Our team at protogenLabs here is about more than just web developing. We are a couple of guys who appreciate a good dose of techie news, and that's what this notebook is all about. We will also post any news relating to our services, as well as any other relevant updates. Read on and find all sorts of interesting bits of info that we come across while browsing the web:

Although the content of this video is not very technical, it is my favourite wintertime hobby, snowboarding (OK, it's tied with hockey). The reason that I'm posting this is because I was truly intrigued by the glowing light trail effect that the producer, Mike Benson used when editing the film. Despite the fact that I don't have much expertise in video editing, it's still easy to tell that Mr. Benson did a smash-up job with this. Watch the video a few times and you'll notice true effects with the lights that you didn't on the first viewing.

Knife Show Inc and friends uncover a strange phenomenon at Timberline Lodge at Mt Hood. Snowboarding video takes place in and out of High Cascade Summer Camp. Shot and edited by Mike Benson.

Visit Knife Show Inc.'s website »
www.knifeshowinc.com

Recently, I have been using Tiny Twitter on my Xperia X1 (running Windows Mobile) for keeping in touch with the micro-blogosphere. While being a great app, I still hadn't found that it suited all of my needs, particularly the ability to restyle the interface. I'm a tweak-a-holic and need to customize everything on my X1, and with Twikini, my needs are fulfilled. Twikini offers a great user interface for Twitter on my phone, and it is by far the best Twitter client for Windows Mobile out there.

If you're using a Windows Mobile device, and dabble in the world of Tweeting, then you should best head over to Trinket Software and grab yourself a copy! It's highly recommended and worth it!

Video of Twikini in action:

Screenshots of the Twikini interface:

As of the last few weeks of February 2008, Fido has made a change to their Conditional Call Forwarding service. Basically, it came down to the fact that if you were subscribed to any of Fido's Voicemail options (either alone, or in a value package), you lost the ability to do Conditional Call Forwarding. The difference between Conditional and UNConditional, is that the former allows your phone to ring from 5-30 seconds before the call is diverted to another set of numbers based on whether certain, well, conditions are met. The latter, unconditional, means just that. It will forward all calls instantly to another single number. Note that UNConditional forwarding still seems to work, and most likely will continue to.

I had called a few Fido CSRs before, but none of them could confirm as to whether or not there was a way to re-establish CCF by possibly disabling the Voicemail option, even if you were paying for it as part of a package. Others at the HowardsForum topic had luck with simply disabling VM, but it's expected not to last very long.

Today I have just got off the phone with Fido. I now have CCF working with my preferred time delay of 30 seconds. Here's my story in a wrap up:

• City Fido subscriber with the Smartphone Value Pack
• Includes: Call Display + 2500 SMS + Enhanced VM + WhoCalled
• Realized a couple of weeks ago that my PhoneTag service stopped working
• Called Fido many times and no one could confirm that canceling Enhanced VM would bring back CCF
• Got fed up and made the changes myself today
• Nixed the Smartphone Value Pack and added features separately
• Added Call Display + 200 SMS + Call Forwarding as separate options
• Tried immediately after hanging up with Fido to re-initialize my CCF back to PhoneTag (and after 30 secs of rings)
• Can confirm that CCF NOW WORKS!

I'm saving $1 per month, but losing the 2500 SMS + WhoCalled. I am not a frequent TXT'er, but 200 should do me fine (can always upgrade this for another $5 to unlimited). Regardless, I am VERY happy to have PhoneTag back, and provided that I stay OFF of Fido's VM, it should continue to work.

So, to sum it up, I had a Fido Enhanced VM option in a Value Pack. I nixed the value pack and added the above features separately, minus the Fido VM, and CCF has returned!

Thanks for all the confusion Fido (and Rogers)!!

UPDATE: VistAdvance has been updated to v1.1, and now supports AppToDate for ease of future updating. The theme has also undergone a few bug fixes, so all existing users are encouraged to update. Please have a look below for a warning about uninstalling v1.0, and also a list of fixes that have been applied to this new version.

It's been a while since I've updated the Wisbar Advance PocketPC theme that I created over a year ago, and I've been promising myself I would release a better version to everyone as soon as I could. It took a bit longer than expected, but I'm proud to offer the VistAdvance Wisbar Theme for your downloadable enjoyment! This theme is for WVGA+VGA (both WAD+WA3) or WQVGA+QVGA (WA3-only) PocketPCs running either Wisbar Advance v3+ or Wisbar Advance Desktop v2+ (having both installed is recommended).

Lots of time and development have been put into creating this, and I couldn't have done it without the majority of graphics from Corleno. Thanks to him for allowing me to 'remix' his original PocketPC / Wisbar theme, "Vista Pocket". Most of the topbar and softkey skins are from that theme, but the desktop is a freshly-updated design from me. I have also included wallpaper/backgrounds from mx-steel's "Dream Series". Read on after the pics for installation instructions and download links:

Check out the video demonstration below to learn how the theme works before installing it on your device (view it in Full Screen mode for best results):

General Theme Installation Instructions:

Warning: If you have downloaded version 1.0 of VistAdvance, please UNINSTALL it first before installing the new themes. All v1.1+ installers for VistAdvance will perform this for you, as I have fixed how the .CAB was built.

1. Copy the downloaded .CAB files to your Pocket PC
2. Ensure that you have about 5-6mb free on your phone's device storage (each theme takes about 2.5-3mb, hopefully this isn't an issue if your phone has WVGA resolution!)
3. Using any File Explorer, execute the .cab files on your device
4. The standard installation procedure will begin
5. Install the .CAB file to the DEVICE
• Repeat the above procedure for the second .CAB if you're using both the WA3 + WAD themes

Wisbar Advance v3.x Configuration:

1. Go into WA3 Settings and click Theme » Wisbar Theme
2. You should see VistAdvance in the list. Select it and click OK again
3. Select both checkboxes for Taskbar buttons and Sound scheme, then click OK
4. Click OK all the way out, and it should show you the splash screen, then get applied.

Wisbar Advance Desktop v2.x Configuration:

1. Simply install the .CAB file then reboot. It will set the VistAdvance WAD2 theme as your primary Landscape/Portrait theme
2. Once back in WAD2, ensure that Author Mode is unchecked/disabled
3. Make sure you go through all of the WAD settings to config it how you want. You'll need to specify the primary city for the Weather info to work
4. Enjoy using VistAdvance!

Extras Included:

• Blue-themed .tsk file to change OS/BaseHue color (accessible via WM Settings » Personal » Today)
• *TIP* Ensure that you have ClearType enabled for the best look (accessible via WM Settings » System » Screen)
• WVGA Portrait and Landscape Wallpapers available! (preview below)

Please consider buying me a beer! I sacrificed a lot of time to build this theme for public use and create a .cab installer for easy installation. Thanks in advance for showing your support and encouraging me to update these themes!

Download the VistAdvance v1.1 WVGA+VGA (WA3) .CAB Installer:

 VistAdvance_WA3_WVGA_VGA-pLabs.cab - (1.44MB)
This file has been downloaded 3397 times.

Download the VistAdvance v1.1 WQVGA+QVGA (WA3) .CAB Installer:

 VistAdvance_WA3_WQVGA_QVGA-pLabs.cab - (1.15MB)
This file has been downloaded 1885 times.

VistAdvance WA3 Change Log:

v1.1

• Added MoDaCo AppToDate support to notify you of new releases
• Rebuilt .CAB file to support compression, and give no warnings on WM5/6

Download the VistAdvance v1.2 WVGA (WAD2) .CAB Installer:

 VistAdvance_WAD2_WVGA-pLabs.cab - (1.81MB)
This file has been downloaded 2471 times.

Download the VistAdvance v1.2 VGA (WAD2) .CAB Installer:

 VistAdvance_WAD2_VGA-pLabs.cab - (1.81MB)
This file has been downloaded 1372 times.

VistAdvance WAD2 Change Log:

v1.2

• Added localized language support to the .cab installer (this should fix the black screen issue that users of non-English ROMs were experiencing)
• Fixed a small bug in the AppToDate configuration

v1.1

• Theme is now auto-applied in WAD2 after install
• Fixed naming scheme of WAD theme (LAND is now Landscape, PORT is now Portrait)
• Configured Contacts grid to switch back to Programs grid after a contact has been clicked
• Fixed Volume Status icon assignments to account for bugfix in WAD2
• Added MoDaCo AppToDate support to notify you of new releases
• Rebuilt .CAB file to support compression, and give no warnings on WM5/6

Please consider buying me a beer! I sacrificed a lot of time to build this theme for public use and create a .cab installer for easy installation. Thanks in advance for showing your support and encouraging me to update these themes!

Download the WVGA Wallpapers (Land/Port) .ZIP Pack:

 WVGA_Wallpapers-pLabs.zip - (2.75MB)
This file has been downloaded 1452 times.

Though not too many people run PHP on top of IIS, (it's usually Apache, or LAMP) I am one of the few who does. I recently underwent setting up a proper development environment. This of course included installing PHP 5 and MySQL 5 onto IIS7 (within Windows Web Server 2008). I followed this guide which resulted in a successful integration of PHP within IIS7. Also note that if you are installing PHP onto Windows Server 2008 or IIS7, do NOT use the "Windows Installer" to set it up. Instead, grab the .zip file of all PHP files, and run through the manual installation procedures.

Anyways, on to the actual issue that I was experiencing, which caused me to reinstall Windows and waste about 5 hours of my precious life ;) I had PHP working, but the MySQL extension was not being loaded, specifically "php_mysql.dll". I thought everything was fine and dandy because when I ran a simple PHP_info test page that contained:

< ?php phpInfo();? >

I was greeted with the PHP configuration settings, however what I had failed to notice the first time was that some variables were not set correctly:

Configuration File (php.ini) Path = C:\Windows
Loaded Configuration File = (none)

It had seemed that even though I had added "C:\PHP" to my Windows Server 2008 System Variables in the PATH section, PHP was still not seeing my php.ini file which was really in C:\PHP. There was NO php.ini file in C:\Windows either. After wrestling with this for hours, I gave in and tried putting php.ini in C:\Windows, as well as having it in C:\PHP. For some unknown reason, PHP finally began to work, and I saw my php_mysql.dll file being loaded successfully. I know that this is NOT the preferred way, as you really want to keep all of your PHP files contained to the one directory, but there just wasn't a way to get this working without tearing ALL of my hair out.

If you wanted to follow up on the issue to see if the PHP team has fixed this bug, keep an eye on the official bug page. I hope this helps anyone who's run into this issue. If you have, please post your experience below, and let us know if there's anything else you've done to fix it!

Recently a client of mine adopted 2 new Vista laptops for use in the office domain which is run by a Win2k3 Server box. Many powerful features are available when a computer/user is joined to an Active Directory domain. Most of which I won't get into now.

The users of the new Vista laptops did need heightened permissions to install programs and the like, however I still wanted them to remain normal domain users in the AD. In Windows XP it was as easy as logging on as a local admin, running MMC and adding a domain user to the local administrators group. You would be able to browse the AD by selecting the "Locations..." button, however in Vista I found that it would ONLY show the local machine name, with no option to browse the domain which the laptop was joined to.

Anyways, after some hunting around, Manoj Nagpal's Blog lead me to the answer which can be accomplished via this simple CMD string:

net localgroup Administrators /add domain\username

Hopefully you found this quicker than it took me to write it, and your problems are now solved. Remember to run the above command as a user with administrative privileges of course.

I was cleaning house a week ago and was considering ditching my first 13" colour TV that I've had since I was a young'n. I couldn't quite let go, and decided that I should chop it up and revive it to something that could be used today. I put a Micro-ITX PC inside, and rigged up as many of the other parts that I could. I think it turned out pretty ok for a first run.

System Specs:

• Intel Atom Dual-Core CPU @ 1.6GHz
• Intel D945GCLF Motherboard
• 14" LCD Panel (MV141 - 1024 x 768 max res)
• Windows Vista Ultimate
• 220gb of storage across 2 HDDs
• 2gb DDR-667 Memory
• eVGA GeForce 6600 PCI Video Card
• Wireless and Wired Network Cards
• Logitech LX710 Wireless Keyboard / Mouse
• (2x) Powered Speakers
• Cooling Fan
• (2x) Rear USB ports
• Unified power via surge strip

The photo descriptions describe a little bit more as well.

View the photos » (click to show/hide)