My article on P2P programming with WCF and .NET v3.5 was finally published on MSDN . This was written a few months ago and has been going through the internal process at MS to get published- finally it is up there - better late than never I guess. 😄 I discuss the new features for P2P programming in WCF and .NET 3.5 and how things have moved up the stack in being a first class managed citizen now as opposed to you....
This is probably old news now, but something which has me concerned as it can cause lots of unseen issues. In .NET 3.5 the default ThreadPool count has been increased ten-fold from 25 to 250 per processor per process! ThreadPools as we know are quite handy - not only do they help when an application comes under load instead of adding more pressure in a stressful situation. They also allow us to readily “reach into” a pool of threads and “pick one” to use - saving the costly overhead of creating and destroying threads (in case you did not know creating and destroying threads is an expensive process)....
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png
Squeaky Geek to Silicon Saint ; number 5 is my favourite. Bar da Boa - wait for the flash to finish loading (be patient); enter your First and Last names and click on “Visualizer” - lol. MSR’s InkSeine - which allows you to find stuff with ink, seems quite handy if you use a tablet; some videos here ; you can get it here . TSA is blogging - now you can vent your frustrations!...
Of course the assert does not work.
Synergy - one mouse and keyboard to control them all. 50 Tips, Tweaks and Hacks to make the most of Google Calendar . Wayback Machine - Browse through 85 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. e.g. how Microsoft.com looked 12 years ago. Awww … I had forgotten the IE logo. Hamachi remote Wake-on-LAN tutorial . Virtual Wifi - connect to multiple wireless networks at the same time using one wireless card!...
I did not know until this week that there was something called “Livelock”; Eh? I heard of Deadlock what the heck is Livelock? Well it is kind of the opposite of Deadlock (in some respects). A Deadlock as we know is when say Process A is waiting for Process B to finish or release some resource or something before continuing and Process B in turn is waiting for Process A before it continues - end result neither continues....
Wise words from Jim (when teaching CDS ): “Keep it Sequential Stupid”
Do these seem to be the first Window 7 Screenshots or is it Photoshop magic?
Here is how fellow Avanut Wayne describes the “conversation” between Vista and you (the user) when an app. decides to kick the bucket. I particularly like the last one. User: “This thing’s frozen.” [Tries to close program using various keyboard and mouse actions.] U: “Yep, totally wasted.” [Task Manager displays] U: “Kill this program.” Computer: “Hey, uh, did you know that this program isn’t really responding? I think it might be frozen....
I had not heard of this until Karan told me about Erlang which was originally developed by Ericsson and stands for Ericsson Language.
VMware Fusion is not new and I have been meaning to blog about it for a while but just not got around to it until now. If you only have used VPC (Virtual PC) or it’s bigger cousin (Virtual Server) and never used one of the VMware products, wake up and smell the coffee and get ready to get blown away. VMware Workstation for example is so much better than VPC and is not even in the same league....
It has been a while since I posted some of the interesting find (been busy for a change). Slashtop - no more waiting for the OS to boot up; if you want to get online or make a call using skype then this is up and running in an instant; more details here . Exploits of a Mom - need I say more? 5 ways to share big files between co-workers or friends - quite handy when you are in those pesky situations when you need to get something across to someone else....
Think Before You Blog
I came across this undercover report on Hotel Glasses from a colleague or mine and it sure is very disturbing! A must watch if you stay in hotels.
MS has announced the details of what is new on WHS Power Pack 1 and it seems a collection of things which one would want to add to WHS. It is good to see the amount of testing gone into this and the fact they have upgrades coming out so soon after RTM.
Until recently I was running the RC of WHS (being part of the Beta program); but as that was expiring I coughed up for the OEM version. After installing it when I tried to configure the domain name to mychoice.homeserver.com I got an unknown error. I tried both homeserver.com and livenode.com options but neither of them worked. It seemed to get these working you need to open IE on your WHS and go to Tools => Security => Trusted Sites => Sites and add the following two sites and try adding it again and all should be OK then....
When you install SP1 for .NET 3.0 by default that changes the throttling settings you might be use to. You could get into a situation where a number of calls are processed and then they stop with the client eventually timing out. To get around this you either explicitly close your connection (which is a good practice in most cases) or change the serviceThrottling setting in your WCF config.
I was reading on something else and came across this and was quite bemused. Simple Nomad is a hacker who loves Tea. For those who did not know, Tea is called “Chai” in Hindi so when you see “Chai Tea” somewhere (like Starsucks ) then that means “Tea Tea” which just sounds silly. If you are a chai fan then the Indian “Masala Chai” is apparently the way to go (I am not a tea drinker so can’t say)....
You remember me talking about holding off that Dell ? Well the very cool Crystal LCD's are here (and boy are they pricey)! For $1200 you get a 22" 1680 x 1050 display. I only see these on Dell’s US site and don’t see them on the UK site yet. Not sure how long before they show up here. I am surprised Dell did not get this out in time for Christmas....
Fellow Avanut David send the link to Point UI ; it essentially is a small skin application for your Windows Mobile 5/6 and somewhat emulates the iPhone interface. Before you roll your eyes and think “here is another iPhone-knockoff-wanna-be”, I’d suggest you take it for a spin. It is just bloody good! The interface is just simple and you can use fingers (my fat fingers also worked!); to me it seems a less of the iPhone and more of a combination of the HTC Touch and the new upcoming Windows Mobile 6....
Ink Generated with Ink Blog Plugin - http://www.edholloway.com
I was signing up for Google apps just to see what the fuss is all about and could not think of a domain and thought to give geek.com a try. Of course I knew it is not available, but I am quite offended by what Google thinks of Geeks - especially the whole damn company was formed and staffed by geeks.
I got this via the Ava communities - John Lee created a Wii Whiteboard Marker - very cool. Now the only thing to figure out how the heck to get a projector. 😄