Jeremy's Blog

Blog on the move

2007-07-20T09:37:00.000+12:00

I have finally set up my own hosting and am moving this blog. This will be my last post here so please update your links and feeds to point to my new blog

http://blog.torokiki.com
http://feeds.feedburner.com/torokiki?format=xml

I'll be blogging about my travels, work and life in London so please check it out.

See you there :)

Photos from Melbourne

2007-03-07T15:36:00.000+13:00

Well I just got back from my trip to Melbourne last week and thought I would post a few photos from the trip. Sorry they're not very interesting as they are just photos of things, not really photos of people.

The first set are of some Melbourne buildings and a beach that Ben and I visited:

Melbourne City

This next set is of animals at the Melbourne Zoo:

Melbourne Zoo

Enjoy!

House before and after photos

2007-02-05T20:19:00.000+13:00

Well our house is finished and is on the market. Check out the photos below for some before and after shots of the different parts of the house. The before photos were taken by me when we first looked at the place, the after photos were taken by a professional with a wide-angle lens.

[ Back ]

[ Front ]

[ Lounge ]

[ Dining ]

[ Bedroom ]

[ Kitchen ]

[ Bathroom ]

Enjoy!

WLW and Box.net update

2006-09-20T21:14:00.000+12:00

Well it's been a little while since my last post about my plug-in to Windows Live Writer (WLW), but rest assured, development is still continuing. What I have been focusing on of late is trying to separate out all the common functions so they will work independent of WLW.

So far things are going pretty well. I have a new version now that includes a common library of controls, a plug-in for WLW and a stand-alone application for Windows, both with the same functions.

I will be making a new release soon on CodePlex for download, but need to do a bit more testing first.

I have also been working on a user guide for the plug-in that can be viewed from the CodePlex project site. I will look to add a PDF version soon to for download.

Continuing with the Box.net theme, I came across a blog post today that gives instructions on how to "Mount box.net account in Windows Explorer". The article gives step-by-step instructions on how to add a Box.net account as a "My Network Place", using the Box.net webdav interface (I think).

Latest "Box.net to Live Writer" release

2006-09-07T12:55:00.000+12:00

Well I have just released an update to my plug-in called Box.net to Live Writer. This update includes a number of new features of which the biggest are the ability to upload and download files.

This was quite a challenge as I wanted to do the upload and download asynchronously so it could update a status bar while the file transfer was happening, also so I could cancel the file transfer easily and not freeze the plug-in.

I know it probably still has a few bugs as this change was quite major. But please download the latest version, have a play and log an issues in the CodePlex forums, and I'll get right onto them.

Box2LiveWriter now in CodePlex

2006-08-30T20:32:00.000+12:00

Well I finally got access to my CodePlex space sorted out today, so have started adding some content to the wiki pages and have uploaded a beta of the plug-in.

The project space is called Box to Live Writer at the moment, but I am going to break it out into multiple projects and rename it. The idea is that there will be four parts:

A C# API for the Box.net XML API which can be used in any .NET 2.0 application.
A shared control library with things like login control and box listing for use in a WinForms application.
A plug-in to Windows Live Writer that makes use of both 1 and 2.
A stand-alone WinForms application to run on the desktop that makes use of both 1 and 2.

Download the beta release and let me know what you think. Read the installation instructions if you have any trouble, quite staright forward though :)

Box to Live Writer plug-in update

2006-08-29T12:05:00.000+12:00

Just over a week ago now I posted about creating a plug-in for Windows Live Writer to Box.net. Well I have been coded sporadically over the last week creating an initial version, which is now ready for anyone that wants to do some beta testing.

I am trying to get a CodePlex project space to upload it to but have not heard anything back from them yet. However, there seems to be a project created here, with all the details I submitted, but I still don't have access to it. I'm not sure what's going on here?

Here are some screenshots of the initial beta version:

[Login to Box.net form]

[Main Box.net interaction form]

If you want a copy to play with then please send me an email, my email address is jerms55[at]gmail[dot]com. In the mean time I'll be on at CodePlex to see what's happening there and will get it publically available soon.

A box to store my files

2006-08-20T10:14:00.000+12:00

Since joining the blog revolution I have encountered one small problem, where can I store my files? When creating posts I have wanted to insert images and various other files for people to download, especially in my EPiServer Downunder blog.

I understand some people don't have this issue as they host their own blogs and can just FTP the files to their hosted sites, but being on Blogspot only allows me to upload images, in low resolution.

This has lead me on a search for places to store files for use in my blog. I came across a site called Box.net that provides free online storage with up to 1GB of space and a public sharing function (more space available if you pay). The thing that I am more interested in though is their developer API.

With the release of Windows Live Writer I am going to have a go at creating a plug-in that will allow me to insert links to files stored in my Box.net account. I will also extend the plug-in so it can handle account registration and the upload of files too.

So far from my current investigation it seems quite straight forward. The Windows Live Writer SDK is .Net 1.1 or 2.0 compatible and the Box.net API works with XML requests over http.

Let the coding begin :)

House Renovations: Brand new floors

2006-08-16T18:42:00.000+12:00

Last weekend we finally moved back into our bedroom and put the house in order, after moving everything out of our bedrooms and into our living room so we could sand and polish the floors.

The whole thing was quite an experience, living in our lounge was a little crowded but kind of cosy, and being able to watch TV in bed was a bonus! The other good thing about the whole experience (other than the nice new floors) is that it allowed us to sort through all our junk and get rid a whole load of stuff.

We spent a weekend sanding, then a few nights applying coats of varnish. I would definitely recommend hiring the right equipment as it makes the job so much easier! We went down to Hirequip and got a floor and edging sander. The varnish we used was a water-based product called "Clear Floor" from Cabots, which was great because it is non-toxic, meaning no industrial gas masks are needed, and it dries much faster than regular polyurethanes.

Other than a little borer, we were very happy with the results, which you can see for yourself below.

[ Hall before and after ]

[ Master bedroom before and after ]

Bang bang, you're dead

2006-08-09T22:58:00.000+12:00

The following is a test of the integration with Picasa and Hello. Basically they allow me to publish photos and captions from my desktop to my blog. The cool thing is it handles the upload and resizing for me (click on the image to view a larger size).

A picture of my nephew Jake shooting people with his imaginary gun.

But I do have access dammit!

2006-08-08T10:12:00.000+12:00

One issue I have encountered over and over in recent development is a "401.1 Unauthorized: Login failed" message when browsing a local host headered website using integrated security. No matter what I check, everything indicates I should have access to the site, yet I still get the error!

Recently I have found the most likely the cause of this issue is a new feature in w2k3 SP1 or Windows XP SP2, called the loopback check security feature. It's a new feature that is designed to help prevent reflection attacks on your computer and causes authentication to fail if the FQDN or custom host header does not match the local computer name.

I have found the easiest thing to do is disable the check, and everything then works again. If you think you are suffering from this issue then take a look at the MS kb article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861/, it explains the issue and how to disable the check.

I do all my development work locally and host header everything in a w2k3 environment. I have encountered this issue when working with CRM3.0 calling web services, MCMS when trying to edit content, and EPiServer when developing Intranet type sites.

First post, yey

2006-07-11T22:22:00.000+12:00

Well, this is my first post to this blog and, in fact, my first blog post ever. This is really just a test to see how this thing works.

I plan to post about the random stuff but mostly about things I'm doing at the moment and day-to-day stuff.