Adding Custom Search using IE 7 beta

Its like somebody read my mind... a few days back i was whining about not being able to search Google.co.uk... i like search Pages with UK and about not being able to add other Search providers... I just noticed on IE blog they have given a registry script by which you can add custom search options.
They have shown using msdn search as a part of IE... that is top thinking...
i am going to add that and Google UK search.
Here is post from IE Team

And here is my version of script based on their post.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\MSDN]
"DisplayName"="MSDN Library"
"URL"="http://search.microsoft.com/search/results.aspx?qu=%s&View=msdn"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\SearchScopes\Google.co.uk]
"DisplayName"="Google UK"
"URL"="http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8&q=%s"

Absolutely fantastic

First Look at Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1

After a bit of messing around... I downloaded IE 7... there was a surprise to start with it was only about 10 megs for a change... though I haven't worried about file sizes for a long long time.



Once downloaded, I created a System Restore point as I have in past, installed Alpha / Beta software and managed to completely shaft my systems... :) so I wasn't in a mood to reinstall all the shit all over again...

Installation of IE 7 beta was pretty fast... It first needed a genuine windows authentication check ... Oh well it's PC at work.. too bad if it's not licensed... here we go... no nasty surprises... it all went smoothly and IE got to backing up the files and installing itself.... after about 2 minutes I was prompted to finish and reboot the box...
It took a minute to set up personalised shortcuts etc and it was show time...

The main window is slightly modified... I am still getting used to the Menu options being a part of each tab rather than being at the top most level.
There's a search tab on the top right... and it provides the user with a simple way to query the few search engines





There's been a big fuss about toolbars from Yahoo and Google etc not working. As you can see they are working just fine... Don't know what the fuss is all about... Though I have to admit, I pretty much update my software now and again.. it's possible that the people who have had problems probably had old versions...



To open a new tab you click the empty square right most tab. if you are browsing the web and would like to open the link in a tab its pretty hand... right click and just select Open in New Tab



Closing in slightly inconvenient... you have to right click the tab and click Close. Or you can click the X at the right hand side of the Tab Control.

Off late there's been a lot of phishing scams and browsers have been come under fire for not having anti phishing checks etc. IE beta incorporates a Anti Phishing Filter. M$ maintains a black list of sorts and has the option for user submission.





As far as stability is concerned I think it's been okay so far... Though on a colleagues computer its been crashing every now and again... Keep your fingers crossed.

IE 7 is also RSS aware as you might already know... If a page contains RSS the icon lights up (changes to orange) and you can have a look at the RSS feed.



I will update the post when I have more to comment on it. Have fun

Ebuyer Hard Drive Hard Plastic IDE Caddy With 2 Fan + Lock

Ebuyer Hard Drive Hard Plastic IDE Caddy With 2 Fan + Lock

I would rate this as one of my best ever purchases. I am sick and tired of my machines going down and when they do... i have to go through the nightmare of swapping hard drives to get the data.. This has just made my life so bloody easy.

All i have to do is switch the pc off and pull the caddy out and shove it in the second pc... and off it goes... i have access to my files... couldn't be easier (well it can... but i would need hot swap functionality)... for 3 and half quid..... i can live without it for now.... 5 star ratings from me

The Code Project - Smart Alarm using OpenNetCF and C# for SmartPhone (Windows Mobile 2003) - .NET Compact Framework

The Code Project - Smart Alarm using OpenNetCF and C# for SmartPhone (Windows Mobile 2003) - .NET Compact Framework.

The folks are code project just moved my arcticles from un-edited user submissions to .net >> .net CF >> Applications section after editing it.

In 3 days and 960+ hits i think it its not too bad (though it could just be the title). Would love for more feedback though i only had one comment (OpenNetCF not OpenCFNet) and one rating 4 of 5.... C'mon people...

Invoke IT Limited

I just registered my first company using @UK PLC. I first looked up Invoke and Construct and Initialise etc but not much left. So thought what about Invoke IT Limited (IT or It)... after all the first business is going to be in computers..... having thought of that i checked it up and it was available.. so far thinking about it for a day i finally registered the Company Name and i also managed to book the uk domain name invokeit.co.uk

Keep your fingers crossed

The Code Project - Smart Alarm using OpenCFNet and C# for Smartphone (Windows Mobile 2003) - .NET Compact Framework

My second article on The CodeProject The Code Project - Smart Alarm using OpenNetCF and C# for Smartphone (Windows Mobile 2003) - .NET Compact Framework

Smartphone Screen Capture !!!!

I just finished my first Smartphone Application... guess what i wrote... well i wrote a smart alarm application, that allows me to create multiple alarms.
Anyways i wanted to post the code on CodeProject and needed screen shots... look up the next and Mikehall's Embedded WebLog : Smartphone Screen Capture ? contained a link to SmartSS. Downloaded it and installed the cab file in the phone and started the app. Taking screen shots couldn't be simpler. Once app is running in background and you want to capture the screen press * key and it captures the screen and copies the bmp in /Storage/My Documents folder

The Code Project - WHOIS Database query using C# winforms applications - .NET

My first code project article The Code Project - WHOIS Database query using C# winforms applications - .NET

Almost a Brit now!!! lol

Yesterday i officially became a permanent resident in the UK. Immediate
advantages:

• i can get married without requiring permission to get married from
  homeoffice
  
• i don't require a work permit any more
  
• i can start my own business

I am very glad that it happened as it not happening would have almost ruined
my plans of getting married in 2 months time. For 3 hours in all and about 500
quid, glad its over.

WHOIS Database query using C# winforms applications

Recently i was trying to trace ip address of web clients to valid some query requested from me. I came to a scenario where i had a bunch of ips and times but whether the ips belonged to the same isp or not.

so i started looking up the net for some webservices (well from work everything other than port 80 is blocked) and i found some... they either charged money or where not returning any useful information.

so finally after looking around for an hour or two i set to write it myself. looked up some website that did whois query.... saw one which took a querystring parameter of ip address as string.

anyways it did work.. i did not modify it to work with private ip address. the data passed for private ip address ranges ie 10.x.x.x and 192.x.x.x range etc are different and the code can be modified.. help yourself i you need to do something like that. Here's the code.

---

if(this.txtIPAddress.Text != null && this.txtIPAddress.Text != "")
{
 this.btnLookup.Enabled = false;

 string LookupURL = "http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=";
   
 NetworkCredential nc = new NetworkCredential("uname", "pass", "domain");
 

 WebProxy wp = new WebProxy("http://networkproxyserver:80");
 wp.Credentials = nc;

 HttpWebRequest hwr = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(LookupURL + txtIPAddress.Text);
 hwr.Proxy = wp;

 hwr.Credentials = nc;

 try
 {
  HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)hwr.GetResponse();

  StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());

  string respData = sr.ReadToEnd();
     
  int startPos = respData.IndexOf("netname:");
  int endPos = respData.IndexOf("country:");
    
  string filteredData = respData.Substring(startPos, endPos - startPos);

  string[] inforeceived = filteredData.Split('\n');
                    
  string netname = inforeceived[0];

  string desc = inforeceived[1];

  startPos = respData.IndexOf("[");
  endPos = respData.IndexOf("]");

  string location = respData.Substring(startPos, endPos - startPos).Replace("[","").Replace("]","");

  lblLocation.Text = location;
  lblNetworkName.Text = netname;
  lblDesc.Text = desc;
     
 }
 catch(WebException we)
 {
  MessageBox.Show(we.Message);
 }

 this.btnLookup.Enabled = true;
}

Need a brothel? Ask Google

Need a brothel? Ask Google or How about George Bush inspired version of World Map by Google Maps

Open up Google Maps UK
Lets say i want to look at something in Europe. Zoom out a bit and click the -> to move right. Hold on its a bit blank.
Keep clicking and suddenly you notice Alaska looming. What the heck.. Where did the rest of the world dissappear. I think Google's taken George Bush's idea of it.

It that wasn't bad enough. While you are on Google Maps. Click on Local Search. Type in Brothel in E1... lol surprise surprise. Oh well... all in a day's work.

Surprise Surprise

I have been very lazy off late. Hardly get time to put down a blog. Anyways time for some good news. I am getting married in a few months time :)

Visual SourceSafe VSS 6 - Reset Lost Admin Password

Microsoft: Visual SourceSafe - Loss Admin password

I have used this techinique a number of times. Use your fav hex editor... i prefer ultraedit and open up the um.dat in /data dir. Reset the bytes from offset 80

0:80 55 55 bc 7f 41 64 6d 69 6e 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0:90 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0:a0 00 00 00 00 90 6e 00 00 a8 01 00 00 00 00 00 00

This information is at YOUR OWN RISK

Save the file and close the editor. Open sourcesafe admin and open the database. VSS admin will behave as if the admin password was never set.

TalkTalk broadband sucks

I consider myself a power user who doesnt necessarily take backups too often.. i just download stuff over and over again :) there's limit to the hard drive space and the cds and dvds you can burn and have lying around...

i used Pipex for over 2 and half years and i moved from pipex to talktalk purely because it was cheaper.. it was offering me 512 k for about 19.99 and 1 meg for 25 quid provided i had talktalk phone billing.... well i moved on to them for a 1 meg account...

surprise surprise... within two months they write to me saying that my usage is causing network load / usability issues... and that they are disconnecting me from the 15th of march... the worst part is that i download hell lot less than what i used to download before....

Carphonewarehouse and their TalkTalk ISP sucks... they don't offer unlimited downloads as claimed in their advert....... I have decided to download a complete set of iso's worth gigs from msdn just to give them more grief..... it was nice doing business with you guys...

Learning to survive as a non geek

Learning to survive as a non geek.... i have just started a new blog...

Still alive and kicking

Ahoy people... hope life's treating you all good... yes i am finally recovering from excessive social indulgence on my part. yes yes i know once a geek always a geek.. but i am turning into a better geek...
got a girlie and a great social life... even work doesnt seem all that bad... hahaha... had a great time this christmas... was in poland stuffing all the delicious cakes... was back in the country for new years and well its been a great start to the new year...
it can only get better... keep your fingers crossed for me....
ciao ciao

Its almost winter: time for hibernation

well i have a very interesting work life... i really enjoy it when i am all stressed out... but as with all the good things... it just don't last forever... so i am done working really hard for just about a month and its time for hibernation... yeah i will i could stuff myself and then sleep for 6 months %>).. what i will end up doing is the usual... listening to music... surfing the web and this time around i will finish my site :)

hopefully will post often from now on.. ciao ciao

MSN Messenger 7 BETA

Earlier today was randomly going through blogs and i read Cornerit's review on it. Googled up MSN 7 and read stuff about it being leaked into public domain %>) oh well... found it at softpedia.

Its been pretty stable so far... been running for like 6 hours and so far so good... Found a few things like enhanced smiley packs and backgrounds etc... dont know if it was a part of MSN 6...

you have another feature called nudge.. its mentioned at places... if you have used yahoo messenger then you would have given your mates a buzz... sort of shakes the window with Buzz!!! in red bold... nudge is a similar thing except it doesnt look that annoying and the text is not in red :) enough said... find out the rest of the features yourself...

it's worth a look... if its unstable... just use Add/Remove programs to remove it and download the current 6.2 version of msn.com

Burning DVDs off DVB Recording

I have gigs and gigs worth of recordings things like music videos and Everybody Loves Raymond (ELR) and Scrubs. I sort of stacked them up thinking its worth it till they come out with DVDs of ELR and Scrubs.. the problem is that i need to keep buying hard drives each episode is 650 megs plus... so finally decided to burn them into proper DVDs.. used TmpgEnc's Dvd Author

This is the normal process
Complete recording has adverts etc which have to be removed plus there's a mild audio/video sync which needs to be corrected. This is a great tool PVAStrumento to seperate the audio & video based on parameters like change in audio / video formats... which is great cause Channel 4 broadcasts the adverts at 16:9 but the shows ELR & Scrubs are broadcast at 4:3.. once you get the seperate split audio / video files use bbmpeg to merge the required audio / video streams. finally join the mpeg streams using tmpg's mpeg tools.

That what it takes go get one episode cleaned up... its great quality.. and since there are no plans for dvd release just yet, might as well burn it up... anyways... spend a chunk of this weekend doing just that and guess what... cleaned up 25 odd gigs here and there... not too bad huh ? still plenty more to go...

SpeedDater - UK and London Speed Dating

Having recently decided that i was done being a geek... a friend of mine suggested i give speed dating a try... well i dont like 3 mins... the next one... approach... so instead went for the Lock & Key Party... it was such a good laugh.... more on it here... SpeedDater - UK and London Speed Dating, Online Dating speeddating