Peder M Rice

Bypassing Omaha World-Herald’s Article Limit in Google Chrome

I wrote some really simple CSS rules for the Omaha World-Heralds article limit. Presently, the OWH restricts you to 20 articles per month before a really annoying <div /> appears over the screen and tells you that you need to subscribe to view any more articles.

AdBlock doesn’t do a thing with the popup, but with the Google Chrome extension Stylebot, we can simply hide the elements that comprise the popup.

First, go to the Google Chrome Web Store and install the Stylebot extension.

Second, visit Omaha.com and click on the “CSS” button that now exists in your address bar.

That will bring up the Stylebot editor for Omaha.com. Click on “Edit CSS” to manually enter specific styles.

Paste in the following and hit “Save”

#gregbox-outer, #gregbox-outer + div, #gregbox-signInTab, img[src="http://s.ppjol.net/static/fb/fancy_close.png"] { display: none; }

The annoying OWH article limit should now be gone!

• 17 Mar 2013

Google Reader Replacement

I know this is all over the internet, but we need to unite around a single RSS reader to replace Google Reader now that Google has given it the axe. We can finally bring back the social features that we all used to enjoy with Google, back in the days before they stupidly pursued Google Plus!

While NewsBlur is down, I’m taking a look at The Old Reader, which appears to be a spot-on copy of Google Reader before Google decided to strip it of its social features.

Can’t wait to have the old sidebar back!

• 13 Mar 2013

Another Horrible Online Shopping Experience

I posted a while back about how terrible searching for products can be on Amazon.com, Target.com, etc. I have another example: buying a Christmas tree.

My girlfriend and I have vaulted ceiling in our living room, so we’d like to get a taller tree. Specifically, we’d like to look for 9’ trees instead of 7.5’ trees. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? Wrong.

Well, this is stupid. Nearly every single tree in the store is either 7.5’ or 9’, but they lump them together. Thanks Target, that’ll really help me find what I’m looking for.

Additionally, there’s no way to filter out pre-lit or bare trees. I basically have to filter through 139 trees to find maybe the two or three that they even sell that fit my needs.

Which brings me to the biggest requirement we have: the tree can’t be very wide! We’re fitting it in a space next to our fire place, and we really can’t have a tree wider than 46”. There isn’t a single way to filter on that! I have to click into each tree’s detailed specifications to find out if it will work for our space.

Buying online isn’t like buying in the store. Online shopping should be built around metadata and filtering. How much work could it possibly be for the Target.com marketing team to add a bit of additional data to each tree?

• 13 Nov 2012

Customizing TFS2012: TF400000 Exception: Fixed!

In my previous post, I tried to figure out how to customize the default iteration names in a TFS2012 Process Template.

Reading the exception text at all more closely led me down the path of investigating the “Groups and Permissions” tab of the Process Template editor.

The “@defaultTeam” was set to Iterations 1, 2, and 3 instead of my FY13 Q1, Q2, Q3 iterations. I’m not sure what @defaultTeam is—I’ll have to read up on that—but I simply pointed it to my new iterations, I was able to upload the Process Template.

• 16 Oct 2012

Customizing TFS2012: TF400000 Exception

I’m attempting to modify the default iterations in my process template from Iteration 1, 2, 3, etc. to Iteration FY13 Q1, FY13 Q2, etc. However, that immediately trips this error when I attempt to upload my template:

Time: 2012-10-16T13:53:07

Module: Engine

Event Description: TF30162: Task “GroupCreation1” from Group “Groups” failed

Exception Type: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.PcwException

Exception Message: TF400000: The following area or iteration path is not defined: Iteration\Iteration 1.  This path must be defined in the classification section of the process template.

Stack Trace:

   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PCW.GssStructureCreator.CheckPathExists(ProjectCreationContext context, String path, List`1 publishedNodes)

   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PCW.GssStructureCreator.CheckTeamProperties(ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNode teamNode)

   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PCW.GssStructureCreator.ValidateGroupsAndPermissions(ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNodeList groupXmlNodeList)

   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PCW.GssStructureCreator.Validate(ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNode taskXml)

   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PCW.ProjectCreationEngine.TaskValidator.PerformTask(IProjectComponentCreator componentCreator, ProjectCreationContext context, XmlNode taskXml)

   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamFoundation.PCW.ProjectCreationEngine.RunTask(Object taskObj)

—- end Exception entry —-

Of course, Google is no help. Too few people customizing the process templates in TFS.

Given that other templates don’t use the naming convention Iteration 1, 2, 3 (some use Sprint 1, 2, 3), this error must imply that I have a reference to “Iteration 1” somewhere in my process template.

After looking in my work item type definitions, the Agile and Common Process Settings, and just clicking around everywhere, I still can’t find it.

Any thoughts?

• 16 Oct 2012

WebEx < Lync

It’s the little things.

I’m in a WebEx meeting right now, and I can’t completely minimize WebEx no matter what I try. There’s a banner across the top of my screen and the shared video. Neither can be minimized completely. I can shrink them, but they can’t go away.

There’s also no way to keep everything in a single window. Why can’t I view the video chat, presentation, IM, and attendees list all in one window? Why does WebEx overtake my desktop with a bunch of different windows?

And don’t even get me started on the cruddy integration with Outlook…

• 20 Sep 2012

To The Cloud

I’m researching today ways that I can expose a .NET WCF service to the cloud in a secure way.

One option is to install Windows Azure Connect on our on-premise web servers. Windows Azure Connect basically creates a VPN tunnel between your Azure services and your on-premise infrastructure, but it does so at a machine level. For instance, if I install Windows Azure Connect on my web server, I open the door to the entire server being accessed via my Azure services; I don’t have an ability to lock it down to specific WCF services. If I want to expose a supply chain service, I necessarily also expose my services for sales, marketing, etc.

Another option appears to be Windows Azure Service Bus, where Azure acts a bit like Microsoft’s BizTalk or SAP’s Process Integration. I’m still learning the details, but my Azure service and my on-premise server can talk to each other via a message queue. Both sides subscribe to the message queue, polling for changes or adding messages of their own.

And of course, there are other options entirely, like Amazon AWS, which I’ve only started to examine, but if Azure Service Bus becomes a configuration nightmare, I’ll dive in a bit deeper.

• 18 Sep 2012