Summer Rants

NW Media Focuses on Earthquakes

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:20:32 GMT

Of interest on KCTS-9:
Cascadia: The Hidden Fire
Tuesday, 6/8/10, at 8:00 p.m.
Seismic events around the globe offer insight into the super-quake-prone areas along the Pacific Rim. Producer Michael Lienau will join us in studio.

Also note that KUOW, 94.9 FM, local NPR affiliate also hosted a series on Earthquakes this last week to apparently coincide with the KCTS show.

King County Emergency Management Advisory Committee

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:14:06 GMT

EMACS is both the King County Emergency Management Advisory Committee and the Homeland Security Region 6 Homeland Security Council. The latest org chart lists the key players. This is also available long range on the wiki at: http://vashoneoc.org/Reference/KingCounty.aspx

Support Wikipedia!

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:53:24 GMT

Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts – The Complete List (reformatted yet again)

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:40:40 GMT

More...

ELOG Vashon EOC 24Oct09 Blizzard Exercise

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:03:00 GMT

ELOG Vashon EOC 24Oct09 Blizzard Exercise

Here is a copy of the Log Summary Page from the 24Oct09 Blizzard Exercise. Use the .MHT file if you are on Windows, as it has a couple (minor) embedded graphics files - which won't show up on the .HTM version.

Do note that links on either page won't work - at least not outside VIFR's firewall, and likely not unless you are on one the VashonEOC computers.

ELOG Vashon EOC 24Oct09 Blizzard Exercise.mht (66.8 KB).msg

Dislike Cookies? You won't like Adobe Flash Tracking Your Surfing Either!

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:10:15 GMT

It is only somewhat known that ad servers and aggregators track your visits through many different web pages with third-party cookies. But just getting rid of your cookies periodically is not enough to guarantee your surfing habits aren't known: Adobe's Flash player (also active on many web pages) can also be used to track one person's browsing behavior across many sites.

Generally this is just obnoxious, as it just results in targeted ads being sent your way. However this can be used in a darker fashion by less scrupulous individuals. It also should be possible to use these local storage files to reconnect you with all your old surfing habits - even if you try to be careful of your cookie use. (I only delete mine every 12 months or so.)

Surprisingly, the solution lies not on your computer, but on Adobe's web site (they now own Macromedia), at:
www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
where you can disable this setting on a machine by machine basis. (I suspect this implies they still capture all the data about you still, just that they don't release it.) Their explanation for all this is at:
www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

Moral of the story: Not all cookies taste good, eat (and surf) with discretion!

Windows 7 Hot Features

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:32:11 GMT

Here's Tim Sneath's helpful list of some cool new features for Windows 7. Of course a number aren't really new, but those were generally little known!

Also, from TechNet, are these handy Win 7 multi-monitor hot keys:

Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the active window or restore the window if it's maximized
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the active window to each side of the monitor
Win+Shift+Left/Right arrows: If you've got dual monitors, this will move the active window to the adjacent monitor
Win+T: Shift focus to and scroll through items on the taskbar
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that particular application

More TechNet tips for Windows 7 and other Microsoft products are also available.

I've been on Windows 7 for about a year or so and its the bomb!

Great List of Utilities & Dev Tools

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:06:21 GMT

It is always neat to learn about time savers and cool new utilities, but THERE ARE SO MANY! Fortunately, Scott Hanselman has compiled a useful list of the essential utilities to get some work done on a new computer and then also, for us developers, the cool dev tools of his choice, vetting them and listing just enough to decide if it is worth exploring.

MSDN Makeover

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:24:35 GMT

Microsoft's Developer Site is experimenting with a new look:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbpreview/

What do you think? (My initial reaction is that it is too distracting, sacrificing readability for cute/distracting graphics.)

Styling Code in your DotNetNuke Blogs

blog1@vashonsoftware.com — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:59:19 GMT

Interested in easily showing off code in your DNN blog — without writing custom CSS styles?

Solution 1:

Use the numerous free plug-ins for Microsoft’s Live Writer:

My current favorite is Source Code Formatter from Amer Gerzic (listed in Live Writer as “Source Code…”) includes the most flexible options for custom colors, selected text and more and includes source code:

  1: Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs
  2: Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities
  3:     Partial Class SiteMap
  4:         Inherits Framework.PageBase
  5:         Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"
  6:         Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000
  7:         Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
  8:             Try
  9:                 Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
 10:             Catch exc As Exception
 11:             End Try
 12:         End Sub
 13:         End If  ' Error!
 14:     End Class
 15: End Namespace

CodeSnippet from Leo Vildosola supports Visual Basic (used below), C# and a number of other syntaxes - but not yet VB.Net. There are a variety of options for formatting alternative lines, embedding styles, and so on:

   1: Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs   2: Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities   3:     Partial Class SiteMap   4:         Inherits Framework.PageBase   5:         Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"   6:         Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000   7:         Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load   8:             Try   9:                 Response.ContentType = "text/xml"  10:             Catch exc As Exception  11:             End Try  12:         End Sub  13:         End If  ' Error!  14:     End Class  15: End Namespace

Lavernock Enterprise’s Paste as Visual Studio Code provided a good set of options but requires the source to come from Visual Studio:
Code Snippet
Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs
Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities
    Partial Class SiteMap
        Inherits Framework.PageBase
        Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"
        Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000
        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
            Try
                Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
            Catch exc As Exception
            End Try
        End Sub
        End If  ' Error!
    End Class
End Namespace
Insert Code for Windows Live Writer by Omar, uses Jean-Claude Manoli’s C# formatting library: This shows up in Live Writer’s Insert menu as simply “Code…”.

   1:  Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs

   2:  Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities

   3:      Partial Class SiteMap

   4:          Inherits Framework.PageBase

   5:          Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"

   6:          Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000

   7:          Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

   8:              Try

   9:                  Response.ContentType = "text/xml"

  10:              Catch exc As Exception

  11:              End Try

  12:          End Sub

  13:          End If  ' Error!

  14:      End Class

  15:  End Namespace

Rich Editor for Windows Live Writer from Nicko Satria Utama handles C# and VB.NET, but without much formatting control:
Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs

Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities

    Partial Class SiteMap

        Inherits Framework.PageBase

        Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"

        Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000

        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

            Try

                Response.ContentType = "text/xml"

            Catch exc As Exception

            End Try

        End Sub

        End If ' Error!

    End Class

End Namespace
Paste from Visual Studio, from Douglas Stockwell (listed in Live Writer as “from Visual Studio…”) offers no options, and also requires the code to come from Visual Studio:
Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs
NamespaceDotNetNuke.Common.Utilities
    Partial ClassSiteMap
        Inherits Framework.PageBase
        Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"
        Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000
        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
            Try
                Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
            Catch exc As Exception
            End Try
        End Sub
        End If ' Error!
    End Class
End Namespace
Syntax Highlighter Plugin from Barry also apparently uses Alex Gorbatchev’s SyntaxHighlighter library – but doesn’t properly install it or embed the javascript:
Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs
Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities
    Partial Class SiteMap
        Inherits Framework.PageBase
        Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"
        Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000
        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
            Try
                Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
            Catch exc As Exception
            End Try
        End Sub
        End If ' Error!
    End Class
End Namespace

Insert Tag Snippet from Coskun Sunali, a Microsoft MVP, just wraps the code with and

, so doesn’t do any syntax highlighting:


              Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs
Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities
    Partial Class SiteMap
        Inherits Framework.PageBase
        Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"
        Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000
        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
            Try
                Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
            Catch exc As Exception
            End Try
        End Sub
        End If  ' Error!
    End Class
End Namespace
        
      

BlogMyCode VS2005 PlugIn from Tamir actually works from Visual Studio (select some code and right-click to auto-create a blog entry in Live Writer) – however won’t work if you have Visual Studio 2008 or 2010 installed, so I wasn’t able to test.

Insert Source Code Snippet from Code Past (Tamir) doesn’t know that the latest copy of Live Writer 2009 is installed, so fails to install. It also apparently requires that the source be copied from Visual Studio.

Synatx Higlighter [sic] 2.0 for Windows Live Writer by Prabir takes advantage of SyntaxHighlighter for Windows Live Writer, but many exposed features (line numbering, backgrounds) are unwritten, hence disabled:


Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs
Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities
    Partial Class SiteMap
        Inherits Framework.PageBase
        Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"
        Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000
        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
            Try
                Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
            Catch exc As Exception
            End Try
        End Sub
        End If  ' Error!
    End Class
End Namespace




Solution 2:
Code Prettify for Windows Live Writer only attaches 
 & 
 around the code already copied to your clipboard,so doesn’t bloat your code with embedded style definitions, but does require you:


Download two files from Google and put them on your server  in a location they can be read to pick up the styles. (I put them into the js directory at the root of the DNN site, as done for the next solution below too.)

Include the script and stylesheets in the  section of your site’s default.aspx document (you will need to make sure the css and js file are on your server, and adjust the paths in the script and link tag) 



Add onload="prettyPrint()" to your site’s default.aspx body tag. 

Manually modify the stylesheet to get the coloring you prefer.
Imports DotNetNuke.Entities.Tabs
Namespace DotNetNuke.Common.Utilities
    Partial Class SiteMap
        Inherits Framework.PageBase
        Const SITEMAP_PRIORITY As String = "0.5"
        Const SITEMAP_MAXURLS As Integer = 50000
        Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
            Try
                Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
            Catch exc As Exception
            End Try
        End Sub
        End If  ' Error!
    End Class
End Namespace


Solution 3:
Though a bit more work to set up, Alex Gorbatchev’s SyntaxHighlighter can deliver nice results too:
Part A: Making the styles available on your DNN site


Download the latest version and extract the zip file. 

Copy all the files from the resulting scripts directory, and merge all these files directly into your DNN site’s js directory: 

Add the following references to the  section of the default.aspx file at the root of the portal or site:
  1: <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/shCore.js">script> 
  2: <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/shLegacy.js">script> 
  3: <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/shBrushCSharp.js">script>
  4: <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/shBrushvB.js">script>
  5: <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/shBrushSql.js">script>
  6: <script type="text/javascript" src="/js/shBrushXml.js">script> 
  7: <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/js/SyntaxHighlighter.css">link> 
  8: <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/js/shCore.css"  />
  9: <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/js/shThemeDefault.css"  /> 
 10: <script type="text/javascript">  
 11:     SyntaxHighlighter.config.clipboardSwf = '/js/clipboard.swf';
 12:     SyntaxHighlighter.all();  
 13:     dp.SyntaxHighlighter.HighlightAll('code');   
 14: script>
 15: head>

 

 
Thanks to a variety of sources for this second solution:
   http://alexgorbatchev.com/wiki/SyntaxHighlighter
   http://www.pchenry.com/Home/tabid/36/EntryID/130/Default.aspx
   http://blog.threenine.co.uk/Blog/tabid/93/EntryId/15/How-To-Syntax-Highlighting-in-Code-Samples.aspx
   http://psykoptic.com/blog/post/2008/12/01/Code-Syntax-Highlight-Plugin-for-FCKeditor.aspx