Fumbled Fumbles on the Microsoft Excel "Save As" Issue

I read a Digg post today, that some how made it to the front page, that just made me laugh. The author of the post was obviously very ignorant in his approach and lazy on research that went in to his blog post. See if anybody can find the Big Save As Button on the picture below. As one commenter on this article put it: ...

April 20, 2007 · 1 min · 193 words · Nick Berardi

Speeding up a Slow Outlook 2007

Just found a recent post by Scott Hanselman on how to speed up the slow load times of Outlook 2007, and I thougt it was worth passing on to my readers. Outlook 2007 has been pretty slow for me since I installed it. If you’ve got RSS Feeds Enabled and/or if you’re a packrat, Outlook 2007 can be a downright performance pig. I’ve got internal contacts that say that the Office team is hot on the tail of a number of really interesting issues. What can you do today? A patch KB933493 went live yesterday to help speed up access to large PSTs and OSTs. For now, you have to go get it. We’ll see what the future holds for this, but I suspect that Office SP1, whenever it comes out, is going to be a very snappy performer. Initial reports on this patch are positive. Searches are faster, Undos are faster, moving messages is faster, and moving quickly while reading in the preview pane is faster. The future bright on this one…I was really starting to get bummed about Outlook’s performance. ...

April 16, 2007 · 1 min · 182 words · Nick Berardi

Apple announces Leopard delays due to the iPhone

For all the Apple fans out there expecting Leopard to be released in June, David from TUAW has some news for you. Apparently late October is the new date for the next release of OS X 10.5. Many people blame Microsoft for taking extra time with Vista, to redo blaring security issues, however I don’t blame Microsoft or Apple, because we expect nothing less than the best software that money can buy from these companies, and if it takes a little longer to get it, then I am willing to wait.

April 12, 2007 · 1 min · 91 words · Nick Berardi

Creating a Vista like Search Box

Introduction In this post we are going to go over what it takes to create a control, and more specifically a Vista Search Box like control. Definition of Current Search Box The first thing to do when creating a new control for Windows Forms is determine all the states of the control. In our case the control states are rather simple: Inactive: Active: Text Entered: ...

March 26, 2007 · 6 min · 1095 words · Nick Berardi

Apple iTunes: Changing the error message doesn't fix the problem

Well it’s been a whole 8 days since the last Apple iTunes release 7.1 where Apple wanted us Windows Vista users to be unsecured so they could install the iTunes software. Now the latest version of Apple iTunes has been release, version 7.1.1, and it has the exact same problem except now they changed the error message. From: iTunes + QuickTime iTunes could not be installed because Visual Basic Script (VBScript) is not installed or has been disabled. Make sure VBScript is installed, turn off script blocking in anti-virus and personal firewall software, re-register VBScript, and then install iTunes. OK To: ...

March 20, 2007 · 2 min · 246 words · Nick Berardi

Windows Vista EULA Modified for Windows Anytime Upgrades - No More Limits

We’re making a small but significant modification to the Windows Vista End-User License Agreement (EULA) for Windows Anytime Upgrade. Customers who purchase a retail copy of Windows Vista and then upgrade to another version of Windows Vista using Windows Anytime Upgrade will be affected by this modification, while all other WAU licensing terms remain unchanged. Now, those customers will be able to uninstall their upgraded copy of Windows Vista and re-install it on another device (usually, but not always, a PC). The number of device-to-device reassignments is no longer limited, provided that Windows Vista has been uninstalled from the original device. ...

March 16, 2007 · 1 min · 141 words · Nick Berardi

Using Distributed Transactions in your Data Layer

Many developers use a pattern called ORM or Object Relation Mapping to generate data layers for their application. Many other developers choose to create their own data layers by hand. I have done both and I don’t have a preference of one over the other. With an ORM generator you have an easy to maintain data layer for your applications, when you create one by hand you have much more control of the data layer as far as object creation goes. ...

March 16, 2007 · 6 min · 1085 words · Nick Berardi

Remote Desktop for Linux

One of features in Windows that I could not live with out is the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). It is one of the best tools out there for remote viewing of your desktop. I use it at work to keep track of my Windows servers as well as log in to my desktop at home to do programming or check personal e-mail. Remote Desktop is fast, flexible, and doesn’t have the problem of having to do a full screen refresh to see what has changed on your desktop. So in a sense it is smart because it only updates the part of the screen that have refreshed. You don’t even loose screen refresh performance when you login to a machine through RDP and then launch another instance of RDP to remote in to another machine from your already remote machine, I find that very impressive. ...

March 14, 2007 · 1 min · 209 words · Nick Berardi

Apple iTunes 7.1 Released for Windows Vista

Well its offical Apple iTunes 7.1 was just recently released. This is the quote from the Apple Site on the release: About iTunes 7.1 for Windows iTunes is the world’s best way to organize and enjoy your personal digital music and video collection with your Mac. iTunes is also the easiest way to sync music, videos, and more with your iPod.With iTunes, easily create a digital music and video collection by importing your personal music CDs or downloading your favorite songs and videos from the iTunes Store. Create your own playlists, perfect for any mood or occasion. Burn playlists to CDs and play them on your home stereo, or sync iPod with iTunes and enjoy your collection in your car or on the go. What’s New in this Version Using iTunes 7.1, you can now enjoy your favorite iTunes movies, TV shows, music, and more from the comfort of your living room with Apple TV. iTunes 7.1 also supports a new full screen Cover Flow and improved sorting options to let you decide how iTunes should sort your favorite artists, albums, and songs. ...

March 12, 2007 · 3 min · 481 words · Nick Berardi

Visual Studio 2005 Update for Windows Vista

I was reading Tim Sneath’s blog today and noticed his post on the release of a Visual Studio 2005 Update for Windows Vista was released. It is a recommenced update for anybody using both of these products. The final release of the VS 2005 update for Windows Vista is now available. This update fixes most of the issues that you may have faced with running Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista. Install Visual Studio 2005, the Service Pack 1 update, and then the Windows Vista update to get a fully-supported developer environment. ...

March 7, 2007 · 1 min · 108 words · Nick Berardi