No Long Days

NotePad++ as the editor for subversion CLI

pilotbob — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:37:24 +0000

I use the brilliant NotePad++ editor. It is free and very light weight. So, I wanted to configure svn to call NotePad++.

There are several ways to specify an editor for svn. You can use environmental variables, the registry, specify it on the command line or within the subversion config file.

Specifying it in the config file made the most sense to me. I am using Windows 7 so the config file can be found at:

\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Subversion

If you are running with the default windows explorer settings the AppData folder is hidden. Just navigate to your users folder and click on the navigation bar at the top of explorer. It will change to be an editable text box. Just add \AppData to the path that is there and press enter. You will then be able to navigate to Roaming then Subversion.

The way subversion uses the external editor is to create a temp file and pass that to the editor. Since notepad++ is a tabbed browser if you don't specify the "multiInst" (multi instance) switch svn will not see a new process open and think that you are done and remove the file. Notepad++ will then tell you that the file no longer exists and ask you if you want to retain it.

Edit the config file, uncomment the editor-cmd line and specify notepad++ as follows:

editor-cmd = "/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" -nosession -multiInst

Note I am running 64-Bit windows 7. If you are on 32-bit your exe will be in /Program Files without the (x86) part.

The "multiInst" parameter forces notepad++ to open as a new process. So now svn will properly wait for you to exit that window.

The "nosession" parameter tells it not to load up the last session. Even though I have it configured to not use sessions current, I may change my mind and start using them. I wouldn't want a bunch of tabs to open just to edit my svn message or property.

I hope that this saves someone a bit of time.

Books with Soul

pilotbob — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:18:52 +0000

I am an avid reader and Kindle owner and am always looking for a new author to add to my list of favorites. I recently saw a thread on my favorite forum over at MobiledRead.com about a book for $.99 and while I don't buy every book for $.99 this one was highly recommended by some of the members. It turns out the book was a sequel and the first book was 1¢. Yes a penny. So I bought the two books for a buck.

The books are Soul Identity and Soul Intent by Dennis Batchelder. You can get Soul Identity for a penny for the Kindle and Soul Intent the sequel for 99¢.

Without giving to much of the books away I will try to give a brief synopsis.

Scott, a security expert and consultant, is invited to consult for a mysterious new customer named "Soul Identity." The company sends a curious gadget to record his soul identity. Being the hacker he is the first thing he does is hack the gadget they sent. He ends up working for this company and goes on a wild and dangerous journey to protect the security of Soul Identity.

Soul Intent the sequel actually goes back in time to an earlier period in Soul Identities past where Scott learns the secret of a missing deposit and a high stakes treasure hunt ensues.

I can't say much more without giving away spoilers.

All I can say is that I recommend these books. Soul Identity grabs you right from the beginning. You will be staying up past your bedtime reading this one to find out how it ends. When it ends you will be sorry that it did because it was such a fun read.

Thanks Dennis for these books and I look forward to Soul Integrity.

Goodbye RoboForm and 1Password, Hello LastPass

pilotbob — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:57:56 +0000

For me surfing the web and trying to remember a different password for each site is a difficult if not impossible task. So, I did, what I'm sure many people did, I used the same login credentials at most every site. I did this with the exception of my email, bank, paypal, brokerage, and other sites where my private information was critical.

However, I knew in the back of my head this wasn't the most secure method. While I have an OpenID very few sites support it today. In addition it isn't to the secure level where a bank or brokerage. Upon doing some investigation I found that adding a password manager to my list of productivity tools was a must. A password manager is simple in concept. It is software that stores your usernames and passwords to web sites, applications, etc in a local encrypted database. That database is protected by a single password. So, now rather than remembering multiple passwords, I only needed to remember one.

As I started to investigate I found that there are many good examples of password managers out there. From free open source to paid solutions. I quickly discarded many that were stand alone with separate UI's from the browser which required you to search for the password, copy the password into the clipboard and paste into the web site. As I tried them I realized that I wanted one which integrated with my browsers. I wanted it to recognize when I was logging into a new site, offer to generate a secure password for me, and save it. This integration made using the password manager simple.

I came across RoboForm. I had found my solution. This software did all that I wanted and some stuff I wasn't even looking for. In addition to storing logins to web sites it also stored "secure notes". A secure note is just a bit of information that you want to save on your PC securely. I mostly used it to store software licenses, serial numbers and product codes.

RoboForm is free for up to 10 saved logins. But, I quickly knew I would surpass that so I bought it. You need to by a license for each PC you use. Or you can by the "portable" license which you can move from PC to PC using a USB key. But, I had two main PCs, one home and one work I wanted to use.

I happily used RoboForm for quite a while. However, it was getting tiring having to keep both PCs synced. Every now and then I would zip up the RoboForm data folder, password protect the zip and email it to myself. I would open the zip, sycn the data with Beyond Compare, each login was saved in it's own file, and then recreate the zip and send it back to myself.

One day I was a bit annoyed because I had to login to a web site that I had create the login on the other PC. I always generated a 15 character length random password using RoboForm. Of course, I didn't remember is. So, a bit more research and I found DropBox. DropBox is a free tool with service that will sycn data between two or more PCs and also keep the data in the cloud. I gave it a try with RoboForm and it worked very well. So, I was once again happy. I had RoboForm and DropBox on both PCs staying in sync without me having to do anything.

Then last year in August I got an iMac for learning and using at home. I happily went to buy the Mac version of RoboForm... but no such luck. So, more research to find a tool that would work on my Mac and PC but nothing. I tired to find a cross plat form tool but nothing work as well as RoboForm.

Enter 1Password. This software had all the features of RoboForm but worked on the Mac. Yea, Mac only. But, I was so spoiled with the features of RoboForm so I bought a copy of 1Password for my Mac. This software works really well. I couldn't tell you if RoboForm or 1Password is better. They both just work and work without having to think about them.

But, you guess it, I was back to manually syncing. So, off to "the google" to see what I could find. It seems in the mean time a new comer FireFox add-in "LastPass" was gaining speed. LastPass is a FireFox plug-in that supports Windows and Mac. It also has sync built in via your LastPass account on the LastPass web site. The data is all encrypted on the local PC so LastPass does not know your password and can't decrypt your information.

I have been using LastPass for a few weeks now and I am ready to uninstall RoboForm and 1Password. It's browser integration is not quite as good as the other two, but it is very close. The x-plat form sync is worth the small differences and they are releasing new version quite quickly to address some of the issues I have seen. Oh and BONUS. It's free.

So, once again, Good Bye RoboForm and 1Password, Hello... LastPass.

Paving my new machine with the Windows 7 RTM

pilotbob — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:45:51 +0000

Yes people it is finally that time. After running Windows 7 Release Candidate on my new PC (that's another blog entry) it was time to install the final release version (RTM) and all it's goodness.

I figured I would document here all the "essential" stuff that I install on it, and the order I follow.

Add to the domain After Windows7 Professional is installed the first thing to do is add it to the company domain. After it is joined to the domain I choose to not restart it. Then I go an add my domain user account into the local administrator group. Don't install anything when logged in with the local account created during the install because it will all be in the wrong profile. (At least if you work logged into your domain account.) After this is done, restart the machine and log in with your domain credentials.

IE8 The first thing to do is run IE8 and set it up. Make sure to do a custom start so you can select your search provider, Google of course, and I personally turn of the accelerators. The the first place I go to in mozilla.com and download FireFox. After that I only use IE8 for the ASP.Net app we develop.

FireFox Yes, this is one of my most used programs. Once FireFox is up and running I install the few add-ins that I use:

RoboForm This is both an add-in install and a stand alone install. RoboForm is a password manager. I need to check RoboForm on another machine or make sure to write down my RoboForm Online password (before paving). But, after roboform is installed you set it up to sync with RoboForm online. RoboForm Online is currently in beta and free. Prior to RoboForm Online I was using DropBox to sync the passwords, and it worked very well. If RoboForm Online starts being a paid service I will probably go back to using DropBox again. Once I have this installed and synced I have access to all my passwords. I don't "know" any of my passwords save my gmail password and my RoboForm master password. It does all the work for me to generate and remember my passwords which are unique for every web site I use. I have about 170 passwords in RoboForm.

XMarks This is an add-in that stores all your bookmarks in the cloud and sycns them with any other machines you happen to have. After installing it I pull my password out of RoboForm and tell XMarks to sync all my bookmarks deleting local and using all on the server. This way I don't get any of the "starter bookmarks" Firefox gives you to have to clean out.

Yes, RoboForm, XMarks and Gmail pretty much make moving to a new machine fairly simple. I don't have to worry about syncing data or moving essential stuff like that to my new machine.

Ad-Block Plus Don't travel the tubes without it.

DownThemAll A really cool download manager and also provides and easy way to d/l "All" the stuff on a web page.

Next I start installing productivity software that I need/use to do my job as a .Net developer. Many of these tools are free and open source. In install them in this order because sometimes I rely on one to get or configure the next.

Office 2007 (Yes I know.. corporate standard.) Outlook 2007 is actually nice in that it finds and connects to the Exchange server all on its own. I don't have to write down or bother someone to tell me what the exchange servers host name is.

TortoiseSVN - open source client for subversion

NotePad++ - open source programmers text editor

7-Zip - open source zip, rar tool

Magic DISK - open source ISO mounting tool. (you can't mount ISO's nativity in windows FAIL! Even my Mac can mount ISOs)

Beyond Compare The premier comparison tool. Compares file listings and file contents.

Visual Studio 2008 Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Code Rush / Refactor! - if your a .Net developer you should know what this is. Either that or your are a resarper person. If you don't know what Code Rush is, go find it and get the demo.

SQL Server 2008 SQL Server 2008 SP1

DbGhost - an indispensable tool to manage SQL Server change management.

(I would put links, but you can find these open source tools with google quickly enough.)

Once all this is installed I think I have the basics covered. I'm sure I will install alot more in the coming weeks. I will need to copy all of "My Documents" on this PC. Then there is InstallShield, Xheo, etc.

Well... that's about it for now. Talk to you all soon.

Delete all but the newest 5 folders in a Nant build

pilotbob — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:28:42 +0000

Over the past week or so I have been working on automating a Visual Basic 6 build. My tool of course is Nant. It works very well for the most post.

The build compiles the VB programs and builds the installer. This has been working great. However one of the requirements was to only keep the last 5 Install CD images that the build created.

I prefer to not extend Nant to keep the build scripts as portable as possible. I have done many things using the Nant XML rather than dropping down to C#.

Believe it or not this was not an easy problem to solve. In other builds we save files based on the date. Just keep the last 7 days worth or something. This is pretty easy to do. Just loop through the folders using the task, check the folders date, and if it is older than Today minus 7 delete it. This project is the type that could have 1 build every other day and then one day it could have 10 builds.

My first attempt was to do a and count the number of folders the publish directory. Then do a second and delete each folder if the deleted indexer that I created was less than or equal to the file count minus 5, which was the number I want to retain.

(Tip: when you are using the < or > operator in NAnt you have to encode it in your script or you get an XML parsing error. Use & gt; or & lt;)

This worked fine at first. But, the folders the build created where something like:

ProductName 1.0.95 - 200909100844
ProductName 1.0.96 - 200909100844
ProductName 1.0.97 - 200909100844

The seems to return the folders in order by name. So, this worked ok until we got to build 100. On build 100 the build 100 folder was deleted. Why, well because, 1.0.100 comes before 1.0.99 in alpha sort.

My next attempt was to see if there was a way to sort the fileset buy date order. There is not. After than I tried to use the tag to do a dir command passing /O:D /B which means order by date and bare results. I would then redirect this to a text file. From there over the text file, skip the first 5 paths and delete any after that. For some reason the DIR command would not run in the task.

So, I finally decided to bite the bullet and use the script tag. At least using the script tag would keep the build scripts portable unlike creating a custom task or function which would be deployed into a separate DLL that had to always be available.

Here is my final task. Disclaimer, use this at your own risk. I only post the code here for academic interest. Don't blame me if this formats your C: drive or makes your laptop go up in flame.

<script language="C#">
    <code><![CDATA[
  public static void ScriptMain(Project project)
  {
      string path = project.Properties["InstallDir"];
      string [] folders = System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(path,"*",SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);

      System.Collections.ArrayList dirlist = new System.Collections.ArrayList();
      foreach (string folder in folders)
      {
          dirlist.Add(new DirectoryInfo(folder));
      }
      dirlist.Sort(new DirectoryInfoDateComparer());
      dirlist.Reverse();

      for (int i = 5; i < dirlist.Count; i++)
      {
          string foldername = ((DirectoryInfo)dirlist[i]).Name;;
          try
          {
              ((DirectoryInfo)dirlist[i]).Delete(true);
              project.Log(Level.Info, String.Format("Deleted folder {0}", foldername));

          }
          catch { project.Log(Level.Warning, String.Format("Unable to delete folder {0}", foldername)); }
      }
  }

  internal class DirectoryInfoDateComparer : System.Collections.IComparer
  {
      public int Compare(object x, object y)
      {
          DirectoryInfo di1 = (DirectoryInfo)x;
          DirectoryInfo di2 = (DirectoryInfo)y;

          return di1.CreationTime.CompareTo(di2.CreationTime);
      }
  }
    ]]></code>
</script>

This did the trick. The only niggle is that the Log messages don't conform to the rest of the Nant log. I got a workaround for that from the Nant email list, but have yet to try it.

My Windows 7 $49 Proposal to Microsoft

pilotbob — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:28:58 +0000

Dear Microsoft,

According to all reviews Windows 7 is going to be well accepted. However, there is still one barrier to that acceptance and this is the price. The following proposal is based on the following goals for Windows 7 acceptance.

All customers will opt for Windows 7 pre-installed on new PC purchases.
Customers will buy retail upgrades for current PCs running Windows XP or Vista.
Reduce the amount of pirated version of Windows that people are running.

Let's face it, Vista was a retail flop. Even inclusion rates on new PCs was disappointing. With PC vendors like Dell and HP offering "downgrades" to Windows XP even more than a year after Vista shipped it is apparent. As a mater of fact the bad Vista karma was one of the reasons I decided to buy an iMac to experience the "other side."

It is my opinion that you should price the upgrade version of Windows 7 at $49.

Here is how I envision this would work.

A single $49 DVD or download contains all Windows 7 sku levels.
Installing the DVD upgrades from Windows XP or Vista to the equivalent Windows 7 sku. For example...
- Windows XP Home Premium upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium
- Windows XP Business upgrades to Windows 7 Professional
- Vista Home Premium upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium
Level updates cost $49 per level once you have Windows 7. For example...
- Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional
- Windows 7 Professional to Windows 7 Ultimate

This proposal makes buying and upgrading to Windows 7 simple. I only have to purchase a single upgrade for $49 to move from XP or Vista to Windows 7. Once I am running Windows 7 I only have to do an in place upgrade for $49 per-level. Your customers will be able to understand this and it should simplify the whole overwhelming aspect of the multiple sku's.

So, lets look at some examples of this pricing. Let's assume I am running Windows XP Home Premium on my home machine. I want to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. I easily know that it will cost me $49 to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium and $49 to upgrade that after installed to Windows 7 Professional. So that upgrade will cost my $98. Very simple and easy for the customer to figure out.

Now, how you implement this is up to you. If you want to charge the $98 in one transaction would be great. Perhaps the way it works is that the Windows 7 RTM is free to d/l. Once you install it you have a 90 day free trial. The installer will know what pervious version you had and when you launch the "purchase" screen it will present the skus and prices. For example, if I install Windows 7 Trial on my Windows XP Home Premium the purchase screen will list options like this:

Home Premium Edition $49
Professional Edition $98
Ultimate Edition $147

Once again, easy, simple, understandable, affordable. Lets face it, many people have multiple machines. They WANT to upgrade all of them. But, if you price the upgrade at $199 they just won't do it... or they will pirate it.

You have made a great story for corporate customers by providing XP mode and taking away their last barrier for acceptance. Please give as much consideration to the private and home users also.

Signed, Bob

Thanks for reading my proposal. If you agree with me that this is affordable, simple and makes sense please comment below to show your support for this pricing idea.

ScreenCastsOnline the best tool for Mac users.

pilotbob — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:33:26 +0000

It has now been about 9 months since I have been using an iMac as my home PC. I originally bought it to learn something new and it has been quite a fun journey. There are many things about that Mac which I absolutely love. Of course, as someone who used Windows for years there are some things that are a bit frustrating at first. Of course, once you get used to them it is not a big deal.

One of the best "tools" that I purchased for my Mac was a subscription to ScreenCastsOnline. This is a weekly video podcast about using the Mac and Mac software. Believe it or not there is ALOT of software available for the Mac. A big advantage of Mac software is that you can find a lot of high quality software at very reasonable prices. So, while the Mac hardware is more than a similar PC package (usually, no flames here please) most of the software is much less expensive and much higher quality.

But, how do you find out what's out there? Frankly, I don't have time to go trying and testing dozens of software packages for my Mac. So, I let Don McAllister do that for me. Then every week he creates a high quality, high definition screen cast giving a good over view of that product and many times provides a discount code to boot. Just for me of course.

But, ScreenCastsOnline is not just an external application demo show. Don has many videos on using the built in Mac software and utilities. I have learned much from him about Safari, iChat, iCal, iTunes, iPhoto, Finder, Disk Utility, Activity Monitor. These are things I probably wouldn't have found myself since I'm not big on reading docs. Oh, and I think Apple is not big on writing docs. There is also the online forums with a topic to discuss each show.

Some of the best tips...

Setting up smart playlists in iTunes for podcasts
Encrypting content on my USB drive
Getting me to try out Tweetie
How to setup remote access to my Mac
Tons more stuff I do every day that I'm forgetting

Some apps I've learned about from him that I use all the time now...

I have also been wanting to digitize all of my DVD movies and make them available in some way to my HDTV and his most recent show on using a Mac Mini as a media center to store and view them is very compelling. I can't wait to see part 2.

I highly recommend you try out his podcast. There is a free feed for you to wet your appetite. But, soon you will realize you want the full shows in HD and subscribe. When you subscribe you get access to the full back catalog as well. I am happy I did and will certainly be extending my membership when it comes due.

Why isn't Explorer client-server?

pilotbob — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:13:37 +0000

It is surprising to me after ten years of client and server operating system from Microsoft that they still don't know what client-server is all about. I am still amazed every time I copy or delete stuff using Explorer from my PC that is on a server that all the files have to move over the network to my PC then back to the server.

This isn't so bad when I am on the LAN but on the WAN it makes working with folders on the server very slow. The only option is to remote desktop in and work there and I really don't like people remoting into the server console.

Here is how I envision how client-server Explorer would work.

If I delete a folder on a remote machine the delete should happen as a local process on the remote machine. No network access should be needed other than sending the delete command to the remote machine. BTW: This should work whether the remote machine is a server OS or a client OS of Windows.
If I copy or move a file and the source and destination are on the same machine, once again, this should be recognized and all the work done as a process on the remote machine so no major network access is needed.
If I copy or move a file from one machine to another a peer-to-perr connection should be made to move those files over the network. This would allow for working from a WAN location and moving stuff from one server to another that are each on the same LAN without needing to move all the data over the WAN to the PC to the other server.

Perhaps this was part of the plan for WinFS. Personally, I don't think this would be a difficult feature to implement. Unix has had this for years. Granted you could say the SSH is similar to a remote desktop. But, it is a lot more light weight.

I also know that I could use PSExec to do some of this stuff. And, I do use that in build scripts and such. But, when just working interactively I get very frustrated when waiting for a folder on a server to delete or copy files when if I did it locally on the console it would take a fraction of the time.

If anyone knows of a product that makes the Windows files system work this way, please comment and let me know about it.

Why I switched from FeedDemon to Google Reader

pilotbob — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:32:28 +0000

I have been a FeedDemon user for many years. I originally bought Newsgator for Outlook in 2004. However, I wanted to read feeds on more than one machine and not have to repeat what I was reading. I think it was back in 2005 when they announced the Newsgator Sync playform. At the time if you subscribed to Newsgator.com you could also d/l the Client readers for free. Well, they weren't free they were included with your subscription.

Since I didn't use outlook at home I opted for FeedDemon on my PC and Newsgator for Outlook at work. The "hype" was that the sync platform would keep your read statuses in sync across your clients. Well, this did work somewhat. It never worked properly for a year or so until I kept complaining on the support forum. I was constantly told it worked fine and they couldn't duplicate it. But, eventually others joined me. Newsgator finally looked at the problem and did find a bug in their sync plat form.

As I move to the Mac and Newsgator moved to giving it's client apps away for free I installed Netnews on my Mac. This would sync with FeedDemon. It worked fairly well but there were still sync issues.

Recently I decided to try Google Reader. After seeing Don MacAlister's screen cast on it I decided to give it a try. I imported an OPML file from FeedDemon into it. I decided to give it a week. Well, Google Reader is brilliant. It is very similar to Google Mail. Simple, well laid out with the features you need. After about a month of using it I decided it was time to delete FeedDemon and Netnews Wire and not look back.

Here are what I see the main advantages of Google Reader over the OS native client apps.

Portability. No install is needed and I can use it anywhere. It also shares the login credentials with my gmail account so I don't have to remember YAP (yet another password).
Performance. Google reader is fast. It seems to be constantly updating my feeds.
Organization. The folders in Google Reader are great. This is something that FeedDemon users have been requesting for years. I think even the most recent version still doesn't add this. (Although I could be wrong about that.)
Footprint. I now have 1 less app on my PC and my Mac that is running in the background. Once less app polling the internet. Once less app storing data on my hard drive. This is important stuff. Especially when you have a long in the tooth PC on which you need to limit how much background stuff you are running on it.
Search. Ok, need I say it? This is google... so searching my feeds is awesome and fast. The search on FeedDemon leaves much to be desired. Especially since FD doesn't want you to retain all your feeds which causes it to bog down. Although there were plans to move the FD storage into a real database like SQLite or something. That said, I have no idea what the retention with google is and how far back it is really searching. Anyone know? Please comment if you do.

There are some downsides to doing this as pointed out via some twitter conversations.

Trust. Google knows what feeds you are reading and is "indexing your life".
Local Data. You have no direct access to the data. Then again, for me, this isn't "my data". It is stuff that is already online.
Trust and Local Data. This is a combination of both. Perhaps google goes away with no warning or decides they want to make you pay to access your data. (No I don't see this happening, but it is a legitimate concern.)

So, for me, the pros outweigh the cons. So, for now I am a Google Reader user. Well Google pretty much owns me, I use gmail, google calendars and google reader. I trust them "enough" and would rather have their servers work on my behalf and store my data. Would I be devastated if I lost the 300MB of mail stored on googles servers going back to 2000 or so? Perhaps, but life will go on. But I have no cares if google reader "data" goes away. It's not really my data anyway.

DRMed dev components go to the bottom of my list - join me

pilotbob — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:07:00 +0000

This week I have been tasked with creating an automated build script for one of our legacy Visual Basic 6 applications and putting it under CI.

I planned to use our current build server which is a Xenon 3Ghz machine that currently builds our .Net/VB6 combo projects. It is pretty fast so it works well. The current build is done on an old Dell workstation running Windows 2000 and an old Pentium CPU.

This legacy application has been around for quite a while and uses several 3rd party components like True Grid, Sheridan Data Widgets, BeCubed OLE tools and various other .ocx files... as any good VB project from 1996 is wont to do.

In order to make the build portable the plan was to put the third party .OCX and .DLL files into our svn project which is pretty much a best practice these days. For those that are spoiled with .Net these days you need the OCX to be on the PC and registered to build.

As I started running the compile and working on resolving the missing references copying them from the current PC used to do manual builds I had trouble with it recognizing the components. It started with True Grid 7. The .ocx reported that is was successfully registered when using regsvr32. However, the compile still told me the component was missing. I search the registry and the .ocx was listed in ClassIDs section. But upon comparing the classid in the VBP with the classid in the registry is was 1 digit off.

So, I installed the project on a VM to see what was up. I of course had to dig out the original CD key to do this. After the install I saw that the installed version had a TypeLib key with a value of the classid that was in the .vbp. Apparently the type lib in the .ocx was obscured so this control would not work. So, I added the typelib key to my build machine and tried again. Now I get an error that the .ocx could not load... at least the missing reference message was gone. So, I installed the product on the build server to resolve this.

Next. Yes, the Sheridan data widget gives me an "eval only" message which I try to build a project that uses it. WTF!

As the Principal Architect of my division I am the person that tests and evaluates third party tools prior to purchase. From now on, if your tool has DRM it goes to the bottom of the list. If I am between two tools the clear choice will be the one without DRM.

NO DRM is best. No license file/install needed to build/compile not as good but better than nothing. DRM to just compile when the component is referenced, NO WAY.

The irony here is that I was able to find cracked versions of these files on the internet. No, I didn't use them. But, the point is that DRM only affects your paying customers and does NOT stop theft.

Join me in giving preference to vendors that provide tools that do not EXPECT that you are a criminal.