Category: Delphi

Unfixed Outlook & IE hole allows XP&Vista user promotion to Admin

I’d already decided not to post about this, but then learned more.  There is no fix.  No work around. I’m vulnerable and at this point, I can’t do anything about it.  Even on Vista, just pre-viewing an HTML email in Outlook 2002+ means you are vulnerable.   An that’s not just OE but the REAL Outlook used is offices everywhere.  You can’t turn off Java Script, or Active X or anything.  You don’t even crash.  Your system is just pwned…

What does MS have to say?

Microsoft is investigating new public reports of attacks exploiting a vulnerability in the way Microsoft Windows handles animated cursor (.ani) files. In order for this attack to be carried out, a user must either visit a Web site that contains a Web page that is used to exploit the vulnerability or view a specially crafted e-mail message or email attachment sent to them by an attacker. […] Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This will include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.  Microsoft is actively monitoring this situation to keep customers informed and to provide customer guidance as necessary. – http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/003973.html

For Outlook, the only fix Microsoft has is “read all e-mail in plain text rather than HTML”.  I know Outlook REALLY well, but I don’t remember a setting that does that.  There’s no solution for Internet Explorer.  Basicaly any application, even ones that you might have written in Delphi that happen to have a TBrowser component in them that is allowed access to the outside world, is vulnerable.  So if you have any custom email programs you’ve written, watch out!

The basic avenue of attack  is to display a customized animated cursor.  Once you open that email or browse through that site,  they gain access to your computer.  There is no crash, it just instantly happens.  The code can then promote the Limited Access account you are using (because we all only use admin accounts when we need to… Yeah, right!) to an Adminstrator account, and then do whatever they please, from rootkits to personal webservers.  Oh! and of course don’t forget that an “animated” cursor can appear to be static. It can look exact your normal cursor. 

In the article ” Windows Zero-Day Flaw ‘Very Dangerous,’ Experts Say Bug affecting IE and Windows is potentially very damaging, and there’s no quick fix in sight. “, by Gregg Keizer of Computerworld, there are a couple of good quotes.

“This is a good exploit,” Roger Thompson, CTO of Exploit Prevention Labs

“According to Adrian Stone, an MSRC program manager, Outlook 2007 is invulnerable, as is Vista’s Windows Mail–as long as users don’t reply or forward the attacker’s messages. The SANS Institute’s testing, however, contradicted Microsoft; by SANS’ account, Outlook Express in Windows XP, Windows Mail in Vista, and Outlook 2003 in any version of Windows puts users at risk when they simply preview a malicious message. They don’t have to actually open the message to be in danger of an infection.”

“Worse, we know there are vulnerabilities that can be exploited in Vista to escalate privileges,” said Brown. “All you need is access to the system, which this [animated cursor] provides.” Once inside, said Brown, the attacker could up rights from even a safer local user to administrator privileges. “Then, all bets are off.”

UPDATE:

 It seems that eEye Digital Security is taking advantage of the situation and has release a patch if you have their 1 year free personal addtion intrusion software:

Patch Location: Download Now!
Patch Version: 1.0
Patch Source Code: View

The patch prevents the loading of any non local ani files.  Well, my intrusion software is somewhat out of date anyway.  I’ll give it a try.  I’ll let you know if this is another “Scare you till you upgrade” program that is hard to remove.

UPDATE #2: eEye Digital Security is incredible.  At first glance, it seems to be professional and high-level.  I think it is actually meant to protect your system and not scare your Aunt Martha into buying more and more additions to it.  I’m impressed.  I’m also sad to say that for the second time since 1985ish when I first got a PC clone (a Compaq Portable Plus with Compaq Dos 2.12 and 10mb HD, if you must know), I actually had a virus detected on any disk or computer in my home.  It was one just reported in the wild for the first time at the end of Feb.  So my current antivirus software, somewhat out of date, hadn’t picked up on it.  Still I guess 2 viruse detections out of all of the stuff I’ve done and all the disks I’ve used and stuff I’ve downloaded, is a pretty good safety record for 2.2 decades.

Is Delphi for PHP better than Delphi 1.0?

Eric Wilms of WilmSoft.com left a comment on an ealier post.  My reply was way to long for a comment, so I’ve turned it into a post.  Then I can get other people’s feedback.  I’ve found people rarely ever read the comments here since most of my posts show in full on the front page…

Let’s catch you up on the story so far…

Eric wrote:

I’ve got the first release of Delphi 4 PHP… I have to say I’m VERY disapointed… I’m a Delphi code since Delphi 1 and PHP programer since 1998 and the thought of a Delphi for PHP was a dream come true. However, I can’t not get it to run any “app” on my Hosted server. The code runs fine on my local machine but, that’s not where my web sites are hosted. I HAD to upgrade to PHP 5.X.X.X in order to even get anywhere on a simple Hello World. I have no issue with that execpt it’s not really mentioned anywhere in the specs… Also, I was completely dumbfounded to find that there was NO FTP built in to Delphi 4 PHP… Come on guyes! You have to “delploy” you project (which puts all the files you’ll need together in one spot then open up your favorite FTP program and copy them to where you want it…. So, that means a simple change is not a click of a button away to update… you have to click deploy and about four “next” buttons to have it “deploy” THEN open your FTP and copy the files to the server…. That is a Joke.

Just calling it Delphi and hoping it will change the way things are done (Like Delphi ONE did) will not change the way things are done. I’m back to hand coding in my Favorite PHP editor. At least when I hit save, it saves it via FTP back to the server it came from….

I wish I could get my money back… :(

To which I said: 

Well, I do understand where you are coming from.

But I can’t say that either of those two things were not issues for me. I usually use PHP 4, but php 5 was always there for me to enable with a simple .htaccess change. Your past that anyway.

As for the FTP setup, I agree that would be nice too, but I don’t need it either as I use the old Novell add on util NetDrive ( abandonware publicly distributed for free to students) to make my debian webserver’s root drive X: on all of my machines, even my laptop. There are a bazillion instruction pages at colleges and elsewhere explaining how to use it, but I really don’t think you need it. Here’s one set http://www.loyola.edu/5555/netdrive/installingnetdrive/

I know lots of people use similar solutions so that their FTP account is just a drive letter on their windows sever.   Maybe it will help the transition for you… The public goal for Delphi for PHP v1.0 was always a Delphi 1 level of ability. It’s surpassed Delphi 1 in MANY, MANY ways, but I can’t deny there are some rough spots that require attention.

And Eric wrote back (OK this is the last quote):

I’m curious (and a die hard Borland….er ahem… Code Gear fan) what do you see as: “It’s surpassed Delphi 1 in MANY, MANY ways, ”

Because for me and Delphi one (coming from VB) was I Dropped down a button, a label and pressed F9. Bam! done… And every thing from “hello world” to middle-ware client server app doing OLE (or what ever) was just as hard (or simple).

I Dropped down a Calendar in D4PHP, do the deploy, copy the files to my server and I get: “Warning: require_once(vcl/jscalendar/calendar.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/wilmsoft/public_html/delphi/vcl/vcl.inc.php on line 127″

Is that a rough spot? Do I really have to dig in to the source code to figure out what’s missing the vcl.inc.php file?

I hear what your saying about the FTP and figured that would be the general response. But, I’m a contract programmer. I never am “on the server”. I almost always am on someones remote server where I don’t have access to a simple .ini file. I can’t use this tool and make money as it is today. I made money DAY ONE with Delphi One. No telling the customer oh, I’m glad you hired me to fix such and such but, I need you to now use change your infrastructure so my tools work.

I thought (or hoped) that the code gear spin off would start to focus (again) on the little guy writing code not the corporations… and I do see that trend and felt like I need to preorder D4PHP. But, Code Gear bought Delphi 4 php and I think it’s going to take a few releases to get it where they want it. Version one is not there yet. I wish I would have waited for the demo before I put down my money….

And this may not be the place for this conversation but, I couldn’t find any place on Code Gear’s site to vent. I am interested in other peoples view on this potentially awesome product.

So there we are.  This is my reply… 

Well, first off, “How does Delphi for PHP surpass the Delphi 1.0 feature set?”  I’m not going to be able to give you a exhaustive list in without giving it more serious thought, but I can rattle off a quick ten ways Delphi for PHP is improved over Delphi 1.0:

  1. Code completion springs instantly to mind.  Delphi for PHP’s use of code completion is hindered compared to current Delphi versions because PHP is not a strongly typed language.  But, there was nothing to compare to it in Delphi 1 AFAIR.
  2. Datamodules are another addition.  They were introduced in d3, I believe, and take the clutter off of your design forms and allow you to share the database structure across various forms.
  3. If you deployed BDE apps in D1, you should remember that the end user had , until the setup programs caught up. That’s handled for you, though here too there are technical difficulties on the D4PHP side.  So perhaps this one is  a wash…
  4. The Code explorer didn’t exist in Delphi 1.  You couldn’t easily go between unit and unit.  As far as that goes I don’t think Ctrl-Enter worked to open the unit from the uses list either.
  5. Project Groups have been added allowing you to have several projects on a single website.
  6. There are numerous more advanced controls in the tool pallette AND a way for the community to have input and an affect on the behavior of these controls.
  7. The applications you produce are themed, that certainly wasn’t the case in Delphi 1.  Delphi 1 apps didn’t even minimize in quite the same fashion as other Windows Apps.  Because of TApplication IIRC, your main form wasn’t REALLY your main form and you had this double minimize thing going on.
  8. The Data Explorer and all of its numerous features certainly didn’t exist.
  9. Internationalization (I18N) was in its infancy in Delphi 1 days.
  10. Pinning, expansion and restoring of the debug & development “windows” in the IDE allow you to have a much more dynamic IDE than was ever possible in D1.

I’m sure there are plenty of other things to add and the list can be debated, but if you install Delphi 1 again, you might be surprised at the feel of it compared to what we have in today’s delphi.  I was when I did just that last year.

Now I do agree that saying that Delphi for PHP had “Rough Spots” might be a bit rosey.  I also agree that Delphi for PHP could have baked for another month in the oven.  If it would leave a better taste in everyone’s mouth after the first bite.  But if you have more than a day to look at this stuff, you find that there really is some worth here, but it is a paradigm shift that takes some getting used to.   Somethings work really well and somethings… not so much.  D1 was not much different if you got in early enough.  The whole concept of design time libaries and run time libraries and deploying artificially thin EXEs had everyone pulling their hair out for a while. 

With Delphi for PHP, there’s another hurtle to over come.  You are switching from a Native API design environment, into a designer that IS a webrowser and javascript interpreter.  In order to have live components, the designer now has to execute all of that web code.  So there is a significant speed cost to that.  The equivelent would be writing a Delphi app that would use a TWebBrowser component to load rich web pages again and again and again. 

I’m not sure I understand the logic of the one day trial idea in this sitation.  Nothing makes people crankier than a ticking clock, working with something never seen before, things not working right, and a significant money decision on the line.  I’m not sure combining all of those issues into one program was the key to success when taking API developers and putting them in a web environment for the first time.  But…that’s the situation.

There are definately things that you can do to make your situation better.  First, I totally agree with you about the calendar thing. I logged an issue for it here:
Report No: 43501            Status: Reported
js Calendar does not deploy with the deployment wizard
<a href=”http://qc.codegear.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=43501″>http://qc.codegear.com/wc/qcmain.aspx?d=43501</a>
ALL of the javascripts should deploy with the rest of the application.

Now that said, there is no reason that you can’t have the full VCL directory already deployed on your site and in that directory. 

I’ve actually taken that one step further.  I have ONE copy of the VCL for PHP for all of my websites.  I hung it off of my web root.  I allow my Delphi for PHP apps to access it by creating symbolic links in the directory containing the Delphi for PHP files.  Just put the VCL up there in your root (or wherever) and then telnet/ssh into your account, change to a different directory and then run these two lines:

ln -s ~/vcl
ln -s ~/vcl vcl-bin

The vcl-bin path is required for images used in the components.  There are other ways you could do this too.  You could just link the vcl-bin for example and then have a custom PHP.INI file in your directory that adds the vcl to your include path.  This solution, though, I think is the most generic.

When you have this done, you should never need to deploy your app again, and can just create a batch file that multi sends only your stuff to the website.  I’ve not experimented much with this solution, but it seems to work fine with all I’ve done with it so far!

Well that did not take long: Delphi for PHP Warez and torrent files

That didn’t take long at all!

Look at this… A simple Google search and there there are all these copies available to download at one site…

The AMAZING thing is that some of these were well within the beta period before the final product was a available. And the size of them? Greater than a single CD? If you download and install this stuff what the heck will you be putting onto your system??? If this doesn’t scare you away from random warez sites, I don’t know what will. So many of them exist SOLEY for the spreading of worms and the like. Well, of course your favorite site for downloading illegal software is an exception. They’re totally honest – as are those people hosting the torrent seeds. You could trust them with anything!

 delphi for php *DEVIANCE*

360kb/s  

158.42 MB  

2007-03-27

delphi for php [FULL-CD]

242kb/s  

4209 MB  

2007-03-27

delphi for php WinXP

122kb/s  

3738 MB  

2007-03-27

delphi for php *PAL*

359kb/s  

227.10 MB  

2007-03-27

delphi for php *PAL*

288kb/s  

958.03 MB  

2007-03-24

delphi for php WinXP

374kb/s  

101.46 MB  

2007-03-24

delphi for php (06-07)

99kb/s  

57.02 MB  

2007-03-23

delphi for php *PAL*

53kb/s  

264.41 MB  

2007-03-21

delphi for php [FULL-CD]

156kb/s  

264.41 MB  

2007-03-21

delphi for php ISO

159kb/s  

89.91 MB  

2007-03-21

delphi for php Latest version

209kb/s  

68.96 MB  

2007-03-21

delphi for php [KEYGEN]

110kb/s  

637.89 MB  

2007-03-19

delphi for php *PROPER*

75kb/s  

259.27 MB  

2007-03-19

delphi for php *DEVIANCE*

243kb/s  

700.01 MB  

2007-03-17

delphi for php [KEYGEN]

306kb/s  

75.02 MB  

2007-03-12

delphi for php WinXP

14kb/s  

75.02 MB  

2007-03-12

delphi for php CRACK

108kb/s  

44.40 MB  

2007-03-04

Hey – I am in the official Delphi for PHP Announcement!

I reading the news articles right on the CodeGear home page, and in the first one, “CodeGear Announced General Availability of Delphi for PHP (March 27, 2007)”,  I happened to see a name that looked somewhat familiar! 😉

Sometime after what turned out to be the mid-way point in the field test period, we are given an oportunity to submit testimonials about our experience with the Delphi for PHP field test so far. I figured it would go in the scrolling banner on the CodeGear home page or in a email to CodeGear customers, but what do you know, there it is in plain site on the home page! Nifty!

CodeGear™ Announces General Availability of Delphi® for PHP

Developers Say Delphi’s Rapid Application Development Environment Makes It Easier and Faster to Build PHP Web Applications

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – March 27, 2007 – CodeGear, a leader in developer tools, today announced that Delphi® for PHP – an integrated visual Rapid Application Development (RAD) environment for the popular PHP Web development language – is now shipping worldwide.
Delphi for PHP brings the RAD productivity benefits that Delphi users have enjoyed for years to PHP Web developers. PHP, designed to allow Web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly, is the most prominent dynamic Web language today and has become one of the top 10 programming languages overall. The new product from CodeGear can allow developers to be more productive as they write rich, database-driven Web applications in PHP.In addition to a RAD environment for PHP, key features of Delphi for PHP include: VCL for PHP, an open-source PHP 5 visual component library with more than 50 reusable components and seamless AJAX integration; out-of-the-box integration with InterBase®, MySQL, Oracle®, Microsoft SQL Server, and other popular databases; an integrated PHP debugger; drag-and-drop database application development using the Data Explorer for InterBase and MySQL; and a code editor with Code Insight, Code Explorer, and Code Templates.  Deployment options include Windows, Linux, Solaris and other platforms.Developers who have used a pre-release version of the new product said they experienced significant productivity improvements.

“Because Delphi for PHP can debug existing PHP projects as easily as it creates new ones, it instantly starts paying for itself. With contract work costing between $80-$100 per hour, if Delphi for PHP saves you just 3 hours, it’s already paid for itself.  It can do that with your first project. I’ll never use “Echo” or “Print” as a debugging tool again,” said Brian Layman, an Akron, Ohio-based software engineer.

“As a web designer, you’re judged on the quality of your work and how soon it’s completed.  When Delphi for PHP allows you to offer better products on a time scale your competition can’t touch, your services will be in great demand,” said Layman.

Delphi for PHP is part of a family of products from CodeGear that includes Delphi 2007 for Win32, Delphi for .NET, Turbo™ Delphi, C#Builder®, C++ Builder®, JBuilder® and InterBase.
U.S. Pricing
The product is available for an introductory price of $249; special academic pricing is also available. For more information on system requirements, languages and pricing, visit www.codegear.com/products/delphiforphp. About CodeGear
CodeGear from Borland Software Corporation (NASDAQ: BORL) delivers innovative, high-productivity development tools for a wide spectrum of software developers ranging from individuals to enterprise teams. CodeGear products enable developers to freely develop on their platform of choice while focusing on simplifying complex technologies and tasks so they can concentrate on application design, not infrastructure, to enable on-time project delivery. To learn more about CodeGear and its products, visit www.codegear.com. CodeGear. Where Developers Matter.CodeGear, Delphi, Turbo Delphi, C#Builder, C++Builder, JBuilder, InterBase, and all other CodeGear brand and product names are service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of Borland Software Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Microsoft, and Windows Vista, and all other Microsoft brand and product names are service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.Safe Harbor Statement:
This release contains “forward-looking statements” as defined under the U.S. Federal Securities Laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is subject to the safe harbors created by such laws. Forward-looking statements may relate to, but are not limited to, the features available in, and the potential benefits to be derived from, CodeGear products and solutions, and the release dates, plans and market acceptance of such products and solutions, including the CodeGear Delphi product line. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations that involve a number of uncertainties and risks that may cause actual events or results to differ materially. Factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially include, among others, the following: rapid technological change that can adversely affect the demand for CodeGear products, shifts in customer demand, shifts in strategic relationships, delays in CodeGear’s ability to deliver its products and services, software errors or announcements by competitors. These and other risks may be detailed from time to time in Borland Software Corporation periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, its latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and its latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained from www.sec.gov. Borland is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Information contained in our website is not incorporated by reference in, or made part of this press release.

TheCodeCave.Com prepares for the D4PHP.COM launch!

Well, it’s been a Busy,  three weeks here.  Things are finally falling into place.

Sometimes that just happens. 

You swing into these intense periods where things go 90 mph.  

It all started when my wife’s latest commissions check on her book buys her a sweet tablet PC, gets me a motorcycle and now (if it ever stops raining and snowing) I’m back on two wheels after 11 years! (pics soon!!!).  (All you Delphi knitters go and buy her book please!  I know you are out there!) 

Then CodeRage goes into full swing and starts vying for my attention.   Oh, and I also signed the papers refinacing the house.  Then my yard collapses into a giant cess pool, only to be replaced by a mud bog the following week.  Then I’m approved as a Google Summer of Code WordPress mentor and suddenly I’m back to reviewing resumes and project propsals!   It’s like I’m back in my old role of Director of Software Development again.

And then I land the after-hours job of converting CodeGear’s 90 blogs over to WordPress MU.   Yes, you can pinch me, I’m working for the Borland Corporation. 

THEN on Friday the Delphi for PHP field test ends and D4P is been released!  (If you are interested in the product, you can download a 1 day trial here. )  Well, that means it’s time to announce something else I’ve had in the works for a while. 

Coinciding with the release of Delphi for PHP, I’m announing an upcoming community site called “Designed for PHP” at http://www.D4PHP.com.  The tagline for the site is:

Designed for PHP – Bringing the Delphi mindset to PHP development.

This site, created using Delphi for PHP, will not only host a VBulletin  forum but will include articles, reviews, and product announcements pertinent to the soon to be thriving Delphi for PHP community.  I’m in the process of connecting with authors, moderators and administrators who are intersted in joining me in this venture.

 Now, obviously I’ve got some things that will be taking up my free time over the next couple weeks.  But I still hope to get some feed back from you all as to what you’d like to see at the site.  Some ideas from people I’ve already discussed this with include:

  1. Community forum – Software has been purchased, the forum is up and being configured.
  2. Integration with the NewsGroups – This idea fed off of a question from Serge Dosyukov and I know just how to pull it off.  The Delphi for PHP newsgroups will be part of the Forum and if all goes well (my host sometimes has restrictions on comunication with outside servers) they will be fully integraed with the ability to post to the groups directly from the site under your own login name.
  3. Component & Component package reviews
  4. Plenty of user created demo videos – it’s easy to do and free!
  5. ???

and THAT’s why I am announcing this before it is fully up and running.  I want to know what else YOU’D like to see out of the site.  Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?  I’ll be doing work off and on with the site over the next two weeks and working with some interested parties who can get the ball rolling, but we need ideas and a goal for when, in about a month, I can give it some dedicated attention.

 So, do you want to see on D4PHP.com?  Does anyone remember “The Delphi Super Page”?  If you do, what made THAT page so great?  Pre-2000, there was no where else a Delphi programmer needed to go.   Why was that?  Any thoughts?

 Jot them down here or wander over to http://www.D4PHP.com/forum and express yourself!  Let’s see what this can turn into!

Microsoft Releases a Vista patch for Delphi 7 support in Vista

ooohhh, I just love this… It’s funny, but won’t be for anyone uninstalling Delphi 7 in order to install Delphi 2007. 

 Just look at the description from one of the linked articles:

After you remove a program from your computer, you can no longer access the CD drive or the DVD drive successfully. The CD drive or the DVD drive does not appear. Or, you receive an error message when you try to access the drive. – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060/

Isn’t that just cool?  Uninstall a program from a Vista machine and boom: No CD Drive for you! 

Now, Microsoft is a bit vague, so I could be extrapulating too much information from the articles linked to from this topic.  In Microsoft’s language they only say “This update also includes fixes that are contained in update 929427. These fixes improve support in Windows Vista for the following applications: ”  And then it lists a bunch of programs including CDs and multimedia apps and in the very middle is “Delphi 7 Professional”.   If anyone else can find more details on the exact issue, I’ll gladely update this article.

The patch is a bit of a mixed bag since installing the patch can produce problems:

Note After you install this update, a CD device or a DVD device may not work correctly. If you select the device in Device Manager and then view the properties for the device, you may receive the following error message:

The software for this device has been blocked from starting because it is known to have problems with Windows. Contact the hardware vendor for a new driver. (Code 48)

This problem occurs because a legacy application may install drivers that are incompatible with Windows Vista.

It is when you go digging into the issue through 314060  that you can see the symptoms of the problem Microsoft is dancing around:

In Microsoft Windows XP, after you remove a CD recording program or a DVD recording program, or after you remove a different program, you experience the following symptoms:

• You cannot access the CD drive or the DVD drive by using My Computer.
• One of the following error messages appears when you view the CD drive or the DVD drive in Device Manager:Error message 1

The device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device (Code 31).

Error message 2

A driver for this device was not required, and has been disabled (Code 32 or Code 31).

Error message 3

Your registry might be corrupted. (Code 19)
• You receive an “error code 39” error message.
• A message that resembles the following appears in the notification area:

Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)

 Delphi 2007 must be in the very helpful “or after you remove a different program” part. 😉

 Anyway the fix is part of the March 2007 Vista update: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/932246

Blogs.CodeGear.com to convert to WordPress MU

CodeGear Blogs  

A WordPress Explosion

That’s right folks there are gonna be about 90 new WordPress blogs out there. Blogs.CodeGear.com, Borland’s home for Employee Blogs, and Blogs.TeamB.com, home for a sqad of volunteers who support the CodeGear community,  are leaving the open source .Text  solution behind forever.  And they are moving to WordPress MU, baby! 

What the heck are .Text and WordPress MU (Myooo? Moo?) anyway????

.Text is a .NET 1.1 blogging software package said to be at the top of the heap back before 2004 ended.  2004 was the year of it’s last update.  Meanwhile WordPress MU is a Multi User wrapper around the current source code for the very popular WordPress blogging softare.

WordPress MU

OK… Spill the beans…

“How do I know all this juicy gossip?”, you might well ask.  Well, it just so happens that those 90 or so blogs are going to be converted by none other than YOURS TRUELY! 

That’s right, as of today, a goal I had dreamed about back in 1987, as I helped my highschool computer teacher figure out how to use Turbo Pascal (and supplied the school’s pirated copy of Fortran 77 too SHHH!!!) has finally been met: I am now a Borland CodeGear (contract) Programmer.  How cool is that???

I pitched this project to Allen Bauer back in February.  Their current implementation of .Text seemed somewhat dated and limited in its ablities, from a readers perspective.  I knew that even just working evening hours and weekends, I could quickly turn their site around and give them something MUCH more robust.  I’d not heard anything back from Allen.  So, I’m not certain if my original suggestion had anything at all to do with the fact that John Kaster went looking for a WordPress developer or not.  Either way, I saw a post by John asking for someone experienced in WordPress, and I leapt at the opportunity.  Well, as of tonight, it’s official.  The “Please welcome Brian Layman” email has gone out to the powers that be.  And after a few conversations,  I’m now set up with all sorts of CodeGear goodness that I can tell you absolutely nothing about! MWAHAHAHAHAAHA!

Seriously though, this is gonna be a great project to work on and I’m going to be enjoying every moment of it. I’ve done my share of blogs and sites, (I actually should be anouncing another new site tomorrow btw), but an 88 site conversion is certainly exciting enough to raise an eyebrow or two on any WordPress developer’s face.   I just want to thank John Kaster for allowing me the opportunity to participate in this project.

So, keep your eyes out for the switch over sometime in the not too very distant future.   I’ve just begun work tonight, learning the ins and outs of their current infrastructure.  If all goes well… well, actually, I’ll leave the end of that sentence up to the fine folks at CodeGear.

CodeRage Encore Event: 24 hours of Delphi 2007 for Win32 – Thursday March 29th

This just in from Davidi

To all Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 Developers

Mark your calendars for this one-time only, online exclusive FREE event! On Thursday, March 29th (for registered users of Delphi 2007 for Win32), you’re invited to spend a virtual day with the engineering team that developed Delphi 2007 for Win32.This is your chance to get answers to your toughest Win32 development challenges – directly from the team that created Delphi 2007 for Win32. Whether it’s Windows Vista, XP, or 2000, AJAX or VCL for the Web – you’ll get the answers you need to give you the edge, share tips and tricks with your colleagues, and meet the luminaries that are blazing new trails in Win32 development.

The Details

When is it? Thursday, March 29th starting at 12:00AM Pacific Daylight Time

Who is it for? All registered users of Delphi 2007 for Win32

What do I need? Bring your Delphi 2007 for Win32 license key, it’s required for admission

Where is it happening? The event is hosted online at the CodeGear Developer Network. Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers will receive an email with the URL and event details before the 24 hours of Delphi 2007 for Win32 starts. If you don’t receive an email before the event starts, send an email to davidi@codegear.com and I will look up your registration entry and get you the URL.

How much does it cost? It’s FREE! (for registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers)

24 hour event is for Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers

If you haven’t already purchased your copy of Delphi 2007 for Win32 – do it now! The more time you have to spend with the product – the more you’ll benefit from this exclusive opportunity. Have your license key on-hand to gain entrance to the event.

Purchase a copy today at the CodeGear online store: http://www.codegear.com/HowtoBuy/tabid/103/Default.aspx

Choose the electronic delivery method (ESD) to get your product within minutes!And you’ll save money too!Schedule of Events/Theme/Participants – Thursday March 29, 2007:The following is the current schedule of topics and participants. Note: Participants are subject to change depending on engineering team availability.

Time (PDT) Theme Participants

0:00-2:00 Performance Applications Doug Chapman and Mark Edington

2:00-4:00 Compiler and features Holger Flick and Barry Kelly

4:00-6:00 3rd party Chris Pattinson, Sinan Karajac and Markus

6:00-8:00 Help and Doc Mina Matsuchika and Chris Bensen

8:00-10:00 Database DBX4 Justin Swett and Steve Shaughnessy

10:00-12:00 IDE/MSBuild Sheree Ervin, Dave Wilhelm, and Jeanne Hansen

12:00-14:00 IDE Spencer Kimball, and Chris White, and David Lock

14:00-16:00 VCL for Win32 Joseph Tian and Seppy Bloom

16:00-18:00 Debugger Stephen Blas and Chris Hesik

18:00-20:00 Web Services Craig Farrell and Bruneau Babet

20:00-22:00 Web applications Jason Sprenger and Jim Tierny

22:00-24:00 Delphi (Japanese) Takeshi Arisawa

Note: all times listed are Pacific Daylight Time which is UTC -7.

Start times around the world will be (using http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html)UTC – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 07:00:00Bangalore – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 12:30:00 PMFrankfurt – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 9:00:00 AMSao Paulo – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 4:00:00 AMSydney – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 5:00:00 PMTokyo – Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 4:00:00 PM

Registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customers will receive an email (on Wednesday) with the event participation information.
If you’re not a registered Delphi 2007 for Win32 customer, you can watch the Delphi replays of the recent CodeRage 2007 virtual conference at http://dn.codegear.com/article/34187

You can also come see a CodeGear team member live at one of our upcoming CodeGear tour stops. The complete schedule is available athttp://www.codegear.com/AboutUs/Events/tabid/244/Default.aspxSee you online!David Intersimone “David I”Vice President, Developer Relations and Chief EvangelistCodeGeardavidi@codegear.comLegal Notices

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Delphi for PHP Article 3: A Brief History of Time and Delphi for PHP

When I was first fiddling around with the beta test stuff for Delphi for PHP, and before I’d gotten BetaBlogger status, I’d put together a post with what history I’d been able to scrounge about D4PHP from the WayBack Machine and Google.   I’d never gotten around to posting what I’d found.  Before it disappears forever into the nether regions of my harddrive, I thought I would hit Paste and Publish. 

I think I’ve gotten most of the details correct, but there are some guesses that might be inaccurate. Also, there are loads of links because I wanted to make it VERY clear that this info was gathered from the web and I was not breaking my NDA.  That’s not a concern anymore, luckily. You might find some of the links interesting. 

 So, here’s the history of Delphi for PHP as I know it:

Continue reading Delphi for PHP Article 3: A Brief History of Time and Delphi for PHP

Delphi for PHP Article 2: A Lazy Sunday (Video)

OK, I just got back from church and I am stuffed from the three bowls of soup and a huge salad.  So, I am feeling lazy, but I still want to get a Delphi for PHP article out (since I have a limited exclusion from my NDA and am alowed to discuss such matters or so I must say in each of these articles.)

 So, today you get treated with a video I made for the other Delphi for PHP testers.  It isn’t too exciting, but it will show you a little bit about the underlying structure of the DB Demos in the beta releases of Delphi for PHP.  I should say that it is entirely possible that the demos requiring the steps described in this video will be reworked for the final product.  If that’s the case you likely won’t have to do much, or ANY of this process in the full blown 1.0 process.

If you are new to PHP programming, you can use this process to create a webserver on your local home computer.   That’s downright handy for testing any web product.  So, you’ll benifit that way even if the Delphi for PHP stuff isn’t too handy for ya.

 OK here you go: