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x86 vs x64 performance ?

cro — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:36:21 GMT

I'm running some test in C++ to be sure that our program run in x86 and x64. I was really surprise to notice a speed improvement in x64. I'm running the test on a Win7 x64 machine. Is the x64 is faster because it is running on a 64 OS ? Or is it something in the code that is better in x64 ? I'm using VS 2008.

[code language="cpp"]
#include <iostream>
#include <ctime>

using namespace std;

#define ROWS 2000
#define COLS 2000
#define LOOP 100

int main()
{
 float* m = new float[ROWS * COLS];
 time_t begin, end;
 time(&begin);

 for (int n = 0; n < LOOP; ++n)
 {
 for (size_t row = 0; row < ROWS; ++row)
 {
 for (size_t col = 0; col < COLS; ++col)
 {
 m[row * COLS + col] = 1.0f * (rand() % 1000);
 }
 }
 }
 time(&end); double elapse = difftime(end, begin);
 cout << "Done in " << elapse << " seconds" << endl;

 delete[] m;
} [/code]

That simple test took 12 seconds in x86 and only 8 seconds in x64. Repro or explanation anyone ?

Thanks.

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?

Date recovery !!!!!

tisesunshine — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:20:14 GMT

SOS!

I made a serious mistake that all my most important files are lost by accidental deletion,they are no longer be recovered by the Windows Operating system.

is there any way to recover my files?

I need help! Thanks a lot for any replies.

The new ipod nano 5th generation video to computer and DVD to ipod?

nulyjeyo — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:45:15 GMT

hey well i got my ipod nano 5th generation the one with the video camera.
i have heaps of videos that i have taken with it, but i dont no how to get those videos and put them in my computer. they wont show in my itunes wen i plug it in i dont get it, how do i get those videos and put them on my comp.

I also want to upload a home movie from a DVD to my PC and put it on my IPOD.

Can anyone please walk me through the steps. I have no clue what I am doing!

How to put itunes movie and music to non-apple portable player

panpangege — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:30:45 GMT

I bought some video and audio from itunes and would like to put them to my portable player,but I am failure, whether they have protection or format require?---- how can I convert or transfer those files? Thanks advance!

MSDN Downloads - Offline?

markcub — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:06:38 GMT

Hi guys.

I've been using MSDN downloads and the charming Microsoft Download App for many years now, and I'm pretty certain nothing is up with my end.

However, I cannot download anything today. It just times out. I've tried from two completely different geographical locations with different ISPs.

I can't find anything stating that the system is down... anyone know what is up, or seeing the same issue?

Thanks,
Mark.

Oracle and Access 2007

Jeff Wyant — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:34:53 GMT

I am working on a project that requires me to pull data from an Oracle database 11i into an access 2007 database. I've been able to configure the ODBC so that I can pull data into Access from tables and views, but I am not able to execute a stored procedure from Access and return data. Is there some trick to this? I've seen some examples of using VB code to do this, but I need this to work for people that are used to doing it through the menu. Got any ideas? Thanks.

IObservable, IObserver, [Observable]

Bent Rasmussen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:24:42 GMT

I wonder what the reasoning is for not including Observable (Reactive Extensions for .Net) as part of .Net 4.0? Clearly one would want these combinators to start using LINQ or one would most likely build them oneself. I was browsing for Rx as part of .Net 4.0 beta 2 and only found the interfaces. Parallel Extensions for .Net are already part of .Net. I suppose it is still being worked out what combinators to include and specifically how to interact with the parallel extensions, hmm...

A great example of this is the Reactive Framework (RX), which is a library of extension methods (not included as part of .NET 4) that implement the LINQ Standard Query Operators and other useful stream transformation functions for IObservable<T>.

On the other hand, building this stuff sounds fun. Think of implementing task preemption using both "continuous" (hard) and discrete limits.

Can I deploy reports from VS2008 onto SSRS 2005?

qwert231 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:25:54 GMT

We have an SSRS 2005 server currently running. We just got VS 2008. Is it possible to have VS 2008 target reports so they will work on 2005 servers?

This is Wierd! (Works in Query manager Fails in Code)

harlock123 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:03:48 GMT

Take this simple code snippit

[code language="csharp"] List<NJTrackingEntity> result = new List<NJTrackingEntity>(); try { SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(DBCON()); cn.Open(); string sql = "select A.SPECIALPOPULATION as 'CODE'," + "COALESCE(B.DISPDESC,(SELECT TOP 1 C.SITENAME from TblResidentialProvLoginsPgm C " + "LEFT OUTER JOIN xvt_userauthprograms D on " + "C.USERID = D.USERID AND D.PGMINDICATOR = A.SPECIALPOPULATION " + "WHERE C.USERID = D.USERID )," + "(SELECT TOP 1 C.ORG from TBLUSERLOGINS C " + "LEFT OUTER JOIN xvt_userauthprograms D on " + "C.USERID = D.USERID AND D.PGMINDICATOR = A.SPECIALPOPULATION " + "WHERE C.USERID = D.USERID )) as 'DESCRIPTION', " + "A.EFFECTIVEDATE,A.EXPDATE,A.MSPID " + "from dbo.tblMemberSpecialPopulation A " + "LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.LOOKUPTRACKINGELEMENTS B ON " + "A.SPECIALPOPULATION = B.Code " + "where MEMBERID = @P1 " + "ORDER BY EFFECTIVEDATE DESC,EXPDATE DESC"; SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(sql, cn); //cmd.Parameters.Add("@P1", System.Data.SqlDbType.Int,4,"MEMBERID").Value = Convert.ToInt32(mid); cmd.Parameters.Add("@P1", System.Data.SqlDbType.Int, 4, "MEMBERID").Value = mid; SqlDataReader r = cmd.ExecuteReader(); while (r.Read()) { NJTrackingEntity nj = new NJTrackingEntity(); nj.ID = r[4] + ""; nj.CODE = r[0] + ""; nj.DESCRIPTION = r[1] + ""; if (!r.IsDBNull(2)) nj.EFFECTIVE = r.GetDateTime(2).ToString("yyyy/MM/dd"); if (!r.IsDBNull(3)) nj.EXPIRATION = r.GetDateTime(3).ToString("yyyy/MM/dd"); result.Add(nj); } r.Close(); cmd.Dispose(); cn.Close(); cn.Dispose(); } catch (Exception ex) { NJTrackingEntity nj = new NJTrackingEntity(); nj.DESCRIPTION = ex.Message; result.Add(nj); } return result;[/code]

For some sets of memberIDs handed to this I get database timeout errors and for others it works just fine.

Pulling my hair out looking for database tuning bits and what not to make the timeouts go away. I though the only thing

I could do was to increase the timeout values on the command object. No matteer what I put there though the timeouts persisted

of course taking longer and longer to return to me the error result.

The Query however take out of code and plaaced into Query tools in SQLDev Studio executed quickly and without error.

Again this only occured with some MemberID values.

What I found was very surprising change the code to also include a simple addition to the where clause of 'and 1=1' make the issue

disappear.

So the execution engine for sql commands in .Net was creating some sort of issue that it should not have been doing?

Makes me wonder where else in the code this kind of crap might be happening....

Visual Studio 2008 Team and Windows 7

Rajiv Singh Suwal — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:02:23 GMT

Any bugs lately ?

"Any CPU" - Is it evil?

lensman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:14:45 GMT

Having recently upgraded to a 64 bit system, I encountered a problem of which I was ignorant before. The default setting of a Visual Studio project is "Any CPU". On a 64 bit system this means the program will automatically run as a 64 bit application. On a 32 bit system it will automatically run as a 32 bit application. This sounds ideal.

Problem #1: Data residing in "legacy" data sources such as Excel documents, Access data, or third party databases must run as 32 bit clients. The "Any CPU" setting causes the previously working code to stop working. Changing your application to 32 bit enables this code to work again.

Problem #2: Third party DLL's, which are 32 bit in nature, cannot be accessed from 64 bit clients. I have yet to see any workarounds for this that actually work. Apparently .NET DLL's will auto-adjust if compiled with "Any CPU" and called from a 32 bit or 64 bit host client.

Problem #3: The Click Once deployment process seems to be broken. Applications deployed in the field, which used "Any CPU" cannot be updated. Changing your program to "32 bit" (or 64 bit) and pressing "publish" warns you that your version differs than your previous publish. If you actually tell it to go ahead your clients will lose all linkage to your project and require manual uninstall/re-installs.

As a temporary workaround I have started coding all my deployed code, which requires 32 bit data access, as a 32 bit application. I am no longer using the "Any CPU" setting on applications. Legacy programs deployed already, with the "Any CPU" option, are left in the "Any CPU" setting knowing that it will break on 64 bit systems.

I would prefer to put all my legacy 32 bit code into a DLL however that quickly renders it useless as 64 bit clients appear to have no means of communicating with 32 bit code.

I have yet to come up with any solution to my deployment problems.

Does anyone have some advice on these or similar problem?

XSLT Multiple inner nodes

NMGod — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:41:11 GMT

im looking to format something along the lines of this

<a>

b

c

</a>

<a>

b

c

</a>

<a>

b

c

</a>

I use the For-each for the <a>'s but im not sure how to show multiples of

Creating a PDF Editor in C# using iTextSharp Library

Sameer Goyal — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:18:21 GMT

Hi,

We have a requirement of writing a PDF Editor program that will also enable users to add various annotations like Sticky Note, Text, Lines, Shapes, Free Hand graphics etc, together with allowing user to copy text from the PDF and pasting it anywhere, highlighting the text or other sections in the PDF.

I was going through the web trying to locate any library that can help us do that. I found iTextSharp library that is suggested to have sufficeint features to do all the above that I mentioned.

I am trying to find out someone who might have had the similar requirement and have experience of implementing the same using C#.

Any help will be appreciable.

Regards,

Sameer

Windows XP didn't want to shut down

RodAtWork — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:18:47 GMT

I've got a Windows XP Pro box at work. Recently, it just hasn't wanted to shut down, when I try to make it do a reboot or a shut down. Instead it just sits there.

Why's that?

WCF with ISA for URL redirection

Anupam Shrivastava — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:05:14 GMT

In our production farm, internet access is routed through ISA which intern routes the requests to a web application hosting a WCF service on IIS7.

The service is hosted with a host header (KMServices.hcl.in) and has a SSL certificate installed on that. it working fine using netTCP binding with windows Authentication over intranet.

This service is not working over internet – ISA is routing the requests coming for https://km.hcl.in/arKMedesServices/arKMarkServices.svc to http://KMServices.hcl.in/arKMarkServices.svc using wsHttpBinding and we have a listen URI configured properly in web.config of the service and a clientVia URL on the client web.config. I am even unable to add the reference using VS 2008 from Internet.

The error Message - The remote name could not be resolved: ‘KMServices.hcl.in’.

We need to get this working over internet using Windows Authentication only as the users will be accessing the client application from internet but will be logging in to the system with their domain credentials only.

Pls. help.

Getting a "rrtray.exe has stopped working" error

Doctor Who — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:04:15 GMT

One of my PCs, which is running Vista Ultimate, always comes up with an error that says, "rrtray.exe has stopped working". I believe it is something called the MSN Remote Recording is failing. I'm not sure what it is, and whatever it is, we haven't really used it, so how do I disable it so it no longer troubles us?

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.

Thread Pre-Emption

Bent Rasmussen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:12:01 GMT

What is the best practice for thread pre-emption/cancellation? I have the following scenario: (And do not yet use Parallel Extensions for .Net)

An external service call often takes a long time to complete (as little as 1 second and as high as 10+ seconds). This brings an unacceptable latency down to the UI layer (the UI is in a different application using a web service component written in .Net using COM interop.) Anyway, the base problem is a single call which has a variable latency and the code cannot be granularized further as the latency is external.

So clearly the call needs to take place asynchronously. This is now almost implemented. The problem then arises, what to do with cancellation. If the code was fine-grained it would be possible to make it regularly read a cancellation state variable. This is not the case - the call is "monolithic" - so such a variable cannot be used. Then looking at the Thread API there is a method called Abort(). Absent a brutal sounding method like Kill() (which would obviously also be evil), I expect this to be the suitable method for this scenario. Right or?

I use a "synchronization counter" to ensure the worker thread doesn't modify the environment if it accidentally completes post-cancellation.

DDOB (Distributed Denial of Budget Attack) to Cloud IDEA

Irakli_Lomidze — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:17:47 GMT

Denial of Budget Attack

Hello Sirs. I want to explain new types of the attacks. Kind of the attacks might be called DDOB (distributed denial of Budget Attack).

Our Primary aim is Azure Microsoft's new Initiate.

Briefly what is an Azure? Azure is an Advanced Hosting (Marketing name Cloud).

So Azure is a Hosting Plan that you bought for hosting you application.

1) You have flexible hosting environment clustering over many datacenter is the world. (Up time is more than 100%).

2) Access on your server not depended on single connection line. (Access from every were)

3) You have dynamically growing disk space

4) Possibility dynamically changes your Application performance by attaching more CPU power to your hosting plan.

5) By design have n-tier application

6) Already installed Microsoft Server Solutions.

All this are in quite good price. Even more:

1) You do not pay for unused space

2) For unused traffic

3) For CPU Idle time.

You pay only for those are you using. See: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/

Windows Azure: Compute = $0.12 / hour, Storage = $0.15 / GB stored / month, Storage Transactions = $0.01 / 10K, Bandwidth = $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB. …

All above sounds great, is it? You may think not to build own datacenter any more, and host all your applications in cloud.

Yes but Cloud is so great idea it might not be fully true.

Why?

In real live we have groups of the people have interest to destroy our business. They try finding new ways to damage our every day works. Now I will explain how it is possible attack Cloud Application.

Assume you host your Application in Cloud. You have 100 000 Customers, your estimate outcome per month assume is 1000$ (cloud service cost). As Attacker I may make hundred accounts and make fake requests to your Application.

From Application point this requests is garbage, and it will ignored by them or even more store it in Log file.

From Cloud this is real traffic and real CPU Calls all that cost real money.

By end of the month you will receive check from Azure Service much more than you expected 100 000 000$.

Company has no possibility to pay kid of money to Microsoft (Azure), and Company is bankrupt.

DDOB attack is done.

Think about it. If Microsoft will not change Payment terms and will keep payment calculation as it is. Kind attacks will be always successful.

Is it not detectable attack by Microsoft because is not a real DDOS attack, it attacks only single Application and keeps it online (With helping Cloud Power).

Thanks for Comments.

XAMLTOCODE

Ian Walker — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:17:26 GMT

Does anyone know of a utility to convert XAML into CSharp? (assuming this is possible?)

Windows 7 Backup error 0x80070005

Doctor Who — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:34:12 GMT

Windows 7 suggested that I setup a backup job, to backup to an external hard drive. I've got such a drive and thought that was a good idea, so I setup the default job that Windows 7 Backup suggested and let it run. It failed with a 0x80070005 error ("Access is denied"). I'm not sure why access would be denied, as I supplied it my own credentials and I'm an administrator.

So, what's the problem?

Windows 7 + Divx = Sync Issues

alexolivier — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:39:42 GMT

Hey,

Has anyone else found that the the Divx codec built into Windows 7 x64 RTM causes the audio and video to go out of sync....the video is about half a second behind.

Cheers,

Alex

Resizing a control when resizing the window

geekchick — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:19:47 GMT

hi,

I have a WPF application with a userinterface created in Expression Blend. I have various controls on the window along with a datagrid. When I resize the window I want the datagrid only to be resized along with it. How would I accomplish this?

Thanks,
geekChick

Weird threading problem?

Scott — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:29:49 GMT

I've got a WPF app that does some major multi-threading in its worker classes. My problem is that as soon as all of the worker threads complete, the app shuts down. No errors, no exceptions, just shuts down the app and throws me back into the IDE.

After confirming that the threading is indeed working as intended with some debug.print statements, I am at a loss as to why this is happening.

Any ideas on further debugging steps?

The basic structure is this:

interface bound to "runner" object

runner holds collection of "sample" objects and spawns a thread for each sample

each sample holds as collection of "combinations" and spawns a thread for each combination

I'm using events to track when threads finish and then when everything is finished, I update the interface. Immediately after this step, the application shuts down.