Rob Eberhardt

I ran into the following the hard way recently.  Since I don't trust anybody's tech support to actually test new service packs or publish known issues, I figured I'd mention it here: SP1 for SBS 2003 breaks Aladdin NetHASP, and programs which use it.

NetHASP is 3rd-party software which programs use to tie software licenses to a physical dongle (known as a "hasp" or "sim").  In my case, our client was using SigmaTek's SigmaNest and Develop programs (line-of-business stuff), we had the Network sim plugged into the SBS box and the NetHASP License Manager program running on it.  After the upgrade to SP1, SigmaNest on all workstations could no longer find the Network Sim, and would not run.

Anyway, judging by known issues I'd read about, I pursued a firewall angle.  I found out what port the NetHASP connection uses (475), and made sure workstations could see that on the server (they could).  I reinstalled the NetHASP License Manager.  I reinstalled SigmaNest.  Nothing worked. 

Finally, dreading a bad support like I've had all too often, I caved and called SigmaTek support.  After an hour on the phone with a well-intentioned, but lower-level support employee, he finally contacted Aladdin support (at my suggestion).  Eventually he got hold of them and the three of us worked together on it for a good while.  Eventually we tried a new (command-line) version of the NetHASP License Manager driver, and voila! it worked again.

For the record, we had purposely waited a month after SP1's release to let any kinks get worked out (or at least known).  I'd also immediately mentioned the SP1 install to both SigmaTek and Aladdin's support reps, since it was a likely culprit.  Seemingly neither had run into the issue. 

Now, I'm not sure, but this suggests to me that neither company is proactively testing new Windows patches and service packs.  If true, this is a very bad thing (if not, I'd love hear otherwise!).  It's also possible that they did know, but simply hadn't communicated that info with their support reps (and certainly had not via their support websites).

I asked them to document what we'd found, but I don't have high hopes.  So... hopefully this anecdote will help out some other poor NetHASP clod like me: get the new/other NetHASP driver, and push the vendors to publish the problem and solution.

Next in my random song roll:

Transatlantic - In Held (Twas) In I
Audio Adrenaline - Glory
King's X - Over My Head
Ben Folds - Still Fighting It
Lit - Over My Head
Ray Charles - One Mint Julep
Galactic Cowboys - Not of this World
Crimson Glory - Cydonia
Metallica - Wherever I May Roam
Jars of Clay - Faith Like a Child

Wow, lotta prog rock this time...

I've installed SBS SP1 several times now.  It's an absurdly long and complicated process (yes, definitely "a process" more than "a patch"), and I just noticed this time the progress bar antics of step 4 ("XP SP2 for Client Deployment"):

It did this dance for several minutes.

...Gotta love those wacky patch devs!

There's been a massive amount of cool software and web development lately involving maps.  I just want to nail down what I've seen in one place.  I'll try it as a timeline...

• For ages there were the "classic web" map websites, which reloaded the entire page for every zoom, pan or other change.  MapQuest was one of the first (what, 10 years ago?), and has changed little since then.  In a word, "slooow".
• Eventually some sites like Yahoo Maps and MSN Maps evolved some, using DHTML to dynamically swap the map image, without reloading the entire page.  This was definitely faster.
• More recently, there was Google Maps, which actually slices the map into separate map "tiles", so that only the changed parts of the map are downloaded for each zoom/pan/etc (which is even faster).  Definingly-cool features include satellite maps, and the ability to "grab/drop" to move the map with your mouse just like you'd grab and move a real one.  This also put AJAX (aka "Remote Scripting") on the buzz map as a web development technique.
  
  Update: Don't miss the many amazing "remixes" of Google maps with other web apps, like phone books, housing ads, and crime stats).  Just Wow.
• Then NASA released World Wind, a desktop application which does this same trick, but leverages DirectX to provide seamless zooming/panning -- a true 3D app, and very cool.  It's mouse-enabled much like Google Maps, but adds UI features like Tilting (which gives panning the sensation of a fly-over!) The focus is more educational/scientific reference than convenience (sorry, no driving directions to Wal-mart.)
• Google Earth is the most recent, which is basically a combination of Google Maps with World Wind.  Its UI features are very similar to World Wind's, but it has more practical user features like Google Maps (how about Flying directions to Wal-Mart!).  (It also has some business features like demographic information overlays and the like, which puts it in the arena of Microsoft's commercial MapPoint software).
• Update: A9 Maps is a new one.  It's a different interface, and sports "curb-view" photos of addresses.  ...Or says it does anyway, I can't find any around me, so I'm not sure what use that is.

All of these are free, by the way.

If you dig this kind of map stuff and/or astronomy, I recommend Celestia, a free 3D desktop app (like World Wind and Google Earth) for extra-terrestrial (as in "off Earth") virtual exploration.  It's a great reference and learning/teaching tool, and my 5yr old and I love it.

Okay, I'm not really sure Microsoft invented AJAX, but I do know Internet Explorer had several asynchronous scriptable technologies and techniques long before any other browser.

To enumerate:

• DSOs (ADC, TDC, RDS).  The TDC was pretty good, ADC was too heavy, and RDS was too much of a security issue, but they were all early ways to asynchronously data-bind elements at the browser.  They were also fully scriptable.
• IFRAMEs - IE4/1997 or newer had IFRAMEs (Netscape 4 did have ILAYER, but Netscape 4 generally sucked).  I actually thought I invented this technique, and used it on many projects to much success.
• Java - Meh, too bad about the JVM.  Same basic technique, though.
• XMLHTTPRequest - Slightly more recent (circa IE5/1999 I think).  This object IS what modern AJAX code runs on.  Firefox, et al have only added similar objects in the last couple years.

"Remote Scripting" was Microsoft's term for this technique.  (Heck, here's an April 1999 MSDN article on the topic).

SO, I'm rather annoyed when well-known journalists say Microsoft is working "Not to be left out of any development trends...", or better yet, "Microsoft has decided [Ajax] is something it can't ignore... the Redmondians have jumped on the Ajax bandwagon.".

...Microsoft built that bandwagon.

Update: Perhaps I'm not the only one annoyed they're not getting their due.
Scoble's got a good laugh over AJAX, and Scott Isaacs has thoughts on an AJAX (DHTML) framework.

So I played this game, half-a-lifetime-ago, called Hack.  It was a ASCII-graphical game for DOS, where you explore a dungeon, seeking the Amulet of Yendor.  You could play as a Wizard, Barbarian, or various other character types, and would of course fight monsters, gather treasures, and have various adventures along the way.

The user-interface was obviously very simple (even at the time), but the gameplay was amazingly rich.  I loved it, and spent many days of my life "in the dungeon," but eventually moved on to flashier graphical games.

So flash-forward 15 years to last week, I see this User Friendly comic mentioning "NetHack," and then another random mention of the game got me curious and googling. 

Lo and behold, Hack is still alive and kicking! (great history writeup here)  15 years of development (and enrichment) has added a simple GUI (mostly easier on the eyes) and richer (but completely faithful) gameplay.  I'm not at all disappointed. 

I am tempted to say I want some sort of multi-player version, tho.  Especially considering a favorite game of mine: BattleZone, an early 80s arcade classic, which Activision did an amazing (groundbreaking) job resurrecting in ~1998 as a multiplayer FPS.  I'm still playing it 7 years later.

But for now, it's NetHack again.  It's nice when old friends visit.

Stefan Koell just released RoyalTS version 1.3.  This takes care of the few obvious issues and makes it a fairly mature tool. 

It's still a great tool for Remote Desktop/Terminal Server administration (better than Microsoft's RDC or Remote Desktops snapin), and getting better.  If you control more than a couple machines, you should add RoyalTS to your toolkit now!

From a Kentucky neighbor (whom I found via GeoURL), Chris Vaught writes about How to Start and Keep Blogging.

Good as it is, I have little more to add by blogging...
about blogging...
about blogging.
I guess it's just that good!

(So does this count as using my English Major, Mike? :>)