.NET Hobbyist Programmer

Finally: The 1600-volt Compact Hairdryer

Mark Treadwell — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:10:43 GMT

You have to love Amazon. They will sell you anything.

Get them while they last!

MSDN vs. TechNet

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 02:17:10 GMT

For a period of time, I have access to both an MSDN and a TechNet subscription. Both offer Microsoft software for download. I wondered what the similarities and differences were between the two subscriptions. I copied the two download lists into Excel and aligned them. Most of the material I would never use. Some products I have never heard of. I present the lists, current as of today, for your reviewing pleasure.

TechNet	MSDN

Applications (63)	Applications (79)
	Access 2.0
Access 2003	Access 2003
Access 2007	Access 2007
Access 2010	Access 2010
Accounting	Accounting
Business Contact Manager	Business Contact Manager
Business Contact Manager 2010	Business Contact Manager 2010
Business ScoreCard Manager	Business ScoreCard Manager
Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP	Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP
Front Page	Front Page
Groove 2007	Groove 2007
Hyper-V Server 2008	Hyper-V Server 2008
Hyper-V Server 2008 R2	Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
InfoPath 2003	InfoPath 2003
InfoPath 2007	InfoPath 2007
InfoPath 2010	InfoPath 2010
Interconnect 2004	Interconnect 2004
Interconnect 2007	Interconnect 2007
Internet Explorer 6.0	Internet Explorer 6.0
Lync 2010	Lync 2010
	MapPoint 2004
	MapPoint 2006
	MapPoint 2009
	MapPoint 2010
	MapPoint 2011
Office 2003	Office 2003
Office 2007	Office 2007
Office 2010	Office 2010
	Office 95
Office Communicator 2005	Office Communicator 2005
Office Communicator 2007	Office Communicator 2007
Office Communicator 2007 R2	Office Communicator 2007 R2
	Office Communicator Mobile
	Office Communicator Web
Office Communicator Web Access	Office Communicator Web Access
Office for Mac 2011	Office for Mac 2011
Office Servers 2007	Office Servers 2007
Office XP	Office XP
OneNote 2003	OneNote 2003
OneNote 2007	OneNote 2007
OneNote 2010	OneNote 2010
Outlook 2003	Outlook 2003
Outlook 2007	Outlook 2007
Outlook 2010	Outlook 2010
	Parallels Desktop
Patterns & Practices	Patterns & Practices
PerformancePoint Server	PerformancePoint Server
PowerPivot	PowerPivot
ProClarity	ProClarity
Project 2002	Project 2002
Project 2003	Project 2003
Project 2003 Server	Project 2003 Server
Project 2007	Project 2007
Project 2010	Project 2010
	Project 95
Project Portfolio Server 2006	Project Portfolio Server 2006
Project Portfolio Server 2007	Project Portfolio Server 2007
	Publisher 2002
Publisher 2003	Publisher 2003
Publisher 2007	Publisher 2007
Publisher 2010	Publisher 2010
SharePoint Designer 2007	SharePoint Designer 2007
	SharePoint Designer 2010
SharePoint Workspace 2010	SharePoint Workspace 2010
Small Business Accounting (Application)	Small Business Accounting (Application)
	Streets and Trips 2009
	Streets and Trips and AutoRoute 2010
	Streets and Trips and AutoRoute 2011
Virtual PC 2004	Virtual PC 2004
Virtual PC 2007	Virtual PC 2007
Virtual PC for Mac 6.1	Virtual PC for Mac 6.1
Virtual PC for Mac 7.0	Virtual PC for Mac 7.0
Virtual Server 2005	Virtual Server 2005
Virtual Server 2005 R2	Virtual Server 2005 R2
Visio 2002	Visio 2002
Visio 2003	Visio 2003
Visio 2007	Visio 2007
Visio 2010	Visio 2010
Windows Virtual PC	Windows Virtual PC


Business Solutions (27)	Business Solutions (28)
Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2009
Dynamics AX 4.0	Dynamics AX 4.0
Dynamics Axapta 3.0	Dynamics Axapta 3.0
	Dynamics CRM 1.2
Dynamics CRM 2011	Dynamics CRM 2011
Dynamics CRM 3.0	Dynamics CRM 3.0
Dynamics CRM 4.0	Dynamics CRM 4.0
Dynamics GP 10.0	Dynamics GP 10.0
Dynamics GP 2010	Dynamics GP 2010
Dynamics GP 7.5	Dynamics GP 7.5
Dynamics GP 8.0	Dynamics GP 8.0
Dynamics GP 9.0	Dynamics GP 9.0
Dynamics NAV 2009	Dynamics NAV 2009
Dynamics NAV 2009 R2	Dynamics NAV 2009 R2
Dynamics NAV 4.0	Dynamics NAV 4.0
Dynamics NAV 5.0	Dynamics NAV 5.0
Dynamics Point of Sale 2009	Dynamics Point of Sale 2009
Dynamics SL 7.0	Dynamics SL 7.0
Point of Sale 1.0	Point of Sale 1.0
Small Business Accounting	Small Business Accounting
Small Business Manager Financials 7.5	Small Business Manager Financials 7.5
Small Business Manager Financials 8.0	Small Business Manager Financials 8.0
Small Business Manager Financials 9.0	Small Business Manager Financials 9.0
Solomon 5.5	Solomon 5.5
Solomon 6.0	Solomon 6.0
Solomon 6.5	Solomon 6.5
Solomon 7.0	Solomon 7.0
Solomon FRx	Solomon FRx


	Designer Tools (6)
	AutoCollage 2008
	Expression 1
	Expression 2
	Expression 3
	Expression 4
	Songsmith


	Developer Tools (43)
	Access Developer Extensions 2003
	Automatic Graph Layout
	Electronic Learning Libraries
	eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0
	Macro Assembler 6.11
	MDAC
	ODBC Data Packs
	QuickBasic 4.5
	Robotics Studio
	SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools
	Visual Basic .NET 2003
	Visual Basic 2.0
	Visual Basic 3.0
	Visual Basic 4.0
	Visual Basic 6.0
	Visual Basic 6.0 Code Advisor
	Visual Basic Applications (VBA)
	Visual C++ 1.52
	Visual C++ 2.0
	Visual C++ 4.2
	Visual C++ Browser Toolkit
	Visual C++ Tools
	Visual FoxPro "Sedna"
	Visual FoxPro 7.0
	Visual FoxPro 8.0
	Visual FoxPro 9.0
	Visual J#.NET
	Visual Modeler
	Visual SourceSafe 2005
	Visual SourceSafe 6.0d
	Visual Studio 2005
	Visual Studio 2008
	Visual Studio 2010
	Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011
	Visual Studio.NET
	Visual Studio.NET 2003
	Windows Embedded
	Windows Embedded CE 5.0
	Windows Embedded CE 6.0
	Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2
	Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3
	Windows XP Embedded
	XNA Game Studio


	MSDN Library (11)
	2001-10 MSDN Library October
	2005-07 MSDN Library July
	2006-01 MSDN Library January
	2006-05 MSDN Library May
	2006-06 MSDN Library June
	2006-07 MSDN Library July
	2006-08 MSDN Library August
	2006-12 MSDN Library December
	2007-01 MSDN Library January
	2007-04 MSDN Library April
	2007-06 MSDN Library June


Operating Systems (31)	Operating Systems (33)
Compute Cluster Pack	Compute Cluster Pack
MS-DOS	MS-DOS
Small Business Server 2003 R2	Small Business Server 2003 R2
Windows 3.1 (16-bit)	Windows 3.1 (16-bit)
Windows 3.11 (16-bit)	Windows 3.11 (16-bit)
Windows 3.11 for Workgroups (16-bit)	Windows 3.11 for Workgroups (16-bit)
Windows 3.2 (16-bit)	Windows 3.2 (16-bit)
Windows 7	Windows 7
Windows Advanced Server	Windows Advanced Server
	Windows CE .NET Platform Builder 4.1
	Windows CE .NET Platform Builder 4.2
Windows CE DirectX Kit	Windows CE DirectX Kit
Windows CE Toolkit Visual C++ 6.0	Windows CE Toolkit Visual C++ 6.0
Windows Essential Business Server 2008	Windows Essential Business Server 2008
Windows Home Server	Windows Home Server
Windows Home Server 2011	Windows Home Server 2011
Windows Internet Explorer 7	Windows Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 8	Windows Internet Explorer 8
Windows Server 2003	Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 R2	Windows Server 2003 R2
Windows Server 2008	Windows Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2	Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows Services for UNIX 1.0	Windows Services for UNIX 1.0
Windows Services for UNIX 2.0	Windows Services for UNIX 2.0
Windows Services for UNIX 3.0	Windows Services for UNIX 3.0
Windows Services for UNIX 3.5	Windows Services for UNIX 3.5
Windows Small Business Server 2008	Windows Small Business Server 2008
Windows Small Business Server 2011	Windows Small Business Server 2011
Windows Storage Server 2008	Windows Storage Server 2008
Windows Storage Server 2008 R2	Windows Storage Server 2008 R2
Windows Thin PC	Windows Thin PC
Windows Vista	Windows Vista
Windows XP	Windows XP


Servers (80)	Servers (84)
Antigen	Antigen
Application Virtualization	Application Virtualization
BizTalk Server 2002	BizTalk Server 2002
BizTalk Server 2004	BizTalk Server 2004
BizTalk Server 2006	BizTalk Server 2006
BizTalk Server 2006 R2	BizTalk Server 2006 R2
BizTalk Server 2009	BizTalk Server 2009
BizTalk Server 2010	BizTalk Server 2010
BizTalk Server Accelerators and Adapters	BizTalk Server Accelerators and Adapters
Commerce Server 2002	Commerce Server 2002
	Commerce Server 2007
Commerce Server 2009	Commerce Server 2009
Connected Services Framework	Connected Services Framework
Content Management Server	Content Management Server
Customer Care Framework 2005	Customer Care Framework 2005
Customer Care Framework 2008	Customer Care Framework 2008
Customer Care Framework 2009	Customer Care Framework 2009
Desktop Optimization Pack	Desktop Optimization Pack
Exchange Server 2003	Exchange Server 2003
Exchange Server 2007	Exchange Server 2007
Exchange Server 2010	Exchange Server 2010
FAST Search Server 2010	FAST Search Server 2010
Forefront Client Security	Forefront Client Security
Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010	Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010
Forefront Identity Manager 2010	Forefront Identity Manager 2010
Forefront Protection 2010	Forefront Protection 2010
Forefront Security for Exchange Server	Forefront Security for Exchange Server
Forefront Security for SharePoint	Forefront Security for SharePoint
Forefront Security, Office Communications Server	Forefront Security, Office Communications Server
Forefront Server Security Management Console	Forefront Server Security Management Console
Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010	Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010
Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010	Forefront Unified Access Gateway 2010
Groove Server 2007	Groove Server 2007
Groove Server 2010	Groove Server 2010
Host Integration Server 2000	Host Integration Server 2000
Host Integration Server 2004	Host Integration Server 2004
Host Integration Server 2006	Host Integration Server 2006
Identity Integration Server 2003	Identity Integration Server 2003
Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007	Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007
ISA Server 2004	ISA Server 2004
ISA Server 2006	ISA Server 2006
Live Communications Server 2003	Live Communications Server 2003
Live Communications Server 2005	Live Communications Server 2005
Lync Server 2010	Lync Server 2010
	Mobile Information 2001 Server
	Mobile Information 2002 Server
Office Communications Server 2007	Office Communications Server 2007
Office Communications Server 2007 R2	Office Communications Server 2007 R2
Office Forms Server 2007	Office Forms Server 2007
Office Server Language Pack 2010	Office Server Language Pack 2010
Office Web Apps	Office Web Apps
Operations Manager 2000	Operations Manager 2000
Operations Manager 2005	Operations Manager 2005
Project Server	Project Server
Project Server 2010	Project Server 2010
Search Server 2008	Search Server 2008
Search Server 2010	Search Server 2010
SharePoint Server 2001	SharePoint Server 2001
SharePoint Server 2003	SharePoint Server 2003
SharePoint Server 2007	SharePoint Server 2007
SharePoint Server 2007 Search	SharePoint Server 2007 Search
SharePoint Server 2010	SharePoint Server 2010
Speech Server 2004	Speech Server 2004
SQL Server 2000	SQL Server 2000
SQL Server 2005	SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2008	SQL Server 2008
SQL Server 2008 R2	SQL Server 2008 R2
	SQL Server 6.5
SQL Server Code Named "Denali" CTP	SQL Server Code Named "Denali" CTP
SQL Server Compact 3.5	SQL Server Compact 3.5
System Center Capacity Planner	System Center Capacity Planner
System Center Configuration Manager	System Center Configuration Manager
System Center Data Protection Manager	System Center Data Protection Manager
System Center Essentials 2007	System Center Essentials 2007
System Center Essentials 2010	System Center Essentials 2010
System Center Mobile Device Manager	System Center Mobile Device Manager
System Center Operations Manager	System Center Operations Manager
System Center Reporting Manager 2006	System Center Reporting Manager 2006
System Center Service Manager	System Center Service Manager
System Center Virtual Machine Manager	System Center Virtual Machine Manager
Systems Management Server 2003	Systems Management Server 2003
Systems Management Server 2003 R2	Systems Management Server 2003 R2
Windows Embedded Device Manager	Windows Embedded Device Manager
Windows MultiPoint Server 2011	Windows MultiPoint Server 2011


TechNet Technical Library (1)
TechNet Technical Library


TechNet Technical Training (5)
Technet Briefings
TechNet Webcasts
Technical Services Guides
Windows Server 2008 Training
Windows Vista Training


Tools and Resources (30)	Tools and Resources (105)
.NET Compact Framework 1.0	.NET Compact Framework 1.0
.NET Compact Framework 2.0	.NET Compact Framework 2.0
.NET Framework 1.0	.NET Framework 1.0
.NET Framework 1.1	.NET Framework 1.1
	.NET Framework 2.0
	.NET Framework 3.5
	.NET Framework 4
.NET Framework Redistributable 1.0	.NET Framework Redistributable 1.0
.NET Framework Redistributable 2.0	.NET Framework Redistributable 2.0
.NET Framework Redistributable 3.0	.NET Framework Redistributable 3.0
	.NET Micro Framework
	16-bit SDK and DDKs
	Academic Alliance Tools
Application Compatibility	Application Compatibility
	ASP .NET AJAX 1.0
	Azure SDK
	Bank Framework SDK and DDKs
Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0.1	Baseline Security Analyzer 2.0.1
Bookshelf Symbol 7	Bookshelf Symbol 7
	CMC SDK and DDKs
CRC 3.05	CRC 3.05
Data Analyzer 2002	Data Analyzer 2002
Desktop Player
	Developer Security Resource Kit
	Device Simulator
	DHTML Editing SDK and DDKs
	Digital Dashboard
	DirectX SDK and DDKs
	Enterprise Instrumentation framework
	eScrum
	ESP 1.0
	FabriKam 3.1
	GIF Animator
	Healthcare Framework
	Help Workshop
IIS	IIS
ILMerge	ILMerge
	Interix 2.2
Internet Security and Acceleration	Internet Security and Acceleration
	ISDN
Log Parser	Log Parser
	Mobile Internet Toolkit
	Modem Developer Kit
	MSDN Online Web Resource
MSXML 4.0	MSXML 4.0
	MSYubin7 1.5
Office Resource Kit	Office Resource Kit
	Office System
	Palm Size PC 1.2
	PassPort Manager
	Passport SDK and DDKs
	Platform SDK and DDKs
	Pocket PC 2003 SDK
	Provisioning System SDK
	Repository SDK and DDKs
	Security SDK and DDKs
	Semblio
	Server Appliance Kit
Services for Netware	Services for Netware
	SharePoint Products and Technologies
	Smart Card
	Smart Tag SDK and DDKs
	SMS 2003 SDK and DDKs
	Soap Toolkit
Solver Foundation	Solver Foundation
	Source Code Migration Tool
	Speech SDK and DDKs
	SQL 2000 Sybase
SQL Server Migration Assistant	SQL Server Migration Assistant
SQL Server Tool (SQLH2)	SQL Server Tool (SQLH2)
	Standard User Analyzer
	Surface
Translation and UI Strings Glossaries	Translation and UI Strings Glossaries
	UDDI SDK and DDKs
	Unified Communications Managed
	Virtual Earth
	Visio Tools
	Visual Basic for Applications
	Volume Shadow Copy Service
	Web Control SDK and DDKs
	Web Platform Installer
	Web Services Enhancements
	Web Storage SDK and DDKs
	Windows Academic Program
	Windows Communication Foundation
	Windows DNA XML
Windows Hardware Compatibility	Windows Hardware Compatibility
Windows Installer	Windows Installer
	Windows Media
	Windows Mobile 2002
	Windows Mobile 2003
	Windows Mobile 5.0
	Windows Mobile 6.0
	Windows NT 3.51
	Windows Point of Service
	Windows Real-Time Communications
	Windows Rights Management Services
	Windows SDK and DDKs
Windows Server Update	Windows Server Update
	Windows SharePoint Services
Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0	Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0
	Windows Workflow Foundation
WinFS	WinFS
	WinFX Beta 1
	WinFX Runtime Components CTP
XML Parser 3.0	XML Parser 3.0

Configuring the Synology DS1511+

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 02:40:33 GMT

My last post related the sad story of a dead HP MediaSmart Home Server. This time, I will relate the steps I took to configure the Synology DS1511+ for use. To avoid unnecessary typing, I recommend this post to provide the basic details. It is written for the older DS1010+, but the process is the same for the DS1511+. … OK, now that you have read that, I have different drives in my NAS so I had a different kind of problem.

I chose to go with five Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green SATA II drives (WD20EARS) because of their availability, great price, and presence on the Synology compatible hard drive list. That "Green" technology is what is causing the problem.

When I examined the SMART data after only 10 hours of run time, I was puzzled as to why the Load Cycle Count (LCC) values were over 100. Some searches showed that the recent WD Green drives have an aggressive Idle3 power saving feature that is not compatible with Linux standard settings. While the drives are certified to 300,000 LCC cycles, the drives in the Synology would get to that level in one year instead of 5-6 years. There is even an entire discussion board concerning the Western Digital LCC issue on the Synology website.

The WD Green drives have a default of 8 seconds before they park the drive heads and increment the LCC value. That value is changeable, but you have to run a custom application. Western Digital provides one (WDIDLE3) that runs under DOS. That is OK for laptop/desktop users who can put it on bootable CD, but it is not useful for a headless NAS appliance.

Since WDIDLE3 is a Windows application, it does not run on the NAS under Linux. The DS1511+ has an Intel Atom D525 1.8GHz x86 Processor, 1GB of 64-bit DDR2 RAM (expandable to 3GB). The solution is to create a native Linux application.

There is a SourceForge project to set the Western Digital Idle3 drive setting here. The goal of this exercise is to get the Idle3 Tools to run natively on the Synology NAS. To do this on a fresh, unmodified Synology box, I did the following from a Windows 7 machine. (This is a compilation of several posts on the Synology website.) I recommend compiling the source code locally on the NAS.

From the Synology DSM web interface, configure the NAS for remote access
- Open the Control Panel, click on the Terminal icon in the Network Services section, select "Enable SSH service", and click OK
In Windows, download and install PuTTY if you do not already have a SSH client on the PC
- Configure PuTTY using the IP address of the NAS on port 22 (I saved it as a new session for easy recall)
- Establish the PuTTY session with the NAS
- Login to the NAS as username "root" with the same password as the administrative password of the Synology system
In Windows, download and extract the Idle3 Tools source code to the Synology box

I downloaded the file "idle3-tools-0.9.1.gz" from here (It is listed as a .tgz file, but it is not.)
When I extracted it, WinZip could not read the archive correctly, so I had to use 7-Zip
I extracted the archive to a new "\\DISKSTATION\public\idle3-tools-0.9.1" directory on the NAS (You can use any shared directory. I used the "public" directory I created.)
In that directory, I opened the file "Makefile" in Notepad and removed the "?" from lines 13 and 14

"CC ?= gcc" was changed to "CC = gcc"
"STRIP ?= strip" was changed to "STRIP = strip"

Save the Makefile and close Notepad

Using PuTTY, download and install the Itsy Package Management System (IPKG)
- Change to a temporary directory by entering the command "cd /volume1/@tmp"
- Download the IPKG bootstrap by entering the command "wget http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/optware/syno-i686/cross/unstable/syno-i686-bootstrap_1.2-7_i686.xsh" (this takes some time)
- Install IPKG by running the downloaded script with the command "sh syno-i686-bootstrap_1.2-7_i686.xsh" (this takes some time)
- Delete the IPKG script file with the command "rm syno-i686-bootstrap_1.2-7_i686.xsh"
- Close PuTTY by entering the command "exit"
From the Synology DSM web interface, reboot the NAS
- Click the top left arrow, click on "Restart", and close the browser tab
Using PuTTY after the NAS restarts
- Login to the NAS again user "root"
- Change to the Idle3 Tools directory by entering the command "cd /volume1/public/idle3-tools-0.9.1/"
- Update IPKG by entering the command "ipkg update" (this takes some time)
- Download and install the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) via IPKG by entering the command "ipkg install gcc"
- Download and install Make via IPKG by entering the command "ipkg install make"
- Run Make to compile the Idle3 Tools by entering the command "make"
- Test for proper compilation with the command "./idle3ctl –h" which should display the lines
- Run the Idle3 Tools and set the the values on the drives as desired. The default timer value is "80" for 8 seconds. Because I have five drives in the NAS, I had to run the utility five times to disable the timer on each one. Set yours as desired.
From the DSM interface, shutdown the NAS (This is required for the drives to read the new Idle3 setting on power-up.)
- Click the top left arrow, click on "Shutdown", and close the browser tab
Once it is fully off, restart the NAS

Your NAS disks should now have stopped their LCC cycling. This kind of process is why I am staying with Windows as much as I can.

Replacing a Windows Home Server

Mark Treadwell — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:30:12 GMT

There comes a time when computers die. So it was with our HP MediaSmart Home Server. At the age of 4, I was not expecting it to die. Oops.

It has never really been an easy life before the death of that machine. It’s anemic 512MB of memory got upgraded to 2GB. The 500MB primary drive got expanded with two 1TB drives. The power supply fan started sounding like my lawn mower, so it had to be replaced. Things seemed stable until the primary drive croaked – and me unable to locate the recovery disk – bad, bad.

So I went on a search for a replacement. I wanted a true RAID this time and something that was a already-built solution, an appliance if you will. To make the long story short, I purchased a Synology DiskStation DS1511+, stuffed it with five Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green SATA II drives (WD20EARS), set it up as a RAID5, and then copied all the files from the MediaSmart’s data drives to the new SAN box. We will see how those consumer-grade drives work in the RAID.

The copy operation took awhile. I used this storage enclosure for 3.5-Inch SATA HDD's via its USB 2.0 port to connect to my laptop. I would have used the eSATA port, but I did not have a cable. The enclosure ships with USB and FireWire cables.

The Home Server is great for automated backups and making its drives seamlessly available. That Drive Extender technology was one of the big selling points for me. Microsoft has subsequently removed that capability in the most recent version Windows Home Server 2011. The stated reason was that they could not maintain compatibility when they moved to using Server 2008 R2 as its core. Whatever. Drive Extender is dead. That was a primary reason for my buying it, so I am not buying another.

I found a podcast (Hanselminutes #285) with a great explanation of why two techies replaced their Home Server with a SAN appliance, or at least augmented it. One of the participants in the podcast, Travis Illig, has an excellent post with pictures on how to set up the DiskStation. I will be writing another post about my setting up the DiskStation from the perspective of a Windows guy working with a Linux system. Let’s just say that adventure ensued.

The new setup is supporting video and music throughout the house now, as well as centralized file storage. I will be expanding the use of several features of the Synology DiskStation in the coming weeks.

My post on configuring the DS1511+ is here.

Quieting Outlook 2010

Mark Treadwell — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:36:56 GMT

I had an Outlook irritation that I resolved recently. I have many irritations with Outlook, but the one I fixed was some of the sounds it makes.

Every time I viewed a new folder, it made an irritating noise. Every time I deleted an email or RSS item, it made a different irritating noise. With no program option available other than the new mail sound, I went into Control Panel | Sound | Sounds tab for some surgery. Scroll down the Program Events list until you get to the Microsoft Office section.

To quiet the folder change sound, I deleted the value in the “Sort” line. To quiet the deleted email/RSS item sound, I deleted the value in the “Delete Row” line. Now I have blissful silence. You can also choose one of the more subtle noises if you prefer.

This will apply across all Office applications, but I can live with that. I hope this can help someone else who is tired of the noise.

Black Friday

Mark Treadwell — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 02:02:09 GMT

Retailers are desperate. Amazon has “leaked” their entire Black Friday movie deal schedule. More deals here. I have used their daily deal too.

Kindle 3 Review

Mark Treadwell — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 03:56:17 GMT

I recently upgraded from the second to the third Kindle version. It was not by choice. (Note: A Kindle cover is useless when you drop a reader on one of its corners. No really … it was an accident and I did not say any bad words, though I certainly was thinking them.) So, now I have a new Kindle with all my old content onboard. I thought I would post a few impressions, in no particular order, after two weeks of use and after reading some teardown reviews.

See the updates on the unlighted cover issues below.

PROs

Smaller and lighter, though it is at the smallest comfortable size for my adult hands to hold.
More memory for more books.
Page turns and menu operations are faster.
The screen is sharper (better contrast), which is the most appreciated change.
The back is a rubbery feel plastic rather than metal.
Lower prices.
Excellent battery life (so far).
While very slightly thinner than the Kindle 2, the more rounded back edges give a better illusion of the unit being even thinner than it is. This was done by moving the various controls to a “thicker” bottom region. The bottom edge is not actually thicker than the rest of the unit, it is just full thickness all the way to the edge, hence it loses the tapered thinness illusion. You can prove it by holding a Kindle 3 sideways.
The power slide switch operates much better now. On the Kindle 2, it had a stronger spring, was a slippery metal, and did not protrude from the bezel very far. These issues are fixed on the Kindle 3.
The power slide switch is backlit, glowing green when you have moved it far enough. The switch backlight doubles as a power charge indicator, going from orange to green.
The Amazon lighted cover draws it power from the reader via the attachment points. This saves the weight and expense of external batteries at the cost of decreased run time from the system battery. (See the CONS section below, though)
The cover attachment points inside the reader received special reinforcement. After a round of bad press about broken front bezel plastic on the Kindle 2, Amazon added a special plastic fixture inside the Kindle 3. On the Kindle 2, Amazon relied on the metal back cover for strength. That left the weak front plastic as the failure point. In reinforcing the internal attachment points, they then had a good spot for providing power to the lighted cover. The reinforced attachment points firmly connect the removable cover to the front bezel and the internal support structure.
The forward and back buttons on the left and right sides are quieter.
The forward and back buttons on the left and right sides are harder to accidentally hit when picking up the reader.
The Home button moved from a big right side button to a extra width keypad button. Good choice.
The Menu and Back buttons have moved from the right side near the five-way controller to the keypad as extra width buttons.
The five-way controller shifted from a stubby joystick to a square keypad, making all keypad operations a press. Good design.
Native PDF reading, though zooming and panning could be easier.
Wi-Fi and AT&T 3G cellular connections.

Neutrals

The side controls have all moved to the bottom of the device: The power slide switch moved from the top to the bottom right, the headphone jack moved from the top to the bottom middle, and the volume rocker switch moved from the upper right side to the bottom left. The microphone and USB connector stayed on the bottom middle.
The keypad buttons are spaced closer together horizontally but not vertically.
The keypad space bar is slightly wider – five vice four buttons wide – even with the closer button spacing.
The Amazon covers come with an elastic band to hold it closed. I never had a need for such a device on the Amazon Kindle 1 or 2 covers, though it may be related to the stiffer cover hinge area.
The Amazon cover loses its identifying “Amazon Kindle” metal tag, replacing it with an embossed leather tab on the elastic band.
The “screen saver” images are unchanged.
Screen size in unchanged.
You get to choose from two bezel colors: white and dark grey (graphite).
The speakers moved from the rear bottom to the rear top to make room for the external controls which are now on the bottom.
Comes with wall power adapter and micro USB cable.
Packaging is recyclable paper except for the screen protector.
The 3G cellular module "operates globally on tri-band UMTS 850/1900/2100 wireless networks as well as quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 networks" per the manufacturer. There is a SIM card preinstalled.
The cellular antenna is at the top of the reader between the speakers and is huge compared to the miniscule Kindle 2 antenna.
The speaker grills are shaped the way they are because of internal arrangement constraints. Looking at the back of the reader, the battery is on the upper left side, just below the speaker which is oriented horizontally. The multi-frequency antenna between the speakers is a fixed width that required the right speaker to be rotated 90 degrees to fit, so it is oriented vertically. You can see the silver speaker cones through the grills.
The Wi-Fi antennas are mounted in the front bezel at the lower right corner looking at the front of the reader.
The Kindle 1 has a reset switch hole under the removable rear cover. The Kindle 2 has none. The Kindle 3 restores the reset switch (it is near the the power switch, facing the back) but does not provide a hole in the back cover to access it. Should it be required, you need to remove the back cover to use it. I had to use the reset button on my Kindle 1, but have not needed it one either of the two replacements.
The previous two back panel certification logos now have grown to fourteen with the addition of the worldwide GSM cell module. Other data on the back panel is the model number (D00901 for mine), FCC ID, IC ID, input voltage and assembly country. Good luck reading the black printing on a dark grey panel.
The reader serial number previously printed on the back panel is now only accessible via the directory menu in the Device Info area. You can also get the network MAC address there. This will certainly cut manufacturing costs.

CONs

The smaller size caused the deletion of the row of number keys from the top of the keyboard. This is a real PITA if you want to jump to a numbered location in a book. It also greatly irritated my three-year-old son who enjoyed pressing the number buttons while I was reading.
To get to the numbers, you now must push the “Sym” (Symbol) button and then use the five-way controller to cursor around the virtual list and select them one by one. Bad Design.
The slash (“/”) keypad button is gone. It is now accessed via the symbol list.
The removable cover attachment slots are spaced about 1 cm wider apart, making all Kindle 2 covers unusable. Unappreciated. This is likely due to the new reinforced attachment points and the lighted cover power supply feature. The Kindle 3 cover metal attachments are a longer design. The unlighted cover metal attachments have a nonconductive paint on them to prevent short circuits, while the lighted cover attachments look to be gold plated. The Kindle 2 cover attachments are conductive black metal and would be prone to short circuits which could drain the battery or even cause a fire if used with a Kindle 3. This element of the design certainly called for deleting the metal rear cover.
Update: The Amazon unlighted cover can cause the Kindle 3 reader to freeze or reboot. I only use the cover when I travel, and I had to manually reset it twice. One time it froze when I tried to wake the unit to read. It was an obvious freeze since the green LED behind the power slide switch stayed on when it is usually illuminated for a second or two. The units also forget to save the last read position. Both of our Kindle 3 units exhibit this behavior in their covers. They work fine without the covers. From the teardown photo galleries (my favorite is here), it appears that the power connection is via the lower cover connector. There are four system board contacts which are connected to sliding contacts in the lower connector attachment point, which is the one you pivot around to install the cover. My guess is that the power contacts are shorting leading to a “power bad” signal to the unit which prevents it from operating. Update to the Update: I called the Amazon Kindle Customer Service number (877-453-4512) and described our problems. They credited my account $70 for the two unlighted covers and applied a $50 special offer to my account that made purchasing two new lighted covers a no-cost fix. They did not want the old covers back.
The Amazon Kindle 3 cover is stiffer and not as easy to fold back for one-handed reading as the Kindle 2 cover is.
The Amazon covers are still an extra cost item.
The Amazon lighted cover is too expensive compared to the device. At $60, it is 43% of the cost of the $139 device, and 32% of the cost of the $189 device. Ouch.
Even the Amazon unlighted cover is pricey compared to the device. At $35, it is 25% of the cost of the $139 device, and 19% of the cost of the $189 device.
The Amazon cover does nothing to protect the reader if dropped – as I have proven. This is because the E-Ink display panel is glued to the front bezel plastic, so any impact shock to the plastic is transferred directly to the display panel. What you see on the front of the reader is the actual E-Ink display panel.
Moving the power slide switch to the bottom makes it more awkward to operate with your thumb.
Update: With use, the power slide switch is getting stiffer to operate and returns to its neutral position slower.
Moving the headphone jack to the bottom makes it uncomfortable to use headphones while reading on your back.
The forward and back buttons on the left and right sides are harder to intentionally hit when using the device.
The five-way controller Up button is uncomfortably close (for an adult finger) to the Menu button, which I have inadvertently hit.
The five-way controller Down button is uncomfortably close (for an adult finger) to the Back button, which I have inadvertently hit.
The size of the five-way controller is based on the visual alignment to the top and bottom of the adjacent rows of buttons rather than for ergonomic considerations.
The battery is replaceable only if you want to remove the back cover of the device (which can be done) but is not designed to be done easily.
The reader has an RFID tag inside the back cover of the device if you are concerned about such things.

Overall I like the device compared to its two predecessors. Would I upgrade just for the new features? No - unless I had a good resale of the old reader lined up.

String.Truncate

Mark Treadwell — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:32:39 GMT

After my previous post on truncating a .NET String at the end of a word, I thought that the simpler problem of just truncating a string to a specific length, while retaining all the rest of the code’s features, would have been obvious, but I got a couple of email requests. So here it is.

     /// <summary>

    /// Truncate a string to the specified length.

    /// </summary>

    /// <param name="value">The input string.</param>

    /// <param name="length">The maximum length of the returned string.</param>

    /// <returns>>A substring of the original, truncated to the specified length.</returns>

    public static String Truncate(this String value, int length)

    {

      return value.Truncate(length, false);

    }

    /// <summary>

    /// Truncate a string to the specified length.

    /// </summary>

    /// <param name="value">The input string.</param>

    /// <param name="length">The maximum length of the returned string.</param>

    /// <param name="addEllipsis">Specifies whether an ellipsis (...) is added to the end of the string.</param>

    /// <returns>>A substring of the original, truncated to the specified length.</returns>

    public static String Truncate(this String value, int length, bool addEllipsis)

    {

      // Return unchanged if no truncation required

      if ((value == null) || (value.Length <= length) || (length <= 0))

      {

        return value;

      }

      // Ensure length meets conditions

      if (addEllipsis && (length > 3))

      {

        length -= 3;

      }

      else

      {

        addEllipsis = false;

      }

      // Truncate based on passed length

      String work = value.Substring(0, length);

      // Optionally add ellipsis

      return (addEllipsis ? (work + "...") : work);

    }