Dalamar : Vista

Digital Image Suite and CS Server

Jason — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:15:00 GMT

Ok, there has been a few threads on Community Servers website about having the bulk upload tag the images based on the tags the image has already (did that even make since?). I took some code off codeplex that showed how to read the tags from an image. I quickly made up a form that uploaded an image, then displayed the tags.

To my surprise when I tried an image I had tagged in Digital Image Suite (DIS) it didn't show any tags! After some research I found out why. DIS doesn't store tags the same way Vista and most other apps do. It's not in the XMP data where it should be. Now vista does see DIS tags and Photo Info does as well. If you edit a tag in either vista or Photo Info, it will copy the tags to XMP, and then it does show up in my little test app.

The question is where to go from here, I would like to turn the test app into a CS Module that will auto tag images as they are uploaded, but it wouldn't do DIS images correctly. Since I use DIS I'm at a standstill.

I hope to find some good info on how to pull the keywords from DIS. Then I might can have it support both DIS and XMP tags. Till then I will just need to learn how hard it is to make a module and how to grab images that are being posted up, and how the tags are stored in CS. Lots to learn for someone that doesn't think of themselves as a programmer.

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Developed and maintained by: Solar Networking
Running Community Server 2.1 w/ SP1 and Dal_Mod Pack Beta

Gadget's Galore!

Jason — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:06:26 GMT

Since I have been using vista on my everyday PC, I have been playing around a lot with gadgets. Gadgets are nice little mini app's that run on your system. They can run anywhere on the desktop or on the side of one of your monitors (Sidebar).

Right now I have tried 30 or so of these little things. Most don't stay longer then a few seconds, but a few have just blown me away. So far the 2 I use the most would be the Live writer (lets me blog quicker) and remote desktop. I think that might change as today I downloaded Google search (which just rocks so far) and one for MSN Messenger that finely does what I expect.

So what gadgets do I have going right now? Well there is the 24 theme clock, Weather, CPU/MEM meter, Network Meter, Calendar, MSN Msg, Google Search, Remote desktop, Live Writer and Live Traffic. Some of these are new, so will do a follow up on which ones I really like and use and will provide some download links at that time.

Any gadgets you just love? Let me know! I'm also thinking of gadgets that work with accounting systems, VOIP, and other services that are more business related.

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Developed and maintained by: Solar Networking
Running Community Server 2.1 w/ SP1 and Dal_Mod Pack Beta

I missed the bus

Jason — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 13:24:00 GMT

Windows Vista bus came though Atlanta, and I missed it! I checked it Tuesday morning and it was in Macon. That afternoon, North Atlanta. I really wanted to drop in and check it out, but work wasn't allowing me to break away and drive to north Atlanta in time to catch it before it was gone.

Oh well, I am sure there will be another road trip I can catch later!
~Dal

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Developed and maintained by: Solar Networking
Running Community Server 2.1 w/ SP1 and Dal_Mod Pack Beta

Sunbelt Blog Gibberish SPAM

Jason — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:27:00 GMT

Ok, if you are not reading sunbelt and you are worried about Security you really should start reading them. http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/

From the Sunbelt Blog:

Why are you getting all this gibberish-filled email?
QUESTION: Recently I've been getting a lot of weird email messages. They aren't exactly spam - at least they aren't trying to sell anything that I can see and they don't contain any links for me to click. They're just full of gibberish, what appears to be random words and phrases. Who in the world is sending these things and why? -- Genie L.

ANSWER: You're right: they aren't spam, but they are sent by spammers. The point isn't to get you to buy anything, but to get you to mark the unwanted messages as spam in order to confuse your Bayesian spam filters. Most anti-spam programs now use some form of Bayesian filtering - this is a way of using statistical methods to classify messages as spam (or not). The software "learns" to recognize what you consider to be spam based on the messages that you mark as spam. It's a great idea and works well - except when the filters are "poisoned" by lots of messages that contain large amounts of random words and phrases that's likely to appear in legitimate messages.
Bayesian poisoning messages sometimes consist of random words and sometimes a block of text from a literary work or the like. In either case, the goal is to confuse the filters and render them useless.
It's also possible that even though they don't contain links, some of the gibberish messages may contain web beacons. These are tiny, transparent (and thus invisible) graphics files placed in HTML email messages. When you open the message, your email client downloads the graphic from the sender's server. This lets the spammer know that the email address is a "live" one.

Something else I pulled from them, This is what Microsoft had in mind for Vista, though a lot of what you see never made it, it does give you an idea of what they were aiming for.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ifQvQCO7Y[/youtube]

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Developed and maintained by: Solar Networking
Running Community Server 2.1 w/ SP1 and Dal_Mod Pack Beta

Vista Box looks cool

Jason — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 11:40:05 GMT

Here is a pic of the new Vista Packaging. This is for the retail boxes, so its not like I will see a lot of these, most of what I see is OEM or Open/SA.

Still expect to start seeing this on shelves come February

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Developed and maintained by: Solar Networking
Running Community Server 2.1 w/ SP1 and Dal_Mod Pack Beta

Vista Testing Tip

Jason — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:44:56 GMT

This may seem stupid, but it got me... twice...

When testing a new OS. Make sure the hardware you need works. Simple huh? Well this weekend I loaded vista up in order to test the MCE features. I use MCE in my house on my main TV, the idea was to replace that PC with a Vista one. Luckily I had another PC I was going to replace it with.

I loaded up vista RC1 (yes RC2 is already out), Installed drivers and configured my TV settings (the guide and such). Then went to hook it to a TV (bedroom TV to test with). Well, the current nVidia drivers don't support TV out.

Bottom line? Cant get my TV to my TV. In the mean time I just hooked up a projector and shot the TV on to the wall. Which is nice, but during the day doesn't work well, and there is no good wall in my living room to use as a backdrop (we wont even get into the price of bulbs and how impractical it is to use a project as the normal TV).

It is nice watching "With out a trace" on a 8-foot screen, I would love to watch the GA game this weekend that way, but the 12:30 kickoff might not allow it (might not be dark enough to see the screen).

I will look for some workarounds, some way to get TV-out working or convert VGA-Coxal. But till then, its the big screen or no MCE. Good thing I didn't do this to the Main MCE or my wife and children wouldn't be to happy. Hmm... Bet Doodlebops on a 8-foot screen might score me some browning points with one of the children. Muhahahaha

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Developed and maintained by: Solar Networking
Running Community Server 2.1 w/ SP1 and Dal_Mod Pack Beta