The Sandbox

WIC codecs add Mac-like RAW image support to Windows 7, Vista

Axel Rietschin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:32:11 GMT

Hi,

For those of you who have been waiting for a WIC-enabled codec for your camera's raw format, chances are great that the wait is over:

http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/bin/FastPictureViewerWICCodecPack.msi

Works in 64-bit too! Provides thumbnail views and metadata in Explorer, full view and slideshows in Photo Gallery and, on Windows 7, also in Photo Viewer and Media Center.

Cheers, Axel

Problems with installing the quickstart from Microsoft .NET Framework SDK

Yvke — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:59:22 GMT

After going through a couple of the steps (1 till 7), I have two questions,

In which web.config file do you have to put the information stated at step 5 and could someone help me with the following error, I can't seem to be able to get past step 7:

13:16:21 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Begin Samples Configuration]

13:16:21 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] ConfigSamplesDll_DoTasks: Starting

13:16:21 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_NETSDK_Detect: .NET Framework SDK installation (detecting): SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework

13:16:21 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_NETSDK_Detect: .NET Framework SDK installation (found): SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework

13:16:21 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] ConfigSamplesDll_DoTasksWithGUI: Starting

13:16:27 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_ASPNET_Detect: ASP.NET installation (detecting): IIS://localhost/W3SVC

13:16:27 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_ASPNET_Detect: ASP.NET installation (found): IIS://localhost/W3SVC

13:16:27 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_SSE_DNLD_Detect: SQL Express service instance (detecting): MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS

13:16:30 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_SSE_DNLD_Detect: SQL Express service instance (found): MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS

13:16:30 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_SSE_INST_Detect: SQL Express service instance (detecting): MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS

13:16:30 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_SSE_INST_Detect: SQL Express service instance (found): MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS

13:16:30 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_IIS_Detect: IIS (Internet Information Services) installation (detecting): IIS://localhost/w3svc/1/root,IIS://localhost/w3svc/AppPools

13:16:30 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_IIS_Detect: IIS (Internet Information Services) installation (found): IIS://localhost/w3svc/1/root,IIS://localhost/w3svc/AppPools

13:16:31 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_QUICKSTARTDB_Detect: Quickstart Database and User Registration (detecting)

13:16:32 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_QUICKSTARTDB_Detect: Quickstart Database and User Registration (found)

13:16:32 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_QUICKSTART_Detect: Quickstart Samples Previous Build (detecting): SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\sdkQuickStartSetupRun

13:16:33 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_QUICKSTART_Detect: Quickstart Samples Previous Build (not found)

13:16:33 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_NETSDK_Detect: .NET Framework SDK installation (detecting): SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework

13:16:33 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_NETSDK_Detect: .NET Framework SDK installation (found): SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework

13:16:36 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_ASPNET_Install: ASP.NET QuickStart registration (installing)

13:16:36 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_ASPNET_Install: ASP.NET QuickStart registration (skipping. Note specify -enable_aspnet on the command line to force enabling ASP.NET)

13:16:36 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Pass] Config_ASPNET_Install: ASP.NET QuickStart registration (installed)

13:16:37 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_IIS_Install: IIS (Internet Information Services) Virtual Directory Registration (installing)

13:16:37 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_IIS_Install: Creating IIS QuickStart application pool: QuickStartV20AppPool

13:16:37 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_IIS_Install: Skipping IIS QuickStart application pool creation (IIS 6 not detected): QuickStartV20AppPool

13:16:37 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_IIS_Install: Removing IIS Virtual Directories: QuickStartv20

13:16:37 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Pass] Config_IIS_Install: Removed IIS virtual directory: QuickStartv20

13:16:37 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Info] Config_IIS_Install: Creating IIS Virtual Directories: QuickStartv20

13:16:38 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Fail] Config_IIS_Install: IIS (Internet Information Services) Virtual Directory Registration (failed): [Fail] Config_IIS_Install: Could not create IIS virtual directory QuickStartv20

13:16:38 dinsdag 20 oktober 2009: [Begin Samples Rollback]

All steps btw are:

Install and register ASP.NET with IIS
1. From the SDK command prompt run aspnet_regiis -ir -enable
Optional Install SQL Server Express or SQL Server 2005.
Install the Quickstart Sample databases. From the SDK command prompt change to the SDK\v2.0\samples\setup folder and run the following commands
1. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -i InstPubs.sql
2. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -i InstNwnd.sql
3. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -i InstGrocer.sql
4. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -i InstContacts.sql
5. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -i InstPhotos.sql
6. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -i Inst_FileSystemSQL.sql
7. aspnet_regsql.exe -S (local)\SQLExpress -E -A all
Grant the ASP.NET User account access to the databases. On Windows Server 2003 the ASP.NET process runs under NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE. In all other cases it runs under MACHINENAME\ASPNET.
1. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -Q "sp_grantlogin <ASP.NET User Account>"
2. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d Pubs -Q "sp_grantdbaccess <ASP.NET User Account>"
3. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d Pubs -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', <ASP.NET User Account>"
4. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d NorthWind -Q "sp_grantdbaccess <ASP.NET User Account>"
5. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d NorthWind -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', <ASP.NET User Account>"
6. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d GrocerToGo -Q "sp_grantdbaccess <ASP.NET User Account>"
7. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d GrocerToGo -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', <ASP.NET User Account>"
8. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d Contacts -Q "sp_grantdbaccess <ASP.NET User Account>"
9. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d Contacts -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', <ASP.NET User Account>"
10. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d Photos -Q "sp_grantdbaccess <ASP.NET User Account>"
11. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d Photos -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', <ASP.NET User Account>"
12. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d FileSystemSQL -Q "sp_grantdbaccess <ASP.NET User Account>"
13. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d FileSystemSQL -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', <ASP.NET User Account>"
14. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d ASPNETDB -Q "sp_grantdbaccess <ASP.NET User Account>"
15. sqlcmd -E -S (local)\SQLExpress -d ASPNETDB -Q "sp_addrolemember 'db_owner', <ASP.NET User Account>"
Modify the Web.config file to point to the location that the QuickStart are installed to:

. . .
<sourceview>
<add key="root" value="C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v2.0\QuickStart" />
</sourceview>
. . .

If you are going to host the QuickStart to enable users from other machines to view and run the QuickStart, set the RemoteHosted appSetting key value to true in the web.config file. This will prevent your computer from hosting some samples that were not designed for use by un-trusted sources.

<appSettings>
<add key="RemoteHost" value="true" />
</appSettings>

If you installed SQL Server 2005 instead of SQL Express you will need to update the connection string used by all samples. Search the SDK\v2.0\QuickStart\ directory and replace all instances of "(local)\SQLExpress" with the connection string needed for your instance of SQL.
Install all SDK Quickstart Virtual Directories in IIS. The Setup.xml installed to the SDK\v2.0\Samples\setup folder lists all of the SDK Quickstart virtual directories that need to be installed. The SDK Quickstart configuration wizard defaults to installing the virtual directories to the QuickstartV20 virtual directory path.
If you are running IIS 6.0 you should create a separate unique application pool for the SDK Quickstart samples. The SDK Quickstart Configuration Wizard creates the "QuickstartV20AppPool" by default. Associate this application pool with the QuickstartV20 virtual directory.
Set all appropriate security permission on the application pool that you created and the Quickstart Virtual directories to adequately protect your IIS server from attackers.
After creating all Virtual Directories run "aspnet_regiis -s W3SVC/1/ROOT/QuickstartV20" from the SDK Command prompt to register the asp.net 2.0 script map for the Quickstart Virtual Directory.
Optional - Build all of the Quickstart samples in the sdk\v2.0\Quickstart\ folder by calling msbuild on each sample solution file from within the SDK command prompt.

Simulating the CEngine

CNutt — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:05:24 GMT

OOPS! got an error when trying to add my zip. Going to try some more.

This project uses classes that model the memory blocks that can easily implemented on chips for embedded systems.

The challenge is to define the classes and memory contents such that C code can be executed in the fewest clock intervals when converted to hardware. This leads to need for the classes that represent state machines to hace a clock method that controls the state changes and for a scheme to make it appear that all state machines operate in parallel.

They are still snickering over at the CoffeeHouse where I started a thread "A New Architecture for Embedded Processors".

So here is what I have working so far. Included in the zip is a text cEx1 that is simple C code that should be opened when the app shows the open file box. the first step generates the ram loads and then asks whether to run the sim step. That produces a wave form showing some of the state changes. Clicking on the Cycle by cycle button shows a list box where the C sequence is shown.

There is still work to do with testing and function additions pending. My claim is that any available processor woul take many more cycles to execute the sequence.

All variables are treated as uint types and function calls have to be added.

miniWE published on download.com

magicalclick — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:42:49 GMT

Yuppy, my miniWE has been approved on download.com now. You can now try my software in peace since they have tested my app with their anti-virus and anti-spyware software. miniWE is an app launcher specifically aimed for Win7 users. You can run it on XP and Vista, but, Win7 will get the best use out of it.

Version 3 http://cid-b765d9ea1833315b.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public%20Archive/miniWE

http://download.cnet.com/miniWE/3000-2344_4-10968843.html

Couldn't pin your folder in Win7 task bar? Use this app. It is basically a pinable app pointing to any folder as you desire. You can create more miniWE with different ID to prevent miniWE grouped by Win7 taskbar as well.

Update: v3.0.0.15 is a lot more responsive, not faster, just more responsive by moving icon loading to photo loading. And you can make it open the folder right away without using my GUI. Meaning it is basically like Folder in a Win98 quick launch bar.

Solution to PDC2008 Hard Hat Challenge (Apple Pie)

Adam Speight — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:21:53 GMT

The solution to the PDC 2008 Hard Hat Challenge (Apple Pie).

FormRopes (Simplifiing Docking)

Adam Speight — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:28:55 GMT

I've created a simplified way of adding docking to your winForm applications.

FormRope.CodePlex.com

colours : an app that displays .net colours elegantly

Gideon Israel Dsouza — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:50:46 GMT

Made a post by mistake at the tech off forum.... sorry.....

http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/TechOff/477268-possibly-useful-app-i-made-that-displays-all-net-colours-elegantly

Download it here or i've attached the file too.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/iwnoghfvzxy/Colours v2.1.exe

Heres a screenie

Files for "Creating Lookless Controls" Screencast

Jared Bienz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:55:42 GMT

Attached are the files for the Creating Lookless Controls for WPF and Silverlight screencast.

Files for "Skins for WPF and Silverlight" Screencast

Jared Bienz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:47:17 GMT

Attached are the files for the Skins for WPF and Silverlight screencast.

Animaonline Port Scanner

Roman Alifanov — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:55:32 GMT

A fast .NET C# Port Scanner

Uses ThreadPool =D

Scheme in Ruby

Joe Chung — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:33:51 GMT

Here's yet another port of JScheme (a Java implementation of Scheme) except to Ruby this time. It's another weekend learning project to teach myself how to write Ruby code. Again, no interface to call Ruby methods from Scheme.

Scheme in Python

Joe Chung — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:32:29 GMT

Here's another port of JScheme (a Java implementation of Scheme) but to Python this time. I didn't get around to implementing the API to call Python methods from Scheme. This is just something I did one weekend last year to learn how to write Python.

Scheme in C#

Joe Chung — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:29:36 GMT

Here's a port of JScheme (a Java implementation of Scheme by Peter Norvig) to C#. Nothing extraordinary, just some weekend coding.

Problems with Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK installation

Flavio Oliveira — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:10:45 GMT

Hi all,

I'm having problems to install Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK on my laptop.

Each time I try to install it, I receive the following message:

"COM4 is in use, please close Device Emulator if it is running and then retry"

There's no device emulator running and also nothing attached at COM4 port on Device Manager, in fact COM4 has not even been listed on

COM ports available.

When I try to uninstall the Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK already installed the same error comes up.

I also tried some suggestions from internet like close bluetooth connections and try to uninstall and install

again but it didn't work as well.

If you already had a problem like that or may know how to solve it, please let me know what you did.

Thanks

Flavio

Elwoh ContactAssistant for Verizon Wireless

Travis Howle — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:20:12 GMT

Hey guys, looking for some feedback on some software I wrote, purely for an issue I had with Verizon Wireless -- even though they shoved it off to the side.

It's called ContactAssistant Pro for Verizon Wireless, and is primarly used for individuals who have contacts from a SmartPhone, Windows Mobile Device, PDA, BlackBerry, or on Microsoft Outlook, or actually any other application capable of storing contacts who want to transfer them to their mobile phone using the Verizon BackupAssistant Network.

Why is this a big deal to write software if BackupAssistant already does this? Because BackupAssistant does not, cannot, and will not take contacts from a SmartPhone or Outlook, or anything. You are forced to type in all of your 400+ contacts into your new phone manually.

To download the software, go to http://www.elwoh.com/elwoh/contactassistant/ContactAssistant/Downloads/Elwoh_ContactAssistant_1.0.0.exe

Screenshots:

How Does it Work:
The Elwoh ContactAssistant System works by connecting to a Local Contact Repository (LCR) on your local computer, where contacts can be stored from a Windows Mobile Device, SmartPhone, PDA, BlackBerry, E-Mail Software such as Microsoft Outlook or Windows Live/Hotmail.

Once connected to your local contact repository, the system gives a detailed summary of your contacts that are eligable for synchronization with the Verizon Wireless Network. From this point, you can revise your contacts or continue to the next step.

The next step involved is establishing a direct secure connection between your computer and the Verizon Wireless BackupAssistant Network; to do this you simple enter your Verizon Wireless credentials and click "Connect".

If the credentials are approved, you sustain an open secure connection to the network until your ContactAssistant session is complete.

Next is the third, and final step involved in the process -- running the Elwoh ContactAssistant Engine, which intelligently processes each of the contacts within your local contact repository and synchronizes the detailed contact information with the BackupAssistant Network, while a detailed log and progress/statistical details are shown in the main window.

When the process is completed, you are asked if you would like to "push" the contacts to your mobile device
-- if you push yes, a BackupAssistant session is instantly invoked on your mobile device and the contact changes are pulled from the Verizon Wireless Network.

For further details on how the system works, feel free to contact me at Giovanni Montrone's Blu-ray/DVD Comparison Utility application.

Read the Coding4Fun article at :

http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2009/03/28/9515699.aspx

You can try the app on his blog at:

http://gmontrone.com/bdcompare/BlurayDVDCompare.html

Remote Screen

Sanil Singh Tomar — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:23:04 GMT

Remote Screen (RS) is a Client /server App.
Remote Screen makes it easier for network/ internet users to "View" remote users screen on which "RS" Server is running with the help of the RS client, though you can not control remote computer.
Developed in .NET/C#

Read more about it and download from here: http://www.codeplex.com/RemoteScreen

JSINQ - a complete implementation of LINQ to Objects in JavaScript

Kai Jäger — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:42:49 GMT

After lurking around Channel9 for quite some time now, I think it's time to step out of the shadows and actually post something. So here goes:

I wrote a complete implementation of LINQ to Objects in JavaScript (but you already know that because you've read the title).

What does complete mean? Well, it means two things:
a) System.Linq.Enumerable is there (except it's called jsinq.Enumerable) and it has all the same methods... all of them (except those related to casting which don't really apply to JavaScript)
b) There's a query compiler that allows you write queries in LINQ-syntax.
c) (Did I say two things, I mean three) If you know LINQ (to Objects) and JavaScript, you know JSINQ!

But don't take my word for it, try it yourself! (Yes, I do watch a lot of infomercials, why do you ask?)

So you can almost write something like this:

from customer in $0
group customer by customer.lastname into g
select {lastname: g.getKey(), count: g.count()}
into r
orderby r.count descending
select r

Except you have to put quotes around it (so it's not really Language INtegrated Query, more like Language bolted-onto Query). But it's still really useful and it's free (as in MIT-licensed), so get yours now!

More importantly though, tell me what you think and please report bugs if you should find some.

JSINQ on CodePlex
Try JSINQ online!
Read about JSINQ on my blog

Cheers,
Kai

Live Framework and Always Available Social Applications Files

Jared Bienz — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:32:33 GMT

This file is for the Live Framework and Always Available Social Applications screencast.

Twitula

Kevin Daly — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 08:02:46 GMT

This is the Twitter client I wrote earlier in the year for Windows Mobile (specifically, Windows Mobile Classic and Professional, to use the new official names that convey no useful information whatsoever). That is, Windows Mobile for touch screen devices, or what we used to call Pocket PC. Unfortunately the "People I follow" option has not worked since the Twitter developers did something back in I think August that caused the https://twitter.com/statuses/friends.xml call to handle authentication incorrectly, with the effect that it now always returns a "not found" error. This bug has been notified on the Twitter forum and commented on by numerous people, but they haven't done anything about it. Consequently I decided not to do any further work with what is obviously an unstable and unsupported API.
Other people may have more patience than me and feel inclined to implement a work around to deal with this issue and whichever others arise subsequently - those people might find this code of some use.
Anyone who sees that I render every word in a tweet separately will no doubt conclude that I'm insane, stupid or both: it was my solution to the problem of rendering links correctly along with ordinary text for any arbitrary input string, while positioning everything (more or less) correctly. I never liked it, but it did the trick and wasn't as slow as I'd feared ("Good enough for free", was my thought, to be honest).
I do sincerely apologise for the lack of comments: I was writing the code for myself and yes, I confess, largely making it up as I went along (see again under "Good enough for free"). I do feel guilty however about the lack of explanatory comments.
Despite all that there may be bits and pieces here that provide some people with useful ideas. I'm pretty pleased with the overall look (not so much with having to use interop code to achieve it), and I think the "finger-swipey stuff" is at least a good start. Speaking of fingers, I made a conscious effort to be "finger-friendly" (and the swipey bit was part of that, as were the admittedly somewhat garish buttons on the dialogs), although my main objective with this program was to break away from the Godawful VB4-ish look that the Compact Framework tends to impose on us (I'd like to do something similar for Diarist, but since the input controls occupy almost the entire display area I haven't worked out how as yet).

PS. If you've actually used Twitula and had never noticed that there was integrated help, don't spend too much time slapping your forehead. Anyone could make that mistake.

Service Enabled Workflow Sample Files

Jared Bienz — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:21:09 GMT

These files are for the Service Enabling Workflows screencast.

FormatC source code formatting

Sven Groot — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 10:04:02 GMT

FormatC is a utility that allows you to add syntax highlighting to your C#, Visual Basic, C++, XML, HTML, Transact-SQL or PowerShell source code, so you can publish it on a web page or blog post.

FormatC supports the new features introduced in C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9.0, including Linq and Visual Basic XML literals.

You can format your source code using the interface on my site and simply copy/paste the results into a webpage or blog post, and customize the highlighting by editing the provided style sheet (or simply keep the default).

The download provided here contains a class library to use in your own application, and also contains the source code.

MS Rbotics Studio DSS C++ service

dina123 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:17:18 GMT

Hello,
I m using MS Robotics Studio. I want to create DSS C++ service having multiple input connection pins? How Can I do That? If u have some idea plz reply me asap.

Search Engine Rank Finder (SERF)

SlackmasterK — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:08:21 GMT

Have you ever wondered to yourself... "Self, I wonder where I'm ranking on Google for Vista SP1 Redistributable"? Then you Google it and find your site in the results? Then you feel proud if you showed up on page 1? I do that... So today I sat down and wrote it for a blog rewrite I'm working on. You can get the full rundown on it here.

Basically you give it a search term and a domain, pick a search engine, and it tells you where you appear within the engine's search results. So if you're #1 on Google for something, it'll tell you and give you a link to that Google results page.

Sure, there are some improvements that could be made; but it was quick, dirty, and effective.

UI Automation Stress

Ifeanyi Echeruo — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:43:38 GMT

Worry about the stability of your application and its UI??

Here is a sample that uses the UI Automation API's from .net (3.0 and above) to stress test your application.

Just run
InvokeStress.exe -pid [processId]
or
InvokeStress.exe -title [windowTitle]

And see if your app can survive being taken through its paces over a 24 hour period.