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June 2006 - Posts - Ido Samuelson's blog

June 2006 - Posts

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 Now Available

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 Now Available

 

“As a result of customer feedback, IE7 Beta 3 contains some feature changes in addition to the planned reliability, compatibility, and security improvements. If you've previously installed a beta of IE7, you should uninstall it before installing this release.

The
Administrator's Kit for Internet Explorer 7 is also available now.”

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

End of Support for Windows XP Service Pack 1

“Effective October 10, 2006, assisted support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) will end. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support or security updates. To enhance the security of your computer and to continue receiving updates, we recommend upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). To learn more about upgrading to Windows XP SP2 and the free Technical Support provided to download and install the service pack, visit the Web site.

To review all the publicly disclosed End of Support dates as part of the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy, visit the
Web site.”

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

Microsoft's new 360-degree conferencing camera

“360-degree camera designed for video conferences called RoundTable, that has apparently emerged from a back-burner project called RingCam from Microsoft's laboratories.”

THIS IS NICE!!!

The latest prototype of Microsoft's RoundTable 360-degree videoconferencing camera, demonstrated yesterday.

The latest prototype of Microsoft's RoundTable 360-degree videoconferencing camera, demonstrated yesterday.

Source

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

USB to DB25 Adapter does not install new LPT port - BAD PRODUCT

Since am doing a bit of hardware programming via parallel port (LPT) I was looking for sometime to buy a USB to parallel port so I will be able to work on my laptop (my laptop has no LPT ports).

I found today a company that sell this kind of cable and was extremly excited to go home and try it out. The cable I bought belong to http://www.manhattan-support.com you can find it under USB products – USB to Parallel Converter.

It is stated on the product package that is fully supported and no driver is required for Windows XP. It was very ovious to me that this driver will install a virtual LPT driver and then all my programs will detect this new LPT driver and work via it transparently. This is not the case and am very dissapointed from this product.

From Manhattan-Support website Here is the one and ONLY FAQ :


“Problem:
After the installation of the USB to DB25 Parallel Converter Cable there is no new LPT port in the system, only a new entry in the USB Section:
"USB Printing Support".


Solution: None
The product indeed does not install as a LPT port, but as a virtual USB Printer Port. Therefore you can only use this device with printers.
To do so, you have to select the new USB Printer Port from the list of local Parallel Ports.
The Port is listed as "USB00x".

The information on the packaging regarding the use of ZIP drives etc. is incorrect.”

Notice that they state here that the packaging text is wrong. Supporting virtual LPT ports is what is very expected from this product, nothing else. There is no use for this kind of product to just emulate connections to printers. I would buy the Printer adapter one which is prefered in this case.

This is defintly a product that state something else on the package then what its actually doing. This company is banned from my side.

 


Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

How to make a webcam work in infra red

This is a pretey cool guide on how to mod your webcam to a Infra-Red webcam.

This is something i’m going to do!

Read it here

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

.NET Configuration Manager

Olaf Conijn did an AMAZING job in create a configuration management environment for .NET 2.0.

“The “.Net Configuration Manager” tool allows developers to manage .net 2.0 configuration sections and perform the following tasks:

  • Validate configuration
  • Encrypt configuration files
  • Manage changes in configuration differences for deployment scenario's

The tool is non-intrusive and can be ran from within Visual Studio.net or in a standalone tool.”

Look at the results:


(Validating System.Web configuration)


(encrypting parts of a web.config file)



(managing configuration-differences in deployment scenarios)

 


(managing WCF Schema)

 You can find out more about this GREAT tool here

 

Windows Communication Foundation Hands-On June 2006 CTP/RC1 Updates

Craig McMurtry's post about 4 chapters of WCF Hands-On.

You can download it from here:

Enjoy!

 

WinFS - Rest in Peace

WinFS or Windows File System, what was supposed to be a part in the WinFX has been declared dead. Or basically what we used to think WinFS is (part of the Vista API…).

“WinFS is no longer being delivered as a standalone software component”

Read more about the WinFS update here (this really looks like a marketting post).

A more detaild blog post here

And finally, scobleizier post about it here

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

dd-wrt for WRT54G V5/V6 without JTAG

Until now for those who had the WRT54G router v5.0 / v6.0, there was no easy way to change the firmware. The way to do it until now was via JTAG which is far from a common thing to deal with.

“Subject: The new JTAG less WRT54V5/V6 solution
Hey folks. There is now a way to flash a WRT54Gv5 without any big modification or opening the unit. db90h from our forum found a way to generate a flash image which overwrites the original bootloader of the unit which turns the unit effectivily in a linux compatible unit. after applying this image you can flash this unit with the micro edition without any big troubles. The VxWorks killer can be downloaded
Here
For more detailed instructions look into our WRT54Gv5 Wiki

Asher, I told ya

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

queues, synchronization and my 2 cents for performance...

This should be quite ovious but I find developers still writing code like this:

        void WorkerThreadDoWork()

        {

            lock(queue)

            {

                object o = queue.Dequeue();

                // Do work  here

            }

        }

         

If you know what’s wrong you don’t need continue reading…

However if you don’t, well hear is something new. What is wrong here is that the work is being done INSIDE the lock! this is WRONG WRONG WRONG

So a better solution will look like :

        void WorkerThreadDoWork()

        {

            lock(queue)

            {

                object o = queue.Dequeue();

            }

            // Do work here

        }

 

And again, we still have a problem. If you have lots of work actions(your queue contains x objects) dequeue 1 by 1 isn’t going to be helpfull if you thinking about performance improvements, specially when you are in multi-threading enviorment. Simply because after you get a thread it will only do 1 job at a time. So dequeing all of the queue is a much better approach.

        void WorkerThreadDoWork()

        {

            lock(queue)

            {

                while(queue.Count > 0)

                {

                    object o = queue.Dequeue();

                    // Do work here

                }

            }

        }         

A fix like this and I will tell the developer to go home. Geez… we were over this on phase #1

A proper solution should look like this:

        void WorkerThreadDoWork()

        {

            Queue<object> internalQueue;

            lock(queue)

            {

                internalQueue = new Queue<object>(queue);

                queue.Clear();

            }

            while(internalQueue.Count > 0)

            {

                object o = queue.Dequeue();

                // Do work here

            }

        }

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

Crawelr I've been working on

Am writing an app that is very close to WatzNew. Specially because WatzNew has died long time ago and I find this tool very cool. What it does is crawl websites, ftp, files, mail, etc and let you know if something changed.

Here is the simple web crawler I did so far. Am still not happy with the design/API but for the v1.0 is good enough.

class Program

    {

        private const string url = "http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/download/";

        private static string filter =  "os == ,vs2005,url = \",%1,\";,build number ,%2,</p>";

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            string[] arguments = filter.Split(',');

            string[] values = Crawler.Crawl<WebCrawler>(url, arguments);

 

            for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)

            {

                Console.WriteLine(values[i]);

            }

        }

    }

The output of this cool app is:

The url of the latest resharper build for visual studio 2005

The latest build number of Resharper

I allready have this crawler run as a WCF service, further I also wrote a WCF RssService that uses the REST/POX channel to wrap the return values from the crawler service as a RSS feed. So you can use it something like that : www.MyService.svc?new=Resharper and you will get the latest rss feed of resharper.

Am now currently adding more stuff to the engine (cache, checksum, async, resource management and multi-threaded).

My Windows Live Messenger Contact problem

“…However, if they're just showing up as offline, you may need to completely remove them (and
e-mail them have them remove you and then readd you). That should restore the relationship
between the two contacts…

What would cause this problem in the first place?…

To be honest, I actually don't know, it seems to happen at random.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert

via Microsoft support forums

What the hell? happen in random? So let me get it straight, you made my entire contacts apear offline, some were even removed and now you also took the Search UI from me so I can’t even search!

Aaaaarrrrrghhhhhhh

 

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments

Complete Regional Weather Station with MSN® Direct Weather Data Service

“This weather console uses the MSN® Direct service to receive regional weather information without the use of any outdoor sensors. For the first time, weather enthusiasts can get real-time, 4-day weather forecast information, including the chance of precipitation. By just plugging in the weather station within specified MSN Direct coverage areas, users can receive regional wind, rain, temperature, humidity, and even NWS warning information from MSN Direct's FM signals. Click here for to see Coverage Map

So much information, this looks like a small weather bureau.

Current Detailed Regional Weather

  • Weather Forecast and Description
  • Temperature and Humidity with Trend Indicator
  • Wind Direction
  • Wind Speed
  • Gust Wind
  • Wind Chill
  • Dew Point Temperature
  • Heat Index
  • UV Index
  • Rain Level with last 24-hour History
  • Sunrise and Sunset Time
  • Moon Phase

4 Day Forecast

  • Weather Forecast and Description
  • Hi / Lo Temperature
  • Probability of Precipitation

Warning Messages

  • Weather Warnings, Watches and Advisories

Indoor Environment

  • Indoor Temperature and Humidity with Trend Indicator
  • Comfort Level
  • Max/Min Indoor Temperature and Humidity Memories

Clock and Calendar

  • Radio-controlled Time Update with DST Adjustment
  • Dual 2 minute daily alarm with user selectable crescendo beeping or polyphonic melody format
  • 8 Minute Snooze Function
  • Time Zone Settings

http://www2.oregonscientific.com/shop/product.asp?cid=2&scid=4&pid=603

Posted by Ido Samuelson | with no comments
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