Burn audio CDs using iTunes for Windows

iTunes Version 10
Although audio CDs seem to be obsolete, there are some cases that CDs are still relevant. In this post, I will explain how to create an audio CD using iTune. Unfortunately, the procedure is not that intuitive which can be attributed to the fact that CDs are not being used anymore.

1. Create a playlist as follows:
   1. From menu choose File>New Playlist. A new entry will be created under playlists (left pane).
   2. Name your new playlist; I’ll name it MyCD.
   3. On the left pane select Music under LIBRARY.
   4. Highlight the songs you’d like to burn to the CD (hold Ctrl + Click).
   5. Right click and select Add to playlist>MyCD. If you didn’t name the playlist MyCD which I’m sure you didn’t, replace MyCD with the name you chose for your playlist.
2. Now that the playlist is ready we can easily burn it to CD by right-clicking on it and selecting Burn playlist to Disc.
3. On Burn Setting windows, select Audio CD and click Burn. Obviously you need a blank CD in your driver.

I hope this post helps the few that proudly still use audio CDs.

Using other search engines with Google Chrome

Google Chrome Version 12

Chrome address bar (Omnibox) allows users to directly search the internet. Users can set a search engine as their default engine and at any time they can use the address bar to perform their searches. That’s a very helpful feature of Chrome however we sometimes require to use multiple search engines or even search content of certain sites.

To accommodate this need, Chrome allows you to define search engines and quickly and easily access them.

The following shows you how you can add Wikipedia as a search engine to Chrome.

• Open Chrome and click on the wrench button.
• Click on Options
• From the left pane choose Basics
• Click on Manage search engines…
• At this point a page opens up containing two section namely Default search options and Other search engines. Under Other search engines, you can define your own search engine. At the bottom of the section, you’ll see Add a new search engine. That is where you specify the name you would call your new search engine with. I’ll call it Wikipedia; you may choose any name you’d like. In the second column or Keyword, you need to specify a shorthand for your search engine; this can be anything however you need to remember it when you want to search. I will use _wiki. The reason for starting with underscore is so Chrome doesn’t confuse it with other things it cached such as you previous search queries.In the third column or URL, specify the URL of the search engine. It is not always URL of the website that the search is provided within. This is very crucial to find the correct URL since if you specify an incorrect URL, you will not be able to search at all.To find the correct URL, you need to lookup a word using your search engine and take the URL that you land on and replace the word you searched with %s.

Here is how it should be done for Wikipedia.

• 1. Go to http://www.wikipedia.com
• 2. In the search box type in MySearch and push enter
• 3. You will land on a page with the following URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysearch
• 4. Replace MySearch with %s as follows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s

That’s it.

Now here is how you use the new search engine:

• 1. Open a new tab
• 2. type _wiki
• 3. Push Tab and notice that Chrome address bar at the left-side showing Search Wikipedia.
• 4. Type your query and push enter

Note that Chrome allows you to change the default search engine. If you set your entry in Search Engines page to default, you can type your query directly in the address bar and push enter to search; You can skip steps 2 and 3.

Software Version Disclaimer

Please note that the point made in the post might not apply to next or previous versions of the software.

Ensure web application security by correct web.config configuration

In his article Bryan Sullivan explains about the most common mistakes in web.config file that leads to web site vulnerabilities.

It's easy to overlook these mistakes in web.config. Moving the application from one stage to another without modifying web.config is one of the common mistakes.

The following is the list of vulnerabilities; It can be used as a checklist for ensuring that the deployed product is protected from the most common web.config security flaws. For more details about each entry in the list, please read the complete article linked to at the bottom of the page.

1. Custom Errors Disabled.
2. Leaving Tracing Enabled in Web-Based Applications.
3. Debugging Enabled.
4. Cookieless Session State Enabled.
5. Cookieless Authentication Enabled.
6. Failure to Require SSL for Authentication Cookies.
7. Sliding Expiration Used.
8. Non-Unique Authentication Cookie Used.
9. Hardcoded Credentials Used.

 

Read the complete article at:

Application Security Vulnerabilities in Web.config Files Part One and Part Two by Bryan Sullivan.

Disabling "See this location in bird's eye view" message

To disable the message, add the following to your style sheet:

 

#MSVE obliquenotification

{ visibility:hidden}

 

Source:

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2008/09/22/disabling-the-bird-s-eye-view-indicator.aspx

Error connecting to undo manager of source file

Issue

Above error message appears when user tries to debug a web application in Visual Studio 2005.

Solution

This error message can be fixed by simply deleting the designer file (aspx.designer.cs/aspx.designer.vb) of the page that is causing the error; you can get the page name from the complete error message you are receiving.

To recreate the designer file, right click on the page ASPX file and click on Convert to Web Application.

That will fix the problem.

User control properties do not show up on IDE property window

Issue

When you place a user control (.ascx) on a page, public properties of the user control do not appear on the IDE's property window.

Solution

In order for the properties to show in property window, it must be a public property and also have definition for both get and set accessors.

If the above conditions are met and still the property is not accessible by property window, just close and reopen the page on which you placed the user control.