Archives

Archives / 2005

  • MS BSM 2005 Vs BO XCelsius

    No Comments

    I'd a meeting with a couple of MS guys last week and the topic is about business intellience and MS Business Scorecard Manager 2005 (with little MS Office 12 as well). The idea of MS Business Scorecard Manager (BSM) 2005 is talking about how easy to retrieve data from our defined cube and datawarehouse, and then display on a browser by non-tech users in a friendly way (or to a sharepoint server visually).

    Read more...

  • Migrate CS 1.0 to 2.0 Beta 2

    No Comments

    Just finish upgrading a local IT Pro community (jo-san.IT) from Community Server 1.0 to 2.0 Beta 2 during this X'mas holiday, it (should be) is a pretty strange forward process but it took me more than 6 hours before completion. I tried in my testing machine without problem, but I faced a couple of problems in this migration:

    Read more...

  • Code Snippets Manager Hidden in VS2005

    13 Comments

    This is a very good article about Code Snippet Manager in VSTO V2.0 by Kevin. However, the "Code Snippet Manager" is hidden in VS2005 by default (strange?!), so you can't do anything nor increase your productivity even though you'd read this article.
     
    So what we have to do is to customize the menu by adding the Code Snippets Manager to the Tools menu "manually".
     
    Before:
     
    After:
     
    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Input Device in Virtual PC

    No Comments

    Microsoft Virtual PC 2004I used Virtual PC extensively in office and home, the problem of "lost of keyboard and/or mouse" (That is, the mouse and keyboard don't work in the guest machine, but work in the host) happened many times recently. I'm not sure is it a signal to me that I have to (clean) create another image and continue my work there, but I'm afraid of this time-consuming solution... and at least another quick solution still work for me:

    Read more...

  • Unable to Debugging in VS 2005?

    No Comments

    I'm developing a VSTO2 application right now, and I press F5 hundreds of times everyday. However, VS 2005 display an error message ONCE today. (No, nothing wrong in my machine and code, but this message flash once today, and I haven't see it again).

    Read more...

  • Coloring Problem of my eye or VS2005?

    1 Comment

     
    I'm a color blind (of specific colors), and that's why I'm so eager to learn all "user friendliness and usability" features in VS2005 and all Apps. I have a Web services with a custom namespace like Something.WebServices, the fully qualified class name like Something.WebServices.WsDefault (right pane). However, the source of that asmx file and VS2005 may dislike my naming convention.. so it complaint and just highlight the first 2 characters only (left pane)
     
    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • .NET Framework Configuration Tool (Mscorcfg.msc)

    1 Comment

    Just want to configurate the runtime security policy for one of my WinForm 2.0 product under a client environment, but I can't find the .NET Framework 2.0 Configuration tool in the Administrative Tools menu... I can see the same tool for .NET Fx 1.1, but where's the one for .NET Fx 2.0?

    Read more...

  • Visual Studio .NET 2003 Cache Error

    4 Comments

    Just want to open a ASP.NET 1.1 project from a remote web server, while the VS.NET 2003 display an error message suddenly: "Unable to get the project file from server blah blah blah"

    Read more...

  • 2 loss to community

    No Comments

    1. Just heard an exciting news that a friend of mine will join the local MS office next month, I'm happy that he share this piece of news with me last Friday, I know his new job must be challenging and I'm sure we still can work together closely for the local user group and community stuffs. OTOH, due to the independence of user groups / communities, he'll resign from the executive board because he'll become a MSFTer... Anyway, good luck for his new job, but a loss to the user groups / communities.

    Read more...

  • Is your VS2005 project "clean"?

    5 Comments

    When I tried to upgrade a WinForm project integrating Microsoft OWC from Sept CTP to RTM recently, I faced an error that some assemblies are missing, like the "MSDATASRC 8.0.. blah blah".

    Read more...

  • The Binding Handle is Invalid in VS 2005 Resolved

    102 Comments

    I tried to run one of my WinForm 2.0 solution in my home machine tonight, but a confusing error message displayed when I pressed the F5 button: "Unable to attach debugger. The binding handle is invalid"... What's the binding handle in VS2005? I did a quick search on the product feedback site and luckily, I found the resolution at here.

    Read more...

  • Community Server 2.0 Beta 1 is darn cool

    1 Comment

    Rob announced the release of CS 2.0 Beta 1 few days ago.. and this project is amazing!
    A very cool set of new features, and the integration of ComponentArts controls are awesome (My favourites: slider for paging, splitter for screen layout, double click and modal dialog for posting...etc)
    I played with it for few hours yesterday and can't wait to upgrade one of the local community site later. :)



    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Errors in using BackgroundWorker Component in WinForm 2.0 Development

    No Comments

    I'm doing the multithreading programming for a data access / retrieval process in one of my WinForm 2.0 application this morning, the introduction of a new multithread component - BackgroundWorker - is excellent!

    It's much simpler as in WinForm 1.0 dev (no more manual delegation), and this component expose events: DoWork, ProgressChanged and RunWorkerCompleted. What we have to do is to trigger the RunWorkerAsync method, update the ProgressBar control in the ProgressChanged event (most of the cases), and then finish up all works in the RunWorkerCompleted event. Yes, the name of these events explains its usage already, and VS2005 also provides a thread-safe (read more...) dev environment / notification for you throughout the dev process.

    However, what I got suck is the WorkerReportsProgress and WorkersSupportCancellation properties... I prepared the module and ready to run, but the result is not what I expect. I tried to debug it and caught this exception:



    The WorkerReportsProgress and WorkersSupportCancellation properties need to be config as True if you want to report a progress state or break the asyn call during execution. Well, and the default values are False... :S


    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • GotDotNet Updated and DotText Project

    1 Comment

    Just received an email this morning about my request to join the DotText project... (Well, I really forgot when did I request to join this GDN workspace... hmm... most probably in 2003 as I firstly try the pre-.Text version 0.93 back in 2003)

    Read more...

  • Language / Collation Problem in SQL 2005

    No Comments

    One more problem related to language / collation setting in SQL 2005 when I try to "Explore Data" in the Data Source View of my BI project:
     
     
    I put too much attention on the word of "binding errors" before I actually found out the reason, and the problem is the collation confliction of the database/tables...

    Read more...

  • Icon & UI Consistence

    No Comments

    Working in SQL 2005 Business Intelligence projects and preparing for the SQL 2005 & VS 2005 launch day, I may hurt my eye and dizzy... many objects are circulating and processing @_@, even the hotmail screen. :)

    Read more...

  • INETA APAC User Group Kits #2 Sent

    No Comments

    Just completed the delivery process of the INETA APAC UG Kits #2 to all UGs located in Asia Pacific & Greater China region last weekend, ah... deliver the materials to about 150 UGs in the last month is really a tough job.

    Read more...

  • Launch Party of MCE in HK

    No Comments

    Trying the Windows XP MCE for about 1.5 months and previewing various MCE "features" in TechEd and other MS events, and I just heard that the official launch party of MCE will be held on 27 Oct 2005 (different showcases and localized MCE will be demostrated too).

    Read more...

  • Screen Capture

    1 Comment

    How do you capture a screen shot when Windows Media Player is running? I know it's impossible difficult but normally a blank screen is captured instead. Paying to third party screen capture tool? No way! After googling for 1 min, I found this little trick so I can now capture whenever I want in playing a WMA file. :o)

    Read more...

  • First Taste of MCE

    4 Comments

    Yo, just finish installing the MCE tonight... (after a frustration of the whole weekend - I don't know why, but my previous installation of WinXP MCE always prompt me to insert Disk 1, Disk 2 and WinXP Disk repeatedly... repeatedly... and repeatedly. Therefore, I remove the power cord after changing the disks over 20 times - gentle enough?)

    Read more...

  • Wireless Recharger

    1 Comment

    Amazing, just hear this amazing news from the Internet that a new wireless recharger will be produced later, so all MP3 player, mobile phone and d-cam can be recharged without wire, and one of the innovations is to create smaller and smaller devices, and water-proof as well!!

    Read more...

  • Traditional Chinese Domain Name

    No Comments

    How many of you register and maintain domain names for your company? I helped in maintaining a couple of domain names for my previous employers and I understand the pain, it's difficult to maintain different domain names with different expiration date from different vendors, for example x.com, x.com.hk, x.hk, x.com.cn... blah blah blah. (I received lots of notification/reminder email from different domain name vendors from time to time.. so let me know if you have a centralized solution to handle these stuffs. :)

    Read more...

  • First Try of IE 7.0

    No Comments

    I'm not so happy about IE 6 + MSN Search Toolbar some times ago.. so I try to give it one more chance and install IE 7 Beta today.



    The tabbed browsing feature looks good (more smooth than IE6) and overall it's OK. However, I can't see the Rich Text features in editing this blog post... well, this involve lots of issues, like browser cap and up/downgrade of browser.. Well, maybe I still have to stick with FF in the mean time till the RTM of IE7..

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • User Behaviour

    No Comments

    Who're actually using Blue Tooth technology nowadays? I'm not sure but I only try this technology when I drive, yes, it's a must to use hand-free during driving. However, I face a problem in connecting my hand-free with my cell phone today - "Blue tooth module not attached". What's that? I use this service from time to time, how can this module disappear suddenly? I'm clueless so I go to Smartone Vodafone today, the technician have no idea too. I can't wait for their replacement so I go back home and repair it by myself. (Yes, I have a team of technology specialist and they can solve everything - Ok, it's Google honestly. :)

    Read more...

  • Extension/Flexibility of FireFox

    No Comments

    A developer in my team is creating a Flash-enabled web page recently, and he want to disable Flash player temporarily in order to view different results of the web page. (ah... back to the age of cross browsers compatibilities pain...)

    Read more...

  • Client Script mixing with Server Script

    No Comments

    Just read an article from news.com.om on Jo-San.IT homepage (yeah, the first block located on the right pane) with title "Microsoft gets hip to AJAX". AJAX - well, nothing new to me as I developed and tried different types of similar "techniques" since ASP.NET v1.0 Beta 2 (Yes, I used client side scripting and mixed with server side code from the beta stage to the Whidbey age nowadays, dirty? huh? but it provide a pretty nice "interactive" interface and all users like it ;)

    Read more...

  • ________ Screen

    1 Comment

    See the title of this blog entry? Nothing? Here it is: Transparent Screen

    Transparent Screen - alexy

    Just came across to my fellow MVP - Brandon's blog today and found this device.. is it real? How useful of this device, huh? :o)

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • RssFeeds from MS TechNet

    No Comments

    After consulting the professional artistic advice from Thomas and Nam, I just finished an aggregated and wrote a more useful home page for a brand new IT Pro community web site - JoSan.IT (which is built by Community Server v1. :)

    I have to consume various rss feeds and then display the contents/modules on that home page, and I firstly try to use ScottM's RssFeed control. Awesome, it's super easy to use! What make me stop and think for 2 seconds is the consumption of TechNet KB feed, which is available on the MS TechNet Community web site. Basically, I can consume and display the title of the IT Pro KB articles without problem, but the feed itself doesn't contain the pubDate, which means I can't sort nor display the publish date of the KB listings. (How useful of the list if readers don't know what's new and what's changed).

    Anyway, if you're IT Pro and reside in Hong Kong, check it out.

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • INETA Asia Pacific User Group Kit 2005 Q1 Distributed

    No Comments

    After the hardworks from all of my teammates over the past few months, my team had successfully delivered our very owned INETA Asia Pacific & Greater China (APAC) region 2005 Q1 user group kit to over 127 user groups all over APAC. Just in case you read this blog and received my kit, please drop me a line and let me know your feedback / acknowledgement. :)

    This is really a tough task and more difficult than what I imagine at first: insufficient time, handling with various vendors, finding sponsors, preparing the shipment, drafting the documents & templates, communicating with UG leaders and other teams...etc but anyway, it's over and we have to focus on the measurement and evaluation issues, as well as planning for the next kit and of course, bringing more goodies and beneficials to all APAC user groups!

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Uninstalling Previous Versions of Visual Studio 2005

    2 Comments

    I un/re/install different builds of Visual Studio 2005 in my home desktop repeatedly in the past few months, and I was preparing to install the downloadable VS 2005 Beta 2 in my laptop today. However, my memory goes bad and I just found out that I didn't follow the recommended procedures as shown on MSDN.

    If you have installed previous versions of Visual Studio 2005, such as Beta 1 or Community Technical Preview (CTP) builds of Visual Studio Team Suite, Visual Studio Standard or Visual Studio Professional, then you must uninstall the pre-Beta2 components in the exact order below before beginning to install any version of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. [more...]

    The uninstallation of previous builds of VS 2005 is fine in my laptop, but.. well, I hope it won't break anything in the future even though I didn't follow the exact order. If you're ready to install the VS 2005 B2, remember to read the captioned URL first if possible.

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Designer Mode Problem in Visual Studio .NET 2003

    2 Comments

    I got a trouble in opening a ASP.NET Web app in VB.NET developed by another team today. An error message showing "... blah blah </body> is missing...." (of course, an intact <body></body> tag exist in the ASPX file), where no designer mode and no code declaration and event wiring in the code behind file.. :(

    Finally, a teammate suggest me to add a line in the <head> section of the ASPX file:
    <meta name="CODE_LANGUAGE" content="Visual Basic 7.0">

    Yes, that's it. I haven't seen this kind of problem in the past, it's so strange.

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Default Button / Press Enter Key in Web Form

    28 Comments


    Anyway, I went to Mike's blog immediately as I remembered he blogged about this topic in the past, I added his code by following his code snippet but it didn't work. (FYI: I have only 1 TextBox and 1 Button on that page only)

    Finally, I added few lines of JavaScript code in order to catch this action (the keypoint is this line of code: event.returnValue=false;) and then it worked perfectly! Minor issue but "resume" the functionality. :o)

    Read more...

  • Free Mail Competition Again?

    2 Comments

    Just read a Chinese blog and learnt that Yahoo mail offers 1Gb storage for all users long times ago (maybe expand to other regions as well), and again, Gmail gave me a surprise when I look at the storage indicator tonight:



    By looking at the New Features list on gmail, I found that Gmail now increase the storage for all user from now on to 2Gb (What's extra 57Mb for me BTW?) Aha... lovely, in addition to the newly added Rich Text Editing feature in Gmail, and she gave me a gift about the increased storage size again tonight. I love this game competition. :)

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Customize Template in Web Matrix

    26 Comments

    Unlike Visual Studio .NET, ASP.NET Web Matrix will only generate a very simple code file when creating a new web form. However, we can customize the template as in Visual Studio .NET, and the template file for Web Matrix is normally located at:

    [InstallationFolder]\[VersionNumber]\WebMatrix\Templates\aspx\[LanguageType], for example: C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET Web Matrix\v0.6.812\WebMatrix\Templates\aspx\C#

    A sample modified template like:

       1:  <%@ Page Language="C#" %>
       2:  <script runat="server">
       3:   
       4:      // Insert page code here
       5:      //
       6:   
       7:  </script>
       8:  <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN">
       9:  <html>
      10:  <head>
      11:      <title></title> 
      12:      <meta content="..." name="..." />
      13:  </head>
      14:  <body>
      15:      <form runat="server">
      16:          <!-- Insert content here -->
      17:      </form>
      18:  </body>
      19:  </html>


     Finally, we would see a new element of <title></title> and DOCTYPE tag in that ASPX file, and we can also do the same for different types of files such as ASCX, ASMX..etc

    Read more...

  • Usability and Cost

    No Comments

    Usability is a wide subject and one conclusion I can made after attending a 4-hours usability training this morning: Respect the Users.

    Many companies mainly focus on analysis, architect, design, coding and testing, but the principal consultant presented many good points in usabiility on software production. I talked with the consultant after the official training, and he also said that many I.T. people always do what they think and rarely get user involed in the production lifecycle (especially in the fast-chaning and limited budget style), as I.T. people always believe they understand what users want after a couple of interviews or discussions with user representatives or process owners, but the truth may not like that and turn out the dev cost (including re-development cost) may finally higher than expected... well, it's good to arrange such training and I hope our dev team members and strategic planners get something from it today. :)

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • First peer-to-peer infringer arrested

    2 Comments

    Bit Torrent (BT) is nothing new and I know the information structure (I just help the internal MIS and personnel department to gather information and a warning letter was given to an employee, because this guy used BT during office hour with office equipment/resources). There are a lots of debates about BT around but I don't have any interest or feeling on it. Anyway, a jobless Hong Konger was arrested today and he may become the first case of copyright ordinance violation in the world... will see..

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Putting Control Everywhere in your Web Form

    1 Comment

    I see this kind of questions from time to time on the forums, and yes, people may probably thinking of GridLayout and FlowLayout immediately as in VS.NET. However, there's no such property for the <body> tag in ASP.NET Web Matrix be default.. BUT, there's a button on the menu bar providing this function: "Absolute Position", you can put any control in anywhere you like after enabling it.

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Inside MSDN2 Library and Reporting Services

    No Comments

    February 2005 MSDN Magazine now online! [via Steve]

    I spent few minutes in reading 2 articles just now:

    1. Designing URLs for MSDN2 - When playing with the VS 2005 CTP bit recently, I visited the MSDN2 Library frequently and it'd good to see the mechanism of MSDN2/MTPS from the designer.

    2.     Display Your Data Your Way with Custom Renderers for Reporting Services - I post a review about Reporting Services in Action recently, so the title draw my attention. (BTW, this article is written by a fellow Hong Konger)

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • My Article on MSDN Southeast Asia Edition

    2 Comments

    I may blogged too much about the Tsunami in Southeast Asia recently, and now, let me change the topic and talk about another story in SEA: the MSDN Magazine SEA edition issue#2 was just published. I wrote an article to compare and contrast Visual Web Developer Express 2005 and ASP.NET Web Matrix, but.. well, once again, my surname is wrong on the cover... :S ah... it's me, so please feel free to contact me in case of any query about this article anyway.

    Read more...

  • Review: Microsoft Reporting Services in Action Go Live

    No Comments

    After the long X'mas and new year holiday, I just submitted a review of the title "Microsoft Reporting Services in Action" on aspalliance.com. This is an interesting and useful book and I'll rate it as 4 out of 5 stars overall.
    BTW, This book recalls me that Manning Publishing have their "xxx in Action" brand and series of books, which is similar to the "Professional xxx" series (e.g. Pro Visual Studio .NET ;) in Wrox APress. Anyway, I'm interest in the "Subversion in Action" and I'll most likely pick a copy in shortly future. :)

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Comment Spam or Real Comment?

    No Comments

    I blogged a message about helping the people in SEA and looking for volunteer yesterday, and then I received an email with subject "Help with "Victim Tracking" Web app (via Colt Kwong's Blog)" this morning, the sender is Paulo Correia (pauloXXXX@gmail.com; IP Address: IP Address: 212.55.XXX.XX), and the content is nothing but just a "Hi,"

    I'm confused: Is this message sent by a comment spam machine... or is it sent from a real human?

    * I'm serious about this voluntary project and seek help from the public, so no kidding / spamming in this case please... and if you're the real Paulo, I'm very appreciate if you could send an email to me again, thanks. *

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • Helping the people in South East Asia with your Technical Knowledge

    No Comments

    I'm happy today as I can help the people affected by Tsunami with my technical knowledge, in addition to monetary donation to various organization.
    I sent an email asking for the status of my INETA Asia Pacific buddies after the tragedy, and I also talked with the INETA member group leader in Indonesia and staff in Microsoft Indonesia -> ALL of them are safe and fine! Moreover, Anand and I will work with few Indonesian developers developing a "Victim Tracking" Web app, the purpose and urgency of this app are obvious, and the staff said they want more developers! So if you're free and know ASP.NET (C#), feel free to drop me a message and let's help in this meaningful project.

    Thanks,
    Colt Kwong

    Read more...

  • MS AntiSpyware Beta 1

    1 Comment

    Hannes blogged about the MS AntiSpyware Beta 1, it's a good news for me (Coincidentially, I found the default home page of my I.E. was change to something else since yesterday). Actually, I used Ad-aware and SpyBot but no help, so I really excited to see the availability of this new beta tool, but .. it reports that no spyware threats were found (but I still can't use I.E. right now.. :S
    I'm trying the full system scan right now, and the strange thing is that I do HOPE it shows me that spyware was found in my system, such that I can kill all these annoying bots.

    Colt Kwong

    Read more...