The Demanding Couch

Send To

2008-05-06T10:28:00.011-06:00

The Send To function in Windows Vista and Windows XP (and before that even) is pretty handy. The basic idea is that you can right-click on some file, navigate to the Send To list, and open the file in some program that's on the list. Or, you can use it to send the file to another folder on your disk - or even some folder on your network.

In my example, I'm sending a text file to my favorite text editor; Notepad++.

Anyway, some programs add themselves to the Send To list when you install them - but in general, it's up to you to add your own stuff to the Send To list.

Unfortunately, Windows doesn't really provide a super handy way to add stuff to the Send To list. Basically the Send To list is derived from shortcuts held in the following folder (on Windows Vista):

C:\Users\UserLoginName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\

Of course, substitute your user name (the one you logged into Windows with) for the UserLoginName portion of the path.

Once you're in the folder, you can add shortcuts to programs, or shortcuts to folders into the list. No reboot is required. Then, the next time you want a quick way to open a file with a program, right-click and head to your handy new shortcut on the magical Send To list!

No to the Flashy

2008-04-26T08:59:00.009-06:00

Here's an example of a program that among other things, is attempting to inform you of what it's doing via some status labels on its main screen. It's got a Start time - OK, fair enough. It's got a Time elapsed status - again, useful info. But where it starts losing me is the Objects scanned, and especially the current Object its scanning.

It's not obvious from the picture but as this program is doing its thing, it literally flashes the number of objects its scanned, and the current object its scanning so fast that its impossible to read them as they go by. I can't imagine a more useless feature for an end user.

What's the point in wasting precious time and energy showing you something that doesn't really mean anything? And when I say wasting energy, I mean literally. It takes extra CPU cycles and consumes extra power to send something to the user interface - especially when it has to refresh the view at such a fast rate. It may not seem like a lot, but imagine that Windows Defender is being run on millions of computers world wide. And I'm not just picking on poor Windows Defender. Many other programs have this poor design choice in the Windows, Mac, and Linux worlds.

So, designers of software, if it makes you feel better to see what your program is doing behind the scenes in debug mode, feel free. But when you release the program to the world at large, hide that feature.

Less is more.

-Demanding

GROB

2008-04-23T19:12:00.029-06:00

Are you a Windows Vista user getting frustrated because you've unchecked the Remember each folder's view settings check box in the Windows Explorer Folder Options dialog box and Vista doesn't seem to honor that? That is, when you use Windows Explorer, your views keep getting screwed up?

This is happening because you have multiple file types on your computer and Vista is trying to do you a favor by giving you a folder view (that it thinks) most fits the file types in that folder. As an example, notice that the columns and column types in the following picture reflect that most of the files in the folder are mp3 files.

This would all be all fine and good, but Vista hangs on to those settings in what it calls the Bag (which is really just a couple of registry hives).

Specifically, these registry entries:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU

After a while, just from browsing your computer with Windows Explorer, too much baggage is saved, and you start getting unpredictable and funky views - as in the example below (I never asked Windows Explorer to show me large icons).

If you're motivated, and know your way around the Windows Registry Editor, then you can simply go in and delete the offending entries and your views will be restored (at least for a while). If you're paranoid, you should back up the two hives before deleting (they get pretty big).

Unfortunately, as soon as you start browsing with Windows Explorer again, you start collecting more baggage so you have to keep getting into the registry to delete those settings.

Because I'm lazy, and can't remember those registry key paths to save my life, I developed a little C# application called Gettin' Rid of Baggage, or GROB for short.

It's a very tiny assembly that is compiled against the 3.5 .NET framework (so you have to have Windows Vista to use it - of course, you don't have this problem in Windows XP so it would be pointless to run it on XP anyway).

Its job is to delete those entries for you, tell you it did its thing, and disappear. Be forewarned though, it doesn't back up the entries, it just deletes, so if you're not comfy with that, don't use GROB.

Before you download, know that GROB is free to use, has no licensing requirements, and is free to distribute. But, it comes with no warranty (implied or otherwise) or technical support. Use it at your own risk.

Download GROB

If you're a C# programmer and want to check out the source:

Download the Source Code for GROB

Alright then, happy gettin' rid of baggage!

-Demanding

Want a GUID From SQL Server?

2008-04-22T08:49:00.002-06:00

Use this command

NEWID()

Here's a sample. Notice the length of the variable required to hold your GUID.

declare @MyNewGUID varchar(255)

set @MyNewGUID = NEWID()

print @MyNewGUID

MyMusicShares

2008-04-21T19:08:00.005-06:00

I created a spiffy service called MyMusicShares that I thought for sure would just go wild and bring my server to its knees with the crushing burden of streaming traffic. Instead, a few people noticed it and then it flat lined.

Basically MyMusicShares lets you upload a DRM free mp3 file (up to 5MBs) and send a link to your file to up to three recipients - all with relative ease.

After you upload the file, your recipients get an email with a link to listen to the song. Pretty simple eh?

Anyway, I thought I would plug it a bit since it's not getting any attention and I think it's cool enough that it should get some attention.

So, musicians, people with stuff to say, etc., give MyMusicShares a whirl. It's fun, easy, and best of all FREE!!!

The Reasons for my Defection

2008-04-15T19:07:00.002-06:00

Don't get me wrong. I think WordPress.com is GREAT and the work that is being done by the WordPress.com community is admirable and benefit to humanity in general! But, unfortunately, I've defected and gone to Blogger - principally because Blogger lets you embed Google AdSense ads, and lets you run JavaScript in the side bar - that's it. Other than that, I think Blogger is an inferior Blogging tool. There's no statistics on Blogger (although I am using Google Analytics - but that's a different story), and the template choice is pretty limited (granted you can customize colors, and such, to a much greater extent than WordPress).

WordPress.com is right to be paranoid. After all, they can't waste their precious time and resources fighting threats that arise from letting naive or malicious users embed JavaScript in their blogs - unlike Google which has billions of dollars and probably has staff that does nothing but fight security threats on Blogger. So, I can't fault them for that, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

And yes, I know I can download the WordPress code, host is somewhere, and tweak it to my little heart's content. But I've been there and done that, and I simply don't want to have to maintain the code and perform upgrades. That's the main reason I went to WordPress.com in the first place - they're doing all that kind of work for me.

So, on to Blogger I go. Goodbye WordPress, it's been fun...

MyLinkShares Firefox Add-On

2008-04-15T10:53:00.008-06:00

I've created my very first Firefox Add-on. It's a handy little button you can embed on your Firefox toolbar that lets you send links to websites to friends and family.

Read all about it here.

And, if you like it, please review it so I can get it out of the Mozilla.com sandbox. It's getting kind of lonely in there.