Onion PeelsOnion Peels.NET, Technology, Life, Whatever. Mostly about .NET and ASP.NET but don't hold me to it. Articles
OpenDNS = Instant Speed Boost
2007-11-25 14:28:00 Want to improve your Internet connection right now? Simple. Just head over to OpenDNS and follow the directions to setup your computer or router to point to OpenDNS. If you're not sure what a DNS is or why you should care, seriously, take 5 minutes to head over to the site and read their excellent materials. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the service is FREE! Is it really faster? In my case, yes. I have a rule about performance increases. If I can't see it, feel it or otherwise sense it through casual use, then I don't think it's an improvement worth having. I figure most people like myself don't notice performance increases of 10% or less. Well, I do notice the difference when using OpenDNS. Probably has something to do with the Comcast DNS (my ISP) which has had news worthy outages in the past. YMMV. Still, even without the performance benefits there are good reasons to use OpenDNS. If your a parent (as I am) then you'll appreciate the filtering. You can block content ri... More About: Speed , Boost
C# 2.5? | Did it with .NET
2007-11-23 18:17:00 Hey, now here's a tip that's really useful and something I didn't realize. Many of the features of C# 3.0 are available when targeting the .NET 2.0 framework when developing with Visual Studio 2008. Visual Studio 2008's multi-targeting support for compiling projects to different versions of the .NET Framework is very powerful. Multi-targeting is a compelling feature because it enables users to continue working on solutions that target .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0 while upgrading to the latest and greatest IDE. What isn't obvious is that all projects, regardless of target, are compiled with the C# 3.0 compiler. That means users can employ many of the new C# 3.0 language features in legacy projects. The only language features that can't be used are those that require library support from .NET Framework 3.5, in essence, LINQ, Expression Trees and Extension Methods. Implicitly-typed local variables, lambda expressions, auto-implemented properties, object and collection initiali... More About: Programming
See 5000 Years Of Religion In 90 Seconds
2007-11-23 03:57:00 If you like history, you'll enjoy this. It's flashed based video that shows the expansion of religions over time. See 5000 Years Of Religion In 90 Seconds powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Links
6 Free Vista Utilities to Tweak and Improve Performance | MakeUseOf.com
2007-11-22 16:57:00 Some nice free discoveries here. Good to see some Vista specific tweak programs. Recommended. 6 Free Vista Utilities to Tweak and Improve Performance | MakeUseOf.com powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Freebies
Ala Crate - Nice
2007-11-20 03:40:00 I'm starting a new category and calling it Naughty & Nice in honor of the season. I buy products online all the time and prefer it to shopping at retail stores. Of course, like all things in life, there are good vendors and bad vendors. I'm documenting my online buying experiences under this category in hopes it will help others. I do not get paid for these endorsements. I simply relate my experiences as I see them.And the first entry goes to Ala Crate . Ordered a Logitech V270 Bluetooth Mouse on Friday afternoon and it was in my hands Monday evening. Product shipped within hours of ordering and was sent priority mail with tracking number. Nice!There online catalog leaves something to be desired but if you do find something you like, I expect you'll have it in short order. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog"
Safari Beta for Windows
2007-11-17 22:27:00 Amid all the announcements from Apple this week I found an updated beta of Safari quietly inserted. I've blogged about Safari before and found it a very good browser even with the bugs. The update fixes many of the issues Windows users found annoying. Chief among these is that you can easily resize and minimize the browser via standard windows commands and operations. Secondly, and almost equally important, is that you now have a choice between the Apple font smoothing technology and ClearType. It's great to have a choice on something so personal and subjective as font rendering. Safari works great under Vista. I've experienced no issues like crashes or excessive memory or slow downs. Is it faster than Firefox and IE as Apple claims? That's hard to say objectively. Subjectively, it certainly is no slouch. Pages do seem to snap to life a bit quicker but it's not a deal winner by any stretch. Firefox and IE are no laggards on my system. There are some issues that keep it from b... More About: Browsers , Freebies , Beta
Microsoft Office Accounting 2008 Free!
2007-11-16 00:53:00 Microsoft has updated its Office Accounting software, and just like last year, the company is offering free and paid versions. Office Accounting 2008 will set you back $199, while the slimmed down Office Accounting Express 2008 is available for free. If you run a small business with international clients, you might want to shell out a few bucks for the professional accounting package with support for things like multiple currencies and multi-user access. But if you're self employed and are just looking for a way to manage accounts, track invoices and bill payment, and a few other basic business features, the free version looks pretty nice. The 2008 edition also includes Spanish language support and integration with new online banking services. [from Download Squad] powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Microsoft , Freebies , Microsoft Office , Free
My Favorite VS 2008 Feature
2007-11-15 01:41:00 Visual Studio 2008 will be releasing soon. It's a nice evolutionary development of Visual Studio 2005 with no jarring changes or surprises. In general, things just seem to work better. I've been developing actively with beta 2 and have found it to be a pleasure to use. There are lots of little (and big) improvements but easily my favorite is the the "Remove and Sort" usings command. Click it and it will remove your unused using statements (say that 10 times) and sort them. Something us anal retentive types just can't resist. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Programming , Feature , Favorite , Favor
Instantly Create a Mobile Version of your Blog with MoFuse
2007-11-08 03:06:00 This is one easy way to setup mobile content for your blog. Signup, point MoFuse at your feed and add the mobile chicklet to your website. There's an SMS widget as well. See the sidebar for an examples of the chicklet and widget. Integration with Google AdSense is a snap. Include your AdSense publisher ID and Google AdSense ads are inserted into the mobile content automatically. Makes me wonder why feedburner.com didn't do this. Check out the mobile content for this blog. What is MoFuse MoFuse, or Mobile Fusion, is a web application that allows content publishers to easily and instantly create a mobile version of their blog or website. How Does It Work If your blog or website has an RSS feed, we will use that as the main source of content for your new mobile site. This will allow you to create your mobile site using MoFuse and forget about updating it. All you have to do is keep posting to your blog! You can also create static content pages. This gives you the ability to have... More About: Blog , Version , Create
Dual Monitor Wallpaper
2007-11-05 15:59:00 I have dual 1600 x 1200 screens here at work and have been trying to find some high quality photographs that will span the two monitors. I favor nature and landscape scenes although other subject matters are welcome. Problem is, I just can't find anything out there. I see a lot of 1024 dual monitor stuff but they just doesn't look that good expanded. The other thing I've found annoying is that some sites say they have 1600x1200 but then make me go through every photo to find the ones in my preferred size. So dear reader, if you know of links that fit the criteria above, please send them along. Much appreciated. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Wallpaper , Links , Monitor , Dual
Daylight Savings Time is ending, time to fall back
2007-11-04 14:41:00 From the Windows Vista Team Blog In 2007, Daylight Savings Time started on 11th March 2007, three weeks earlier than normal. Daylight Savings Time is ending this year one week later than usual, on 4th November (tomorrow). Because in 2007 we've had four more weeks of Daylight Savings Time, your PC's date and time may be affected when Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend. If you are a Windows Vista user and have Automatic Updates configured for Windows Update, you most likely already have the necessary update to ensure your date and time will make the change come the 4th. However, if you are unsure whether your Windows Vista PC has the update, you can go to the Daylight Savings Time Help and Support Center at Microsoft.com and use the associated wizard to get the necessary update for your PC. If your Windows Vista PC already has the update, when attempting to install the update you will be alerted that it does not apply to your system. Another way to check to see if your Windo... More About: Back , Ending
USB Flash DriveTip
2007-11-02 17:14:00 Here's a simple idea for identifying your USB flash drive. Add a file called Owner.txt to the root folder with your name, address, phone number, email and other contact information. I also offer a reward of replacing the USB flash drive with an equivalent size/quality if it's returned. If you're like most people, the data on the USB flash drive is worth more to you than the memory stick itself. There's no guarantee that the finder will return it but at least you've given them some motivation to try. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Flash
Testing BlogJet
2007-10-31 00:20:00 I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com "Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Links , Testing
Cool Clocks
2007-10-28 13:59:00 Any reader of this site soon discovers I like calendars. The corollary to this of course are clocks. Poodwaddle.com offers a myriad of flash clocks you can run on any web site. The selection is extensive and inventive. My favorite is the earth clock. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Freebies , Cool , Clocks
Vista One Month Later
2007-10-18 02:30:00 I mentioned earlier that I couldn't figure out why people hate Vista so much. I've found it to be stable fast and fun to use. I suspect the people who are railing on it so much either haven't used it or are predisposed to disliking anything Microsoft. Interestingly, I haven't found the need to tweak Vista much. It just works. Also, it seems like I run fewer applications on Vista because I just don't seem to need as many as I did in XP. For instance, I have not installed a desktop search utility because Vista comes with one that works well. It's been about a month now and I've used the system enough to think that most of the programs important to me are installed now. Here's a quick snap shot of what I've installed to date. AxCrypt - File Encryption for Windows. Right-click integration with Windows Explorer makes AxCrypt the easiest way to encrypt individual files in Windows. Double-click integration makes it as easy to open, edit and save encrypted files as it is to wo... More About: Freebies , Month , Mont
GOOG-411 graduates from Labs
2007-10-13 00:54:00 The idea is so simple and yet brilliant. Call the toll free number 1-800-GOOG-411 (4664-411) and using just your voice, get information about local businesses. It even dials for you. The voice recognition is excellent and apparently required extensive training. From Google: It's a voice-based local search service, which means it uses speech-recognition algorithms to recognize what a caller is saying and then finds the local business information he or she is looking for. These algorithms had to be trained with real utterances, much like how a baby learns language by listening to its parents. Since its unveiling in April, GOOG-411 has successfully served millions of callers. And we owe a big thanks to everyone who took our speech recognition algorithms from infancy to adulthood! To mark the occasion, they're celebrating with a brand new website that includes a fun video. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Technology , Freebies , Labs , Graduates
Make UAC Prompts Less Ugly
2007-10-06 02:19:00 Is it me or is the UAC prompt jarring? It dims the entire screen but instead of a smooth transition, it flashes. It then pops up a dialog and after you click "Continue", it "flashes" back to the desktop. It's jarring and entirely unnecessary. In Vista Business and Vista Ultimate you can run the Security Policy Manager (secpol.msc) and disable this flashing behavior. But in Vista Home and Home Premium, Security Policy Manager is not included. There is a way around this however. If you're comfortable using the registry editor (insert usual warning here about doing irreparable harm to your computer) it's easy to make this prompt a bit more friendlier. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindo wsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem] "Prompt OnSecureDesktop"=dword:00000000 Setting PromptOnSecureDesktop to zero will turn off the "jarring" behavior of UAC prompts. Instead, you get a dialog, plain and simple. If you're running as admin, you can disable the prompt entirely as follow... More About: Make , Ugly
Vista Firewall Control 32-bit version
2007-10-05 02:45:00 Microsoft has been touting the new Windows Firewall in Windows Vista , which it says for the first time includes an outbound filter as well as an inbound filter. Outbound filters are important because it keeps programs on your computer from making outbound connections to the Internet without your permission. Great idea but the problem is that the Windows firewall is all but impractical to manually configure. Vista Firewall Control is a free program from Sphinx Software that configures the Windows Vista firewall for you. In operation, it's similar to other firewall programs. Once it detects an outbound connection it checks to see if you have approved/disapproved it's use. If it's the first time, it pops up a dialog asking for your permission. There's a plus version (isn't there always a plus version) with more capabilities but the free version will likely serve your needs. This is a great way to keep your computer from making unwanted outbound connections. powered by B... More About: Freebies , Version
Laptop Keyboard Issue
2007-09-30 23:42:00 I mentioned in an earlier post that the new laptop I purchased has the FN and CTRL keys in the wrong position (IMHO). The CTRL key should be the left most key. I thought after a week or so I would get use to the new layout, but alas it is just not working out. The Left CTRL key is just to far right to be of any real use. I can not find a program that will reverse these two keys. I suspect a driver level solution is the only work around but I can't find one. But all is not lost. See that big fat Caps Lock key? Turns out there is a program available called Ctrl2Cap. It's written by Mark Russinovich of SysInternals fame. It converts the Caps Lock key to a CTRL key. Still not as convenient as the correct location but I'm finding it far easier to adjust to. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Freebies , Laptop , Keyboard , Issue
Three Useful Programs
2007-09-28 01:06:00 Now that I have my shiny new laptop I'm revisiting many of the programs I use. Over the last couple of days I've found some new and useful programs. jZip - A relative newcomer in the Zip market, jZip is perhaps not as full featured as WinZip but it makes up for this by being simple to use. One of my many grips about WinZip is that there is no folder view. jZip supports both folder and flat views. It's based on the 7-zip engine so you know it's fast and reliable. Neil's Color Picker - At 6.1 KB it's about as lightweight as they come. Hover over something with your mouse and press F7 and it copies the selected color to the clipboard. The format of the color code is configurable. SumatraPDF - This little guy just rocks. It has a minimalist design the favors simplicity over features. It loads fast up and because it's a single file with no external dependencies you can run it from an external USB drive as well. Small, fast, free and useful. What are you're favorites? ... More About: Freebies , Programs , Links , Grams , Gram
New Notebook, New Operating System
2007-09-25 04:12:00 My former laptop had a sudden "issue" that ultimately led me to buy a new laptop. I did the usual research and settled on a Gateway NX570X with Vista Home Premium, 2 GB of memory, 80 GB hard drive, the higher resolution (1680 x 1050) and Bluetooth. Delivered to my door it was $1005. The next closest competitor was about $200 more. My initial impressions of the Gateway NX570X are quite favorable. The 15.4 inch form factor is my preferred size for a laptop. The keyboard is big enough so that I don't "fat-finger" the keys, the higher resolution allows for more stuff on the screen, and it's about 2 pounds lighter than my old Dell Inspirion (RIP). There's the usual array of ports, most of which are located on the side of the system instead of the back and it even has a firewire connector which works nicely with my old video camera. The laptop vents out the side instead of the bottom like many laptops. You'll especially appreciate side vents if you use your notebook on your lap (no... More About: Technology , System , Operating System , Notebook , Operating
Improve your Wireless for Free
2007-09-08 13:30:00 In the "Why didn't I try this sooner" column add this tip. Improv e your wireless signal by moving the antenna. Yeah, brilliant you say. Really though, if your wireless throughput is lower than you'd like, try fiddling with the antenna position. In my case, the difference was dramatic. I have a Vonage enabled router similar to the one pictured here. I installed it as prescribed and it worked. However, I was only getting a low signal strength and 11 Mbps. That's fine for surfing the Internet I suppose but transferring files between computers and printing was a bit slow. The router is located in the basement and I'm on the first floor so the "number" didn't bother me all that much considering it was clear across the house and on another floor. I was about to make some aluminum antenna gadget to see if I could boost the signal when it occurred to me to just start fiddling with the antenna position (just because I can write programs doesn't mean I'm smart about technolo... More About: Wireless , Free , Prove
.NET Tip of the Day
2007-09-01 17:22:00 Just tripped across a nicely put together tip site for .NET called (what else?) .Net Tip of the Day. The tips are really good and the format is no-nonsense, get straight to the point. ASP topics are also included. I discovered several attributes that control debug output that I didn't know about. Here's an example.Use DebuggerDisplay attribute for a better debugger experienceApply DebuggerDisplay attribute to a class or member to determine how it is displayed in the debugger variable windows. For example, the following C# code causes "Count = 4" to be displayed in debugger:[DebuggerDisplay("Count = {count}")]class MyHashtable{ public int count = 4;}Definitely put this one on your blog roll. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Programming , The D
Komodo Edit is Free
2007-08-26 19:20:00 Komodo Edit , from Active State is the editor used in their flagship Komodo IDE product. The editor is now a separate download and is used as an enticement to buy the IDE product. This is a full-featured powerful editor and makes a great notepad replacement. While I prefer the the Visual Studio IDE for code development, often I'm editing other files like configs and XML and don't want to wait for the VS IDE to spool up. Add it to your "Send To" folder and it will always be handy. Here's a brief list of recently added features: Code Intelligence Redesigned Code Intelligence system: CSS, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl and XML support have been re-implemented with a new code intelligence system, providing improvements in autocompletion, calltips, the code browser, and overall performance. Go to Definition: A new option for quickly jumping to the definition of a code object (e.g. a variable, a subroutine, a module, etc.) under your cursor. Schema-based XML Autocomplete an... More About: Programming , Freebies , Free , Komodo
Day of .NET returns to Ann Arbor
2007-08-21 02:05:00 Day of .NET is a FREE .NET-only conference that is held annually in the Spring. Apparently it was so successful that it is being held biannually. I attended the event this Spring and was delighted at the quality of the content. It's sort of like a mini (very mini) PDC that Microsoft hosts every couple of years. The Ann Arbor fall event is scheduled for October 20th. The event is free but requires advanced registration. Lunch is included and there often vendors there with freebies. The lecture format is similar to Microsoft events like the PDC or one of the Microsoft "Launch" events. One lecture I attended was all about Google API's and how to access them with .NET. Very cool that they are willing to talk about competitors. Take a friend and compare notes. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Freebies
FileHamster
2007-08-18 03:27:00 Silly name but a great idea. FileHamster is a version tracking application for developers, graphic artists and other content creators that frequently modify existing files. FileHamster provides real-time backup and archiving of your files while you work. It enables you to monitor specific files on your hard drive and automatically create incremental backups whenever those files are modified. It also enables you to store notes about the changes that have been made, allowing you to quickly locate a specific revision or provide a detailed account of the work you've done on a project. It has many features, but is very easy to use and does not require any technical expertise - just point it to the directory or file you want to monitor/backup and it will do the rest. FileHamster pretty much lives up to its promises. It simply makes copies of your files as you edit or change them. It backs up to a location you specify. It basically gives you an automatic undo for anything you edit. even ... More About: Freebies
Bloget Alpha 9
2007-08-07 02:57:00 Bloget alpha 9 is available for download. It also marks the end of the alpha releases. There's an old saying in the software biz that goes something like, "Sometimes you have to just shoot the programmers and ship the darn thing." Well, I'm not going that far but my cat Euclid says it's time. So what's new? Mostly little stuff. I've decided to simplify the distribution from the example based format I was using earlier. There is now one file that contains the style sheet and web site. Normally, one uses external style sheets but I wanted to really drive home the point about just how little code it takes to write a fully functional blog using Bloget. I settled on a theme. It's inspired by this guy but I really only duplicated the look. The style sheet itself was not as compact and simple as I thought it could be so I started from scratch. The theme uses no images for layout so it's super fast. I think it's pretty darn cool that it describes an entire blog in just over a hund... More About: Alpha
Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2
2007-07-27 15:03:00 It's all over the net but just in case you missed it, here's the link to second beta of Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2. Equally interesting is Scott Gu's article on what's new and what to expect. It also includes a beta of version of .NET 3.5Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 is a preview release of the latest version of the .NET Framework. Many ISV?s, enterprises and Microsoft product teams are successfully building on the new features Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace in the .NET Framework 3.0. Microsoft plans to continue to invest in the .NET Framework developer platform and in support of existing users the .NET Framework 3.5 has a minimal number of breaking changes. powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Programming
Site Redesign
2007-07-21 04:25:00 I was getting tired of the old look. Here's a new look that's a nod to the Web 2.0 designs of late but without the "beta" emblems and rounded corners. I already get points for a silly name.What's interesting about this design is how much it accomplishes with so little.The CSS for the entire site is 40 lines. The banner graphics consist of just two 1K images. The images are thin vertical straight lines that are then repeated horizontally using a CSS repeat element. This makes the site very modem friendly without looking too plain.I'm also using Bloget in its standard mode without any template customizations. Again, I wanted to see just how far I could push the design using just CSS and standard HTML. I think it came out nicely.Bloget is coming along nicely. I've focused on usability in the upcoming release. Basically, if it annoyed me, I fixed it. I've also added some navigation aids in the administration section., started the long process of localization and streamlined the HT... More About: Freebies , Site , Redesign , Rede
Zip folders? But why?
More articles from this author:2007-07-20 15:40:00 <rant>It drives me crazy that Windows XP treats compressed files as folders. I get that this is "a feature", but I?m developing a nervous twitch from accidently clicking on zip files in the tree view pane in explorer. I fully never want to interact with a .zip file this way.</rant>Here?s how you can disable the thing, so that zip files are just files once again. What you need to do is unregister the ZipFldr.dll, which is the explorer extension that implements the Zip Files as Fold ers feature: open a command prompt [ Start / Run / c md.exe ] type the following commands: pushd %WINDIR%system32 regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll exit powered by Bloget™ - "One File, One Binary, One Blog" More About: Folder 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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