Entries for JonathonW

Pivot [Pivot]

JonathonW — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:22:16 GMT

Surprised there's not already a thread about this here... the latest Live Labs prototype was announced at one of this afternoon's workshops:

http://www.getpivot.com/

Pivot is a tool for interactively exploring large data sets, using WPF and Deep Zoom to zoom through and manipulate "trading cards" representing essentially any kind of data imaginable... sample datasets include anything from sports players to new cars to Wikipedia articles, all filterable and sortable graphically in real time. If you missed the session at PDC and didn't catch the Ch9Live demo this afternoon, there's a video on the Pivot website that can give you a good idea of what it's about, and they're accepting email addresses to invite users who aren't at PDC (that's how I got in; the site says the preview is closed, but they have added at least a few people). It's a very promising concept and is very well implemented; definitely worth a look (and a try, if you can).

edit: International users beware... Pivot will either fail to accept installation codes or fail to launch if both the system language and regional settings (date/time and number format) are not set to en-US... hopefully this will be straightened out soon (but I wouldn't hold my breath; this is primarily available to attendees of a US conference right now, so it's probably not a pressing issue for them).

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New ride [New ride]

JonathonW — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:34:31 GMT

After my trusty '94 Toyota pickup died last week, I decided I needed something guaranteed to be more reliable for the rest of the time I'll be spending in graduate school... As of yesterday, I am now the proud owner of a 2010 Toyota Yaris; a little 3-door hatchback that's been sold in Europe, Japan and Canada for a while now (called the Vitz in Europe and Japan and the Echo hatchback in Canada).

This one's pretty close to fully loaded, with power windows and door locks, stereo capable of playing MP3s and WMA files with an auxiliary input for my iPod, and cruise control. It does have a manual transmission, but that's the only way to go, especially with a small car like this. Pretty big change from my old pickup... runs smooth and quiet, and my pickup didn't have power anything (not even power steering, which makes parking lots tons of fun). Kinda makes me feel like a Brit, zipping around town in my little tiny car (except we don't drive on the wrong side of the road over here :P).

Obligatory pics: color is called "Carmine red metallic" and seems to change color in different lights. Colors I've seen in it so far: burgundy, burnt orange, maroon, brown... pictures don't quite do it justice, but it gets pretty close:

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"Sign in" link broken ["Sign in" link broken]

JonathonW — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:10:36 GMT

Just cleared my cookies and was logged out as a result... looks like the sign in link is broken (not clickable). Might be some funkiness going on with Live ID... the "Switch to Live ID" link is also broken.

(For those others who are also seeing this issue: if you're using the classic login, go to http://channel9.msdn.com/SignIn/Default.aspx to sign in.)

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Channel 8 Spam [Channel 8 Spam]

JonathonW — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 03:37:38 GMT

Just to let you guys know, there are currently only 5 legitimate posts on the first page of the Channel 8 Student Union forum... are you letting it rot on purpose or have you just forgotten about it?

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Building a new PC: comments? [Building a new PC: comments?]

JonathonW — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:12:12 GMT

To preface: I'm building a PC with a budget of around $800. This box will mainly be used for development, but I also do some light gaming (right now, mostly stuff like Quake Live and Flight Simulator X, although I will probably start playing some more intense games once I have the hardware to handle them: I'll probably pick up Left 4 Dead once I've built this box, for example.) I also do a bit of digital photography, but I'm not willing to spend tons on a fancy monitor, so that's not much of a consideration for me.

So, priorities: good performance for potentially lengthy compiles (although I don't have anything too long to compile right now, I could potentially in the future). My graphics target is to be able to run FSX at its highest settings, although I'll probably be playing some newer games, too. This machine will probably be lasting me the next four years of grad school (with the possibility of incremental upgrades), so it doesn't need to be too out-of-date already.

Here are the parts I've picked (thanks mostly to Tech Report's Summer Systems Guide; this is a mix-and-match between their Econobox and Utility Player):

AMD Phenom X3 720 (2.8 GHz) - $119.00
GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - $79.99
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 - $58.99
XFX HD-487A-ZHDC Radeon HD 4870 1GB - $164.99
WD Caviar Black 640GB - $69.99
Samsung DVD+R - $27.99
Integrated Audio - $0.00
Antec Sonata III 500 (Includes 500W PSU) - $99.00
ASUS X223 22" LCD (1680x1050) - $149.99
OS will be Windows 7 RC (64-bit) initially; I'll purchase an OEM copy of Win7 Pro when it comes out.

Total - $769.94, approximately $868.08 with tax and shipping.

So, what do you think about this build? Any suggestions for improvement? Any incompatibilities that I might be missing?

A couple specific questions I have:

* Is this triple-core processor worth the extra $10 over the dual-core X2 550 (clocked at 3.1 GHz, versus 2.8 GHz for the triple-core processor)? How will they compare in terms of power draw and heat produced while idling (this box will probably be always-on during the day)?

* Likewise, is the 4870 going to be worth the extra $60 over the 4850? Tech Reports really likes the 4870, claiming its AMD's second-fastest single-core GPU and claiming it actually draws less power than the 4850 in their testing; is this consistent with anyone else's experience?

* What DVD burner do you recommend if this Samsung drive doesn't come back in stock in the next few days? Almost everything in this build is on sale; I don't want to lose too many of the discounts by waiting too long (especially on the case, which is normally a $150 case).

* Anyone have horrible experiences with any of these manufacturers? Specifically Gigabyte and XFX... I'm not expecting anything bad (XFX has a freaking awesome warranty; you don't do that if your products are crap), but I just want to be safe...

in reply to Building a new PC: comments?

Channel 9 For iPhone (Teaser) [Channel 9 For iPhone (Teaser)]

JonathonW — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:27:34 GMT

After an afternoon of work, I've got the beginnings of a native iPhone Channel 9 client:

Currently pulls down the list of threads in the Coffeehouse via the same web service used for the reload and previous/next page buttons on the forums page. Loading and displaying threads is the next step.

The catch (for anyone interested in running it once I've gotten it to a useful state): I do not own a Mac, which means I can't use the official iPhone SDK or distribute via iTunes, so it can only be run on jailbroken devices. Anyone willing to sponsor me and buy me a new Macbook Pro is quite willing to do so, though ;)

I'll update this thread as I get further along... this is pretty fun!

in reply to Channel 9 For iPhone (Teaser)

Editing a post removes "in reply to" [Editing a post removes "in reply to"]

JonathonW — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:45:05 GMT

It seems that editing a post right now removes the "in reply to" bit above the post, regardless of whether "reply" or "reply to root" is selected.

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I don't really have anything to say... [I don't really have anything to say...]

JonathonW — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:53:17 GMT

But (if this works), this post was posted from a .Net application using the Channel 9 Web Services.

in reply to I don't really have anything to say...

Anyone have a Dell Mini 12 [Anyone have a Dell Mini 12]

JonathonW — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:23:37 GMT

And have any thoughts (likes, dislikes, etc.)?

I've been wishing for a netbook-type laptop with 1280x800 (and more usable keyboard) for a while now, and just discovered the Mini 12 (don't know how I missed it). Looking for something that will be primarily used for note-taking (with OneNote/Word), light web browsing, and remote desktop (actually, LogMeIn) to my full-size laptop (which has a 1280x800 screen, hence the magic number of 1280x800 for screen resolution).

The main concern I've seen in reviews is that the laptop isn't fast enough to perform well with Vista, but I'll be purchasing it with XP, so I wouldn't think that should be too much of an issue. Otherwise, it looks like it fits exactly what I'm looking for (cheap, lightweight netbook).

in reply to Anyone have a Dell Mini 12

C9 Advisory: Watch what you click [C9 Advisory: Watch what you click]

JonathonW — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:36:07 GMT

Breaking news... see http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Feedback/449973-Script-injections/.

Not good.

in reply to C9 Advisory: Watch what you click

Dual-booting XP and Server 2008: Caveats? [Dual-booting XP and Server 2008: Caveats?]

JonathonW — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:08:03 GMT

I'm thinking about setting up a dual-boot configuration with XP and Server 2008 (for learning, experimentation, etc., not for real use as a server). Is anyone aware of any problems or issues I might have with this configuration?

in reply to Dual-booting XP and Server 2008: Caveats?

Dvorak [Dvorak]

JonathonW — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:43:32 GMT

The keyboard layout, not the annoying writer for PC Magazine.

Does anyone here use the Dvorak layout on a daily basis? Do you think it's worth learning?

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Paging Bug w/ Go to last page test case [Paging Bug w/ Go to last page test case]

JonathonW — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:33:36 GMT

Test post

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Paging bug w/ Go to last page [Paging bug w/ Go to last page]

JonathonW — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:33:04 GMT

Just discovered a paging bug if you go to the last page of a thread via the date link on the forum listing: if there are <25 posts on the last page, you'll only see the number of posts that were on the last page for all other pages as well (so, if page 3 has 3 posts, page 1 gives you 1-3, page 2 gives you 25-27, etc.).

Right now, this can be seen at http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehouse/416194-Virus-Apple-in-your-PC/?CommentID=416343, but as that's an active thread, I'll make a test case here in Feedback that (hopefully) no one will mess up.

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Sharing HTML [Sharing HTML]

JonathonW — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:01:51 GMT

Channel 9's text filter seems to be a bit overzealous... don't have time to figure out exactly what it doesn't like right this second, but here's a test case below (from the Japanese Localization thread in Techoff):

Your server isn't sending a character set for either file, so Firefox has to guess the character set. By default, Firefox uses the same character set as the page that's serving it (miraculously, Firefox is detecting this correctly ;)).

You can fix this issue in three ways:
(1) Make your web server send the correct character set in the HTTP headers. Read the Apache docs on how to do this.

(2) Specify the character set in the <link> tag. Like this:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="EP-ANSI.css" type="text/css" charset="ASCII"/>

(3) Author your document using UTF-8 instead of Unicode-16. UTF-8 is backwards compatible with the ASCII character set (meaning you don't have to do either of the above) and can represent all characters in the Unicode character set. In my opinion, this is the "right" way to do it.

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Paging in Firefox 3 in Linux [Paging in Firefox 3 in Linux]

JonathonW — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:04:29 GMT

Thread and forum paging seems to be broken in Firefox 3 in Linux (2008061712, the final release of 3.0) right now: the browser should be running Javascript the same way as Fx3 in Windows, so this would seem to be a browser detection bug.

in reply to Paging in Firefox 3 in Linux

Poorly scaled logo [Poorly scaled logo]

JonathonW — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:40:33 GMT

Just a minor nitpick (the site's getting to the point where a lot of the stuff that needs to be fixed from my point of view are minor nitpicks, so that's good), but the nine guy logo on the top of the page seems distorted, as though it's poorly scaled (particularly the hair/antennae, but there are other areas which aren't as clean as the original logo).

Here's what it probably should look like (yes, it is different):

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SOAP on Channel 9 [SOAP on Channel 9]

JonathonW — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:11:42 GMT

If any of the C9 team would feel inclined to answer this:

Am I missing something or are your SOAP APIs broken?

Using web service references in VS2008 to generate a client based on http://channel9.msdn.com/services/Posts.asmx?WSDL, I'm only seeing an internal server error when I try to get a list of posts: "Server was unable to process request. ---> Invalid object name 'en_EntryDetails'."

If it helps, here's the relevant code:

            PostsSoap client = new PostsSoapClient();
            PostQueryParameters pqp = new PostQueryParameters();
            //set up parameters such that we get the last day of coffeehouse posts
            pqp.DateStart = (DateTime.Now).AddDays(-1);
            pqp.DateEnd = DateTime.Now;
            Channel9V4.Channel9Posts.Tag[] forumTags = new Channel9V4.Channel9Posts.Tag[1];
            forumTags[0] = new Tag();
            forumTags[0].ID = 2902; //(From sniffing C9's HTTP traffic, Coffeehouse seems to be TagID 2902)
            forumTags[0].Featured = false;
            forumTags[0].EntryCount = 0;
            pqp.Tags = forumTags;
            pqp.Sort = PostSort.LastCommentDescending;
            pqp.Type = PostType.Post;

            PostList posts = client.GetPosts(pqp);

en_EntryDetails isn't being sent as a part of my request, so I'm assuming that this is probably a server-side issue. I suppose I could parse JSON, but that doesn't sound like very much fun in C# ;) .

And, yes, I do enjoy diving into undocumented APIs. It's fun! :P

in reply to SOAP on Channel 9

Most Common Programming Mistake? [Most Common Programming Mistake?]

JonathonW — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:33:17 GMT

Time for a little bit of self-introspection on Channel 9...

I just spent a good while debugging what was probably a stupid error (left before I fixed it, but now I think I know what I did), and I thought it might be interesting to ask: what's the stupid programming mistake you make most frequently? Preferably something that produces a compilable program, but doesn't work.

The error I just made? In C/C++ (we need a button for monospaced fonts or something in this editor):

SomeClassOrStruct *pointer;
SomeClassOrStruct *anotherPointer = pointer; //assign the pointer to another pointer, pass it into the constructor of another class, whatever
pointer = new SomeClassOrStruct();
anotherPointer.doSomething(); //anotherPointer _doesn't_ point to the same location as pointer after you use new

The sad thing is, this is at least the second time I've done this in a span of about three weeks... and if you don't catch it by looking at the code, it can be near-impossible to debug. This one was causing a segfault in a completely unrelated peice of code (because, in C, pointers aren't necessarily initialized to NULL when you start out).

in reply to Most Common Programming Mistake?

Test Thread 1 [Test Thread 1]

JonathonW — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:09:35 GMT

My apologies if this actually works... just wondering if I'm just going crazy or if it really is impossible to create a new thread.

in reply to Test Thread 1

Power's out... [Power's out...]

JonathonW — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:30:08 GMT

This is just great for productivity.... someone tripped the circuit breaker. And (of course) my UPS couldn't handle everything on it (laptop, desktop, monitor), so I can't actually do my work (it's on the desktop)... woohoo.

Guess the moral of this story is to save often, and everywhere ;)

in reply to Power's out...

Test attachments, tags [Test attachments, tags]

JonathonW — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:38:32 GMT

Can I attach files and add tags in the Coffeehouse?

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Sandbox Test [Sandbox Test]

JonathonW — Fri, 16 May 2008 23:35:58 GMT

How well does the Sandbox work here? Let's see!

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Algorithm puzzle of the day [Algorithm puzzle of the day]

JonathonW — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:09:22 GMT

Just wondering if this problem's as tricky as I was making it earlier today (and yes, I did solve it... I'm not trying to get you to do my work for me or anything, just curious how others go about solving it):

A background image in {insert 2D-graphics based video game console} is stored as a list of tiles, each tile an 8x8 square of pixels and arranged such that each tile's indices progress from left-to-right and top-to-bottom as in reading order. These tiles are all appended to each other in a 1-dimensional array, which would result in the array being arranged like so (if you had four 2x2 tiles):

+---+---+---+---+
| 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
+---+---+---+---+
| 2 | 3 | 6 | 7 |
+---+---+---+---+
| 8 | 9 | 12| 13|
+---+---+---+---+
| 10| 11| 14| 15|
+---+---+---+---+

The index shown is the index that would correspond to that pixel in the tile data array. The red lines indicate the borders between tiles.

The problem I was working on today:

Transform an 8-bit 512x512 bitmap to this tile format. Since each tile is 8x8 pixels, this gives you 64x64=4096 tiles and a total of 262144 pixels.

Given:

unsigned char bitmap[262144]; //existing bitmap is stored here, retrieved from file or something
unsigned char tilemap_Tiles[262144]; //tile data is to be copied into this array

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Posting problems [Posting problems]

JonathonW — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:04:53 GMT

Can anyone reproduce this for me? I can't post this text (as HTML):

or this:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathonw/2363706051/" title="Highlands River by Jonathon W, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2363706051_522292fbb2.jpg" alt="Highlands River" height="332" width="500"></a>

C9 just treats the post as though it's empty (refuses to submit the post or edit and puts a red star beside the word "Message").

in reply to Posting problems