IT Brigade Inc.

Had to disable WhoIs since port 43 is blocked on the website hosted server. (Queries to WhoIs servers are normally done on Port 43).

Networking Lookups

© 2012 IT Brigade Inc.

Note: these Networking Services are  implemented in a C# User Control. The services are done via AJAX updates. Please do not misuse these services.

By John Dorsey IT Brigade Inc.

ASP.NET, General User Control, ASP.NET, BlogEngine.NET, AJAX, Networking

Here’s a plug for Virtual CloneDrive:

As a Microsoft MSDN subscriber I downloaded a program from Microsoft in the .iso (disk image) format.  Normally, you burn this to a DVD and then install the program from the DVD.  Unfortunately, Microsoft does not seem to provide a way to deal with the .iso files directly.  I did some reading on the Internet and came across Virtual CloneDrive.  Freeware and available from download.com.  Quick installation.  Start program and it runs as a daemon in the background.  Click on the .iso file that you downloaded and Right Mouse, select “Mount”.  Virtual CloneDrive starts the Setup executable.  VERY EASY!

Note: I have no association with the company that created Virtual CloneDrive, just had a good user experience with it.

John Dorsey

IT Brigade Inc.

www.itbrigadeinc.com

jdorsey@itbrigadeinc.com

General Microsoft, MAP Design and Development, ASP.NET, Image

Purchased a HTC Inspire 4G. 

Android 2.2.1 2.3.3 (8/24/2011 - just updated to Software Build 2.47.502.7).

General Android, Smartphone

First a plug for WinMerge!

I use WinMerge for comparing text files all the time.  WinMerge also lets you merge the two files you are comparing.  It is an excellent tool.

You can get WinMerge for free from www.winmerge.org!

Comparing Excel Files

WinMerge can not directly compare (DIFF) Excel Files since they are in binary format.   (WinMerge can not compare any type of binary files).

There are some plugins for WinMerge which claim to do this, but have never gotten them to work.

Simple approach is to save a copy of each Excel file as a .csv file (Comma-Separated Value).  Note: This only compares the contents of the cells, not formulas, etc.

Then compare the two .csv files normally using WinMerge.

Also Comparing Word Files

Never really liked the comparison features available in Word.  WinMerge to the rescue!

Save off both versions as text documents.

Then compare the two .txt files normally using WinMerge.

John Dorsey
IT Brigade Inc. 
www.itbrigadeinc.com

General, Excel WinMerge, Excel

Just installed Flash Player 10.3 on Windows 7 64-bit with Internet Explorer 9 (9.0.8112.16421).  SWF displays in upper left corner of screen instead of the proper location.  First time this has happened with Flash Player. Looks like Adobe has a major issue with this release!

Found solution!

Steps:

1. In IE9 menu select Tools … Internet Options … Advanced.

2. Check "Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering".

3. Close all instances of Internet Explorer.

Adobe should address this issue!

5/24/2011: Update – Problem appears to be specific to IE9.  Adobe is addressing this issue and releasing an updated Flash Player version shortly.

John Dorsey
IT Brigade Inc.
www.itbrigadeinc.com

General Adobe, as3, Flash CS4

Constantly irritated with 2010 Excel for the following reason:

When opening a new document, the document gets loaded in the same application as your open Excel documents.  You can not look at the two documents at the same time.

I believe this is due to Excel still being a MDI-based program.  Most of the other Office applications have been changed to SDI.  For example Microsoft Word 2010 opens a new document in another application. 

Only solution: Open another Excel application from the start menu and then open the new document from that application. 

Downside to this solution: Formulas can not be copied between Excel document if they are not in the same application.

Very annoying!

General, Excel Excel, Access, Microsoft

WinMerge.exe: 2.12.4.0 (get WinMerge at http://www.winmerge.org/)

WinMerge is a great program, but here is a trick fro comparing subfolders…

Normally Winmerge is set up to compare a folder at a time.  Comparing a project in multiple subfolders is time consuming since you have to drill down into each subfolder to see file differences.

The option in Winmerge to automatically search the subfolders is difficult to find:

Edit Menu...Options Menu Item...Shell Integration Category... Click on Explorer “Add to context menu”.  Under Explorer select “Include subfolders by default”.

Also make sure that you have View Menu…Expand All Subfolders selected.

Close the program and reopen and you will see the subfolder comparison.

To go back to normal comparisons, just remove the check by “Include subfolders by default” and then restart the program.

John Dorsey
IT Brigade Inc.
www.itbrigadeinc.com

General WinMerge

This SWF was made using the Box2DFlashAS3 2D Physics Engine in a Flash CS4 project.

Photoshop was used to create the 3D pool balls which spell out "IT Brigade Inc". 

Box2DFlashAS3 was very easy to use and provides very realistic animations.

Here's a link to Box2DFlashAS3...

Note: The Box2D Physics Engine was originally done in C++ and has been converted to Flash and also is used extensively for iPhone games.

John Dorsey
IT Brigade Inc.
jdorsey@itbrigadeinc.com

General Flash CS4, Adobe, as3, Photoshop, Box2DFlashAS3