Techie Blog

Update ModalPopup before it appears

2009-08-10T19:34:00.003-05:00

I've been working on how to update an AJAX ModalPopup control before it appears and I think I've got it nailed. Here's the code.

ASP

DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Pagetitle>
head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server">
asp:ScriptManager>
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Secret Button" />
<cc1:ModalPopupExtender ID="Button1_ModalPopupExtender" runat="server"
DynamicServicePath="" Enabled="True" PopupControlID="Panel1"
TargetControlID="Button1">
cc1:ModalPopupExtender>
<asp:Button ID="Button2" runat="server" Text="Real Button"
onclick="Button2_Click" />
<br />
<br />
<asp:Panel ID="Panel1" runat="server">
<asp:UpdatePanel ID="UpdatePanel1" runat="server" UpdateMode="Conditional">
<ContentTemplate>
<asp:Label runat="server" Text="Label" ID="Label1">asp:Label>
ContentTemplate>
asp:UpdatePanel>
<asp:Button ID="Button3" runat="server" Text="Button" />
asp:Panel>
<br />
div>
form>
body>
html>

using System;

using System.Collections;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Data;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Xml.Linq;

namespace WebTest1

    public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

            Label1.Text = "Cat's in the cradle with the silver spoon";

        protected void Button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

            Label1.Text = "Yes we have no bananas";

            UpdatePanel1.Update();

            Button1_ModalPopupExtender.Show();

With this code you'll have two buttons, one will show as "Secret Button" (this would normally be hidden) and the other is "Real Button", which executes the ModalPopup that's attached to the secret button after a postback event.

How to format code before you paste it into a blog post

2009-08-10T19:25:00.002-05:00

http://www.manoli.net has a great tool at http://www.manoli.net/csharpformat/

Silly word error

2009-04-28T13:25:00.003-05:00

Today I had a user who had an error when trying to do anything with either envelopes or labels

"the number must be between 1 and 31"

Solutions on the web advised to delete the whole user profile, but that wasn't really an option. Fortuantely I found this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data\Settings

Remove that key and the problem goes away. I'm not sure what else the key holds, but it's a darn site better than deleting the whole profile.

2007-06-21T16:50:00.000-05:00

God of war II review

Kratos is as crazy as ever in God of War II for the Playstation II, for players of the the original game this will be recognised as more of the same, if you are new to the series, now is a really good time to jump in and start ripping off some heads. The God of War series started just a couple of years ago and turned out to be a real gem, it's always nice to play a great action adventure game where you can semi mindlessly kill hundreds of dudes in some fast paced action. God of War delivered it and now God of War does the same, new creatures, new weapons, more killing. It's not all about Kratos' rage though, often you'll find a door you can't get open, or a ledge you can't reach, this is where the puzzle elements come into play to slow you down and give you a short break before the killing resumes. People who would avoid the Zelda series for it's puzzle nature need not fear this element of GOWII's gameplay, puzzles are brief and simple usually involving you pushing a block onto a switch or just testing your timing so you avoid some spinning blades. These pauses are pretty infrequent and short and play a lesser part than they did in the first GOW, the balance feels about right and any puzzles are usually solved long before they become frustrating, although I seem to have some problem in identifying walls that can be climbed.

Large amounts of enemies are no problems for an angry Kratos

One of the improvements over the first game is the graphics, there are some new effects and what feels like a slightly improved art style. The first game was definitely not bad to look at, but when you put the high def cheat on the game looks more like a current gen title rather than last gen, the PlayStation 2 is really pushed to it's limits. The high def mode is a strange one, you have to hold down a series of buttons as the game starts to activate this and it's not available in the European version as the space on the disk is required for the extra languages available. Not having the high def in Europe is a shame, but it shouldn't deter anyone from experiencing this game, the graphics still look great without it. GOWII also features the same style of cinematic cut-scenes as the first, with similar high quality. The overall graphical presentation is a high class package all the way.

Magic powers will be unlocked throughout the course of the game and leveled up

Boss fights come at you throughout the game, you'll find that on average you'll have one of these fights every hour or so throughout the 13-14 hour game. Right from the get-go you'll encounter the Colossus of Rhodes this is one of the largest and most impressive boss battles of the game, it really helps set the pace for the whole experience. The other battles vary from single one-on-one battles to other large scale battles like the giant Kraken. These battles vary as much in impressiveness as they do in difficulty, playing through on medium I often found I fell to some bosses 4-5 times before I claimed a victory, it wasn't overly frustrating and felt to be the right degree of challenge. When you're not fighting bosses or solving puzzles then the minions will be keeping you busy, these vary as much as the bosses, some can be ripped up with just a couple hits, where as others you'll need to use a little strategy and slowly work them down until you can finish them with a few context sensitive button presses.

Fighting some of the larger creatures can be tricky, epically when there is more than one

A few RPG elements appear in GOWII as they did in the original, these are noting major but rather than the same endless fighting the character improvement system does make it feel like you are achieving a goal rather than just furthering the plot. You'll start with just the ability to just improve your Blades of Athena, but as you earn new weapons and skills you'll be able to upgrade them also. This includes new attacks, more damage, combos, and with the skills you'll collect you'll be able to drop more balls of lightning or just in general increase the effectiveness of your magic. This also increases re-playability since you'll keep your red orbs (that are used to level up) when you start a new game, so you can play through with a different strategy and different weapons. As well as testing out new weapons you may find yourself crawling through the game a second time to find the 6 hidden urns which will grant new abilities and cheat like skills, such as infinite magic.

The scale of some of the areas is just fantastic

Overall GOWII improves on it's predecessor, fans of the original will love it, and fans of this game type will find it one of the best of it's class.

Graphics	10
Gameplay	9
Sound	9
Length	8
Overall score	9

	Great graphics Fast action gameply Huge levels and bosses
	Battles can get repetitive

How I setup my tri-boot on a Gateway 500s with XP, Kbuntu and OSX (hackintosh)

2007-03-16T08:20:00.000-05:00

At home I have a relatively old Gateway 500s I use it as my second machine for writing, or surfing while I am gaming on my main PC. I grew a little tired of having XP running on both computers as I felt I was missing out by not trying something a little different, this is why I set up the task of tri-booting my PC to get the most out of this little box. I am using the default specs for a Gateway 500s but I've also added enough ram to take me to 768mb, a 5600 GeForce card and most importantly a DVD reader (you'll also need a way to burn DVDs)

Firstly and most importantly, make sure you backup everything you want to keep, personally after backing up my files I like to ghost the machine so I can quickly restore it back if I need the machine for something quickly. But however you do it, do run a backup, and heck you should have one scheduled to run anyway... right?

I'm going to do the best I can to break this down into steps, my main reason for crating this guide is so when I inevitably I end up breaking something I'll actually have some guide to get things working again. That said, lets go through what you'll be needing.

l A gateway 500s. Other systems will likely work, but bear in mind I am writing this for my specific hardware, specified above

l Windows XP SP2

l Kbuntu 6.10

l OSX X86 JAS 10.4.8

l Gparted

l About 4/5 hours of your time

1) Prepare the machine

a) Now you have backed up you files throw in the Gparted CD and answer the simple startup questions until you get to the partition screen.

b) For anyone that's used partition magic before this should be a cakewalk, begin by wiping the whole drive and we'll now create our separate partitions

c) The goal here is to create 3 primary partitions one for each OS. The exact sizes do not matter so much just follow this basic guideline then reboot. I have a 40gb HDD so my drive now looks like this

i. 13GB Primary, NTFS, Label “Windows XP”

ii. 13GB Primary, FAT32, Label “OSX”

iii. 7GB Primary, EXT3, Label “Linux”

iv. Extended Partition

v. 6.5GB Logical, FAT32, Label “DOCS” (Makes it easy to move files between OS')

vi. 500MB Logical, Linux Swap

2) Windows XP

a) Throw in your XP CD and begin the install on the first and only NTFS partition available

b) After install I recommend Autopatcher XP and running Windows Update

c) Reboot, XP is done!

3) OSX

a) This cam get pretty tricky, firstly put the DVD in the drive and continue until the install screen appears

b) At the top of the screen select Utilities / Disk Utility

c) Format the 13GB FAT32 partition as HFS+ Journaled, close the window and continue with the install, until......

d) Once you get to the screen with the little (and easy to miss) customize button the the bottom left, press the button and be sure to select the appropriate core based on your system, for me that'd be Intel and SSE2. From there you can continue with the install

e) At the point where OSX wants you to register you can press ALT+Q (If I remember correctly) to abort the registration

f) Now you should have OSX running, I found it was worthwhile to disable power management on my system as I felt it was doing more harm than good. If you do leave power management on you may need to change your BIOS to S1 mode, else the system seems less reliable when coming out of power save

g) Before we call it good, check your Internet. If you have a card like mine you'll likely find it not working. We can't fix this just yet, so continue onto Kbuntu and reboot for now

4) Kbuntu

a) Start up your PC with the Kbuntu CD in the drive, you should be taken to the live install screen

b) Choose advanced configuration of partitions

c) Be sure that the root partition is the 7gb partition, the swap is the 500mb partition and the 6.5gb FAT partition is mounted for ease of use

d) After install run the updater, you should have a flashing icon in the bottom right

e) Install NVIDIA drivers by launching; (K), System, Adept

f) Search for nvidia

g) Select nvidia-glx, request install and apply changes.

h) Start the terminal, you'll find this under; (K) , System , Konsole

i) Type
“sudo nvidia-glx-config enable” and reboot

j) If you get an error about X starting and don't get a graphical display. Then you might have to try “sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg” and test.

5) Grub

Now we're nearly there! We have all 3 OS' on the system, we just need a way to access them all, we can do this with some simple changes to the GRUB boot loader

a) Login to Kbuntu and start the terminal, you'll find this under; (K) , System , Konsole

b) Firstly we'll back up your boot list, type this command
“Sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.bak”

c) Now we'll edit the boot list
“Sudo pico /boot/grub/menu.lst”

d) You should now have a little window with all your grub paths in it, I won't explain everything here as it speaks for its self mostly, I'll just mention the basics

i. title – The text you want displayed in the boot loader

ii. root – The partition you want to boot from (hd0,0) would be the first partition on the first drive (hd0,1) would be the second partition and (hd1,2) would be the third partition on the second drive. Etc.

iii. savedefault – Makes the selection the default once you have used it (always defaults to the last chosen OS)

iv. makeactive – Makes the partition active and allows the OS to boot from it. I'm no expert on this, I just know it works :)

v. chainloader – No clue, I use it, it works (see above)

e) So, with that knowledge, if you've partitioned the same as me, you should have something like...

title Linux

root (hd0,2)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-10-generic root=/dev/hda3 ro quiet splash

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-10-generic

quiet

savedefault

boot

title XP

root (hd0,0)

savedefault

makeactive

chainloader +1

title OSX

root (hd0,1)

savedefault

makeactive

chainloader +1

f) Save the file by pressing “CTRL+X” “Y” “enter”

g) Reboot and test the boot loader, if all works okay, then CONGRATULATIONS!!

6) Cleanup

Like I mentioned I had no luck with my Intel Pro/100 VE on board card, now we have XP loaded I can show you how to get that card working again

a) Login to Windows XP start up device manager and find your network card

b) Check the details, you should see the device instance ID, make a note of these details
VEN_XXXX DEV_XXXX

c) Reboot back into OSX

d) Now we need to add that card to the list of devices, so firstly copy the file from “/System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext” to your desktop

e) Duplicate the file again onto your desktop (always make those backups)

f) If you right click the file you should have the option of “Show package contents” this will allow you to browse the .text file.

g) Browse all the way down to Contents/PlugIns/AppleIntel8255x.kext and then show the content of that package also

h) find /Contents/Info.plist and open it with a text editor

i) find the line “<key>IOPCIMatch</key>”

j) Underneath that line is a list of the supported hardware IDs, you'll have to add yours to the end of the list, My note shows I was ven_8086 & dec_2446 this made my code 0x24498086, this means my info.plist file shows...

<key>IOPCIMatch</key>
<string>0x10518086 0x10508086 0x10298086 0x10308086&0xfff0ffff 0x12098086 0x12278086 0x12288086 0x12298086 0x24498086 0x24598086 0x245d8086 0x10918086 0x10608086&0xfff0ffff 0x24498086</string>

k) Save the file and copy it back to “/System/Library/Extensions/” overwriting the existing file

l) open the terminal (click the spyglass in the top right, type terminal)

m) Type the following two commands
“sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache”
“sudo kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions”

n) close the terminal and the open windows, click the spyglass again and start the Disk Utility

o) Click the repair disk permissions button and reboot.

p) Click System Preferences / Network and OSX should report that it has a new Network Card!

8) Sources

I could never of completed this guide or have made my own tri-Boot machine if it wasn't for the great sources available on the Internet. Here are the sources of the info I found so credit can be given where it's due

Wtcnbrwndo4u & elislider at insanelymac.com
If it wasn't for this thread I don't know if I'd of ever got my network card working

cybernet1 at blogspot
This is the guide I loosely followed to understand how to start tri-Booting

yolinux
I'm terrible at remembering Linux terminal commands as I'm a dos man, this is my translator

Opera
Now you have 3 great working OS' be sure to install the Opera browser on each

9) Footnote

I am no expert of OSX or Linux, as I mentioned before this guide is mostly for my own reference so I can learn more about these alternative OS.

Please run a backup before attempting any of the steps outlined in this guide, I'm not responsible for your data.

If you find this guide useful and want to reference it, that's great, but please give me appropriate credit.

Do not pirate! It hurts the industries I care about, and bumps up the prices that honest people must pay.

- Mad Elk

I've moved to a new site

2005-09-30T23:27:00.000-05:00

Elk's blog

Two kickass keyboards

2005-07-31T16:55:00.000-05:00

I've been looking at some various keyboards, seeing as my British MS Office keyboard has many buttons I don't use and simply doesn't fit into my desk well, I found two nice up-and-comers.
The first is possibly the best keyboard for any media centre, it is called the "Microsoft Remote Keyboard for Windows XP Media Center Edition." (Microsoft with their forever catchy names) The second is about the most amazing thing I've seen it is the Optimus keyboard I'm a little skeptical about if this keyboard will ever see the light of day as OLEDs are pretty expensive if I remember correctly, but one can dream.

Oh, in other happenings at Microsoft besides the recent Vista release (which won't load my SATA drivers) is Media Centre Emerald Microsoft digital Photography and their more bizarre Escape from Yesterworld site

Finding the best apps

2005-07-17T19:30:00.000-05:00

I've been still playing around with Linux this weekend. Geez it took me about a hour to unlock 1280x1024 as I had to manually edit a file and find out my monitors frequency ranges! But after that I'm trying to find the best mail client. It seems most people use Thunderbird, I was kinda tempted to go with Opera's built in client, and I'd also used evolution in the past but ended up going with kmail, it's just so much faster and really seems to simply work well.
But the great browser debate, firefox, kongueror, opera... Which one to pick.
Browser Speed test this quickly answered my questions, Konqueror for compatibility, else it's Opera all the way

Bye Fedora--Hello Ubuntu!

2005-07-10T09:15:00.000-05:00

Well I ditched Fedora yesterday after still not fixing the error I mentioed a few weeks ago, although I hadn't given it a lot of time so I eventually went to Ubuntu.
Eveything turned out pretty well, it's very striped down but it comes with what you need to get the packages you want, it didn't come with KDE, or even a C compiler! But now I've got all that installed, plus SuperKaramba, Opera and Samba and things are clicking along nicely... Finally!

Linuxness

2005-06-29T20:50:00.000-05:00

I was actually looking for a "I LOVE WINDOWS!" T-shirt but came across this image instead. I had to laugh and I really know some people that would have their kids wear this. :)

Also I decided to start using Linux again since I have a fairly good spec machine around and a huge desk but after building a Fedora Core 4 box and getting it up and running in no time at all I was reminedd why Linux really frustrates me... Compiling...
Trying to get things to work and the feeling of sucess when it does is the main draw of Linux, but this just gets frustrateing, it seems my success rate with non RPM installs is very low, and with this new machine it's 0%. This new box just won't seem to compile anything without a very strange error....

/usr/lib/qt-3.3/include/private/qucom_p.h:69: warning: ‘struct QUBuffer’ has virtual functions but non-virtual destructor

Maybe I shouldn't be using Linux, or perhaps it's just a new distribution. But I shouldn't bash Linux so hard...
Linux bashing

Openly Linux using people often face extreme prejudice and discrimination from co-workers and IT departments but say that this bigotry must be confronted.

I had to laugh! :D

Spyware, Spyware

2005-06-20T23:39:00.000-05:00

Wow, it really is getting every ware, this blasted Aurora spy ware seems to be one of the worst of the lot, and is one of the few I've had to really work hard to remove. Even trying some Tricks in
safe mode didn't kill it. It seems the key is to kill 'nail.exe' I'll be trying this tomorrow as I already know a couple of people infected by this. The disclaimer for the Aurora toolbar is crazy!

"You further represent to BetterInternet that BetterInternet may store a cookie, computer file or other unique identifier on your computer to identify you and automatically repair or reinstall the Software if any third party application attempts to delete, disable or modify the Software. BetterInternet may terminate this Agreement or your right to continue to use the Software at any time.

You agree that you will not initiate, permit, authorize or assist any third party or application to remove the Software from your computer, or disrupt its operation or the operation of any other user. You agree that removal of the Software from your computer will only be performed by you pursuant to the instructions set forth herein."

It's a long EULA, such is any. I can't believe companies get away with this, the sooner they make it illegal to create such 'programs' the better, I just hope they can draw a good line of what is malware and what isn't

It all comes from abetterinternet.com but it seems the 'official' removal tool is at mypctuneup.com. You know... rather than doing the
outrageous idea of a uninstall included with the app

In other news!

Get a free copy of Linspire Operating System (a flavor of Linux) for free. Select $49.95 Digital Download, then apply coupon code LycorisWelcome. Although it seems you can only do this at specific times of day. Although why anyone would want to soil their system with such a OS is beyond me. If you want something that runs nearly as good as Windows, buy a
Mac... Or better yet, buy a Mac and install Windows!

Media centre final verdict

2005-06-20T00:03:00.000-05:00

I've played with Media Centre over the weekend and have found it's definitely the way to go. The total cost of $160 for a great video card, TV card and a remote control definitely gives you a great experience. I just spent a few hours watching episode III while Family guy was recorded, then I went back and watched Family guy when I was finished. Besides missing the AC3 codec the experience was fast and flawless, I am still missing the remote which isn't required but I've already had way too many times when I have wanted it around. The way the exclusive media centre games work it runs really well, as does the messanger client. If you have a high powered PC in any room that has a coax cable lying by it, do yourself a favor and buy a $60 TV card, you'll be thankful for it in the end.

Media PC

2005-06-17T23:22:00.000-05:00

I got my PVR150 yesterday, and fianlly got it working tonight. Eveything didn't quite work out of the box.

1st. installed the old version of media edition, need to get the new version I have activated.

2nd. Took forever to work out what was wrong with my video card drivers, until I read the guide a little more throughly and found I need a DVD codec to watch TV?!? Downloaded the Nvidia DVD codec (Didn't realise they had one) now need to get that registered.

3rd. Finally got TV working.. well audio, it seems I needed to upgrade my old Geforce2 to a 5200 at mimimun to get TV working, after doing that it worked a charm.

4th. Found a real need for a remote contol they are about $20 and is next on my list.

5th. Tried to get a Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard and mouse to work with a Belkin USB bluetooth adaptor with some very flakey results.
6th. Now I have a working unit but can only get about the 10 channels that come through the cable, I need to take the signal through the PVR decoder, but once I do that I will only be able to view the one channel the PVR is set to... hmm

So for about $200 I got my 1.8ghz spare machine into a media centre, it'd of been $100 cheaper if you alredy have coax cables and a good video card. Honestly my niggles with the OS are pretty minor and most don't relate to media centre, becides the stiff requirements for a video card and the requirement for a DVD decoder, which frankly baffles me. I'd recommend it to anyone that has a PC around that they'd like to find a better use for. I have a feeling I'll be needing more drive space soon now however...

Oh and finally a image for you all M$ bashers out there

AOL!

2005-06-15T23:27:00.000-05:00

I forgot how much I despised AOL. I had to look at a machine recently as AOL had told this user

"Your PC won't work online anymore you need to buy a new one"

AOL must have some agreement with CompUSA or something for a statement like that, anyway perhaps the modem was bad but that's a mood point now as the user is going to move to COX and all their port blocking goodness

Mac-ing hell

2005-06-14T18:59:00.000-05:00

Okay, it wouldn't be too hard to falsify a picture such as this, but still. It could be real

Media centre

2005-06-13T13:25:00.000-05:00

Those that know me will know that I love having PCs attached to a TV. Well I've just got the last peice of the machine I need to start building my media PC, It's a Hauppauge PVR150 MCE. Looks like it should be a lot of fun. Hopefully it should work out the box but when it arrives I'll let you know

Silly prices

2005-06-13T13:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, liqdized stock, Cat shaped barcode scanners for 30c each but you have to order 500,000 out of the 2,000,000 they have for sale!
I like cats but not that much! A great link for the 'dellboy' dealers

Liquidation linkage

It begins

2005-06-13T11:21:00.000-05:00

My techie blog! Mostly thoughts that I've come up with day to day and things I've seen that intrest me from Gizmodo and Slashdot