Entries for Herbie Smith

Cannot get to ends of threads [Cannot get to ends of threads]

Herbie Smith — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:55:38 GMT

There are several threads tha I cannot see the end of -- every time I open the thread it goes to page 1 and when I try to move to the next page, it repeats page 1 again.

Example is the spam thread http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Feedback/478107-Spam-Comment/

Herbie

in reply to Cannot get to ends of threads

WIn7: What is your boot time? [WIn7: What is your boot time?]

Herbie Smith — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:52:46 GMT

As a follow up to this old Vista Boot time post, what are youre boot times after upgrading to Win7.

On the same machine:

Vista : Boot start to Login Screen: 35 Seconds

Vista: Login to usable desktop : 30 seconds.

Win7: Boot start to Login Scree: 21 seconds

Win7: Login to usable desktop : 10 Seconds.

It was noticable faster but I never bothered to time it until this morning.

Herbie

in reply to WIn7: What is your boot time?

Coffeehouse Broken? [Coffeehouse Broken?]

Herbie Smith — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:25:22 GMT

At the moment, trying to get to the Coffeehouse gives an error. Everywhere else seems fine.

Herbie

EDIT: ok, so it's fine now. Temporary glitch, I guess.

in reply to Coffeehouse Broken?

Anybody know the status of Powershell2? [Anybody know the status of Powershell2?]

Herbie Smith — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:51:52 GMT

So with my Windows 7 install comes Powershell2 out of the box. However, when I have looked into getting Powershell2 onto my XP machine at work, I find it's listed only as a CTP (http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/pages/download-windows-powershell.aspx).

Does anyone have any clues?

Herbie

in reply to Anybody know the status of Powershell2?

Windows 7 installation experience [Windows 7 installation experience]

Herbie Smith — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:38:44 GMT

So, I bit the bullet and decided to retire Vista Ultimate and install Win7 Home Premium.

First attempt: from Vista desktop I put the Win7 DVD in the drive and selected the install option. Started well, rebooted partway through the 'expanding files' section, picked up again from where it left off, but then froze; frozen mouse and no disk activity. Rebooted.

Second Attempt: decided to just wipe the hard disk (had already backed up Users directory). Started well, rebooted partway through the 'expanding files' section, picked up from where it left off, but then froze again (at an earlier point, only 17% done instead of previous 39% done).

Third attempt (getting worried now because I had blown the previous Vista install away entirely now): decided that something was switching off a some hardware or something, decided to keep mouse moving while installation executed (also had vague idea that OnIdle processing was being used so moving the mouse might help). No freeze! Hooray. installed.

First boot: All set up with admin user. First things first, install USB Wifi from the Vista drivers I had thankfully remembered to backup to thumbdrive. Halfway through driver install and it froze! Oh no, here we go.

Second boot: got further this time, managed to install USB WiFi and get to internet before freeze.

Third boot: kept mouse moving at all times. Got to internet, googled Win7 Freeze, got pointer to change power settings to 'high performance' to keep everything on all the time.

Two hours later: no freezes yet, but time to go to work. All drivers installed and a Windows Updaet ran (interestingly Windows7 has updates already, nice to know they haven't gone on holiday!).

So tip: if you get freezes during install, keep the mouse moving. If you get freezes after install, change power settings.

First impressions: not staggeringly different from Vista, but so far so good. Media Centre works with slightly different UI, found my tuner and found all the Channels I had before.

Will no doubt spend this evening restoring all user files and installing applications, so we'll see what differences there are when there's more to do than play Solitaire.

How did everyone else get on?

Herbie

in reply to Windows 7 installation experience

Intellisense in Word? [Intellisense in Word?]

Herbie Smith — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:28:38 GMT

I was just working away in Visual Studio when I eralised how much I depend on Intellisense to complete my typing for me. Then I thought -- I wonder how long until PCs are powerful enough to use intellisense in Word? Word could show a dropdown list of all words matching the characters typed so far -- as you type the letter 'a' Word will show all words in its dictionary starting with 'a' and as you type is narrows the list. Fewer keystrokes, fewer spelling mistakes.

Hmmm. :P

Herbie

in reply to Intellisense in Word?

Kindle is in the UK (pre-order) ... [Kindle is in the UK (pre-order) ...]

Herbie Smith — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:52:06 GMT

When I logged in to Amazon this morning, the usual list of recommended books was replaced by a large advert for the Kindle now vailable in the UK (and other countries).

Anyone tempted?

I would be if I lived somewhere with decent mobile phone coverage, and if I had the money spare to buy a Kindle in the first place.

Herbie

in reply to Kindle is in the UK (pre-order) ...

VERY odd constraint errors ... [VERY odd constraint errors ...]

Herbie Smith — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:50:31 GMT

Hi, this is a weird one ....

We have a large, live system that has been running fine for several years. We use remoting servers for the middle-tier, and they mainly do a lot of SQL Server access. We use typed datasets and ADO.NET data adapters to load data.

Our client uses a cluster of virtual machines to host the remoting servers.

Recently, a few weeks after we updated their live code and after a few weeks of apparently successful running, users started reporting constraint errors. The constraints appear when loading existing data from the database.

From our error logs it looks like NULLs are being returned for some non-null columns. The columns are non-null in the SQL Server schema and non-null in our typed datasets.

When loading data we generally turn off constraints in the dataset while we load and set them back on after the data is loaded -- this is where the constraint exceptions occur.

It is happening on several tables (the 'core' tables and thus the most frequently queried).

I have difficulty seeing how a field from the database with a non-null constraint can be read by ADO.NET as NULL.

Our error log also shows that some of the errors are NOT constraint errors, but invalid casts (as you get when accessing a null field through the typed dataset). This means that the NULL value in the non-null field is getting past constraint checking?

Even weirder, if the middle-tier remoting server is rebooted, the problem goes away (for a while, at least).

Anyone got any clues/suggestions/answers?

Herbie

in reply to VERY odd constraint errors ...

T-SQL Help : import file into IMAGE field in SQL Server 2000 [T-SQL Help : import file into IMAGE field in SQL Server 2000]

Herbie Smith — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:22:15 GMT

Ok, I'm having trouble with this one: we have a requirement to store Word Template documents in our database. For reasons beyond my control we are coding against SQL 2000.

I have a table with an IMAGE field: for the purposes of this post we'll call the table TEMPLATES and the field TEMPLATE_DATA.

I want to be able to get the file 'c:\MyTemplate.dot' into the TEMPLATE_DATA field in an existing row in the TEMPLATES table where the TEMPLATES.ID column is 1, so I'm looking for the missing bit in:

UPDATE TEMPLATES set TEMPLATE-DATA = ???!!!????

WHERE ID = 1

My Google-fu has failed me again. Any help?

Herbie

in reply to T-SQL Help : import file into IMAGE field in SQL Server 2000

How best to use a lock() [How best to use a lock()]

Herbie Smith — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 07:24:43 GMT

Ok, I'd like people's opinions on the use of the lock() keywork in C#. I've never quite got the subtleties of threading (no CS degree!).

The scenario is that I have a class that contains a Dictionary<string, object> that is referenced by several other classes. I'd like to make assess to that dictionary thread safe.

The 'standard' way to do this is to use a separate lock object

[code language="csharp"]

class MyClass

{

Dictionary<string, object> _store = new Dictionary<string, object>();

object _lock = new object();

public void Add(string key, object value)

{

lock(_lock)

{

_store.Add(key, value);

}

}[/code]

It has occurred to me, that perhaps I should lock the target object itself, thus doing away with the added lock object:

[code language="csharp"]

class MyClass

{

Dictionary<string, object> _store = new Dictionary<string, object>();

public void Add(string key, object value)

{

lock(_store)

{

_store.Add(key, value);

}

}[/code]

Is this safe?

Herbie

EDIT: Why does the code formatting suck? Where do these double-spaced lines come from?

in reply to How best to use a lock()

Has anyone used PostSharp in anger? [Has anyone used PostSharp in anger?]

Herbie Smith — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:55:36 GMT

I asked in the Coffeehouse, but there weren't many responses, so perhaps this is a better place to ask:

So we're considering the toolkit to use for a new project, and I'd quite like to use PostSharp for AOP to reduce the amount of coding required (logging, INotifyPropertyChanged, GUI thread dispatching, etc).

My main concern is this this project will inevitably get quite large and PostSharp adds to the compile time. Is there anyone here who has used PostSharp on larger projects and can give me a hint of the compile-time cost?

Herbie

in reply to Has anyone used PostSharp in anger?

Anyone here used PostSharp in anger? [Anyone here used PostSharp in anger?]

Herbie Smith — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:58:07 GMT

Herbie

in reply to Anyone here used PostSharp in anger?

Channel 9 flakey for anyone else today? [Channel 9 flakey for anyone else today?]

Herbie Smith — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:28:19 GMT

It's been up and down like a bee's wing this morning. Anyone else, or just me?
(typing quick to post this before it goes down again) ...

Herbie

in reply to Channel 9 flakey for anyone else today?

How can I tell if my .NET application is running in 64bit on the 64bit server? [How can I tell if my .NET application is running in 64bit on the 64bit server?]

Herbie Smith — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:01:53 GMT

Ok, we have an old .NET application that we want to run in 64 bit on a 64bit windows server.
We compile the app to the 'Any CPU' target so it should run on 64 or 32 bit hardware.
Now we want to verify that it is actually running as 64 bit when run on the 64 bit server ... how?

Anyone know of a quick validation for this?

Herbie

in reply to How can I tell if my .NET application is running in 64bit on the 64bit server?

09/09/09 -- 9ers Day? [09/09/09 -- 9ers Day?]

Herbie Smith — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:05:45 GMT

I think we should designate Sept 9th 2009 to be international 9ers day! :D

I'm sure the Channel 9 team can think of suitable ways to celebrate --

tatoos all round?
9-Guy cake?
Competition?
C9v5 ?

Anyone got any more suggestions?

Herbie

in reply to 09/09/09 -- 9ers Day?

Could ASP.NET MVC be converted to use WinForms too? [Could ASP.NET MVC be converted to use WinForms too?]

Herbie Smith — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:07:48 GMT

This is a vague thought that occurred to me on the drive to work this morning.

One of the advantages to an MVC style architecture is that is decouples logic and data from the presentation layer, making it easier to change the presenatation layer for something else.
To me at the moment this mainly means using the same logic for a Desktop app and a web app.

So if I were to write an ASP.NET MVC application, how hard would it be to retro-fit a WinForms app as the new presentation layer?

Hmm. It's open source. Perhaps I need to find the time (<scorn>HA!</scorn>) to sit down and investigate how the controllers are linked up to the views ...

Has anyone who has looked at the source already got any idea of how complex this would be?

Herbie

in reply to Could ASP.NET MVC be converted to use WinForms too?

ASP.NET MVC finally RTM [ASP.NET MVC finally RTM]

Herbie Smith — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:48:26 GMT

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=53289097-73ce-43bf-b6a6-35e00103cb4b&displaylang=en

if you haven't got it already. :)

Herbie

in reply to ASP.NET MVC finally RTM

Blue? [Blue?]

Herbie Smith — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:21:47 GMT

What have you done?

Herbie

in reply to Blue?

Channel 9 Wants to Play Adobe Flash? [Channel 9 Wants to Play Adobe Flash?]

Herbie Smith — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:32:26 GMT

Why does the Channel9 site want to open Adobe's Flash player whenever I refresh the page? Luckily Vista asks me for permission ...

Is this a bug or an exploit?

Going to try rebooting to see it it's still there ...

Herbie

in reply to Channel 9 Wants to Play Adobe Flash?

The black dog ... (thread fork) [The black dog ... (thread fork)]

Herbie Smith — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:17:12 GMT

Ok, so over in the 'Kumo' thread I was being negative and I feel I should explain myself.

I currently have a moderate clinical depression. I have had for the best part of 7 years, now. Some days I am very negative, some days I am not. I usually try not to let it 'leak' into my Coffeehouse postings but yesterday some did leak through.

I used to take medication (when I was severely depressed about 7 years ago) but I don't take any now as I can usually cope. Yesterday was a bad day. Bad days happen.

I have little creativity, imagination or motivation.
I have lots of frustration, anger and negativity.

I can still tell jokes and laugh, but I only have faint memories of feeling happy (it's like trying to remember the faces of people I went to school with; I can remember the general shape and I would recognise them if I saw them again, but the image is fuzzy and indistinct). Depression = "a period of profound joylessness" as I saw it explained in a documentary recently.

So when I post a very negative post or go quiet for a few days, now you'll know why.

Herbie

in reply to The black dog ... (thread fork)

Dan is trying to slip one past us ... [Dan is trying to slip one past us ...]

Herbie Smith — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:11:44 GMT

Stumbled onto Dan's latest Codeplex project ... been waiting for this. Haven't had time to do more than kick the types (won't compile on my machine because I don't have iTunes libraries).

I will go to any lengths to get Daft Punk Girls on my desktop ... does that make me weird?

Herbie

in reply to Dan is trying to slip one past us ...

SQL Server 2008 DateTime Formatting [SQL Server 2008 DateTime Formatting]

Herbie Smith — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:26:00 GMT

I have an issue with my first attempt at Linq to SQL: setting DateTime parameters is causing the SQL to fail with :
'Msg 241, Level 16, State 1, Line 3
Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from character string.'

Because the parameter passed out by Linq to SQL is in the format '2008-10-30 12:09:48.0800000' and my SQL Server 2008 choked on that many decimal places for the time. Changing the time (manually) to '2008-10-30 12:09:48.080' works.

So: how is the formatting controlled (on SQL Server 2008 and in Linq to SQL in C#)?

Herbie

in reply to SQL Server 2008 DateTime Formatting

I love the PropertyGrid. [I love the PropertyGrid.]

Herbie Smith — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:05:04 GMT

I love it. That's all I'm saying. It's fantastic. More of that sort of thing, please Microsoft.

:D

Herbie

in reply to I love the PropertyGrid.

SQL2008 Disappointment ... [SQL2008 Disappointment ...]

Herbie Smith — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:27:30 GMT

After finally getting around to testing SQL2008 client tools against our test databases I was disappointed to find that SQL intellisense only works then used against a 2008 Database Engine: our clients are still running SQL2000 so we have to use that as our dev\test environment.

No intellisense for us :(

Herbie

in reply to SQL2008 Disappointment ...

Loving the 'Humanised Screencasts' for VS2010 [Loving the 'Humanised Screencasts' for VS2010]

Herbie Smith — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:31:44 GMT

Perfect mix of on-screen demo + seeing the person talking.

More! More!

Some day, all C9 videos will be made this way (I hope). :)

Herbie

in reply to Loving the 'Humanised Screencasts' for VS2010