The render engine adds all the style sheets you have in your themes folder in alphabetic order, using the <link href=”…”? notation.

We all know the order of the style sheets are important, luckily asp.net’s shortcomings can be circumvented by prefixing the style sheets with 01, 02, … , 99, and thus forcing the order you want (see Rusty Swayne blog post on the technique for more information).

This is especially important if you use a reset style sheet, which I highly recommend; it makes it much easier to style a site in a consistent form across browsers (take a look at Reset Reloaded from Eric Meyer).

You also miss out of the possibility to specify a media type (e.g. screen, print, projection, braille, speech). And if you prefer to include style sheets using the @import method, you are also left out in the cold.

Another missing option is Conditional Comment, which is especially useful if you use an “ie-fix.css” style sheet.

Before I explain how the StylePlaceHolder and Style control resolve the above issues, credit where credit is due, my solution is inspired by Per Zimmermann’s blog post on the subject.

The StylePlaceHolder control is placed in the header section of your master page or page. It can host one or more Style controls, and will remove styles added by the render engine by default, and add its own (it will only remove styles added from the current active theme).

The Style control can both host inline styles in-between it’s opening and closing tags and a reference to a external style sheet file through its CssUrl property. Through other properties you control how the style sheet it renders to the page.

Let me show an example. Consider a simple web site project with a master page and a theme with three style sheets – 01reset.css, 02style.css, 99iefix.cs. Note: I have named them using prefixing technique described earlier, as it makes for a better design time experience. Also, the tag prefix of the custom controls is “ass:”.

In the master page’s header section, add:

<ass:StylePlaceHolder ID="StylePlaceHolder1" runat="server" SkinID="ThemeStyles" />

In your theme directory, add a skin file (e.g. Styles.skin) and add the following content:

<ass:StylePlaceHolder runat="server" SkinId="ThemeStyles">
    <ass:Style CssUrl="~/App_Themes/Default/01reset.css" />
    <ass:Style CssUrl="~/App_Themes/Default/02style.css" />
    <ass:Style CssUrl="~/App_Themes/Default/99iefix.css" ConditionCommentExpression="[if IE]" />
</ass:StylePlaceHolder>

That is basically it. There are a more properties on the Style control that can be used to control the rendering, but this is the basic setup. With that in place, you can easily add another theme and replace all the styles, since you only need to include a different skin file.

The following is the code for the Style control:

using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
 
[assembly: TagPrefix("Assimilated.Extensions.Web.Controls", "ass")]
namespace Assimilated.WebControls.Stylesheet
{
    [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
    [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
    [DefaultProperty("CssUrl")]
    [ParseChildren(true, "InlineStyle")]
    [PersistChildren(false)]
    [ToolboxData("<{0}:Style runat=\"server\"></{0}:Style>")]
    [Themeable(true)]
    public class Style : Control
    {
        public Style()
        {
            // set default value... for some reason the DefaultValue attribute do
            // not set this as I would have expected.
            TargetMedia = "All";
        }
 
        #region Properties
 
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Category("Style sheet")]
        [DefaultValue("")]
        [Description("The url to the style sheet.")]
        [UrlProperty("*.css")]
        public string CssUrl
        {
            get; set;
        }
 
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Category("Style sheet")]
        [DefaultValue("All")]
        [Description("The target media(s) of the style sheet. See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/media.html for more information.")]
        public string TargetMedia
        {
            get; set;
        }
 
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Category("Style sheet")]
        [DefaultValue(EmbedType.Link)]
        [Description("Specify how to embed the style sheet on the page.")]
        public EmbedType Type
        {
            get; set;
        }
 
        [Browsable(false)]
        [PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerDefaultProperty)]
        public string InlineStyle
        {
            get; set;
        }
 
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Category("Conditional comment")]
        [DefaultValue("")]
        [Description("Specifies a conditional comment expression to wrap the style sheet in. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537512.aspx")]
        public string ConditionalCommentExpression
        {
            get; set;
        }
 
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Category("Conditional comment")]
        [DefaultValue(CommentType.DownlevelHidden)]
        [Description("Whether to reveal the conditional comment expression to downlevel browsers. Default is to hide. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537512.aspx")]
        public CommentType ConditionalCommentType
        {
            get; set;
        }
 
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Category("Behavior")]
        public override string SkinID { get; set; }
 
        #endregion
 
        protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
        {            
            // add empty line to make output pretty
            writer.WriteLine();
 
            // prints out begin condition comment tag
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ConditionalCommentExpression))
                writer.WriteLine(ConditionalCommentType == CommentType.DownlevelRevealed ? "<!{0}>" : "<!--{0}>",
                                 ConditionalCommentExpression);
 
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(CssUrl))
            {               
                // add shared attribute
                writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Type, "text/css");
 
                // render either import or link tag
                if (Type == EmbedType.Link)
                {
                    // <link href=\"{0}\" type=\"text/css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" media=\"{1}\" />
                    writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Href, ResolveUrl(CssUrl));
                    writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Rel, "stylesheet");
                    writer.AddAttribute("media", TargetMedia);
                    writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Link);
                    writer.RenderEndTag();
                }
                else
                {
                    // <style type="text/css">@import "modern.css" screen;</style>
                    writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Style);
                    writer.Write("@import \"{0}\" {1};", ResolveUrl(CssUrl), TargetMedia);
                    writer.RenderEndTag();
                }
            }
 
            if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(InlineStyle))
            {
                // <style type="text/css">... inline style ... </style>
                writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Type, "text/css");
                writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Style);
                writer.Write(InlineStyle);
                writer.RenderEndTag();
            }
 
            // prints out end condition comment tag
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ConditionalCommentExpression))
            {
                // add empty line to make output pretty
                writer.WriteLine();
                writer.WriteLine(ConditionalCommentType == CommentType.DownlevelRevealed ? "<![endif]>" : "<![endif]-->");
            }
        }
    }
 
    public enum EmbedType
    {        
        Link = 0,
        Import = 1,
    }
 
    public enum CommentType
    {
        DownlevelHidden = 0,
        DownlevelRevealed = 1
    }
}

And the code for the StylePlaceHolder control:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Linq;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
 
[assembly: TagPrefix("Assimilated.Extensions.Web.Controls", "ass")]
namespace Assimilated.WebControls.Stylesheet
{
    [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
    [AspNetHostingPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand, Level = AspNetHostingPermissionLevel.Minimal)]
    [DefaultProperty("SkinID")]
    [ToolboxData("<{0}:StylePlaceHolder runat=\"server\" SkinID=\"ThemeStyles\"></{0}:StylePlaceHolder>")]
    [ParseChildren(true, "Styles")]
    [Themeable(true)]
    [PersistChildren(false)]
    public class StylePlaceHolder : Control
    {
        private List<Style> _styles;
 
        [Browsable(true)]
        [Category("Behavior")]
        [DefaultValue("ThemeStyles")]
        public override string SkinID { get; set; }
 
        [Browsable(false)]
        public List<Style> Styles
        {
            get
            {
                if (_styles == null)
                    _styles = new List<Style>();
                return _styles;
            }
        }
 
        protected override void CreateChildControls()
        {
            if (_styles == null)
                return;
 
            // add child controls
            Styles.ForEach(Controls.Add);
        }
 
        protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnLoad(e);
 
            // get notified when page has finished its load stage
            Page.LoadComplete += Page_LoadComplete;
        }
 
        void Page_LoadComplete(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // only remove if the page is actually using themes
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Page.StyleSheetTheme) || !string.IsNullOrEmpty(Page.Theme))
            {
                // Make sure only to remove style sheets from the added by
                // the runtime form the current theme.
                var themePath = string.Format("~/App_Themes/{0}",
                                              !string.IsNullOrEmpty(Page.StyleSheetTheme)
                                                  ? Page.StyleSheetTheme
                                                  : Page.Theme);
 
                // find all existing stylesheets in header
                var removeCandidate = Page.Header.Controls.OfType<HtmlLink>()
                    .Where(link => link.Href.StartsWith(themePath)).ToList();
 
                // remove the automatically added style sheets
                removeCandidate.ForEach(Page.Header.Controls.Remove);
            }
        }
 
        protected override void AddParsedSubObject(object obj)
        {
            // only add Style controls
            if (obj is Style)
                base.AddParsedSubObject(obj);
        }
 
    }
}

So what do you guys think? Is this a good solution to the asp.net theme problem? And what about the code? These two controls are my first attempt at writing custom server controls, so any input is very much welcome.

Get the code, including Visual Studio 2008 solution and .dll if you just want to use the controls.

Today I discovered the simplest and most elegant solution I’ve seen to date. One line of code in the code behind file is still required, but the elegance of DataSource controls is kept. In short, once the DropDownList has bound to its data source, add the “Choose xxxxx” item to the items collection of the DropDownList. The trick is to use the Insert method instead of the Add method, since the Insert method allows you to specify where the new item should be inserted, and not just added to the end of the item list.

In this example I use the OnDataBound event to insert the new item:

<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCustomer" runat="server" 
    DataSourceID="odsCustomer" DataTextField="DisplayName" 
    DataValueField="CustomerId" OnDataBound="ddlCustomer_DataBound">
</asp:DropDownList>

The code behind is just one line of code (excluding the method definition):

protected void ddlCustomer_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    ddlCustomer.Items.Insert(0, new ListItem("Choose a Customer", "0"));
}

My compilers section ended up looking like this (it is located in the system.codedom section)

<compilers>
	<compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs" 
            compilerOptions="/d:TRACE"
            warningLevel="4"
            type="Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
		<providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/>
		<providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/>
	</compiler>
	<compiler language="vb;vbs;visualbasic;vbscript"
            compilerOptions="/d:Trace=true"
            extension=".vb"
            warningLevel="4" 
            type="Microsoft.VisualBasic.VBCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">
		<providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/>
		<providerOption name="OptionInfer" value="true"/>
		<providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/>
	</compiler>
</compilers>

Do note that this is not an issue with ASP.Net Web Applications, since they are precompiled. For more on the subject, MSDN has a great article which certainly saved me in this instance.

After putting the logon script online earlier this year, the feedback I have received has been rewarding to say the least. Two ideas I would like to find time to implement, is a more modular version of the script, where administrators are able to tidy out actions and other optional components they do not need. This will help keep the size of the script down, which currently stands at 44 kb. Another idea is making it easier for everyone to customize the messages the script print out during execution. Administrators will thus be able to translate the script to their own native language.

When I will be able to find the time to implement the ideas above is hard to say, the weather is getting damn good here in Denmark, after all

I am still missing a section in the documentation, but that will have to wait to another day.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

It turns out to be due to a bug in the new Multimedia Class Scheduler Service (MMSCC) included in Vista, that will help prioritize processing and network resources during media playback. As Mark Russinovich explains in his blog, the MMSCC will give media applications higher priority during playback, while at the same time throttle down network activity to ensure that streaming audio and video get through without glitches.

The problem seems to come from the hardcoded limit that is forced upon the network card, which would give a computer with a single network card a maximum throughput of about 15 MB/sec., which in itself is not that bad. The problem surfaces when you have more than one network card (like most laptops), then a bug in the MMSCC will throttle the network connections even more.

If you, like me, have multiple virtual network adapters from installing VMWare and various VPN software packages, you will have degradation out of proportions of what the MMSCC team intended for. Luckily, Microsoft has the networking and MMCSS team working on a fix for this. Meanwhile, remember to kill your online radio whenever you want to transfer data over the network at a reasonable speed.

• Wictor describes how you can customize the Favourite Links in Windows Vista common dialogs, which is a lot simpler then completing the same feat in Windows XP.
• Symbolic Links has finally made its way into the Windows family. Microsoft describes a “symbolic link is a file-system object that points to another file system object”, which can be sort of abstract to say the least. What it basically means is that you can go into C:\Users\Egil\Current Project\ and it will be the same as going in to C:\Users\Egil\Document\Customer\2007\Project Name\. In other words, C:\Users\Egil\Current Project\ is a symbolic link to C:\Users\Egil\Document\Customer\2007\Project Name\, it is just a shorter path which safes me mouse clicks. Think of it as an advanced way of creating shortcuts to things. The official documentation for symbolic links can be found on MSDN. If my explanation just confused you, give Wikipedia’s a try.

Performance tricks and tweaks:

• On TweakVista there is a short guide in getting a bit more speed out of your SATA disks. Microsoft recommends only using this option if your disks have a backup power supply, like a battery in a laptop, otherwise you might lose data.
• Ever wondered why Vista suddenly starts hugging the hard disk around 01:00 on Wednesdays? Well the answer could be the scheduled defragging included in Vista (at least Business and Ultimate). If you are comfortable in handling your own defragging, go in to Task Scheduler and disable that “service”.
• Out of the box Vista has a lot of enabled services, which can be safely disabled, especially if you are not a corporate laptop user. The very geeky but always reliable Black Viper has always been the place to turn to, for a service guide for your favourite Windows edition.

Visual tricks and tweaks:

• Vista comes with a rather big border size by default, more precisely a total of 4 pixels is wasted on every side of windows, dialog boxes… well everything that is boxed in Vista. Luckely, this is easily customized. I personally just set the border size to 0.

With MsSQL’s getutcdate() function (instead of getdate()), just about everything is smooth sailing. The only problem I have encountered is when binding a to a ASP.NET server control. Scott suggests doing like this:

((DateTime) Eval("DateUpdated")).ToLocalTime()

This only works when DateUpdated is not null, which is not always the case in my application. To get around this, I created the following simple class and stuck it in my App_Code folder.

public static class Extensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// If object is a DateTime, it will convert
    /// the DateTime to local time.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="obj"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static object ToLocalTime(this object obj)
    {
        if (obj is DateTime)
            return ((DateTime)obj).ToLocalTime();
        else
            return obj;
    }
}

The method ToLocalTime(this object obj)uses the extension method feature in .NET 3.0, that allows you to extend the functionality of other class. Here I extend upon Object, adding a .ToLocalTime() method to it. This allows me to use it in ASP.NET server controls like this:

Eval("DateUpdated").ToLocalTime()

This works because Eval() returns a object, which is also the reason why I did not extend a more specific class.

Figure 1: From MasterPage to UserControl

I was facing this problem a few months back on a project, where I had many different UserControls that was added to a limited number of pages, and all the pages had the same master page. I wanted an elegant way of updating the status label in my MasterPage while limiting the amount of redundant code. After googling around a bit, I ended up combining a few different solutions into the following.

Solution: The idea is to use the event system in .NET and give each UserControl an event that the UserControl can fire whenever it wants to update the status label. Pages that host the UserControl can then subscribe to the event and update the status label on the MasterPage when the event fires.

Here’s an overview of the solution

1. Declare a new event in the UserControl.
2. Declare a new event argument.
3. On the ASPX page, subscribe to the UserControls event and make an event handler that updates the status label on the master page.
4. Create a public property on the MasterPage for each access to the status label.

1: Declare a new event in the UserControl
To avoid declaring the event each time I added a new UserControl to my project, I created a new class UserControlBase, which extends System.Web.UI.UserControl, and made all UserControls extend this class, instead of the default System.Web.UI.UserControl. This way I could put all the redundant UserControl code in one file, and be done with it.

// Declare the event handler

public event EventHandler<UpdateStatusEventArgs> StatusLabelUpdateEvent;

/// <summary>

/// Method for triggering the UpdateStatusEventArgs.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="message">Status message to pass to the subscribers</param>

protected void UpdateStatusLabel(string message)

{

    // Copy to a temporary variable to be thread-safe.

    EventHandler<UpdateStatusEventArgs> temp = StatusLabelUpdateEvent;

    if (temp != null)

        temp(this, new UpdateStatusEventArgs(message));

}

And here is the code for the UserControl (notice the new : UserControlBase in the class declaration):

public partial class UserControls_UpdateStatusUserControl : UserControlBase

{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { }

    protected void submitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

    {

        base.UpdateStatusLabel(messageTextBox.Text);

    }

}

2: Declare a new event argument
I also needed to create an new class – UpdateStatusEventArgs, which extends System.EventArgs, so the UserControls would be able to pass an message back to the ASPX page that can then update the status label.

/// <summary>

/// A status label event args class.

/// </summary>

public class UpdateStatusEventArgs : EventArgs

{

    // private fields

    private string _message;

    /// <summary>

    /// Create an Status Label Event Args with a string

    /// message and default type is StatusType.OK.

    /// </summary>

    public UpdateStatusEventArgs() { }

    /// <summary>

    /// Create an Status Label Event Args with a

    /// string message and default type is StatusType.OK.

    /// </summary>

    /// <param name="message">Update message</param>

    public UpdateStatusEventArgs(string message)

    {

        _message = message;

    }

    /// <summary>

    /// Get/set status message

    /// </summary>

    public string Message

    {

        get { return _message; }

        set { _message = value; }

    }

}

3: On the ASPX page, subscribe to the UserControls event.
On my ASPX page I do two simple things. First I declare my master page through the MasterPage directive, just below Page directive, like so:

<%@ MasterType VirtualPath=”~/MasterPage.master” %>

This provides me with a strongly typed reference to my master page, which makes it a breeze to access properties and methods on it.

In the code behind file I subscribe to the user controls update event, and in my event handler update the status label on the master page.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

    LoadUserControl();

}

/// <summary>

/// Loads user control in to the ContentPlaceHolder.

/// </summary>

private void LoadUserControl()

{

    // Declare usercontrol

    UserControlBase userControl;

    // Load correct usercontrol

    userControl =

    Page.LoadControl("~/UserControls/UpdateStatusUserControl.ascx")

    as UserControlBase;

    // Subscribe to StatusLabelUpdateEvent

    userControl.StatusLabelUpdateEvent +=

    new EventHandler<UpdateStatusEventArgs>(UpdateStatusLabelEvent);

    // Add it to the page

    PlaceHolder.Controls.Add(userControl);

}

// Event handler, used when a status label

// update request is being triggered

protected void UpdateStatusLabelEvent(object sender, UpdateStatusEventArgs e)

{

    Master.StatusLabel.Text = e.Message;

}

4: Create a public property on the MasterPage for each access to the status label.
The last thing I needed to make was a public property on the master page that returns a reference to the status label.

public Label StatusLabel

{

    get { return statusLabel; }

}

That’s it!

Please excuse the horrible source code in this blog post, I haven’t found a good plugin to do this probably for me yet. I have created a Visual Studio example project, it might be easier to read the code if you just download that and view the source code from Visual Studio.

At first I thought it was an issue with the NVIDIA graphics driver, but it turns out it was an issue with Windows’ handling of hardware profiles.

The laptop had previously been connected to a different docking station where the connected display had been configured to 1280×1024, and Windows seemed to be remembering that setting even thought that display was not connected that docking stations anymore.

Solution: The solution turned out to be quite simple. Windows allows you to remove faulty hardware profiles. You can even copy existing hardware profiles, so you can have different hardware profiles, one for the office docking station setup and one for the home docking station setup, for example.

To manage the hardware profiles, go to the Control Panel and choose System. In the System Properties dialog box, click on the Hardware tab and then on the Hardware Profiles button. This should bring up the Hardware Profiles dialog box.

To fix the problem I had, do the following:

1. Remove the computer from the docking station and boot it up.
2. Navigate to your Hardware Profiles as described above.
   On a laptop, you should have to profiles already. They are created by Windows automatically – Undocked Profile and Docked Profile. The Undocked Profile should be the current profile, as indicated by the text “(Current)” after its name.
3. Delete the Docked Profile.
4. Click OK a few times, closing all dialog boxes, and then shutdown the computer.
5. Re-dock the computer and boot it up.
   Windows will now generate a new Docked Profile for you.
6. Configure your display settings as you like, and try restarting Windows.
   Windows should now remember the display settings correctly.

If you have different configurations on two or more docking stations, you can always copy an existing docked profile and thus have a unique docking profile for each docking station. If more docked profiles exist, Windows will ask you to choose one at boot time.

So to sum up, add the following CSS code to your site if you want the scrollbars visible at all times:

html {
     overflow: -moz-scrollbars-vertical;
     overflow: scroll;
}

I’ve made it easy to modify it for use with other services, so have a look and let me know what you think:

Download: StartStopServices.vbs

Here is probably the most famous chat log ever – behold the legend of the BloodNinja:

bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BritneySpears14: Aight.
bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, bloodninja.
bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
bloodninja: Me too baby.
BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
bloodninja: I cast Lvl. 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BritneySpears14: Hey…
bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl. 8 Cock of the Infinite.
BritneySpears14: Funny I still don’t see it.
bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty F*ck of the Beyondness.
BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
bloodninja: Don’t f*ck with me bitch, I’m the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl. 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine bloody mist, because you are only a Lvl. 2 Druid.
BritneySpears14: Don’t ever message me again you piece of ****.
bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik’s evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it’s getting hard now.
bloodninja: Baby?

I just love the witty reply from BritneySpears14 after BloodNinja casts his level 8 “Cock of the Infinite” – good times.

The show can be watched on DR2 Monday through Thursday at 23:30.

• DR2 press release (Danish)
• The Daily Show on IMDB

A funny side note: I was sitting next to a professors who teaches a course on functional programming that they make every first year student take, and he said numerous times that “this is a great advertisement for my course”, and I do understand why he is was excited. I remember back when I was dragged kicking and screaming through that course, wondering why I needed to learn this weird kind of programming that wasn’t even used in general practice, but now, all of a sudden, this guy from Microsoft is typing in lambda expressions in Visual Studio on the projector, God knows I never thought I would see a lambda expression again after that course .

Back home from the university I goggled around a bit and found two interesting videos featuring another Dane, Anders Hejlsberg (Chief Architect of C# at Microsoft). In the first video Anders gives an introduction to benefits LINQ will give you as a programmer using easy to understand code examples, and in the second video he talks more theoretically about the problem that LINQ solves and also gets into what capabilities functional programming will bring to the table down the road. Both videos are well worth the time.

More information can be found over at The LINQ Project page on the MSDN network.

It’s quite simple, ask the person you need to support to download the Customer module and run it and have them give you the ID and password it displays.
Then you download the Supporter module and enter the ID and password he/she gave you and you can now show instead of having to explain.

The only limitation is that a support session can only last 30 minutes the you have to reconnect.

I actually never started playing Quake again when Quake 4 was released, largely due to time constraints but definitely also because my computer couldn’t deliver the performance needed to run the game decently, so I’m unsure how much my article actually helped.

The article was originally posted on XplayN.com – the biggest Counter Strike community back then, but since it’s nowhere to be found now, I thought I would repost it here. Unfortunately it’s only in Danish, but I hope some of you might find it an interesting read.

Introduktion

Denne artikel er tænkt som en grundlæggede introduktion til 1on1 i Quake. Teknikkerne beskrevet her er ikke ment som en kontrast til hvad man skal kunne for at blive god i f.eks. Counter Strike, der er sikkert en del af disse punkter som også er gode at have i baghoved når man spiller CS.

Ideen er, at artiklen skal give alle de (forhåbentligt) mange, som har lyst til at prøve 1on1 i Quake 4, en chance. Lad det være sagt med det samme – det kræver meget arbejde at blive god til 1on1 i Quake. Dette er en liste af grundlæggede egenskaber man skal have, og den er lavet, for at give folk en ide om hvor de skal tage fat for at blive bedre.

Er du god til at spille CS eller andre 3D skydespil, bør du med lidt træning kunne klare dig OK i Quake. Det hjælper dog klart at have en træningspartner eller to, som er på samme niveau som dig. Man kan lære meget af en ordentlig røvfuld, men det er trods alt lettere at arbejde på specifikke ting i sit spil, hvis man er med i kampen.

Map kontrol

Nøglen til at vinde kampe i Quake er map kontrol (i Quake bliver en bane kaldt for et "map"). At have map kontrol vil sige at du har kontrol over de væsentlige powerups (et powerup er en ting som ligger på at fast sted på banen og som giver spilleren der samle det op en bonus, f.eks. mere liv eller mere armor) på banen, f.eks. Red Armor som giver +100 til dit armor, Yellow Armor som giver +50 til dit armor og Mega Health som giver +100 til dit liv. Det betyder også at du kan forhindre modstanderen i at få specifikke våben, og du sikrer dig at det er dig som vælger hvornår der skal være en konfrontation, og hvornår der ikke skal.

Timing

En af de vigtigste egenskaber at besidde, er evnen til at holde styr på to til fire forskellige powerups i løbet af en kamp. Det lyder simpelt, men er ganske svært at mestre (kun en ganske lille procent af Quake 3 spillerne var i stand til at mestre dette til perfektion).

I teorien er det simpelt. Du har en lille klokke i højre hjørne, som viser hvor lang tid der er gået af kampen. Den kigger du på når du f.eks. samler en Red Armor op, og lægger så 25 sekunder til den tid. Nu ved du hvornår den næste Red Armor kommer. Nu mangler du bare at time de tre-fire andre powerups der er på banen også, så er du godt på vej.

At have timet en powerup er en kæmpe fordel. Hvis din modstander har en god ide om, hvornår en powerup respawner (at respawne betyder blot at en powerup/et våben/en spiller bliver gendannet/genopstår. F.eks. respawner en Red Armor 25 sekunder efter den blev samlet op sidste gang og en spiller respawner efter at han/hun er blevet dræbt), vil han også automatisk kunne antage, at du opholder dig i området omkring denne, og vil ofte kunne udnytte dette til at overraske dig. Har din modstander har timet powerup’en præcist, vil han ofte kunne vælge det helt perfekte tidspunkt at angribe dig på, så du er ude af balance, og han både får dræbt dig og snuppet powerup’en på en gang. At powerups ofte er placeret i udsatte positioner, som er svære at forsvare, gør det heller ikke lettere at stå og campe (at campe er et udtryk der betyder at en spiller har valgt at "slå lejer" et sted på banen for gemme sig for eller overraske sin modstander) og vente på at den respawner.

Altså, øv dig i at time powerups. Start med at gå efter at time en powerup i en hel kamp. Det i sig selv er et stort skridt. Ã?ËSv dig i at holde timingen, selv om din modstander får din powerup en gang i mellem. Selv om du misser en powerup eller to gange i træk, bør du stadig have en god ide om, hvornår den kommer igen. Når dette er på plads, så udvid din timing til to items, og så videre.

Placering

At placerer sig korrekt på banen i alle situationer er et must. Dermed ikke sagt at du skal finde det bedste sted at campe, fordi det vinder man meget sjældent kampe i Quake på. Din modstander vil lynhurtigt opdage hvis du altid står det samme sted og gemmer dig, og så er det pludselig ham som overrasker dig.

Generelt er positioner hvor du er placeret højere end din modstander bedst. Positioner hvor du har større muligheder for at bevæge dig rundt, er bedre end en lang smal gang. Positioner hvor du har muligheden for at stikke af, hvis du skulle blive såret, er også bedre end positioner hvor du bliver nødt til at kæmpe, ind til du enten har skræmt din modstander væk, dræber ham, eller selv dør.

At vide hvordan man skal placere sig, er et spørgsmål om at kende banen indgående, vide hvilke våben man har til rådighed, og ikke mindst hvilke våben din modstander har.

Våben

I Quake er der ikke et våben som er bedste i alle situationer, det handler i den grad om hvad din modstander har og jeres position på banen og placering i forhold til hinanden. Står du og din modstander f.eks. overfor hinanden på et stort fladt område med en god afstand imellem jer, så hjælper det ikke meget at du står med en Rocket Launcher (en Rocket Launcher skyder langsomt flyvende projektiler, som giver stor skade i det område de ramme) i hånden, hvis han har en Lighting Gun (en Lighting Gun skyder en slags strømstråle af sted, som har en begrænset rækkevidde og kun giver skade lige der hvor den rammer) eller en Railgun (en Railgun skyder projektiler (kaldet Railslugs) af sted med ubegrænset rækkevidde som giver stor skade lige der hvor de ramme. En Railgun tager dog lang tid om at lade mellem hvert skud). Så er det bedre at stikke raketten mellem benene og smutte .

Har du derimod fanget din modstander med en Railgun i hånden i en tæt korridor, så er han død på 1-2 sekunder hvis du ellers kan ramme med dine raketter. Er situationen modsat, er det ikke specielt sjovt at stå over for en Railgun, da man ofte når at blive slået halvt ihjel, inden man når ind på livet af sin modstander og kan gøre skade.

Generelt bør man undgå at blive fanget af sin modstander i tæt bebyggelse med våben som ikke har splashdamage (splashdamage referer til effekten af projektiler som eksploder når de rammer og derved giver skade til både det punkt de rammer samt området omkring dette) og langsom lade tid – f.eks. Railgun. En undtagelse er Shotgun’en, som hverken har splashdamage eller speciel hurtig "rate of fire", men til gengæld giver et ordentligt drøn i sækken, hvis man sætter alle kuglerne i modstanderen. Shotgun’en kan dog være svær at mestre.

I kategorien "midt i mellem" våben, er Hyperblaster, Nailgun og Lighting Gun. Alle tre våben er hverken udtalte nærkamps våben, og kan heller ikke klare sig på meget lang afstand mod en Railgun, men kan ofte stadig give en del skade i alle situationer.

Altså – tænk over hvad for et våben du har i hånden når du bevæger dig rundt på banen.

Læs din modstander og overrask ham

Det hjælper dig ikke meget at have alle våben, og timet alle powerups, hvis det er din modstander der får løsnet det første skud hver eneste gang i møder hinanden. Bliver du ramt af et railslug, en raket eller lignende, så har du allerede mistet de første 66 armor points, og 33 health points (eller 100 health hvis du ikke havde noget armor), og så er i sandsynligvis stort set lige hvad angår health og armor. Da du oven i købet ofte lige skal orientere dig (med mindre du har set hvor modstanderen skød fra), er chancen for at din modstander får lov at sætte den næste salve i dig, inden du overhoved har skudt på ham en eneste gang, rimelig stor.
Derfor, tænk dig om. Hvis du ikke har en klar ide om hvor din modstander er, så gå forsigtigt frem, og vær påpasselige med ikke at blive overrasket.

Har du derimod en god ide om hvor din modstander er, så er det bestemt ingen skam at lave et lille bagholdsangreb – husk, den der skyder først vinder ofte en konfrontation.

Generelt, har du læst din modstander, ved hvor han er og hvor han er på vej hen, så ligger alle kortene i dine hænder. Du kan vælge om du vil tage en konfrontation med ham, eller du kan undgå ham og samle mere armor/health og våben sammen.

Speed, speed, speed

Endnu en vigtig ting at mestre for at kunne overraske sin modstander er fysikken i Quake. Dette punkt hænger meget sammen med at lære banerne at kende – når du kender en bane indgående, kender du alle de små smutveje, trickjumps og lignende, og vil meget hurtigere kunne bevæge dig rundt. Jo hurtigere du er, jo længere tid vil du have til at placerer dig i favorable positioner, du vil have lettere ved at stikke af fra din modstander, og du vil ikke mindst kunne overraske din modstander og få det første skud ind.

Det er en række forskellige teknikker i Quake, som gør dig i stand til at bevæge dig i "hurtigere end løbe tempo" eller komme steder man normalt ikke kan. Den vigtigste af disse er strafejumping, hvor du i Quake 3 kunne opnår noget der ligner dobbelt hastighed, og dermed hoppe over steder hvor det ellers ikke normalt var muligt. En god gennemgang af den teknik, og et par andre, kan findes i DooMer’s guide til Quake 4.

Varier dit spil

Husk, der er to spillere i kampen, og din modstander lære også af sine fejl. Varier derfor dit spil, lad være med at stå og vente det samme sted ved Red Armor, lad være med at løbe samme rute rundt på banen, når du støvsuger den for armor og health.

Tilpas dig kampen

De letteste frags du får i Quake, er dem hvor modstanderen lige er respawnet efter du har nakket ham. Han har ingen våben, intet armor, og det skal man øve sig i at udnytte. Jo flere frags du kan nå at få inden han kommer ind i sin rytme igen og får samlet våben og armor sammen, jo bedre. Bliver du derimod fragget, så nytter det ikke noget at styrte hovedkulds ind i hoved på din modstander igen, med mindre du ved at han har meget lidt liv tilbage, for så bliver du bare nakket igen. Hold lidt igen, få skrabet et par våben og noget armor sammen, og så kan du begynde at spille lidt mere aggressivt igen.

Checkliste

Her er en kort checkliste I kan bruge, hvis I føler at I konstant taber:

• Hvor mange powerups fik du? Hvor mange fik din modstander?
  Hvis du føler at du sagtens kunne klare din modstander i en direkte konfrontation, men ofte tabte alligevel, er det måske fordi han bare havde samlet flere powerups op.
• Hvem havde skød først?
  Var det stort set altid din modstander som fik det første skud ind, så kunne noget tyde på, at han har haft en god ide om hvor du har været det meste af kampen, og blot har stået og ventet hver gang du kom drønende rundt om hjørnet. Det er måske ikke den mest prangende måde han vinder kampen på, men det er ti gange lettere at stå og sigte mod en dør, og så sætte et par kuler modstanderen når han kommer igennem, end det er for ham som kommer igennem døren at ramme sin modstander. Og som man siger, vinderen har altid ret.
  Bliver du skudt fra det samme sted hver gang, så LÃ?⬠R af det, og overrask modstanderen når han står der for tiende gang.
• Tabte du selv om du både havde læst din modstander, og havde fået rigeligt med powerups, ja så er det ofte bare tale om, at din modstander har været bedre til at vælge de rigtige våben i de konfrontationer i har haft, og sandsynligvis også været bedre til at bruge dem. En vigtig ting at huske er, at din præcision med de forskellige våben i den grad afhænger af din modstander. At du sætter 80% af alle din railslugs når du tæver din lillebror, er ikke ensbetydende med at du kan gøre det samme mod Fatal1ty. To ligeværdige modstandere vil ofte ramme dårligere mod hinanden end mod dårligere spillere.
• Blev du konstant spawnfragget?
  Tænk over hvordan du agere når du er blevet fragget – taber du hovedet og styrter efter din modstander, eller holder du igen og får samlet lidt våben og armor sammen. En kamp kan hurtigt vende, det tager ikke mere end et minut at skrabe 10 frags sammen, så der er ikke nogen grund til at have for travlt efter man er blevet nakket.

Med overstående i baghånden er det bare med at komme i gang med at træne, happy fragging.

For this style sheet to make any sense on your blog, you obviously need the K2 theme. Then you need to create a new directory (for example “egil”) in /wp-content/themes/k2/styles/, and copy the egil.css file to it.
After that you need to create a sub directory in /wp-content/themes/k2/styles/[style dir]/ called images and copy the header image there.

As you have probably guessed it didn’t go as planed. Every time I started the SP2 installation, it would get stuck when it reached “Checking Product Key”. After some googling I stumbled across the following solution mailed to another unlucky guy by Microsoft Support, which thankfully worked for me as well.

Fix for Service Pack 2 installation stuck at “Checking Product Key”

1. Please go into the CMD prompt (Start/Run –> cmd.exe)
2. Then type cd /d %windir%\inf and make sure we are in that directory.
3. Then type ren oem*.inf oem*.old, it will go back to the prompt after giving you some error (do not worry about it).
4. Then type ren oem*.pnf oem*.old1, it will go back to the prompt after giving you some error (Do not worry about it).
5. Then goto Start/Run and type "%windir%\inf" and you will see the files in the folder.
6. Then find the file by name INFCACHE.1 and move it to the desktop (or another place outside the Windows folder) from c:\windows\inf.
7. Close all windows and reboot the computer to safe mode and start the installation of SP2 and it should go fine.

Microsoft, you owe me three hours…

Update: I originally forgot to mention why this happens. When SP2 tries to validate your Windows key using the infamous Windows Genuine Advantage, it can fail if OEM drivers have been installed. So to avoid this problem completely, simply upgrade to SP2 right away after the initial installation of Windows.

So what can you expect on this site. You can expect to read my rants on everything I think I have something (intelligent) to rant about, I’ll probably post more or less useful tips about things – most often topics related to programming or computers in general, and maybe even an article once in a while that goes deeper in to a topic or present something I have created that I want to share or just get feedback on.

So enjoy your stay and welcome to Egil.dk.