Saleh Blog

I’d like to share some great and funny videos about working at Microsoft.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3

As mentioned before, TechED is coming to the Middle East and now the public website is live for registration for $595 US for early registration which is $230 cheaper than the standard fee.

That’s around 170KD which I think is still expensive. There should be a student registration with cheap registration fee or maybe make it free since Microsoft are marketing their products after all!

I’ve been trying to install Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 but I keep getting a message saying that I don’t have SP1 installed even though I do have it installed, and it won’t allow me to install it. I tried to uninstall everything and reinstalled Visual Studio 2008 and updated it to Service Pack 1 but the same error keeps showing up whenever I executing the Silverlight 3 Tools installation. Here’s the error message I keep receiving:

Installation Requirements:

Build 9.0.30729.XX of Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Web Developer 2008 SP1 must be installed before installation can continue.  See <A HREF=”http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122094″>http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=122094</A> for download information.

I’ve done much research to resolve this problem but I couldn’t find any helpful information. However, I’ve been able to find some hints here and there and I’ve came up with the solution after playing around with it for awhile. But first I should clarify few things before I continue with the solution:

• I’m using an early version of Windows 7 Professional since it was released 3 weeks ago by the time I’m writing this post.
• I have Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Professional Edition and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installed.
• The VS2008 build is: 9.0.21022.8 RTM which is the latest update I can get from Windows Update and it cannot detect any more updates for the VS2008.
• I have Expression Studio 3 already installed.

Okay, so now to overcome the installation error of Silverlight 3 Tools follow up these few steps:

1. Download Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 from here. The download file name should be: Silverlight3_Tools.exe by default.
2. Download WinRar from here. Winrar will be used to extract Silverlight3_Tools.exe since it is an archived file. The reason I mentioned Winrar here is because I’m not sure if there is any other application that supports extracting EXE files. Feel free to use any other app that could do the job.
3. After installing Winrar or any equivalent application, right click on Silverlight3_Tools.exe and extract the archive file.
4. Finally, go to the location where you have extracted the file and execute the file VS_SilverlightTools_Setup.exe to install the Silverlight 3 Tools.

Remember the Adobe Flex Builder 3 online video tutorials that could be completed in 5 days? Now Adobe have added another set of tutorials for the new Flash Builder 4 Beta 2 that could also be completed within a week. It is also free and publicly available.

You could also download Flash Builder 4 beta 2 directly from Adobe and for free.

Among other G.C.C. countries, Microsoft is launching a tech demo event, or a roadshow, in Kuwait for new technologies from Microsoft such as Windows 7 and Exchange Server 2010. The event will take place at 17th  November, 2009 from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM in Salmiya’s Salwa Alsubah stage.

You better register now before they run out of seats. There is also a quiz to win a laptop or an XBox 360.

This time I might have the chance to get into TechED since Microsoft have decided to do one in Dubai.

Microsoft’s premier technical education and networking conference is coming to the Middle East.
Connect one-on-one with Microsoft insiders and IT peers, get your toughest questions answered and hear
expert advice – right from the source, right in your region.

The conference will start at 1st of March in Dubai World Trade Centre and for 3 days.

I’ve always wanted to attend one of these events to get into the community and talk about programming and technologies with others especially about those exciting new technologies from Microsoft.

Fore more information, check out the official website.

I’ve been looking for a good application to sync all my address books between my devices, email accounts and Outlook. Finally after testing many of similar contact sync applications I’ve settled on Soocial. Now my N95, Gmail (Android), Outlook and Hotmail are all in sync. Any changes happens on any of those services, it will automatically update all my connected contacts.

According to the website, it supports over 500 devices and services which makes it very appealing to use. It also get rid of duplicated contacts so I don’t have to worry about my address book getting messy. The only annoying service to be used with Soocial is Live because you’ll have to reauthorize your Live account to be integrated with Soocial every month. Duh!

After ditching OneCare, Microsoft has released its new free security package called Security Essentials software to offer protection against malicious programs such as viruses and spyware.

According to Microsoft, it is design to run quietly without affect the system performance much like what many other security applications that users complain about. I haven’t tested it yet and I don’t think I will do it soon since I’ve already installed Avast free edition and I don’t feel like formatting my PC anytime soon. However, since it is made by Microsoft itself, it should integrate well with Windows but you have to have a genuine copy of Windows XP (SP2 or 3), Windows Vista or Windows 7 to work. It is also compatible with Windows XP mode in Windows 7.

For more information about it, check out this blog post from The Windows Blog.

There was once a young warrior called Anrier standing still and firmly in the front rank of the army. The rain was dropping hard that clinking was everything he can hark from distance… waiting… and waiting patiently. He was surrounded on his left and right by men of old age wearing ragged cloths under their light armor. He saw the dreadful look in their shrunken faces and the agony glimmering from their eyes.

After hours of waiting for the battle to come in the midst of an army of farmers and villagers watching the horizon in vigilance, he spied out a spark of fire over distance of hazy and rainy climate. He yawned and starred back at the spark then at an instance tens of torches are starting to glimmer. As he stirred to shout, the captain lifted the blade and gave a great cry.

Men of Ijulia, warriors of the free world of Esio…

Arise, arise.

Today we embark upon a mighty battle.

Ominous fate awaits us.

Swords shall be crossed. Blood shall be spilled.

Honor yourselves.

Knights and warriors of Ijulia.

As these words were being cried out, the enemy army loomed in the horizon. At that moment, a lightning erected from the sky and the enemy’s army was beyond imagination. Enormous number of orcs were sighted, strong and violent in heavy armor. In a second, he thought of what peril he brought to himself fighting in a losing battle. He thought of his home, a small cottage in the outskirts of Numenion village. How beautiful days of summer were, the enjoyment of polishing his farming tools, the delicious porridge for dinner, the sight of the wood at dawn, the sound of twittering in early morning of spring, the slosh of water as he throw pebbles into the river, the sound of his father calling him, the smell of his mother’s cook, and the sight of his sister dancing in her ball gown. Suddenly he snaps back into reality.

Warriors, we march now!

For God, King and Ijulia.

A blast of horn has sounded. The men have started to move forward, leaded by the captain and his banner-bearer. Anrier took a grip of his sword which was still in the sheath, lifted it high by his left hand,  covered with a scarlet gauntlet. The pace has quickened and men were crying from all over and the sound of swords drawn was dense.  Arrows were falling asunder and many men were falling dead or wounded around him and one arrow blew close to his head. At a close distance to the enemy he held his sword with both hands, raised it up high as his hands leveled with his forehead, shimmering by moonlight reflection.

Anrier stroke the first orc into the neck and continue running deeper to catch sight of a huge orc. He stroke but the orc was ready and the sword clanged with the orc’s shield. The ugly orc winced then scarcely the orc stroke with the axe on his other hand but failed to hit Anrier due to his fast reaction, suddenly he felt a sudden punch into his face by the orc’s shield and it was strong enough to drop him back few foots away. Dazed and dazzled searching for his sword by the palm of his hands without any delay he stood up as soon as he grabbed his sword and swerved to break the next attack and quickly pierced the orc into his belly and fell dead instantaneously.

Momentarily, he felt heavy weighted mass piercing through his chest and the sound of the bone shatter. He looked down and saw a spear off his chest and blood begins to rush. He stood still, shivering and suffering from immense pain, then drifting into his own imagination of his family’s current condition, and went into a complete blankness.

Not all of us can tweet all the time for many reasons. I’m one of those who can’t tweets all time even though I own a PDA with a Twitter client. This is when scheduling your tweets could come handy.

There are many online services that schedule your tweets. The one I’m using and might interest many of you is FutureTweets. It is easy to use by writing your tweets on a form then select the date and time you want it to be published. You can also see all previous tweets you have scheduled.