Entries for W3bbo

AndyC: Sleeping on the job? :p

W3bbo — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:27:54 GMT

I just remembered how you said you were gainfully employed at the University of East Anglia, and then I noticed the whole email-leak thing was from the CRU unit of the uni. I don't suppose you can shed some light on the whole thing?

Let's do an experiment [Let's do an experiment]

W3bbo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:27:30 GMT

Try not to yawn.

Did it work for you?

in reply to Let's do an experiment

Duplicate Active Directory Security rules in ACLs [Duplicate Active Directory Security rules in ACLs]

W3bbo — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:48:54 GMT

In one of my domains, a lot of objects seem to have duplicate (and seemingly empty) security rules set up.

For instance, the root of my domain "company.com" has "ENTERPRISE DOMAIN CONTROLLERS" down 9 times. The first 5 times have different permissions put down ("Replicating directory changes...", "Replication synchronization", "Manage replication topology", etc) but the last 4 have nothing applied.

Other groups are down with nothing marked for them, like "Exchange Recipient Administrators" and "Exchange Servers" (both the Properties and Object security list is empty.

Is it safe to delete these empty rules and might it help performance? I ask because I need to set some custom security on some child OUs but that requires copying the inherited security, which ADUC warns against because there's 41 rules to apply.

in reply to Duplicate Active Directory Security rules in ACLs

Here are some ferrets to cheer you up [Here are some ferrets to cheer you up]

W3bbo — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:53:35 GMT

Maybe you might recognise the music from a certain Windows CD's bonus multimedia videos? (And how come you don't get those anymore?)

in reply to Here are some ferrets to cheer you up

Microsoft's copyright infringement [Microsoft's copyright infringement]

W3bbo — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:43:01 GMT

Hey, note how I'm not accusing Microsoft of "stealing" GPL code (because then I wouldn't be morally consistent when talking about torrenting moviez and empeethreez, lol).

It's been widely reported that Microsoft apparently has been using GPL-licensed code in a proprietary EULA piece of software without a license from the original author. The discovery was made by Rafael earlier.

My bet's on Microsoft going "omg! we had nooo idea!" (whether they're sincere or not, I've no idea) and coughing up a few grand to the original author as a means of coercing him into dropping any idea of legal action and providing them with a license. I do not believe Microsoft would ever consider licensing their infringing tool as GPL (imagine what Steve Ballmer would say).

Discuss.

in reply to Microsoft's copyright infringement

Enums are expensive in dictionaries? [Enums are expensive in dictionaries?]

W3bbo — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:05:05 GMT

I was building a cellular automaton earlier (fireflies simulation) and I decided to use a C# enum to represent a fly's current state (Charging, Sensitive, and Flashing). This is fine.

However when it came to rendering the CA world I needed to map a Color instance to each state, so I created a static Dictionary<FlyState,Color> member whereby a colour could be matched to a fly's state.

However NProf reports that the dictionary's FindEntry call (from the indexer property) was consuming 50% of my program's CPU time (eh wtf).

I modified my code to use Dictionary<Int32,Color> and changed the indexer property call to cast the FlyState to int, and suddenly it dropped from 50% down to 4%.

I'd have thought Dictionary would call .GetHashCode on the enum directly, which (should) be identical to Int32.GetHashCode.

So what's going on, eh?

in reply to Enums are expensive in dictionaries?

Microsoft Charting Controls Licensing [Microsoft Charting Controls Licensing]

W3bbo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:08:12 GMT

What's strange is how it's impossible to find licensing information about the Microsoft Charting Control library that they got off Dundas. By distributing it gratis they're costing Dundas lots in lost-sales (since their cheapest license is about $699) yet no distribution of the library comes with a license agreement statement. The library installer only comes with a single-paragraph boilerplate that just says that if you don't already have a license then you can't install it.

I ask because I made some modifications to the library (which I assume would be covered under the legal protection that reverse-engineering for interopability has) but I want to know what my rights are w.r.t. redistribution.

in reply to Microsoft Charting Controls Licensing

Visual Studio with simple syntax colouring? [Visual Studio with simple syntax colouring?]

W3bbo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:24:18 GMT

A lot of people sing the praises of programs like Notepad2 and jedit because they offer syntax colouring for pretty much every language under the sun, which is great for toe-dipping exercises in things like Haskell or quick programs you'll manually compile later.

Visual Studio doesn't offer this functionality by default. Has anyone written an add-in for VS that adds the ability to edit any text file and get syntax highlighting for it? It goes without saying that integration with a compiler won't be needed, nor will debugging or any kind of "intelligent" processing like IntelliSense.

Although, come to think about it, integrating the compiler into a simple build system with the "Errors" and "Output" window would be nice.

in reply to Visual Studio with simple syntax colouring?

SkyDrive es borked [SkyDrive es borked]

W3bbo — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:33:20 GMT

I've got a few files up on SkyDrive, and the past few days SkyDrive has been messing up the filenames: when you download them their content-disposition header is a seemingly meaningless string of text rather than their actual filename.

Anyone else getting this problem?

in reply to SkyDrive es borked

Let's have a fun party. [Let's have a fun party.]

W3bbo — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:51:58 GMT

Remember those Windows 7 parties?

I think I can dig it.

in reply to Let's have a fun party.

Windows 7 Deployment [Windows 7 Deployment]

W3bbo — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:25:32 GMT

Hmm, my CS school's IT guys have rolled out Windows 7 on all the machines in our two Windows labs. I'm surprised, I'll admit, because we were perfectly happy with our Windows XP systems. I'll be able to give it a go when term starts next week.

...just so long as they haven't gimped the Taskbar Properties via Group Policy. I wonder if we'll get Aero.

Has your school deployed yet?

in reply to Windows 7 Deployment

400 pageviews/day makes you "influential"? [400 pageviews/day makes you "influential"?]

W3bbo — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:14:00 GMT

Some of us are familar with The Deck: an advertising network formed by a loose grouping of pretentious Mac-heads who wanted equally pretentious advertising on their websites, thus maximising the revenue potential gained from their pretentious readers' eyeballs.

I pitched an idea to Long Zheng (and co) to start his own advertising network for "Windows enthusiasts". He put it on the backburner, so did I.

However, today I learned about The Lounge, which is pretty much what I described. The Lounge looks like it started after I pitched my idea to Long, I don't know if he's gone and done a runner with me, but it's nice to know I've got a few good ideas in my head (even if I didn't compelete the race to implement them...)

Anyway, they let advertisers "target" their adverts by applying to advertise on certain websites, one of these is "Influential People", they have 43 blogs in this category (and TBH, I haven't really heard of any of them). According to their statistics they had 490147 pageviews over 43 sites in the last month.

Basic arithmetic tells us that's about 11,398 pageviews per blog per month, which divided by 30 gives 379 pageviews per blog per day. Let's be generous and call that 400.

One would assume by virtue of being influential they would have a high pageview count: this is the Internet, people are free to flock to the source of quality information and not have it relayed to them (via say, aggregate bloggers).

Just for comparison, I get about 7,000 pageviews a day over all of my sites combined, and no-one knows who I am. I also make a pittance from Google AdSense.

Discuss.

in reply to 400 pageviews/day makes you "influential"?

Are solicitors nice? [Are solicitors nice?]

W3bbo — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:16:12 GMT

I ordered some things from eBay last week and this week and had them shipped to a Mailboxes Etc address I'm renting until I move into my new student-digs house in Birmingham (since it's the holiday I'm currently residing in my parents' home in Cheshire).

Only problem is I gave the sellers (3 of them) the wrong address. I made a mistake when writing down the address MBE gave me and put "23" rather than "27". As it so happens building 23 on that street is a Solicitor's Chambers.

To make matters worse: they're all international deliveries being sent by USPS, so presumably Royal Mail will deliver them, and I'm going abroad for two weeks from next Monday until the 12th September.

My plan is to go down to Birmingham tomorrow and go to this solicitor's office, explain the situation, and see if they can assist me by just taking the parcels as they arrive down to the Mailboxes location 4 buildings down the road. But is that asking too much? What if they say no? Shipping for these items has cost me over $250USD already, I don't want to have to go through re-sending them all again.

Argh :)

Advice/suggestions?

I know Royal Mail have this "keepsafe" system where they withold mail for up to 2 months but it has a 5-day setup period, and the first delivery looks like it'll be made tomorrow. But since it was sent to an address I don't actually live at can Royal Mail do their keepsafe thing for it?

in reply to Are solicitors nice?

Hurrah, I can't use Messenger [Hurrah, I can't use Messenger]

W3bbo — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:10:20 GMT

So far I've been hapilly using WLM8.5 on XPx64 (installed by running the MSI file directly which doesn't run the arbitrary platform check the GUI installer performs).

However, today Microsoft decided to force XPx64 users to upgrade to Messenger 9, fair enough... except Messenger 9 refuses to install on XPx64. There is a workaround: run the Messenger 9 installer using Detours so it thinks its running on XPx86, except when it finally installs my contact list doesn't show up at all.

I've gone back to WLM8.5 and tried various hacks to make it ignore the upgrade request, but none of them work.

Nice one, Microsoft :)

in reply to Hurrah, I can't use Messenger

Who'se in London over the weekend? [Who'se in London over the weekend?]

W3bbo — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:52:37 GMT

If any niners are in London this weekend, you might see me and few friends of mine around Hyde Park on Saturday. Just saying :)

in reply to Who'se in London over the weekend?

Woo, I've found a bug in WinForms [Woo, I've found a bug in WinForms]

W3bbo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:57:20 GMT

Create a form with a combox box on it. In the combox's SelectedIndexChanged event handler change the RightToLeft property of the Form.

You'll get an AccessViolationException coming from the ComboBox's WndProc method.

If you wrap the call to set_RightToLeft with form.SuspendLayout / ResumeLayout then the problem stops happening.

No solution for the intense flickering you get though.

Can anyone repro?

in reply to Woo, I've found a bug in WinForms

Is the NT kernel correct? [Is the NT kernel correct?]

W3bbo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:41:58 GMT

Slashdot is running a story on the se4L microkernel being verified as being formally correct (granted, this hinges on the Haskell program they wrote also being correct, and there not being any bugs in the spec) but it made me wonder if we'll ever see a correct NT kernel.

Will we?

in reply to Is the NT kernel correct?

ERROR_NO_TOKEN and SPI_SETICONS [ERROR_NO_TOKEN and SPI_SETICONS]

W3bbo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:17:54 GMT

I'm looking to use SystemParametersInfo with SPI_SETICONS to refresh the icon cache, except whenever I use it I get ERROR_NO_TOKEN aka "An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist". Clearly I need to grant my process the right token, but which one? MSDN's docs on SPI_SETICONS makes no reference to any tokens. My program is running as Administrator. This is on XPx86.

in reply to ERROR_NO_TOKEN and SPI_SETICONS

People are nice [People are nice]

W3bbo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:34:23 GMT

A while ago (on another forum) I asked for help with translating some software I wrote (GPLv2) I've since compiled it together, voila:

(Click for biggie)

...turns out people aren't so bad after all.

Heres to those from C9 who contributed translations too, you know who you are :) (and as you can see, you missed a few spots ;) )

in reply to People are nice

Ah, so that's why it's slow, laggy, and ill-fitting [Ah, so that's why it's slow, laggy, and ill-fitting]

W3bbo — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:58:03 GMT

Users of VS2008SP1 much like myself may have dealt with the XML Schema Explorer window when working with XSD files.

I find it to be slow, laggy, and awkward at times. It also doesn't fit in visually with the rest of VS. I've "felt" there was something wrong with it (and more to the point, why isn't it using the Document Outline window instead?)

Well, today I learned it's build using WPF.

So if VS2010 is going to be like the XML Schema Explorer window, but on a larger scale, may Steve Jobs (or insert other deity here) help us. Who remembers the VB6/VC6 IDEs where there was zero UI lag?

in reply to Ah, so that's why it's slow, laggy, and ill-fitting

RenderRightToLeft [RenderRightToLeft]

W3bbo — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:44:55 GMT

.RenderRightToLeft is marked obsolete, we're told to use RightToLeft instead.

Except that .RenderRightToLeft was a nice boolean value and made things nice and simple, it's just a getter as well, not a mutator.

Whereas RightToLeft expects a tristate enum (RightToLeft, LeftToRight, and Inherit). If it's .Inherit then you lose the ability to quickly check the resultant value since you need to consult the parent control's RTL property, which may also be set to Inherit; and what if TopLevelControl is also set to Inherit?

in reply to RenderRightToLeft

Post yer workspace thread [Post yer workspace thread]

W3bbo — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:03:33 GMT

Yes, it's that time again.

However, this time the photograph was taken earlier this month for unrelated reasons.

Behold, the W3bbonator:

in reply to Post yer workspace thread

Nvm [Nvm]

W3bbo — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:03:02 GMT

EDIT: Nvm, wrong forum.

in reply to Nvm

CoInitializeEx / CoInitializeSecurity in .NET [CoInitializeEx / CoInitializeSecurity in .NET]

W3bbo — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:44:05 GMT

My program creates System Restore points by calling SRSetRestorePoint directly (previously, I used the WMI system restore API, which has problems of its own).

MSDN states that you need to initialize COM security before calling this. My application has the [STAThread] attribute on the entrypoint Main method, does this mean COM security is managed for me or do I need to call the Co* functions myself, and if so, how?

in reply to CoInitializeEx / CoInitializeSecurity in .NET

I've been violating an MS software license for 2 months [I've been violating an MS software license for 2 months]

W3bbo — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:27:01 GMT

We all know and love ILMerge, the static-linker for CLR assemblies; I love it so much, in fact the I decided to integrate it into my program directly so I can perform additive changes to assembly resources as a means of generating "personalised" executables.

The ILMerge EULA doesn't mention redistribution rights at all, but I shot an email off to Mike Barnett back in April; after waiting a few months for a reply and not hearing back I decided to go ahead with it anyway, since the license doesn't explicitly forbid redistribution. (But interestingly, the ILMerge page on the MSR website has the string "commercial use is permitted, redistribution is not. Read the license carefully for full details", except the license doesn't mention it, and I assumed that overrides whatever is written on the website).

So anyway, Mike finally emails me back a couple of days ago confirming that redistribution is indeed prohibited, but in an interesting twist of events: he'll be releasing the ILMerge source under Ms-PL (Microsoft's patent-free answer to the New BSD license) sometime after August of this year, in which case my software will no-longer violate the license.

So uhm, what should I do? My software references ILMerge.dll (renamed from ilmerge.exe) and is included when you download it. I could pull it but for what gain if it'll be legit in a few weeks' time?

in reply to I've been violating an MS software license for 2 months