–jeroen

PS: not sure if this is legal, but I just came across a H2G2 PDF.

Writing XPath queries can be quite consuming, so it is nice of you can test it somewhere on-line.

Out of the on-line XPath testers, these two worked best:

• XPath Online tool (by Mark Bucayan)
  It runs in your browser, and uses the Microsoft.XMLDOM for parsing.
• Allans Online XPath Tester (by Allan Thræn)
  It runs serverside, and uses the .NET System.Xml.XmlDocument (the .NET System.Xml is very different from the Microsoft.XMLDOM)

Both of them support namespaces, including these XPath functions: local-name and namespace-uri.

These failed:

• The bit-101 XPath Query Tool
  It does not support XPath functions, as it uses the XML support that xfactorstudio.com wrote for Flash. Both are lousy.
• XPath Expression Testbed
  It does not even support basic XML with namespaces.

If you have more on-line tools that work: please let me know!

Edit (20120524T0930):

Danny Thorpe tweeted an interesting comment:

@jpluimers If you’re compiling XPath support, make note of whether it’s XPATH 1.0 or 2.0. I think .NET only implements XPATH 1.0

Indeed, .NET only supports XPath 1.0, and worse, .NET 4 introduced a couple of issues with XSLT (see XPath and XSLT 2.0 for .NET? – Stack Overflow).

Luckily there are some goot XPath 2.0 libraries for .NET (see XPath 2.0 Libraries for .Net – Stack Overflow).

–jeroen

via: XPath tools on not-another-blog

Entity Framework is lovely for developing data-centric applications.

By default, Visual Studio 2010 will target SQL Server 2008 as a database. That is fine, but it is kind of invisible it does: there is no property or dialog where you can change this.

What you have to change in order to have the Entity Framework send SQL Server 2000 compatible queries is to:

1. Right click your .edmx file
2. Choose “Open with”
3. Choose the “XML (text) editor”
4. Find the  ProviderManifestToken attribute
5. Change the value (usually from “2008″) into “2000″
6. Save the .edmx file
7. Build and run your application

A few caveats:

• If you update your model from the designer, it resets the ProviderManifestToken to 2008 if you design using 2008 and deploy <= 2008
• SQL Server 2000 does not understand everything that SQL Server 2008 does (hey, that’s news, it is 10+ years old you know!) for instance it does not support the APPLY operator that EF generates for SQL Server 2000.

The ProviderManifestToken is usually at this place:

/edmx:Edmx/edmx:Runtime/edmx:StorageModels/Schema/@ProviderManifestToken

Note this is not a full XPath query to it (as you’d have to add the namespaces see also namespaces in XPath), that would be the one below this post’s signature.

From the ProviderManifestToken documentation:

ProviderManifestToken Schema Attribute

ProviderManifestToken is a required attribute of the Schema element in SSDL. This token is used to load the provider manifest for offline scenarios. For more information about ProviderManifestToken attribute, see Schema Element (SSDL).

SqlClient can be used as a data provider for different versions of SQL Server. These versions have different capabilities. For example, SQL Server 2000 does not support varchar(max) and nvarchar(max) types that were introduced with SQL Server 2005.SqlClient produces and accepts the following provider manifest tokens for different versions of SQL Server.

• “2000″ for SQL Server 2000
• “2005″ for SQL Server 2005
• “2008″ for SQL Server 2008

Note: Starting with Visual Studio 2010, the Entity Data Model Tools do not support SQL Server 2000.

Finally, with SQL Server 2000, be sure to set multipleactiveresultsets=false in your connectionstrings to disable MARS (Multiple Active Result Sets) which SQL Server 2000 does not support.

–jeroen

via: SqlClient for the Entity Framework.

Full XPath query would either have you to add namespaces using an XmlNameSpaceManager instance, or use the full namespace urls like here:

//*[namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/02/edm/ssdl']/@ProviderManifestToken

or more precisely

/*[local-name()='Edmx' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx']/*[local-name()='Runtime' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx']/*[local-name()='StorageModels' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx']/*[local-name()='Schema' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/02/edm/ssdl']/@ProviderManifestToken

or on multiple lines:

[sourececode language='text']
/*[local-name()='Edmx' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx']
/*[local-name()='Runtime' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx']
/*[local-name()='StorageModels' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2008/10/edmx']
/*[local-name()='Schema' and namespace-uri()='http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2009/02/edm/ssdl']
/@ProviderManifestToken
[/sourcecode]

for this .edmx file (hoping that WordPress doesn’t mess with the xml as it usually does).

[sourececode language='xml']

[/sourcecode]

Yup, it did it again; please see this file for the XML.

–EOM–

what if you don’t want the fault-tolerant heap? For example, during program development, you probably want to disable the fault-tolerant heap for your program: If the program is crashing, then it should crash so you can debug it!

–jeroen

via: How do I disable the fault-tolerant heap? – The Old New Thing – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.

One of the things that were very close together in Word 2003, was converting text to and from tables: they were in adjecent menu items.

Not any more, as you can see in the Convert text to a table or vice versa  topic on the Microsoft site. There is even a Dummies article on this topic.

Summarized:

Convert text to a table

1. Tab Insert,
2. Group Tables,
3. click Table,
4. then click Convert Text to Table.

Of course the keyboard shortcuts are “easy” to remember: Alt, N, T, V

Convert a table to text

1. When you have a (portion of a) table selected, you get a new contextual tab set called Table Tools.
2. Tab Layout,
3. Group  Data,
4. click Convert to Text.

Of course the keyboard shortcuts are “easy” to remember: Alt, J,L, V

–jeroen

via: Convert text to a table or vice versa – Word – Office.com.
Naming of ribbon UI elements

First Lenovo did away with 1920×1200 screens. Now they done away with the ThinkPad keyboard layout.

Both were my compelling reasons for buying Lenovo.

In fact, they are now marked as forum.thinkpads.com • non-ThinkPad Lenovo Hardware.

New Lenovo X1 keyboard. No more ScrLk, Pause and local-menu keys, PrtScr key moved to impossible place. 6-key navigation split.

–jeroen

PS: Anyone in The Netherlands who has a new ThinkPad W701 with 1920×1200 screen for sale?

The guides on Trash at MacRumours.com to the rescue:

Deleting items

You delete files and folders by moving them to the Trash. You can:

Drag and drop a file on the trash icon in the dock

Control-click on a file and select “Move to Trash” from the menu

Select a file or files and use the keyboard shortcut: command-backspace

Select a file or files and choose “File > Move to Trash” from the menu bar

Note that on many Mac keyboards, the backspace key is called delete. It in fact functions as backspace which removes the character left of the cursor; to delete a character under the cursor you have to press Fn-delete.

–jeroen

via: Trash – Mac Guides.

You’d think the WCF Test Client works, but it only partially generates the calls; it gets the methods OK, but not the parameters.

Importing the .NET WebService in Visual Studio is another option, but not for a “quick play around with the calls”.

For that, Soap UI seems a good option.

If you know better tools, please let me know in the comments.

It works, and when you get it to work it is dead slow (it keeps one core running at 50%).

Getting it to work gives many people this kind of error message:

---------------------------
Error
---------------------------
The JVM could not be started. The maximum heap size (-Xmx) might be too large or an antivirus or firewall tool could block the execution.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

I found a bit of help on the SmartBear forum. These are the relevant pieces that got me going:

“The JVM could not be started. The maximum heap size (-XMx) might be too large or anti virus or firewall tool could block the execution.”

and

I had the same issue today morning while starting from the exe file (I installed from windows installer) and also have a JVM configured on the machine.

Within soapUI-3.6.1.vmoptions file in “bin” directory, I reduced the xmx from 1200m (default) to 486m and that makes it to work. Try this – it might help.

In case, you are using bat file to start, there is a separate xmx setting within bat and you will need to make this xmx change in bat file.

Solution:

1. Don’t run the shortcut that points to soapUI-4.0.1.exe, run the batch file called soapui.bat.
2. The batch file is in a directory like \Program Files\SmartBear\soapUI-4.0.1\bin
3. If needed tweek the batch file to have the right parameters.
4. I did not have to tweak the batch file.

Quitting SoapUI gives you the pleasure of the error message below; just forcefully quit the command prompt there (pressing Ctrl-Break or Ctrl-C won’t work), and the batch file will quit.

Exception while removing reference: java.lang.InterruptedException
java.lang.InterruptedException
        at java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
        at java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue.remove(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue.remove(Unknown Source)
        at sun.java2d.Disposer.run(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

–jeroen

via: SmartBear Forum • View topic – The JVM could not be started – Soap UI.

Since CodeRush is very extendable (Mark is still explaining to people how the idea for that came from Delphi Packages back in the mid 90s), you can add this one yourself, as the a answer to this DevExpress support issue shows:

Q:

Is there a quick way to reverse the assignment in CodeRush?  For example:

FROM:
Field[“test1”] = edTest1.Value;
Field[“test2”] = edTest2.Value;

TO:
edTest1.Value = Field[“test1”];
edTest2.Value = Field[“test2”];

I know Delphi had this capability in its refactoring, does CodeRush for Visual Studio?

Thanks

Daniel Schipper

---

A:

Hi Dan,

Yes, it is possible. You can use the “Selection->Inversion” feature for this purpose. Please do the following:

1. From the DevExpress menu, select “Options…”.
2. In the tree view on the left, navigate to this folder:
   Editor\Selections
3. Select the “Inversion” options page.
4. Add a new “Inversion” entry, and adjust its settings as follows:
   Match With:
   %Anything1% = %Anything2%;Replacement:
   %Anything2% = %Anything1%;

After that, you can invert any assignment expression by pressing the shortcut, bound to the “SelectionInvert” command (“Ctrl + Shift + I” is used by default).

Thanks,

Vito

–jeroen

via: CodeRush for Visual Studio .NET – Q35048 – Quick way to reverse the assignment – View Issue – DevExpress Support Center, Knowledge Base, Code Samples.

One of the next steps in the automated build process I’m setting up is increasing AssemblyVersion values after succesful builds.

It is is in a CCnet / TFS2010 / VS2010 environment.

Some links:

• Incrementing the Assembly Version for Each Build in TFS 2010 – Random Musings of Jeremy Jameson – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.
• Incrementing the Assembly Version for Each Build – Random Musings of Jeremy Jameson – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.
• Incrementing Assembly Version in TFS Builds and its affect over Other Build Definitions.
• c# – How to have an auto incrementing version number (Visual Studio)? – Stack Overflow.
• Ewald Hofman | Customize Team Build 2010 – Part 5: Increase AssemblyVersion.
• Rob Smyth: Using Subversion Revision as the AssemblyVersion – Revisited.
• Assembly Versioning using CruiseControl.net – Stack Overflow.

–jeroen

via: change assemblyversion during checkin ccnet – Google Search.

20 user Inbound TCP connection limit in Windows 7 – Super User	Power User, Windows,Windows 7	21 hours ago Missed schedule
On the research list: Kidi.Net: Kinderen VEILIG op het Net via Giovanni Praet (giovannipraet) on Twitter.	About, Personal, Power User	2012/05/14 Missed schedule
How to Fix Temporary Profile in Windows 7	Power User, Windows,Windows 7	2012/05/11 Missed schedule

I tried this trick, but it didn’t help:

wget http://www.domain.com/wp-cron.php

Anyone who knows how to work around this?

Edit: posted on the forum, and contacted staff. But any ideas are still welcome.

–jeroen

via:

• “Missed schedule” on post « WordPress.com Forums.
• WordPress “missed schedule” « Untitled 1.

So sometimes you have to simulate or connect to Test or Acceptance Database Servers from a Develop workstation.

There it can get hairy to keep track of which applications connect to which database server.

That’s where the below batch file comes in handy: it scans your systems on connections to common TCP ports used by SQL server, then for each connection give you some process details (or – if you add a commandline parameter – all details that TLINK can get).

The batch file uses the built in tools tasklist, netstat, find and sc (the latter to show information on the local running SQL Services).

It also uses TLIST, which can be a bit awkward to get.

A few tricks used:

• setlocal/endlocal
• removing double quotes from a command line argument – careful with delayed expansion here!
  (tasklist with /FV CSV can emit CSV output that has quotes)
• netstat outputs zero (0) as local port when the connection is not ESTABLISHED any more
• using the caret (^) to escape the pipe (|) and double quotes (“) in for loops
• splitting the output of commands in for loops using usebackq, delims, tokens (both numbered and *) and back-quotes (`)
• tlist without comments shows one line of information per process;
  tlist with a PID on the command line shows detailed process information (filtered with find)
• various versions of .NET use various versions of the CLR (clr.dll, mscor*.dll)

This is the batch file:

@echo off
:main
  setlocal
  set details=%*
  set foundsql=false
  for %%p in (ms-sql-s 1433 ms-sql-m 1434) do call :netstat %%p
  endlocal
  goto :exit

:netstat
  if %foundsql%==true goto :exit
  echo trying port %1
  netstat -o | find "%1"
  for /f "usebackq tokens=2,3,4,5,7 delims=: " %%a in (`netstat -o ^| find ^"%1^"`) do (
    call :parse_token %%a %%b %%c %%d %%e
  )
  goto :exit

:parse_token
  set pid=%5
  if !!==!%pid%! goto :exit
  set foundsql=true

  echo.
  echo PID %pid%
  echo Local  port=%2, machine=%1
  echo Remote port=%4, machine=%3

:: PID 0 is special: TCP connection that is not ESTABLISHED any more
  if %pid%==0 goto :exit

  set foundpid=false
  for %%p in (%pids%) do (
    if %%p==%pid% set foundpid=true
  )

  if %foundpid%==true goto :exit

  set pids=%pid% %pids%

  tasklist /V /FI "PID eq %pid%"

:: get the "non-verbose" process info from tlist, and decide in :show_process if we want detailed information
  for /f "usebackq tokens=1,* delims=, " %%a in (`tlist`) do (
    if %pid%==%%a call :show_process %%a %%b
  )

:check_service
  set showedsvc=false
  rem NH=no header
  for /f "usebackq tokens=* delims=, " %%a in (`tasklist /NH /FO CSV /SVC /FI ^"PID eq %pid%^"`) do (
    call :show_service %%a
  )
  goto :exit

:show_process
  echo %*

  if !%details%!==!! goto :noDetails
  tlist %pid%

  goto :exit
:noDetails
  tlist %pid% | find "CWD"
  tlist %pid% | find "CmdLine"
:: .net 4.x and up
  tlist %pid% | find "mscoree.dll"
:: .net 1.x till 3.x
  tlist %pid% | find "clr.dll"
  goto :exit

:show_service
  if !%3!==!"N/A"! goto :exit
  if %showedsvc%==true goto :details
  set showedsvc=true
  tasklist /SVC /FI "PID eq %~2"
:details
  sc queryex %~3
  goto :exit

:exit

–jeroen

You need to be administrator to see the output of the “net config server” command.

The inbound/outbound limit is 20:

Running ‘net config server’ at the command-line suggests that Windows 7 can support up to 20 inbound / 20 outbound incomplete connections.

–jeroen

via: Inbound TCP connection limit in Windows 7 – Super User.

Windows (most seem to work with Windows 7 too)

• StopSS
• MonitorES
• Caffeine

Mac OS X

• Caffeine (it is available as an entry in the Mac App Store)

Note: on Windows 7 this will not prevent the inactivity timer on an RDP connetion!

–jeroen

via: windows xp – How to prevent screensaver – Super User.

Note: no need to write it yourself

I must try to see if this is going to work with my mentally retarted brother: Kidi.Net: Kinderen VEILIG op het Net.

–jeroen

via: Giovanni Praet (giovannipraet) on Twitter.

You can fix the “temporary profile” in Windows 7 if you have access to the registry.

So it totally depends on how tight security at your clients is, and how fast their alternative processes are…

–jeroen

via: How to Fix Temporary Profile in Windows 7.

While creating Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft built a “Next Generation TCP/IP Stack” (Wikipedia link) that – apart from adding IPv6 – added many new features and performance improvements.

Since traffic routable through the local machine can have multiple IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, it is not called ” 127.0.0.1″ any more, but “On-link” as the answers to the windows 7 – What does “On-link” mean on the result of “rout print” command? on SuperUser nicely point out:

They are addresses that can be resolved locally. They don’t need a gateway because they dont need to be routed.

and this:

Yep, the other three answers are correct: it’s just a route thats directly reachable the NIC is in direct contact with it; on the same subnet. To explain a little further though: by contrast, the routes that have a gateway IP listed must be contacted through that gateway.

Note that sometimes the new TCP/IP stack needs some arm wrestling in order to have it do what you want (for instance to have it honour TCP metrics).

Note that the “default gateway” line is also missing, as it is in the 0.0.0.0 network destination.

A few examples of what route print shows:

Windows 7 IPv4 route table with some VMware networks:

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0    192.168.171.1  192.168.171.102     20
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
    192.168.153.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.153.1    276
    192.168.153.1  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.153.1    276
  192.168.153.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.153.1    276
    192.168.171.0    255.255.255.0         On-link   192.168.171.102    276
  192.168.171.102  255.255.255.255         On-link   192.168.171.102    276
  192.168.171.255  255.255.255.255         On-link   192.168.171.102    276
    192.168.237.0    255.255.255.0         On-link     192.168.237.1    276
    192.168.237.1  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.237.1    276
  192.168.237.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.237.1    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link   192.168.171.102    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     192.168.237.1    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link     192.168.153.1    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link   192.168.171.102    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.237.1    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link     192.168.153.1    276
===========================================================================

Windows XP route table with some other VMware networks:

===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0    192.168.171.1  192.168.171.161      10
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       1
    192.168.114.0    255.255.255.0    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       20
    192.168.114.1  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       20
  192.168.114.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       20
    192.168.145.0    255.255.255.0    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       20
    192.168.145.1  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       20
  192.168.145.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       20
    192.168.171.0    255.255.255.0  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      10
  192.168.171.161  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       10
  192.168.171.255  255.255.255.255  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      10
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       20
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       20
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      10
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.145.1               6       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      1
Default Gateway:     192.168.171.1
===========================================================================

and the same XP machine with two NICs to the outside world:

===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0     192.168.71.1  192.168.71.161       20
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0    192.168.171.1  192.168.171.161      10
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       1
     192.168.71.0    255.255.255.0   192.168.71.161  192.168.71.161       20
   192.168.71.161  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       20
   192.168.71.255  255.255.255.255   192.168.71.161  192.168.71.161       20
    192.168.114.0    255.255.255.0    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       20
    192.168.114.1  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       20
  192.168.114.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       20
    192.168.145.0    255.255.255.0    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       20
    192.168.145.1  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       20
  192.168.145.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       20
    192.168.171.0    255.255.255.0  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      10
  192.168.171.161  255.255.255.255        127.0.0.1       127.0.0.1       10
  192.168.171.255  255.255.255.255  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      10
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0   192.168.71.161  192.168.71.161       20
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       20
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       20
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      10
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255   192.168.71.161  192.168.71.161       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255   192.168.71.161               6       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.114.1   192.168.114.1       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255    192.168.145.1   192.168.145.1       1
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255  192.168.171.161  192.168.171.161      1
Default Gateway:     192.168.171.1
===========================================================================

–jeroen

via: windows 7 – What does “On-link” mean on the result of “rout print” command? – Super User.

–jeroen

via Greg Beechs Blog | Greg Beechs Website.

1. Lots and lots of articles mention it.
2. Not all versions of TLIST.EXE will work on all Windows versions (I found a 40k version 3.51 at a client that clearly hangs on their XP systems, where the version 3.50 works fine but is more limited).
3. It is hard to find an actual download.

This is what I downloaded as I prefer ISO files prefer web-installers:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/A/2/4A25C7D5-EFBE-4182-B6A9-AE6850409A78/GRMWDK_EN_7600_1.ISO

I got there through these pages (in reverse chronological order)

• Windows Driver Kit Version 7.1.0
  Microsoft Download Center link for the WDK 7.1.0
• How to Get the WDK 
• Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4
• Debugging Tools for Windows 32-bit Version
  Debugging Tools for Windows 64-bit Version
• download “Debugging Tools for Windows”
• How to debug Windows services
• download tlist site:microsoft.com
• Windows Debugging
• Extra Tools
• TList commands

–jeroen

• it uses :: as comment markers
• is uses the && and || conditional execution constructs to either continue on success or failure.
• all variables are local using setlocal/endlocal
• ping is used to wait a certain time

@echo off
    setlocal enableextensions
:begin
    :: we use 0.0.0.0 for wait, see http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space/ipv4-address-space.xml
    set WaitIP=0.0.0.0
    :: usually from a private range: 192.168.*.*, 172.16-31.*.*, 10.*.*.* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network#Private_IPv4_address_spaces
    set CheckIP=my.remote.host
    set PingWaitMilliseconds=1000
    set LoopWaitSecondsPlus1=31
    set RasDialName=CMAK VPN NAME

    echo Keep-alive: to keep connected to "%RasDialName%", do not close this window
:checkLoop
    :: check if connection is still alive
    ping %CheckIP% -n 1 -w %PingWaitMilliseconds% > nul && goto :showAlive
:recheck
    ping %CheckIP% -n 1 -w %PingWaitMilliseconds% > nul && goto :showAlive
:dead
    echo dead at %date% %time%: "%RasDialName%" :(
:disconnect
    rasdial "%RasDialName%" /disconnect
:connect
::    rasdial "%RasDialName%" || goto :noDial
:: rasdial fails on Vista and Windows 7 with the message "This function is not supported on this system." on CMAK generated VPN connections
:: rasdial is able to disconnect these sessions. rasphone is able to dial them.
    rasphone -d "%RasDialName%" || goto :noDial
    echo dialed at %date% %time%: "%RasDialName%" :(
    goto :checkLoop

:noDial
    echo dial failed at %date% %time%: "%RasDialName%" :(
    goto :disconnect

:showAlive
    echo alive at %date% %time%: "%RasDialName%"
:wait
    ping -n %LoopWaitSecondsPlus1% %WaitIP% > mul
    goto :checkLoop

:end
    endlocal

–jeroen

My point is that according to the ribbon documenation:

A ribbon can replace both the traditional menu bar and toolbars.

Microsoft has decided to read the ”a ribbon can replace” as “the ribbon replaces”. Thereby also introducing a whole new naming for the UI elements used in ribbons (see at the bottom).

Tab "Review"; Group "Changes"; Commands "Protect Sheet" / "Protect Workbook"

Protecting a worksheet and workbook have been in the menu “Tools”, submenu “Protection” forever. But alas: No more “Tools” menu, and accompanying keyboard shortcut productivity (and I needed “unprotect workbook” because you cannot copy workbooks inside a protected workbook).

As “password protect worksheet” shows, it is now under:

1. Tab: Review
2. Group: Changes
3. Commands: Protect Sheet / Unprotect Sheet / Protect Workbook / Unprotect Workbook

–jeroen

via: Microsoft Excel 2007 – Protecting Workbooks.

Naming of ribbon UI elements

Since I use a Nikon D700 and D300, these are the most important for me, with a few quotes:

Nikon Active D-Lighting aka Nikon ADR: Adaptive Dynamic Range

ADR visibly improves my biggest complaint against digital cameras. This feature automatically identifies highlight areas that will be lost, and does its best to bring them under control. It works, and it works automatically.

Nikon D700 Autofocus Settings

By setting the Custom Setting Menu a3 (Dynamic AF Area) to 51 Points (3D Tracking) in AF-C and the Crosshair mode, your manually-chosen AF point will magically move all around the frame tracking your subject! You’ll see it move all around, and it really works. This only works in the Crosshair and AF-C mode; it doesn’t move around in the Big White Rectangle, Tit or AF-S modes.

This tracking mode gives us another way to shoot if you don’t want to select a single AF sensor near your subject. If you prefer, you can autofocus with the center sensor, and in this 51-point 3D tracking mode, keep your finger on the shutter and the AF area will move all by itself, tracking the subject as you recompose!

Nikon D700 rear controls.

Meter Mode Selector

This is the rotary switch wrapped around the AE-L AF-L button, just to the right of the finder window.
It has three positions: Spot, the dot on the left, Matrix, the rectangle in the middle, and Center Weighted, the circle on the right.

I always use Matrix, the center rectangle. Matrix is a magic system which really figures out what you’re shooting, even if it’s very dark or very bright and white, and just gives the correct exposure.

INFO Button

The innovative part is if you hit the INFO button twice. Now you can set anything you read along the two lines at the bottom with just one hand.

Nikon D700 Custom Menu: Controls.

Here lie some of the most important tricks I use on my D700. These change what some of the buttons and knobs do.

Nikon D700

Easy to set the rear LCD to show what’s going on, either with the dedicated rear INFO button, or better, by setting a Custom Function (CSM f1) to make the INFO panel appear on the back simply by rotating the power-switch to the illuminator setting.

February 2012: The D700 has been replaced by the far superior Nikon D800. Consider the rest of this review only for historical reference. DO NOT BUY A NEW D700.

Nikon D300 Review

White Balance settings are significantly expanded. The gray-card (PRESet) settings can accommodate a crazy-wide range of light sources. For the first time I can get neutral colors under HPS (light orange) streetlights and in dim indoor home and restaurant lighting!

More Pages of My D300 Review

This review consists of dozens of pages about the D300. This page is just the introduction and summary of what’s really important.

Nikon D300 and D3 Picture Control Settings

I always shoot with ADR at NORMAL on the D3 and D300, or AUTO on the D700 and D90. This eliminates the ability to control the brightness (gamma) and contrast settings, since they are optimized automatically by the ADR system.

For Things

I set the sharpening to 5.
For photos of things, I usually start at VIVID and crank the saturation all the way up to +3. This gives me the psychedelic look I love.

For Accurate Product Colors in the Studio

I use STANDARD.
I prefer sharpenng set to 5.
I honestly have no idea if Nikon’s ADR can work with studio strobes, so I turn it off and set contrast down to -1.

For People

For photos of people, I use NEUTRAL and set the saturation to +1. I prefer sharpenng set to 5.
STANDARD is less wild then VIVID, and NEUTRAL has even lower contrast.
You may prefer STANDARD and +1 or +2 Saturation.
Play with this: we all will prefer something different.

Nikon D300 Performance

This page will cover all the little details which are most relevant to people who already own a D300.

Oh, and totally unrelated, but this might come in handy one day:

Sony PCM-M10 Review.

The pocketable Sony PCM-M10′s technical performance and build quality are significantly better then the more expensive Zoom H4n and the dinky Tascam DR-08.

–jeroen

via: Nikon D700 Autofocus Settings.

Zoals Donny al zegt, je hebt GPRS voor 2G, wat redelijk werkt voor lage-bandbreedte dingen zoal mail en mobiele websites (http://tweakers.mobi) bezoeken.

Vroeger had je ook nog WAP (wireless access protocol). Hele lage bandbreedte. Daarvoor moet je browser wel wap begrijpen. Zo is wap.tweakers.net nog in de lucht.

Moderne browsers snappen WAP iig. niet. Voor een simulator voor WAP: http://tagtag.com/site/info/emulator (en probeer maar wap.tweakers.net)

–jeroen

via: Providers vergroten capaciteit netwerken voor Koninginnedag | Mobile | Tweakers.net Nieuws.

• Naam: PLUIMERS SOFTWARE ONTWIKKELING
• Vestigingsadres: HOOFDSTRAAT  207  B
• Vestigingsplaats: 2171BC  SASSENHEIM

Toen het nog een eenmanszaak was en je de 500 meter van je favoriete vereniging naar huis blind kon afleggen.

–jeroen

via: Kamer van koophandel: handelsregister : Kiezen informatieproduct.

On code health:

Now I always try to dig right down to the root cause of a bug, even if a simple, and seemingly safe, patch is available. I want my code to be healthy. If you go to the doctor and tell him “it hurts when I do this,” then you expect him to find out why it hurts, and to fix that.

Though tools like SourceMonitor can help you track your code health, the best tool is between your ears.

–jeroen

via: Dodgy Coder: Coding tricks of game developers.

Which is important because for one client, this opens the possibility of move from SQL Server 2000 right to SQL Server 2012  in stead of SQL Server 2008 R2 and make a more smooth path for Azure.

–jeroen

via:

• SQL Server 2012 is Generally Available! – SQL Server Team Blog – Site Home – TechNet Blogs.
• SQL Server 2012 has gone to general availability (GA).
• Microsoft Announces the General Availability of SQL Server 2012, Releases Second Preview of Hadoop Services on Azure – Server and Tools Business News Bytes blog – Site Home – TechNet Blogs.

Many of the search results point you into the area of atabase corruption, or in using NVARCAR parameters with SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005 (the app didn’t use NVARCAR, nor did it use large VARCHAR parameters).

The cool thing on the SQL Server Forums – System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A severe error occurred on the current command post was that it summed up causes, and asked for more:

Posted - 06/17/2004 :  15:05:20

Rashid writes “Hi: Gurus I am getting these errors when I try to execute my application. According to MS knowledge base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;827366) these errors happen due to following resons

1. You use a SqlClient class in a Finalize method or in a C# destructor.
2. You do not specify an explicit SQLDbType enumeration when you create a SqlParameter object. When you do not specify an explicit SQLDbType, the Microsoft .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) tries to select the correct SQLDbType based on the data that is passed. SqlClient is not successful.
3. The size of the parameter that you explicitly specify in the .NET Framework code is more than the maximum size that you can use for the data type in Microsoft SQL Server.

None of these are true in my case. Are there any other reasons that can cause these problems..

There is one more: sending huge SQL Statements to your SQL Server is always a bad idea and gives this error too.

I didn’t know the app was doing this, and it was a big tough disecting through the logic of the app.

The app was an import application that usually did small imports. Somehow I thought the import I did was still “small” (a couple of thousand records is small for me), but it broke.

Investigation showed that the app:

1. Didn’t use transactions, but in stead
2. Collected all imports into 1 big statement with small VARCHAR (yes the DB needs to become Unicode aware) parameters for every record to import
3. Fired that big statement to the database
   (since it was one big statement, the author probably reasoned it would run atomically)

I refactored the app into using a transaction, and rolling back on any exceptions (I got painfully reminded that SQL Server 2000 does not support Snapshot isolation, which is totally painless and optimized in Firebird and InterBase, but non existing in SQL Server 2000 and

Then I split the updates into using one statement per insert.

Now it runs fine under SQL Server 2000, so I hope it will migrate with little pain to SQL Server 2008.

–jeroen

via: SQL Server Forums – System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A severe error occurred on the current command.

The actual error:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException was caught
  Message=A severe error occurred on the current command.  The results, if any, should be discarded.
A severe error occurred on the current command.  The results, if any, should be discarded.
  Source=.Net SqlClient Data Provider
  ErrorCode=-2146232060
  Class=11
  LineNumber=0
  Number=0
  Procedure=""
  Server=SQLSERVER2000
  State=0
  StackTrace:
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning()
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNonQuery(DbAsyncResult result, String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
       at MyApp.Program.executeCommand(SqlCommand command, StringBuilder sql) in C:\Path\MyApp\Program.cs:line 163
  InnerException:

Patch Tuesdays only work when you make sure that mandatory reboots are actually being done.

That also prevents users of getting confused by these System Modal dialogs:

[System Restart Required]
A newly installed program requires this computer to be restarted.
Please save your work and restart your computer. Your computer needs to be restarted by wo 11-4-2012 2:43.
[Restart Now] [Close]

and

[Restart Alert]
A system restart cannot be completed while another software installation is in progress. Please allow the software installation to complete before attempting a system restart.
[OK]

–jeroen

Gbridge lets you sync folders, share files, chat and VNC securely and easily between friends or your own computers. Google Apps users can create their own free VPN within the organization instantly!

• EasyBackup: Backup to remote computer!
• DesktopShare: Technical support made easy.
• SecureShare & AutoSync: Share files within group!

Either a portable version of Gbridge (currently non-existent) or Gbridge running under a portable VM solution (would vbox.me or VirtualBox on a USB stick work?) running as a non-admin would open up a can of worms for syadmins, and at the same time make a lot of life hackers extremely happy

–jeroen

via: Google Apps Marketplace – Gbridge: Free instant VPN for everyone!.

PS: *If you hear a programmer mumble “Hmm, interesting” be wary as either something very smart or very stupid came to mind.

It all looks like there is some sort of Connectra thing in the middle that does deep packet inspection and randomly kicks out RDP or PCoIP sessions it doesn’t like, then doesn’t allow any new sessions to come in.

If I get a connection at all, now I always get a fresh VM, which – because they all are single core – take between 2 and 3 hours of getting below 100% CPU usage.

CcmExec.exe, SMSCliUI.exe, and the svchost.exe instances for RpcSs and BITS hog the CPU scanning for updates and software installs for about about 25% of a working day.

Boy I wish there was something I could do about it.

---------------------------
Remote Desktop Disconnected
---------------------------
A licensing error occurred while the client was attempting to connect (Licensing timed out).
Please try connecting to the remote computer again.
---------------------------
OK Help
---------------------------

---------------------------
VMware View Client
---------------------------
The connection to the remote computer ended.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

---------------------------
VMware View Client
---------------------------
The connection to the View Connection Server has timed out.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

---------------------------
Remote Desktop Disconnected
---------------------------
This computer can't connect to the remote computer.
The connection was lost due to a network error. Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact your network administrator or technical support.
---------------------------
OK Help
---------------------------

---------------------------
VMware View Client
---------------------------
The View Connection Server connection failed. The server name or address could not be resolved.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

---------------------------
VMware View Client
---------------------------
Basic XP desktop
The desktop is closing.
---------------------------
Connect Cancel Help
---------------------------

–jeroen – who hears another wooshing noise

almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea

–jeroen (who won’t be 42 forever)

via: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Wikiquote.

Recommended reading!

–jeroen

via .net – Is it possible to set private property via reflection – Stack Overflow.

Warning 1 'System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings' is obsolete: 'This method is obsolete, it has been replaced by ConfigurationManager.AppSettings'

it reminds me I should have written a blog post about it, as the solution is a tiny bit more than just replacing System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings by System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings.

Scott Gate wrote a nice post on his old blog about this (his new blog is awesome, he really should import his old posts into his new blog) that explains how to solve this well, so below is an elaboration on the how of the change, a tiny trick and a short series of steps to resolve this warning.

First of all, the above message means you are touching code that has been written in the .NET 1.x era, and the maintaining people (you! <g>) have been too lazy to solve the warning. That is bad, as your code should compile without warnings, and preferably without hints too.

How

First a bit of how the System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings class looks in Assembly System.dll, v4.0.30319 (basically this has been the same from v2.0 onward):

using System;
using System.Collections.Specialized;

namespace System.Configuration
{
    // Summary:
    //     Provides runtime versions 1.0 and 1.1 support for reading configuration sections
    //     and common configuration settings.
    public sealed class ConfigurationSettings
    {
        // ...
        [Obsolete("This method is obsolete, it has been replaced by System.Configuration!System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings")]
        public static NameValueCollection AppSettings { get; }

        // ...
        [Obsolete("This method is obsolete, it has been replaced by System.Configuration!System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection")]
        public static object GetConfig(string sectionName);
    }
}

Basically it contains an AppSettings property (of type NameValueCollection) and a GetConfig methor (returning type object which actually is a ConfigurationSection instance) both marked with an Obsolete attribute.

Trick

The trick is the Message passed to the ObsoleteAttribute constructor used for those Obsolete attributes: there is a naming convention of form AssemblyName!Namespace.Class.Member for replacements.

[Obsolete("This method is obsolete, it has been replaced by System.Configuration!System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection")]

So the System.Configuration in front of the exclamation mark, does not refer to one of the System.Configuration namespaces, but actually refers to the System.Configuration assembly in System.Configuration.dll which you need to add as a reference to your project.

This is one of the things that people developing .NET software easily get wrong: the confusion that the same names are used for both namespaces and assemblies (and often more than one assembly contributes to the same namespace, this complicates the namespace/assembly name matrix).

Note that by default the reference to System.Configuration assembly is not added to new projects, but you can add a custom project template to accommodate for that.

Resolve

So these are the steps to follow in order to resolve this warning:

1. Add the System.Configuration assembly as a reference to your project
2. Replace code like
   object config = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.GetConfig(sectionName);
   with code like
   object config = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection(sectionName);
3. Replace code like
   object value = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings[key];
   with code like
   object value = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[key];

Note  the AppSettings property name still being the same, but the GetConfig/GetSection method name change (GetSection still returns a ConfigurationSection instance like GetConfig does).

Reason and further reading

The reason of the whole change is that ConfigurationManager has more properties and methods than ConfigurationSettings had:

namespace System.Configuration
{
    public static class ConfigurationManager
    {
        public static NameValueCollection AppSettings { get; }
        public static ConnectionStringSettingsCollection ConnectionStrings { get; }
        public static object GetSection(string sectionName);
        public static Configuration OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel userLevel);
        public static Configuration OpenExeConfiguration(string exePath);
        public static Configuration OpenMachineConfiguration();
        public static Configuration OpenMappedExeConfiguration(ExeConfigurationFileMap fileMap, ConfigurationUserLevel userLevel);
        public static Configuration OpenMappedMachineConfiguration(ConfigurationFileMap fileMap);
        public static void RefreshSection(string sectionName);
    }
}

Now you have the extra ConnectionStrings property of type ConnectionStringSettingsCollection and various methods to open a Configuration: OpenExeConfiguration from either a userLevel of type ConfigurationUserLevel or an exePath, OpenMachineConfiguration, OpenMappedExeConfiguration and OpenMappedMachineConfiguration (with an ExeConfigurationFileMap  and ConfigurationFileMap).

There is a great question on StackOverflow on opening configurations where the accepted answer points you to all the “new” ways to open configuration information and how the .NET framework can merge configurations of different levels for you.

Like I wrote earlier: way overdue, but glad I finally posted this

–jeroen

via: Looking for the new ConfigurationManager? – Blog Moved …..

I’m a fan of commandline, tools, and preconfigured settings. Which means that I’m in the midst of reconfiguring all my shortcuts to SQL Server 2000 tools to SQL Server 2008 equivalents.

When inspecting and changing LNK shortcut files, two tools are important:

• dumplnk: dumps a shortcut lnk file from the commandline
• shurtcut: creates a shortcut lnk file from the commandline

One of tools I many shortcuts for is the ISQLW aka SQL Query Analyzer, which I use far more than the SQL Server Enterprise Manager (more on SSEM in a future post).

Depending on the mode of authentication you use to connect to your SQL Server, there basically are two forms of shortcuts:

• SQL Server Authentication (using SQL Server username and password):
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\isqlw.exe" /S"servername[\instancename]" /U"username" /P"password"
• Windows Authentication (using the credentials of the currently logged in windows user):
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\isqlw.exe" /S"servername[\instancename]" /E

The former is less secure (so better to only store those shortcuts in a place that no other users can access).

From the ISQLW.exe syntax documentation:

Syntax

isqlw
[-?] |
[
[-S server_name[\instance_name]]
[-d database]
[-E] [-U user] [-P password]
[{-i input_file} {-o output_file} [-F {U|A|O}]]
[-f file_list]
[-C configuration_file]
[-D scripts_directory]
[-T template_directory]
]

The parameters /S, /U, /P and /E are very similar to the -S, -U, -P and -E ones from SSMS.exe (SQL Server Management Studio) with one distinction: there MUST be a space between each parameter and the value:

• SQL Server Management Studio (using SQL Server username and password):
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe" -S "servername[instancename]" -U "username" -P "password"
• SQL ServerManagement Studio (using credentials for the currently logged in windows user):
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe" -S "servername[instancename]" -E

Syntax

Ssms
[scriptfile] [projectfile] [solutionfile]
[-S servername] [-d databasename] [-U username] [-P password]
[-E] [-nosplash] [-?]

The default path for SSMS.exe is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe, which is outside of the SQL Server binn directory.

ISQLW.exe is in the same directory as SQLCMD.exe and OSQL.exe (OSQL has been deprecated for ages, but SQL Server 2000 didn’t have SQLCMD.exe). I find the location of SQLCMD.exe (or OSQL.exe) using this batch file (that works for all SQL Server versions I tested so far):

@echo off
rem find the highest version of SQLCMD.EXE or OSQL.EXE and put it in the sqlcmd environment variable
rem this prefers SQLCMD.EXE over OSQL.EXE

set sqlcmd=

rem http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178653.aspx
rem 80 = SQL Server 2000
rem 90 = SQL Server 2005
rem 100 = SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2
rem 110 = SQL Server 2012

rem prefer the right-most element from the lists in the for loops
for %%d in ("%ProgramFiles%", "%ProgramFiles(x86)%") do for %%v in (80, 90, 100, 110) do for %%f in (OSQL, SQLCMD) do (
call :sqlcmdtest "%%~d\Microsoft SQL Server\%%v\Tools\Binn\%%f.EXE" %1
)

rem be carefull not to specify the .EXE in the %%f FOR loop-expression (above or below), otherwise it tries to dine SQLCMD.EXE and OQSL.EXE in the current directory

if !!==!%sqlcmd%! for %%f in (OSQL, SQLCMD) do (
call :find-on-path %%f.EXE
)

call :setSqlDir

if !%1!==!! echo SQLCMD: %sqlcmd%
if !%1!==!! echo SQLDIRECTORY: %sqldirectory%

goto :exit

:setSqlDir
::  ~dp does not work for regular environment variables
::  ~dp only works for batch file parameters and loop indexes
  for %%d in (%sqlcmd%) do set sqldirectory="%%~dpd"
goto :exit

:find-on-path
set sqlcmd=%~f$PATH:1
if not ""=="%sqlcmd%" set sqlcmd="%sqlcmd%"
goto :exit

:sqlcmdtest
if exist %1 if !%2!==!! echo found %1
if exist %1 set sqlcmd=%1

:exit

–jeroen

via: isqlw Utility.

Use PNG, which results in smaller files and better looking images.

Not like ING did: no screen reader can help visually impaired, and it gives a very bad user experience to the rest of the world.

–jeroen

Migrate mailboxes between Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Novell GroupWise, Google Apps/Gmail, VMWare Zimbra, IMAP or POP systems.

Thanks Scott for mentioning this.

–jeroen

via: MigrationWiz – Complete cloud-based mailbox migration solution for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Exchange Online , Office 365, Novell GroupWise, Lotus, Notes, Google Apps/Gmail, VMWare Zimbra, IMAP and POP systems.

Please let me know in the comments which of the below ones you like most:

1. Left:
   HTML tree with post count per category
2. Middle:
   HTML tree with font size indicating post count
3. Right:
   HTML tree with post count per category and font size indicating post count

(For comparison, you need a big screen; the most popular choice will survive on the Posting categories page).

–jeroen

via: Posting categories « The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of Wiert stuff.

---------------------------
KB2509553 Setup Error
---------------------------
Setup cannot update your Windows XP files because the language

installed on your system is different from the update language.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

The error came from the Dutch version of Microsoft Update and the (also Dutch) Autoupdate inside Windows XP.

The solution that seemed easy didn’t work:

Manually download the Dutch version at the KB2509553 download page, and install that one.

Thanks Halima S for mentioning this on the Microsoft Answers site.

So: where should I start looking to get this security update installed?

–jeroen

Don’t you love the old new thing

The standard MS-DOS file handles are as follows:

handle	name	meaning
0	stdin	standard input
1	stdout	standard output
2	stderr	standard error
3	stdaux	standard auxiliary (serial port)
4	stdprn	standard printer

–jeroen

via: The importance of error code backwards compatibility – The Old New Thing – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.

It is mostly complete, and a good learning experience to both BNF and the C# syntax.

ANTLR grammers are available for C# 2, and a partially for C# 4.

–jeroen

via: c# 4.0 – C# grammar in BNF or EBNF Parser generator for F# – Stack Overflow.

Workpace (yes, it is written in Delphi) hooks itself into processes by injecting REC300.DLL into it.

That particular DLL prevents Delphi XE2 from installing in several of the systems colleagues tried, and gives you error messages like these:

'' is not a valid integer value

Followed by a bunch of access violations, and Process Monitor indicating issues reading the key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\REC300.DLL which is part of WorkPace 3.0 (an old 2007 version).

The next problem was Digital Guardian (an old 2010 version) hooking itself into all processes. Uninstalling that is a pain, as it requires a special uninstall key, but luckily the automated update script on the SCCM server’s distribution share contained that in an encrypted form. Uninstalling this solved the problem.

Maybe newer versions of WorkPace and Digital Guardian wouldn’t have interfered with the Delphi XE2 install. If so, that would be another example of technical debt.

WorkPace and Digitual Guardian are most likely there because of government induced regulations in the corporate environment.

I’m feeling a bit like Dilbert now: the corporate environment is interesting, but often they make “getting work done” so much harder than it could be.

–jeroen

I started about a week before my 40th birthday, and sometimes tended to publish multiple posts a day. Most of them having to do with software development.

The frequency was irregular, mostly because it took a bit of time to get the hang of writing, getting in a writing flow is not always easy, and while in flow, posts could come into bursts.

I decided to become more structured, and looked at how other people were doing it.

A good example is Raymond Chen who writes The Old New Thing. I have an article queue just like him:

generally, it’s just a FIFO queue

His queue horizin of a year is way longer than mine. I try to keep a queue of around 2 months (which gives me some slack when in “crunch mode” – which I try to avoid – or holidays/marching band events) occasionally going to 3 months.

The pattern went from almost exclusively software development related to a scheme like this:

• Software development on tuesday, wednesday and thursday
• Power User/Lifehacker on monday and friday
• Personal stuff at semi-random intervals
• Only posts in weekends that are related to specific dates

A fun fact: post popularity is not in the order of the scheme (see the 2011 report). Actually I don’t write to get high page views. My main motivation is that this blog is indeed a blog: a web log where I can find back things I have done, or that interest me. I hope it benefits others too, and I do appreciate the views (thanks for reading <g>).

Most posts are posted at 0600 WordPress.com UTC+1 time (which somehow tends to vary depending on daylight savings). Occasional extra posts (usually with recent news) gets posted around noon or around 1800.

An average post takes me about 30 minutes of writing, but some takes several hours or even a day.

So: no, posts usually don’t coincide with real world events

–jeroen

via: How does Raymond decide what to post on any particular day? – The Old New Thing – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.

PowerShell – The full power of .NET, WMI and COM all from a command line. PowerShell has a steep learning curve, much like the tango, but oh, my, when you really start dancing…woof. I also use PowerShell Prompt Here. Its built into Windows 7, by the way.

• I also recommend after installing PowerShell that you immediately go get PowerTab to enable amazing “ANSI-art” style command-line tab completion.
• Next, go get the PowerShell Community Extensions to add dozens of useful commands to PowerShell.
• Want a more advanced GUI for PowerShell? Get the free PowerGUI.

Thanks Scott for summarizing

–jeroen

via: Scott Hanselmans 2011 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows – Scott Hanselman.

They improved a bunch of other special characters as well.
–jeroen

via:

Search quality highlights: 50 changes for March – Inside Search.

O'Reilly book "Unicode Explained: Internationalize Documents, Programs, and Web Sites"

Withe the growing integration between systems, and the mismatch between those that support Unicode and that do not, I find that a lot of organisations lack basic Unicode knowledge.

So lets put down a few things, that helps as a primer and gets some confusion out of the way.

Please read the article on Unicode by Joel on Software, and the book Unicode Explained. The book is from 1996, and still very valid.

Unicode

Unicode started in the late 80s of last century as a 16-bit character model.

Somehow lots of people still thing Unicode is a 16-bit double-byte character set. It is not. It uses a variable width encoding for storage.

All encodings except the 32-bit ones are variable width. The UTF-16 encoding is a variable width encoding where each code point (not character!, see below why) takes one or more 16-bit words.

This is because – as of Unicode version 2.0 in 1996 – a surrogate character mechanism was introduced to be able to have more than 64k code points.

The architecture of Unicode is completely different than traditional single-byte character sets or double-byte character sets.

In Unicode, there is a distinction between code points (the mapping of the character to an actual IDs), storage/encoding (in Windows now uses UTF-16LE which includes the past used UCS-2) and leaves visual representation (glyphs/renderings) to fonts.

Unicode has over a million code points, logically divided into 17 planes, of which the Basic Multi-lingual Plane has code points that can be encoded into one 16-bit word.

There is no font that can display all Unicode code points. By original aim, the first 256 Unicode code points are identical to the ISO 8859-1 character set (which is Windows-29591, not Windows-1252!) for which most fonts can display most characters.

By now, you probably grasp that Unicode is not an easy thing to get right. And that can be hard, hence people love and hate Unicode at the same time. Maybe I should get the T-Shirt .

One thing that complexes things, is that Unicode allows for both composite characters and ready made composites. This is one form where different sequences can be equivalent, so there can be Unicode equivalence for which you need some knowledge on Unicode Normalization (be sure to read this StackOverflow question and this article by Michael Kaplan on Unicode Normalization).

There are many Unicode encodings, of which UTF-8 and UTF-16 are the most widely used (and are variable length). UTF-32 is fixed length. All 16-bit and 32-bit encodings can have big-endian and little-endian storage and can use a Byte Order Mark (BOM) to indicate their endinaness. Not all software uses BOMs, and there are BOMs for UTF-8 and other encodings as well (for UTF-8 it is not recommended to include a BOM).

When only parts your development environment supports Unicode strings, you need to be aware of which do and which don’t. For any interface boundary between those, you need to be aware of potential data loss, and need to decide how to cope with that.

For instance, does your database use Unicode or not for character storage? (For Microsoft SQL Server: do you use CHAR/VARCHAR or NCHAR/NVARCHAR; you should aim for NVARCHAR, yes you really should, do not use text, ntext and image). What do you do while transferring Unicode and non-Unicode text to it? Ask the same questions for Web Services, configuration files, binary storage, message queueing and various other interfaces to the outside world.

The Windows API is almost exclusively Unicode (see this StackOverflow question for more details)

Delphi and Unicode

Let’s focus a bit on Delphi now, as that the migration towards Unicode at clients raised a few questions over the last couple of months.

One of the key questions is why there are no conversion tools that help you migrate your existing source code to fully embrace Unicode.

The short answer is: because you can’t automate the detection of intent in your codebase.

The longer answer starts with that there are tools that detect parts of your Delphi source that potentially has problems: the compiler hints, warnings and errors that brings your attention to spots that are fishy, are likely to fail, or are plain wrong.

Delphi uses the standard Windows storage format for Unicode text: UTF-16LE.

Next to that, Delphi supports conversion to and from UTF-8 en UTF-32 (in their various forms endianness).

External storage of text is best done as UTF-8 because it doesn’t have endianness, and because of easier exchange of text in ISO-8859-1.

Marco Cantu wrote a very nice whitepaper about Delphi and Unicode, and I did a Delphi Unicode talk at CodeRage 4 and posted a lot of Delphi Unicode links at StackOverflow.

A few extra notes on Delphi and Unicode:

With Delphi string types, stick to the UnicodeString (default string as of Delphi 2009) and AnsiString (default string until Delphi 2007) as their memory management is done by Delphi. WideString management is done by COM, so only use that when you really need to. Also avoid ShortString.

For any interfaces to the external world, you need to decide which ones to keep to generic string, Char, PChar and which ones to fix to AnsiChar/PAnsiChar/AnsiString(+ accompanying codepage) or fix at UnicodeChar/PUnicodeChar/UnicodeString.

Of course remnants from the past will catch up with you: if you have Technical Debt on the past where characters were bytes, and you abused Char/PChar/array-of-char/etc you need to fix that, and use the Byte/PByte/TByteArray/PByteArray. It can be costly to pay the accrued debt on that.

–jeroen

PS:

• There is even more confusion on character set, code page, etc, which Mihai tries to set straight at the Why is the default console codepage called “OEM”? episode of “The Old New Thing“
• Getting your character set (ANSI, Windows-1252, ISO 8859-1) right is a problem of the same order of magnitude as Ben Hutchings shows.
• Notepad supports three kinds of text formats

Thanks to Randy Glasbergen for the debt image

I love this quote from Jeff Attwood on technical debt in 2009:

periodically pay down your technical debt

and the Computer Weekely article about half a year ago:

Short-term speed may come at the price of long-term delays and cost.

Lately, I find that I need to explain Debt in relation to IT and Software Development more and more often.

We now all know what happens with the financial system when we let debt get out of control.

The same holds for your IT and Software Development.

Debts get introduced by not “playing by the rules”. The quotes are there because you can not always play nicely, and the rules are not always clear or known.

Lets give a few examples of rules that – from experience at clients – are more often than not neglected. The examples are based on Windows, but could just as easily be Mac OS X, Unix, OS/400 or anything else.

• Make sure you use a recent Windows version
  I often see companies lagging more than one version behind (i.e. still use Windows XP or SQL Server 2000). That’s too far.
• Don’t run your users with too many privileges (and certainly not as Administrators)
  Especially running as Administrator will get you in trouble with User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista and up.
• Using directories like C:\TEMP is a no-no.
  This should be a no-brainer, but truckloads of in-company software still thinks it can write everywhere.
  I know C:\TEMP used to be the Temporary Folder some 20 years ago.
  But that was then, and this is now: Use the %TEMP% environment variable or GetTempPath function (even better: the GetTempFileName function or the .NET Path.GetTempFileName function).
  More in general for known folders, use CSIDL or KNOWNFOLDERID whenever possible. Your favourite development tool usually has a library functions for that, for instance the .NET System.Environment.GetFolderPath function.

These few were examples ranged from technically very broad to specific. There are more, but these will give you a rough idea how wide the field of debt can be. Even debt outside the realm of Technical Debt can turn out to be really expensive.

Every time you  postpone or skip a Windows version, you collect some debt in the hope (often wrongfully called expectation) that you earn more on the money/resource you just didn’t invest and putting that money/resource to use otherwise. The same holds for any other kind of debt.

The main problem with debt is not the total of the debt, it is the interest rate that makes the accrued debt grows faster than most people and organizations realize.

This is actually one of the main causes of the current world wide financial crisis, the same holds for many IT debts.

And for all kinds of debts, you often don’t know how high the interest rate will be, so the accrued value can be way beyond what you expect.

I’ve regularly seen projects collecting so much debt, that migration costs raised to thousands of hours because of it, resulting into management taking another very bad decision: rewriting the stuff from scratch. Don’t do that: Joel on Software excellently describes what happens when you do that.

What to do about it?

You might say “don’t collect debt”, but you can’t always avoid debt.

So you need to build periods where you pay off accrued debt. And you need to do that regularly, in order to avoid the interest pitfall.

This does not limit itself to software development (though that’s what I normally focus at). It covers a wide range of IT topics.

Sometimes, you can even pay your debt in advance. For instance, I was among the first to switch from Windows XP to the x64 of Windows Vista. I knew it would cause pain, but it immediately payed back by being able to use much more memory, and run more Virtual Machines at the same time. That made me more flexible and productive.

–jeroen

via: Coding Horror: Paying Down Your Technical Debt.

Having members in stead of string literals scattered all over the place allows you to do compile timing checking, which I’m a big fan of as in the age of things getting more and more dynamic, you need to have as many sanity checks as possible.

One of the checks is to verify these const members and their values. Sometimes you need the list of members, sometimes the list of values, and sometimes each member value should be the same as the member name.

The listing below shows the code I came up with.

It works with code like this, and those can have more code and other fields (non string, non public) in them as well:

namespace bo.Literals
{
    public class FooBarPublicStringConstants
    {
         public const string Foo = "Foo";
         public const string Bar = "Bar";
    }
    public class FooBarPublicStaticReadOnlyStringFields
    {
         public static readonly string Foo = "Foo";
         public static readonly string Bar = "Bar";
    }
}

I started out with this code, but that is limited to classes only having public const fields. Not flexible enough.

There are a few tricks used.

The first trick is how to obtain the name of a method parameter without using a string literal (you now probably get it that I don’t like literals). Thanks to Rinat Abdullin, he provided the GetName method.

The reflection of public const strings and public static readonly strings is based on the FieldInfo that you get back from the Type.GetFields method. Both of them are public static fields in the current class. So you pass BindingFlags.Public (for public), BindingFlags.Static (for static) and BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly (for the current class). Since the BindingFlags enum has a FlagsAttribute, you can or those flags together.

Then you can set them apart: test for the FieldInfo.IsInitOnly property (public static readonly strings) or FieldInfo.IsLiteral property (public string constant). Or test the the FieldInfo.Attributes property (of type FieldAttributes; test for the enum flags InitOnly or Literal).

Finally you might want to need to check if the name of the field equals its content. This is what getMemberValueString does: For public const string fields, it gets the FieldInfo.GetRawConstantValue(), for public static readonly strings, it gets the FieldInfo.GetValue() passing null as instance (because they are static fields, not instance fields).

Knowing the details is not difficult, finding the details takes a bit of time, hence below is the source (that could use a tad bit more argument checking).

Note that if you are going to call methods like “GetName” with a non-reference type, you get an error like “The type must be a reference type in order to use it as parameter ‘T’ in the generic type or method“. That’s because of the “where T: class“. I think the GenericTypeCache should work without that generic constraint, but haven’t tried yet.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Linq.Expressions;

namespace bo.Reflection
{
    public class Reflector
    {
        // http://abdullin.com/journal/2008/12/13/how-to-find-out-variable-or-parameter-name-in-c.html
        public static string GetName<T>(T item) where T : class
        {
            return GenericTypeCache<T>.Name;
        }

        public static List<string> GetPublicStringConstants<T>() where T : class
        {
            IEnumerable<FieldInfo> fieldInfos = GetPublicStringConstantFieldInfos<T>();
            List<string> result = getMemberNames(fieldInfos);
            return result;
        }

        public static IEnumerable<FieldInfo> GetPublicStringConstantFieldInfos<T>() where T : class
        {
            var result = getPublicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos<T>(fieldInfo =>
                (fieldInfo.IsLiteral && // literal constant
                (fieldInfo.FieldType.FullName == typeof(string).FullName))
                )
                ;
            return result;
        }

        public static List<string> GetPublicStaticReadOnlyStringFields<T>() where T : class
        {
            IEnumerable<FieldInfo> fieldInfos = GetPublicStaticReadOnlyStringFieldFieldInfos<T>();
            List<string> result = getMemberNames(fieldInfos);
            return result;
        }

        public static IEnumerable<FieldInfo> GetPublicStaticReadOnlyStringFieldFieldInfos<T>() where T : class
        {
            var result = getPublicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos<T>(fieldInfo =>
                (fieldInfo.IsInitOnly && // readonly field
                (fieldInfo.FieldType.FullName == typeof(string).FullName))
                )
                ;
            return result;
        }

        public static bool NameMatchesValue(FieldInfo fieldInfo)
        {
            bool result = fieldInfo.Name == getMemberValueString(fieldInfo);
            return result;
        }

        private static FieldInfo[] getPublicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos<T>() where T : class
        {
            FieldInfo[] publicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos = typeof(T).GetFields(
                BindingFlags.Public // only public
                | BindingFlags.Static // statics include consts
                | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly // only the T class
                );
            return publicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos;
        }

        private static IEnumerable<FieldInfo> getPublicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos<T>(Func<FieldInfo, bool> predicate) where T : class
        {
            FieldInfo[] publicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos = getPublicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos<T>();
            IEnumerable<FieldInfo> result = publicStaticDeclaredOnlyFieldInfos.Where(predicate);
            return result;
        }

        private static string getMemberValueString(FieldInfo fieldInfo)
        {
            string fieldInfoName = GetName(new { fieldInfo });
            if (null == fieldInfo)
                throw new ArgumentNullException(fieldInfoName);
            if (!fieldInfo.IsStatic)
                throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("{0} {1} must be static", fieldInfoName, fieldInfo.Name), fieldInfoName);
            object member = (fieldInfo.IsLiteral) ?
                fieldInfo.GetRawConstantValue()
                :
                fieldInfo.GetValue(null);
            string result = member.ToString();
            return result;
        }

        private static List<string> getMemberNames(IEnumerable<FieldInfo> fieldInfos)
        {
            List<string> result = new List<string>();
            foreach (FieldInfo fieldInfo in fieldInfos)
            {
                result.Add(getMemberValueString(fieldInfo));
            }
            return result;
        }
    }
}

–jeroen

The main reason is that I want to better organize the categories, so I need an overview. The multi-page WordPress Categories editor isn’t of much use as it is very hard to get an overview.

Using the [Category] WordPress tag isn’t of much help as I can’t get things like this to work (I remember seeing something like this on the forums, can’t find it any more though):
[Category]
[Category number='5' method='title' order='asc' id='11,45' orderby='comment_count']

Preliminary output is at the Posting Categories page in the top menu that I will update every once in a while.

I will post the app later, as I intend to create a category cloud in addition to the tree.

–jeroen

I bought a 13-inch MacBook Air, not a MacBook Pro not because of SSD (it is nice, no doubt), but because the screen resolution.

Small digression:

Last year, I had a huge disappointment where almost all laptop manufacturers were not only ditching 1920×1200 in favour of 1920×1080 (that’s 10% less vertical display estate right where apps waste that with higher toolbars, ribbons, task bars, etc!), but also ditched the 1920 pixel wide 15.something inch form factors in favour of 17 inch screens. Switching from 15 to 17 inch adds another 2 pounds to your laptop. Not nice!

Now the 3rd generation iPad beats all of my other displays. Not only in resolution (it does), but especially in ppi: at 264 ppi it reads like paper.

It took a long time, but this will introduce a new era of high ppi displays on mobile, and hopefully not so mobile devices so we have retina displays (measured at viewing dinstance) everywhere (and might also introduce the post-PC era, though the issue of software development on all those smart devices needs to be solved first; more on that in a later post).

So over the last 20 years, we went from lean back paper through lean forward reading displays into lean back reading iPad and ePaper at comfortable (264 / 200+) ppi.

Now that’s progress:

The 3rd Generation iPad has a display resolution of 264ppi. And still retains a ten-hour battery life (9 hours with wireless on). Make no mistake. That much resolution is stunning. To see it on a mainstream device like the iPad – rather than a $13,000 exotic monitor – is truly amazing, and something I’ve been waiting more than a decade to see.

It will set a bar for future resolution that every other manufacturer of devices and PCs will have to jump.

Having that much resolution in a handheld device will be the final step in changing reading forever. I’m not the only one who believes this. Andrew Rashbass, chief executive of The Economist Group, recently gave a fascinating presentation he called LeanBack 2.0. He postulates that in the days of print, we leaned back and read. The Web and computers made us lean forward to read. Devices like the iPad have restored our ability to lean back, relax, and read. LeanBack 2.0!

–jeroen

via: 3rd Generation iPad: Entering A High-Resolution, Post-PC World… | The Future of Reading.

Today Google Maps has a quest mode, rendering the maps in Nintendo NES “quality”.

Few people really used it, and missed the glorious 8-bit streetview, and the really nice landmarks that you see when you zoom in to a scale of 500 meter or better.

You can even link to the 8-bit maps and to the 8-bit street view!.

Click on the images for larger versions (:

–jeroen

This PEP is rejected. While the majority of Python users deemed this to be a nice-to-have feature, the community was unable to reach a consensus on whether nine should be represented as IX, the modern form, or VIIII, the classic form. Likewise, no agreement was reached on whether MXM or MCMXC would be considered a well-formed representation of 1990. A vocal minority of users has also requested support for lower-cased numerals for use in (i) powerpoint slides, (ii) academic work, and (iii) Perl documentation.

–jeroen (who also loves the San Seriffe joke of 1997)

via: PEP 313 — Adding Roman Numeral Literals to Python.

Google Chrome has two offline installers: one single user install, and one for all users on the same Windows machine.

It ends up at one of these download pages, each with a download link for the current version (which changes for every new version):

• current user, with usage statistics:
  https://www.google.com/chrome/thankyou.html?standalone=1&installdataindex=defaultbrowser
• current user, no usage statistics:
  https://www.google.com/chrome/thankyou.html?standalone=1&statcb=&installdataindex=defaultbrowser
• all users, with usage statistics:
  https://www.google.com/chrome/thankyou.html?system=true&standalone=1&statcb=&installdataindex=defaultbrowser
• all users, no usage statistics:
  https://www.google.com/chrome/thankyou.html?system=true&standalone=1&installdataindex=defaultbrowser

–jeroen

via: Alternate (offline) Google Chrome installer (Windows) – Google Help « The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of Wiert stuff.

They added a lot of functionality, and made the User Experience the for most frequently used feature a lot harder: book a trip with a NS Business Card with the accompanying PIN code.

You need to login, follow a close to a dozen steps before you land on the booking site. Not handy when you are in a hurry to book your Fyra trip.

Luckily the auto-login URL for that booking site is very easy: it is parameterized with your NS Businesscard number (lets say it is 9876543210) and PIN code (lets assume 1234).
Then the URL is this:

https://boeken.nsbusinesscard.nl/wwwTR/component.servlet?component=selectAutoLogin&action=autoLogin&CARDNUM=9876543210&CARDPW=1234

Presuming you have a personal machine with adequate protection, add that shortcut to your favourites and you are done.

–jeroen

In stead, they should have released a new version that automatically uninstalls a previously installed one, then installs itself.

It is not the first patch that Microsoft did wrong, but this one is the “Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 XML Editor Security Update”. Every now and then I come across it when doing work on some archived virtual machines that contain Visual Studio 2005 (which I used a lot in the past, and occasionally still use for doing some maintenance work for clients that long ago ditched stuff they thought they’d never need to use again).

The really stupid thing is the error message you get when it cannot get installed: John Doe user will never find out why it failed, let alone figure out how to get it install properly.

This is the message you will see:

[Automatic Updates]
Some updates could not be installed
The following updates were note installed:
Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 XML Editor (KB2251481)
[Close]

The message doesn’t even include that it is trying to install the August 2011 version (hinting that there might be an earlier version you need to uninstall).

Microsoft has re-issued patches before, so similar hoopla applies to other re-issued patches.

I bumped into the issue before, and wanted a shorter/easier form of hoopla. And there is: The easy way of doing the hoopla is through an msiexec command-line:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.exe /promptrestart /uninstall {23036C23-ECDE-47F5-A908-BEC94EE0456F} /package {1B041548-33BC-4174-8B97-ADC9B7948488}

I found this through the excellend commandline uninstall tool by Tarma Software Research. The full help of that uninstall tool is a the bottom of this post.

The tool knows how to walk the installed programs list, can display the keys, descriptions and details. And it can automagically call the uninstall command (or just list it so you can manually run it at a convenient time).

This is how I got the key (I used the W flavour of uninstall, there is also an A flavour and an x64 flavour):

C:\temp\Uninstall>UninstallW.exe | find /I "KB2251481"
KB2251481.T369_32ToU865_32: Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers - ENU (KB2251481) (version 1)

In this case, the key is KB2251481.T369_32ToU865_32 and you can uninstall it like this:

UninstallW.exe KB2251481.T369_32ToU865_32

That was the easy way.

The hard way of going through the hoopla is described by Microsoft in their MS11-049 article on “known issues with this (ed: KB2251481) security update”:

Known issues with this security update

• If you run Visual Studio Premier Partner Edition (PPE), this security update will be listed in the Programs and Features item in Control Panel as follows:
  Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite – RUS (KB2251481)
• When you install this security update on a computer that does not have Visual Studio 2005 installed, you receive a message that states that the update is not applicable. When you close the message, you receive an error message.
• When you try to install this security update (which was re-released August 9, 2011) by using Microsoft Update, you may receive an error code “66a.” This error occurs when the following conditions are true:
  • You have Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition SP1 installed on the computer.
  • You have the original security update 2251481 offered by MS11-049 (released in June 2011) successfully installed on the computer.

Resolution

To resolve this problem for a single computer, uninstall the original security update 2251481 that was released in June 2011, and then install the security update 2251481 that was rereleased in August 2011.

To uninstall the original security update 2251481 that was released in June 2011, use the Add or Remove Programs item or the Programs and Features item in Control Panel. The security update is listed as follows:
Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite – ESN (KB2251481)

So now I know what to do when I come across this update again.

And if KB2251481 still fails to install, you can always try to fix your MSI update registration (that sometimes gets corrupted).

–jeroen

via: MS11-049: Description of the security update for Visual Studio 2005 SP1: June 14, 2011.

PS: Uninstall help:

C:\temp\Uninstall>UninstallW.exe /?
Uninstall 19.0.3361 (2009.03.14.1459U)
c 1990-2009 Tarma Software Research Pty Ltd
Type Uninstall /? for help. http://www.tarma.com, mailto:support@tarma.com

Usage:
  Uninstall [/a][/f][/c[/q]]      - display uninstall list
  Uninstall [/q][/w] keyname...   - run 'keyname' uninstaller
  Uninstall  /l [/f] keyname...   - display 'keyname' information
  Uninstall  /c [/q] keyname...   - display 'keyname' uninstall command

Uninstall lists or runs registered uninstallers. If one or more keyname(s)
are specified, the corresponding uninstallers are started. Without keyname(s)
the registered uninstallers are listed.

Options:
  /?    Show this syntax summary and terminate
  /a    Show all registrations, including hidden ones
  /c    Check and display uninstall command, but don't run anything
  /f    Show full registration entries instead of a summary
  /l    List 'keyname' info instead of uninstalling
  /q    Display or run quiet uninstall (without user interaction)
  /w    Wait for uninstaller to terminate

C:\temp\Uninstall>UninstallW.exe /l /f KB2251481.T369_32ToU865_32
KB2251481.T369_32ToU865_32:
        NoRepair=0x00000001 (1)
        RegistryLocation=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Updates\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers - ENU\KB2251481
        Helplink=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2251481
        DisplayIcon=C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.exe
        Publisher=Microsoft Corporation
        ParentDisplayName=Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers - ENU
        ReleaseType=Security Update
        EstimatedSize=0x00000000 (0)
        ParentKeyName=Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers - ENU
        DisplayVersion=1
        NoModify=0x00000001 (1)
        UninstallString=C:\WINDOWS\system32\msiexec.exe /promptrestart /uninstall {23036C23-ECDE-47F5-A908-BEC94EE0456F} /package {1B041548-33BC-4174-8B97-ADC9B7948488}
        DisplayName=Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers - ENU (KB2251481)

Not so: just like with the & in Delphi, you can use @ for identifiers too.

The prefix “@” enables the use of keywords as identifiers, which is useful when interfacing with other programming languages. The character @ is not actually part of the identifier, so the identifier might be seen in other languages as a normal identifier, without the prefix. An identifier with an @ prefix is called a verbatim identifier.

–jeroen

via: naming – What’s the use/meaning of the @ character in variable names in C#? – Stack Overflow.

• Taking the pain out of parameter validation.
• How to Find Out Variable or Parameter Name in C#?

Tags: C#, reflection, IL parsing, argument name, anonymous type, generic type cache, generic type caching.

–jeroen

via: reflection – C# – Resolving a parameter name at runtime – Stack Overflow.

The Dutch foundation Stichting Papageno supports families that have one or more children with autism. Jaap van Zweden – famous Dutch violin player and conductor of the year 2012 – and his wife Aaltje founded it 14 years ago. One of their sons (Benjamin, 1990)  is autistic, and while raising him they found out that many more families were in need for support (about 1% of the children is diagnosed with some form of disorder in the autistic spectrum), hence the foundation.

Peter Langeslag racing for Stokvis Uithoorn at Zandvoort in 1986

The bike was modeled after the famous bike that Giacomo Agostini (English Wikipedia) (Dutch wikipedia) drove in the 70s and 80s of last century.

Peter Langeslag – friend and Yamaha race driver in the 80s (this is Peter Langeslag racing for Stokvis Leimuiden in the 80s, he raced on 500cc Yamaha bikes) won the action. News links on the auction:

• TwoWheelsBlog.com
• NieuwsMotor.nl
• YouTube.com
• StadsMotor.nl

–jeroen

the auctioned Giacomo Agostini Yamaha R1 'Ago' special edition - picture by Yahama Motor Nederland BV modeled after the bike on the right that Agostini used to drive on

ShapeCatcher.com to the rescue: it has a drawing box where you can draw the glyph, and a recognition engine that presents you with Unicode code points that have a similar glyph.

Draw something in the left box!

And let shapecatcher help you to find the most similar unicode characters!

–jeroen

via: Shapecatcher.com: Unicode Character Recognition.

I’m not sure when they introduced this, but it is good and bad at the same time.

–jeroen

Via: whats my ip – Google Search.

http://www.powershell.nu/tag/sccm-2007/

http://devinfra-us.blogspot.com/2008/04/sccm-and-powershell-part-1.html

http://devinfra-us.blogspot.com/2008/04/sccm-and-powershell-part-2.html

http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/2008/05/16/sccm-and-powershell-series-using-my-powershell-wmi-explorer.aspx

http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/tags/WMI+Explorer/default.aspx

http://thepowershellguy.com/blogs/posh/archive/2007/03/22/powershell-wmi-explorer-part-1.aspx

http://tfl09.blogspot.com/2010/03/sccm-powershell-module.html

http://www.snowland.se/2010/03/10/sccm-module-for-powershell/

http://www.snowland.se/sccm-posh/

The solution  there uses the Set-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet, but only works for administrators. As of PowerShell 2.0, there is more fine grained control for the Set-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet, and an updated Set-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet topic which I overlooked.

The solution below shows what happens when the current user is not an administrator, and works around it by applying it only for the current user.

error message:

Set-ExecutionPolicy : Access to the registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell' is denied.

Sure enough I don’t have permission to this registry key.

I checked with our admin to ensure this wasn’t set in group policy before I started fiddling around. Found out that there is another setting that is user specific that can be set with

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

This will allow the current user to run unsigned scripts he wrote himself, but still require remote (for instance downloaded) scripts to be signed.

Note it is easy to strip the “remote” flag of a downloaded script: NTFS keeps this flag in the Zone:Identifier NTFS alternate data stream.
Only do that for scripts you trust.

–jeroen

via: Absoblogginlutely! » Enabling powershell to run scripts with registry permissions..

Error1: The type 'Scripting.FileSystemObjectClass' has no constructors defined
Error21: Interop type 'Scripting.FileSystemObjectClass' cannot be embedded. Use the applicable interface instead.

Though the first answers on the question seem to adequately resolve the problem, they merely cure the symptom: turning off the embedding of the PIA (Primary Interop Assembly).

The below answer by Michael Gustus (which only has a few votes, so please vote it up) actually explains what is going on, and solves the cause:

In most cases this error is the result of code which tries to instantiate a COM object e.g. here piece of code starting up Excel:

Excel.ApplicationClass xlapp = new Excel.ApplicationClass();

Typically, in .Net 4 you just need to remove the ‘Class’ suffix and compile the code:

Excel.Application xlapp = new Excel.Application();

MSDN explanation here.

Hence I like the comment by Tyrsius on this answer as well:

This was more useful than the marked answer, as I needed the functionality of the embedded Interop. This solved both problems, thank you!

The above answer tells you to not use the class type, but the interface type, just like the error states. And the answer implicitly tells you the class type is ApplicatoinClass, and the interface is Application.

These are the declarations for the PIA interface:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace Scripting
{
    [Guid("2A0B9D10-4B87-11D3-A97A-00104B365C9F")]
    [CoClass(typeof(FileSystemObjectClass))]
    public interface FileSystemObject : IFileSystem3
    {
    }
}

and the class (partial, hence the //… comment):

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace Scripting
{
    [ClassInterface(0)]
    [Guid("0D43FE01-F093-11CF-8940-00A0C9054228")]
    [TypeLibType(2)]
    public class FileSystemObjectClass : IFileSystem3, FileSystemObject
    {
        public FileSystemObjectClass();

        [DispId(10010)]
        public virtual Drives Drives { get; }

        [DispId(10000)]
        public virtual string BuildPath(string Path, string Name);
        //...
        [DispId(1100)]
        public virtual TextStream OpenTextFile(string FileName, IOMode IOMode = IOMode.ForReading, bool Create = false, Tristate Format = Tristate.TristateFalse);
    }
}

For .NET 4.0, it is enough to use the interface type, as that links to the underlying class by means of the CoClass attribute.

As a result, I used FileSystemObject in stead of FileSystemObjectClass, and now it compiles fine, without changing the embedding flag.

–jeroen

via: c# – Interop type cannot be embedded – Stack Overflow.

So adapters based on the IEEE 1901 ethernet over power line standard might be an option. HomePlug compatible power line adapters seem to conform to this standard.

Any power line based communication is supposed to be sensitive in having path between the adapters that is as straight as possible (same power phase, no extension cables or converter plugs) so it a comparison with products having plugs being compatible either with they European CEE 7/7 plug (upper picture on the right), or the CEE 7/16 Europlug (lower picture on the right).

The Dutch Hardware.Info site did a comparison of 30 powerline adapters at 25 meter distance which looks promising. The review also explains a bit more on the HomePlug standard, comparison at 50 meter distance, and a separate measurement of a Devolo 500 Mbit/s powerline adapter (which is slower than the NetGear adapters).

Note that the  fastest owerline adapters use about 5 watt each, even when idle. so convenience comes at a price.

The Netgear XAVB5004 is their product of choice, as only Netgear provided 500 Mbit/s equipment. So I went looking for other reviews.

SmallnetBuilder has published their test plan, some hints of avoiding noise, and published a roundup of HomePlug AV 500 compatible adapters and explains how the 500 Mbit/s powerline technology works. Their tests use USA models, and favour Belkin, D-Link, Zyxel and Trendnet over the Netgear products.

–jeroen

via: 30 powerline adapters vergelijkingstest | Hardware.Info Nederland.>

From their release notes:

Changes between 1.3.14 and 2.0.0

Bug fixes

Interface

• Fixed playback speed and synchronization problems when dragging clips or tracks between tracks having different sample rates.
• (Windows) Removed a crash risk where shortcuts could be used to record or import in one project while importing or exporting in another.

Imports and Exports

• Fixed crashes when changing the sample format of read-directly WAV or AIFF files using the Track Drop-Down Menu.
• Fixed a crash importing MP3 files that had duplicate metadata tags (this is a bug in current libsndfile which has been patched in Audacity; MP3 files mislabeled as WAV which have duplicate tags will still crash Audacity on Linux if Audacity has been compiled against an affected version of system libsndfile).
• Fixed an issue where excessively high or corrupted sample values in the audio could corrupt exports from the start of the problem for the rest of the file, and could corrupt the rest of the project.
• (Linux) Fixed Audacity could not be compiled against FFmpeg 0.7.x and 0.8.x.

Effects and Analysis

• Fixed crash on launch when using “Ambisonic Decoders (PC)” VST plug-ins and other plug-ins that enable additional floating point exceptions.
• Fixed Plot Spectrum background could be transparent on some machines.
• Bug fixes for Click Track, High Pass, Low Pass and Vocal Remover.
• Chirp, Tone and Silence generators now remember their settings.

Other miscellaneous bug fixes

Changes and Improvements

• New Interface preference to show the track name in the display (this is off by default).
• Longer default Playback preference for effects preview and preview before cut.
• Restored use of Page Up and Page Down to scroll horizontally.

–jeroen

via: Release Notes 2.0.0 – Audacity Wiki.

Sometimes it’s necessary to have more than one line inside a worksheet cell, which is easily done with a line break.

Add a new line by holding down the Alt key while you press enter. It’s the keyboard shortcut Alt+Enter. In Excel 2008 and 2011 for Mac use Cmd+Option+Enter.

–jeroen

via: Start a New Line Inside a Spreadsheet Cell in Excel | Excel Semi-Pro.

vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) [...] a Critical, remote code execution vulnerability affecting all versions of Windows. This blog post shares additional information with the following goals:

• To strongly encourage you to make a special priority of applying this particular update;
• To give you an option to harden your environment until the update can be applied.

–jeroen

via: CVE-2012-0002: A closer look at MS12-020′s critical issue – Security Research & Defense – Site Home – TechNet Blogs.

• With VS 11 you have to choose what debugger you want to use for a particular debugging session, CPU or GPU
  (unlike debugging native code called from managed assemblies)
• AMP can only be done from C++ (you can call C++ AMP code from C#, but not (yet?) write AMP code in C#)
• You need a GPU (VM will not cut it) do make use of C++ AMP.

–jeroen

via: The Moth – GPU Debugging with VS 11.

			catch(Exception ex)
			{
				string strMess = ex.Message;
			}

What was the person thinking when he wrote this? Did he get distracted and nobody else notice this before checking it into their version control system?

In the same module:

		private string ToString(object myVal)
		{
			try
			{
				if (myVal != System.DBNull.Value)
					return myVal.ToString().Trim();
			}
			catch{}

			return "";
		}

–jeroen

“New Work Item menu still loading… (try again in a moment)”

There are not many results in the new work item menu still loading “try again in a moment” site:microsoft.com query, but luckily the first one shows a similar issue in Visual Studio 2005 with Team Foundation System 2005: the “Add Work Item menu still loading… (try again in a moment)”.

The solution is also very simple:

1. Quit Visual Studio 2010
2. Delete this registry key
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\WorkItemTracking\TeamMenu\AddWorkItemMru
3. Start Visual Studio 2010
4. Retry (can take more than a minute, but it usually works)

Not sure if this can fail in Visual Studio 2008 too, but if it does, just apply this fix with version number to 9.0, and if it happens with the Visual Studio 11 developer preview, change the version number to 11.0.

–jeroen

via: Add Work Item menu still loading….

If you accept the constraints described above, I propose the following procedure, which I think is the easiest way to install Windows 7 on a virtual disk in multi-boot

Note: Within the VHD you can still access all the files on your physical HD.

–jeroen

via: How to install Windows 7 on a virtual hard disk (VHD) in 10 steps – Guides & Tutorials.

With that technology, these drives ship:

• 1 platter of 500 gigabyte into the 7 mm thick Hitachy Travelstar Z7K500
• 2 platters of 500 gigabyte into the 9.5 mm thick 1 TB drive: Samsung M8 HN-M101MBB or Western Digital Scorpio Blue 1TB WD10JPVT (both compared at NotebookReview)

they easily could manufacture these configurations:

• 3 platters of 500 gigabyte into a 12.5 mm thick 1.5 TB drive
  (the currently only available 1.5 TB notebook drive is 14.8 mm thick: Seagate ST1500LM003)
• 4 platters of 500 gigabyte into a 14.8 mm thick 2 TB drive
  this one almost fits a MacBook (people buy an incase cover to make the MacBook even to fit the 14.8 mm thick drive)

They already made the bump to 9 mm thick 2 platter 1 TB drives (from the 3 platter 12.5 mm thick in the Samsung SpinPoint MT2 1TB HM100UI and Western Digital WD10TPVT and WD10TEVT to the 9mm thick HN-M101MBB and WD10JPVT).

So – given the 4 platter 14.8 mm thick Seagate ST1500LM003 1.5 TB drive has been on the market for 9 months – a logical question is: when are bigger drives becoming available in the current thicknesses? User [ETA]MrSpadge wonders about the same:

There are also 1 TB consumer oriented 3-platter drives with 12.5 mm, which cost about the same as their newer 2-platter brothers of the same capacity. However, using the same case etc. they could easily offer 1.5 TB now for about the same production cost -> higher win margin. Sure, the market for external drives is not as large as the one for “external + internal”.. yet if I were in charge there I’d try my luck with such an offer (*).

[...]

(*) That’s the right time to say “And that’s why you’re not in charge there!”

So: when are those 12.5 mm high 1.5 TB and 14.8 mm high 2 TB notebook drives going to arrive?

DanWat1234 has been expecting them for about 6 months, PhilFlow has for about 3 months. So is is getting time.

Marvell (leading supplier of HDD technology) is clearly ready for it

They are also ready for the proposed 5 mm thick (or rather thin) proposed drive height as found on Xbit.

–jeroen

via: Marvell 4Q 2012 – Hard Drives Coming Back, SSD Controller Sales Double – Storage Forums.

This is also a post on how XS4ALL treats long lasting (15 years!) customer relations. Badly.

05.03.12 16:08:01 DSL-Synchronisierung beginnt (Training).
05.03.12 16:06:05 Internetverbindung wurde getrennt.
05.03.12 16:06:05 Internetverbindung IPv6 wurde getrennt, Präfix nicht mehr gültig.
05.03.12 16:06:05 Internetverbindung wurde getrennt.
05.03.12 16:06:05 DSL antwortet nicht (Keine DSL-Synchronisierung).
05.03.12 15:56:30 Internetverbindung IPv6 wurde erfolgreich hergestellt. Präfix: 2001:980:43d9::/48
05.03.12 15:56:30 Internetverbindung IPv6 wurde erfolgreich hergestellt. IP-Adresse: 2001:980:43d9::be05:43ff:fe70:9b53
05.03.12 15:56:26 Internetverbindung wurde erfolgreich hergestellt. IP-Adresse: 82.161.132.169, DNS-Server: 194.109.6.66 und 194.109.9.99, Gateway: 194.109.5.205
05.03.12 15:56:21 DSL ist verfügbar (DSL-Synchronisierung besteht mit 4804/1029 kbit/s).
05.03.12 08:44:20 DSL-Synchronisierung beginnt (Training).


They advertised XS4ALL ONLY (since it on the copper pair you only run DSL, no phone, so you don’t need a splitter) as faster, cheaper and more stable internet and VOIP connection.

It is not.

The past.

Before switching to XS4ALL ONLY in januari 2011, I had ADSL over ISDN (aka Annex B). They indicated that they could not switch this to XS4ALL ONLY Annex A, even though XS4ALL ONLY runs over KPN BitStream which means patching the existing the copper pair to a different DSLAM, I had to stay with Annex B.

Fine. That meant from going from slightly less than 8 megabit to sligthly less than 10 megabit in stead of surely 10 megabit (I live about 2 kilometer from the DSLAM, so that is a reasonable speed).

I made the switch and ended up with this configuration

• XS4ALL ONLY
• 10 megabit ADSL
• DSLAM is BroadCom
• Modem is Fritz!Box 7340 (mandatory from XS4ALL)
• Averything behind a big UPS (like all my computing equipment: it makes your hardware last way much longer)

That worked fine for about half a year.

Then I started to get sudden disconnects. Sometimes dozens per day, each for a few minutes. Their helpdesk auto responder did not indicate they would not process incoming mail, only asked to use the online wizard. No words like “instead”, or “won’t respond on email”. For a provider with a premium price like XS4ALL, I expected them to process the email. They didn’t.

Back then, I found a solution myself, based on a couple of posts on the internet on the very much fluctuating quality of Fritz!Box firmware updates, and went back to a version that was stable, but would be limited to German (they broke part of the English UI, fine, I understand German equally well as English).

The solution last year was to downgrade to firmware 99.04.88, and live with the fact that saves configurations cannot be restored on a downgraded firmware. Fine too. Just upgraded, noted all the settings, downgraded, manually restored all the settings.

According to the info.txt file at the AVM ftp site (manufacturers of Fritz!Box), the 99.04.88 exists. But you cannot download it from there: AVM burns old ships before assuring their new ships sail. Fine: I keep backups of most downloaded things.

The present.

Over the last couple of weeks, we got woken up by our alarm system a couple of times a night: it couldn’t call home. Before and after the last year’s firmware downgrade it could, but since a couple of days it can’t.

Since the previous problems were solved by a firmware downgrade, and a fresh firmware was released in december 2011, I tried a firmware upgrade. These were the results:


01.01.70 00:51:09 Anmeldung an der FRITZ!Box Benutzeroberfläche von IP-Adresse 192.168.71.161.
01.01.70 00:00:48 DSL-Synchronisierung beginnt (Training).
01.01.70 00:00:38 Kein WLAN-Gerät mehr angemeldet, Stromverbrauch wird reduziert (2,4 GHz).


Please note the year ’70: that’s what Fritz!Box reverts to after rebooting. Every time it pretends to be ancient crap. Maybe it is.

This is what the Fritz!Box tells me about the DSL:

• When not connected:
  0 kbit/s 0 kbit/s
  DSL-Version
  1.68.19.04
  Nicht Verbunden
  Broadcom
  98.145 – H0 0
• When trying to connect:
  0 kbit/s 0 kbit/s
  DSL-Version
  1.68.19.04
  Training
  ADSL 2+ (ITU G.992.5) Annex B
  Broadcom
  98.145 – H0 0

Right now, the Fritz!Box has been “training” for over 24 hours (“training” for what? does it really want to become a DSLAM?).

So, instead of mailing, I rang the XS4ALL helpdesk on monday. Unlike last year, the waiting was only a few minutes. And they told me that there are problems with this combination:

• XS4ALL Only
• Annex B configured ADSL line
  (which in the past they told me I had to have as it was not possible to migrate to Annex A without being offline for multiple weeks)
• Any Fritz!Box modem

I don’t understand this: nothing in my home changed, nothing of copper pair in the ground changed. So why did it suddenly fail again (and why did it last year?). They could not explain: but had a solution: migrate to Annex A. And if that would not work, apply Dynamic Line Managment.

Wow. Lets repeat that: migrate to Annex A, and be offline for more than a week?

They explained that I would not be off-line, but would get a fresh IP address, and it will take them about a week to find someone to do that switch (which then will take a couple of minutes).

But I will be offline, at least until something else restores the ADSL connection. As it is dead. Or maybe it’s alive, but not as I know it.

Even though it will take me at least a couple of hours to find and reconfigure all the places that have hard coded IP addresses, I have asked them to migrate if the current ADSL Annex B connection would at least be online regularly.

Tuesday, I rang them again because ADSL had been down for more than 24 hours. They suggested to upgrade the firmware (which I did) then promised to call back, but they didn’t. The new firmware doesn’t make any difference.

Wednesday I called multiple times as without ADSL online life becomes hard. I pressed them to solve it within 24 hours. They promised to send a new Fritz!Box (model 7360, so configuration backups from the 7340 model won’t restore, really nice!). The nice helpdesk guy (it seems those are always guys) indicated that if it would not get an ADSL sync on Annex B, that I’d need to download (how?) a beta firmware that might sync.

Package service always arrives before 1000, so it won’t arrive today. Hopefully tomorrow.

Today, I got another call from their “klachtenservice” damage control department. A kind guy explained me that the normal Annex B to Annex A conversion would take up to 8 weeks, and this was a rush (funny: their helpdesk indicated the standard transition was about a week) then first wanted me to offer compensation for the days without internet, then (since the long term relation), a free month of internet. I asked for 6 months, as that would cover only a tiny bit of the cost. He indicated I got an email indicating the Annex B to Annex A migration would be finished on march 13 (I never got that email). He also indicated getting us online on march 13th would be the best they could do. But he denied my request to confirm that in writing. I kindly wished him a nice day, indicating this is the way they try to keep long lasting customers that they should seriously think of better ways.

I’m left with many questions, like:

1. why can’t XS4ALL actively notify and monitor customers that will get in trouble because of the configuration they demand?
2. why can’t XS4ALL pro-actively recommend customers to switch from Annex B to Annex A when XS4ALL knows Annex B means trouble?
3. why didn’t I have trouble for about 7 months and suddenly I hardely have a connection at all?
4. why can’t XS4ALL get us online in a day – through an alternative mobile way – like they offer to new customers?

The future.

Up until now, I always told people “I have XS4ALL ADSL because of the stability and privacy, and UPC Cable because of speed where stability is less important” .

I’ve been an XS4ALL customer for more than 15 years. If this is the XS4ALL way of saying “thank you”, they have a serious business continuity issue.

Currently, UPC Cable at 100 megabit is far more stable than 10 megabit XS4ALL only. And about the same price. So the premium for XS4ALL is only for privacy.

XS4ALL needs to give me some compelling arguments to regain trust in them.

–jeroen

Use cases:

1. double click on a word to select it
2. press Ctrl-C to copy the selected text
3. result is either of these two dialogs:
   

   ---------------------------
Microsoft Visual Studio
---------------------------
Cannot navigate to definition.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

   or

   ---------------------------
Microsoft Visual Studio
---------------------------
Cannot navigate to definition. The cursor is not on a symbol.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

The reason is that Visual Studio 2010 still thinks I am clicking the identifier (which I’m not, I just released the mouse button) while pressing the Ctrl key.

Actually I never realized that Visual Studio 2010 incorporated the same form of Ctrl-Click code browsing that I got accustomed to since Delphi 4 in 1998 :)

Whereas the Delphi code browsing keyboard shortcuts are the same as for web browser keyboard shortcuts (like Alt-Left/Alt-Right and Browse-Left/Browse-Right), I have gotten accustomed to the odd Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts F12 (go to definition of symbol), Ctrl-Minus (navigate to previous editor position) and Ctrl-Shift-Minus (navigate to last cursor location).
That is fine with me. When switching between Visual Studio, Delphi, Xcode, etc, I mentally switch to different sets of keyboard/mouse usage anyway.

But did Visual Studio implement this natural way of code browsing?

No, it didn’t, and it took the  “Cannot navigate to definition” annoyance in Visual Studio 2010 question on Stack Overflow for me to realize that.

The code browsing is actually provided by the Productivity Power Tools for Visual Studio by Microsoft:

Ctrl + Click Go To Definition
This extension gives the editor a web browser by adding clickable hyperlinks to symbols in your code as you hold down the Ctrl key.

And that extension is buggy

But: since you can individually disable extensions in the Productivity Power Tools, it is easy to workaround: go to “Tools Options>Productivity Power Tools” and you will see a dialog similar to the image on the right (click to enlarge). Then turn off the Ctrl + Click Go to Definition and press the OK button, and restart Visual Studio.

–jeroen

via: “Cannot navigate to definition” annoyance in Visual Studio 2010 – Stack Overflow.

Eric works at the C# team at Microsoft (since 1996, which is about the time Anders Hejlsberg joined Microsoft).

Unlike Anders, Eric is much more visible. I regularly read his blog, and watch his StackOverflow.com contributions (RSS feed) on a regular base.

Recently, he posted a awesome comment “Nullable is nothing but magic” on a the question “C# – Why does the == operator work for Nullable when == is not defined?“, together with a very concise answer explaining that in C# most operators are ‘lifted to nullable’.

Note his tiny – but important – mention that for == VB.net behaves different than C#.

Note that Eric is very productive, he usually contributes to StackOverflow.com multiple times a day, sometimes with material that (at least for me <g>) need a while before I really get the point.

Recommended reading

–jeroen

via: c# – Why does the == operator work for Nullable when == is not defined? – Stack Overflow.

Is there anyone that has a C#, Delphi or FreePascal implementation with unit tests?

–jeroen

Since I’m a keyboard guy, I collected some information on keyboard shortcuts over time, and below is a table with what I collected for both editors.

That, combined with distraction free writing really gives WordPress a boost.

Most of the shortcut keys use the modifier keys ALT plus SHIFT.

Note that on a Mac, you will have to use the “command” key in stead of the “CTRL” key.

Visual Editor

You can see what these shortcuts do in the WordPress Visual Editor support page.

• Unused ALT + SHIFT + letter combinations: f, y, j, k, x.

HTML editor (don’t work on a Mac)

Though the sources I used (see bullets below) indicate the below table should work, they don’t.

So: no HTML shortcuts on Mac or PC, which is a shame.

The only reason I use the HTML editor once in a while are these:

• tidying of excess HTML formatting I accidentally pasted in.
  (I still haven’t found the ultimiate HTML cleanup tool)
• Putting XML into source code (using XML in WordPress fails as soon as you VIEW your post in the Rich editor)

–jeroen

via:

• Shortcut Keys Used In WordPress Editor.
• 30 WordPress Editor Keyboard Shortcuts.
• 35 Useful Keyboard Shortcut Keys For WordPress Users.
• TinyMCE – Forum / TinyMCE / Tips, Tricks & HowTo’s / List of Keyboard Shortcuts in TinyMCE?.
• WordPress 3.2 Released: Faster, Prettier, Powerful « Lorelle on WordPress.
• Writing and Formatting Poetry — Support — WordPress.com.

English

64-bit (x64)	Download (3.3 GB)	Sha 1 hash — 1288519C5035BCAC83CBFA23A33038CCF5522749
32-bit (x86)	Download (2.5 GB)	Sha 1 hash — E91ED665B01A46F4344C36D9D88C8BF78E9A1B39
	Product Key	DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J

–jeroen

via: Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO formats.

Zorg en Zekerheid krijgt het toch voor elkaar: op het polisblad van 2012 staat het relatienummer niet meer vermeld, alleen het BSN nummer.

Als curator van mijn broer doe ik vrijwel al zijn administratie, dus ook het aanmelden van een vakantiekamp voor mensen met een verstandelijke beperking.

Die willen graag het relatienummer weten (en het BSN nummer geven gaat mij wat ver: hoewel ik de organisatoren vertrouw, ben ik bij mijn broer nog huiveriger voor identiteitsdiefstal dan voor mijzelf).

Die verzekeringspas (waar beide nummers op staan) is al een jaar of 3 oud, dus wat lastiger electronisch terug te vinden dan het polisblad.

Dank Zorg en Zekerheid dat jullie het voor elkaar krijgen om dit soort dingen moeilijker te maken!

–jeroen (die gelukkig vrijwel alles met een Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 gescand heeft met betekenisvolle bestandsnamen en voor Everything)

For me, this is the ultimate comparison tool as it runs on Windows and Linux natively or under WINE on Mac OS.

It has a massive change list:

-----------------------------------
v3.3.4.14431      February 24, 2012
-----------------------------------

- Notable Changes
  - Fixed context menus on newer versions of Konqueror, Thunar, and Nautilus.
  - FILE-REPORT (and TEXT-REPORT, etc.) commands will now accept a saved file
    compare session name instead of a pair of files.  E.g., "file-report
    layout:side-by-side output-to:printer MySession".

- Archives
  - Fixed extracting files where a single deflate block contains more than 1MB
    of data.
  - Fixed zips showing non-existent files if a zip contained another zip and
    the outer one had additional data after the archive comment.
  - Attempting to extract a file from a zip using an unsupported compression
    algorithm now shows that as an error.
  - Split up zip error messages for "Error during extraction" and "Unsupported
    compression algorithm".

- Data Compare
  - Fixed "Extract HTML table(s)" handling of UTF-16 files.

- File Formats
  - OpenOffice default character encoding is now UTF-8.
  - Fixed "COBOL Source" format to include "Identifier" definition.
  - "Picture Files" format added CUT, GED, MSK, PFR, and TUB to mask, removed
    PAL.

- File Views
  - Fixed saving files with paths between 247-259 characters long.
  - Fixed foreground selection coloring when using white on blue system colors.
  - Added key accelerators to "Save changes" dialog.

- Folder Compare
  - Long file operations will now keep Windows from going to sleep due to
    inactivity.
  - Using "Compare to" to open a file view and then using "Next/Previous
    Difference Files" now closes the file view.

- FTP
  - Fixed support for FTP listings with filenames containing Chinese
    month/year characters.
  - Fixed parsing Comau C5G FTP listings.

- Home View
  - When editing a session, dropped files/folders are ignored unless they're
    on a path edit.
  - Expand All and Collapse All commands now affect the shared and auto-saved
    sessions nodes.
  - Fixed behavior when using "Collapse All" hides the currently selected
    session.

- Linux
  - Fixed context menus on newer versions of Konqueror, Thunar, and Nautilus.
  - Fixed Folder Compare crash when performing rules-based comparisons.
  - Fixed clicking the "Next Difference Files" link on the message panel when
    using "Next Difference" at the end of a comparison.
  - Fixed various comboboxes incorrectly allowing editing.

- Misc
  - Fixed menu checkboxes not showing on Vista and Windows 7 when using the
    Classic Theme.
  - Dropping files/folders onto a path edit no longer changes the edit if the
    drop results in a new view.
  - Added "RE Examples" buttons to Grammar Item dialog.
  - Improved Open/Save dialog handling of file type options.

- Options
  - "Customize Commands" dialog's "Default" command now checks to see if
    shortcut is already in use.

- Picture Compare
  - "Difference Offset", "Flip", and "Rotate" are now persistent session
    settings.
  - Fixed handling of DIB, MSK, and RLE bitmap files.

- Registry Compare
  - Fixed loading .reg files with a '\' before hex data.
  - Fixed loading .reg files with a ']' in a key name.

- Scripting
  - FILE-REPORT (and TEXT-REPORT, etc.) commands will now accept a saved file
    compare session name instead of a pair of files.  E.g., "file-report
    layout:side-by-side output-to:printer MySession".
  - LOG command will now create the target folder if it doesn't exist.
  - Fixed support for STRIKEOUT-RIGHT-ORPHANS in TEXT-REPORT command.

–jeroen

via: Beyond Compare ChangeLog

I just had was one: I upgraded VMware Workstation to 8.0.2 a couple of days ago.
Today one the less frequently used development virtual machines would not see the SQL Server 2000 alias it could find before.

Reasons:

1. the ALIAS cannot be found through DHCP, so it was in the HOSTS table on the development virtual machine.
2. the subnet of vmnet1 and vmnet8 got changed because the VMware update actually is performed ad a complete reinstall.

I blogged about the SQL Server 2000 alias last week, but in fact the work had been more than 2 months ago, so it took me a while to add up reasons 1 and 2 and find out the answer was in fact 3:

Reset the VMware vmnet1 and vmnet8 to the subnets they were before, and everything works fine and all is dandy again.

–jeroen

When porting some projects from .NET 1.x to .NET 4.x, I got these two errors:

Error 17 Type 'MyProject.My.MySettings' is not defined.
Error 18 'MyProject' is not a member of '<Default>'.

Both errors in the file ...\My Project\Settings.Designer.vb relative to the MyProject.vbproj file.

This was not the result of something like this Visual Studio 2005 bug, but of how the designer generated files are not being regenerated when you change the root namespace only in the MyProject.vbproj file, not through the IDE.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a MyProject class library in VB.NET
2. In the MyProject.vbproj, change the RootNameSpace into MyNameSpace.MyProject.vbproj
3. Build

Lesson learned: when using text compare tools, some .vbproj changes should be propagated through the IDE, not through your favourite text compare tool.

When you change it in the IDE, it regenerates the *.Designer.vb files to reflect the changed namespace.

The solution is simple, in the IDE follow these steps:

1. In the Project Options change the RootNameSpace to a dummy
2. Build your project
3. Chante the RootNameSpace to what you want
4. Build your project

–jeroen

via: type “my.mysettings” “is not defined.” – Google Search.

In short, pass CharSet.Auto unless you P/Invoke a function that is specific to CharSet.Ansi or CharSet.Unicode. The default is CharSet.Ansi, which you usually don’t want:

when Char or String data is part of the equation, set the CharSet property to CharSet.Auto. This causes the CLR to use the appropriate character set based on the host OS. If you don’t explicitly set the CharSet property, then its default is CharSet.Ansi. This default is unfortunate because it negatively affects the performance of text parameter marshaling for interop calls made on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows NT®.

The only time you should explicitly select a CharSet value of CharSet.Ansi or CharSet.Unicode, rather than going with CharSet.Auto, is when you are explicitly naming an exported function that is specific to one or the other of the two flavors of Win32 OS. An example of this is the ReadDirectoryChangesW API function, which exists only in Windows NT-based operating systems and supports Unicode only; in this case you should use CharSet.Unicode explicitly.

–jeroen

via: .NET Column: Calling Win32 DLLs in C# with P/Invoke.

The ThinkPad W700/W701 DisplayPort is a DisplayPort-only source, not a Dual-Mode source, and thus cannot support the DisplayPort adapter cables.

See also this PDF:

ThinkPad W701, W701ds Multiple Monitor Configurations
Boost productivity, view more data
** DisplayPort to Single-Link DVI (45J7915) or VGA (57Y4393) monitor cables are not supported on the W701 DisplayPort

–jeroen

via: DisplayPort Adapter Cables 45J7915, 57Y4393 Compatibility – ThinkPad W700/W701.

for a while now, 32GB on 2x W701

–jeroen

via: forum.thinkpads.com • Newer 8G memory sticks in a W700, W701, W500, W510 ?.

I do all of my drawing directly to the computer screen of my Wacom Cintiq 24HD. I literally feel sympathy for any artist who still works with pen and paper. The system cuts my production time in half and allows me to do better work too. If youre an artist, and youre still drawing on paper, youre like the seventy-year old author who swears by his manual typewriter.

Great gadget that has it price, but loved by artists.

–jeroen

via: Scott Adams Blog: Today I Review Everything 02/10/2012.

That checklist is important, as it is easy to get things wrong and dissatisfy your users without reason (heck, they get worse than mediocre RDP performance experience, so you could’ve saved you the work of PCoIP in the first place).

So please do read the “PCoIP Protocol Virtual Desktop Network Design Checklist“.

It starts with

The PCoIP protocol provides a real-time delivery of a rich user desktop experience in virtual desktop and remote workstation environments.

To ensure a responsive desktop, the PCoIP protocol must be deployed across a properly architected virtual desktop network infrastructure that meets bandwidth, QoS, latency, jitter, and packet loss requirements.

CheckPoint VPN sometimes can be a dork combined with PCoIP. and at least make sure UDP works well over your VPN.

–jeroen

via: ”PCoIP Protocol Virtual Desktop Network Design Checklist“

(Some more backgorund reading and even more)

(fixed typo: one of the PCoIP occurances was PCiOP, luckily, Google knows better

One class of systems involved in the migration is SQL Server 2000 databases (yes, I know that SQL Server 2000 has been in Extended Support mode since April 8, 2008, that’s one of the grounds for migration).

Sometimes, you need SQL Server Enterprise Manager (a plugin to the Microsoft Management Console) to work on those databases to see what needs to be migrated (yes, this should be in the documentation, of which the ultimate form is the system itself .

SQL Server Enterprise Manager has a nice feature that you can group SQL Server registration into SQL Server Groups.

However, it also has a limitation: you cannot add the same SQL Server to multiple SQL Server Groups. That is: unless you create an alias on the SQL Server, as aliases are not counted in the “unique” criterion.

Below are the top 2 links I found using “multiple databases” “sql server”  ”enterprise manager”. Since I’m not sure the content of those will last, below are the full quotes.

Besides adding a SQL Server Alias (which has other uses as well), the most important steps are “6″ in the first quote, and “1.6″ in the second quote: your alias needs to point to the same IP address (or hostname) as your regular server.

How do I register multiple databases with MS SQL Enterprise Manager?

MS Enterprise Manager does not allow you to register the same database server multiple times. It is sometimes useful to create multiple registrations, if you want to connect to different databases on the same server. To workaround this, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Start – Programs – Microsoft SQL Server – Select “SQL Server Client Network Utility”
2. Go to Alias Tab
3. Click “Add”
4. In the “Server alias:” text box, enter a name you want to use to distinguish this database server
5. In the “Network libraries:” section, select “TCP/IP”
6. In the “Connection parameters” section, change the “Server name:” to your database server, i.e.; mssql01.discountasp.net
7. Click OK

Once the Alias is created, you can register it using the same method described in this Knowledge Base article.