Jwendl.NET

I wanted a feature similar to this for quite some time. Really it is one of the things that I missed from WordPress. The ability to take LaTeX (like ) based sequences and convert them to .png to display on my blog. You will also need to note that I did this on a self hosted environment, you may have to check with your hosting provider first to see if this will work for you. Here are the steps I took to achieve this:

1. Download MikTex portable from http://www.miktex.org/portable/about
2. Extract the zip file to a folder on your server (I chose c:\Tools)
3. Setup your IIS User in Windows (NOT IIS) to have Read+Execute permissions on the above folder
4. Make sure you are setup in Full Trust
5. Download the extension attached to this post into your ~/App_Code/Extensions folder
6. Setup the directory paths properly
7. Make sure the output directory is Read+Write permissions for your IIS User (in both Windows and IIS)

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Making your own home router for $500.00 (or less)

Getting sick of trying various consumer level SOHO routers, I decided to take my abilities to the next level. I wanted to build and configure my own gateway / router box. There are several steps to accomplish to do this yourself, and hopefully this post will illustrate the steps that I took.

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We got back in town on Saturday from our cruise to Alaska. The weather was pretty rainy, but accomodations were made to keep us occupied during the bad storms. I will have to say that the staff on board the Golden Princess were very friendly and accomodating. The land based excursions were the prize attractions.

The Golden Princes in her glory:

AlaskaCruise2009-001.jpg

Pam loves dolphins:

AlaskaCruise2009-010.jpg

The ZipLine excursion:

AlaskaCruise2009-219.jpg

The second night I had troubles with the swaying, so I ended up missing the first formal dinner night. I guess I am not as used to the water as I thought I would be. We were not able to get entry into Victoria Canada because of rough waters which makes me a bit sad because I wanted to see castles. Saftey of the crew and passengers is obviously more important though.

Just check out the rest of the photos in the photo gallery

If you have having issues connecting with people in Baldur's Gate 2 you will need to read the FAQ carefully. They used DirectPlay (from Direct X) to do the multiplayer. It requires both inbound and outbound ports forwarded for both sides of the game. Additionally, It requires these port settings on anything higher than Windows XP SP 2.

TCP: 2300 - 2400, 6073, 47000 - 49000

UDP: 2300 - 2400, 6073, 47000 - 49000

Hope this information helps someone else.

I integrated GalleryServerPro into BlogEngine.NET using the ASP.NET SQL Server Membership. Here are the steps that I went through to accomplish this.

Integrating GalleryServerPro with BlogEngine.NET (Please note this is for MS SQL Server installation using SQL Server Membership, you can tweak it to be anything you want this just worked for my setup)

1. Obtain GalleryServerPro from http://www.galleryserverpro.com/ (Please donate, this guy rocks!)
2. Compile the web application into a separate folder
3. Copy all of the .dll files from GalleryServerPro/Website/bin into your BlogEngine.NET/Bin folder
4. I created a folder called BlogEngine.NET/gallery to support the required files

This is the batch file that I use:

xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\gs\controls BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\controls\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\gs\handler BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\handler\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\gs\images BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\images\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\gs\pages BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\pages\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\gs\script BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\script\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\gs\services BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\services\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\gs\skins BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\skins\
REM xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\CodeFiles BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\App_Code\CodeFiles\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\Properties\* BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\Properties\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\App_GlobalResources\* BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\App_GlobalResources\
xcopy /Y /S GalleryServerPro\Website\bin\GalleryServerPro.Web.dll BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\Bin\
del /S /F BlogEngine\BlogEngine.NET\gallery\gs\*.designer.cs
echo DONE

Keep in mind that you need to call the delete command. Removing the *.designer.cs files are required to convert these control files from a web application to a website (since that is what BlogEngine.NET uses).

5. This step is the most complicated and difficult. Please be VERY aware of how to modify web.config files. If there is an error after these instructions it is 95% chance that it was an error inside this step.
6. Merge data from the GalleryServerPro/Website/web_sqlserver_2.0 (or GalleryServerPro/Website/web_sqlserver_3.5 depending what version of .NET Framework you have). into your BlogEngine.NET/web.config. I would strongly suggest backing up your old web.config file so you can redo it over again if things get too hairy.
7. Edit your global.asax file by adding this to the end of your void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) method
   Application["ComponentArtWebUI_AppKey"] = "This edition of ComponentArt Web.UI is licensed for Gallery Server Pro application only.";
8. Run the http://yoursitehere.com/gallery/Default.aspx?g=install and follow the Wizard
   After you upload the changes to your website follow these instructions on how to get the website setup http://www.galleryserverpro.com/support/GalleryServerProAdminGuide_v2_2_3286.pdf
9. After installing it look at BlogEngine.NET/gallery/gs/pages/install.ascx and change the setup option to false

You can visit my gallery by going to http://www.jwendl.net/gallery/

I also wrote an extension to convert [ gsp:1234 ] into a GalleryServerPro thumbnail. I am still working on it though, but here is the initial version.

GalleryServerPro.cs (3.13 kb)

It looks like the wizard class might be primarily the area of effect spell caster. Some of the new spells shown on the trailer and game play look really nice.

Wizard Trailer

I first wanted to say thank you to my friend Anbon for coaxing myself and my wife Pam to show up to Convergence this year! I saw many interesting people and sat through some pretty amazing sessions. Some people that I met were John Kovalic, Kenneth Hite and James Kakalios. I ended up learning a lot about gaming and role-playing that I did not even consider. As being a newbie to Convergence I would like to mention that I felt that the hotel they used for the Convention was too small to accommodate the amount of people that showed up. I will post photos from this when I get my photo gallery extensions figured out.

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I will be at this years Convergence convention in Bloomington, MN. I plan on bringing various games such as Munchkin, Lunch Money, Knightmare Chess and whatever else I fancy. If you plan on being there, you should comment or something. It would be nice to connect with people in the blogsphere.

I will be attending Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) for 2008 in Los Angles. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft has to offer as far as insight on the new tools goes. I am excited for the pre-conference session I signed up for also titled Performance by design using the .NET Framework. I plan on blogging about this when ever I can. So keep your eyes glued to my crappy blog and you may learn a thing or two.

Well it appears that the folks at Blizzard decided to scoop up individuals who were sick of playing World of Warcraft. It appears that Diablo III has already hit wikipedia (that means it's official right?)

The gameplay footage looks amazing. Currently, there is only two characters revealed. You know how Blizzard is though, they say something is going to be built and it comes out five years later.

Here is a few youtube videos of it: