If you ever are in a situation where you need to identify production code issues or perf. issues, etc. (and who has not been there), then I would recommend checking out AppSight Black Box - a “kick-ass” product that I had an opportunity to play with sometime last year. They have solutions covering both .NET and J2EE and is very very impressive - I just want to know how the heck do they do it. You have to see it in person to believe it - and I have grilled these guys extensively using some real code, so if the demo looks to good to be true, well it is true! Here is the excerpt from their site which really does not do them justice: ...

I think I just found my business case for a Bike! :). Meenakshi (my wife remember), is dead against me getting one, but if I think I bought this helmet first, then I have to get a bike to match the helmet…. :). Now lets just hope she is not reading this…

If you recall I had recently posted about the release of Enterprise Lib. My colleague, Hisham Baz has a post on how to get started with the Ent. Lib . If you are new to it and want to know more about it, that is a good place to start. ...

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)] ...

Got this via Megha. This actually is not new, I remember many years ago in India some inventor-dude doing the same thing and driving around to Nirulas (slurp, smack, drool).

Thanks to Noni for pointing this out to me. You can get the history of all (I think) languages all the way from the 50’s to today - quite interesting. [Listening to: BabyBaby - - (06:55)]

Megha, send this to me and it is quite funny; not sure of the original author though. To the citizens of the United States of America: In the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy.Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. ...

Phew! I was in Seattle this week for training - part of new employee orientation and now am on my way back home for a few hours and then I get back on a plane and haul ass to Delhi. I am at the airport right now, on a red eye (I hate those, since I cannot sleep when I am travelling). Home sweet home… err… I should probably say… Home messy home… ...

Microsoft released the Enterprise Library based on ACA.NET which our engineering guys here at Avanade, work their butts off! Enterprise Library features new and updated versions of application blocks that were previously available as stand-alone application blocks. All Enterprise Library application blocks have been updated with a particular focus on consistency, extensibility, ease of use, and integration. ...

Karan ponders on the Mac Mini and all I got to say is, man, that machine looks good! I almost bought one at Frys… err that is before the common sense kicked in (for not atleast). What do you think?

Google, today launched a new Video search service called Google Video . You can search for programs using Titles, particular channel, find out show locations in your area, etc. Check out all the features here .

Based on billions of searches conducted by Google users around the world, the 2004 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year’s major events and trends giving you this aggregate look at what people wanted to know more about this year. Check it out . [Listening to: 04 dupatta (bhangra mix ) - - (05:04)] ...

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). ...

This is what I have been told: Overall, you scored 95% which means 5% scored higher (more nerdy), and 95% scored lower (less nerdy). What does this mean? Your nerdiness is: All hail the monstrous nerd. You are by far the SUPREME NERD GOD!!! Bah! I know people more nerdy than I am! ...

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. ...

A little while ago while I was one of the industry advisors for the PAG group at Microsoft. One of the last things I did in that capacity was provide input to the the Testing App blocks for MS. Microsoft has finally released this and can be downloaded here . ...

Brad Adams had a recent post discussing best method names ever. It is quite hilarious and interesting to find some methods that are used such as the FDangerouslyCommitToDiskCacheButNotActuallyToDisk, SetMetafileBitsBetter, PrestoChangoSelector, (all Windows) etc. My personal favourite are ZombifyActivationContext (in XP+) and die_you_gravy_sucking_pigdog() (FreeBSD).

What do you fancy with a Cockpit running Windows ? Now I think that is cool! (And please enough with the PJ’s about Crashing and Windows)…. [Listening to: Tabba (Techno) - Musafir [Club Mix - CD1] - Musafir (05:49)]

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)]

I got this via Meenakshi, my lovely and sensible wife (unlike me); but that is another story for another day. In the meantime I believe this is how they kill time in Ireland. You can click on each of the images to see them in full resolution. ...

LinuxInsider writes about the Linux vulnerabilities creeping towards the Desktop. Though the question is this another FUD? Smells like one… As Linux increasingly hits the enterprise and consumer mainstream, a growing number of security threats are emerging which prey on holes in applications and files managed by desktop users. According to some industry observers, a focus on digging bugs out of end-user applications makes perfect sense - not just as a means of protecting users, but as a method for wresting converts away from Microsoft. ...

Denis has an addin to Reflector for SQL Server 2005 (Yukon). that can be used to browse .NET assemblies stored in a SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) database. You can connect your local Reflector installation to a remote SQL Server instance, list the databases and its assemblies and download them directly into .NET Reflector. Once my issues with Whidbey are resolved, I will check this out. ...

Google’s prime directive remains intact. The Securities and Exchange Commission ruled Thursday that the company’s missteps in not registering millions of options and not keeping quiet during the pre-IPO quiet period were not “evil” but “very naughty.” Practicing semi-tough love, the SEC levied no fine but extracted a solemn promise from Google never to do it again. The company’s general counsel, David Drummond, took the bulk of the wrist-slapping over the failure to register more than $80 million in employee options, a move the SEC said he knew would let Google keep a lot of financial information under wraps. The commission also let slide a big Playboy interview with founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page that appeared during the pre-IPO period in which company execs are supposed to be seen but not heard (see “ Google guys to Playboy: They’re real and they’re fabulous … no, our options, you idiots ”). Marc Fagel, assistant district administrator of the SEC’s San Francisco office, told the L.A. Times the agency wanted to give Google a public scolding to as a warning to others , but didn’t fine it because the violation did not cost investors money and company executives cooperated with investigators. And investors? Way, way past all of this . ...

Incase you have been extra vigilant you might have noticed a new category called Live and Learn. This as the name suggests is a category, where I can post my screw up of life be it technical in nature or anything else - the idea being I should be able to get back to it and reflect and hopefully learn from it! If not, then, well I would just be getting more creative in my excuses won’t I? :) For those who know me, will know that most of my entries would probably fall in this category. Oh, ya, this ofcourse in true to tradition was inspired by a true life incident - which would be up here one of these days soon. :) ...

Interestingly, there is a story highlighting the fact that all your $$$’s (or £££’s as I am in UK now), are NOT tax deductible - which came as a bit of a surprise to me. For example, the American Red Cross has received close to $152 million in donations for tsunami survivors. If you gave to them, your contribution is tax deductible. But if you donated to the International Red Cross it’s not. That’s because most international groups are not authorized by the IRS to accept tax deductible donations. To simplify things the IRS says go to the websites of US AID and the USA Freedom Corps . All the charities listed on those websites are qualified to give you a tax break. You can also check the IRS website. On the home page click on charities, then click on the “New Search Features” and enter the charities name. If it comes back with a listing you know you’re okay with the IRS. Also keep in mind that if you have donated to an eligible charity for tsunami victims this month you can still take the deduction on last years taxes. ...