Microlau's Blog

More about installing Zune on Windows Server 2008

Following on my previous post, I realised that for certain machines, simply running the Zune-*.msi will not install properly. To overcome the problem, start command prompt as an administrator, and manually run 'msiexec /i Zune-*.msi'

* - Replace with the version that you require (depends on whether your machine is x86 or x64)

VSTS Development and Database Edition merges

It's great news for those folks who're thinking of using VSTS to manage their IT projects from end to end - VSTS Development and Database Edition merges - Read more here.

Isolating slowness on my HP-Compaq 6510b

Recently, I had a spout of 'slowness' and battery problems with my HP-Compaq 6510B, which I rammed up to 4GB RAM and was running on W2K8 x64 Enterprise w/Hyper V. It was running fine for the first 6 months, until I noticed that my battery failes to retain charge and it took me an exceptionally long time to boot up (e.g. 20-40 mins to show login screen). Here's the series of 'repair' before I can safely declare that I have my heavy-but-better-performing laptop back in good condition:

1. 1-1 exchange of RAM (since I upgrade myself). I suspect it could be due to ram problem as the laptop took a long time to pass the RAM test and on initial test of swapping the original 2GB RAM module back, my laptop was ok. But not for long.
2. Discovered battery problem + slowness. HP helpdesk diagnose it could be due to (a) notebook heat dissipation problem or (b) faulty motherboard. In order to assist the HP engineers to load their diagnostic tools, I formatted my laptop and brought it back to life in Vista x86. HP took the initiative of swapping (b) for me and I reinstalled W2K8. It was ok, but again, not for long.
3. This time, HP engineer suggested that it could be a hdd problem. Fine - I did a harddisk sanitisation and did a 1-1 exchange for a new hard-disk with the same capacity and speed. Reinstalled W2K8 again. As suspected, the problem still persists.
4. Finally, my last service call to HP. They suspected that my CPU is faulty and wanted to do a CPU swap for me. On the day of repair, the HP engineer discovered that it could be due to a component in the power supply which caused the machine to 'crawl'... So, I changed a new adapter and I think it saved my day (and my laptop)

For those who're using a HP-Compaq 6510b, if you face the same problem, it could be due to your power supply (and not your Vista / Win2K8)..

Installing Zune 3.0 on Windows Server 2008 (x64)

If you're like me, and would like to run Zune 3.0 on your Windows Server 2008 (x64), here's the workaround - Thanks to Kit Kai for providing the link.

Resources for Oct 2008 UG Event

For those who're trying to copy down Apurva's blog - Here's the link. Here's some other resources which he mentioned:

- Deep Zoom Composer

- Deep Zoom Tag Browser

Oct 2008 UG Meeting

Our next UG Meeting is held on 2nd October 2008, Level 22 CF12, NTUC Building from 1830 hrs – 2130 hrs. Food will be served before the session.

Deep Zoom – A Walkthrough
Apurva Deepak Lawale
1925 – 2025 hrs

Apurva will be showing a few walkthrough about Deep Zoom, and how can you build compelling applications using Deep Zoom.

To register for the event, send me an email at microlau_at_sgdotnet_dot_org.

Note that there’s currently no email confirmation for the event.

Encoding content for Zune player

Recently, I managed to get my hands on a black 80GB Zune player (Thanks to Chewy) and I was trying to pump all my webcasts over to the small screen so that I can watch webcasts (and podcasts) on the move... I was rather disappointed that the Zune software doesn't handle this (I'm a video dummy) by itself and I still have to rely on encoders. I picked on the free tool, Windows Media Encoder 9, and here's the settings to get your video files into Zune nicely (Extracted from http://www.zune.net/en-us/support/usersguide/podcasts/create.htm)

Using Windows Media Encoder to Encode Video Content
You can use Windows Media Encoder 9 Series to encode video to a WMV file that is suitable for the Zune device. To download the free encoder, go to the Microsoft Download Center.

The following instructions describe how to use Windows Media Encoder to encode content up to the maximum quality for the Zune device. Content can be from either a live source (for example, a video camera) or an existing video file.

To encode content for the Zune device using Windows Media Encoder

1. Click the Start menu, and select Windows Media > Windows Media Encoder .
2. In the New Session dialog box, click the Wizard tab, and then double-click Custom Session .
3. In Windows Media Encoder, on the Sources tab, under Source from, do one of the following:
   • Select Devices if your content is on a device such as a video camera or a capture card.
   • Select File if content is in digital format accessible from your compute, and then locate the file you want to convert.
     
     IMPORTANT: If your file requires conversion to a format compatible with Zune, do not select Script: In File. For a list of compatible video formats, see Zune Formats and Codecs.
4. On the Output tab, check the Archive to file checkbox, and then choose a location and file name.
5. On the Compression tab, select the following encoding settings:
   
   
   

   Setting	Value
   Destination	File download (computer playback)
   Video	DVD quality video (1 Mbps VBR) By choosing VBR, the encoder will perform two-pass encoding, which maximizes the overall quality of the video although it takes roughly double the time to encode. To perform one-pass encoding, choose DVD quality video (1 Mbps CBR)
   Audio	CD quality audio (VBR)

   
   
   
6. Click Edit.
7. In the Custom Encoding Settings dialog box, click 1073 Kbps, and select the following encoding settings:
   
   
   

   Setting	Value
   Audio Format	128 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo CBR
   Video Size	320x240
   Video bit rate	500K

   
   
8. Click OK to close the Custom Encoding Settings dialog box.
   
9. Click Apply.
   
   Note
   You can choose to configure additional parameters on the remaining tabs as well.
   
10. On the toolbar menu, click Start Encoding.

There's a interesting tweat by another Zune-ster (http://blogs.msdn.com/ben/archive/2006/11/29/video-encoding-for-the-zune.aspx), but I've yet to test it out. For now, I'm still relying on the nice ui before I write a program to automatically encode files for my Zune player.

Sept 2008 UG Meeting

New NCS-SCS ‘a force’ in Singapore

Source: www.zdnetasia.com 25^th August 2008

Custom Properties for RDL

In SSRS, each report has a set of default properties. Little known is the capability to introduce your own properties, which can be used to help you classify or categorise reports especially if it's integrated with your LOB applications.

It's actually quite simple - Make use of the SOAP API - Microsoft.SqlServer.ReportingServices.ReportService2005.SetProperties

I've extend on the sample SSRS Application Sample - RSExplorer to demonstrate how you can set the properties, which can be retrieved easily.

Downloads available for SGDOTNET Aug UG Meeting for Silverlight

Here's the link - Courtesy of Apurva.

Changing of machine name affects Sql Server

If you ever need to change your machine name (either due to joining a new domain etc), you'll realise that your Sql Server instance doesn't work properly after the server reboots. The simple workaround is to run the following commands in your Query Analyzer

sp_dropserver 'old_name'
sp_addserver 'new_name', 'local', 'duplicate_ok'

If you have a SSRS instance which is also affected, simply re-run your Reporting Services configuration and

1) setup the Database connection again
2) re-create the encryption key

This works for Sql Server 2005.

OneNote Mobile

For those of you who're using a Windows Mobile, have OneNote 2007 installed and use ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center, you can get OneNote capabilities on your PDA. Although it's a stripped down version for note taking, what's important to be is the ability to be able to synchronise Notes taken on my laptop to my pda (and vice versa).

Upgrading Community Server 2.0 to 2008

Thanks to Telligent, I was able to get a license of Community Server 2008 for our user group. Over the weekend, I tried to upgrade our installation and here's a detailed walkthrough of the migration process, as it's not apparent (by googling), the exact steps to bring an installation from 2.X up to 2008.

To prepare for the upgrade, make sure that you have downloaded

1. Community Server 2007.1 Upgrade
2. Community Server 2008 Upgrade

Here's the breakdown of the steps taken for migration:

1. Backup Community Server database and Community Server 2.X application folder (check your IIS to find out where is your CS)
2. To prepare for migration to Community Server 2007.1, unzip the CS 2007.1 upgrade file and copy ALL the files from the web folder to the location which you intend to host your community server.
3. Copy files from your CS 2.X folder over the the folder which you've copied all the files in Step 2
   • Subfolders inside blogs (don't copy the files and the folders files and sample_weblog)
   • All files and folders inside blogs\files
   • All files and folders inside files\storage
   • All files and folders inside forums\storage
   • Subfolders inside photos (don't copy the files and the folders sample). Make sure that the subfolders photos\cache and photos\storage are copied over
   • All files inside Utility\RankIcons
   • All files inside Utility\RoleIcons
4. Execute the SQL script cs_2.x_to_3.0_upgrade.sql on your Community Server database
5. Configure your IIS to point to the location specified in Step 2, making sure that the account has modify access to the folders. Ensure that the account has full access to the following folders:
   • blogs\Files
   • files\Storage
   • forums\Storage
   • photos\Cache
   • photos\Storage
   • utility\RankIcons
   • utility\RoleIcons
6. Make sure that your application pool is configured to Classic managed pipeline. Make sure that connectionStrings.config is setup correctly. At this stage, you will have Community Server 2007.1 setup successfully. Test it.
7. [New Step] Here are some common errors which you might encounter:
   Procedure or Function 'aspnet_Membership_GetUserByName' expects parameter '@TimeZoneAdjustment', which was not supplied. Inside the SqlScript folder, run the script cs_ASPNET2_Membership_Schema_Update.sql - This is because your ASP.NET membership information is still in ASP.NET 1.1 and not upgrade to ASP.NET 2.0.
   
8. If your testing in Step 6 is successfully, BACK UP THE DATABASE AND APPLICATION FOLDER! I cannot stress how important this step is.
9. Extract Community Server 2008 to a folder and copy all the files in web folder over to the location in Step 2.
10. Run the upgrader tool Community.Upgrader.exe and follow all the steps specified inside. Here's a few points to take note if you encounter errors:
    • EXCEPTION: Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint 'PK_cs_ProductPermissions'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'dbo.cs_ProductPermissions'. Just re-run the upgrader tool again. The error should go away.
    • EXCEPTION: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
         at CommunityServer.Upgrader.FileUpgrader.UpgradeStorageType(ApplicationType type, String filePath)
         at CommunityServer.Upgrader.Part4.MoveFilesToCfs()
      This means that you didn't follow Step 8.
11. Go to IIS and change the application pool to use Integrated managed pipeline.
12. Test it!
    • Missing Avator
      Make sure that the managed pipeline @application pool is changed to Integrated (CS 2.1 & 2007 uses classic) 
    • Unable to add / reply to post
      If you used 2007.01 upgrader, you might encounter this problem. Make sure that you copy CookComputing.XmlRpcV2.dll over to the bin folder of your CS.

That's it!

Downloads for SGDN June 2008 Event

Items for Jun 2008 Event on OCS by Source Code is available for download.