Lubo Blagoev's Blog

Back in November last year I have updated the excellent screen capture tool Cropper to have the ability to include the mouse pointer in the screenshots you take. I emailed the changes to the author Brian Scott and asked him to update the tool so anyone can take advantage of this new functionality. Unfortunately Brian haven't released a new version by now. May be he is busy finishing some other great tool. Anyway I decided to post the changes here so you can download it.

And here it is. Download the Cropper Source Code (1,91 MB) or just the compiled binaries Cropper.zip (261 KB).

Now I don't want to start a separate source for Cropper so I will remove these links as soon as Brian releases a new version at Codeplex.

Just to remind you this version have the ability to capture the mouse independent of the capture plug-in used. So for example you can capture Animated GIFS with the mouse pointer.

There is an option to disable this functionality in the the options pane.

Enjoy!

Lubo.

If you are like me you most probably spent you day sitting in front of a computer doing a constant conversation with it, trying to negotiate what's needed to be done and how. If you are like me you will definitely agree that times goes by very fast while computing. So fast that sometimes you realize that you haven't stand up from your chair at all or you have stand up just couple of times. You will definitely agree with me that this is very bad. Still we continue to do it like nothing is going to happen us. Well this is not true. It will, and it is going to hurt. Lets face the fact:

MU study finds that sitting may increase risk of disease

MU professor offers solution: just stand up!

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Most people spend most of their day sitting with relatively idle muscles. Health professionals advise that at least 30 minutes of activity at least 5 days a week will counteract health concerns, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity that may result from inactivity. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia say a new model regarding physical activity recommendations is emerging. New research shows that what people do in the other 15 and a half hours of their waking day is just as important, or more so, than the time they spend actively exercising.

That's very disturbing. Don't you think? To prove my point just read the Scott Hanselman's first hand experience. I read this couple of months ago but just recently have thought more seriously about it. As said in the post don't just read it, but step ahead and donate. During Christmas I received an $80 amazon gift from my employer. There are some troubles purchasing goods from amazon and shipping them to Bulgaria so I haven't decided what to do with them since today. I intend to donate all of it to the cause to FIGHT DIABETES.

Personally what can we do to fight diabetes. There is one simple, very strong word that can fight any disease.

Sport!

Jogging, Swimming, Climbing, Cycling, Surfing you name it. Pick the name of the game and stick with it. For me this is Bodybuilding. Yeah baby! Go hard or go home!

Next time you wonder where to do your Team Building - do it in the gym. That's what I call Team Building through Bodybuilding.

Stop wasting your time right now or you will end up at the forefront of the evolution chain.

But if you are there already it is not late. It is never late. "Just stand up!".

See you at the gym.

As a software developer you should have noticed that Windows Vista requires special attention. Even if you are building application targeted for Windows XP you should always test your code against the new operating system since it is very likely that your app will be used on Vista. That's why you should do the effort and read the Windows Vista Developer Guidelines:

• User Experience Articles
• Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines
• Windows Vista Developer Story

Great articles, really great. I can't never express enough my feelings when I read these very well prepared, highly detailed articles for Windows development. This is the reason why I am a Microsoft Windows Developer and that I am very excited about it. Having such articles in your hands simplifies things, makes your job easier and produces beautiful results.

If you don't have the time and desire to read all of them you can always come back later and use them as reference in your work. Still I highly recommend reading the Windows Vista Application Development Requirements for User Account Control Compatibility. Taking into account the User Account Control is mandatory for any Windows Vista development. UAC is one of the most discussed feature of Vista.

Recently I was reading through the UAC compatibility guidelines and I noticed one thing. An application is blocked if it requires elevation on user logon.

Elevations are blocked in the User's Logon Path

Applications that start when the user logs on and require elevation are now blocked in the logon path. Without blocking applications from prompting for elevation in the user's log on path, both standard users and administrators would have to respond to a User Account Control dialog box on every log on. Windows Vista notifies the user if an application has been blocked by placing an icon in the system tray. The user can then right-click this icon to run applications that were blocked from prompting for elevation as the user logged on. The user can manage which startup applications are disabled or removed from this list by double-clicking on the tray icon.

If you ever want to start an application with elevated privileges at logon you should use Vista's Task Scheduler. In the UAC article there is a sample which shows how to do that programmatically. Manually scheduling an application is very simple. If you select the checkbox labeled Run with highest privileges, Task Scheduler will run the task using an elevated privileges token rather than a least privileges (UAC) token. This way you will not even receive prompt for consent since Task Scheduler is already elevated.