Thushan Fernando

Blog moved to WordPress and new domain...

I've moved my blog to my own domain and onto a WordPress engine, CS + SPAM was driving me nuts!

Catchup posts:

• Subversion Global Ignore List
• Design Patterns in C# & Java : The Singleton.
• Back /home/ again!
• Like Christmas in July, but in June - WINE 1.0 and Firefox 3.0 Released!
• Flickr Gallery for Japan
• Day 1 - Melbourne to Korea, Seoul (from Incheon)
• Update since the last post…
• HelloWorld #3!!!

Oh yes, I've been in Japan for a couple of months, first 2 weeks of photos are uploaded on Flickr, I still havent had a chance to upload the thousands after.

Whats more, I've actually written some information about me so you can finally find out my sad sad way of life. See About Thushan Fernando.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Released to Testers:-)

Wow its been almost 2 months since my last post. I've been so busy at work its not funny!

Today marks the date that MSFT release Service Pack 1 to the 15K or so of testers, so if you were among the crowd you'll find the RTM builds of Vista SP1 on your Connect download page.

Title	Windows Vista SP1 RTM Standalone ISO for x86 and x64 Five Languages
Release Date	2/6/2008
Size	1,161.72 MB
Version	18000.080118-1840
Category	Build
Milestone	RTM
Description	0xAC9DC48A    6001.18000.080118-1840_iso_client_sp_wave0-FRMCSP0_DVD.iso

and

Title	Windows Vista SP1 RTM for X86 and X64 UPD 5 Languages
Release Date	2/6/2008
Size	1,161 MB
Version	6001.18000.080118-1840
Category	Build
Milestone	RTM
Description	*REMINDER*  Please ensure you uncheck any files you don’t wish to download.   Windows6.0-KB936330-X86-wave0.exe Windows6.0-KB936330-X64-wave0.exe

Windows Vista SP1-RC and Office 2007 SP1 Released to public

Grab it while its hawt, Windows Vista SP1-RC and Office 2007 SP1. I think most people on Vista would be most pleased with SP1 as it smooths some of the roughness RTM brought with it.

Vista SP1 Changelog published

Microsoft have published a list of changes that are in SP1 of Vista, quite detailed too. You can Download a copy of the change log or see the summary on Long Zheng's (hola!) iStartedSomething Vista SP1 Change log post.

WINDOWS: You know a BSoD but have you seen a Green Screen of Death before?

Came across a funky new way of throwing a bugcheck in Windows. You've seen/heard/experienced-more-than-you'd-like-to the pleasure/pain/excitement/horror of Windows throwing a Blue Screen of Death, just the other day I came across a slightly cooler bugcheck system halt, colored green (with envy!) and a semi rendered progress bar added to the mix. This is  purely for Windows, the Xbox does have GSoD's.



This was with Windows Vista x64 (Service Pack 1 beta) loading after a few OC'ing sessions. So what causes a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA ? There is an *excellent* article about it on OSR Online that will tell you.

BETA: Official Release Dates on MSDN for XP SP3 and Vista SP1

The MSDN Subscriptions Blogs have given an indication into when MSFT plan to release Vista SP1 (Q1-2008) Windows XP SP3 (1H CY2008) and Windows Server Home (TBA). Meanwhile, Office XP Service Pack 3 is already available for download.

See the official notification on the MSDN Blog page.

XP: Service Pack 3 available on Connect

Yay! Service Pack 3 for XP is available on Microsoft Connect now too.

Title	Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta
Release Date	10/4/2007
Size	1,037.24 MB
Version
Category	Build
Milestone	Beta
Description	These are the self-extracting executables that contain the update packages for Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta, English, German, and Japanese as well as release documentation.   It is recommended that you apply your selected update package to an activated, genuine copy of Windows XP, in a test environment. As with any pre-release software, it is also recommended that you back up files and settings on your machine before applying this update package.   We thank you for your interest and are looking forward to your feedback. Please ensure you uncheck any files you don't wish to download.

Download away, roughly 330Mb in size (EN/JP/DE).

HOWTO: Changing the default browser in Visual Studio.NET

I've grown fond of Opera the last few years, it seems like even though i've firmly planted myself into the shoe's of Firefox I'm finding the continuously growing memory foot print a little hard to swallow at times (having to constantly restart Firefox isnt ideal no matter how much RAM you have), especially when your working with several Visual Studio instances. So I've resorted to using Opera, a lightweight finely tuned browser when working on a recent PHP->ASP.NET port for a project at work.

Question is, how *do* you make it the default browser in Visual Studio.NET? Its not as intuitive as you would have figured, but dead easy:

• Right click on a ASPX page in your solution and select "Browse With..."
• Click Add and find the browser you want (or if its already in the list ignore this step).
• Select "Set as Default"
• Thats it, click Browse and you'll be fine and dandy.

Sweet!

FIX: CHM File displays 'Page cannot be found' or 'Action Cancelled' error under certain conditions.

I promised myself I'd goto bed before 12am today, but this is something that must be posted.

Ever openned up a CHM file only to be greeted by a 'Page cannot be found' or 'Action Cancelled' error?


Not only is it annoying, but some people think that the reason for the error is because of a corrupted CHM file - hold your CHM's, dont send em to the bit-bucket just yet!!! This can happen for a couple of reasons.

• You have a hash (#) in the path filename which for some reason the Help viewer takes as an anchor. So the following paths, whilst valid may not load the help content if files are inside:

  C:\My Ebooks\Some Category\MS dotNet\C#\MyCoolCSharpBook.chm
  C:\My Ebooks\Some Category\MS dotNet\CSharp\MyCoolC#Book.chm

  SOLUTION: Remove the hash in the path directory or filename (*doh*).
  
  
• The other is if you attempt to load a CHM file remotely from another machine (mapped-network drive for instance), the security policy will place a restriction on loading the HTML content.
  
  SOLUTION: How to get around it? Simple, edit the registry.
  
  
  1. Start > Run (or {WINDOWSKEY+R}), type in 'regedit'
     
     
  2. Browse your merry way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microso