Just got new Galaxy S6 Edge Gold :)

Worst Christmas Present Ever: Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1!

Update: I am able to get Visual Studio run again in my machine after doing some excessive deletion, which is certainly not recommended and only do it if you plan to reinstall the whole OS:
Delete below folders:
C:\Windows\assembly
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET
All folder that is named *.Microsoft.VC80.* in C:\Windows\WinSXS And registry that is named NetFramework and Fusion.
%temp%

And now my Operating System has been upgraded to Windows Vista without any problem at all. Visual Studio 2005 runs perfectly in my new shiny Vista. :)

-- End Update

With a great happines to find out that Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005, I download it this weekend and left it install during the night cause it takes quite long time to install. I have used VS2005 since it's released and I am very happy with it, I can finish my task faster than ever.

Wake up in the morning to find that installation of Service Pack 1 fail due to insufficient space. And come with surprise and huge dissappointment, SP1 crashes my whole VS2005 and .NET 2.0 application including Windows Live Messenger. I install SP1 with free space on system drive around 1-2GB, but I have another partition with more available space. But without any validation on available disk space on my PC or option to choose which partition to use, Service Pack 1 just start to install directly. In the middle of installation, it's reported fail due to insufficient disk space. Since then, VS2005 and .NET 2.0 stop working with error: application failed to initialize properly (0xc0150004). Click on OK to terminate the application.
I have tried to rerun the setup with the result of more error message: This may indicate a problem with this package.

The error code is 2908. The arguments are: {GUID}. This errors repeated so many times and ends up with another error that rollback the whole installation. Then I try to repair .NET F/W 2.0, but fail with error: Product: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 -- Error 25007.Error occurred while initializing fusion. Setup could not load fusion with LoadLibraryShim(). Error: The handle is invalid.

Then I try to repair VS2005 without any luck. It's also fail.
Browsing through forum, quite a number of unlucky person report the same thing (https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=226009). They even have tried to reinstall the whole VS2005 without any success too. The only option is to reinstall Windows XP, which is no option for me to just install my office's laptop.

Damn, I have spent the whole day today to find out the solution. And christmas eve is approaching soon. I have planned to finish at least one or two module. Now, even my VS2005 die. Hope, his soul is still in my machine, so if there is a spell, I can revive him again.

Suggestion for Microsoft: If your service pack take a huge amount of disk space and it's critical to have that space because the installation is not able to rollback gracefully, please validate the free space of harddisk before start the installation.

Microsoft's New Things

After launching its long-time awaited browser, IE7, and Windows Media Player 11, what can we wait from Microsoft next? Well, A LOT.. For the next several months, Microsoft will come with a lot of new things, some of them are really BIG. Start from new claim-to-be IPOD killer, Microsoft's digital music player. Microsoft will launch this item at Nov 14, 2006. Although a lot feel sceptical of this to compete with Apple's so famous IPOD, but it come from Microsoft and it might be something to eat Apple's pie slice. You can find more information at http://www.zune.net/en-US/.

Next is Microsoft's biggest thing, WINDOWS VISTA. This is the next upgrade for Windows since Windows XP was launched 5 years ago. Windows Vista will be released to corporate users or volume license users at Nov 30, 2006 and wider market at Jan 30, 2007. Microsoft claims it to be the most secured OS (well, I think I have ever heard it before, just hope it is going to be..), with a lot of fancy thing, like Windows Aero, Windows Vista new interface with glassy look. Very sad that my notebook cannot support this feature. For more information at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/.

After that, the next big thing is Microsoft Office 2007. With complete change of the interfaces to the most used software (excluding OS) like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. The most famous change is called RIBBON feature. It replaces traditional menu and toolbar in previous office version. With Ribbon feature, we will get toolbar-alike that change automatically according to what we are doing, like when we create table, Ribbon will show tools to draw/setting table. At first, of course, it will be very confusing as we cannot find our best friend, menu and toolbar, but after use several times, I found it quite useful. With new technical refresh on beta 2, this ribbon is collapsible. But, if you collapse the ribbon, we lose cool feature of ribbon, which automatically change to what users are doing. But this is option, if you need more space for your document, you can auto-collapsed the ribbon, which, IMO, the cleanest interface like Notepad. Office 2007 is planned to be released along with Windows Vista. You can feel ribbon in Office home page. Other products like Sharepoint 2007 will get significant update, like Excel Services, which allow users to open excel file directly in the browser and save to Sharepoint server. New feature like Microsoft Groove, which is more about collaboration, think it's like chat messenger combine with document sharing capability (of course it will be more than that). More information at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx.

For developer, more things to do research, it is the next version of Microsoft .NET 3.0. Well, actually it's still .NET 2.0, with additional Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF). Will we get the next version of its languages (C#, VB.NET)? No, .NET 3.0 will not change any base library in .NET 2.0, nor its languages. Nevertheless, it already keep developers busy upgrading their knowledge. Microsoft .NET 3.0 has been released early November 2006. More information at http://www.netfx3.com/.

Next thing is Exchange 2007. I don't use to work directly with Exchange 2007, so I don't have so many ideas what is new in Exchange 2007.

So, with a lot of things to come, Windows Vista, Office 2007, .NET 3.0, Exchange 2007 will keep Microsoft's marketing team busiest ever, and might be impact on IT labour like me :).

Office Live is not about Google Docs

Most of you that have browsed through new product from Google, must have known Google Docs. Yes, it is an online document creation tool. Current version, Google provide you tool to create Word Document and Spreadsheet Document online. Aside from the pros and cons of this tool, it is a good alternative tool to create document FREE. I had experienced before that I need to compose some simple report, but I had just uninstalled my Office 2007 beta and my Office 2003 seem couldn't be opened without repairing. With short of time, I successfully composed the document using Google Docs and produced the PDF version. But, I don't think it can replace the desktop version of Microsoft Office, or even gain any market share from Microsoft Office.

But beside that, I heard some people comment that competitior to Google Docs will be Office Live. Well, it's wrong. Office Live is not about online Document Creation. But it is more about a "set of small business services, such as email, web hosting and contact-management software" [CNET news]. So it has nothing to do with the Microsoft Office online version. But if you notice the development of next version of Sharepoint 2007, there is a new feature call Excel Service, which provide basic excel function that is accessible through browser. Well, it will be old technology, if you think it has anything to do with ActiveX. It's actually purely Javascript and XML (AJAX) with HTML interface. Microsoft Office 2007 is due to release on the first quarter of 2007, well let wait and see. Meanwhile you can try the beta version of Office 2007.

Something with Apple Ads

I usually browse to Apple Website to browse on the trailer on the Quicktime section. I like it. Well, yesterday, I found some advertisement from Apple for its MacOS (which I first look from CNET News (news.com)). Overall the advertisement is quite funny, which at least can make you smile. Something that annoyed me is how Apple try to make his competitor look dirty and smelly (aka bad). AFAIK, usual advertisement will try this implicitly, not to mention specific to certain brand. I think this is ethical for business competition. But for Apple case, he is so specifically mention that this is PC, which most of them are Microsoft Windows. And some of them also mention that MacOS is like virus-free, which I think, hmm.. Even, if you watch Developer Conference, some funny statement like "Welcome to Vista 2.0", "Start your photocopier machine", etc. Don't get me wrong, although I don't use MacOS regularly, but I like the overall experience of Mac. It is just my work that I am unable to easily switch OS.

Latest case, that MacOS has bug that the OS can restart suddenly. Apple has announced that bug has been fixed after 4 months. Haha, someone suggest to add one more advertisement that Mac People can appear and then suddenly disappear, appear, disappear again. How cool is that? Actually it's quite the same as "restarting" clip.

IE7 and Firefox

IE7 finally hits the road this week. I have used IE7 since beta version until latest RC, and at the same time, firefox 2.0. Well, since Firefox 2.0 is still in RC and will be released soon (around 24 Oct 2006), so any comparison here can be outdated. I have read huge comment about these two products floating around news website and blog. After eliminating some unreasonable negative comments by some huge fans, both receive relatively well review.

IE7 is upgraded from IE6 since 5 years ago. Such a long update, people can hope a big jump of features. The most recognized ones are Tab Browsing, Phising Filtering, much efficient UI, RSS, etc. Well, most of features here are already there in Firefox 1 and will be in Firefox 2. So Microsoft here is more in catch-up to browser competition. If Microsoft didn't spend 5 years to upgrade its browser, it wouldn't lose its market share to Mozilla. Hope next version of IE7 won't take so long time.

Installation
IE7 is surprisingly take huge amount of time and OS restart to be installed. For my IBM T43 machine, it takes about 20 minutes to install, and almost makes me frustrated because I start the installation during my office hour. Well, Firefox RC3 only takes about 3-5 minutes.

User Interface
Since beta version, I like so much in new IE interface. It just make you feel this is new, this is new. Although some of my friends feel too much changes, difficult to use, don't know where to click, but I think this will take about several times use to get used to. Compare to Firefox RC3, IE7 wins in this criteria. With Menu, Google toolbar, and several tab are activated, IE7 takes less space than Firefox.


Need to Fix
I notice sometimes IE7 can take huge amount of processor time, and it makes the whole IE7 browser just not responding at all. It's really annoying. What I can do, it's just end task from task manager. I don't know it just only happens to my machine or not.

Life Efficiency

What do you think about the picture at the left side? I have taken the picture few months ago. Around August, there is fireworks to celebrate National Day 2006. Because of extravagant fireworks, people queue for long time to get best position to view. And it included me and my friend waiting there for around 3-4 hours, just for 15 minutes show (how pathetic is that?). Along the waiting, I notice most of the family or couple come with mats, newspaper, or whatever as their seat. Haha, I didn't prepare anything, so just sat on the ground. One interested thing happened, one family come with a pack of Credit Card application brochures. At first, I think they want to distribute the credit card application. But surprisingly, they put and arrange the brochures as their mat. Alas, what will the bank marketing feel about this? Haha, how efficient this family is. But, at the end, the fireworks was really nice. I get quite good position to view. Sorry for the lousy quality of picture as it's originated from my phone video camera.