General Geekiness

I’m going to PDC 09 – RSVP Promo Code anyone?

ChrisD — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:16:44 GMT

Looks like I’m heading to LA. I’m really excited to be attending the PDC this year. I went to the PDC in 03 (where they announced WCF, WF, WPF) and it turned my brain to mush by the middle of day two. ANyone else going? Anyone like to share a RSVP promo code to save me some $$$? I’ll buy you a drink or two!

Hope to see you all there!

Google Quick Search for 64 Bit Windows

ChrisD — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:51:26 GMT

I've been using Google Desktop Search for some time now. Most of it however, I don't find useful. I never search my desktop, and store my mail on a different server, so I miss out on a lot of the Google Desktop value proposition. So why use it at all? The answer is Google Quick Search.

Google Quick Search is the little dialog that pops up whenever you press Ctrl twice. I enter a phrase and hit enter and the phrase is automatically sent to the Google search page, rendering the search results in my browser window. Its just so darn handy.. Google is literally at my (pinky's) finger tips.

I got a new PC recently and installed 64 Bit Windows 2008 Server. During my "setup and configuration" phase, I was shocked to find Google had no support for 64 bit Windows operating systems. Apparently it was available at one time but got pulled because of performance and compatibilities issues. Oh Google, why has thou forsaken me?

Since I only really wanted the Quick Search functionality, I decided to write my own Google Quick Search clone. Enter WTF Quick Search.

After installation (it installs itself in the startup folder), pressing Ctrl twice invokes the Quick Search dialog, which looks *ahem* slightly familiar.

Most of the original Google Quick Search functionality is replicated in the WTF Quick Search. Since it doesn't leverage the Google Desktop engine, you can't search your local desktop, and support for Google Suggest is on the horizon, but not yet implemented. Instead this version uses Auto-Complete to remember your previous search terms and offers them as suggestions as you type.

There are a number of Hot keys available for targeted searches. Pressing Enter searches the web, Ctrl+I performs an image search, Ctrl+N a news search. You get the idea. There is a full list of hot keys available in the Options page.

If you like Google's Quick Search, and have either a 64 bit, or 32 bit version of windows, but don't want/need the overhead of local desktop searching, download WTF's Quick Search. (you'll need to rename the .msi_ file extension to .msi before executing it).

As always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions.

July 5, 2008 - Update: I've released an new version. This version fixes a bug with the Search Mode option (web vs program files), adds an Icon to the system tray which lets you show/hide the dialog and exit the application. I've also added multiple monitor support, the dialog will pop up on the monitor that currently houses the mouse pointer. Want it to do something else? something better? Let me know. I'm always open to your feedback.

July 22, 2008 - Update: A new version is available that adds hot key support for searching Google Finance (Ctrl+F)

July 29, 2008 - Update: Don't like the Control+Control hotkey? Define your own. Video Card doesn't support transparency? Try the "basic" interface. Lookup MLS Listings by MLS number with customized MLS market codes. Download it here.

Call For Help - Thunderbird resets my sort order

ChrisD — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:03:11 GMT

I've been using the Thunderbird mail client for a while now, and overall I like it. I've got a number of add-ons that let me download my web mail from Yahoo, GMail, Hotmail and the like.

I've got all my email accounts available in a single client application. So far so good.

I do have a pet peeve however, maybe its a bug, maybe not. It sure feels like a bug. I did some googling but found no one else reporting this behavior, so maybe its my configuration. But I found no configuration setting to support it, so if its not a program bug, its at least (in my opinion) a usability bug.

When I view my inbox for an email account, I like it sorted by Date descending, so my latest mail is at the bottom of the list. Its easy enough to sort it, just click on the date column header in the list view. The problem however, is that the setting doesn't seem to stick. For some reason, its always sorted by sender.

If I sort my inbox view for email account A to Date, then I click on the inbox view for email Account B, and click back on the inbox view for email Account A, my previously specified sort order of date is not persisted, and the view is once again sorted by sender.

Has anyone experienced this?

UPDATE: As I was writing this I was playing more with the Thunderbird UI, following along with my post to ensure I hadn't missed some salient point or user operation. Suddenly, much to my surprise as I clicked from account to account, the sort order preference was getting preserved. The bug has mysteriously vanished. Its like taking your car to the mechanic. When its at the repair shop, it refuses to act up.

If I knew all I had to do was write a blog entry about it, I could have had this fixed weeks ago <g>.

I'll post another update should the bad behavior return. I've also configured my client to show a View dropdown in the menu bar (I think this was an add-on). I suspect this may have something to do with my sort order problem, but can't verify it until it starts acting up again.

QuickTip: Debugging VBS Files with CScript.exe and Visual Studio

ChrisD — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:26:15 GMT

This is another one of those "Posted here for MY convenience" tips.

You can use the Visual Studio Debugger to debug a .vbs (vbscript) file executed with cScript.exe by using the //X flag at the command line.

To debug MyTest.vbs

cscript.exe MyTest.vbs //X

The //X will set a breakpoint and invoke the "select a debugger" dialog where you can choose Visual Studio and step into your vbs code. I haven't found a way to directly edit from the debugger however, so I end up having to debug, break execution, fix my bug and restart the vbs script file again to see my changes.

QuickTip: Good-Bye WinZip, Hello 7 Zip (and JZip).

ChrisD — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:04:06 GMT

My work laptop is a fairly beefy machine. Dual Core Intel T7800 with 4 GBs of ram, running Vista Ultimate 32-bit. Some firmware and OS limitations limit my effective memory addressing to 3.26 GB, but still this machine is no slouch. I could never figure out what about my configuration caused seemingly simple operations like extracting the contents of a zipped file to take SO LONG. I fiddled with this setting and that setting but to no avail. Finally I got fed up and turned to the all-knowing Google. "Winzip Extract SLOW VISTA " returned a series of blog posting and user group chats complaining of similar performance. Among the responses was a reference to 7 Zip. A google search later I had downloaded 7 zip from here. 7 Zip is an open source alternative to winzip that is WICKED Fast. I mean orders of magnitude faster than winzip and the window's built-in zip compression.

According to the website, 7 Zip's features include

High compression ratio in new 7z format with LZMA compression
Supported formats:
- Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
- Unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, MSI, WIM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS
For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
Self-extracting capability for 7z format
Integration with Windows Shell
Powerful File Manager
Powerful command line version
Plugin for FAR Manager
Localizations for 69 languages

Its great to see my laptop perform the way I thought it should. Do yourself a favor and download 7 Zip right now!

Want a better interface, but the same great compression engine? Try JZip. Just as pretty as Winzip, Cheaper (Free!) and Faster.

UberOptions - Filling the hole in Logitech Mouse Configuration

ChrisD — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:01:53 GMT

I recently upgraded my mouse and keyboard to the Logitech Wave wireless combo.

The keyboard is taking a bit of getting used to (odd location and sizing of the delete, home, and end keys) and the wave design of the keyboards is... different.

Overall though I am very pleased with the hardware. The mouse seems responsive and the keyboard is packed with loads of "doohickey" keys for launching media players, my favorite applications, pictures, even Windows media center (which I had never run before getting this keyboard and pressing the media center key). For all of its hardware whiz-banginess (I know its not a real word, but Google returns 39 hits of that phrase, so I feel ok using it), its lacking in the configuration software. Yes, I can map my keys to a predefined set of functions, but I want more. I want to define custom keyboard and mouse buttons for different applications. Logitech ships with special configurations for word, explorer, and a few others but it doesn't allow for user-defined applications and key mappings. Gee, the Intellipoint software that came with my old Microsoft mouse let me configure my mouse buttons per application. Great, now I have intellipoint envy.

Sometimes Google scares me in its omnipotent, oracle-like (that's oracle with a little o, not Oracle as in database) wisdom. I complained to Google "Logitech SetPoint Mouse Configuration Custom Settings" and it returned me a link to UberOptions.

UberOptions blows the lid off SetPoint's limited UI and allows me to map any key or button to any conceivable action, for any application. Now we're talking! A quick download and setup, and a few minutes later I once again had Visual Studio dancing like a puppet on a string.

Update: A reader has pointed out that home site for UberOptions appears to be down. So for now, I'll host the setup on my site. You can download the setup for UberOptions v4.06 Beta here (you'll want to rename the .exe_ extension to .exe prior to running the setup). I also stumbled upon this mirror site

Richard Owens (the author of UberOptions) has informed me the UberOptions has a new home http://uberoptions.net

QuickTip: Resize All Your ListView Columns with a single Keystroke.

ChrisD — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:14:25 GMT

Just when you think you know all you can know about something.. Ctrl+Plus (on the number pad) will auto resize your ListView columns. Go ahead, try it! You know you want to.