Posted on September 13th, 2007%
I frequently rebuild my computer once Windows starts to reach its half-life, formatting the ‘ol hard drive and starting from scratch. Unfortunately, this typically involves a hunt for the Windows XP product key, which typically was written down on a piece of paper and subsequently misplaced. This time, however, I decided not to hunt for that sticky note. Surely, Windows XP knows the product key that was used when it was installed… right?
Apparently, it does, and there’s a little piece of free software that can find it for you. KeyFinder by Magical Jelly Bean Software can identify the product key for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Windows Vista, Office 97, Office XP, and Office 2003 — on the local computer or on a remote computer (provided you have appropriate security permissions). Very impressive.
. . .
→ Read More: Forgot your Windows product key? It is recoverable…
Posted on August 3rd, 2007%
I am working on a project where I have to import data from thousands of text files. These text files vary in formats: they use different delimiters; they use quoted identifiers never, sometimes, or always; they sometimes have missing end-of-row columns. Importing these took a combination of custom scripts (to clean up and reformat) and XML format files for SQL’s BCP (bulk copy) command… until I found FileHelpers.
FileHelpers by Marcos Meli is a .Net library which provides services to import and export text in delimited and fixed-length file formats. It takes a unique approach to the file import problem:
You write a class, giving it properties to store the data in the text file.
You apply attributes to the class and properties, describing the format of the file and applying import rules.
You import the file using a single command, which creates an array of objects populated with the data from the text file.
With support for custom converters, null types, optional fields, before/after import events, extensive . . .
→ Read More: FileHelpers: the .Net way to import text files
Posted on August 2nd, 2007%
It’s a new month, which means it’s time for me to pick a free, open source product to donate to. This month was an easy decision: I picked the product that I use every day to manage my code (and code history): TortoiseSVN.
I’m not the only one who’s ga-ga over TortoiseSVN; they recently were declared the Best Tool or Utility for Developers by the folks at SourceForge. With Subversion being the de-facto source code management standard (even Microsoft is starting to pay attention to it), it’s no surprise that TortoiseSVN is so widely loved.
I’m happy to have joined the list of those who’ve donated to TortoiseSVN!
My donation history to date far is as follows.
TortoiseSVN (August 2007)
OpenOffice (June 2007)
FileZilla (July 2007)
. . .
→ Read More: Supporting free software: TortoiseSVN
Posted on July 2nd, 2007%
Last month, I announced that I’ll start donating $5 per month to a free and/or open source project. The first donation went to OpenOffice. This month, the donation goes to FileZilla, the free, open-source FTP client.
FileZilla is one of those utilities that you take for granted. It works so well that you tend to not think about it. There’s barely a day that goes by when I don’t fire up FileZilla at least once. Granted, there are plenty of FTP clients out there, and I’ve used many, but none satisfied me as much as FileZilla.
Thanks to Tim Kosse for starting and maintaining FileZilla over the years.
. . .
→ Read More: Supporting Free Software: FileZilla
Posted on June 25th, 2004%
From time to time, the open source/freeware community comes along with a product so simple and so frightening that it makes me smile. This is one that’s been around since 1997, but somehow I never stumbled across it.
A fine Norseman, Petter Nordahl-Hagen, wrote the first version of his Windows registry and password hacker back in 1997. He’s updated it continually over the years, and today the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is available as a free download. (It works with Windows 2000 and Windows XP as well as Windows NT, so don’t let the name fool you.) The Web site includes an excellent FAQ and the source code, should you choose to confound yourself further.
Why is this frightening? Because after all the years of Microsoft touting security, there’s still a freelance programmer that can beat the billion dollar behemoth.
. . .
→ Read More: A free Offline NT Password and Registry Editor
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