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Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/30
If you use Mac and Windows machines, then – despite the Mac keyboards – it sometimes is handy to use Mac to remote login to a Windows machine.
For that, the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.1.1 (especially the download <g>) comes in handy.
–jeroen
via: Microsoft Office for Mac Downloads and Updates | Office For Mac.
Posted in LifeHacker, Mac, OS X Leopard, OS X Lion, OS X Snow Leopard, Power User, Usability, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/30
While starting MonoDevelop this morning, I found out that MonoTouch 4.2.2 is out.
This is a minor update to MonoTouch 4.2, with the following bug fixes:
Bug fixes:
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, Development, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Mobile Development, MonoTouch, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/30
The Camera Shutter Life Database can give you some indication how long the shutter of your DSLR can last.
Both my Nikon body types are listed: The site has an entry for the Nikon D300, and the D700.
At the end of each page, you can upload your own shutter counts.
–jeroen
Posted in Photography | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/30
The RDP to VMware host running an XP guest: Invisible Mouse Cursor on Text Editors problem is not limited to RDP-ing into the VMware host, but also happens on some hosts themselves (including my ThinkPad W701 running Windows 7 x64).
This VMware Communities: Invisible Mouse Cursor on Text Editors … thread (that has a different host configuration: Vista) comes up with 2 different solutions that both work:
Since less hardware acceleration also means far less performance, I’ve opted for the first solution.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User, VMware | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/29
Regeling vitaliteitssparen bekend. Ofwel: de levensloopregeling (die bedoeld was voor de lange termijn) wordt afgeschaft en alles wat je er aan geld in hebt zitten moet je volgend jaar opmaken.
Zie je al die werkgevers al voor je die nu ineens het verzoek krijgen van werknemers die in 1 jaar meer dan een half jaar levensloopverlof willen opnemen?
Het is de zoveelste keer dat de overheid zich als een onbetrouwbare partij toont.
Deze keer schaadt het voor de verandering niet 1 partij: het pakt in 1 klap zowel werknemers als werkgevers.
Hoe triest ook: Ik begrijp wel dat een boel mensen zich zo langzamerhand steeds minder van de overheid aantrekken.
–jeroen
Posted in Opinions | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/29
Sometimes when you start Delphi multiple times, you get an error message similar to this:
[Error]
Cannot create file "C:\DOCUME~1\username\LOCALS~1\Temp\EditorLineEnds.ttr". The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
[OK]
Since there are are a few QC entries on the EditorLineEnds.ttr file: what is it?
In fact, there are two files in that %TEMP% directory: EditorLineEnds.ttr and EditorLineEnds.for
EditorLineEnds.ttr is in fact a TrueType font (you can copy it to EditorLineEnds.ttf and view it using the font viewer that Windows has built-in). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Delphi, Development, Font, Power User, Software Development | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/28
I’m at the BASTA.NET conference, so I need to keep this short:
Be sure to get Delphi XE2 Update 1 and read the release notes. You will need it in order to apply future updates, which will come soon and often: a big change when compared to previous product releases.
You will need do a full uninstall/install cycle, which will take a while.
On the Mac, you will also need to uninstall/install the Delphi XE 2 FireMonkey iOS support package as well.
It is worth it: tons of bug fixes, and an importent fix to comply with licensing (the first XE2 version had a license issue with the GLScene: if you have 3D apps, then Installing Update 1 and rebuilding your source will ensure that your applications have a valid redistributable license).
Bug fixes (over 120!) are in these areas:
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, FireMonkey, Software Development | 4 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/28
I forgot to blog on this while prepping for Delphi Tage and DelphiLive, so here it goes (BLTN, no, not that movie):
Thursday, 01 September 2011 00:00
We now have a pre-release of GExperts 1.35 available for download that supports RAD Studio XE2. We especially appreciate your help testing FireMonkey and 64-bit compatibility, support for unit scope prefixes, etc.
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/27
This morning I gave a well attended session at the BASTA.NET conference on .NET Cross Platform Mobile Development on Windows 7, Android and iOS
If you were attending my session, or just interested in Cross Platform Development with a touch – pun intended – of .NET (and Mono, MonoTouch, MonoDroid, MonoMac, Xcode) then you can download the materials here: http://bo.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/changes/70132 and http://bo.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/changes/70133 (yes, 2 change sets: somehow with SVN ”Check for modifications” I still missed part of the batch).
It consists of the PDF with session slides and the demo apps based on an old (.NET 1.1 and .NET Compact Framework 1.0 era) C# tic tac toe demo (which was based on some Turbo Pascal sources from 20+ years ago), now revived for the Windows Phone 7 (with Visual Studio), iOS (with MonoTouch) and Android (with MonoDroid) platforms.
The conference is held at the beautifully designed Rheingoldhalle conference center adjacent to the Rhine (German: Rhein) river in Mainz, Germany.
Oh: and I enjoyed a bit of the great weather outside (while it lasts <g>).
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, BASTA!, C#, Conferences, Development, Event, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/27
Now that there is Spring and Mocks for Delphi, it is time to post a few links:
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | 3 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/27
Hope you like these classics from the early Borland era:
Oh, and if you – like me – started in the Apple ][ and Lisa era, there are lots of nice documents of Apple products from that period to, for instance:
–jeroen
Via: Index of /pdf/borland.
Posted in Delphi, Development, Software Development | 5 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/26
Or third, fourth, …
Android 101: How to add a second gmail account to your phone | Android Central.
–jeroen
Posted in Android, LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/26
Als je SMS berichten via het vaste net van KPN wilt versturen, moet je een SMS Service Center installen.
Meestal moet je daarvoor het nummer 0673644444 hebben, maar soms moet er een nul achter en wordt het 06736444440, en soms (in ieder geval bij KPN Glasvezel) moet er 0031 voor en wordt het 0031673644444.
Gelukkig had de nieuwe Siemens Gigaset DX600A ISDN genoeg aan het normale nummer 0673644444.
–jeroen
via SMS via de vaste aansluiting – Afwijkend nummer SMS-berichtencentrale.
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/25
ABN AMRO should get their act together: I tried to notify them about some fishing email messages that fake they are coming from them (but instead try to lure me into providing my ABN AMRO credentials to a fishing site).
All of the mail addresses I used to communicate with ABN AMRO in the (recent!) past failed to work.
And since both abuse@abnamro.com or abuse@abnamro.nl also bounce, ABN AMRO now seem to want to live in complete cyber oblivion.
I hope some people at ABN AMRO read this and take action.
Or maybe they like to loose clients?
–jeroen
Edit: gelukkig, op Twitter let de ABN AMRO wel op: https://twitter.com/#!/ABNAMRO/status/117939672268812288″ target=”_blank”>Gijs reageerde, waarvoor dank:
@jpluimers Hallo Jeroen. Je kunt de phishing e-mails sturen naar valse-email@nl.abnamro.com of service@nl.abnamro.com. ^Gijs
Posted in About, Opinions, Personal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/23
Cool stuff:
About DNSCheck
Use this DNScheck to perform a technical check on a registered or as yet unregistered (undelegated) domain.
The result page gives details of any problems detected.
For yet undelegated domainnames, you need to enter the the host names and the IP-addresses of the name servers. Choose the ‘undelegated domain test’ tab for this.
About SIDN
SIDN is responsible for the functional stability and development of the .nl ccTLD domain. As well as registering and allocating .nl domain names, the organisation enables Internet users all over the world to make use of these labels at any given moment by means of the Domain Name System (DNS).
–jeroen
via: DNSCheck.
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/23
With the increasing number of devices, it really helps to expand all nodes in the Device Manager’s tree view.
You cannot do this with the mouse, as none of the menu options contain an “Expand All” option.
But since the treeview, is the built-in Windows treeview (used in many places, like Windows explorer), you can use these shortcuts to expand/collapse nodes:
This not only works in Microsoft Windows 7: Visual … – Google Books, I think it has been introduced as far back as Windows 95.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/22
I got to the SafeUsingBlock extension method because of a nice StackOverflow thread on exceptions swallowed in a using block.
Actually, you can broaden the case into a wider scope: in any language when you protect resources in a try finally block (essentially, a using will turn into an implicit try finally block), and both the core logic and the finally throw an exception, the exception from the core block is swallowed.
Simple C# example:
using System;
public class Example
{
public void Main()
{
try
{
try
{
throw new ApplicationException("logic block");
}
finally
{
throw new ApplicationException("finally block");
}
}
catch (Exception error)
{
Console.WriteLine(error.ToString());
}
}
}
Simple Delphi example:
program Example;
begin
try
try
raise Exception.Create('logic block');
finally
raise Exception.Create('finally block');
end;
except
on error: Exception do
begin
Write(error.ClassName, ' ', error.Message);
end;
end;
end.
Both examples will only write out the finally block exception message, not the logic block exception message.
This is a corner case (like the example from the MSDN documentation), from which the SafeUsingBlock protects you from by providing an AggregateException class.
In C#, it is a guideline to avoid throwing exceptions in the Dispose when implementing the disposable pattern.
This is good practice in any programming environment: when disposing objects, only throw exceptions in very critical situations when the containing process has been corrupted.
Practically this is very easy as the disposers are very thin and should not contain any business logic, so it is pretty easy to spot places where the program state really is corrupt.
An other alternative is for instance have a Close method that throws an exception, and a disposer not throwing.
–jeroen
via C# Using Blocks can Swallow Exceptions | DigitallyCreated.
Posted in .NET, C#, Delphi, Development, Software Development | 7 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/20
One of the things hard when doing FireMonkey iOS development Delphi XE2 is that you have a multi stage process:
Basically you need to share your project files both ways between Windows and OS X.
Naturally, you would share files between your Mac and Windows using Samba. With the introduction of OS X Lion, the Samba support was rewritten, causing all sorts of problems.
One of the problems is that it uses a lot of CPU (I tried copying over a 40GB VM, and stopped because the fan in my MacBook Air was making so much noise, I was afraid it was going to take off).
I didn’t even realize it had one, but a MacBook Air has a Fan, and it vents through the keyboard 
Now I use DropBox to share files between it. If you like that to, sign up with the URL at the end of this line. The 2GB account is free! http://db.tt/6f95UJW
And if you know a better way of sharing: please let me know!
–jeroen
Posted in Delphi, Development, FireMonkey, Mac, OS X Lion, Power User, Software Development | 15 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/19
Sometimes when you see a solution you have this “duh” moment.
In my case, somehow I broke my Powerpoint template and got autofit disabled: “autofit body text to placeholder” not working in PPT 2007.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/19
The direct UPC Speedtest link does not load all the fuzz the normal UCP speedtest page has.
At a client.
My Cable connection.
My ADSL connection.
Note the Cable connection is early in the morning. In the afternoon/evening it is much slower.
The ADSL connection is slower, but more reliable, has IPv6, and XS4ALL is way better at security and privacy than UPC.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/16
Right after finding out VMware Fusion 4 got released, I downloaded and installed it.
Basically, there are two VMware Fusion 4.0.1 downloads:
I can’t imagine McAfee being larger than the size of VMware, and if it has the same speed impact on a Mac as it has on PCs, then don’t get it: get the light version.
–jeroen
Via: Download VMware Fusion 4.
Posted in Fusion, Mac, OS X Lion, Power User, VMware | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/16
A long time ago I showed a list of PDF printer drivers.
In the mean time, FreewareGenius did a comparison of free PDF printer drivers in june 2011.
Time to go to the BullZip site and try the download of their Free PDF Printer
–jeroen
Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/16
Online Hex/Ascii Converter, Hex/EBCDIC Converter and Hex/ASCII Converter 2.
–jeroen
Posted in Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/15
My MacBook Air has arrived, a few days before VMware Fusion 4 got out and a very early preview of Windows 8 got released.
Time to move my iOS dev env from my Mac Mini Server dev env over to this fully loaded 13.3 inch MacBook Air model (A1369 with 1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 / 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM / 256GB Flash Storage).
A few initial observations on the MacBook Air:
Oh well, will install it at the Embarcadero office later this week.
A few things on VMware Fusion 4:
Time to have a lot of fun
–jeroen
Via: VMware: VMware Support Insider: Fusion 4 is here!.
http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=A1369
Posted in About, LifeHacker, Mac, OS X Lion, Personal, Power User, VMware | 1 Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/15
Posted in Development, Power User, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/14
The download page states
The Windows Developer Preview is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers.
But of course this is also interesting to designers and regular users: getting a hands-on impression of what Metro will bring to Windows 8.
–jeroen
Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Power User, Software Development, Windows, Windows 8 | 2 Comments »
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/09/14
in the Delphi 64 world, there is no official support for the Extended data type for various reasons.
If you really need it, then you can use the TExtendedX87 unit by Philipp M. Schlüter as mentioned in this Embarcadero forum thread.
–jeroen
Via: 28488 TExtendedX87: FPU-backed 80-bit Extended type for Win64.
Posted in Delphi, Delphi x64, Development, Software Development | 2 Comments »
