mylifeinaminute.com

Netflix and Vista Media Center

liquidpooled — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:36:54 +0000

Microsoft recently recently released/pushed out a new add-on for interacting with Netflix, allowing for the viewing of “instant” movies from within the Media Center 10ft. UI.

One quirk that you may run into is that videos are not playing after installation. You might need to break out the keyboard, as Silverlight will have opened a dialog behind the Media Center window asking you to enable protected content. Once that hurdle is crossed, it should be smooth sailing.

Netflix in Windows Media Center

[Microsoft Windows: Netflix in Windows Media Center]

[via Hacking Netflix]

SharePoint Audience Targeting Quirk

liquidpooled — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:00:13 +0000

I recently ran into a strange quirk/bug when setting a target audience on a web part. In the particular site collection where the web part resides, a number of cross-site groups exist.

For the sake of example, imagine that the site collection has several cross-site groups with simlar names. Ex:

IT
IT Designers
IT Administrators

When targeting the web part to either the IT Designers or IT Administrators cross-site group, the web part is able to correctly apply the audience. However, when the IT group is used, the web part configuration for audiences is unable to determine the correct group when the web part is rendered on the page.

It would appear that when selecting a target audience (if it is a SharePoint group), the group name must be unique and not contain a portion of another group name. In my case, while the IT group name is unique, the IT Designers and IT Administrators groups also contain the string “IT”.

iTunes Rocks!

liquidpooled — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:59:08 +0000

Just kidding. iTunes is still on my list of most hated pieces of software due to the results such as the following:

If only I could find a way to buy apps when my iPhone is dead and I don’t want to wait to download them. It would be better yet if my iPhone could make it through a full day of use without needing a recharge.

SharePoint Designer - The Cat Is Out of the Bag

liquidpooled — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:20:17 +0000

Today marks the official release of SharePoint Designer as a free product offering from Microsoft. While overall, this announcement can certainly be considered a good thing by the SharePoint community (who doesn’t like free stuff?), as a SharePoint “administrator” it makes me cringe. It is a good thing all of us have “locked down” SharePoint Designer in our respective environments.

You did remember to lock down, didn’t you?

[Download]

All I want to do is read a KB article…

liquidpooled — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:56:29 +0000

All I wanted to do was access a particular KB (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940958). However, Microsoft has other plans for me. Apparently I’ve chosen the most popular KB of all time.

Fun with Tesla Coils

liquidpooled — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:59:05 +0000

Gizmodo is currently running a story on geek anthems sung by Tesla coils. At least two of them are priceless (in my ever humble opinion).

Mario Bros. Theme

Imperial March

[Via Gizmodo]

Blackberry OS Upgrade (4.2 to 4.5)

liquidpooled — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:08:51 +0000

I recently had the pleasure of upgrading my Blackberry from OS 4.2 to 4.5. Normally this would be a “no brainer”00, but as with all things in life I had to be difficult and perform my upgrade from a Windows Server 2008 workstation.

Without further ado:

Install the latest version of Desktop Manager (DM) that works with your operating system.
- Verify that DM is connected to the BES. If DM is not seeing your BES, your device will not reactivate after the OS upgrade is complete.
Install the 4.5 package.
Unplug your handheld from your PC and reboot.
- A reboot was required in my case as DM and Windows did not detect the new device drivers for the handheld.
Plug your handheld into your PC. Windows will automatically detect the updated device drivers.
Start your handheld upgrade from DM.
Wait.
Wait some more.
Did I mention you should still be waiting?
??? Profit ??? Really RIM, does an upgrade need to take this long?
After the successful completion of your upgrade, DM will automatically reactivate your handheld with the BES.

Important notes:

If you are connected to a Windows domain, when upgrading with DM, make sure you are signed in to your domain account that is tied to your handhelds email configuration. If you do not do this, you will most likely not reactivate on the BES, and that is a BAD thing.
If the upgrade does not take the first time, be sure you have rebooted and that you are utilizing the newest device drivers for your handheld.

Why would you want to upgrade and go through the pain? For some of the following:

BlackBerry Maps with Points of Interest
Improved media player with playlist support and automatic playlist generation
Voice note recording
Video recording on Curve models
Streaming support for YouTube and Sling Player
Microsoft Office document editing with DocumentsToGo
And more…

Exception: The content type is in use

liquidpooled — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:53:14 +0000

I’ve found that working with InfoPath is becoming more and more of a chore. A form I’ve been working on has had its promoted columns changed a number of times (Side note: I would just love to have a defined specification).

Today when I attempted to completely retract my form (inlcuding manually deleting the content type associated with the form), I was presented with the always helpful error “The content type is in use“. This is by far one of the more helpful errors you will ever see from SharePoint. Unfortunately it isn’t clear how to discover where the content type is actually in use. A quick trip to the content database for the site collection you are working in can show us:

DECLARE @ContentTypeName nvarchar(128)

SET @ContentTypeName='Content Type Name Here'

SELECT w.Title AS [Web Site], w.FullUrl AS [Web Url], al.tp_Title AS [List Title],
	ct2.*
FROM ContentTypes ct1
	JOIN ContentTypes ct2 ON LEFT(ct2.ContentTypeId, Len(ct1.ContentTypeId))=ct1.ContentTypeId
	LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.ContentTypeUsage ctu ON LEFT(ctu.ContentTypeId, Len(ct2.ContentTypeId)) = ct2.ContentTypeId
	LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.AllLists al ON ctu.ListId = al.tp_Id AND ctu.WebId=al.tp_WebId
	LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.Webs w ON al.tp_WebId = w.Id WHERE ct1.ResourceDir=@ContentTypeName

[Credit to Curtis Ruppe]

Once we know where the content type is in use, deleting it through the GUI is a trivial matter.

iTunes 8.1 Now Available

liquidpooled — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 01:17:25 +0000

iTunes 8.1 has hit the interwebs.

From Software Update:

iTunes 8.1 is now faster and more responsive. You will enjoy noticeable improvements when working with large libraries, browsing the iTunes Store, preparing to sync with iPod or iPhone, and optimizing photos for syncing.

In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation).
• Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ.
• Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows.
• Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs.
• Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods.
• Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus.
• Includes many accessibility improvements.
• Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

MSDN Magazine: 10 Best Practices For Building SharePoint Solutions

liquidpooled — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:16:44 +0000

MSDN Magazine has a SharePoint focused article this month titled 10 Best Practices For Building SharePoint Solutions. If you’re trying to wrap your head around the scope and depth of developing solutions on top of SharePoint, the article makes for a good primer.