Juice

Google API to Spell Check

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 05:02:26 GMT

ASP101: The Google web API "spell check" allows you to send a string of text and receive alternatives for misspelled words.

Disable the ContextMenu

Tue, 01 Feb 2005 00:06:00 GMT

10.13 How do I disable the default context menu of a textbox?

To prevent the default context menu of a TextBox from showing up, assign a empty context menu as shown below:

textBox1.ContextMenu = new ContextMenu();

Randy: This also works for disabling the Form ContextMenu on any Form control.

RemoveTags XSLT

Mon, 24 Jan 2005 17:26:59 GMT

Forget the application of this XSLT, it's actually got some good style and technique. I really like the removeTags and removeEntities templates. Well done!

A little shared memory wrapper

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 22:42:18 GMT

Richard Blewett: I've created a wrapper for named shared memory that was part of a larger project. It basically allows serialized types and object graphs to be stored in and retrieved from shared memory (including as you'd expect cross process). Whether the larger project ever gets completed is another matter ;-). You can find the zip here.

.NET Inspector

Fri, 21 Jan 2005 22:10:30 GMT

C#2theMAX: Use this browser to explore all the assemblies, namespaces, types, and members in version 1.1 and 2.0 of the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Specify Unknown File Type Options

Thu, 20 Jan 2005 04:59:22 GMT

WinGuides: Set the "(Default)" value to equal the description you want to use for unknown file types. Create a new sub-key called [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\Open\Command] and set the "(Default)" value to equal the command used to view unknown file types. Substitute the symbol "%1" to represent the filename in the command (e.g. "notepad.exe %1").

Transparent PNG Maker

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 21:33:09 GMT

Philippe Janvier: ...a simple web application where you can easily create transparent PNG images.

Link.

ASP.NET Authentication

Sun, 16 Jan 2005 17:49:34 GMT

I re-enabled my ASP.NET authentication sample today. I also fixed the IP address (internally, not externally), so it shouldn't disappear on the next power outage. Check it out!

HR-XML Public Mailing List

Wed, 12 Jan 2005 02:32:36 GMT

The HR-XML Consortium has setup a public mailing list. HR-XML is one of those big adventures in the XML space. It could pay off big, but the big-co's are fighting it.

Simple = Readable Code

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 08:28:08 GMT

I was looking for a random password generator in C#. I knew exactly who would have this bit of code; Google. The results turned up two really interesting sets of code.

The second, is simple and easily understood. It generates a random password. This is an example of simple clear programming.

The first, is very complex both in code and in very unhelpful comments. The author is so intent on proving his coding superiority, that the code is completely unreadable. The teacher always said to comment your code, so he's commented every line of code, even obvious ones. He even repeats the same comments over and over being careful to express each one slightly differently so that the reader doesn't get bored.

Keep it simple and stupid.

SQL Server fails to bind TCP port at startup

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 07:00:56 GMT

I struggled tonight w/ a weird security error until just a moment ago. It seems that I couldn't connect today to my basement server. After an hour, I figured out that my SQL Server wasn't listening on port 1433. WTF? An hour later, I found out that Microsoft was doing this intentionally and had dropped the following informational messages in the event log (should be upgraded to a warning).

You are running a version of Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (also called MSDE) that has known security vulnerabilities when used in conjunction with this version of Windows. To reduce your computer's vulnerability to certain virus attacks, the TCP/IP and UDP network ports of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, MSDE, or both have been disabled. To enable these ports, you must install a patch, or the most recent service pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or MSDE from

Wow! I guess I recently installed something (like XP SP2) that forces me to upgrade my server. Arggg! Three hours wasted. I haven't watched the Kill Bill movie, yet!

URL File Extension - Who Cares?

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 01:50:36 GMT

One thing that has really annoyed me over the last year is URL file extensions. Why do Webpages end in .aspx and .php, etc? Ok, actually, I can understand that .xml and .html communicate to the reader that he's viewing pages of this or that type, but .aspx and .php make no sense. Does the Web reader care what engine is rendering the pages. I can understand why Microsoft would do this, to advertise their product, but everybody else is guilty of bad Web UI design (yes, even me).

Even worse, is when Web developers redirect the root page to index.htm, default.aspx and whatever. The root is the root is the root. The user wanted to go there. Let him. Redirect unnecessary. In ASPX, that's Server.Transfer(), not Response.Redirect().

The operation completed successfully

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 19:26:42 GMT

When I use the NUnit.Extensions.Forms.KeyboardController class in more than one test in a test run, I get the following error.

test.WinForms.CommentForm.Type : System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception : The operation completed successfully

The error occurs in the contructor of KeyboardController. I searched for an answer in all the forums and found none. After an hour of guessing, I found the solution. Call the Dispose() method with every use of the KeyboardController class.

Sample...

[NUnit.Framework.Test]
public void Type()
{
   NUnit.Extensions.Forms.ControlTester tester = new NUnit.Extensions.Forms.ControlTester("textBox", form);
   NUnit.Extensions.Forms.KeyboardController controller = new NUnit.Extensions.Forms.KeyboardController(tester);
   controller.Click(NUnit.Extensions.Forms.Key.A);
   controller.Click(NUnit.Extensions.Forms.Key.B);
   controller.Click(NUnit.Extensions.Forms.Key.C);
   if (tester.Text != "abc")
   {
      NUnit.Framework.Assert.Fail(tester.Text);
   }
   controller.Dispose();
}

Catching Javascript Exceptions

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 06:23:56 GMT

Many Websites have uncaught javascript exceptions. It's pretty easy to avoid them; you could write the code so that the exception doesn't occur, or you could simply catch the exceptions. Here's an example javascript block that throws an exception.

<script type="text/javascript">
	x.go();
</script>

Here's the same code that catches the exception.

<script type="text/javascript">
	try { x.go(); } catch(e) { }
</script>