https://bootblock.co.uk/An almost-daily development blog by Joseph Cox.en-gbMon, 03 Aug 2026 06:53:01 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/erm-hello/Mon, 03 Aug 2026 06:53:01 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/erm-hello/WebsiteGonna be changing the operating system on this server at some point, so there will be downtime. Not that I’ve written a post on here in gawd knows how long. At least, not published ones; there are two sizable draft posts I started 1-2 years back but never finished. Oops.https://bootblock.co.uk/a-test-post/Fri, 04 Aug 2023 18:46:07 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/a-test-post/MiscellaneousA test post to see whether this stupid site still actually works…https://bootblock.co.uk/running-code-on-a-self-contained-timer/Thu, 20 Feb 2020 11:46:45 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/running-code-on-a-self-contained-timer/Development[Note: Updated RunAfter to support the OnLostFocus event] A year without a post? Hrm. There is a post dated 2019 but it’s in the Draft state; never got around to finishing it… oops. So here’s a little post on running code on a timer; I don’t know if C# can do this more elegantly, but I don’t think VB can. Hence: this.https://bootblock.co.uk/installing-java-on-windows-xp/Mon, 12 Mar 2018 11:46:08 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/installing-java-on-windows-xp/SoftwareThis blog seems to be turning into a problem-solving database thingy. Still, it’s better than it getting no updates at all, right? This particular post is about trying to install horrible Java on horrible Windows XP. Namely - you can’t. Or, at least, I couldn’t.https://bootblock.co.uk/windows-10-start-menu-not-working/Wed, 29 Nov 2017 17:55:06 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/windows-10-start-menu-not-working/SoftwareThis problem is extremely annoying: sometimes, the Start menu in Windows 10 will outright stop working. It won’t appear when the Start button is clicked or the Windows Key is pressed. In addition, various Windows 10-style windows (such as the system’s volume control that appears in the top-left of the screen when the volume is changed) will also not appear. Right-clicking on the Start button will then cause any 10-style windows to then draw… it’s all very weird.https://bootblock.co.uk/accounts-site-revisit/Tue, 31 Oct 2017 20:29:02 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/accounts-site-revisit/WebsiteNo updates for nearly two months? Like I mentioned before, that’s mainly because I can’t really think of anything to post. But, today, I am posting. Accounts! If you’re a registered user of my software, then expect to see an update of the Accounts site in the near future. I’ve just upgraded all of the backend libraries and such, and the (local development) site is completely broken. It appears things changed in Laravel, Apache, and PHP - so that shizz got busted.https://bootblock.co.uk/hot-electrolytes-drink/Tue, 19 Sep 2017 11:05:40 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/hot-electrolytes-drink/FoodHere’s a little electrolytes drink I’ve come up with to supplement sodium, potassium, and any other essential nutrients/chemicals that you may have the ingredients laying around for. I won’t get into the specifics of why I’m making or having this drink other than to mention the following for search engine purposes: zero carb, low carb, keto, ketogenic, LCHF. The listed eating regimes are diuretic in nature, so extra supplementation is required; the consumption of incidental salts is very low due to not eating processed foods. In fact, adults should aim for 5g - 6g of sodium chloride per day (table salt is only 50% chloride). Research is out there, if you’re interested.https://bootblock.co.uk/sucralose/Sat, 09 Sep 2017 14:51:02 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/sucralose/FoodStill can’t think of much to post about, but checking out the viewer stats shows that there really isn’t much point. The visitor count tanked years ago when I neglected the site. Anyway, today I’m going to post about the Sucralose sweetener as it may save people a lot of money.https://bootblock.co.uk/a-bit-quiet/Sun, 03 Sep 2017 18:56:12 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/a-bit-quiet/WebsiteI haven’t gotten lazy in writing new blog posts, it’s just I honestly don’t know what to write about. I’ve done a lot of work on XBox Device Status, but not really anything I’d consider interesting. Hmm, actually - it could be interesting to a few people as I’m doing work with XInput and getting battery and state information. Someone might be interested in doing that from within C# / VB .NET?https://bootblock.co.uk/xbox-device-status-100/Thu, 24 Aug 2017 13:14:22 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/xbox-device-status-100/SoftwareA new project is out: XBox Device Status. For some reason, Microsoft haven’t provided a way to display the battery levels of any connected Xbox pads on Windows PCs. There is a Windows Store app specifically for configuring the Xbox Elite Controller (US version here) that sort of shows it, but it’s horrendous and not really designed for that.https://bootblock.co.uk/spuriousincorrect-net-formactivated-event/Wed, 16 Aug 2017 10:14:13 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/spuriousincorrect-net-formactivated-event/DevelopmentNotice: Using the “fix” below can result in the form’s Activated event not being fired when it is restored from the taskbar. I guess this isn’t a proper solution, after-all. Adding checks for the form being minimised/restored may be a solution but the Form class is firing those events are weird times, so.,,https://bootblock.co.uk/server-going-offline/Mon, 14 Aug 2017 02:00:00 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/server-going-offline/WebsiteWell, I’m not surprised in all honesty. The server this and my other sites are hosted on has started to go offline for 10 - 240 minutes per day, at (seemingly?) random times. About 15 years ago (christ, really!?) UK2 moved me from my original server when I upgraded my hosting and since then it’s been going to utter crap. I - finally - got them to move me about within the last year to another server after constant down times, except within the last week it’s all gone to crap again.https://bootblock.co.uk/no-i-havent-binned-this-off/Sat, 12 Aug 2017 20:48:02 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/no-i-havent-binned-this-off/WebsiteStill here. I haven’t posted in a couple of days because I didn’t have anything to write about. While I begin working on a new program yesterday and got a bulk of it done today, I’m not going to write anything on it until it’s near being released. It’s more of a “tool” than a fully-feature application, but it’s still useful for those wanting, er, it.https://bootblock.co.uk/in-the-works-voting/Wed, 09 Aug 2017 15:16:09 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/in-the-works-voting/WebsiteA new feature is coming and that is… Voting! Each post will have a thumbs up and down buttons. This’ll allow posts to be voted on and will give me an idea of the types of posts to make more of in future - or fewer of.https://bootblock.co.uk/formatting-fix-for-mobiles/Mon, 07 Aug 2017 02:00:00 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/formatting-fix-for-mobiles/WebsiteI was just about to go to bed and then thought it would be a great idea to jump right into PHP and sort out the mobile-issue with the quote above. D’oh. Alright, the blue quote at the top of this page seems to be a bit too long for mobile browsers and overflows out of its header bar. The solution? Don’t show it on mobile browsers - sorted!https://bootblock.co.uk/documentation-is-it-worth-it/Sun, 06 Aug 2017 02:00:00 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/documentation-is-it-worth-it/SoftwareIt feels like I should be writing another post as it’s been a few days. While that’s technically true, there’s been posts every day now but they were actually written earlier in the week and published once per day with the new timed publish update.https://bootblock.co.uk/timed-publishing-in/Sat, 05 Aug 2017 02:00:00 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/timed-publishing-in/WebsiteWoke up yesterday morning and had a thought while I was on my way to the bathroom: timed publishing doesn’t need to be Cron-based. Just set a date on the post and display that post if the current date/time is past it. It seems I got somewhat fixated on the whole Cron job method of allowing posts to go live based on a set date and time that the obvious non-scheduled way of doing things just passed me by.https://bootblock.co.uk/filesieve-documentation/Fri, 04 Aug 2017 02:00:00 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/filesieve-documentation/SoftwareI seem to be on a major productivity roll lately. I realised why, too: this new Corsair K95 RGB Platinum keyboard (US version can be seen here). It might seem like I’m babbling on about mechanical keyboards like a zealot, but I had to plug in my previous rubber-domed Logitech G19 keyboard recently and holy crap. The holiest of holy craps.https://bootblock.co.uk/vb-runtimes-pack-release-8/Thu, 03 Aug 2017 09:21:46 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/vb-runtimes-pack-release-8/SoftwareSpeaking of unexpected happenings, I got contacted a couple of days ago by someone asking me if the Visual Basic 6 Runtimes Pack was free for enterprise use (spoiler: it is). The pack doesn’t require me having to recompile anything using the Visual Basic 6 IDE, as I haven’t had that thing installed in well over a decade, so I thought I’d repackage it in an updated installer.https://bootblock.co.uk/timed-publishing/Wed, 02 Aug 2017 14:02:03 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/timed-publishing/WebsiteI could do with setting a Publish Date on unpublished posts and have them go live at specified times. Except of course such functionality isn’t present on this blog. I’m on shared hosting, so I never really got into messing with Cron jobs. I think Laravel has support for some time-based thing, but I’m not entirely sure how it can trigger itself. Must be based on visitor access - that’s the only thing I can think of. If the site doesn’t have visitors then the job would be missed… too unreliable in my opinion, so gawd knows.https://bootblock.co.uk/just-a-test-post/Wed, 02 Aug 2017 13:48:44 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/just-a-test-post/WebsiteThis is more of a test than anything. Due to an explosive productivity growth on my part (oi - steady on), I’m finding myself typing these blog posts in advance. I’d rather have one large post per day than multiple in one go, possibly resulting in a couple of days without any new content. I’ll still add smaller posts if I can actually think of anything.https://bootblock.co.uk/filesieve-422/Wed, 02 Aug 2017 09:12:11 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/filesieve-422/SoftwareWasn’t expecting that: made another release of FileSieve yesterday. For no particular reason at all, a thought about the way FileSieve handles the Start automation command popped into my head while I was doing something completely unrelated. I had a feeling of dread. I wasn’t sure why, but it was there. Something was… wrong.https://bootblock.co.uk/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-4-recap/Tue, 01 Aug 2017 10:43:28 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-4-recap/TelevisionNo idea; haven’t watched it.https://bootblock.co.uk/comica-database-update/Tue, 01 Aug 2017 09:46:11 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/comica-database-update/SoftwareOh my, no update for a few days? It’s the end times! Nah, nah; I just didn’t work on anything of note to write about. Already, a lot of the stuff I blog about I would never have previously done as they’re not what I’d call “major”, or even exciting. But I’m making myself talk about them anyway as it keeps content coming, so don’t go thinking I’m thinking that I’m working on major works of art or anything - it’s just more kahnent to babble about.https://bootblock.co.uk/filesieve-421/Sat, 29 Jul 2017 19:55:07 +0300https://bootblock.co.uk/filesieve-421/SoftwareAs an excuse to use this new keyboard, I was going to rewrite a part of the FileSieve documentation but then I realised I didn’t do a blog post for today. So here I am. Today was spent working on FileSieve and getting command-line automation happening.