Saturday, September 27, 2008

string format gotcha

here's a simple, inoffensive looking piece of code:

...
LogError(string.Format("some message, some variable value {0}" + ex.Message, varValue));
...

Can you spot the problem with this code?

Monday, September 08, 2008

poor's man way to mount images in WinXP

For those who don't know, you can mount an image (.ISO, .UDF, .CDFS, .JO, ROCK) in Windows XP and you don't have to burn to either CD or DVD, you can just load it and have it as a virtual drive and do everything you need to do with it from there

For those who do know about these tools but don't trust installing any tool you find on internet, there is a little tool from Microsoft that does just this in a very simple and effective way

just download the Virtual CDRom Control Panel tool from Microsoft and follow the instructions on the readme file:

1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder.
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click "Driver control"
4. If the "Install Driver" button is available, click it. Navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open.
5. Click "Start"
6. Click OK
7. Click "Add Drive" to add a drive to the drive list. Ensure that the drive added is not a local drive. If it is, continue to click "Add Drive" until an unused drive letter is available.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click "Mount".
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click "OK". UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM device. When you are finished you may unmount, stop, and remove the driver from memory using the driver control.

that's it