Installing SQL Server Express 2005 on Windows 2008 SBS

Due to what frankly seems to be a complete botch from Microsoft SQL Server Express 2005 can be a pain to get installed on Windows Server 2008 SBS.

See:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794697.aspx

Especially:

Installing SQL Server 2005
If you plan to install SQL Server 2005 on the original server running Windows SBS 2008, do the following before you run the installation.

Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Run.

Type regedit, and then click OK.

At the User Account Control prompt, click OK.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90.

Double-click OriginalMachineName, and then change the OriginalMachineName value name to the current server name.

Click OK.

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Take website screenshot using ASP.NET

Utilising a hidden web browser control it is possible to take a screenshot of any website. The code shown below is based on an article at plentyofcode.com (sorry the site now appears to be offline May 2012) but I have translated it from VB.NET to C# and will work in .NET so theoretically for any Windows or ASP.NET web project.
using System; using System.Drawing; using System.Drawing.Imaging; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Diagnostics; namespace WebsiteScreenshot { public class GetImage { private int s_Height; private int s_Width; private int f_Height; private int f_Width; private string myURL; public int ScreenHeight { get { return s_Height; } set { s_Height = value; } } public int ScreenWidth { get { return s_Width; } set { s_Width = value; } } public int ImageWidth { get { return f_Width; } set { f_Width = value; } } public int ImageHeight { get { return f_Height; } set { f_Height = value; } } public string Website …

John Hamblin Furniture Restorer - New Website

I was asked to produce a new website for local furniture restorer and cabinet maker John Hamblin. Having struggled with another provider who failed to deliver a finished website I was asked to take the website on and produce a simple site that communicates their values of high quality workmanship and excellent customer service.

The new website is live and can be viewed here:
http://www.johnhamblinfurniturerestorer.co.uk/

Compress and de-compress strings in C#

A collection of resources on compressing and encrypting strings in C#.
Microsoft documentation on the System.IO.Compression.GZipStream class:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.compression.gzipstream.aspx
Helpful example class utilising GZip:
http://www.csharphelp.com/2007/09/compress-and-decompress-strings-in-c/
The GZipStream class is predominantly used for file compression but can be used efficiently for compressing strings of 300-400 characters or more. Below 300 characters there isn’t any measurable gain from the compression and for particularly short strings the compressed version may in fact be larger.
Class provided by C Sharp Help:
using System.IO.Compression;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
public static string Compress(string text)
{
    byte[] buffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    using (GZipStream zip = new GZipStream(ms, CompressionMode.Compress, true))��…

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