Entries for alwaysmc2

tips/tricks to get an Internship at Microsoft [tips/tricks to get an Internship at Microsoft]

alwaysmc2 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:26:26 GMT

Microsoft is at my college for a career fair. I'm trying to make a good impression (by coming on so strong it stinks). I wore the binary Microsoft Software shirt yesterday, and I even put a Microsoft Tag on my resume. I hope the Windows Mobile guy sees that. ^_^ Now I just need to go to a Zune demo and send my business card that way. :-P I hope my resume speaks for itself as well...

Any suggestions for how to stand out? Also, I'm wondering what portion of Microsoft actually reads threads in the Coffeehouse.

in reply to tips/tricks to get an Internship at Microsoft

Zune Marketplace Bug [Zune Marketplace Bug]

alwaysmc2 — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:12:41 GMT

So, it turns out that if you...

buy and MP3 on the Zune Marketplace,

delete the MP3

You can not restore the MP3 -OR- re-purchase it.

When you go to buy the song again, the price shows up as "restore", but then the download fails.

This is biting me right now as two initiall downloads failed, and now I have no way of getting the tracks. After an hour, the Zune customer support representative confirmed with me that this is in fact the case.

bug.

fix it.

(p.s. for my specific situation, the initial download failed, so I never even "lost" the MP3.)

in reply to Zune Marketplace Bug

What happened to Stacks in the Windows 7 Explorer? [What happened to Stacks in the Windows 7 Explorer?]

alwaysmc2 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:01:05 GMT

Right now I'm using the Windows 7 RC, and I can't find the "stack by" feature that was in Vista and (I thought) the beta version of Windows 7. Does anyone know about this?

in reply to What happened to Stacks in the Windows 7 Explorer?

Windows Live Auth API redirects to MSN on logout... [Windows Live Auth API redirects to MSN on logout...]

alwaysmc2 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:51:59 GMT

I'm having a bit of trouble with the Windows Live Authentication API. Everything runs smoothly for logging in, but when I log out (i.e. navigate to http://login.live.com/logout.srf?appid=my_app_id I am logged out and redirected to msn.com. I've had this problem before, and the cause seemed to be related to cookie issues. I reorganized some things, and now this aspect is broken. I modified the action for "logout" in the authentication handler provided to write a response instead of redirect, and it seems that the browser never even loads this page... I know the "clearcookie" action completes successfully, because when I commented the GIF response part out (as a test) Windows Live complained.

Does anyone have an idea what might be wrong?

in reply to Windows Live Auth API redirects to MSN on logout...

Facebook Connect in C Sharp? [Facebook Connect in C Sharp?]

alwaysmc2 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:04:55 GMT

Does anyone know of a C# implementation of Facebook Connect? All that I have found so far is PHP code.

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Windows Live Street View? [Windows Live Street View?]

alwaysmc2 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:06:01 GMT

Oh, Microsoft. Implementing a Street View feature for Windows Live Maps, are we? :-) One of my friends snapped this picture on Elkhorn Ave in Norfolk, Virginia.

Does anyone know about this?

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The "Ultimate" Extra [The "Ultimate" Extra]

alwaysmc2 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:34:31 GMT

Dear Microsoft, please let me trade in my Windows Vista Ultimate key for a Windows 7 Ultimate key when the time comes. I'd really appreciate it.

What do you guys think? Great idea, right? :-D

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Microsoft Channels (8, 9, 10) seeing Chrome as Safari? [Microsoft Channels (8, 9, 10) seeing Chrome as Safari?]

alwaysmc2 — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:08:25 GMT

If you go to http://channel9.msdn.com, http://on10.net, or http://channel8.msdn.com, in IE for Firefox you'll see silverlight video players for video posts, but in Google Chrome the user sees screenshots with links to MP4 videos. I think the websites are seeing Chrome as Safari for two reasons:

1) Safari isn't compatible with Silverlight, and the MP4 files are the "iPod" format. The websites are giving Chrome the "Safari" experiance.

2) I discovered in my regular coding this week that in ASP.NET "Request.Browser.Browser" returns "AppleMAC-Safari" for Chrome. (Though "Chrome" does exist in the return value of "Request.UserAgent".)

Silverlight does work in Chrome, as I discovered by going to http://microsoft.com, so what gives? The Silverlight players should be displayed. :-)

in reply to Microsoft Channels (8, 9, 10) seeing Chrome as Safari?

Bluetooth LED Display? [Bluetooth LED Display?]

alwaysmc2 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:44:06 GMT

Hey, guys. I'm looking for a spefic gadget, and I figure someone here will know. I'm looking for a bluetooth-enabled LED display. The kind of display I mean is the kind that you see in public places to display simple information, like the one shown here: http://www.amazon.com/One-Line-Semi-Outdoor-Programmable-Sign/dp/B000NK5PCK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1230651574&sr=8-3

I would guess that the bluetooth aspect would use the Serial profile, which hopefully I could utilize in VC#2008. It would be really cool to hook such a product into my home automation project to display real-time information. Any ideas? :-D

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Amazon Image API? [Amazon Image API?]

alwaysmc2 — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:47:47 GMT

I'm trying to automatically retrieve DVD cover art from a bunch of DVDs given the movie title (or better yet, label). I figured that I'd write a program that integrates with Amazon.com, since I've heard it used before for CD cover art. All that I've been able to do so far, however, is attempt to scrape the HTML. Does anyone know of an easier solution?

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Sync IE7 RSS feeds? [Sync IE7 RSS feeds?]

alwaysmc2 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:41:35 GMT

I'm trying to sync the RSS feeds that I have subscribed to in IE7 between my laptop and desktop. I use SyncToy to synchronize files, but simply synchronizing the RSS folder doesn't work very well, especially for keeping the read/unread status of RSS items. Is there any sort of plugin that will do this? I have been using IE7 pro for a while, so that was the first place I looked, but it seems that it will only synchronize favorites.

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Simple C# 7-zip library? [Simple C# 7-zip library?]

alwaysmc2 — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:37:15 GMT

I've looked all over and haven't found an easy-to-use C# library that allows the decompression of 7-zip archives. I want to be able to enumerate the contents of a 7-zip archive and extract single files from it. I don't even care about the library's code, and would actually prefer a DLL.

Anyone know if what I am describing exists?

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Visual Studio is ignoring exceptions >.< [Visual Studio is ignoring exceptions >.<]

alwaysmc2 — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:59:54 GMT

I just reinstalled Windows on my desktop computer, and so also reinstalled Visual C# Express 2008. First I had some weirdness with security certificates the manafest which I still don't fully understand, but fixed by turning off the "Sign the ClickOnce manafests" option.

Now I have a really weird issue: When I debug the program, exceptions are treated as return statements. The IDE does not stop and tell me that there was an error, but code beyond the exception is not run, just as if there was a return statement in place of the "throw new Exception();" statement. If I try debugging the project on my laptop it works just fine. What is this madness?

I'm running Vista 64-bit on the desktop, Vista 32-bit on the laptop.

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Searching for Tablet PCs again... [Searching for Tablet PCs again...]

alwaysmc2 — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:01:25 GMT

The Virginia Tech laptop store opened yesterday, so I finally got a starting point for tablet PCs that are powerfull to meet VT's high requirements.

I came the Toshiba Portege M700, which I have configured to have, among other things, a 2.6GHz Core 2 duo procesor, 4 gigs or RAM, and dual digitizer/touch input for the screen. It also meets all of my other requirements, like the high screen resolution, having bluetooth and N WiFi, as well as the small size, media reader, and fingerprint reader. The graphics chipset seems to be above decent as well.

Still, I'm not going to buy a laptop until August, so I'm hoping that something even better comes out by then. Does anyone have a favorite Tablet PC of this calabor to recommend?

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Does anyone have any good articles that bash XP? [Does anyone have any good articles that bash XP?]

alwaysmc2 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:41:36 GMT

So basically Vista now is getting about the same reception as XP did when it came out, right? I'm looking to solidly prove that, and in turn prove that most people who love XP, but hate Vista are sheep, or at the very least are following the regular cycle of things and should get over it. :P

Does anyone have any good articles that bash XP, expecially on the basis of performance, relyability, system requirements, and changes made that people didn't like?

in reply to Does anyone have any good articles that bash XP?

I just want my application to be a single file! [I just want my application to be a single file!]

alwaysmc2 — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:30:05 GMT

I have this WinForms program that I'm writing, and recently I pulled a bunch of back-end code out and put it in a separate class library. That seemed like the organized thing to do, and it allows me to more-easily port the program to Media Center when I get the time. :)

I was about to publish the application to my website, but I realized that the code that I put in the separate class library is no longer included in the exe file, but rather is put into a DLL. That would be fine if the program was for installing, but the program is supposed to be ultra portable, and a single file makes that simpler.

Does anyone know how to force Visual Studio (I'm using C#) to put all of the necessary information into a single executable file?

in reply to I just want my application to be a single file!

.Net style in Vista vs. Vista Aero [.Net style in Vista vs. Vista Aero]

alwaysmc2 — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:59:24 GMT

I don't understand why the .Net toolsbars in Vista look so spartan compared to the pretty Aero ones. The toolbars in .Net on XP at least have some gradients.

Also, why can't I make that pretty sort arrow at the top of a column of a ListView? Appending "(A-Z)" or "(Z-A)" to the column title makes programs seem dated. I know that I could instead use a picture of arrows pointing up and down, but even that doesn't look right, since the arrow would be beside the column title instead of at the top.

OK, I'm not just complaining. Is there a way to fix these two issues??

in reply to .Net style in Vista vs. Vista Aero

Tablet PC vent [Tablet PC vent]

alwaysmc2 — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:49:56 GMT

No, it's not that I don't like them. Quite the opposite. What annoys me about Tablet PCs is that they are so ignored. Best Buy I think sells two models now, and even NewEgg doesn't sell any that I would call high-end. They are out there, though.

I am also continually annoyed that no tablet PC description ever includes what kind of interface the thing uses. There is never any distinction between a tablet that users touch vs a tablet that uses wacom vs a tablet that uses both. :@

And what's with the tablets that have screen heights of 768? Don't the manufactures realize that in tablet mode all websites will be too fat? I hate it when everything else about a tablet is great, but those missing 42 pixes are a real deal breaker. :(

I have a low-end HP tablet now, which is kind of sucky, and I'm going to be a freshman at Virginia Tech this Fall. VT requires that all engineering students have tablets. :-) Their power requirements are actually pretty high too. I don't think that I will buy a new tablet until late August, but I'm still looking around anyway. Does anyone have suggestions?

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Idea for Xbox that would encourage Vista Ultimate upgrades [Idea for Xbox that would encourage Vista Ultimate upgrades]

alwaysmc2 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:21:43 GMT

What if Xbox 360 supported Remote Desktop? How awesome would that be? Maybe if the Xbox could also handle USB keyboards and mice too... It would look great for Xbox, "all of the features of the desktop computer on your TV!" It would also encourage people to upgrade from the standard Vista Home Premium to Vista Ultimate in order to take advantage of the feature.

This just sounds like a great feature to me. I want it anyway. What do you guys think? :)

in reply to Idea for Xbox that would encourage Vista Ultimate upgrades

Pi Calculator [Pi Calculator]

alwaysmc2 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:59:39 GMT

This is just a little weekend project of mine. It calculates pi! :-)
The full explanation and source code are available on my blog.

I bet you didn't know:

Edit:
It seems there's some wierdness going on. You can download the program here: http://download.somewhatgeeky.com/?downloadID=pi_calculator_version_1.0.0.0

in reply to Pi Calculator

The Solution to large ROM libraries [The Solution to large ROM libraries]

alwaysmc2 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:44:55 GMT

I have a lot of ROMs, and they aren't all from the same platform. Also, there are just so many that it's a pain to get to the few that I play regularly. My solution to this was to write a program to index all of my ROMs and allow me to search my ROM library, rate my ROMs, and double-click to play. I call it the Fantastic Rom Indexer, or FRI for short.I'm interested to get feedback.

Here's a really quick demo of the basic functionality of FRI: http://mypieceoftheinter.net/archives/272

Here's a tutorial on how to set up and use FRI, aided by pictures: http://mypieceoftheinter.net/archives/310

A link to the latest version of FRI is available here: http://mypieceoftheinter.net/archives/category/projects/fri-projects

Here's some screenshots of FRI version 1.0.0.0.

in reply to The Solution to large ROM libraries

Where's my awesome sideshow remote? [Where's my awesome sideshow remote?]

alwaysmc2 — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:17:56 GMT

like here:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/21/ricavisions-vista-mce-sideshow-remote-does-bluetooth-at-100-met/

I want it, please. I thought there were supposed to be a lot of these devices floating about, but I have never seen any in the wild.

in reply to Where's my awesome sideshow remote?

WGA FUD [WGA FUD]

alwaysmc2 — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:31:47 GMT

I got a new processor today (Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz) to replace my old Pentium D. Right now I'm running Vista Ultimate x64, and am planning on going back to 32 bit. Before I did that, though, I wanted to see if WGA would nag me if I replaced the processor, as I had heard around the interenet.

Well, it doesn't. I put in the new processor, started up, pressed Ctrl+Shift+Esc and saw that there were two more cores shown. That was it. No problemo.

FUD Dispelled!

Now, I'm not saying that I like WGA, but I don't think it's right to dislike it for reasons that aren't true. Anyway, it hasn't given me any problem so far...

in reply to WGA FUD

Other sites auto-blogging Channel 9? [Other sites auto-blogging Channel 9?]

alwaysmc2 — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 02:47:01 GMT

Look at this Channel 9 post: (linky)

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Live Search, why does Google have my sites, but not you? [Live Search, why does Google have my sites, but not you?]

alwaysmc2 — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 02:15:51 GMT

Whenever I register a domain Google gets it right away. I think that's because GoDaddy sends the URLs to Google, but that doesn't explain why Live doesn't get with the program even when I submit my my URLs to Live. I like Live.com for picture search, but when it doesn't index some websites at all that makes me hesitant to use it for websites. Does Google have an unfair advantage over other search providers? At any rate, I'm going to perform a little test:

Earlier this month I registered my piece of the internet with GoDaddy! Today I posted about how I think Tablet PCs are ready for the masses, but won't ever reach popularity unless brick and mortar stores embrace the technology. Last week I made a video post about the Creative Zen Stone Plus.

Since this is a failry popluar site, I'm wondering if Live Search will find these links and add them to its database. It would make sense if it does, but it still doesn't make sense that it won't index URLs added through that before mentioned URL submission form.

in reply to Live Search, why does Google have my sites, but not you?