How about some Java?

import sun.misc.BASE64Encoder;

import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.OutputStreamWriter;
import java.net.URLConnection;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLEncoder;

public class Twitter {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        if (args.length < 3) {
            System.out.println("Twitter <userid> <password> <message>");
            System.exit(-1);
        }

        URL url = new URL("https://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml");
        URLConnection connection = url.openConnection();

        connection.setDoInput(true);
        connection.setDoOutput(true);
        connection.setUseCaches(false);

        String authorization = args[0] + ":" + args[1];
        BASE64Encoder encoder = new BASE64Encoder();
        String encoded = new String
                (encoder.encodeBuffer(authorization.getBytes())).trim();
        connection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic " + encoded);

        OutputStreamWriter out = new OutputStreamWriter(
                connection.getOutputStream());
        out.write("status=" + URLEncoder.encode(args[2], "UTF-8"));
        out.close();

        BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
                new InputStreamReader(
                        connection.getInputStream()));
        String response;
        while ((response = in.readLine()) != null) {
            System.out.println(response);
        }
        in.close();

    }
}

Some nice stuff….

~cse

Interesting piece of code. I haven’t gotten into Twitter’s API yet… but he’s some sample code that will pop into Twitter with a check out kind of message:

<a href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=Currently reading http://www.test.com/post-url” 
title=”Click to share this post on Twitter”>Share on Twitter</a> 

-or-

<a href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=Currently reading &lt;?php the_permalink(); ?>” 
title=”Click to share this post on Twitter”>Share on Twitter</a> 

~cse

Ok, time to do a heads up compare….what is EverNote, What is Mesh? Well to put it simply…. this software allows one to share stuff between various computers. Stuff as in files, media, and any other junk you have on your computer. Yeah, so what’s the big to who about that? Well, say you use your friendly computer to create a shopping list. If you’re like my wife, you make a list on your computer, print it out, and sometimes remember to bring the list to the store… well, the promise with this ‘sharing software’ is that you can take the list and send it to your cell phone…. yeah, did you see what just happened. I can share things between my cell phone and my computer? Yeap!

Now, if you think this is a new idea….well… NOT! Us geeks who have had ‘mobile’ devices for years…decades…have always had the ability to share stuff between devices and a computer. The difference here, is that you don’t have to be a geek to do it.

Ok, I’m going to use a buzz word….. “CLOUD COMPUTING”- Ok, I’m not going to use that buzz again… Google it if you want to know more or less how some of this works.

Now for the cool stuff. First I’ll look at Mesh…. what is it…  In a nutshell, Mesh is a Microsoft offering that allows you to share and synchronize files across computers and (soon to be) devices. Right now Mesh is in Beta. You can check it out at http://www.mesh.com Keep in mind that Mesh is still in beta, which means that not everything is available….

MESH:

The user interface is simple enough. The opening page looks like:

This is a screenshot as seem in IE 8. Yes, a web site. For the most part, Mesh shows some promise. Setup is somewhat simple. You create Mesh folders on your computer. These folders are special in that they allow you to put files in them and allow you to synchronize them with other folders in your ‘Mesh’. Simple enough for sure. I think some of the navigation could be improved. Especially on the local computer, where it’s not too clear where things need to go. The one nice thing I like about Mesh is that it does have integration with Windows. There is a right-click create a ‘Mesh’ folder that gets added (although on one of my laptops running Vista-64 there seems to be an issue. It might be the antivirus, but ‘Mesh’ is having problems installing).

Once installed, you get the web page/space shown above and a Tray Icon in the notification area:

It’s a simple enough interface that shouldn’t take too long to get the hang of. One downside to Mesh at the moment is that its not all there. Not all there in the sense that sharing to other devices beyond PC to PC is not yet available (well, it is a beta). So far, Mesh wins when it comes to ease of use and it does actually work.

Some downsides to Mesh are… well the most obvious is the lacking of be able to share content between more than just PC’s. Hello! One would think that by the time you reach a beta, that you would have more than just one feature? Ok, Mesh does have more than one feature… you can also remote desktop into a Mesh computer (i.e. you can remotely login). When I tired this feature, I found it lacking. There are much better solutions like “Goto My PC” or even RDP that’s built into Windows XP, etc.

So, while I think this is a good start down the road for this type of software…it does have some out of the gate short comings. 

Next Evernote…

If you have ever used Microsoft’s OneNote®, Evernote will be very easy to get into very quickly. http://www.evernote.com Unlike Mesh, Evernote has more of a traditional windows application feel to it in that there is a window:

Once you have installed Evernote (and you know OneNote®) you will quickly see what I mean. Evernote brings to note taking what I wish OneNote® had… Notes sharing across devices and the web. Yes! finally! Now here is where Mesh and Evernote start to differ. Mesh shares files….Evernote shares information. Yeah. ok what does that mean? Well, files contain information and Mesh shares the files. Evernote is a container that you put information into. Still don’t get it?

Say I have a spreadsheet (Excel of course)… with Mesh you can share that spreadsheet as a file. To look at the spreadsheet you will have to have Excel installed. Now with Evernote you can grab the contents of the spreadsheet and share the contents across devices…. you don’t need Excel to see the information.

Well, hopefully… that will wet you appetite to give both of these a try… Personally, I think OneNote® has always been an interesting note taking application…the main point of lacking in OneNote® is sharing across anything but a PC. I think Evernote brings something new to the game. As far as Mesh… it’s a good first step for Microsoft, but it has a ways to go before it could compete on the same field as Evernote. Maybe, a OneNote® Mesh? Hey Microsoft, you listening.

Cheers,

~cse

This media was embedding using Live Writer….

Yes, very much easier to Copy and Paste directly from Hulu… you can select embed from the SilverLight menu (from the Hulu video). Copy to the clipboard and then paste directly into the Live Writer window.

Cool!

~cse

After reading that it can't be done...not supported...bah bah.

Well so far I have:

    Debian 2.6.18-6-486
       - Noticed issues in VPC
           -Network does not startup automatically; you have to connect to the wired network. Possible solution: config change or a startup script to connect the network.
           -keystrokes seem to be real sensitive. Looks like the repeat rate maybe too high. Possible solution: adjust the repeat rate in the keyboard conf file?
           -No sound. Possibly a new sound driver is needed? I've noticed that even with a windows OS loaded in VPC that the sounds seem a bit flaky. Could be a hardware/driver...that doesn't share or play well with VPC?
           -An occasional hang occurs where this distro does not respond to either mouse clicks or the keyboard.

       Recommend for VPC usage: No. Too many unstable like effects. It does seem to install and mostly work.
  

   Fedora 8 2.6.24.3-50 Fc 8 (try earlier Fedora versions, but the installer does not like my AMD-64 processor as reported in the VPC) 
       - Noticed issues in VPC
          -No sound...same issue as with the Debian distro.
          -Screen resolutions seem to be ignored. Possible solution: Tweak with xorg.conf and the VPC display settings. Most distros seem to work with a pre-defined resolution higher that 1024x768. You could also use Full Screen.

       Recommend for VPC usage: Maybe. Fedora can be heavy on resources as a distro goes. On the other hand, Fedora comes with everything you might possibly need. Having FireFox pre-installed in the version 8 distro was nice.

Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy  Gibbon)
      - Noticed issues in VPC
        -No sound...same issue as with the Debian distro.
        -Network does not startup automatically...same issue seen in the Debian distro.

        Recommend for VPC usage: Yes. Nice small footprint. Easy to get started UI. Lots of extras that seem to work well. The only two annoying things are the network connection and the sound. I'm sure I'll find a fix at some point for those issues.

There are some tricks you have to do to get any distro running. Mostly I've found that there are two tweaks you have to do in order to make the distro functional. One has to do with a parm that has to be added to the kernel boot statement to get virtual mouse to work. On your kernel boot you can edit the boot line with adding the following to the end of the kernel statement:

-- i8042.noloop

This added parm seems to work on all of the distros I tried. Of course once you get your distro installed on the virtual HD, you should make the kernel parm part of every boot without having to edit the boot line every time.

In a terminal window gedit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and add the kernel parm on the kernel boot line(s).

The second regular tweak has to do the color depth and the video card that the virtual pc presents to the distro. Now an S3 video should be able to do 24 bit color depth...but you guessed it. The VPC doesn't. And of course most Linux Distros attempt to use the 24 bit...and yes that means that the display inside the VPC gets messed up. The fix is not hard:

Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Look for the Section Screen...add a parm DefaultDepth 16 (or change the existing parm from 24 to 16). Now you can control the screen resolution by looking in a SubSection of Depth 16.

   Section "Screen"
       Identifier     "Default Screen"
       Device         "S3 Inc.  86c764/765 [Trio32/64/64V+]"
       Monitor       "Generic Monitor"
       DefaultDepth   16
       SubSection "Display"
                Depth  16
                Modes  "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
       EndSubSection
   EndSection

Some good references for getting Linux distros up and running:

ubuntu:

http://arcanecode.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/installing-ubuntu-710-under-virtual-pc-2007/

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/2184

Fedora:

http://blogs.technet.com/seanearp/archive/2007/11/13/fedora-8-werewolf-on-virtual-pc-2007.aspx 

Good VPC Linux-ing.....

~cse

The traditional help (chm file) reader is available from Microsoft....sorry I don't have a link, but I'm sure if you google chm reader for Vista...you'll find it.

~cse

Once more a slight byte in the backside....

Remember those CHM files? Well, if not these are the older, yet still useful, HELP files (or as they are called now...compiled HTML help). It seems that in someone's paranoid wisdom? That someone decided to block by default content within CHM files. Yeah, I can see protecting yourself from bad CHM files (somewhere I remember that someone did create a virus within a CHM file...I also remember that a fix was put in place back in XP to resolve the issue). I guess Vista is a little scared of past problems, so it just assumes that everything is bad and locks it down. 

So, got a CHM that comes up with no content? There is a fix...well a work-around. Right-Click the CHM file and go to properties. Somewhere near the bottom of the properties window on the general tab you should see a Security item along with a Unblock button. Now, if you trust the CHM content...press the Unblock button (and see all of the help file). As far as I can tell, you only have to do this once (per CHM file that did not originate on you computer).

Fun....
~cse

You would think that the latest edition of SharePoint 2007 could be deployed without issue on the Released Server 2008. The short answer...Nope. But not to fear...there is a way...
Start by making sure that you have IIS 7.0 installed and running...without it, well there is no SharePoint. In short make sure the following is in place...

From Control Panel, Programs and Features, Select 'Turn Windows Features On or Off' Next, Under 'Server Manager, Features' Select '.NET Framework 3.0 Features'. When asked to install the IIS7 role, select yes. Under IIS7 'Security', be sure to select the authentication you want, i.e. Basic, NTLM, Kerberos, etc.

- This comes from http://mindsharpblogs.com/ben/archive/2007/12/16/3837.aspx - Please feel free to continue to read Ben Curry's blog (I found it a bit confusing).
Next get your WSS 3.0 and SharePoint 2007 install discs or ISO files ready. You will need to make a couple of directories.

  c:\wsssp1 - for the WSS 3.0 bits  and c:\sp2007sp1 for the SharePoint 2007 bits.

  Copy the WSS 3.0 install files from the disc or iso into the c:\wsssp1
  Copy the SharePoint2007 install files from the disc or iso into the c:\sp2007sp1
   (now depending on if you use 32bit -x86 or 64bit -x64 copy only that directory. You really don't need to copy everything)

  So, at this point you have WSS 3.0 and SharePoint 2007 installs. Now you need to put the SP1 in place for both of these. If you try to install these before you get the sp1 updates in place, server 2008 will give you a nasty message about not allowing you to install.

  Now you need to download the SP1 for WSS 3.0 and SharePoint 2007. The SharePoint folks have a great blog entry to get you started:
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/12/11/announcing-the-release-of-wss-3-0-sp1-and-office-sharepoint-server-2007-sp1.aspx

To get the SP1 for WSS 3.0:
You can download the complete WSS 3.0 with SP1 from:

Go to: Link to WSS 3.0 with SP1
Go to: Link to WSS 3.0 SP1 Updates - make sure you get the right version 32bit or 64bit.

Next, you need to get the SP1 for SharePoint 2007.
  Go to: Link to SharePoint 2007 SP1

Make sure you get the right one...both 32bit (x86) and 64bit (x64) are available at the link above. The filename tells you which is which.
[more...]

Now, you need to extract the SP1 for WSS 3.0 and SharePoint 2007. Make another set of directories.
  c:\wss for WSS 3.0
  c:\ssp for SharePoint 2007

Now you can do the extract of SP1 files:
  Extract the SharePoint files:
     wssv3sp1-kb936988-x64-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:c:\ssp  -this will put the SharePoint 2007 SP files in the c:\ssp directory
      or wssv3sp1-kb936988-x86-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:c:\ssp for the 32bit version.

Extract the WSS 3.0 files:
      wssv3sp1-kb936988-x64-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:c:\wss -this will put the WSS 3.0 SP files in the c:\wss directory
         or wssv3sp1-kb936988-x86-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:c:\wss for the 32bit version.

At this point you should have everything to put together and get WSS 3.0 SP1 and SharePoint 2007 SP1 installed.
Copy all of the files from c:\wss (or the place where you extracted the WSS 3.0 SP1) to c:\sp2007sp1\Updates
Copy all of the files from c:\ssp (or the place where you extracted the SharePoint SP1) to c:\sp2007sp1\Updates

Now install WSS 3.0 SP1 - if you already have WSS 3.0 installed then just run the SP1 for WSS 3.0. Just make sure that WSS 3.0 is installed first.

Now you are ready to install SharePoint 2007 SP1 - run the setup from c:\sp2007sp1. You will need your product code for SharePoint2007. At this point SharePoint 2007 will install without problem. A good place to go for more information is the SharePoint Team blog SharePoint Team Blog

Have Fun,

~cse

What I'm doing: Using Component One's (C1) Spell checker object.

The Problem: The Spell checker hangs and Vista terminates the VHOST under which the Spell Checker thread is running.

Notes:

   Well, this is an interesting one. My app does a spell check on a control. Simple enough until my app just shuts down while the spell check dialog is up. No error, no return to my code....just abort the entire process stack back to VS. Now one important change I made that seems to have created this issue was moving to VS2008 from VS2005. So it may be unfair to say this is a 'Vista' issue. During the abort, VS2008 does not terminate- only the debugging stops.

Solution:

  Use VS2005. Component One's Spelling control does not yet seem to be quite compatible with 2008. I've not found any issues with the other Component One's controls and VS2008. I suspect that I will need to update the control I'm using because C1 says that their controls will work with VS2008.

Observations:

None really, except that VS2008 does seem to be very stable over-all. This one I think is a minor glitch. For now I'll disable the spell checker and update the control...I really don't want to move back to VS2005 for this app.

~cse