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March 30, 2006

Streamlining your Dell WiFi Drivers

During my last FDISK/Reformat, I really wanted to ditch my proprietary Dell WiFi card drivers. I've got an Inspiron 9300 with an integrated WiFi card... and the Dell Drivers for that piglet always installed some completely seperate service/management application (WLTRY.exe) that took up like 3-5 MB of RAM and really didn't offer much functionality. (In fact, I found that using the Windows XP SP2 Wireless Network Management functionality worked much better in terms of ease and connection fidelity).

So the last time I reinstalled I tried fooling around and managed to get the drivers correctly installed without installing the software. (Obviously this post comes with the caveats that this may not work for you, and that I'm not responsible if it hoses your box <g>).

Steps
1) Run the dell setup utility for the wifi nic drivers to extract the files.
2) cancel setup. (you just want to extract the files somewhere)
3) make sure your wifi card is 'removed' (right click mycomputer | properties | hardware tab then device manager. Look for your wifi nic, and remove it if needed).
4) Reboot windows.
5) Windows is EXCITED. It found new hardware.
6) Tell it where to find the drivers (point it to the location where you extracted your files in step 1)

Yeayyyy! Full blown driver goodness, without the 3-5 MB of additional Ram and piddly amount of CPU.

(yeah, i'm a nerd.)

Posted on March 30, 2006 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 27, 2006

ComXT 1.1 Available

Ken Arway emailed to let me know about ComXT 1.1 up on GotDotNet.

Here are the details from the ReadMe:

Not-so-obvious Features:
     1.  The labels for the Xml, Xsl, Xsd, Output and Inference text
boxes are "live" --
          double-clicking them opens the appropriate "Open" dialog to
browse for a file.
     2.  To run Stats, double-click the Stats label when an Xml file is
loaded.
     3.  The three main panels can be re-sized by dragging the dividers.
     4.  The XML, XSL and Output text boxes remember the tab position
and auto-close tags.
     5.  N.B.:  Transformations have the document and script functions
enabled; in addition,
          transformations and validations resolve URI's with user
privileges -- for security,
          only access external files from trusted sources.

Version 1.1 --
March 22, 2006
     1.  Fixed: transformation unable to access external files.
     2.  Moderate re-design of the user interface.  The app now looks sharp.
     3.  Added the "live" text box labels.
     4.  Added the Stats label double-click feature.
     5.  The stats output can be saved as either a RTF file with full
text and colour info
          or as a plain text file without formatting info.
     6.  Indicator is added to file name when the content has been
modified and not saved.
     7.  Added this ReadMe.
     8.  Added error handling -- all error messages should now appear in
the status bar.
     9.  Added "Ignore Whitespace" to the Format options.
    10.  Refactored and re-organized the code.
    11.  Added code to enable and disable various labels, selections and
buttons as appropriate.
    12.  Added well-formedness checking and XSD validation.
    13.  Fixed: formatting of XML fragments.
    14.  Added XSD inference from XML files.

Posted on March 27, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 24, 2006

Another Reason PPC can bite me

I really can't stand Pocket PC. There are so many reasons why.

I've been working on a suite of 4 Integrated Digital Health Care demonstrations for 3 Leaf - on behalf of Intel. And if you want a cool application of technology, it doesn't get any better than healthcare, where the use of software development standards and spiffy digital technology is EASILY expected to be able to save over 86,000 preventable deaths/year - and cut costs; how cool is that? (Check out this great Digital Health webcast from Louis J. Burns at IDF for more info.)

To prove how mobile devices can improve patient safety and recovery, as well as cut tedium/administratum and lower costs, Intel is going to equip a number of their technical sales folks with high-end PDAs and send them into hospitals to help showcase how technology available today can provide incredible benefits. It's dang cool stuff, and one of the reasons I love being a Technical Evangelist - because I get to work with such cool technologies in such fun applications.

But, PPC sucks. During the demonstrations, presenters are going to be equipped with PPC devices (which are cheaper for demo purposes than tablets or UMPCs which will likely be deployed in real hospitals), that have SDIO cards outfitted with RFID scanners. They'll also walk around with the PPCs connected to a WiFi network that lets them interact with Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) on a VM running from their laptop which is loaded with SQL Server Express to simulate a back-end server for patient data, etc.)

Only, when you connect a PPC to a WiFi network, you are prompted: "Hey there, big boy, I see you've found a wireless network. Do you want this connection to connect to 'Work' or 'teh intarweb'?" You have to chose one. You can't have both.

When you connect to that entity known as 'Work':
You can access local resources via machine name, and you can hit non-pansy ports, such a SMB, Kerberos, and... DBNETLIB (or SQL Server over TCP/IP).  At this point, the demos work pretty well.

Only, in one of the demos, we also needed to showcase how VOIP could be used from mobile devices to allow nurses and other health care professionals communicate with clinicians and physicians remotely. (In real scenarios this would be accomplished with something like MS' Live Communications Server, or another 3rd party product from the likes of Cisco etc - that would provide secured VOIP). In the demo we opted to go with Skype - since it's a great way to showcase VOIP functionality - and doesn't EXPENSIVE hardware and software licenses. The demo with Skype is actually pretty cool: a nurse detects that a patient isn't doing as well as anticipated, takes some photos (with the device's embedded camera), uploads them to the back-end servers, and then 'calls' the patient's doctor via Skype. The doctor then connects to the same back-end records, pulls down patient data (including the posted images) and can make a clinical decision.

Spiffy eh? Only if you're connect to 'Work' in a PPC, you can't connect out to the 'Internet' to fire up a Skype session. Lame. Very Lame.

Likewise, when you switch your WiFi connection to connect to that ponderous entity known by millions as 'The Internet', you can use Skype fine, and even connect to local area network resources on wussy ports (25, 80, etc.), but no love with SQL Server connectivity. (The same holds true if you're running your PPC in the cradle and connecting to 'The Internet' via a 'pass through' connection - you just can't access SQL Server resources locally (even if you try faking it and forcing them to listen on port 80)).

Pfffft... So at this point I'm going to have to retool my demo to use Web Services. Hey, WS is shiny and all, but man talk about a pain. And the moral of the story:  1) PPC sucks, and is just to weak for real use, and 2) don't BOTHER using  System.Data.SqlClient from your PPC apps - it's just NOT worth it.

Posted on March 24, 2006 | | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

March 22, 2006

Is the Average WiFi user stoopid?

Is the Average WiFi user stoopid?

It's hard to tell. But frankly, there are waaay too many unsecured wifi networks out there. And then when I see a post like this one, followed up by assinine comments like (in response to being considered a primary suspect if someone uses your unsecured network to upload kiddie porn) :

I thought people in the U.S. were presumed innocent until proven guilty? If I have open Wi-Fi and claim that my connection was stolen for illegal activity, shouldn't it be on the prosecutor's back to actively pursue undeniable proof that it was my machine? Why should I have to come up with proof that I didn't do it?  How are you supposed to prove something like that? [Comment #8]

I'm forced to STOP what I'm working on, and then have to RANT about people's stupidity.

Prosecutors get paid to... prosecute. Do you REALLY want to have to:
  a) get arrested.
  b) have your arrest published in the local paper for your grandma?
  c) tell your boss that you can't come to work cuz  i) you're in jail, ii) need to go to court
  d) take a chance that you somehow won't become an unfortunate statistic of the legal system?

Of course, you COULD log all activity on your WiFi router, and then somehow back it up, just to be able to prove that it wasn't YOU that uploaded the kiddie porn, but how much effort is involved in that? I'd say... get off your arse, use your wrist/hand, click the mouse oh... about 10 times, enter a pass phrase, and you're now secure. LOTS easier than keeping around 'proof' that you're just a good guy that wants to provide miscreants (and friends) with free internet service.

Hrrrmmphhfff.

Posted on March 22, 2006 | | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 21, 2006

Dear Word,

Dear Word,

It's nothing personal, but I really don't like the fact that you automatically assume that you're the default editor for .html documents whenever you get installed.

Actually, come to think of it, it IS personal. When it comes to HTML, you're sadly totally and completely incompetent. So, on second thought, keep your damned grubby hands off of my HTML.

And now, If you'll forgive me, I've got some Explorer > Tools > File Types > HTML > Advanced > Edit > Edit to attend to...

Sincerely,

--Mike

Posted on March 21, 2006 | | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 17, 2006

ReversDOS and CS 2.0

Just a quick warning to let folks know that there appears to be a degree of suckiness when RDOS and CS 2.0 get together to play. I'm not sure what the problem is (and I'm too swamped to look into it now), but I figure it's better to keep people informed.

Info about the nature of the suckiness can be found on Dave Burke's blog. (Pay attention to the comments where a number of CS 2.0 users report having experience similar problems - but having gotten past the issue.)

I'll try to see if I can squeeze a few cycles to look into this later next week.

Posted on March 17, 2006 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 16, 2006

How to Kick your own A$$ in 5 easy steps

Step 1: Build a Virtual Machine.
Step 2: Install .NET 2.0 Framework and SQL Server Express on your new VM.
Step 3: Change the Name of your VM (i.e. Start | My Computer | Properties ... then change the name and reboot).
Step 4: Curse and wail because there's OBVIOUSLY something wrong with your VM/Network/Router that won't let see it from you host PC/Laptop.
Step 5: Change Network Library configurations and modify surface area settings... to no avail.
Step 6: (So, I lied, big deal; 6 steps not 5) On the VM, run SQLCMD.exe and realize that you still can't log in to the local machine.

At least, that's what I think happened. (It doesn't help that my installation of VMware Workstation is totally screwed up today though - it's the goofiest thing: I can ping, and nslookup fine. I can even use TCPView (from SysInternals) and see my VMs full-blown opening connections to remote endpoints, but I simply can not get ANY of my VMs to return a single damned web page - in either FF or IE. (None of the endpoints ever respond, apparently - leading me to think either VMware, or my router, is eating packets greater than some certain size.... ))

Honestly, today has been way too rough on me though...

At any rate (for those of you still around), it would appear that if you're trying to connect to a SQL Express Instance that's had it's name changed out from under it, you don't get far in life. Either that, or the Gremlins are crawling out of the TCP/IP stack and into all of my SQL Server client libraries. (Little <bleep>s.)

Moral of the story: 1) Maybe a better strat would be to Rename the box THEN install SSE? 2) Maybe I just need a VM exorcists?  3) It's definitely past my bed time.

Posted on March 16, 2006 | | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 15, 2006

It's a good thing I'm bald...

Otherwise, I would have torn out all of my hair. (And eaten it.)

So, I'm building PPC demo app for 3 Leaf / Intel. Pretty spiffy stuff actually. Uses RFID, Wifi and even a Virtual Machine with a SQL Server in the back end.

Things have been going... well-ish. Until it came time for Mikeey to deploy his PPC application to a machine through some means other than Visual Studio.

So I fire up one of the VS 2005 Setup and Deployment Projects - The Smart Device Cab Project. I'm no installer Guru, but playing around with the CAB project... well, it's like playing with a streamlined Setup Project. It even has this totally spiffy little dependency detector, that helps you figure out which .dlls to cram into your .CAB file.

Silly me, I was using Full-Blown SQL Server 2005 in this WiFi enable project - so... I had references to System.Data.SqlClient. The spiffy dependency checker found it FINE.

Only deploying to a clean PPC just no worky. Every time I try to connect, I get this nasty error: "Can't find PInvoke DLL 'dbnetlib.dll'." After a few attempts at re-pushing the .CABs and trying a few dumb hacks/tweaks - I decided to read the error message. Wait, dbnetlib.dll? Crap, that's the SQL Server network lib, I know that...

Sure enough, a bit of googling later, and I find that there's a cab I can cram on to my PPC to make sure that I have client libraries in place. What I find strange though, is that there's really only that ONE forum reference about this problem...

Is no one out there using WiFi on their PPC deployments against real SQL Servers? (Of course, I'm still a moron for not reading the error message sooner... )

Posted on March 15, 2006 | | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

March 14, 2006

Amazon Storage?

Mommy!!!

Amazon S3 - WSDL enabled... saweeet.

Now I just need to figure out a way to emulate a network drive in .NET - then I could just treat this as a backup drive...

Or what about a bitchin' ASP.NET/AJAX control that would let people manage this with a web interface? This thing has some serious potential.

Posted on March 14, 2006 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

HP 3210 Performance Tip

I blogged, a while back, about the HP 3210 printer that I recently bought. Sweet printer. Crap Drivers.

I'm pretty convinced that the drivers are responsible for infusing some sort of evil RPC lag into my system. Hitting WIN+E for example, will frequently take 5-8 seconds to pull up a new explorer window... And I think I know what the culprit is. If I'm not mistaken, it's the printer software trying to attach the PictBridge card reader/slots on the Printer to my local machine as a network share.

At least, if I disconnect that piglet, the lag goes away about 95% of the time. To disconnect the network drive:

3210

(Maybe I'll look into scripting that some day... and just add it as part of my startup routine...)

Posted on March 14, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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