Entries for stevo_

pdc09 torrent [pdc09 torrent]

stevo_ — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:59:28 GMT

I noticed you have a page for the videos on the pdc site, and offer a curl + batch way of downloading them all.. seems a bit '90s', how possible is it for you guys to get a torrent setup instead? these are much more convenient, generally offer better download speeds, and make it easy to customize the download list with most torrent clients.

in reply to pdc09 torrent

IIS8? [IIS8?]

stevo_ — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:02:30 GMT

Probably completely uninteresting and most likely IIS7.5 server is identifying itself as IIS8, but I got this error message today and thought it was strange:

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Microsoft-IIS/8.0 Server at control.fasthosts.co.uk Port 443

in reply to IIS8?

Techoff > Extensia [Techoff > Extensia]

stevo_ — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:52:11 GMT

Could just be me, but this thread is screwed.. navigating to the 2nd page says I'm still on page 1, the first few posts look like page 2, but then is page 1 comments.

I'm guessing this is something with the freaky bizzare templating system used for posts, and perhaps that somebody has posted something thats causing it to fahreek out..

Or it could just be me.

in reply to Techoff > Extensia

I am suposed to be able to use the search index from network machines? [I am suposed to be able to use the search index from network machines?]

stevo_ — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:21:15 GMT

Running 7 and XP Pro on a network, got XP running windows search 4, indexing a folder thats accessible on the network..

When I try and add the network folder to a library I get told I can't because it isn't indexed..

This is right? sucks if so, managed to trick it by enabling sync on it (works after you remove sync as well but obviously slowly).

in reply to I am suposed to be able to use the search index from network machines?

New twist when pressing reply and not being signed in [New twist when pressing reply and not being signed in]

stevo_ — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:15:23 GMT

Previously this would cause a lot of loading, eventually two errors about a toolbar and after re-entering the thread would allow me to post.. however NOW.. and this may be random but I can replicate this fairly well:

Not signed in,
Read 'The New Channel 9 Editor' in the coffee house,
Goto page two,
Scroll down to tommys post about it working in opera,
Hit reply,
Get redirected to live sign in,
Click my account to sign in,
Redirected back to .. !!?? .. random thread on channel 9.. for example, I just tried this and ended up here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/TechOff/252604-Cant-Register-a-dll-in-Vista-Home-Premium-registers-fine-in-XP/?CommentID={CommentID}&wa=wsignin1.0

Er, yea- caching issue?

in reply to New twist when pressing reply and not being signed in

IIS and .NET [IIS and .NET]

stevo_ — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:36:40 GMT

Anyone ever looked into the core of how IIS and .NET work to accomplish 'ASP.NET'? I have, and all I can say is.. what has been seen- cannot be unseen..

But it got me wondering, what the performance would be like if you built a custom isapi extension, and request thread pool, and dispatched to a .net runtime slave pretty early on the request, and the core handling in .net was really basic, no authentication systems or anything involved (HttpApplication and HttpContext do so many things that are just not required).

And then built abstractions on top of this in .NET to get authentication and whatever.

I'd be really interested to know if anyone had done anything like this, essentially a full replacement to asp.net- where the goals are to be lightweight, .net, and the purest execution not based on file handlers, but an application object singleton (per app) to handle requests (from this you could abstract request agents to forefill requests, and on these you could build handler like systems).

Of course I don't think this would hit the masses, theres plenty of reasons why, one key aspect related to getting an isapi extension installed in shared environments.

This is purely out of interest, not for commercial reasons.

in reply to IIS and .NET

Where can I download the mix keynotes? [Where can I download the mix keynotes?]

stevo_ — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:44:07 GMT

Silverlight and streaming is all well and great but well it sucks on mix, it stutters like crazy - cant seem to find a download option, err help?

in reply to Where can I download the mix keynotes?

asp.net mvc (latest release) confirm odd behavior anybody? [asp.net mvc (latest release) confirm odd behavior anybody?]

stevo_ — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:53:00 GMT

I'd post this to the codeplex site for it but I cannot ever seem to sign in to the site.. basically I have two nested strongly typed master pages:

master a
- master b

a is strongly typed to class ViewA, and b is strongly typed to class ViewB, ViewB inherits from ViewA.

Basically I have this code in master b:

<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderID="MainContent" runat="server">
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder runat="server" ID="MainContent" />
    <%= this.Model.Cart %>
    <% Html.RenderPartial("CartSummary", this.Model.Cart); %>
</asp:Content>

You might wonder, whats the point in the third line, where I write out the Cart property.. well, this is the thing, if I remove it, the page errors in the designer (as well as when running), stating that the on the method RenderPartial, the property Cart does not exist on object Model..

I get the feeling this is something to do with the 'hackery' thats done to get strongly typed views without code behind files, just wondering if anybody has come across this.. just to note the master pages are typed by doing the following (for example):

<%@ Master Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewMasterPage<ViewB>" %>

Cheers guys, if anybody can replicate perhaps you could report it on the codeplex site.

Edit: just to clarify, when I remove the line, if I inspect the Model property, its type appears as 'object'.

in reply to asp.net mvc (latest release) confirm odd behavior anybody?

Firefox (3.0.6) css rendering bug [Firefox (3.0.6) css rendering bug]

stevo_ — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:42:03 GMT

Can anybody confirm this for me:

Given a page with a div, and the style:

div:after
{
content: "\"quote\"";
}

I'm getting the first quote character appearing in the same position as the 'q'.

in reply to Firefox (3.0.6) css rendering bug

Anybody played mirrors edge? [Anybody played mirrors edge?]

stevo_ — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:03:26 GMT

Just finished this today and I actually really enjoyed it.. there were some parts that were amazingly frustrating but completing them was sweet.. they did really well making the control of it usable, you can chain together some really cool moves like wall running jumping off towards some guy and cave his face in with a spinning kick..

You could should try the demo (360 and PS3 so far I think) - theres a PC version coming out in a couple of weeks which aparently has some additional physx enhanced content (if you have a modern nvidia card or a dedicated physx card (yea right!)) so I assume they'll be a PC demo out soon, although I think you really need a console controller to get the feel for it.

(theres also a second motive to creating this topic, can you guess!)

in reply to Anybody played mirrors edge?

left 4 dead [left 4 dead]

stevo_ — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:15:40 GMT

so who's playing this.. if not

WHY NOT?!

this game is such a laugh, just struggling to find non-laggy servers at the moment, even considering getting it for the 360 as well.

in reply to left 4 dead

Any xaml heads here? [Any xaml heads here?]

stevo_ — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:13:23 GMT

Given the poco class:

public class TestClass
{
public int SomeInt { get; set; }
}

and the xaml:

<TestClass xmlns="ref to clr namespace where TestClass is">
<TestClass.SomeInt>20<TestClass.SomeInt>
</TestClass>

I get an exception:

Unknown build error, 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object.'

If I use the xaml:

<TestClass xmlns="ref to clr namespace where TestClass is" SomeInt="20" />

All is good..

I wondered at first if this was some sort of conversion issue, but as far as I can tell - xaml should be doing primative type conversions itself.. whats even weirder is - this is currently compiled xaml to baml.. so I actually have the x xaml namespace, a class attribute and code behind.. but if I change it to loose xaml, I don't see any errors..

Anybody done anything with xaml outside of wf wpf?

It isn't a biggy, but I really aren't sure where to look given the error is basically "i'unno, something bad i guess?"

in reply to Any xaml heads here?

Avatars suck ass [Avatars suck ass]

stevo_ — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:56:35 GMT

STILL, or possibly even more so..

My avatar has always been broken on this site, recently now its gone from:

broken image, xbl gow icon

To:

broken image, xbl gow icon, generic c9 icon

I finally got fed up of waiting and uploaded an icon.. it worked but then 10 minutes later my icon was back to:

broken image, xbl gow icon, generic c9 icon

..key thing I've taken away from v4 is that people stopped complaining not because it got better or they learned to love it, but they just learned to accept it'll never be right..

The posting thing auto selecting a quote for example, people haven't learned to love it.. people have learned they have to click two things now when posting on channel 9..

.. thanks for all the pdc stuff though!

in reply to Avatars suck ass

Why is it .NET generics casting is still funky? [Why is it .NET generics casting is still funky?]

stevo_ — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:45:33 GMT

I mean, everyone knows this one - and most people probably know the reason, different runtime types for each generic variant.. but why is it the compiler isn't working out relation yet? the problem and expected solution was probably worked soon after 2.0 released..

For example, C# allows you to implicitely down cast:

Control ctrl = new Button();

But we still don't have implicit down casts when generics are involved (somewhat funky example):

List<Control> ctrls = new List<Button>();

With linq we get this baked in method for doing casts on enumerables, the Cast method.. is that it? we're expected to explicitely down cast and not only cast, but this isn't really downcasting, this is actually doing some work to cast each element..

I remember reading a pdf at ms regarding how changes should and could be made to c# to allow implicit and even language explicit casting with generics, way back some years ago.. anyone know why nothing has happened with this?

in reply to Why is it .NET generics casting is still funky?

360 discovered icon is unreliable [360 discovered icon is unreliable]

stevo_ — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:05:08 GMT

< My icon appears to be from my xbl account, obviously because its all linked to live.. but sometimes it works and other times it doesn't.. I've noticed other people have noticed this as well..

(figured I'd wait to see if you fixed it, but nada!)

in reply to 360 discovered icon is unreliable

NTFS filenames more capable than windows can handle? [NTFS filenames more capable than windows can handle?]

stevo_ — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:12:54 GMT

Just wondering because.. every so often our server (which serves windows and os x clients over smb) seems to get 'corrupted' files.. only their not corrupted because every single time, the problem is nearly always because a folder or file has been given a 'non-windows' name..

For example, we notice this most on folders.. we cannot move, delete or open any file in the folder - either the application opening the file just fails silently, or we get "item cannot be found" errors..

This generally means the containing folder has a weird name, if we try to rename the folder, at the end usually appears a space, ie:

"Some folder "

vs.

"Some folder"

However, it cannot be renamed from explorer or cmd prompt.. infact- the easiest way we've found to get around this problem, is to get a mac client to connect, and rename the folder for us..

So- how is it, NTFS has the ability to store a file/folder name, that windows itself cannot handle?

in reply to NTFS filenames more capable than windows can handle?

Wish Manchester good luck.. [Wish Manchester good luck..]

stevo_ — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:19:34 GMT

..because it might not be there in the morning..

..unbelievable.. :|

(* to any mancunians here :P)

in reply to Wish Manchester good luck..

VS08 Unit Testing Framework [VS08 Unit Testing Framework]

stevo_ — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:42:24 GMT

Arrr! Be it broken?

I was refactoring a lib today, and moved one of our abstract test classes into another assembly..

Instantly the tests on the derived test classes were half the size, none of the inherited tests were working.. after spending some time proving it wasn't something I'd done wrong.. I moved the abstract class back to an inherited test class's project, removed the reference to the abstract project, compiled and ran the tests.. to my surprise - it worked again..

Instantly I removed the class back and added back the reference again, rebuilt and ran the tests again, and it was still working.. great I said to myself, must have been one of those things..

Until I did some refactoring in the abstract test class, rebuilt and bam - all the inherited tests aren't running anymore.. as far as the test lists can see, the abstract class tests don't exist..

Is this a bug?

PS: No bottle throwing because I'm using Microsofts unit testing instead of say.. xunit, I know, I know!

in reply to VS08 Unit Testing Framework

MS SQL Books [MS SQL Books]

stevo_ — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:28:16 GMT

Just wondering if anyone could recommend me a ms sql book, 2000 and 2005 mainly but really I need to learn sql other than my current methods of trying something until it works (incl perf checking)..

My current question is almost certainly really simple, I have a normalized many to many relationship (three tables)..

A, B and C where B is the linking table..

Given an Id for A, I need a collection of rows from A where they share the same 'children' from C (note this result must contain a column stating how many children are in common, and the results cannot include the original (ie, I don't want information about how many children are in common with itself)).

Edit: this is a ms sql 2000 db.

My main question is the book though, cheers in advance guys.

in reply to MS SQL Books

Any tiger (or leopard) and Vista users here? [Any tiger (or leopard) and Vista users here?]

stevo_ — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:13:14 GMT

Not sure what it is but it just seems utterly impossible for tiger to use a network shared printer from Vista.. file shares are fine, login goes as expected.. but when doing print sharing.. tiger just comes back with:

"unable to connect to server with the provided password and user name"

It seems as if tiger doesn't unify its method of network authentication over its printer app and finder..

I've tried a ton of things, such as adjusting the network authentication level, disabling digital signing on Vista, and doing manual 'samba connection strings' on tiger (although I don't think these should work anyway)..

I've read about setting up LPD and being able to print via this..

I'm wondering if anyones got a Vista machine with a shared printer and also another machine running Tiger or Leopard and what your experiences are?

Btw this used to work in 2003 / XP, albeit probably with some of the changes above on the Windows machine to allow arguably poor network authentication support that is in OS X so far..

I'm assuming that Vista policy for authentication are perhaps more strict now..

in reply to Any tiger (or leopard) and Vista users here?

.NET Configuration classes and defaults.. [.NET Configuration classes and defaults..]

stevo_ — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:36:42 GMT

When creating a configuration class.. I override the method:

InitializeDefault

I use to initialize our default values of the configuration section.. given that the section is registered at some point within the web.config inheritance, I don't even need to actually create the section to get defaults..

The odd thing I get from this however, is that any classes that use the configuration class cannot rely on it being 'found'..

I could request the current configuration section and it would return null.. but all I have to do to get an instance.. is to register them in the configSections part of the web.config.. so that the web.config is aware..

While I can somewhat see the logic behind this, what is confusing is that I don't have a default configuration.. unless the configuration is at least registered (put in the configSections area).. I don't need to actually create the section to get a default config.. but I DO need to at least register it..

This really made me wonder about how I should contain a default configuration?

My configuration class is open to be read by multiple end classes, and I'm wondering if I should instead have a class inbetween these, which acts as the delegate for creating default configurations instead.. (by checking for a configuration and otherwise returning a 'default' instance otherwise)..

Am I missing something here about defaults with configuration classes?

To me, given the way configuration sections actually end up being used, it seems that having a configuration class with a default configuration is somewhat pointless.. as to get a default configuration, the app itself must be configured anyway.. (isn't the point of a default to be there without doing anything at all?)..

in reply to .NET Configuration classes and defaults..

Visual Studio 2008 [Visual Studio 2008]

stevo_ — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:24:04 GMT

So where is it?

It looks like they forgot the rest of the world (or at least the UK)?

I'm running beta 2 right now but I'd like to move to the RTM and ideally get work to BUY it..

I was waiting on the buying presuming they had RTM but not officially released yet, but when I visit the VS home I get told to download the beta 2..

in reply to Visual Studio 2008

ASP.NET, Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 and controls with generic collection properties.. [ASP.NET, Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 and controls with generic collection properties..]

stevo_ — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:28:19 GMT

When I moved on to using Orcas recently, I knew I shouldn't expect everything to be fine.. I've had a few random crashes, often when shutting it down..

But one interesting one I've noticed that I'd like to see if anyone can replicate..

Given a custom control (say inherited from WebControl), this control has a property that is a typed class, which is pretty much just a direct ancestor of Collection<T> with some minor additions..

The property on the control is marked as:

[PersistenceMode(PersistenceMode.InnerProperty)]

And the control itself has the attribute:

[ParseChildren(true)]

What's interesting with this control, in Visual Studio 2005, I'm used to it working fine, I get intellisense support when adding items to the collection, and given that I have the namespace registered on the page, I can add any children that have implemented the interface the generic collection is containing..

The markup might look something like this:

<my:control runat="server" id="control1">
<myproperty>
<my:ChildType andyes="attributes work" />
</myproperty>
</my:control>

In Visual Studio 2008 however, while the children are being processed and added to the collection, the intellisense support is gone..

I can write a gibberish child type in the collection property and I'll get warnings such as: unknown server tag or object reference errors regarding using a tag prefix that isn't registered..

But no intellisense at all..

Please don't tell me they broke this..

Can anyone replicate this?

Edit: Oops, big point I missed out here:

When I add a child that I know exists, I can view the page and it will work as expected, but I will get ERRORS (the kind of asp.net errors that aren't actually compilation errors, but their called errors for some reason dispite the fact they aren't (such as file not found for 'rest-like' urls)), the error highlights the control name (not the tag prefix) with a red underline.. and states:

"Element 'childType' is not a known element. This can occur if there is a compilation error in the Web site, or the web.config file is missing."

There's not compilation errors, in fact- a blank project in both vs08 and vs05 that look identical (both targeting .net 2.0), vs05 will be happy, but vs08 will complain..

in reply to ASP.NET, Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 and controls with generic collection properties..

Wow, extension methods + interfaces.. [Wow, extension methods + interfaces..]

stevo_ — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:00:38 GMT

Sorry!, just really taken the dive recently to devote myself to vs08..

I've had an implementation recently where it would be nice for every implementation of given interface to have a standard method attached to it..

Extension methods to the rescue!

(awaits people telling me im doing something wrong and need an abstract base class instead :P)..

(and yes I'm aware extension methods should be carefully considered!)..

in reply to Wow, extension methods + interfaces..

Everytime I bring myself to dable in 'dhtml/ajax' I get stung.. (mindless rant alert) [Everytime I bring myself to dable in 'dhtml/ajax' I get stung.. (mindless rant alert)]

stevo_ — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:12:52 GMT

..by internet explorer.. mostly..

Being under more and more pressure to include 'web 2.0' features into our web applications.. I've often gone down the routes of testing out client side scripting.. often I can enforce javascript as a requirement, and can rest happy in having only need to debug the 'minor' differences between the language implementations..

Each time however theres something that comes along and cripples the delusion that browsers are ready for web 2.0..

Take this one for example.. all I want to do is change the opacity of an element using javascript.. I understand that different browsers have their own implementations of reading opacity.. so I can cater for that..

After implementing this I notice some odd behavior in IE7.. any text elements effected by the opacity lose their cleartype rendering..

I do a little research and find out, it is true.. ie7 developers were utterly incapable of getting filters to work with cleartype..

I'm told this like I'm to expect thats fine, like... oh the filters are complicated layers that don't interact well with cleartype..

Funny that.. firefox manages to do cleartype (in vista) with opacity.. they don't use filters.. but they why should IE7 use filters for opacity.. given that it cannot be achieved.. why not route the filter: opacity via a new opacity system similar to how firefox does it?

Anyway! MS developers excuses aside, theres a 'fix'.. setting the background colour explicitly allows cleartype to work..

Reasonable happy with my simple bug fix, I trot on with the testing.. it then becomes clear to me that.. although the build time rendering via css can achieve this.. it cannot once the initial render is complete..

Meaning changing opacity via js will cause the bug to STILL occur..

Best thing they could do for IE8 would be to put the f*&ker down,. I also find it hard that their developers are incapable of creating a 'real' browser.. bollocks aside, if they had a new user agent string and a proper start.. seems like sabotage to me..

Cripple client side web development until WE want/need it..

Sigh, rant over.

in reply to Everytime I bring myself to dable in 'dhtml/ajax' I get stung.. (mindless rant alert)