Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 with new Laplink PC Mover version

I scored a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate from the MSDN "New Efficiency" show.  Microsoft doesn't support upgrading from XP to Win7, so I partitioned the hard drive on my laptop and now have a dual boot system.  Now I have to migrate all my programs and such to the new partition.

PCmover is compatible for migrations from all versions of Windows (since Windows 95), and
supports in-place upgrades from Windows 2000 through Windows 7, including 32-bit and 64-bit
upgrades and migrations. Only PCmover automatically moves all settings, files, folders,
applications, and more to a new PC.  Pictures, videos, music, tax files, Internet favorites,
documents, spreadsheets, games, and much more can all be moved automatically. Setting PCmover apart
from any other solution is the ability to move applications, a capability no other tool provides.

“With this version of PCmover, users can upgrade from operating systems such as Windows
2000, XP, or 32-bit Vista to Windows 7 64-bit without losing any data or having to reinstall their
applications,” continued Clark. “With a street price of under $20 for our new PCmover Upgrade
Assistant, consumers and businesses can afford to move to Windows 7 right away.”

The press release says availability today from Laplink, but as of this moment, the new version isn't on their website.  I have used the previous version of PC Mover a number of times (for XP to XP and XP to Vista), and it worked like a charm–highly recommended.  Upgrade Assistant is now available, and apparently actually allows you to do an in-place upgrade of XP to Windows 7.  No idea how this works yet, but it's very promising.  If Upgrade Assiatant works like PC Mover, you can take it to the bank.

Full story at http://www.laplink.com/media/press_releases/pressreleases_0025.html.

 

iTunes Error — Could not purchase “songtitle”. An unknown error occurred (5002)

We recently started getting this order, and searching around didn’t turn up anything useful.  So we emailed Apple’s support, and they send the following answer.  It worked like a charm!  However, instead of the credit card information, it was address information that was messed up.  After correcting the address info, all was well.

Many customers have resolved this issue by temporarily removing their credit card information from their account. Here are the steps:

1) Visit the Apple Store online:
http://store.apple.com/us

2) Click Account in the upper-right corner, then click "Change account information" and sign in using the same Apple ID and password you use for the iTunes Store.

3) You should see your account-profile page. Under Method of Payment, remove all of the characters from the Card Number field. Do not change the expiration date or credit card type. 

4) If you haven’t already, select where you primarily use your purchases from the pop-up menu near the bottom of the page.

5) Click Continue. If you are asked to enter any other information, be sure to click Continue after making the updates so that your changes will be saved.

6) Make sure you’re using the latest version of iTunes. It can be downloaded free of charge:
http://www.itunes.com/download

Note: Installing the latest version of iTunes will not affect your library or any items in your account that you haven’t downloaded.

7) Click this link to open iTunes and access the Apple Account Information page:
http://phobos.apple.com/accountSummary

8) Sign in to the iTunes Store using your account name and password.

9) On the Apple Account Information page, click the Edit Payment Information button.

10) Enter your payment information and click Done to save your changes.

To ensure your account is functioning, try downloading a free item from the iTunes Store. To do this, navigate to the iTunes Store main page by clicking the Home icon near the upper-left corner of the window. Scroll down and click the "FREE ON iTunes" link near the bottom of the main page, then select an item to download.

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.NET Comes to the iPhone

Thanks to our friends at Novell and the Mono project:

Available immediately, monoTouch enables applications developed in any .net language to run on the iPhone. Significantly, monoTouch provides .net bindings to native API, allowing application developers will have access to iPhone specific functionality from within their .net applications. monoTouch integrates with both the free MonoDevelop IDE as well as Apple's XCode toolkit.

Applications developed using monoTouch compile completely to native code – they are not JIT compiled or interpreted.

This is a commercial offering, not an open-source appliction, and will set you back $399.  But with over a million iPhones, and a few more million iPod Touches, a good app can recoup that pretty easily.  This is for Mac OSX only, not Windows.

Find it at http://monotouch.net/.

Free MVC “Cheat Sheet”

Hot off the presses from Refcardz:

Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC 1.0 

Anyone interested in learning the basics of ASP.NET MVC, Microsoft's new framework for building Web applications, should definitely check out this DZone Refcard. You'll learn how to setup your environment and how to create a web application. Then, you'll get to go deeper into detail and learn about components of the framework along with the structure of the main API.

Full story and free download at http://refcardz.dzone.com/refcardz/getting-started-aspnet-mvc-10?oid=hom12637

RESTful Hands-On-Lab using WCF and jQuery

The first of several hands-on talks, this one looks to be awesome.  This is two days before the G20, and the location is on the North side, not too far from the stadiums, so we should be clear of traffic issues.

Join us on September 22nd for a Hands On Lab using jQuery and WCF to build RESTful applications.  This will be the first of several upcoming hands on labs.

This hands-on-lab will explore how to use Microsoft’s Windows Communcation Foundation (WCF) 3.5 along with client-side technologies, such as jQuery, to create RESTful applications that will improve the performance of your .NET applications.

This session will start with building several simple WCF services; then we’ll build a client-side application using some jQuery functions; then we’ll hook the jQuery browser app up with the WCF services.

This hands-on-lab will be the first of several hands-on-labs covering using WCF and jQuery to build high-performing RESTful applications.

Full story at http://codecamppgh.com/jquery_hol1.aspx

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September PGHDOTNET Meeting – Theming ASP.NET Sites with CSS3

Couple of great talks at PGH.NET this month.  Here’s the first:

The session begins with some CSS3 basics and moves onto how to create the ultimate presentation. Chris will demonstrate how to build rich themes without graphics, graceful degradation, and how to use simple graphics to enhance style. You’ll become familiar with support for legacy browsers, Web 2.0, and walk away with an overview of ASP.NET framework themes.

Chris’ bio has one of the best statements EVER.  Emphasis mine:

Chris Bannon is familiar with many acronyms: UX, ASP.NET, AJAX, C#, SQL & jQuery.  As the lead Web Developer at ComponentOne, he has mastered techniques such as CSS Layout, Unobtrusive JavaScript, Semantic Markup, and Progressive Enhancement.  Chris manages the product line for many ComponentOne’s Microsoft Visual Studio products and is trained in Notepad, SQL Management Studio and Expression Blend.

Full story and registration at http://codecamppgh.com/200909.aspx.

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