AH, this came up earlier :-) I'm much of a lurker now not much of a contributor, but let me point you to this post from ages ago: The Lounge[^] There's also the (probable) original of the Y10K joke: The Lounge[^] (Thanks VinceThePrince - Professional Profile[^]

The Office 365 dev program includes 5 installs of office, and a sharepoint instance. Seems like you get the first year free currently (I'm paying something like a 100€/year for the privilege, which is about the price of an office license). Office Dev Center - Office 365 Developer Program[^] Development is limited to the new "javascript only" model, and standard sharepoint functionality.

Forget the email. You're (incorrectly) assuming that all your users have access to an unprotected smtp server, and that they have configured this server correctly. This will not be true: - in corporate environments, where exchange or lotus notes rule, and any good sysadmin will block access to the corporate smtp servers. - if the user uses some form of webmail (gmail, hotmail, yahoo), and hasn't setup a local mail client. You may want to setup an smtp server for these users, which you would run yourself, but I would strongly advise against it. You would be creating an open smtp relay that would attract spammers, and will get you blacklisted on smtp relays worldwide. Furthermore, most corporate environments and some ISP's block SMTP traffic. Much better to report through some kind of webservice. If you're new to this, a good place to start reading is WCF (Windows Communication Foundation). Note that you will need a fixed IP address at your side of the deal, and that you will have to configure routers, firewalls, and web servers. If you can't easily get a fixed IP address, you may be able to get away with some with some free dynamic DNS provider. If this all sounds horrible complicated, get yourself a cheap asp.net provider, and host your error reporting code there.

MS is moving more to a 'Unix/Linux like model'. Important system utilities, like diskpart, ipconfig, increasingly have no user interface. Even worse, most of these utilities are implemented twice: in the diskpart example, you have the diskpart.exe, which does some (more) things than the storage management in msc. But both rely on background or system services to do the job. The GUI is there for the casual user, who just wants to get the job done once, the console app is there for the sysadmin who wants something special, or needs scriptable deployment. There's always a tension between 'ease of use' and 'advanced functionality'. Some functionality cannot be expressed in GUI terms, but may be obvious to the sysadmin with some programming experience. That's always been my gripe with Unix/Linux systems: pulling up a man page gives me information on how to run the Large Hadron Collider, but I'd be buggered on how to delete a file with a space in the filename in my home directory. I suppose it's a choice, but I think supplying two utilities for the same job (one graphical for the casual user, one performing for the expert) is a good choice. Another philosophical discussion :-\

Microsoft has become so paranoid and run by lawyers, after all the law-suits, that they wouldn't even dare to ask you the time of day any more. It will happen to Apple soon. And Google. ( Still missing that mad scientist emoticon)

I know. But in this era, if you build a console app, you're planning to be non-interactive right? I mean you'll happily accept stdin, stdout, all the pipes in the world, and even if you want to build a service, you won't put up a dialog will you? I know even Microsoft does this (misuse of MessageBox, shutdown /I interface), but if you're writing console, you're writing console. I only use console if I plan to run on posix, or target server core, or do a quick test where I don't want be bothered by drawing forms). I think it's a base choice: either you'r scriptable, and you go for console, or you're point-n-click.

Yes well, now that you mention it, the Mounties have just delivered your tax return for 2002, and there is this strange entry for 'Code Project Marketing Promotion'. Does Mrs. Code Project know about his?

There's also an economical reason: streetview must cost a s**tload of money. This is peopleware here. (mammalware? Sentientware? Top-Grade Delicatessen?) While you're at it, use it as best as you can. Even if you can't you use the data afterwards, you'd be sorry if you hadn't collected it. And Australia is the prime country for it: hours of boring driving, and more wallabies than telecom masts. And no JSOP to shoot you off the porch.

Chrome now has bundled Flash. The only reason I use "display in IE", is that one of my banks refuses to recognize me when on Chrome. Otherwise, good riddance IE :-)

It may improve their their location API. The current one is based on a mix of GPS (battery drain), and Cell/GSM triangulation (not very precise in low density areas). Adding WIFI recognition seems a valid technical reason. It'll soon show up in Android, when they have enough data. Of course the real reason is they want to rule the world. Waaaahaaaahaaahah. (Chris, we need a smiley for : Hollow Mad Scientist Laugh)

I'll flog him asm next time. Builds character and perseverance. There's no reason these youngsters should suffer any less than we did during the Great War. :-D

NORMALLY, they should be able to run side by side. But I've heard so many problems, (especially if BETA versions were involved), that grown men were driven to tears, and had to re-install their whole system after taking 3 aspirins, invoking their personal totem in the Valhalla, and decorating their body with old MSDN Cd's. Your mileage may vary :-)

Yes, well a console application is not supposed to have GUI, does it?

I don't think this works on ASP.NET

Still does not make sense. Adding an IP address to your interface brings you nothing, if the rest of the world doesn't know about it. The only situation where this could be valid is if you have a physical subnet which carries 2 or more logical subnets, where only one of them is DHCP enabled. There may also be uses if you're defining a fault tolerant cluster, where you reserve fallback addresses, but in that case you should reserve them first. In all other situations, you are going to mess up routing tables, impact your own connectivity, and generally be a nuisance to everyone on the network. Doing it programmatically only guarantees that you're ALWAYS a nuisance.

Does Ejactitation exist? Sounds more interesting.

WHY do you want to add IP addresses? What is your purpose? Are these IP addresses yours?

Charles Petzold is excellent, although aimed at a (very) technical audience. C++ may also not be the language for you (as a beginner). C# or Vb.Net tutorials may be a starting point. Java is also an option.

Sounds reasonable. This would probably correspond to a 'spin-down' on USB disks, which makes no sense on flash cards (they are only required to support D0 and D3, fully ON and fully OFF). Wonder what an SSD would have in this case?

Well, normally SP3 is the latest and greatest, but I don't think it exists for XP-64. SP2 is the last there. The problem might be that setup checks for SP3, and buggers off. In that case, you have a definite problem. If you think this is your problem, you'd better post a new question (preferably in the .Net forum), asking something like 'has anyone installed VS 2010 on XP professional 64 bit edition, and what are the problems/requirements'. Have a google also, someone may have had the same problem.