Linda Rawson Blog

Double click of mouse not working in Windows XP

2010-01-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

I recently could not double click on a folder and have it open the contents.

Run Regedit, find HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Mouse.
Delete the value data in DoubleClickHeight, DoubleClickWidth and DoubleClickSensitivity.

Go into Control Panel, Mouse, Doubleclick speed, move the pointer to a very slow position.

Simple Print Window in WPF (PDF and DOC)

2009-10-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

I struggled with this for a few hours because the window would not close when the application closed using a WindowsFormHost and the solution was tons simpilar than I thought to begin with.

You make a window:

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
WindowState="Maximized"
Icon="/MyProj;component/Images/favicon.ico"
Title="MyProj - Print">

Then the code behind is simple:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
namespace MyProj
{
///

/// Interaction logic for PrintPDFWindow.xaml
///

public partial class PrintPDFWindow : Window
{
private System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser webbrowserOne;
public PrintPDFWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public PrintPDFWindow(string filePath)
{
InitializeComponent();
Uri uri = new Uri(filePath, UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute);
this.webBrowser.Source = uri;
}
}
}

You call it like this:

PrintPDFWindow ppw = new PrintPDFWindow(currentMarketingPath + currentMarketingMaterial.MarketingMaterialURL);
ppw.Title = "MyProj - " + currentMarketingMaterial.MarketingMaterialName;
ppw.Show();

That is it!

WPF Horizontal Listbox Bad Keyboard Behavior

2009-10-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

What a pain in the arse. Took me hours to find this.

I have a horizontal listbox resembling a filmstrip. It had images on it. A mouse click on the next item in the scrollbar produced a correct onselectionchanged event. Arrowing right or left did not product the correct selected index. An Arrow Key Right it went to index 0. An Arrow Key Left went to the last item in the list.

I overrode the listbox class with the following code:

public class HorizontalListBox : ListBox
{
protected override void OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs e)
{
KeyDownHandler(this, e);
e.Handled = true;
}
void KeyDownHandler(object sender, System.Windows.Input.KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Key == System.Windows.Input.Key.Left)
{
MoveUp();
}
if (e.Key == System.Windows.Input.Key.Right)
{
MoveDown();
}
}
void MoveUp()
{
if (this.SelectedIndex > 0)
{
this.SelectedIndex = this.SelectedIndex - 1;
}
}
void MoveDown()
{
try
{
this.SelectedIndex = this.SelectedIndex + 1;
}
catch { }
}
}

Happy coding!
Linda

WPF Application Icon when StartURL is a Page

2009-10-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Create an LoadCompleted event on the application (App.xaml).

LoadCompleted="Application_LoadCompleted"

private void Application_LoadCompleted(object sender, System.Windows.Navigation.NavigationEventArgs e)
{
System.Drawing.Bitmap bmp = global::Docs.Properties.Resources.favicon.ToBitmap();
MemoryStream strm = new MemoryStream();
bmp.Save(strm, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
strm.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
PngBitmapDecoder pbd = new PngBitmapDecoder(strm, BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.Default);
//((System.Windows.Navigation.NavigationWindow)(Application.Current.MainWindow)).Icon = pbd.Frames[0];
Application.Current.MainWindow.Icon = pbd.Frames[0];
Application.Current.MainWindow.Top = 0;
Application.Current.MainWindow.Left = 0;
}

Took me a couple of hours to find this one.
~Linda

Bailout

2008-09-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

The bailout is intended to rescue bankers from the bad loans that threaten to derail the economy and plunge the country into a long depression.

What about people like me who have paid their loans on time every time. I haven't taken out a loan that I could not pay back. I have been turned down by banks in favor for someone who would not pay their debts.

Disgusting!

I heard Debrah Orman on Oprah this week saying to only place your cash in an account backed by the government nothing else. She suspects some of the banks will go under. This is very scary!

Myself? I am stockpiling a bit of food.

Letting Go

2008-09-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

"Letting Go''

To ....let go'' does not mean to stop caring...

It means I can't do it for someone else.

To ....let go'' is not to cut myself off.

It's the realization I can't control another.

To ....let go'' is not to enable,

but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To ....let go'' is to admit powerlessness

which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To ....let go'' is not to try to change or blame another.

It's to make the most of myself.

To ....let go'' is not to care for, but to care about.

To ....let go'' is not to fix, but to be supportive.

To ....let go'' is not to judge,

but to allow another to be a human being.

To ....let go'' is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,

but to allow others to affect their own destinies.

To ....let go'' is not to be protective.

It's to permit another to face reality.

To ....let go'' is not to deny, but to accept.

To ....let go'' is not to nag, scold, or argue,

but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.

To ....let go'' is not to criticize and regulate anybody,

but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To ....let go'' is not to adjust everything to my desires

but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.

To ....let go'' is to not regret the past,

but to grow and live for the future.

To ....let go'' is to fear less and LOVE MYSELF MORE.

Define Success

2008-07-21T22:23:00.000-07:00

So a friend of mine gave me a book for my birthday. It is called "The Secret". She has told me many times that I am already living my dream. After I have made some lucrative business deals, purchased a big house, purchased beautiful furniture and made sure my kids are healthy and happy I have to wonder what is next on the agenda for me.

I try to help people realize the value of positive thinking. If you are constantly in the negative zone then you will be extremely unhappy. Another aspect of positive thinking is to make sure you are grateful for what you have. I think at any time a person can hit rock bottom.

I want people to realize there is so much out there if you believe in yourself and help other people to do the same. So how do I define success?

First I would break it down into several areas of success.

Professional Success

If I am successful professionally then I have not only climbed the career ladder and am well respected in my field but I have also helped others to do the same thing. By helping them improve professionally I am also improving myself professionally. I can inspire and motivate even the lowliest person to do better in their career.

Personal Success

I define personal success as having the ability to love myself. Putting my professional success aside and realizing what is important in life. Family and friends should remain at the top and their happiness and well being is very important to me. To live a long life I also think a person is successful by making their mind, body and soul healthy.

Human Success

I am successful in the human race if I have shown compassion and service to others. I am also successful if have brightened the most depressed person on earth with my smile. I want to make a positive influence in people's lives and make them glad that they met me. Making people laugh is the greatest thing on earth. Even if they are laughing at my corny jokes or reading the constant stream of humor email I send out.

Overall

I want to go to bed at night and sleep because I know I have achieved success that day. I want to die with no regrets. There is that old saying about sliding into the grave not saying "Geez I can't believe my life is over" but saying…"GAWD…what a ride!" I want to take risks and never have regrets.

The point is success is not about the money I have made or the places I have been. The best success in life is how well I respect myself. If I have done the things that I know are right then I will respect myself and others will respect me too.

Thoughts for today...

2008-07-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Every time we start a relationship we think that we are only going to do this one more time because that will be a lifetime of happiness. But there are problems with that philosophy. I invest a lot of time in learning my partner; I want to learn all that I can about them by talking, touching, seeing, and sensing.

I don't know if I'm all that secure. I believe I can be, but the past has dimmed such hope. Hopelessness looms in every relationship after divorce. Things changed. What changed? Well, some problem, usually where something happened and the other person hid it away. Sometimes it is me that hides stuff away to protect the other person from the truth.

So, giving and receiving love can be difficult. If something happens that sounds or feels like something from my past the other person is doomed unless they are willing to let me be heard and understood, without jealousy or adverse reactions. In telling the problem, I am identifying my problem, my downfall and I know the other person cannot fix it. Understanding is all that I can ask for.

So how patient can you be in a relationship? Mortality is looming upon me; I look around and see that yes, I've taken a very different path from that of my family and background. I work for myself in a profession that is largely populated by men and yet I do look around and see people starting to retire, people who did the line work, secretary work, or whatever.... they did their time for a "boss", not exciting, not challenging, yet they do have some benefits for just putting in their time.

On the other hand, I've done some fantastic things; I've seen things, and experienced some things outside of their realm of experiences. But I am looking at who knows how many more years? And, will it be the same work, scratching out a living by my own wit and cunning?

So.... the philosophical response is... I don't know. I don't know how many more days there are for me. I question whether the one day of bliss is worth a lifetime of loneliness.

I do know that I'd sure like to find someone to share life with. I'm done looking for perfection, and I think I might settle for less than perfect. Who knows, the imperfect person and match could grow and mature into something much greater, due to the challenges and growth shared during the time together. Those challenges and growth could so deeply enrich and broaden the "love" as to make it well worth the effort and risk.

And, in relationships, is there such thing as an "ultimate". As noted above, I doubt it. I'm willing to bet that the "ultimate" is a creation of the two people working together, their differences, yet the synergy created by their devotion, one to the other. In that light, can there then be a "short" relationship which is the "ultimate"?

Or, to answer a totally different way, perhaps the "ultimate" is the comfortable "average" appearing relationship your neighbor or friend has. It may appear to be "average", but if it has lasted 20 years, is that a sign that, perhaps, it is actually beyond average? Maybe there truly is a deep, and enriching, relationship for those two people, such that they work together, in their lives, for their goals, which only appear to be average to the outside observer. That relationship could very well be the "ultimate" relationship for those two people -- the deep loving and caring, the simple gifts and sharing, the nuturing of each other; the loving, touching and knowing, that requires no outward flash and glam; because the flash, glamore, and intensity is inside the two people, shared in privacy between they alone.

Written in part by my friend Dave...I of course added and changed it to meet what I think.

WPF Zip Code ValidationRule

2008-05-16T23:01:00.000-07:00

I am working on validation for a WPF application and here is my class to validate American Zip Codes.

class ZipCodeRule : ValidationRule
{
public override ValidationResult Validate(object value, CultureInfo cultureInfo)
{
ErrorMessage errMessage = new ErrorMessage();
Docs.App_Code.Validation validationHelper = new Docs.App_Code.Validation();
try
{
string currentValue = (string)value;
if (currentValue.Length == 5)
{
if (validationHelper.IsNumeric(currentValue))
{
return ValidationResult.ValidResult;
}
}
else if (currentValue.Length == 9)
{
if (validationHelper.IsNumeric(currentValue))
{
return ValidationResult.ValidResult;
}
}
else if (currentValue.Length == 10)
{
string firstFive = currentValue.Substring(0, 5);
string lastFour = currentValue.Substring(6, 4);
if (validationHelper.IsNumeric(firstFive)) {
if (validationHelper.IsNumeric(lastFour)) {
if (currentValue.Substring(5,1) == "-") {
return ValidationResult.ValidResult;
}
}
}
}
else if (currentValue.Length == 0)
{
return ValidationResult.ValidResult;
}
return new ValidationResult(false, errMessage.getErrorMessage(1005));
}
catch (FormatException)
{
return new ValidationResult(false, errMessage.getErrorMessage(1005));
}
}
}

CSS Stylesheet Frameworks

2008-05-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

Based in part by Paul Spencer.

As Web Developors we are usually in the business of designing web pages that contains all kinds of content. While limiting myself to plain HTML tags and avoiding any kind of color/style decisions is usually a wise idea, sometimes its nice to put some effort into the web page beyond the absolute minimum.

For those of us that are, um, designed-challenged, using a CSS framework is a great place to start. Paul recently found a couple of them that might be of interest:

http://code.google.com/p/blueprintcss/

"Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your CSS development time. It gives you a solid CSS foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, and even a stylesheet for printing."

http://960.gs/

"The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. There are two variants: 12 and 16 columns, which can be used separately or in tandem."

Both frameworks provide a fixed column grid based on a fixed width of 960 pixels, and blueprint adds some decent choices for colors, styles etc.

Paul put together a simple (non-mapping) page using blueprint after about 5 mins of reading the tutorial and was pretty happy with the result.

I haven't tried 960.gs yet but it seems similar in concept and probably more appropriate if you just want the layout part.

I haven't researched other CSS frameworks so there's probably something better out there if you care to look.

After a While

2008-03-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't mean security
And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
And present aren't promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build all your roads today
Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans.
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight,
After a while, you learn that even the sunshine
Burns if you get too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure...
That you really are strong.
And you really do have worth.
And you learn...
With every goodbye you learn.

By Veronica A. Shofstall

Apples

2008-03-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Women are like apples on trees: the best ones are at the top of the tree.

Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.

Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy.......

So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing.

They just have to wait for the right man to come along - the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

People in your life

2008-03-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

I didn't write this saying but I certainly love it.

Fixing ASP.NET 2003 debug error 0x8013134b

2007-05-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

I got the following error debugging an ASP.NET project earlier today:

Auto-attach to process '[2440] w3wp.exe' on machine '...' failed. Error code 0x8013134b.

The problem was that I had installed .NET 2.0 which had registered ASP.NET 2.0 on the Web Site I was trying to debug.
Fixing it is simple:
1. Run the IIS Manager
2. Right click on the web site with the problem
3. Click the ASP.NET tab
4. Change the ASP.NET version from 2.something to 1.something in the combo and debugging works again

Linda Rawson
http://www.sensorytech.net

error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication'

2007-05-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

I received the following error:

Configuration error:"Parser Error Message: It is an error to use a section registered asallowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. Thiserror can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as anapplication in IIS."

I followed many, many posts until I found the answer. This site uses a lot of vbscript and the error was actually in the script. Instead of the error page showing errors, it try's to download as a file.

Linda Rawson
http://www.sensorytech.net