A Quote

Online ASP.NET ViewState Decoder

I was looking for one of these, and it took me awhile to locate - Maybe someone will find it useful :)
 
Link: Here

XNB Decompressor

Whilst messing around with some XNA .XNB files, I wanted to see if I could extract any useful information from them.

A bit of googling later lead me to an archive with several files, and this!

Whilst it keeps the files as the ".xnb" format, it decompresses them allowing you to pull some info using a basic text editor :)

Thanks to the XeNTaX forum for the link :)

3D JavaScript is weird...

3D JavaScript is weird...

An object can ONLY be collided with if it's in the scene, even if you're only using the object collection as collision reference.
The problem is that an object can only be collided with if it's of type geometry , which normal .obj's aren't.

Now, for the fun part!

Rendering a textured object is significantly faster than rendering an object with a mesh, so, whilst you could just use textured mesh's and render those, this is slow as heck.

And how do you get past this dilemma... ?

Add both the object AND the mesh to the scene, and hide the mesh's. Since they're technically there, they can still be collided with, and since they're invisible, they don't use rendering cycles ;D

Result: 60 FPS with full collision ♥

Javascript - Reverse a string

--> <--

Javascript - Regex to remove all special chars from a string, leaving letters and numbers.

--> <--

How to block ads from websites

As you probably see below this post (If it's the latest) and on the right of the page under the "Site History", I have added some ads.

But fret not - For this post shall include how to remove ads such as these! \o/

1.) Download and install Adblock for Firefox, Chrome, or Opera - If you're using IE... Download Chrome ^_^
2.) Subscribe to the recommended filter list - Should be called 'EasyList'
3.) Enjoy an ad-free experience :D
4.) Example With Adblock Installed: Click Me :D
Note: Some of the items in the image (Pencil, Spanner, Etc) only appear for me since I own the page ^_^

Create a SQL Database using an existing MDF File

If you have an MDF file, and you need to create a SQL Database from it using code, do the following:

USE [master]
GO
CREATE DATABASE [insert_database_name_here] ON 
( FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Data\fileNameHere.mdf' ),
FOR ATTACH ;
GO

SharePoint 2010 CAML Query Nuance In C#

Whilst playing around in SharePoint with pulling data from lists (Which requires a wonderfully syntactically obscene language known as CAML Query), I found that my query simply refused to filter out data.

string camlQuery = @"
   <Query>   
      <Where>
         <Eq>
            <FieldRef Name = 'Title' />
            <Value Type='Text'>" + chosenIndex + @"</Value>
         </Eq>
      </Where>
   </Query>";
SPListItemCollection items = myList.GetItems(camlQuery);

Seems simple, enough - Right?

Not quite...

Turns out, if you include the <Query> tags in your CAML Query, the entire thing gets blatantly ignored! No errors - It just selects everything o_O

To fix this problem, simply remove the <Query></Query> tags from your statement, and everything will work as planned...

Note: Thanks to manoli.net for the formatting code :D

Identifying an unknown Device Manager device

I was recently browsing through Device Manager, and came across the following:


Unfortunately, the properties window didn't provide much insight...


Googling around, I found a useful tip!
If you click "Details", then scroll through the properties, one of the options will have something with "VEN_" in it.

In this case:
VEN (Short for Vendor): 8086
DEV (Short for Device): 29C4

Simply jump along to this site, plug the DEV code in "Device Search", and *Poof* - Component Identified! (In my case, It was the Intel Management Engine Interface. Unfortunately for me, my board is End of Life, so no drivers were made for Windows 7)

For the lazy ones, copy and paste the following, and add the device code to the end :p

http://www.pcidatabase.com/search.php?device_search_str=

Good luck! \o/