Wes' Puzzling Blog

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It...

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It... This was pretty funny. I'm sure my wife will agree with most of it and get a kick out of it.

[via The .NET Guy]

Harddrive Failure...

Yesterday when I got home all I saw on my screen was the standard "Failed to find Harddrive 0 No boot device found Press F1 to retry or F2 to enter setup" (something like that you get the point) and all I heard was CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, ..., CLICK. My hard drive had failed. Just great!! Luckily most of my data was stored on my file server so I didn't lose everything. Just my email for the past few months (so if you have emailed me in the last couple days an are expecting a reply please kindly resend your message) and my programing settings. I used to actually setup my profile to run from my server but I got lazy the last time I installed my system. Needless to say I won't make that mistake this time.

I looked up my warranty for my Dell system and it just expired last month, well crap. So for the time being I transfered the files from a secondary drive in my server and I'm using it for now. So I'm mostly backup and running now with a few exceptions.

I was putting off installing .NET Framework 2 beta 2 because I had to go through the pain of doing all the uninstalls but now since I have a fresh system I figured I would go ahead and install it along with C# Express Beta 2. Of course that would prevent Run++ from running, because it was built running .NET Framework 2 Beta 1. I opened up my project in C# Express Beta 2, which worked fine and I must say I like it better so far. However the project no longer compiles. Once I got some references straightened out I only had 2 errors and 98 warnings to go. Most of the warnings are things that are becoming obsolete, including a bunch of stuff that was just added in Beta 1, go figure. At any rate I'm working on getting Run++ up and running on .NET Framework 2 beta 2. I will post more about my transition from beta 1 to beta 2 after I finish the process.

Also as I have mentioned in previous posts I have started running as non-admin on my machine, but there are a lot more problems to deal with when you have a fresh install verses an already installed machine. Right now I'm trying to work out an issue with an application that is failing to register a dll properly.

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Moving to Community Server

I have decided that I want to move my blog to my own site and I'm going to be running Community Server as the backend. Currently I'm working on skinning the site. I have finished skinning the blog but I'm working on the forum and other parts right now. I wish everything within Community Server had a similar structure as the blog skinning, i.e. a layout template. I really hate duplicating stuff I want Master Pages! That is why I decided to use Paul Wilson's version of Master Pages. The only thing is doing that causes me to change every .aspx page in Community Server to use the Master Page Template. I guess that is better than changing them all everytime I want a structural change in my site.

I think I'm going to wait until Community Server version 1.1 comes out before I go live with my site but until then I have other parts of my site I want to work on.

I still need to decide if I want to transfer all the posts/comments on this blog over to my new site. What do you guys think? If I do decide to transfer what is the best tool to transfer the posts and comments? Most of the .Text to CS converters I have seen require that you have access to the database, which I don't have. Maybe it will be better to selectively go through my posts and copy over the best ones.

Enable Remote Desktop Remotely!

I don't know how many times I've installed Windows, unhooked the monitor and keyboard, then tried to Remote Desktop in...and nothing, because I hadn't turned on Remote Desktop. I did it again today and quickly found a great answer: a single registry value! Check it out:

Windows Server Hacks: Remotely Enable Remote Desktop

[Via Jeff Key] 

ObjectDock

Who else out there likes a dock better than the standard windows taskbar? I have been using StarDock's ObjectDock for a few weeks now and I think I'm sold. I have hidden my taskbar and I only run a single visible dock at the bottom center of my screen.

I have another dock in the bottom right of my screen that I set to autohide which contains my notification tray (systray) icons. I really like to have a clean desktop (I also try not to have any icons on my desktop). The taskbar is really not that useful for me so I don't mind hiding it. I don't use the start menu because I start all my programs by using Run++.

One of the best parts is that you can create your own docklets and someone as already created a .NET SDK for these docklets. There are all kinds of analog clock docklets already but no good digital clock docklets (and I like my digital clocks) so I create a digital clock docklet (the one you see in the image) using the .NET SDK. I posted this docklet on WinCustomize and it has already gotten over 1500 downloads so some other people must also like their digital clocks ;). So that is pretty cool.

I have discovered a couple of bugs in ObjectDock but for the most part it works pretty well. Give it a try they have a free version and also a paid version ObjectDock Plus which is $19.95.

Looking for a new place to live? Check out Google Maps/Craigslist combo.

Wayne posted about a google maps/craigslist combination web application that he found out about from Greg which is totally awesome.

If you are looking for a new place to rent or own this is totally the way to do it especially if you want to search by location (which most people do). I'm currently on the lookout for a place in Bellevue/Redmond WA area because I'm moving next month to start my new job at Microsoft (by the way if you already live in the area and know of any good 2/3br townhomes please by all means let me know). I was already using Craigslist because I can subscribe to their searches via RSS and when I find a listing one of the first things I do is map the location in google maps, so this is a very cool combo that I will be using a lot for the next month or so.

Go check it out http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/!

TopDesk - Awesome task switcher

After playing around with TopDesk for a little while I'm about ready to pay my $9.95 to buy it. I just want to use it a couple days to make sure it works properly on my machine configuration. If you don't like the standard Alt-Tab task switcher you should definitely give this a trail run.

Thanks Scott for the link!

Open with Notepad - Context Menu option for all files

If you are like me then a lot of times you want to use notepad to quickly open and look at files. Some files you can choose the Open With > Notepad but not all file and particularly not for files with no extension. My solution is to add a context menu option "Open with Notepad" to all file types including files with no extension.

To do this you need to add the following keys to your registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\opennotepad]
@="Open with Notepad"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\opennotepad\command]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\NOTEPAD.EXE %1"

 Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. I cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

If you are interested in customizing your context menu for specific file types then you can have a look at this msdn article.

nContract

My thesis is now officially uploaded to Virginia Tech's ETD Digital Library.

I have finally posted an overview of nContract on my site for those who are interested. I have also uploaded my thesis and the source code for nContract.

If you have questions or comments please feel free to post a comment here or in my nContract forum.

Here is a slightly updated overview image as a teaser.

Hope you enjoy!