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A new installation of VS2008 Team Edition said it was missing a dll.  Other methods I found to add the dll failed as the whole directory under c:\windows\WinSxS where the dll should be, was missing.  Perhaps I forgot something during the install; I went to Add/Remove programs and clicked the VS2008 installation.  After the installer, did this and that a dialog box poped up reading:

A problem has been encountered while loading the setup components

After clicking OK on the dialog the installer just closed.  This isn’t good, I thought to myself.

I found this post through google which fixed my issue

There is a critical hotfix (kb952241) which is creating this issue with Visual Studio 2008.  Removing this hotfix and rebooting my computer allowed me to successfully run the installer again.

For reference I have included the entry in Windows update for this hotfix.

Visual Studio 2008 Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (KB952241) Succeeded Saturday, November 01, 2008 Microsoft Update

Not sure if I will be prompted again to load the hot fix (I am sure I will) or how sever the security hole is that this is suppose to fix.

As always, I hope this helps one other out there.  If you have any further information about this issue, please put in the comments and I may add it to the post.

Update: Now of course Windows Update wants to load the hotfix every day I boot up.  I an not sure if I want to load it again for obvious reasons.

4/1/2010: I am loading my new Windows 7 computer and much after loading VS2008 and SP1, I realized I failed to load unit test support (Doh!).  When I went to load the feature in VS2008, I received a similar error as before.  The difference this time, the hot fix isn’t on my system, its now incorporated into SP1.

To fix this issue and let me select new features in vs2008:

  1. I had to remove VS 2008 SP1
  2. Update the features using VS 2008 installer
  3. Reload SP1.

A pain in the ass, but it does work.

To remove VS2008 SP1, go to Programs and Feature (or Add/Remove Programs) and click View installed updates. You will find it listed in here, and uninstall it from here.

It’s been a bunch of months since I have look at other hosting.  For a few years now I have been using iHostasp.net, and they are not a poor host, but I have had my issues with them.

What I like most about iHostasp.net is that their middle plan support 3 separate web spaces, this is a huge plus, something you don’t find too often in shared hosting.  They also allow 3 MS SQL databases and 5 MySql database.  All accessible from outside their network.  This was the main reason I went with them originally.  I can setup all typs of domains and sub-domains and virtual folders, that has never been an issue.

iHostasp.net has been slow to update their service and NEVER contact their clients when they make changes.  They changed the way you connect to databases from the outside, never said anything.  They updated to support .NET 3.5, and never said anything.  Plus, when I asked how to utilize it, I was told they would have to move me to a new server, which they did, but I lost all of my site stats.  They use SmarterStats, which has import capabilities, but it wasn’t configured in a way that I could import my saved log files, and they didn’t help me out in getting the files imported.

So sure they have been an OK host, and I have recommended them to others, but if I find a like deal with more stuff, well I have too investigate it.  I often wondered if they would care whatsoever if I left?

I was checking out my domain renewal dates on GoDaddy and noticed that I had to free credits for shared host accounts.  Oh yeah, I said, forgot I have those.  I have used GoDaddy often in the past, have had hosted and virtual dedicated services there.  I respect them and they have usually provided adequate support.    The two biggest items that kept me from using GoDaddy.com is they don’t (or didn’t) support external access to databases and are in a timezone which does use daylight savings time.  Now the second part isn’t that big of a deal, it only broke the training calculators on my eve-igbtools.com site, and only during daylight savings.

At the time, not being able to update my database from Enterprise Manager what just not an option.  Many of the planned application for that  site where very database intensive.  Only ever got around to writing one of them, and it’s only accessible by me.

GoDaddy’s hosting plans have really been enhanced since the last time I looked.  For the same $14.99 I pay at iHostasp, I can get unlimited domains, unlimited sql databases(!), unlimited MySql databases, IIS 7 (iHost doesn’t have this), SSL cert(!), PHP support under windows and others. Oh and most importantly, remote access to databases!

Performance has been OK in the past, I wonder how that is now?  It says nothing a GoDaddy about multiple primary domains, which means everything will run in the same memory space.  I am not too crazy about that.  Probably the one thing which may keep from using them.  For most of my piddly apps it really isn’t an issue, but it has been a useful configuration option.

Update (1/9/2008) The shared host I am using is the basic, which only allows one domain.  Once this month is up (probably sooner knowing me) I will get a better plan to try out.

Not sure where I am headed right now, but I will check out the GoDaddy service again on my free token, and go from there.  I am paid up through March at iHostasp, I am sure I will know by then, and I will writeup my decision.

Yeah, so I have ten free days.  I think I have been logged in for a total of one hour.  It’s been so long since I have logged in, It’s going to take me a week to get up to speed.  There is hours of research to figure out how to apply skill points.  Have no idea what my fighting patterns where/are.  All my friends lists have been delayed, so I have no clue who is on, and no I don’t remember their names.

In a nutshell, I really don’t give a dame about the free trial and I am glad I could waist it and be some statistic for them.  So it goes.

I am no newcomer to wiki’s though it has been a couple years since I have seen the new products.  Since a few of us at work have been throwing around ideas of wiki’s as knowledgebases, I thought I was look into them again.

I must say, not a whole lot has changed.  Sure some of the products have newer web features, but I have one desire, I just want to edit a wiki page in the same manor I do a Word document.  I understand the limitations, etc. but I don’t care, it’s still how I want to handle it.

So I tried out a couple of products, well the ones I could setup on my ihostasp.net web, anyway.

Well TikiWiki installed, but I couldn’t get it to run for the first time, the tiki-setup.php file which is ran first time in the application kept dropping off the last directory of my installation (d:/wwwroot/mydomain/ which TikiWiki determined should of been d:/wwwroot/mydomain/tiki).  I found some forum posts, but nothing I could apply  to get it working.  I will have to dig into the code which is grabbing the physical path to figure this out.  OK, that one is on the back burner for now. Tried versions 2.0 and 1.9.? same deal with both.

MediaWiki loaded up real easily, but it’s sure cumbersome to get around.  I guess it makes sense, the product is designed for huge installations usually in farms.  Great install though.

Looked at MoinMoin, which comes highly rated requires Python, so that’s a show stopper on my web host.  I may still try it out on a CentOS virtual I have at home.

You know I guess something I don’t like about wiki’s is the wiki syntax, it’s just a pain.  WordPress has sure come a long way with it’s latest updates, perhaps this would work for us?  No real search capabilities though.

This certainly has been an interesting trip down wiki lane and it really didn’t get me much further then I got before.  I am intersted in where my endevors in the wiki world will bring me tonight…

Well it is night now, and funny thing about the tikiwiki, I found where the issue is and it was moved from version 1.9.

File is /tiki/lib/setup/tikisetup.class.php and it’s how the base pathe is retrieved.

       if (strpos($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'],'IIS')==TRUE){
		if (array_key_exists('PATH_TRANSLATED', $_SERVER)) {
        	$docroot = dirname($_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']);
		} else {
			$docroot = getcwd();
		}
        }

Basically the software is using PATH_TRANSLATED for IIS and my host is not sending the full physical path, but the physical path of the web root. So I simply changed it:

       if (strpos($_SERVER['SERVER_SOFTWARE'],'IIS')==TRUE){
		if (array_key_exists('PATH_TRANSLATED', $_SERVER)) {
        	    // $docroot = dirname($_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']);
                    $docroot = getcwd();
		} else {
			$docroot = getcwd();
		}
        }

And that is simply that.  Took me to long to find the statement, must mean I need to get out of my lazy manager’s chair more often.


		

When trying to connect to a new database engine, I would would receive the following error:

TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
——————————

Unable to cast COM object of type ‘System.__ComObject’ to
interface type ‘Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop.IServiceProvider’.
This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for
the interface with IID ‘{6D5140C1-7436-11CE-8034-00AA006009FA}’
failed due to the following error: No such interface supported
(Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)). (Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop)

I found two resources to fix this; the first is a registry hack, the second refers to dll to register. I chose the second and my issue went away.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=120476&SiteID=1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953492/en-us

As you can see the second link is from Microsoft support, which I gravitated toward fist.
I used the components guid, 6D5140C1-7436-11CE-8034-00AA006009FA, for my search.

Good luck, I hope this helps someone out there

I am truly X challenged, X windows that is.  I just cannot get X to run for anything.  I get the gist of it, I have surely used it, but set it up form nothing, and I get nowhere.

At least two years ago, I was trying to setup up X windows on OpenBSD (I think it was 3.8 then) and try as I may, I could not get it to run.  I scraped trying, I only have on installation left and it’s all text. 🙂

So recently, over the last couple of weeks, I have been working with Gentoo.  I really like Gentoo, it’s a pain to setup, but its because of all the options and the ability to only build into it what you need.  My IBM R40 installation is very quick for such an old machine.  The issue, as usual, is that I cannot get X to work.  I am truly X Challenged.

Why can’t there be a step-by-step guide explaining all the different pieces that are needed to get X to run.  I don’t want anything fancy, just Windowmaker with perhaps wdm as a manager.  Not sure really, because I have never successfully set it up from scratch.

So if you have a good walk through that you can point me to which explains the different pieces I need to get X working, I will be very grateful.

I couldn’t believe the hassle it was trying to find how to specify a different port number when using SQL Server Management Studio. And of course it’s pretty easy too.

Below we have a typical connection dialog for Management Studio:
SQL Management Studio Login

The Server name text box is where the server address (instance) goes. In this example I am using the IP address 192.168.38.1

To specify the port number use a comma and then the port number after it.

E.g. 192.168.38.1, 14333

That’s it, that is all you need to do. You would think something this important would be in the help screen when you press help.

No it’s not a system tray, it’s the Icon Notification Area.  There now you know.

Sure System Tray sounds better, kind of makes sense, but perhaps that’s simply because we have used that name for so long.  It is what it is.

It has been a while since I have written about IHost, but things are pretty bad right now. They have been having some big issues with one of their SQL servers, luckily not the one I am on, and there has been zero response out of the support. They much just be drowning out there.

I haven’t posted to my eve-igbtools.com site (eve-online) in some time, and finally got around to writing some new code (which felt great by the way to be working on my own stuff again), and wanted to post it. It turns out that I can no longer access the database from home or work. Two IP address I have given them in the past to allow access to the server, neither worked. On 1/18 I opened a trouble ticket (the only way to contact them) explaining that I don’t have access to the database. No response. I reply to the ticket on 1/26, still no response. I tried to call on (i believe) the 26th and receive a message that the call can’t be completed. I can’t even access my control panel. Now I am a little scared. Luckily the CP came back in a few minutes, but the phone was still not working. Could be local network problems, didn’t pay the bill, who knows, but this is annoying. What bothers me is that there is no feedback from them. They have a customer site to show and explain statuses and there is nothing written there. I tried their line later that night and I did receive their, off hours message, some ray of hope.

What prompted this post, is I just tried calling their 800 number again and received the cannot connect message. Thought it may be a routing issue between my office and them (it did work from home), so I used the cell phone, same thing. Last stupid thought is that they are using Vonage business and Vonage has their routing messed up from the outside world, but I can reach it from home since I am calling using Vonage. Far fetched, but it could be the case with my past history with phone companies.

I should just bite the damn bullet and setup a server for myself and be done with it. I am tired of relying on these service providers who always seem to run short. Nobody, I mean nobody has replied and said, “Use company X, they rock and wont cost you your second born!”

What to do??

Every have a time that you constantly run but never get anything useful done? The IT staff is gone, there is just me and one other developer and he will not work out side is box, so I get everything else, everything. I am trying to update an application which hasn’t been used in two years and is now needed. It takes time and dedicated thought to get everything setup right for 2007. I dig in, get most of the application up into my head, I start pounding away at the keys–I got it, here we go this will do it. BAM, “Could you please help me, my mouse doesn’t work” I hear on the other side of the phone which just blew everything I had going in my head onto the adjacent wall.
“Sure, be right there”, I say. Can’t allow somebody not unable to work during the busiest time of year… So I truck on over to the helpless user.

On my journey through the office, which is always a dangerous and scary thing to do, I hear my name called and “Quick Question”, I start to shiver.

Let me tell you about quick questions, the answers are never anything close to being quick. Sure the asker may be able to express their question in ten seconds, but it will take the next thirty minutes to explain the answer and probably another task to add to the ever-growing list.

Throw it in FogBugz, I’ll get to it.

So I continue on to my helpless, mouse-less user who must get running or the company will just fold now and we will all be out on the street (sarcasm). I hear from afar, “Hey, did you get my email about the new report requirements?”

So now I am thinking, sure I saw the email in my inbox, but no way have I opened it, no way; It’s just too depressing to see some huge new report requirement, which somebody surely new about two months ago and is now given to me one week before in needs to be delivered, ugh.