Web Exporter Power Toy for OneNote

CodePlex - OneNote Web Exporter

"What is this for?
The OneNote Web Exporter allows you to export a OneNote notebook as html files that anybody can view through a web browser.

How does it work?
You give it a OneNote 2007 Notebook and it will generate an html page and a folder containing all of the notebook data.

..."

That's pretty cool... And it has build in scheduling, so you can set it up to automatically export a Notebook. Nice.

(via The Road to Know Where - New OneNote 2007 PowerToy Exports Notebooks as Interactive Website)

Blogger Backup v1.0.2.7 Released (Bug Fixes)

I've just released a new version, v1.0.2.7, of my Blogger Backup utility. This is a bug fix release, with no new functionality added.

The primary fix is that it now better handles Blog Titles containing characters that cannot be used in a folder name (like : < > ? * etc).

It also better handles "Stop" events when it's in the middle of a retry loop (Retrying to get comments, etc, now should exit correctly when Stop is clicked).

Thanks to Lisa (Speak Schmeak: things I'm thinking about speakers and speaking) and rupakg for their bug reports and help squashing them...

 

As for future new features, I'm working on a better path and post naming method. (Work Item #10840)

Then comes the major work on new output formats...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Blogger Backup 1.0.1.6 Released (and status change from Alpha to Beta)
Blogger Backup 1.0.0.5 Alpha Released
Blogger Backup v1.0.0.2 Alpha Release
Blogger Backup v1.0.0.1 Alpha Release
Blogger Backup Utility v1.0.0.0 Alpha Released
Blogger Backup using the C# GData Client Library...

SQL 2005 CLR/.Net Regular Expression Library

CodeProject - A T-SQL Regular Expression Library for SQL Server 2005

"With the advent of CLR integration into SQL Server 2005, it has become incredibly easy to extend the power of the T-SQL programming language. Two of the areas that can be improved upon by way of CLR integration are string matching and string manipulation.

...

My objective here is to wrap some of the more commonly used static methods of the RegEx class in the .NET Framework into something useable in a T-SQL environment. I felt the best approach was to develop this wrapper as a set of user defined functions that closely mirror the inputs and outputs of these methods in the RegEx class.

..."

Functions

ufn_RegExIsMatch The purpose of this function is to mirror the functionality of the Regex.IsMatch method. ...

ufn_RegExMatches While ufn_RegExIsMatch will tell you if there is a match of @Pattern within @Input, this function will tell you what the matches are, where they are located in the string and how long each match is.  ...

ufn_RegExReplace This function mirrors the functionality of Regex.Replace in the .NET Framework...

ufn_RegExSplit Splitting a delimited string into its elements is a common task among T-SQL developers. The ufn_RegExSplit function does exactly that. This implementation uses the Regex.Split method ...

..."

Nice. With SQL 2005, CLR RegEx wrapping is often talked about, but rarely put together in as good a package as this. Not only is the library talked about, but its deployment as well...

Three Year Warranty for Three Red Rings of Death (i.e. XBox360 Warranty Extended to Three years for Three Red Ring Problems)

Microsoft Expands Xbox 360 Warranty Coverage

"REDMOND, Wash. — July 5, 2007 —Microsoft Corp. today announced that it will expand its global Xbox 360™ warranty coverage. Any Xbox 360 customer who experiences a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights will now be covered by a three year warranty from date of purchase. All other existing Xbox 360 warranty policies remain in place.

As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures.  Having identified a number of factors which can cause general hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, Microsoft has made improvements to the console and is enhancing its Xbox 360 warranty policy for existing and new customers.

Microsoft stands behind its products and is taking responsibility to repair or replace any Xbox 360 console that experiences the “three flashing red lights” error message within three years from time of purchase free of charge, including shipping costs. [GD: Emphasis add] ...

For any customer who has previously paid for repair expenses related to the three flashing lights error message on the Xbox 360 console, Microsoft will retroactively reimburse them.

..."

Nice. I'm glad they are taking strong steps in responding to this 360 issue.

What I like the most is that they are owning up to the issue. I feel that we don't see that enough, where someone (person, company, government, etc) who has done something wrong, made a bad decision or just screwed up, stands up and says, "We screwed up. We are taking reasonability. We're fixing it..."

Anyway, my 360 is well out of its one year warranty, so I was sure it was due to die any day now. Now I need to tell it about this extension, so it knows to not die for another year and a half (cause all devices know to never die during their warranty period... ;)

(via Robert McLaws: Windows Vista Edition - Microsoft Admits Xbox 360 Failures, Extends Warranty)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
XBox 360 Warranty Extended to One Year, Retroactively...

Using Lucene.Net to Index And Search C# Source

SimoneB's Blog - Indexing and searching source code with Lucene.Net

"...

My idea was to create a homemade source code indexing and search service, so I started fiddling with Lucene.Net, CastleProject, C# Parser and a couple other open source projects to see what I could come up with. There are already a lot of services which allows to search source code online, see Krugle, Google Code Search and Koders among others.

Well, of course I couldn't use one of them as my course project, so I started implementing my own. I called it CS2 - C Sharp Code Search, and its source code is available under the MIT license on its Google Project Hosting website. I think it's a good example of the usage of Lucene.Net and CastleProject's IoC container in a wanna be real life project.

At the moment only the indexing part is implemented and you can see it working launching the console application project contained in the solution. ..."

Wow, do you see the brightly lit 30w CFC light-bulb floating over my head?

This post is the basis for a great idea. Internal/in-house/behind the firewall/IP protected source code full text indexing and searching.

Think how cool it would be to full text search ALL the source code hosted in a TFS server? Tie into the TFS event and a service could index code as it's checked in. With a web front end (or a Part in the SharePoint team portal), all the developers in-house (or connected to your network via VPN, etc) could search your source code repository.

And not just boring/normal (Window Search, Google desktop, X1, etc) full text indexing, but fully parsed indexing. So searches could be limited to methods, properties, etc ("method:DoSomeWork CONTAINS blablabla" or "property:SillyFlag" or "comment:TODO" or ProjectAssembly:InHouseAssembly.DLL or... )

Think about dependency searching (list all projects using a given assembly, etc) or re-use scenarios (find other projects/code snips where object/property/method XYZ is used) or refactoring (how may times has this same code snip been copied over and over) or code review or... or...

I mean, we don't have anything like this available to us now, do we (remember, I'm talking server based, full repository, in house parsed source code full text indexing)? Doesn't this seem like a no-brainer?

Hum....

(via DotNetKicks.com - Indexing and searching source code with Lucene.Net)

ResX to XLS and Back Again - A Multi-Language Resource Helper

CodeProject - Resx To Xls Conversion for multi language support

"Do you need to localize your resx files and you don't want to open one file at a time, clean it from unused keys, localize it etc etc. ? Resx2Xls it's for you.

1) Open resx2xls. Just point you Project, go to resx2xls tab, the cultures that you nedd for localization, and Click on "Create new empty xls" button. Done!!

2) Fill your excel file with your localized key values or just send it to your translator

3) Now do you want to create the localized resx files from the filled excel workbook? Open resx2xls, go to the xls2resx tab, selected your xls file and click "Create resx files". Done!!

4) Have you updated your Project and your resource files have been modified (added, removed, updated)? No problem. Open resx2xls, go to the general tab and select your project root, go to the xls2resx tab, selected your xls file and click "Update xls from Project". Done!!

..."

Nice. When/if I add multi-language support to my Blogger Backup utility, this could be very useful.

Brown Bag PowerShell Lessons (Learning PowerShell during your lunch breaks..)

Mastering PowerShell in your Lunch Break 

This is a cool blog which is teaching PowerShell in bite sized chunks.

Here's a list of some of the recent posts...

Day 1: Getting Organized

"Hi, I am Tobias, maker of the WSH script IDE “SystemScripter” (www.scriptinternals.de) and I use WSH and VBScript for many years now.

PowerShell has a lot of faces and purposes. One is to be a much more powerful replacement for the very limited cmd.exe based console, and this is what we are exploring today. After this, you will be able to use PowerShell as replacement for cmd.exe. Other topics follow.

I'll focus on some simple things and facts and restrain myself from theoretical blabla and hysterical how great all of this is. Let’s just check out the basics in your lunch break and have some fun.

..."

Day 2: Writing Scripts and Translating VBScript

"On Day 1, we looked at PowerShell as a replacement for the cmd.exe console. Today, we’ll be shifting angles (and expectations) and examine PowerShell as a scripting language.

..."

Day 4: Ins and Outs of the Windows Registry

Day 5: Using WMI

Day 7: Manage Users

 

If you're interested in learning PowerShell, this is a series you might want to check out...

(via Brad Smith ::: MSFT - Mastering PowerShell in your lunch break -- Awesome!!)

COM Shim Wizard Updated to Version 2.3

Microsoft Downloads - 2007 Office System Sample: Isolating Microsoft Office Extensions with the COM Shim Wizard Version 2.3

"...

Learn about an updated set of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 wizards that automate the generation of COM shims for managed shared add-ins, with specific support for the new extensibility interfaces introduced in the 2007 Office system.

..."

Associated MSDN article, Isolating Microsoft Office Extensions with the COM Shim Wizard Version 2.3

"...

Extensions for the 2007 Microsoft Office System

If you need to extend the functionality of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, you can build an add-in or by build an extension. In addition, you can build the following different types of add-in:

• VSTO document-level and VSTO application-level managed add-ins

• COM add-ins, managed or unmanaged, without VSTO

• Other extensions for Microsoft Office system applications, such as smart tag recognizer and action components, smart document solutions, and real-time data components

When you build a managed extension of any kind, you should ensure that your extension is isolated from other extensions that might be loaded into the application. The standard way to isolate your extension is to build a custom COM shim by using the COM Shim Wizard, a set of Visual Studio project wizards that helps you construct shims quickly and easily. This article describes the latest version of the COM Shim Wizard, which supports the new extensibility interfaces in the 2007 Office system.

..."

I know I'm going to need this one day (though I've been saying that for the last 3+ years...  ;)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Download details: Office Tool: COM Shim Wizards

Change Delta Between Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows Server 2008

Microsoft Downloads - Changes in Functionality from Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to Windows Server 2008

"...

This document describes new features and technologies, which were not available in Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), that will help to increase the security of computers running Windows Server 2008, increase productivity, and reduce administrative overhead.

These topics apply to the next release of Windows Server 2008, based on the functionality expected to be included in the Beta releases in 2007. They do not describe all of the changes that are included in Windows Server 2008. Instead, they highlight changes that will potentially have the greatest impact on your use of Windows Server 2008 and provide references to additional information.

..."

There are 318 pages in this Word "highlight" document...

Easily Save and Restore Window Layouts with the WindowPlacementTool Utility

Delay's Blog - An easy way to keep your windows where you want them [Releasing WindowPlacementTool with source code!]

"I wrote WindowPlacementTool in December of 2000 to solve a problem I had after beginning to use Terminal Services/Remote Desktop regularly. I made WindowPlacementTool available internally in 2001. Last week someone asked about getting access the source code to make some customizations and I figured I'd post the tool and its source here for anyone to use.

Download WindowPlacementTool and its source code by clicking here.

..."

From the WindowPlacementTool.txt;

"If you're picky about the layout of the windows on your desktop or if you connect to your machine with Terminal Services at differing resolutions, you're probably annoyed by having to re-layout your windows on a regular basis.  It seems like something (or someone!) is always coming along and messing with your layout.  But now that's a problem of the past; WindowPlacementTool can do all the work for you!  Just run it once to capture the layout you like, and then run it again whenever you need to restore that layout.  And because you can save multiple layouts, switching resolutions is a breeze.  Yep, it's that easy!

...

Example Setup
=============

[Layout your windows however you'd like them]

[Capture the current layout to a file]
C:\Temp>WindowPlacementTool.exe -c 800x600.txt

[Optional: Edit the file to remove any programs you don't care about]
C:\Temp>notepad 800x600.txt

[Optional: Create a shortcut on your desktop for easy access to this layout]
[Here, the shortcut would run "WindowPlacementTool.exe C:\Temp\800x600.txt"]

..."

This is a cool little utility that might come in handy. Nothing to install, just grab the EXE from the zip and run it. The include source is C++.

SlickEdit Tools v1.1

[FULL DISCLOSURE: The team at SlickEdit sent me a NFR copy of SlickEdit Tools v1.1 and some trade show swag. I'm using this NFR copy at home and basing my comments on that NFR version...]

I've been using SlickEdit Tools v 1.1 for a couple weeks now and I have to say it's a keeper.

The install was smooth and easy and I had no problems or issues. I've also had no problems SINCE the install...

One thing to note, at the start of the setup they strongly recommend you backup/export your VS settings prior installing. I didn't have any problems with my settings, but their strong recommendation makes me think they've learned from past experience/problems, so that's one setup warning I'd listen too...

While there are a number of cool features (See Product Page and advertorials A Story About Bob and How He Saved the Day with SlickEdit® Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005, How We Use SlickEdit® Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005) I think the coolest feature so far (and one that as already saved me hours of work) is the Backup History feature.

They've hooked into the VS events and every time you save a file, a delta/diff is done and that diff saved. Then later that day/week/etc you can see all the saves you've made for a given file and roll back to an older version. Or do a Diff (using the included Diffzilla) and see the changes between those saves. Think of this as a "pre-source control check-in" thing.

For example, say you're editing a file. You makes changes to try something out, run (thereby saving), make more changes, run, make more changes, run, etc. Finally you realize that the stuff you're trying just isn't working and you want to get the code from 15 saves ago... Backup History will let you see all the saves for a given file (not project level, but file-by-file, for now. They are working on improving this feature, and are looking at adding "file set" like features..) and roll back to that save you made XX minutes/hours/days ago. So much easier than trying to remember all those changes you made and now have to manually undo.

It's nice to see they've built this feature intelligently. They don't just save off a copy of a file, they save the differences/deltas between the current file and the last one saved, saving a great deal of drive space. And of course, how many saves (the default is 20) and max file size that should be backed up are user configurable.

Oh yeah, and it works just fine for VB.Net files...

And that's just one of the features I'm interested in. The next one I want to check out is the Quick Profiling.

But in my opinion, a product is only as good as the company's customer service and support.

And there, so far, SlickEdit gets an A+. All my emails to them have been very promptly responded to (lol... Almost too promptly... Sometimes you fire off an email, hoping they don't respond too quickly so you can context switch to something else... but these guys respond to quickly for that... ;). Questions have been forwarded on, deeper into the company (i.e. to the devs) who also responded very promptly. And guess what? They not only ask for suggestions but actually take action on them! (lol... Everyone asks for suggestions, but seeing someone actually execute on them... well, sometimes it feels that doesn't happen enough, you know what I mean? )

I LOVE good customer service. I've dealt with software companies who, while providing a good product, provided such crappy customer service that I've returned the product and gone with another (we're talking about ten's of thousands of dollars in lost sales). I spend big bucks with a company, I expect good customer service.

And that's what I like about SlickEdit. I didn't have to spend big bucks to get big bucks customer service.

Also in my emails with them, I get the feeling that they really care about their company and products. That they get excited about their work. That it's not just job... I dig that. I dig someone who gets excited about what they do...

 

Okay, okay... enough for now...  ;)

At $149 (there's a $50 discount offer going on, so it's currently only $99, plus there's a free trial version available) it's not all that expensive and if you find that killer feature (like I have with the Backup History), it can easily be worth it.

Here are some SlickEdit related links:
SlickEdit Tools v1.1
SlickEdit Tools Support Forum
A Story About Bob and How He Saved the Day with SlickEdit® Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 
How We Use SlickEdit® Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005

 

Related Past Post XRef:
New SlickEdit Developer Blog
SlickEdit VS2005 Gadgets Updated
Slick Edit Gadgets - Free VS2005 Utilities

NetMon 3.1 Released

Network Monitor - Network Monitor 3.1 Has Released!

"The NM3.1 is now available on http://connect.microsoft.com featuring wireless sniffing and an easier way to create filters using "Right Click Add To Filter". Here is a list of features that are new to NM3.1.

What's New in Network Monitor 3.1?

• Wireless (802.11) capturing and monitor mode on Vista – With supported hardware, (Native WIFI), you can now trace wireless management packets. You can scan all channels or a subset of the ones your wireless NIC supports. You can also focus in on one specific channel. We now show the wireless metadata for normal wireless frames. This is really cool for t-shooting wireless problems. See signal strength and transfer speed as you walk around your house!
• RAS tracing support on Vista – Now you can trace your RAS connections so you can see the traffic inside your VPN tunnel. Previously this was only available with XP.
• Right click add to filter – Now there's an easier way to discover how to create filters. Right click in the frame details data element or a column field in the frame summary and select add to filter. What could be easier!
• Microsoft Update enabled – Now you will be prompted when new updates exist. NM3.1 will occasionally check for a new version and notify you when one is available.
• New look filter toolbar – We've changed the UI related to apply and remove filters. You can now apply a filter without having to UN-apply it first.
• New reassembly engine – Our reassembly engine has been improved to handle a larger variety of protocol reassembly schemes.
• New public parsers – These include ip1394, ipcp, ipv6cp, madcap, pppoE, soap, ssdp, winsrpl, as well as improvements in the previously shipped parsers.
• Numerous Bug Fixes – We've taken your reported problems on the connect site and fixed many of the confirmed bugs.
• Faster Parser Loading – We've significantly improved the time it takes to load the parsers. Now rebuilding takes a fraction of the time it used to.

..." [Almost entire post leached]

That about says it all...

Related Past Post XRef:
Network Monitor 3 (aka NetMon 3, aka NM3) Re-released for Vista
NetMon 3.0 RTW

TFS Migration and Synchronization Toolkit 1.0 Released

CodePlex - TFS Migration and Synchronization Toolkit

"The purpose of the TFS Migration and Synchronization Toolkit is to enable customers of Team Foundation Server (TFS) to build custom tools that enable migration and synchronization with other version control (VC) and work-item tracking (WIT) systems. Customers have asked us for this toolkit to help them integrate TFS into their existing development environments. Please give it a try and let us know what you think.

...

Bi-directional synchronization of data between TFS and another system allowing teams to transition over time

• Enables integration of TFS with other VC and WIT systems (i.e. using TFS for VC but a proprietary system for bug tracking)

..."

From the readme.txt;

"This is the 1.0 version release of the Migration and Synchronization Toolkit.  Included in this release are the components to migrate and synchronize version control (VC) and work item tracking (WIT) data to TFS, components to synchronize links between changesets and work items, and two reference implementations.  The first reference implementation synchronizes WSS documents to TFS VC, and the second synchronizes WSS task lists to TFS work items.

..."

Ed Hintz (MSFT) - TFS Migration and Synchronization Toolkit Released to the Wild

"...

If you download the toolkit, I encourage you to look at the reference implementation that migrates with SharePoint (WSS).  This implementaiton migrates documents between SharePoint and TFS version control as well as migrating SharePoint task lists with TFS work item tracking. ..."

Interesting.

I have a number of users who are comfortable in SharePoint but not yet with TFS (or any of the TFS access points). I think it would be pretty cool to be able to provide them a WSS list interface to selected TFS Work Items (and there's NO way I was ever going to copy and manually/human sync WSS <-> TFS... that way leads to madness and I'm sure would quickly be put aside. No a automated sync solution is the only viable choice...).

Hum... Now just to find the time to dig into this...

HTTP File Downloader - Simplify HTTP File Downloading in your code...

Code Project - HTTP File Downloader Class for .NET

"This short article presents the component HttpFileDownloader for .Net
It was designed a few years ago, that is why it is written for .NET 1.1
However it can be used for newer frameworks or/and recompiled.
It shows the estimated time left and the progress.

..."

This, or something like it, might come in handy when I add picture support to my Blogger Backup utility...

Fiddler 2.1 Released...

InsideHTTP - Fiddler 2.1 Released

"Fiddler 2.1 is now available. ..."

InsideHTTP - Fiddler Developer Site Updated

"Fiddler 2.1 represents a significant architectural shift for Fiddler.
http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler/dev/ has been updated with new documentation on the IFiddlerExtension, IAutoTamper, and IHandleExecAction interfaces. I've also posted new documentation on Fiddler architecture, including the new FiddlerApplication object. ..." [Post leached in near full]

Fine Fiddler fun...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Fiddler2 (Fiddler + HTTPS) Alpha Released
Microsoft Fiddler 1.2 Released and now Officially Out of Beta
Fiddler PowerToy - Part 1: HTTP Debugging
Fiddler HTTP Debugger - Fiddler

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...

First the tips, then the stories...

A) How do I start up the Process Template thing?

If you have have installed The TFS Power Tool and want to edit a Process Template or Work Item, go to the Team menu in the VS2005 IDE, and there should be a "Process Editor" menu.

If the Team menu is not visible, click on the "Team Explorer" window, connect to your TFS server. Once connected, the Team menu should be visible.

Story: By default, I have my IDE set to not automatically connect to my TFS servers on start-up. So since I wasn't connected, I was seeing the Team menu...

 

B) There's no Process Template in my Team menu?

The DSL Tools (or the correct RTM/1.0 version) may not be installed. Confirm that you have the "Microsoft DSL Tools Redistributable" (that's how it's listed in my Add/Remove Programs) installed. It that is not installed, then the TFS Power Tool will not install the Process Editor.

Story: I had a CTP version of the DSL Tools Redist installed and ran into this. I uninstalled the TFS Power Tool, Uninstalled the DSL CTP, installed the RTM/1.0 DSL Redist, installed the TFS Power Toy and now I had the "Process Editor" menu.

 

C) When I open a Work Item (QIT), via either "Open WIT from Server", "Open WIT from File" or via a downloaded Process Template, there's a no cool designer (as shown below), but instead just a plain, normal XML editor.

  

Check in your Add/Remove Programs and see if you have "WorkItemTypeDesigner" installed. If so try uninstalling it and reinstalling the DSL Redist and Repairing the TFS Power Tool.

Story: This post from Jason D. Camp (Re: Issue in Process Template tool ) is what finally got me going "... I uninstalled the WorkItemTypeDesigner tool and then reinstalled the TFS power tool and DSL redist. All is now well. ..."

I also had WorkItemTypeDesigner installed... So I uninstalled that, re-installed the DSL Redist and Repaired the TFS Power Tool and I was gold (i.e. I now had a Process Template menu in my Team menu)

 

Full Back Story:

Last night I finally got the "want to" to edit one of my TFS Work Item Templates (CMMI - Bug WIT). I wanted to add a simple field where I could enter what "build" I wanted to include a given WIT in. Just a simple grouping method to indicate that I planned on addressing this WIT in the Next build, or the Next+ build, Next++, blank/not assigned, etc.

Just a simple, easy to enter and report on field where I could enter some build guidance. I felt this was different than the already existing "Resolved in Build" field (it's a tense thing... future versus past tense). I wanted something a little like the "Release" field on CodePlex Work Items...

This was the first time I edited a Work Item, but had done a little research about the WIT Import/Export process (TFS - Work Item's and Customization).

I did not relish the thought of hand editing the XML, so I first gave the new TFS Power Tool Work Item Template Editor a try.

Once I had it all working, I was pleasantly surprised at the power of the Work Item Template Editor. This is a polished Designer (still v1, but hey, about 1 million times easier than editing the XML by hand).

I was able to grab a WIT directly from the server, add the field, update the layout, save it and I was done.

And after a bit of delay (I'm still not sure if the delay was on the TFS side or "Greg is doing some stupid" side) the new field showed up in every place where I could view the work item (in the Team Explorer, in TeamLook, in the VSTS Web Access, etc... It was pretty cool to see how all these different products, from different companies, picked up this new field...).

Very cool and in the end, pretty darn easy. (At least for a developer... I think someone with little or no development or VS2005 experience would have a something of learning curve... But then again, I doubt they are the intended users for this Power Tool... ;)

All in all, if you're editing a TFS Template, be it Work Item, or Process, you owe it to yourself to check out the TFS PowerTool.

 

Additional resources that helped:
MSDN Webcast: Using Visual Studio Team System Process Editor (Level 200)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Tip for Offline Editing of Projects under TFS Source Control
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Power Tool (formerly known as Power Toys) - V1.2, February 2007
TFS - Work Item's and Customization
Visual Studio Team System Web Access (formally known as TeamPlain Web Access) now Free
Another look at Teamlook
Teamlook - Connecting Outlook and TFS

Tip for Offline Editing of Projects under TFS Source Control

Dave Donaldson's Blog - TFS Offline Pending Changes in Visual Studio

"...

After some quick searching for how to handle offline changes in TFS, I quickly found this post that shows how to use the TFS Power Tool to do what I need. But I don't want to have to memorize yet another set of command-line parameters to do something that I should be able to do within Visual Studio. So allow me to make your life a *little* bit easier:

..."

Dave provides a great real world walk through in dealing with offline editing of projects/files under TFS source control, via the TFS Power Tool.

If you're using TFS for source control and are working in a partially connected environment (like on a notebook, at home via a VPN, etc), then take a few minutes and check out this post...

Dave makes it look so simple. ;)

(via FrazzledDad - More Regarding Offline Work With TFS)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Power Tool (formerly known as Power Toys) - V1.2, February 2007

Visual Studio 2005/2008 Solution Configurations 101

Aaron Hallberg - Solution Configurations

"Team Build (v1 and Orcas) typically deals with solution configurations, which many people (including me circa 2005) don't understand.  So - I figured I'd post a quick tutorial here on solution configurations vs. project configurations..."

I'm one of those many... I rarely use Solution/Project Configurations beyond switching between debug and release (that is when I even DO switch to release... :|  ) so I appreciate Aaron's short tutorial...

Blogger Backup Featured on UpToDown.com

I just got an email that my Blogger Backup utility has been listed on UptoDown.com, http://blogger-backup.uptodown.com/ (mostly Spanish language site, though with English listings too).

A few other people have also been talking/blogging about it too (Technorati) (Wow, there's more than I realized... How cool is that?)

For a little utility that I threw together "just because," I think that's kind of cool.

Anyway, as I was working on it this weekend (working on the new user /macro driven path/post naming feature) I was thinking about ripping out all the embedded text and sticking them into language resources. I've never built an international/multi-language UI application (well I have a suite I developed running in Canada, but... well... you know... they are connected... and all... um... yeah...) so I think that would be pretty cool to do.

Added to the list.

Pandora Recovery - Free Undelete Utility for Windows

Pandora Recovery - Find and Recover Deleted Files of Any Type

"Pandora Recovery is a powerful free tool that provides its users an effective way to attempt recovery of permanently deleted files. And that does not mean restoration of a file from Recycle Bin. Pandora Recovery actually recovers files permanently removed from Recycle Bin, files originally deleted using Shift + Delete keys bypassing Recycle Bin and files deleted from DOS prompt.

...

...Pandora Recovery will scan your hard drive and build an index of existing and deleted files and directories (folders) on any logical drive of your computer with supported file format. Once the scanning is complete you have full control over which files to recover and what destination to recover them to. You can BROWSE the hierarchy of existing and deleted files, or you can use SEARCH functionality to find a deleted file if you remember at least one of the following:
- full or partial file name,
- file size,
- file creation date, or
- file last accessed date

On top of that,Pandora Recovery allows you to preview deleted files of certain type (images and text files) without performing recovery. This feature becomes really important if you are forced to recover deleted files to the same drive. Currently you can preview files having several image file types (BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, ICO,TIF, TGA, PCX, WBMP, WMF, JP2, J2K, JBG, JPC, PGX, PNM, RAS, CUR) and several text file types (TXT, LOG, INI, BAT, RTF, XML, CSS). Quick Viewer allows you preview file contents as text if it cannot find appropriate viewer for it. ...

As of version 1.1.20 Pandora Recovery implements surface (cluster) scan of targeted media, which allows:
- recovery of files whose MFT record has been reused by OS,
- Recovery of files from reformatted media,
- Recovery of files from discs with damaged or missing file allocation table.

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Pandora Recovery requires Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server or Windows Vista for installation. Pandora Recovery currently only recovers deleted data from NTFS formatted drives. ...

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This looks like a very cool and complete free (for personal/non-commercial usage) NTFS/NTFS5/EFS undelete utility that I know I'll need in the future. 

Special Note: The click-through license states "... The "PANDORA" Program(s) is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. ..." So if you're going to use this at work you need to consider this...

(via Larkware News - The Daily Grind 1169)