kdmurray.blog

The crossroads of life and tech

Monthly Archives: April 2009

Hide the Undock Button in Windows XP in Five Steps

If you have a Windows XP notebook, and love to use the Run menu item, chances are you’ve occasionally hit “E” instead of  “R” when you bring up your start menu.  The result? Windows ejects the PC from it’s dock and forces you to re-dock it before you can carry on with your work.  It’s only about a 90-second process, but it’s annoying as hell and will completely take you ‘out of the zone’ when you’re in the middle of your project.

  1. Open the registry editor (Start -> Run -> regedit)
  2. Open one of the applicable keys:
    • Current User: [HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer]
    • All Users: [HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer]
  3. Right-click the Explorer folder -> New -> DWORD Value and call it NoStartMenuEjectPC (case-sensitive!)
  4. Right-click NoStartMenuEjectPC -> Modify
  5. Choose one of the following values to set the behaviour you want:
    • type 1 to hide the undock button
    • type 0 to show the undock button

Now you can safely use your keyboard shortcuts without worrying about accidentally undocking your computer.

Flipping Open the Box on the Blackberry 8230

001-pink-flipI thought I’d start off my reviews by walking through the unboxing of the Flip so that you can all follow along with me as I begin my journey exploring this new handset.

I’ve made a concerted effort to avoid display stands that have the new flip on them so that I can channel all my first impressions to the blog. (It’s been tough for a gadget geek to avoid playing with the new toy…)

001-the-kitAt first blush the package looks pretty much like every other PCS phone I’ve ever opened. Nice white box with TELUS’ signature future friendly brand.  Looking over the gear that ships in the box:

  • Wall charger
  • USB charging cable
  • Stereo headset
  • Obligatory ‘getting started’ manual
  • Black (thank heaven) BlackBerry Pearl Flip

001-comparing-screensThe unit itself is very light (likely due to it’s 90% plastic shell) and the screen is very clear and bright — much moreso than my Curve, and even my iPod Touch.  This was a bit surprising considering the size of the device.  It sounds like, from what I’ve been told, the previous generation BB Pearl also had a very clear screen.

001-comparing-usbThe only downside I can see from the initial design is that RIM has not to use the widely available mini-USB plugs for the charging/sync cable that plugs into the phone, and have used a much less common micro-USB.  This means that if I forget the charger somewhere, the cable for my BB Curve (or my camera, USB hub, card reader etc.) won’t work with the Flip.  This is the only blemish on an otherwise stellar first day.

I’m looking forward to exploring the device, the SureType text-entry system and other bits and pieces over the next few weeks.  I’ve already got email and instant messaging set up.  Maybe I’ll even use it as a phone one of these days.

Transparency statement: This post is part of a series of blog posts that I’m doing internally for work, being re-published on my main blog. The handset is on-loan to me for a three week period, and I’m not being compensated for writing the reviews.

ASP.NET MVC Tutorials

A couple of weeks ago at Mix ’09 the ASP.NET MVC team announced the RTW (release-to-web) version of the MVC framework. I’ve been looking at the framework and playing with pieces of it for a few months now, but due to school & work commitments haven’t really had a chance to give it a good run through, or build anything meaningful with it.

This past week I’ve gone back to the ASP.NET website and discovered that there is now a long list of tutorials which have been put in an order to help make the major features of the MVC framework more learnable, particularly for those of us who haven’t had that MVC-heavy comp-sci education.  The tutorials come in either written or video form (there is some overlap) and do provide some good step-by-step instructions for exploring the new methodology.

Expect me to get into more detail about the ins-and-outs of the MVC framework in upcoming editions of the new podcast (more details soon, I promise!!)

You can, of course, download and use the MVC framework with Visual Studio 2009 without the tutorials, but I would highly recommend giving the first few a once-over.  Have a look at the tutorial site and see what you think.