Entries for Simo

erm... PDC Keynotes available to watch? [erm... PDC Keynotes available to watch?]

Simo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:27:28 GMT

erm ... are today/tomorrow's Keynotes going to be watchable somewhere?

Ed Bott & Mary-Jo did perform an admirable job of writing down what was going on, but it's not really the same...

in reply to erm... PDC Keynotes available to watch?

OS X + Safari4 + WindowsLive ID - No worky grrrrrr [OS X + Safari4 + WindowsLive ID - No worky grrrrrr ]

Simo — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:58:07 GMT

Have just tried posting a comment on this vid: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/The+Knowledge+Chamber/John-Durant--Developing-Managed-Applications-for-Office-2010-in-Visual-Studio-2010/

but kept getting 'AddComment' failure.

- Watched video

- Logged in via WindowsLive ID

- Clicked on Be first to comment link to make comment box appear

- Write comment, press ADD

- No worky. An error has occurred while trying to save. The server method 'AddComment' failed.

in reply to OS X + Safari4 + WindowsLive ID - No worky grrrrrr

OMG This is the worst Microsoft ad I've ever seen [OMG This is the worst Microsoft ad I've ever seen]

Simo — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:30:13 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/jul/02/microsoft-advertising

What were they thinking!

erm for the record.

I liked: I'm a PC ads(apart from the famous people they come over as schills), the Laptop hunter ads

I hated: any other MS advert I can think of. BillG & Seinfeld being particularly weird.

in reply to OMG This is the worst Microsoft ad I've ever seen

The Windows Home Server Add-In Challenge '09 [The Windows Home Server Add-In Challenge '09]

Simo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:20:37 GMT

Hi all,

This is a fairly (ok... completely) shameless plug for the 'Windows Home Server Add-In Challenge '09' competition being run by http://home-server-blog.de and http://wegotserved.com, a couple of WHS community sites.

The competition (backed by MS, HP, Fujitsu +more) was for the best suggestion for a WHS AddIn. Judges have now picked the top 10, so it's too late to enter, but they now want your votes to decide the winner. The winning idea will be developed into a product for the WHS community.

Disclosure: I'm actually one of the ten finalists! So if you'd like to see a Time Capsule feature to allow your Mac's Time Machine to back itself up to your WHS follow the link below and vote 'Time Machine' ;)

Whoever you vote for I'd really appreciate it you hit this link http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/06/15/vote-for-the-winner-of-the-windows-home-server-add-in-idea-challenge-09/ and vote for your favourite idea.

Cheers,

in reply to The Windows Home Server Add-In Challenge '09

Anyone else strugging with IE8 DNS issues? [Anyone else strugging with IE8 DNS issues?]

Simo — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:55:48 GMT

I'm seeing some weird DNS errors with this shiny new IE8 browser.

- wired.com , tuaw.com, richarddawkins.net all generate random DNS errors some-of-the-time/all-off-the-time-for-periods. Wired.com even did a weird one on me when it get trying to reload the page over & over. Never rendering any html just status messages on the bottom going crazy until I pressed stop.

The other browser on my machine is Chrome and it never has any problems.

I clutched at a few straws to try and make the problem go away. Flushed DNS cache, deleted all IE cached data, the big reboot. Still no joy.

Was wondering if this is just me and every one else is hunky dory?

in reply to Anyone else strugging with IE8 DNS issues?

Anyone else get totally rolled over by Dec's Windows Update? [Anyone else get totally rolled over by Dec's Windows Update?]

Simo — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:49:16 GMT

Just wondering....

I said "Yes, please" to Windows Update on my Vista Media Center machine last Friday. The machine got totally wrecked. Initially all sorts of software crashing with memory errors at random intervals. Machine couldn't last longer than 30mins without iTunes or Media Center crashing. Put up with this for a couple of days. Problem didn't fix it self.

So... I decided to flip back to the last System Restore point. Run the wizard, sure enough WU created a System Restore point before updating, I choose the date and press next, finish.

All hell breaks lose. Device drivers crashing, half the time explorer.exe refuses to start from cold boot, blue screens, memory dumps, cats & dogs living together, complete and total carnage.

hmm next step ... restore form Windows Home Server back up. I slip in the freshly burnt Restore CD, reboot, pick a suitable back up and kick that off. One hour later I have PC that basically works apart from sound & display drivers. Which is a shame as it's my media PC, it's connected to my telly and it's only job is to play sounds and display pictures (some moving , some still).

Drivers are still refusing to work and I'm left scratching my head, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Have left the machine running a diskcheck overnight. If some sort of equivalent for checking RAM exists, I'll do that tomorrow.

But I'd really like to know if Windows Update just picked on me this month, or did it take a good swipe at a lot of people?

in reply to Anyone else get totally rolled over by Dec's Windows Update?

Recommend a command line FTPS (FTP over SSL) client [Recommend a command line FTPS (FTP over SSL) client ]

Simo — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:28:45 GMT

Hi,

Am wondering if anyone could recommend a decent DOS based/command line FTPS client for Windows. Alternatively, I'd take a COM interface instead of command line options.

Wikipedia provides this list, but I can't see a clear winner. O - and as times are tight it needs to be free (as in beer).

Thanks.

in reply to Recommend a command line FTPS (FTP over SSL) client

"Microsoft leaders and luminaries" - spot the similarity ["Microsoft leaders and luminaries" - spot the similarity]

Simo — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:07:41 GMT

Hit the link and see if you can spot the similarity between Microsoft's leaders and luminaries.

I think it's clear this problem isn't an MS specific issue, the problem is prevelant in corporations & in the tech industry - MS hitting both categories. But I was still disapointed when I saw this page.

On a lighter note, congrats go to Chris Anderson for having the most amusing mugshot.

in reply to "Microsoft leaders and luminaries" - spot the similarity

Idea for Live Mesh [Idea for Live Mesh]

Simo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:06:27 GMT

Well... it won't quite be Live Mesh's Killer App and it's not a new idea as there's a popular Firefox Addin that it does it but what if....

IE8 came with 'Favorites' persistance, easily configured by any user and brought to you by LiveMesh^TM. All delivered seamlessly out of the box when a punter installs IE8.

in reply to Idea for Live Mesh

Ashes to Ashes - filming in Liverpool Street area today. [Ashes to Ashes - filming in Liverpool Street area today.]

Simo — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:12:59 GMT

Saw parts of the Life on Mars sequel being filmed today over in the Liverpool Street/"City" area of central London.

There was a scene over by Old Street with some 80's bobbies and a gang of hookers and then, when i was making my way back home, DCI Gene Hunt drove past me in a screaming red Audi Quattro, tv/film production low-riding truck out in front.

Woo hooo. I was leaping up & down the road.

in reply to Ashes to Ashes - filming in Liverpool Street area today.

I only have the two obvious comments to make [I only have the two obvious comments to make]

Simo — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:12:23 GMT

but I might as well make my vote count.

1. How do I log in? No, .net passport support right now?

1b. Whilst we're on the subject. Any plans to put CardSpace support in place.

2 . It's taking too long for the 'meat' of the page to appear, ie all the comments in a thread. i just see the header and footer of the thread for enough seconds to get confused/assume that's all I'm going to get. I'm guessing you know it's not running at top speed.

in reply to I only have the two obvious comments to make

My Vista PC has become an Insomniac [My Vista PC has become an Insomniac]

Simo — Sun, 20 May 2007 09:07:58 GMT

It just won't go to sleep. :(

I got really used to just walking away from the machine and letting it do its own thing. Monitor would switch off and after 30 mins the machine would go to sleep.

Even more impressive was that at 11pm each day it would wake itself up, check for updates and then go back to sleep after 30 mins.

Now it just won't go to sleep. And if I do press the button manualy and tel it to sleep. It'll wake itself up for updates and then stay up all night. :|

Anyone experienced anything similar? Have any ideas?

I've trawled Google and Technet but have not come up with anything.

in reply to My Vista PC has become an Insomniac

PluralSight cancel their UK WCF course... [PluralSight cancel their UK WCF course...]

Simo — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:45:13 GMT

And ohhhhhhhhhhhh I'm so annoyed about it.

I was all ready to sign up this morning, managed to get the fiscal go ahead etc, then when I try to find the course on pluralsight.com ... Introducing WCF - Reading, UK no longer exists.

I sent an email asking what was up and a polite chap replied during PST hours that it was cancelled due to lack of numbers. grrr

I dropped a hint that maybe hosting in, say, London - financial centre of Europe instead of the British equivalent of Delaware maybe a worthwhile consideration next time. However, the friendly customer facing guy pointed out that they get cheap room rent by hosting at the MS British ~~sales office~~ campus.

Anyway, if I can get eight like minded people in my firm together I can have my own private course. Pity there's only 18 people in my company and only two developers. Not sure how I'm going to pursuade 'Operations' and 'Product Control' that learning the finer points of WCF is going to be a productive thing to do.

:@

in reply to PluralSight cancel their UK WCF course...

Podcast/Videocast Reader recommendations for Media Centre [Podcast/Videocast Reader recommendations for Media Centre]

Simo — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:59:29 GMT

As the title says really... I have a Media Centre would be great of there was Media Centre friendly app for subscribing to podcasts and "videocasts".

Could cue up a whole line of C9 videos to watch on my main living room telly.

When i was googling about I came across:

Tonic-TV - they seem to be more into downloading their own content to your PC.

WinPodder - Anyone use this?

An MCE bot so you can have an IM chat with your MCE and tell it to record something if you forget. ok... nothing to do with podcast downloading but I thought it was such a cool idea.

Anyone have a suggestion?

I'm currently using itunes and, well, it sucks a bit.

in reply to Podcast/Videocast Reader recommendations for Media Centre

Visual Studio 2003 SP1 due today [Visual Studio 2003 SP1 due today]

Simo — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:30:25 GMT

It's due our today, http://blogs.msdn.com/ddcpxblg/archive/2006/07/17/668502.aspx.

Granted that's a redmond day and from where I'm sat they don't seem to drag themselves from their slumber pits till 4-5pm.

But it should be out some time today.

First person to see it in the wild, yell.

in reply to Visual Studio 2003 SP1 due today

Your favourite remote-control-a-PC program [Your favourite remote-control-a-PC program]

Simo — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 08:09:58 GMT

Morning all,

I need to come up with remote desktopy type remote control app that will support two and three monitor desktops running at 1280x1024, ie could be one screen running 3840x1024 or using windows multi-monitor support with three screens at 1280x1024.

Security isn't a concern for the application, let's just assume it's being handled by the network-wan-ssl-vpn architecture.

Anything decent out there that can handle this?

VNC seems to have a stab at it, but the screen response times can be terrible.

Would appreciate any suggestions...

in reply to Your favourite remote-control-a-PC program

Visual Studio 2005 SP1 [Visual Studio 2005 SP1]

Simo — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:27:28 GMT

It's been slated for Q3 for quiet a while.

theserverside.net carried an article recently, proclaiming it'll be out by the end of Sept. http://www.theserverside.net/news/thread.tss?thread_id=41467

Which isn't news, just a restatement of "due in Q3".

So, has anybody seen a beta or heard any more about it?

I'm ready to switch to .net 2.0 - but with all the moans I hear about the current VS2005 I'm waiting for SP1.

in reply to Visual Studio 2005 SP1

Viewing PCX files [Viewing PCX files]

Simo — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:26:13 GMT

Hey, can anyone recommend a cheap app (ie not Photoshop) for viewing PCX files?

Have thrown IE, Windows Picture & Fax Viewer, Office Picture Viewer, Paint at it. All to no avail...

Thanks

in reply to Viewing PCX files

Vista Beta 2. Anyone seen it out in the wild yet? [Vista Beta 2. Anyone seen it out in the wild yet?]

Simo — Tue, 23 May 2006 08:13:41 GMT

Checked my msdn subs page this morning.

Nothing showing yet. Am I jumping the ~~gin~~ gun a bit?

in reply to Vista Beta 2. Anyone seen it out in the wild yet?

Unregister a Type Library from code [Unregister a Type Library from code]

Simo — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 14:09:15 GMT

I found the API call to register a TLB from code (http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/oleaut32/RegisterTypeLib.html)

But google is letting me down and I can't seem to find the equivalent unregister call.

Can anyone throw me a clue?

Thanks.

in reply to Unregister a Type Library from code

2 Gb/s Broadband [2 Gb/s Broadband]

Simo — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:31:43 GMT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2072201,00.html

Bugger. I know someone that lives in Shoreditch.

in reply to 2 Gb/s Broadband

Apache 1.3 question [Apache 1.3 question]

Simo — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:11:44 GMT

I have no clue with Apache.... so fortunately I'm not doing the developing.

But does anybody know if there is some sort of Apache equivalent of HttpServerUtility.HtmlEncode ?

Yes, yes it's an MS website. But I'm betting a C9'er knows the answer.

in reply to Apache 1.3 question

Screensaver Conundrum [Screensaver Conundrum]

Simo — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 13:45:14 GMT

Tricky work problem that I thought I'd throw out to C9'ers.

I'd like alter the default length of time that an unused workstation screen remains unlocked during the course of 24 hour day. ie locks quickly during "out of hours" and not so quickly in "office hours".

At the moment, each PCs screensaver is configured to kick in after 30 mins. Screen saver is configured to be "password enabled". This is all achieved in a Group Policy, I have about 25-ish machines to look after.

People with two PCs are finding the 30 min limit too restricting.

So i'm looking to apply different screensaver settings depending on the time of the day. I want to try and stay with a centralised solution, rather than configuring each machine.

Do you reckon it's possible to write some script that will change screensaver settings? Script would have to run from a server. I'll live with hard-coding the machine names for the first itteration.

Any ideas on where to start?

in reply to Screensaver Conundrum

Vista 5270 and Google Search [Vista 5270 and Google Search]

Simo — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 01:21:09 GMT

And another thing....

It's duly noted that there was a major search provider (begining with G) missing from the alternative provider options of IE7's top right hand corner search box.

It was also duly noted that by the time I got round to installing build 5270 the 'G' brigade had knocked up the installation routine to add themselves back as an option.

in reply to Vista 5270 and Google Search

err gmail has an RSS feed [err gmail has an RSS feed]

Simo — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 01:12:53 GMT

I may have:

a) been the last person to figure this out
b) got the wrong end of the stick

but I think gmail provides you with an RSS feed to check for new mail.

How fricken cool is that?

in reply to err gmail has an RSS feed