Canon vs. MSN

I have a pretty neat little USB-powered scanner CanoScan LiDE 200. Worked like a charm - assembled PDFs, did it's OCR things. Until recently. All the sudden it started throwing "Application stopped working" popup with the following trace:

Faulting application name: mpnex20.exe, version: 2.0.3.0, time stamp: 0x488d25b8
Faulting module name: MSONSEXT.DLL_unloaded, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x43306199
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x49143a3b
Faulting process id: 0x1b6c
Faulting application start time: 0x01ca6fa1279f1150
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Canon\MP Navigator EX 2.0\mpnex20.exe
Faulting module path: MSONSEXT.DLL
Report Id: 66e6c43e-db94-11de-944e-00248c08c4d9

Reinstall didn't help. All kind of forums advised to fix a corrupted profile - which in my case would open giant can of poisonous worms, so it wasn't acceptable. Eventually I've dug up an obscure recipe. When I first laid my eye on it I didn't believe it, but three hours of head banging improves ones faith in miracles. I tried it and it worked. Like a charm. The guy is a Voodoo Jedi - there is no way mere human can get to that without using a Force. Here is the solution:
- Go to the folder C:\Users\[user name]\App Data\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts\
- There will be shortcut "My Web Sites on MSN" - kill it
- Burn Microsoft sticker under a bridge at a full moon.

Go figure...

also check Feed Burner

Interface + extension methods > abstract class

This is a very interesting approach to combine the flexibility and clarity of interface with convenience of laziness when inheriting from half-pre-build abstract class:
Extension methods as default interface method implementations

I usually in doubts every time and now I have more reasons to do the right thing and choose the interface. Very neat trick – some inheritance and some composition.

Delete SVN subdirectories (and some others)

Every now and then one would need to add files to Subversion “en mass”. Obviously there are a lot of file types you wouldn't want in your repository. Usual undesirables are BIN and OBJ folders - the are inconvenient to have, and quite often – orphan .SVN remnants which will effectively screw up your new subscription. I struggled with these task long enough and today smart person who reads something besides Science Fiction prepared a script for me:

for /f “tokens=* delims=” %%i in (’dir /s /b /a:d *svn’) do (
rd /s /q “%%i”)

This is to be packed as a KillSVN.cmd file and executed from the root of the folder which contains your solution (not C:\ root, unless you plan to get rid of all your Suvbersion subscriptions!)

it is pretty easy to conclude that deleting BIN and OBJ folders will follow the same patter (this script I wrote myself!):

for /f “tokens=* delims=” %%i in (’dir /s /b /a:d bin’) do (
rd /s /q “%%i”)
for /f “tokens=* delims=” %%i in (’dir /s /b /a:d obj’) do (
rd /s /q “%%i”)