Ross Hawkins - February 2009 Entries

February 2009 Entries

TiddlyWiki.NET

I've talked about Jeremy Ruston's excellent TiddlyWiki before. I've wanted to create a server based implementation for a long time but never managed to get around to it. Well, this weekend I did, and after putting it off for some time it turned out to be incredibly easy (thanks to jQuery). It's based on the 2.4.3 version of TiddlyWiki (which is the latest version at time of writing), supports most plugins and themes, and in the future will support both xml/text and SQL Server backends. The SQL Server backend will also have optional (or maybe non-optional) encryption. Requirements...

posted @ Monday, February 16, 2009 1:02 AM | Feedback (3)

FileZilla updates

I've used FileZilla for quite a while now, but recently some of it's little quirks made me think about taking some time to find a replacement ftp program. Before I did I took the time to grab the latest version to see if anything had changed in the last couple of months – and what do you know? It has. The Site Manager was the main source of frustration, and they fixed both of my main annoyances with it. Firstly, that it would always start up the same size (which was tiny) regardless of whether it had previously been...

posted @ Friday, February 13, 2009 8:58 PM | Feedback (0)

jQuery Wildcard Selector Syntax

An application I'm working on at the moment had the need for me to select a group of elements (in this case they're divs) which all contained a common string in their id (in my case, the prefix for the div's id was 'content', so 'contentOne', 'contentTwo', etc). I found a lot of people saying they way to go was to use \\S* as shown in sample One below, however I couldn't get it to work no matter how many variations I tried. I found a few other people who'd had the same problem as me – reassuring, but...

posted @ Thursday, February 12, 2009 1:38 PM | Feedback (1)

wwwsqldesigner

WWW SQL Designer is a lightweight tool allowing you to draw and create database schemas in a browser (JavaScript required). It's very impressive for a browser based app, and although it doesn't specifically support MS SQL Server out of the box it can be extended to support additional database types, so it's not out of the question for the future. If you're after a lightweight schema design tool for use with MySQL then check it out, and if you're a MS SQL user then it's still well worth the 75k download just to take a look.

posted @ Saturday, February 07, 2009 6:41 PM | Feedback (1)

ASP.NET Text Character Counter – the Master page version

Back in December 2006 I wrote an article titled adding a quick character counter to a textbox in ASP.NET. Over 2 years later, and the article still gets a lot of views as well as a fair few comments – it seems there are a few people out there who needed character counters on their textboxes! After getting a couple of recent comments from people who couldn't get it to work in a Master Page I thought I'd post a quick update to the article and include a couple of methods which work with Master Pages. (Note:...

posted @ Saturday, February 07, 2009 5:53 PM | Feedback (9)

Toggle Bluetooth in Windows Vista

Windows Mobility center seems to be one of the things they added in Vista which could actually be pretty useful. Unfortunately out of the box it doesn't quite cover all of the things you might want to do with it – in my case, I wanted to toggle Bluetooth on my Macbook to save battery life. Fortunately other people wanted to do the same thing: Link: Bluetooth toggle - the second non-OEM Windows Mobility Center tile Link: Extending the Windows Mobility Center Tile Tags: Windows

posted @ Thursday, February 05, 2009 7:55 PM | Feedback (0)

It's all fun and games until the power goes out

Also known as a cheap way of speeding up Visual Studio's IO speed. Tags: Visual Studio

posted @ Thursday, February 05, 2009 7:42 PM | Feedback (0)

Storing and managing sensitive information

I've got a bit of a need to store some sensitive data, and have it available wherever I am and whatever I'm doing. What I'm after is basically a slightly enhanced wiki – my full list of requirements reads: Secure Web accessible Ability to view offline when required Syncs locally across multiple computers (PC and Mac) Data must be exportable if required Doesn't have to be free. Ability to store whatever –...

posted @ Monday, February 02, 2009 11:05 PM | Feedback (3)

About me

My name is Ross Hawkins and I'm a Developer, Consultant and Writer based in Auckland, New Zealand (pictured below!). My current work revolves around ASP.NET, C#, jQuery, Ajax, SQL Server, and a mix of other Microsoft development technologies.

I also have about 14 years of experience with IBM Lotus Notes/Domino and associated technologies. While Notes/Domino is no longer my primary focus I still like to dabble and keep my skills up to date.

I own and run 2 businesses - Hawkins Consulting Services, and Ignition Development.

Bethells Beach, located in sunny West Auckland, New Zealand