Tim Hibbard

C# Code to install MSI silently and know when it is done

If you want to install an application that is packaged as an .MSI and you want to know when the application has finished installing, use this code:

string installerFilePath;
installerFilePath = "C:\\Program Files\\CCS\\Downloads\\CCSRPTSetup.msi";
System.Diagnostics.Process installerProcess;
installerProcess = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(installerFilePath, "/q");
while (installerProcess.HasExited==false)
{
     //indicate progress to user
     Application.DoEvents();
     System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(250);
}
MessageBox.Show("done installing");

posted @ Thursday, December 28, 2006 10:39 AM | Feedback (4) | Filed Under [ .NET ]

Pete wants you to talk smack on Mashable

Pete Cashmore, who writes a blog you should subscribe to if you care at all about web trends, wants you to insult his posts.  And he is going to pay you $500 to do so.

whoever leaves the most amusingly witty derogatory comment on specific Mashable posts between now and Friday, January 5th will win $500 paid by Paypal or check. Cursing isn’t allowed, but everything else is fair game.

Here is a good post to start slamming.

What a great promotion effort!

posted @ Thursday, December 28, 2006 8:20 AM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Where's Tim Social Geocoding ]

No VSTS For Developers yet

We were supposed to get Visual Studio Team Edition for Developers in the mail by the 20th of this month (Dec 06).  It still hasn't come and I don't see it on MSDN.  Time to get back on the phone with Microsoft.

posted @ Wednesday, December 27, 2006 9:09 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ EnGraph .NET TFS ]

Windows Mobility Center

Try WinKey + X on your Vista laptop for this bad boy:

Handy software, awful name.

posted @ Saturday, December 23, 2006 11:16 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Vista ]

Dog Whisperer blog

I'm a huge Cesar Millan fan and have learned so much about proper dog training from his show on National Geographic.  I just found his blog and rss feed.  His latest post is about dogs as co-workers.  Joey has been coming to work with me ever since we got our office.  It's easy for me to get too plugged into my current project and taking him for a walk or playing with him provides a nice mental reboot from time to time.

posted @ Thursday, December 21, 2006 6:18 PM | Feedback (2) | Filed Under [ EnGraph ]

It's officially an office now

Since EnGraph's productivity has gone through the roof with Team Foundation Server, we now have time for other things.  Like installing our KU basketball hoop (9 months after moving in):

I used to be a deadly shot back in the days of Kyle's basement.  Now if only Joey will give me the ball back:

posted @ Wednesday, December 20, 2006 7:25 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ EnGraph TFS ]

Top six blog posts from Kyle in 2006

Most bloggers do some sort of self-gratuitous year-end post where they talk about all the great things they have blogged about over the last year.  I tried to come up with a post like that, but I found that I only talk about Where's Tim.  So instead, I thought I would pay homage to the greatest Director of Software Development that EnGraph has ever had - Kyle Archer.

In no particular order, here are my top six posts from KJA this past year:

EnGraph to attend n4a this summer
My Visual Studio Experience - Episode 1 - still waiting for episode 2
Kyle's Bachelor Party
Tim can do it all
We did it!
The US Open, Phil and Johnny Miller

Merry Christmas

posted @ Tuesday, December 19, 2006 2:22 PM | Feedback (2) | Filed Under [ EnGraph .NET GPS Mapping Where's Tim ]

Cardiff University article about geotags and Social Geocoding

Iain Martin (a student on the post graduate diploma in journalism at Cardiff University) wrote an article about the mainstreaming of geography and geotagging journalism.  He talked briefly about Where's Tim and included some of my quotes on how GIS will impact various industries.  He even mentioned Social Geocoding.  Well, it was in a quote from me, but he still published it!

He also spoke of Jerome Dobson and his concerns of loss of privacy.  It's funny how we always get mentioned together in articles.  Even though we pretty much agree on the same ideas, we are publicly represented as opposite ends of the spectrum with regards to proper GPS consumption.

posted @ Tuesday, December 19, 2006 9:09 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ GPS Mapping Where's Tim Social Geocoding ]

To the trash, to the trash

I heard the Beyonce song, Irreplaceable, on the way to work this morning.  I threw up a little in my mouth when I heard this nugget of poetic genius:

I could have another you in a minute
Matter fact, he'll be here in a minute

Come on, you're telling me that they couldn't come up with a word that rhymes with "minute"?  Has music in general become this bad, or do her managers think that her popularity will make any song successful, regardless of lyrical content? 

I think she peaked at Austin Powers and she's not nearly as hot as everybody thinks she is.

posted @ Tuesday, December 19, 2006 7:38 AM | Feedback (0) |

I've never been this excited to pay a traffic ticket

I got a ticket a couple weeks ago for "Unsafe passing" when I went to see my parents for Thanksgiving.  The officer actually was pretty nice and gave me a break on the other infractions.  Anyways, I went to pay the ticket today and I saw on the paper "Pay online at www.iowacourtsonline.org".  The website looks like it was coded five years ago, but it worked and I was able to pay my ticket online and on time (it was due tomorrow).  I bet the states save a lot of money by offering this service.

posted @ Monday, December 18, 2006 12:31 PM | Feedback (0) |

Remote Desktop Connection warning on Vista

When remotely connecting to a computer that is not running Vista, you will get a message saying that it cannot verify the identify of the computer you want to connect to like this:

To automatically override this warning, change the Authentication options like this:

1) Open Remote Desktop Connection
2) Click "Options"
3) Click "Advanced"
4) Select "Always connect, even if authentication fails" from the Authentication options drop down box.

posted @ Sunday, December 17, 2006 11:43 AM | Feedback (2) | Filed Under [ Vista ]

GTA on I-435

For the Vice City fans, I saw this yesterday in Kansas City:

Ugh, my windshield is dirty.

posted @ Friday, December 15, 2006 9:53 AM | Feedback (1) |

One is the loneliest number...

Jeff shared his Vista score, and I am almost embarrassed to share my laptop's score:

I still love my D610 though, this thing hums.  Literally.  It does this strange humming sound every now and then.

posted @ Friday, December 15, 2006 12:39 AM | Feedback (3) |

New Vista short cut keys

Rolvin Pagunsan talks about some new Win key combinations.

My favorites are Win-Space (show sidebar) and Win-Number to launch applications in your quick launch toolbar.  Like Win-3 to launch VS 2005 since that is the 3rd application in my quick launch toolbar.

posted @ Thursday, December 14, 2006 10:53 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ Vista Keyboard Shortcuts ]

Update on Sprint blocking my mail

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about Sprint blocking my SMTP server from sending text messages to my cell phone from Where's Tim.

After I changed the code to send messages people send me through a different mail server, it worked fine for a week or two.  I noticed last week that they were not coming through again and sure enough, they blocked me again.

I apologize to anybody that has sent me a text message on Where's Tim and I haven't replied.  I still kind of get the messages via the RSS feed, but they are not coming to me directly.

I need to get this fixed, does anybody know anybody at Sprint that might be able to help me out?

posted @ Thursday, December 14, 2006 10:09 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Where's Tim Mobile ]

Sprint Mobile Email

I loaded the new Sprint Mobile Email java client on Kyle's phone (MM-A920).  The install was easy, I connected it to EnGraph's mail server in less than a minute.  The interface is simple and you can even enable SMS alerts when you get a new message. 

posted @ Thursday, December 14, 2006 9:26 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ Mobile ]

Changing your hosts file in Vista

By default, if you try to modify your hosts file in Vista, it will not let you save it.  It tells you that you don't have permission.  To successfully modify the hosts file, run notepad.exe as an administrator and open the file.

1)  Browse to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories
2)  Right click "Notepad" and select "Run as administrator"
3)  Click "Continue" on the UAC prompt
4)  Click File -> Open
5)  Browse to "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc"
6)  Change the file filter drop down box from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All Files (*.*)"
7)  Select "hosts" and click "Open"
8)  Make the needed changes and close Notepad.  Save when prompted.

 Check out Where's Tim, real-time GPS on Google Maps!

posted @ Wednesday, December 13, 2006 6:00 PM | Feedback (73) | Filed Under [ Vista ]

Using Authenticated SMTP server for TFS email alerts

I was having problems getting new tasks and build alerts from TFS.  I found this post by Vertigo that gave me a great jump start.  But, it didn't tell how to authenticate against our SMTP server.  Based on a SWAG (Scientific Wild A** Guess), I added smtpPassword and smtpUser keys to the web.config.

It worked like a champ and now our web.config in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\Web Services\Services looks like this:

...
    <add key="emailNotificationFromAddress" value="tfs@domain.com" />
    <add key="smtpServer" value="mail.domain.com" />
    <add key="smtpPassword" value="password" />
    <add key="smtpUser" value="user@domin.com" />
...

posted @ Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:45 AM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ .NET TFS ]

Source Control in TFS - No commands available

I freaked out this morning because I thought I screwed up our Team Foundation Server by using the TFS Admin tool to modify some permissions.  Apparently, you are not supposed to use this tool on non-domain based installs.

When I pulled up our source control, right clicking on anything gave an empty menu that said "No commands available".  After googling around, I found Grant Holliday's blog, which told me to make sure TFS was set as my default source control provider.  Turns out that Vault put itself back as the default provider.  It's probably not Vault's fault.  I've been viewing Vault control projects as I migrate them over to TFS.

posted @ Tuesday, December 12, 2006 8:07 AM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ .NET TFS ]

Do's and Don'ts of becoming Certified - Installing TFS

I've been chin deep in confusion the last week getting EnGraph to be official Certified Partners and installing Team Foundation Server.  Luckily for me, there is a lot of good information online so I thought I would post a mini-guide:

DO ask lots of questions to your Microsoft rep about becoming certified

DON'T freak out when the partner's site opens 15 new Internet Explorer windows

DO follow the competencies instructions as close as possible

DO worry when you don't hear back from Microsoft after three months

DON'T wait until your existing MSDN subscription runs out (sorry about that guys)

DO call Microsoft and find out you didn't assign your competencies correctly

DO spend over an hour on the phone getting everything straightened out

DON'T ask the tech support guy how to spell Microsoft when entering a url (I thought it was funny)

DO make a blog post about being certified

DO order a new server for Team Foundation Server from Dell

DO take a picture of your Certified Partners banner

DO follow this guide very closely when installing TFS

DON'T worry when you forget to log in as TFSADMIN to complete install

DO spend lots of time on TeamSystemRocks.com

DON'T uninstall and reinstall Team Explorer 6 times when you can't write unit tests

DO lots of research and find out you need Team Edition for Developers to write unit tests

DO wave a finger in the air at Microsoft for making 15 versions of Visual Studio 2005

DO give much thanks to Mickey Gousset for helping you figure out exactly how to get Team Edition for Developers

DO call Microsoft to find out why you don't have Team Edition for Developers

DON'T let the Certified Partners tech support transfer you to MSDN tech support

DO find out that you will get Team Edition for Developers in the mail

DO sleep easier knowing that your company won't have to spend more money to write unit tests

posted @ Friday, December 08, 2006 8:08 AM | Feedback (4) | Filed Under [ EnGraph .NET TFS ]

I would also miss the moon

Only Scott Adams could make a point for sending a nuclear bomb to the moon to avoid future religious wars.

Let’s vaporize the moon before it gives the Muslims and Jews one more reason to fight.

Hilarious.

posted @ Tuesday, December 05, 2006 3:58 PM | Feedback (0) |

Changing the default report interval in TFS

Dave Donaldson, who gave a great presentation at HDC, talks about working with TFS and changing the reporting interval from the default time of 3600 seconds.

posted @ Tuesday, December 05, 2006 12:24 PM | Feedback (1) | Filed Under [ .NET TFS ]

Why Dell is the best

I ordered a new server and workstation from Dell on Friday.  Not only did they give me 60 days same as cash, but they shipped our server on Saturday.

The representative gave me his direct line and said to call him anytime I need something.  I recommend him to anyone needing new hardware:

Matt Moore - 512.723.5850

posted @ Monday, December 04, 2006 5:54 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ EnGraph ]

Tracking runners

jeepx reports that the University of Washington has released a report that they found a way to track people without their consent or knowledge when they are using the iPod + Nike sport kit.

The iPod + Nike kit tracks the distance you have traveled by submitting information wirelessly from the sensor in your shoe to your iPod.

They say that the internet-connected tracking kit could be built for less than $250 and would work up to 60 feet from someone using the iPod + Nike kit.

The tracking application is completely demonstrative and they do not plan to release the source code or details.

They also say that this security flaw could have been easily avoided by existing cryptographic techniques.

Hopefully, Apple and Nike fix this flaw so we don't lose consumer trust.

posted @ Sunday, December 03, 2006 10:00 AM | Feedback (0) |

Football, Basketball and System.Security.Cryptography. The perfect Saturday

I didn't really like how I was storing some of our SQL connection information.  It was buried deep in the file system in an XML file, but it was still plain text.  So I spent my day looking at the different encryption options in the .net framework.  I needed it to be two-way encryption so our objects could still work with it, so I decided on Rijndael.  I found some great code, modified what I needed and wrapped it in one of our objects.

It works pretty well.  Now only if KU could have pulled it out...

posted @ Saturday, December 02, 2006 7:51 PM | Feedback (0) | Filed Under [ EnGraph .NET Sports ]

KU GIS Day 2006 slides online

The GIS folks at Kansas University have put the slide decks from GIS Day 2006 online.  Hopefully they will have the videos posted soon.  My slide deck (in pdf) is here.

Here is my wrapup post for the day.

posted @ Friday, December 01, 2006 8:13 AM | Feedback (3) | Filed Under [ Mapping Where's Tim ]