July 2005 - Posts

HotHTML 3 FixPack 4 Final Released!

Well after close to three months of intense testing, I've finally gone live with FixPack 4 for HotHTML 3.

Anyone who has the pre-release betas, alphas or Release Candidates (from builds 1930-2278) you'll need to uninstall it and install the new FixPack 4 release as we're now fully switched to InstallShield 10.5 (we bought 10.5 a month before 11 debut'd but it shall do!)

Download:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/hothtml3eval.exe [ 11MB ]

ChangeLog:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/changes_1900.txt

NOTE:
Website(s)/KB's should be updated in a few hours!

Thanks to everyone who reported issues and spent time testing and messing with the fixes!

Generics in .NET 2.0 (C#) and why it rocks!

One of the coolest things about .NET 2.0 (apart from having a new IDE to write in) is generics... Heres a link dump of a very good article by one of my favourite authors Juval Lowy of IDesign on Generics in C#.

While your here, take a look at Colin's excellent RSS wrapper written in .NET 2.0 using Generics

Talking on Juval, take a look at his new edition of Programming .NET Components (Second Edition) which covers .NET 2.0 like you wouldnt believe... as one who purchased the first edition a while back I still use it as reference as it covers a mountain of information from interfaces, multithreading to deployment and beyond...

IE7 Beta 1 Snaps

IE 7 Beta shots as promised:



The Whole set:
http://websoftware.customer.netspace.net.au/images/IE7Beta/

I'll have a full review of IE7 up on ActiveWin sometime before the weeks end:-)

Windows Vista / IE 7 Beta 1 Live!

If your with the testing team nows the time to go and grab Vista Server, Vista and IE7 Beta!

IE7 = ~10MB
Vista = 2GB+

Nice isnt it?

I'll post some shots and thoughts later... I've caught the flu or some such from a packed train on Tuesday... Thanks to my usual cocktail of highly effective drugs i should free from this plague in a couple of days... until then... its PPPPPPAAAAAAAIIIIIINNNNN...

Trend PC-Cillin 2006 Beta Program in September!

Almost forgot about this got this last week(Thursday)... I love the part where they say "PC-Cillin should be the best solution for virus outbreak"... its like, it *should* be but we're not too sure, just incase the Symantec Bloatware comes around and does something... This is for the "Official Beta Program" not the private beta program...

Dear Thushan,

You are invited to participate in the Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2006 Beta Program.

Beta Duration:  September 6th to 29th, 2005.

Trend Micro is a trusted provider of high performance Internet Security Suites and Services that offers a reliable user experience and peace of mind while working on computers and accessing the Internet.

PC-Cillin is an up-to-date, all-in-one solution for both experienced and less experienced users who wish to have worry-free solutions.  It provides a quality and effective easy-to-install and easy-to-use protection for your PC.

PC-Cillin 2006 should be the best solution for Virus Outbreak and anti-Phishing among all available security suites.

What’s new in PC-Cillin 2006?

q       Comprehensive phishing and internet fraud protection

q       Robust anti-spyware solutions

q       Auto rollback system to prevent system trouble

q       Easy to use all-in-one solution

Some things (personal list) that I would like to see fixed in 2006:
  • Reduce the memory consumption of the application - especially AntiSpam (eats up 46-84MB sometimes...)
  • Make the firewall/Virus Popups not take focus - I've disabled notifications and the software firewall altogether because of it (btw I have a hardware router so I can safely disable software ones on my system... dont follow my lead if you have a "naked" connection to the net!)
  • Spyware Scan is still somewhat dodgy, it sometimes brings up "Fake" results, improve the detection engine too, while its faster than conventional scanners (like SpyBot) there's alot the engine and definitions are missing!
  • Security Check feature - while good - does sometimes bring up unrelated patches or ones already installed.
  • Theres a bug with enabling "Outgoing Scanning" and having outlook Send/Recieve every 2 minutes... anything with a large attachment gets stuck in an infinite loop and send the email over and over again - Someone reading this would have got some similar mail from me because of it!
Mehhh thats about it... I'm too tired to type..

Windows Longhorn = Windows Vista.... isnt that like Blinds company here?

Well shockwaves today (of all days a friday) as MS announced that they've "renamed" Longhorn to Vista...

I dont know about you, but personally longhorns much much cooler than Vista... Now we're going to see people making \/\/ \/ or a \/\/\/ and making some goofy prediction about evilness embedded in there somewhere...


Threesome!
Well it looks like Vista Beta 1, Server *AND* Internet Explorer 7 Beta will released in sync within a week or so. Can anyone be any more excited?

See the official site here(may have to wait a few hours):
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx

EDIT:
The Official announcement is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0507/25234/Win_Name_MBR.asx

Fighting Spam with Column Sorting in Outlook Junk Mail Folder... :D

Well Junk mail is hitting all time high's on my accounts... and it doesnt look like its getting any better... according to the stats its more than doubled the daily average since this time last year:(

All junk mail that goes via outlook's filters + TrendIS2005 filter goto the Junk Mail filter, and every week I go through the folder to make sure nothing legit goes to the bit bucket... so how do you go through so much crap in short period of time? Simple! Sort the grid by "Subject" and follow your eyes down... you'll soon find that picking the single ones when its grouped will give you a better chance at finding real emails...

Best part is that once you see the common ones like "Delivery Failed" or "Viagra*" emails you can bulk skip them...

PrimoTech Optimus Keyboard. Innovation is still possible.

Half wasted you stumble to work and sit on your desk... You look at the keyboard infront of you... what the?

Ok so its a normal looking every day keyboard right? (maybe a little dull from that view)... you put the coffee down and taker closer look...

Meh you think at first but then realise those keys  dont look right.... Then you glance a little to the right...

Now you think wtf? Are you on drugs? What they hey is eMule, IE and iTunes doing on the keyboard? What happend to HoME, EnD PaGeUp and PaGeDoWn? Whats with the colors? What did you *really* do last night? You glance back at the keyboard to make sure your not halucinating after those brownies you had...

Dammit, it looks like Bob's Brownies are not the same brownies your granny used to make... you're pretty sure this is you halucinating, that or you've been playing too much Doom III...

After coming to grips with life, you realise it is really a keyboard... not just any old keyboard... new a ultra funky, ultra cool, sexy and damm-i-want-mine-now keyboards...

Every key on that keyboard has a small 'OLED display' to show something, not only that but using the open SDK you can create your own icons so sky's the limit... This is what I call innovation... no need to stick foreign language characters on the keys anymore.. change a profile and bam... visual cue's for typing... playing a game? Have too many keys to remember that you have to reference the manual and ruin your I-Dont-Need-No-Manual reputation? Playing Battlefield II? chang ethe profile and bam... your still the I-Dont-Need-No-Manual man...

READ MORE...

HotHTML 3 FixPack 4 Release Candidate 5 Release

Thanks to everyone who reported issues with the previous Release Candidate, I've pushed Release Candidate 5 out and is available right now for download.

Download:
http://websoftware.customer.netspace.net.au/hothtml3/beta/FixPack5_RC5.hdp [ 875KB ]

ChangeLog:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/changes_1900.txt

NOTE:
The link above is ONLY for those who installed Release Candidate 4 release. If you want to try RC5, first install FixPack 3(if not already installed), then Release Candidate 4 Update file and finally download and run the link above which will install the new version.

This is because the WebSoftware installer (the HDP file) cannot update a core component (wRegistry.dll) that was updated for FixPack 4 as its being used by the installer - I know I know! Thats why I love .NET!

Get ready for PHP v5.1 & adventures with beta 3 and PDO!

I've been working after hours on the HotHTML 4 IDE, and it goes without saying that even though this release is being written in .NET 2.0 its not stopping us from still having that rich language support from the previous release. One of the key languages I'm targetting - thats non-MS (like ASP/ASP.NET) is ofcourse PHP.  I took a trip down memory lane when i downloaded PHP 5.1 Beta 3 yesterday, its got some pretty exciting stuff, some of which i'll talk about below...

Among the coolest is PDO, PHP Data Objects. Its what the PEAR DB Modules are currently to php developers, a very abstract and portable set of database classes which makes it easier to make the transisition from one DB to another without breaking code. My beloved REFOLD uses the PEAR modules mainly because we thought in the future we could give our client the ability to move to say Oracle instead and not worry about issues with migration.

Now that this "Framework" is tightly 'integrated' into the PHP engine/runtime itself(?) it will mean that PHP 5.1 developers/sites will be alot easier to manage - think of how much less code the PHPNuke/BB guys have to write?.

Another area is speed, i feel that this release is somewhat faster that the previous v5.x release - I know the release notes added that perf was increased, but I tend to not notice them most of the time. Either way if your working with PHP 5.0, then its HIGHLY RECOMMENDED you take a look at PHP 5.1, its cutting edge, its faster and teh PDO is sooo much easier to work with:-)

Take a look at this WIKI on the basics of PDO, if you dont fall in love, then... (fill insult)

Visual Studio.NET 2005 July CTP... WOW!

Not sure if its the monitor i'm using or what but after installing Whidbey July CTP... wow... it looks sharper, and sexier! Even the splash-screen looks finer and more refined than previous ones... Moving right along, July's release has quite alot of bugfixes and we're back to the rectangular tabs instead of those ugly others they had in Beta 2 (I skipped June CTP on this machine)... If you havent already, grab a copy from the MSDN Subscription page or if your a tester from the usual places and start messing around... It seems somewhat faster loading up my projects too...

Still disappointed that the subclassing bug hasnt been addressed - and may never be... but thats life:(

Cant fight... cant fight the dust... cant fight.... cant fight the dust... ohhhhh nooooo

Dust... such an ugly topic to discuss, it makes you sneeze, gives people asthma (for me when i was younger) gives the feeling of age when you watch a movie and you see a beam of dust when a torch is shone through it, and it rains on all over your precious machines...

I'm noticing (primarily because i've gone all black instead of Beige) alot of dust around now... how do people combat dust? do they get the 60s style feather duster and dust the place? or is there something a little lazier around that will bust the dust?

The Dell 2405FPW came in...

Well my shinny new Dell 2405FPW came in last week, but alas I've been working fulltime that I havent had the time to post shots... nor of the shots of the internals of my machine, so without further ado...

Dell 2405FPW
Dell 2405FPW

The Inspiron looks so small compared to the 2405 (and yes, I have a thing for Subaru WRX's)
The Inspiron looks so small compared to the 2405(and yes, I have a thing for Subaru WRX's)

Beige? Who does Beige these days? Thats soooo 90s
Beige? Who does Beige these days?

I'll post some shots of the machine itself later... but this monitor is so damm sexy, if you still want room, then add a Dell 2005FPW to your collection and you'll be setup! Another 2405FPW would be OK but a little too heavy on your neck... 2005FPW + 2405FPW rocks !

Working with Strings in .NET 2.0

Summary: Code owners previously using the InvariantCulture for string comparison, casing, and sorting should strongly consider using a new set of String overloads in Microsoft .NET 2.0. Specifically, data that is designed to be culture-agnostic and linguistically irrelevant should begin specifying overloads using either the StringComparison.Ordinal or StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase members of the new StringComparison enumeration. These enforce a byte-by-byte comparison similar to strcmp that not only avoids bugs from linguistic interpretation of essentially symbolic strings, but provides better performance. (15 printed pages)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/StringsinNET20.asp

(Australians ONLY!) Dell 2405FPW 24" LCD Group buy @ $1400 interested? read this!

Well after some heavy heavy negotiations i've managed to get my rep to agree on $1400 for a Dell 2405FPW 24" LCD which i've bene bragging around this blog as the LCD to buy, currently dell are asking $1600+ for it but if you are interested in buying then we have a group buy happenning, please read the details below

Whirlpool Original Thread

New Forums


If your serious and interested (only australians are legible for this) please post a messge on the New forums link above and view the main topic for discussion/rules etc.

HotHTML 3 FixPack 4 Release Candidate 4 Release

Well FixPack 4 for HotHTML 3 is nearing release. Unfortunately this release will not have Mozilla previewing support as I mentioned earlier as the priority for FixPack 4 changed to fixing up mutli-lingual/region issues and various other bugs.

This is an 'Update' of FixPack 3 to make it FixPack 4, and as such you need to have FixPack 3 Installed.
 
Download:
 
ChangeLog:
http://www.wsoftware.biz/downloads/http/hothtml3/changes_1900.txt
 
NOTE: You must have FixPack 3 installed for this release to update properly. There are NO UPDATED HELP FILES as they are still being written/updated.

Send feedback to developers@wsoftware.biz and we'll take care of the rest:-)

6 Blasts in London Underground

All TV's in Australia are now linked to the BBC news feeds, watch Channel 7 and the ABC for more info...

A number of people were killed in a series of explosions on London's transport system at rush hour, causing chaos in the British capital.

Read more..