPad Quick Tip: Enabling Multiple Google Calendars: Apple News, Tips and Reviews «.
Posted in iOS, iPad, iPhone, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/18
The new Personal Blocklist extension for Google Chrome allows you to block certain patterns from the Google search results.
Ideal for those “link aggregation” sites that Google itself does not block yet.
The input from this tool will be used to improve the Google Search results for others tool.
The personal blocklist extension will transmit to Google the patterns that you choose to block. When you choose to block or unblock a pattern, the extension will also transmit to Google the URL of the web page on which the blocked or unblocked search results are displayed. You agree that Google may freely use this information to improve our products and services.
–jeroen
via Personal Blocklist (by Google) – Chrome Web Store.
Posted in Chrome, Power User, Web Browsers | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/18
Every once in a while I need to copy a bunch of filenames to the clipboard.
This is where the freeware tool ClipName comes in action: it can copy them in various formats (and works much better than the similar ClipPath, which can only copy them as CSV)
Quote from the ClipName page:
ClipName is also a Context Menu extension copying the full pathname of the right-clicked file to the clipboard. This new version supports copy of multiple filenames either as a space separated list or as a CRLF separated list. DOS filenames (8.3) can now also be copied as well as the URL encoded name and the UNC name for remote files. Clipname supports a Copy command for filenames without including any path, URL Encoding for multiple selections and style encoding for Microsoft Word, Microsoft OneNote,… A version running under Windows Vista 64-bit is now available. It also allows to copy the UNC name for local files and folders. Version 1.3 adds the capability of copying the target URL for Internet Shortcuts from Windows Explorer and from within the IE Favorites bar.
It comes both in 32-bit x86, and in x64 versions.
–jeroen
via PC TimeWatch – Freeware.
Posted in Clipboard, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/17
While it is still free…
The current version: http://reflector.red-gate.com/Reflector.zip
The “Check for Updates” entry in the “Help” menu checks this URL: http://reflector.red-gate.com/Reflector.version
Which currently returns:
6.6.0.30
6.1.0.0
http://reflector.red-gate.com/Download.aspx?File=Reflector&Client={Client}&Version={Version}
When Reflector detects there is a new version, you get a dialog like this:
—————————
.NET Reflector
—————————
A new version of .NET Reflector is available. Do you want to install automatically?
—————————
Yes No
—————————
When you press [Yes], it starts downloading from a URL that depends on the current version: http://reflector.red-gate.com/Download.aspx?File=Reflector&Client=Reflector&Version=6.5.0.135
{Client} was replaced by Reflector, and {Version} was replaced by 6.5.0.135 (the version of the currently running Reflector).
–jeroen
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/17
Recently, I wrote a bunch of code both in C# and Delphi to verify if two hosts are on the same IPv4 network.
Even though the public IPv4 address space is exhausted (IANA recently allocated the final two IPv4 blocks of their primary pool to APNIC, then allocated the five remaning /8 IPv4 blocks to the RIRs, thereby depleting the IPv4 pool), they are still used a lot, especially in private networks.
Over the next couple of weeks, you will see a couple of blog posts explaining:
- how to get the IPv4 addresses and network masks of network interfaces in your computer
- how to convert those to and from strings
- how to convert a host-name to a list of IP addresses
- how to lookup the current host-name
- how network masks are related to counting leading/trailing ones and zeros
- how to compare two IPv4 addresses given they have the same network masks
Those blog posts will have sample code in both Delphi and C#. And there will be unit tests to verify the underlying code.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, Delphi, Development, Software Development | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/16
Does this finally end the ASP.NET WebForms days?
Tool for converting WebForms Views to Razor C# Only
–jeroen
via: telerik/razor-converter – GitHub.
Posted in .NET, ASP.NET, C#, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/16
Each time I need to do Office COM interop, I wish they had overloaded methods: all those Type.Missing entries, and speed issues.
I know C# 4.0 makes missing parameters easier, but a lot of projects are not yet in Visual Studio 2010.
So this C# Excel Interop Use page by Sam Allen comes in handy.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/15
On the one hand it is good to be able to do things as early in the application startup phase as possible.
On the other hand: What’s next? A PrePreApplicationStartMethod that allows you to fiddle with the PreApplicationStartMethod behaviour?
–jeroen
via: David Ebbo: Register your HTTP modules at runtime without config.
Posted in .NET, ASP.NET, Development, Opinions, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/15
If you use Visual Studio 2005 for some old projects that have not yet been converted, and they open very slowly: read this post on If Your Visual Studio Solutions Open Slowly Check WebsiteCache by Thomas F. Abraham.
Emptying your WebsiteCache directory solves the issue: it had about 30-thousand empty directories in it.
The location depends on your Windows version:
- Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and below:
“%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WebsiteCache”
- Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and up:
“%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCache”
This bug has been fixed in Visual Studio 2008 and up.
–jeroen
via: If Your Visual Studio Solutions Open Slowly, Check WebsiteCache | Thomas F. Abraham – On Technology.
Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, Development, Software Development, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/14
Google just introduced 2-step authentication for all their users.
It’s an extra step, but it’s one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account because it requires the powerful combination of both something you know—your username and password—and something that only you should have—your phone.
–jeroen
via Official Google Blog: Advanced sign-in security for your Google account.
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/14
Posted in Power User | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/14
Getallen schrijven in verschillende talen is altijd listig.
Taaladvies heeft er voor het Nederlands een mooi stukje over: Aaneenschrijven van telwoorden (algemeen).
–jeroen
Posted in About, Personal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/11
Searching how to increase your Windows XP NTFS partitions of Virtual Machines running under VMware Workstation 7 gets you a truckload of links trying to get you to do all sorts of command-line like vmware-vdiskmanager and such.
That was indeed the case up till VMware Workstation 6.5, but from version 7 on, it has become much easier.
But the links with difficult steps keep appearing at the top of the search queries.
Hence this blog entry: increasing the NTFS partition size in a Windows VM is easy!
The increase is a two step process:
- In VMware Workstation, increase the size of the physical disk
- Increase the NTFS partion on that physical disk
Step 1 has become much easier since VMware Workstation version 7, you can do it from within VMware Workstation now.
Dinesh describes this small process very well in his Expand Disk in VMware Workstation 7 blog post. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *nix, Power User, VMware, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/10
Some nice little infographics from Digital Surgeons, showcasing the breakdown of the 2010 social demographics on Facebook and Twitter.
A few notions:
Twitter has slightly more balanced men/women ratio than Facebook.
Facebook has more non-USA users than Twitter.
Average age of a user is about 5 years older on Twitter than on Facebook.
Average income of a user on Facebook his lower than on Twitter.
Facebook has about 5 times as much users than Twitter.
–jeroen
via Infographic: Facebook vs Twitter Demographics 2011 | Digital Buzz Blog.
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/10
Greg Hewgill published a bunch Stack Overflow ebooks and StackExchange stats.
His readme explains a bit more on the books.
The blog he maintains makes up for some nice reading too.
Be sure to read the blog entry on the ebooks.
–jeroen
via Stack Overflow ebooks.
Posted in *nix, .NET, ASP.NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, Database Development, Delphi, Delphi for PHP, Development, HTML, HTML5, Java, JavaScript, Pingback, Power User, RegEx, Scripting, SocialMedia, Software Development, SQL, SQL Server, Stackoverflow, XML/XSD | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/09
Spoiler: Stack Overflow cured their Disk subsystem IO problems by putting in a RAID 10 of Intel X-25-E’s.
Full article: Our Storage Decision – blog.serverfault.com.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/09
Quite a while ago, user bobince wrote great answer on why not to parse html with RegEx.
Somehow people fail to recognize the brilliance of the answer, and try to simplify it into something like “don’t, use an XML or HTML parser in stead”.
bobince even posted some nice contra-examples that are impossible to parse in RegEx (heck, even most regular HTML and XML parsers have difficulties with them).
So: enjoy the beauty of the answer while it is still locked for editing.
–jeroen
Posted in Development, HTML, RegEx, Software Development, Web Development, XML, XML/XSD | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/08
My favourite text comparison tool just got updated on February 7th, 2011.
What’s new in Beyond Compare 3.2.4.13298:
- “Select All” and “Insert” are now available in line details but affect main display.
- Fixed copying to the clipboard including gaps as blank lines.
- “Paste” is now available even if no rows are visible.
- “Edit” is no longer enabled if no rows are visible.
and more…
–jeroen
via Beyond Compare 3.2.4.13298 – Changelog – Softpedia.
Posted in Delphi, Development, Power User, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/02/08
I totally forgot to post this earlier this year, so here it goes:
GExperts 1.34 (Stable Release) was released on January 5, 2011.
It supports Delphi 6 to Delphi XE.
You can download it here.
From the Change Log in Readme.txt:
- General: Added support for RAD Studio XE. Minor bugfixes and updates to the help files. (Erik)
- Set FocusControl: Add tool to assign focus control of labels by selecting the related label and wincontrol or a group of wincontrols, and the tool tries to guess the label to associate with each control. (Daniel Maltarollo and Erik)
- Grep: Allow excluding any number of directories from a search.
- Grep: Always center the match line in the Grep Result context pane.
- Components to Code: Optionally generate code to free all created components (Peter Dzomlija).
- Hide/Show Non-Visual Components: Added support for TFrame designers (Erik).
–jeroen
via Download GExperts.
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
