ASP.NET Version Switcher

This utility that can be used to quickly switch the .NET Framework version that the aspx pages are compiled against.I am not sure why you would want to run both the versions of ASP.NET on the same box at the same time as 1.1 is backward compatible to 1.0, but I am sure there are many reasons which make total sense - I just cannot fanthom any at this time. Internally, it uses the command line tool called ASPNET_REGIIS that is included in the Microsoft.NET Framework. ...

May 10, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Personalised Web Search (Google)

If you did not hear, then google recently launched its Personalised Web Search feature which is still not Beta (its on their lab page). Here you can go and setup you interests (essentially your scope) and then you can narrow down your results to only within the context of that scope. Quite interesting when you are looking for something which is also very generic or a completely different topic. ...

May 10, 2004 · Amit Bahree

What the heck am I doing here?

Some of you out there have emailed me and expressed interest in knowing a little more on what I do and what is the purpose of this blog and what the heck does it run on? Now I am absolutely amazed that there are people out there reading this. My question to you is, what the heck are you doing reading this, don’t you have work or something to do? Anyways, what can I say, I am a Geek! W00T! Computers is something (probably the only things) I know a little about and have been playing with them ever since I can remember. Computers even today is first a passion, then a hobby and then a career, I am just very happy I am doing something I love doing and getting paid for it. :) ...

May 10, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Forcing a debugger to launch

I never knew this but if you want to force a debugger to launch (especially useful when writing a Windows Service for example) you can use System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch(); Now I have not tried this myself (yet), but have others? If so, whats the feedback?

May 6, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Longhorn Released on MSDN!

Yipeee! I you are a MSDN Universal subscriber - you can download the version they handed out at WinHEC!

May 6, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Microsoft plans laptop tune-up with Longhorn

In Longhorn MS is looking to add some laptop-specific features designed to make portable machines easy to use as consumer devices such as portable DVD players. They are also looking to add a separate UI that could be “instantly booted up“ to play movies, music, etc. - hence getting you the the experience more comparable to using consumer electronics devices. For someone like me who is mostly on the road, this would be good, if I can cut down to one “device” (i.e. the laptop) along with the chargers, wires, etc that I carry - my shoulders would certainly thank me. ...

May 6, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Longhorn M7.2 Bits

Longhorn Milestone 7.2 (M7.2) bits were handed out at WinHEC. Per Chris sells , the MSDN subscribes should be seeing this soon. You can check out some of the reviews from the WinHEC participants here . I am now rubbing my hands gleefully and eager to get my hands on it - have to wait for it to show up on the subscriber download at MSDN - will need a new HDD then :). Lets see if my small demos for Tiles survives or not - the PDC build, I run out of memory and finally have to reboot. ...

May 5, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Visual Basic at the Movies

Quite funny check it out if you got the time. :) If you rate the movie, you can get a FREE copy of Visual Basic.NET

May 5, 2004 · Amit Bahree

What is a Loosely Coupled System?

In a loosely coupled system (e.g. Service Oriented Architecture i.e. SOA), the dependencies can be either a Real Dependency or an Artificial Dependency. Real dependencies are the services that you need to fulfil your need, this is something that cannot be eliminated or reduced. Artificial dependency on the other hand are the features you need to adhere to in order to consume the services you need. Typically these fall in the categories of platform dependencies, API dependencies, language, etc. Although artificial dependencies cannot be eliminated it can be reduced. ...

May 5, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Hacker Defender

A friend’s (Phil Kerkel) laptop recently got infected with HackerDefender which cost him about a day’s worth of work. Now this seems to be harmless, but something like this invading the system is scary, especially when you have all your data and not to mention in most cases a lot of our client’s data! Basically, these guys use the FTP services installed on Windows machines running on high speed networks (such as DSL/Cable, or University campuses) to they can use that fat pipe to distribute copyrighted material such as films, games and software etc. Sometimes these ftp servers are protected by a piece of software called HackerDefender, this software is used to hide files, processes and even ports from the user and investigating parties and is particularly difficult to infiltrate. ...

May 4, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Clippy

If you have had enough of Clippy, check this out. Not suitable for those with an aversion to profanity!

May 3, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Date/Time Issue with gmail

Karan found this and you can read about all of it in his blog. But I checked and he is right! Gmail does not show me the time of the “origin” of the email only when gmail got it. So taking Karan’s scenario: Retrieve from external pop3 mailbox 250 new messages Import 250 Messages look at inbox, and you have 250 messages received at the same time (1 min ago) Oh wow! this is just what I need. This begs the question, is this by design? If so, would it be to thwart the spammers? Personally I would like to see both when was the mail sent, and when did I get it. ...

May 3, 2004 · Amit Bahree

India's secret army of online ad "clickers"

Now this probably has to fall in the News of the Weird category, I would probably have fallen asleep, drooling on the computer, which would have caused something to short circuit and then blow up the machine, and eventually get the house on fire. Hence, not work losing your house over this.

May 3, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Living La Vida Longhorn

You probably already heard this, but Chris Sells has a new column on MSDN called Longhorn Foghorn , that describes each of the “ Pillars of Longhorn ” - this is something which IMHO developers would understand and appreicate. In the first article he explains the “Pillars” and then in the next two goes onto build Solitaire. You can download the sample and play with it too. ...

May 3, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Shadowfax

Shadowfax is an interesting set of “Reference Solution” that is being worked on by the PAG group at Microsoft. I think this would be a very important piece in the whole SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) space, with getting bits out the door in a quick and reusable fashion. Basically this is a similar implementation of Indigo in todays technologies (i.e. those that are currently shipping such as .NET). This “unifies” the four messaging options you have today: ...

May 3, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Hardware Error Codes

I suddenly started getting an error during boot up on one of my machine and could not figure out what it was, after spending a fair amount of time on google, I found this listing of error codes that I feel was very helpful. You can bookmark this post and use it as your reference. Code Description 01x Undetermined problem errors 02x Power supply errors 1xx System Board Errors 101 System board error - Interrupt failure 102 System board error - Timer failure 103 System board error - Timer interrupt failure 104 System board error - Protected mode failure 105 System board error - Last 8042 command not accepted 106 System board error - Converting logic test 107 System board error - Hot NMI test 108 System board error - Timer bus test 109 Direct memory access test error 110 System board memory 111 Adapter memory 112 (any adapter in system unit) 113 (any adapter in system unit) 121 Unexpected hardware interrupts occurred 131 Cassette wrap test failed 151 System Board Error; Defective battery 152 System Board Error; Real time clock failure 161 System Options Error - (Run SETUP) Battery failure 162 System options not set correctly-(Run SETUP) 163 Time and date not set - (Run SETUP) 164 Memory size error - (Run SETUP) 165 System options not set - (Run SETUP) 166 (any adapter in system unit) 199 User-indicated configuration not correct ...

May 1, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Gmail Account

So, somehow I was one of the “dudes” to get a gmail account. Since I have been travelling a lot (on work), I don’t get the time to be online as much - if you have me on one of the IM’s, you know that - since I am online only about 50% of the day. But the point I am getting to, is that I have not had a chance to play with gmail all that much. Karan, got in and was fooling around with it and gave me his feedback. Today is the first day I think I did something meaningful with it. What better way to set it up that to forward all my spam mails from my “honeypot” account to gmail. So that is done! Now we will see how good the spam filter is. As of now about 50% if the spam is not getting caught! Also would be an interesting test on what advertisments am I shown based on all the spam I get? ...

April 30, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Don't get "Bangalored"

I am not sure if I should buy this t-shirt or not? What do you think? :)

April 29, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Exception Management

OSnews and Aspire were running a competition for writing a Development Article where I had submitted an entry on Exception Management in .NET. To my surprise I won that (even though there were not too many entries). You can read the article here . I will be posting here also probably this weekend. ...

April 29, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Longhorn Refresh

Microsoft is planning on releasing a Longhorn Refresh to geeks like me at WinHEC next month. I am looking forward to that as there are just too many leaks right now. On an average on a machine with a 1gb of mem, I have to reboot on an average every two hours otherwise the memory workingset get way to huge with all the disk thrashing!

April 29, 2004 · Amit Bahree

More on spyware

After my recent post on spyware, there is an interesting story being run by BBC where 90% of technology managers say that there is some kind of “spyware” running on their employees PC to track their browsing habits with 29% of those being installed surreptitiously. The interesting number to me was that about 6% of users believed that the machine they use had been infected by such software. So I guess you should stop reading this now and get back to work. :) ...

April 29, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Porgrammable Logic Controller

ICP DAS USA has a new PLC coming out that is running on Windows CE.NET 4.2 on a Intel Strong ARM CPU. It can run PC based control software developed with higher languages such as c#, vb.net and embeded c++. This offers the best of both the worlds - PC and PLC. If you like ladder logic you can use ISaGRAF and TraceMode. It also has a builtin VGA, Ethernet, CompactFlash, USB, Keyb and mouse ports (phew) and can use a regular monitor (or touchscreen) to view its HMI. You can check it out here . ...

April 29, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Google into Mirrors?

Karan pointed this one out to me, but seems like google is into Mirrors now. Check out what “eerhab tima” returns. :)

April 28, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Zachman Framework

I posted an article (click here or on the title) on what the Zachman Framework is all about. I find it so surprising that in today’s world, I came across a whole bunch of people who call themselves as “Architects” who have no idea or clue as to what the Zachman Framework is. I am not trying to be critical towards those people, they are probably very smart and know their stuff, but I figured maybe its a time for a crash course. ...

April 28, 2004 · Amit Bahree

Spyware and IE

Today, on one of the computers at home, Meenakshi accidentally installed one of the spy-wares (via a popup - which interestingly was not blocked). This changed the search engine used by IE, installed some toolsbars and opened a whole bunch of popup windows. Also disabled some of the other legit toolbars that were running (MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc.) Anyways, it took me a good 3+ hours to track the bugger down and clean up the whole machine. What a pain and waste of time. But it got me the opportunity to document what I did and hopefully you can benefit from it. ...

April 26, 2004 · Amit Bahree