Zooba Chat

OpenId now enabled

2008-06-04T20:57:00Z

I signed up for OpenId about a year ago when I found that IconBuffet now supported it. Ever since I have yet to find another provider that lets me use credential saving feature as my login (bar Blogger which I found tonight).

Now there's no point me explaining it all as there is more than enough coverage on everyone else's but I do want to point you to this post especially if you have a website and would prefer to use that url as your OpenId url instead of a 3rd party one, enough said...

http://dotnet.org.za/armand/archive/2007/02/08/OpenIDCS.aspx

So if you check my source you will see a couple of additional link tags in my <HEAD> section which allow me to use www.anthonymain.com as my logon credential where possible.

Useful Links

2008-06-03T07:48:00Z

Recently my RSS Reader (iGoogle) has been chocker with useful links for web developers so I thought I'd share a few of them:

IETester - I haven't tested this (and its still in Alpha) but this promises to be the daddy of IE browser testers featuring rendering engines from IE5.5-IE8 (beta 1)

http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

Yahoo Web Stencils - A set of images for use by web designers of common web application shapes, such as standard screen res', banner sizes, tables etc etc, RAD Web Design anyone!?!?

http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/

.Net 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (betas) - the beta versions have just been released and these are far from just service packs. The updates to the framework are massive and including cool new features such as MVC Framework and more importantaly ADO.Net 2 which I can't wait to start coding with

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/12/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-service-pack-1-beta.aspx

Google DocType - The Future of Web Development Documentation

2008-05-16T08:15:00Z

Google have recently released their new wiki for web developers. Why is this good!??!

Well we all know we want to work at Camp G with their 70:30 work ratio and we all use their many free services. Now the team of developers have produced their own documentation wiki of web development. Not only that but it features clear cut browser compatibility charts which are regulary updated.

So what are you waiting for, clear your favourites and burn your books and get over to DocType:

http://code.google.com/doctype/

Google Maps on multidomains (alias')

2008-04-10T09:31:00Z

Recently I've been embedding Google Maps onto various client websites for store locations etc and stumbled across the age old single API key issue. What am I talking about? Well Google only issues API keys for single domains, if you have a site which serves on multiple domains such as anthonymain.com and anthonymain.co.uk it would not work only on one. However I stumbled across the following code which seems to work a treat. I claim no responsibility for it so don't give me credit I'm just sharing the information from the following newsgroup thread. Original credits go to Mike Geary:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API/browse_thread/thread/c804b74034915665/

<script type="text/javascript"> document.write(
'<script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=' +
{
'example.com': 'api-key-for-example.com',
'anotherexample.com': 'api-key-for-anotherexample.com'
}[location.host] +
'" type="text/javascript"><\/script>' );
</script>

Visual Studio 2008

2007-09-20T08:27:00Z

Last week I attended MIX:UK 07 - the Microsoft showcase of all their upcoming web based technologies. Unfortunately I was only able to attend the 2nd day as I had client meetings on the first but that which I did attend was good. I started the day sitting through a talk by Scott Guthrie which was the best of the day. He talked up all the new features of VS 2008 and its looking really shiny. I was going to blog all the features, but I have just read a Code Project article basically summing it all up anyway so I'll just linky that and the original slides.....

Code Project Article
Scott Guthrie's Slides

I then went to a couple of talks about Silverlight which were a little disappointing to be honest. Finally there was a showcase of projects making use of some of these and other MS technologies, such as the MS "web 2" style services - seems MS are jumping on every .net 2.0 service going. Such as:

Contoso Bike Club - check out the video and mapping combo
Contoso University

In the demos talk they gave out free wooden recorders strangely, but we also swagged a free tshirt, 1gb pen dirves curtousy of Conchango and FREE copies of Vista Ultimate and Expression Studio, so all round a worth while experience

SQL 2005 Express not working on your (Fasthosts) dedicated server?

2007-04-30T10:26:00Z

Got a £60 per 1/2 hour personal engineer booked?? CANCEL IT!!!

If you like me and many others have rented a dedicated box with a web host and are planning to use SQL 2005 Express cause its up to your requirements (I do!), there is a small point that very few people realise is the cause of the all too familiar "SQL Server is unavailable or does not exist" message.

After ensuring that you have remote connections open and have enabled sql accounts as well as windows authentication (see: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;914277 or http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlexpress/archive/2005/05/05/415084.aspx) you may still be struggling (especially if you use Fasthosts). The reason is that you will probably find your firewall is blocking UDP packets which is what the SQL Browser uses to server Management Studio (etc) with. To get round this you can force SQL Express to use a TCP port. All you need to do is set it in the appropriate properties page by following this knowledge base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328306

Now seeing as I've just saved you £60 maybe you should PayPal me £30 for the help!!!!

Update: It seems MS has been moving some settings around in the Standard version of SQL 2005, so in case this is effecting you and the above hasn't worked, make sure you check the following (thanks AC):

Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy > IP Security Policies on Local Computer > Default Security Policy > Double-click "MSDE/MS SQL" > Filter Action tab > change to Deny or Permit

Awesome Photoshop Equivalent Alternative (and FREE)

2007-04-24T09:16:00Z

This week I was introduced to Paint.Net a free photo and image editing tool. Within 5 mins I realised it was missing 1 major feature crucial to a web developers toolkit - Photoshop PSD support. A quick Google an hey-presto someone's already written a plugin for it! Just download it and add it to the FileTypes folder (then restart app).

For all those Photoshop Elements users, this pretty much does everything you've been used to but without the memory leaks, processor rapage and system crashes. It's also a extremely usable equivalent to Photoshop itself.

The only let down is that doesn't support layered PNG's (aka Fireworks files) and there is no built in vector graphics which is why I use Fireworks.

So what you waiting for download it and checkout the user packed forums for other plugins and feature requests (I'll be putting mine in later)

P.S One final thing, if you are missing a feature such as move marquee or add to marquee etc try using right click first tends to be there!!

Visual Studio 2003 on Vista

2007-04-11T14:12:00Z

Microsoft has kindly removed the need for FrontPage extensions in Vista (or so it thought) and also have said they do not "support" Visual Studio 2003 nice coincidence!! If are a .net 1.1er (web especially) you'll know you need Front Page extensions to open any web based projects (out of the box at least). Therefore Microsoft has kindly screwed you in your path to upgrade!! However I have found a solution (thanks to Fritz Onion).

As you may or may not know a .net site is just a class library with a load of web forms which simply reference methods and classes stored in a compiled dll. So whats the point of all the FrontPage crap ?? (sorry don't have an answer and don't really care). So what the following bullets will explain to do is:

convert your individual solution to reference the project as a class library
convert the project file(s) to be a class library rather than a web site
change the debugger to run a url (so you can still "run" the project)
add the wizards to create web based items to the projects in the gui

So here's my brief step by step from Fritz Onion's guide (easier to read)

Copy the following file (or its equivilent on your particular set up)

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\VC#\CSharpProjectItems\WebProjectItems\webprojectitems.vsdir

To the following folder

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\VC#\CSharpProjectItems\LocalProjectItems

Do the same for VB, Java, etc if you use these languages
Delete any .webinfo files from the web project(s) folder(s)
Open any web project(s) .csproj/.vbproj file and change ProjectType attribute to "Local" rather than "Web"
Create a solution file for the project (in VS) and/or open current solution file in notepad
If current file:- change the web site reference(s) of the .csproj/.vbproj files to a local file location rather than a http based one
Open the solution file in Visual Studio (if not already open)
If new file:- add the projects to the solution
Open the "All Configurations" tab in the project(s) properties and point the OutputPath to the /bin folder of your website for both Debug and Release build types (and any custom ones)
On the "Configuration Properties/Debugging" tab change the "Debug Mode" from "Project" to "URL" and enter the website URL into the relevant field
Set the Enable ASP.NET Debugging option to True

That worked for me but if you want a detailed break down follow Fritz's advanced guide.

New Job @ cScape

2007-03-28T12:20:00Z

Some of you may have heard that I've finally decided to move to pastures new (after only 1.5 years at Net Construct). My new future employer is a London based company called cScape who have decided to branch out to new locations as the rates being asked by potential London employees are extortionate and unrealistic to market rates. Therefore if they were to employ they would alienate the staff and have a real mess on there hands.

So they have decided to open a branch in Leeds and possibly one in Birmingham to additionally cater for customers further a field, who in the past they have turned away.

I'm going to be one of the first employees in the Leeds office (which is yet to be chosen) along with another dev, the "technical architect" who will be my boss and a project manager shortly after. Eventually the branch will grow into it's own satellite office with its own sales team etc bringing it its own work which Im hoping I will be a big part of.

I'm really looking forward to it as its a much more mature role and I will be working on large scale .net projects mainly featuring Share Point Server, of which they were the first company in the world to release a web based site based upon it, namingly Ministry of Sound/Hed Kandi, so its ideal for my career progression.

So wish me luck and if anyone's looking for a new role Im sure there will be jobs going soon!!!

Wrote myself a little hacking tool

2007-02-27T22:13:00Z

Since I've had my new flat I've wanted to be able to store all my data/music/videos on a single network location so I can access it from my laptop/xbox 360 or anythink else I like.

Now unfortunately the Xbox 360 is a little picky about where it gets its files from and officially you have to use Windows Media Connect or Media Center, but it also supports UPnP.

So to allow my 360 to gain access to a NAS device on my network without the need for a PC to piggyback (saving me electricity and resources). Luckily I have the very popular NetGear DG834GT which runs an embedded Linux distribution called BusyBox.

Now my plan is to somehow get TwonkyVision (a Linux UPnP server - supposedly compatible with my router) running on it then I will be able to share ALL my networked data via the router directly.

To help myself with the challenge I have written a little tool which allows me to use a URL injection backdoor to execute Linux commands on the router. For more information on it I will be monitoring the SkyUser forum (SKY provide the same router)

Get the latest version here: http://www.anthonymain.com/files/folders/183/download.aspx

Developing yourself out of a JOB!!!

2007-02-21T12:40:00Z

Recently I've reaslised a major risk for developers working in a development firm. Now many development companies design and develop products to help with their business processes with the aim to make them more efficient and tasks easier. The problem with this approach I have found is that if you develop tools which are that good and that flexbile you may run out of work to do. If there is little variation between your clients requirements you may find that you have developed yourself in to user and all you have to do to create new solutions is drag/drop/complete forms.

The only solution I think there can be is that you create enough variety in your client requirements to make the development experience more varied for the developer. Again this has a knock on effect as you will then be able to add that functionality into the tool and therefore widening the range of nondevelopment work required.

Looks like the days of the skilled developer are getting numbered and soon everyone and more accurately their dog will be able to create complex, dynamic, interactive solutions within a mater of hours and copy and pastes.

House Warming

2007-02-12T13:30:00Z

So for those of you that don't know (I havent had time to Blog about it) I recently bought a flat. So to celebrate I had a good old knees up with my friends. Theres some photos on my Flickr (not that I know how to use it) and they are all a bit blurry but still you might be interested.....

Useful T-SQL and SAM AND MAX ARE BACK BABY!!!!

2007-02-02T16:21:00Z

Seeing as Im am probably one of the readers of this blog I tend to use it to keep a track of handy developer tips and tools to aid in my development life. Well todays tip is a T-SQL one which I have found to be a saving grace when moving databases all around the place. Basically if you move a database but don't have logins previously set up for the accounts that move with it they will not be associated. Now there isn't anyway to link them up even if you create one that matches at a later date in the GUI so you'll be needing this little script, enjoy:

sp_change_users_login 'Update_One', 'username', 'username'

On a happy friday feeling note, I've just found out that the classic game of my generation - Sam and Max has finally made a return despite many attempts and rewrites it has returned in a novel (which is going to be a more common method of distribution for games) episodic 3D game. You can get the game online in seperate episodes or buy them all for a discount and download them when they come out. If you don't know what Im talking about check out the website for lots of fun, games, comics and video.

Few things (Goodbye Moddin'.net)

2007-01-30T08:45:00Z

Firstly welcome to my new server. Have ditched the old Texas based box we've had for the past 2 years and now have a new (Dual Core - 2gb ram) dedicated bad boy hosted in the UK. This this is soooo much faster and much much easier to manage.

I also (have yet to mention here) that one of my other past times - Moddin'.net has sadly closed its doors after 6.5 years of serving the computer moddin' community. It's a sad day, but unfotunately the team just didn't have the time or the resources to keep things running and we we no longer offering a worth while service to our readers.

On a positive note mind some of the forums members have spun off their own modding site, which I wish them all the best with it, and hopefully they will be getting some of the old sites content once you've got the convertor tweaked right.

No more messing - true Geek now!!

2007-01-11T09:03:00Z

OK so becoming an MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) was just childsplay as yesterday I took the 3rd MCP and passed with a killer score of (95.2% - thanks TestKing) p0wning Cam's ar5e and being the first 2 developers in our company to become MCAD's (Microsoft Certified Application Developers).

So you can all now bow down and kiss my shoes!!

There is one minor flaw though in all the work we've done getting certified and that is - its already out of date!! See we have just passed our MCAD in .Net 1.1 and now Microsoft have devised a whole new testing stategy for the .Net 2.0 Framework. Luckily though we can take 1 more exam (instead of the 3 different exams required) which will "upgrade" our qualification to an MCPD (Microsoft Certified Professional Developer) grade . The MCPD paths are more specific to the job role, so for example I would be an MCPD Web Developer rather than an application developer.

So thats the next stage in my plan to over throw the world, then who knows maybe Technical Architect?? (thats where the big bucks are).

Again you can view my shared transcript by using the following credentials:

Transcript ID: 739838
Access Code: anthony123