Cumps Consulting

GPG in Outlook 2007 - OutlookGnuPG

A long time ago, I used PGP for signing my email, but I stopped using it. Probably because I didn't quite get the concept yet, but that has changed now.

HOWTO: Set up NTP on Windows Vista

By default, Windows Vista synchronizes once every 7 days with time.windows.com along with every other user out there.

Let's change this to sync every half day with several NTP servers to get a more reliable time.

HOWTO: Setup IPv6 Tunnel on Windows Vista

I used to have an IPv6 tunnel on my old machine, but since I moved to a new desktop I didn't get around to setting it up again. That's gonna change today.

HOWTO: Installing Subversion on ReadyNas NV+

A little side-track from the Continuous Integration Build Server series, but still related as it'll be part of my CI infrastructure.

A few weeks ago, I bought myself a ReadyNAS NV+ RAID enclosure and fitted it with 4x500GB in a RAID5 setup.

I've bought this because it's about time I started implementing a decent backup solution. Up to now I've been either backing up by copying to external disks, or to a RAID 1 on an old desktop.

Both solutions are only half as practical. The external disks on themselves can crash, while the desktop takes up a lot more space and noise, an issue for me since I don't have a basement to hide things in :)

Over time I've also acquired more and more machines, which started making backing up things a little more complex than they should be. So, the ReadyNAS now fulfills the role of a central file server, containing all my work-related data. Each machine still has it's Temp folder where I drop junk in of course, but if something is deemed useful, I give it a nice spot on the RAID.

Now, documents, pictures, drives, etc. are one thing, and were very easy to get on the RAID, drag and drop in Explorer, FTP over with FlashFXP, use WebDAV, it all works. But for source code however, I have no real ambition to develop on a remote copy of my source, not only that, but I'm spoiled by the benefits of version control that I don't want to go back to one single copy.

Solution? The ReadyNAS runs Linux, I can SSH to it, and it has apt-get on it, with some outdated SVN sources however, so it has everything needed to just compile Subversion myself :)

Upgrading Subversion

Right after I posted my previous post I noticed the Svn 1-Click Setup is running hopelessly behind in SVN versions.

Their default download link is still using SVN 1.3.2 and the latest link on the download page is only at 1.4.2, and both also have an old TortoiseSVN.

That'll teach me to try out an "all-in-one" package!

Let's just build everything with official binaries from now on, and get our source control upgraded to SVN 1.6.0, without losing any data. (Since I've already checked in quite a bit in my repository)

Building a Continuous Integration Build Server

After my previous series of post about Design Patterns, I'm planning to tackle a new subject over the course of the following articles.

We'll have a look at how to build a Continuous Integration Build Server from scratch.

WoW - Multiboxing 101 - Introduction

When looking back at my World of Warcraft experience, I came to the conclusion that when added up, I've been playing this game for over 3 years already. I've even participated in the very first beta ;)

Over time, a lot has changed, I took a few breaks, leveled plenty of classes to the max level, had my days of hardcore end-game raiding (pre-TBC, Naxx), Reputation grinding, Honor grinding (pre-TBC, Warlord), war effort grinding (our guild opened the gates of AQ).

After a year and a half, I took a break from what had become a huge grind, before TBC came out. I returned a while later with some colleagues on an RP realm however.

I've seen the introduction of Blood Elves, the change in faction balance, the faster leveling, and the lack of instance groups at lower levels due to this, combined with the lack of understanding of game mechanics by an ever increasing number of new players (no time or groups for them to get the experience at a low level).

I've also greatly enjoyed doing all new TBC quests a few months after it came out, with less crowded zones, and now I'm liking the casual side of WoW :)

As part of staying on the casual side (casual meaning no hardcore raiding/grinding) I've given the geek in me more freedom to fool around with anything WoW related.

One of the first result of this was the C# World Of Warcraft Armory Library 0.1 I recently released.

The next thing I'm on, is trying out Multiboxing, which is the subject for today's post. There is a lot of information out there, a lot of misconception and taboo around it. Hopefully you'll have a better view on the concept after reading this, as well as an easy to follow guide to try it out.

Modified MVC AccountController for Preview 5

I just downloaded the ASP.NET MVC Preview 5 bits from Codeplex and started on my first experiment.

One of the first things I did was to modify the default AccountController to use the new Form Posting and Form Validation features of the Preview 5, somebody probably overlooked updating those :)

If anyone else wants the reworked code, feel free to copy paste.

C# World Of Warcraft Armory Library 0.1

Since I started playing World of Warcraft again, I've taken a bit more of a developer approach to it this time, and after founding a little casual guild, I decided to create a site for it.

However, I'm a lazy developer, I don't intend to update the site regularly whenever someone joins or leaves the guild.

Also because I'm quite geeky when it comes to statistics, and a bit of a theory crafter, I planned to populate our guild site with lots of stats.

Where else would be a better place to get them from then the Armory? It contains everything I want!

After searching a little, I found various libraries for PHP, Perl and Ruby, but nothing for the .NET world. At least nothing that fetches everything I wanted, like Reputation and Skills.

So, I decided to just write it myself! :)

Exam 70-536 - Searching, Modifying, and Encoding Text

Chapter three finished, Searching, Modifying, and Encoding Text.

Implementing globalization, drawing, and text manipulation functionality in a .NET Framework application

Exam 70-536 - Input/Output

Finished another chapter in my book, Input/Output, which deals with the following:

Implementing serialization and input/output functionality in a .NET Framework application

Exam 70-536 - Framework Fundamentals

The book I'm reading to prepare myself is Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 Application Development Foundation

Just finished the first chapter about Framework Fundamentals. Topics dealt with in this chapter are:

Developing applications that use system types and collections

Starting Exam 70-536 Study

Taking a little break right now, got a bit of a burn out, lack of sleep might have something to do with it :)

The ASP.NET MVC project I had in mind will have to wait a little bit, with a bit of luck it gives me time to find a good graphical designer as well, they seem so rare to find. If you know a good designer, please comment!

What I'm going to do however, is study for a Microsoft Certificate.

Design Patterns - Proxy Pattern

Welcome back for another episode in the pattern series! This will also be the last article about Design Patterns, since I've finished reading the Head First Design Patterns book :)

It's been a very interesting journey, lots of new patterns learned, lots of knowledge gained, and now it's time to apply them in real projects.

Design Patterns - State Pattern

It's been a while again, but it's time for another pattern. Today we'll look at the State Pattern.

Design Patterns - Composite Pattern

http://localhost:1726/en/Admin/Blog/design-patterns-composite-pattern

Design Patterns - Iterator Pattern

Time for the next part in our series, the Iterator Pattern.

Design Patterns - Template Method Pattern

Time for yet another pattern, the Template Method Pattern. Have a look at all the other patterns in the series as well.

The definition: "Define the skeleton of an algorithm in an operation, deferring some steps to subclasses. Template Method lets subclasses redefine certain steps of an algorithm without changing the algorithm's structure."

Wanted: Friends!

Today I'm going to tell you a little story about me. I think of myself as your typical description of a geek.

Passionate about all things technological, eager to find out how the inner details work together, a movie and music lover, and spending too much time behind a computer.

Having all those feats, over the course of twenty years, result in getting out of touch with the what interests the large part of the population.

I don't care about soccer, drinking, going out or making a complete fool out of myself. I can talk for hours about some architecture however, or about techy pranks.

But you know what? My surroundings don't have a clue what I'm talking about, usually ending up in me not bothering anymore. Same for taste of humor, I love the dry British kind, and everyone I know hates it.

This isn't some sort of self-pity post however. I'm fine with making conversation, but most of the time it's forced, and I constantly have to fight the analytical part of my mind to not interfere and kill the conversation.

That being said, I'd like to meet some other geeks from around the world to have a chat with, the international developer community.

Do you sometimes have the same feelings? Would you like to meet someone new? Talk about some random IT thing, or just about your life to a fellow geek?

Contact me! Tell me something about you, where are you from, how old are you, what do you do, some story. Please? :)

Writing all these articles is fun, but having dialogues is a lot more stimulating.

I hope to hear from you! :)

(Yeah, non-geeks can mail too, if you have some interest in IT or aren't bored by someone talking about it :))

Design Patterns - Facade Pattern

Time for another, simple, design pattern. The Facade Pattern.

I'm going to need a break soon, getting a bit burned out, which never is a good thing.

Anyway, the definition of today's pattern: "Provide a unified interface to a set of interfaces in a subsystem. Facade defines a higher-level interface that makes the subsystem easier to use."