Wednesday, March 26, 2008

IIS 7 Admin Pack

If you are running IIS7 you should try out the Admin Pack. There are quite a few additions that look like they would be very useful. Check it out here. If you are running Vista, make sure you have SP1 installed before installing the Admin Pack.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Temp Cleanup

My hard drive space was getting low so I did some searching online and found out what could be deleted. Windows apparently keeps temp files in a few places, the main one being %TEMP%. Another place that unnecessary files can hide is %WINDIR%\SoftwareDistribution\Download (this is where Windows stores files from Windows Update). Windows also stores Window Update Install files at %WINDIR%\$NtUninstall* & %WINDIR%\$MSI31Uninstall*. If you don't plan to roll back any updates, these directories are safe to remove.

Chances are in 6 months I'll run into the same issue with space and have to search for this info again. Instead, I wrote a WPF program that has a few buttons that deletes the files in these places. The first version was a "get the job" done project, but I decided to do another version that just expands on the first one (making it possible for other people to use it). If anyone is interested in the program, comment or send me an email.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Code Camp

There is a Code Camp in the Twin Cities on April 5th. Lots of great speakers and a good variety of topics. Link here. They already have 200 registrations, so if you haven't already registered you'll be on the waiting list. Hope to see you there.

Call of Duty 4 (PS3)

I picked up Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on PlayStation3 at the end of February. I started playing it when I got back to my apartment and it is the best shooter I have ever played. It is the main reason that there hasn't been any posts the last two weeks and the cause of my procrastination for everything else (outside of work).

The game looks good (I haven't seen it on my HDTV since that isn't at my apartment) and it is really addictive. The single player mode was engaging, but short. It can be beat in one night (I did it in about 7 hours). The battles and the enemies aren't easy, but they also weren't "throw your controller at the screen" difficult either.

Now for the key feature of the Call of Duty franchise, multiplayer. There is no shortage of people playing online and with the variety of maps and game types people will be playing for a long time. There is also going to be a Map Pack released relatively soon (4 new maps). You start at Level 1 and initially you can only play Team Deathmatch, but more modes become available as you progress. You gain experience for kills, assists, and a game bonus. You also gain experience points for completing certain challenges, like getting 150 kills with the AK-47 or killing 5 opponents by calling in air strikes. Some of the challenges you don't unlock until you reach a certain level. There is also a "Create a Class" option (unlocked at level 4, I think), this allows you to pick your primary weapon, secondary weapon, and perks, which you can save to use when playing games. The perks are separated into three sections and are very well balanced. There doesn't seem to be a dominant one, everyone likes different ones for different reasons. The better ones are unlocked as you level up.

I'm up to level 36 right now, if you want to play my PSN is frostedcakes.

My Rating: 10/10 - If you like shooters, BUY THIS GAME!

KeePass

I like to use complex passwords for all of my online accounts, but trying to remember all the passwords is almost impossible. To help, I have been using a tool called Password Safe for the last year or so. The only complaint I had with this program is that you had to install it on every computer that you used it on. There is a portable version, but it costs money. About a month ago, I heard about KeePass Password Safe. This program is portable (for free!) and has all of the other features of Password Safe. The portability by itself convinced me to move all my password storing from Password Safe to KeePass.