On the list of things that make me crazy: When you’re debugging code, and can’t seem to figure out the cause of a problem. So, you write in some test code to help find the error, and somehow the test code makes the error go away.
I may now be looking at a true Heisenbug.
If you run a website, be it a blog, informational site, or something else, this is for you. If not, feel free to skip.
The last few weeks I’ve been head-down with a partner starting a new business: The Wingspan Advertising Network. Wingspan is a new genre-specific advertising network that helps put brands together with people who are interested in their products. Today, we’re beginning signups for beta testing, and we’re beta testing with a Delphi advertising network.
In a nutshell, we want you to sign up with us and host advertisements that we’ll provide.
And we want to pay you to do it.
Here’s how it works (directly from the wingspan website):
Each month, a portion of the advertising fees paid by advertisers is placed in “the pot.” At the end of the month, we review the number of impressions (views) and clickthroughs generated by your website, and determine what percentage of all the impressions and clickthroughs for your network is represented by you. You then receive a proportionate part of the pot.
For example, if the pot for your network this month is $5000, and you generate 10% of the impressions and clickthroughs for the month, you will receive 10% of $5000, or $500. Both ad impressions and clickthroughs are counted, so as long as people are looking at your website, you are sure to generate revenue through Wingspan.
Wingspan is currently invitation-only, but if you’re a webmaster who’s running a website about Delphi (the programming language), then you’re invited.
To sign up, head over to http://adserver.wingspanadnet.com/signup/invitation?invite=1 and follow the directions.
There is more information at http://www.wingspanadnet.com.
The spam problem has officially gotten out of control.
We all know that there are programs out there that mine email addresses from the web. We also know that when you get spam, the “reply-to” address is never valid - it’s just someone else’s address being “spoofed” in the mail headers.
Well, this morning the public TwoDesk contact address became someone’s spoof, and now we’re getting thousands of “Message Undeliverable” and other such messages. This is called “Backscatter,” and it’s VERY annoying. We’re going to see if it subsides in a day or two, and if it doesn’t, we’ll have to turn that address off and come up with a “cleaner” way of dealing with public contacts.
In the meantime, we’re just trying to stay on top of it and create some rules to get rid of the majority of the backscatter messages. Of course, it’s possible that a rule may catch something you send us, so if you send us an email and don’t get a response within 24 hours, assume you got caught in the backscatter and try again.
I’d also be interested in people’s suggestions on how to deal with backscatter, or spam in general.
Castalia 2008.2 is now available. Current subscribers can download it from the customer service web site at http://subscribe.twodesk.com. A 30-day free trial is available for everyone else at http://www.twodesk.com/castalia
New in this version
Enhanced features
Fixed Bugs
About Castalia
Castalia transforms the Delphi IDE into an amazing development platform. Castalia lives on the bleeding edge of IDE technology, giving you cutting edge tools to write better code faster, understand code more accurately, and improve code you’ve already written.
Castalia is available at http://www.twodesk.com/castalia
Castalia 2008.2 is coming very soon. If you’re using Windows Vista, and have not disabled UAC, you’ve probably seen a little problem with Castalia trying to write to the Program Files folder. Castalia 2008.2 will fix this, but if you’ve got custom code templates, you’ll need to do a little bit of plumbing to keep them:
Open RegEdit, and navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TwoDesk\Castalia key. You’ll find a value there called “StorageDir.” It will tell you a folder. In that folder, you’ll find a file called castalia.templates.
Copy this file to a location you’ll remember, then delete the StorageDir value from the registry. (Right-click on “StorageDir” and choose “Delete”). When you start Delphi with Castalia 2008.2, the value will be recreated with a Vista-Friendly file location. Close Delphi and copy the castalia.templates file you saved earlier into the new directory. Restart Delphi and you’ll have all your custom templates back, with no more Vista problems.
Here’s a sneak peek at Castalia 2008.2, which is just around the corner:
That image is probably going to wreak havoc on this site’s layout…
Castalia 2008.2 will include an editor splitter - allowing you to view two locations in the same file at once, or even two different files. The secondary view is read-only, but is fully scrollablle and clipboard-enabled.
The Delphi Puzzles are back!
If you’re using Delphi as a non-administrative user on Vista, installing Castalia can be a bit of a pain, because the installer does require administrative rights (because it writes files to Program Files, which is where Vista wants the files to be.
Delphi, on the other hand, loads its settings (including which plugins to load up) from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry key, so that’s where Castalia inserts itself. Of course, when you switch users and open Delphi, it doesn’t read the Administrator’s HKCU, so you’ll have Delphi without Castalia for any other user.
Enabling Castalia for a non-administrative account is pretty simple though. Off the top of my head, here are steps:
Which registry key to export:
As always, messing with the registry can cause damage to the system if you make a mistake. Do it at your own risk, your mileage may vary, etc….
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke died today. It’s a good day to remember one of his most famous quotes:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Castalia 2008.1.1 is a critical bugfix release for Castalia 2008.1
The following issues are fixed:
This release is available to all current subscribers at http://subscribe.twodesk.com.