Aus/NZ MVPs

USB Flash Drive not working on Windows Vista? [SBSfaq.com Blog Site: Posts]

Wayne Small — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:48:16 -0500

Body:

I picked up a 16G Corsair Flash Voyager when I was in the US last month from Frys. It worked fine on my laptop but refused to work on my desktop. Instead I got the dialog box on below requesting drivers for it. Naturally I didn't have drivers for it.

I did some digging and found this article on their website. The Corsair website had some helpful FAQ's that I found at this link it had the instructions below.

Please try the following instructions to get your USB devices working properly in Windows Vista: 1. Go to Local Disk (C)/Windows/System32/Driverstore/Filerepository 2. Go to usbstor.inf ( click the one that is newest) 3. Copy the usbstor.inf and usbstor.PNF files. 4. After you have copied the two files go to Windows/inf folder and paste the files in that folder. Now your USB devices should work.

Now - in my case, I found that the usbstor.inf and usbstor.pnf files were both missing from the Windows/inf folder. I don't know why - but they were. Copy and replace as per instructions and it's working fine now.

Category: Troubleshooting

Published: 12/05/2008 10:48 PM

Attachments: http://blog.sbsfaq.com/Lists/Posts/Attachments/175/clip_image001_2.png
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Dynamic ordering with T-SQL [Rob Farley]

Rob Farley — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:07:28 -0500

This is an oldie, but a goodie. I was talking to Dave Gardiner about a question he had recently, the question of how to dynamically sort the results of a T-SQL query.

He was thinking of something like this:

--Not so useful - only works in a stored procedure
IF (@order = 'Column1')
SELECT * from Table1 ORDER BY Column1
ELSE IF (@order = 'Column2')
SELECT * from Table1 ORDER BY Column2

And one of the suggestions in his comments was to use the CASE statement:

--Not bad, but only works if the types are compatible
SELECT *
FROM Table1
ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @order = 'Column1' THEN Column1 ELSE Column2 END

This isn't bad, but if Column1 and Column2 are different types (well, incompatible types), you get an error when the ELSE clause is used.

A better solution is to remember that CASE gives NULL if there nothing is satisfied:

SELECT *
FROM Table1
ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @order = 'Column1' THEN Column1 END,
CASE WHEN @order = 'Column2' THEN Column2 END

This way, it's either ordered by "Column1, NULL" or by "NULL, Column2". Both times, it's the order we want, and we're doing it in a single query.

In the garden : Autumn wrap up [@ Head]

bill — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:04:00 -0500

Autumn is here:

In the orchard all the crops are in. The last was of course the Chestnuts:

As you can see, Chestnuts have a prickly outer shell:

Given this thorny outer defense, I was wondering what could possibly be eating them. As I discovered the Rosellas are actually very adept, and they wait till the outer casing opens enough for them to fetch the nuts out. I still got plenty of chestnuts, and on occasion roast a few in the fireplace on a cold autumn evening.

Apples were plentiful, and I've still got some. Although picked a month ago, they're still great for cooking.

In the veggie patch:

March was a month of extremes. The first two weeks were really hot ( > 5C above average), then the last two weeks cooled down. The hot weather made lots of the veggies ripen quickly. Cucumbers (now finished) went crazy, with dozens and dozens all ripening up. The tomatoes moved into full swing, and the capsicums also started turning nice shades of red:

The tomatoes and capsicum along with the last of the sweet basil continue to provide plenty for lots of pasta sauces on the cooler Autumn nights :) And of course, every pasta sauce needs some zucchini. I left one zucchini to grow for seed:

That's almost 2 foot long !!! I never thought I'd be one of those guys that brags about the size of their zucchini, but there you have it ;)

This weekend just past I brought in the last of the pumpkins:

They aren't huge; roughly in the 5 to 6 kg range (10lb to 14lb), but there's plenty of them. That's two different varieties in the picture above. The first were ready to eat in February, and were nice roasted on the BBQ. Now autumn is truly here, they make great pumpkin soup and stews.

There's plenty of other goodies still in the garden, carrots, beetroot, silver beet and celery.

I often will pick some plants to save some seed from, and apart from feeling good about completing the cycle, it also often means I get some wild crops for free from the seeds that spill or get turned in with the crop residues. Basically it means I get a nicer class of weeds:

Self sown Broad beans:

Cos lettuce seedlings growing wild along with other weeds:

I was hoping to get some seed from the sunflowers, but the Rosellas wiped them out in a really short time:

I'll probably still grow sunflowers again, as it's actually nice to watch the Rosellas out my office window :)

Different birds are enjoying some of my tomatoes at present, which I'm not as happy about, but there is plenty there to share. My long term plan is to make it more difficult for larger birds to get into the veggie patch. The garden is fenced off from kangaroos etc, so I'm growing grapes, kiwi fruit, berries, passion-fruit and jasmine along the fencing:

Weather:

March was hot to start then cooled down substantially. It was still about 3C above average. April temperatures were pretty much on average. Both March and April rainfalls were significantly lower than average

Generating SQL scripts for data [Soul Solutions]

Sun, 11 May 2008 23:29:43 -0500

I always find it frustrating in SQL2005 (I know things are different in 2008) that Enterprise Manager doesn't provide an option to export data in your tables out as SQL Scripts. I can send to

XNA Game State Sample for the Zune [Virtual Realm]

Mykre — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:42:00 -0500

On the Creators Site you have access to lots of different samples that can assist you with your projects, or at least help with those small problems. One of the Samples which I use a lot are the Game State Samples, so I thought is would be a good exercise to convert the main sample over to the Zune and XNA 3.0 Platform.

I have also made a couple of changes to make the system work a little better with the Zune System.

The input system has been changed to allow the developer to work on the game inside the windows environment. To do this I have used the standard Zune Mapping of the Controllers and integrated them into the application, I have also set up the system so that the Windows Version would include Keyboard support, but have it removed when deploying to the Zune.
I have changed the menu systems so that all of the menus will now draw towards that bottom of the screen. This will free some of the Screen space to add your title graphics.
The Textures for the background have been reduced and coded to the size of the Zune Screen, this will reduce the size of the package that is deployed to the Zune Device.
The Message Box system has also been changed. I have changed the system so that it no longer renders to the centre of the screen and now uses the full screen. The Usage Text for the Message box now renders on the bottom of the devices screen and is controlled separately to the main message text. I have added an override to the message box class that will now allow you to display the ok instructions, the ok and Cancel Instructions or none. That last change I made is that the message text now renders from the top of the screen and has some word wrapping functions so that longer messages can be displayed on the screen.
The last change that I have done is to merge the threaded loading screen from the Network State Sample.

For the moment the system works and actually works well, now it is time for me to start pushing some games out using this new base framework. If you do have any suggestions for the system please forward them on so that I can look at adding them in.

Here is a link to the Sample Application.

Technorati Tags: XNA,Zune

Earth Renders in Blender [Virtual Realm]

Mykre — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:24:19 -0500

This week end has been busy, not only did I move the Site from one platform to another, but we also had the family over for most of the weekend. So to keep myself busy this evening I spent some time playing around with some rendering of a Planet Model.

Here are some of the Renders I have saved.

Well I am happy with them, now I should test them inside an XNA Application to see how the render.

More tools you should have in your Admin Toolbox: Blade TS [Mauricio Freitas: My window to the world]

Sat, 10 May 2008 18:10:00 -0500

A few months ago I posted a few notes about tools I have in my servers that help me a lot. Today I will be posting about a file transfer tool, Blade Tranfer Services.

The idea is simple: you have large files and need to safely transfer these across your network or the Internet. You might even want to have your users to upload by themselves, but have their files going into different folders so that they are completely separate from each other.

In my case I needed to transfer a couple of large (20 GB each) virtual HD files back to my home server. Those VHD were created from an image of the Geekzone server drives so that I can have a copy here I can use for testing - and backup.

Blade Tranfer Services is very easy to install - it will automatically configure itself as a folder on your IIS server and start. You will just browse to /bladets and be greeted with a page with direct links to upload and download applets.

There is also a full client, but the web-based service is very good. You can pause, restart the uploads and you know for sure the files are 100% transferred - no corruption, no loss of data.

You can also enable a /drop folder so people can browse the upload folder directly - but the download option is much safer.

It uses http and https to transfer files and a configuration page allows you to change the default upload folder on your server and SMTP and SNMP notidications.

Recommended...

The 31 days of the dragon continues [Mauricio Freitas: My window to the world]

Sat, 10 May 2008 17:00:00 -0500

If you read my blog before you are well aware we at Geekzone will be giving away a US$5,000 notebook later this month.

You also know that this is only one of 31 notebooks being given away by 31 websites, in a promotion called the 31 days of the dragon.

I read reports of the first notebooks being already awarded, so you should look at the list and enter th competition on each one of the sites, following the schedule.

We will be running our competition from 29th May through 5th June - this is the period you will be able to enter the competition on Geekzone to win one of the 31 HP HDX Dragon packages.

Before then, check the other sites and enter their competitions - you can win in any of the sites!

SBS2008 - Information on Backup [SBSfaq.com Blog Site: Posts]

Wayne Small — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:28:20 -0500

Body:

It seems that this week is going to be a big week in SBS circles. At the SBSmigrations conference in New Orleans, the Microsoft SBS team are making a few announcements about changes to the SBS product. One of the key ones is that the famed Windows Home Server backup which was slated for release in SBS 2008, will not make it into the final product by release time. That's a shame really because I thought that this was one of the things that would give this product some "ZING". Microsoft say they will figure out how to get it in there at some point after release.

Public Source for this info was http://crn.com/software/207601736?cid=ChannelWebBreakingNews

Also to be noted is that SBS 2008's backup will NOT support tape drives. You need to look to removable hard drives as the media for your backup. This too was announced LAST year at the same conference. I think that maybe MS have missed the mark on this one though as removable hard drives are not at the same price point or capacity as tapes are. This means the customers will have to have a more expensive backup solution via multiple removable hard drives which is not so good :-(

Watch the press this week as you never know what else might be said at the SBSMigration conference that might "slip out" ;-)

Category: SBS 2008 / Cougar

Published: 11/05/2008 7:28 AM

FAR 4.3 Now Available [weblog.helpware.net » Helpware.net]

Rob — Sat, 10 May 2008 07:03:58 -0500

FAR 4.3 is now available for download.
http://helpware.net/FAR/office furniture in Bulgaria

List of changes here…
http://helpware.net/FAR/farupdate.htm

It contains many minor updates and fixes. This update is free to all FAR users. Contact Rob if you have any questions. We advise all FAR users to update.

Rob

Converted to Graffiti [Virtual Realm]

The Admin — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:20:00 -0500

Over the last few weeks I have been playing with both Community Server and the Graffiti CMS Systems, and today as you can see I have swapped the site over to Graffiti. You may find that some of the old links are not working but as I go over the weekend I will fix and redirect all of those links.

Tweet - writing code that accesses a site in another application pool [Sharepoint Tips And Tricks]

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:06:38 -0500

sorry for the tweet - no time to explain.
<TWEET> If you are writing code that accesses (or potentialy accesses) a site in another application pool, make sure that the application pool account for the current application pool has database permissions on the database for the other application. otherwise - you'r objects will not get created. </TWEET>

ReMIX Australia and The Creators Club [Virtual Realm]

Mykre — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:00:00 -0500

Following the Blogs for the last few days it turns out that the Sydney event is now Sold out, for those going to the Melbourne event you had better get in quick.

What is ReMIX,

REMIX08 is your opportunity to experience all that is new in Silverlight 2, Expression 2, Internet Explorer 8, Windows Live and a host of other great web technologies coming fast and furious from Microsoft. You will also see how local Australian innovators are creating the next generation of engaging websites and unprecedented user experiences for the web.

On another note I will be there... So if you are going alone drop over the the Experts area where you can meet the local experts and learn from their experiences and ask them questions.

While you are there say hello to me as I have several Creators Club Memberships to give away as well as a couple of Zunes to show off the features of XNA 3.0 CTP.

Technorati Tags: XNA,ReMIX,Zune

Calling a webservice using HTTP Get in .Net [Soul Solutions]

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:59:19 -0500

I found the need to be able to call my .Net WebService using HTTP Get. Usually all you have to do to get this to work is use the following format: [webservice

Access denied when trying to get to shared services [Sharepoint Tips And Tricks]

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:38:02 -0500

In the last couple of days a person next to me was trying to install SharePoint and failing every time with the shared services. After setting up the shared services, he couldnt open the shared services site - it would "access denied" him, no matter what account he tried to log on as (and we even tried the application pool account).
We immediatly suspected that kerberos wasnt configured correctly, that we didn't give enough local permissions for a system account or that some metaphysical entity just hates us sooo much.

Today I sat with the guy and watched him configure everything correctly. Still - access denied. damn!.
I turned to my trusty friend google, typed "sharepoint ssp access denied" in the search box and the second result had not only a workaround - but also an explanation why it happened and how to avoid it in the future.
So first of all - thank you Faraz for finding a work around, but more importantly - thanks to Scott who wrote the following in the comments:
"DO NOT call you SSP the same name as the AppPool you use for the SSP Admin Site.
The SSP actually uses its name to create an AppPool for use under the Office Search site.
If your SSP Admin AppPool is the same name then MOSS sets it to use the timer svc account.
If your hosting then call the SSP Admin AppPool 'Company - SSPAdmin' and the actual SSP 'Company - SSP'. This will stop MOSS clobbering the accounts."

This was exactly what we did wrong! We created a new SSP and this time made sure the SSP name is different from the application pool name, and here we go! ready to start.
So, if you are the Scott who wrote that comment - I thank you.

Malvertizements on mininova.org [Spyware Sucks]

sandi — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:05:00 -0500

Several comments have been posted to my blog recently about a malvertizement problem at mininova.org:

http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2008/03/23/1550824.aspx#1601871
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2008/03/23/1550824.aspx#1602159
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2008/03/23/1550824.aspx#1614547

Anyway, I went looking and found a thread that claimed the malvertizements had been identified and removed on 5 May so I didn't take things any further (a decision which may have been a mistake)
http://forum.mininova.org/index.php?showtopic=235009007

Kimberley has now identified a malvertizement on mininova.org, again hosted by Akamai:
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=18064&st=60&gopid=87201&

The domains being used by the malvertizers are:

adoptserver.info
iexplorer-security.org
mystats.com
fastwebway.com
xponlinescanner.com

The malvertizement has been reported to Akamai.

Hooray for teamwork - the malvertizements at photobucket.com have been identified [Spyware Sucks]

sandi — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:41:00 -0500

Once again, communication and cooperation between anti-malvertizement activists around the world has resulted in success.

We have found the malicious malvertizements on photobucket.com - Kimberley has the details.

The incident has been reported to Photobucket. The malvertizements themselves are not new. Speedstick and TokyoDrift have been featured on this blog several times. As noted by Kimberley, the malicious domains being used by the cretins behind the malvertizements are:

atlas-ads.com (host of a malicious SWF)
track.trackads.net
tds.maxconvert.com
adtds.trackads.net
spywaredestructor.com
adoptserver.info
iexplorer-security.org
fastwebway.com
xponlinescanner.com

photobkt-images.adbureau.net (host of a malicious SWF)

adbureau.net is Akamai - the incident has been reported.

Atlas-ads.com is registered via Estdomains, created on 10 April 2008.

The GPS-enabled coconut - or Where is Niu? [Mauricio Freitas: My window to the world]

Thu, 08 May 2008 17:01:00 -0500

No, this is not a coconut, but it could be the high tech version of a message in a bottle.

The difference is that people following the Project Niu know exactly where it is, all the time.

You just have to point your browser to their Where's Niu? map page to see where this floating device is being taken by oceanic currents. The Niu was set off of the Hawaiian coast on this trip, and the group plans to take it to other regions later.

Microsoft continues to treat VB as a 2nd class citizen [@ Head]

bill — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:43:28 -0500

It's bad enough when the Windows Live team continually releases their SDKs omitting VB, but when XNA 3.0 CTP is released and STILL NO VB support, it's getting beyond a joke. XNA 3 is for Visual Studio 2008 and lets you do cool things like create games for Zunes, unless of course you want to do that in VB.

Brisbane Night Panorama [Soul Solutions]

Thu, 08 May 2008 07:24:00 -0500

Using my new panosaurus tripod head and new Monfrotto tripod I headed down to Kangaroo Point in Brisbane and took a few snaps, this is my favourite courtesy of Silverlight

OT: Help Fight SPAM [Blog:: Craig Pringle]

Craig Pringle — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:04:25 -0500

SPAM is a pet peeve of mine. If you manage a mail server or can influence someone who does - make sure they have configured SenderID. For more information I refer you to a lengthy post I just put on my other blog.

To put it simply an email server that supports the SenderID framework queries a special DNS record to validate that the computer submitting an email is allowed to send for that domain.

Spread the word.

Overall OCS Architecture [notgartner]

Mitch Denny — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:58:44 -0500

Oh - so that’s how it works.

ALERT: Firefox 2 Vietnamese Language Pack infected by malware [Spyware Sucks]

sandi — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:18:00 -0500

Thanks to Susan for the heads up...

Cite: http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2008/05/07/compromised-file-in-vietnamese-language-pack-for-firefox-2/

Cite: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=432406

Anybody who downloaded and installed the Vietnamese language pack ***since 18 February*** will have got an infected copy. Symptoms include the display of unwanted advertising.

Mozilla notes that because only "16,667 total downloads of the Vietnamese language pack since November 2007" they consider that the impact on users will be "limited" - well, it may be limited in Mozilla's eyes, but I suspect that those affected will be less dismissive.

It is staggering that the infected file was in situ and being distributed for over two and a half months. It is also staggering that Mozilla seemingly did (does?) not complete regular scanning of their files to check for previously undetected malware - didn't they realise that there is always a period of time between malware being released to the wild, and security products updating their products to add detection of new malware?? By not regularly re-scanning all files available for download they expose(d) their users to real risk.

The malware is named in the bugzilla thread as "HTML.Xorer".

Advice is to disable the Vietnamese Language Pack.

If you are a teacher in New Zealand you have one day only... [Mauricio Freitas: My window to the world]

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:22:00 -0500

To submit your entry to the Unisys Kidz Connect programme.

Twenty successful teachers will each be given a $1000 cash grant to spend on a programme or project of their choice.

The programme is open to all fully registered teachers working in New Zealand’s state, integrated and private primary and intermediate schools (Year 1- 8), of any decile and location.

Submissions are accepted until Friday 9th May 2008.

Geekzone is a Hitwise No1 Award Winner! [Mauricio Freitas: My window to the world]

Wed, 07 May 2008 19:32:00 -0500

I am pleased to say Geekzone has received an award from Hitwise - during 2007 Geekzone ranked #1 on market share of visits among all New Zealand websites in the News and Media - IT Media industry segment.

Add to that the exceptional Nielsen//NetRatings numbers - month after month Geekzone has been #1 in unique browser for total traffic for a New Zealand-based website in the Technology segment - and I can only be happy.

Really folks - thanks to you!

Warning: malvertizements have been reported on photobucket.com [Spyware Sucks]

sandi — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:53:00 -0500

I received an email alert overnight warning that photobucket is displaying malvertizements.

The problem we face in tracking down the reported malvertizements on photobucket.com is that the advertisements are country specific.

This blog has readers all over the world - if anybody has seen something, please grab proof using Fiddler and let me know.

Panosaurus Arrives! [Soul Solutions]

Wed, 07 May 2008 18:13:57 -0500

I ordered this last week, it allows you to centre your camera on your tripod to take more accurate panoramas. A bargain at about AU$100 delivered.

Planning an early morning trip to capture something special but this

Me.dium has undergone a major rework... [Spyware Sucks]

sandi — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:36:00 -0500

We have gone from this... to this.... Or this... showing only online friends.

And we get a choice of backgrounds. The last background, "70s Tux", doesn't seem to be working properly on my system.

Me.dium have chosen to turn off "find similar pages" by default; instead, Me.dium will only show you the pages that your online friends are currently viewing. The Talk and Friend tabs are gone, and the Friend and Facebook panes can be closed..

You can only chat to people on your friends list, and the shout-out pane which anybody could use to "talk" to other Me.dium users is gone.

Unfortunately it has been necessary for me to remove the Me.dium widgets from my blog and website because the widgets are triggering certificate errors in Internet Explorer, specfically a warning that the certificate being presented by Me.dium was issued for a different web site's address. This error can occur if a company owns several websites and uses a certificate that was issued for one web address for another site and does not necessary indicate a security problem at the site, but it is still disturbing for visitors to my blog, and I do not like to contribute to desensitising people to security alerts (which is what I would be doing if I told people to ignore the error, or install the certificate despite the error), therefore the widget goes until the certificate issue is fixed.

Original Night Moss

Icy Gum 70s Tux

How to make friends and influence people on Twitter [SBSfaq.com Blog Site: Posts]

Wayne Small — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:05:31 -0500

Body:

I'm still not sure about twitter as a business tool. For the moment, I'm seeing it more as a live discussion tool that I liken to overhearing conversations at a party, you hear scraps of it from the people next to you, but you don't hear the full conversation unless your following all the people in that conversation. Mack Collier has just blogged an article about some of the tools you can use to find and link up with people on twitter that might be part of a conversation you want to have with others. Check out his article here on Search Engine Guide

Category: Software I use

Published: 8/05/2008 7:05 AM

XNA 3.0 First Community Applications for the Zune [Virtual Realm]

Mykre — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:57:43 -0500

The community has been busy, well a couple of the die hard's have.

Nick Gravelyn has released a version of his Alien Aggressors game for the Zune, this download also includes the source code for you to browse. Included in the code are examples of changing the display from portrait to Landscape, as well as using different font sizes for Windows and Zune.

Jsedlak (Krisc) has released a version of his Thrust Framework that can be used on the Zune. He has also produced a Copy of Galactic Wars that will run on the Zune (Includes Source Code).

Technorati Tags: XNA 3.0 CTP,XNA 3.0,Zune