India Lima Alpha (ila)

Facebook–how to set the height of your tab

2011-10-10T07:37:00.001-07:00

Today I had to set to more than 800 pixels the height of my tab. I found here a simple solution, thanks a lot to Amit Jain.

Steps in brief:

in the app “canvas settings” set the height to “Settable”, like in the image shown below.
add to the <body> line: style="overflow: hidden" (to remove the scrollbars)
add to your main <div> (the one that contains your html) the style: style="height:2000px; width:520px;" – obviously you will set your desired height
finally, just below the <body> tag, add this code:

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.Canvas.setAutoResize();
};
(function() {
var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;
e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
}());
</script>

that’s it – worked for me!

Windows Phone traffic on Fiddler? Here’s how

2011-09-05T04:14:00.001-07:00

Yes, it’s possible, and there is a fantastic page that explains how, here’s the link.

All the configuration needed took a couple minutes, and it worked perfectly.

Thanks Eric for this great article!

Sql Server–find some texts in Stored Procedures

2011-09-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

I often need to search for some texts in the body of stored procedures. This query can help:

SELECT routine_name, routine_definition
FROM information_schema.routines
WHERE UPPER(routine_definition) LIKE UPPER('%texttobesearched%')
AND routine_type='procedure'

EDIT: just discovered that this method has some problems with long stored procedures; found another one that works better:

declare @searchString varchar(100)

Set @searchString = '%' + 'text to be searched' + '%'

SELECT Distinct SO.Name
FROM sysobjects SO (NOLOCK)
INNER JOIN syscomments SC (NOLOCK) on SO.Id = SC.ID
AND SO.Type = 'P'
AND SC.Text LIKE @searchString
ORDER BY SO.Name

Windows Phone 7 - NavigateToString, WebBrowser, and anchors

2011-08-31T00:39:00.001-07:00

I needed to show some html in a page, using a WebBrowser control and the NavigateToString method.

The html was ok; it has some anchor in it to move from a section to another.

When I tested it in a standard web browser, or loading it with the phone IE9, worked perfectly.

But when I loaded the same html in the app page, using as I said the Navigatetostring method, the anchors didn't work anymore.

Then I tried to use some javascript to move to the anchors, using location.replace(#anchorname) – but again when I tested the html outside the app it worked… but not in the app.

I posted the question to the MSDN Forums, end Eric Fleck suggested me to use another approach, while confirming that the wrong behavior is in the latest RC of the WP7 tools.

The new approach is described in detail in this MSDN page, and basically uses IsolatedStorage to save the html fragments in order to load them in the WebBrowser using the .Navigate method. This way all the anchor links work… and I’m happy

G’day everybody!

Some “metro style” windows phone backgrounds

2011-08-23T13:04:00.001-07:00

Found today: I like these backgrounds, see if you like them:

- Metro Lock for Windows Phone

- Metro Lock 2 for Windows Phone

A couple images, in Mango flavour:

Windows Phone 7 – Mango time

2011-08-23T12:49:00.001-07:00

Today I uploaded my first Mango update. My “Fatto Quotidiano” app now id 7.1 compatible!

To celebrate this I also rewdesigned completely the layout, now the app is more readable, I think that it’s really better than before.

A couple of useful links / resources:

- To download the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Release Candidate go here: SDK 7.1 RC

- With the RC you will also have at your disposal a great tool: the “Marketplace Test Kit”, integrated with Visual Studio. The tool “provides a suite of automated, monitored, and manual tests to help make sure that your applications are accepted in the Marketplace the first time you submit them”. Read about it here.

To see the list of my WP7 apps, click here

Sql Server Management Studio & “WTF”

2011-03-23T04:11:00.001-07:00

Open Sql ServerManagement Studio, Open a New Query, Type WTF and press Enter.

Have fun.

Some WP7 apps

2011-02-26T06:18:00.001-08:00

ilomilo got a new refresh, a whole bunch of new puzzles to solve! great game - check this link: http://blog.ilomilo.com/2011/02/ilomilo-windows-phone-7-title-update/

Yelp! is available on the italian marketplace - http://officialblog.yelp.com/2010/11/yelp-gets-a-windows-phone-7-app.html

Resco Radio is a really good internet radio manager – check out this link http://wmpoweruser.com/resco-radio-for-windows-phone-7-preview/

Birdsong is my favorite Twitter client, in the next days the 1.2 release will be out, http://red-badger.com/Blog/

Mail in spam? Try (also) this…

2011-02-25T02:23:00.001-08:00

Recently some messages from one of my site started being marked as spam by gmail and others.

The particular message is the “confirm registration” one, and it’s easy to understand that it’s imperative that it does not go to the spam folders… if you want regitered users, I mean.

I noticed that in the standard routine that we use to send mail messages there was no setting for the “Message-ID” header. I tried to add it (see below a code sample) and now the “marked as spam” rate is incredibly low!

See here (Wikipedia) a brief explanation of what the particular Message-ID header field is.

Here is the code sample, in bold the three new lines:

private bool PrepareAndSendMail(string emailKey, string senderName, string senderEmail, string destName, string destEmail, StringDictionary args)
{
    try
    {
        MailMessage m = new MailMessage();

        m.From = new MailAddress(senderEmail, senderName);
        m.To.Add(new MailAddress(destEmail, destName));
        m.Subject = MailSettings.Emails[emailKey].Subject;

        // this is to limit the "marked as spam" messages
        Guid messageGuid;
        messageGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
        m.Headers.Add("Message-ID", messageGuid.ToString());

        m.IsBodyHtml = true;
        m.BodyEncoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1");
        m.Body = ReadTemplateFromFile(Globals.MapPath(MailSettings.Emails[emailKey].Template), args);

        return SendMail(m);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Log.Error("An error occurred sending mail", ex);
        return false;
    }

}

Windows Phone 7 – emulator’s shortcut

2010-10-01T01:31:00.001-07:00

I discovered about these shortcut only today, so maybe this short post it can be useful to other devs.

When you enter a textbox in the emulator, the virtual keyboard comes up; and you can use it with your mouse. But if you need to enter text in a faster way, you can hit PageUp, and use the “real” pc keyboard.

Then you can switch back to the virtual keyboard with PageDown.

Other useful shortcut:

F1 – corresponds to the Back button on the emulator
F2 – the "Start" button on the emulator
F3 – the Search button on the emulator

Windows Phone 7 – my first app :-)

2010-10-01T00:49:00.001-07:00

I’m working on a little application for the new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

The app, TimeToRead, is a client for Read It Later (http://readitlaterlist.com). Its goal is to let you access your “reading list” when you have time… to read something you pinned earlier.

It will provide you the lists of read / unread / all articles; tapping an article you can read it directly from the web version or choose to read only the “text version” (this is a service provided by readitlaterlist.com site), mark as read an article and finally tweet about the article on your Twitter account.

The app uses some libraries like json.net and Hammock for REST in order to access the external sites. It’s not very complicated, still I think that it can be useful – let’s see.

A few screenshots:

and here’s a little video I posted on Msdn Italy’s Facebook page – it’s not of the latest release, but it gives an idea.

Ciao!

Sql Server Fragmentation

2010-08-02T01:42:00.001-07:00

Found in an article on SqlServerCentral (VERY useful site), some scripts that show the fragmentation degree of your database objects:

-- check fragmentation on @db
Declare @db SysName;
Set @db = 'MCD_SAWFC_PROD';

SELECT CAST(OBJECT_NAME(S.Object_ID, DB_ID(@db)) AS VARCHAR(20)) AS 'Table Name',
CAST(index_type_desc AS VARCHAR(20)) AS 'Index Type',
I.Name As 'Index Name',
avg_fragmentation_in_percent As 'Avg % Fragmentation',
record_count As 'RecordCount',
page_count As 'Pages Allocated',
avg_page_space_used_in_percent As 'Avg % Page Space Used'
FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats (DB_ID(@db),NULL,NULL,NULL,'DETAILED' ) S
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.indexes I On (I.Object_ID = S.Object_ID and I.Index_ID = S.Index_ID)
AND S.INDEX_ID > 0
ORDER BY avg_fragmentation_in_percent DESC

The following SQL can be used to rebuild all indexes for the specified table;

ALTER INDEX ALL ON <Table Name> REBUILD;

while the following SQL can be used to rebuild a specific index.

ALTER INDEX <Index Name> ON <Table Name> REBUILD;

Alternatively, indexes can be reorganised. The following SQL can be used to reorganise all indexes for the specified table;

ALTER INDEX ALL ON <Table Name> REORGANIZE;

while the following SQL can be used to reorganise a specific index.

ALTER INDEX <Index Name> ON <Table Name> REORGANIZE;

stsadm, where is it?

2010-06-29T01:41:00.001-07:00

I often forget the location of stsadm, the admin command line tool for MOSS. Here it is:

%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin

bye

Get a list of installed programs in Windows

2010-06-14T01:33:00.001-07:00

I’m in the middle of a transition from a pc to another, and I’d like to reinstall all the software I (probably) need.

I recently discovered that there is a way to get such a list without the need of third party software, using WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line). Here’s how.

open a command prompt with administrative rights (“cmd” and Control+Shift+Enter)
type wmic and press enter
then type this command: /output:C:\swlist.txt product get name,version,installdate,description

This way you’ll obtain the complete list of what has been installed on your Windows environment… but do not forget that sometimes you use software that does not installs but instead runs directly – so probably this list will not be complete.

To get more insights on WMIC you can browse the command-line help with /? – or read articles like this one.

SOLVED: Sql Server 2008 log shipping on servers not in same domain

2010-05-11T00:27:00.001-07:00

Lately I suffered some headache trying to set up log shipping on a couple of Sql Server 2008 machines.

In my farm, the “second” server arrived when the first was already running, responding to a high traffic website. And the two servers are not in the same domain – actually they are not in any domain.

I won’t enter in detail on how to set up log shipping, follow the wizard, it’s quite easy (to reach the wizard: right click on a db, choose Tasks, then “Ship transaction logs”).

When you set up log shipping, and the servers are in the same domain, you have little problems: you need to create a couple of file share on the two servers, and give read permissions to accounts running the Sql Server Agent service “on the other” server. But that is quite easy, follow instructions and it’s done.

A different story is when the shipping server don’t know anything of the “shipped” one. I tried different configuration, but I always end in “Access denied” errors.

At last I found this answer on Serverfalult.com, and that was the path to follow. The answer is about Sql 2005, but the same works on sql 2008.

In brief, here’s what I did:
- created an account on the two servers, with exactly the SAME NAME and the SAME PASSWORD, and put the user in Administrators group
- changed identity (“log on” tab) of both Sql Server Agent AND Sql Server services (only Agent did not suffice) on both servers
- gave read permission on the share used in the log shipping configuration

Done all that, when I ran the log shipping job they started working immediately.

Now I’m not a windows authentication guru, but all this looks a little crazy to me… but hey, who cares! Now log shipping works… :-)

Speeed Reader, Google Reader client for WinMobile

2010-01-05T02:06:00.001-08:00

A couple months ago I found Speeed Reader, a Windows Mobile client to access Google Reader accounts. Yes it’s Speeed, with three “e” in it.

I wasn’t using my Google Reader account anymore exactly for the reason that it was difficult to access it from my WinMo phone, so when I read of this software I decided immediately to try it.

And let me say that Speeed Reader is exactly what I needed… and probably what you need if you have a Google Reader account. And use Windows Mobile.

The interface is simple: after logging in (you can ask Speeed Reader to login automatically when launched) the application loads all the feeds grouped by “tag” (as you categorized them in Google Reader) and shows an indicator reporting the number of unread items in each tag / category.

You can browse the tags, and see all the feeds in it, open a feed and read the posts.

There are (and I find this particularly useful) some tools to share the posts through twitter / email / sms. And you can set refresh intervals, if you want.

The reading is very good, Speeed Reader does a pretty good job in rendering tags and downloading images. There is the possibility to tell the application to cache a fixed number of article, and read them in “offline” mode".

Did I tell you that it’s also very fast? Right now this is one of the most used apps in my device.

You can download a trial version of Speeed Reader 1.11 from this url: http://emuneee.com/2010/01/speeed-reader-v1-11/ then if you like it you can reach it in Handango for $1.99, exactly here: http://www.handango.com/catalog/ProductDetails.jsp?storeId=2218&deviceId=1925&platformId=30&productId=264566

I think that for $1.99 this is a must-have.

Now some screenshots. First the tags list:

Then some articles from LifeHacker.com:

This is one article from the Speeed Reader blog:

Some menu entries:

Another “skin” applied (the list is from Seth Godin’s blog):

The sharing options available:

Happy reading with Speeed Reader! :-)

Andrea

Speeed Reader – a Google Reader WinMo client

2009-11-29T13:51:00.001-08:00

Hi, just a quick note to tell you something about Speeed Reader, a very good Google Reader client for Windows Mobile. It will read your subscriptions and will sync your read/unread topics. Sharing topics through mail or twitter is easy and fast.

Please visit the site and try it, it’s great. You can follow Speeed Reader also here on twitter: http://twitter.com/SpeeedReader

Dev site: http://emuneee.wordpress.com/eeenno/speeed-reader/

hope this helps

Sql server getdate() – set to midnight

2009-11-19T08:53:00.001-08:00

a very short note on a particular use of getdate() to obtain the today’s date with hours minutes and seconds set to midnight (00:00:00):

select dateadd(day, datediff(day, 0, getdate()), 0)

Facebook – wall post with Facebook Developer Toolkit, stream.publish

2009-11-13T12:24:00.001-08:00

Just a c# sample that I find useful to have here – so that everybody around me can find it whenever needed :-)

public void Post(facebook.API fbAPI, string appLink)
{
    string response = fbAPI.stream.publish(
        " decided to go nuts.",
        new attachment()
        {
            name = "my application rocks",
            href = appLink,
            caption = "{*actor*}decided to go nuts.",
            description = "One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. http://indialimaalpha.blogspot.com/",
            properties = new attachment_property()
            {
                category = new attachment_category() { text = "Take another action...", href = appLink }
            },
            media = new List<attachment_media>() {
                new attachment_media_image() { src = WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AbsolutePath"] + "images/go_joseki.jpg", href = appLink }
            }
        },
        new List<action_link>() {
            new action_link() { text = "Take Action!", href = appLink }
        },
        null,
        0);
}

Sql Server Restore

2009-11-06T06:09:00.001-08:00

Some statements I found useful to recover a database backup applying some transaction logs (had to step into this due to a wrong delete operation on a production database – no, it wasn’t me…).

RESTORE DATABASE [TheDatabase]
FROM DISK = 'D:\foldername\bak\FULL_20091102_024436.bak'
WITH
MOVE 'TheDatabase_Data' TO 'D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\TheDatabase_Data.mdf',
MOVE 'TheDatabase_log' TO 'D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data\TheDatabase_Log.ldf',
NORECOVERY

RESTORE LOG [TheDatabase] FROM DISK = 'D:\foldername\bak\20091102_060214.bak' WITH NORECOVERY

RESTORE LOG [TheDatabase] FROM DISK = 'D:\foldername\bak\20091103_180221.bak' WITH NORECOVERY

[…]

RESTORE LOG [TheDatabase] FROM DISK = 'D:\foldername\bak\20091105_000219.bak' WITH NORECOVERY

RESTORE LOG [TheDatabase] FROM DISK = 'D:\foldername\bak\20091105_060204.bak' WITH RECOVERY

Some comments: the NORECOVERY option used in all the statement but one causes Sql Server to leave the db in a non operational state; this is needed because we will apply other restore statements. In the last one I use the RECOVERY option, in order to put the database in operational state.

Obviously this is only a little part of the big big world of database maintenance: just to say, give a look at the RESTORE command syntax… http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186858.aspx

Bye!

Azure Sql Services – let’s try!

2009-10-25T07:12:00.001-07:00

I decided to ask for a test account in the preview phase of Azure sql services, and today I’m trying to connect to it.

The signup process is quite easy and simple; once logged, I reach the web administration console for my databases.

I created my first db, 1gb maximum size. Now I want to connect to it using SSMS (Sql Server Management Studio) from my laptop. In the console there is a useful link to ready made “connection strings”, I use them to fill the SSMS connection dialog – but hey! I cannot connect…

After some clicking around I notice that I can setup the “firewall rules” in order to gain access from my IP. Let’s try.

The connection error actually states that I cannot connect from 78.14.234.1, so I fill the form to setup a “grant access” rule, as in the screenshot below:

Now I can connect successfully! And I can launch a New Query against my db, and run some (useless, I know) statements like:

The statements are quite silly, just to prove that I can do DDL.

Now I see that I cannot use the SSMS native “Object Explorer”, and looks like it’s impossible.

Looks like there are some alternative tool in this field, with some limitation (it’s a brave new world…); for example http://hanssens.org/tools/sqlazuremanager/ – Sql Azure Manager; is a tool developed to connect to Azure. It’s a ClickOnce setup, around 3.76 Mb in size. Once downloaded and installed, it prompts for your database connection parameter and you’re in.

There is also a web-based tool, Omega.MSSQL, at https://onlinedemo.cerebrata.com/SQLAzureClient/default.aspx. I cannot connect through this, but I found good opinions on it, so maybe it’s a problem on my side.

Another tool: “Gem Query Tool for Sql Azure”, here: http://microguru.com/gem/ – it’s very simple and lacks a lot of features… but again, I think that all these tools are too young to tell.

So far so good. I’ll keep you informed on this subject as I understand better. Bye!

Windows Mobile Device Cannot Connect (or Quickly Disconnect or Drop) and Not Sync with Vista WMDC (ActiveSync)

2009-09-27T06:55:00.001-07:00

Sometimes my Wondows Mobile phone stops syncing with the laptop, and I always go nut trying to discover the reason of this behavior.

Today while searching on Bing I found a page that shows the solution in a very clear way, and here is the link to that:

Windows Mobile device cannot connect or quickly disconnect

Happy syncing!

.net, accessing web services test form

2009-09-24T12:49:00.001-07:00

I know, this is a trivial thing for you all… but I still have problems in remembering, so I’ll note here this little snippet.

To enable the web service test form (that you can access only if call the web service in localhost) you will have to add to your web config these lines:

    <system.web>
    <webServices>
        <protocols>
            <add name="HttpGet"/>
            <add name="HttpPost"/>
        </protocols>
    </webServices>
    </system.web>

Windows 7 new shortcuts, very useful

2009-09-24T12:43:00.001-07:00

New and absolutely useful shortcuts on Win7, thanks Claudio for showing me.

- WinKey + direction keys: moves around the top window (the one that has focus). If you press WinKey + up arrow, the window will bw maximized. Guess what the WinKey + down arrow dows?

- WinKey + shift + left or right keys: moves the current window on the corresponding screen if using more than one (why, are you still developing on a single monitor setup?)

- In Explorer windows, try Shift + Ctrl + n. Ok, I waited for this almost ten years…

Bye!

ila

Project Euler and Algorithmatic

2009-09-16T06:45:00.001-07:00

I registered on Project Euler and Algorithmatic.com, and found this synergy: I uploaded my solution to http://projecteuler.net/ first problem on algorithmatic.com here: http://www.algorithmatic.com/algorithm/31/version-1/project-euler-1/

NoniGPSPlot – a great (freeware) GPS tracking tool

2009-08-20T01:37:00.001-07:00

I don’t know why I missed this one until now – but NoniGPSPlot is a very good GPS tool, one that I will absolutely want on every windows mobile device I’ll have in my hands.

It’s a sort of GPS swiss knife, the number of possibile uses is endless. It will track your path on the display, showing… well, everything about your movements: speed, altitude, length, direction, start and end time… yesterday I discovered that in my way home I had to stop (traffic lights and so on) for 8 minutes on 35 total. And that my work place is higher than my house, and a lot of other things.

I don’t know if my enthusiasm is a geek one :-) but this tool is great. For sure I’ll donate some money to the developer for this.

Please read all about the features here and see some screenshots here!

NoniGPSPlot, windows mobile, freeware.

Ciao!

Google Wave – I’m in the dev sandbox

2009-08-16T06:09:00.001-07:00

Yes, I’m in: still have to understand well how to move around… anyway if you’re in and want to “wave” at me I have two accounts: ila@wavesandbox.com and indialimaalpha@wavesandbox.com

See you there, Ciao!

Some good Windows Mobile free software

2009-08-11T06:14:00.001-07:00

Recently I downloaded and installed some very good software on m win mobile phone. Just want to make a short list and give you some links, maybe you’re interested.

Iris browser: go here and download this web browser, Iris - http://irisbrowser.com/ – I’m using it and I’m very happy with it. Also Skyfire is very good, but on my device Iris is faster. I really like the three switchable views “desktop / column / mobile”. In Mobile mode gmail is rendered like you are on iPhone. This simply means that some fancy javascript features just work :-)

Pocket Sudoku: http://klargodut.com/sudoku/ this sudoku player / generator / solver is great.

YomoMedia RSS reader: http://www.yomomedia.com/reader.php Yomomedia is a combination between a desktop, web based rss aggregator and a windows mobile client. Both apps can modify settings, add channels, and so on, and the other client will adapt. This hybrid solution (even if I do not like so much the fact that someone has my rss choices on his server) gives a better and faster experience. Free. Very good. http://twitter.com/yomomedia

amAze gps: more than 2 years ago a free gps navigation software caught my attention; then, given the fact that they had no windows mobile versions of their software I almost forgot of it, but some days ago I went back to http://www.amazegps.com/ and discovered that now the WinMo version is available… and it works perfectly, at least on my Asus P552w. A free GPS navigation software, works both with internal and external GPS. http://twitter.com/amAzeGPS

Windows 7 and Cisco

2009-08-11T02:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday i installed Windows 7 on my work laptop, and one of the first software I tried to run is the Cisco VPN Client.

The release of the Cisco client I used before (5.0.00.0340) wasn’t working anymore. It did not even start correctly. I searched on the web and found that you can make it work applying some workarounds (see here for example); anyway I had the chance to install a newer version, 5.0.05.0290, and with this I can connect correctly to my work network.

Telnet on Windows 7

2009-08-10T23:53:00.001-07:00

I noticed that telnet is not enabled by default in my Win7 laptop. Do not know if this is something that happens by default on alla the Win7 setups, anyway you can re-enable it doing so:

Open Control Panel
Go to Programs
Click on “Turn Windows features on or off”
Scroll down, you’ll find the “Telnet Client” unchecked. Check it, confirm, you’re done.

Windows 7

2009-08-10T08:27:00.001-07:00

As Microsoft released the RTM for Windows 7, on MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/) I decided to go along the upgrade path for my Windows Vista Ultimate laptop.

First of all, I had to download the dvd iso to my pc. And even if it’s middle august I thought that I had to show some patience… but to my surprise (and I think thank to Akamai) I could download and burn the 2.4GB image in less than 2 hours. Better than torrents :-)

Now, let’s start the in-place upgrade. It’s 8:45 in the morning. Setup starts.

First, some compatibility checks, and I have to uninstall Avira, Setup states that’s not compatible… ok, I’ll find a solution after. Uninstall Avira, reboot, restart setup.

From now on, I have nothing to do on the setup: it will restart the computer three or four times, but it will need no user input.I have the first automated reboot after about one hour. Then I forget the pc, until the last reboot at… 16:30!!!

Incredible: 2 hours to download, almost eighth to install!!!

Now I have Win7 running, it kept all of my previous desktop setup, comprising Fences that use to unclutter my desktop icons, and all the startup utilities like Clipx or others.

I still need time to get used to the new interface – mainly on the taskbar settings. I’ll tell you more in a few days, probably.

In the end I have to say that everything went fine, it only took more time than I expected.

Ciao!

This post speaks of a plugin that will link to this post through Twitter

2009-04-03T03:46:00.001-07:00

I’m using Windows Live Writer to write these posts, and today I added a new plugin that will permit to tweet a link to this post on Twitter.

The plugin is here on the Windows Live Gallery, and the use is really simple. You can modify the "publishing template mask” in the WLW Options menu, and when you publish the post the plugin fires a new Tweet, with the post’s url shortened on TinyUrl.

Very useful!

This post is boring.

2009-02-03T01:43:00.001-08:00

The web is an exciting place, isn’t it?

Well, sometimes not so much.

I encountered only a couple days ago the “Dullest Blog in the World”, at dullestblog.com – and found it addictive in a strange, unexpected way.

The boring aspect of this is that the blog is not even updated, and this is perfectly “in style” with the blog.

An article on this Dullest Blog appeared some weeks ago on MSNBC here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27792365/?pg=1#Tech_PCWorld_11LamestBlogs

A site that around here had a huge success, and that is “useless” more than “boring”, is http://www.zombo.com “you can do anything on zombo com” is the site’s claim.

And now I found also a Twitter account that looks promising, http://twitter.com/dullestweet – more or less in the same mood of the mentioned blog.

Any other recommendations for “boring” sites?

A Mobile Wikipedia

2008-12-15T23:47:00.001-08:00

I missed completely this, but Wikipedia officially launched a mobile version, at http://mobile.wikipedia.org/

For me this is a great news, as the “standard” Wikipedia interface is difficult to handle on a mobile device, even with a good browser as SkyFire is (non-us residents read this). And I often look for info on Wikipedia, both english an italian versions, on my mobile device.

Tried it, and it’s good: fast and well-organized, all internal links point to “mobilized” versions of the pages, I like this.

Friend Connect here on Indialimaalpha

2008-12-15T22:59:00.001-08:00

I added the friend connect gadget on this Blogger blog.

It was (obviously) easy: as Blogger is a Google platform, I did not have to upload any file on the hoster site, I simply had to fill up a form and copy the (customized) gadget html snippet on this page, using the standard tools offered.

So… let’s see how this FriendConnect works!

Bye,

Andrea

Twitter: not only "What are you doing?"…

2008-11-27T00:00:00.001-08:00

I’m amazed at seeing the tons of tweets that are flowing right now regarding the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

You can follow this flow using for example the hashtags.org service, here for the #mumbai tag:http://www.hashtags.org/tag/mumbai – but you can search other similar services on the web, that use Twitter as a source, filtering tweets with different technologies and scopes.

As you will see, and as you will see in any other similar occasion, the tweets that users are writing are very focused on giving other people real time news, and exchanging practical information: now I’m reading the phone number that you can try if you want to donate blood in Mumbai, to help the injured, but this is only an example.

This is a characteristic of Twitter that always surprises me.

On Twitter you have a list of “followers” and you “follow” other people. Normally the choice on who you’re going to follow is based on common interests, other times you decide to follow someone because in some tweets you see that one of your direct contacts are quoting some interesting tweets of other users that you go and follow directly… in this way the community network is linked in a previously unpredictable way, and the synapses create paths that permit an information flow that’s really new, and amazing.

I’m very happy to be a Twitter user, in this kind of situations.

BTW, I’m http://twitter.com/ila

Windows Mobile: Messaging not working, a solution

2008-11-05T03:34:00.001-08:00

Sometimes in WM5 (but also in WM6, I’m sure) the messaging system stops working. You cannot even open the inbox, or send an SMS, nothing.

If you find yourself in this situation… try this:

- open your storage card file system
- look for a folder named Inbox.mst12345678 (the number here may change)
- delete it and reboot your device.

This should work, hope this helps!

Shutdown! Now!!!

2008-09-26T06:25:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I need to do a shutdown on computers thru command-line, and every time I need to look for the correct parameters list. So I decided today to write here some hints.

The command needed to force a restart on a windows vista computer is:

shutdown /t 0 /f /r

Btw you can force a shutdown or restart also on remote computers, and in this case the command is

shutdown /t 0 /f /r /m \\computername

I noticed that depending on the OS version you will be using “-“ instead of “/” to prefix commands. So for example on Win Server 2000 you could be using:

shutdown -t 0 -f -r

And finally here’s a complete parameters list:

C:\>shutdown
Usage: shutdown [/i | /l | /s | /r | /g | /a | /p | /h | /e] [/f]
    [/m \\computer][/t xxx][/d [p|u:]xx:yy [/c "comment"]]

    No args    Display help. This is the same as typing /?.
    /?         Display help. This is the same as not typing any options.
    /i         Display the graphical user interface (GUI).
               This must be the first option.
    /l         Log off. This cannot be used with /m or /d options.
    /s         Shutdown the computer.
    /r         Shutdown and restart the computer.
    /g         Shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is
               rebooted, restart any registered applications.
    /a         Abort a system shutdown.
               This can only be used during the time-out period.
    /p         Turn off the local computer with no time-out or warning.
               Can be used with /d and /f options.
    /h         Hibernate the local computer.
               Can be used with the /f option.
    /e         Document the reason for an unexpected shutdown of a computer.
    /m \\computer Specify the target computer.
    /t xxx     Set the time-out period before shutdown to xxx seconds.
               The valid range is 0-600, with a default of 30.
               Using /t xxx implies the /f option.
    /c "comment" Comment on the reason for the restart or shutdown.
               Maximum of 512 characters allowed.
    /f         Force running applications to close without forewarning users.
               /f is automatically set when used in conjunction with /t xxx.
    /d [p|u:]xx:yy Provide the reason for the restart or shutdown.
               p indicates that the restart or shutdown is planned.
               u indicates that the reason is user defined.
                 if neither p nor u is specified the restart or shutdown is unplanned.
               xx is the major reason number (positive integer less than 256).
               yy is the minor reason number (positive integer less than 65536).

Accessing web services from swf – never use virtual directories

2008-09-19T05:44:00.001-07:00

Today I learned something, as usual the hard way :-(

We were deploying a “dynamic banner” developed in flash, and we were already late: this banner is going to access a web service (that we developed, .Net 2.0, Sql server-based) every time is loaded in a web page.

Now, to keep things easy, I decided to deploy the web service in a virtual directory in the production servers, such avoiding the need of updating DNS etc etc (the domain is maintained elsewhere, we are only host for this initiative).

Then when we switched in the production environment, the banner loaded from other domains… simply did not call anything but the web service WSDL.

After one “panic hour” without understanding where the problem was, and modifying in every known way the crossdomain.xml file, it came to my mind that maybe the problem was the virtual directory.

We moved as fast as possible everything in a new domain by itself and – MAGIC – now everything works.

So when dealing with swf that need to access server resources – never use virtual directories!!!

Bye

Networking and Volume Icons in notification area

2008-09-08T23:57:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, for reasons that are obscure to me, the networking and volume icons in the notification area disappear, and there is no way to have them back, as the corresponding check boxes in the Notification Area panel are greyed out and not clickable. Note, I’m running Windows Vista Business edition, do not know if this solution applies to all Vista flavours.

There are different ways to solve this, through Policy editing, or through registry hacking.

I prefer the registry way, it’s simpler and faster: you only have to be careful.

The solution is simply to remove the registry keys named

- HideSCAVolume

- HideSCANetwork

from:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Hope this helps!

StackOverflow.com

2008-08-31T09:59:00.001-07:00

In the last weeks I found myself completely immersed in a new site in a way that didn’t happen to me in a very long time. And the site is about… development, computer languages, bugs, hints, programming. Wow.

This site is stackoverflow.com – I am one of the very lucky beta tester, and I cannot be happier: the site is interesting, addicting, you learn a lot of things and you can ask for help to an audience of experts.

The thing comes from a couple of very interesting guys: Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky. This is in itself a guarantee of high-level content, and it’s true. If you’re curious, go here and browse a little, and listen to the podcasts.

In just few days I solved a couple of problems of mine, but the very interesting thing is what I learned, and what I decided to study, because of some answers I read, that stimulated my own curiosity. Down below you can have a look to the very last answers posted since 10 minutes ago.

A boost. A site in which you can learn and share your learning with other people. A place to go when google search didn’t bring you to the solution.

A place in which I’m wasting a huge lot of time… :-)

Top 50 – SQL

2008-08-15T08:30:00.001-07:00

Some time ago I had to select the users from a table that reached the first 50 scores in a particular game. Not 50 users, but the users that made the first top 50 scores. Here’s my solution, for my future memory :-)

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[GetTop50]
AS
DECLARE @minscore int
CREATE TABLE #top50
(userid INT PRIMARY KEY,
score int)

INSERT INTO #top50 (userid, score)
    SELECT top 50 userid, TotalScore
    FROM UserList
    order by TotalScore desc

select @minscore = min(score) from #top50

delete from #top50 where score = @minscore

INSERT INTO #top50 (userid, score)
SELECT userid, TotalScore
FROM UserList where TotalScore = @minscore

select * from UserList
where userid in (select userid from #top50)
order by TotalScore desc

Hope this helps

Andrea

EDIT: what about a simple one like

select userid, TotalScore
from UserList
where TotalScore in
(select distinct top 50 TotalScore from UserList order by TotalScore desc)

uff... :-)

Windows Mobile Notification Queue problems…

2008-07-29T09:38:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note to record this link:

http://www.scarybearsoftware.com/product_detail.php?productname=checknotify

ScaryBear software offers (for free!!!) a couple of utilities to get rid of the recurring and annoying problems with notifications queue.

A couple of days ago I was working with my WM5-powered device, and an alarm came up. Clicking here and there and I manage to have a sort of "eternal alarm and I had no chance to remove it. Grumpf.

So I turned off the noisy phone and went googling around, and scary bear solution worked.

Be careful: they do not guarantee that their software will work on anything newer than Pocket Pc 2003; on the other hand on my windows mobile 5 phone it worked.

last things i’m trying

2008-07-04T01:09:00.001-07:00

Let’s see, what are my main addictions lately? I have to make choices here, as I’m one of those guys that sign on almost everything… :-) I’ll choose only a couple of tools, and talk about the last one registered.

First of all Twitter – yes, ok, I know everybody is upset with all the dontime and everything, but I really like it and find it useful.

Then: I’m using Evernote, and I think that it is a really great app. It has clients on web (ok, obvious), Windows desktop, and Windows Mobile. And this mix of supported platforms is perfect for me :-)

Latest thing: today I read a tweet about this Scoutle thing, and I decided to give it a try: as you can see here on the right column, i have my scoutle Badge… let’s see if it works!!!

and now… back to my last working day, tomorrow sardegna for two weeks!!! I’ll stay here, and be back @ work on july 23. Bye!!!

p.s.: the photo here is taken on the beach of the camping I’ll stay in from tomorrow :-)

i-mate k-jam reset and reinstall

2008-05-14T06:26:00.001-07:00

Today I decided to reset completely my K-Jam, and reinstall everything.

First of all: how to reset to the "factory" settings? Well, this is the procedure: while holding the Comm manager button and the Voice Command button, push in on the soft reset button (reset hole) once. Keep holding the Comm Manager and Voice Command buttons until there is a screen asking you if you want to clear all data. To commit, press the green send key.

So now I have in my hands an "empty" k-jam... really fast, I have to say, but almost useless: no mail, no apps, nothing installed.

Ok. After the first minimal setup I went on connecting the device to my pc (running Vista). The Mobile device center shows up, and from there I configure syncing of email, contacts, agenda.

First stop: my OWA connection requires a certificate, so before I can sync I have to install the certificate on the mobile device. Ok, I go thru file system and copy the certificate somewhere, then open it on the k-jam (to install it) and ok, now I can sync mail and everything...

Now I'd like to low-level format my storage card (2Gb) because in it I have some folders and file swith funky names that WM isn't able to delete. And before I reistall al my stuff I want to clean up everything. I decided to install and use StorageTools for WM5, 100kb, from here: http://www.softwinter.com/download.html

From now on I simply reinstall my list of "preferred" software. Time needed for all this, around 2 hours.

Service Control (sc.exe)

2008-05-13T06:46:00.001-07:00

Today I had to remove a Windows service I'm writing from my Vista pc. I hoped that uninstalling it would be enough, bit no, the service was still there showing up in services.msc console.

So googling around I found that this can be easily done using a little known (or so I think) utility named sc.exe (sc is for Service Control, resides on System32 folder).

It has many flags and functions, but to go straight to my needs, to remove a service simply type at a command prompt (run it with "elevation", i.e. "as Administrator"):

sc.exe delete NameOfTheService

That's all. But try to run sc.exe with no parameters to have an idea of the many functionalities of the utility.

bye!

on Google "time-limited" searches

2008-04-28T06:09:00.001-07:00

Maybe you already know about this, I discovered this only today (thanks Claudio).

Try this: go to google.com, perform a search, then in the address bar add to the querystring the following:

&as_qdr=d

you will obtain the same page, but with a new dropdown list right before the "Search" button. With this, you have the chance to restrict the time span of your query!

For example, you can have Google return results only from the last past week!!!

Now this is a great idea, for some kind of searches.

A couple of Sql Server (useful) things

2008-04-18T04:56:00.001-07:00

1) Changing sa password

A couple of days ago I discovered with horror that I forgot my "sa" password, on my sql 2005 local instance.

To solve this, googling around I found this couple of methods:

USE MASTER

ALTER LOGIN [sa] WITH PASSWORD=N'new_password'

or from a command prompt

    OSQL -S <server_name> -E
    1> EXEC sp_password NULL, 'new_password', 'sa'
    2> GO

2) Transact sql Split function

I needed a split function, and I fpound this good forum discussion exactly on this topic:

http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=50648

I used this one:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Split
(
@RowData nvarchar(2000),
@SplitOn nvarchar(5)
)
RETURNS @RtnValue table
(
Id int identity(1,1),
Data nvarchar(100)
)
AS
BEGIN
Declare @Cnt int
Set @Cnt = 1

While (Charindex(@SplitOn,@RowData)>0)
Begin
Insert Into @RtnValue (data)
Select
Data = ltrim(rtrim(Substring(@RowData,1,Charindex(@SplitOn,@RowData)-1)))

Set @RowData = Substring(@RowData,Charindex(@SplitOn,@RowData)+1,len(@RowData))
Set @Cnt = @Cnt + 1
End

Insert Into @RtnValue (data)
Select Data = ltrim(rtrim(@RowData))

Return
END

Xobni, usage impressions

2008-03-19T06:40:00.001-07:00

After some days after the first setup, I can report some impressions on this Xobni plugin (http://www.xobni.com)

First of all after the setup process Xobni took some time to initializa, but given my huge mailbox this time has been ridicolously short. A fake? No... Actually Xobni started working immediately, with no glitches.

I have to say that this piece of software is really well designed, and given its speed (awesome) also the code must be great code. Great quality.

In the Outlook interface Xobni lives as a single new sidebar, and everything happens in there. This is a completely different choice from (for example) ClearContext. Actually the functionality of Xobni and CliaerContext are different, so given this, both choices are correct.

What I like most in Xobni? Search, for start. Fast (really fast) and complete. Then the information visualization, that collects in a very little space a lot of very well organized information extracted from my mailbox, contact list, and attachment collection. Please go here and take a tour of the screenshots.

But also "people navigation", or email analytics, or the threaded conversations are good ideas!

So as you maybe understood... I really like Xobni !!! :-)

Xobni - installed right now...

2008-03-15T00:46:00.001-07:00

I just installed the Xobni Outlook plugin, that's now in public beta.

The Xobni claim is about "email happiness", and if it works like the video demonstrations say it will be actually a good product.

It works as a sidebar, every new functionality is there in the Xobni sidebar; a different approach from ClearContext, for example, that integrates its services in the standard Outlook menus and windows.

Just installed, let's see how it works... and let's see if ClearContext AND Xobni can live together!!!

pBar, task manager, freeware

2008-03-11T01:26:00.001-07:00

I'm trying this pBar task manager/switcher.

This is very good, I'm replacing the "Magic Button" task switcher I was using (I'm going to update my preferred windows mobile apps list).

What I like on this pBar? Weel, for exmple the possibility to have all the task managing functions AND a list of preferred shortcuts AND a list of common functions AND the chance to have both the battery level and curtrent time shown in the top right icon.

My windows mobile 5 device apps list

2008-02-11T00:44:00.001-08:00

Last week I had to reinstall everything from scratch on my k-jam, and this time I decided to write the list of apps that I reinstalled immediately, without any question.

Most of them are good freeware apps, with some exceptions. Maybe this list will be of some help for some. Here we go with the list (in no particular order):

cLaunch - http://pachome1.pacific.net.sg/~welic/claunch.html - Configurable application launcher. Very good, I tried other choices but then I came back to this one. I briefly posted on it also here... Freeware.

pBar - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=284952 - a very good freeware Task Manager, replacing Magic Button (described just below).

Magic Button - http://www.trancreative.com/mb.aspx - Task Manager. A stable and fast app, small memory footprint. Really useful. Freeware. Replaced by pBar, but still worth a mention!

LVMTime - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=260441 - today plugin and configurable clock app. I use this clock aplication for many reasons, the main one is that it offer a NNTP synchronization that works. Good, many configuration options. Freeware.

pRSSReader - http://pda.jasnapaka.com/prssr/ - RSS reader. I tried many rss reader apps, but in the end I switched to this one, I think it's the best one in the freeware world.

Pocket Informant - http://www.pocketinformant.com/ - I wrote some time ago about this personal time manager app, that I find really good. And I still have to upgrade to the very last release (I still use P.I.2007). This is PayWare.

S2U2 - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=353008 - "Slide To Unlock 2" is a freeware lock/unlock app that will show on the screen also the current time and date, the next agenda appointment, some icons showing the number of unread mail messages, not completed tasks, sms, missed calls... the background can be customized, and there are a lot of settings you can modify. Quite stable in the last release (I'm running 0.99c). Freeware.

PocketCM - http://www.pocketcm.com/ - in this post I already wrote about this contact manager; this app now has completely replaced the standard WM5 contact manager on my device. Freeware, fast, stable, very good.

PHM Registry Editor - http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/RegEdit/ - what can I say on this: it works. And well. Freeware.

ClearTemp - http://mobile-sg.com/software/?p=ClearTemp&platform=ppc - a must have, it's a very good utility to clear temporary files (from many applications) in you device. Freeware.

Palringo - http://www.palringo.com/ - I use a lot Instant Messaging services, and from different accounts: Microsoft Live, GTalk, ICQ, Yahoo!. So I need a single app that will connect me to all these networks. Here you have more choices, but in this moment I'm using and appreciating Palringo, for it's fast and reliable. I use it only for instant text messages. Freeware.

Total Commander - http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm - Pocket windows explorer replacement. I think many people knows about this, I use it a lot. Fast, a lot of services offered. Freeware.

Then there are some other tools I use, like the Calilei Calculator, or Keepass for storing passwords, or OneNote Mobile for taking notes that activesync will synchronize with my work PC, and others... but the most important choices are those I listed.

Hope this helps!

hulu.com, impression of usage

2008-01-21T00:03:00.001-08:00

Ok, using a "non-standard" method I managed to access hulu.com.

Today I browsed the titles for a while, then I decided to watch a Simpsons episode, exactly "E. Pluribus Wiggum", season 19, episode 10 (wow it's almost 20 years of Simpson's broadcast!) and an excerpt from a '76 Saturday Night Live... with Chevy Chase an John Belushi (I really like those old SNL clips, they're great!)

Well, the viewing experience is good, I have to say - only some glitch here and there in the few starting seconds, but I immedialtely learned that after a reposition at the start, then the playing is smooth and continuous.

In the longer clips you will find some ads, and you can "see when" they will arrive thanks to some marker in the timeline indicator. During these ad shorts you cannot skip forward or pause... but hey, that's fine for me :-). A curiosity: the Viewing applet has this ""lower light" function, that is a little but helpful function: it will darken (but not completely) everything in the browser window except the viewing area. Good idea.

I plan to access more content on Hulu asap, but in my opinion it's a really good service. Thanks, Hulu!!!

Bye!

Survival: Sql Server, change ownership on stored procedures

2008-01-16T06:40:00.001-08:00

Some time ago I wrote about a couple of methods to grant execution permission on stored procedures, on Sql Server 2000.

Now I had to write something similar, but the scope was to change ownership of the objects; after some googling I found this page on support.microsoft.com that lists a good way to do the job... but I modified slightly the code from MS, because I needed the possibility to decide to actually execute the commands or simply print them.

So I added a simple parameter (the third), datatype bit, default 0 (false). When set to 1 (true) will cause the execution of the commands.

Here's the code:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[chObjOwner]( @usrName varchar(20), @newUsrName varchar(50), @exec bit = 0)
as
-- @usrName is the current user
-- @newUsrName is the new user

set nocount on
declare @uid int                   -- UID of the user
declare @objName varchar(50)       -- Object name owned by user
declare @currObjName varchar(50)   -- Checks for existing object owned by new user
declare @outStr nvarchar(256)       -- SQL command with 'sp_changeobjectowner'
set @uid = user_id(@usrName)

declare chObjOwnerCur cursor static
for
select name from sysobjects
where 1=1
AND uid = @uid
AND xtype in ( 'P', 'U', 'V')
and name <> 'chObjOwner'
-- category: zero is valid for Stored Procedures... but not for tables
-- and category = 0

open chObjOwnerCur
if @@cursor_rows = 0
begin
print 'Error: No objects owned by ' + @usrName
close chObjOwnerCur
deallocate chObjOwnerCur
return 1
end

fetch next from chObjOwnerCur into @objName

while @@fetch_status = 0
begin
set @currObjName = @newUsrName + '.' + @objName
if (object_id(@currObjName) > 0)
print 'WARNING *** ' + @currObjName + ' already exists ***'
set @outStr = 'sp_changeobjectowner ''' + @usrName + '.' + @objName + ''',''' + @newUsrName + ''''
print @outStr
IF @exec = 1
execute sp_executesql @outStr
--print 'go'
fetch next from chObjOwnerCur into @objName
end

close chObjOwnerCur
deallocate chObjOwnerCur
set nocount off
return 0

KeySwop and soft keys remapping

2008-01-14T14:17:00.001-08:00

In a recent post, I showed how to modify the registry in order to change the left soft key standard assignment.

...and today I discover that there are some utilities, even freeware ones, that help you in this, so removing the need of manually change registry keys. For example, you can use KeySwop, a simple yet complete tool to remap soft keys from yourself!

hulu - now I can reach it, thanks to AnchorFree

2008-01-13T06:50:00.001-08:00

I installed AnchorFree Hotspot Shield, and thru this new VPN (ad supported) now I can access all the HULU content (but as far as I know also Pandora or any other service blocked to non-US people).

So now I'm looking at one Simpsons episode, and I just browsed some Saturday Night Live episodes... hulu.com is great!!!

If you also want to try the Anchor Free app, please go here. And happy navigation :-)

PocketCM, a very good contact manager for Windows Mobile

2008-01-09T02:08:00.001-08:00

I installed yesterday PocketCM, a freeware contact manager that you can find here.

And I have a really good impression on this, even if the release number is "0.18" - very low, but it doesn't correspond to the stability of the app, that is really good. It could easily win a place in my list of "never without" apps!

The interface is realized to allow for a "finger" use, and it works. The screenshots on the site do not show all the smooth transitions (scrolling, moving from a function to the other, and so on) that give a really good feeling.

It's fast, and way better than the standard contact manager, at least if you compare to the WM5 one.

On the same site you can download a keyboard app replacement, that will be useful if you want to use the keyboard with your fingers. I installed also this one, but I have to say that it's a bit slow in starting; then it works, and offers some interesting functionalities; go to the site page to understand its use.

Windows Mobile 5 - Left Soft Key and PocketInformant

2008-01-08T05:55:00.001-08:00

Just because I needed it and it's not so easy to find... If you need to remap the left soft key in Windows Mobile (the standard link is to "Calendar", \Windows\Calendar.exe) you have to modify the registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Today/Keys/112

There you have two string keys, Default and Open. Default contains the String you want to display in the menu, Open contains the path to the app you need to use for that.

For example I lost my PocketInformant Calendar link (due to the setup of another app that overwrote that voice) and I restored to my previous situation writing in the "Open" key the following:

Programmi\WebIS\PocketInformant\PITab.exe" 11

Outlook 2007 (was) painfully slow!!!

2008-01-04T02:51:00.001-08:00

I hope I managed to solve this issue, that was causing me a lot of trouble and of wasted time.

What I was experiencing: from a certain date on OL2007 was really slow in opening, then in updating headers, then it hanged for seconds while I( was composing new messages, then... in a word it was going to be completely un-usable.

After googling and discussing for days, trying different ways, that went from disabling RSS feeds to checking out encryption in transmission between OL and Exchange, finally I understood that my real problem was... the mailbox size. And the corresponding OST file size on my hard disk.

What i understand is that in OL2007 MS changed the underlying data structure of PST and PST files, in a way that requires a lot of disk access when the file size is big. So the solution for me has been "simply" to split my OST archiving some hundreds of messages in a new .pst file.

I think that I need some more archiving work, to really solve the issue; but even now OL reacts much better than before.

hope this helps... :-)

Pocket Informant and Handango "Free App Friday"

2007-12-16T09:46:00.001-08:00

I discovered this last week that handango has this "Free App Friday". Put simply, every friday (considered in Central Standard Time), they will offer for free a mobile application from their (huge) catalog.

This last Friday the chosen app was Pocket Informant 2007, a very good time management application for Windows Mobile. I downloaded it, now it's running on my mobile, and I'm really happy with it.

Some time ago I bought Agenda Fusion 8, so I can try a comparison between the two.

And after my first two days of Pocket Informant, I can say that PI2007 is faster than AF8, both in terms of first load and using it (for example I can access my long contact list in a fraction of time, and this is really a good thing).

Maybe AF8 wins in terms of graphical details and rendering, but PI2007 views are effective and clear. There are a couple of functionalities that are present only in AF8 (the project view is not present in PI2007, or at least until now I did not find anything of the like), but what is needed is there, and works.

AF8 is a good product, don't take me wrong; but on my device (not a cutting edge one, WM5 with a lot of installed software) PI2007 works better... and I'm happy with it!

Squace beta - mobile content in a new, squared, way

2007-12-11T05:30:00.001-08:00

Squace. Beta. (what else?!?!?)

It's a new way to collect contents, coming from different sources, on your mobile (java-enabled) device.

I'm trying it on my WM5 pocket pc (an "old" i-mate k-jam), and I have to say that it works without any problem.

The idea here is that you have a grid of little squares, each representing a link to a site, an rss feed, a post, whatever. You will collect all your contents in a page named "My Stuff"; in the following screenshot you can see my initial page, on it I clicked on a particular square:

That particular square represents a link to a "site" I created. This site is simply a container to a couple of blogs I write; obviously you can reach a very big array of content already present, searching in it thru keywords or navigating tags that other squace users gave to content pages.

Here below I'm clicking on a square representing a post in the blog you're reading:

And here is the post:

I have mixed feelings on this app. I like the idea, I think it is actually new and from a mobile user perspective it's also easy to use; I have still to make an opinion on its future, but I think I still need to use it for some time before I understand this... :-)

hulu.com - private beta, but... where do I live?

2007-12-10T00:54:00.001-08:00

Ok, I've been invited in the new hulu.com private beta. I'm really interested in this new ways to deliver contents to the (web) public, so on my pc I have both joost and babelgum clients, and also Miro.

Enter Hulu: in this case I don't need any new client, everything is delivered thru the standard browser. The layout and dynamics of the interface is quite cool, I like this site.

Ok then, let's go and try to access some content. I see an episode from "The Simpsons" highlighted in the first page, I click on it.

Uhm... the player returns a message stating that: "Unfortunately this video is not currently available in your country or region".

Ok, I'll try with some other clip. House? ok, let's give it a try.

...same message. And also the same message pops up with every single choice I try.

Now I'm asking: is it caused by the fact that I live in Italy? and probably they cannot "broadcast" those content due to a DRM problem or something of the like? The support pages tell me that "For now, Hulu is a U.S. service only."

Ok, fine. But in this precise moment I could be anywhere in the world, I'm in the "internet" country... or I could be a US citizen, living temporarily in Italy, or again I could be an italian citizen, temporarily living in Iceland, or Morocco, or even USA.

So please explain this to me: I know I could simply go on YouTube and look for that Simpsons episode, and probably I'll find it; and there are many other way to access that video, but... but yes, I liked the Hulu idea, site, and contents, and I was excited to use it.

Annoying.

p.s.: no, I cannot modify my profile, the site doesn't permit this at the moment... I already checked ;-)

GMaps for Windows Mobile

2007-12-02T00:20:00.001-08:00

It's amazing: the new version of Google Maps for Mobile is able to determine your position based not on GPS signal, but using the relative position of GSM cells around you.

And it works!

Here is a screenshot of "me" in my office, in Milan:

It's a really good program, until now I found only a minor problem: during setup, even if you ask to install GMaps on your memory card, the setup will install the app on the main memory; so that you then have to move everything by hand and recreate the shortcuts... then it works.

ClearContext IMS

2007-11-24T05:23:00.001-08:00

If you use Microsoft Outlook and like me receive a huge load of emails during your work day, give a look to ClearContext - it's not free, but it's really a great software, helps a lot in clearing and sorting tour inbox, and "getting things done".

I'm in the 30 days trial period, but I think that I will buy this one.

What you get after setup is a new Outlook toolbar that will help you categorize your email and file single mails or threads to folders (that ClearContext will create for you), and give you shortcut to new functions like prioritizing your contacts (so that email from high priority contact will display with greater emphasis), or turn off email notifications for - say - 30 minutes or an hour... but actually the things that ClearContext can do for you are many, and you will get e netter service :-) if you jump to their site and give a look to some of the very good video tutorials offered!

Palringo - IM for mobile and desktop

2007-11-22T15:15:00.001-08:00

Today I read this post on LifeHacker and I decided to give Palringo a try: it's an IM app that runs on Windows Mobile - powered devices and on Symbian (but Palringo has also a desktop Windows version, and if I understand well a java mobile version is planned), and I find it really good.

In order to work you need to register on palring's own site, and then use those credentials on your mobile device to login; then you start adding your identities on the various protocols and networks Palring knows about: Msn/Live, GTalk, ICQ, Yahoo, AIM. And its proprietary network too.

I used it and I find Palringo fast and reliable... A little screenshot here:

NetMeeting on Vista?

2007-11-22T15:03:00.001-08:00

yes, I already know: NetMeeting is obsolete, vulnerable, no more cool, and whatever. But, you know, life is strange, and a customer needs me to connect with him thru NetMeeting... but I moved to Vista, and NetMeeting (the good old "conf.exe" in other windows flavours) is no more available. But to my surprise I discovered that a hotfix is available (with many big different disclaimers) in order to bring NetMeeting back to me!

Find it on http://thehotfixshare.net/ (a site that's really amazing, but this is another story), register there and then make a search for NetMeeting.

Hope this helps!

If Outlook doesn't open web links anymore...

2007-11-13T05:41:00.001-08:00

On Windows Vista, open Control Panel, click "Programs", then "Default Programs".

There, click "Set program access and computer defaults", open the "Custom" section. You should then choose "Internet Explorer", then close everything , Control Panel, Outlook, Internet Explorer... this worked for me.

Hope this helps!

Rush Hour!

2007-11-05T15:16:00.001-08:00

After I sent the link to the download of this game, a friend of mine told me that now I owe him some... hours of life that he lost after the traffic jams of this tiny but really addictive game.

Your task is to let the red "car" move outside the diagram, just like it was locked in a parking and you're in charge of solving the problem...

Go and download it - but this time don't tell that I didn't warn you!!!

It's for Windows Mobile.

http://www.fredvonk.eu/downloads.htm

Did I mention that's also free?

PowerLabs!

2007-11-01T01:05:00.001-07:00

At last I have an account on Powerlabs!!! Great, I'll keep you informed... :-) For now I'm still trying to understand how to "move" in Powerlabs and how to use this (great) site!!!

Until now I'm simply trying the demos, in which i'm asked to compare the results from PowerLabs vs. "The Other Guys". Then you can "vote" on who gave the better results.

The query are something like "What did ____ write?". You complete filling in the blanks, launch the query, then compare the results. Queries in the demo are launched against Wikipedia.

Ok, I'll go on trying, then I'll tell you! Bye.

Planning Poker anyone?

2007-10-24T14:43:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon ;-) this "Planning Poker" tool.

I think that it could be used, it can be seen as a mean to a better effort estimation, that runs through a group discussion; each member "plays" her/his estimation (picking a card from a deck) and when everybody has played you can start discussing the result - probably you will notice some sensible differences between various estimations, and so people will start talking and eventually correcting...

It can also be funny. I read that there are also real card deck sold somewhere, but the web version is simple and quite good.

What do you think of it?

MSN Messenger - the credit card message

2007-10-07T05:24:00.001-07:00

I'm stealing this from a dozen web sites around the web, but I need this hint periodically, so I put it also here.

When you start a chat in MSN Messenger a warning is shown that says
"Never give out your password or credit card number in an instant message conversation"
This tweak allows you to customize this message for example to display your company chat policy
Open your registry and find or create the key below:
[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MessengerService\Policies]
Create a new String value, or modify the existing value, called "IMWarning" and set it according to text you want to display
You may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.

Gps Speed Sentry - windows mobile app

2007-08-20T23:51:00.001-07:00

I'm having a lot of fun using this "Gps Speed Sentry" app, that you can download from http://www.tchartdev.com/

This app features a series of screen showing, for the trip you're having:

- a graph on you speed

- a graph on altitude

- a compass

- some general information on actual speed, average speed, top speed, trip duration

- data on GPS satellite in sight

I find it really funny: try it if you have a gps-enabled windows mobile (or and external bluetooth gps antenna like me). The app will cost you $10, the trial version will disconnect from GPS monitoring every 10 minutes (not losing data, anyway).

Here's a screenshot, but please visit the developer's site for many other.

Flickr4Writer

2007-08-03T14:27:00.001-07:00

This blog post will benefit of a Flickr photo taken from a LiveWriter Plugin, Flickr4Writer.

The plugin allows to choose an image from Flickr, given a subject, a tag set, a flickr photo album...

A step towards something I'd like, that is having the blog system choose a random photo for me every time, using the post's tag set to query Flickr.

If I only had some time... :-)

BrowserShots - Test your web design in different browsers

2007-08-02T00:48:00.001-07:00

Ever wondered how will your site render on browsers like Galeon 2.0 or SeaMonkey 1.1? Or on Safari 1.3? Or maybe on GranParadiso 3.0 (does such a thing really exists?) ?

Well, you can, even not installing the browsers. Visit http://v04.browsershots.org/ and submit the site URL, choose between 44 different browsers... and then after some time (even more than 30 minutes for some browsers) you'll obtain all the screenshots related to all the selected browser's rendering of your site.

Really useful, isn't it?

Human Brain Cloud

2007-07-27T01:02:00.000-07:00

You know, I'm a big fan of this kind of things... this Human Brain Cloud "game" is really funny.

Quoting from the site: "The idea is that given a word, a player types in the first thing that comes to mind and the results are combined into a giant network".

Powerset and PowerLabs

2007-06-15T00:33:00.001-07:00

Uhm.... this is promising; www.powerset.com is going to go live after summer with a sarch engine capable to "understand" natural language queries.

Have a look to this Flickr image collection, and read the Powerset's blog entries to understand something more.

PowerLabs will be a sort of web app built "over" powerset's search engine.

This blog (from Steve Newcomb, powerset's founder) is also really interesting for it shows an "internal" point of view on the "making of" this new search engine.

Texter - a text substitution app

2007-06-08T00:27:00.001-07:00

On Lifehacker I found some weeks ago this little app, Texter.

It's a text substitution application; in other words you configure some shortcut that, when typed, are substituted in longer strings (commands, scripts, and so on). It's still "young" (release 0.3) but quite stable.

For example you could tell texter that when you type "zgg" you want him to replace that string with http://www.google.com/search?q=

Or you could use it to avoid typing everytime your mail address, something like "zem" that turns in someone@domain.com

The possibility are endless; the blog post on lifehacker shows some clever ways to use Texter.

TimeSnapper - "Your Life: The Movie" :-)

2007-06-07T23:58:00.001-07:00

TimeSnapper (www.timesnapper.com) is self described in this way:

"TimeSnapper is an Automatic Screenshot Journal - It runs in the background of your computer, taking screenshots of your desktop every few seconds all week long."

Then it can "replay" (like a movie) the screenshots sequence, and the result is impressive. I'm trying this app in these days and it's really useful to "fill in the blanks" when I have to compile my work timesheet...

SpaceTime 3D Browser

2007-06-07T19:20:00.001-07:00

This is really a beautiful app. SpaceTime is a "3D" web browser, that shows search results or pages in a 3D way that's really amazing.

It's better if I simply give you the URL, thre you can find every information or screenshot, go and see... www.spacetime.com

Customizing Sharepoint 2003, the next step...

2007-06-07T03:34:00.001-07:00

Customizing Sharepoint 2003, the next step...

Maybe you saw this other article I posted some weeks ago... after that, my job went on, but eventually I decided - actually my customer decided for me ;-) - to try to use a new site template in order to solve the customization problem I'm facing.

What I have to manage is something I cannot solve "simply" hacking the CSS or modifying the .aspx pages... so I'll try to have a new "MPS" (the WSS Multi Page Site) template different from the original one.

Unfortunately looks like this cannot be done; I managed to "clone" the MPS structure in a new one, but when I go and use it to create a new site I get a series of errors in the WebParts stating that "This Web Part was designed for use on a Microsoft Meeting Workspace". And reading around I found that yes, you can have your site template that originates from another one, but you CANNOT use the Multipage Meeting template as the starting point.

I have to find another way.

I'll try also to share with you the steps I'm taking to do this.

First: I make a copy of the STS directory to a new STSNEW directory. All this happens under
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\1033\
and as I think that all the action will happen there... I won't repeat that path anymore, for reading simplicity I'll substitute it with [PATH].

So I have this STSNEW! What I do with it?
Uhm... open the [PATH]XML folder, and take a look to the two files:
WEBTEMP.XML
WEBTEMPSPS.XML
Interesting stuff!!! So there are the correspondances between folders names and sharepoint usage of the templates...
In my case the interesting one is the WEBTEMP.XML (the WSS one).
First, I make a copy of the file, and name it WEBTEMPSTSNEW.XML.
In it I leave only the "STS" node, renaming it to "STSNEW" (as the containing folder I created before); to this new node I give an ID over 10000 (Microsoft's hint...). Then I change in some way the descritpions, so that later I will be able to choose between the STS and STSNEW styles. Save. Let's see...
No, it's not going well: when I open the main page in Sharepoint I get an "Exception occurred" error, that it's not very esplicative, I'd say. But after a iisreset /restart "magically" Sharepoint is back with us. Good.

Now let's see if our STSNEW can be of any use.
First: I try to create a new WSS site based on this site template.
Everything works fine, I can find in the site structure list the new description I inserted in the XML file, and use those templates to create my site.

So this first part is ok.

Now I have to find a way to "mimic" the tabbed, multipage structure of the "Multipage Meeting Workspace" template here in this "simple" WSS site I created. I'll use the "Team Site" structure (taht in my new site template I named as "New Team Site"), so that I will be able to modify also the the home page (default.aspx).

Let's try this way: create a document library that contains a list of web part pages, so that I can have all the single pages I need. For a good explanation of this, see this blog post from Daniel McPherson.

Then I'll try to create a web part for the "tabbed" navigation.

Maybe I can find something ready on the web... First I try this one from GotDotNet.
Looks great, there is also the code. Downloaded, and installed with the command:
stsadm -o addwppack -f "C:\EasyTabPartsDeployment.CAB" -force -globalinstall

And it works!!!
From now on the path is (more or less) clear: I haev to modify the new site template layout, develop all the new webparts I need, and so on.

Bye!!!

Windows Desktop Search: how to index uncached exchange items

2007-05-26T08:38:00.001-07:00

With Windows Desktop Search (I'm running 3.01) you cannot (by default) index you email if it is not configured to run in cached mode.

Well, you can change this through a group policy modification or thru this registry mod:

Create a DWORD registry key in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
called “PreventIndexingUncachedExchangeFolders” and setting it to a value of 0.

Regarding the group policy: read this document and use this .adm file (for some reasons the file is not linked in the document).

That's all. I tried both ways, and both worked.

from CNET: Promising antispam technique gets nod

2007-05-24T23:59:00.001-07:00

Something interesting about spam... It's called DomainKeys, and is supported by Yahoo, Cisco, SendMail and PGP Corporation. Read more here: http://news.com.com/Promising%20antispam%20technique%20gets%20nod/2100-1029_3-6185904.html?part=rss

QTTabBar - tabs on Windows Explorer

2007-05-24T03:46:00.001-07:00

I downloaded and installed QTTabBar, and after some weeks I have to admint that I cannot even think to work without!!!

The reason to try it was originally to have "tabs" (like those you have on IE7 or Firefox) also in Windows Explorer, but now I think it's a must. The website doesn't give the "real feeling" of all the features the tools has, but I guarantee that you will be impressed.

Now, I will not try to explain all the things you can do wit QTTabBar, read this page for a list of features.

If you decide to try it, follow the installation steps described (also the uninstall procedure is someway tricky - but nothing impossible).

Windows update lasting forever

2007-05-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

I had to completely rebuild my Windows XP machine, and after a lot of setup and reboot, and setup, and reboot (imagine Office, Visual Studio 2003, its SP, then Visual Studio 2005, its SP, then a lot of other packages, and then... a nigthmare!!!) I found that Windows Update was not responding anymore.

After some research I found this post, and given that it solved my problem I'm sharing it with you: problem connecting windows update - CPU 100% svchost.exe in Windows Update.

The symptoms I had wew exactly those described in the post title: a svchost.exe process using continuously near 100% of CPU, and nothing more for long time.

Now I can update my pc without problems...

Sql Server, remove duplicate records

2007-04-17T08:51:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I need to remove duplicates from a table, given a particular column to be checked.

This few lines of transact-sql code will help, I hope:

CREATE TABLE #tmp_tableCleanDup (id int, email varchar(200))
CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX pk ON #tmp_tableCleanDup(ID)
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX removeduplicates on #tmp_tableCleanDup (email) WITH IGNORE_DUP_KEY

BEGIN TRANSACTION

INSERT #tmp_tableCleanDup
SELECT e.ID, e.email
FROM OriginalTable e

DELETE OriginalTable
WHERE 1=1
AND id NOT IN (SELECT id FROM #tmp_tableCleanDup)

COMMIT TRANSACTION

DROP TABLE #tmp_tableCleanDup

don't read this.

2007-04-16T13:28:00.001-07:00

ok, you're reading. well, I expected this... but please, DO NOT click on this link...

the game you'll reach is reaaaallly addictive... so if you're working now don't click.

the name of the game is Desktop Tower Defense. simple, easy at the beginning, hard to leave when you start.

bye! ;-)

DeepFish, from Microsoft Labs

2007-04-05T00:43:00.001-07:00

Still in a closed beta stage, DeepFish is a mobile browser that mixes a server-side elaboration of the web pages in order to render web pages on the mobile screen just as they would be seen on a standard "non mobile" browser.

When you navigate to a page, DeepFish first of all generates (server-side) a sort of screenshot of the needed page, and sends this image to the mobile client; there with some client functionalities like panning and zooming the user will read the page... obviously things like form submission and client caching are present. Take a look at this presentation to understand better.

Sharepoint 2003: customize the webparts zones

2007-04-04T15:03:00.001-07:00

I know, today we can use the new Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS), but there are a lot of Sharepoint 2003 installation around, and recently I had to face some request from a (french, Paris-based) customer that asked me to make some "deep" customizations for their intranet, both in terms of look&feel and of webparts disposition on the page.

This request was both for the Sharepoint Portal pages and for the Windows Sharepoint Services sites and pages.

I'm not discussing here the "layout" modification, maybe I'll collect some good links that explain this task, let's say here that this was in my case solved mainly with some (not so easy) CSS modifications.

Let's focus on the webpart zones disposition, and how it can be changed.

First of all: I assume in all the samples below that your Sharepoint is installed in the default folder on drive C:\, and that you have the english setup (so in the paths you'll see the \1033\ folder, if you have other language packs you will have to deal with other paths).

The standard, "out-of-the-box" placement of the webparts in the page is ok for a lot of us; but sometimes you want to have some particular disposition of the webparts, in order to make a better use of the page space for your particular needs.

To reach this goal you will have to make some HTML coding in some .aspx pages, located in different paths. These paths correspond to the various "kind" of pages that Sharepoint 2003 offers to us: The Sharepoint main pages, the pages for the various Areas, the News pages, the Topics pages... and on and on down to the Windows Sharepoint Sites pages, both the simple and the Multi Page one.

All the .aspx pages you'll want to modify reside under this path:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\60\Template\1033\

Down that folder you'll find 13 subfolders. Each folder corresponds to a particular "kind" of page template on the Sharepoint portal or in the WSS sites. Below I'll give you a pair of lists that shows this correspondance.

The main file you'll find under the folder (let's say the first, the \SPS folder) is default.aspx.

This file, at run time, is used by Sharepoint as a template that is "filled" with the webparts you'll have decided to place in the various web part "zones". These zones are explicitly defined in the html of the default.aspx page, and have this look:

<WebPartPages:WebPartZone runat="server" Title="loc:Left" ID="Left" FrameType="TitleBarOnly" AllowPersonalization="false"/>

I will not enter in the details of the various tags; here we'll on ly note that the "ID" tag is the one that gives the name you will see in the sharepoint page, when in design mode.

There are many of these WebPartZone already in place in your default.aspx, go and look for them; you'll see that they are inside an html structure that you can easily hack for your needs; you can alse define more WebPartZones around the page, only be careful to give them unique IDs.

The following list shows each SharePoint Portal Server 2003 area or subarea and the corrisponding folder:
- Root site: \SPS folder
- My Site: \SPSMSITE folder
- News: \SPSNHOME folder
- Company News, External News and Press Announcements, and all areas that are under the News area: \SPSNEWS folder
- Site Directory: \SPSSITES folder
- Topics: \SPSTOC folder
- Divisions, Human Resources, Locations, Marketing, Operations, Projects, Resources, Sales, Strategy and Support, and all areas under the Topics area: \SPSTOPIC folder
- Community Template: \SPSCOMMU folder

Then there are some other folders that are relating to the Windows Sharepoint Services side of the coin; the two main folders are:

- \STS: all the pages for the WSS sites
- \MPS: for the Multi Page Template pages under WSS sites

This last one is a little more tricky, because when you modify the default.aspx page... this modifications will show up only in the main page, and not in the various subpages. To have also these pages modified you'll have to edit another page, in the folder:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\TEMPLATE\1033\MPS\DOCTEMP\SMARTPGS

The file is named spstd1.aspx. modify and save it... and you're done.

Now: I'm not saying that all this process is easy and safe; you'll want to have backup copies of all the files you modify, and you'll want to make a lot of experiments before deploying all this in production... but as soon as you make the first test you'll find comfortable with the other.

Hope this helps...

Andrea

Windows PowerShell

2007-03-30T00:46:00.001-07:00

uhm... I didn't try Windows PowerShell until yesterday, but now I'm becoming addicted!!!

Some links...

Windows PowerShell on Wikipedia - a general intro, and some "fundamental" links.

On Microsoft's site, the main page for PowerShell (from here the link to the download pages - if you use XP sp2, here's the direct download link).

some Sample Windows PowerShell Scripts on Microsoft's site

and the CodePlex repository for Windows PowerShell scripts

Then a little article (on ThinkersRoom.com) on PowerShell customization, that introduces some interesting arguments through maybe "basic" yet well written. Read it.

ZenZui - a mobile widget browser

2007-03-27T23:56:00.001-07:00

ZenZui is a brand new entry in the "mobile widget browser" ecosystem, in which you can also find other players like BluePulse and Widset (from Nokia), and some others.

ZenZui was intially developed from Microsoft, now is an independent spin-off.

Actually ZenZui is not yet a real downloadable solution, but I think it will soon. Reading here and there I find interesting the business model they are going to implement - nothing so revolutionary, but it can work. Quoting from the site: " using well-established advertising principles like CPA and CPM (we call it CPZ – Cost Per Zoom)".

I will not try to explain how the interface will be, I prefer to redirect you this YouTube Video showing the ZenZui app working.

from Roberdan's blog: Web Content Management with Sharepoint 2007

2007-03-26T13:13:00.001-07:00

I found today this new blog entry in the Roberdan's blog (read more from here if you are interested in microsoft technologies and in communities): it's a collection of links on Sharepoint technologies, on Web Content Management in particular.

Actually in Roberdan's blog you can find much more than this, but in this precise moment this post is really useful to me... :-)

Thanks Roberto!!!

maybe you do not know that I wrote about this

2007-03-16T02:07:00.001-07:00

These are the very first lines of a thing I wrote some times ago...

Pervasive, Decentralized Information for the Lookaside Buffer

Andrea Ilari

Abstract

Many system administrators would agree that, had it not been for write-ahead logging, the understanding of model checking might never have occurred. In fact, few mathematicians would disagree with the study of robots [13]. In this position paper we disconfirm that the acclaimed constant-time algorithm for the theoretical unification of the memory bus and redundancy by Suzuki is in Co-NP.

[...]

Ok, ok... it's a fake!!! It was produced from this site: SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator

Go and try it... it's incredible!!!

i'm making a difference

2007-03-13T06:49:00.001-07:00

from the Windows Live Messenger's "i'm" initiative":

i’m is a new initiative from Windows Live™ Messenger. Every time you start a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. We've set no cap on the amount we'll donate to each organization. The sky's the limit.

I knew about this from kfra, who pointed me at this blog entry

the GORB

2007-03-13T04:16:00.003-07:00

The Gorb presents as an "online community of professionals where real life reputations are earned and viewed by others".

The idea is to "rate" and comment on other people, but anonimously. In other network of this kind (say in LinkedIn for example) the comments and ratings are public and "signed"; so maybe they are not fair, in the sense that tend to be "too good".

Thru anonimity GORB wants to produce a more objective judgment on people.

I'll try to "rate" someone here around :-) let's see what happens...

pRSSReader

2007-03-12T16:09:00.001-07:00

In my long and exhausting ;-) journey towards the best RSS reader for Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) I found this great app, pRSSReader (a question for me: why did I find it only now???).

SImple to use, at the same time it offers a lot of functionalities; I uninstalled all the similar tools I tried in the past, now I use only this.

Some screenshot follow; there is only a single thing missing, in my opinion, a thing that I found really useful in other similar apps: the ability to send the content of a particular post thru email, without having to go all the way long thru copy&switch-to-email-app&paste&send&back.

Apart from this pRSSReader is really worth a try; it's freeware but you'll find that a PayPal "donation" to the author, David Andrš, could be a good idea.

a "low ranking nerd"...

2007-03-12T12:34:00.000-07:00

..so, I'm a "Low Ranking Nerd. Definitely a nerd but low on the totem pole of nerds."

don't know if this a good or bad news :-)

Qode

2007-03-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

In a recent comment in this blog I was "pointed" to Qode's web site.

Qode is similar to ShotCode, but both work in a different way than MoBeam (I talked about MoBeam here some days ago).

What I mean is that with Qode (as with ShotCode) you use the mobile device's camera to grab the barcode (or similar object) in order to be transferred to a web site. With MoBeam - as far as I have understood - the mobile device is used to show the barcode to the "real" world; for example to the laser scanner at the discount cashier...

Anyway Qode is interesting, like Shotcode is.

Texter - a little but useful utility from Lifehacker

2007-03-09T07:43:00.001-08:00

Texter is a text substitution application; it stays resident in memory and "hears" what you're typing. When a certain key combination is hit, it performs the related action.

For example you can have Texter substitute the string "ema" with you email address, or you can type "hre" and have a complete href tag written, with the URL you copied in the clipboard at the right place, and the cursor ready just before the </a> closing tag...

Here is the link!!!

Mobeam: "Mobile" Barcode Scanning With the Screen Backlight

2007-03-04T06:54:00.001-08:00

MoBeam is a technology that can be used to have your phone's screen laser-scanned in order to show (for example) a discount coupon.

See a flash demo here.

Joost.com !

2007-03-03T00:36:00.001-08:00

I'm in the Joost.com beta. Really amazing, I have to say...

Joost is the new name of the "Venice Project", and it's a web-based interactive TV project. Even if in beta, and with a (well, not so) limited choice of channels to watch, it works very well.

Go and see some screenshots!