Some people who know me say that my sense of humor is a bit skewed. I agree and as proof, here's something I find hilarious. In fact most of the cartoons on their site quite funny.

 

For whatever reason, Microsoft has removed the ability to sync an Access database to a Pocket PC under ActiveSync 4.0 and 4.1.  However Mike Boone seems to have found a workaround.  Here's what he posted in the newsgroups:

OK here is what I have learned so far that is necessary for Pocket
Access synchronization under Windows Mobile 5/ActiveSync 4:

The files adoce30.dll and adocedb30.dll must be on the device in the
Windows folder.  The file adosync.dll must be on the device and
registered.  Then, on the desktop, remove the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE
Services\SpecialDefaults\PocketPC04\Services\Synchronization\Objects\~MicrosoftTable

You may have to disconnect and reconnect the device before you see the
"Pocket Access" sync enabled.  That seems to be all there is to it,
except for a percentage of users who have been reporting an "Access
Denied" error when they try the transfer of a database file.  I haven't
figured out yet why some users are getting this message, so if anyone
has any suggestions on that please let me know.

I've not tried it, but I know he's been fighting it for a couple months, so I have no doubt about it working.  Great info - hopefully me blogging it will make it a little easier to find as well.

So today I'm working at home listening to a new found online 80's radio station from somewhere on the other side of the pond and on came a song that actually somewhat shocked me.  I mean I'm not offended - I thought it was funny as hell, and being offended is what being free is about anyway. 

Anyway it was a guy I'd never heard of before: Ivor Biggun.  Now I imagine if you're from that side of the pond you've heard of him - he's been around for decades and has loads of albums out, but after reviewing a little of it - just scanning track titles even - I think I know why I've never heard him before.

Long live the uncensored world of online radio.

So the OpenNETCF.Desktop.Communication library has been used in the "first malware to cross-infect a handheld phone or PDA from a desktop PC binary file...." (reported by the Mobile Antivirus Research Association).

The quote from the author is as follows:

The crossover virus was written in C# (C Sharp) using Visual Studio .NET 2003, the Communications Library of openNETCF.org was used and a great help

As part of such a "first" I'm not so sure I'm proud of, it does show how pervasive something as useful as our libraries can be.

 

If you're building a CE image and want to include CF 1.0 or CF 2.0, then it's pretty simple - just drag the component from the catalog into your workspace.  But what if you don't want to include the CF at all, but still have the plumbing there so your end-user can install the CF themselves and have it work?  One could look through the cesysgen.bat files and decipher what needs to be set or, if you're lazy like me, you could ask the CF team.

Here's the answer, courtesy of Jim Suplizio:

The appropriate support sysgen will have to be added to the image depending on what version of CF is going to be installed.

• SYSGEN_DOTNET_SUPPORT is the CF 1.0 support sysgen.
• SYSGEN_DOTNETV2_SUPPORT is the CF 2.0 support sysgen. SYSGEN_DOTNETV2_SUPPORT is a super-set of the CF 1.0 support.

Effectively if SYSGEN_DOTNETV2_SUPPORT is added to the image then the end user can deploy either 1.0 or 2.0 and all of the required underlying CE OS pieces will be there.

Keep in mind that required means "base functionality". CF 2.0 has optional functionality that requires other SYSGENS and they are as follows:

• Message Queuing - SYSGEN_MSMQ
• Soap Reliable Messaging Protocol - SYSGEN_MSMQ_SRMP
• SQLMobile (2005) requires CoCreateGuid functionality - SYSGEN_OLE_GUIDS
• IPv6 - SYSGEN_TCPIP6
• IE, PIE, HTMLView (htmlview.dll) or nothing - SYSGEN_IE, SYSGEN_PIE, SYSGEN_HELP or simply nothing.
• The following only apply to the MainstoneII, other devices will only have null driver sets:
  • D3D Mobile - BSP_D3DM_XSCALE
  • D3D Mobile - SYSGEN_D3DMXSCALE

 

It's been a while since we visited the OpenNETCF.Deskop.Communication library, but there have been lingering issues that ActiveSync 4.x have exposed (a stack imbalance exception).  So today I revisited the library and did some fixes to it as well as to the sample app (bad, bad me for not marshaling calls to the UI from a thread.  It's now a Studio 2005 project.

The latest code is in Vault and the downloads on the site are updated to this new version (2.9) as well.