When you initially try to run a web application with IIS7, it’ll bitch at you and tell you to either migrate the application or run it in a classic app pool.  I decided I would migrate my application since I’m sure I’ll have little choice in the future.  The error page is fairly convenient and tells you which command to run to migrate the website:

%systemroot%system32inetsrvAPPCMD.EXE migrate config “Default Web Site/YourApp”

This is great and all, but when I tried to run the command, I received the following error:

ERROR ( message:Configuration error
Filename: \?C:Windowssystem32inetsrvconfigapplicationHost.config
Line Number: 0
Description: Cannot read configuration file
. )

Now, first let me congratulate Microsoft on their extremely informative error message.  Not to mention the creativity used for formatting the error message. Way to go!  After staring at the monitor for a while, I figured that I would try running the cmd.exe as an administrator.  This solved the issue, and everything is happy.

One way to run the cmd.exe as administrator is by going through the start menu, right click Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator.  Executing the migration command in the administrator command prompt will successfully migrate your website.
 

I installed an “older” msi (QuickCode.net for vs.net 2005) on my vista box, tonight, and it apparently runs a custom action to register an assembly that Vista doesn’t like so much.  That custom action requires elevated priviledges and the install will bomb if you try to run it under a typical user account.  So… I created a batch file that calls msiexec.  You can run the batch file as an administrator and everything installs as it should.  I copied the msi to a temp directory (C:temp) and created the batch file as follows:

msiexec /i c:tempQuickCodeSetup2005.msi

Then all you have to do is right-click the batch file and select “Run as administrator”

I got a new Dell Inspiron 1300 today… I wasn’t looking for a desktop replacement, but rather just a laptop that can run various applications and works while I’m away from my office. 

After I watched the FedEx truck drive by my house & then see the status change online to “customer not home,” I sat around for a few hours until I could pick up the boxes from the local office.  Thanks FedEx…way to go the extra mile…

Anyway… so now I have my computer and the first thing I did was throw away all the shit that Dell gives you.  5 cds of worthless crap… AOL offers, Roxio crap, and all other crapware offers they bundle… A suggestion to Dell… provide an option at checkout time to not include all of that crap.

So before I could dive into their install of XP, I threw in a Vista dvd and started installing it. 

Vista

MS finally got rid of their ancient DOS based installer and replaced it with a more modern GUI.  One extremely nice feature is that you can now provide drivers via disk drives, cd/dvds or usb drives.  They also provide a relatively simple disk utility to partition/format disks.  Overall the experience is pleasant.

The install process seemed to be quicker than installing XP.  A tip of the hat goes to MS as the install only needs to reboot 2 times.  Who knows… maybe with VistaXL Ultimate Kickass v2.1 they’ll figure out how to install it with 0 or 1 reboot.  Anyway, the install finished before the end of an hour long show about the history of ecstasy; it took about a 1/2 hour.  Apparently the PC scores a 1.0 on the Vista experience scale… This automatically disables the annoying transparent title bars, thankfully.  Apparently after talking with someone who knows more about Vista scores than I do, I have a pretty crappy box.  Basically it’s at the bottom of the scale.  sweet…

This link is useful for how to get rid of the gay “Favorites” addition to Windows Explorer…

Man… talk about locking down the OS… I got 4 confirmation dialogs when I tried to create a folder.  This should be a real joy to work with daily…

Total Install Time: ~1/2 hour 

Ubuntu

Well.. Ubuntu trumps MS with it’s installer… not only is it a Gui, it goes a step further and sets up a live cd.  So basically it gives you Ubuntu loaded directly off the cd.  Very cool… it allows you to surf the internet (using Firefox) among accessing all other applications and utils that you would come to expect from a linux distro.  Note, this analysis of the live cd is coming from a relative Linux retard, so take what I just wrote with a grain of salt.

Total Install Time: ~15 Minutes

After a few joyous outbursts, I realized that grub (the linux boot loader) was not detecting my Vista install properly.  Thanks to this thread, adding the following to /boot/grub/menu.lst did the charm… The main point to mention is that it reads rootnoverify, rather than just root.  If you’re reading this for an answer to the same thing, make sure you have the correct disk and partition specified for where your Vista install is located. 

title                Windows Vista
rootnoverify     (hd0,1)
savedefault
chainloader     +1

In an attempt to become more comfortable with generics, I’m trying to find reasonable places to use them other than just for collections, etc.  This is one example:

I had a helper method that returns an object from nHibernate based on the supplied id:

Which I replaced with:

While it doesn’t really change anything for how the object is retrieved, it does simplify how I call the method.  Instead of having to write something like: 

I instead write the following:

So in the future when I upgrade to nHibernate 1.2+, this should make the transition smoother.  nHibernate 1.2 supports generics among other things.

[Update] – I upgraded to nHibernate 1.2.  So my helper function looks like:

I adopted a dog (Molly) this month.  She was born in Tennessee but has been living up at my cabin for the last 5 years.  Molly is a pure bread Britney and I think she has a nipple fetish… Not my nipples, you sick bastards, but she sucks on toys like she missed out on something as a pup.  She seems to be enjoying city life since she came here.  I’ve taken her to a park close by, where she promptly harassed the local goose population.  Other than that, she has successfully eaten the head off her gorilla toy.  All and all it’s been an exciting last couple days…  She is a bit overweight, so I’m trying to get that under control for the holiday season… Hell, maybe she’ll make a New Years resolution about it ;).  Anyway, I’ll keep posting more pictures as the days ahead become memories. 

Also, I posted some pictures from this years deer hunting expedition at my cabin. 

I wanted to add text descriptions to my enum values; similar to overriding ToString on a class.  This is what I came up with, using the beauty of generics:

A sample enum implementing my custom description attribute:

Finally, a static method that prints the attribute from any enum, using generics:

For performance reasons, the StringDictionary is used to cache the values.  Reflection tends to be expensive, so why not cache things? 🙂

Because the post editor uses postbacks, this doesn't feel like a native app.. but it's the best I can do w/ the design.  This will add a key mapping for ctrl-s so that it does the same as the "Save and Continue Writing" button.

Add this to the bottom of ~/ControlPanel/Blogs/CreateEditBlogPost.aspx

<script language="javascript">

var isSaving = false;
function DoKeyCommand(evt)
{
  var key = (evt.which || evt.charCode || evt.keyCode);
  var stringKey = String.fromCharCode(key).toLowerCase();
  var cmd = '';
	
  if (!evt || !evt.ctrlKey) return true;
  
  switch (stringKey)
  {
    case 's':
    {
      if (isSaving) return false;
      isSaving = true;	  
      if (evt.preventDefault) {
        evt.preventDefault();
        evt.stopPropagation();
      } else {
        evt.returnValue = false;
        evt.cancelBubble = true;
      }
      WebForm_DoPostBackWithOptions(new WebForm_PostBackOptions("ctl00$ctl00$TaskRegion$Editor1$SaveEditButton", "", true, "", "", false, true));
	
      return false;
    }
  };
  return true;
}
if (document.addEventListener)
{
  document.addEventListener("keypress", DoKeyCommand, true);
}
else if (document.attachEvent)
{
  document.attachEvent("onkeydown", function(evt) {DoKeyCommand(evt)});
}

</script>