Sun’s Virtualbox supports VMWare VMDK files (virtual hard drives) however when booting from a vmdk file a couple of things must usually be done to prevent the virtual machine from hanging when booting up.

1. Booting in safe mode will reveal that the system hangs at the c:\system32\drivers\agp440.sys file. There are a variety of ways around this but the simplest (yet not the cleanest) way is to boot in recovery mode (or from another VM with the vmdk mounted as a second drive) and delete the agp440.sys file.

2.  After rebooting with the vmdk file the system will likely hang at the Mup.sys file. This is a simple fix, in the VM’s System settings make sure the “Enable IO APIC” checkbox is checked.

For a more detailed explanation with other migration tips please see Vmware to Virtualbox Migration Issues.

My Vista IIS 7 box recently stopped listening on the localhost ip addresses for no apparent reason.  I don’t know how this happened but I eventually found the solution.

I ran across the following command line that lists all the ip addresses that IIS is listening on (but I'm not sure how this differs from the IIS web site bindings):

netsh http show iplisten

This showed one ip address, which was my machine's ip address.

I ran this command on another vista pc that was working and it returned an empty list.

I then ran the following command line to remove the rouge ip address from the list:

netsh http delete iplisten ipaddress=192.1.1.123

Once I removed the ip address so the list was empty (which is what I have on another vista machine for comparison), localhost started working again.

 

FYI: This also applied to .NET WCF endpoints.

 

I believe the httpcfg command can do the same in older Windows OS versions.

Wondering how the different .NET versions really fit together?  Scott Hanselman gives a good rundown in his How to set an IIS Application or AppPool to use ASP.NET 3.5 rather than 2.0 article.

MSBUILD can give the following error message when compiling using a UNC path:

Error: Could not load file or assembly 'YOURASSEMBLYHERE' or one of its dependencies. Failed to grant minimum permission requests. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131417)
              - Required permissions cannot be acquired.

C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Common.targets(1892,9): error MSB6006: "sgen.exe" exited with code 1.

This occurs when MSBUILD executes sgen.exe to build the optional XmlSerializers.dll assembly.

 

There are at least 3 ways to work around this error:

1. Don't use a UNC path when compiling.
2. In the project properties Build tab, Set 'Generate serialization assembly' to Off.
3. Use caspol.exe to grant full trust to the UNC path. See Running a .Net application from a network share.

You must edit the windows registry:

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\View Source Editor\Editor Name]
Value Name: (Default)
Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Value Data: Path and Filename of Editor

To determine an Oracle database's character set:

select value from nls_database_parameters where parameter='NLS_CHARACTERSET'

 

UTF8 was the UTF-8 encoded character set in Oracle8 and 8i.

AL32UTF8 is the UTF-8 encoded character set introduced in Oracle9i.

 

VB6 reports UTF8 characters as 3 bytes, and AL32UTF8 characters as 4 bytes.

 

How "character-based" sizing in Oracle works

It requires setting an instance or session parameter (e.g., alter session set NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS = 'CHAR';).  This is available starting in 9i.  Then, subsequent column declarations such as VARCHAR2(10) really mean 10 characters and not 10 bytes.  You can also be explicit on the declaration by saying VARCHAR2(10 CHAR), but that is not as flexible obviously (because it will always mean CHAR even if the database is currently set to default to BYTE).

When doing a DESC command, the keyword "BYTE" or "CHAR" only shows up in the parentheses (as in your dump below) if the table is declared in the mode opposite what your current SQL*Plus session is set to.

 

Writing East Asian characters languages (such as Japanese)

In order for a VB6 or .Net application to write Japanese characters to an Oracle UTF8 database, the East Asian language files must be installed on the machine running the application that writes to the database.  This is done in XP and Windows 2003 from Start->Control Panel->Regional and Language Options->Language tab.  If they are not installed, no error will occur but the Japanese characters will be written as question marks.  It is unclear why this is the case however it has been confirmed with a UTF8 Oracle database, VB6 and .Net applications, and Japanese characters.  It is assumed that this applies to all East Asian languages as well as AL32UTF8 databases.

 

Snippet from an Oracle document describing these character sets' support and origin:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ begin snip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UTF8

UTF8 was the UTF-8 encoded character set in Oracle8 and 8i. It followed the Unicode 2.1 standard between Oracle 8.0 and 8.1.6, and was upgraded to Unicode version 3.0 for versions 8.1.7, 9i and 10g. To maintain compatibility with existing installations this character set will remain at Unicode 3.0 in future Oracle releases. Although specific supplementary characters were not assigned to Unicode until version 3.1, the allocation for these characters were already defined in 3.0. So if supplementary characters are inserted in a UTF8 database, it will not corrupt the actual data inside the database. They will be treated as 2 separate undefined characters, occupying 6 bytes in storage. We recommend that customers switch to AL32UTF8 for full supplementary character support.

AL32UTF8

This is the UTF-8 encoded character set introduced in Oracle9i. AL32UTF8 is the database character set that supports the latest version (4.01 in Oracle 10.2) of the Unicode standard. It also provides support for the newly defined supplementary characters. All supplementary characters are stored as 4 bytes. AL32UTF8 was introduced because when UTF8 was designed (in the times of Oracle8) there was no concept of supplementary characters, therefore UTF8 has a maximum of 3 bytes per character. Changing the design of UTF8 would break backward compatibility, so a new character set was introduced. The introduction of surrogate pairs should mean that no significant architecture changes are needed in future versions of the Unicode standard, so currently the plan is to keep enhancing AL32UTF8 as necessary to support future version of the Unicode standard. For example in Oracle 10.1 this character set implemented the Unicode 3.2 standard, in Oracle 10.2 that has been updated to support the Unicode 4.01 standard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end snip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obtain the IUSR account password:  cscript.exe adsutil.vbs get w3svc/anonymoususerpass
Obtain the IWAM account password:  cscript.exe adsutil.vbs get w3svc/wamuserpass

Set the IUSR account password:  cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set w3svc/anonymoususerpass "password"
Set the IWAM account password:  cscript.exe adsutil.vbs set w3svc/wamuserpass "password"

 

If the password appears as asterisks, edit the adsutil.vbs file and

change

IsSecureProperty = True

to

IsSecureProperty = False

Reference:

See PRB: Configured Identity Is Incorrect for IWAM Account for details.

 

Example:

C:\Inetpub\AdminScripts>cscript adsutil.vbs get W3SVC/anonymoususerpass

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved.

anonymoususerpass               : (STRING) "mypassword"

From microsoft.com:

"Beginning in Exchange 2007 Beta 2 and Outlook 2007 Beta 2, CDO 1.2.1 will no longer be provided as a part of the install of the product. As a result, there is functionality missing that many applications depend upon. CDO 1.2.1 is a package providing access to Outlook-compatible objects through a COM-based API."

You can download Collaboration Data Objects, version 1.2.1 from microsoft here.

Just as a note, CDO was included as an optional accessory starting with Outlook 2000-ish.

I found this nice command line tool of Microsoft's that will make a patch file by comparing two files which can be used with their command line patching tool to create the 2nd file.  This works great for patching an executable that is large.

The patcher works on Windows XP without the SDK installed.  But the SDK must be installed to get the command line tools you need.

The command line tools you will need from the SDK are called mpatch and apatch and are in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform\SDK\Samples\SysMgmt\Msi\Patching.

Here is the download:  Platform SDK


I found this by reading this blog entry.

Yahoo recently debuted it's thrid social bookmarking service... Yahoo Bookmarks

They already have My Web, Del.icio.us and the new Bookmarks beta will supercede thei standard Yahoo Bookmarks.

I'm not sure what Yahoo has up their sleeves for these three but it appears that the New Bookmarks has quite a bit of overlap with both My Web and Del.icio.us.

I recently purchased a 1GB USB Flash Driver for $13 after rebates, including shipping.  I'm pretty happy about that.  However I already have desires for a larger drive.

I found that I can use TrueCrypt which is small app that sits on the flash drive along with a truecrypt volume file which can be mounted as a drive.

See traveler mode.   The only catch is that the user must have administrator rights.

It even can preconfigure teh flash drives autorun.inf file so that mounting the encrypted volume is automation (after entering the password of course).

Looking to build your own custom pc? Skarky Extreme publishes several Buyer's Guides which give all the parts needed for a new computer. There is the High End Gamer's PC where price is no limit, and a Value Gaming PC for the $1000 budget, along with regular guides on video card, memory, and cpu prices.

I've been using these guides for years and thought I would share. :)

Here is the link for Sharky Extreme.
Monthly High-end Gaming System Buyer's Guide
Monthly Value Gaming System Buyer's Guide

To create a primary key

ALTER TABLE <table_name> ADD CONSTRAINT <primary_key_constraint_name> PRIMARY KEY (<column_name>) USING INDEX

To drop a primary key:

ALTER TABLE <tablename> DROP PRIMARY KEY

To view all the indexed columns includin the primarky key columns:

SELECT * FROM user_ind_columns WHERE table_name='<tablename>' ORDER BY index_name, column_position

To view the constraint names on a table (including the primary key name):

SELECT * FROM user_constraints WHERE table_name = '<tablename>'

To view the constraint columns and constraint names on a table (including the primary key):

SELECT * FROM user_cons_columns WHERE table_name = '<tablename>'

Good oracle reference:
http://www.psoug.org/reference/constraints.html

1. Hit either shift key five times.
2. Select settings.
3. On the keyboard tab, and under filter keys, make sure 'use filter keys' is NOT checked.
4. Under filter keys again, select settings. Uncheck every box.
5. Now click the general tab
6. Under Administrative options uncheck both check boxes if checked. If not checked check them, click apply, ok, and then go back into it, and uncheck them.

Here is the sql to view the indexes on an oracle table.  Just replace MYTABLENAME with yout table name:

select index_name, column_name, column_position from user_ind_columns
where table_name='MYTABLENAME' order by index_name, column_position

Although an Oracle DSN supports timeouts (which can be disabled via a checkbox), creating a DSN-less connection in VB6 will not respect any settings for the Connection.ConnectionTimeout or Command.CommandTimeout settings.  It just ignores them and your application will sit and wait until the request is done.

See MDSN article ID: 251248

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;251248

WinZip allows you to scan your archive with a virus scanning tool.  Unfortunately it does not provide instructions on how to use Grisoft's AVG product.

When you receive a Zip file in e-mail or through other means, you should follow the same basic security procedures that you follow for any other file: use good virus scanning software, and know the source of the file. If you follow sensible security guidelines, you can be comfortable working with Zip files that you receive.

To enable virus scanning with AVG within WinZip:

1. Start Winzip in classic mode.
2. Select the Options -> Configuration... menu item.
3. Select the Program Locations tab.
4. In the Scan Program field, enter the path to the avgw.exe file.
    Mine was: C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avgw.exe
5. In the Parameters field, enter:  /se %d
6. Click OK.
7. To test it open a .zip file and select the Actions -> Virus Scan menu item.

Set your virus scanner to run a complete system scan on a schedule, and always scan files you download from the internet.

VMWare 4.5

Boot time: 1 min 40 sec.
CPU Usage: 1%
Network: Could not get the adapter drivers installed.
Usage is obviously slower than on a physical machine, but not too bad.

VPC2004

Boot time: 4 min 45 sec.
CPU Usage: 85%
Network: Worked fine.
Usage is so bad that I can see the Start Menu rendering when clicked on.


Conclusion:  If you really want to run Windows Vista Beta 1 in a virtual machine and don't care about the network adapter, I'd go with VMWare byfar.

I burned the ISO to a DVD+R but you can mount it to a drive letter on the host OS. (Virtual PC does not support ISO images over 2.2GB so the mount must be on the host OS.)

Create a new Virtual PC.  I used 256MB RAM and 16GB virtual hard drive.

Boot from the DVD or host os mounted image.

Click "Install Now".

Since the Windows Vista Beta 1 installer does not support RAW drives (ie. virtual hard drives) you must do the following:
See the Readme file for more details.  (However I was able to install it on VMWare without a problem.)

Press Shift-F10 to get a command prompt.  (I wasn't able to get Shift-F10 to work until after I selected "Install now".)

Type DISKPART at the command prompt to start the diskpart tool.

Type the following commands in diskpart:

select disk 0
create partition primary
select volume 1
format fs=ntfs label="windows vista"

Type EXIT to exit diskpart.

Reset the virtual pc via the Virtual PC Console window.

When you reboot an install, the partition will be ready to be selected.


Total install took 3 hours.  Compared to 1 hour with VMWare (see link). (I did use a little less memory in VPC, could that be why?)

Keywords:  Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 VPC2004 VPC 2004 Longhorn Microsoft Vista Beta 1 OS

Do you remember spending countless hours on operating systems that are no longer around, or are at least no where to be seen?

I ran across this website a while back and thought I would share. :)

To reminisce about your favorite forgotten OS' click here.

You might notice that after installing an ASP, ASP/VB6, or ASP.NET application, you get undesired results under oracle client driver versions Oracle9i Release 2 (9.2.0.x.x) and Oracle10g Release 1 (10.1.0.x.x).

This is due to an Oracle install bug dealing with file permissions.

 

 Due to a bug (see Note:215255.1) of Oracle installation on XP, you have to execute the following bug-fix:

 Solution Description -------------------- Oracle 9.2 Client software requires that you give the Authenticated User privilege to the Oracle Home by following these steps:

 1. Log on to Windows as a user with Administrator privileges.

 2. Launch Windows Explorer from the Start Menu and and navigate to the ORACLE_HOME directory.

 3. Right-click on the ORACLE_HOME folder and choose the "Properties" option from the drop down list. A "Properties" window should appear.

 4. Click on the "Security" tab on the "Properties" window.

 5. Click on "Authenticated Users" item in the "Name" list (on Windows XP the "Name" list is called "Group or user names").
 
 6. Uncheck the "Read and Execute" box in the "Permissions" list (on Windows XP the "Permissions" list is called "Permissions for Authenticated Users"). This box will be under the "Allow" column.
 
 7. Check the "Read and Execute" box. This is the box you just unchecked.
 
 8. Click the "Apply" button.
 
 9. Click the "OK" button.
 
 10. Reboot your computer after these changes have been made. Re-execute the application and it should now work.

VMWare Workstation 4.5.2

1. Start VMWare Workstation.
2. Select menu item: File -> New Virtual Machine...
3. Choose a Typical Configuration, Microsoft Windows, Longhorn (experimental).
4. Choose your network connection.  (I chose Bridged)
5. Choose disk capacity.  (I chose 20GB, unallocated)
6a. Insert your Microsoft Vista Beta 1 DVD disc and boot from the dvd.
OR
6b. Mount the MSDN ISO as the CD drive.

During the installation the video color depth is 4 bits resulting in color dithering making it difficult to read text on the screen.
Installation seemed to lock up a couple times where the mouse cursor would not moved for about a minute or so, but it recovered fine.

After the 1st reboot (there are 2) during the installation which occurs when the progress bar is about 50%, the progress bar becomes more of an activity bar so you can't guage how much longer the install will take.
From the start of the install it took 1 hour until the 2nd reboot, which finally boots into Window Vista.
After the system has rebooted, the Supplemental Driver Pack Installation Wizard runs... which for ended with "Drivers are unavailable for your devices."

Install VMWare Tools
 Do not install install the VMWare Tools from the VMWare Workstation VM menu as it does not work.
 You must edit the Virtual Machine Settings and mount the windows.iso cd image to a vm cd drive.
 
 VXMNet will fail to install, and although there are descriptions on how to fix this for version 5.0, I have not resolved the issue with 4.5.2.

 Once you reboot your video will be much better but you still don't have network or sound.
 
 I was not able to get the network driver to work even on a manual install so I don't know that 4.5.2 support it.
 

If you are using 5.0, here is a link on getting it to work:

Total installation took just over an hour on my pc.

It's been a real struggle finding good web sites that are available on a mobile phone.  I've used the My Yahoo! site almost exclusively for quite some time now as it has several of the features that I use... movie times, web search, among other things.  I thought I'd put a list of sites together:

Favorites

Yahoo http://home.mobile.yahoo.com/
Google http://www.google.com/wml
Froogle http://wml.froogle.com
Mapquest http://www.mapquest.com/pda/main.adp


WAP/WML Portal Sites

http://www.pdaportal.com/
http://www.skweezer.net/
http://209.221.153.18/smallsites/
http://treo1.com/
http://mobile.treobits.com/
http://www.glida.net/treo.htm
http://www.thephonecam.com/links.html


WAP Directories

http://mobile.yahoo.com/resource_center/wapdir/home
http://www.wapcatalog.com/

It's that time again... To upgrade phones or not.

I currently have a Motorola v710 and it is by far the best mobile phone I have had.  Although the fact that Verizon cripples it's bluetooth capabilities is annoying... capitalism at it's best.  They cripple several features which are built into the phone and force you to use pay services for similar functionality.

In any case Motorola has released the e815 and I have been doing a little research on whether or not it is a worthy upgrade from the v710.

Pros over v710: (in no particular order)

Longer talk time
Broadband (EV-GO)
Outside display is always on (dimmed) with the time.
Better Camera
40MB vs 10MB
Better KeyPad
The keypad won't scratch the screen

Cons:

No analog
No Dial-Up Networking (DUN)
No OBEX profiles
Limited card read/write abilities
    Although there are hacks to enable these, I'm not sure about their legality.

Conclusion:

It's a definate maybe.  The biggest draw for me is the longer talk time and broadband.  I love being able to get movie times, directions, froogle, and local info so the broadband would be nice.  The video clips do not interest me any, nor does the $15 USD a month fee for them.

A few weeks ago I added support for comment Gravatar icons in dasBlog.  This by no means indicates that it will be included in DasBlog as there may be some additional work required.  I finally had time to submit the code to the dasBlog folks for there review.  Here is an example of what it looks like: 

Ref: Original Post

I can't seem to find any documentation on this anywhere so I thought I'd jot it down.

I think I ran into a limit on the size of a Simple Mapi message body.  It looks like it's about 64k.  It didn't blow out, but it did truncate my message body down to around 5k.

Just out of curiosity I ran a 64k+ test with CDO and had no problem.

This weekend I added support in DasBlog for Gravatar icons/images next to posted comments.  When I have time later this week I will send Scott the information to see if they are interested.

It didn’t help much that the Gravatar dns lookup failed all weekend.  But I was able to do a whois on gravatar.com and get their name server and query it for their ip adders.  Ahh the things us developers do to implement even the silliest of features.

Update:  7/30/2005 Well I've been a little too busy to get the source code off to the DasBlog folks, but in due time. :)
Update:  7/31/2005 Ok, I made it a point to get the source code sent off today for review. Click here for a screen shot.

First off let me tell you how much I love this remote control. I got rid of my 5 remote controls and now just use the Logitech Harmony 880 Remote Control. It's a bit pricey but considering my wife can now use the entertainment system, it's well worth it!

Now back to the Tivo situation. After first setting up the remote to work with tivo I noticed that the quick button response/performance that i was used to from the tivo remote was now slow with the harmony remote. After doing some digging around I found 2 settings that make the remote work just as well as the tivo remote...

1. Setting the Inter-Key Delay to 0
First set the Inter-Key Delay to 0. If this causes problems you can set it a bit higher, but 0 works for me. I also have Inter-Device Delay set to 500, but this is not important for what we are trying to do here. So to change this setting, which defaults to 500, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'More Options' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Device Options page should appear, from which you should select 'Adjust the Delays (speed settings)'. In the Inter-key Delay box, enter 0 and click Next, then click Next again from the next page.

2. Setting command repeat count to 0
Secondly and lastly set the command repeat count to 0. So to change this setting, which defaults to 3, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'Troubleshoot' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Adjusting Setup:Device Problems page should appear, from which you should select 'Show me more problems' radio button and then click Next. On the next page, choose 'TIVO doesn't appear to receive every command correctly.' and click Next. On the next page select 'The device responds too much to some commands (for example, volume up increases the volume too quickly).' and click Next. A list of numbers 0 to 5 will appear. This is the number of times the remote will send a command to Tivo which defaults to 3. Set this to 0 which works fine for me. If you have problems with this try increasing it to 1.

And that's it. Once I changed these settings, my tivo responded to my harmony 880 remote as quickly as it did to my tivo remote.

A couple more little tricks

To facilitate quicker fast forward and rewinds, I mapped the up arrow and down arrow respectively.  I just found it a little difficult to quickly locate the fast forward/rewind and play buttons.

Since I also have a ‘Tivo Stereo’ activity, I added a custom button to lower the volume on the tivo.  This also works with other activities like DVD.  I tried just muting the tv, but the tv leave the word ‘MUTE’ on the screen.

Thank you Harmony for providing my best gadget purchase in quite some time.

Ok, I admit it, I'm a Tivo addict. I can't amagine going back to watching tv with out it... commercials? what commercials? A few months ago I installed the Tivo HME SDK and after some wierdness I took a look at some pretty cool applets running on my Tivo. I thought I'd give it another whirl here in July and ran into the same problems as before. My applications just don't want to be seen by Tivo. Ok, ok, so I use a wireless usb adapter to connect my Tivo to my home network which has given me nothing but trouble. I have to unplug the usb adapter at least once a week since tivo seems to forget it's there. But beyond that problem I was not able to get the HME stuff u[ an running again. Kudos to you out there that don't have a problem with this, I envy you. In any case I am looking forward to some of these applications maturing and getting the apparent connectivity quirks worked out of the system.

Recently I ran across some rants and raves about replacing table tags with div and span tags altogether.  I did some research and practicing with this concept and although I like the concept … a lot … in practice I find it to be much to complicated than it should be for complex/well table embedded web pages.  For simpler pages it seems pretty slick, then again for simpler web pages what’s the big deal in using a table?

I’m sure I’ll need some more practice to fully appreciate it, but for now I’m sticking with the old trusted table tag.

If you are interested in some nice links regarding this topic.

http://www.healyourchurchwebsite.com/archives/001403.php

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/practicalcss/

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum83/5428.htm

http://www.pragmaticprose.com/PermaLink,guid,9c6bd17f-c2c6-4b1f-9701-38d35043f7e6.aspx

We all love the simple little applications that come with the Windows OS, but while we use them we inevitably want just a little more out of them.  I’ve started replacing some of them…

Notepad:  I’ve been using Notepad++ but Notepad2 is ok as well.

Task Switcher:  TaskSwitchXP Pro (it appears this link is dead right now, so try this one.

Task Manager:  Sysinternals Process Explorer (I do wish it would start up quicker though.)

Windows Explorer: xplorer² is small and fast (updated).  I tested Directory Opus, which was awesome!!! BUT it was just too slow to use and it is not freeware.

Web Browser: Firefox (I just love the extensions.)

Virtual Desktop: Virtual Dimension (updated)

Windows File Name search:  Locate32

Windows file contents search and replace:  Inforapid Search and Replace

Wow, I’m caught between them.  I just love the multiple tab interface and being able to split windows in Notepad++. But to close a tab you have to go up and click an item in the left hand part of the toolbar, as opposed to the de-facto standard of having the tab close button to the right of the tabs.  So half the time I end up closing the whole app down on accident. The non-standard search and replace window also throws me sometimes.

Notepad2 is definitely a prettier application with most of the same functionality, just packaged a little bit better.  Unfortunately there are no tabs and no way to split the a window.

I suppose I’ll just have to live with Notepad++ for now.  It’s a great application, it just needs a little gui work.

My Directory Opus 8.1 evaluation license expired today and I regret that I will not be purchasing it. I just found the performance to be unacceptable.  I love all the features but it's just too slow.

Back in the old days on the Commodore Amiga, dopus where it was at!!! :)

I’m giving blogjet a try.  I’ve tried w::bloggar but it doesn’t handle images well at all and that’s an understatement.  We’ll see if blogjet can hold its own.

It sure would be nice if BlogJet could copy images to a folder instead of using ftp.