Bite my bytes

I have been really busy in the last year and a half since m and I got twin boys. There were some initial “bugs” so it has been even more demanding than ordinary, but things are getting into a routine, so it looks I’ll be more productive blog-wise in the future.

Let’s see what happened but didn’t make it to this blog:

• M tried Lips and in the 24 hours we bought our own Xbox 360 (with Lips, of course). M’s initial passion is gone, but I’m hooked. So far I played Burnout Paradise, Fifa 09, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Braid (hey, I just finished that!). On my wish list are Mass Effect, Prince of Persia and Fallout 3. My gamertag is DavidV51 (but I’m planning of changing it, since it’s super oogly), add me as a friend, if you know me.

• I wrote couple of articles for Monitor magazine including navigation software for phones, password management, online price comparison services, computer productivity, online shopping, and reviews of Google Sync, Postbox, Igrajmo.se, Live Mesh and more. I plan to blog a short version of some of these articles. If have any wished, just shoot.
• When on vacation in May, I again “had” to hack the device. I had XBox but Philips TV had locked settings menu. Little bit of Googling and solution was in hand. Pressing 3,1,9,7,5,3 and Mute unlocks the TV for configuration. I loved it! ;)
• I passed Exam MB2-631: CRM 4.0 Customization and Configuration exam. Similar to Dynamics AX exam this is pretty easy if you worked with CRM for a while. If not, reading through MOC materials should prepare you for passing the exam.
• I also passed Exam 70-431: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Implementation and Maintenance. Much harder that CRM or AX exam, pa totally doable. I read over a MS prep book in couple of evenings and pass with 90%+.

If you just upgraded to still hot Firefox 3.5 and noticed that LastPass plugin is not compatible, don’t worry.

It seems there is a bug somewhere (FF or LP, who knows) and reinstalling the same version of LastPass Firefox plugin fixes it.

How do you like Firefox 3.5 so far? Did you notice any speed improvements?

Development

• LINQ to SQL changes in .NET 4.0 - Looks like Linq to SQL isn't dead after all. Great!
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Plugin Parameters - The following table lists the main parameters passed to plugins on the most common messages. If the message you want isn't listed here, post a comment and I'll update the table.

Music

• Album Reminder - Receive RSS or email notifications when your favorite artists release a new album.

Photography

• Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts Quick Reference Cards
• New UI for DSLR Camera Remote - One onOne with Mike Wong - DSLR Camera Remote app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Software

• CodePlex.SpaceBlock - SpaceBlock is a simple Windows front-end for managing Amazon S3, Nirvanix, Azure Blob Storage, and now Sun Cloud Object Storage online service accounts.
• Ditto clipboard manager - Extension to the standard windows clipboard.
• Ekahau HeatMapper - Free Wi-Fi Coverage Mapping Site Survey Tool
• Fences - Create regions on your desktop to organize icons.
• Vistumbler.net - Wireless network analyzer (like NetStumbler) that works under Vista / Windows 7. It's just AutoIT script that runs 'netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid' command to get WiFi network info.

Web

• Free Online Barcode Generator

Software Updates

• CCleaner 2.21.940
• Defraggler 1.11.148
• Firefox 3.5 RC3
• IntelliPoint 7.0
• IntelliType Pro 7.0
• KeePass Password Safe Portable 1.16
• K-Lite Codec Pack 4.95 (Full)
• Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4
• NOD32 AntiVirus 4.0.437
• OpenOffice.org Portable 3.1
• Pidgin Portable 2.5.7
• TeraCopy 2.0
• TortoiseSVN 1.6.3
• TrueCrypt 6.2a
• uTorrent 1.8.3 Build 15728

Jobs

• iPhone Developer (Dallas Area Only) at Big in Japan Inc.
• Software Developer at IMC Financial Markets
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I just uploaded a minor bug-fix version of Windows Fader screensaver. Feel free to update or try it if you are a new user!

Donations welcome!

Development

• Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft.NET Framework (v0.85) - Home - Source code library that can be used to access new Windows 7 features (and some related Windows Vista features) from managed code.
• SQL Server Setup Checklist

Design

• DryIcons.com - With some Free Icons
• Free Fonts to Download - Hand picked free fonts

Web

• showRSS - FeedMyTorrents clone.

Software Updates

• VirtualBox 2.2.4
• CutePDF Writer 2.73
• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.37
• Ad-Aware 2009 8.0.5.0
• Skype 4.1.0.130
• CCleaner 2.20.920
• Windows Vista SP2 Available for Download [Downloads]
• Notepad++ 5.4

Jobs

• Software Architect at Model N, Inc.
• Senior Interactive Designer at Upper Deck
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Development

• Blank Subject Warning for Outlook 2007 - Just what I need.
• UppercuT - The Insanely Easy to Use Automated Build Framework. Let's give it some time and see if it can replace NAnt
• Put up a REST API for Xbox Gamertag Data - Duncan Mackenzie's .NET web service to access Xbox 360 gamer data
• SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Script - This is the annotated set of diagnostic queries that I used for my demonstration at the Denver SQL Server User+s Group on May 21. Many of these are SQL Server 2008 specific, and you need VIEW SERVER STATE permission to run most of them.

Software Updates

• Tomato 1.24
• Google Chrome 2.0.172.28
• Yahoo! Messenger 9.0.0.2161
• Foobar2000 0.9.6.7
• Wireshark 1.0.8
• Recuva 1.27.419
• ATI Catalyst Drivers 9.5 Vista

Last couple of days TVvSPOREDnik didn’t have any program for couple of channels.

Standalone version of the grabber has also been updated, get it from home page.

I just fixed that and I dedicate this fix to my lovely wife. :)

Development

• Optimizing and Maintaining Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - Whitepaper
• Practical UML: A Hands-On Introduction for Developers - This tutorial provides a quick introduction to the Unified Modeling Language
• Internals Viewer for SQL Server - Internals Viewer is a tool for looking into the SQL Server storage engine and seeing how data is physically allocated, organized and stored.

Games

• FIFA 09 Guide

Software

• CD/DVD Drive Locker - Kids keep opening my DVD tray. This should keep them away.

Software Updates

• Safari 3.2.3
• FileZilla Portable 3.2.4.1
• WinMerge Portable 2.12.2
• VisualSVN Server 1.7.2
• VisualSVN 1.7.2
• TrueCrypt 6.2
• AVG Free Edition 8.5.329
• WinSnap 3.0.8
• Defraggler 1.10.143
• OpenOffice.org 3.1
• TortoiseSVN 1.6.2
• NVIDIA Forceware 185.85 WHQL Vista

Jobs

• Cognos Developer - San Francisco, CA at WestEd
• Director of Project Management at ARPU, Inc.
• Senior Software Developer at Nehemiah
• Senior Web Developer at Mindbloom
• Full-Time .NET developer needed immediately in Louisville, KY at Blackstone Media Network, LLC
• Part-Time RoR Developer at NICHE technologies, Inc.
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I just installed Windows 7 RC in Virtual PC and found that Windows 7 has a keyboard shortcut for creating new folder. Just press CTRL + SHIFT + N and you got it! Finally!

This alone will be the reason I’ll install Windows 7 as soon as it RTM’s!

Development

• How to choose between ASP.NET MVC and Web Forms
• The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Toolkit
• Crm Developers Tool - This tool incorporates an entity browser which allows you to browser all the entities, their attributes and available SDK messages. Second it has a Plug-in browser which allows you to browser, create, update and delete plug-ins registered on the connected system.
• How to display related entity field in a CRM Lookup instead of the primary entity field? - Sweet MS CRM trick.
• Finding the Causes of Poor Performance in SQL Server, Part 1, Part 2

Design

• flipping typical - Web site that shows previews of installed fonts.

Games

• Buy Microsoft Points Online, Wii Points Online
• xboxliveuk76 - Buy Microsoft Xbox Live Points and subscription and get codes instantly.

Photography

• Timothy Armes' LR2/Mogrify - LR2/Mogrify is a Lightroom 2 post-process plug-in that can embellish your images as they are exported from Lightroom. It's flexible interface allows you to add borders, watermarks and text annotations to your images.

Slovenia

• OdpiralniČasi - Search opening times, location an phone numbers of services in Slovenia. Neat. Mobile version available.

Software

• Rapid Environment Editor - Freeware Windows environment variables editor, portable.

Software Updates

• Picasa 3.1 Build 71.43
• Google Chrome 1.0.154.64
• Picasa 3.1 Build 71.36
• Foobar2000 0.9.6.5
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 3.0.10
• FastStone Image Viewer 3.8
• VirtualBox 2.2.2
• CPU-Z 1.51 Portable
• Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2
• CPU-Z 1.51
• CCleaner 2.19.889
• GPU-Z 0.3.4
• GPU-Z 0.3.4 (Portable)
• CCleaner 2.19.900
• AVG Free Edition 8.5.325
• DAEMON Tools Lite 4.30.4
• Google Chrome 1.0.154.59
• Firefox 3.0.9

Jobs

• Senior Release Engineer at CA
• Web Dev Rockstar at Award Winning Startup! at Greystripe
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Skupina Adacta smo dinamično in hitro rastoče podjetje, ki z inovativnimi IT rešitvami pomaga podjetjem pri njihovem razvoju. Glavna področja našega delovanja so bančni, finančni in zavarovalniški informacijski sistemi ter implementacija poslovnih (ERP), BI in CRM rešitev. V podjetjih v Ljubljani, Mariboru, Zagrebu, Beogradu in Trstu zaposlujemo preko 200 ljudi, ki so uspešno zaključili več kot 250 projektov.

V svojo ekipo vabimo osebo za prosto delovno mesto:

RAZVIJALEC .NET (m/ž)

Za delo na zanimivih IT projektih v Sloveniji iščemo sodelavca/ko, ki premore:

• univerzitetni študij naravoslovne ali tehnične smeri
• znanje programskih jezikov: C# ali C++
• izkušnje z razvojem desktop in spletnih aplikacij
• zaželeno je znanje osnov dela z relacijskimi bazami podatkov: MS SQL, ORACLE, IBM DB2
• jezik SQL, najbolje MS SQL Server in T-SQL
• opcijsko: poznavanje orodij za integracije in poročanje
• dobro konceptualno znanje programiranja s praktičnimi izkušnjami
• dobre analitične sposobnosti
• komunikativnost in sposobnost dela v timu
• aktivno znanje slovenščine in angleščine
• vozniški izpit B-kategorije
• veliko dobre volje in veselja do dela

Ponujamo vam delovno mesto v ekipi, ki ceni proaktivnost, in delo, ki prinaša:

• zaposlitev v mladem dinamičnem kolektivu z odlično organizacijsko klimo
• možnost dodatnega izobraževanja
• veliko samostojnost pri delu
• osebni razvoj in možnost napredovanja

Če ustrezate zgoraj navedenim pogojem in vas delovno mesto zanima, nam čim prej pošljite svojo prijavo in življenjepis na: career@adacta.si. Prosimo vas, da v prijavi jasno navedete, na katero delovno mesto se prijavljate.

Veselimo se našega sodelovanja,

www.adacta.si

Development

• ASP.NET MVC Training Kit
• Full example of using MvcContrib grid with jQuery datatable - Excellent stuff. It's just too easy!
• Tips for Productive JavaScript Development in Dynamics CRM

Design

• 1001 Free Fonts
• Avatar Size Reference Guide - How to correctly size your avatar for sites and services.

Slovenia

• geoStik - Slovenia map with lots of info including weather, traffic info, webcams and more.

Software

• CSV file editor - Doesn't change content of the file like Excel-
• Free SQL Server database backup, Zip and FTP software
• AdSweep - An ad blocker for your favorite web browser (Chrome too!)

Software Updates

• ImgBurn 2.4.4.0
• TortoiseSVN 1.6.1
• TortoiseSVN 1.6.1
• AVG Free Edition 8.5.287
• SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1
• VirtualBox 2.2.0
• Songbird 1.1.2
• Autoruns v9.41
• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.36
• VLC Media Player Portable 0.9.9
• VLC Media Player 0.9.9
• NVIDIA Forceware 182.50 WHQL XP
• ImgBurn 2.4.3.0
• MySQL 5.1.33
• WinMerge 2.12.0 Stable (Portable)
• Notepad++ Portable 5.3.1
• Mono 2.4

Jobs

• Senior Web Developer (C#, ASP.NET, Silverlight) at Lucidiom Inc.
• Senior Systems Engineer at International Justice Mission (IJM)
• Web Application Developer at trapeze Media
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Development

• Downloader for Resharper Nightly Builds - Automate updates for EAP ReSharper builds.
• Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Debugger Visualizers Tools - Visual Studio 2005 shipped with a very nice feature called debugger visualizers. In accordance with their names, debugger visualizers allow you to visually view useful information about objects during debug.
• Creating an Ajax Login Form With jQuery - ...using ASP.NET MVC.
• Ask Jon Skeet - Stackoverflow search containing ONLY Jon's answers + "facts".
• CrmDiagTool4 for Microsoft CRM 4.0
• CRM Trace Log Viewer
• Guide to CSS support in email clients (2008)
• xVal - a validation framework for ASP.NET MVC
• ISV Utilities for Comparing Customizations and Transferring Configuration Data - Customization Comparison Utility and Configuration Data Utility for MS CRM4 with source code.
• Styleneat - Online CSS Organizer

Fun

• 15 Most Brilliant Simpsons Quotes
• Worldometers - real time world statistics

Games

• The Space Game - by David Scott – Candystand.com - Free Flash Real Time Strategy Game. Warning: Addictive!
• JamLegend - Online Guitar Hero clone with social twist.

Software

• synergy-plus - Synergy lives!
• Portable Digsby

Software Updates

• Firefox 3.0.8
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 3.0.8
• FileZilla Portable 3.2.3.1
• AVG Free Edition 8.5.285
• Google Chrome 2.0.171.0 Beta
• CCleaner 2.18.878
• GPU-Z 0.3.3
• VisualSVN 1.7
• Google Chrome 1.0.154.53
• Console 2.00 Beta, build 144
• Picasa 3.1 Build 71.18

Since today, Windows Home Server is available for download for MSDN subscribers. The main goal is to “ncrease awareness of Windows Home Server with a larger community of professional developers and help further grow the ecosystem of software applications built for Windows Home Server”.

For more info, jump to Windows Homer Server Blog.

On the same not Power Pack 2 is now available. Download via Windows Update. Philip has more info.

Development

• T4 Editor FREE EDITION
• ASP.NET QuickStart Tutorial - from .NET SDK
• Microsoft CRM Web Extension - Microsoft CRM Web Extension is an initiative to provide Microsoft CRM style ASP.NET Controls and Pages to facilitate Microsoft CRM 4.0 Extension development. Check out screenshot - you'll see how cool this is. I'll try to create MVC version (of the grid at least) in the comming weeks.
• Ten Themes for SharePoint

Software

• Everything Search Engine - Very interesting local disk search app with special indexing (NTFS only), HTTP server and more.
• NirSoft utilities: password recovery, system utilities, desktop utilities

Video

• Jag35 Depth of field Adapters

Fun

• Little red ridning hood
• Extreme Shepherding

Software Updates

• GIMP Portable 2.6.6
• FileZilla Portable 3.2.3
• TortoiseSVN 1.6.0
• Notepad++ 5.3
• AbiWord Portable 2.6.8
• Internet Explorer 8.0
• Notepad++ Portable 5.3
• WinSnap 3.0.6
• AVG Free Edition 8.5.283
• ASP.NET MVC 1.0 RTW
• Google Chrome 2.0.170.0 Beta
• Skype 4.0.0.216
• Process Monitor v2.04, TCPView v2.54, VMMap v1.02, Testlimit v5.01, and Notmyfault
• CloneDVD 2.9.2.2
• CloneCD 5.3.1.4
• MagicISO 5.5.274
• Defraggler 1.08.132

Jobs

• Java Developer | Green Tech Start-Up | DC Metro at Positive Energy
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