Smartwombat Blog

Score higher in Google searches by Eric Wolfram.

I am not really into this google rank boosting game, but I found this one an interesting read. 

Almost everyone searches Google to find information, and Google quickly rewards them by displaying the information they are seeking. Thereby, Google rewards useful sites with the eyes of people who are looking for useful information. This is helping the web recover from being the wasteland of marketing hype, which the dot-come-and-gone explosion forced it to become. Google is saving the web by ultimately forcing site designers to make their sites useful again.

Help your web site score higher in Google searches

This page touches on The many things that you can do to score higher on Google!...

More tricks on scoring higher in Google

The competition trick demonstrated...

HALO 2 campaign finished.

I've just recently finished HALO 2 in campaign mode and I must say I was pretty happy with this part of the game. I know some people found the story mode short and clumsy. Some people thought it was too grandiose, with too much plot in the game and the game should have stayed on Earth with playing only with Master Chief defending the planet and bashing aliens through twenty something level… I didn't really to play with the covenants first but as I played them more I started to like them, even started to feel some respect towards them. And it really changed the way of my thinking when I played with the Master Chief. I think this make the game even more enjoyable, when you play the game the second or the third time.
I think it was a bit weird that they did finish the game as it was finished, playing only the Cortana plot but you cannot sort the bad guys out playing with the Master Chief. I was really preparing for that, but it is just the same as 24 (TV Series), when you just left with a great deal of excitement and frustration at the end of each part and you are really annoyed that you have to wait a day or two or a week to see the next part. They left you in the middle hanging with loads of questions. What happens to the Master Chief? Why did they returned to Earth? What is there? Who are the forerunners? Are we the forerunners? I think this is the same as with 24. They are building up excitement for the next part coming and make sure when it arrives will create even bigger hype than this one…

Anyway, I just wanted to tell the creators that I really liked the game and thanks for making such a superb games and I just can't wait until the next one arrives. And until then I can play HALO 2 with alone and online and HALO as well. Awesome…

Three new Windows Mobile articles on MSDN

How to Create a Database Browser Application for Pocket PC in C# by Using Visual Studio .NET 2003

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppc2k3/html/intro_winmobile_csharp.asp?frame=true

Article Summary: The objective of this lab is for you to learn how to display data from a Web service on a Pocket PC device using C#. This exercise will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. (9 printed pages)

How to Create a Database Browser Application for Pocket PC in Visual Basic by Using Visual Studio .NET 2003

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppc2k3/html/intro_winmobile_vb.asp?frame=true

Article Summary: The objective of this exercise is for you to learn how to display data from a Web Service on a Pocket PC device using Visual Basic. This lab will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. (8 printed pages)

Northwind Pocket Sales: Field Sales for Windows Mobile 2003 Software for Pocket PC

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppc2k3/html/fieldsales_ppc.asp?frame=true

Article Summary: Learn about mobile sales force automation and how to design and develop solutions for Windows Mobile 2003-based Pocket PCs using Visual Studio .NET and .NET Compact Framework. The source code in this article implements server components, database, and a Pocket PC client. (56 printed pages)

What is WOW64

In short, Windows on Windows 64.

For a longer explanation please visit this link:
http://blogs.msdn.com/joshwil/archive/2004/03/11/88280.aspx

Notepad in xaml

This is my first try to do something useful with xaml and I choose to recreate the Notepad UI. I am using the public Avalon CTP from msdn and I think it was pretty easy and straightforward to create the UI, It reminds me a lot when I learned Java widgets. Loads of typing and no sophisticated editor.

My only problem is that I still do not know though how to add the shortcut, so if you know please share with me.

I think recreating the whole application can be a good way of learning a bit about WinFX and Avalon. 

<Window

x:Class="AvalonNotePad.Window1"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/xaml"

xmlns:x="Definition"

Text="Avalon::NotePad"

>

<DockPanel>

<Menu

DockPanel.Dock ="Top">

<MenuItem

Header ="File">

<MenuItem Header="New"/>

<MenuItem Header="Open..." />

<MenuItem Header="Save" />

<MenuItem Header="Save As..." />

<MenuItem Mode ="Separator" />

<MenuItem Header="Page Setup" />

<MenuItem Header="Print" />

<MenuItem Mode ="Separator" />

<MenuItem Header="Exit" />

</MenuItem>

<MenuItem

Header ="Edit">

<MenuItem Header ="Undo" />

<MenuItem Mode ="Separator" />

<MenuItem Header ="Cut" />

<MenuItem Header ="Copy" />

<MenuItem Header ="Paste" />

<MenuItem Header ="Delete" />

<MenuItem Mode ="Separator" />

<MenuItem Header ="Find..." />

<MenuItem Header ="Find Next" />

<MenuItem Header ="Replace..." />

<MenuItem Header ="Go To..." />

<MenuItem Mode ="Separator" />

<MenuItem Header ="Select All" />

<MenuItem Header ="Time/Date" />

</MenuItem>

<MenuItem

Header ="Format">

<MenuItem Header ="Word Wrap" Mode="Checkable" />

<MenuItem Header ="Font..." />

</MenuItem>

<MenuItem

Header ="View">

<MenuItem Header="Status Bar"></MenuItem>

</MenuItem>

<MenuItem

Header ="Help">

<MenuItem Header ="About Notepad" />

</MenuItem>

</Menu>

<TextBox

ID ="Content"

AcceptsReturn ="True"

AcceptsTab ="True"

DockPanel.Dock ="Fill">

</TextBox>

</DockPanel>

</Window>

[UPDATE] I just noticed that the XAML screwed up, so I fixed that.

Doom: The Boardgame

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/doomproducts.html

aiCaptcha

Fortunately, my blog is not that well known, so I was lucky enough to be avoided by comment spammers, but I know that this phenomenon hurts almost all of the mainstream bloggers. In general I really dislike spam and spammers altogether as I think they are ruining a wonderful communication device called blog. There are several methods to beat comment spammers such as the rel='nofollow' and captcha.

Captcha is a distorted image of a random word or number and it is invented to prevent automatic posting by bots. I just found this article explaining how to beat captcha using AI. I am not sure how other bloggers will react after reading the article but I think it is always good to analyze a method and explore its weak points.

http://www.brains-n-brawn.com/aiCaptcha

Howto troubleshoot serialization problems

If you see an exception with an ugly message like this popping out from your XmlSerialization code:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: File or assembly name 5h6ie2ca.dll, or one of its dependencies, was not found.

File name: "smgytoa1.dll"

That means that dynamic compilation fails during the serialization or deserialization operation. Then you need to do the following. Open your machine.config file (mine is located here c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\CONFIG\machine.config) and modify it like this:

    <system.diagnostics>
         <switches>
            <add name="XmlSerialization.Compilation" value="4"/>
         </switches>
    </system.diagnostics>

smgytoa1.pdb - looks like some sort of debug symbol.

smgytoa1.out - this is the file you should look at if you want to see what errors were produced during the compilation.

smgytoa1.err  - this file looks empty. No idea why it is there.

smgytoa1.cmdline - the command line used for compilation.

smgytoa1.0.cs - the source file generated. It will be referenced in the .out file.

Manager leaves suicide powerpoint presentation

I am not sure what to say really.

"When I first heard that Ron had swallowed an entire bottle of sleeping pills, I was shocked," said Hector Benitez, Butler's friend and coworker at Williams+Kennedy Marketing Consultants. "But after the team went through Ron's final PowerPoint presentation, I had a solid working knowledge of the pain he was feeling, his attempts to cope, and the reasons for his ultimate decision."

"I just wish he would've shot me an e-mail asking for help," Benitez added.

Butler broke his presentation into four categories: Assessment Of Current Situation, Apologies & Farewells, Will & Funeral Arrangements, and Final Thoughts.

"To Ron's credit, it was one helluva way to go out," human resources manager Gail Everts said. "Ron clearly spent a lot of time on that presentation. If the subject matter weren't so heavy, we'd probably use it to train his replacement."

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4106&n=3

A word for Windbg

Introduction to windbg for both managed and unmanaged debugging

A word for WinDbg - short introduction to unmanaged debugging.
http://mtaulty.com/blog/archive/2004/08/03/608.aspx

A word for WinDbg (2) - short introduction to managed debugging.
http://mtaulty.com/blog/archive/2004/08/03/609.aspx

How to detect what version of .NET Framework installed

Let's say you are creating a deployment package for your application with Visual Studio.NET and you would like to specify what version of the .NET Framework needs to be installed on the target machine for your application. First have a look at this knowledge base article:

How to detect the version of the .NET Framework that is installed in a deployment package in Visual Studio .NET

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5BLN%5D;315291

The gist of he kb article above is that this is done by checking creating launch condition in your deployment project and checking of the existence of certain registry keys and their values.

For the .NET Framework 1.0:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\policy\v1.0

For the .NET Framework 1.1:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\policy\v1.1

For .NETv1.0 the Name is 3705 and the registry value "3321-3705"
For .NETv1.1 the Name is 4322 and the registry value "3706-4322"
For .NETv2.0 Beta1 the Name is 40607 and the registry value "40607-40607"

Please, not that only the first two version is official, the last one is what I found in the registry of my computer.

Everything you wanted to know about writing successfully

.. In 10 minutes from Stephen King.

http://www.icestormcity.com/rumble/king.html

Disappearing Controls in Visual Studio

Knowledge base articles documenting and fixing this problem in C#.

http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/nenoloje/archive/2004/06/18/16952.aspx

Laptop for kids under $100

Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of MIT's Media Labs, says he is developing a laptop PC that will go on sale for less than $100 (£53).

He told the BBC World Service programme Go Digital he hoped it would become an education tool in developing countries.

He said one laptop per child could be " very important to the development of not just that child but now the whole family, village and neighbourhood".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4243733.stm

Microsoft 30 years old

http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2005/02/01/364553.aspx

From Alex Barnett's blog

More detailed history

http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.htm

BillG interview

http://www.cwheroes.org/oral_history_archive/william_h_gates/index.asp

Larry Osterman's 20 years with Microsoft.

http://weblogs.asp.net/larryosterman/archive/2004/08/27/221572.aspx