IE8 window.location HTTP_REFERER

Stupid HTTP variable, HTTP_REFERER. It's spelt wrong for a start.

Anyway, to cut a long, stupid story short, an HTTP call invoked from a javascript window.location change will usually set the HTTP_REFERER variable on IIS because the browser sends a Referer header.

I say 'usually' because it DOESN'T FRIGGING WORK in IE8. IE9, FF, Chrome, fine. IE8, nope.

Sigh.

Rockalldll.dll missing / not found error - Rockall Heap Manager on Windows 7

This week's mystery was a recurring error message in Windows 7 about a missing DLL - RockallDll.dll.

It sounded dodgy, and a quick google returned about a million nasty DLL sites purporting to offer a nice shiny replacement DLL, no doubt festooned with viruses and trojans.

So I didn't do that. I had to do some pretty deep searching to find out that this DLL was originally installed as part of Hermann Schinagl's Link Shell Extension that I installed ages ago. For some reason I had installed it on my E drive. Well, I don't know why it had stopped working, but I uninstalled it, downloaded the latest version and installed it on C drive instead.

Problem solved, woohoo. And I do recommend LSE as a quick way of creating symbolic links in Windows.

IntelliType Pro 8, Media Keys and iTunes 10.5

I just got me a new MS Sidewinder X4 keyboard, and very swanky it is too. However, it requires Microsoft IntelliType Pro to work, and after installing that, I was annoyed to find that the Media Keys (Play, Pause, Prev Track, Next Track) didn't work with iTunes.

Here's what I found out.

• iTunes control worked fine if I uninstalled IntelliType Pro, but this was no good because then I lost the use of the keyboard's Macro keys.
• By doing the trick of launching iTunes as administrator (right click on the iTunes icon - choose "Run as administrator") , iTunes can be controlled from the Media keys - But ONLY when iTunes is in Window Focus. 
• Launching the IntelliType process (itype.exe) as administrator makes no difference.

However I have found a Heath Robinson / Rube Goldberg stylee solution! 

HKTunes Portable is free software that launches iTunes for you and attaches custom key handlers to the Play/Pause, Next/Previous controls. So I configured that to use some wild, unlikely key combos, and then I set up those same key combos as Macros for the Media Keys in IntelliType Pro (Start > Microsoft Keyboard > Key Settings).

The only drawback is that you have to remember to launch HKTunes rather than iTunes, but I just replaced the pinned launcher in my task bar so it's not a problem. Wish Microsoft would sort out the underlying prob though!

UPDATE


I found a better solution! Check this guy's EXCELLENT MediaKeys app!

UPDATE UPDATE 23 April 2012

Looks like this is fixed as of Intellitype 8.2 (wasn't listed as Intellitype Pro for some reason?) and iTunes 10.6. GOOD.