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April 27, 2006

The work-around from hell

Okay, somebody tell me again that IE isn't completely and uterly BUSTED.

I semi-recently reformatted, and since then haven't had the need (or time) to download anything from MSDN or any of the MS Beta sites. Until today, when I wanted to pinch the latest build of Vista (5365).

Of course to do that I'll end up needing that spiffy MS downloader/thingy. Good luck getting that installed in IE (the only browser within which it will work (okay, fine, maybe it works in Opera, but ask ME if I care)).

Happily I found the 'workaround' to get this piglet installed in short order today, or I'd really be cranky. But honestly, is it just me, or has this work-around 1) been around for > 1 year? 2) entered the realm of 'good enough, let's hope no one notices'? 

Workaround_jerkaround_2  

Seriosly... it should be re-named from a work-around to a jerk-around. (Although, technically, it's not THAT big of an issue, trying to reload the download a few times in a row, and allowing the ActiveX content does the trick - the bigger issue, in my mind, is that MS can't seem to get this to WORK securely and easily... )

(I know, complain, complain, complain... that's all I do. But hey.. this IS AngryPets.com after all, right?)

Posted on April 27, 2006 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 26, 2006

101 Samples for Visual Studio 2005

About 1 year ago when I first started working with 3 Leaf we were _busy_ working on various aspects of prepping 101 sample applications designed to show off the cool new stuff in VS 2005/ .NET 2.0. I was too late to author any of these demos/sample applications (*sniff*), but I proofed/modified many of them, and I've toyed with some of them over the past year as they've slowly been modified to account for all of the subtle changes between various beta builds and the final RTM of VS 2005. (i.e. I know some of these samples intimately...too intimately.)

The funny thing though is that I never realized where they ended up. Which sucked cuz there've been a few times where I would have liked to link people to them in order to see a new technology in .NET 2.0 (or SQL Server 2005) modelled in a simple-to-grok fashion.

Happily I now can as I see from reading Dan's blog that they've been released for consumption!!!

Go check them out, they're some awesome resources that you're sure to love. (My favorites are the Data Access (which I spent the bulk of my time with) and Base Class libraries samples...)

Posted on April 26, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 25, 2006

Word to the Wise: Dirty Drives

So, I'm minding my own business and trying to copy a compressed 3.6 GB VPC from a DVD on my main machine. It's taking forever. Worse, I can hear the stupid drive spin up every 4 seconds, seek, and read a tiny bit of data. Thinking that 1) I'm wayyyy too in touch with the sounds on my machine, and 2) this is really going to take forever if I'm right, I fire up perfmon. Sure enough, every 4-5 seconds I get a burst of 4-6 MB copied - otherwise NOTHING.

Screw that. Slap the disk out, cancel the copy operation, and slip the disk into my external, USB 2.0, optical device. Sustained transfers of 6-12MB. Within a few minutes the entire copy operation is done.

Then it hits me, maybe the lense on the internal drive is dirty?

After 5 minutes of rummaging through disks and other crap, I find my laser-lense cleaner. Within a few minutes I'm transfixed on the calming and soothing voice of the laser-lense-cleaner-guy telling me how every SPECK of dust will soon meet its maker.  (Actually, I skipped as far ahead in the track as I could... life's too short to listen to that crap.)

After cleaning (3x, just to be sure), I tried copying the same file. Woahhh... sustained xfer of 8-18MB. I'm going to have to clean my optical devices more often....

Posted on April 25, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 24, 2006

The best that money can buy...

Question: If I make a screen-cap of a bug or issue in some software that I'm using, and then post it on my blog, should I go to jail for copyright violation? Could I go to jail for copyright violation?

Under proposed changes to give the dreaded (and INSANE) DMCA  more fangs -  such a scenario MIGHT eventually occur. All the creator of the software would need to do was charge that the image of their software was copyrighted, and that it was worth > $1000 and I could be in seriously hot water -  facing 5-10 years for copyright violation.

Read more and tell me that I'm just being paranoid.

One of my favorite snippits (regarding the latest discovery of yet ANOTHER Sony root-kit) :

Jessica Litman, who teaches copyright law at Wayne State University, views the DMCA expansion as more than just a minor change. "If Sony had decided to stand on its rights and either McAfee or Norton Antivirus had tried to remove the rootkit from my hard drive, we'd all be violating this expanded definition," Litman said.

Likewise, any user attempting to remove that rootkit on their own would be violating a law packing 10 years of punishment - whether they succeeded or not. (i.e. just TRYING to remove copyright protection would be a crime, whether you succeeded or not - and in the case of these rootkits, you wouldn't be allowed to even DISCUSS removing them from your machine without technically breaking the law.)

But I'll say one thing: You've got to hand it to our politicians - they're the best that money can buy...

Posted on April 24, 2006 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Office Woes

So, I'm opening some slides in PowerPoint - only every time (practically) that the mouse moves or that a new slide 'loads'/updates/paints/whatever - I get this excruciating error stating: "Power Point wants you to know that you're a VERY bad person - it can't find ClipArt, and therefore can't display it."

So I decide, FINE, I'll take the hit and install it. Slap in the CD, make the changes, etc and the installer process revs up to perform the actual install. "Woah, sorry there pilgrim... we can't find that MSOCache folder that you deleted after installing Office...."

So I repair office - get the MSOCache back... but still get issues loading in clipart, telling me that it can't find the right version of PRO11N.MSI... gee guys, let me guess... some idiotic mess-up with Office 2003 SP2?

*Sigh.* Now I've got to hope that doing a complete uninstall/re-install will get it to work for me... since I HAVE to get these .ppts to work.

Posted on April 24, 2006 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 21, 2006

SQL Server Good Stuff

Spiffy - that didn't take long.

SS 2005 SP1 is already out, and there are some great new additions along with some needed fixes. I've been meaning to grab this and install it for the last few days... (I'll be doing that today)  - but thought I'd help get the word out.

Details on the patch (download link at the bottom): here.

Also, if you're using SQL Express, you HAVE to get/install/use SQL Express Management Studio. The name of this product is ENTIRELY too long, but the functionality it provides is a life saver. I'm honestly amazed at how good it is, and just what it provides. It's proof that the SQL team at MS completely 'gets it.' (Honestly, they could have charged GOOD money for this - but instead they're going with the 'heroin' distribution model here (first hit is free) - I LOVE it.)

Posted on April 21, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Free Speech - Not without a Diploma?

Honestly, where have I been? When did things get so complicated? Revealing trade secrets without permission is against the law. Simple, right? It shouldn't matter what the medium is, it's simply against the law. Case closed.

And since when do you need a degree in journalism to be afforded free speech? Honestly, Apple's lawyers can bite me - nothing drives me more insane than the notion that a journalist is somehow better than any other citizen.

Just so we're clear folks: Freedom of Speech was intended to let us criticize and report on the government without fear of harrasment, imprisonment, or forcible removal of our rights and freedoms. It's not some carte-blance that lets us cry "mommy" when we do/say something stupid or illegal. It's there to make sure that a Government 'For the People' and 'By the People' remains ANSWERABLE to the People.

 

So I say:
1) Screw the idiots over at PowerPage.org (i.e. their Lawyers at the EFF) for attempting to cloak their illegal trade-secret-revealing activities under the banner of Free Speech.
2) Screw Apple (or more precisely their lawyers) for buying in to that argument and attempting to subvert the First Amendment to go after people who have clearly broken the law.
3) And screw the judges/legal system that's letting the focus of this case swing over into the realm of my rights where it can cause collateral damage.

(Don't worry though, I'm _sure_ the lawyers will all get paid no matter how this turns out.)

Posted on April 21, 2006 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 20, 2006

Using Virtualization to fight... Virtualization

Over on RepeatableRead I've just added a new post about the merits of using Virtualization to combat the evils of VPNs (_Virtual_ Private Networks). VPN software always installs stuff at a low level, never seems to un-install correctly, and frequently hoses my box.

If you feel the same way, yet still find yourself at the mercy of scads of VPN clients, make sure to read the post.

Posted on April 20, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 19, 2006

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV

"I'm not a doctor - but I play one on TV"...

I always hated those kinds of commercials. They basically said: "Hey, you're stupid, and easily swayed - so listen up! We've got some swamp land in Alaska for you..."

I don't HAVE TV in my house - not cable, not satellite, nothing. It's just too inane. I DO watch movies and even some series - via NetFlix (though they're about to be shown the door if they don't stop with the 'long wait' nonsense on ALL the new releases).

But I'm GLAD I don't have TV. Cuz if I did, I'd have Tivo or some other DVR in place. And while I love Philips, I'm afraid I'd end up muttering something like:

"I'm not a suicide bomber in real life - but I play one in my mind..."

Because of their latest stunt. (Link is to an article/post on neowin.net about Philip's proposal to ensure that people can't skip/FF through commercials...)

Seriously - anyone else sick of being seen as nothing more than a big sponge that marketers can target?

Filthy-rotten vampires...

Posted on April 19, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 15, 2006

FireFox Updater Followup

Following up a bit on the excellent info that Robert Johnston provided in the comments on my last post...

I'm pretty happy with the way the installer guides me through an 'in place' update - i.e. effectively craming what amounts to a signed extension into my FF browser. That's all secure.

What I think sucks about this whole affair can be seen with the help of some photoshopping.

1) It's nice that FF makes security a priority and forces the url of the site serving a minimized page into the title of the window. That said, I won't want to serve my spyware from:

http://woah.something.is.fishy.here.com.ALERT!!!DANGER DANGER!!!

Instead, I'll want to confuse the average computer user with lots of computer-ese:

http://update227.my.firefoxupdate.com

That's got soothing/re-assuring words in it like my, update, and firefox. Plus it's a .com... what more security could anyone need ;)

Here's a screen cap (rember it's been photoshopped... so ignore the rough edges):

Spoof1

2) Now... once someone has clicked the pillage button... we WON'T be doing any type of extension, or anything else. Instead we'll prompt them to install an executable. Now... unlike IE, which will let you run .msi and .exe from the web (at least I think it does... no flaming me if it doesn't)... FF doesn't allow that. It only allows you  to save them to disk.

No biggie. Again we're all about lying at this point. Imagine the following screen cap as 'Page 2' in the installer process:

Spoof2

Now, some things to note: I've got not only a link to the security information pertaining to this 'update', but I've also added a security warning at the bottom. WOAH, this thing is legit.. it's totally secure. And if I doubt that, I just need click on the security information link, where I'll be taken directly to the REAL FF site to be shown that: YES INDEED, there is a patch. (Think in terms of your typical phishing vicitim here... they're toast at this point.)

3) Finally... we now just need some BS story about why they're going to be promted to SAVE this update, instead of have it run 'in place.' Remember... this IS ROCKET SCIENCE for lots of users...

Spoof3

Could we get all of them? No. Could we get most? Dunno. Could we get some? I'd IMAGINE that we could - just make sure the Installer looks like something that comes from Mozilla/FF... and hope you catch a few suckas. Even if you got... 3% of the people that clicked, I imagine that would be OOODLES more people/traffic than my site sees in a year ;)

Posted on April 15, 2006 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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