Monday, March 24, 2008

ActiveSync Remote Display for Windows Mobile 5.0 Devices

The Problem


"ActiveSync Remote Display" (ARD) version 2.03 does not support Windows Mobile 5.0. If a Windows Mobile 5.0 device is connected to a PC through ActiveSync, when you start the program, you will see a dialog with title: "Remote Display for Windows CE" and error message: "The OS or CPU of this device is unknown to this application". After you click OK,it will show another error dialog and a blank screen.

Work Around


To Enable ActiveSync Remote Display


Go to directory: C:\Program Files\Windows Mobile Developer Power Toys\ActiveSync_Remote_Display\devices\wce400\armv4
Copy the two files to the Windows directory on the mobile device.

To Use the ActiveSync Remote Display


  • Start the ARD program;

  • You will see the same error dialog as before, click "OK";

  • There will no longer be the second error dialog and you will see the screen shown on the PC or laptop;

  • After you are done, click on the ARD icon on the Mobile Device and select exit (if you simply close the remote display on the PC end, the ARD will still be running on the mobile device);

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Embed Silverlight Streaming in Blogger

I tried to post a video hosted on Microsoft Silverlight Streaming service in the previous post. This post will show you how to embed Silverlight in a Blogger post.

1. Source code to embed the video in Blogger post. Notice, since Blogger tend to insert <br/> for new lines, the Javascript segment has to be on a single line:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://agappdom.net/h/silverlight.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">function CreateSilverlight() { Silverlight.createHostedObjectEx( { source:"streaming:/[account ID]/MovieTest", parentElement:Wrapper_MovieTest}); } </script>
<div id="Wrapper_MovieTest" style="width: 640px; height: 480px;"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">var Wrapper_MovieTest = document.getElementById("Wrapper_MovieTest"); CreateSilverlight(); </script>


2. manifest.xml (required for Microsoft Silverlight Streaming upload)

<SilverlightApp>
<source>Movie.xaml</source>
<version>1.1</version>
<width>100%</width>
<height>100%</height>
<enableHtmlAccess>true</enableHtmlAccess>
<jsOrder>
<js>Movie.xaml.js</js>
</jsOrder>
</SilverlightApp>


3.Movie.xaml (stage layout)

<Canvas x:Name="movieCanvas"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Width="640" Height="480" Background="White" MouseEnter ="mouseEnter"
MouseLeave ="mouseLeave">

<MediaElement x:Name="movie" Source="Lake.wmv"/>
<Canvas MouseLeftButtonDown="moviePlay"
Canvas.Left="10" Canvas.Top="365">
<TextBlock Canvas.Left="5" Canvas.Top="5" Visibility="Collapsed" x:Name="playButton" Foreground="White">Play</TextBlock>
</Canvas>
<Canvas MouseLeftButtonDown="moviePause"
Canvas.Left="70" Canvas.Top="365">
<TextBlock Canvas.Left="5" Canvas.Top="5" Visibility="Collapsed" x:Name="pauseButton" Foreground="White">Pause</TextBlock>
</Canvas>
<Canvas MouseLeftButtonDown="movieStop"
Canvas.Left="130" Canvas.Top="365">
<TextBlock Canvas.Left="5" Canvas.Top="5" Visibility="Collapsed" x:Name="stopButton" Foreground="White">Stop</TextBlock>
</Canvas>
</Canvas>


4. Movie.xaml.js (event handler, logic)

function movieStop(sender, args) {
sender.findName("movie").stop();
}
function moviePause(sender, args) {
sender.findName("movie").pause();
}
function moviePlay(sender, args) {
sender.findName("movie").play();
}

function mouseEnter(sender, args) {
setControlVisibility(sender, "Visible");
}

function mouseLeave(sender, args) {
setControlVisibility(sender, "Collapsed");
}

function setControlVisibility(sender, visibility) {
sender.findName("playButton").visibility = visibility;
sender.findName("stopButton").visibility = visibility;
sender.findName("pauseButton").visibility = visibility;
}


Files 2-4 and the movie are added to a zip file and uploaded to the Microsoft Silverlight Streaming host.

P.S.
You might also be interested in the following previous posts:



Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Microsoft Silverlight Streaming Service Test

This is a test of Microsoft Silverlight Streaming -- a free service that provides 4GB online space for Silverlight application hosting. You will need Silverlight 1.1 or higher to see the content. Move mouse over the video to see the movie controls. Resources for this implementation: a video file from Windows Vista, Silverlight 1.1 SDK, Visual Studio Express (Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition), and a Microsoft Silverlight Streaming account.




Monday, December 10, 2007

"Newer Version" of GMail does not like Firefox

It is hard to believe, but our old faithful Google is producing a newer version which is badder than the older version.

I am generally happy with Firefox. But after the "newer" version of GMail is out, I am forced to use IE more, because Firefox will crash on GMail before I can do anything. These are frequent places of crash:

- send a new email;
- browse trash or spam folder;
- close a tab with GMail;

After switch to the "older" version of GMail, the crash problem goes away immediately. Hopefully the next "newer" version of GMail will be a better one.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Embedding Chart in Web Pages Made Easy

This week, embedding charts in your web page (either dynamic or static) is made extremely easy by the release of two new tools by Yahoo and Google. Both released free tools to help create chart online.

I am not sure if this is competition between Yahoo and Google or just coincidence. The two tools are released within the same week (this week):
YUI 2.4.0 released on 12/04/2007
Google Chart API released on 12/06/2007

The two tools actually complement each other.

Google Chart API:

Nothing can describe it better than the following text on their web site:
The Google Chart API lets you dynamically generate charts. To see the Chart API in action, open up a browser window and copy the following URL into it:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=s:hW&chs=250x100&chl=Hello|World

Press the Enter or Return key ...
Pros:
- absolutely the simplest and the easiest chart tool I have ever seen;
- there is no CPU overhead on your web server and client's computer;
Cons:
- may have problem serving chart over SSL (at least IE will complain about secure and non-secure content on the same page);
- chart is static, no user interaction;
- very limited control over chart's look and feel;
- can only show limited data range;
- can only show limited number of data points;
- your data has to be sent to a Google server, it may be a security concert;

Below is a sample chart serve by Google Chart API. It is the real thing! Served dynamically from Google's server farms! It takes me only 20 seconds to embed it into this blog.




Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI):

YUI implementation is based on a Flash component. You will need to write JavaScript to control the data and look&feel on the Flash chart.
Pros:
- Rich user interaction (there is potential to allow user zoom, pan, or edit charts);
- More control over look and feel;
- Can show more data;
- Can be hosted on your own server (no worry about Google being BIG BROTHER or going BANKRUPT);
- Less Internet traffic is required (only need to download data, not PNG or any other image files);
- Can serve live data (again, only data download is needed, we can afford to update the chart frequently);
Cons:
- substantial JavaScipt programming and HTML editing is required;
- end user need to have Flash Player 9.0.45 or higher (not many people have that as on December 2007);
- end user's computer must have some spare CPU power, especially when multiple charts are embedded on the web page;

As an obvious proof of the difficulty to start using YUI, I am not willing to try to embed a sample chart here in my blog! :-(

The Verdict:
If you want a simple chart embedded on a static page or your blog, use Google Chart API.
If you have total control of your web server, and want to create powerful dynamic charts, use YUI 2.4.0's experimental chart component.

Last Words:
Of course, if you have enough server side CPU power and deep programming knowledge, server side chart rendering always give you ultimate control over the look and feel of your charts. On this end, you have these great open source libraries to help you: ZedGrap (C#), JFreeChart (Java), ASTRA (Flash).

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Error Installing ActiveX in IE

If an ActiveX component fails to install in IE, to find out the source of the problem, you just need to select IE menu: Tools > Internet Options, click "Settings" button in the "Browsing history" group, then click the "View files" button. There should be a file named like this: "?CodeDownloadErrorLog!name={XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}". This is the error log that contains a bit more information to help find the source of installation failure. The above description is based on IE 7, you should be able to find similar options in other IE versions.

In my specific case, the error log looks like this:

*** Code Download Log entry (07 Nov 2007 @ 10:01:26) ***
Code Download Error: (hr = 800c0300) Unknown Error!!
Operation failed. Detailed Information:
...

...
LOG: Item mfc42.dll being processed.
ERR: INF Processing: Failed (800c0300) processing: mfc42.dll
. Cannot get primary/default language!LOG: URL Download Complete: hrStatus:0, hrOSB:800c0300, hrResponseHdr:0, URL:(*****.CAB)
LOG: Reporting Code Download Completion: (hr:800c0300 (FAILED), CLASSID: e45975a1..., szCODE:(*****.cab), MainType:(null), MainExt:(null))


Below is the related section in the .inf file:

[mfc42.dll]
FileVersion=6,2,4131,0
file=http://[Web Server]/libraries.cab
RegisterServer=no
DestDir=11


After I commented out the "FileVersion" parameter, the ActiveX component is installed successfully.

[mfc42.dll]
;FileVersion=6,2,4131,0
file=http://[Web Server]/libraries.cab
RegisterServer=no
DestDir=11

Since the problem only happens on Windows 2000 computers, and my development environment in Windows XP Pro. I suspect that the MFC42 library provided by me may not be compatible with Win2000. Or the MFC42 is already in use by Win2000, and Win2000 have difficulty upgrading to the newer version provided by me.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Reboot Remote Computer

"Remote Desktop" makes it easy to manage Windows computers remotely.

But, if you want to reboot the remote computer, you will be frustrated. Because there is no "Shut Down" button on the start menu. The trick is to click on the "Windows Security" menu which will bring up the "Windows Security" dialog which gives you the options to "Shut Down..." computer. You can also use the shortcut: Ctrl+Del+End to access the "Windows Security" dialog.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Aptana Out of Beta: 1.0 Released

Just noticed that Aptana has been out of beta. In the 2.0 era when everything stays "BETA" forever, this is a rare achievement.

In version 1.0, an open-source Community edition and a commercial Professional edition are available at the same time. The professional edition definitely deserves the nominal price it asked for. But as its name suggests, only professionals really have an urge for that edition. The free Community edition has enough features for 90 percent of its potential users.

My main IDE is still Visual Studio 2005. But the Javascript editor in Aptana is the best I ever seen. Its auto-complete is way better than even the latest Visual Studio 2008 Beta2.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

JSLint with ANT

jslint4java:
"This is a java wrapper around the fabulous tool by Douglas Crockford, jslint. It provides a simple interface for detecting potential problems in JavaScript code."


With this tool, batch scan JavaScript files with JSLint is a piece of cake. Here is a sample ANT target:

<target name="jslint.src.js" depends="init">
<description>scan javascript files using jslint</description>
<apply executable="java" parallel="false" failonerror="false">
<arg value="-jar" />
<arg file="${tools.dir}/${jslint}" />
<arg value="--bitwise" />
<arg value="--browser" />
<arg value="--undef" />
<arg value="--widget" />
<srcfile />
<sort xmlns:rcmp="antlib:org.apache.tools.ant.types.resources.comparators">
<rcmp:name />
<fileset dir="${web.js.dir}">
<include name="**/*.js" />
<exclude name="**/YUI/**" />
<exclude name="**/*-min.js" />
<exclude name="**/*-debug.js" />
</fileset>
</sort>
</apply>
</target>


For ease of future reference, JSLint output can be redirected to a text file:
ANT jslint.src.js > jslintreport.txt

YUI Compressor in ANT

Here is a sample ANT target to batch minify all JavaScript files using YUI Compressor:


<target name="js.minify" depends="init">
<description>minify js files</description>
<apply executable="java" parallel="false" failonerror="true">
<arg value="-jar" />
<arg file="${tools.dir}/${yuicompressor}" />
<arg value="--nomunge" />
<!-- line break set at 20 characters, so that we can get many line breaks, this
is good for debugging in IE-->
<arg value="--line-break" />
<arg value="20" />
<arg value="--preserve-strings" />
<arg value="--preserve-semi" />
<arg value="--charset" />
<arg value="ISO-8859-1" />
<arg value="-o" />
<targetfile />
<srcfile />
<!-- files are processed in alpha-order so that we can know the progress,
and easily identify the file that is failed.-->
<sort xmlns:rcmp="antlib:org.apache.tools.ant.types.resources.comparators">
<rcmp:name />
<fileset dir="${src.dir}">
<include name="**/*.js" />
<exclude name="**/YUI/**" />
<!-- avoid cycling -->
<exclude name="**/*-min.js" />
</fileset>
</sort>
<!-- define output file name -->
<mapper type="glob" from="*.js" to="*-min.js" />
</apply>
</target>

About YUI Compressor: it is a tool to minimize JavaScript and CSS files. I have used it for more 6 months on a public web site without any problem.

About ANT:
I have been using APACHE ANT for 7 years, since 2001. To me, an ANT build file structure is more intuitive and scalable than MAKE files.
Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, but without Make's wrinkles.

This is the post that gets me started on this direction:
Building Web Applications With Apache Ant

Friday, September 28, 2007

Open Source File in Visual Studio 2005 with Auto-Complete

Just discovered this convenient feature of Visual Studio. It is not well publicized by Microsoft, but I believe it is one of those hidden gems of VS2005.

If you type ">open" followed with the file name in the "Command Windows" or "Find/Command Box", Visual Studio will search the whole solution and try to auto-complete the file name for you (see screenshot below).


There are 2 other approaches to open a source file in VS2005: 1. use the open file dialog; 2. expand the solution tree and double click on the file of interest.

This feature is very useful when you have solution with many projects. If you can remember the file's name, this feature allow you to open a file in under 10 seconds. With the other 2 approaches, you will have to browse up and down the project trees to find the file.

100,000 + 100 = 65635? Excel 2007 bug

100,000 + 100 = 65635?

The math is not right, but apprently Microsoft Excel 2007 wants you to believe that. See the screenshot below:


Ok, this is a recently published bug: when you ask Excel to multiply 77.1 by 850, it will show you 100,000, although it knows the correct answer. It messes up when formatting the answer on the screen. In cell A1, I actually have formular: "=77.1*850". :-)

Friday, August 31, 2007

YUI widget "Dialog" now depends on "Button Control"

Environment: YUI 2.3, IE 7.0

This is another problem I discovered during update from YUI 0.12 to YUI 2.3. As always, when updating library, there are many surprises that you have to run into.

Problem: Error message: "Error: Function expected" appears when I call the "render" method of YUI "Dialog" control a second time on the web page. Turn out the offending line is here: container.js, line: 6373,
if (oButton instanceof YAHOO.widget.Button) {

Why: The new "Dialog" implementation depends on the "Button" control now. Due to the above offending line, the dependency is not "optional" as stated in the documentation even if you don't use the new button control. If you don't include "button.js", you program will break at the above point.

Fix: If you are willing to change the source code, we can change the offending line to something like this:
if (YAHOO.widget.Button && oButton instanceof YAHOO.widget.Button) {
BUT, I am 80% sure, at another line, or in another control, I may run into the same problem again.
So, the best bet is to include "Button.js" to my web page.

Friday, August 24, 2007

ASTRA -- Open Source ActionScript 3.0 Library From Yahoo

Here is a first look of ASTRA: ActionScript Toolkit for Rich Applications.
ASTRA, the ActionScript Toolkit for Rich Applications, is Yahoo!’s collection of Flash and Flex components, libraries, toolkits and advanced applications. These libraries are open-source and available under the BSD license.

The "Flash Componet Library" is the library that really draws my interest. I only looked at this library. I guess, however, the "Web APIs Library" is the one YAHOO really want people getting attached too. :-)

The download is a complete package that starts to be useful within seconds
The download (9.6 MB) contains complete documentation, source code with detailed comments, examples, and binaries that can be installed into Flash CS3 directly. If you are only interested in using the components, you only need to double click the file "astra.mxp", the components will automatically installed and you can start to use it in Flash CS3. You will find the new components under "yahoo" folder. (Notice: if double click "astra.mxp" does not lead you to anything, please check you have installed "Adobe Extension Manager", a separate installation that can be downloaded here: http://www.adobe.com/exchange/em_download/. It is not installed when you first install Flash CS3.)

Small Footprint
All the .swf files in example directory are no more than 50 KB (even chart samples).

Excellent learning tool
If you have reservation on using "Beta" libraries in your product, there may still be reason to have a look at this library. It's source code is fully commented, and neatly organized. This make it a great tool for beginners who are learning to use ActionScript 3.0 and trying to understand object-oriented programming.

Problems
As I said, being a "beta" library, we should expect a lot of bugs. After about 10 minutes playing with chart. I already found a few things worth mentioning. The Flash I created is here: http://huguogang.googlepages.com/testAstra.html
1. Rotated chart cannot be shown properly (although preview on the design surface seems to be ok);
2. Error handling of chart data is weak. It do not show any error message if "dataProvider" has string values. I also managed to make X axis shift to the right by 1 unit, which I don't know why it happens;

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Error: "YAHOO.util.CustomEvent is not a constructor"

The Problem: This error message ("YAHOO.util.CustomEvent is not a constructor") appears after I update my YUI library from 0.12 to the latest release (2.3). There was no such error before the update.

The Why: The new Container in YUI implementation fires CutomEvent at various stage, thus is dependent on the event utility. In my old web pages, the .js files happened to be included in the wrong orders (container.js was included before event.js) and caused this error message.

The Fix: include "event.js" before "container.js". Better yet, try the new YUILoader utility which claims to be able to load the correct libraries automatically.

The Lesson: Whenever you see an error like "[XYZ] is not a contructor", try to check for typo then file dependence.

Link: Also see this thread on YUI discussion group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ydn-javascript/messages/16266?threaded=1&m=e&var=1&tidx=1

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Using SyntaxHighlighter on BLOGGER

SyntaxHighlighter is a
Free syntax highlighter written in JavaScript
It can insert colored code snippets on a web page using client-side javascript only. It is ideal tool for users of BLOGGER because we do not have server side resource to parse and highlight the code. And we are lazy, we do not want to write a lot of CSS to just post a code snippet. :-).

However it takes a little twisting to make it work properly.

Below are the steps to setup:
1. Download and find a place to host the library files for SyntaxHighlighter. A free choice is, of course, Google Page Creator;
2. Login to BLOGGER, go to: "Settings > Template > Edit HTML", make the following changes (credit goes to yehyeh's blog):

</div></div> <!-- end outer-wrapper -->
<link href='http://[YOUR HOST]/SyntaxHighlighter.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>
<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shCore.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shBrushCpp.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shBrushCSharp.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shBrushCss.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shBrushJava.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shBrushJScript.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shBrushSql.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://[YOUR HOST]/shBrushXml.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<script class='javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
function FindTagsByName(container, name, Tag)
{
var elements = document.getElementsByTagName(Tag);
for (var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++)
{
if (elements[i].getAttribute("name") == name)
{
container.push(elements[i]);
}
}
}
var elements = [];
FindTagsByName(elements, "code", "pre");
FindTagsByName(elements, "code", "textarea");

for(var i=0; i < elements.length; i++) {
if(elements[i].nodeName.toUpperCase() == "TEXTAREA") {
var childNode = elements[i].childNodes[0];
var newNode = document.createTextNode(childNode.nodeValue.replace(/<br\s*\/?>/gi,'\n'));
elements[i].replaceChild(newNode, childNode);

}
else if(elements[i].nodeName.toUpperCase() == "PRE") {
brs = elements[i].getElementsByTagName("br");
for(var j = 0, brLength = brs.length; j < brLength; j++) {
var newNode = document.createTextNode("\n");
elements[i].replaceChild(newNode, brs[0]);
}
}
}
//clipboard does not work well, no line breaks
// dp.SyntaxHighlighter.ClipboardSwf =
//"http://[YOUR HOST]/clipboard.swf";
dp.SyntaxHighlighter.HighlightAll("code");
//]]>
</script>

</body>
</html>


3. Now you can post code snippet on BLOGGER using either "pre" or "textarea" tag.

Notice:
  1. The solution above is found here: http://yehhou.blogspot.com/2007/06/blogger-dpsyntaxhighlighter.html. That blog was written in Chinese. I made some minor changes and posted here. The reason for the Javascript code to remove <br/> tags is because BLOGGER has a setting to automatically add <br/> where there is line break. It is very convenient feature for blog posters, but somehow syntax highlighter will display the <br/> tag in plain text;
  2. Clipboard for the SyntaxHighlither does not work well here. It tends to give you the text without line breaks, so I commented out the Javascript that setup the clipboard function;
  3. When posting HTML code, remember to replace < with &lt;, and replace > with &gt;;
Next:
Now you've got beautiful code in your blog, next step might be some nice charts for your blog. You will find a way to embed a chart with one line HTML code here: Embedding Chart in Web Pages Made Easy
And, here is a post to show you how to Embed Silverlight video on Blogger:Embed Silverlight Streaming in Blogger

Update 11/11/2008
There are a few questions and comments regarding script hosting. .NET Dev posted an interesting idea here:
http://urenjoy.blogspot.com/2008/10/publish-source-code-in-blogger.html

Basically, he setup the links directly to the trunk location of SyntaxHighlighter project.

Update 07/07/2010
I found using gist.github.com is way easier to paste syntax highlighted code in blogger. Here is my post showing you how to use it:

Syntax Highlighting on Blogger - Gist

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Free Screen Capture Tools for Windows

Here are two free screen capture tools that work decently well for small tasks:

1. CamStudio 2.0: Open Source software that comes with Visual Studio solution, and Win32 installation package. It works very well. Can capture to .AVI, and has a tool to convert AVI file to .SWF file and a HTML template to embed the Flash file. The captured file size is big. 40 seconds capture generated 20MByte AVI file and 1.5MByte SWF file.
Links:
SourceForge Host: http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/
CamStudio - Free Streaming Video Desktop Recording Software
: read the "Issues" section on this page. You will need to manually edit the generated HTML template in order for it to play in Firefox or Netscape.

2. Windows Media Encoder: Free Microsoft tool for video capture and editing. Capture result is WMV file format. File size is very small. But I recommend to use at least medium quality option which will generate a 500 KByte WMV file for 40 seconds capture.
Links:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx

My environment: Windows XP Professional, Dual Monitor

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Javascript "Empty Statement"

Spot anything wrong in the Javascript below?
var a=[];
//initialize array
for(int i = 0; i < 10; i++);
{
a[i] = 100;
}

Values in array a will be:
[undefined, undefined, 100]

The semicolon at the end of the for loop forms an "Empty Statement". So a[i]=100; is actually outside of the for loop!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Reload Magellan MobileMapper CE OS Firmware

Where to download MobileMapper CE OS Firmware Image


Some Magellan official documentations have this out-dated information about location of MobileMapper CE OS firmware download location:
"The current version of MobileMapper CE Operating System (OS) firmware can be downloaded from ftp.magellangps.com in the /Mobile Mapping/MM CE/Firmware/OS Firmware/ folder."
This turned out to be out-dated information. The above directory does not exist on the FTP server. After some digging, I found the OS firmware in this zip file: ftp://ftp.magellangps.com/Mobile%20Mapping/MM%20CE/Firmware/MMCE_Receiver_FW.zip
Notice: the above FTP location is accurate as 7/18/2007, may be changed by Magellan.

What Happened


I saw low battery warning on the device. Naturally, I select "Full Shut Down" to allow the system do a proper backup. This turned out to be a mistake. Apparently, battery was out before the device can fully shut-down, and the OS firmware image is corrupted. After this, upon each reboot, I am asked to calibrate stylus, then there are 2 dialogs:
Dialog 1: dialog title: "Warning", Text: "This is a Rescue Image! The
Main Image failed to start. Press "Cancel" to Retry Main Image. Press
"OK" to continue with Rescue Image."
After I press "OK" which is the only button on the dialog, I am lead to
the second dialog:
Dialog 2: dialog title "OS Loader", Text: "Please choose a new image
file. The image file cannot be in the MyDevice directory."
After I press "OK", an "Open File" dialog appears with option to load a
file type: Image Files (*.nbx).

Following the instruction in "Getting Started Guide", page 61 "Updating MobileMapper CE OS Firmware", I was able to load the OS image I downloaded from Magellan. The system seems to be back to proper working order afterwards.

Lesson Learned


When you have low battery warning, rather than to risk corrupt the OS firmware image, it is probably better to wait for the battery to die out or, if possible, recharge the battery immediately.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Invoke CTRL-ALT-DELETE on Remote Desktop

When you are connected to other Windows computer using Remote Desktop Connection, the combination CTRL-ALT-DELETE will invoke the local computer's logon screen or task manager. Use CTRL-ALT-END to invoke it on the remote computer.