caithness geek

Sharepoint + ANTS

2010-01-28T11:09:00.001-08:00

We use sharepoint to drive http://www.starz.com

Lately, with increased traffic, we've been seeing many issues with our app pools growing into the 6GB range! This needs serious attention, and we have to run a memory profiler against our production farm to figure out what's going on. Needless to say, doing a memory profile using the standard .net tools is pretty hard and requires an extensive amount of knowledge and time.

Along comes ANTS - and this great post:
working-with-the-ants-profiler-to-optimize-sharepoint

So now the real question is how much better is the site going to be - the analysis will give us the clues. Wish me luck!

Flash h.264 HD video encoding

2010-01-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

Flash h.264 HD video encoding is pretty hard at the enterprise level, especially when the technology keeps changing so rapidly!

Here's a few links to get you up to speed with the latest flash player 10 video stuff. Happy reading :)

Flash Video Encoding Overview – Best Practices ‘HD’ Encoding Walkthrough & Techniques

1080p Flash FMS Dynamic Streaming demo

Flash fullscreen best practices

What does GPU acceleration mean?

Dynamic streaming in Flash Media Server 3.5

Using Adobe Media Encoder CS4

Encoding options for H.264 video

Flash Player 10.1 hardware acceleration for video and graphics

AdobeMediaEncoder High-definition (HD) video

FLV and F4V video formats for Flash

multibitrate video for hd experiences

Decoding the Truth About Hi-Def Video Production

Trying to use an SPWeb object that has been closed or disposed and is no longer valid.

2009-12-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

Dealing with sharepoint is always a pain. Especially when you get a stack trace that leads you into the terrible black box of code that is completely foreign.

I kept getting this error: "Trying to use an SPWeb object that has been closed or disposed and is no longer valid."

Stack trace: at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.SPWebPartManager.get_Web()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.SPWebPartManager.ActivateConnections()
at System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPartManager.OnPageLoadComplete(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Web.UI.Page.OnLoadComplete(EventArgs e)
at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

The scenario was a simple list with a checkbox that was causing the page to reload. For some reason, sometimes it worked, and sometimes it was throwing this error.

After reading this great post, I figured out what the issue was. The using() directive was causing the SPWeb object to be disposed before all code was executed:

http://www.theartofsharepoint.com/2007/06/trying-to-use-spweb-object-that-has.html

I commented out the shit I no longer needed, and here's an example of the result:

protected void LoadClip(yadda)
{
... do some logic ...

// using (SPWeb ThisWeb = SPContext.Current.Web)
//{
SPWeb ThisWeb = SPContext.Current.Web;
ThisTable = ThisWeb.GetSiteData(q);
//}

... and more code here with reference to ThisWeb ...

}

here's a few more links that were helpful:

http://blogs.msdn.com/rogerla/archive/2009/01/14/try-finally-using-sharepoint-dispose.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa973248.aspx

css display

2009-11-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

Typically I just design and go... but dammit sometimes you have to do things for specific browsers. Whenever I run into an issue with the "display" property and it's browser-specific, I go to this page. It tells you all the compatibility differences between browsers and this wonkey css style.

http://www.quirksmode.org/css/display.html

android adb missing flash_image

2009-11-19T10:17:00.001-08:00

I was updating one of our android dev phones today and found i couldn't flash a recovery ROM because i was constantly getting the error "flash_image not found"

and here's the fix! http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/RE-recovery-img

android + Cisco VPN

2009-11-18T12:31:00.000-08:00

We have a normal Cisco VPN at my work. After upgrading my device to 1.6 (Donut) I noticed there are new VPN settings you can use to connect your wireless. The four that are offered currently are PPTP, L2TP, L2TP/IPSec PSK, and L2TP/IPSec CRT

UNFORTUNATELY we use a standard IPSec over TCP or UDP, and it doesn't use the PSK or CRT file. I need to manually input the groupID and whatnot.

SO, after some googling I found get-a-robot-vpnc which seems to address my issue.

I also found this post and from all I can tell, it has successfully worked for some people.

BUT my device isn't giving me any such love. My current error reads:

D/vpnc service( 5587): Attempt to read vpnc process id did not return anything

we'll see how far I get on this problem. My guess is it's a permissions problem that will be easily solved...

blogger and andriod

2009-11-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

so far, no love for an android app that will post to blogger.

the most i can find is http://mobile.blogger.com which seems to require SMS or MMS

cyanogenmod and memory

2009-11-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

i was running into memory problems with my android dev phone.
easy enough to fix: just cleared out my Dalvik cache after upgrading to a new cyanogenmod on my ADP1

adb remount
adb shell rm -rf /data/dalvik-cache/*

http://pitupepito.homelinux.org/?p=109

winqual windbg

2009-02-25T12:01:00.001-08:00

Just got the newest Debugging Tools for Windows...http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/Debugging/default.mspx

here's the script we typically use to analyze winqual cab files:

.sympath SRV*c:\temp\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
.exepath+ C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;c:\temp\symbols
.loadby sos mscorwks
.reload
!analyze -v

AIR + ANT + out of memory

2009-02-20T13:56:00.001-08:00

I kept running into an OutOfMemoryError issue during compile of my AIR app using ANT.

[mxmlc] java.lang.OutOfMemoryError

the fix was simple: set fork="true" and maxmemory="512m" in my mxmlc

<mxmlc compiler.debug="false"
file="${MAIN_SOURCE_FILE}"
output="${dist}/${APP_ROOT_FILE}"
configname="air"
fork="true"
maxmemory="512m"
...

more info can be found here: Flexcoverhints

continuous integration

2009-02-20T13:15:00.001-08:00

I'd highly recommend any developer using source control to check into continuous integration - it's a big time saver

http://cruisecontrol.sourceforge.net/

air application icons

2009-02-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

I ran into the same problem many seem to have: my AIR application icons seems to be throwing a compile error when I try to export release build of my project.

Error creating AIR file: 303: ERROR, [...filename...]

This is a known bug... still open apparently ( in a few places ) when you try to export from Eclipse

http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FLEXDOCS-427
http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FB-11712

My only working solution is to place the icon files directly in the src folder rather than in images/assets/icon.png

refreshdenver.org

2009-02-19T10:19:00.000-08:00

i'm really needing to do a bit more geek posting....
here's a shoutout to refreshdenver for a sweet event last night!

http://refreshdenver.org

How do I completely uninstall or disable Flash's player/plugin? — OZONE Asylum, home of the Mad Scientists

2008-02-15T08:55:00.000-08:00

How do I completely uninstall or disable Flash's player/plugin? — OZONE Asylum, home of the Mad Scientists: "{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}"

this is by far the quickest and easiest way to disable flash... something handy!

Mini-muscleman: Meet the world's smallest bodybuilder | the Daily Mail

2008-02-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

Mini-muscleman: Meet the world's smallest bodybuilder | the Daily Mail

for a second there, i thought this guy was photoshopped!

MVC meet H-MVC – Hierarchical MVC

2008-02-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

MVC meet H-MVC – Hierarchical MVC"

HMVC is probably a better fit for most enterprise-level applications. We have used Cairngorm and MVC for a while now, and i can see how HMVC would reduce some (or all) of our events.

API Dashboard: ProgrammableWeb

2008-01-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

API Dashboard: ProgrammableWeb

chumby

2007-12-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

chumby

I'll say this... for a hacker toy, it rocks.

dhtmlxGrid - sortable Javascript DHTML grid with rich script API

2006-10-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

dhtmlxGrid - sortable Javascript DHTML grid with rich script API

Adobe - Developer Center : Selecting a Flash 8 video encoder

2006-09-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

Adobe - Developer Center : Selecting a Flash 8 video encoder

Flash video is the new JPEG! The release of Flash 8 signaled a milestone for Flash. With this version, Flash matured into a truly competitive platform for delivering web video. New benefits include quality/file size improvement and support for true 8-bit, alpha-channel transparency. The new Flash 8 video format makes it possible to deploy Flash video at about half the bit rate as Flash 7 video without losing any quality. You can also look at the equation from a different angle: With Flash 8, you can deliver video of much higher quality than Flash 7 without increasing the bit rate of your videos.
more...

freesound

2006-08-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

freesound :: home page

Very cool website. I use it for sound when I get a chance :)

Flash Maps that are Consistent with YOUR design

2006-08-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

Justin’s Flash Blog » Maps that are Consistent with YOUR design

this is dope... I used the map api on the last website i built... now I want to go back and skin it !!!

Stop making Flash scrollbars - Flash Insider

2006-07-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Stop making Flash scrollbars - Flash Insider

ohhh how sweet it is. finally, this is what i've been wanting for!

WhatTheFont : MyFonts

2006-07-10T21:36:00.001-07:00

WhatTheFont : MyFonts

This is the best resource for a designer that needs to know a font by name.

Seriously, you can cut stuff out of magazines, upload it, and the url will tell you the names of as many fonts that match up.

I was looking for the "got milk?" font and voila, this was a breeze ( btw... the "got milk" font name is Phenix American if you're interested )

Flash, Named Anchors, Firefox, etc.

2006-04-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

after reading a long few posts on noscope about named anchors i have decided i'm going to use the unfocus version rather than the actionscripts version

hopefully it won't bite me in the a$$

unFocus History Keeper - Current History:

Actionscripts.org tut

Displaying vertical rows in a DataGrid - The Code Project - C# Database

2006-04-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

Displaying vertical rows in a DataGrid - The Code Project - C#

This helped me out a ton! If you dump database information into a datagrid, it typically comes horizontally. This code is an eazy fix to get that data vertical!

Reference Custom Controls in the CreateUserWizard

2006-03-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

View Topic > How Can I Reference Custom Controls in the CreateUserWizard?

when doing anything with the new ASP.NET 2.0 login controls, you have to do some sneaky shit if you plan on customizing anything.

this link is a good example of how you can reference your custom controls inside your CreateUserWizard control.

YouTube - Ninja man!

2006-03-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Ninja man!

Holy cow is this guy good. You can forget about being flexible... this dude is plain in human when it comes to performing aerial feats.

I always get a kick out of this stuff. Spending all of your time in the gym definitely makes people crazy.

Adobe Labs - ActionScript 3.0

2006-03-08T18:23:00.000-08:00

Adobe Labs - ActionScript 3.0

dude,,,,,,,,, sick is all i can say.

of all this code? NO! of all the waiting around.... lol. I want this to hit hard and fast. Maybe people will finally be able to show off more of flash's talents now that actionscript is a friggin real programming language

Adobe Labs - Homepage

2006-03-08T18:21:00.000-08:00

Adobe Labs - Homepage

Make sure you get the new Flex 2.0 Beta.

Source Control upgrade

2005-12-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

Perforce Software is awesome. I've used this enterprise-level source control suite for a while now and I will never use anything else. It's rock solid. I'll be doing the upgrade to 2005.2 once the Beta is finalized.

The best part is, if you want to give the entire system a try before you buy, you CAN!!! The license is expensive, but if you only have a few needs, this free system is absolutely the best SCM around.

You may use software downloaded from Perforce for any purpose you want and for as long as you like. The Perforce Server supports only two users and five client workspaces unless used with a Perforce License.

Configuring ASP.NET 2.0 Application Services to use SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005

2005-12-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

Configuring ASP.NET 2.0 Application Services to use SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005

great article if you're doing ASP.net 2.0 and SQL ServerExpress upsizing to SQL 2000 or SQL 2005

i've had a headache doing this but I really want to use the new Login controls Microsoft added into Visual Studio 2005

greasemonkey - firefox extension

2005-11-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

greasemonkey

yes, this is a pretty sweet tool. I would recommend giving it a whirl if you are into using firefox

after installing the extension, you can browse through multiple scripts that will allow you to dynamically enhance the way you browse the web.

this script is a great start... it will show you all the negative feedback an ebay seller has! pretty nice considering ebay hasn't implemented this feature itself.

FeedBurner

2005-11-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

I emailed FeedBurner today asking for implementation of a crossdomain.xml policy file. Yahoo did this recently with their weather service.

They responded quicky, which was very nice :)

Thanks for the suggestion. We need to put in some changes to allow this static
file into our system, but that should not present a problem.

Regards,
Joe
--
Joe Kottke
IT Director
FeedBurner

Gold Hill Mesa

2005-09-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Gold Hill Mesa - Colorado Springs homes for sale

I think it's a pretty nice site, and a great concept. If you're moving to the Colorado Springs area, check out this new development! It's follows the "Traditional Neighborhood Design" concept and should prove to be a great addition to the front range.

Flash Remoting

2005-09-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on a CMS now for a few days. I did an entire piece using Flash Remoting...
Come to find out it won't work on my host's server... as have many others. I sent an email to them and the response is typical. It seems nobody is willing to host Flash Remoting because it is way to costly.

My message to Macromedia is this > $1000 per CPU is a deterrant. Developers that want to use remoting cannot, simply because their hosts will shell out the cash so each of their servers can use a little .dll. Coldfusion is expensive also, but that's another story completely!

MM : Get with the program or you will get left behind by countless developers and designers.