Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

With as much time as I seem to spend on the Net, this might come in handy.

This article talks about using a Hosts file to block/alias known adware and spyware sites. It also provides an updated Hosts for download (i.e. the dirty work is already done for you).

Using a Hosts file IS a slimy hack, but should work. Sure there are file size issues and possible performance problems, but I really like how low-tech it is...

I'm giving a try (you don't even need to reboot... cool) and will let you know if I run into any show stopping problems.

(via Don Kiely's Technical Blatherings - No-Cost Web Ad Blocking)

Update #1 11/25/2004 @ 4:05 PM PST:
Well I've already this backed out. On enough sites to be irritating I was the IE login dialog. Sites like Hotmail, etc...

Maybe I should actually read the whole post and then decide to use the new Hosts file.

:|

Sending MSN messages from the Command Line

Sending MSN messages from the Command Line

James Simmonds has written a cool little app, SendMSN, that lets you send MSN IM messages via the command line.

He's also included the C# source. He's using the cool dotMSN assembly to do the dirty work, which also makes his utility a nice little tutorial on using dotMSN.

I can see a number of places where this could be useful...

More detailed troubleshooting ideas for .NET Framework 1.0 SP3 and 1.1 SP1 failures

More detailed troubleshooting ideas for .NET Framework 1.0 SP3 and 1.1 SP1 failures

Note to Self: Read this.

I've been trying to get .Net Framework 1.0 SP3 installed on my notebook since it came out. I keep getting, "An exception 'System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException' Has occurred in SL134.tmp"

Based on this posting, it seems like reinstalling 1.0 Framework should fix it...?

Gizmodo : The Gadgetry of Thanksgiving, Part Deux [26-Qt Turkey Fryer Deluxe]

Gizmodo : The Gadgetry of Thanksgiving, Part Deux

My wife bought me one of these a couple years ago. And it's one of the best cooking investments she's ever made.

If you've never had a fried turkey then you don't know what you're missing. Frying a bird is the only way. Three minutes a pound and you're done. It's totally juicy and hard to get enough of.

A fried bird is unlike any turkey you've ever had. It makes turkey something I look forward to!

I will never go back to a baked bird...

SmartPart for SharePoint Version 1.0.0.0 Released

SmartPart for SharePoint Version 1.0.0.0 Released

"A SharePoint Webpart that can host any ASP.NET user control. Create your webparts by using the VS.NET designer instead of coding everything by hand!"

If you're doing SharePoint development you'll want to check this out...

Download it from GotDotNet, SmartPart for SharePoint: Workspace Home

SQL Server Developer Center: Tracing Data Access - A Gentle Introduction to ADO.NET 2.0 Trace Facilities

SQL Server Developer Center: Tracing Data Access

"Tracing Data Access
A Gentle Introduction to ADO.NET 2.0 Trace Facilities.

Bob Beauchemin
DevelopMentor

November 2004

Applies to:
Microsoft ADO.NET 2.0
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Microsoft SQL Server

Learn how to apply the tracing functionality in ADO.NET 2.0 to track down bugs and bottlenecks in your applications. (13 printed pages)

I've been missing a good generalized built-in trace facility for data access since the days of ODBC Trace. OLE DB had many of different types of tracing; two that come to mind are the Visual Studio Analyzer-compatible instrumentation and ATLTRACE (a trace macro for ATL OLE DB templates). The issue with OLE DB and MDAC was not that there was no trace, but that there were too many separate kinds of tracing, each tied to a different evaluation mechanism. It was difficult if not impossible to trace down into various layers of the data access stack and get one trace output.

ADO.NET 2.0 and SQL Native Client (a new OLE DB/ODBC/network library feature) contain a flexible, rich, built-in data trace facility. Microsoft has instrumented all four of its .NET data providers (SqlClient, OracleClient, OleDb bridge, and Odbc bridge), the ADO.NET DataSet and friends, SQL Native client OLE DB and ODBC provider/driver, and to top it off, the SQL Server 2005 network libraries. The information in this article is meant to get you up and tracing quickly, show you how to do some cursory trace file analysis, and look at simple trace use-cases. At the end of the article, I'll talk about how the tracing layer is architected to be extendible to different trace technologies, and suggest more ways in which to use it.

Trace points are already programmed in to the .NET and SQL native client libraries. Using an IL disassembler like Reflector, you may already have noticed them. The first step is configuring things to allow you to get basic output.

The basic steps for using tracing are:

Set up the data tracing DLL registry entry, ETW providers, and WMI schemas.
Configure and run the trace itself.
Harvest the trace results as a comma-separated value file.
Don't worry if some of the acronyms like ETW and WMI are unfamiliar to you for now. Let's go over the steps one-by-one and then go back to a discussion of how they work.

..."

When you need data tracing you really need it...

(via Christa Carpentiere - Tracing in ADO.NET 2.0)

OT: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Police praise 'courageous' Ozzy

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Police praise 'courageous' Ozzy

"Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has been praised by police for "very courageously" tackling a burglar who stole jewellery from his house.

The singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as the star gave chase at his Buckinghamshire home on Monday.

"I acted on impulse," Osbourne said. "In hindsight, it could have been a lot worse. It could've got really ugly."
..."

[Insert various comments about ugly, bitting off heads, etc here]

State and Local Government on the Net

State and Local Government on the Net

A directory of 10,000 State, count and city government web sites.
organized by state or topic...

Easier than using goggle to hunt down the CA SuperLotto web site... :)

(via State and Local Government on the Net Directory Hits 10,000 Entries)

ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog - Setting the Title of the "DOS" Command Prompt from a Batch File

ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog - Setting the Title of the "DOS" Command Prompt from a Batch File

"Just a small reminder for myself and others that you can set the title of the Command Prompt Window with the 'TITLE' Batch Command.

Since I'm building three different branches of our SDK during dev, it's nice to differentiate all these windows on all these monitors.

For example here's 'mybuild.bat'

TITLE Building VoyagerFramework 2.0
set BUILDDIR=C:\dev\VoyagerFramework\build
call BUILD.BAT %1 %2 %3 %4 %5"

You learn something every day... Nice tip.

Updating some of my command files now.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Enron Email Document Database

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Enron Email Document Database

Being in the EDD field, I found this document repository interesting.

http://fercic.aspensys.com

The user name and password should already be filled in, but just in case here they are.
User name: guest
Password: guest

There's a little more info about the repository on the FERC site at, http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/wem/pa02-2/info-release.asp

Heard about this via a press release, Enron E-mail Reveals E-mail Liability Remains A Significant Risk, According to InBoxer Study, that was emailed to me.

I'm doing some random searching in the repository and it's interesting what you can find... :

Download details: RTC Client SDK 1.3

Download details: RTC Client SDK 1.3

"Windows Real-Time Communications Client API SDK 1.3

The Microsoft Windows Real-Time Communications Software Development Kit (SDK) version 1.3 provides the ability to create applications that integrate audio, video, data collaboration, instant messaging, and presence using the standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)."

Something new to play with...

The RTC API now (as of v1.2) supports Win2K SP4 and has limited VB6 info (1 simple sample).

The Code Project - Plugin Manager - C# Programming

The Code Project - Plugin Manager - C# Programming

I've been watching the posts for last couple years on Plugin .Net app's... I'm planning using them throughout My Bookshelf project.

Here's another post that short and sweat and to the point. Shows examples of using a new/different app domain, using the FileSystemWatcher to monitor a folder to watch for new plugins, etc.


Using "plugins" in .Net apps seems to be becoming much more main stream. Now we need Microsoft to help us out with a standard/base framework that the community can extend as needed...