It was only in a revelation whilst I was in bed last night that I wondered if I could use Dropbox’s Public directory as the target to publish my files.

It works! Here’s how…

1. Install the Dropbox client,
2. Once installed, navigate to the Public sub-directory in whichever directory you assigned as the Dropbox directory,
3. Right-click on the “How to use the Public folder.rtf” file,
4. In the Dropbox menu item, click “Copy Public Link”,
5. Paste it into any notepad application,
6. In Visual Studio, in the Publish tab of your project’s properties, use the following information (substituting your own locations as required):
   • Publishing Folder Location: C:\My Documents\My Dropbox\Public\Project1\
   • Installation Folder Location: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/xxxxxx/Project1/ (Paste the link from step 4, removing the How to use the Public folder.rtf portion and adding the project directory)
   • Click the “Updates” button,
   • Update Location: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/xxxxxx/Project1/ (I always do this just to be on the safe side)
7. Publish
8. That’s it! The files will sync to the Dropbox servers, and the project is deployed!

Now all you have to give out is the URL to either the http://dl.dropbox.com/u/xxxxxx/Project1/index.html file if you chose to generate one in your publishing options, or http://dl.dropbox.com/u/xxxxxx/Project1/setup.exe directly.

Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.

It uses concurrent AJAX, calling a lightweight PHP+XML web service layer to communicate with a Microsoft SQL Server.

The management application that the staff at the Links use to administer the bookings is written in C#, using C# web services back to the SQL Server.

Like the online booking, the AJAX layer is based on "The Ultimate AJAX object" by Patrick Hunlock, which I’ve found to be one of the only objects that elegantly supports concurrency.

It also allows you to rate each track, allowing you to differentiate between different versions of the same track by different manufacturers.

Jim Addison, or Jivin’ Jim as he is known, is a professional DJ and KJ, and he was excited about the application, as it makes it a lot easier to find and play karaoke tracks during a live show, and he’ll be using for all his karaoke shows.

He is also, incidentally, the guy who runs C.A.R.R.O.T. (Care And Rehoming Rabbits Of Tayside) where we got Emily.

It uses concurrent AJAX, calling a lightweight PHP+XML web service layer to communicate with a Microsoft SQL Server.

The management application that the staff at the Links use to administer the bookings is written in C#, using C# web services back to the SQL Server.

The AJAX layer is based on "The Ultimate AJAX object" by Patrick Hunlock, which I’ve found to be one of the only objects that elegantly supports concurrency.

Since this is a personal project, I didn’t want to use our SVN code repository at Computa, so I had a look at Google Code and so far, so good.

Anyway, you can check it out if you want at http://code.google.com/p/rapidspider/.

My application is deployed via ClickOnce. Unfortunately, it appears that Google Code only supports standard downloading. Until it supports being deployed to, you can install it from http://www.ne0ge0.com/clickonce/RapidSpider/.

The VeriSign timestamping service is being upgraded to provide a higher-level of security. The timestamping service currently uses the hash algorithm called MD5 to create the timestamp. Although no actual incidents of breaking MD5 have been reported, modern computing power is making it easier to mount attacks against MD5.

The timestamping service is being upgraded to use the hash algorithm called SHA-1 to create the timestamp. Microsoft has confirmed that an application signature that contains a timestamp created with the

SHA-1 hash algorithm is validated correctly on Windows Vista, Windows 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000.

The upgrade will occur by July 15, 2008.

Who may be affected: Anyone using the VeriSign timestamping service.

How will they be affected: There should be no issue for users signing applications on or for Windows Vista, Windows 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000. Application signing on or for earlier versions of Windows, or for non-Windows platforms, may result in signatures not being successfully validated.

What should they do: Use a more recent version of Windows, or sign the application without a timestamp.

Please use the following contact information if you have questions or concerns about this upgrade:

https://www.thawte.com/ssl-digital-certificates/technical-support/

[Via: Thawte Technical Support]

• AJAX-style Asynchronous Progress Dialog for WinForms – A base class for adding a rich asynchronous progress animation to any Form

• xml to json – convert xml to json – faster, stronger and more comfortable

• Running a Web Site in Kiosk Mode with C# – Running a Web site in kiosk mode and disabling some normal keyboard control functionality to limit a user’s ability to depart from kiosk mode

• pInvoke.net – Primarily a wiki, allowing developers to find, edit and add PInvoke* signatures, user-defined types, and any other information related to calling Win32 and other unmanaged APIs from managed code

Whilst the client was evaluating the latest build of the client, she noticed that hot keys shortcuts were available on all the buttons. When she tried to use them however, an annoying behaviour was observed.

We use 3rd party controls from Janus to emulate the Office 2007 ribbon bar from Microsoft, and so we are not blaming Janus as the original controls have the same behaviour. The <Alt> key is handled differently when using the Ribbon bar.

When the <Alt> key is pressed and released, the Ribbon bar waits for the second key press that calls the desired command. If, after pressing the <Alt> key is pressed, no other key is pressed, the only way to clear the <Alt> key is to press it again.

Originally, the <Alt> key behaviour only lasted as long as the <Alt> key was held down.

If when using the Ribbon bar control, you activate a standard hot key command, e.g., a button; you will not be able to perform another hot key command until the <Alt> key is pressed and released.

Obviously a pain the arse.

I’ve found a partial way round it below:

private void MainView_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
// Stops the Janus Ribbon Bar from capturing the keypress
if (e.Alt) { SendKeys.SendWait("%"); }
}


The above is the KeyUp event handler on the form. The SendWait() method programmatically sends a key press to the application and waits for the message to be processed.

I then realised that, apart from going through the script and removing each key and value individually, there was no automatic way to remove them; so I decided to write a small application to do just that.

I call it Unregistry.

• alpha channel;
• 24×24 icons, that ClickOnce requires on it’s updating dialog;
• pasting images from the clipboard;

Needless to say, I’ve found it. It’s called the RealWorld Icon Editor.