Blogger Backup v1.0.15.14 Released (With new Restore Posts Feature)

I've just released v1.0.5.14 of my Blogger Backup utility. This version introduces a Restore Posts feature. Yes, you can now not only backup posts, but restore them too! (Imagine that!  ;)

This version also includes two new Post Name Options, the Underscore "_" and Post URL (If the post's complete URL is http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/07/This_is_a_Blog_Post.html, then the page URL "This_is_a_Blog_Post" is the value used for this new Post URL option). Thanks to "Hareesh N" for these suggestions and help troubleshooting other issues...

Special Notes:

• Blogger has a 50 Posts Per Day limit. This means you'll only be able to restore a maximum of 50 posts a day. Sorry, but this is a Blogger/back end limit and there's no work-around (that I've found yet). The major concern I have is that there's no error or warning once you hit the 50 limit. Posts just stop appearing in your blog... I've added warning and counters (how many posts you've restored today, etc) to try to help keep you informed...
• Only One Post Per File backups can be currently restored. If there's a need I'll add support for Single File (all posts backed up to a single file) restore support.
• I've tested this as much as I can, but expect to run into issues. This is my first app that actually posts data to Blogger, so I'm sure there are issues I'm unaware of...

Screenshots

The new Restore Posts button.

Selecting posts to restore...

Final selection and kicking off the restore...

Second Annual Simi Valley Freedom Walk

http://www.militaryconnection.com/register.asp

"Please join us as we remember the victims of September 11th and honor our troops and Veterans on our second annual
AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU 9/11 FREEDOM WALK.

When: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Where: The Courtyard of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, 40 Presidential Dr.

The first 1000 registrants will receive:
A complimentary T-Shirt and an American Flag

..."

Just signed up...

Here are some pictures form last year, 1st Annual Simi Valley Freedom Walk Pictures

One thing to note, if you go, you may want to park your car at the park at the end of the route at the Park (or near there), instead of up at the Library (and walk up the hill to the Library... yeah, it's a serious hill to walk up, but walking is good for you... um... right?).

Last year due to the large number of people, it took a good while to pile everyone into the shuttles to return us to our cars at the Library. Maybe it will be different this year, but still, it takes time to pile 1000+ people into shuttles...

Adding Dynamic Items to the PropertyGrid DropDown/ComboBox

CodeProject - Dynamic DropDown Properties on the PropertyGrid

"Dropdown lists in the PropertyGrid provide an easy way to set up controls at design time. However, in some cases the options presented may not be known ahead of time or may vary based on some other setting. VB.NET does not provide an easy way to change the options available. This article gives a concise example of how to implement a dynamic dropdown property in the PropertyGrid.

..."

This project provides a fairly simple method of dynamic, runtime items in a Property Grid DropDown/ComboBox.

(via vb:feeds - Dynamic DropDown Properties on the PropertyGrid)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
The Code Project - Dynamic Properties in the PropertyGrid
The PropertyGrid and Custom Verbs

Humor - Diary from a Dog and Cat

This has been around the Net for a while, so you may have already seen it, still it made me laugh (as I'm sure our cats have this kind of diary going...), so I'm copying it so I can easily find it again in the future.

 

DOG DIARY
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

 

CAT DIARY
Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am.

Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow - but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe.

 

(via crolack - A little humor to start your weekend...)

XNA Project Changer - Work your XNA Project in VS2005/VS2008

Benjamin Nitschke's Blog -  Xna Project Changer Tool (with VS 2008 support)

"I wrote a little tool almost a year ago to help me coding XNA directly in VS 2005 instead of using XNA Game Studio Express, which does not support addins....

This tool does not do much, but it is still very useful like the AnnoyingFilesRemover. I use it almost daily when developing and testing XNA projects. It converts projects from VS Express to VS 2005 and VS 2008 and back, you can also use it for VS 2008 (Orcas) projects, which can be openend in VS 2005 again (and compile if you don't use .NET 3.5, but even that works to a certain degree with the LINQ May 2006 CTP). I will try to update this tool when newer versions of XNA (like the XNA Game Studio 2.0) and VS 2008 (like the beta 2 next week) come out, exciting times are ahead :)

..."

This is a simple tool for those who want to code their XNA projects in Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 (say for example you have about "one million" VS addins that you just can't live without... etc)

Ruby.Net (fka Garden Point Ruby.Net) Moving to a New OSS Model (and works in Visual Studio 2005...)

ruby-talk-google - Ruby.NET moves to full open source community model

"The Gardens Point Ruby.NET project (http://www.plas.fit.qut.edu.au/Ruby.NET) would like to announce that we are moving to a new open source community model.

While we at QUT will continue to be heavily involved in the project, we plan to transfer full control and ownership of the project to the open source community. To signify this new beginning, the new project will be named simply "Ruby.NET" (rather than "Gardens Point Ruby.NET") and a new licence agreement will be developed (by the community). ..."

QUT - Gardens Point Ruby.NET Compiler

"New Beta Release 0.8.1 (June 2007)

We are pleased to announce the release of a new Beta (version 0.8.1) of the Gardens Point Ruby.NET compiler. Since the last release we have added support for interoperability with other .NET languages, so that components developed using other .NET languages can conveniently use classes implemented using Ruby.NET and vice versa. The following example shows how we can now write a Ruby.NET program that uses the standard .NET libraries:

...

Previous Release Annoucement (May 2007)

We are pleased to announce the release of a new Beta (version 0.7) of the Gardens Point Ruby.NET compiler. Since the last release we have added support for debugging (by generating pdb files) and have created a Visual Studio integration package allowing users to edit, build, execute and debug Ruby programs within Visual Studio 2005.

..."

Want to play with Ruby, but don't want to give up Visual Studio 2005? Then Ruby.Net may be your ticket to Ruby'ness...

 

(via TheServerSide.Net - GardensPoint Ruby.NET goes open source)

Understanding the Team Foundation Server Data Warehouse

Teams WIT Tools - Understanding the TFS Cube

"The initial learning curve for the TFS Cube is pretty steep. It is quite overwhelming to figure out the relationships between the large number of dimensions and measure groups in the TFS cube at first. In this blog entry I will explain some of the most commonly used perspectives and show how you can easily create Excel reports from them. 

*Note* that this blog entry is still relevant to you even if you don't have perspectives on your cube.  What I cover here will help you better understand the cube schema.  In the demos below I connect Excel to cube perspectives.  However you can create the exact same reports by connecting to the Team System Cube.

..."

sigh... I SO could have used this a few weeks ago.

I recently added a new field to my Agile/Bug work items (related post) and needed to add that to a TFS report.

None of the existing reports really had what I wanted so I decided to start from scratch. And so began one of those, "I thought this would be easy? What was I thinking..." tasks.

Starting with the SQL Server 2005 Report Builder, I was able to create a report pretty quickly (once I found out how to create a Model... One my of TFS books came through with that tip).

That worked, but while Report Builder is good ad-hoc report engine (it's primary purpose) it's somewhat limited. I wanted reports that had some of the functionality that the in-the-TFS-box reports had (like true URL based navigation not the Report Building drill down stuff, etc).

It was time to upgrade to the Visual Studio Report Designer...

Um... well... let me just say that there's somewhat of a learning curve there. While I expected a curve when learning the Report Designer, the killer was trying to understand the data model. That's where the curve turned into learning rock climb.

After a good bit of work, copying and pasting, swearing and fine tuning I finally have the report I wanted as well as a better (not good, but better) understanding of the TFS data warehouse.

And THAT's where this post would have saved me days of work (and will still save me time in the future). Understanding the TFS data warehouse/cube and using it for reporting and analysis is an area where the TFS books/guides could use additional coverage. Most talk about creating custom reports, but don't go into near enough detail...

 

BTW, one of the things that saved me is that Report Server reports are just XML files. When I wasn't able to figure out why something was working in one report, but not mine, I was able to open them both as XML files and dig through the details/source. This was a life saver. I come from the old school where we learned report build via Crystal Reports (i.e. proprietary binary file format). I would have killed to be able to see the true source of the reports...  Thank you Microsoft.

(via marcus's Team System motivation and experience - TFS Warehouse Cube)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Team Foundation Server Power Tool, Process Template Editor Tip - If you open a *.WIT file and it appears as a normal XML file, instead of in a Designer...

Windows Task Scheduler Wrapper (With .Net 1.1/VB.Net Source)

Namespace Edanmo - Wrapper Classes for the Windows Task Scheduler

"Use these classes to add, modify and delete tasks in the Windows Task Scheduler from your applications. The .zip file includes a sample project that shows how to use the classes.

..."

I'm thinking of adding scheduling to my Blogger Backup utility in the future, so when I saw this I had to check it out.

It downloaded, compiled and ran right off. It looks pretty good and something that might come in handy...

(via del.icio.us/.Net - DeveloperDan/.net)

RSS Reporter for SQL Server V2 Released (with Custom Query Support & Database Size Feed)

I just got an email that the cool RSS Reporter for SQL Server has released v2

"...we are happy to tell you that we added support for ad-hoc queries to give you full control over the feeds you want to generate. You can write any query you want and automatically generate an RSS feed out of its output.

Furthermore, we have added a helpful predefined feed that provides database size and space allocation information - simply choose a database and RSS Reporter generates the feed for you making monitoring of such information very easy and convenient.

..."

x SQL Software - RSS Reporter

• "Generate standard RSS feeds containing SQL Server job information

• Aggregate information about multiple jobs from different servers

• Drill down on a job to see the details of the execution

• Turn the output of a T-SQL query into a standard RSS feed

• Conveniently monitor database size and space usage

• Supports SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000"

Free download for a single SQL Server...

I've not yet had a chance to check this out, but I still think it's pretty cool and on my list of stuff to do.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
RSSReporter - SQL Server Job Status via RSS Feeds

A few of my of favorite things... Lego Mindstorms, Microsoft Robotics Studio and Xbox 360 (controller)

Coding4Fun - Microsoft Robotics Studio and Lego Mindstorms NXT

"In this article, Brian Peek will demonstrate how to use Microsoft Robotics Studio to control the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit.  A simple remote-controlled robot will be built and controlled using C# and the MSRS Visual Programming Language (VPL).

The Lego Mindstorms NXT kit is an amazing upgrade to the original Lego Mindstorms product.  While the building blocks are the traditional plastic stud blocks everyone is used to, the new construction parts allow for some very complex designs.  Additionally, Microsoft Robotics Studio supports the Lego NXT kit right out of the box, so it's quite easy to get up and going using MSRS with the Lego kit to start coding a robot in C# or VB.NET.  With that in mind, this article will demonstrate how to use MSRS with the simple TriBot robot that can be easily built using the instructions included in the Lego NXT kit.

...

We have created a robot using Lego NXT and can control it with an Xbox 360 controller via Microsoft Robotics Studio by coding a service in C#, VB or VPL.  As you can see, even a non-experienced coder can develop a MSRS service using the VPL language.  If one requires more power and flexibility, a service can be coded directly in C#, or a VPL service can be converted to a C# project and continued."

Cool...

Now I wonder if I can sell my wife on the fact that I NEED the Lego Mindstorms NXT for... um... career building development activities? ;)