Digital Jargon

I have moved my blog to WordPress. The new address is:

http://digitaljargon.wordpress.com

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I have started using Windows Live Mesh quite a bit recently. It is a great solution for keeping documents in sync between multiple computers. I also found it does a great job of keeping your IE Favorites synced on multiple computers. I always liked the idea of keeping all of my IE Favorites synced across all of my computers. I was using a 3rd party program called Zinkmo to accomplish this. I have gotten rid of the 3rd party program and replaced it with Live Mesh.

To get everything working go to https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Default.aspx to download the software. Once you have Live Mesh installed. Simply go to your C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Favorites folder and add it to your Live Mesh. On your other computers simply map the Live Mesh folder to the same path. All of your Favorites will now be in sync. As an added benefit your Favorites will be available on the Live Mesh web site.

I have used some form of Windows Mobile OS as my main mobile device for the past six years or so. The nice thing about WinMo is that there is a native Sirius client available. I enjoy listening to Sirius while I am the go. When I tried the Blackbery, Google G1, and Apple iPhone I realized there was no native Sirius client available. Using the steps below you can stream Sirius or XM to pretty much any modern mobile device. I have personally tested it on the G1, BlackBerry 4.5, and the iPhone.

Requirements

• An active Sirius or XM Account
• Windows 2000/XP/Vista with the following software
• uSirius or uXM from http://www.millardsoftware.com/
• Orb from http://www.orb.com/
• Any modern mobile device (Android G1, Windows Mobile Pro/Standard, BlackBerry 4.5 and higher, iPhone)

Instructions

• Download and install uSirius or uXM from the link above. Launch the program and click on settings. Under the first tab enter your Sirius or XM username and password. Click OK and click Start. The program should load the channel lineup and you should see the message, "Server Started" and "Listening at XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX" on port XXXX".
• Install Orb and accept all defaults.
• Launch Orb. You should see an Orb icon in your system tray, right click on it, and choose Configuration. Under Advanced make sure UPnP for DirectStream is checked and you have UPnP enabled on your router. Click the Check button under DirectStream and it should be successful. If it is not you will need to setup port forwarding on your router for the ports listed. Click on the Users tab and Create an Account or use an Existing Account.
• Launch http://my.orb.com/ from a web browser and login with the Orb account you just created. Go to the Audio section once logged in and go to the Internet Radio Custom Channels.
• Back on your computer open uSirius or uXM and click on the URLs button. Select the channel you want to stream and then copy the URL.
• Back on the my.orb.com page click on Add Custom at the top of the screen. Enter anything for the title and put the URL you copied above into the Path box. Hit submit. You should now be able to see the channel you just created.
• Click on the green play button to play the stream. You should then be able to go to my.orb.com from your mobile device and play the custom internet radio stream you created.

Notes/Tips

If your computer does not have a static IP you will need to update the URL in Orb when it changes. To get around this simply give your computer a static IP address on the same subnet as your router. Use your router's IP address as your gateway and DNS server. I let Orb startup automatically and run when I am not logged in. When these are enabled the program will run as a Windows service. I also put uSirius in my Startup folder. As a result everything works when my computer reboots. You can also use Orb to listen to any audio file and view any video file, pictures, and documents on your mobile device.

I ran into an issue creating a linked server on SQL 2005 64-bit. I was trying to connect to a 2000 32-bit server. The error I received was:

OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server "servername" returned message "Unspecified error".

OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server "servername" returned message "The stored procedure required to complete this operation could not be found on the server. Please contact your system administrator.".

Msg 7311, Level 16, State 2, Line 1

Cannot obtain the schema rowset "DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO" for OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server "servername". The provider supports the interface, but returns a failure code when it is used.

To fix this error you need to run the instcat.sql file on the 2000 instance. This file is in SP4. This file adds a missing stored procedure to the 2000 instance.