What would you be able to do with a browser that doesn’t suck? Just imagine all the possibilities.

 

Ok so what are our options for a Windows Mobile Browser that doesn’t suck?

Opera Mobile 9.5 is probably my favorite.

Deepfish may be a viable alternative to Opera, but Microsoft hasn't accepted new testers into their pool for many months, and hasn't updated their team blog since March 2007.

 

Superman don't need no seat belt. [Comment to flight attendant, who replied, 'Superman don't need no airplane, either.']

- Muhammad Ali

I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been on Twitter, but it is a decent bit. I know I am the 7943052 member to join, because that is my user id, and Twitter uses a simple auto-incrementing integer to assign member ids. You can find your user id, by checking the RSS link at the bottom of your Twitter home page. Here’s mine:

http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline/7943052.rss

Feel free to follow me on Twitter if you like:

http://twitter.com/CJCraft

 

Not too long after joining, I decided I wanted to use a client application to access Twitter instead of the Web page. I decided to use Twhirl.

It’s a great little app, and it really does a great job of solving the “Accessing Twitter on the Desktop” problem. The only problem I have with it is for some reason after a certain amount of time passes the application disappears, and its tray icon disappears as well.

This has been really bothering me for a couple months now, and I haven’t been able to find a great solution for it. Up until now my solution has been to open the Windows Task Manager, and kill the process and restart it manually myself. This always works but is a bit of a pain, and means I could miss messages since client Twitter applications can only pull messages so far back.

I decided it was finally time to do something about this problem, or either find a new Twitter client.

After a little research, here is what I learned:

I learned on GetSatisfaction.com that this was a fairly common problem, and there wasn’t a great known solution for how to fix it, except on a Mac.

Apparently this an issue with Adobe Air and not Twhirl directly.

It amused me the solution was to right click the tray icon and select “Reset Windows”. Too bad I can’t see the tray icon on my system, lucky Mac users with your visible invisible icons.

People must REALLY like Twhirl because one user rebooted their computer 20 times, and then reformatted their disk to get Twhirl again, and they were upset with Adobe for this.

Here’s how to fix it

I decided to try Process Explorer. I had a feeling it would have an option to help me make the invisible visible again.

Process Explorer Official Overview

“Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.”

Process Explorer is to Windows Task Manager what Superman is to Clark Kent. In other words, it's the bomb. It’s actually useful.

All I had to do once I had Process Explorer installed and running was find and right click twhirl.exe, then click Window, and Bring to Front.

If you click on the Process Explorer image it will open a larger full sized version.

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this helps others in their fight to be able to use Twhirl once again. I only wished I had picked up my boxing gloves sooner. Hope to see you on Twitter soon!

 

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

- Muhammad Ali

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. And you probably know that I present at a lot of user groups and code camp, sometimes I even present on keyboard shortcuts. Recently I learned about some PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts that I didn’t already know and I decided to share them with my readers, since many of you also use PowerPoint to do your presentations.

Here are what I consider the “Top 10 PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts”:

Action	Shortcut
Start Presentation from the Beginning	F5
Next Animation / Next Slide	N or Enter or Spacebar
Previous Slide	P or Backspace
End Slide Show	Esc
Go to First Slide	Home
Go to Last Slide	End
Jump to Specific Slide	Enter slide number and press enter
Go to Black Screen	B
Go to White Screen	W
Display Slide Show Cheat Sheet	F1 (see below)

 

Built-in PowerPoint Slide Show Cheat Sheet (Press F1 during Slide Show)

If you have a Windows Mobile device that can be upgraded to the newest version of Windows Mobile 6.1, then do so immediately.

Here are some phones that already support Windows Mobile 6.1, or will do so soon.

AT&T Tilt	HTC Mogul	HTC Touch
Motorola Q9c	Samsung Ace	Samsung Blackjack II

 

It’s the best version of Windows Mobile yet, and it has a lot of great new features to offer.

• Instant messaging-like texting
• Improved Internet browsing
• Simpler e-mail and Bluetooth setup
• New Home screen interface
• New Getting Started Center
• Security enhancements
• Easier Wi-Fi connection
• More personal choice

Plus it looks great too!

 

Newest version of Windows Mobile aka “The New Hotness”

Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional	Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard

 

We’ve come a LONG way since the first versions of Windows Mobile. Take a look below and see for yourself.

 

Previous versions of Windows Mobile aka “Old and Busted”:

Pocket PC 2000	Pocket PC 2002
Pocket PC 2003	Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition
Windows Mobile 5	Windows Mobile 6

By now you probably have seen the show Pimp My Ride from MTV. Each show consisted of taking one car in poor condition and restoring it, as well as customizing it. The same way this made a great car show for TV, I think it will make a great Windows Mobile series for my blog.

I’ll be sharing some of my best tips and tricks, and hopefully you will be too!

Check back every day for information on how to take your Windows Mobile phone from “Old and Busted” to becoming “The New Hotness”.

 

BEFORE: Old and Busted	AFTER: The New Hotness

I thought it would be useful if I did a recap of all of the 31 tips and tricks from the 31 Days of Visual Studio Tips & Tricks. I hope it helps. I’ll post a follow up with all the user submitted tips soon!

Here’s the download link for the for the complete PowerPoint:

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx

 

PowerPoint Slide	Keyboard Shortcut
	Day 1   Show Shortcut Keys
	Day 2 Open Smart Tag Ctrl + . Open Smart Tag Ctrl + Shift + F10
	Day 3 Navigate Forwards Ctrl + – Navigate Backwards Ctrl + Shift + -
	Day 4   Tools, Options…, Display Line Numbers
	Day 5   Cycle Clipboard Ring Ctrl + Shift + V
	Day 6   Go to Definition F12
	Day 7   Go to Line Ctrl + G
	Day 8 Vertical Block Selection Alt + Mouse Shift + Alt + Right Arrow
	Day 9 View Properties Window F4 View Properties Window Alt + Enter
	Day 10 Comment Selection Ctrl + K, Ctrl + C Uncomment Selection Ctrl + K, Ctrl + U
	Day 11   Toggle Code / Design Views F7
	Day 12 Make Lowercase Ctrl + U Make Uppercase Ctrl + Shift + U
	Day 13   Incremental Search Ctrl + I
	Day 14   Ctrl + Tab Navigator Window Ctrl + Tab
	Day 15   View Object Browser Ctrl + Alt + J
	Day 16   Delete Line Ctrl + L Shift + Delete
	Day 17   Add New Item to Project Ctrl + Shift + A
	Day 18   Close Current Document Ctrl + F4
	Day 19   Toggle Breakpoint F9
	Day 20   Find All References Shift + F12
	Day 21 Move Cursor One Word Right Ctrl + Right Arrow Move Cursor One Word Left Ctrl + Left Arrow
	Day 22   The Rename Refactor Ctrl + R, R
	Day 23   Find All References Shift + F12
	Day 24   Format Document Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D
	Day 25   View Task List Ctrl + \, Ctrl + T
	Day 26   Find in Files Ctrl + Shift + F
	Day 27   Toggle Outlining Expansion Ctrl + M, Ctrl + M
	Day 28   Close All Documents Alt + W, L
	Day 29   Save Any Output Window Ctrl + S
	Day 30   Build Solution Ctrl + Shift + B
	Day 31   Reset Window Layout Alt, W, R

 A place for everything, everything in its place.
Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many times I find that throughout my word day I have move and resized many of the various elements in the Visual Studio IDE. I might have expanded my properties windows, in order to see more of the property name. And I might have end up needing to shrink my toolbox window so I could see more of my code on the screen at one time. But sometimes you just want to hit reset and have everything go back to where it belongs.

Reset Window Layout

Alt, W, R

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

I came, I coded, I compiled. If only Julius Caesar had been a developer, maybe Duke Nukem Forever would be released by now. So you made a quick change and need to build the solution as fast as possible and get it to the QA department now. What is the fastest way to do this?

Build Solution

Ctrl + Shift + B

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

Pretty cool tip I learned about today on Digital Inspiration.

Vista SP1 is a BIG update, and it does not remove any of the files it replaces. This is because Vista SP1 allows you to uninstall Vista SP1, and rollback to your previous version of Vista. Unless you are Chuck Norris, I have a feeling you aren’t going to even consider this. So why not reclaim this 800+ megabytes worth of hard drive space?

Windows Vista SP1 Clean Up Tool

Go to the command prompt, and simply enter the following: vsp1cln.exe. It is fast, and I’ve tried it on several machines so far.

Here’s the official Microsoft TechNet documentation

Windows Vista SP1 File Removal tool (Vsp1cln.exe). Vsp1cln.exe is an optional tool that you can run after you install SP1. This tool removes older versions of components that have been updated in SP1, which are stored during the installation in case you need to uninstall SP1 later. Saving these older components increases the amount of disk space that is used. Typically, you should run Vsp1cln.exe if you want to reclaim this disk space after applying SP1 and if you will not need to uninstall SP1. Note, however, that you cannot uninstall SP1 after you run this tool. You can use this tool both online and offline, but you must have SP1 installed and you must use the correct version of the tool. If you are running this file on an offline image, you should use the Vsp1cln.exe included in the Windows OPK or AIK. However, if you are running this file online (on a computer that you are booted into), you should use the Vsp1cln.exe file located at %windir%\system32\vsp1cln.exe.

Hope it helps!

Output is pretty much the bread and butter of any application. Visual Studio has a whole window that is dedicated to dealing with various trace information. Sometime we would like to be able to save and view this information later or in another utility. But it is a real pain to do this process manually. There has to be an easier way…

Save Any Output Window

Ctrl + S

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

So you have all kinds of windows and documents open in Visual Studio, everything from form designers to XML editors. Now you want to close everything and start something else, and you’re in a big hurry. What do you do?

Close All Documents

Alt + W, L

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

One of the things I really like about working for ACS Technologies is we create software solutions for almost every OS platform out there. We are mostly a Microsoft shop, which is a perfect fit for me, but because we write solutions for churches and schools many of our products also work with other OS platforms. Really puts me in a great position to see the good and the bad for various solution platforms whether it is Windows Mobile, the iPhone, OS X, ASP .NET, and so on. I love it.

I while back I could resist picking up a used Apple PowerBook off eBay for a deal. I’ve been playing with it off an on since then and it's not all bad. One thing I have been disappointed with is until recently I haven’t been able to figure out how to connect to my laptop remotely from one of my other PC’s. Today I decided I would solve this problem.

Here’s the way I found to allow Remote Desktop Administration of an Apple from a PC:

Apple PC

Go to System Preferences, then open Sharing, in the Internet & Network section.

Enable Screen Sharing, and click Computer Settings…, make sure to enable “VNC viewers may control screen with password: ********”, and to assign a strong password. This is what will actually allow you to connect to your Apple PC.

Go to System Preferences, then open Network, in the Internet & Network section.

Locate your IP Address, probably want to either the Ethernet one or the AirPort one. You’ll use this to find your Apple PC.

Windows PC

You’ll need to download a VNC client, I recommend TightVNC, it is free, proven, and I like how it works. After that just run your VNC client, use your Apple PC IP address from above, along with your password from above and your golden.

Visual Studio allows developers to collapse code into regions, and so on. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes not so much. But with the power of Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts we can make it less troublesome to manage this feature.

Here’s how:

Toggle Outlining Expansion

Ctrl + M, Ctrl + M

Note: The preceding image will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)

It does take long to have a ton of code on your hands, especially when you need to find something in a hurry. What can we do? Do we have a chance? How can we best find something in all of our solutions files?

Here’s how:

Find in Files

Ctrl + Shift + F

Note: The image above will take you to a full size image if you want to see this in more detail.

Feedback:

If you have a favorite Visual Studio Tip or Trick be sure to share it in the comments. I’ll compile a list and post it for everyone once there are enough.

PowerPoint: 31 Days of Visual Studio 2008 Tips & Tricks.pptx (Note: PowerPoint is updated daily to include new items.)