Back from LapLand
We went to LapLand to see some snow, but there's not much of it ... only a few inches deep. Plus it was only -1 whereas its normally -12 this time of year ... global warming scary! We did all the Lappish stuff like snow biking, huskies, and reindeer as well as the Ice Hotel .... brrrr... too cold! Lappish food isnt really to my taste, most generic meat in some consolidated form, so I was really glad to find that the kids section (with fries, nuggets and frankfurters) was unguarded every day. If you go, don't stay too long and make sure you have things to do there organised before you go.
Double Dropping
Double dropping was a term I was unfamiliar with before this week. I never wish to hear or experince it again! Double dropping is where the airline discover they have inbalanced their passenger manifests and decide to stop at another airport after you have taken off on your direct 'non-stop' flight. We took off from Gatwick and 'dropped' in to Manchester where we had to change seats whilst a few more people got on. What is most inconventient about the whole process isnt the landing and passenger embarkation (which was very quick just 10 mins), its the extra 75 minutes they made us wait on the ground doing nothing. Fortunately on the way out we were on a brand new 737-800 from Excel which was spacious and very nice. On the way back we were on an original 737-200 belonging to European which looked like it had done a tour of duty in Vietnam 30 years ago. Anyway, if your operator says you are non-stop complain loudly if they double drop you, its no fun.
Tempatation wins again ...
I couldn't help myself ... I installed Longhorn Server 6001 in a VM to see what's new. One of the cool things for Vista and Longhorn server is that you don't have to enter a valid key any more and it will keep working for 30 days, which is coincidentally my normal rebuild schedule. Anyway the WIM in this build includes Enterprise and Enterprise Core SKU's and I installed the full fat Enterprise version.
Install was quick, about 20 minutes and it seems to have inherited some UI tidy up and icons from Vista. At rest memory usage is ~345MB.
More to follow soon ...
Install was quick, about 20 minutes and it seems to have inherited some UI tidy up and icons from Vista. At rest memory usage is ~345MB.
More to follow soon ...
New Longhorn Server build available
MS just posted a new Longhorn Server update, build 6001-16406-061208-1900. Hopefully this will be in sync with the Vista updates. Longhorn Server release should coincide with the availability of Vista SP1, keeping the kernels in sync. Won't have a chance to look at this until after xmas now ...
Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Vista Update is available
At last the update for VS2005 when used on Vista is available, albeit in beta. Why this couldn't have been synchronised with SP1 over the past x years of Vista development I don't know. I've heard the arguments about getting SP1 out first then Vista, but hey, its not like Vista is a big surprise, its been in development for years....
Anyway, you can get ite here : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fb6bb56a-10b7-4c05-b81c-5863284503cf&DisplayLang=en
The release notes are here : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=929470
Anyway, you can get ite here : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fb6bb56a-10b7-4c05-b81c-5863284503cf&DisplayLang=en
The release notes are here : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=929470
The worst Christmas of my life
The excellent 'worst' saga recomenced on BBc1 tonight, with two further episodes coming on Thursday and Friday this week. This is one of the funniest occasional series on TV and you should watch it if you can, where everything that can go wrong or be misinterpreted is, the humour is obvious and somehow its funnier for it. In my world I refer to these type of events as the 'Twilight Zone' where things that are impossible happen in front of my eyes, you know, unknown and never to be seen again error messages emerge from the OS you are working on, and bog standard actions that normally work first time, every time suddenly no longer work ...
HTC S620 flaw ...
and the flaw is that the battery cover just slides off whilst the phone is in my pocket. Most annoying finding the phone in bits when I want to use it. There is not enough tension when the backplate is in place to hold it on. Bah!
How Aero Works
There's a useful whitepaper on how Windows Aero works and certainly highlighted a couple of things to me that I had been unaware of. One thing is that there is an Aero state that looks like Vista Basic but is in fact fully compositioned and is using the DWM. Its called Opaque, and the reason it looks confusing is it has the properties of Aero Glass but the borders are not transparent. As the author points out, a sure fire way to check if Aero is running is to hit Win+Tab keys and see if you get the 3D window stack displayed known as 'Flip 3D'. Anyway, if your job requires you to support Vista this is a worthwhile read and quite interesting, although somewhat superficial.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/aero_rules.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/aero_rules.mspx
The eSATA MultiLane Highway
This is just a really cool idea. I heard about this a while ago, but only started to look at it recently after my drive caught fire and then kindly destroyed my whole PC. MultiLane uses the infiniband cable standard to join 4 SATA drives contained in an external box directly to a PC using two special backplates and one single, robust infiniband cable. All the remaining internal cabling is standard SATA. So you get the full 3GBps per channel and the infiniband just has all four SATA cores bundled in one thick cable. The PC backplanes cost about £10, the infiniband cable is about £35 and a 4 drive cabinet with interface is about £70.
Why bother ? well I can now externalise my SATA drives and have none inside the PC itself whilst still using them to boot my PC. This reduces power and heat inside the PC case, and makes the drives transportable to any other PC with the £10 backplane installed. Obviously the external drive array is 'dumb' and has no inherent abilities like RAID which still have to be provided form the host PC, but this is ok, after all its just a bunch of disks (JBOD) not a server...
There is some good background info here http://www.satacables.com/html/sata_multilane-solutions.html
Picture courtesy of http://www.satacables.com
Why bother ? well I can now externalise my SATA drives and have none inside the PC itself whilst still using them to boot my PC. This reduces power and heat inside the PC case, and makes the drives transportable to any other PC with the £10 backplane installed. Obviously the external drive array is 'dumb' and has no inherent abilities like RAID which still have to be provided form the host PC, but this is ok, after all its just a bunch of disks (JBOD) not a server...
There is some good background info here http://www.satacables.com/html/sata_multilane-solutions.html
Picture courtesy of http://www.satacables.com
Visual Studio 2005 SP1
VS2005 SP1 is now out of beta and can be downloaded now. The Team Suite download is a whopping 431MB ... Thats some patch! The release notes can be read online here http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=928957. There are some really important bug fixes in here, especially some of the IDE stability fixes. Still doesn't quite bring us into sync with Vista which is being addressed in another service pack release due soon.
Anyway, you can download the Team Suite SP1 here ... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb4a75ab-e2d4-4c96-b39d-37baf6b5b1dc&DisplayLang=en
Anyway, you can download the Team Suite SP1 here ... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bb4a75ab-e2d4-4c96-b39d-37baf6b5b1dc&DisplayLang=en
Skype for the WindowsMobile Smartphone
I was just looking at the Skype site today and saw they have a beta client for WindowsMobile Smartphone (and PPC). Here in the UK it only really makes sense to use it over WiFi as data isnt flat rate so its good to see that as an option. Anyway try it out here ...
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/download/skype/mobile/downloading_smart_beta.html
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/download/skype/mobile/downloading_smart_beta.html
Smartphone or PPC ?
I'm always asked why my WindowsMobile device of choice is a Smartphone, and not a PocketPC. Simply put, for me there is no advantage in a PocketPC, in fact the opposite is true. I really dislike the form factor and particularly the touch screen as it makes my life more difficult through 2-handed usage. I understand some people need the PocketPC form factor for LOB applications, but I don't have one of those, and my primary usage requirement is as a phone.
Two PocketPC devices have almost turned me, and both for the same reason. The HTC Convertible (i-Mate JasJar) and the HP iPaq 4300 both had clear 640x480 screens which were very attractive. But reality soon homed in and forced me back to the Smartphone form factor. For me Smartphones like the HTC-620, Samsung i320 and Blackjack are the way to go for my day to day usage.
Two PocketPC devices have almost turned me, and both for the same reason. The HTC Convertible (i-Mate JasJar) and the HP iPaq 4300 both had clear 640x480 screens which were very attractive. But reality soon homed in and forced me back to the Smartphone form factor. For me Smartphones like the HTC-620, Samsung i320 and Blackjack are the way to go for my day to day usage.
S620 Direct Push
The AKU on the HTC S620 includes Direct Push technology for Exchange server. Trouble is even if you are not using it or connected to Exchange, it still brings up GPRS. So if you aren't using it then go to Connection Manager and turn off Direct Push and GPRS won't keep coming up.
HTC S620 vs Samsung SGH-i320
These are the two hottest shipping Microsoft smartphones, so which one is best ? unfortunately its just not that simple. Size wise the Samsung is very slightly smaller and thinner (just), but the S620 has a nice big display. In the hand the i320 feels better but its non-standard connectors is just an oversight too far. I find both keyboards usable although the S620's is bigger. The S620 has the most recent WM5 AKU.
Both are really well screwed together but, overall whilst the Samsung feels nicest in my hand, but the S620's bigger display and standard connectors win me over.
Both are really well screwed together but, overall whilst the Samsung feels nicest in my hand, but the S620's bigger display and standard connectors win me over.
WindowsMobile 6.0 'Crossbow'
I'm forbidden by NDA from talking about upcoming info I know about WindowsMobile, but every now and then something slips into the public domain and that I can comment on. Today, I noticed that MS Mobiles have a spread about WindowsMobile 6.0 with loads of pictures of some 'Crossbow' flashed devices (http://msmobiles.com/news.php/5846.html).
I think the most interesting thing, though probably the most impractical, is Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the Smartphone. Unfortunately, the resolution really doesn't work here, and scrolling round a spreadsheet where you can only see 2-3 columns and 9-15 rows is very confusing!
I think the most interesting thing, though probably the most impractical, is Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the Smartphone. Unfortunately, the resolution really doesn't work here, and scrolling round a spreadsheet where you can only see 2-3 columns and 9-15 rows is very confusing!
montavista Linux on the Sony PRS-500
I just found out that my PRS-500 has a Linux OS ... its actually Hard Hat Linux from montavista (http://www.mvista.com/). I know montavista as the OS providers for some of the Motorola Linux phones I have seen.
I found the sources for the PRS-500 hidden deep on Sony's site (http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/PRS-500U.html). Here's whats available ...
The question is, what can I do with this information ? Although Sony provide the source, theres no build environment, no flashing tools, no documentation. I don't really want to buy a montavista Linux Pro Dev environment, so I guess I'll never know!
I found the sources for the PRS-500 hidden deep on Sony's site (http://www.sony.net/Products/Linux/Download/PRS-500U.html). Here's whats available ...
- EBOOK_1_2_0_P4.2_20051008_Linux_src.tgz
- USBTG_EBOOK4_20060801.tgz
- hhl-target-bash-2.05a-mvl3.0.0.1.src.rpm
- hhl-target-fileutils-4.1-mvl3.0.0.2.src.rpm
- hhl-target-findutils-4.1.7-mvl3.0.0.2.src.rpm
- hhl-target-gcc-3.2.1-mvl3.0.0.5.20.src.rpm
- hhl-target-glib-1.2.10-mvl3.0.0.7.src.rpm
- hhl-target-glibc-2.2.5-mvl3.0.0.15.14.src.rpm
- hhl-target-grep-2.4.2-mvl3.0.0.1.src.rpm
- hhl-target-hardhatutils-1.14-mvl3.0.0.10.src.rpm
- hhl-target-hostname-2.09-mvl3.0.0.1.src.rpm
- hhl-target-mkcramfs-2.4.16-mvl3.0.0.2.src.rpm
- hhl-target-mtd-utils-2.4.16_1.16-mvl3.0.0.2.src.rpm
- hhl-target-ncurses-5.2-mvl3.0.0.5.src.rpm
- hhl-target-openssl-0.9.7b-mvl3.0.0.1.097.src.rpm
- hhl-target-pam-0.72-mvl3.0.0.4.src.rpm
- hhl-target-procps-2.0.7-mvl3.0.0.3.src.rpm
- hhl-target-psmisc-20.1-mvl3.0.0.2.src.rpm
- hhl-target-sed-3.02-mvl3.0.0.2.src.rpm
- hhl-target-shellutils-2.0.11-mvl3.0.0.3.src.rpm
- hhl-target-sysvinit-2.78-mvl3.0.0.11.src.rpm
- hhl-target-tar-1.13.19-mvl3.0.0.3.src.rpm
- hhl-target-textutils-2.0-mvl3.0.0.2.src.rpm
- hhl-target-time-1.7-mvl3.0.0.1.src.rpm
- hhl-target-util-linux-2.11h-mvl3.0.0.4.src.rpm
- mtools-3.9.8.tgz
- src_librofb_060414.tgz
- src_libroi2s_060713.tgz
The question is, what can I do with this information ? Although Sony provide the source, theres no build environment, no flashing tools, no documentation. I don't really want to buy a montavista Linux Pro Dev environment, so I guess I'll never know!
Annual upgrade time
My PC recently burst into flames destroying almost everything except the graphics card. I was actually using it at the time! The seat if the fire was a small ASIC on a Maxtor drive which then seemed to cause damage via the SATA cable to the motherboard which then started smoking with the accompanying acrid smell of of components frying themselves. Bizarely this also killed the second drive in some way as it wont power up anymore.
So I consigned myself to the annual upgrade exchanging the AMD x64 X2 4400 for an Intel Quad QX6700, 2GB for 4GB, a nVidia 7900CTX for a nVidia 8800. I enjoy building PC's so putting it all together is a treat, but not without its woes ....
I bought the bits from a combination of ebuyer.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk to get the bits I wanted. ebuyer were a cool £100 cheaper than anyone else for the Intel QX6700 cpu, and the picture below probably shows why ....
It came packed loose in a small unmarked box, looking like it had been swept up by the cleaners the night before...but, despite my skepticism it worked! There was no fan but I had already selected a separate Freezer 7 Pro so I was ok.
For the motherboard I picked the ASUS P5W64 WS Pro which I hadn't given much thought to apart from it supported the QX6700. The main deficiency for me with this otherwise excellent motherboard is that it only has 2 PCI slots and 4 PCI-E slots for 4 graphics cards. One of the interesting improvements about this mobo is that you can put a ROM upgrade onto a USB key or disk and it will recognise the device from the BIOS and load the file ... cool!
For the case I was using my ever trusted option, the Antec Sonatta II which is close to silent with its 450 watt PSU. However, with all this extra power requirement I went to the local PCWorld and purchased a Jeantec 700W Silent PSU which has a natty wattage indicator on it. However it went straight back and from the moment it was switched on it was like standing in a wind tunnel .... xtreme noise! I did like its modular cabling system though, where the internal cables are supplied separately and you only use the ones you need. What I did notice though was that at standstill, the Jeantec was only reporting 200W usage ... so I swapped back to the antec which I'm very happy with.
Finally its all working, and its quick and quiet.
So I consigned myself to the annual upgrade exchanging the AMD x64 X2 4400 for an Intel Quad QX6700, 2GB for 4GB, a nVidia 7900CTX for a nVidia 8800. I enjoy building PC's so putting it all together is a treat, but not without its woes ....
I bought the bits from a combination of ebuyer.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk to get the bits I wanted. ebuyer were a cool £100 cheaper than anyone else for the Intel QX6700 cpu, and the picture below probably shows why ....
It came packed loose in a small unmarked box, looking like it had been swept up by the cleaners the night before...but, despite my skepticism it worked! There was no fan but I had already selected a separate Freezer 7 Pro so I was ok.
For the motherboard I picked the ASUS P5W64 WS Pro which I hadn't given much thought to apart from it supported the QX6700. The main deficiency for me with this otherwise excellent motherboard is that it only has 2 PCI slots and 4 PCI-E slots for 4 graphics cards. One of the interesting improvements about this mobo is that you can put a ROM upgrade onto a USB key or disk and it will recognise the device from the BIOS and load the file ... cool!
For the case I was using my ever trusted option, the Antec Sonatta II which is close to silent with its 450 watt PSU. However, with all this extra power requirement I went to the local PCWorld and purchased a Jeantec 700W Silent PSU which has a natty wattage indicator on it. However it went straight back and from the moment it was switched on it was like standing in a wind tunnel .... xtreme noise! I did like its modular cabling system though, where the internal cables are supplied separately and you only use the ones you need. What I did notice though was that at standstill, the Jeantec was only reporting 200W usage ... so I swapped back to the antec which I'm very happy with.
Finally its all working, and its quick and quiet.
Best xmas Ad
After much discussion yesterday, we've narrowed our top 3 to :
I think its safe to say, Shirley Bassey can make any song sound like a Bond theme.
- Marks & Spencer - Shirley Bassey 'lets get this party started'
- Debenhams - Eartha Kitt 'Santa Baby'
- Boots - 'Epoca' by Gotan Project
I think its safe to say, Shirley Bassey can make any song sound like a Bond theme.
The Sony PRS-500, the disappointment ...
Well I tried it, and it doesn't meet the hype, well for me anyway. For more than 10 years I've been waiting for a usable ebook, and this isnt it. The basic problem is that the DPI setting for the 6" 800x600 screen just isnt good enough to match print. Its also expensive, but feels cheap, and has the aesthetics of a childrens leap pad. The PC reader software is clumsy and ugly and doesnt work on Vista. Page turning is painfully slow and you have to plan for it to happen. Its as if it goes away and renders the next page only when you press the advance the page button, and displays it 2 seconds later, not really acceptable. Its also nearly a year late after appearing at CES 2006.
The iRex Iliad looks like it might have a slight edge on display as it uses a bigger 8.1" 1024x768 display, although I think page turning is as lethargic as the Sony.
The iRex Iliad looks like it might have a slight edge on display as it uses a bigger 8.1" 1024x768 display, although I think page turning is as lethargic as the Sony.
Kudos to MS for E12 availability
Well this must be the fastest turnaround I've seen from MS. From RTM announcement to availability in one day. Well done and thanks!
JET Blue ?
Someone immediately asked what is JET Blue ? Well JET (Joint Engine Technology) is the database engine Microsoft originally developed for the Access database product. This version became 'JET Red', whilst a specially adapted version for hierachical data structures became 'JET Blue' aka the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) used in Exchange and for the Active Directory. Hope that answers the question.
Exchange 2007 RTM
Exchange 2007 has now RTM'd. The TAP is over. I've installed all the beta's and interims to date and I think its a great product. Got me thinking back to when I first heard of Microsoft Exchange (4.0) back in 1994. Its codename was Touchdown and I've still got the original double CD pack containing the First Look beta. Back then there was no Outlook client just the standard mail client which was a revamp of the existing MSMail client app, but it was a huge step forward from MS MAil 3.2 server as it had a 'JET Blue' based single instance store rather than using the filesystem to store messages. Personally I've had a long history with Exchange as we wrote some of the core code for Exchange 2000 here in the UK for the AD interforest integration. Exchange has certainly come a long way in 12 years. More info at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/default.mspx
Why is Longhorn Server Core so fat ?
I've asked this to the dev team but sadly, no response yet. Longhorn Server core is supposed to be a stripped out lightweight racer of a server os ... yet its default install on my test server yields a 320MB memory footprint. Compare this to a sub 100MB footprint for a base Win2K3 Server and you see what I mean. Now I know I've gone on long and hard about how fat Vista is but memory usage is a real issue. When you have to deploy multiple servers the memory cost soon increases exponentially.
So I'm rebuilding a new WIM image that I'm calling Core evo, that will be a truly stripped out base OS . For those DAT people who remember my 35MB bootable NT4.0 install, you know where I'm going with this (CSFB'ers remember my LARD image).
There's a newer build than 5744 coming soon, hopefully next week, so I'll be starting with that. Watch this space!
So I'm rebuilding a new WIM image that I'm calling Core evo, that will be a truly stripped out base OS . For those DAT people who remember my 35MB bootable NT4.0 install, you know where I'm going with this (CSFB'ers remember my LARD image).
There's a newer build than 5744 coming soon, hopefully next week, so I'll be starting with that. Watch this space!
Where are you DX10 ?
It irks me somewhat that after years of development on Vista one of the core elements for graphics, DirectX10, does not have any available drivers ... I have a DX10 capable card but under Vista it shows up as a nasty 640x480 generic VGA adapter. How can this be ?
As an aside, my DX10 card has more memory a processing power than most average coporate PC's with a whopping 768MB RAM (WOW!). If you are as old as me then you will probably remember seeing huge indigo colured cubes costing thens of thousands of pounds made by SGi for advanced graphics in Bank data centres which would seem positively lethargic in comparisson to these cards. Progress is truly amazing!
As an aside, my DX10 card has more memory a processing power than most average coporate PC's with a whopping 768MB RAM (WOW!). If you are as old as me then you will probably remember seeing huge indigo colured cubes costing thens of thousands of pounds made by SGi for advanced graphics in Bank data centres which would seem positively lethargic in comparisson to these cards. Progress is truly amazing!
My Favourite Device!
Until David or Todd get me an SPL, this is my favourite device, the Samsung SGH-i320. Its super thin at 11mm and although the keys look fiddly they are actually easy to use one-handed, and because its WM5 smartphone it is suitable for one-handed operation.
It only has two flaws; firstly and most importantly it uses a proprietary data/power cable and not micro-USB like any sensible device would; and secondly, the micro-SD is inside the unit and not accessible outside. Other than that its great!
It only has two flaws; firstly and most importantly it uses a proprietary data/power cable and not micro-USB like any sensible device would; and secondly, the micro-SD is inside the unit and not accessible outside. Other than that its great!
RDP 6.0 Materialises
I forgot to mention this the other day when I heard about it, so I'm making amends now. The latest RDP client (6.0) is available for XP and W2K3 (not sure if it works on Win2K) and it adds a feature I was really waiting for by adding monitor spanning.
Of course I'm a bit sentimental about RDP clients because way back when, I architected and protoyped TSLB, which we then formalised into Panther Server, the first Citrix competitor, beating New Moon to the punch on technology but unfortunately not on marketing.
I was recently asked how we came up with the name Panther, which incidentally got us into a bit of a legal tussle with Apple over their OS X code names. The name came on the spur of the moment when David was on the phone to Microsoft explaining what we had developed and he needed a name there and then and Panther just popped into my head as a temporary codename, but then stuck as the actual product name. Shortly after that Peter Bergler who was then PM for TS in Microsoft came over to the UK for a few days and did a technology review so he could approve it for use in Microsoft presentations, which he did. Incidentally I remember him showing us some cool technology that was forthcoming for Terminal Services which I have never seen implemented yet, even in the most recent Longhorn Server build (5744).
Anyway, you can download it here ... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=26f11f0c-0d18-4306-abcf-d4f18c8f5df9&DisplayLang=en
Mstsc /span
Of course I'm a bit sentimental about RDP clients because way back when, I architected and protoyped TSLB, which we then formalised into Panther Server, the first Citrix competitor, beating New Moon to the punch on technology but unfortunately not on marketing.
I was recently asked how we came up with the name Panther, which incidentally got us into a bit of a legal tussle with Apple over their OS X code names. The name came on the spur of the moment when David was on the phone to Microsoft explaining what we had developed and he needed a name there and then and Panther just popped into my head as a temporary codename, but then stuck as the actual product name. Shortly after that Peter Bergler who was then PM for TS in Microsoft came over to the UK for a few days and did a technology review so he could approve it for use in Microsoft presentations, which he did. Incidentally I remember him showing us some cool technology that was forthcoming for Terminal Services which I have never seen implemented yet, even in the most recent Longhorn Server build (5744).
Anyway, you can download it here ... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=26f11f0c-0d18-4306-abcf-d4f18c8f5df9&DisplayLang=en
U3 Hold onto your socks!
U3 (http://www.u3.com) is a way of being able to run your own apps off a USB pen drive on any computer without leaving a footprint behind or installing anything on the host computer. This is a very cool concept. I'm not sure I'm keen on how U3 have implemented it, but there it is (everyones a critic).
So ... watch out for a new app from altaVENTE in Jan that will be U3 compliant and U3PC (I just made that up) which will just blow your socks off, especially if you work in a corporate environment. I've already written the prototype in VB.Net and ... fingers crossed it will be tidied up by Dev and tested so I can confidently ship it as soon as possible. Sorry can't give much more away.... but did I mention you should hold onto your socks?
So ... watch out for a new app from altaVENTE in Jan that will be U3 compliant and U3PC (I just made that up) which will just blow your socks off, especially if you work in a corporate environment. I've already written the prototype in VB.Net and ... fingers crossed it will be tidied up by Dev and tested so I can confidently ship it as soon as possible. Sorry can't give much more away.... but did I mention you should hold onto your socks?
OWA 2007 Password Changing
If you are a fellow E12 TAP participant, or just running the beta and you need to let your users change passwords from OWA then this PowerShell one-liner is just what you need...
Set-OwaVirtualDirectory "owa (Default Web Site)" -ContactsEnabled:$True -ChangePasswordEnabled:$True
ALP 2 I-Mate
Congratulations to all at ALP on becoming part of I-Mate yesterday. Well done to David for making something successful from scratch, I know how much hard work it was. Well done!
Black Monday
For all those affected today just contact me if I can do anything to help. I'll do whatever I can to help.
7th Heaven
Well I've now had two months to get used to my new BMW 730. This is my 4th 7-Series over the years comprising a 735i, a 728i and most recently two back to back 730's. I've loved each one so far, even though they definitely aren't the best cars I've ever owned.
With this latest 730 I had the opportunity to get it built to spec, even so I only had 1 option, the must-have sports steering wheel which really makes a difference. This wheel feels smaller and tightens the steering and my fingers fall naturally onto the paddle shift, so much so that I practically always use it in manual mode unless on the motorway.
This time I told myself I didn't need the options from the previous 730, but its amazing how I miss self closing doors and boot ... !
There a re a few improvements over the previous model year such as tyre pressure warming and very freaky automatic Beam/Dip xenon lights which auto dip when they see another car and then beam when they are gone. The I-Drive has had a minor overhaul but neither the voice command or GPS have significantly improved with the voice control still utterly useless and rather unbelievably the GPS only able to cope with the first part of a post code ... what use is that? Certainly not a usable improvement on no post code before.
Oh, and becuase it was an October 06 build I got the just introduced iPod connector ... now if only the next/prev and volume controls could control the iPod...
All in all, I still like 7's
With this latest 730 I had the opportunity to get it built to spec, even so I only had 1 option, the must-have sports steering wheel which really makes a difference. This wheel feels smaller and tightens the steering and my fingers fall naturally onto the paddle shift, so much so that I practically always use it in manual mode unless on the motorway.
This time I told myself I didn't need the options from the previous 730, but its amazing how I miss self closing doors and boot ... !
There a re a few improvements over the previous model year such as tyre pressure warming and very freaky automatic Beam/Dip xenon lights which auto dip when they see another car and then beam when they are gone. The I-Drive has had a minor overhaul but neither the voice command or GPS have significantly improved with the voice control still utterly useless and rather unbelievably the GPS only able to cope with the first part of a post code ... what use is that? Certainly not a usable improvement on no post code before.
Oh, and becuase it was an October 06 build I got the just introduced iPod connector ... now if only the next/prev and volume controls could control the iPod...
All in all, I still like 7's
VS2005 & Vista ... Doh!
Note to myself ... don't forget to run VS2005 in elevated mode on Vista to avoid the UAC causing unecessary issues. Now this is a bit of a bugbear for me, why don't Microsoft apps work in limited user mode ? I mean its not like this is restricted to Vista, its only because most XP users run in administrator mode that they don't encounter problems which now the UAC in Vista catches. Actually, whilst I think about it, this ranks up there with why don't Microsoft make their client apps in x64 editions ? Must be because they spend so much time telling us ISV's to make x64 editions that run in limited user mode they forget to do it themselves!
DACLs on a registry key
I needed to check DACL write access to a registry key in a script and so I went and got a piece of sample code off MSDN and guess what? It had errors! I'm not sure who checks MSDN samples but this isnt the first time I've had to correct sample code. I've reported the error but since an error I reported 2 years ago is still on MSDN I'm not holding out much hope.
Anyway, if you want a working sample then here it is ...
Const KEY_QUERY_VALUE = &H0001
Const KEY_SET_VALUE = &H0002
Const KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY = &H0004
Const DELETE = &H00010000
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
strComputer = "."
Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & _
strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
strKeyPath = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet"
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, KEY_QUERY_VALUE, _
bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
Wscript.Echo "Have Query Value Access Rights on Key"
Else
Wscript.Echo "Do Not Have Query Value Access Rights on Key"
End If
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, KEY_SET_VALUE, _
bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
Wscript.Echo "Have Set Value Access Rights on Key"
Else
Wscript.Echo "Do Not Have Set Value Access Rights on Key"
End If
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY, _
bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
Wscript.Echo "Have Create SubKey Access Rights on Key"
Else
WScript.WriteLine "Do Not Have Create SubKey Access Rights on Key"
End If
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, DELETE, bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
wscript.echo "Have Delete Access Rights on Key"
Else
wscript.echo "Do Not Have Delete Access Rights on Key"
End If
Anyway, if you want a working sample then here it is ...
Const KEY_QUERY_VALUE = &H0001
Const KEY_SET_VALUE = &H0002
Const KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY = &H0004
Const DELETE = &H00010000
Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
strComputer = "."
Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & _
strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")
strKeyPath = "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet"
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, KEY_QUERY_VALUE, _
bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
Wscript.Echo "Have Query Value Access Rights on Key"
Else
Wscript.Echo "Do Not Have Query Value Access Rights on Key"
End If
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, KEY_SET_VALUE, _
bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
Wscript.Echo "Have Set Value Access Rights on Key"
Else
Wscript.Echo "Do Not Have Set Value Access Rights on Key"
End If
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, KEY_CREATE_SUB_KEY, _
bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
Wscript.Echo "Have Create SubKey Access Rights on Key"
Else
WScript.WriteLine "Do Not Have Create SubKey Access Rights on Key"
End If
oReg.CheckAccess HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKeyPath, DELETE, bHasAccessRight
If bHasAccessRight = True Then
wscript.echo "Have Delete Access Rights on Key"
Else
wscript.echo "Do Not Have Delete Access Rights on Key"
End If
Thanks MS!
Microsoft sent me my complimentary Vista key today as a thank-you for participating in the Vista Tech Beta, so thanks Microsoft! I've been pretty critical of Vista, and rightly so in my opinion, but it's still nice to be remembered and rewarded even if Vista is a pale shadow of what I hoped it would be.
Interestingly, it seems like the key isn't all that important to me as I rebuild my PC every few weeks, and the keyless entry during install allows for 30 days before activation meaning I will probably only activate rarely. Surely this is a loophole ...
Interestingly, it seems like the key isn't all that important to me as I rebuild my PC every few weeks, and the keyless entry during install allows for 30 days before activation meaning I will probably only activate rarely. Surely this is a loophole ...
