Internet

Interview with Virtual-Strategy.com Magazine is Up

Eric Hammersley — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:47:52 GMT

Cross-post from vmcoder.com
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Virtual Strategy magazine contacted me a few weeks ago expressing an interest in my book, Professional VMware Server, and wanted to strike up an interview.

Well, they just posted the podcast today and, in my humble opinion, it turned out great. While you're at it, setup Virtual-Strategy.com magazine in your reading list. They have a wealth of information in their white-paper and podcast repository. Just make your first stop my interview.

Virtual Strategy Magazine - Book Review: Professional VMware Server

vmcoder.com - Virtual Machine Automation and tidbits

Eric Hammersley — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 20:34:00 GMT

As some of you may have noticed from the post below my book is out and on the street. In response to that I've started a new site, vmcoder.com, to take the automation and scripting discussion a step further. Add it to you readers and join the discussion.

The next version of VMware Workstation to carry automation support, finally.

Over the next few days I'll be taking a look at Vix v1.1 and its new integration with VMware Workstation. Being able to automate the Workstation product has been a sought after addition to the product for some time. I'll whack out some sample code to see just where they are headed with this new integration.

Something to add to your holiday wish list.

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 01:31:00 GMT

Well, it was a busy summer. With events ranging from sporting events with the kids, mowing the lawn, and writing a book the summer just flew by.

Book? Yes, I wrote a book. Around March of this year I was contacted by Wiley Publishing to write a title for their Wrox imprint on VMware Server. You know, VMware Server, the free virtualization package for servers that VMware released around August of this year. This is one of the first titles released that covers VMware Server, which is something I'm very proud of.

Now this isn't your normal click here and go there type of book. I approached this title with the software development team in mind. Of course I splashed in my normal rant about writing software within virtual machines. It just wouldn't be me if I didn't. However the real meat revolves around VMware Server automation with CruiseControl.Net and Visual Studio Team System.

That in and of itself is a little vague so let me expand slightly. It doesn't take much to realize the value of testing software releases in virtual machines. Multiple operating systems spread across several different virtual machine images make testing and post release support child's play. The key is integration into your build environment. While the book covers setup of VMware Server as well as the creation of a base image library and tips to keep your environment organized the latter half is devoted to the integration of VMware Server directly into your build environment. I show how you can easily kick off nightly builds that seek out the proper test images, fire them up, and upload testing payloads to them for easy access.

To support this title I’ve created a new site called The Virtual Machine Coder. This site will augment the book material and provide a convenient jumping off point for further discussion and articles on the subject as well as software development in general. While the book revolves around VMware Server itself you’ll find I have a growing fondness for the Microsoft virtualization offerings as well. Please check it out, add it to your blog roll, and subscribe to it in your favorite reader. I'll be moving my regular blogging over to the new site as well.

Professional VMware Server (Eric Hammersley)
Paperback: 456 pages
Publisher: Wrox (Available: December 11, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0470079886
Available at Amazon.com and all major Book distributors

Visual Source Safe 2005 - Internet Plug-in woes

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 02:51:00 GMT

Yeah, I'm guilty. I tried VSS 2005. To be absolutely honestly I have stayed away from VSS for so many years because I had no interest in losing my projects to corruption. This fear led me to be a Sourcegear Vault user, which by the way is a very nice product. Never the less I figure VSS 2005 must be better than it's previous release, VSS 6, so I decided to give it a shot on a small project. It went pretty well until I stumbled into the Internet Plug-in setup with SSL.

VSS 2005, which it seems to look quite a bit like VSS 6 has some new functionality, most notably the Internet Plug-in. This enables you to access VSS over HTTP protocol via web services. Now, I'm used to this, it's how Vault works, but the configuration was less than forgiving.

To start it off you need to create a new VSS database. This is simple enough since the VSS Admin tool gives you a nice wizard to help you out. This connects you to the database and displays the users in the main admin interface pane. Seems simple enough.

Next I click on Server Settings and enabled the Internet Plug-in without SSL. Bam, the VSS Admin tool says I need to connect to my database via its UNC path. Ok, so that tells me I have to share it. I open up Explorer and share the folder. Mind you I AM reading the instructions as I'm doing this even though it may appear as though I'm not. I share the folder and switch back to the VSS Admin interface, click the menu and choose to Open a new VSS database. Bam, can't, it's already open. Ok, so I need to close it. Well, this isn't that easy. The database that's open has a default set to automatically open on startup that you can't deselect. You need to add the database to the list, with a different name since it already exists in the list, but this time by UNC path. Move the default open selection to the new UNC path listing and close and re-open the admin tool. *sigh*

Ok, now I'm connected to the database by UNC path so I go back into Server Settings and enable the Internet Plug-in without SSL. After a silly amount of time waiting on it to complete the change it clears and the attempt to open the VSS database via the Internet Plug-in from Visual Studio works.

So... being the curious sort I decided to enable SSL on the Internet Plug-in. Wow was that an evolution. Right off I can tell you that enabling SSL makes VSS a very touchy beast. Unless the SSL cert is just perfect it will fail and the admin tool will just report that it couldn't be enabled. No other errors or detailed information is provided, just that it failed. That's when Google and the Microsoft Newsgroups came in. Alin Constantin, an MS guy that I'm guessing works in the VSS group, posted a nice write-up on his site with the steps required to get this to work. He also outlines what criteria have to be met in order for SSL to be enabled. Something neither the help nor the KB does in any way.

You can find Alin's document here Installing and configuring Microsoft Visual SourceSafe for Internet (Remote) access

Now, thanks to Alin, it works with SSL enabled. There was a little pain involved but no where near what I've gone through with other apps. If you are installing VSS 2005 I recommend you read Alin's document above before you attempt to enable the Internet Plug-in.

Office 2007 Configurable Status Bar

Eric Hammersley — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:50:00 GMT

Ok, so I found this by accident. You know on the status bar at the bottom of your Office application how you have sections for CAPS Lock, Insert, page count, etc.? Well, in Office 2007 you can customize what information you want to see in the status bar from a predefined list. It's pretty cool. Open Word, Excel, whatever (not Outlook) and right click on the status bar at the bottom of the window. You will receive a menu like the one below. Play around with it... a simple but nice addition.

VMware Server Release Candidate 1 - It's on the street

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 03:05:00 GMT

It's here. VMware Server RC1 is really shaping up to be a great release. It's late so I'll just paste in part of the announcement for the details.

We are pleased to announce that VMware Server Release Candidate 1 is now available. You can download the new VMware Server Release Candidate 1 by following the link for “Existing Users” and simply register using the same serial numbers from prior VMware Server beta releases. Alternatively, you can request for new serial numbers by following the link for "First Time Users."

In addition to bug fixes, VMware Server Release Candidate 1 also includes exciting new features such as:

Enhanced performance optimizations
Experimental support for SUSE Linux 10.1 as guest and host operating system
Experimental support for 32-bit and 64-bit FreeBSD 6.0 as guest operating systems

Office 2007 Beta 2 Favorite Features

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 26 May 2006 14:15:00 GMT

I have some favorite features that I want to share. No, it's not the ribbon bar although it is pretty cool.

The first is the addition of the Font Formatting menu to right click and select operation. Insert some text into Word 2007 and click and drag it to highlight. The closer you move the mouse to the top of the selection a Font Formatting tool will appear. I absolutely think this is an awesome addition. It also appears on right clicks in the current document. I attached a screenshot below to demonstrate.

The next one is the new Smart Tags. I love what they have done here. Suppose you have a document that states a wind speed, say 50 MPH. How fast is that in kilometers? The smart tag knows. Give it a shot, type in 50 MPH in Word, or an Outlook message for that matter and take a look at the smart tag that is formed.

NOTE: the placement of the smart tag dialog is a little screwy, it needs to be below the item taged and not above because it covers the text being linked. I have 50 MPH in the screenshot twice in order for you to get the full effect. The one being shown is actually under the smart tag dialog.

Submitting feedback for Office 2007 Beta 2 if you are NOT an official beta member

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 26 May 2006 13:56:00 GMT

As most of you well know the Office 2007 Beta 2 has been release to the public. Honestly it is so stable I'm running it for everyday use. This has of course allowed me to uncover a few “issues” if you will. Being the diligent tester that I am I wanted to submit these bugs, or at the very least find out if they had already been discovered. My search of MSDN and the Microsoft site itself for a way to do this unfortunately returned no results. Now, I know you can go to resources from within the program's setting dialog but that isn't really the place for this type of communication.

Out of frustration in not being able to find a place to let the product team know about the “issues” I posted an article over on the Channel9 forum found here. A kind user was nice enough to post a link to what Microsoft is calling the Smile program. Essentially it is a feedback application that runs in your taskbar that displays a smile and a frown. You can click which ever one applies, a smile for positive feedback and a frown for negative feedback. It will take a screenshot of your desktop and sends it along with the text you submit. It's not a bug report, which is really what I wanted to submit, but it will work just fine. I wanted to share in case others are having trouble finding where to submit issues that aren't part of the official beta team. Yes, it's a silly little program and I don't really like it sitting there running all the time but since I'm not part of the beta it's the only option I have.

The links in the Channel9 article point you to Jensen Harris's blog, a member of the Office UI team. There he describes the Smile program and welcomes the feedback. According to him it goes straight to the product team itself. Top notch.

If you haven't tried it out yet Office 2007 is an excellent suite. Head over to the Office 2007 beta 2 download site and grab it. You won't be sorry. I plan on posting a few of my favorite new features here in a little bit. I promise, I'm not going to say “The Ribbon Bar is awsome“ although I do like it. Enjoy.

VMware Server Beta - New build available (23869)

Eric Hammersley — Fri, 05 May 2006 14:49:00 GMT

I'm working on a project right now w/ the VMware Server beta and I noticed they posted a new build yesterday (5/4/06)

VMware Server Beta 2 Build 23869

It's getting better with every build. *crossing my fingers* on this one.

Google Mars

Eric Hammersley — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:50:00 GMT

Quite cool... http://www.google.com/mars