thefrozencoder | All posts by thefrozencoder

Windows 2008 and Me

7. May 2008 thefrozencoder Hardware, IT - Technology (0)

So I decided to install Windows 2008 on my HP dv9000 series laptop and use this guide to create a better than Vista experience using a more solid OS than the POS that is Vista. The install went as expected and I was able to update the missing drivers using the Vista ones that came with my laptop (yeah I know Vista drivers on Win2k8 so sue me)

So far so good, oops I spoke to soon…

Seems that I have inherited the disappearing mouse pointer syndrome. First I don’t have the computer set up to hibernate, second I don’t have the computer setup to go into screen saver first then turn off the monitor and third this behavior tends to happen every time the monitor either comes out of screensaver or from turned off. Searching Google has made me believe that this is a HP/Nvidia/Vista/Dual Monitor issue as there are a lot of HP/Nvidia/Vista/ Dual Monitor owners suffering from this behavior. The lame solution is to enable pointer trails and set the visibility to short when this happens. Of course this causes a performance drop with the speed of the mouse.

I am going to try and install Vista this weekend and see if I have the same problems with that OS and driver combination. If so it’s back to XP Pro for me.

Example of the ASP.NET MVC framework

26. April 2008 thefrozencoder Code Development (0)

Finding a good well rounded example of the new ASP.NET MVC framework might be a hit or miss these days. Most of them are either really small or are incomplete. I found one that may or may not be either of the two but it seems to implement a lot of interesting ideas along with the code. So if you want a larger example of the new framework you might want to check out Kigg - Building a Digg Clone with ASP.NET MVC the code is also available on codeplex as well.

TinyMCE, ASP.NET and validation

24. March 2008 thefrozencoder IT - Software (0)

The following describes how to use a custom validator function along side TinyMCE to validate the contents of the textarea.

Add the custom validator and setup the properties as you normally setting the ControlToValidate to the ID of the textarea and the ClientValidationFunction to the function name you see below (this can be changed of course).

The key is to call TinyMCE's triggerSave() method so the editor can synch up to the underlying textarea. Once this is done the textarea now has content.

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
function validateTinyMCEText(source, args) {   
var txt = document.getElementById(source.controltovalidate);
tinyMCE.triggerSave();
args.Value = (txt.value.replace(/^W+/,'')).replace(/W+$/,'');
args.IsValid = (args.Value != '');}
</script>

Hopefully this will help out a few people

Microsoft, Vista, Server 2008 and Me

13. March 2008 thefrozencoder IT - Software (0)

Seems that everyday you hear about Vista and how poorly it is doing when it comes to adoption and basic performance. It also seems that end users are not the only ones that are crying the Vista blues, even MS’s own employees are now getting on the band wagon.

Well sort of...

There are several documents showing up on the internet as well as Microsoft’s own MSDN blog sites on how to make Windows 2008 into a super desktop OS. I guess if Microsoft’s own employees are scoffing at Vista then it must be true. Vista is as big a flop as the PS3. But for all you MS fanboys out there Windows 7 is churning full steam ahead and will probably be a smash hit. Why you ask?

Windows 3.0 = Bad
Windows 3.11 = Better
Windows 95 = Bad
Windows 98 = Better
Windows ME = Bad
Windows XP = Better
Windows Vista = Bad
Windows 7 = ?????

Get the point?

10 Ways to Improve Your Code

10. March 2008 thefrozencoder Code Development (0)

I recently read a couple of articles about some of the speakers and going-ons at the recent SD West 2008 conference and come across Neil Ford's Software Development West presentation, 10 Ways to Improve Your Code. The session was geared towards Java developers it probably can be applied to any language. I found the list and the summary of each point on Dev Register.

While it's not the end all and be all of how you should develop these kinds of tips make you think about how you are writing your code and ways to make it better.

Do I agree with all of them probably not but then again it does not really matter if you agree with them or not as long as you are willing to actually think about the ideas that they represent that counts; and to me that is a sign of a good developer.