iTunes Sync v1.1 has been released into that wild party known as the internet. It has a ton of bug fixes and enhancements, so I recommend that everyone update to the new version. Here's a quick rundown on the changes:

• Added 2 other folder structure types for a total of 3
• Root: All files in the root of the drive
• Artist: All files in folders by artist
• Artist/Album: All files in folders by artist, then in sub-folders by album
• Fixed a window positioning issue
• Added icons to all the buttons for easier function recognition
• When confirming the files to sync you can now see a list of files to be deleted/copied
• Now has a more responsive interface during pre-sync and sync (to allow for cancelling... etc) by making the file copy asynchronous
• During the file sync 3 new fields are shown: Current File, Time Remaining, Transfer Rate (MB/sec)
• Now checks for other instances of iTunes Sync at startup and only allows 1 instance
• Removed window flickering when launching the application
• Fixed an iTunes playlist issue where iTunes Sync sometimes can't find your playlist
• Now detects and warns when duplicate iTunes playlists are present. Duplicate playlists can lead to incorrect songs being sync'd so syncing is disabled when duplicate playlists are detected

Check out iTunes Sync today!

Do you have iTunes? Do you have an iPod? I have iTunes, I don't have an iPod, but I wanted to be able to sync my MP3 player with iTunes, regardless of what brand it was... and so iTunes Sync was born. In just a few easy steps you can synchronize any iTunes playlist with any MP3 player that shows up as a drive letter in Windows (pretty much all of them do). It's as simple as 3 easy steps:

• Setup a playlist in iTunes that you want to sync to your MP3 player
• Configure your MP3 player in iTunes Sync by giving it a name, selecting an "identification file or folder" and selecting a playlist from iTunes
• Now just click Synchronize and watch the magic happen!

You can configure as many different MP3 players as you need and synchronize each one with the different iTunes' playlists. Amazing! Magic! Technology!

In my quest to synchronize my MP3 player with iTunes, before I wrote iTunes Sync, I came across a fantastic application written by Jaran Nilsen called iTunes Agent. It seemed to have some of the features I needed, but I ran into occasional problems and I wanted a few extra bells and whistles... and it seems that development has been stalled for a year now, so I took matters into my own hands. And so iTunes Sync was born.

I would highly advise that you go and check out iTunes Sync right now!

Because mine apparently can't. How long do you think it should take to copy 370 files totaling 4.04 MB (yes, that's megabytes) to a network share? 10 seconds? 5 seconds? Maybe less? Well, if you're lucky enough to be using Windows Vista like me then you're in for a 1 minute, 13 second wait. Maybe you can get that snack you've been craving while you wait, or maybe you can have a quick nap. Seriously, what year is this? I'm pretty sure that my old 286 could move 4 MB worth of data in less than a minute.

I am proud to announce the latest piece of software to be released under the Binary Fortress umbrella: the ASP.NET ViewState Helper Fiddler Extension. This takes most of the functionality from the full ASP.NET ViewState Helper but wraps it into a neat little extension that can be used with Fidder version 2. What is Fiddler, you ask?

Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler includes a powerful event-based scripting subsystem, and can be extended using any .NET language. Fiddler is freeware and can debug traffic from virtually any application, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and thousands more.

It's a great little application for troubleshooting web development problems, and now it's even better with the addition of ViewState decoding.

Check it out today!

Have you ever been navigating around in Windows Explorer in Vista, using details view, only to have it should show you a folder with the columns date taken and rating, instead of more useful columns like size and date modified? What a pain! Today, after at least of month of running Vista, I finally stumbled across a way of disabling this "feature". Here's the beans:

• Select the folder you would like to fix, or a top-level folder to fix a bunch of folders
• Right-click the folder and click Properties
• Click the Customize tab
• In the "Use this folder type as a template" drop-down select "All Items"
• You can also check off "Also apply this template to all subfolders" if you want to fix all the folders underneath as well

Click the Ok button, and voila, no more stupid columns! Now, if there was only a way to disable folder types and templates altogether...

Update: I found this handy article over on the MS forums. It shows how to do the above process for all folders, using regedit. I'll briefly summarize.

• Delete this Key: [HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags] (this will remove your existing folder settings)
• Create this Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\AllFolders\Shell]
• Create a string in the Key you just created named "FolderType" with a value of "NotSpecified"

Believe it or not, if you try this on your own computer I'm not responsible. Use at your own risk!

Motion Monitor is a spiffy little application I wrote a long time ago, use version 1.0 of the .NET framework so I could learn the C# language. I figured is was time to get it out, dust it off and port it to .NET 2.0. And heck, why not add some extra jazz too? To use Motion Monitor, just set up a web cam, or any other DirectShow compliant device.

As you can see in this screen shot, Motion Monitor is easy to setup and even easier to use. Just plug in your capture device, start Motion Monitor and adjust the 5 configuration options. Then watch as Motion Monitor detects motion in each frame, and displays the motion it detects. If the motion detected is over the threshold that you configured it will save a JPEG in the /Output/ folder under the installation folder.

Check it out today!

If you've downloaded and enjoyed the ASP.NET ViewState Helper, I invite you to "Kick It" over at DotNetKicks. Get kicking!

I think it's funny how my kids view my wife and me, whenever they get a chance to express their view artistically. I had the chance to take home a Tablet PC last night, and my daughters were completely taken by it. They wanted to draw pictures all night, and were amazed by what they could do with it. Here are 2 pictures by my youngest daughter, who is currently 3 years old. The first is of me, note the glasses and the sticking up hair. The second is my wife, note the lack of glasses but still unkept hair.

And of course, my oldest daughter's (6 years old) view of the place where I work. Note my car, my bike and the trees. The cool thing is, my office building is all blue with a pink top on it... and I never realized how bizarre that colour combination is until after seeing this drawing.

I can't wait to take the Tablet PC home again to see what else they can produce.

So, I'm working on a SharePoint 2007 upgrade project, from SharePoint 2003, and I want to hurt someone. The process is so poor that it is actually almost funny. Check out the latest in this epic saga. During the install wizard for the 2007 upgrade it says:

It is recommended that you run the pre-upgrade scan tool before starting the upgrade.

But it doesn't tell you where the blasted tool is! So after some googling I found this "helpful" technet article. Check this out:

To install the prescan.exe tool, you must install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to a test server. After you install, search for the two files prescan.exe and preupgradescanconfig.xml, and then copy the files to the computer that runs the existing version.

So, basically what Microsoft is saying is that in order to install my test upgrade server I need to install ANOTHER server first, then copy these files over? WTF?! Common Microsoft - cut me some slack!

The title says it all. I just read this over on ScottGu's blog and I can't wait to take it for a test drive. I've been having this issue for months now, after installing SP1 for Visual Studio 2005, so I'm happy to see that Microsoft has released a fix. I'll follow-up once I've tested it out.