Dirk.Net

I’ve posted about this nonsensical issue before. As the source link quoted in that post is now dead and the issue continues with the latest version of WLinstaller.exe, here’s the msi source for direct download. It installs fine on Windows Server 2008 (x64) and Windows Server 2003 (32 bit x86). Not sure if it installs on XP Professional x64 as I haven’t tried it, it should though.

And while we’re at it, here are the other files (msi sources):

Windows Live Mail for Windows Server and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Windows Live Messenger for Windows Server and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Windows Live Photo Gallery for Windows Server and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Windows Live Toolbar for Windows Server and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Windows Live One Care - Family Safety for Windows Server and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Windows Live Sign-In Assistant for Windows Server and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Positively no support or warranty.

Once you’ve followed these instructions to install PHP hosted on IIS7 using FastCGI (there’s also a video by Scott Hanselman), you’ll probably want to install MySQL and make it work with PHP. However, with your php.ini in its current state you’ll likely get an error message when you start a MySQL-based app, such as Wordpress:

Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL which is required for WordPress.

There’s a lot of information out there to fix this on Windows, and much advice involves copying and grabbing dlls and stuff. Much of it is superfluous, and it boils down to this with your current configuration:

• Edit your php.ini (in C:\PHP\ or wherever you installed php), and uncomment the following line:
  ;extension=php_mysql.dll
  hint: remove the semicolon
• Change this line:
  extension_dir = “./”
  to this:
  extension_dir = “C:\php\ext”
• Save php.ini and restart the web server in IIS Manager
• That’s all

Hope it helps.

Something wasn’t right. Over the past few years computer mice had been getting better and better in terms of tech: Laser replaced optical replaced the mechanical ball, resolution went from a few hundred dpi to a few thousand, and wireless options are getting faster (Bluetooth) and more reliable at ever larger distances from the machine. Still, I found all the gadgets and mice I tried ended up in the drawer sooner rather than later, making me go back to the notebook’s built-in touchpad that some famouse (Freudian typo left standing) bloggers prefer, then I looked at gaming laser mice that cost hundreds and weigh hundreds of grams, and still felt the strain in my lower right arm and hand. The higher resolution might have been one of the culprits, as I found the mouse pointer moving ever so slightly when clicking, making the lower right arm muscles tense up to increase precision. This can lead to repetitive strain injuries and even carpal tunnel syndrome if you tend to press your wrist down to steady the mouse. There even is mouse smoothing software to effectively make the movements of the mouse less precise and smoother. However, this software does not work if you’re using two monitors.

One fine day I tried the Logitech Marble Mouse, which has been sold for a number of years now and it is quite economical (under 30 US$ here in Thailand, probably  a bit less in the “West”). It’s ugly as dog, or rather as a rat with its head smashed in:

Trackballs were popular pointing devices in the early to mid-nineties, before the touchpad became the device of choice for notebook computers. And horrible they were, screechy and imprecise, accumulating dirt and grime, absolutely no match even for the heinous mice of the day.

Modern trackballs shouldn’t suffer from those bad memories. The Marble Mouse shows that the trackball benefits from optical technology even more than mice: The self contained pointing unit is by design independent from the surface the device rests on, making it (after some practice) more agile and precise than an optical or even a laser mouse. Also, hand and lower arm transition very naturally from the keyboard, you just move the hand right (for right-handers) to the stationary Marble Mouse, no adjustment of the hand is necessary as it is to grip the mouse which might move to a different spot on your desk every time you use it. And, your fingertips continue with pointing work in the same angle and position as they were doing typing work on the keyboard and vice versa. This keeps your fingers, hands and lower arms more relaxed than with either mouse or touchpad. Clicking is done with the thumb, which feels more natural than with an outstretched index finger. The Marble Mouse also easy to clean (the ball pops out very easily), quite sturdy and great for left-handers as it’s perfectly symmetrical. As said before, it’s surface independent (much more so than even the best laser mice) and if you like working on your notebook lying in bed or on the couch, you should try the Marble Mouse.

Then again, while Logitech build great devices (hardware), I’ve found their software (SetPoint or whatever it’s called) to be consistently buggy and bloated. While YMMV I recommend not installing Logitech software but rather get Marble Mouse Scroll Wheel, a free utility to let the ball behave like a mouse wheel. Similar functionality (trackball behaves like mouse wheel) also works under Linux with the latest Kernels but you better google for the details. Hope it helps.

If Windows Task manager shows excessive resource usage (CPU or memory, mostly) for an IIS 7 worker process (w3wp.exe), it’s helpful to identify which of your application pools consumes the resources. I haven’t found a way to accomplish this in IIS Manager so I proceeded like so:

At the command prompt:

net start WAS

Note: WAS is the Windows Process Activation Service (btw, pretty silly service name, as it’s nigh impossible to google for WAS).

Run appcmd list wp:

C:\Windows\system32>%windir%/system32/inetsrv/appcmd list wp
WP “5716″ (applicationPool:DefaultAppPool)
WP “968″ (applicationPool:MyOtherAppPool)
WP “5836″ (applicationPool:TheThirdAppPool)

The number in number in the results is the process ID in the results is the Windows process ID (PID).

Now in Windows Task Manager, after having enable the PID column in View>Select Columns… you can identify the offending w3wp.exe by its PID.

If you have an easier way to do this, please post in the comments.

With the default configuration of IIS 7 you will not be able to serve the .wdp images requested by the HD View plugin in the clients browser. The user will get the “Could not create scene from file http://{your source path}/l_{l}/c_{c}/tile_{r}.wdp. hr=0x…” error message displayed instead of the HD View. As found in this discussion, it’s necessary to enable the image/vnd.ms-photo MIME type on the web server, which on IIS 7 is in done IIS Manager >> MIME Types:

Simply add a MIME Type for wdp and set the MIME type to image/vnd.ms-photo:
 

Then HD View content should display just fine. Hope it helps.