One of my christmas presents was a Wacom Bonsai pen tablet. It was a bit disappointing to see that the driver installation got blocked in the middle. Downloaded the latest driver from Wacom site, but same result.

While enabling a Delphi application to connect to its remote server using a TSocketConnection and not only a TDCOMConnection, I found ian ssue while I was returning Int64 data. It worked flawlessy via DCOM, but not via the easier-to-setup socket connection. What was happening? Well, in SConnect.pas there is this declaration:

[delphi]VariantSize: array[0..varLongWord] of Word = (...)[/delphi]

It is used in TDataBlockInterpreter.ReadVariant() to get the data size to be read from the stream the socket connection uses to pass data around:

I got a Palm Treo Pro Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device, and I had some issues to make it working with the two access points I usually use, a 3Com 3CRGPOE10075 I have at the office, configured with WPA2 Enterprise, and a 3Com 3CRWE454G72 (1.03.12 firmware) at home, using WPA-PSK. Here what I found, maybe it could help someone out there:

I've updated the InnoSetup script to manage services. Now it imports the ChangeServiceSettings() API, and I've added a SimpleSetServiceStart() function to change the service startup type.

While building a project outside the IDE you could need to change some project settings, for example the output folder. It can be accomplished using the /p switch, the same used to set which configuration to build. If you open the .dprj file, you will see several <DCC_xxxxxx> nodes under each <PropertyGroup> node. These values can be overriden from the command line, each property separated by a semicolon. Here an example from an actual build configuration I use in CruiseControl.Net, to set the exe and dcu output folders:

Today the Windows Update Service at the office offered me XP SP3 (as a developer, I have the privilege to choose which update to install). I knew about no issue about the tool I use, and decided to install it.

When I rebooted, the quick launch bar and address bar were gone! Ok, let's re-enable them, I thought. The quick launch bar was simply disabled - but the "Address bar" item in the tool bars menu was gone!

I've bought a Logitech STX QuickCam Communicate STX webcam - nothing sophisticated - just needed a simple, good quality webcam to be used in Skype chats.

Yesterday on the Italian Delphi newsgroup run by Marco Cantù, Delphi&Dintorni, appeared a post asking how to load BPLs without writing them in the system directory or in the application directory.

I suggested to use the "App paths" registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths], but while looking for a reference for its proper use I didn't find a complete one, even on MSDN. It looks to be poorly documented, yet it's a very useful key.

The "non-breaking" release RAD2007 has the nasty habit to break an existing BDS2006 installation because packages - including those used by the IDE - have the same names, and usually the RAD 2007 path comes before the BDS2006 path - and thereby BDS2006 attempts to load the wrong packages.

A workaround is to use DLL redirection, a feature of the Windows loader that allows to load DLLs from the application path first, ignoring the path.

Marco Cantù has published a new book, the Delphi 2007 Handbook. Unlike the previous books in the "Mastering Delphi" series, this book is more aimed to actual Delphi programmers needing a guidance to update their skill and applications to the latest release of Delphi and Windows operating systems. This book covers the "Win32 personality" of Delphi/Developer Studio only - no .net here :)