systemsabuse.com

BlendSense: XAML Intellisense for Expression Blend v2.1.1760.0

John Rennemeyer — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:06:45 +0000

Karsten Januszewski has a post (read his post for instructions on installing the addin) about Intellisense for Expresion Blend and upon trying it, it didn’t work. I would get the following error:

“Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.Expression.DesignSurface, Version=2.1.1693.0, Culture=neutral,…”

The issue was caused by the fact that even though I was running SP1, I had v2.1.1760.0. I’ve recompiled BlendSense against this version which resolved the issue.

You can download it here.

Guitar Hero 3 Ultimate Song Request - Hocus Pocus by Focus

John Rennemeyer — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:32:28 +0000

Since I started playing Guitar Hero 3 a month or so ago I’ve been keeping an ear out for songs that I think would be awesome to play in Guitar Hero. Today, I thought of the perfect song, which I found a few months ago on the blog of Fake Steve Jobs: Hocus Pocus by Focus:

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Hocus Pocus by Focus

Now, this would probably have to wait until Guitar Hero: Focus Edition which would allow you to get points using not only the guitar, but the drums, the flute, by yodeling (voice recognition like SingStar), and using face expressions with a facial recognition system and the PS3 Eye where your score is based on how close your facial expressions match that of the lead singer. I know I’d definitely be first in line to buy it. Heck, I’d take a GH3 downloadable song right now even though I could only play the guitar just to tie me over until the full release. Any other takers? Are there any other songs that are as good, if not better (though I doubt one exists) than this one that you’d like to see in a Guitar Hero game?

Metal Gear Solid 4 - Can’t get past first "this game saves data…" screen

John Rennemeyer — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:00:28 +0000

I picked up Metal Gear Solid 4 today and ran into an issue. After you install the game, you get to the screen where it says “This game saves data automatically at certain points…”. On this screen, you have to it X to continue. The problem was, X didn’t do anything whether I hit it on my six-axis controller, my remote, or on my Guitar Hero 3 wireless controller. That’s when I knew what the problem was.

I shut off the PS3, unplugged the guitar hero 3 USB dongle, turned the PS3 back on and went in to Metal Gear Solid 4. When it brought me to the “This game saves data…” screen, I hit X on the six-axis controller and it went right in.

Now, I know what to do when I want to play MGS4. The sucky part is that I have to do it every time I leave the GH3 USB dongle plugged in.

Better than ‘Open Command Window Here’ - Vista Explorer Shortcut

John Rennemeyer — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:33:59 +0000

In Windows Vista, you can no longer drag a folder from Explorer on to a Command Prompt and have it change to that directory. They say it is a security feature. But, they did add the ability to shift+right-click on a folder to show the option to Open Command Window Here. This was something on XP that was you could add through a Windows Explorer extension. I’ll admit, it’s a nice feature to have built into Vista, however, I stumbled across an even nicer shortcut (read: magic) for those of us that are prone to using the keyboard over the mouse, when it comes to shortcuts. To quickly open a command prompt to the folder you have open in Explorer, hit Alt+D (mouse users: click on any empty space in the Address Bar), type cmd and then hit Enter. I told you it was magic!

In Windows Explorer, hit Alt+D
Type cmd
Hit Enter
A command prompt window will open to the folder you had open in Explorer

I’ve been working on some Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer extensions and for the ease of testing I have to constantly restart Explorer. Heck, I’ve just probably saved myself an extra 10-20 seconds per day. I know, I’m weird, but you know what they say about special weird people…

If you’ve been looking for a reason to upgrade to Vista folks, this is definitely it (only kidding, of course) because it doesn’t work on XP (ugh, I feel my subconscious bullying me into creating an extension for XP to mimic this functionality…must…resist…urge)!

Windows Vista SP1 Causing Internet Connection Problems

John Rennemeyer — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:15:32 +0000

On a Dell Precision 670 (@work), updated to Vista SP1, and a new Dell Inspiron 530 (@friend) with Vista SP1 installed on it when it was received, I have been having issues using the Internet. Every time I restart my computer, my Internet connection won’t work even though the globe indicator on the network connection icon is showing as being online. I can browse my local network but I can’t do anything online. I found that I could temporarily get around this by disabling and re-enabling the Local Area Connection. However, I wanted a more permanent solution:

Disabling IPv6 on Windows Vista SP1

Option 1:

Click on the Start Menu.
Click on Control Panel.
Once the Control Panel is open, click the Classic View link on the left sidebar.
Find and double-click Network and Sharing Center.
Click Manage Network Connections on the left sidebar.
Find your Broadband connection (usually named Local Area Connection) and right-click on it.
On the context-menu, click Properties.
Click the Networking tab.
Remove the checkmark from Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6).
Click Ok.
Close all the windows opened in the previous steps.
Restart your computer.

Option 2 (requires modifying the registry but allows you to change one setting to affect all network adapters):

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - KB929852 - How to disable certain Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) components in Windows Vista

Known Issues with disabling IPv6:

Any programs that require IPv6 will not work. One example is Windows Meeting Space:

Hopefully Microsoft gets this issue fixed soon as I hate workarounds, especially ones that make compromises. Though we all know that workarounds are a necessity of the digital life.

MuvEnum Address Bar Updated with x64 support

John Rennemeyer — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:17:59 +0000

The original post can be found here: http://www.systemsabuse.com/2007/12/27/xp-service-pack-3-sp3-where-did-my-toolbars-address-bar-go-missing/

MuvEnum has released the MuvEnum Address Bar v1.3.1.0; the ultimate replacement for the missing address bar in Windows XP SP3!

MuvEnum Address Bar (x86 and x64 compatible with Windows XP, Vista, and 2003 Server)

Download

Update 04/30/2008: v1.3.1.0 Released

Added x64 support.
Added support for checking for updates from the about dialog.
Added support for showing Typed Url history from explorer/internet explorer in the dropdown.
Added support for running applications with arguments.
Added ability to clear text by pressing escape.
Added support for MuvEnum Google Sponsored Search (currently redirects directly to Google).

Enjoy!

Creating a single forward to multiple email addresses with cPanel

Joe — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:43:19 +0000

As easy as this turned out to be and as easy as it seemed it should be, it took a little digging to find out how to really accomplish this. Since John and I both manage the blog I wanted all comment moderation requests to come to both of us rather than just to me. However, WordPress doesn’t seem to accept more than one email address in the admin notification section. It let me add both email address with a semi-colon separating them, but after saving the settings it removed the semi-colon and left the box with an invalid email address. Since our site is hosted on a cPanel server I then turned to setting up the forwarding through cPanel.

cPanel has recently updated to version 11 and introduced a much better user interface with quite a bit of error checking. For example, when I tried entering two email addresses into the forwarder address box it kindly let me know that ; or , as a separator were not acceptable. After a little research I discovered that you simply create two forwards for the same email address. One pointing from the desired forward blog@domain to my email, and another pointing again from blog@domain to John’s email. This actually creates a single forward entry within the operating system, but cPanel keeps it recorded as two separate fowards. This now also means that both John and I will be able to moderate the comments so they should show up much quicker.

How NOT To Do Business - A Worthless Class Action Suit

John Rennemeyer — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:29:34 +0000

I was talking with some friends at work about all the stupid lawsuits we’ve seen which reminded me of the most worthless class action lawsuit I’ve ever been a part of.

Anyone remember Hollywood Video? Yes, I know they still exist, for some people, but I stopped renting there a long time ago thanks to Redbox and Netflix. Hollywood Video had a Class Action Lawsuit brought against them back in 2004 for “additional rental charges” (read: excessive and incorrectly charged late fees). I was one of the affected customers.

The settlement stated the following:

“A nationwide settlement has been proposed in a class action lawsuit about additional rental charges at Hollywood Video stores. The settlement will ensure that at least $9,000,000 worth of certificates for free rentals at Hollywood Video stores will be issued and redeemed. The settlement resolves several lawsuits over charges for rentals not returned within the initial rental period at Hollywood Video stores.”

I remember finally getting an envelope in the mail with our “free rentals”. I opened it up and started laughing. It wasn’t a happy laugh and there wasn’t anything joyful about it. In the envelope were a few COUPONS, not certificates.

They read as follows (paraphrased, because I don’t remember word for word):

“Rent One New Release, Get One New Release Rental FREE”

What a bunch of crap! I think I still have them somewhere as a reminder of the levels of greed and idiocy a company can portray. I wonder if there was ever a class action suit against the original class action suit settlement because I’m pretty sure that they issued that many forced to pay to get free rental(s), but they sure as hell didn’t have $9,000,000 worth redeemed.

Hollywood Video, if you are reading this, I’ll kindly take payment in the form of 6 months free service to Netflix and I’m pretty sure that every other person that took part in that settlement would as well.

Beta Testers Needed for MuvUnder Cover: The Album Art Sleuth

John Rennemeyer — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:45:32 +0000

MuvEnum is looking for 20 beta testers for its latest product: MuvUnder Cover: The Album Art Sleuth, which is a Windows WPF application for automatically finding and embedding album art into the following file types: APE, ASF, FLAC, M4A, M4P, M4V, MP3, MP4, MPC, MPP, MP+, WMA, WMV, and WV.

Using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), we’ve been able to create a unique experience that fits well within the “album cover” concept

To become a beta tester, please send an email that includes your system specifications (OS, CPU, RAM) to beta@muvenum.com requesting to be a part of the “MuvUnder Cover Beta Testing Team”.

Each active beta tester will receive a free copy of both MuvUnder Cover: The Album Art Sleuth and MuvAudio2.

Once we have 20 beta testers, testing will begin. We’ve ironed out a lot of issues with our current internal testing team and hope to have the beta last for only a few weeks.

If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment and we’ll be sure to answer it

Here’s a quick sneak peek (user interface subject to change):

Silverlight 2.0 will include a WatermarkedTextBox (a.k.a. InfoTextBox)

John Rennemeyer — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:49:27 +0000

Since I’ve been trying to finish my latest project using WPF, Silverlight 2.0 excites me because I will be able to take a lot of stuff that I’ve done and learned and use it in Silverlight 2.0! Scott Guthrie just posted a sneak peak into the latest offerings that will be coming in Beta 1 along with an 8 part tutorial taking you through the creation of a sample Digg app.

In the 2nd part of the tutorial I noticed he included a “WatermarkedTextBox“. This is an out-of-the-box (OOTB) control which basically adds the fancy faded text inside of a textbox that disappears when you start typing in it, to allow you to forego a label and minimize UI space needed. In my current project I use the “InfoTextBox” provided by the WPF Bag O’ Tricks which does the same thing. Having a control OOTB is always a nice thing, especially for those people that don’t know what the heck you would call this type of TextBox and therefore would never be able to find it using Google.

Silverlight 2.0 is definitely some cool stuff. And for those of you that prefer something other than C# or VB, “Developers can write Silverlight applications using any .NET language (including VB, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby”.