Picture this: it’s 12am and you want to go to bed but you’re in the middle of a download. You know the ETA for download completion is less than 2 hours. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to automatically shut down Windows at 2am after the download completes while you sleep instead of leaving it on all night? There are tools out there that can do this, either freeware or shareware, but why bother with installing another application when Windows is perfectly capable of automated shutdowns natively?

I’m talking about Scheduled Tasks combined with shutdown.exe, both tools provided by Windows. Scheduled Tasks gives you an easy interface to schedule an application to run at a certain time. Shutdown.exe is a DOS command that can locally and remotely shut down your computer. Read more »

Security Exception
Description: The application attempted to perform an operation not allowed by the security policy. To grant this application the required permission please contact your system administrator or change the application’s trust level in the configuration file.

Exception Details: System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type ‘System.Net.WebPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089′ failed.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

If you care getting the error above in SharePoint, there is a simple work around to get your code to work.

1. Open the wss_minimaltrust.config located: “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\CONFIG”

2. Under the XML section <namedpermissionsets> and under the last <permissionset> add


<ipermission>
class=”WebPermission”
version=”1″
Unrestricted=”true”>
</ipermission>

3. Save the file and you are good to go!

Here is the serivce manual for the Sony Vaio TX and Sony Vaio TZ laptops.
disassemble guide for Sony Vaio TX model.

If you’re like me an have to develop in both Linux and Windows platforms, sometimes it’s just useful to be able to share folders across your PC desktop and your Linux box. It’s quite easy to map Linux shares to Windows network drives, that is assuming your Linux box has Samba installed. In most cases, Linux distributions generally ship with this already installed. To test if you’ve got Samba installed on Linux, type: Read more »

NBC had sent off broadcast flags thus causing Vista Media Center users to not be able to record TV episodes of “American Gladiators” and “Medium” on Monday night.

After these reports surfaced around the internet, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that the same exact thing was happening to over-the-air (OTA) programming, something it had not seen before.

One individual report shows a man attempting to record TV shows from NBC’s Raleigh affiliate, WNCN HD, and having an alert tell him “the broadcaster has disabled recording of the programming.” The man was recording from an antenna signal and EFF confided that it was the first it had ever heard of OTA programming being restricted.

Broadcast flags, which come part of the upcoming 2009 DTV standard, were challenged in court two years ago by the EFF and the court ruled in favor saying “that using the flags to restrict copying was not appropriate”. The law was subsequently thrown out. The panel of judges said the FCC did not have the authority to enforce a law of that nature, which is a clear violation of fair use laws.

The EFF then added that Microsoft was voluntarily adopting broadcast flags into its software, as other similar programs now ignore them and have no trouble recording programming even if it is flagged.

“If it is a deliberate ‘feature,’ they have some explaining to do,” EFF international outreach coordinator Danny O’Brien said. “That would amount to putting the desires of content holders above the best interests of its customers.”

Recenlty i was trying to get a development environment setup on my new Windows 2008 computer, and was installing the typical Microsoft items. Little did i know that SharePoint 2007 wont install on Windows 2008:

Here is the error I ran into: Read more »

Windows/Mac/Linux (all platforms): OpenOffice.org, the free office application suite, has released a beta of its 3.0 version to the public with a few key features rolled in. The biggest update is native support for Mac OS X platforms, meaning no need to install X11 packages on older Macs or switch to NeoOffice for a smoother experience (although NeoOffice plans to release a 3.0 of its own, so stay tuned). OpenOffice also adds built-in conversion filters for Office 2007/Mac Office 2008 files, a new “solver” function for spreadsheets, enhanced notes and viewing options in Writer, and other enticements for those willing to risk a few bugs. OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta is a free download for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems.

http://download.openoffice.org/3.0beta/

To get it right now, simply run your Windows update again. Service Pack 3 purportedly makes WinXP load up faster than Vista. Among the new features:

• There’s a new Windows Product Activation that won’t prompt you to input your product key during setup.
• Some networking features and policies from Vista are now present in XP.
• Oooh, cryptographic algorithms!
• Much much more, including more than a thousand patches to improve overall security, performance, and reliability.

Try as we might, there’s no stopping Windows Vista from gradually replacing our tried, true and beloved XP. Microsoft’s already phasing out XP out on all but the ultra mobile laptop market. So if you’ve already accepted the facts and you happen to be in the market for Windows Vista right now, here’s is a little secret that Microsoft doesn’t want you to know about that will save you $100 on any full version of Vista out there. Read more »

What is this?

Yes, it’s true. I’ve managed to run Windows 95 and Linux on the PSP. I’ve done it by porting the excellent open source x86 emulator Bochs.

Windows 95 actually runs quite well but don’t expect it to be a speed demon. It takes about 10 minutes to boot but afterwards it’s pretty usable. I was able to do things like: open “My computer” and browse the virtual hard drive, complete a whole game of Minesweeper and run various other applications. Now you too can get your Minesweeper fix on the go :)

Read more »