One of the great benefits of virtualization software, such as VirtualBox, the ability to clone an installation, use it, then remove it. Personally, I keep a backup of the original installation, up to date and loaded with common software. When I need a new machine for testing, I clone the original, reinitialize the MAC addresses, and get to work.

Unfortunately, a cloned machine will act as if it was never authenticated, since the clone process asssigns a new machine UUID. Thankfully, there is a simple workaround,

Continue reading →

In the early part of this decade, the Sony VAIO was a very impressive laptop, large displays, powerful processors an so on. unfortunately, they also had some flaws, not the least of which was some faulty soldering on the memory slots. This particular issue effected several models, and there are numerous sites and forums dedicated to fixing this issue. The best approach would be resoldering, however, if like me, you have neither the skill or equipment there is a low tech solution.

Continue reading →

Visual Studio 2005 (and 2008 EDIT: and 2010) has a great tool for fixing the tab stop values on any form, and it’s point and click! With your form open, use the ‘Layout’ toolbar and click the ‘Tab Order’ button.

Continue reading →

Thankfully, DUN (Dial-Up Networking) is a thing of the past for many of us, at least as far as internet connectivity goes. However, it can still be used to connect to simple VPNs.

Using DUN to facilitate simple VPN connections is great, until an application tries to access the internet with an address that does not exist or is non-responsive. Then you get this annoying little pop-up window asking you to connect to your VPN,

Continue reading →