Better grab a lunch, or 9.
Tags:
Interesting,
Other
Updated the Zune application software this morning at about 7:00am. Since I had no choice in the matter, I went ahead and did it ;)
Wow. Talk about a change... for the worst. The application seems to lag a lot even when I have nothing else open. If I try to listen to it with Visual Studio 2008, SQL Management Studio, and Outlook forget about it. Too bad because those are all the things I use on a daily basis for work. That's also when I listen to the most of my music.
Luckily I've got 4 stereos in the house wired up to my Zune player so depending on where in the house I'm working (laptop) I can listen to my music. I've also got 2 30GB zunes for this and am thinking of buying another when the new line is released (if it hasn't been already).
Like any Microsoft product there will be a patch released for the Zune software if enough people are experiencing these symptoms and at the end of the day I'm still glad I don't use any Apple products.
Does anyone else find that the Zune software responds a lot like a poorly-written RIA (rich internet application)? To me it responds like Silverlight applications do when they are first written; before any story board animations / overlays are added to let the user know that SOMETHING is actually happening. Just a thought....
If anyone from Zune reads this you might want to update the Zune Card widget (see left navigation column) to utilize Silverlight instead of Flash. It would probably be a good look since, you know; you're Microsoft and you have this new technology you want to promote.
Looks like I'll try this again later. Maybe rebooting (again) will help.
UPDATE
Unresponsiveness of the application aside, the hardware update seems to be pretty sweet! Now I can play games while listening to tasty licks by The Chameleons. The wireless feature is pretty sweet. I wonder if I have to be at one of 9,800 McDonald's restaurants to be able to download? I'd guess not...
Tags:
Other,
Zune
I've had a Zune for a little while now and am just getting around to the social side of things. I'm a Microsoft geekboy for life so that's why I didn't get an iPod.
Peep my uber-cool Zune username and slick Zune Card gadget on the left.
Feel free to add me to your social if you're a Zuner as well. :)
Tags:
Other
Today I was working on a project that I wasn't all too familiar with. Instead of asking everyone that I work with who was online at the time I decided to try to figure out on my own by a series of "Go To Definition", "Find Usages" and "Quick Find"'s.
It would be nice if the "Look in:" selection was a little more detailed than a DropDownList. Maybe a series of CheckBoxes with nested CheckBoxLists.
I don't know, just thinking out loud. I'd even be happy with a "Every project in the solution except for the current one" ListItem.
Tags:
Other
Last week has sucked. Big time. Started off with the flu on Monday. That's always great. Working from home usually means not getting sick but I went out for a night on the town with a group of friends last Friday night and probably crossed paths with some people who are less germaphobic than me.
With this project I had to use SourceGear vault (won't even link to it). After spending about an hour to get it to work with VS 2005 and SQL 2005 (fwiw, using VS 2003 Compatibility Client) VS 2005 now likes to freeze, ( NOT RESPONDING ), and close. I also have this new add-on where I open a project, start typing a bunch of changes, click 'SAVE', then get a (NOT RESPONDING) for about a minute. After my environment comes to I try to right-click and all my pop-up menu items are disabled. AWESOME! I then have to close the file I'm working on WITHOUT saving changes (because I am now in disconnected mode and can't checkout files), open the file again and re-write my original changes that I couldn't save 5 minutes ago.
I am an obsessive File -> Save-All guy. I probably do this at least once every 2-5 minutes. I write a lot of code and with fast-code writing and handy refactoring you can put a huge dent in a class library, .js, .aspx, or code-behind in a short amount of time. My newest add-in (can't really say it's related in any way to SGV, is that Visual Studio 2005 will just crash with an error "The compiler has stopped working." That's pretty cool. I've never seen that before and will try to get a screen shot next time. It has only happened twice so it's pretty elusive.
Periodically I can't cancel builds. This annoys me beyond textual descriptions so I'll leave it at that. This is a pretty important feature to have or to not have fail; depending on how you look at it.
I am a huge fan of Subversion when it comes to source control. Every company I work for uses it. It's simple. When I want to work on a project I connect to a company-specific VPN, right-click my solution, click UPDATE (if existing), or CheckOut (if new) and disconnect from the VPN once it's either updated or downloaded. For my machines I use TortoiseSVN which is a Subversion client. Both are completely free and open-source. TortoiseSVN commands are accessible via Windows Explorer so it's very unintrusive. Once you are done making your code changes you simply connect back to the VPN (if needed) and right-click your solution -> 'Commit'. Done. If someone else checks in the same stuff you were working on (same file) then, like most versioning software, you can either merge, use all of mine / theirs; all with the help of a nice diff tool.
Anyone want to help me with SourceGear? I've heard great things. It just so happens it hasn't been so great with me. :-(
Tags:
Other,
Tools
I just started on day two of upgrading my laptop to Vista Ultimate from Vista Home Premium. This all started from not being able to install all of the SQL 2005 Developer Edition. After pretty much a full day Saturday split between researching WHY I couldn't install all of these features and working I finally stumbled upon Bill Staple's blog (IIS Team Lead) and realized that the reason why I couldn't install these features was because of the fact that Home Premium doesn't allow for one to enable Windows Authentication for IIS (SQL Reporting Services).
I spent between 12-15 hours on Saturday fighting with and cursing at my laptop. After purchasing the reasonably-priced $159 upgrade I closed all programs, disabled all USB devices, turned off anti-virus, internet connection, etc.. and put in the Windows Anytime Upgrade DVD. Get to the screen where I have the option for Recommended (Upgrade) and Custom (Clean Install). "Upgrade and save your programs and files." Sounded like a winner. Boooooyyyyy was I wrong.
I start the upgrade and then head outside to grab some firewood thinking it would just start like every other installation disc on the planet. I then thought to myself, "Wait. Vista.", then I kind of lol'ed to myself.
"Installing Files" 100%
"Gathering Files" 0% ... (freezes after 10 minutes)
I read a blog about someone have this screen freeze (hang-up, stop, etc..) when Gathering Files gets to 21%. I would've loved to get to 21% with this damn thing. I CTRL+ALT+DEL out of the installation and after 10 more minutes of (NOT RESPONDING) I eject the disk and wait it out. Another 5 minutes or so and I reboot.
I try the above steps about 7 more times with no luck. Actually, if you consider luck getting to 27% and staying there for 8 hours and then cursing and wanting to punt-kick my laptop off of the deck into the snow at 3:30am then maybe I had a little.
My next idea is to start the upgrade process again, but this time in Safe Mode. It makes perfect sense. "We're Sorry, Upgrade isn't available in Safe Mode." SON OF A BITCH!!
This morning I am feeling defeat. I get up at 7:00am and fixate on the idea of buying a nice 500GB external HD and performing a clean install. "What's important here?" I convince myself that I only need Visual Studio 2005 / 2008 projects, my TortoiseSVN Repository, SQL 2005 databases, digital images, and my extensive collection of legally-obtained digital music. Easy enough to restore. My girlfriend offers to run into town and buy this external hd for me so I can get some work done. I end up backing-up all of my data and transferring it to my handy 500GB USB HD. Game time.
Like before I unplugged all of my USB devices, disables virus scan, etc, etc... and proceeded with the installation. The installation gets to Expanding Files (27%) and then hangs for about 20 minutes before I realize nothing is going on. The non-flickering HD light was more proof. I eject the disk and reboot. I then think it would be wise to try installing in Safe Mode. So I start frantically beating the F8 key so that I can boot in Safe Mode. I start the clean install and 7-10 minutes later I see my screen turn blank. "Shit!!!!!! Wait.... REBOOT!!!!!!!!!!!" Initiate fist-pumping sequence. It was the first of several reboots so I haven't won yet but this is world's better than the last half-dozen or so failed attempts.
About a half-hour later I get the coveted configuration screen where I get to pick my username, machine name, set the clock, etc... More fist-pumping.
I must say, Vista Ultimate is world's better than Home Premium so far. I haven't had my screen, IE, VS, or SQL freeze once! The painful upgrading process doesn't even hold a candle to the hanging and NOT RESPONDING'ing I have experienced over the last couple of months.
Will - 1
Vista - 0
Tags:
Other
I am starting to absolutely hate Vista. My machine is bare-bones. Visual Studio 2005 / 2008, SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, Winamp, Office 2007 Student, Symantec Antivirus, and FileZilla. Lately my machine has been freezing up. Not just a quick, couple of seconds freeze either. I am talking about a full-blown 2-7 minutes of nothingness. No CTRL + ALT + DELETE, right-click - Task Manager, nothing. My development ritual for the past couple of weeks has consisted of the following:
1. Get up at 6:00am excited to code for the day
2. Turn on computer
3. Notice wireless network can't be found
4. Run downstairs to power-cycle router / modem
5. Run back upstairs to make sure the change took
6. Realize it didn't, yell "F**K Wave Broadband" as I run back downstairs
7. Power-cycle router / modem again
8. Repeat 5-6 * 2, 3, sometimes 6 times
9. Start up Visual Studio 2005.
10. Visual Studio 2005 freezes (Not Responding)
11. Yell "F**K" really loud
12. Wait 2-7 (sometimes 10!) minutes before I can open IE / Mozilla
13. Google search for a combination of "Vista", "freeze", "IE7", etc...
14. IE / Mozilla now freezes
15. 11 * a lot
16. Tell myself if Vista were a human I would stab him / her in the neck with a pen
Here's how I feel developing on Vista (the rapid keystrokes resemble me CTRL+ALT+DEL'ing in a frantic attempt to end a task). The progression of this image is pretty true-to-form as well.
The funny thing is I don't have any virus, spyware, p2p, etc on my machine... I make it a point to do routine scans. I run Spybot Search & Destroy as well as Symantec religiously.
Please respond with solutions if you have had this problem in the past / currently. I am starting to hear more and more about others having these kinds of issues.
UPDATE
I took Andrew & David's advice and ended up updating my video card drivers. I haven't had one freeze yet today and have been steady-coding since 7:30am! Thanks.
Tags:
Other
Just finished some minor code changes to enable Gravatar's for the entry comments. Gravatar. Check it out. It's all the rage. ;-)
Look at the comments of this thread for a demo.
Tags:
Other
I've been a big fan of DotNetKicks pretty much since the beginning and just got around to re-registering and trying to become active in that community. It's great because if you are working with Generics today and you want to do something cool you can browse through the Generics tag.
I actually referred to it as The Digg of .NET back in February of 2006.
Anyway, if you want to add me as a friend my username is willasrarikicks. DotNetKicks has also inspired me to add Gravatar functionality to the comment system on this home-grown blog engine. It's pretty simple to do and I will make a post about this in the near future.
In case you are wondering, my Gravatar is Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys.
Tags:
Other
Finally bought myself a new notebook. I was torn between buying a Dell and a Toshiba. I`ve had a Toshiba in the past so I settled on the Satellite P105-S6177.
- 17" screen
- 120gb hard drive
- 2gb memory
- Intel Centrino Duo
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
I figure it will take me a while to get used to Vista but I`ve noticed it runs a little quicker if you set your theme to Windows Classic. The whiz-bang features of Vista aren`t too appealing to me at this point in time.
Tags:
Other