This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to add a network printer to a computer running Windows Vista.  This example uses "LPR" protocol (stands for Line Printer Daemon) to communicate with the printer.  It's fairly straight-forward, but I just wanted to write down the steps so I didn't have to "re-learn" it every time.

1. Click on the Windows Start Button and then "Printers" 

2. Click on the "Add a Printer" menu item

3. Click the "Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer" option

4. Your computer might be able to discover the printer automatically, but I never had any luck with that ... so I just clicked on "The printer that I want isn't listed" option.

5. Choose the "Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname" option

6. Find the IP Address, TCP Port, and LPR Queue Name for the printer you want to install.  I am using D-Link's DPR-1260 RangeBooster G Multifunction Print Server to host the printers on my network.  However, these instructions aren't necessarily specific to this print server.  You should just find the screen on your print server that provides info like the stuff highlighted in the screenshot below.  These values will be used in the next few steps. 

NOTE: Although my extremely frustrating experience with D-Link's WBR-1310 Wireless G Router has completely shattered any confidence I had in D-Link, I have to admit I haven't had many problems at all with this wireless print server.  It hosts up to four USB printers, and even allows me to still use the scanner on my HP PSC 2100 All-In-One ... although since that particular printer isn't in the compatible multifunction printers list I could only get it to work using "Scan" tab in the D-Link interface shown below.

7. Type the IP Address and Port name in the wizard.

8. Choose the "Custom" option, and then click the "Settings" button.

9.  Set the protocol to be "LPR", and then enter the LPR Queue Name we found in Step 6.

10. Choose the appropriate printer driver.

11. Give the printer a friendly name.

12. Windows starts installing the printer on the machine.  Wait for it to finish and click Next.

13.  Choose whether you would like to share the printer with other computers or not.

14.  SUCCESS!!!

By Alexandru Serban
404 Pages
http://www.amazon.com/SourceSafe-Software-Configuration-Management-Practice/dp/1904811698/

Publisher’s Description: This book uses a real-world case-study project to teach you how to manage software configuration efficiently using Visual SourceSafe 2005, Microsoft's Software Configuration Management (SCM) solution for independent developers and for developers working in small- and medium-sized teams. It also provides a best-practices reference on using SourceSafe 2005 to manage the software development lifecycle.

My Thoughts: Why aren’t there more books on SourceSafe?  Moreover, why is SourceSafe so anti-intuitive?  I realize it has seamless integration with Visual Studio, but actually setting up projects in it is a painful process, and forking code and merging branches isn’t that easy either. 

This book does explain how to do these things, but it isn’t written very well.  There are a ton of screenshots that let you easily follow the author through some examples, but a lot of them could have been excluded.  With a good editor, this book could be trimmed down to about 100 pages of real meat.  The author goes into too much detail about the 43 different ways to do something, when really they are all extremely similar or he is going to introduce the way you should really do it at the last of the chapter.

One crucial topic the book left out was how to add stored procedures to SourceSafe.  That is one of the most attractive things about it, and it was left out completely.

But, there isn’t a better book out there that I know about … so what can you do?  It is better than the built-in help in SourceSafe, so it was probably worth the money for me and earned a spot on the bookshelf.  But it wouldn’t take much for someone to through together a better book, not to mention better software.

In fall 2006 we were looking for a way to equip our inspectors with an always on “high-speed” internet connection in the field.  We were planning on getting them setup on ruggedized tablets, so they could complete checklists about various construction tasks that were customized for each home.  This would be used to not only track the progress of homes, but fully automate the production process.  When one checklist was finished for a home, a checklist for the next construction task would be created and would show up on another inspector’s tablet.  We would also be able to tie email notifications to give our trade partners a heads up when it was almost time for them to be involved with a home, and use them to allow inspectors to approve payment for materials and labor out in the field.  So with all this, we really put a lot of effort trying to make it work.

During this time in Lubbock, the data service available from cell phone companies was extremely slow (around 56Kbps), which would was too slow for what we were hoping to do.  At first we were thinking about writing an application that could run online or offline, and when it came into a hot spot it would sync up with the live database.  The inspectors are away from the office all day, so we thought about creating a mesh wireless G network that completely covered some of our larger communities.  This turned out to be pretty expensive for outdoor equipment, and seriously sounded pretty hinky.  So when someone told us about a new company named Xanadoo that might be able to help us out, we were all about it.

I called Xanadoo, and they sent one of their top people in the area (I think he was also a stakeholder in the company) to the office to talk with me.  I explained what we were trying to do, pointed out the locations of our major communities, and they assured me they would be able to provide us with the service we were looking for.  They said their service should be able to provide our guys with a connection anywhere in Lubbock County, which seems more than adequate.  They could provide small wireless modems that received a signal from unidirectional antennas around town.  In fact, they were so confident they wanted to sale me a few of their modems right then.  I told them I would like to get a complementary modem to test with first, and it took them a couple weeks to get one to me. 

Since they were so confident this would work, I moved forward with developing this solution.  When I finally got the modem, our system admin and I hooked it up to a laptop and decided to drive around town and see what kind of connection we could get.  Needless to say we were a little surprised.  I had got them to point out a few places locations of their unidirectional antennas, and we drove near one and were able to get a connection.  However, if we were ½ a mile or more away from the tower (or directly below it) the connection was either unreliable or non-existent.  Their service didn’t even get close to covering the city of Lubbock, much less Lubbock County.  We thought we might have had a faulty unit or be trying to use it incorrectly, so we went to their offices on 82nd St and talked to an employee.  We told them we were having some trouble getting a signal, and we couldn’t even get one in their parking lot.  They acted surprised, and said of course we weren’t getting a signal there … there is never a signal out there.  What?

It turned out we were doing everything right, and their service simply didn’t match up with what they claimed.  We tried a few external antennas, but eventually abandoned the idea after we couldn’t get the Xanadoo office to return our phone calls. 

I can’t say how disappointed I am with Xanadoo.  A few friends have asked me if they should try Xanadoo, and I always give them an emphatic “NO.”  Not only do they have subpar service, but they also chose to flat-out lie about what their service could do even when they were fully aware they were not telling the truth.  Thinking back, on the original visit the rep claimed one of their current clients was using a modem in a vehicle all the way from Wolfforth.  That is physically impossible with unidirectional antennas at that distance, so that must have also been a lie.

I have heard some people say they had an decent experience with them, but people’s experience seem to vary wildly based on how close to the antenna they were and what obstacles there was between them.  If there was any other type of data service you could get, I would definitely try it … I might even opt for dial-up instead of the horrible service and experience I had with Xanadoo.

From Hanselminutes.com:
Hanselminutes is a weekly audio talk show with noted web developer and technologist Scott Hanselman and hosted by Carl Franklin. Scott discusses utilities and tools, gives practical how-to advice, and discusses ASP.NET or Windows issues and workarounds.

If I only had time for one podcast a week, this would be the one I listened to.  In fact, if I was stranded on a desert island and could only pick one thing to listen to … well it wouldn’t be this, but if I could somehow get weekly updates I would think about it.

Carl and Scott seem to hit on random topics every week, but it somehow seems to either be something I curious about or didn’t realize I needed to know.  They don’t waste your time with the 10 minutes of small talk upfront, and Scott used to end quite a few podcasts with the line “Hope we didn’t waste your time”, which seems to be one of the driving forces in the show.

Scott has a unique look at software and technology, and there is just something about it I enjoy.  He has a lifehacker-type approach to development and life in general, and is all about finding clever tools that will help him save time or simplify his life.  Bottom line, Scott is a likable guy that cuts the chase, has practical advice, doesn't include fluff, and I can’t remember him ever wasting my time.

I wanted these tools to be first thing I reviewed, because I want everyone to know how amazing they are.  I recently switch to Vista on my production machine, and I tried to prioritize the software I installed in the order of how critical it was to being able to function in my job … the top of the list went something like this:

1. Office 2007
2. Visual Studio 2005
3. SQL Server 2005
4. Red-Gate Tools
   …

These tools are irreplaceable.  SQL Compare alone saves save me and my team a ton of time every week.  Red-Gate has great prices (most tools are $300-400), and I can’t remember ever running into a bug and have been using this stuff for over two years.  Some of this software has to be pretty intelligent in regards to how it orders updates, and in the hundreds of times I have ran it I only had undesired side-effects twice.  Here is what I use each tool for:

SQL Compare: Compares the schema of two databases, including tables, stored procedures, views, functions, users, and roles.  It looks at the structure of the databases … not the actual data contained in them.  It allows a user to see the differences between objects in an intuitive interface, choose which should be moved to the target database, and then generates a T-SQL script to make the changes.  This is the most useful tool for me, because this makes it really easy to move application code and database updates from the development environment to the production environment.

SQL Data Compare: Compares the data in two databases … not the schema.  Allows a user to view the individual rows that are different in each database, generates a script to update the target to match the source database.  I don’t use this quite as often, because you typically have a production set of data and don’t need to move actual rows from a development environment to the production environment.  But it comes in useful enough to justify the cost.

SQL Refactor:  I don’t think I have realized what all this tool is capable of, but just what I am aware of makes it pretty cool.  My team has to view/edit stored procedures written by another company that have extremely poor formatting to the point that they are almost impossible to read.  When you install this tool, it creates a menu item inside SQL Management Studio.  I have the ability to set options related to how I prefer my T-SQL code to be formatted (placement of things like columns, join clauses, subqueries and other things like wrapping, spacing, etc), and when I open one of those ugly procedures I can go in the menu to SQL Refactor > Lay Out SQL … and that’s it.  You can share the same settings between a whole team, and then make sure everyone formats procedures the same.  It also allows you to do things like “Expand Wildcards”, which intelligently converts a “SELECT *” to a list of qualified columns.  And one more really cool thing is that it can help you rename tables, columns, parameters, and other objects, and SQL Refactor will find all of the dependencies and change them accordingly.  Yes, I mean it … all dependencies (inside procedures, views, relationships, and other objects).  All this and more for around $300.

Conclusion: These Red-Gate tools are a no-brainer.  Compared to other development tools they are incredibly cheap, and their software quality is flawless.

http://www.red-gate.com