Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day: 11/29/2009

Monday, December 07, 2009

Microsoft Update Error number: 0x8002802B? Here’s how I finally got this fixed…

[Error number: 0x8002802B]

The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view. The options provided below might help you solve the problem.

I’ve been fighting with this Windows Update/Microsoft Update error for months now. I’ve tried the FixIt (How do I reset Windows Update components?), the WMIC/reg tweaks, the re-register components game, reinstalling IE, etc, etc, etc and nothing seemed to worked. And when I tried to install the Windows Update agent I’d get “WUA is already installed. No changes made.”… sigh…

That is until today. Finally I found a solution that actually fixed my MS Update! My MS Update is now happy again.

In order to give this solution a bump and so I can find it again, I’m capturing it here;

Error number: 0x8002802B in Windows Update

Problem:

“System: Windows Home Server
Browser: IE8
WUA: Windows Update Agent 7.2.6001.788 - Installed 10/21/2009 via Automatic Updates (Note this was the last update installed.)

I am unable to update my system due the error listed in the subject [0x8002802B]. The page displays the following message:

"The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view. The options provided below might help you solve the problem."

The Automatic Update control panel indicates that the Automatic Updates service is enabled and set to "Automatic (recommended)". The Services
management tool indicates that the service is "Started".

However the Microsoft Updates page directs me to enable the AU service.

Note: There are no related errors in the event logs.

I've tried the following:
Disable "Microsoft Updates" => "Windows Updates" fails the same way and indicates that AU should be enabled.

Reinstalling the Windows Update Agent => "WUA is already installed. No changes made."
…”

Solution

“I executed the following in a cmd window:
C:\>windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /?

This produced the following help information:
/wuforce
/quiet
/norestart

I ran the installer with the /wuforce option and that resolved the issues…”

The /wuforce command line option and the How do I reset Windows Update components? FixIt combination is what finally did it for me. First I ran the Windows Update FixIt, rebooted and then ran windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /wuforce

Now my Windows Update is happy and working again! :)

“Samples for Parallel Programming with the .NET Framework 4” gets some VB love…

Parallel Programming with .NET - Updated Beta 2 samples for parallel programming

“We've refreshed our Beta 2 samples for parallel programming with the .NET Framework 4. Thanks to the gracious assistance of the fabulous Lisa Feigenbaum and others on the Visual Basic team, in this refresh the majority of the samples are now available not only in C# but also in Visual Basic [GD:Emphasis added]. The samples are available for download at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ParExtSamples.” [GD: Post leached in full]

MSDN Code Gallery - Samples for Parallel Programming with the .NET Framework 4

“The .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 has been released and is available for download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/dd582936.aspx. .NET 4 includes significant advancements for developers writing parallel and concurrent applications, including Parallel LINQ (PLINQ), the Task Parallel Library (TPL), new thread-safe collections, and a variety of new coordination and synchronization data structures. This Code Gallery project includes example applications and library functionality that demonstrate, utilize, and augment this support (it is not production quality).

…”

Samples for Parallel Programming with the .NET Framework 4 - Parallel Programming with .NET 4 Beta 2 Samples

“ParallelProgrammingSamples_Beta2.zip
source code, 3967K, uploaded Sun –…”

Here’s a snap of the extracted zip;

All projects seem to include have C# samples, most now with VB and one with C++/F#

Free (reg-ware) PowerShell v1 eBook (593 pages) – “SAPIEN’s Windows Powershell V1.0: TFM”

Rod Trent at myITforum.com - Free Windows PowerShell ebook

“With the recent release of Windows PowerShell v.2 and the immanent publication of our well regarded Windows PowerShell v.2 TFM book by Don Jones and Jeff Hicks, SAPIEN is releasing our Windows PowerShell v.1 TFM eBook as a FREE download to the public. Even though this eBook is for version 1 of PowerShell, the book still contains loads of valuable information about PowerShell’s core workings and cmdlets. …”

Primal Tools - Community Tools

Shot of the cover:

I think it’s been forever since I’ve posted an eBook (like days and days! ;) and I just couldn’t pass up 593 pages of PS’ness…

Sunday, December 06, 2009

A Feed You Should Read #14 – WynAspe, Silverlight Cream

The speed that Microsoft’s Silverlight is evolving is rather breathtaking. Silverlight 1 was released just two years ago! (September 4, 2007). Silverlight 3 was released earlier this year and a couple weeks ago we saw a fairly well baked Silverlight 4 (I think the SL4 release date is still TBD, but I’d put money on Mix10’ish).

Keeping up with that pace of change could almost be a full time job in and of itself. Luckily there’s help just a click away…

WynApse - Mining the Web for Silverlight so YOU don't have to

Background:

Silverlight is a juggernaut with a rollout speed that just seems to be increasing. The features and capabilities continue to grow, its install base is expanding and it’s starting to be used a very wide variety of ways by some serious names.

If you’re a web dev, or more importantly a Windows client based dev, Silverlight is getting to that point where it may now time to start seriously looking it. Silverlight 4 is going to blur the line between full client and web app, a trend that I’d bet will continue.

With Silverlight we’re talking taking advantage of the broad scope and deployment ease of the web, UI power of WPF and control and capabilities of a full rich client runtime environment.

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

I’ve only been following David Campbell’s WynAspe Sliverlight Cream directly for a year or so, but have been reading his posts much longer (via the main Geekswithblogs aggregation feed). Silverlight is not something I currently “do” but is something I am interesting in following. That said, Sl4’s new features may just push me over that the edge and I may just have to start seriously playing with it… :)

Not doing it day in and out I found it hard to keep up with it and its vibrant community.

That was until I starting keying on David’s Sliverlight Cream posts. The blog’s subtitle is perfect and just what I needed, someone to be my eyes in the Silverlight space and provide an intelligent signal to noise filter.

So why do I like this feed and think you might? It provides a daily’ish curated list of Silverlight links, each with a brief description. This is a great way to get in touch with Silverlight without getting overwhelmed.

It’s simple. If you’re interested in, involved in, or even master of Silverlight this is one of those feeds you just need to follow…

Snap of the latest post:

Blog Information:

Name:	WynApse - Mining the Web for Silverlight so YOU don't have to (Silverlight Cream)
URL:	http://geekswithblogs.net/WynApseTechnicalMusings/Default.aspx
Feed:	http://geekswithblogs.net/WynApseTechnicalMusings/Rss.aspx
Post Types:	Silverlight Link Curatation

Thursday, December 03, 2009

How 8.8.8.8 took over the world (of DNS)? Google can now be your DNS resolver

The Google Blog - Introducing Google Public DNS

“When you type www.wikipedia.org into your browser's address bar, you expect nothing less than to be taken to Wikipedia. Chances are you're not giving much thought to the work being done in the background by the Domain Name System, or DNS.

Today, as part of our ongoing effort to make the web faster, we're launching our own public DNS resolver called Google Public DNS, and we invite you to try it out.

…

If you're web-savvy and comfortable with changing your network settings, check out the Google Code Blog for detailed instructions and more information on how to set up Google Public DNS on your computer or router.

As people begin to use Google Public DNS, we plan to share what we learn with the broader web community and other DNS providers, to improve the browsing experience for Internet users globally. The goal of Google Public DNS is to benefit users worldwide while also helping the tens of thousands of DNS resolvers improve their services, ultimately making the web faster for everyone.”

Interesting… Kind of cool way for Google to leverage their DNS infrastructure (which must be fairly extensive), to gather even more stats and continue in their “faster” quest.

I wonder what impact this will have on OpenDNS?

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Throw away those USB Electric plug-in adapters? - “How to Quickly Convert a Wall Outlet Into a USB Charger”

Gizmodo - How to Quickly Convert a Wall Outlet Into a USB Charger

I can't tell you how many times we have come across USB chargers that can be plugged into an outlet, so why not cut out the middleman and simply convert the outlet to USB? Instructables shows you how.

Not only that, the guy behind the hack claims it can be done in 30 minutes on a budget as small as $10. In a nutshell, he just inserted two apple mini usb plugs into the outlets and tucked them back in the wall, …”

Some things make so much sense when you see them… Just remember you’re possibly playing with fire here and you might want to wait until there’s an “official” and tested productized like item.

Still I want something like this…

Solution for reading your VS Solutions - “LINQ to Visual Studio Solution”

CodeProject - LINQ to Visual Studio Solution

Introduction

In attempting to write software for Windows Mobile using Visual Studio C# Express or SharpDevelop, I found that there is some common code that is generated by the designers which does not work on Windows Mobile. Instead of fixing it by hand every time I changed something on the form, I wanted to write a general refactoring tool that I could run from the command line (or the "Tools" menu) and fix the problem code.

I got something very ugly working, using (or misusing) the NRefactory library from SharpDevelop. However, I found that sometimes I needed to use Reflection, and so I needed to know which libraries were referenced in the project. At this point, I had never used LINQ, but I started to see how LINQ to XML could save a lot of code.

Then, as I was working on it, the code to get project properties evolved into the general purpose LINQ to Visual Studio solution that I present here. There is nothing in this code that deals with refactoring. It does read only property queries against Visual Studio projects. Hopefully, at some point, my refactoring code will be at a decent stage and I can post an article on that.

…”

I just thought that was too darn cool to not reference. It’s not that it’s uber hard (a VS Solution is just an XML file), just that it seems to make such good sense to abstract it this way and make it so easily LINQ’able. And I dig how the author took the time to generalize it and share it with all of us. :)

TPL (That is, Task Parallel Library) Article of the Day: “Parent-Child Task Relationships in the .Net Framework 4”

Microsoft Downloads - Articles on Parallel Programming with the .NET Framework 4 (Parent-Child Task Relationships in the .Net Framework 4)

“A set of articles that provide information on parallel programming with the .NET Framework 4.

File Name: ParentChildTPLTasksRelationship.pdf

Version: 1.0

Date Published: 12/1/2009

Language: English

Download Size: 787 KB

Overview

The .NET Framework 4 includes extended support for writing parallel applications, through enhancements to the CLR itself as well as through new libraries commonly referred to as "Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework." The set of articles available in this download provides detailed information on Parallel Extension, including the Task Parallel Library (TPL), Parallel LINQ (PLINQ), and a set of new coordination primitives and thread-safe data structures. These articles provide insights into performance characteristics, usage patterns, best practices, integration of parallelism with other programming frameworks, and more.

…”

From the PDF;

“This document provides an in-depth explanation on parent-child task relationships offered by the Task Parallel Library as in the .NET Framework 4. This includes the behavioral changes implied by being a parent or child task in terms of task completion, task waiting, as well as task cancellation. In addition, it also points out a few common oversights and provides general guidelines on when to take advantage of this feature.

…

…”

One of the more foundational changes coming in .Net 4 is its support for new multithreaded programming models. PLINQ, PFX, Tasks, etc are going to help us deliver applications that take advantage of all those cores in our systems, without our brains exploding…

That and every time I see “TPL” I chuckle…

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Windows 7 for Dev’s – One getting started page to rule them all?

IUpdateable from Eric Nelson - Windows 7 resources for developers – in one place

“My group has been pulling together a page of resources to help developers start to target Windows 7 features.

…”

MSDN (UK) – Windows 7

Being a Managed Dev, I liked the focus on Win7 in a Managed world (i.e. Code Pack).

I do wish the page, or any “resource” page, had a RSS feed so I could easily keep up with future additions (I have to assume new resources will be added over time…)