Line by Line

Vista becomes self aware

2009-06-08T07:01:00.003-08:00

Hoho haha. Yeah. Having never used Windows ME, Vista x64 has been the most disappointing operating system from Microsoft that I have used. If only the 64 bit XP edition had turned out better.Here's to hoping Windows 7 will be the new XP!

Email Casualty

2009-05-14T13:39:00.004-08:00

Back when Gmail was still invite only and pretty new I managed to get an invitation and get my name without any numbers or symbols or abbreviations. It was great. The kind of email address you always hope for.Now, years later I'm starting to regret it. There seem to be lots of Jakes out there and they keep using my email address.It's been manageable up until today when I was forwarded some

HTML Controls in ASP.Net

2009-05-14T07:29:00.004-08:00

The more I use ASP.Net the more I move toward (almost) plain old HTML.For example:I am in a Panel

I am in a div

I used to use Panels to conveniently show and hide blocks but I found that I've slowly been moving to using DIV tags with the runat="server" attribute. What's the difference? Well, with a div I get to

AJAX.Net

2009-05-14T06:58:00.004-08:00

In the past (and in the present) I have used a custom built Ajax library for making my Ajax calls and handling the responses. It's simple, supports plain text, XML and JSON, and handles multiple requests, cancellations and errors properly.In the less distant past I began using ASP.Net Update Panels and AJAX.NET libraries. In some cases they are convenient and easy. But I'm finding in most

Stable Sort

2008-03-18T15:34:00.002-08:00

.Net does not use a stable sort for its List Sort method. Watch out!A stable sort is a sort that preserves the original order for items that are considered equal.For example, take the following list of objects:Name, GroupJohn, Group 3Sally, Group 2Bill, Group 2Joe, Group 3Alf, Group 1Now, sort these objects on the 'Group':Alf, Group 1Sally, Group 2Bill, Group 2Joe, Group 3John, Group 3You'll

iPod Touch - 2 months later

2008-03-11T11:18:00.002-08:00

I've had my iPod Touch for a couple of months now and things are going well. Rather than ramble I'll just skip to the lists:ProsLong battery life (compared to Pocket PCs I've had in the past). I get about 2 weeks out of it if I don't use the WiFi. This is up 700% from my last PDASnappy and good looking.No stylus. Sometimes I just want to use my finger without bothering with a stylus and the

Firefox, Transparent Proxy and Authentication

2008-03-11T10:59:00.001-08:00

Firefox is my browser of choice. But it does not always integrate smoothly into the office environment.In our environment Internet access is made through a proxy server. We are required to authenticate to the server using our Active Directory credentials before access is granted.Recently we switched over to a transparent proxy. This has been a good thing as it simplifies configuration, doesn't

Instead of Enum

2008-01-16T11:56:00.001-09:00

Since I tend to ramble I'll start this out with the code.using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Reflection;public class MyEnum{ #region Fields private int id; // Other values private string name; private bool archived_flag; #endregion #region Static Pre-defined instances (this is the enum) public static readonly MyEnum Empty = MyEnum.Factory(-999, string.Empty); public static

iPod Touch

2007-12-31T14:57:00.000-09:00

Merry Christmas!I've been wanting a new PDA with much longer battery life. There isn't much out there any more. PDAs seem to be on the way out. I'm not ready for a cell phone bill yet and couldn't afford most of the Smart Phone or the iPhone.I hoped to find something that would let me go for a week without having to tether. But anything would be better than the abismal battery life of my Axim.

SWFUpload v2.0

2007-11-30T11:23:00.000-09:00

SWFUpload v2.0 has been "pre-released" at www.swfupload.orgPre-released means the Flash Source, Flash SWF, and JavaScript are available but that the demos are not yet updated and documentation is not done.What's NewFlash 8 and Flash 9 versionsFlash 9 version includes support for retrieving server data and sending additional POST valuesMany bug fixes and Flash Player bug work-aroundsPlug-insv1.0.2

JavaScript Date Object Tip

2007-10-31T15:01:00.001-08:00

Quicktip: Nov. 31, 2007 == Dec. 1, 2007BackgroundI had to repair a JavaScript based calendar popup tool today. For some reason November was not being displayed correctly. It had the correct number of days but November 1st was on Saturday, not Thursday.This issue only manifested itself when the current date is the 31st day of the month and only caused display problem for months with less than 31

SWFUpload has a new Home

2007-10-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

SWFUpload has been offered a new home. After checking with the guys at mammon.se we've decided to accept a very gracious offer for hosting SWFUpload. Thanks Rob!Come visit, chat, log bugs and ask questions at the new www.swfupload.org website.The next little while will be a transition period and you'll probably see a bit of fluctuation on the site. Hopefully swfupload.org will become a great

SWFUpload Revision 7 beta 3

2007-10-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

I decided I'd better get beta 3 out there. I've been too busy to test it and the demos as well as I'd have liked to so please forgive anything I've neglected. The updated demos and source have been posted in the usual place.ChangesFixed the Flash Version Detection. SWFUpload "should" properly detect Flash Player v9.0.28.Fixed a left-over event call when cancelling an upload.Fixed out of order

SWFUpload Revision 7.0 beta 2

2007-10-08T21:27:00.000-08:00

Update: Revision 6.2 & 7 require Flash Player 9.0.28 or higher. However they fail to do proper checking to ensure that the necessary minimum Flash Player version is present. I will release an update to the R6 and R7 lines shortly.Revision 7 beta 2SWFUpload Revision 7.0 beta 2 is out!. I even updated the demos this time. It's all posted at the usual place: http://swfupload.praxion.co.za/. Many

SWFUpload Revision 7.0 Beta

2007-09-19T09:14:00.000-08:00

I have almost completed work on Revision 7.0. I think the coding on the SWF and JS files is done. But I have not had time to convert the demos. I decided to post a "Beta" since I don't know when I'll have time to come back to the demos and documentation.The R7 beta will be available at http://swfupload.praxion.co.za/R7 NotesThe API has change significantly for R7 (that's why is R7 and not R65)

SWFUpload Revision 6.2 Release

2007-07-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

So, here I am releasing a new version even though I said I wasn't going to. Some bugs were fixed that warranted a version change and forced me to change some functionality.Revision 6.2Fixed the Type Coercion errorFixed FileComplete not firingAdded setting that indicates whether FileComplete or ServerData should fire (both call the FileComplete JavaScript handler)Fixed a race condition (see R6

SWFUpload Revision 6 Release

2007-07-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

Update 7-5-2007A couple issues were found in Revision 6. The major one was another race condition that could occur in IE6. Hopefully these race condition bugs have finally been squashed. A few other issues were found but were not noticeable since they kind of canceled each other out.I've posted updated Demos and Source code. I'm not updating the version number so if you downloaded a copy

Checkboxes in Repeaters (ASP.Net 2.0)

2007-06-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

Every 3 or 4 months I build a website that uses a list of check boxes to allow the users to make a selection from a list of items.Every 3 or 4 months I fight, curse, and swear at ASP.Net and its databound controls (okay, I don't curse or swear but I do fight).So, I've just finished doing it all again and this time I'm going to write it down so I don't forget how it's "supposed to be done".

Revision 5.2 update

2007-05-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

I have posted an update to SWFUpload Revision 5.2. It does not add new features so I decided to keep the version number. Several function names have changed, however, so you can't just drop in the new swfupload.swf and swfupload.js files.ChangesAdded the Application Demo which demonstrates a working upload script and dealing with passing PHP Session IDs to the upload script as a work-around to

HTML

2007-05-04T12:04:00.001-08:00

I am frequently amazed at the new "old things" I discover as I continue in web development. For example, I'm coming around to using the H tags and the P tag for markup. I've always used spans, divs, and brs.My most recent "discovery" is the button tag. This little jewel has its problems but it gives me some of the flexibility that an input type="button" just doesn't provide.See for yourself:

SWFUpload Revision 5.2 Release

2007-05-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

Edit: If you downloaded R5.2 before May 4th you should download again. I made some minor fixes that I missed:Zero file size limit fixed to mean unlimitedDefault flash width/height set to 1px to work better in Linux (also default color set to #FFFFFF since it is visible in Linux./EditAlright. I've completed another overhaul and feature creep cycle in the SWFUpload Revisions. I'm going to have

SWFUpload R5 Release!

2007-04-24T15:45:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to announce the release of SWFUpload R5 (my heavily modified version of the original SWFUpload).I'm also pleased to announce that Tarkheena has graciously provided hosting for the SWFUpload R5 demos and downloads.And a final thanks to Lars and the SWFUpload team. They have created a great upload control and it's been great expanding on their work.SWFUpload R5 New Features and

Destroying ASP.Net with an IFRAME

2007-04-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

Today, while implementing a "Thank you after download" page using the iFrame method, my page suddenly began throwing ArgumentExeption: Invalid postback or callback argument. I could not, for the life of me, figure out what was causing it.I wasn't doing anything funny with any server-side controls and the page had been working just fine before I added the download code.I turns out that I was

How To: Redirect After Download

2007-04-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

Don't!I don't think you can. I googled a bit and gave up. Then I decided to check a page where I've seen it done: Source Forge. Turns out that they cheated!So, the answer is still "don't", however, we can do what SF does and...fake it!What I want to happen:Our user sees a link to a download and clicks it.The Save As... dialog appears and the user selects the location.The browser displays a "

SWFUpload R4 Update Release

2007-04-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

I've fixed a couple of issues and added some features to SWFUpload Revision 4.Cleaned up the code. Removed unused code. Added more error checking. Added more comments. (Both Javascript and ActionScript)Removed create_ui feature that would add a link to queue up files. The feature was too incomplete to bother with. You should build your own UI and use the ui_target, degraded_target and the