A little piece of Richard Perry.
The site has been going down, slow, showing errors, db corruption, etc.
Server problems are always a trade off when using cheap shared hosting, but things got very bad recently, so moved the site to a different server.
Things should be back to normal, but some recent news comments were lost.
At work I used the Microsoft Video Screensaver and some fun vids, but it's not Windows 7 compatible.
Unable to find a suitable replacement, I finally ended up making my own which also provides more control.
The source code is included, which may help anyone wanting to make their own VB.Net screen saver.
XP / Vista / Windows 7 / 32-bit / 64-bit: http://www.greycube.com/site/download.php?view.63
Spotify (http://www.spotify.com) just updated itself, and it now plays local MP3s !
This is awesome as I can now shuffle mode all my music in one place 🙂
Update on how this works:
You add 'local files' which are stored only for that spotify install, you can then play from the local list or add to a central playlist.
Playlists only store the track details, not the file location. This means MP3's can be in different folders on each PC and the playlist will still work, the track just has to be in the 'local files' list.
It is not perfect though:
You cannot navigate into local albums or artists, local files is just one big list.
You cannot specify a location to automatically scan for new tracks, manual importing is required.
Solved an interested issue, where changes to 'Maximum password age' and 'Minimum password length' in the 'Default Domain Policy' where not being applied, the 'MaxPwdAge' attribute was fixed at an old value. The the cause turned out to be 'Block Inheritence' on the 'Domain Controllers' OU (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q269236).
Turning off the block was not practical as it was preventing global software policies from being applied to the DCs. Making the 'Default Domain Policy' enforced was not practical as some sub OUs need to block it. Putting the password settings in 'Default Domain Controllers Policy' does not work. The solution was to create a new top level policy, enforced, but with just the password settings.
The Atheros AR5007EG in my NC10 netbook has been randomly dropping the wireless connection.
I would have to disable/enable the adaptor for it automatically re-connect.
Changed the driver to previous versions by 'Atheros Communications Inc.' and it still happened.
Changed the driver to the version labelled with 'Microsoft' and it was a lot more stable.
Also worth checking traffic in your area using InSSIDer (http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider)
With wireless routers being given away, you can suddenly have neighbours using the same channel.
My PC water cooling setup was not cooling properly, on further inspection the pump and blocks were clogged, with what I assume to be Primochill and dye gone funky.
The Reserator 2 (http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=184) is a maintaince nightmare, probably the reason they stopped making it, so decided buy bits ( mostly XSPC (http://www.xspc.biz/) ) for a new setup. With the PC stripped ready for delivery today, I find out the depot closed for Easter, urgh. Holidays are not so fun when everyone else also has the day off 🙂
A beta version of the protocol is available here (http://www.greycube.com/site/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?5568) with new games added. While pretty much complete, the rest of LGSL is still being worked.
A new location field is being added, with the option to do Geo IP lookups and show the servers country flag.
As part of this I learnt about CSS layers, which provides a much tidier way of overlapping multiple images on the block.
People occasionally ask how to customize the list, headings, separate the game types, etc.
This is currently difficult as the list code is only able to get all the servers together.
So I am making the functions more flexible, but doing it properly is no simple task.
Finally went through the Drupal API documentation, so that will be supported in next version too.
I hate it when people end their questions with "Thanks in advance."
It comes across as artificial, manipulative, that a 'thank you' to them is meaningless.
An insite into the irrational side of my mind. Anyone else have an internet pet hate ?
In Visual Studio, 'Add Existing Item' was making a separate copy of the module file.
I missed that the 'Add' button is also a dropdown with a second option 'Add As Link'.
Shown Here: http://www.greycube.com/help/vb/vb.net-sharing-modules.png
The linked module is aware of its relative path to the main project just like in VB6.
At work we have been preparing for the transition from XP to Windows 7.
I have put a little collection together of the useful and hard to find bits.
http://www.greycube.com/help/other/windows_7/