Entries for Jonathan Merriweather

Microsoft Billing, How to change Country? [Microsoft Billing, How to change Country?]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:19:34 GMT

I've now got an xbox and i want to buy some microsoft points, only problem is the credit card form has United States instead of Australia. Anyone know how to change the country on the Microsoft billing site?

https://billing.microsoft.com

in reply to Microsoft Billing, How to change Country?

OMG! Bro's album is out [OMG! Bro's album is out]

Jonathan Merriweather — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:19:41 GMT

Well my brother’s album is out in the UK, you can listen to the full album on his site www.danielmerriweather.com. Or you can buy it at 7digital (320bit mp3s yay). My favourite track on the album is: For You Money.

I hope it does well, his singles did pretty well. The single “Red” got to 5th on the UK singles charts.

What do you guys think?

Edit: After W3bbo suggestion I’ve updated the title to conform lol

in reply to OMG! Bro's album is out

Windows Server 2003 Dns Standard Practice [Windows Server 2003 Dns Standard Practice]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:10:41 GMT

Hey Guys,

I've been told that standard practice for setting up a Windows Server 2003 Domain Controllers dns is to have an external dns server as a secondary dns server. I had complained that it should be removed as the domain controller wouldn't be able to locate the other servers on the network if Windows falls back to this external dns server.

I would have thought standard practice would be to add this external dns server as a forwarder in the local dns server.

Is this standard practice?

How does the dns client work? does it always use the primary dns server or is it more of a round robin type system?

in reply to Windows Server 2003 Dns Standard Practice

Windows 7 RC1 leaks [Windows 7 RC1 leaks]

Jonathan Merriweather — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:42:02 GMT

Not sure if you guys have seen the news but RC1 looks to have leaked: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/04/24/windows-7-rc-build-7100-leaks

I may or may not be downloading... :P

in reply to Windows 7 RC1 leaks

Windows 7 Perf Rating [Windows 7 Perf Rating]

Jonathan Merriweather — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:56:58 GMT

Post your Windows 7 performance rating

I'll go first:

in reply to Windows 7 Perf Rating

Buying an upgrade from 32bit to 64bit [Buying an upgrade from 32bit to 64bit]

Jonathan Merriweather — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:54:44 GMT

My friend wants to move to Vista 64bit and has already bought Vista 32bit (his had it for a few months now), is it possible to buy an upgrade to go from Vista 32bit to Vista 64bit or is he required to go buy another copy? I remember with Windows XP you could trade in your 32bit XP copy for a 64bit copy... do Microsoft still have anything like that?

in reply to Buying an upgrade from 32bit to 64bit

ASP.NET Cache Manager [ASP.NET Cache Manager]

Jonathan Merriweather — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:36:12 GMT

I modified this "CacheManager" from here: http://weblogs.asp.net/zowens/archive/2007/10/20/easier-way-to-manage-your-asp-net-cache.aspx

I figured someone else might find my version useful.
[code Language="CSharp"]
public class CacheManager
{
    public TimeSpan CacheDuration { get; set; }
    public List<string> Keys { get; set; }
    private static object syncObject = new object();

    public CacheManager(TimeSpan Duration)
    {
        Keys = new List<string>();
        this.CacheDuration = Duration;
    }

    public T GetAndCheck<T>(string Key, Func<T> GetItem)
    {
        if (HasKey(Key))
        {
            return Grab<T>(Key);
        }
        else
        {
            lock (syncObject)
            {
                if (HasKey(Key))
                {
                    return Grab<T>(Key);
                }
                else
                {
                    T item = GetItem();
                    Insert<T>(Key, item, CacheItemPriority.Default);
                    return item;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private T Grab<T>(string Key)
    {
        return (T)HttpContext.Current.Cache[Key];
    }

    private bool HasKey(string Key)
    {
        return HttpContext.Current.Cache[Key] != null && Keys.Contains(Key);
    }

    private void Insert<T>(string Key, T obj, CacheItemPriority priority)
    {
        if (!Keys.Contains(Key))
            Keys.Add(Key);

        DateTime expiration = DateTime.Now.Add(this.CacheDuration);
        HttpContext.Current.Cache.Add(Key, obj, null, expiration, TimeSpan.Zero, priority, null);
    }

    public void ClearAll()
    {
        lock (syncObject)
        {
            foreach (string key in Keys)
            {
                HttpContext.Current.Cache.Remove(key);
            }
            Keys.Clear();
        }
    }

    public void Clear(string Key)
    {
        lock (syncObject)
        {
            if (Keys.Contains(Key))
                Keys.Remove(Key);

            HttpContext.Current.Cache.Remove(Key);
        }
    }
}
[/code] then to use it you do the following: [code Language="CSharp"] return cacheManager.GetAndCheck<string>("somekey", delegate { return ExpensiveCall(); }); [/code] What do you guys think?

in reply to ASP.NET Cache Manager

Australian EPG [Australian EPG]

Jonathan Merriweather — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:27:01 GMT

If there are any other Australians that are frustrated with a lack of a quality Electronic Program Guide (EPG) that you can use with Windows Media Center, sign the petition: http://www.myepg.com.au/?page_id=12

For more information go here: http://www.myepg.com.au

It is things like this that make me feel democracy isn’t working. How could providing information to the populace about what is going to be shown on spectrum we have licensed be a bad thing? There are no disadvantages to the public what-so-ever.

in reply to Australian EPG

Windows Mobile Device Center Error 0x86000107 [Windows Mobile Device Center Error 0x86000107]

Jonathan Merriweather — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:59:20 GMT

I've been trying to fix my WM6 Professional mobile phone as it wouldn't sync with Windows Mobile Device Center.

I kept getting "ActiveSync encountered a problem on the desktop." with the error code 0x86000107.

I tried everything, a device hard reset, uninstalling and reinstalling Windows Mobile Device Center, Turn off all device security with Visual Studio, etc.

Then just before i was about to give up i turned off the USB to PC "advanced network functionality" and it started working again :D

As i couldn't find much information regarding the error code i'm posting my solution here.

Start --> Settings --> Connections --> USB to PC --> untick "Enable advanced network functionaility"

If anyone has a better solution let me know.

in reply to Windows Mobile Device Center Error 0x86000107

Cosmos (C# OS) [Cosmos (C# OS)]

Jonathan Merriweather — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:55:06 GMT

Anybody looked into this open source C# OS?

Cosmos wrote:
Cosmos is an operating system project that aims to be completely implemented in CIL compliant languages, that is currently 100% C#.

http://gocosmos.org/

in reply to Cosmos (C# OS)

wweeeeeee [wweeeeeee]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:06:45 GMT

I'm an IE7 user but this video is very funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy3m11VVLz0

in reply to wweeeeeee

Niners Help [Niners Help]

Jonathan Merriweather — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:44:32 GMT

Hey guys, my older brother - Daniel Merriweather is nominated for MTV's "Spanking New For 2008". I figured you guys might help me vote him up ;)

http://www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/home/09012008/395394/spanking_new_for_2008_your_choice

in reply to Niners Help

Retlang [Retlang]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:01:29 GMT

Anybody looked into Retlang?
http://code.google.com/p/retlang/

"Retlang is a robust library for writing highly concurrent applications. The library borrows part of its name and design from Erlang.

With Retlang, application components exchange messages asynchronously rather than using low level locking and blocking api's. Messages are delivered sequentially to prevent thread races or object synchronization. "

Sounds very cool...

in reply to Retlang

Re: Retlang [Retlang]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 12:01:29 GMT

I hate to dig up an old thread, but I just wanted to say that I’ve started playing around with retlang and it is way easier than the CCR and seems to work rather well. I really like the idea of publish and subscribe. The link Mike provided about immutable objects helped.

Does anyone know if the .Net framework will support the enforcement of immutability in the future?

in reply to Retlang

Windows 2008 Hyper-V Service Error [Windows 2008 Hyper-V Service Error]

Jonathan Merriweather — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:46:21 GMT

I just installed the new Windows Server 2008 RC1 Enterprise with Hyper-V Beta, however after I install the Hyper-V role the Virtual Machine Management service gives the following error when i try to start it: The parameter is incorrect

The previous version of Hyper-V in RC1 worked fine. Has anyone else run into this problem?

in reply to Windows 2008 Hyper-V Service Error

Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview [Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview]

Jonathan Merriweather — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:33:55 GMT

YAY now we can play with ASP.NET MVC

http://asp.net/downloads/3.5-extensions/

in reply to Microsoft ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview

Bill Gates talks about C9 [Bill Gates talks about C9]

Jonathan Merriweather — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:51:57 GMT

Was just reading this interview Bill Gates did with LiveSide.net

This part was in relation to transparency and Microsoft:

Bill Gates wrote:
Now, there are people who deserve credit, like coming up with Channel 9, which in retrospect is an obvious thing of, okay, you have somebody with a random camera go around, film the person, put it up on the Web, and that's a neat thing that got a certain critical mass and a certain kind of cache to allow us to connect our developers down in the trenches with people who care about their work, and cut out all the stuff in the middle that tends to be so headline oriented and so narrowing the message about how this person is making tradeoffs of how they want to improve the product, you know, not get that feedback, not share, hey, you think we blew it, well, we're sorry, here's why we made that mistake, here's how we're going to make it better, really see the human at the other side of that interaction. But I think the desire, at least relative to our business model, has always been there.

Link to interview (Word Document)

in reply to Bill Gates talks about C9

Re: HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU DIE [Re: HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU DIE]

Jonathan Merriweather — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:11:57 GMT

Did you know that there is a Channel9 heaven?

When you get banned (from existing in Channel9) you actually get to enter the special Channel9 forum called heaven! It’s an amazing forum, everyone is nice and you can post anything you like. The responses are so great because they have exactly the same opinion as you!! No one argues, no one trolls and there is never a disagreement. It’s pure bliss.

I don’t have evidence that “C9Heaven” (what us old timers call it) exists but I heard a voice while I was meditating over one of Jamie’s comic strips and it told me it was true!

The voice also told me that we need to follow our glorious leader W3bus and that littleguru would help us get in touch with C9God (he looks down on our posts from above).

It's an amazing feeling knowing that C9Heaven exists, I’m not as afraid to get banned from existence anymore.

Thank you C9God

in reply to Re: HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU DIE

No DreamScene for me [No DreamScene for me]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 22:11:29 GMT

I just installed DreamScene but it looks like it won't work if you have more than one GPU :(

Has this always been the case?

in reply to No DreamScene for me

Tafiti looks cool [Tafiti looks cool]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:20:33 GMT

Anyone played with tafiti, the silverlight Live Search engine?

http://www.tafiti.com/

I just made it my default search engine... Not sure how it will perform but i think it looks promising

in reply to Tafiti looks cool

Is this code ok? [Is this code ok?]

Jonathan Merriweather — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:26:20 GMT

I'm working on a little project and I wish to pass in a variable to a singleton class and have a new singleton instance created based on the variable. This is what i have come up with:

private Guid userGuid;
private static object syncRoot = new object();
private static Dictionary<Guid, MembershipManager> instanceHolder = new Dictionary<Guid, MembershipManager>();

private MembershipManager(Guid userID)
{
userGuid = userID;
}

public static MembershipManager Instance(Guid UserID)
{
   if (instanceHolder[UserID] == null)
   {
      lock (syncRoot)
      {
         if (instanceHolder[UserID] == null)
         {
            MembershipManager newInstance = new MembershipManager(UserID);

            Thread.MemoryBarrier();
            instanceHolder.Add(UserID, newInstance);
         }
      }
   }
   return instanceHolder[UserID];

}

in reply to Is this code ok?

Google’s monopoly [Google’s monopoly]

Jonathan Merriweather — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:01:23 GMT

I was reading neowin.net (http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=41064) and i found a comment made by Post-It Note in realtion to google makind Microsoft change the built in search in Vista SP1.

Post-It Note on Neowin.net wrote:
Why doesn't Google give me the choice of using MSN search while on www.google.com? I mean, I still like to use the interface, but why can't Google, instead of displaying Google's results, display MSN search results? Talk about using their power over web searching to squash the less popular search engines!

I totally agree with this, Google has a monopoly on the portal for internet search, why doesn't it let me use Microsoft's search engine instead?

By the way, I'm now using Live Search. I'm really starting to not like google.

in reply to Google’s monopoly

_editor.dispose error [_editor.dispose error]

Jonathan Merriweather — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:40:51 GMT

When i'm in a thread and press the back button i get this javascript error "Microsoft JScript runtime error: 'this._editor' is null or not an object"

in reply to _editor.dispose error

Link Spammers [Link Spammers]

Jonathan Merriweather — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 07:05:41 GMT

I've noticed a growing number of people spamming links, with comments not adding or even relating to the subject.

Is there anything that can be done? It's really very annoying.

Could we block their IP subnet perhaps?

Is there anyway Microsoft legal can get rid of them permanently?

in reply to Link Spammers

Damn That iPhone Looks Cool [Damn That iPhone Looks Cool]

Jonathan Merriweather — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:07:00 GMT

Justed watched these: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/

I hope Microsoft are working there asses off to *fix* windows mobile 6.

I really don’t like my WM5 interface. You also need to bring in a logo program that ensures phone companies add more RAM. My phone is always running low on memory.

Come on Microsoft! Silverlight + WM6 == win win

in reply to Damn That iPhone Looks Cool