By Brian Swanson on 10/22/2008 8:09 AM

Snowmint Creative Solutions has released version 1.1.4 of their expense tracking software Budget Workbook.

This release fixes a minor bug found in the previous version that kept the preferences file from being saved.

Purple Ant is responsible for creating the Windows versions of several of Snowmint Creative Solution's products.

By Brian Swanson on 10/22/2008 8:02 AM

Snowmint Creative Solutions has released version 1.0.4 of their financial planning software Budget Planner.

Purple Ant is responsible for creating the Windows versions of several of Snowmint Creative Solution's products.

By Brian Swanson on 10/6/2008 11:22 PM

Snowmint Creative Solutions has released version 1.1.3 of their Expense tracking software Budget Workbook.

Purple Ant is responsible for creating the Windows versions of several of Snowmint Creative Solution's products.

By Brian Swanson on 10/3/2008 4:34 PM

I'm working on a new "secret" project web site with a friend of mine.  One of the features we want to implement on the site is the ability to enter a sub-domain as a search/filter of sorts for the site.  There are two different elements that come in to play when implementing a feature like though (well three when you count the programming on the site itself):  DNS, and IIS.

It turns out that both are actually trivial...

To implement a wildcard sub-domain using Microsoft DNS it is as simple as adding an A record for your given domain where the hostname is '*' (no quotes).

To implement a wildcard sub-domain using Microsoft IIS requires a dedicated IP address for the site.  Open IIS Manager, find your website, right-click and then click on Properties.  on the "Web Site" tab of the properties window that opens up, click the "Advanced" button.  Typically there should only be a single entry, so you might need to edit it.  Make sure an IP address for the server is selected (instead of "All Unassigned"),...

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By Brian Swanson on 9/9/2008 4:51 PM

After upgrading my AT&T Tilt to Windows Mobile 6.1, I was suddenly unable to sync with my Vista PC.  After a little poking around and 'Net searching, I found a new setting under Settings->Connections->USB to PC.  Unchecking the "Enable advanced network functionality" allowed my phone to once again sync with the PC.

 

By Brian Swanson on 9/9/2008 4:50 PM

Just a couple of quick blog posts, because I am always having to track down this information over and over again when I get an update for a phone, or get a new Windows Mobile phone...

 If you are wondering how to change the default area code that comes up when creating a new contact.  Here's the steps:

1. Go to Start->Contacts (or open the Contacts app in your preferred method)
2. Select Menu->Options in the Contacts app
3. Change Area Code from default 425 to your local area code

 If nothing else this will help me remember next time I'm trying to make the same change.

By Brian Swanson on 8/9/2008 6:51 PM

I am not sure at what point this happened, or if I even had a choice in the matter (maybe Joel is sending telepathic messages to me). Purple Ant is a monthly subscriber to Copilot.com, and we have a few licenses to FogBugz.  I'm both an email subscriber, and RSS subscriber to JoelOnSoftware.com.  I own a copy of Joel On Software the book, as well as More Joel on Software, and User Interface Design for Programmers, and Smart and Getting Things Done.  I've been listening to the StackOverflow.com podcasts (two seperate links there) since they started...Oh and Purple Ant wrote a DotNetNuke (DNN) module to support the "co-branding" of Copilot.com, and are giving it away for free to anyone who wants to use it.

I'm sure there are other things (we won't go into the shrine I have...j/k), but I can't think of them at the moment...

Why am I such an avid follower of Joel?  I agree with most of what he says...  Fog Creek Software was founded as a place where developers would...

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By Brian Swanson on 8/6/2008 7:22 AM

I came across a link in another blog, and I've since forgotten which blog that was, so I can't give proper credit.  But, I thought I'd pass it along to everyone.

You can download an add-on for Office 2007 that gives you the ability to "Save As" as PDF file.  Not sure why Microsoft hasn't added this functionality sooner.  Oh wait, yeah I am, because of their competing format XPS.

Anyway, download the add-on, after validating your Office 2007 of course, and install it, and then you can save as PDF at will!

Here's the link to the add-on

By Brian Swanson on 7/29/2008 6:54 AM

We were out at a customer's site yesterday installing a new Windows 2003 R2 Standard Edition server, and when trying to run DCPROMO to turn the new server into a domain controller we kept getting the message "The version of the Active Directory schema of the source forest is not compatible with the version of Active Directory on this computer."

Our existing server was a Windows 2003 Standard Edition server running Service Pack 2, so I couldn't understand why I'd need to run ADPREP, but I figured the system knows better than I.  I run ADPREP /FORESTPREP from DISK 1 of the Windows 2003 R2 CDs and it tells me everything is fine, that no upgrades to the AD Schema are necessary.  Well after some further investigation, I find there is a NEW version of ADPREP on DISK 2 of the Windows 2003 Server R2 CDs in the \CMPNENTS\R2\ADPREP folder.  When i ran this newly found version, the AD Schema was upgraded and the next attempt at running DCPROMO was successful.

I wish I understood why Microsoft would have hidden...

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By Brian Swanson on 7/29/2008 6:43 AM

I have several email accounts, and have always liked to be overly organized with my incoming emails.  Prior to Outlook 2007, I'd create a folder under my main Inbox folder, and after setting up a new email account would create a rule to move mail coming in on a specific account to go to a specific folder.  This always worked great, but I think Microsoft actually improved things by making it a couple steps easier to accomplish the same task in Outlook 2007.

In Outlook 2007, you still need to create the folder you want your incoming mail from a specific account delivered too (you can point multiple accounts at the same folder, I choose not to), but then after setting up the account you select "Change Folder" button (if it is a POP3 email account) and select a different delivery folder. 

I think "rules" creation was probably overly complicated for the masses for this simple task, and that's why Microsoft added the functionality. Regardless, I like the new functionality.

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