Adobe, Stop Killing My Internets!
I am not sure if it just me, but lately it seems that Adobe Flash Player is becoming more and more unreliable, and causing my web browser (be it Chrome, FireFox and/or I.E. — I prefer Chrome, although I wish it supported ICC profiles like FireFox) to constantly crash.
Loading …As Adobe Flash is widely used it, unfortunately, is not practical to completely remove it from your machine; however there are a few simple tools which let you automatically block Flash from loading unless you white-list the site or click on the flash to play it. This technique is also great for preventing those annoying Flash ads that popup in your face (Although some of them do look pretty cool)!
Continue Reading To Find Out How To Stop Adobe Killing Your Internets!
Unable To Instantiate TRIM Database: 80040154
I recently came across this error while attempting to connect to TRIM 6 R2 via the TRIMSDK: Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {8A354548-6BCB-11D3-B273-00A0C9FC3DC0} failed due to the following error: 80040154.
This was a little alarming because it was using the same data adapter as a few other TRIM projects, which were working fine; the only difference between the project was that this particular project was a WPF application, and all of the other applications were ASP.NET applications. This particular application had also previously worked fine, the only change was that I had been upgraded to a 64-bit environment.
After a bit of playing around and research I discovered the TRIM SDK will not connect under a 64-bit process.
Workaround:
- In Visual Studio, right-click your project and go to Properties (last item).
- Select the Build tab.
- Change the Configuration option to All Configurations.
- Change the Platform Target to x86.
This will ensure that your application will only run under an x86 architecture, and will be able to connect to TRIM even on a 64-bit host.
Looking at the QuickSpecs for TRIM 7 it is being based on a 64-bit architecture and therefore this issue should be eliminated come TRIM 7 (in addition to some SDK enhancements and UI integration tools).
Oracle 06413: Connection Not Open (x64)
Having changed to a 64-bit development machine at work recently I ran in to an Oracle error while trying to generate files using CodeSmith. This error was ORA-06413: Connection Not Open. Assuming it was a connection string error, as I had not ran this particular generation in some time and it was likely that the server or username/password had changed, I proceeded to test the connection from SQL Developer. Success!
After ruling out that the connection was indeed valid I did a quick Google search for the error message. After a few clicks I discovered a very well known (has been around for a few years) Oracle issue; When executing an Oracle command from an application with parentheses or equals — ‘(‘ or ’)’ or ‘=’ — in the path then the specified error message is thrown.
In this particular case CodeSmith had been installed under C:\Program Files (x86)\CodeSmith\ which was causing Oracle to fail. The quickest work around was to simply move CodeSmith from the Program Files (x86) path e.g. in to C:\CodeSmith\. However; there is a patch (5383042) for Oracle 10g, which I believe is also applied to Oracle 11G.
Win 7 Live Messenger Task Bar Fix
For those of you ‘lucky’ enough to have already updated to the new Windows 7 then you have probably already noticed the major changes to the task bar. Good or bad, you decide. Personally, I like some of the new functionality that it provides but I also enjoy a slim task bar — similar to that of Vista. Fortunately Microsoft provided a “Use small icons” option in the task bar properties (right-click the task bar and select properties) which makes the task bar a similar size to that of Vista.
Changing the task bar to use small icons, however, does not fix the fact that Windows Live Messenger likes to constantly take up a space in the task bar even when the window is not open. Since there does not currently appear to be an option in Windows Live Messenger to display the program in the system tray, instead of on the task bar, we need to use a simple work around.
First, close any current Windows Live Messenger instances. Then open your start menu and locate the Windows Live Messenger shortcut. Right-click the shortcut and select properties. Switch to the Compatibility tab and check “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and select Window Vista (Service Pack 2)”. Now start Windows Live Messenger and problem solved. You should now see the Windows Live Messenger icon in the system tray. As you would on Vista, XP, etc.
