That being said, Hacker News community has recently come up with Hacker Monthly (http://www.hackermonthly.com/issues.html) which is a monthly PDF/e-zine (also available for print if you are feeling generous), highlighting some of the most relevant stories from the previous month.   This is great content, freely available, and deserves to be promoted.   Well done guys.

                          

*Disclaimer* – I’m sure this is not approved or condoned by Microsoft for Windows Home Server owners, so do this at your own risk.  If you brick/break/fubar your machine, please do not email me about it.

Here are the steps I followed:

Step 1:

Remote desktop into your Windows Home Server machine.  “Start > Run > mstsc”.   From here enter your home server machine name (i.e. HOME-SERVER).  Once prompted, enter your username as “Administrator” and enter the root administrator password you selected when you setup your machine.

Step 2:

Download Microsoft Windows Installer 4.5 (if you have not previously done this) as it is required to install SQL Express 2008.   Here is the download link (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5a58b56f-60b6-4412-95b9-54d056d6f9f4&displaylang=en).  I believe a reboot is required here.

Step 3:

Download SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe from this Microsoft download link (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=58ce885d-508b-45c8-9fd3-118edd8e6fff&displaylang=en).

Step 4:

Run the setup program, and under the “Installation” tab, select “New SQL Server stand-alone installation”.  Follow the steps required for the installation process.  I would  reboot after installing this as well.

Step 5:

Click Start > Programs > Microsoft SQL 2008 > Configuration Tools > Configuration Manager

Step 6:

Follow steps 1 – 9 here in order to enable remote connections as this will not be enabled by default.   Steps 10 and later will not work because SQL Express Management Studio cannot be installed on a Windows Server 2003 installation (to my knowledge).

Step 7:

On your home server, under control panel, select “Windows Firewall”.   Select the exceptions tab, and add a program exception for: c:\program files\microsoft sql server\mssql10.sqlexpress\mssql\binn\sqlservr.exe

Step 8:

On your desktop machine now, enter the following command into your command prompt:

C:\>SQLCMD -U sa -P <the-sa-password-you-set> -S YourHomeServerName\SQLEXPRESS,1122

(note: 1122 is the port # of the server.   This is the default, but you can see this changed from the TCP/IP protocol settings inside SQL Server configuration manager).

If this worked, you should be given a prompt such as “1>” to enter sql commands on that server.  Just enter “QUIT” once you have confirmed it worked.

Step #9:

Install Microsoft SQL Express 2008 Management Studio (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=08e52ac2-1d62-45f6-9a4a-4b76a8564a2b&displaylang=en).   When prompted for connection details, specify “YOUR-HOME-SERVER\SQLEXPRESS,1122″ (without quotes), pick SQL Server Authentication, and enter your “sa” credentials.   Note the 1122 in the location.  This not a well documented feature, but this is how you specify the port # for a connection.

                          

Bob Martin spoke about dynamic languages and some of the history of typed vs. non-typed languages and the benefits of each.   Jay Freeman spoke about the politics involved in app store development, as well as fielded questions on some of the very impressive work he has done for the jailbroken phone community.   Jason spoke about how to integrate multimedia development on the Android platform, and Chris Grove spoke to us about strategies for cross-platform development.

All the information was incredibly useful, and well worth the $40 price of admission.   The “Tech in the Middle” organizers did a really great job at setting this whole thing up and I would definitely attend any future conferences they may setup as well.

                          

Given MyPage.aspx

   
My Repeater

   
   
     
       
       
        
       
     
   

Given MyPage.aspx.vb

' **** Please note functions CategoriesDataLayer.GetList() And ItemsDataLayer.GetCategories(CategoryId)
' ****   are used for demonstration only.  You may use any collection of data (datatable, collection, etc)    

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
      rptMyOuterRepeater.DataSource = CategoriesDataLayer.GetList()
      rptMyOuterRepeater.DataBind()
End Sub

Protected Sub rptMyOuterRepeater_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As RepeaterItemEventArgs) Handles rptMyOuterRepeater.ItemDataBound
      ' Exit function if this is not in ItemTemplate
      If Not e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.AlternatingItem AndAlso Not e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Item Then Exit Sub
      Dim rptMyInnerRepeater As Repeater = e.Item.FindControl("rptMyInnerRepeater")
      rptMyInnerRepeater.DataSource = ItemsDataLayer.GetItemsByCategory(e.Item.DataItem("CategoryId"))
      AddHandler rptMyInnerRepeater.ItemDataBound, AddressOf rptMyInnerRepeater_ItemDataBound
      rptMyInnerRepeater.DataBind()
End Sub

Protected Sub rptMyInnerRepeater_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As RepeaterItemEventArgs)
      ' Exit function if this is not in ItemTemplate
      If Not e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.AlternatingItem AndAlso Not e.Item.ItemType = ListItemType.Item Then Exit Sub
      CType(e.Item.FindControl("ltlItem"), Literal).Text = e.Item.DataItem("ItemName")
End Sub

                          

I have a block of product images we received from a customer. Each product image is a picture of something and it was taken with a white background. I would like to crop all the surrounding parts of the image but leave only the product in the middle. Is this possible?

As an example: http://www.5dnet.de/media/catalog/product/d/r/dress_shoes_5.jpg

I don’t want all white pixels removed, however I do want the image cropped so that the top-most row of pixels contains one non-white pixel, the left-most vertical row of pixels contains one non-white pixel, bottom-most horizontal row of pixels contains one non-white pixel, etc.

Below is the solution to my problem. It is not the most glamorous approach, but it works. I could have use Bitmap.Lockbits() to lock the bitmap in memory and do my processing there, but this approach below sufficed my needs. It is a pixel by pixel scan of the image.

Some recommended additions/changes if you are feeling inclined:

• Use Bitmap.Lockbits() to improve performance
• Perform image resizing after the trimming is completed.
• Instead of looking for straight white pixels, you could also exclude near-white pixels (for any shadows).

Start.vb

Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager

Module Start

       Sub Main()
       	   Try
	       Console.WriteLine("")
	       Console.WriteLine("Begin:  Crop Images")
               CropAllImages()
           Catch e As Exception
               Console.WriteLine("Error Message: " & e.Message)
               Console.WriteLine("----------")
               Console.WriteLine("Error Stack: " & e.StackTrace)
           End Try
       End Sub

       Sub CropAllImages()
           Dim iTopMostPixel As Integer, iLeftMostPixel As Integer, iRightMostPixel As Integer, iBottomMostPixel As Integer
           Dim objBmp As Bitmap, objNewBmp As Bitmap
           Dim rect As Rectangle
           For Each oFile As FileInfo In New DirectoryInfo(AppSettings("ImagePath")).GetFiles("*.jpg")
               objBmp = CType(Bitmap.FromFile(AppSettings("ImagePath") & oFile.Name), Image)
               iTopMostPixel = GetNonWhitePixel(objBmp, 1) + AppSettings("PaddingTop") ' Get the top most pixel and add any optional padding
               iLeftMostPixel = GetNonWhitePixel(objBmp, 2) + AppSettings("PaddingLeft") ' Get the left most pixel and add any optional padding
               iBottomMostPixel = GetNonWhitePixel(objBmp, 3) + AppSettings("PaddingBottom")
               iRightMostPixel = GetNonWhitePixel(objBmp, 4) + AppSettings("PaddingRight")
               rect = New Rectangle(iLeftMostPixel, iTopMostPixel, iRightMostPixel - iLeftMostPixel, iBottomMostPixel - iTopMostPixel)
               objNewBmp = objBmp.Clone(rect, objBmp.PixelFormat)
               objNewBmp.Save(AppSettings("ImagePath") & Replace(oFile.Name, oFile.Extension, "_cropped" & oFile.Extension), Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
               Console.WriteLine("Saved: " & AppSettings("ImagePath") & Replace(oFile.Name, oFile.Extension, "_cropped" & oFile.Extension))
               objNewBmp.Dispose()
               objBmp.Dispose()
           Next
       End Sub

       Function GetNonWhitePixel(ByVal objBmp As Bitmap, ByVal iPixelType As Integer) As Integer
           Dim objColor As Color
             Select Case iPixelType
               Case 1
                     ' Top pixel
                   For y = 0 To objBmp.Height - 1
                       For x = 0 To objBmp.Width - 1
                           objColor = objBmp.GetPixel(x, y)
                           If Hex(objColor.R) & Hex(objColor.G) & Hex(objColor.B) <> "FFFFFF" Then Return y
                       Next
                   Next
                 Case 2
                     ' Left pixel
                   For x = 0 To objBmp.Width - 1
                       For y = 0 To objBmp.Height - 1
                           objColor = objBmp.GetPixel(x, y)
                           If Hex(objColor.R) & Hex(objColor.G) & Hex(objColor.B) <> "FFFFFF" Then Return x
                       Next
                   Next
                 Case 3
                     ' Bottom pixel
                   For y = objBmp.Height - 1 To 0 Step -1
                       For x = 0 To objBmp.Width - 1
                           objColor = objBmp.GetPixel(x, y)
                           If Hex(objColor.R) & Hex(objColor.G) & Hex(objColor.B) <> "FFFFFF" Then Return y
                       Next
                   Next
                 Case 4
                     ' Right pixel
                   For x = objBmp.Width - 1 To 0 Step -1
                       For y = 0 To objBmp.Height - 1
                           objColor = objBmp.GetPixel(x, y)
                           If Hex(objColor.R) & Hex(objColor.G) & Hex(objColor.B) <> "FFFFFF" Then Return x
                       Next
                   Next
             End Select
             ' Nothing found
           Return 0
       End Function
   End Module

app.config