Word Automation and Upgrading to Office 2010

With the new release of Microsoft Office 2010 there are two ways to install the new office 2010 system. The first is to install the office system in 32 bit or 64 bit mode, and the second is to use the one click online installation. The first method is the only method that we at Adept will support, the second we do not. The reason why is the second method uses a virtualized system using the CVH.exe and the CVHSVE DCOM security settings. This will NOT work with document automation. Winword.exe MUST exist on the server, or workstation that accesses the automation processes.

If you are getting the famous COM Class Factory error 80040154, or the error: cannot create the active x component, and you have setup the run environments already in the DCOM rights on the server, check to see if the version of office is standard or virtualized. To find out what version, click run on the startup menu, type in winword. If Microsoft word opens you have the correct installation, if you get a message that it does not exist, you have the virtualized version. To correct this problem you will need to uninstall the virtualized version and install the normal or standard version. FYI the standard installation is 599 meg, the virtualized online installation is 1,591 KB.

Google vs. Oracle over Open Source (CNN)

New York Technology Council  (http://www.nytech.org/)

Installing Windows 7 Ultimate on a Panasonic CF-29 Toughbook  

First off is it possible... YES, I have done this, second off..it is very difficult to achieve, but well worth it. All of our test CF-29s are touchscreen models. They came with Windows XP Professional, and I purchased them a few years ago from an oil company on auction for 100 bucks each. Last week I wanted to upgrade my personal one to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

Here is what I experienced.

1) The CF-29 has a 32 bit chip set thus 64bit of Windows 7 will not install, BUT the 32bit will!
2) All the drivers install perfectly except the Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics controller. (Intel will NOT make a Windows 7 Driver), and the touchscreen driver (XP Only) had problems too.
3) Windows 7 will only allow the default Generic VGA graphics driver. (Which does not support the touch screen driver)

So after talking with Panasonic and Intel they told me to forget about upgrading the CF-29 to Windows 7 it is impossible...and not supported...I have heard that before...lol :)

Solution: Force the Windows 7 to accept the Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics controller for Windows Vista, and force the Mouse driver to accept the XP Driver for touchscreen to work. All this works fine, and the Panasonic CF-29 has a few more years of life with Windows 7, and every driver works, and all the cool touch screen features with Windows 7 are very cool, and what is even more cool is I don't have to go out and purchase a new Toughbook and save myself thousands of dollars that can be spent elsewhere, like a badly needed spa vacation!!

Here are the instructions that worked for me: I found MANY helpful instructions I listed below from: Sevenforums.com  http://www.sevenforums.com/  

STEP 1 Go to the Intel website and Download the latest Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics controller for Windows Vista, and save the driver where you can find it later!

Make sure you uninstall all the video drivers that do not work. If you see exclamation marks on your previous drivers in Device Manager, uninstall them. Your Device Manager should say that you have Standard VGA Driver installed under Display category and exclamation mark on "video controller". Make sure you restart PC when asked.

STEP 2

We will need to edit "c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys" file, but there is a problem. Windows Vista and Windows 7 will NOT allow you to edit system files even when you are the admin. Changing security attributes of that file did not work either. The file is owned by "TrustedInstaller" service. We will need to own the file and give ourselves the full control to edit it.
Click 'Start' and in 'Search' type 'cmd'. The result will show on top. Right-click on 'cmd' and choose "Run as Administrator". If your account does not have admin rights you might be prompted to enter username and password. I used account that already has administrator privileges. You should have a command prompt with administrator privileges.

STEP 3

Lets say my logged in username is nick

First command you do is:

takeown /f c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys

This will give ownership to the your user account. You should see a message saying SUCCESS etc.....

Second command you do is:

cacls c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys /G nick:F

There will be a confirmation message so type 'Y'. This will change the security attributes to give you ONLY all the permissions for the file.

The fact is the CF-29 runs Windows 7 Better than XP! Yes the screen resolution is still 1024 x 768, but that is not bad when using the touch screen. Every Drivers works! I am very happy with the new life of the CF-29!!  

Cool Themes in Visual Studio 2010

When I first starting using VS 2010 in production, I didn't like the dark theme, and I needed to change the theme to make the development environment lighter in color. When I was at Microsoft a few weeks ago, another developer I work with showed me this cool feature.

To install this theme control, in Visual Studio 2010 click TOOLS, then click Extension Manager. Here you can add a whole bunch of cool controls to your development environment. Select online gallery on the left side menu, and add Visual Studio color theme editor! This will install the editor and you will now have the themes menu control. Enjoy, I love it!

Threat of 'cyberwar' has been hugely hyped (CNN)

Here is interesting reading about cyberwar vs cybercrime. What I know about cyber space, and what our partners know, cyberwar and cybercrime is real and must be taken seriously. When more and more systems require cyber space to operate, cybercrime or cyberwar is a clear and present danger. On any given day, our cloud based systems are attacked thousands of times an hour. These attacks are not done by humans, but by bots probing for weakness in the software, in the hardware and network systems. I have personally fixed websites that were created incorrectly by other corporations that were not designed to prevent attacks, where pages of data that a human cannot see, but were located in the DMZ, with open connections to the database server...hello??? and the bots just ate them up, and created millions of records that needed to be cleaned. Then you have the attacks on the DNS servers to shut down the internet.

So, as more and more governments, corporations, and individuals become completely dependant on cyberspace, it is and will always be a target for crime, and war. Its up to our existing law enforcement, and military to protect it. The USAF mission is read today as Space, Air, and Cyber. In 1990 it was Air and Space. So when developing software in todays world, it MUST be developed to prevent from being attacked, and that is very difficult to do.

New York Hospital Loses Data on 130,000 via FedEx (New York Times)

New York's Lincoln Medical Center is notifying patients that their personal information may have been compromised after seven CDs full of unencrypted data were FedExed by a hospital contractor and then lost in transit.

This just amazes me on how personal data is treated. Why would anyone put any personal information like medical information burn them on 7 CDs and give them to Fedex? I am very positive there are better ways of transmitting data.
It would have been funny if there were in a box with 10,000 1.44 Meg floppy disks...Come on people get with the times!!

Chrome OS Netbook and Dell! (CNET)

Google's New Chrome operating system will be released later this year, and it looks very good that Dell will provide the google operating system too with their netbooks.

Dell's Amit Midha, president for greater China and South Asia, said the PC company "wants to be one of the leaders" when it comes to adopting new technologies like Google's Android and Chrome operating systems. (Quote from CNET Article)

These are very exciting times with Emerging Technologies. We here at Adept have been testing many new technologies, and are moving forward with future development of our technologies that run on Google Chrome operating systems. I look forward to seeing more!

Visual Studio Project Conversion to Version 2010

The end of May is here, and this month we have converted most of our projects to the New Visual Studio 2010. The conversions were very easy, and painless. Since Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 will not be released until July this year (still in BETA) we will not release any systems until it has been released and we test a lot! I have noticed a few bugs, but nothing serious. The speed of the new Visual Studio is nice, and I like the user interface very well. There are some new tools and functions with the new .Net Framework 4.0 that we will be using in our new releases this year. I highly recommend moving to Visual Studio 2010, however since some items are still in BETA, We here at Adept will be holding off a few months releasing any systems that are developed in Visual Studio 2010. So far I have been very impressed with this release, I will post anything that comes up with this release that might cause problems in the future.

NYC invests $300,000 into tech startup! (CNN)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a surprise appearance Tuesday at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference to unveil the debut investment from the NYC's new Entrepreneurial Fund, which will take stakes in promising technology startups.

Bloomberg -- who knows a few things about building businesses -- pledged to give Silicon Valley a run for its money on cultivating tech startups.

"If you have an idea, New York City is the city for you," he told the crowd at TechCrunch's conference. "In New York City, we understand that innovation drives economic growth. We're nurturing information technology."

New York City is a better place than Silicon Valley period for technology. Being from Northern California, New York City is just perfect for software development corporations, and anything technology base, and I believe like Mayor Bloomberg,  New york City will be know for Tech, and in the years to come Tech will be the primary business for New York City!