roncli.com blog
The blog of roncli
roncli.com blog
roncli.com
blog
Profile
roncli
Houston, Texas, United States
Labels
Coding
CTG Music
Editorials
Games
Miscellaneous
Music
Servers
Silliness
Software
Sports
Trax in Space Beta
Weather
Recent Posts
WTF did Revival Productions just do?
A Tale of Two Communities
The Final Stretch
A Two Tiered, Untiered OTL
Secretly, you wish you could've done what I did
What have I done since roncli.com v2?
It's Done. It's Finally Done.
The Big Picture is Starting to Wear on Me
A Low Bang to Buck Ratio
win-acme
Archives
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
June 2008
July 2008
September 2008
December 2008
February 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
March 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
December 2011
January 2012
February 2012
April 2012
July 2012
November 2012
July 2013
April 2014
July 2014
August 2014
November 2014
December 2014
March 2015
April 2015
May 2015
June 2015
July 2015
September 2015
January 2016
February 2016
May 2016
July 2016
November 2016
March 2017
January 2018
May 2018
June 2018
January 2019
January 2021
February 2021
March 2021
August 2021
October 2021
December 2021
August 2022
November 2022
October 2023
February 2024
April 2024
Current Posts
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Backup and Vista
Posted: 5:41:00 PM 0 comments
My FTP backup solution, aptly named Backup, stopped working properly when Kathy and I upgraded to Windows Vista. Unfortunately, there is no way for a Windows service to hook into mouse or keyboard messages for the desktop of the user logged in. This is a problem because now Backup can't tell how long the user has been idle, a key component in determining when to backup files. The .NET 2.0 framework did not provide a reasonable way for me to overcome this hurdle, so the project's sat in limbo for months.

Currently, Backup has 3 modules. First is the Setup module which allows the user to select which files they want to have backed up, and what server to back them up to. Easy enough. Second is the Service module that actually does the backing up. Third is the roncli Productions common module that handles things such as registration and about dialogs.

Since the Service module can no longer handle idle time detection, I have to split that piece out, yet somehow communicate back to the Service module when an application is idle. Windows Communication Foundation to the rescue.

With WCF in the .NET 3.0 (and now 3.5) framework, I am able to easily create messages to send from a client app to a server app. I simply alter the Setup piece to be always running in the background when the user logs on, and tells the Service when the user is idle. Of course, there can be multiple users, so all the users would have to be idle at once, which is no big deal to figure out.

This seems like an awful lot of work to get a service to know when its users are idle, but it'll get the job done, and Backup will finally be Vista-ready.

Labels: ,

Monday, November 26, 2007
Projects, Take 2
Posted: 5:16:00 PM 0 comments
Just dropping a note that I've finally completed the first phase of the Wiki section of the Projects website, and have added my initial tasks for all of the projects I am currently working on. If you want to check out everything I've got my hands in, run through this site and see what's up.

Labels: ,

Thursday, November 01, 2007
Time
Posted: 4:50:00 PM 0 comments
Time seems to have eluded me lately, mostly going to gaming when I'm at home. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy, though.

First up is my new Projects site. I've got trac working on my computer, and will be using it to track the many projects I am working on. I have too many projects.

Another thing I'm working on is a wiki for Cute Trance Girls (Sorry, I can't help it!). Recently CTG was thinking of shutting down, and I really didn't want to see that happen. So, I joined the staff, where ideas are flowing freely on how to improve the site. I may or may not get into coding, we'll see. But for now my main goal is to help the site stay alive and improve, and if that requires coding, then coding it shall be. PHP, yuck...

On Trax in Space, I've been as active as ever. I have just completed my third Artist of the Month article, and listen to every song on the site while compiling my "Best of TiS" playlists. The goal is to take those playlists and make some podcasts out of them. Whether I do that or not depends on how long I can rip myself away from WoW while Kathy's at work.

Labels: , , , ,