Sunday, September 30, 2007

4382.aspx

SocketProxy 1.5

I have just released SocketProxy version 1.5 in the download section. The server stays the same but I have made changes to the Socket Proxy client configuration:



  • Automatic proxy configuration by client IP. Changes to the client IP is detected live so there is no need to restart the client .

  • New parameters for tuning performance.

  • Moved configuration from app.config to a .xml file in the same directory as the client. This makes the configuration easier to read and you can make changes on the fly as the file is parsed on each incoming connection.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

4378.aspx

poGmail: feeding of Gmail

It took me forever to give birth to my February 2006 but soon realized that it would be a huge job as .NET CF is missing a lot of the features used by the Gmail API. Fixing some of the bugs in the API and using the Mono  source as a reference, I first got a version working on the PPC a couple a weeks ago.


Or at least I thought it did. It works perfectly on the PC but it frequently fails with a https error on the devices I have tried (iPaq 4150 and iPaq rw6815):



 _HResult -2146233079 int
 InnerException {"Procedura di convalida con il certificato remoto non riuscita."} System.Exception {System.Net.WebException}
 Message "Procedura di convalida con il certificato remoto non riuscita." string
 StackTrace "in System.Net.SslConnectionState.PerformClientHandShake()\r\nin System.Net.Connection.connect()…


A program that only works when the sun is shining is not worth releasing so I put it on the shelf until Michele reminded me of the RSS feature in gmail.


Eureka! Why suffer the risks of the Gmail API web scraping when I can use an official RSS feed that does everything for me?


I threw away the old code and implemented the first release of poGmail this weekend. It is simple and small (64kb) and implements the features I need:



  • Zero installation; just run the .exe. It creates a XML configuration file in the same directory as the .exe the first time you run it. Copy them both on a USB key to use it from anywhere :-)

  • Hold the mouse cursor over the notification window to pause the notifications

  • Click the subject in the notification window to read the mail

  • Automatic selection of proxy based on the current IP. Use a regular expression like 192.168.* if you are using DHCP.

  • It works with Google hosted domains

It is free so use it if you like it and let me know if you have any suggested improvements or find any bugs.


Almost all the code is shared between the Pocket PC and PC projects so the only hurdle left is integrating a .NET CF 2.0 project on the Today Screen on Windows Mobile. This article by Microsoft has a complete wrapper system based on Embedded VC 4.0 but it is fairly complex so I think I will code a lighter version.


Thanks cuzZle for giving poGmail a try and finding the first bugs!

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poGmail: a free Gmail notifier for PC and Pocket PC that supports multiple gmail accounts

The Google Gmail Notifier only supports one gmail account. This is a problem for me as I have different gmail accounts for my blogs and domains.


So, I implemented a basic Gmail notifier that has the features I need:



  • Zero installation; just run the .exe. It creates a XML configuration file in the same directory as the .exe the first time you run it.
  • Hold the mouse cursor over the notification window to pause the notifications
  • Click the subject in the notification window to read the mail
  • Automatic selection of proxy based on your current IP. You can specify your full client IP in the proxy configuration window or use a regular expression to configure a partial IP if you use DHCP for example. Example 192.168.*
  • It works with Google hosted domains

Let me know if you find any bugs or have any suggested improvements.


You can download poGmail here. It requires .NET 2.0


Version history:



  • 1.0.2.3: Fixed a problem when adding new accounts
  • 1.0.2.2: Fixed a problem when editing an existing proxy
  • 1.0.0.5: Aligned config file with Pocket PC version. Minor bug fixes.
  • 1.0.0.2: Fixed crash if “Display interval” was set to 0. Thanks Matteo.
  • 1.0.0.1: Fixed a problem where the client would crash if the “Check interval” was set to 0. Thanks Greg.

= Pocket PC version =


The Gmail client uses the same configuration file as the PC version so you can copy it from the PC to the Pocket PC (\program files\poGmail) if you do not want to re-enter all the data on the pocket pc.


Download the Pocket PC files and:



  • Copy all files in the .zip to a directory of your choice on the Windows Mobile. The application works fine from a memory card, but the Today screen plugin only works if installed on the device.
  • Run poGmail.exe and open the configuration dialog

    • Select the days you want poGmail to automatically check for new mail

Version history:



  • 1.0.0.6: Monday to Friday is set as the default schedule for checking mails. The Today Screen plugin shows the mail status via the icon (white=ok, red=error)
  • 1.0.0.5: The account configuration form did not work correctly. Thanks Chris.

Monday, September 17, 2007

4367.aspx

Fix Windows Live Mail beta 0x8DE00002 error

I have used Windows Live Mail Desktop beta for almost one year without any serious problems. Synchronizing with Hotmail stopped working recently and gave me this error:



Unable to poll for new messages on your HTTP server. There is an error synchronizing your mail account. Please verify your account has been configured correctly by first accessing your mail on the web. Server: 'http://mail.services.live.com/DeltaSync_v1.0.0/sync.aspx', Protocol: HTTPMail, Server Response: 'Client is requesting a deprecated version of the service. User should upgrade to the newest version of the client', Port: 80, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 4109, Error Number: 0x8DE00002


The problem was, for once, pretty clear from the error message: Client is requesting a deprecated version of the service. User should upgrade to the newest version of the client I tried many times but Windows Update did not find a new version.


It turns out it is a "feature" unless your regional settings is set to EN-US. You can try to modify your settings or download the latest client (V12.0.1184) here which fixes the problem


Warning: Windows Live Mail will move your mail to your documents folder even if you, like me, have it stored somewhere else. It took well over half an hour to start the first time as it imported all my old mails but after that it works pretty fast.


Warning 2: This version has problems with some POP3 mail providers. It works OK with the providers I use but YMMV.

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Free UGISS event 3/10: Road to Katmai - SQL Server 2008

UGISS, the Italian SQL Server Users Group, is organizing a free event with Microsoft 3/10 Road to Katmai - SQL Server 2008 [Italian] in Milano. I have attended several of the other UGISS events and I highly recommend them.


Morning Agenda:



  • SQL Server 2008 Public CTP - Data Platform Overview (Speaker: Davide Mauri)

  • Database & Time-Dependent Data - Parte 2 (Speaker: Gianluca Hotz)

Afternoon DBA Track:



  • SQL Server 2008 Public CTP - Novità per gli amministratori (Speaker: Gianluca Hotz)

  • Monitoring & Testing Tools (Speaker: Davide Mauri)

  • TBD

Afternoon Developer Track:



  • SQL Server 2008 Public CTP - Novità per gli sviluppatori (Speaker: Andrea Benedetti)

  • Advanced SQLCLR: ricerca di testi simili (Speaker: Marcello Poletti)

  • SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition: Advanced Concepts (Speaker: Marco Frontini)