Jon Gallant's Blog

How to borrow Kindle Books from your public library for free

Jon B. Gallant — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:05:10 GMT

There are a ton of free books to be borrowed from your public library. It’s really easy to do with a Kindle because Amazon.com uses whispernet to wirelessly sync the books with your Kindle …no cable required like with the Nook . ( See...(read more)

Kindle vs Nook – The two leading eInk eReaders compared by someone who has read for hours on both of them

Jon B. Gallant — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:42:24 GMT

The is a post for anyone who is trying to decide between the Kindle Touch and the Nook Simple Touch eInk eReaders. I bought them both with my own money and spent a lot of time reading with both of them. I couldn’t decide in the store because...(read more)

How to load a remote assembly using Assembly.Load

Jon B. Gallant — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:17:07 GMT

If you try to load a remote assembly using it’s path you’ll likely get a permission or operation exception. When using LoadFrom: Assembly a1 = Assembly.LoadFrom(file); I got this error. Could not load file or assembly or one...(read more)

Solution to hard to check CheckBox when using a DataGridCheckBoxColumn without a Label in WPF

Jon B. Gallant — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:04:12 GMT

When you have a DataGridCheckBoxColumn without an associate label it is very difficult to check and uncheck the CheckBox. I know this solution makes no sense, but it works. In your Xaml add this markup. < DataGridCheckBoxColumn > ...(read more)

Solution to WPF DataGrid not showing any items after setting the DataSource

Jon B. Gallant — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:13:06 GMT

It was simple fix for me. Go into the Xaml file and add the ItemsSource attribute to the Grid node. <DataGrid AutoGenerateColumns="True" Height="292" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="12,97,0,0" Name...(read more)

The best Kindle light is the eBook Lite from Pathway Lights

Jon B. Gallant — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:01:52 GMT

I’ve tried a ton of different reading lights with my Kindle and my favorite is called the eBook Lite (aka eReader Lite) from Pathway Lights. I like it better than the Kandle because it’s smaller, but has the same effect. It shines light down...(read more)

How to programmatically bulk update TFS Query columns and sort order to match another query using the TFS SDK

Jon B. Gallant — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:16:26 GMT

I just created 10 queries with all the same columns and sort order. I then realized I missed a column and wanted to add another sort column to all those queries. I made the changes to one of the other 10 queries and thought there must...(read more)

How to easily add an attachment to a TFS work item

Jon B. Gallant — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:32:19 GMT

The TFS Work Item Attachments tab supports the Windows Clipboard and Drag and Drop. For all of these tips make sure you click in the attachments grid, not just the tab. OneNote By using the clipboard all you have to do is Windows...(read more)

Solution to TF80012: The document cannot be opened because there is a problem with the installation of the Microsoft Visual Studio v10.0 Team Foundation Office integration components.

Jon B. Gallant — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:04:59 GMT

This could be happening for a number of reasons. I’ve had to try a few solutions below to get it to work. Try one, see if it works and if not try the next one. 1. Repair Office Tools a. Open add/remove programs. b. Type ‘office...(read more)

How to quickly open a TFS New Query form

Jon B. Gallant — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:46:43 GMT

It’s pretty cumbersome to create a New Query in TFS. You have to open Team Explorer, Expand your Server node, Right click on Works Items and select New Query. Here’s how to quickly do all that with a keyboard shortcut. 1. Tools –> Options 2....(read more)

How to use NETWORK SERVICE account with SyncBack scheduled tasks

Jon B. Gallant — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:40:05 GMT

SyncBack is a great backup and sync utility, but by default it creates Windows XP scheduled tasks which do not support running under a NETWORK SERVICE account and there’s no way to change that through the SyncBack interface. Here’s my work around...(read more)

How to open file diff from changeset details with double click in TFS

Jon B. Gallant — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:23:12 GMT

By default TFS opens all files in the Changeset details window with Notepad. But what I want to do most of the time is diff the file, not open it. You could either right click the file and choose compare and then select the version to compare to...(read more)

Why I’m sticking with Zune Marketplace and not using the Spotify Windows Phone 7 application.

Jon B. Gallant — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:55:50 GMT

I’ve been using Zune since v1. I like the interface and subscription plan. I was excited when I first heard about Spotify because it was $5 less per month than Zune and the interface is very light and easy to use. BUT then.. Zune dropped...(read more)

How to programmatically generate C# files from a DLL or EXE

Jon B. Gallant — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:29:15 GMT

I’m working on a project that involves researching and comparing many versions of the same DLL. I don’t have the source for every version of this DLL so I needed a way to convert it to C# files and diff those. Since there are...(read more)

How to VERY EASILY decompress XSN files using C#

Jon B. Gallant — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:19:31 GMT

XSN files are just cab files, but .NET doesn’t ship with APIs to easily decompress them. After a little bit of poking around I found SevenZipSharp to be the fasted and simplest way to do so. 1) Install 7-Zip 2) Download SevenZipSharp 3) Reference...(read more)

Solution to the exception: Can not load 7-zip library or internal COM error! Message: failed to load library.

Jon B. Gallant — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:07:06 GMT

You need to change the target platform to x64. Double click properties. Click on Build Tab Change Platform target to x64 Can not load 7-zip library or internal COM error! Message: failed to load library....(read more)

Solution to the exception: Can not load 7-zip library or internal COM error! Message: DLL file does not exist.

Jon B. Gallant — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:04:55 GMT

Add a call to SetLibraryPath before you init SevenZipExtractor. SevenZipExtractor.SetLibraryPath(@"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.dll"); SevenZipExtractor zip = new SevenZipExtractor(file); zip.ExtractArchive(xsnFolder...(read more)

How to force TFS Work Item layout groups to consume the minimal amount of screen real estate.

Jon B. Gallant — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:05:02 GMT

I wanted to simplify my TFS work item display so I removed a bunch of columns and and groups. It turns out you need those groups or you get something like this: Not good since it takes up so much vertical space. You need to add a wrapper...(read more)

Solution to the error “An error occurred during the transfer. Please check your Wi-Fi connection.” with PhotoSync

Jon B. Gallant — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:36:43 GMT

So far I really like the PhotoSync app for syncing photos and videos from my iPhone to my PC. I was getting this error when I tried to sync: “An error occurred during the transfer. Please check your Wi-Fi connection.” It turned out to that my home...(read more)

How to bulk update work items in TFS with Work Item Templates

Jon B. Gallant — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:28:32 GMT

TFS allows you to update work items in bulk by applying a template to them. Here’s how: 1) Install the TFS Power Tools 2) Right click on Work Item Templates in Team Explorer and select New Template 3) Select your work item type: 4) Fill out...(read more)

Solution: TFS always shows ChangedBy as the current user

Jon B. Gallant — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:18:45 GMT

By default TFS always displays the System.ChangedBy field as the current user. I am Jon Gallant and Wallace Breza is a dev on my team. As you can see he was the last to change the bug, but my name is in the System.ChangedBy field. This...(read more)

Solution to missing “Add photos” button in Facebook Photo Album

Jon B. Gallant — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:40:21 GMT

It just means that you maxed out the number of photos allowed per album. Right now it looks like that number is 200. The solution is to create a new album....(read more)

How to Validate Area & Iteration Paths in TFS

Jon B. Gallant — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:45:16 GMT

0) Run a TFS query to find the AreaId and IterationId that you don’t want to allow. In my case it was 489 for both Area and Iteration 0.1) Create a new query: 0.2) Select the AreaId and IterationId columns 0.3) Run query. Record both the...(read more)

How to programmatically modify a TFS query with C#

Jon B. Gallant — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:01:00 GMT

I had to change TFS Iterations and didn’t want to break all existing queries. I also didn’t want to update them all manually. Thanks to Tarun Arora for a good starting point: http://geekswithblogs.net/TarunArora/archive/2011/07/10/tfs...(read more)

Solution to “An internal error has occurred: There is something wrong in CryptUnprotectData.” in Lightroom 3

Jon B. Gallant — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 07:26:37 GMT

You just need to delete a few things from your Lightroom preferences file: (The following from this thread , I’m reposting so it’s easier to find) 1) Close Lightroom 2) Open up your preferences file in notepad: C:\users\USER_NAME\AppData...(read more)