Installed Windows 7 RC

Having missed out on the beta I was happy to see anyone can download the Windows 7 Release Candidate. It took about an hour and a half to install in Vmware, but that's not surprising since my XP is running like a dog these days, and because I only have 1GB of physical RAM I could only allow the VM 768MB (1GB is the minimum).

I've had a quick play, and it seems similar to Vista at first glance. I haven't seen the UAC yet, but I've only played with the new versions of Paint, Calc and Stickies, and messed with a few things in the control panel.

Networking isn't working. Not sure if this is a problem with Vmware or Windows 7. Hopefully I'll have a dual boot working so I can test it natively soon. Maybe it'll be a good thing if I don't get it working though... Those cunning Microsofties have given us the Ultimate version so if I get used to it I doubt I'll want to buy one of the lesser versions when the time comes!

Skype listens on port 80!

Well, I had a little fright today. I tried to start up my Apache dev server on my PC and it said port 80 was taken! Now my internet connection hasn't been behaving itself recently, so I've been running TCPView (part of sysinternals) all the time anyway. A quick look at the list of connections there told me Skype was the culprit. Sure enough, if you look under Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Connection in Skype you'll see a tick box called "Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections". Obviously it's a way of getting through firewalls, but I'm not sure it should be on by default without me ever being told!

List all the fonts installed on a Windows PC (with Internet Explorer)

I wrote a web page to list all the fonts on a Windows system and give you a sample of text in each font. It's IE only I'm afraid.

http://www.michaelhinds.com/tech/win/fonts-on-windows.html

IE8 makes itself the default browser in XP

So I installed IE8 and it's nice. It renders much better than the last time I looked at it and haven't had to change any pages so far. Unfortunately they haven't grown out of the childish game of making IE the default browser. If you don't use IE as your main browser, you can change it back to Firefox or whatever in the usual way using "Set Program Access and Defaults" in Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs. However, if you click on a link from e-mail after doing this you'll still get IE! To fix the problem you need to:

1. Open any Explorer Window (e.g. My Computer).


2. Select Tools -> Folder Options


3. Under the file types tab, near the top there's an entry with no extension called "URL: HyperText Transfer Protocol". Select this.


4. Click advanced, click edit and change the application to your browser.


5. I couldn't be bothered looking up the DDE interface, so I just changed it to be the same as for the .html entry. For Firefox this just means changing the -1 to 0


6. Ok everything and e-mail links should open properly. Notice there are a couple of other protocols beside the entry we just changed which you might want to do the same with.

Finding current element in Firefox

Here's a little tip for people using the web developer extension for Firefox. Sometimes when using the "Outline current element", the path to the element is so long it doesn't fit on screen. To get the full path, leave the mouse where it is outlining the element you want, press ALT+D to jump into the address bar, tab until you're in the web developer box containing the path, then CTRL+C to copy the path to the clipboard.

I'm using Windows but no doubt you can figure out the same on other operating systems!

Walkers "Do me a flavour"

Builder's Breakfast wins it for me, followed by Cajun Squirrel. The rest all taste like they're supposed to but don't really work as a crisp. To be honest none of them would tempt me over the classic Walkers!

IE rendering mode

If you want to know whether you're in quirks or standards mode, enter this into the address bar:

javascript:alert(document.compatMode)

CSS1Compat = standards
BackCompat = quirks

Setting the time on Windows XP with NTP

I finally got around to installing ntp on our servers to help keep the times in the logs in sync with each other. It occurred to me that you might be able to do the same in Windows XP, and it happens to be trivial:

1. Double click the clock on the task bar.


2. Select the internet time tab


3. Enter an ntp server near you, e.g. ie.pool.ntp.org for Ireland. Read http://www.pool.ntp.org/use.html for other locations.

XP will update the time every week as long as you're on the net.

Chrome and Gustav

Today the BBC reported that although hurricane Gustav thankfully turned out a good bit tamer than Katrina, some areas of the Gulf Coast have been left underwater.
Also today, Google released their new web browser, and posted a video titled "The Story Behind Google Chrome". As I watched the various nerds sell the new product, I notice one chooses an, errr, interesting metaphor. Coincidence?!

KoolMoves says "One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed"

It's a bit of a no brainer, but if you get that error in KoolMoves you need to allow ActiveX controls to run in the Internet zone in Internet Explorer (I got it trying to preview a Motion Script effect).

In IE7 you either double-click the globe in the status bar , or go to Tools -> Internet Options and select the security tab.

Make sure the Internet zone is selected and click "Custom level..."

Scroll down to the ActiveX settings (there's a good few) and under "Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins" select "Enable".

Say yes to make the change, and Ok twice. You don't have to restart IE or KoolMoves, just reselect an effect and it should work. If it doesn't, make sure you have the Flash plug-in and check your other ActiveX security settings in the same place.

Colour (color) picker pipette tool

Yeah, some serious keyword stuffing in the title there. I can't believe I've only just found this little tool. It lets you select the RGB colour values for any pixel on screen by dragging from the system tray. It can automatically copy to the clipboard and has multiple formats including HTML/CSS, VB hex, HSB.

http://instant-eyedropper.com/

That's the PC version. For real designers there's this one for the Mac (check out the page in a decent browser to see the nice, scrolling app icons at the top):

http://www.freemacware.com/pipette/

Javascript framework feature comparison

This is a useful slide show, although be warned it's by the lead developer of jQuery, so most probably less than impartial:

http://www.slideshare.net/jeresig/javascript-library-overview/

This guy makes me laugh

Again and again! http://xkcd.com/74/

Another addictive game

This one won't have you up all night playing though, as it deliberately limits the amount of daily activity. It's called Cities and it's a good old fashioned MUD. The game has lots to explore and Quests upon which you can embark of increasing difficulty. Interaction with other players, a good (but possibly studenty) sense of humour and tantalisingly achievable tasks keep the interest levels up. LEEEROOOOOOYYY JEEEENNNNKIINNSS!! (?)

vi colour schemes

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~maverick/VimColorSchemeTest/index.html. Click on the schemes at the bottom, then click on a screenshot. Paste the code into your ~/.vimrc and enjoy tastefully subdued or gljarringly loud code.

Wav to mp3 converter

Found a nice wav to mp3 converter today. Now my phone goes "Eranu!".

Sub totals in List Builder (OpenACS)

Brian has written a nice guide to sub-totalling using List Builder.

Creating Windows Icons

Found a nice guide to creating .ico files on MSDN.

Web Rage

This is funny and scary at the same time. I think people who go around with sticks and knives are more dangerous than posting personal information online. Especially people with sticks and knives who are hyper-sensitive about rumours in chat rooms! (If this offends you Paul, I'm never in the house - try the office).

Accountability in Vista

Since the Sony rootkit fiasco, it seems Mark Russinovich has been propelled to fame and possibly fortune now that Microsoft have taken himself and his buddy Bryce Cogswell on as employees with the acquisition of Winternals.

Winternals sponsors Sysinternals, a collection of utilities for Windows techies that provide you with lots of ways of inspecting the behind-the-scenes workings of your Windows PC. Whenever I get that sickly feeling that someone's watching (you know, when the harddisk spins into a frenzy for no apparent reason, or when your firewall pops up and asks permission for an unknown process) I use the process explorer and tcpview to see if there's anything strange going on. You need a better than average knowledge of the operating system to be able to spot dodgy processes, but you by no means need to be a win32 kernel hacker (which I definitely am not!).

I've also used tools from Sysinternals to see what files are still in use by my removable devices when they won't eject. There's nothing worse than realising you've a train to catch in 2 minutes and then not being able to remove your removable disk because Windows won't let go of it, without telling you why!

So, from Mark's blog it sounds like Microsoft intend to carry on the good work and even open up the licensing. He also says:

Comprehensive performance instrumentation of everything from disk I/Os to context switches and hard page faults is active on all Vista builds deployed internally and end-users can simply open a desktop shortcut to submit a trace of any sluggish system behavior they experience.

If this instrumentation stays in the commercial release it will be such a big step forward. How many times have you sat there staring at the System Idle Process running at 99% CPU and thinking "now that's not really the case, is it Mrs XP!". So fingers crossed they keep this in and let us keep an eye on our own PCs. Or failing that, hopefully they'll forget to take it out in the rush to get the product out of the door!