you can put hardware on the internet at a lower cost if you skip the phone.

unless you just want to use a phone and do not care about the added cost.

4 hours ago, wlab wrote

yes like txt but i will move a slider on 1 phone for Forward, Reverse, Stop etc and send that cmd and tell the phone in different city which has a servo attached by bluetooth (separate issue).

Cmd for Forward could be acsii "forward" or just numeric 1 meaning forward.   5 could be play a sound as you suggest.

"register" one phone sees another phone, that sounds simple enough, simple solution is always preferred. Would you be able to point me to some code, video or tutorial using that method. 

in that case why use a phone on the remote end ?  get like a netduino board you can get one with a an etherhernet port and have it run the servo

then the phone sends data to the netduino board that operates the servos.

that removes some possible issues like the phone going to sleep, and it means you do not have to have two phones.  and the board will allow you to use all kinds of IO and parts and does not need to use Bluetooth to connect to them.

the board calls a wcf service to get commands

the phone calls the service to send commands.

the service acts as a gateway between them and handles the addressing.

no I do not have an example to show you, this can be done but you will need to look for any examples or figure it out.

look here at the coding for fun stuff to see a lot of things like this...

but the commands part.... what kind of commands ? for example if I am running a copy of the app will you send a command to have my phone play a sound ?

you might just need some way to allow phones to "register" so that I am allowing your phone to see my phone, then you send messages to my phone and can send messages to your phone

the messages can have a format that includes options to do stuff like play sounds.

the question is how the mapping of phones is done.

2 hours ago, blowdart wrote

*snip*

JSDL? I suggest that when I want to see people explode. One of the points of json / rest is they're not strongly type, so there's no need for a proxy. You have to remember it came out of javascript where there is no real typing. It's not so bad though, you should be marshalling it into your own domain objects after validation, and Newtonsoft's json.net

actually the library I am using for this uses json.net inside to do some of the work.

the problem is that in the current state of this there is no way to "know" for sure you have your code right for the service as they can send back different strings of json but they can call them all the same thing, so you hope they wrote a document that says which fragments of json are optional and which ones are required. also  the author may only give documentation using the language and tools they prefer. that means interop with another environment / platform / language can be more difficult than it needs to be.

sure I can see that json Vs. XML json will be smaller and that's ok.

but not everyone programs in js , some of us still use and like C# and a decent level of type's such.

heck even if you write a client in JS it might be good to have a tool that can read a file and generate some valid code to make sure your getting things right.

and there is productivity, I am asked to do one simple task using the web services but I have to spend hours finding the bits I need to make it work, if the tooling was right I would have done the task in say 1 or 2 hours in stead of 2 days due to all the exploring I had to do to find out how to make 2 calls work. then I found the project where the systems api had been wrapped up in a .net client and it made it super easy.

10 minutes ago, Hometoy wrote

@evildictaitor: Ok, my stupidity is starting to leak. Where can I learn the better way _now_, and try to plug my leaks?  Some starting point please.

are you talking about the sql injection stuff ? if so please start with telling us what language / platform / tools you use ?

Rest / json  web services , at least the one I just had to figure out.... AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

so they have like say a hundred calls that return chunks of json or ask for some but some times things in the json are not there and other times they are, and the name at the top can be the same.

and all of the examples are snippets of curl commands.

I found my self wondering if they ever had any idea of doing something a bit like a WSDL document to allow a client to build a proxy class to call the thing ?

some guy made a .Net wrapper with all the stuff but it looks like he had to spend a lot of time doing something one off that if they had a WSDL file most of the code could be generated like we do with ASMX or WCF services.

I have only had to deal with a couple of cases but to me it seems like REST / json is a step backwards to the dark ages ....

then you can attach them to Events or to code behind.

Storyboards are used in WPF and Silverlight to describe a set of transform steps of a visual on the screen from one state to another and use a timeline to control the speed and make sure that at runtime you get a smooth flow between states.

for example you could make a picture appear starting as a tiny square and zoom larger while spinning around until it stops at 100% size and is upright on the screen. you can time the process to take say 2 seconds.

if it's to slow the blend editor can allow you to adjust the timeline to run faster but still end up with the picture upright and at 100% size when it finishes.

13 hours ago, milindvk wrote

I am sure that I am passing the right path. I tried the same logic of accessing the the driver and sending an IOCTL from stand alone application (command line) and was able to open the device and issue an IOCTL. I am getting this problem when I move the logic to Windows service. And as per the discussion (link that I pasted in my previous thread) it appears that

"The PC/SC service takes exclusive ownership of the devices, so any attempt to call 'CreateFile' will always fail."

Is this statement true? Any other solution to this problem?

Thanks

 

possibly you are hitting a security issue ?

when you run a "stand alone" program you are running as the current user or if your running as system admin then as that privileged used.

Windows Services do not normally run as an "interactive user" and often are running as a limited rights user to keep from having the system exploited by rouge software that creates security holes.

what user does the service run as ?

also why do you need to talk to that driver during shutdown ?  why not use the smart card api ?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd627646(v=vs.85).aspx

34 minutes ago, Charles wrote

@davewill:

Yes, it was rude. I think mods should wait a bit longer, but then again when is too long? When is too short? Lots of subjectivity here.

C

example I asked about updates to opos, they said it was not a question and marked it as answered.

that is the stuff they do, which is why I do not go there very much at all.

PS: they used to have a forum for OPOS.net and closed it and told us to go to the area that I did post in. in that area I was told that asking if someone from Microsoft could update us on that status of opos for .net was not a question.  real quality there.

38 minutes ago, MasterPie wrote

*snip*

Do Operating Systems ever die? When you power a machine off, you don't SEE the OS, but for all we know, it could be having a party behind your monitor.

OMG, that is as bad as the bit they run in a local movie theater telling you to turn off the cell phones, it asks if phones dream when we turn them off.

46 minutes ago, DevGeek wrote

I guess I wanted to keep it that incredibly generic so that I didn't add my personal bias.  Maybe I overcorrected.

 

So GenericBusinessUsers have said "Hey we can't find anything out there that does what we want because we are special, please write us something".

 

So you look into the programming tool bag and pull out:

ASP.NET MVC 4?

     (Single Page Application with associated javascript libraries?)

     (Straight up MVC?)

Lightswitch (Silverlight or HTML)?

WPF?

Silverlight?

SharePoint?

Other options I didn't think of off the top of my head.

 

I guess I'm really just trying to gauge what other developers working for GenericLargeCompanies are using in their apps these days.

well one route that is normal is that you make a request for IT to solve the problem and they start a formal process of gathering requirements and planning and possibly in 6 months you might have something.

another route in large corp. is that the users have some version of MS Access and the department gets someone to write an access front end that hooks up to the data and does what they need.

if they were asking me as a contractor I would ask a bunch of questions before I went with any set tech path.

1 hour ago, exoteric wrote

Sounds very annoying. But then again, Stackoverflow has been invented.

thing is that the way the MSDN folks mark stuff it makes going there have little value and if we get better results from SO and MSDN gets to many bad answers then why even have it there ?

just tell MS they can stop running it and save money of the answers and mods are junk.

there is a thread on another MS forum where the same kind of thing has been going on.  so it's not just MSDN, hate to say it but another sign of the problems inside Microsoft.

1 hour ago, MasterPie wrote

*snip*

But it's not really just a simple style change - it's an entirely new platform. I know this has been said many times already, but it really is similar to a shift from the console to a GUI based platform, where the Start menu + desktop is just one interpretation. In Windows 95, that UI was dominant and you had to go through obscure (to the end user) methods to stay in a console environment. Now, those obscure methods mean installing classic shell and modifying registry settings. But, I suppose the major difference is that elements of the console experience can still be accessed within the start/desktop environment. Maybe it's only logical that Windows Blue bring back only the relevant bits of the Windows 7 desktop that don't duplicate functionality in the dominant Windows 8 interface, e.g. the start button?

For one thing the developers get paid to make stuff work. if the users want it then make it work.
if I tell my boss that I am not going to provide what our customers want cause it's hard I will be looking for a new job.
 As for "- it's an entirely new platform." they called it "Windows 8" and the core api's from the prior versions of Windows are still there.  so sorry but I do not buy that line. desktop apps that work on 7 work on 8 so how different is it ?

sure some folks are totally happy with the metro / start UI ok they can have it that's ok.

some folks do not want it and for them it does not matter how many other folks like the new ui they do not and they want the "old style"

Now back with Windows 95 / 98 some folks had the plus pack and the themes, some of them were ugly as heck and some were way to much but the user had the option.

the user could have the windows UI look the way they wanted it to look.

but now in 2013 we seem to have want back in time and said:  no you must have only a small set of approved built in selections and nothing else!

so why can't both sides just be ok that there is more than one style of using windows and that users should have the option to pick the one they want?

if this was an issue with security or having the OS crashing due to bad code then that would be different.  but just giving the consumer who is paying for the product the option to select the style of the desktop and the start menu / start screen seems like something we should have never even had to argue about or get to where we are.

let the users vote by selecting the way they want to use windows, time will tell us which one is most used and what the numbers are.

sure there are many points that we can debate but at the end of the day it's still time for them to move on.

if they want to use xp and feel that it's ok for them then why does Microsoft need to do anything for them ? if they have a problem with xp then it's time to upgrade.

that is IMHO the only idea that really works.

MS has done a good job with windows 7, most companies have upgraded or are in the process of doing so.

15 minutes ago, kettch wrote

@figuerres: Isn't he working on TypeScript, or did he light that fire and move on to something new?

after my post I recalled that there was that but it was last year so it's been at least 5 or 6 months since anything has been posted that I know of.

I have also been wondering what happened to some other stuff like using C# to write an OS and user mode drivers in .net 

or has he just retired now ?

2 minutes ago, bondsbw wrote

@vesuvius: Well, I am criticizing them now.

Don't get me wrong, it was an effective short term strategy.  But doesn't this company realize that its bottom line, its survival, is so dependent on developers?

Microsoft isn't Apple.  It doesn't have an end-to-end ecosystem strategy, one in which it can provide both software and hardware to its entire focus audience.  But it doesn't need an ecosystem; it has done well with past partnerships.  Apple focuses on consumers, and that works because Microsoft exists to deal with all the business and technical work.

If Microsoft wants to be secretive, that is telling me that the company's focus is now mostly on the consumer side, to the point that it is willing to give up on its business and tech side.  So that raises the question:  if Microsoft is the new Apple, who is the new Microsoft?  And where does my company sign up?

yeah there are a lot of folks who are asking the same kinds of questions and there are plenty of folks who wonder if Microsoft will make the transition they seem to be trying to make and still be a major player in the software world.

in some form I am sure they will keep going but it's going to be very different.

I am now looking to see if the next wave of development I do will still be on windows at all.

I wonder if the bosses even see that the effects of the changes will not show up until businesses have already spent money on other systems, and by then Microsoft will be unable to get them back and the revenue will just be gone forever.  if a lot of companies that in the past were buying MS licenses for servers and desktops stop doing that and then development companies stop buying licenses to develop for them and the MSDN licenses stop being bought. that plus losing more sales of office --   surface and xbox will then have to carry more of the sales .... 

what happens then to the funding of dev-div and MSDN and MSR if the cash flow starts to change.

Yeah right now the numbers may look ok, but I think it takes 3-5 years for the long term effects to show up in the numbers.   we will all have to just see how it plays out.

<Canvas Background="#FFE217A3" Width="200" Height="100">
<Line Stroke="Black" X1="5" Y1="5" X2="100" Y2="5"/>
<Line Stroke="Blue" X1="5" Y1="5" X2="100" Y2="5" Canvas.Top="5" />
</Canvas>

so I suspect the brush has something to do with how it is working.

21 hours ago, yuhong wrote

@figuerres: It is to *target* XP, not to host on XP, as with VS2012.

I get that,  but what will a software development kit *designed for Windows 8* do for you on XP ?

seems like if the firefox developer community wants a "metro" UI version of firefox that runs on XP the way to do that is to build a UI library for XP that is used when running on xp /vista / windows 7.

then have an interface that has firefox run with that library on the old os and the windows 8 bits when it is running on windows 8.

hacking the windows 8 stuff to run on xp is something that may never be stable, could break if the sdk changes or of any undocumented stuff is used and there are I am sure other issues in that route.

the clean / portable / open way will be to not depend on the Microsoft sdk on the wrong versions of windows. yes it means some work. but the result should be far better and if done right should help keep the code portable to other OS's and platforms.

28 minutes ago, Charles wrote

@exoteric: He'll be showing us right here on C9, right pope? 

C

Hmm  ok just having watched IRON MAN 3

it's like the super hero and we find out the secret identity

or hal 9000 saying "I'm Sorry Dave but I can't do that"

5 hours ago, yuhong wrote

It is about the Win8 SDK which Firefox needs for Metro and it lacking XP support still.

so you want the sdk for windows 8 to install and do what on windows xp ?

it sounds like in a quick google that firefox metro is targeting windows 8 not windows xp.

are you trying to hack it into working on xp for some reason ?

you do know that the windows 8 sdk is made for windows 8 development and uses api stuff that is only in windows 8.   so even if you can install it most of it will not work.

4 hours ago, Ion Todirel wrote

*snip*he changed his name

Hmmm .... so perhaps the "pope" might have in a past life been ..... the other guy ?

19 minutes ago, Bass wrote

Standard Disclaimer: The opinions of people on Channel 9 do not remotely match the opinions of the larger technology industry.

I like that one,  as you are one of the "people on Channel 9" that means that your statement also includes you and your opinion is also null and void.

Nice!