Indigo is now out in the open and you should see a lot of flurry about it soon. This is cool. I have had a chance to look at bits and pieces of it in the past and could not talk much about it due to NDA, but that hopefully can change soon. [Listening to: Track 03 - New Artist (38) - New Title (38) (05:05)] ...
Recently at work a someone was playing around with AD, and could not get impersonation working in ASP.NET - even hardcoding the userid/pwd did help, and all the time he got an Access is Denied error. After searching high, low, etc. he did find this issue. Interestingly I have never seen this, because well one, I have been working on Windows 2003 Server for the last few months, and two more importantly, my dev box, has not been a Domain Controller! (Why you would want one is another story). ...
Mary Jo Foley has has uncovered an interesting trend up in Redmond: contradiction when it comes to Windows. It seems that the Longhorn team has seven versions on tap, but the company as a whole is paring back Windows versions, folding Home, Pro and others into one SKU. Microsoft is sending mixed signals as to whether it will field more or fewer Windows releases; but she bets there are more, more, more. ...
Interesting article that talks about the brittleness of URL’s and how much more we are depended on URL’s (though Google sure helps) and what is being done to fix it in MSDN2 . [Listening to: Goa - The Bourne Supremacy - The Bourne Supremacy (03:00)]
If you recall my previous post on VSTS installation blues , I got an answer from MS on that. It seems like installing Yukon Beta 2 did it. Per Microsoft, uninstalling Yukon won’t also help and it is better to rebuild the OS and then go from there. You can read it on the discussion thread here . I guess, there goes another evening in rebuilding a machine. ...
I installed Microsoft’s Antivirus (Beta 1) over the weekend and here are some screen shots from the installation. Btw, I did not find anything on my machine, and honestly on this machine, I did not have any intentions of trying that out.
This is not a big deal, but does have me ticked, why does Microsoft have to sell ads on MSDN?? Are they running low on the cash on the coffers? Honestly this was the last place I expected it and is quite irritating. Check out the screen shot with the two arrows pointing to the ads. (You can click on the image to see in full-size).
As per Seattle Times, the next version of IE will ship in 2006 , but isn’t that too late already? Already Firefox is my primary browser and I love it - not to mention the millions others who are seening the light. My bigger concern is the millions of other people who don’t realize the issues with IE and all the spyware, etc and causing themselves harm. ...
Adam Nathan writes , about a “special” version of the .NET Framework 2.0 (Beta 1) , which if you use to run your managed code, then gives Microsoft feedback on what portions of the .NET Framework and Win32 api you use and are dependent on. The idea is to help MS maintain backward compatibility as newer versions of the framework ship and also help them prioritise their things to do. ...
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Microsoft’s developers have fixed the code issues when you use Firefox to view the sample code in MSDN. The code would all be screwed up and “mushy”, but now that has been fixed and Live bookmarks also work that earlier use to break. The fix for the code is supposed to be only in CSS, and you can read up on all the gory details . ...
I was playing with ClickOnce which is new in Visual Studio 2005 and thought it was pretty cool. Basically, ClickOnce is a deployment technology that enables self-updating Windows applications that can be installed and run with minimal user interaction. ClickOnce applications can be self-updating; they can check for newer versions as they become available and automatically replace any updated files. You can specify the update behaviour; an administrator can also control update strategies, (e.g. making an update mandatory). Updates can also be rolled back to a previous version by the end user or administrator. ...
I was recently playing with the new compact framework part of Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1 (which is released with the VSTS Edition) and am having a tough time getting to the emulator to wok when I try and debug the application. This is a simple hello world application and I tried using all of the following emulators with no luck: Pocket PC 2003 SE Emulator Pocket PC 2003 SE Emulator (Legacy) Pocket PC 2003 SE VGA Emulator Every time I try and “Deploy” to that the emulator comes up fine and I can connect to it, etc. but it cannot install the application for it and always get the Deploy error message (see the screen shots below). Also every time I try and “Power Off” the emulator, it comes right back up and does not really quit - it does not matter, if I save the state or do a soft or hard reset. All this time VS.NET is waiting for the emulator to exit. Ultimately I have to kill the process (DeviceEmulator.exe). ...
Microsoft today just released another update on a security hole. This honestly is good, that the holes are being identified and being plugged. Yes, I am sure there are the “bashers” who would scoff at it, but the reality is, in the millions of lines of code across various products, such thing creeps in and its better to accept the responsibility (Microsoft) and do something about it rather than being in denial. ...
Though Don Box does try and explain Indigo in five minutes , he misses “Why” Indigo as he explains again . :)
Tom Krueger is a Microsoftie and spends a lot of his time dreaming up and working on Smart Clients. He was a very quirky and informative post on the Fastest way to build 10,000 records on a Device? Tie one end of a piece of string to the WiFi antenna, if your device has one, and tie the other end to a tin can. Enumerate the 10,000 records on your desktop computer and verbally dictate each record into the tin can. Performance: slow; Success rate: zero. Implementation: easy peasy lemon squeezy. Purchase a flock of carrier pigeons, 10,000 in number. Hand-write each record onto a piece of paper and attach to the bird. Aim the bird at the device and release. Performance: slow: Success rate: zero. Implementation: possibly very messy. Move to SQL Server. RDA and Merge Replication are your friends. Performance: good! Success rate: >1,000,000,000 pigeons. Implementation: well documented. Hire 10,000 people and get them to memorise one record each. Get them to follow the device wherever it goes. Performance: In theory, should outperform Oracle for record access. In reality, you’re statistically likely to get a few “slow” records Success rate: Depends on the demographics of your recordset. Implementation: costly, just like Oracle :) Populate the DataSet on the server and transmit as a DataSet object using Web Services (). Performance: suffers from a serialisation/serialisation overhead which is costly with 10,000 records. Success rate: Jackpot, baby! Implementation: piece of cake. Re-architect your solution. No one should need 10,000 records on a device. Don’t even think about loading that into a ListView either :) ...
Is something as simple as do the T, K and V parameterised types make sense versus mnemonics in Generics a hot item to talk about? You bet, people cannot seem to get enough of it .The crux of the issue here is do T, K, V, etc in examples like List, IDictionary<K,V> make sense versus something like List, IDictionary<Key, Value>. Apparently both sides make seemingly valid arguments and from what I gather, its also a hot discussion topic within Microsoft. There have been examples that point out that c# is supposed to be easy to understand and not messy as shown in this example . But in the long discussion here are the main points in favour of descriptive names: ...
Microsoft released today another critical security update - Buffer Overrun in JPEG Processing (GDI+) Could Allow Code Execution (833987). A buffer overrun vulnerability exists in the processing of JPEG image formats that could allow remote code execution on an affected system. Any program that processes JPEG images on the affected systems could be vulnerable to this attack, and any system that uses the affected programs or components could be vulnerable to this attack. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. ...
This is an interesting factoid that Microsoft added as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2 that lets users prevent data from being written to USB devices (via a registry key). But this is just the start, Longhorn is supposed to add more comprehensive “features”. Much has been made of the security risks posed by portable storage devices such as USB keys, or flash drives, music players like the iPod, and other small gadgets that can store vast amounts of data. Some fear that such tiny devices can be used to quickly copy sensitive data off business PC hard drives, or to introduce malicious software onto corporate networks. In the next version of Windows, Microsoft will give big companies an easy way to block use of such devices, while making it easier for consumers to connect their home systems to them. ...
I did download the latest service pack for Windows XP, SP2 yesterday. First of all its pretty big, the ISO image was 475 mb so this is something you don’t want to download at a slow connection. Microsoft has said that you should be able to order the CD and get it shipped to you (its free). I was able to install the service pack on one of my test machines without any problems and am now in the process of installing it on a few other XP machines I have running. ...
Microsoft is Beta testing the Web version of MSN Messenger and about time I think since Yahoo has had the web version of their messenger service for a while now. This is of course useful if you are one a shared computer or not on your own computer and cannot (or do not) want to install the MSN Messenger. ...
Well as you might have heard that Office 2003 SP1 is out. You can read here all the juicy details on what is fixed. As with all Service Packs it is highly recommended to install this, more-so if you use OneNote. I am surprised that Microsoft is actually calling this a OneNote 2003 SP1 - it is worth being a whole new version of the product! Those who have met me in person (unfortunately *grin*), know I cannot stop singing praises of OneNote and this service packs adds so many more features which makes is even better. I’ll probably be posting here details on what is new one of these days. If you wanna know before that drop me get in touch with me. You can also download Service Pack, but remember to keep your original disc’s handy. ...
In Visual Studio 2005, if you have a windows form and have a fair amount of threading going then that things can get pretty frustrating. As you know, because of the way that Windows handles its user interface, you should only be updating the user interface from the main thread. If you try to do it on other threads, bad things happen, and they can be pretty hard to track down. Windows forms includes some code to detect when that is happening, but it can’t do it in all cases. When you get in this situation, you need to call Invoke() on the form, and pass it a delegate to the function that you want to be called on the main thread. Eric discusses this in detail which is a recommended read if you play with a lot of threads on your Win Forms. ...
If you don’t know what Wings is, then read the earlier part of this series. There have been a number of changes since Part 1 and this part, namely the release of a new Longhorn build. For the Assemblies you will usually need the System.Storage.WinFS.dll assembly in most of your projects. It represents the basic interfaces and classes (for example, Item and ItemContext). In addition, System.Storage.Core.dll is required for most Wings work. Once you have both of those assemblies, most of the functional groups are separated into separate assemblies. For example, if you are working with Contacts, you will need the System.Storage.Contacts.dll assembly; if you are working with Files, you will need the System.Storage.Files.dll assembly. On some rare occasions, you will also need the WindowBase.dll assembly. This assembly contains much of the core Longhorn-specific content. All the Longhorn assemblies are now located in one place: \Microsoft.NET\Windows\v6.0.4030 (depending on the current version of the Longhorn assemblies). ...
Microsoft has the RC now available for download (its free) their new Virtual Server 2005. Virtual Server 2005 guest virtual machine environments are optimised for Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows NT 4.0 Server, yet enables users to run a broad range of x86-based operating systems. Although this Virtual Server 2005 download is in the release candidate phase of its development, it includes all the features of the final version, such as SCSI support, 2-node clustering, and an enhanced COM API for improved control. The product will be available in two flavours with the Standard Edition supporting 4 CPU’s and the Enterprise Edition supporting upto 32 CPUs. Note that the per the licence, the RC is an evaluation copy only and cannot be used in a production environment. ...
As theofficeweblog writes Lookout ver. 1.2 is available for download until 1200 hrs PST today after which you would need to find a friend or wait till Microsoft decides how they want to release it. Sure, I would love to download it but what is Lookout? Well, that is the exact same reaction I had when I first read this in the papers yesterday. Basically, Lookout is an extension to Outlook written in .NET for doing really fast searches. With Lookout installed, you can search the entire contents of your mailbox in less than a second. It works on Outlook 2000 and up and requires ver 1.1 of the .NET Framework. Just enter your search and press enter - the results are instant. Lookout will find your search terms hiding nearly anywhere in your Outlook mailbox - subjects, bodies, phone numbers, addresses, etc. With Lookout you can search for: ...