The life prodactor

New Blog!

2010-11-05T06:25:00.002+10:30

For anyone who subscribes, I'm starting a new Blog at rogernoble.com!

The plan is to stop using this one for anything technical. So if you interested in general BI, SQL Server or SharePoint then check it out :)

Abandon All Hope!

2009-02-24T08:07:00.002+10:30

I found this today while poking around in Reflector :)

Isolator for SharePoint

2008-11-25T08:35:00.000+10:30

Typemock are offering their new product for unit testing SharePoint called Isolator For SharePoint, for a special introduction price. it is the only tool that allows you to unit test SharePoint without a SharePoint server. To learn more click here.
The first 50 bloggers who blog this text in their blog and tell us about it, will get a Full Isolator license, Free. for rules and info click here.

Tony's going away party

2008-01-25T22:30:00.000+10:30

Here is some video from the party last week

Sharepoint / MOSS url rewriting

2007-11-14T12:50:00.000+10:30

For the current project I'm working on I needed to get rid of MOSS' /Pages - the client wants nicer looking URL's.
I came across this project which is really simple to use: UrlRewriter

Installing it in SharePoint is also really simple, especially since UrlRewiter is already signed. Just simply GAC the assembly, and add the following to the web.config:

<configSections>
<section name="rewriter" requirePermission="false" type="Intelligencia.UrlRewriter.Configuration.RewriterConfigurationSectionHandler, Intelligencia.UrlRewriter, Version=2.0.0.6, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0573f3650687980d" />
</configSections>
<SharePoint>
<SafeControls>
  <SafeControl Assembly="Intelligencia.UrlRewriter, Version=2.0.0.6, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0573f3650687980d" Namespace="Intelligencia.UrlRewriter.Configuration.RewriterConfigurationSectionHandler" TypeName="*" Safe="True">
</SafeControls>
</SharePoint>
<system.web>
<httpModules>
  <add type="Intelligencia.UrlRewriter.RewriterHttpModule,Intelligencia.UrlRewriter, Version=2.0.0.6, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=0573f3650687980d" name="UrlRewriter" />
</httpModules>
</system.web>

Finally add this in the configuration section:

<rewriter>
  <if url="^((?!/Pages/|/Style%20Library/|/Style Library/|/_layouts/|/).+)*$">
    <rewrite to="/Pages/$1" />
  </if>
</rewriter>

UrlRewriter uses a regular expressions in order to match and replace the url:
^((?!/Pages/|/Style%20Library/|/Style Library/|/_layouts/|/).+)*$

So this will find all url's that don't start with /Pages/ and add it on.

MCTS!

2007-09-18T07:54:00.000+09:30

After a long wait I have finally got my MCP ID!

The plan is to get all the developer and sharepoint certs...

Sharepoint: The object specified does not belong to a list

2007-08-01T09:14:00.000+09:30

I had a problem this morning, with a custom control that I am using in PublishingPages and admin pages in the _layouts folder.
The control looks for some custom properties in the current pages ParentFolder. However when checking the SPFile.ParentFolder.Item property in a page located in _layouts it throws an exception - "The object specified does not belong to a list".
My first thought was to check for SPFile.ParentFolder.Item != null, but that didn't work. However by setting a break point I discoverd that folders in the _layouts directory don't exist!

So use: if(SPFolder.Exists) {}

WSS coding best practice

2007-07-31T14:30:00.000+09:30

This article is a must read: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms778813.aspx

I've been having a few memory problems lately in the project im currently working on. I thought I was correctly disposing of all my SPWeb and SPSite objects but I didn't realise that even accessing SPFolder.ParentWeb would create a new instance if one wasn't available.

Two useful WSS v3 resources

2007-06-23T10:24:00.000+09:30

Just a quick post.
I found these two resources useful today.
The first is a step by step guide to installing and configuring MOSS in Virtual PC. The steps are very clear and surprisingly everything went according to the guide - no small feat!
http://www.pptspaces.com/sharepointreporterblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=7537e639%2Db4e5%2D48b6%2D97c0%2Da75e44ee9be3&ID=28&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epptspaces%2Ecom%2Fsharepointreporterblog%2FLists%2FPosts%2FAllPosts%2Easpx

The second is a look at the process of developing with WSS. It has a really good look at packaging a project into a solution that can be deployed to a server.
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530302.aspx#WSSDevToolsTechs_P1_CloserLookWinSharePointServicesSolutions

Oconics expands

2007-05-29T20:36:00.000+09:30

We were in the paper today!
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21810204-5003680,00.html

Very cool!

jQuery Manager for .Net

2007-05-29T19:58:00.000+09:30

I released the early version of my jQuery Script Manager today on CodePlex.
Its an idea that I have had for the past couple of days in an attempt to make using jQuery and ASP.Net work nicely. I've been using JavaScript lately with SharePoint (WSS v3 & MOSS) and I've been unhappy with how injected JavaScript can get really messy. This project is an attempt to make it better.

What is jQuery you ask?

So here is how its currently used:

1) Add the jQuery Script Manager to the page

<%@ Register Assembly="jQuery.ScriptManager, Version=1.0.0.0, 
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null" Namespace="jQuery.ScriptManager" TagPrefix="jQuery" %>
 
...
 
<jQuery:jQueryManager id="jQueryM" runat="server">
</jQueryManager>

2) register any JavaScripts functions that need to run on document.load

<jQuery:jQueryManager id="jQueryM" runat="server">
     <ReadyFunctions>
          <jQuery:RegisterReadyFunction FunctionName="TestFunction" />
     </ReadyFunctions>
</jQueryManager>

3) Create the JavaScript function

function TestFunction(){
     alert('The page has loaded!');
}

The JavaScript function "TestFunction" will be called when the page loads by placing it in jQuery's $(document).ready function.

Embedding JavaScript as a resource in a .Net assembly

2007-05-11T11:24:00.000+09:30

I needed to do this today for a web part that I'm creating. Being able to have the JavaScript packaged is so much neater.
http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/080906-1.aspx

ASP.Net AJAX and MOSS 2007

2007-05-10T16:56:00.000+09:30

This post from Mike Ammerlaan just saved me some time on what to add to the Web.config for MOSS.

MOSS 2007 WebPart CAS

2007-05-10T11:24:00.000+09:30

This is a good article on MOSS CAS - saved me some time!

Update:
I also discovered the hard way that if you use the sample config file associated with the article bad security things will happen. This is because WSS does not have permission to access the file, so I copied the wss_minimaltrust.config, and then copied the contents of the sample file into it.

Time to leave

2007-04-18T16:21:00.000+09:30

I've decided that after 3 good years at UniSA that its time to leave.

I've had a great time there and have learnt a lot, but I really felt that it was time to move on.
I'm looking forward to the new challenge and hopefully I'll be more motivated to update this blog as I'll have new things to say!

View Trace.axd v1.2!

2006-07-06T08:19:00.000+09:30

Its finally been approved!
Get it here
This version is smarter than before and will now open Trace.axd only when one exists and if the current page is Trace.axd it does nothing.

SQL Code Camp

2006-07-02T10:04:00.000+09:30

This is the first I heard about SQL Code Camp - http://www.sqldownunder.com/CodeCamp/tabid/53/Default.aspx
Perhaps I'm just not reading the right blogs?
I'll have to mention it at work to see if we can go...

... and one more JavaScript thig

2006-06-29T13:53:00.000+09:30

I also forgot to mention JavaScript Lint - http://www.javascriptlint.com/

You can add it in as an external tool in Visual Studio and get a JavaScript code checker, like FXCop – woohoo!

Javascript and screen readers

2006-06-29T13:40:00.000+09:30

I found two great posts today focusing on JavaScript with screen readers.

The first one is a test to try and get a screen reader to read changes in the DOM – the conclusion is that it doesn’t work L

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/ajax-screenreaders-work

This second post is even more interesting as it shows which JavaScript events are compatible with which screen reader – all in one table

http://www.access-matters.com/results-for-javascript-part-2-navigating-forms/

TechEd Flair

2006-06-29T00:07:00.000+09:30

Here is my first attempt at some flair for this year

View Trace.axd

2006-06-11T10:37:00.000+09:30

My view trace.axd Firefox extention became live today - woo!

Stylus Studio

2006-05-24T09:33:00.000+09:30

I use Stylus Studio at work and have found it to be a great XML tool.
When developing our XML driven flash application at work, stylus studio made creating the schema's and xml easy.
I've also used it serveral times to get my Xpath queries right, which is also great.

Open Source CMS

2005-11-03T17:01:00.000+10:30

This site has a collection of opensource CMS's that are avaliable to play with without installing them fist only to find out that its rubbish.

Hex -> RGB and back

2005-10-24T10:16:00.000+09:30

http://www.321webmaster.com/colorconverter.php

HTTrack

2005-10-24T09:32:00.000+09:30

I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned this, but I couldn’t find it when I needed it

http://www.httrack.com/

it saves an entire site.

Mario level editor

2005-10-20T22:18:00.000+09:30

This is really cool. I want to make one
link (via boing boing)

Deletign Services in Win2003

2005-10-14T11:36:00.000+09:30

http://msmvps.com/nuoyan/archive/2004/11/07/18247.aspx

I needed to do this today.

hash reviewed

2005-09-19T11:00:00.000+09:30

I was just reading this article http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1859751,00.asp explaining that MD5 is now bad because of collisions and stuff, so ive had another look at my hasher and added a few extras.

GWB = Failure

2005-09-16T12:44:00.000+09:30

I just found out about this:

Put ‘Failure’ into Google and type ‘I’m feeling Lucky’

This is what I get (it might have changed):

http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html

amaztype

2005-09-16T12:34:00.000+09:30

I found this just then, it combines the amazon web service and flash.

http://amaztype.tha.jp/US/Books/Title?q=batman

it generates the word at the of the url using images from that topic!

vtkFlRenderWindowInteractor

2005-09-15T11:07:00.000+09:30

http://cpbotha.net/vtkFlRenderWindowInteractor.html

This has just saved me a ton of time… or has it just highlighted the fact that it works and I shouldn’t have wasted about 5hrs trying to get vtkFLTK to work and used it in the first place??!?!?!?!

Linux woes :(

2005-09-14T13:08:00.000+09:30

I'm a Linux noob, and I find it extremly frustrating.
I'm using Ubuntu at the moment which seems nicer than suse, but then it could be that I just like gnome over KDE?? Anyway its my new Linux flavour of the month.

Today I learned something valuabe - ./configure, make, make install, make clean. This is how you unstall stuff.
you have to compile it!!!

Linux for the people - yeah right!!!

Simple MD5 hash

2005-09-12T13:33:00.000+09:30

I made a simple MD5 hasher today, I needed to check some hashes so I thought this might be handy.

The code is extremely simple, so here it is:

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;

namespace hasher
{
 /// 
 /// Summary description for Form1.
 /// 
 public class hash : System.Windows.Forms.Form
 {
  private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox txt_data;
  private System.Windows.Forms.Label lbl_hash;
  private System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox grp_hash;

  private MD5 md5;
  private UTF8Encoding ue;

  /// 
  /// Required designer variable.
  /// 
  private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null;

  public hash()
  {
   //
   // Required for Windows Form Designer support
   //
   InitializeComponent();

   md5 = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
   ue = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
  }

  /// 
  /// Clean up any resources being used.
  /// 
  protected override void Dispose( bool disposing )
  {
   if( disposing )
   {
    if (components != null)
    {
     components.Dispose();
    }
   }
   base.Dispose( disposing );
  }

  #region Windows Form Designer generated code
  /// 
  /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
  /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
  /// 
  private void InitializeComponent()
  {
   this.txt_data = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
   this.lbl_hash = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
   this.grp_hash = new System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox();
   this.grp_hash.SuspendLayout();
   this.SuspendLayout();
   // 
   // txt_data
   // 
   this.txt_data.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(8, 8);
   this.txt_data.Multiline = true;
   this.txt_data.Name = "txt_data";
   this.txt_data.ScrollBars = System.Windows.Forms.ScrollBars.Vertical;
   this.txt_data.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(272, 112);
   this.txt_data.TabIndex = 0;
   this.txt_data.Text = "";
   this.txt_data.TextChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.txt_data_TextChanged);
   // 
   // lbl_hash
   // 
   this.lbl_hash.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(8, 16);
   this.lbl_hash.Name = "lbl_hash";
   this.lbl_hash.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(256, 23);
   this.lbl_hash.TabIndex = 1;
   // 
   // grp_hash
   // 
   this.grp_hash.Controls.Add(this.lbl_hash);
   this.grp_hash.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(8, 128);
   this.grp_hash.Name = "grp_hash";
   this.grp_hash.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(272, 40);
   this.grp_hash.TabIndex = 2;
   this.grp_hash.TabStop = false;
   this.grp_hash.Text = "MD5";
   // 
   // hash
   // 
   this.AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size(5, 13);
   this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(292, 173);
   this.Controls.Add(this.grp_hash);
   this.Controls.Add(this.txt_data);
   this.MaximizeBox = false;
   this.MinimizeBox = false;
   this.Name = "hash";
   this.Text = "MD5 Hasher";
   this.grp_hash.ResumeLayout(false);
   this.ResumeLayout(false);

  }
  #endregion

  /// 
  /// The main entry point for the application.
  /// 
  [STAThread]
  static void Main()
  {
   Application.Run(new hash());
  }

  private void txt_data_TextChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
  {
   byte[] b = ue.GetBytes(txt_data.Text);
   lbl_hash.Text = Convert.ToBase64String(md5.ComputeHash(b));
  }
 }
}

Removing the door panel from a Toyota Corolla '96

2005-09-11T11:43:00.000+09:30

I had to remove the door panel from my Corolla yesterday in order to remove the lock. I had to remove the lock because some idiot tryed to break in and they stuffed it up! It took me ages to figure out how to get it off, with this guide it should be possible to do it in about 10 minutes.
The following photos I took with my mobile phone, the super cool Mororola E398. unfortunately the camera doesnt have a very good focus so some of the images are a little blurry.

Step 1:
Remove the screw on the door opener.
This is the most obviuos screw and so I decided to remove it first.

Step 2:
Remove the door winder.
This is a little tricker than I first thought. At first I tryed to pull it off, but that didnt seem to work. I had a brief look online and found a few sites saying that there is a clip that has to be removed and that a "special tool" is reqired to remove it. These "special tools" apparently are avaliable from car parts places. Lucky for me I already had a "special tool" - a flat head screwdriver!
Here is how the clip holds the winder on

Using a flat head screwdriver you can just push the clip off

Here is the clip removed

Step 3:
Remove the arm rest.
This took me awhile to find, but under the arm rest there are two screws. It can be fairy easily removed just by getting either your fingernail under it, or a screwdriver.

Once removed it reveals the screws underneath

Step 4:
This is the easy part. The whole panel is now held on only by push in clips, they can be easily pulled for them to pop out. They are located all around the outside of the panel and look like this

Once they are removed carefully guide the door handle opener through the hole to remove the panel.

Step 5:
To get to the inside of the door the plastic seal has to be removed, this isnt too hard but its sticky. Just peel it away from the plastic

Step 6:
This next part is where it can get really frustrating. There are two screws that hold the door handle on. The first one is visible and not too bad to remove.

The second one was a little harder. The folowing picture was taken through a small hole in the door panel, but you can see the lock and the screw above it. I used a socket with a rachet to remove it

Step 7:
The lock can now be removed by pushing the door handle from the bottom to swing it out. There is a spring that holds the door handle in at the top, I didnt try to remove the whole thing as I'm guessing the trying to put that spring back would be a world of pain. Just grab the lock and twist it anit-clockwise, it should just pop out.

Step 8:
There is a rod connected to the lock which goes to the central locking servo, this can be removed by uncliping the plastic bit on the side and the pulling the rod out of the hole. If at all possible try not to disconned the rod at the bottom, where is connects to the servo - This would be VERY bad as it took me an hour to get the little bugger back on.

Step 9:
All done! I was able to take this bit to a locksmith - with the key, where they were able to fix it. I took it to Marion Locksmiths and they did a great job - thanks!

Step 10:
Putting it all back.
This should be as simple as going backwards, however if you accidently disconnected the servo rod like I did then like Mr T says - "I pitty the fool!".
The rod is fixed to the servo with a little plastic clip similar to how it connects with the lock. The trick is to put the bent bit at the end into the hole and then swivel the plastic clip onto the rold to hold it there. This is how it looks once connected

And this is a closeup of the rod cliped to the servo bit

I should also mention putting the door winder back is a little fiddly, but using the "special tool" its not too bad. Just put the clip half on, then put the winder on and using the screwdriver push the clip on. it required a little force, but not too much.

Well I hope this is useful!

Macgyver for president

2005-09-05T14:21:00.000+09:30

Link

Paper civil machinery

2005-09-05T14:13:00.000+09:30

I think im going to make one of these, looks like fun!

Big AD, Samll AD

2005-08-29T11:39:00.000+09:30

Big AD – Small AD

24 hour cynic - web comic

2005-08-29T10:14:00.000+09:30

There are a few web comics that I regularly, today’s was a classic

http://www.24hourcynic.com/

I am 53% evil!!

2005-08-27T15:08:00.000+09:30

I've always thought this might be the case, and The Gematriculator has proved me right. By analysing this blog they have determined that it is:

WWWWHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAAAA! (evil laugh)

New RSS agrigator

2005-08-22T21:54:00.000+09:30

I change my apps every couple of months, when I see something new that I think might be better. This month I ditched my smelly old boring agrigator (sage - which fits nicely into Firefox, and well I have no real problems with) and replaced it with Bloglines! Why is Bloglines so good. Well its a web based client so now I can check my blog list from anywhere! They also provide you with a Firefox extention that fits in the taskbar, it checks every 30 seconds if there are any changes which is cool.

Scroogle

2005-08-22T21:48:00.000+09:30

I never got around to mentioning my new favourite search engine untill I saw this posted on boing boing. Anyway its called scroogle (as in screw - google) basically they give you the results without the adsence and without the keyword search logging. The best thing is that you can add it to your search bar in Firefox and stop mozilla from getting extra cash too!!

Demotivation

2005-08-15T10:47:00.000+09:30

I like this http://www.despair.com/leaders.html

Hex editor

2005-08-12T10:03:00.000+09:30

While trying to debug my P2P library (more about this later) I needed a Hex editor to work out exactly what I was writing to an image file. I found this one. Its pretty simple and it helped me figure out what was going on (I hope).

Peekaboom

2005-08-10T19:08:00.000+09:30

This is good fun! Peekaboom is a two player game that is played online through a java applet interface (why not flash??).

Another Ajax tutorial

2005-08-10T09:57:00.000+09:30

Here is another AJAX tutorial:

http://www.webreference.com/programming/javascript/jf/column12/index.html

I’ve had a little bit of a play with AJAX, but not it anything real.

voip buster

2005-08-10T09:51:00.000+09:30

I don’t know how this works, but apparently you can make free phone calls with this

http://www.voipbuster.com/en/index.html

I’m going to try it out tonight at home.

Edit: yep tryed it out and its everything it says it is. Free landline calls in Australia, mobile calls are about 26c p/min, so I wont be doing that in a hurry. At the moment you can try it for free for a minute a call, but to get unlimited all you have to do i buy about $2 worth of credit.

Definition of Microsoft

2005-08-03T10:16:00.000+09:30

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=microsoft

2005-08-03T10:07:00.000+09:30

Check this out http://www.donlafontaineonline.com/video/5men.html

Warchalking giude

2005-08-03T09:59:00.000+09:30

Here is a good explanation to war chalking symbols

Lockpicking guide

2005-08-03T09:41:00.000+09:30

http://www.lockpicking101.com/

Lift Hack

2005-08-03T09:34:00.000+09:30

Apparently some types of lift can be put into “express” mode by pressing the door close and the floor number at the same time – very cool!

mu''a'vo' mu' - A Klingon Word from the Word

2005-08-01T17:21:00.000+09:30

mu''a'vo' mu' - A Klingon Word from the Word
This is heaps wierd! :S

Escape from yesterworld

2005-07-27T14:15:00.000+09:30

http://www.escapeyesterworld.com/ - this is pretty funny

Hosting

2005-07-26T12:50:00.000+09:30

I’m looking for somewhere to host a site for my church. So far I have found these that look interesting:

http://www.audioblog.com/ - this is for podcasting and video blogging, its something that the site is going to have in the future. Its really cheap at $60 a year with 5Gb a month bandwidth.

http://www.brinkster.com/ - these guys seem ok, I haven’t really looked around yet for the ASP.Net hosting. They don’t really offer SQL Server though… that’s no good.

http://www.portalwebhosting.com/windows_hosting.php - these guys seem ok, just a bit expencive.

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/hosting/shared.asp - this is better! They seem cheap and have SQL Server, plus I’ve been recommended these guys from a guy at work.

http://www.webhost4life.com/hosting.asp - also seem very cheap

VSNUnit (edit: Testrunner)

2005-07-25T15:05:00.000+09:30

I’m trying VSNUnit at the moment – it’s an open source Visual Studio plugin that puts the NUnit interface into VS 2003/05.

I’ve tried it on one test at the moment and it seems to work fine.

Edit: This is the second app that I've run today that hasnt lasted 5 mins. I was having a strange problem with it only running once before, then not. I read the project forums and apparenty the project has been abandoned as there is another tool out there that is better. oh well...
So im going to give this new one a try - Testrunner. hopefully this one is better, although it looks like you have to pay for commercial use.

Mac OSX theme on Win XP

2005-07-25T09:46:00.000+09:30

http://osx.portraitofakite.com/index2.htm

This looks interesting, I might try it a little later

Edit: yeah it looked kinda cool, but it screwed a few things up. In total it lasted about 5mins. However I have discoverd another cool thing caled objectDock - it gives you the Mac OS cool menu thing at the bottom. its really handy, and looks pretty. Its been on all day now and I think it might last the week - pretty impressive!

how LEGO is made

2005-07-25T09:29:00.000+09:30

http://www.popandco.com/archive/moab/

this site has a cool flash animation, mixed with real video on the whole process of making LEGO – cool!

Fold and Drop

2005-07-21T09:17:00.000+09:30

This would have to be the most impressive interface design that I have seen for a long time, heaps better than that don’t click it thing.

Talking about that don’t click it idea I found a script for greasemonkey that turns all hyperlinks into ‘don’t click it links’ meaning that you only rollover a link to activate it – it was the most annoying thing as you had to watch where your mouse was at all times so you wouldn’t rollover things by accident!

systems tester

2005-07-19T08:54:00.000+09:30

http://gameadvisor.futuremark.com/gameadvisor/service/index.jsp

This has a look at your system and lets you know what games will run on it

Running .bat files as a service

2005-07-12T14:36:00.000+09:30

I’m using this at the moment to run a Tomcat web server. Otherwise as soon as you logout the server stops – useless!

Command redirection

2005-07-12T12:06:00.000+09:30

This just helped me solve an annoying problem.

I was running a bat file, and it wasn’t running for some reason, but instead of telling me why it just exited the command prompt. So I used the > to pipe the output to a file

Server 2003 power toys

2005-07-12T11:21:00.000+09:30

I noticed that the windows power toys don’t work for server 2003, and since I use the open command here one all the time this is bad. Anyways I found this, someone has remade them to go with server 2003 – woohoo!

Google H4x0r!

2005-07-12T09:13:00.000+09:30

Lol, this is a l337 version of Google!

Win Environment Variables

2005-07-12T08:56:00.000+09:30

I was installing java on a Server 2003 machine yesterday and because I had a few version of the JRE it screwd up my JAVA_HOME environment var. So I manuallly set it. Apparently you can do it from the command line by doing this:
set JAVA_HOME=c:\javaBut this only seems to last as long as the command window is open, so I discoverd a more permanent way to do it in the system menu

17 hours of free ASP.Net training

2005-07-12T08:45:00.000+09:30

For some reason Microsoft is giving away some free training! Just have to enter this activation code: 8317-MSDN-6595

AJAX C# -> VB.Net converter

2005-07-11T09:18:00.000+09:30

There are a few of these tools around, but few that use AJAX. Have to remember this one.

Defrag

2005-07-08T16:14:00.000+09:30

I’ve been looking for a simple free defragger for ages that does a better job than the XP one. I think I found it! I haven’t used it yet, but ill post when the results are in

HTML Commands &

2005-07-08T12:53:00.000+09:30

This is kinda an update to my URL encoding post and extends it to look at HTML commands, like having an & in HTML or more importantly XML - big badda boom!
so here is a list of the commands and conversions

Audacity

2005-07-07T16:15:00.000+09:30

I’ve heard a lot about this app through various podcasts so I though I would give it a go. In the 2 minutes that I used it for I have decided that it will do everything that I would want an audio editor (that’s free) to do.

Battlefield 2

2005-07-06T11:26:00.000+09:30

Woohoo! I got battlefield 2 last night, its great!

Im not exactly sure how much time im going to be able to put into it, so I dont think ill be joining up with my old clan.

I’ve added my stats to the bottom of my blog

ASIMO video

2005-06-29T22:06:00.000+09:30

This video shows hondas ASIMO robot working! I tryed to order the free DVD but its only avaliable in the US :(

house of Cosbys

2005-06-29T21:49:00.000+09:30

well today I discoverd house of Cosbys, an internet cartoon, one thats being shut down after four episodes since Bill Cosbys lawyer wrote them a letter. I watched them and they are heaps funny. I found a torrent for all 4 eps!

DHTML Lemmings

2005-06-28T09:29:00.000+09:30

I saw this on this blog its just like the original lemmings – so cool!!

DontClick.it

2005-06-27T14:31:00.000+09:30

Dontclickit is a site which I heard about on rocketboom. It features an interface that doesn’t need to be clicked. Its very cool.

Oh Noes!

2005-06-27T13:45:00.000+09:30

Oh Noes! Has always been one of my favourites, but I had no idea that there were so many around like it. Apparently this craze all started from just one kinda funny one done with Shaun Connery. This site has the list of them all

AudioShell

2005-06-22T09:31:00.000+09:30

This program seems pretty cool, it allows you to add meta tag information of audio files in explorer. I already use dbpoweramp to do this, but I think AudioShell looks better and it allows you to add cover art.

Privacy violation JS Text Box

2005-06-20T16:06:00.000+09:30

http://www.random.abrahamjoffe.com.au/public/JavaScripts/Privacy%20Violation/capture.htm

This is pretty cool, it’s a script that records to a hidden field what you typing at all times, including all cursor movement, and backspace key. The resulting text file can then be ‘decoded’ and played back at normal speed, just how it was typed!

Bash.org

2005-06-17T14:26:00.000+09:30

This site has funny stuff that’s said on IRC, some of these are classic

looser hacker

2005-06-17T14:24:00.000+09:30

Check this out - its heaps funny

C# String.Join()

2005-06-17T11:36:00.000+09:30

Here is another embarrassing fact that I keep forgetting how to do in C#

String to array = string.split(delimiter)

Array to string = String.Join(delimiter, array);

%5F

2005-06-17T10:45:00.000+09:30

There is a forum.blogging tool that we use – Community Server, but I think I just found a flaw. If there is an underscore (_) in a username the whole thing breaks L

It took me awhile to figure this out as there was %5F being put into the url, here is a useful page for looking at URL encoding and a simple decoder javascript

Battlefield2 tweak guide

2005-06-14T17:15:00.000+09:30

This looks pretty useful, have to see if I can get a better run out of BF2
This also has a few more tweaks and mods for BF2, I think the most interesting is the battlerecorder test file

Ajax.Net

2005-06-14T09:06:00.000+09:30

This is pretty cool! An Ajax library for .Net!

Manhole covers - revised

2005-06-11T01:46:00.000+09:30

well, afer about 5 glorious hours I deleted the manhole covers group - I thought it was an original group, but it turns out that its not :(
Oh well... I joined up with the other group and moved my pictures over

Manhole covers

2005-06-10T18:39:00.000+09:30

I've created a manhole covers flikr group, its a collection of the manhole covers that I collected on my trip to Japan. I'm hoping that it will start something, it would be cool to get manhole covers from around the world!

FireAnt

2005-06-09T18:03:00.000+09:30

Ive just discoverd this tool for downlaoding and viewing podcasts. FireAnt! I hanvt used it yet... have to do that tomorrow :P

Learnign programs via OPML

2005-06-09T16:48:00.000+09:30

I commented on Cameron Reilly’s blog today regarding some of the stuff I get up to at work (which is mostly listening to podcasts :P)

He seems to think that I might be worth while interviewing, well maybe…

GAC again!!!

2005-06-09T16:32:00.000+09:30

I’m still having this stupid GAC-related problem!!!

Anyways I think I found yet another useful resource to my GAC collection.

It seems that apart from going to the effort of adding the assembliy to the GAC you also have to add it to the web.config, like so:

oh this is a good one too

GAC

2005-06-09T15:25:00.000+09:30

Ok, this looks like a good one. Adding assemblies into the GAC + creating keys and signing etc…

signed/strongly-typed assembiles

2005-06-08T14:44:00.000+09:30

I just found out that signed assembiles have to be put into the GAC otherwise they are unstable - I must remember to look into this further.

there's a .NET command-line tool "sn.exe" ... sn -T displays the public key token (which only strongly-named assemblies have)

asp.Net cookies

2005-06-07T15:25:00.000+09:30

This is a pretty good look at .Net cookies, its in VB, but that’s ok

Dr Who sfx

2005-06-06T13:27:00.000+09:30

This is entertaining, a flash app that combines all the audio sounds needed to create Dr Who sounds J

XSLT files

2005-06-06T11:56:00.000+09:30

This is something that I only just discovered, I guess I’m a little slow.

Anyway, an XSLT file is used for transforming an XML file into either another XML file or a XHTML file – this is the cool thing, you can turn XML into HTML. This tutorial is a good one.

Google Sitemaps

2005-06-06T09:57:00.000+09:30

This looks interesting, have to make a note of this for some of the sites.

JavaScript redirect

2005-06-03T11:29:00.000+09:30

I’m sick of googleing for this one:
window.location="http://www.yourdomain.com/";
So that’s how its done!

Something meaningful

2005-06-03T11:26:00.000+09:30

Ok, now for something more than just – hey this is cool.

I’ve been looking at some JavaScript lately and here are some things I have been using.

It turns out that the <select>/<options> tags don’t support tool tips, not only that they don’t support JavaScript events either – how stupid. So I’ve created a list of links nested inside a div that does the same thing – have a look:

//JavaScript

Var listLengths = new Array();

function drawList(){
var linkText = new Array();
linkText[0] = “this is a load of text”;
var div = getElementById(‘divList’);
div.innerHTML = “<ul id=’itemList’>”;
for(var i=0;i<linkText.length;i++){
var tempSplit = new Array();
tempSplit = linkText[i];
linkText[i] = tempSplit.join(' ');
div.innerHTML += "<li><a id=’list~”+ i +”’ href=’about:blank’ title=’”+ linkText[i] +”’ onClick=’listClick(\”itemList\”, \”list~” + i +”); return false;’>”+ linkText[i] +”</a></li>
}

div.innerHTML += “</ul>”;
listLengths['itemList'] = linkText.length;

}

function listClick(listName, link){
For(var i=0;i<listLengths[listName];i++){
Document.getElementById(link.split('~')[0]+ '~' + i).style.backgroundColor = ‘#FFF’;
}
document.getElementById(link).style.backgroundColor = '#c0c0c0';
return false;
}

//styles

.thisDiv {
overflow:auto;
background-color:#FFF;
width:200px;
height:200px
border-style:solid;
border-width:1px;
margin:0 5px 0 0;
}

.thisDiv ul {
padding:5 5 0 10;
margin:0 0 0 0;
}

.thisDiv a {
text-decoration:none;
color:Black;
}

.thisDiv a:visited {
text-decoration:none;
color:Black;
}

.thisDiv li {
list-style:none;
}

//HTML

I’m pretty sure this works, its from something that does, so if it doesn’t… well it shouldn’t take too long to get going!

Flickr can host my images for this blog (apparently)

2005-06-01T14:16:00.000+09:30

Hopefully my av will appear here:
hmm, looks pretty good :)

Flickr

2005-06-01T14:09:00.000+09:30

I discovered Flickr today… I’m not really sure how useful its going to be yet, but you never know. I might upload all my pictures from China in there as a cool place to store them. I really like the email function, its just makes it easy… although I’m not exactly sure what stops anyone from emailing stuff into my account – ill have to look into that.

Here is my Flickr RRS

A Gamers Manifesto

2005-05-31T23:11:00.000+09:30

This is great, a list of demands on what the next generation of games should be like.

Halflife2 HDR model in pictures

2005-05-31T13:57:00.000+09:30

Now this is cool, I really want to do this when I have time