My GTD Post – Files and Documents Folder Structure

For those of you who don't know, GTD stands for Getting Things Done. I am slowly making improvements in my organization skills in my professional life. Recently I decided to take a closer consideration of my files and documents organization on my Vista laptop. I didn't really have a method to my madness as far as file organization went - some were in folders on my desktop, others were in a folder of the root of C, and yet others were in the profile structure provided by Vista. Two problems with this:

1. When I want to backup my important files I have no easy way of doing so.
   


2. The profile file storage provided by Vista gets cluttered with miscellaneous folders such as My Received Files, My Virtual Machines, Visual Studio 2005, etc., etc. It is often the default storage folder for several different programs.
   



So my requirements were as follows:






1. Contain all folders under one parent folder for easy backup


2. A hierarchy that could:
   - separate current and past projects
   - have a tree for media/docs


And this is what I came up with:







I've been using this for about 3 months now and it is working well thus far. For easy access I use shortcuts on my desktop. Additionally these shortcuts allow me to drop files directly into them as if they are folders living on the desktop.

Script Debugging Alternative in IE

Lately I have been experiencing problems with the Script debugger in Visual Studio 2005. The debugger is started by inserting a debugger statement in your code like so:

function doSomething()

{

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{

debugger;

document.write(i)

}

}

This method of debugging is great because it allows you to debug just as you would with server side code. There are several blogs on the web that go into detail about how to do this. The problem I am having is that the Visual Studio script debugger randomly hangs for no apparent reason.

The other day I was forced to search for a better solution to solve a particular problem I had. One way that I have done this in the past is to use alert() statements, which is just ok at best, so I started asking around at work to see what others have done. One solution that a co-worker of mine (Ryan Garrett) had used was to use document.write()to output information to a new window like so:

var win;

if (!win)

{

win = window.open("","debug","width=400,height=260");

for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{

win.document.write(i);

}

}

This is a simple concept, and helped me tremendously in the problem I was solving. The code above instantiates a new window, iterates through a loop 10 times and displays the value of the index on each pass through the loop. The if(!win) check reuses the same window on each pass through the loop. This is important when you have several values you want to output, it prevent a new window from opening up for every value you display. Below is a screenshot of the popup this code creates.

Gmail and Outlook 2007

I had some trouble setting up Gmail with Outlook 2007. It would receive mail just fine, but sending did not work. Something was up with the SMTP server settings. After enabling POP3 access in Gmail, which you are required to do, I did the following:

• Click Tools à Account Settings to bring up the email accounts dialog window.
  
• Click New.
  
• Then it prompts for type of account (Exchange, POP3, etc.). POP3 is default so click Next.
  
• The next screen prompts for name, email address and password. There is a check box at the bottom to manually configure server settings. By default this is unchecked so that Outlook will run the auto setup. Being a configuration kind of guy I decide to manually set it up to make sure all the settings are correct. So I check the option and click Next. (This grays out name, email address and password).
  
• I continued with setup per Gmail's configuring your email client: Outlook 2003 (Microsoft had very similar documentation).
  

So now I'm done, right? Well, sort of. I can receive email, but cannot send. When I click Send/Receive Outlook shows its usual message about connecting to server. And it takes forever. Eventually it times out with a general error about not being able to send mail. In the more settings section in Outlook email account setup, on the advanced tab there is an Outgoing server (SMTP) box where you can enter a port to use. Google and Microsoft both say to use port 465, which did not work. I found a post somewhere on the web to use some other port number (forgot what it was), but that did not work either. I went through and tried every combination of all the other settings that could be causing this to not work correctly but to no avail. I opened new posts on a couple of different high traffic sites to see if anyone could provide some light on the situation. I got several responses with suggestions but nothing worked.

What finally did work for me was to let outlook run through the auto setup – it changed the SMTP port to 587. Now I can send and receive mail! So the lesson here is to try the idiot proof way first, if that doesn't work then manually configure.

Vista Business

It's been a while since I've blogged mainly because work has kept me busy with exciting new technology, which has been ClickOnce, and some other things.

I've been running Vista on my home pc for about a month now. I started out with a 3.0 Ghz Dell, 1GB RAM, Geforce 6600 GT graphics card. I have upgraded to 3GB RAM and added a 2GB flash drive to take advantage of the Ready Boost feature, which works decent in my opinion. My Windows Experience Index started at 4.2 pre-RAM upgrade, and strangely enough it remains at 4.2 post-upgrade, but the performance of my computer improved drastically. I must admit I didn't fully explore all the options to speed up Vista by turning off certain features, but then again I wasn't too interested because I needed a way to justify buying more RAM right?? All-in-all I'm happy with Vista and the Office 07 suite. This blog is even being posted from Word 2007, which is much better than using the tiny rich text editor that blogger offers.

Some small projects I have on the plate are

1. My printer is setup directly to my desktop, I want to be able to print from my laptop via the wireless connection. I tried this once but had trouble.
   
2. Fix my Snap Server. It works I think, I just need to perform a hard reset and reconfigure it.
   
3. Setup an exchange server – I'm waiting on some old AMD equipment I will be using to build this.
   

 

Microsoft Action Pack questions answered

Last week I sent a list of questions to Microsoft about the action pack. Below are my questions.

* It looks like I will receive Vista Business, will I also receive Ultimate? or any of the other versions?

* Will I receive XP Pro? or any other older versions of Windows?

* Will I receive a full version of Vista and not just an upgrade? I need the full version.

* What is the difference between "Number of Licenses" and "Number of Client Licenses"?

And their response

We appreciate your interest in the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription. Currently, only the full version of Windows Vista Business Edition is provided in the action pack subscription.The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription software contents can be viewed at the following link:
https://partner.microsoft.com/global/program/managemembership/40013779

In addition to the software listed, you will also receive quarterly updates. Please note that the items marked with an asterisk are new. These products will be in the Quarterly Update kit.

The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription License allows the partner to utilize the software for internal business use, testing, demonstration, evaluation, and training. Subscribers will be issued product keys for offered products that use Windows Activation technology.

The software that is included in your Microsoft Action Pack Subscription does require product activation. The difference between Client Access Licenses is that these will allow you to access a server; while products with number of licenses will be for individual computers that do not access a server. Please use the production activation keys supplied on the CD sleeve or on the individual PID cards for the software that was included in the Welcome Kit. For additional information regarding the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription License Agreement, please visit:
https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/managemembership/actionpack/mapslicensing

Microsoft Action Pack - a deal!

What a deal this is! If any of you are developers and are not familiar with the Action Pack you really should look into it. Sometime last year I was considering an MSDN subscription. But at a going price of $2200 or so, it's a little much (although you do get ALL the software MS produces - except for games). The major difference between MSDN and MAPS is that MSDN includes Visual Studio. See official details here.

Two things you should know before purchasing:

• You will not receive a full version of Vista - only an upgrade from XP Pro.
  
  I can understand the intent behind this, but I don't really agree with the approach. Here is blog with more details. This was a rule that was put into place in summer of 2006 in attempt to prevent piracy. It seems that many businesses were using the licenses to distribute with new PCs, which of course if a violation of the agreement. So instead of focusing on the root problem of piracy by validating buyers as valid Partners, Microsoft has decided to treat the symptom. So we, the paying customers, are the ones who really suffer.
  
  
  
• No downgrade rights.
  


This one I do not understand. I, like many others, are in the situation of needing to have both operating systems available. I have some clients still on the 1.1 framework, and I'm not sure how well Vista supports this. Fortunately for my situation this isn't a big deal since I am a first time MAPS subscriber. I already have a licensed copy of XP Pro so I will just run a dual boot, or maybe a virtual machine (not sure yet) to have access to XP. My computer is also "Vista Ready" so I am not in need of hardware upgrades. For others who might have older hardware that Vista may not support are forced to upgrade their hardware as well, and the cost can increase significantly if multiple machines are being used.

Even with these two drawbacks this is still a deal. You get access to most of Microsoft's software with multiple licenses for one year, all for $299. As time and money allow I can't wait to setup an Exchange server, Sharepoint server, SQL Server, etc., not for production of course, but just to quench my personal thirst for technology.

Studying for the MCTS 70-536

It's late and I'm up studying for the MCTS 70-536. The first of 3 Microsoft certification tests I will take. The study guide/book for this one is almost 1000 pages! It's quite a task I've ahead of me. I'm finding that I'm developing a better understanding of the framework by studying for this. There is one school of thought that says anyone can take a test, that the certifications don't really mean much. I believe that you get out of it what you put into it. The results I want are a better understanding of the .NET framework and how to navigate it. I must continue to strive to understand everything at its root, or its relative root anyway. I'm NOT about to delve into assembler! But to understand the groundworks of the language I use everyday is important.

The book itself is laid out very nice. It's a study guide. Each chapter covers a particular topic divided into lessons. Each lesson has an estimated completion time, lab(s), review questions, terms, and practice tests. I also received a 15% voucher for the test when I take it!

Security Now Podcasts

A co-worker turned me on to Security Now, a podcast about Internet Security by Leo Laporte and mastermind Steve Gibson. It's not only fairly entertaining (although I know people who would beg to differ), but also VERY informative and for me, inspirational. So inspirational, in fact, that I have begun tinkering with my own home network - mainly just setting up a VPN at this point - but as time (and money) allows I will build a massively huge network. I even picked up some information that I have been able to use at work dealing with public and private key encryption and certificates. They cover a variety of topics including (but in no way limited to) encryption, VPNs, SSL, routers (wired and wireless), hubs, switches, malware, spyware, rootkits, etc., etc. If you are famliar with Steve Gibson then his reputation should speak for himself, if you have not then give them a listen and let me know what you think.

ClickOnce and RegFree COM

So I've been doing quite a bit of reading at work lately about the new ClickOnce deployment model from Microsoft, and I'm finding out how cool it really is. It is designed to install smart client applications to end user machines. It does so in a manner as to not impede on any user rights limitations in regards to the install. The book I read was Smart Client Deployment with ClickOnce, The author did a good job of giving an overview of the process(es) as well as touching on more than enough details for my needs. My favorite chapters included

• Chapter 2 Initial Deployment with ClickOnce - A complete walkthrough and explanation of what happens in a ClickOnce deployment.
  
• Chapter 6 ClickOnce Security - In particular I enjoyed learning about Trusted Root Certificates. This chapter also discusses user account permission levels and how ClickOnce is designed to work with low level accounts.
  
• Chapter 7 Prerequisite Deployment with the Bootstrapper - A bootstrapper includes any additional components or services that need to be installed along with the app, these usually require elevated privileges to install.
  

One particular problem I need to solve is how to include ActiveX objects in the install. You see the application is currently a web application and is being converted to a smart client by using a windows app that will house a custom browser that will access the original web application, make sense? While it is possible to include the ActiveX objects in the custom browser this is not desirable because they will likely go away in the not-so-far-off future anyhow. It will be much easier if I could manage them in the deployment model instead of in the code base, not to mention a little less overhead every time the new smart client windows app loads. Normally ActiveX objects, being the COM objects that they are, are registered in the Windows registry, thus requiring elevated privileges to install. One would think this would require a Bootstrapper if the objects are to be included in the install, but fortunately for us Microsoft has come up with a solution called Registration-Free COM. This essentially registers an ActiveX object in the application directory (using an XML manifest file) instead of the registry, and it is designed to work right along with ClickOnce! How great is that?!?! (My wife thinks me a little off kilter when I get so excited about these kinds of things) So it solves the problem of needing elevated privileges to complete the ClickOnce install. In addition it also helps to prevent any version conflicts between different users on the same machine and avoids any registry corruption issues (DLL Hell).

Purpose and Direction - Current Projects

The purpose of this blog is to explore new technology, and sometimes revisit the established, and share the knowledge I gain from those experiences. There are a couple of projects that I'm currently working on:

Setting up a secure VPN into my home network. I'm trying to do this using two Linksys routers, and a box running XP Pro.

Setup a file and a printer share on my home network. The main computer, in the office is running XP Pro, and the laptop I want to grant access to is running Vista Business. I have done this using 2 XP Pro machines, but not one XP Pro and one Vista. I'm sure this would be much easier if I installed Vista on both machines, but alas! I do not have enough licensed copies, one day, I will purchase an MSDN subscription and have access to all the goodies.