KFUPM ITC: The turtle and hare

Back to blogging after a short break for holiday. As soon as I came back to my university (KFUPM) I found out that the Internet connection has gotten really really slow. Some people may say "You should be thankful, universities have the fastest connections!!". Well take a look at this and judge for yourselves!!! This is from www.speedtest.com

9 kbps!!!! I think dial up would look very shiny now.

P.S I did the test at 7:30 a.m. (we ra2sny ya gada3)

Paint.NET: Free Photoshop?

I stumbled upon this great image processing/drawing app. It has many features of the leading drawing applications but with one difference; It is totally FREE. Great tool for people who want good image processing options but on a tight budget. All it requires is .Net Framework 2.0 or higher.

Download

Windows Live Suite: New Releases and New Pains

Microsoft has recently released new versions of the new Live Suite which includes:
Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Sign-In Assistant
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Toolbar
Windows Live Photo Gallery

They decided to go with a single installer for the whole package which (in my experience) the most awkward installer ever. Not only that it takes ages to run but also it fails to download the installers (might be a proxy problem on my setup). I searched the web over and over to find the standalone installers but to no use until today.

New Features:

I only use Live Writer and Messenger so I don't know about the others. For Live Writer, it now supports uploading images to blogger based blogs and there is a new option to insert videos in the blogs supporting youTube, MSN soapBox and others.
For Messenger however, I didn't find any new features or options just a minor facelift.

How to avoid the awkward installer and use the standalone ones:

1. Go to http://cid-9e63a4688135fd45.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/LiveSuiteEN

2. Download the msi you require for each product depending on the following:

Windows Live Writer
Install_{1F973A7F-3FE4-4D11-A9A2-E869C2899A7D}.msi

Windows Live Messenger
Install_{508CE775-4BA4-4748-82DF-FE28DA9F03B0}.msi

Windows Live Sign-In Assistant
Install_{CB5EA99C-8A5B-49F2-9A1A-2EF78BE4DB41}.msi

Windows Live Mail
Install_{EDB619FD-4E71-403C-8E99-DFC9CF9DD345}.msi

Windows Live Toolbar
Install_{C6876FE6-A314-4628-B0D7-F3EE5E35C4B4}.msi

Windows Live Photo Gallery
Install_{AA436FBD-2595-479B-8DDE-E9C36F50D99D}.msi

P.S. For Microsoft: You were doing a great job with the Live Products don't screw them up with awkward installations.

Summer Camp: WPF + VS2008 beta (Part 0)

As I am done with my summer training work and quite bored with World of Warcraft at the moment. I started reading a nice book "Windows Presentation Foundation: Unleashed". I also downloaded Visual C# Express 2008 beta. My aim is to get a command of the new WPF approach to developing .NET applications. I will be making a series of tutorials here so stay tuned.. :D

WPF is the new user interface development model used in .NET 3.0 and beyond. It is based on XAML (pronounced Zamil) which is an XML based language for defining the various aspects of the user interface declaratively.

The great thing about WPF applications is that you can port them straight forward to be run within a web browser. The user has to have .NET Framework 3.0 installed.

to be continued....

File Sharing in Windows Vista

I have been having a problem with sharing files from Windows Vista. The problem occurs when I try to access the shared folder form other PCs running earlier versions of Windows with the default Guest account. After searching around I found out that Guest accounts in Windows Vista are denied by default from accessing Network shares. There are two ways to fix this thing:

• Don't use the Guest account for sharing. Make another user account with no password and use that for public file sharing. More secure but you'll need to distribute the new username.
• Change the Local Security Policy settings to enable Guest to access network shares as follows:
  
1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.
2. Expand Local Policies > User Rights Assignments.
3. Double click on Deny access to this computer from the network.
4. Select Guest and click Remove. (See pictures below)

Microsoft SharedView Beta

Ever was explaining something technical to someone on the phone? Don't you just hate when that family member asks: and where is the OK button?

Feel free now with this new tool you can share your desktop view and just point him/her to the hidden OK button. This application is (obviously) integrated with MSN passport and MSN Messenger (though it can function without Messenger). You can even specify handouts that attendees can download (So they don't ask you the same question again :D). 

The down side of this is that it is still in beta and it doesn't support chat (voice or text) with the attendees yet.  

Microsoft SharedView Beta

Windows Live SkyDrive: Free 1GB file storage

Just stumbled on this new Beta service from Microsoft. It is basically a free 500MB of file storage. You have 3 zones to add files to:
1. Private for files that are only for you.
2. Friends for files that you want just your friends (MSN Messenger Contacts). The awesome thing about this feature is that you set special permissions to each folder (which friends gets to see, change, delete stuff in it). Great for team work projects :D
3. Public for anyone on the Internet. Sign up is easy and straight forward as well as uploading files. After you upload a file you get a link to distribute.

Pretty nice and fast service as far as I see it now. Better than sending myself e-mails with attachments to keep them online.

Update: The storage size have been upgraded to 1GB.

Windows Live SkyDrive Beta