Topics

226

Living Room / Agree with Bruce Eckel?

« on: February 19, 2007, 10:09 PM »

Bruce Eckel, author of "Thinking In Java", has been quoted as saying:

Currently, the main vulnerability and important question concerning .NET is whether Microsoft
will allow it to be completely ported to other platforms. They claim there’s no problem doing this,
and the Mono project (www.go-mono.com) has a partial implementation of .NET working on
Linux, but until the implementation is complete and Microsoft has not decided to squash any
part of it, .NET as a cross-platform solution is still a risky bet.

Agree or disagree that .NET is a risky bet?  Is Java the better choice given Microsoft's penchants?

227

Living Room / ASP or C# ?

« on: February 01, 2007, 10:09 PM »

I'm certain several of you can answer this question for me:

I've mostly been using Visual C# 2005 Express, but as you know there are several Express IDEs available.  I also have the Visual Web Developer 2005 Express edition.  I understand that equipped with it and a knowledge of ASP, one can code some pretty nifty web applications/services.  My question is this:  isn't finding webhosting with ASP access generally a fee-for-service type thing?  In other words, would I, as a novice programmer mainly learning to program for the fun of it, be able to do much with ASP without having a pay-account on a server somewhere?  I know one can use C# to do lots of stuff with the web/internet, and that's what I've been using all along, but I wondered if spending time and effort with Visual WebDev would be worth it for me personally, as someone with no interest in spending any money ;>

228

Living Room / How to make variable degrees of transparency with a given image

« on: January 30, 2007, 08:15 PM »

Do any of you know whether or not Irfanview or Paint.net can apply varying degrees of transparency to an image?  I think I've read this has something to do with varying an image's "alpha" value?  If so, could anyone describe how this is accomplished.

229

Living Room / My father's WinXP Home computer won't boot...

« on: January 28, 2007, 03:22 PM »

I was over at my parents today visiting, and dad asked me to check out his computer. 

BACKSTORY...

It's been running terribly slow for many weeks now, and some time ago I helped him download, install, and run some tools for detecting/eliminating malware/virii/etc.  We also disabled a couple of startup programs (Logitech Webcam and a PDF utility) to speed up boot-time and lessen the load on his computer's resources. 

Also did Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter, and EasyCleaner.  Seemed to run better briefly after that.  But he continued to complain about how slow it was (I attributed it, perhaps unfairly, to the Celeron processor and only 256 Mb of RAM).  I tried making him a video tutorial on how to burn a CD (yes, that's his level of computer-saavy: he also tends to use System Restore every couple days rather than learning how to change a setting he doesn't like.  And, when his computer "hangs", he sometimes just kills the power) using Wink 2.0, but his system couldn't handle it and Wink choked about 3/4 of the way through the process of rendering the live-capture session to flash. 

I went ahead and finished the CD burn at that time.  Was simply using XP's built in ability -- drag and drop files onto CD window, then tell XP to burn files.  Windows reported (finally, after 45 minutes!) that the burn had completed successfully (I didn't check the CD to be sure, because I was frustrated and didn't trust myself not to take a hammer to it at that point ;> )

BACK TO THE PRESENT...

Anyway, when I checked his PC today, he had it turned off and the surge-protector strip turned off.  Turned on computer and it almost immediately went to the Phoenix BIOS screen.  I exited it, rebooting, and it came up again.  To make a long story short, I was not able to get past the BIOS Setup, even after applying default settings, saving, and exiting.  Still came back to it.  Tried putting the 1st of a 2CD Recovery set (that came with his eMachine system) in the CD drive, after ensuring that boot order was CD, then HD.  No luck.  Couldn't boot into Safe Mode.  When I would exit the BIOS Setup and restart I could see, momentarily, startup info showing that the CD drive and HD had been recognized, but it still returned me to the BIOS Setup screen.

His computer specs:
40 GB HD
256 Mb PC100 SDRAM
1 Mb onboard video
Windows XP Home edition
LAN connection

Now, I don't have the expert knowledge some of you have, so I told my dad that my two guesses were virus/malware, or a hardware problem.  Or simply the fact that it's an eMachine ;>  I recommended he take it to our local ISP service shop (they will actually work on subscriber's computers!)  Any ideas about what is wrong?

230

Developer's Corner / Advanced C# Programmers?

« on: January 21, 2007, 06:22 PM »

Are there any advanced C# programmers here who could take a look at a small project for me and see if there are any problems? 

231

Developer's Corner / Need Inno Setup Advice

« on: January 18, 2007, 08:18 PM »

I have a relatively short Inno Setup script that isn't quite working the way I want it to work.  For the most part, it works perfectly:  it installs the program where it's told to do so, it creates an uninstall that works well, creates a website URL shortcut that works correctly...

The only thing I'm apparently messing up on is in the [Registry] section.  I'm trying to create an association between the application's proprietary resource files (*.crf) and the application, so that double-clicking on a file created by the program in a previous session will launch the app and open the file.  Instead, what happens is that the file opens when you double-click, but in Notepad  

Oh, and I think I'm also doing something wrong when it comes to specifying the icon I want associated with these *.crf files.  Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.  I'm attaching the .zip of the entire project, including the setup script and the setup.exe that Inno Setup produced.

; Script generated by the Inno Setup Script Wizard.
; SEE THE DOCUMENTATION FOR DETAILS ON CREATING INNO SETUP SCRIPT FILES!

#define MyAppName "Crocus Contacts"
#define MyAppVerName "Crocus Contacts 1.1"
#define MyAppPublisher "Crocus Donationware"
#define MyAppURL "http://www1.webng.com/bowrsanryld/"
#define MyAppExeName "lovebook.exe"

[Setup]
AppName={#MyAppName}
AppVerName={#MyAppVerName}
AppPublisher={#MyAppPublisher}
AppPublisherURL={#MyAppURL}
ChangesAssociations=yes
DefaultDirName={pf}\{#MyAppName}
DefaultGroupName={#MyAppName}
AllowNoIcons=yes
LicenseFile=C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\lovebook\bin\Release\license.txt
InfoBeforeFile=C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\lovebook\bin\Release\before_install.txt
InfoAfterFile=C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\lovebook\bin\Release\after_install.txt
OutputDir=C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\lovebook\setup output
OutputBaseFilename=cc_setup
SetupIconFile=C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\lovebook\person.ico
Compression=lzma
SolidCompression=yes

[Languages]
Name: "english"; MessagesFile: "compiler:Default.isl"

[Tasks]
Name: "desktopicon"; Description: "{cm:CreateDesktopIcon}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:AdditionalIcons}"; Flags: unchecked

[Files]
Source: "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\lovebook\bin\Release\lovebook.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
; NOTE: Don't use "Flags: ignoreversion" on any shared system files

[Icons]
Name: "{group}\{#MyAppName}"; Filename: "{app}\{#MyAppExeName}"
Name: "{group}\{cm:ProgramOnTheWeb,{#MyAppName}}"; Filename: "{#MyAppURL}"
Name: "{group}\{cm:UninstallProgram,{#MyAppName}}"; Filename: "{uninstallexe}"
Name: "{commondesktop}\{#MyAppName}"; Filename: "{app}\{#MyAppExeName}"; Tasks: desktopicon

[Run]
Filename: "{app}\{#MyAppExeName}"; Description: "{cm:LaunchProgram,{#MyAppName}}"; Flags: nowait postinstall skipifsilent

[Registry]
Root: HKCR; Subkey: ".crf"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: "crocuscontactsresfile"; Flags: uninsdeletevalue
Root: HKCR; Subkey: "Crocus Contacts Resource File"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: "Crocus Contacts Resource File"; Flags: uninsdeletekey
Root: HKCR; Subkey: "Crocus Contacts\DefaultIcon"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: "{app}\lovebook.exe,0"
Root: HKCR; Subkey: "Crocus Contacts\shell\open\command"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: """{app}\lovebook.exe"" ""%1"""

232

Developer's Corner / C# question about registering file extension with particular application

« on: December 24, 2006, 11:04 PM »

For any of you C# coders, I'm not a professional coder.  I just like to write a few programs in my spare time.  In one of these applications, I have data files written to disk by the application using Csharp's serialization.  I give these binary files an unusual (and supposedly unique) extension, namely *.crf

Now, I'll tell you what I have been able to do, and what I'd like to be able to do...

I can, of course, open one of these files from within the program, using a file-open dialogue.  Also, I can drag and drop one of these data files onto either the executable itself, or a shortcut thereof, and the program launches and opens the file.  All well and good.  What I don't know how to do (and spent many hours trying to figure out some months ago) is this:  I want to be able to right click on the data file, then click on "Open" in the popup context menu, and have the operating system recognize that it needs to launch my application to open the file.

Now... I know how to do this by manually adding a file type in Windows.  But I need to know how to create this association programmatically.  Any pointers will be most appreciated.  I've been given sample code before, but was unable to get the sample project to work, or get the code snippet to work in my own app.

233

N.A.N.Y. Challenge 2007 / Crocus Contacts

« on: December 20, 2006, 06:59 AM »

Crocus Contacts

v1.0.0

This program acts as a secure digital rolodex, storing the following information for individuals or businesses: name, phone number(s), email address(es), picture, miscellaneous notes, and more.  Passwording a particular contact is optional.  All contacts are stored in a proprietary format and, if passworded, are only accessible once the password is supplied.  Supports emailing any contact for which an email addy has been provided.

Download