Run a program on Windows startup

I had a shortcut to a batch file that needed to run on the startup of Windows 10 x64 Enterprise startup. All the various methods described (adding to the Startup folder, adding to regular Run key in registry) didn't work. Finally, this post on Stack Overflow solved the issue. This should work well on other versions of Windows too.

Because this is a 64-bit Windows, the change has to be made in Wow6432Node:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

There, you can add a new string value, give it a name, and then double-click to edit it. Place the full path of the program in double quotes. If it's something requiring administrator privileges, on startup, Windows will display the UAC dialog.

Nice jQuery plugin for "Read more" text truncating

Spent some time researching options to do "Read more" functionality for text on a web page. Many were based on a preset height in pixel, which cut the text in mid-sentence, without adding any ellipsis. In addition, those which did truncate with ellipsis lacked a flexible animation. Then I found jTruncate from jMar's blog. It does the trick on any number of elements on the page via jQuery; it also includes options for animation and more/less link text.

The type or namespace name 'XmlNodeReader' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

I had to download a Visual Studio 2015 RC solution to a VM and rebuild it. However, in the process, build errors popped up. They were similar to this one:

The type or namespace name 'XmlNodeReader' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) myapp.DNX Core 5.0

Lots of research and trial-and-error finally revealed the answer: The myapp project (an ASP.NET MVC app) had references to two frameworks -- DNX 4.5.1 and DNX Core 5.0. These were listed in the project.json file:

"frameworks": {
    "dnx451": {
      "frameworkAssemblies": {
        "System.Web": "4.0.0.0",
        "System.Xml": "4.0.0.0",
        "System.Xml.Serialization": "4.0.0.0"
      }
    }//,
    //"dnxcore50": { }
  },

This article had the answer. I needed to comment out the dnxcore50 in project.json; once done, the app compiled and all was well with Visual Studio. 

Creating a peeling sticker effect in Photoshop

Used this great tutorial today to create some peeling stickers for Facebook ads.

8 free sites that teach you how to program

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2949214/it-training/8-free-sites-that-teach-you-how-to-program.html

Wrapping text around an image in Photoshop

This article shows how to use the Pen tool to wrap text around an image. This one covers a similar technique, but using shapes.

Pass arbitrary parameter to partial view in ASP.NET MVC

I had a chunk of HTML that needed to repeat in a few places, so it made sense to throw it into a partial view. However, each chunk had to have a unique ID for a Bootstrap collapse component. So a parameter needed to be passed in. Some research revealed a rather simple, elegant way in this article. Just pass it as the partial view's model:

@Html.Partial("~/Views/Shared/_TestimonialSubmitPartial", "1")

Then, in the partial view, read it using @Model -- it's the only value passed in, so no dot notation is necessary. Each time I'm using the partial view, I change the value.

In the partial view, I set the data-target of the Bootstrap button to the concatenated ID and also set the collapse div to that same value:

<button class="btn btn-default" 
    data-target="#testimonial-submit-instructions-@Model" 
    data-toggle="collapse" type="button">
    Submit Testimonial
</button>
<div class="collapse" id="testimonial-submit-instructions-@Model">
.....
</div>