Spam Plugin Spam

It's always nice when you are advertising a plugin used to keep your blog spam free, and the first comment in reply is spam.


Also, I've got a non-computer-related site that should be going live before the end of the year. I'll keep you posted as I get closer, but in the meantime, go hug your pets. (hint hint)

MSNBC Channels LOLCats

I was reading on MSNBC about how Rodney King was shot, and I noticed something a little odd...look at the image caption.

Link to picture because my wonderful template is chopping off the appropriate part of the image...

Evidently, he was beated instead of beaten.

WORKAROUND: WSE Web References Not Upgraded In VS2008

Symptoms:
You are using Visual Studio 2008 to upgrade a Visual Studio 2005 ASP.NET project that used Web Service Enhancements 3.0 (WSE 3.0). After upgrading, the secured reference is missing.

Solution:
Keep a copy of your old project.
After upgrading your project, open the old project in Visual Studio 2005.
Select "Show All Files" in Solution Explorer, then drill down into "Web References," then your WSE web reference, then Reference.map and finally into Reference.cs or Reference.vb, depending on your language of choice.
There will be two classes in here. The Wse class (which was removed by the VS2008 upgrade) will be at the top of the file. Copy that class into the same file in your VS2008 project.

WORKAROUND: Visual Studio 2008 Fails To Install

Symptoms:
You are running as a limited user on Windows Vista and when you run Visual Studio 2008's installer and approve the UAC prompt, setup either hangs during the .NET Framework 3.5 installation or the installation hangs during setup.

Workaround:
Reboot your machine.
Log in as an administrator.
Install the .NET Framework 3.5 installer by itself.
Reboot your machine.
Log in as your normal user.
Install Visual Studio 2008 as normal.

PS3 Development Now "Cheaper" Than PS2

A PlayStation 2 development kit used to cost $10,000. You can now get a PlayStation 3 development kit for $10,250.

Unlike the PS2 development kits, the PS3 development kits include the development tools now. (They used to cost ~$2,000 a seat additional previously.)

Also, you can now use the test kits for development purposes.

Wow...Sony actually learned from Microsoft on this one. An Xbox development kit costs $10,000, comes with the development tools, and you can compile against a test kit. Say what you will about the hardware, but when it comes to making things developer friendly, Microsoft knocked it out of the park.

Now if they'd just learn from the 360's kernel design, the PS3 might be a bit more attractive.

FIX: Vista Freezes For 10-15 Seconds Every 10-15 Minutes

Symptoms:
While using Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer or anything that accesses the disk drive on a regular basis, the Windows UI seems to freeze. If Process Explorer is open, you'll notice that Hardware Interrupts are pegged. You can still move your mouse cursor, and at the end of the 10-15 seconds any UI actions that you had started will happen, seemingly all at once.

Hardware:
Motherboard with an Intel chipset with integrated RAID support and SATA drives, like most recent Dell Dimension motherboards, but you are not using RAID.

Cause:
RAID is enabled on the motherboard. As a result, the RAID version of the chipset driver is loaded.

Solution:
(NOTE: This solution involves changing settings in your BIOS. Modifying these settings if you do not know what you are doing could result in your system not being able to boot up. Please do a full backup of your machine prior to attempting this fix.)
Reboot your machine.
Go into the BIOS settings and look for the RAID settings.
Disable them. (On a Dell Dimension, change the motherboard settings from "RAID Autodetect/ACHI" to "SATA/PATA".)
Save the modified BIOS settings.
Boot into Vista.
Go into any profile; new drivers will start installing that require another reboot.
Reboot when prompted.

Game Mashups

I've been trying to stretch my creative muscles more and more lately in an effort to keep myself sharp. Over at Shacknews, they've been having lots of contests lately that have given me a chance to stretch myself with an end goal in mind. One of the more recent ones has involved envisioning game mashups.

A few of my entries:

Nintendo licenses Activision's 1980's portfolio and pulls a "Doki Doki Panic" on them...


The plot for the new "Ghostbusters" game has been leaked...


Someone asked for the Cyberdemon vs. Phoenix Wright...


EA and Harmonix monopolize classical music...


Konami and Fox combine two lagging IP's to form...

Coming Home

I'm coming back to Utah for a bit this winter. Things have settled down enough at work that I can actually take a vacation.

I'll be arriving on December 18 and flying back to Dallas the morning of December 27.

Hopefully I'll be able to get together with lots of the old SLGTest guys and perhaps some Shackers.

SafeDisc Vulnerability

I'm on record as saying that if I have to deal with media-based copy protection, I want it to be SafeDisc. The 2.x series of SafeDisc was not only the least intrusive series of CD-based copy protection software ever released, but there hasn't been a CD or DVD drive released in the last seven years that has been incompatible with it. It's even had support for it built into Windows XP and beyond.

Unfortunately, it is now being used as an attack vector against Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

If you are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, download and install this update immediately. This will patch away the attack vector, but I am disappointed that this vulnerability managed to slip through.

"Portal" in 18:05

"Portal" completed in just over 18 minutes.

Impressive.

Four Digits and Falling Behind

One thousand posts. It's a milestone I never thought I'd hit.

Of course, having one thousand unread E-mails in my personal inbox was a milestone I didn't want to hit. (Yes, that's a current image.)

I never expected my left toe to be the number one hit on Google Image Search and the number one traffic source for my site.

Eight hundred sixty posts since getting my job at Ritual, in part because of my blog; two hundred sixty posts since losing it. (As a side note, the person I stated that I respected greatly no longer has my respect. Sending me an E-mail within four days of my layoff asking me to stop talking about being laid off because it was bringing negative attention to the company was a really low blow.)

Three hundred twenty-four posts since I finished the widescreen patch and SDK for "SiN (Steam)" that will never be released.

Five hundred sixty-four posts since going on the offensive.

Six hundred thirty-five posts since being challenged by a six-year-old to a game of "Quake III: Arena."

I've been doing this for over three and a half years publicly, and while it hasn't always been the most positive experience, I'm glad that I've done it.

To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm going to hit 2,000. I'm not even sure that's going to be a target. I'm just going to take it one post at a time. Expect fewer posts overall from here, but higher quality posts when they do show up.

Thanks for reading.