Entries for Matt Hamilton

Microsoft Update and Windows Genuine Advantage [Microsoft Update and Windows Genuine Advantage]

Matt Hamilton — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 01:02:57 GMT

Hi guys,

The latest Windows Genuine Advantage component was installed on my PC a few days ago via automatic updates.

Since then, I have not been able to use Microsoft Update, or indeed visit any sites that require WGA validation. Trying to do some simply locks up my computer, one program at a time.

For example: I go to Microsoft Update and click the "Express" or "Custom" button. Immediately IE locks up. I then alt+tab to another program, and it locks up. One by one, the programs running on my PC lock up until I have no choice but to power off the computer (Ctrl+Alt+Delete has no effect).

Visiting the Genuine Advantage website on Microsoft's site, and attempting to go to the "benefits" section which requires validation, results in the same freeze-up.

I downloaded the diagnostic tool (WGADiag2) and it runs fine, telling me I'm "Genuine".

I have noticed on the microsoft.public.windowsupdate newsgroup that there are several other people with exactly the same problem. Is Microsoft aware of this? Is there anything I can try?

Cheers,
Matt

in reply to Microsoft Update and Windows Genuine Advantage

My Hobby Project - Comicster [My Hobby Project - Comicster]

Matt Hamilton — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 21:24:24 GMT

Hi all,

I thought I would make a post to let people know about Comicster, a program I've been writing since an early CTP of Visual C# Express. I just released a version to run against the final .NET 2.0 framework.

It's a little freeware application to catalog a comic-book collection. There are plenty of comic-book collection-tracking programs out there, but very few free ones. I wrote this basically for myself, but others are getting use out of it, which is a good feeling. :)

It uses an ADO.NET strongly-typed DataSet, but it saves it compressed XML locally, rather than writing back to a database. The end-result is that users see this as just another file-based application.

What else? Hmm ... it uses an embedded WebBrowser control to display info using skins, which are made up of plain text files so you can create your own. It's deployed using ClickOnce, so it supports updates. It has a built-in sample database using an XML-file as an embedded resource.

The next big step I'm working on is an internet upload/download, so that users can create a shared database of comics based on items from their collection. I'm building the web-services with Visual Web Developer Express. That bit's not active in the downloadable version just yet.

If you're into comics, or if you are interested in seeing what's possible in C# Express (answer: pretty much everything), please take a look!

Here's the site again. Screenshots are included. Comicster

Cheers,
Matt

in reply to My Hobby Project - Comicster

Sort Order in C9 RSS? [Sort Order in C9 RSS?]

Matt Hamilton — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 22:43:08 GMT

What order (if any) is the Channel9 RSS feed sorted by?

New items almost never appear at the top of the list - they're always buried deep within the list.

Even now if I click on the XML icon at the bottom of the main page, the first item is "Meet the new Mobile PC Team" - yet there are forum posts in the feed that have been created since then.

It's not a big deal, but it does make it easier if the new items are at the top of the feed.

Cheers,
Matt

in reply to Sort Order in C9 RSS?