I recently ran into a strange problem which turned out to have an even stranger solution. I was resurrecting an old laptop for use in my model railroading hobby. It had not been used since 2021 when I got a shiny new one for work. I had lost the shift key on one side and the screen was failing. Simple: order the parts; fix the laptop; bring it up-to-date. Which I did but I ran into a wall bring it up-to-date. Like everything I do, it seemed easy but turned into an adventure.
Nick Cottrell
Of Chickens Eggs and LEDs
We have kept chickens for years. Mostly for the eggs but I must admit we just like having them around. Chickens are programmed to lay eggs in the summer and stop in the winter. They will lay in the summer for a number of years if kept healthy. The control for this is length of the day. If you want eggs year-round, you just need to use a little trickery. Just control the light in their environment to maintain a ‘day’ of 12-14 hours. This is easily done with a light and timer. Keep the daylight to 12-14 hours with the light and they think it’s still summer. Simple right?
My History with Microsoft Visual Basic
I encountered Microsoft’s Basic in 1998. It was familiar to me because of my use of BASIC on GE Timesharing as far back as 1967 (see the ‘About Nick Cottrell‘ tab). I began using VB Script to do various things. At one point, I completed a 900+ line logon script to convert a Novell user profile to Active Directory user profile and swore I would never write a script that large again. I began using VB6 to do things I could not do easily in a script. Not only based on scale and debugging ability but because I also found … Read more
WPIE15.exe Error Installing or Modifying VB6
If you have gotten the WPIE15.exe error installing VB6 the reason is probably the install source. Visual Studio 6 comes from an era where we were installing on a physical computer, which of course, had a physical CD drive, which of course, had a drive letter assigned that almost never changed. So, when you installed any Visual Studio language from a CD, which you almost always did (even if you had an iso you burned a CD for the install), the installer remembered that drive letter.
New VB6 IDE Install on Windows 11 Issue Solved?
Initially, when I tested a VB6 IDE install on an Windows 11 ‘out-of-the-box’ (RTM) install, I encountered no new issues. I just got a new laptop and tried the same install method on a 21H2 (Build 22000.376) and immediately ran into an issue. The install ended with a message it had not worked and a reference to an install setting. I had never seen this previously.