Using Source Safe with Visual Studio 2008
Seems Source Save 2005 is still the official version to use with VS 2008.
Go here to learn more
Cross platform development between Windows and Mac
Cocoa funny business with NSTextView
I couldn’t hide a NSTextView control until I found this articles explaining why setHidden wasn’t working.
I continue to be unimpressed by Apple’s documentation and tools.
Door-to-door solicitation
Door to door solicitation is a a common problem in neighborhoods and one that comes up periodically in mine.
Municipalities can pass rules governing solicitations but the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional right of missionaries, politicians, and others to knock on doors without first getting permission from local authorities. Go here from some references on this ruling: 1 2 3
The Berkeley Police Department offers this advice on handling Door to Door solicitations:
If you feel that the person who has come to your door is trying to sell or solicit anything under false pretences, please immediately telephone the police. If the solicitor threatens, intimidates you or refuses to leave, please dial 911 for immediate service.
We also recommend that you acknowledge anyone knocking at your door or ringing the door bell.
After not answering a knock at the door, residents occasionally find that they were victimized by the person who had just knocked at their door. You should never open the door to someone you do not know, but always acknowledge that you are home. If you prefer, go to the door with the phone in your hand.None of this is intended to say that all persons going door to door are doing so illegally or that they are criminals, although historically, there have been many persons soliciting under false pretences. You are the only who can decide if you feel that the solicitation is suspicious. If you are not certain, call the police for assistance. You have the right to ask them to leave printed materials so that you can check into the business or organization. Then you are able to do your own research and if you decide, you may send them a check at a later time. Never provide a door to door solicitor with a check or credit card number. As you may know, identity theft is the fastest growing crime internationally.
There may also be a correlation between someone soliciting and persons casing your house and neighborhood for burglaries. Even if you do not give someone money or buy their products, someone else in your neighborhood may become a victim. Call the police anytime you feel the person or solicitation is possibly illegal. It is also a good idea to let your neighbors know, in case the solicitor tries to victimize them also.
Visual Studio 2008 Install
I got my January MSDN update in the mail yesterday. In it came Visual Studio 2008. The installation did not go smoothly. I got errors that it failed. I ran the setup again in “repair” mode and it got further.
I tried creating a simple C++/MFC application and it did not compile complaining of missing windows.h and winres?.h. I can’t remember the letter missing from the file but it wasn’t winres.h it was looking for. It was looking in ./Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0/VC/atlmfc/include.
I tried repairing again and the files did not appear. I then ran the setup, went to add/remove components and deselected the C++ MFC component, then ran it again and selected it to reinstall it. Though the files that were “missing” did not appear, something changed and when I tried building an C++ MFC app, and Win32 app, those files were not referenced and the projects built successfully. Weird. I then tried compiling a 2005 C++ MFC project I had and it built fine as well.
Relevant Links:
What’s new in Visual C++ 2008
Breaking changes in Visual C++ 2008
Visual Studio 2008 Readme
Can’t remove jobs in spooler
I was unable to print today because there was a job that was pending and I couldn’t delete it.
Ralph explains you can restart the spooler in a command prompt window by typing net stop spooler, net start spooler. In Vista you must start the command prompt window as an administrator.
Thanks Ralph!
Digital Picture Frame & Photo Sizes
My in-laws received this Westinghouse DPF-0802 Digital Picture Frame for Christmas. 
They also received a 1Gig card which came preloaded with 512mb of family photos.
The frame has a resolution of 800×600 pixels and has 128mb of internal flash memory. It supports the following memory cards: CF I,II / MD / MS / MS Pro / MS Duo / MS Pro Duo / SD / MMC / XD.
I located a very nice free image resizing program called VSO Image Resizer and promptly went about resizing all photos stored on the 1g card; some up to 5mb in size. I reduced the disk usage from 512mb to 30mb !
I wanted to copy some photos to the internal memory but they didn’t have an appropriate cable (USB to mini-USB). I went shopping and a basic mini-usb to usb cable cost $27. Rediculous. Fortunately I passed by the console accessories aisle and found a mini-usb to usb and charger combo cable for the PSP for $4.95. I bought it and it worked fine.
Though with the Image Resizer program, the internal memory was sufficient to hold all their photos, it became clear that the easiest workflow would be for Sue to simply pull the 1gig card from the Picture Frame, plug it into her laptop which has a camera card slot, copy over the photos she wants and plug the card back into her Picture Frame.
I’ve been keeping my eyes open for a universal card adapter to buy. The Picture Frame with it’s support for numerous cards could actually serve as an adapter to move files from one card to another. I was able to copy photos from Jane’s new Sony Cybershot camera. She didn’t have her USB pc cable but I was able to read her Memory Stick Pro Duo 2g card from the Picture Frame and connect my laptop using the cable I bought to download them.
Technology gets more accessible but remains as hard for normal folks to use.
Survivor China: James is a class act
Never have a group of folks been so scared of repercussions for going behind someone’s back when voting a trusted tribe member off. James was physically strong, assertive, a force. But I have to say James’ final words were the classiest I’ve heard. He basically said he wasn’t mad, they did what they had to do, it was a smart move on their part, and the most impressive, he blamed himself for throwing the dice one too many times and not playing one of the TWO idols in his possession.
Hats off to you James!
I’d like to see a show where the “social” aspect is deemphasized and the “survivor” skills more emphasized. The most worthy ones rarely win.
My favorite Christmas song renditions
O Come All Ye Faithful – Amy Grant
Angels – Jim Brickman
Little Drummer Boy – Vienna Boys Choir
Deck the Halls – Mannheim Steamroller
Silent Night – Mannheim Steamroller
Carol of the Bells – Mannheim Steamroller
Watching TV online
Dianne Holloway wrote an article today about the experience of watching TV shows online. For the most part, she is right, the experience is degraded from watching it on TV and you probably would only consider it if you missed a show and wanted to catch up. But she did not explain the other side of the coin because the experience can be quite nice and I want to encourage other networks to do what ABC is doing in providing streaming HD for some of their shows. Here is the email I sent to Dianne in response to her article:
Hello Dianne,I enjoyed your article about the state of online viewing of missed episodes. For the most part, that’s why we view shows online, to catch up on shows we missed. Although MOST shows are of lesser quality than we would find on the tube, the convenience and ability to catch up is worth it.In the case of Thursday night, the story is different and I feel you left out this important point in your article. My daughter and I watch Ugly Betty religiously, it’s a bonding thing; but our entire family of five enjoy Survivor at the same hour on Thursday night as well. We opt to watch Survivor live and my daughter and I will watch UG days later at our convenience.Now ever since I got my relatively modest 32″ HD TV, I’ve become a HD snob and avoid regular programming whenever possible. The experience is so much more enjoyable. I don’t sacrifice that with Ugly Betty online because it is one of the shows that ABC makes available in streaming HD! My daughter and I snuggle up on a bed or couch and take in UB on my widescreen laptop, wirelessly, in beautiful HD! Having the picture just 2 feet away in HD is actually pretty cool. If you haven’t experienced this I recommend it. I even have an extra long VGA cable that I can plug-in to my HD TV and it’s as if we were watching UB live in full HD, on-demand! It’s a great experience and one worth sharing with your audience.There probably aren’t that many folks with HD TV’s that don’t pay for HD programming through their cable/satellite, but I happen to be one of them. We only have basic cable with no HD stations; but I receive ABC,NBC,FOX,CBS,PBS over-the-air in HD. I hope the other networks copy ABC and we start seeing more and more streaming HD shows online.Regards,Alan Kleymeyer
