Windows 8 Is Horrible - It Makes The Desktop Different Just To Be Different - NOT To Be Better

I am REALLY beginning to hate a company that I have loved for so many years and it makes me feel so sad! I just took the plunge and purchased a Windows 8 laptop. Trying to do simple things with this interface is now such a chore. I want to throw this crap across the room, go and get it, lay it down on the sidewalk, run over it four times with each one of my wheels, bring it back inside, beat it with a hammer, take it into the bathroom, pour water into it, throw it off of my rooftop deck, go back outside and pick it up off of my driveway and then drive to the nearest garbage bin, get out, jump up and down on it and THEN throw it in the dumpster! GIVE ME BACK THE SIMPLE DESKTOP LOOK THAT I COULD CONTROL - NOT THIS CRAP THAT CLUTTERS MY DESKTOP AND TAKES AWAY MY PREVIOUSLY PEACEFUL DESKTOP!!!

WHAT in the WORLD is Microsoft thinking? How do you take away ordinary things like the start menu? WHY would you move that? WHY would you change that? There are so many things in Windows 8 that are different for the sake of being different - NOT different because it made Windows better! I don't want a phone or tablet interface on my laptop! When I sit down to work, I don't want to see Facebook updates, Twitter information, the news, the weather, Jesus, Joseph or John! I just want to be able to QUICKLY click where I need to click and access my work!

Windows 8 makes productivity about as rare as a white elephant in the middle of Manhattan! There are so many unnecessary things going on! WHY? I would love to walk  up to the person who created this piece of crap and just smack them. That would be uncivilized, but I think unleashing this phone sized app for the desktop called Windows 8 was MORE uncivilized. It is completely horrible. I have to take a deep breath and calm myself down. As it stands, I'm typing this on one of my other laptops with Windows 7. Listen, if your Windows 7 works for you DO NOT UPGRADE OR MOVE TO WINDOWS 8! Microsoft does this crazy crap where they screw up every other generation so Windows 9 will likely be perfect! I'm so upset about Windows 8 that I don't ever want to touch another Microsoft product again - EVER! I am going to, but my emotions are spilling over right now. I have to get get my mind right and then get something to make this Windows 8 crap work properly.

MICROSOFT, EVERYONE DOES NOT WANT A DESKTOP SET UP LIKE A PHONE!
I HAVE ANDROID DEVICES, APPLE DEVICES AND WINDOWS BASED DEVICES. YOU ARE TRYING ENTIRELY TOO HARD TO MAKE SOMETHING THAT IS RELEVANT. HOWEVER, YOU CAN'T ALTER THE WAY PEOPLE WORK AND THINK IT WILL BE OK!!!

OK. I need to get myself a drink of water and calm my nerves. I have things to do and I now have to go search for Notepad. This reminds me of the Ribbon! How do you come out with the Ribbon and not provide a classic menu for those who don't have time to learn where everything is? I still don't use Office anymore. I use Google Docs and Open Office. I just wish there was a viable alternative to Windows. I have a Mac, but I need to use software that is Windows compatible. God I feel stuck between an Apple and a hard place!

I could understand and support a change that made it EASIER to work, but removing things like the start menu is just ridiculous! What purpose does it serve? How does a company like Microsoft, that had a good product twist it into this? I wish Microsoft would ask CUSTOMERS how it could make its products better instead of focusing on changing things to try to match other companies. Everything has its place. Desktops, phones, tablets, laptops - everything has its place. I have all 4 and I just don't want my laptop and my desktop to look like my phone. I don't feel like customizing Windows and downloading more crap to make this Windows 8 crap usable. I just don't. I need to relax before I use that computer again. This is almost enough to make me try to develop my own operating system. God I wish I had the time!

As a software developer, this places me in a hard spot. I hate this operating system so much that I don't want to develop for it. I know the world will go on whether I develop for it or not, but I know  many other people who are starting to feel exactly the same way. I can't believe it has come down to this.

Google can YOU save us......please?

How To Figure Out How Many Spheres Will Balance One Cube!

OK. There are times when we must divert attention from the really important things in our lives to the things that are going to cause us problems just because they exist. My child has to take a test. While preparing for that test, we went over an online test booklet that had various example problems. Here is the problem.
Kent is using the scale to compare the weight of various solids. How many spheres will balance one cube?

This is an example question on the Washington State Algebra End Of Course exam (also known as the WASL). It seems that a lot of people have struggled with this question, but it really is simple and it doesn't really require much math. In fact, I don't even understand why this question would be on an Algebra high school math test and not a seventh grade math test! So let's do this with almost no math. In the top equation you have this -

TOP EQUATION
SIDE ONE 4 Cubes 2 Triangles 3 Spheres	SIDE TWO 3 Cubes 4 Triangles 5 Spheres
BOTTOM EQUATION
SIDE ONE 1 Cube 1 Sphere	SIDE TWO 4 Triangles 2 Spheres

TOP EQUATION WITH CANCELLATIONS
4 Cubes leaves 1 Cube 2 Triangles 3 Spheres	3 Cubes 4 Triangles leaves 2 Triangles 5 Spheres leaves 2 Spheres
BOTTOM EQUATION WITH CANCELLATIONS
1 Cube 1 Sphere	4 Triangles 2 Spheres leaves 1 Sphere

So what does that tell you? With hardly no effort, you have learned that 1 Cube = 2 Spheres and 2 Triangles AND 1 Cube = 1 Sphere and 4 Triangles You found this just by cancelling things out. You can EASILY cancel in this problem because you know that 1 sphere = 1 sphere and 1 triangle = 1 triangle and 1 cube = 1 cube. NOW you just use patterns to find out how many spheres will balance on one cube.


FIND THE NEXT ITEM IN THE PATTERN

1 Cube =	4 Triangles	1 Sphere
1 Cube =	2 Triangles	2 Spheres
1 Cube =	0 Triangles	3 Spheres

So the answer is 3 Spheres (or B) and we did that all without any math. What does that tell you? More importantly, what does that tell me? As a parent, it tells me that the Washington State Math test isn't an accurate predictor of anything! What does this question prove? I solved this question in minutes without any real math. Why is this on an Algebra End Of Course test? Hmmmm.......

Solve The You don't have permission to access / on this server. Error On Apache

I am going to keep this short and simple.
When installing Wordpress on an Apache server, you may get a 403 error. Specifically, you might get this error when you try to access your site after an install.

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

This is so simple to solve. You simply have to enable script permissions on the serve. If you are on a host like Godaddy, this means that you go to the folder, select permissions and make sure the folder has Read and Execute permission for web users and Read, Write and Execute permissions for the Owner.

Simple right?

Smooches,

Kila Morton

How To Reset Your Brother HL-2240 After Toner Refill And How To Get Rid Of The Toner Light On The Brother HL-2240 When You Have Toner In The Machine

Printer companies want to make money. There is nothing wrong with that. I think ALL of us want to make money. However, there is a problem when a printer company is trying to take YOUR money when you don't want to part with it. Brother makes excellent small office laser printers. They make other larger office printers, but their small office laser printers are extremely easy to maintain and they last a very long time. The one issue they have is that Brother cartridges are ridiculously expensive. I say they are ridiculously expensive because, in my case, they cost more than I paid for the printer! I REFUSE to buy a cartridge that cost more than I paid for the printer! The only problem is that if you refill the toner cartridge that came with the printer (which you can do forever by the way - without replacing any gears or anything crazy like that), the toner light will stay on and you still won't be able to print. Well I have a solution for that!

I am going to show you how to reset your Brother HL-2240 when the toner light comes on. This will allow you to use generic toner cartridges without jumping through crazy hoops and it will allow you to simply refill the Brother cartridge your printer came with over and over again. You don't need reset gear that some companies sell and you CERTAINLY DO NOT need to buy expensive cartridges that Brother sells. I love Brother, but I don't love spending more than the cost of the printer when I need more toner. That is money better spent at the shoe store :-).

If you need toner refills, click on one of the links in the sidebar to find what you are looking for.

Here we go. Here is how you reset the toner light on your Brother HL 2240:

1. Turn your Brother HL-2240 off

2. Open the front cover of the printer

3. Press and hold Go and turn power on. Do not let the button go.

4. When all 3 lights light up, release the Go button.

5. Press the Go button twice (You will see the Ready light blink green every time you press the Go button)

6. All of the lights will light up

7. With all of the lights on, press and release the Go button 5 times  (You will see the Ready light blink green every time you press the Go button)

8. The Error light will start blinking (Don't be alarmed. This is expected.)

9. Close door and wait. The printer will cycle through and make the sound it makes when you initially cut it on. After that sound stops, your green Ready light will be on and solid.

10. You are now ready to print.

So there you go! Support the Brother corporation because they make fantastic printers! Go out and purchase a Brother HL-2240 printer - they are great -, BUT keep your hard earned money in your pocket when it comes to refilling your toner. Buy your toner off of eBay and refill the Brother cartridge that came with the printer. You will save yourself a TON of money over the long haul.

UPDATE - 7/3/2013  - BHL2 MAINTENANCE MODE                                                          
If you are having an issue in addition to the Toner reset problem, have mistakenly placed your printer into maintenance mode by pressing the Go button an incorrect number of times or you are encountering another problem, you can try resetting the printer to the factory default settings.

To perform a factory reset on your Brother HL-2240, you can  follow these instructions:

1. Check that the front cover of the printer is closed.
2. Turn OFF the power switch on the right side of the printer.
3. Press and hold the GO button, and keep holding it down, as you turn on the power switch.
4. Keep the GO button pressed down until all the LEDs light up and the Ready LED turns off. Release the GO button. Make sure that all the LEDs turn off.
5. Press the GO button 10 times. The Ready LED will flash while the printer is reset. After the printer is reset the Ready LED will be lit.

Smooches,
Kila Morton


Problem:
The toner light on your Brother HL-2240 is on.
You need to reset your Brother HL-2240.

Solution:
Follow the steps listed above.

Seeing the BHL2 Maintenance Mode message?
Reset your printer using the steps outlined above and THEN follow the instructions to reset your toner cartridge.

How To Solve Type 'ASP._Page__ViewStart_cshtml' does not inherit from 'System.Web.WebPages.StartPage'

OK. So you are using Asp.Net MVC 3 or 4 (or maybe even 2). You have created several Areas in your project and you have decided to move your _ViewStart.cshtml file to your root directory so you are adhering to the DRY principal and all of your Views in the main area of your site AND in your Areas will use it. You add the file to the root and you are really happy with yourself. There is just one problem. After you run your beautiful project, you get a nice big yellow screen complete with the following message -

Type 'ASP._Page__ViewStart_cshtml' does not inherit from 'System.Web.WebPages.StartPage'.

Great! Now what? The solution to this issue is simple. When you create an Area in an MVC application, the following information is automatically added to your web.config.

 

<configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
      <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>  
 

However, when you move that _ViewStart.cshtml file to the main area of your site, your main web.config does NOT have those areas in there already. You have to add them! Once you add those items to your web.config, you will be good to go. Add those sections, rebuild your project and now your Area Views and your main Views will all use the _Viewstart.cshtml file.


Problem:
You moved your _ViewStart.cshtml file to the root of your site and got the following error:

Type 'ASP._Page__ViewStart_cshtml' does not inherit from 'System.Web.WebPages.StartPage'.

Solution:
Add the following to your web.config file and recompile your application.

  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
      <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>
 

That's it!

Smooches,

Kila Morton

Solved: Azure Problem - There was no endpoint listening at that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details

OK. This little problem almost gave me a heart attack today. Thankfully, I have a strong heart.

Today I went to do an Azure deployment using Visual Studio. I have done this many times, so I anticipated my deployment going without a hitch. Boy was I wrong. You see earlier on in the day, I had a strange thing happen to me. Fiddler, which I love, crashed on my computer. I didn't think much of it at the time. However, it came back to haunt me in unexpected ways. Anyway, I tried to do the Azure deployment and I got a nice, fat error -

Error      1              Could not get the Windows Azure storage account settings for 'dc2assetsemea' needed to configure an application module. Please check your network connection and verify that the account exists. Details: There was no endpoint listening at https://blah/blah/blah/keysthat could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details.                

What? What in the world was THAT about! I have NEVER seen that error before. Now let me preface the rest of this post with this - I was in a time crunch and I needed this build up and running like John Edwards and Tiger Woods need image makeovers! I tried to use Cloud Xplorer to load some UI files and guess what? Nada! OMG! I had to take a deep breath and start digging. I couldn't find much of anything for a solution on this issue using my friend Google and Microsoft didn't have anything either. I came across an obscure entry by someone on Stack Overflow who asked about Fiddler. That got me thinking about the crash I had earlier in the day. I started researching Fiddler. Well, it turns out that Fiddler can and does screw a lot of things up if it crashes before it has a chance to run its process to reset your proxy settings. You could go from sailing on the Internet to not being able to get on at all. In my case, I could still get on the Internet using Firefox, but not IE. 

I went to my Internet settings to see what was there - Control Panel / Internet Options / Connections / Lan Settings. Well, well, well. There was NOTHING checked. Fiddler had fiddled me! I changed the proxy settings to Auto Detect and then I was back in business! WhooHoo! Yeah! So there you have it. When Fiddler hands you lemons, make a 4 course meal and then change your Internet Settings back to Auto Detect (or whatever they were) so you can get on with it!

Smooches,

Kila Morton

PROBLEM:

When using Visual Studio to deploy you get the following error -

Error      1              Could not get the Windows Azure storage account settings for 'dc2assetsemea' needed to configure an application module. Please check your network connection and verify that the account exists. Details: There was no endpoint listening at https://blah/blah/blah/keysthat could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details.    

SETTING:

Reset your Internet connection proxy settings.

On a Windows machine, go to Control Panel / Internet Options / Connections tab / Lan Settings and change the proxy to Auto Detect. Save everything and try your deployment again.

Solved "The cast to value type 'Int32' failed because the materialized value is null. Either the result type's generic parameter or the query must use a nullable type" When Using LINQ

I love LINQ! Do you know that about me? Actually, I REALLY LOVE LINQ! It is so useful for so many different queries. It really eliminates the need to have query code outside of your application sitting in a database. Of course, you have to make sure that your queries are generating good SQL, but it is really useful and a beautiful tool. With that said, you can run into moments when LINQ generates errors that don't offer immediate information on how to solve them. One of my queries generated an error. The fix was extremely simple so I thought I would include it here for anyone that has the same error.


When you are trying to use an aggregation (i.e. sum, max, min, etc), you might come across this issue. The issue is that you might have a time when you have no records in your database. Therefore, something like a sum would return null. What is a programmer to do? Ooh I know, I know! Use DefaultIfEmpty(0)!


There you have it! Problem solved! Now say some nice things about me in the comments....or not.


Smooches,


Kila Morton


*******************************************************************************


PROBLEM:


When using a LINQ query, you get the following error -

The cast to value type 'Int32' failed because the materialized value is null. Either the result type's generic parameter or the query must use a nullable type

Example bad query -

var iAddToValue = (from prod in db.Lists.Where(x => x.AccountId == list.AccountId)

                                     select prod.DisplayOrder)

                                     .Max() + 1;

SOLUTION
Add a DefaultIfEmpty(0) to your query.


Example good query -

var iAddToValue = (from prod in db.Lists.Where(x => x.AccountId == list.AccountId)
                                     select prod.DisplayOrder).DefaultIfEmpty(0)
                                     .Max() + 1;