blog.averetek

Creating a New Event Log Source for ASP.NET

2007-09-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

I was trying to set up error handling for a web app using the Windows event log and ran into trouble creating a new source. This code:

string SourceName = "New Test Source";

if (!System.Diagnostics.EventLog.SourceExists(SourceName))
System.Diagnostics.EventLog.CreateEventSource(SourceName, Application");

which has successfully run in the past, now throws a security error. Apparently ASPNET doesn't have permission to read the Security event log. Probably picked up in some recent security update.

I tried adding relevent permissions, but still ran into trouble. Reluctantly, I followed the advice under "First Approach" at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329291 and proceeded to manually add my new source directly to the registry. Worked like a champ, and now I'm back on the road again.

To avoid a little message in each entry protesting lack of info about event IDs, add a string for EventMessageFile. I used C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\EventLogMessages.dll.

Generating Unambiguous Codes

2006-06-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

An end user wrote to customer support for help because she couldn't get access to a site with the authorization code that had been generated for her.

The code she received was 0WUGOS. The first character is a zero, the fifth is the letter O. Depending on the font being used, they can be hard to tell apart. How much do you want to bet she was typing the letter O for both?

When writing a routine to generate a code that somebody will have to type in, it's a good idea to throw out any characters that could be easily mistaken for another. The letters I and O and the numerals 1 and 0 are the most likely suspects. If you really want to avoid any possible confusion, throw out U and V too.

SQL database and table sizes plus undocumented stored procedures

2006-04-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

As I extend my knowledge of SQL development I am constantly finding new tools that are undocumented. Here are some nice ways to know what state your database is in and some other tools to help maintain it.

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/032906-1.shtml

http://www.mssqlcity.com/Articles/Undoc/SQL2000UndocSP.htm

Atlas

2006-04-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is working on an AJAX toolkit called Atlas. Here's a good overview in the form of a screencast from Jon Udell. He interviewed Microsoft's Shanku Niyogi, who demonstrated some of the capabilities. AJAX extensions for ASP.NET, pretty cool!

Distributed computing & Enigma

2006-02-25T23:38:00.000-08:00

This is a cool opportunity to use technology to solve one of history's mysteries. The M4 project is using distributed computing to decipher the 3 original Enigma messages. The first message has already been broken. Binaries are available in multiple flavors for Windows and Unix.

M4 project home page

Symbol Characters in HTML

2006-02-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what's the best way to represent a symbol or special character in HTML? For example, if you want to display the registered trademark symbol (®), there are at least three ways to do so:

1) Enter the raw character - ®
2) Encode it using a numbered character entity - ®
3) Encode it using a named character entity - ®

There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. After a little searching, I found an excellent article on the subject at http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/tagpages/text.htm. In this case, they recommend going with the numbered character entity. Check out the article to find out why.

My must-have apps

2006-02-01T21:49:00.000-08:00

Most of my time is spent using Outlook, MSN Messenger, Visual Studio, and SQL Management Studio. Here’s my tidy list of other applications I use on a daily basis.

SlickRun – spend five minutes with this great application and then spend the rest of your life wishing you had thought of it. SlickRun is a free floating command line utility for Windows. I use it about 100 times per day and almost never use the XP Start menu anymore.

JetStat.com IIS Admin – while there are many utilities to let you run & manage multiple IIS sites in Windows XP, very few of them are as lightweight as this one. It runs in the tray, and when minimized consumes less than 2 MB.

.NET Reflector – Loetz’s Reflector is a class browser for .NET components. It disassembles and displays in VB, C#, IL, and Delphi. It also has an analyzer that enumerates class dependencies, allowing you to quickly see the impact code changes will have on the rest of your application.

UltraEdit – I use less than half of the features available and it still smokes any other editor out there.

OnTime – Dark Frequency standardized on AxoSoft’s OnTime for defect tracking. Feature-rich, highly customizable, and reasonably priced – the single-user version is even free.

Picasa – I have a million photos and this helps me organize them with Google's customary efficiency.

Cropper – Brian Scott’s simple screen capturing app that lets you selectively capture parts of your desktop. Outputs to GIF, JPG, PNG, and others.

iTunes – WinAmp may whip the llama’s ass, but iTunes it’s still the best platform for playing and managing my music. It’s an OK MP3 player but anyone can do that. The Smart playlists, hooks into the music store, and (of course) the iPod integration make it all work.

I also love my BlackBerry but who knows how long that will last…

More control

2006-01-20T16:30:00.000-08:00

I always want to know more about how to control what is going on with my computer. Here are some interesting and useful ways to control System and startup activities.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/maintain/featusability/systeman.mspx

Useful Run Commands for Windows

2006-01-19T21:15:00.000-08:00

Gurneet Ravikanth shares an extensive list of Windows commands you can init by using Start > Run.

Useful Run Commands for Windows

Command Completion

2006-01-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

This is an oldie but goodie. I spend a lot of the time working at the command line, and since I'm a two-fingered typist I'll take any shortcut I can find to save keystrokes. Here's a cool registry hack that I stumbled across some time back that forces the command processor to complete your command with the [TAB] key.

Go to Start > Run and type regedit.
Expand the My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\
Command Processor node.
Double-click the CompletionChar key and set Value Data to 9.
Close the Registry Editor.

Start the Command Processor, type cd \[TAB] and watch the magic. Subsequent [TAB] key presses will cycle through the available items alphabetically.

To my knowledge this works on all versions of Windows since NT 4.0.

Wealthy and a nerd? Here's your next Mercedes

2006-01-11T22:04:00.000-08:00

In my opinion there are few production cars that are cooler than the Audi S4, but check out the new Mercedes S-Class. Wired us running a story on it titled "The Ultimate Geek Car?".

It's equipped with night-vision, radar, massaging seats, and an automated acceleration/braking control system that maintains a set distance between you and the vehicle in front of you. It also goes 0-60 in 5.4 seconds.

Now if I only had $100,000 laying around...

[Wired] The Ultimate Geek Car?

Development SSL Certificate for Windows XP

2006-01-11T16:50:00.000-08:00

I had the need to install an SSL server certificate on my development machine. Of course, for development, nobody wants to go out and buy a real certificate from a real CA. I knew that many CAs offer free certificates for development, but you still have to jump through their hoops, wait for them to issue it, etc. There's also OpenSSL, but that has it's own set of hoops.

Turns out Microsoft has made available "Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Resource Kit Tools". One of the tools in the kit allows you to create your own self-signed SSL certificate. Very simple to use, with several overridable parameters if the defaults don't work for you.

If you need SSL on a Windows XP development machine, this looks like the way to go. You can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56fc92ee-a71a-4c73-b628-ade629c89499&DisplayLang=en.

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5000 Laser. Conclusion: Mediocre

2006-01-08T19:11:00.000-08:00

I’m a big fan of Logitech gear. I used to swear by Microsoft hardware but became a Logitech convert when I tried out a co-worker’s MX 10 00 mouse. It was amazingly accurate and smooth. I picked up a Cordless Desktop MX 1000 Laser kit for myself and really liked it.

I figured the MX 5000 Laser must be just as good, if not better, right? Not really. For the most part the design of the standard 102 keys is the same as the MX 1000, and for the most part it performs the basic functions of a keyboard properly (in the sense that keystrokes appear on the screen). It fails to meet expectations when it comes to the special features Logitech added.

The MX 5000 sports an integrated 102 x 42 pixel multi-function display. Logitech uses it to show the currently playing song (built-in iTunes and Windows Media support), IM alerts, and the output of the “smart calculator”, a calculator built-in to the keyboard. The keyboard also has everything else you’d expect; media controls, browser navigation, and “special” function keys.

The first thing I noticed is that the keyboard and mouse froze when my co-workers mobile phone rings. This sounds weird I know, especially considering the phone is not Bluetooth capable…just a regular old Nokia. Nonetheless it was predictable, and only a hard reboot of the machine would resolve it. Once there was more than 20 feet between his phone and the keyboard there was no longer an issue.

The other negative is that when the keyboard attempts to display an alert (like an IM contact signing in) on the LCD there is a 10-15 second window where keystrokes are delayed. Disabling the alert functions resolves this, but should I have to? The mouse also experiences delay at weird times but I can’t tie it to any event at this point.

This keyboard has touch-sensitive volume and zoom controls, replacing the volume wheel and media buttons of the MX 1000. The controls are positioned on the left side, which is intuitive to me, but their functioning is flaky. Occasionally the keyboard will take a second to recognize that I’m trying to adjust the volume and then it will rapidly make the adjustment to catch up. I assume this is because the keyboard is just sending a series of keystrokes that are queuing up. The play/pause/next/previous media controls are also touch-sensitive. In order to hit these buttons you actually have to apply pressure to the buttons, but they don’t give way when depressed, which I would expect. Another design problem with the media controls is that there’s no physical differentiation between the buttons so you have to look at them to press one. They’re also really small and grouped closely so I find myself hitting the wrong ones on accident sometimes.

On the plus side the battery life for the rechargeable mouse is great. It was out of the dock for over a week before it needed a charge, and then I just docked it for the night and it was ready in the morning. The keyboard runs on 4 standard AA batteries (included) and if it’s similar to the MX 1000 they will last a few months.

Also cool is the Bluetooth USB receiver that comes with the kit. The receiver is also a hub so it allows you to connect other Bluetooth devices to your PC. I connected my Blackberry 7100 to it in a few simple steps and it works reliably. The specs claim that it has a range of up to 60 feet, but I haven’t tested this.

Suggested retail price is $149. My recommendation is that you wait for the next pass before parting with your cash. From a functional standpoint it does more than most other keyboards but the features that it has that other keyboards lack are borderline gimmicky at best.

UPDATE @ 1/11/05: I'm returning this keyboard. After installing a series of updates from Windows Update I rebooted my machine, only to find that the keyboard could not make a connection to the Bluetooth receiver. I think MS must have pushed something in the update that messes with Logitech's Bluetooth implementation. So I plugged in a regular old PS2 keyboard to my system and no love. No love even after a hard reboot, jacking it in to the USB port, etc. The keyboard was fine in the BIOS but it disappeared once Windows started. I used Remote Desktop to get on my machine and I uninstalled the Logitech software. After that it was back to normal.

Logitech sucks for disabling the PS2 ports on my system, and their Bluetooth keyboard sucks too.