1/30/2007

The Tab Effect

Filed under: Software — Guus @ 4:05 pm

It’s an useless addon for Mozilla Firefox, but it will astonish your friends and colleagues: the Tab Effect.

Tab effect in action

After installing, tab switching will never be the same. When you switch tab your windows is turned like a cubicle. It’s difficult to explain, so see for your self!

1/25/2007

Get a “Command Prompt Here” context menu in explorer

Filed under: Developing .NET, Software — Guus @ 5:30 pm

Wouldn’t it be nice to have something like this:

Wow: command prompt here

 

You can use this technique for any command line or batch file you want to attach to the Explorer context menu. 

  1. Add a key (any name and content appears to work) to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell.
  2. Below that add a key “command” and set the text to be whatever command you want executed.  I copied the command line from the .NET 3.0 SDK “CMD Shell” (see registry export listing below), but you could use any command line entry.  The nice thing about the .NET 3.0 cmd shell is that it sets the environment so you can access svcutil.exe and other 3.0 specific utilities.

Registry export listing:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Command Prompt]
@=”.NET 3.0 Command Prompt”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Command Prompt\command]
@=”C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe /E:ON /V:ON /T:0E /K \”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\v6.0\\Bin\\SetEnv.Cmd\”"

BTW:  If you’re running Vista then you’re in luck, it’s built-in! 

 

1/22/2007

Software tip: MS XML Notepad 2007

Filed under: Software — Guus @ 2:32 pm
Brief Description
XML Notepad 2007 provides a simple intuitive user interface for browsing and editing XML documents.

Overview

Handy features include:

  • Tree View synchronized with Node Text View for quick editing of node names and values.
  • Incremental search (Ctrl+I) in both tree and text views, so as you type it navigates to matching nodes.
  • Cut/copy/paste with full namespace support.
  • Drag/drop support for easy manipulation of the tree, even across different instances of XML Notepad and from the file system.
  • Infinite undo/redo for all edit operations.
  • In place popup multi-line editing of large text node values.
  • Configurable fonts and colors via the options dialog.
  • Full find/replace dialog with support for regex and XPath.
  • Good performance on large XML documents, loading a 3mb document in about one second.
  • Instant XML schema validation while you edit with errors and warnings shown in the task list window.
  • Intellisense based on expected elements and attributes and enumerated simple type values.
  • Support for custom editors for date, dateTime and time datatypes and other types like color.
  • Handy nudge tool bar buttons for quick movement of nodes up and down the tree.
  • Inplace HTML viewer for processing xml-stylesheet processing instructions.
  • Built-in XML Diff tool.

BTW: it’s source is freely available on codeplex.

1/18/2007

12 Steps to Better Code

Filed under: Developing — Guus @ 11:35 am

A very nice article about writing better code. Just test your organisation with the Joel test. Joel test? Yeah, just 12 yes/no questions. Hopefully you score 10 or higher.

  1. Do you use source control?
  2. Can you make a build in one step?
  3. Do you make daily builds?
  4. Do you have a bug database?
  5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
  6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
  7. Do you have a spec?
  8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
  9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
  10. Do you have testers?
  11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
  12. Do you do hallway usability testing?

In the full article there are explainations on the 12 questions. How to turn no’s into yes!

My Web Pages Starter Kit

Filed under: Developing .NET, Software — Guus @ 11:12 am

My Web Pages Starter Kit (MWPSK) is an open source ASP.NET 2.0 project. It is hosted on the CodePlex portal. Normally starter kit’s are not ready to use products, but this one is! It’s a simple file based CMS, which is really easy to extend. Out of the box MWPSK contains the following modules:

  • Building blocks:
    • HTML
    • Events
    • Links
    • Guestbook
    • Contact form
    • Downloads
    • RSS
    • Image gallery
  • Multilingual
  • ASP.NET 2.0 based, so features like Masterpages, Themes, Navigation, Membership are there.
  • File-based, no database necessary. Easy to backup (just copy .xml files in data dir)
  • Open source
  • Secured admin section to maintain your site (multi-user)

MWPSK homepage: http://www.codeplex.com/MyWebPagesStarterKit

Download MWPSK

1/17/2007

Set your desktop on fire!

Filed under: Software — Guus @ 11:35 am

It’s still cold outside, in the evening you can still enjoy your fireplace with a glass of wine. If you don’t have a real fireplace, you can buy the fireplace DVD from Amazon. But now you can also download a screensaver for your PC. It’s nice, because it’s really sets your desktop on fire. Burn those icons!
Screenshot Fantastic Flame screensaver

1/15/2007

Moss 2007

Filed under: Developing .NET, Software — Guus @ 3:12 pm

For a project I am investigating the possibilities of the new Microsoft Office 2007 for Sharepoint Server (MOSS2007 in short). Basically Moss uses Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 (WSS) for collaboration as a basis.
Here’s a link dump:

Always a useful tool for webdeveloping is the IE developer toolbar

1/11/2007

Filed under: Common interest — Guus @ 11:38 am

There are some great movies about Microsoft around. Maybe you missed some?

Have fun!

1/10/2007

Zune desktop theme

Filed under: Software — Guus @ 3:18 pm

Click for bigger versionRecently I installed a new desktop theme on my laptop PC. And I am very happy with, it’s very slick. It’s look-and-feel is based on the new Zune player/software, that supposed to be the ‘real’ I-Pod/I-Tunes killer. If that is going to happen, I don’t know. Only the future can tell.

For now I like the look’s of my desktop :-)

Direct download from Microsoft Zune desktop theme (WinXP only).

1/4/2007

Patterns & practices Guidance Explorer

Filed under: Developing .NET — Guus @ 11:04 am

The Patterns & practices Guidance Explorer is a nice application helps you using best practices. The Guidance Explorer provides a database of recommendations and best practices for ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and the .NET Framework that you can easily filter and search. Particularly useful are some of the checklists you can easily follow for performance and security best practices prior to deployment.

You can create custom views of the library of just those recommendations you care about. What is cool is that you can now also easily publish these custom views to your friends or other members of your team.

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