Channel 9 - Discussions by tgraupmann

Coffeehouse - Vista Users: How has stability been?

tgraupmann — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:03:07 GMT

I finally figured out my Vista Ultimate 64-bit networking issues.

Apparently, the netgear app that manages network connections is bad. I disabled it and let Vista manage the network connections.

And now I can remote desktop from afar into my Vista desktop.

With the netgear software running, it was disabling the network connection.

Quite handy when I'm 29 miles away and cannot access the box.

So just as similar stories have cropped out that 20% of Vista issues were because of NVidia drivers, I'd say a big percentages of my issues were because of Netgear.

Tech Off - VS 2008 Start Options Bug

tgraupmann — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:36:09 GMT

I should add I'm using VS 2008 Team Suite Edition.

Tech Off - VS 2008 Start Options Bug

tgraupmann — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:45:32 GMT

RichardRudek wrote:

have you tried escaping the '>' (stream redirection) character ?

eg ^> or %>

Both escaping methods show up as args as:

"^>" "report.txt"

and

"%>" "report.txt"

I think there's a bug in VS 2008 that is treating arguments as parameters and not following the existing functionality of the previous version.

Tech Off - VS 2008 Start Options Bug

tgraupmann — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:49:01 GMT

In a VS C# 2008 project, I've found a problem with piping console output to a file.

For example, in the project settings, debug tab, start options, and command line arguments:

If I try to pipe to a file like this:

ExamineSTPErrorLogs > report.txt

which is something that worked in VS 2005, the "> report.txt" is showing as a parameter to the console application.

But the expected behavior is that this should be piped to a file.

If I would have used:

ExamineSTPErrorLogs ">" report.txt

I would expect ">" and "report" to be used as command line parameters.

Is there some kind of hack so this can be made to work correctly?

Otherwise I'll have to downgrade. Upmh!

Tech Off - i = 4, i++ + i should return 9, but returns 8

tgraupmann — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:07:55 GMT

Just use:

[code]

i += i + 1;

[/code]

Tech Off - Some people don't like TFS

tgraupmann — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:55:15 GMT

We've been using VS 2005 with TFS Explorer, which has been extremely buggy. We've recently upgraded to VS 2008, which TFS client is the best?

Tech Off - Some people don't like TFS

tgraupmann — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:20:33 GMT

Now I've had a few issues with TFS.

1) My TFS client cache gets corrupted often.

2) The GUI tools are buggy.

3) The TFS client is buggy.

4) I get an object reference not found dialog after a successful checkin.

5) Supposedly there's a service pack out there fixing various issues, but heck if I know where it is.

6) I haven't seen a TFS version update for a long time.

Apparently there's a guy out there that hates TFS so much that he registered a domain for it.
http://www.teamfrustrationserver.com/

Tech Off - Profilers

tgraupmann — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:10:13 GMT

I posted some discussion about profilers in the past:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=343327

Tech Off - No sound card but still had sound?

tgraupmann — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:47:37 GMT

Back in the Windows 3.1 days there was this driver floating around that could turn your PC speaker into a regular audio device. The sound quality wasn't great, but it was cool!

Coffeehouse - .NET 2.0 SP1 broke our app

tgraupmann — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 01:49:06 GMT

There are similar issues with SqlStatements in 2.0. While doing inserts .net is picky about quotes vs single quotes on insert statements.

Tech Off - Is it possible to compile a dtsx package on the command line?

tgraupmann — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:37:43 GMT

I may just end up using a fixed DLL version and the build number can go into the file version field.

Tech Off - Is it possible to compile a dtsx package on the command line?

tgraupmann — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:01:14 GMT

If you have worked with SSIS/DTS packages with MS SQL Server 2005 Standard and VS 2005, you may be familar with the XML based format.

The odd part about this format is the BinaryItem element. This contains the compiled version of the package.

If you have this file under source control, this makes merging a pain. I was hoping to remove the BinaryItem element and check it in that way. And as a build step, run a command line that compiles the package.

The trick is that this package doesn't compile until you open it in the GUI editor.

Also I want the build server to assign a version number and I don't want to have to use the GUI manually to compile the package.

So I'm looking for a command line compiler.

Any guru out there familar with this stuff?

Tech Off - FtpWebRequest

tgraupmann — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:06:32 GMT

odujosh wrote:

If your biggest complaint is naming I think microsoft is doing a good job. Once a class hits IL does it really matter what its named.

yeah... um... no. At least they didn't call it t-s-e-q-e-r-t-i-h-s naming is a big part of a language.

It's not really a request anyway. It wraps a bunch of ftp commands:
[code]open
user
password
binary
ascii
get /path/to/file
bye
[/code]

Tech Off - IP spoofing in VSTS team edition for Testers

tgraupmann — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 01:34:55 GMT

I haven't seen a way that you can do IP spoofing from a single machine.

Tech Off - IP spoofing in VSTS team edition for Testers

tgraupmann — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:40:21 GMT

In Visual Studio you could do all this using a UnitTest created by test case manager.

In your test case, issue a WebRequest.Create(...) call to your proxy web server and that should spoof the IP.

Tech Off - IP spoofing in VSTS team edition for Testers

tgraupmann — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:01:07 GMT

Another note, how hard is it to find a crook that would do something like this?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/22/xbox-360-returned-critical-components-not-included/

I don't know, they seem to be everywhere.

Tech Off - IP spoofing in VSTS team edition for Testers

tgraupmann — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 06:57:29 GMT

starborn wrote:

can anybody explain me as to how IP spoofing is handled in VSTS 2008 team edition for testers???

The process is actually quite simple.

I'll give you a few hints and maybe you can figure it out...

1) How many free CGI or Php web hosts are out there?
There are thousands of free hosting sites out on the web. Think of sites like Geocities. You can make a free web page with a few ads on it. Every single free web host gives you a way to commit IP spoofing fraud.

2) How easy is it to get an AOL dial-up evaluation?
The best part of AOL dialup CDs are being anonymous. You'll find each time you connect via dialup that you get a new IP. You'll find that each IP is recycled nationally across the USA making discounting anything you do with generating fraud queries, impressions, or clicks hard to detect.

3) Do you know how to solve for encoded url parameters in Php or CGI?
The idea of a web proxy is not new. Anytime you setup a router you've done it. So when you setup your free homepage, why not use it like a web proxy. Just build a php or cgi page that makes a web request from the server. Like any good programmer, you need to make your home page modular. So why not make the URL that your homepage fetches into a url parameter. Your home page solves for the URL parameter and browses any URL you want.

Combine all three and you have a way to make untracable ip spoofing fraud. You browse under the mask of AOL. You generate web requests from any part of the world you choose to setup your "homepage". And you make money. In the words of SouthPark... Step 1 (planning) Step 2 (...) Step 3 ($$$Profit$$$).

So where does the profit come from. Start from the easiest place, online advertising. You'll find clicking links can make 0.50 or more using Google Ad Sense.

I give you this information freely, because you are a tester. And you need to bring up new ideas and ways to prevent these kinds of fraud which are so easy to commit.

When you detect this kind of fraud, you have about a day to track it down. First you identify the bad ip address. Then you supena the ISP. You get their records and see the request originated from AOL. You supena AOL and find out that some unknown AOL caller used an eval CD to make the request. Checking phone records, you find the call originated from a public telephone, or library. Even still investigation could take longer.

Anyway, easy to do, hard to track down...

Tech Off - No POP3 in .Net

tgraupmann — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 21:30:07 GMT

I don't think there was POP3 support in .NET 1.1. There definitely is in .Net 2.0+

Tech Off - HOw to get back IPAddress from DDNS-Service Provider

tgraupmann — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:49:34 GMT

I usually go thru a site called http://www.dyndns.com/">http://www.dyndns.com that provides a free dynamic alias. You just have to update your IP once per month or your dynamic dns gets deleted.

Then you just configure your home router to do port forwarding to your favorite computer.

That way you can use apps like SSH, and Remote Desktop.

If you are building an app to work with the dynamic DNS, it doesn't work any different than regular DNS.

I think there's something in System.Net.DNS...

Coffeehouse - Vista Users: How has stability been?

tgraupmann — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:08:49 GMT

Update:

I have not experienced a BSOD in 16 days.

I'm using Vista Ultimate 64-bit. And it is nice.

My original issue was BIOS configurable ram timings and voltage.

How can an OS detect misconfigred options like this? (auto) settings are bad.

Coffeehouse - Police State - It's Coming?

tgraupmann — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:53:53 GMT

Remember the year before the 911 and the WTO riots in Seattle. Protestors broke windows of neaby retail stores, including the nearby McDonald's shown in the Seattle times.
http://www.photomediagroup.com/pmm/issues/Winter2000/wto.htm

A year later, two WTO buildings were knocked down.

I wonder if there is a correlation...

It seems like the terrorist side and the freedom side had similar goals thru varying means...

Has there been any WTO riots since 911?

George Orwell's book 1984 comes to mind here.

I don't think you are paranoid.

Some maryinotte is pulling our strings, but is it really so bad?

Coffeehouse - 1080p Movie Creation

tgraupmann — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:11:54 GMT

Minh wrote:

W3bbo wrote:

tgraupmann wrote:
I'm trying to create a 1080p movie, which should be 1440x1080 pixels.

"1080" just defines vertical resolution, assuming you mean 16:9 then it isn't 1440 pixels wide, but actually 1920x1080

Not always. MPEG2 gets to define their own pixel aspect ratio. It wouldn't surprise me WMV does the same. So, 16:9 could be 1440x1080.

The source video might be too skinny? Can't differentiate be background on my crappy work monitor. It looks all black to me.

1920x1080 is too fat.
1440x1080 is too skinny.

Coffeehouse - 1080p Movie Creation

tgraupmann — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:15:52 GMT

The Movie Maker settings show:

I'm exporting as "Windows Media HD 1080p (PAL)".

Movie settings:

File type: WMV
Display size: 1440 x 1080 pixels
Aspect ratio: 16:9

But yeah you are right, it should be 1920x1080.

Coffeehouse - 1080p Movie Creation

tgraupmann — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:55:56 GMT

I'm trying to create a 1080p movie, which should be 1440x1080 pixels. But for some reason, Microsoft Movie Maker adds a gray background, when I try to publish at the correct size.

The final video ends up looking like this:

It seems like I used the right dimensions. How do I get the background to look correct?

Tech Off - Remote Desktop and Vista Home Premium

tgraupmann — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:06:57 GMT

Actually I think it was my wife. I was at work remoting home. My wife was using Pandora on my computer while doing homework on hers. When I Remoted in, the music cut out. So she logged back in.

I tried 3 times and gave up. She won.

I forgot Vista is more like XP. Two people apparently can't be actively logged in at the same time.

When does Windows 2008 Server come out?