Let’s build a better, peaceful Sri Lanka.

I racked my brain trying to figure out how to add ETags to a xap file and yet keep the deployment simple. The answer though is unbelievably simple in this case. Update your AssemblyVersion when compiling. That’s it. IIS takes care of sending the update through to all the browsers.

BTW the silverlight.net forums are a gem for figuring out answers to silverlight problems.

The solution was to make a call to change the default schema using the ALTER SESSION call with this code.

        /// <summary>

        /// Sets the schema to use if one is configured.

        /// </summary>

        public static void SetSchema()

        {

            var schema = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SchemaName"];

            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(schema)) return;

            using (var connection = GetConnection())

            {

                using (var command = new OracleCommand("alter session set current_schema=" + schema))

                {

                    connection.Open();

                    command.Connection = connection;

                    command.ExecuteNonQuery();

                }

            }

        }

SELECT  TimeGenerated, SourceName, ComputerName, Message FROM C:\Downloads\May09-ErrorLog\AppLog\*.evt
WHERE TimeGenerated BETWEEN timestamp(’04/04/2009′, ‘dd/MM/yyyy’) and timestamp(’06/04/2009′, ‘dd/MM/yyyy’)
ORDER BY TimeGenerated desc

Okay so backed up the data and when I try to format as FAT32 there is no such option on the Explorer ‘Format’ dialog. It’s either NTFS or exFAT, couldn’t figure out if the 360 supported exFAT (should have tried) so went about trying to format from the command line. Which does have a switch for FAT32.

Unfortunately format.exe complains that the partition is too big. What I should not have done was to try a quick format.

Instead I went about deleting the partition as mentioned by several sites. There’s a good one built into Windows (Disk Management) that you can get through from ‘Computer Management’. So right-clicked on the external disc and did a ‘Delete Volume’. And then right-clicked and created a new volume. [NOTE: I think the whole delete and create a new volume can be skipped if you already have the partition in NTFS).

Next tried the format.exe again. Still fails complaining that the disc is too big. At whim tried formatting without the /Q (quick format) option. Worked fine.

Here’s how you would go about it (replace Q: with the drive letter of your portable disc).

C:\>format Q: /FS:FAT32

Win7 (or at least the build I have) by default does not auto expand the tree view when you navigate between folders.

The result being you don’t see the usually tree hierarchy on the left pane. Which makes it quite painful if you want to go up a few levels or see the other parent folders.

Luckily there is a new Folder Option called Navigation Pane to switch them back on again. You need to press Alt + T or Organize –> Folder Search Options in Windows Explorer to get to the dialog.

Switch both of them on and viola I get my beloved tree view back.

PS- Most of my UW colleagues use other explorers and didn’t have to feel this pain.

System.ServiceModel.Security.MessageSecurityException occurred Message="The HTTP request is unauthorized with client authentication scheme ‘Negotiate’. The authentication header received from the server was ‘Negotiate

As described in this bug report Microsoft classifies this as a known issue, with the bug being resolved as ‘By Design’.

Your fix is to add an identity element to the WCF endpoint like this.

<identity>
    <userPrincipalName value="WcfServiceAccount@domain" />
</identity>

But the problem with CCF is that the url for some of the endpoints are read through code from a database and set through the proxy class. Now when you do this the identity from the config file does not flow through resulting in the same exception you see above.

One option is to uninstall the service pack on the client. This is not as easy as it seems because the the 3.5 service pack also updates assemblies in the 2.0 and 3.0 frameworks to their SP2 levels.

To get back to pre 3.5 SP1 you need to uninstall all the frameworks and re-install them again avoiding the 3.5 SP1. The exact steps to do this is outlined here by Microsoft engineer, Aaron Stebner.

But what if you don’t have the luxury of walking all your end-users through the uninstall? A suggested fix from Microsoft (targeting CCF) is as follows:

1. Set up a cNAME in DNS for the servername you are using in database urls.
2. Use setspn -a HOST/CNAME domain\apppooluser
3. Change all the database urls to this CNAME
4. Do an iisreset
5. Test

For example if the database urls are http://ccfserver/…..

1. Create a  CNAME CCFALIAS in DNS
2. setspn -a HOST/CCFALIAS ccf\aspuser
3. Change all database urls to ccfalias
4. iisreset
5. Test if you reach /urls with this alias from web servers and from clients

Be careful not to set HOST/CCFSERVER spn for aspuser. Note we are setting HOST/CCFALIAS spn which is CNAME for ccfserver in DNS. If by mistake you set host/ccfserver it can wreak havoc  for Kerberos.

I finally got fed up today when the flickering worsened and asked Google again, “why me?” and Google replied “You are not alone”, the only problem was that I had to go through Google cache as Dell seems to have pulled the plug on this particular page.

Thankfully Brandon (aka GadgetPhreak) had found a workaround and posted it way back in Dec 07, here’s what he says.

I purchased an XPS M1330 configured as follows:

• SYSTEM COLOR: Tuxedo Black
• PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista™ Business Edition
• LCD AND CAMERA: Slim and Light LED Display with VGA Webcam
• MEMORY: 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
• HARD DRIVE: Speed: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
• INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE: CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
• VIDEO CARD: 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
• WIRELESS CARDS: Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
• BLUETOOTH AND WIRELESS USB: Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
• BATTERY OPTIONS: 6 cell Primary Battery and 9 cell additional Lithium Ion Battery
• SOUND OPTIONS: ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi® Xtreme Audio Sound Card
• FINGERPRINT SCANNER: Biometric Fingerprint Reader

I attempted to connect it to the same external monitor used with my XPS 1210 (a 20" Viewsonic VX2025wm LCD with a native resolution of 1680×1050) and where I used to get a crisp, clean, flicker-free image with my M1210, I now get a lot of screen flicker.

I did some research and found someone running a similar type of LCD who had better luck with using an HDMI to DVI-D adapter and ran it into the DVI input on his monitor.  However, that didn’t work for me.

In trouble shooting this I found something interesting, when I remove AC power to my laptop while connected to the Viewsonic, the flickering stops.  When I reconnect it the flickering starts up again.  This is true regardless of what resolution I am running on either the laptop or Viewsonic.  I went through the advanced power settings and tried looking for differences for when the AC is plugged in vs. when it’s running on battery.  I also tried re-installing video drivers, as well as the latest Nvidia drivers from Dell downloads.  Nothing has resolved this yet.

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Branden

 

And behold I pulled out my power cable and the flickering stopped! Now I’m off to customer support to see if I can get an HDMI to DVI cable

There are new shortcuts for maximizing, restoring and minimizing windows as well. I will now be retiring an old keyboard shortcut that I’ve been using since Windows 3.1 (if you didn’t know Alt+Space, X for maximizing and Alt+Space, R for restore and Alt+Space, N for minimize).

Here’s a full list of the new keyboard shortcuts from TechNet, I couldn’t get the Win+(+/-) Zoom working though.

Windows 7 beta 1 includes some handy new shortcut key combinations that allow you to navigate and manage the Windows workspace more efficiently. Here are 10 new Windows 7 shortcuts that will help you speed up your workflow (“Win” means the Windows Key):

Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the active window or restore the window if it’s maximized
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the active window to each side of the monitor
Win+Shift+Left/Right arrows: If you’ve got dual monitors, this will move the active window to the adjacent monitor
Win+T: Shift focus to and scroll through items on the taskbar
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that particular application

This is what nVidia says and you typically get it through Windows Update. I suffered with the title bar going missing and ugly black blocks on my desktop for a week before I figured that the nVidia beta drivers were to blame. It looks like others too are having the same problem.

It appears on Windows Update as: NVIDIA driver update for NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS (Prerelease – WDDM 1.1) Optional

If you already installed it you can either Rollback the Update:

1. Start-> type in ‘Device Manager’ and open it
2. Expand the Display adapters node
3. Double-click the NVIDIA node
4. On the Driver tab click ‘Roll Back Driver’

Or you could uninstall the driver

1. Start –> type in ‘Programs’ and launch ‘Add or remove programs’
2. In the search box (top right) type in ‘nvidia’
3. Right-click and uninstall the ‘NVIDIA Drivers’

After one (sometimes two) re-boots you should be all set.