SQL Server 2008 Install Problems with VS2008 SP1 installed

• Posted by mcbeev on October 30, 2008
• 0 comments

Phew! That's quite the title for a blog post. This week I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my main work machine to SQL Server 2008 because SSIS finally supports C# Script Tasks in it.

So After hunting and pecking through all the install screens I finally got to the main pre-install tests. And to my surprise the installer died on the VSShellInstalledRule rule. This is strange because its telling me that I don't have the RTM SP1 installed for Studio, which I have had for a couple months now.

So after checking out this blog post, I still was having no luck,  and no I have never installed any express editions on this machine.

Now this was starting to annoy me. Other fixes I found, including this MSKB support article told me I should uninstall VS 2008 all the way and start over, or not install the BI tools with SQL 2008. Ummm I don't think so.

You see I work various .Net projects for multiple clients. The headache of uninstalling Studio and re-setting up everything gives me nightmares. And the tools are one of the great reasons to upgrade in the first place.

After searching through a ton of install logs, I finally found it referencing some registry keys (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DevDiv\VS\Servicing\9.0) that said RTM and not SP1. Ah ha I thought. I manually changed them to SP1 and re-ran the check. It worked! or so I thought. The check passed but after running the installation it errored on installing the tools.

After more googling I saw that someone had problems with the TFS plugin to studio. That was the next to go, but again the install errored.

So I started checking other plugins and after un-installing Visual Studio Tools for Applications the installation actually worked.

Wow what a headache.

So if you have the same problem the summary is, un-install any express editions, and / or any old plugins to 2008.

Google's Browser: Chrome

• Posted by Mcbeev on September 2, 2008
• 0 comments

This morning when I saw the news about a new browser being released I thought to myself.  Awww #$%^%, thats all's I need is another stupid rendering engine to write code for. Not even 20 mins later my client came in and said hey did you see the thing about the new Google browser ? Again @#$$#@, and I waived him out of the room and told him not to get excited about such things because it would just cause him to have to have me work more.

However, I was wrong, dead wrong.

After reading the introduction here. I was impressed, even if was in comic book style.

So I fired up the download over at google.com, and got it installed on my home machine here.

I have more testing to do, but so far it seems snappy, and I really like the start page and UI improvements. It would be real interesting to see if I could hookup the Visual Studio debugger or something to this and see what the performance is really like. More review to come later.

Edit 1: Just found a problem with ASP.NET's AJAX Extensions. Modal Popup doesnt quite work right. Maybe I shouldnt get so excited. 

Edit 2: It does have a built in DOM Inspector, Memory Footprint viewer and Javascript console. So many points for that.

Edit 3: The opening speed is very impressive, and I like the default home page with the 9 most recent viewed pages as well.

Geek Aid - promoting education through music and art

• Posted by Mcbeev on August 14, 2008
• 0 comments

Geek Aid is here and upon us again. BizStream is one of the main sponsors once again. This year the festival benefits the Grand Rapids public schools so you have no reason not to join us down there. I will be volunteering in the beer tent. Yeah I know rough duty for sure. More info can be found on the site but here is the important stuff to know:

GeekAid 2008
Saturday, August 16th, 12pm – 8pm
Riverside Park, Grand Rapids, MI

What's going on at GeekAid?
2008 Schedule
12:30 - 1:30pm        Blackberry Winter
1:45  - 2:40pm         The Gruv Unit 
2:45  - 3:15pm         Essex
3:15 - 4:10pm          Griff and John's Afterhours Experience                        
4:15 - 5:10pm          Ralston Bowles
5:15 - 6:10pm          Four Lincolns
6:15 - 6:30pm          1444 Lake Dr. Drummers
6:35 - 7:30pm          Karisa Wilson
7:45 - 8:45pm          The Truckstop Cobras     
    * Silent Art Auction
    * An assortment of food and drink
    * New in 2008 -- The GeekAid Beer Tent!

A Stormy Drive Home

• Posted by mcbeev on July 2, 2008
• 0 comments

It was a normal day today, that is until it was about time to go home from work. I was in Zeeland as usual. I also happened to be the last one to leave my client's place today, and boy did I pick the wrong day to stay a little late. I knew I was going to be in for some fun when I could barely see my car in the parking lot from the window of the building that I was in.

It was pouring, I mean pourrrrring rain. It was pitch black, and for around 5pm on July day, that just isn't normal. So after complaining to someone else at the door who was also not ready to brave the rain either, I bolted for it. My car was only about 5 spots away, but the parking lot was pretty much flooded so I was soaked from splashing through it to get to the door. I didn't even really know that it was flooded at the time because it's not like I could see the pavement.

I started driving out to the sound of wind and thunder and switched on the AM radio to find out how bad it was. It was bad. Almost all the highways around GR were at a stand still. Standing water on most roads and interstates they said. And they were right. Not only that, the lightning was terrible.

For the first time in my life I can honestly say that I was scared driving out there, and remember people I've lived in Michigan my whole life and driven through numerous snow and rain storms. But I can tell you this, I have never seen anything like what I saw today. The lighting was just plain out of control, it was hitting the ground very close to me in every direction, and I'm talking bolts of lighting that made the radio go out for a few seconds, big big bolts. Every one of them made me jump. And for the first 20 mins or so I could swear that they were zeroing in on me.

Then the hail started.

Yes hail. Forget seeing anything at this point. We crawled along the highway at about 15 miles per hour. And it did not slow down at all until I got all the way to Grandville. I had now made it almost halfway and started to feel a little better about it.

But when I got to the off-ramp all traffic was stopped. About that time the radio was talking about there being multiple instances of trees and power-lines being down and 75 mph winds, and that the state police are recommending people to not drive if they don't have to. ....Thanks state police, way to be on top of things...

I was stopped for quite awhile and finally made it Wilson ave. Where there proceeded to be a nice traffic jam, with a cop standing in the middle of the road detouring all traffic down Butterworth, towards Johnson Park. Which is the complete opposite direction that I need to be going. Awesome. At this point I think I hit an hour into the drive.

This is where the fun started. The weather had calmed down a little, however, like they said, trees and power lines were down everywhere. I had to then follow the mass of road rage down small side streets around Butterworth just to get around things. Most of Johnson Park's parking lot was completely under water. Giant trees lay on the ground in millions of splinters. Some people we using chain saws to clear the trees away in thier driveways. I probably just should have went to Carmer's house and stayed there until they cleared the debris because I was on Riverbend twice. It was nuts, and everyone was pissed in the long line of cars that were everywhere, on every road possible with almost no way around.

I finally got through on Maynard to Lake Michigan Dr and home safe. Total time about 1 hour 30 mins. And unlike a lot of unlucky people we still have power...for now. It's starting to thunder again right now as I type this.

Flow chart of my work

• Posted by Mcbeev on March 10, 2008
• 0 comments

• Play WoW
• Check Auctions
• Check InGame Mail
• Move to parked location
• Play WoW
• Screw this dumb quest lets PvP

GeekAid 2007 is tomorrow

• Posted by Mcbeev on September 14, 2007
• 0 comments