Silverlight + SharePoint: helper classes

While composing my earlier blog about Silverlight + SharePoint +CAML best practices, it dawns on me that it would be quite possible to build a helper library to assist the user in cleaning up the LINQ statements before sending it off to the server, similar to how the client object model tries to convert LINQ to CAML beneath the hood.

Similarly, there are a few useful properties in the Server object model that is missing in the client object model.  These could be provided via a helper class as well.

This would make a nice little weekend project.

Outlook (and blogs) are for code

After being annoyed with Outlook... well, forever... for always autocorrecting my code in my emails, it suddenly strikes me to find the auto correct settings to just stop this once and for all.

So apologies in advance from now until the end of time - if my "quotes" actually be doublequotes and my - (minus or hyphen) actually be a minus and not a dash.

Both are very important in being able to correctly paste code, I figure my human recipients could live with less than perfect typography ;-)

Turn off:

  1. "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes"
  2. "Hyphens (--) with dash (-)

Auto Correct options

In Outlook

 

image

in Windows Live Writer

This is something extremely simple, and I wonder I couldn't be the only person that has done this.  I can't understand why it took me 10 years... of pressing Undo right after pasting code into an email…  Goes to show you that most people never tweak the out of the box settings.

Windows 7 Troubleshooting Wizard is not a myth

I know this sounds crazy.   The network troubleshooting wizard actually works.

So I was on a designer’s machine and she was really having trouble with her wireless card – it’s reporting an IP Address conflict.

We figured that a simple:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Should do the trick, but it was skipping the wireless adapter.  Confused – we stumbled across the wizard and clicked “Windows Network Diagnostics”.

To our amazement it asks us if we want it to fix the network for us. 

Behold!

clip_image002

Also explained why it wasn’t working before.

Apple iPhone drivers are pos

Exhibit A: Windows Explorer looking at the pictures in my iPhone.

Exhibit A: Windows Explorer looking at the pictures in my iPhone. 

 

Notice that almost ALL of them are upside down, this happens very often when I take pictures sideways.  At a glance – you probably think (and I as well) ah you must have held your camera upside down.

But stop for a second.  When I view the pictures in iPhone, it always know which way is UP.  Imagine if you were trying to look at your pictures in your iPhone and they were upside down…  You’d try to flip the phone… but then iPhone will flip the pictures upside down again!  The whole Pictures library will be unusable.  People would get upset!

That means the iPhone knows intrinsically which way is UP, for each picture.

So WTF is it doing when it shows the picture through their drivers on Windows Explorer?

My educated guess and conclusion really is just this:

Apple don’t care if you use an application that’s outside of their ecosystem.  They simply don’t care if you have the absolutely shittiest experience.  Why, it must be Windows’ fault if it can’t render pictures correctly… 

I hate this arrogant side of Apple.  Pisses me off when their engineers can do such a great piece of art and yet at the same time piss on other engineers’ work.

ATI x64 driver fail - Catalyst Install Manager has stopped working

This could possibly be the last ATI product that I'd purchase.  For almost as long as I could remember I can not get the ATI drivers to install.

  • Download from ATI website
  • Download beta from ATI website
  • Download from Dell website

I've always had to rely on Windows Update - but then it doesn't come with the Catalyst utilities.

 

Today I was forced to upgrade the drivers...

  • Running Boot to VHD on the machine with Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 installed
  • Default driver that Windows Update picked up is the Generic one
  • I need to be able to use an external monitor for presentation tomorrow - Yikes!

Fortunately, I found my solution here:

http://insomniacgeek.com/blog/catalyst-install-manager-has-stopped-working/

To cut a long story short - this worked for me:

bin64\ATISetup.EXE –install –output SCREEN