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Sigh, why do I get to see all the ‘interesting’ errors. Not sure what do I get to make of this. :)

The wife recently bought a Nike FuelBand which she was loving. However in about 4-5 weeks of regular usage, the strap on it broke and the links which hold it together fell apart. The device itself is working, but it cannot be worn now as it won’t lock making it quite useless. 😢 I was quite surprised as this is supposed to last more than this given both what it is meant to do and the cost of the device as well. Now this is an expensive paperweight. ...

No, there is no typo in the Subject, this advice is from NSA and should be good if you want to secure your data from NSA. The Register had this excellent write up on Guardian could have protected Snowden. I also like what The Register say: Use an old-fashioned air gap. Be paranoid You also could Steganography , using something like SteganPEG , but that is more obscurity, rather than security. The advice from The Register is sound and essentially is good if you are interested in protecting sensitive data. There are essentially four steps parts to this. ...

After my WHS died and I moved to a Synology DS413 and using that as a ‘home server’ and have been extremely happy with it! The only thing I miss is backing up the Windows machines automatically (as WHS did), but overall I think this is better, flexible and more powerful compared to WHS. I needed to look for a new wiki software. I recently moved from ScrewTurn Wiki (which was great BTW, but then is a dead project now) to DokuWiki which is perfect for my needs. I run two wiki’s at home and has much of our day-to-day things we as a family need. There are some sections of the Wiki, which are sensitive and I don’t want anyone one the network getting to it. I wanted to authenticate the user and once they login only then get to that. ...

I have been thinking of doing some code ‘smelliness’ test, and am keen to automate code reviews (as much as possible). I am interested to know what tools have you guys used? I want to use the tools to find the low hanging fruits and know off the 80% of things and then we manually look at the more interesting aspects, which the tools don’t (or can’t) pick up. Ideally, I would like this as an add-in to Visual Studio, which can run as part of a build and depending on how one configures it, can get to a gated check-in and/or work-items being created in TFS which then can be assigned and tracked. What I am thinking is to complement the likes of FxCop, the built-in Visual Studio tools. There was TeamReview which I had looked at some point in the past, but we never got it running successfully. I have not had a chance to see it since then. Someone has also attempted some of this via this , but it does not seem to go anywhere. Surely, there someone has already build this which we can look into? ...

Who cares what it smells like, it’s what it sounds like that matters. See the first 54 seconds, and then you will be hooked.

Got a really good read from Jerome , fellow Avanade colleague - ten extraordinary things bosses give their employees. Not surprisingly, good bosses care about getting important things done. And exceptional bosses care about their people. Autonomy and independence Clear expectation Meaningful objectives The true sense of purpose Opportunities to provide significant input A real sense of connection Reliable consistency Private criticism Public praise The chance for meaningful future More details here . ...

If for some reason when you try and run your code and you get a PINVOKE exception (like the one below), then most likely you don’t have the LeapMotion binaries in your Debug (or Release) folders. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 System.TypeInitializationException was unhandled HResult=-2146233036 Message=The type initializer for 'Leap.LeapPINVOKE' threw an exception. Source=LeapCSharp.NET4.0 TypeName=Leap.LeapPINVOKE StackTrace: at Leap.LeapPINVOKE.new_Listener() at Leap.Listener..ctor() at HelloLeap.MyListener..ctor() at HelloLeap.Program.Main(String[] args) in c:\Users\amit.bahree\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Projects\HelloLeap\HelloLeap\Program.cs:line 14 at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(RuntimeAssembly assembly, String[] args) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly() at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart() InnerException: System.TypeInitializationException HResult=-2146233036 Message=The type initializer for 'SWIGExceptionHelper' threw an exception. Source=LeapCSharp.NET4.0 TypeName=SWIGExceptionHelper StackTrace: at Leap.LeapPINVOKE.SWIGExceptionHelper..ctor() at Leap.LeapPINVOKE..cctor() InnerException: System.DllNotFoundException HResult=-2146233052 Message=Unable to load DLL 'LeapCSharp': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E) Source=LeapCSharp.NET4.0 TypeName="" StackTrace: at Leap.LeapPINVOKE.SWIGExceptionHelper.SWIGRegisterExceptionCallbacks_Leap(ExceptionDelegate applicationDelegate, ExceptionDelegate arithmeticDelegate, ExceptionDelegate divideByZeroDelegate, ExceptionDelegate indexOutOfRangeDelegate, ExceptionDelegate invalidCastDelegate, ExceptionDelegate invalidOperationDelegate, ExceptionDelegate ioDelegate, ExceptionDelegate nullReferenceDelegate, ExceptionDelegate outOfMemoryDelegate, ExceptionDelegate overflowDelegate, ExceptionDelegate systemExceptionDelegate) at Leap.LeapPINVOKE.SWIGExceptionHelper..cctor() On the other hand if you get a SEHException from LeapMotion (something like the one below) then the issue is either you don’t have the right version of the assemblies (e.g. you are compiling a x64 version, but have the x32 binaries, or vice-versa). ...

I don’t know what WordPress thinks of IE 10 (running on Win 8), but when I upgraded to WordPress v3.6, and I login to the Dashboard, it does not like IE running in compatibility mode and shows me the following. It would think I am still running IE 6! Also whilst I don’t get this with the compatibility mode switched off, everything does not work correctly and one has to use either Firefox or Chrome. ...

I installed the latest version of Ubuntu (13.04, Raring Tail) on a machine at home to check it out (it was running CentOS 6.4 before that). Setting it up was quite simple, but I am not sure if I like the too simple UI. I don’t want an uber-geek only-shell mode, but the CentOS I thought was the right balance. Anyways, when I first added a new user, there was no way I could set a password which was very weird - not a permanent or temporary one! And there is no way one can then login. I don’t think this is user error, but then if it is a bug, it seems like a big one! ...

I have seen this a few times now so I know it is not a one off, but it seems that the sleeves of my shirt seem to throw off the Leap Motion sensor and it detects it as another hand - and ends up showing three hands. I thought it was my watch which might be causing some issue, but that was not it. It goes away when I am wearing a t-shirt, but the tracking is quite off when wearing a full sleeve shirt. ...

I don’t know why it is simple to find, or even on the download section on MSDN, but trying to find the VSTO download specifically for Visual Studio 2012 is a real pain. It took me some time trying to find this and if you need to save some time then you can download it from here .

This has to fall in the weird category. Vodafone’s Corporate Online site, where I need to login to see my company provided mobile bill has timings from 07:30 to 22:30 GMT - WHY??? Don’t they get it, this is online and the site can be up and running 24x7! This is not some technical support I am talking about where they have actual humans monitoring and answering - this is access to the billing system. ...

Was trying to pay my Electricity bill online via a site called Bangalore One , which is the Governments, premier one-stop shop for Electronic Delivery of Citizen Services. I could not pay because it seems like some backend services they need for credit card payment is down. How do I know this? Because the site is revealing too much detail! See the exception details pasted below. ...

I came across this very interesting article in the guardian called “ Google logic: why Google does the things it does the way it does ”. This is a fascinating insight and a lot of it makes sense to me. What was also interesting to understand a little more on how the mindset is very different from the other corporates and technology leaders out there. Especially interesting the self-righteous view one perceives that Google has of themselves. It is a little long, but worth a read. ...

I am probably the only guy on the planet who broke his Surface Pro device! :oops: So much so that the screen shattered - so much for Gorilla glass and all that! I was starting out on a 4 week long trip and the Surface slipped and fell at the airport when taking it out for the X-Ray machine. It fell on one corner and the screen shattered. With small pieces of glass everywhere on it, it was not usable. However it did work when I switched it on a week later. Here are a few photos that show the extend of the damage and the fact that it was still working post that! ...

Enough said! Dilbert and Leadership

TechEd a couple of months ago was really fun and I am grateful to Microsoft folks for giving me an opportunity to be both part of the Keynote and also have a slot in the Architecture track. Sorry it has taken me a very long time to upload my TechEd talk “Building cross-platform Modern Apps: the Design perspective”. But as they say better late than never. 😏 You can download a copy of my presentation - Xamarin - Building cross-platform (pdf) . ...

I would prefer a Windows 8 Metro app, and not a ’traditional’ app for WordPress. I host my own blog ( http://desigeek.com ) and need to update that. View Question on Quora

We will be travelling with a Toddler (2.5 yrs) to Amsterdam and wanted to know what suggestions one has to keep her engaged, excited, and busy? View Question on Quora

Yes, I am still alive. Between a baby and work, don’t have time for much else. I did want to say Hello World. Will try and be more regular here.