Nancy Street

Development Blog

Click to see the Site Map
HomeInfoMusicGalleryPetsGeoHobbiesGeo
Site MapWhat's NewRecent ChangesContactsServer StatisticsSite Information Home « Computers « DevBlog

In March 2004, the page that used to be titled Stuff-Ups and Disasters was pulled apart into smaller sub-pages and this replacement page was titled Development Blog. This page is a contents list of links to pages of miscellaneous technical discussions related to computers and software. Most of the discussions are very technical and will only be of interest to developers.

Upgrading to Visual Studio 2008
  A time-consuming upgrade reveals a few gotchas about %PATH% and SDK locations. Upgrade as soon as you can for a much better developement experience.
netTiers Bug and Hashing
  CodeSmith 2.6.0.117 (the last free version) and netTiers 2.0.0_cs26 combine to create a fabulous tool that generates a complete CRUD library over a database. There is a bug in netTiers and hash codes are missing.
Playing Audio
  After wondering for years how to play audio files without any dependencies on special controls or libraries, I stumble across the Multimedia sample C# library from http://www.mentalis.org which shows how to use the Windows MCI API.
Autosize DataGrid Columns
  A sample method that autosizes the columns of a DataGrid to fit the longest values (redundant in Framework 2.0 now that the DataGridView control has arrived).
ASP.NET Permissions
  Making ASP.NET applications run in production environments and in development debugging mode as a non-Admin is a real challenge.
Developing as Non-Admin
  Do not develop software using an account with Administrator permissions. It's a bit tricker to develop as a non-Admin, but it's worth the effort. Running ASP.NET projects in debug mode is quite an obstacle.
Http Modules & ReleaseRequestState Filter
  How to create a Http Module that can use the ReleaseRequestState event to modify a response before it's rendered.
log4net Dynamic Configuration
  A long and tedious web search finally reveals how to dynamically configure log4net at runtime and create Appenders as needed.
MCI32.ocx "Class is not licensed for use"
  After creating a new development PC I find that my applications can't play audio files. I have a bit of trouble getting the MCI32.ocx file to work again. Some questions remain about multimedia enabled applications.
New Computer & Hardware Problems
  A new computer triggers about 15 hours of frustration and suffering. It all turns out to be hardware problems. The Pinnacle video capture card also causes some misery.
ASP.NET and SQL Server
  Hours are wasted trying to get an ASP.NET application to talk to an SQL Server database. The answer is so stupidly backwards and simple it makes me want to slap myself.
Drag and Drop from Windows Explorer
  How to drag and drop from Windows Explorer into a .NET Forms application.
Keywords: AllowDrop; DragEventArgs; IDataObject; DragDrop; DragEnter
licenses.licx binary resource error
  How to overcome this error: Could not transform licenses file 'licenses.licx' into a binary resource. error LC0004 : Exception occured creating type 'System.NullReferenceException'
The PropertyGrid Control
  If you have an application with lots of configurable "options", then consider using the PropertyGrid control. This often overlooked control in the .NET Framework can be a treasure if used wisely.
Keywords: PropertyGrid; TypeConverter; UITypeEditor; IServiceProvider; Reflection
Exception in Visual Studio Designer
  An Exception when viewing a form in the Visual Studio designer wastes some time, but a neat solution is revealed.
FileSystemWatcher Traps
  The .NET SystemFileWatcher class is a fabulous wrapper over Win32 file system functionality, but there are some tricks and traps in using it reliably.
ASP.NET CreateChildControls
  A trap for ASP.NET Developers using Child Controls
Keywords: Composite Controls; ChildControlsCreated; Page_Load; INamingContainer
ID3LIB Buffer Overflow
  A subtle bug in the ID3LIB open source project triggers some development
Keywords: MP3 Tag; VBR; interop; True DBGrid; .NET; C#
Windows 2003 Server Upgrade
 

The first week of October 2003 -- Many strange things happen after upgrading the Nancy Street server to Windows 2003. I have documented the 10 days of suffering in the hope that I can help others who follow me. Some problems are solved, some are bypassed and others are self-inflicted accidentally, but most are probably caused by the Microsoft security "lockdown" in 2003. I present a summary first, then if you find anything interesting you can read further.

Keywords: 2003 Advanced Server; 2003 Server Standard Edition; ASP; ASP.NET; CVS; Remoting; customErrors; IIS Parent Paths; File Share; Permissions; autoexec.nt; config.nt; IIS Host Headers; ISAPI Filter.

September 2003 Disk & Battery Failure
  Did a lightning stike kill the Nancy Street Server C: drive? Recovery hampered by a flat battery!
Keywords: Boot Failure; chkdsk; IIS Lockdown
August 2003 Router Problems
  The new "cheap" Infosmart router causes dreadful problems
Keywords: Infosmart; AFN400; Dynalink; RTA100; Network Neighbourhood
New Router & Cabling
  A new router and cabling for the Nancy Street Network causes some headaches
Keywords: Infosmart; AFN4000
July 2003 Server Hardware Upgrade
  In July 2003 a hardware upgrade kills the Nancy Street Windows 2000 Server
Keywords: Motherboard; AdSubtract; UserAgent; SmartNavigation; Infragistics; Host Headers

Contact Information | PGP Keys | Site Map | What's New | Visitor Book
Last Updated: 03-May-2008 17:11
Copyright © 1999-2007 Orthogonal Programming