The Mystic Programmer

Back to Blogging with a wonderful news.

2010-10-20T15:41:00.002+05:30

It has been quite a while that i blogged anything. May be it was destined to be a special entry. So here i am. Dear friends, am getting married on 31st of Oct 2010.

It has been quite a wonderful journey so far for me and Sree. In fact, i realized just yesterday that it is already 6 months since our marriage got fixed. Life surely have taken a turn, but a very happy one indeed.

It's quite a coincidence that this very blog played a crucial role in our relation and here i am, talking about our marriage using the same medium.

Pray for us dears.

WSH object and Usage

2010-05-13T15:05:00.004+05:30

Following is a list of WSH objects and its typical usage. I found it extremely useful ( courtesy MSDN)

Object	What you can do with this object
WScript Object	· Set and retrieve command line arguments · Determine the name of the script file · Determine the host file name (wscript.exe or cscript.exe) · Determine the host version information · Create, connect to, and disconnect from COM objects · Sink events · Stop a script's execution programmatically · Output information to the default output device (for example, a dialog box or the command line)
WshArguments Object	Access the entire set of command-line arguments
WshNamed Object	Access the set of named command-line arguments
WshUnnamed Object	Access the set of unnamed command-line arguments
WshNetwork Object	· Connect to and disconnect from network shares and network printers · Map and unmap network shares · Access information about the currently logged-on user
WshController Object	Create a remote script process using the Controller method CreateScript()
WshRemote Object	· Remotely administer computer systems on a computer network · Programmatically manipulate other programs/scripts
WshRemoteError Object	Access the error information available when a remote script (a WshRemote object) terminates as a result of a script error
WshShell Object	· Run a program locally · Manipulate the contents of the registry · Create a shortcut · Access a system folder · Manipulate environment variables (such as WINDIR, PATH, or PROMPT)
WshShortcut Object	Programmatically create a shortcut
WshSpecialFolders Object	Access any of the Windows Special Folders
WshUrlShortcut Object	Programmatically create a shortcut to an Internet resource
WshEnvironment Object	Access any of the environment variables (such as WINDIR, PATH, or PROMPT)
WshScriptExec Object	Determine status and error information about a script run with Exec() Access the StdIn, StdOut, and

New Photo Blog

2010-03-25T14:41:00.002+05:30

I am moving my photography posts to my new photoblog at http://pixelviews.wordpress.com/.

The idea behind the PixelViews is to discuss more about photography and the story behind some of my photographs.

Please do leave your suggestions and comments.

Kochi in IPL Map

2010-03-22T11:44:00.002+05:30

"Chotta Mumbai" is finally on the IPL map, Kochi has emerged as one of the two new teams to join the IPL bandwagon. Mentored by Shashi Tharoor, a group of businessmen has put forward a franchise named "Rendezvous Sports World".

Team name ? well, we would need to wait another week for that,but for the time, let's enjoy this moment.

Tolerance for DateTime comparison

2010-03-18T12:08:00.002+05:30

By default, C# compares DateTime instances with a tolerance of 100 ns. Recently i ran into a situation where i needed to customize the tolerance level. C# doesnt provide any overloaded method operation to do so, but we could do ourself very easily.

if((dateTime1 - dateTime2).Duration() <>

{
}

This ensures a tolerance of 10 seconds.This can altered to do any tolerance level that we require.

GOD

2010-02-25T22:03:00.005+05:30

They say sometimes you see god...i just saw him notch up unbeaten 200

Converting atheists since 1989!

Save Electricity, Save Earth

2010-02-22T10:08:00.000+05:30

Asp.net Life Cycle : A pictorial representation

2010-02-17T09:07:00.005+05:30

Life Cycle of an ASP.Net Page is an interview question which probably every newbie gets in an interview. Sometimes people tend to forget minute details, but here is a pictorial representation of the same. As they say, picture says a 1000 words.

If you were concern about only the main events then there is another way to remember it, the rule of SILVER

S - Start

I - Initialize

L- Load

V - Validate

E - Event Handling

R - Render

Diwali in February

2010-02-13T17:59:00.000+05:30

Coming weekend seems to be time for celebration of the famous trio of Shiv Sena-MNS-Ram Sena. So called Moral police has two reasons to showcase their so called moral responsibilities as SRK Starrer MINK releases in the same weekend on which Valentine’s Day Falls. I guess all activist of the 3 groups would have been training hard to repeat what they did during Valentines day preceding year. This year they even got a bonus. MINK. Early Diwali for the trio I guess.

Pun apart , it is high time we put such anti-elements behind bars. The atrocities they did last year are still fresh in every youths mind and it is no wonder that the GenX smiled in unison when Rama Sena supreme’s face was blackened recently. Who are they to say which movie to watch and which not to? Is India still a democratic secular country? So much for just gaining Marathi Votes ? The greed for votes made them even question the Mumbaiker who is whole of world is proud of, the man who answer to the name Sachin Tendulkar. Just because he said he belongs to whole of India ?

I guess if we were to follow the paths of the trio, especially MNS and Shiv Sena , we should remove the lessons of humanity, secularism and democracy for from the text school books from young children, because when they grow up, that is not what they are going to experience around them.

Time to sign off for the day, but not before saluting the spirit of common-man Mumbaikar who came out to theatres despite Sena threats.

Express IT - A Series of Technical Seminars

2010-02-03T21:24:00.003+05:30

Cochin has always been hailed as the IT hub of Kerala for quite a long time. But sadly unlike the Technopark in Trivandrum, the Infopark has failed in conducting in IT related activities on a regular basis Of course there has been few events conducted by the KMUG , but having something on a regular basis was something that was still left desired of.

We, Tech Experts , a forum of like-minded developers and IT Specialists in Infopark are now driving an initiative to have a series of technical activities in the city, focusing primarily in Infopark companies. As a first step we are conducting technical seminars are two distinct topics , one based on Microsoft while other from the Free Software Foundation.

Shajean's Travelogues

2010-02-03T07:32:00.005+05:30

Planning a trip ? well, here is a reference you can rely heavily on. A well written travelogues by Shajean Jaleel. http://shajeanstravelogues.blogspot.com/

This guy has been our unofficial guide for past 3 years. As a person who spends almost every weekend travelling, there is hardly any heard/unheard places in and around Kerala where he hasn't been to. His obsession with wild life sanctuaries has prompted a saying in our friend's circle that he spend more time in forest than at his home.

Finally he has decided to pen down his experience and his first entry looks really good. Well done man, Keep writing.

Meet My New Friend : Nikon D3000

2010-01-25T12:35:00.002+05:30

Meet my new Pal...Nikon D3000. Yes, finally i have bid good bye to my Sony H7 and bought myself a Nikon D3000 ( with a 18-55mm Kit lens ).

Yes, the zoom is bit of handicap with a 18-55mm lens after being pampered by the ultra-zoom of Sony H7, but boy, i like that compramise on zoom. At this moment, am enjoying ( read learning ) my new tool.

Designer View Not Available in VS 2003

2010-01-20T14:12:00.000+05:30

There are times when Visual Studio 2003 fails to identity Windows Forms in your projects and displays it just as any normal CS files. This would literally rob you of chance of working on the Designer View of the Form.

Solution to this is quite simple, all you need to do is use the Visual Studio Editor to exclude the particular File ( along with its RESX files ) and include it back again. That's pretty much it and you have your Designer View back.

Prejudiced Mind

2010-01-19T18:28:00.003+05:30

It is quite interesting how human mind can see a single thing in two different ways. This is quite similar to seeing a cup with 50% content as Half Full or Half Empty. In nearly all cases, this is result of a prejudiced mindset.

Friends become enemies in blink of an eye. Reason: Prejudiced Mind. An action done with all sincerity is suspected before one could even understand the logic behind suspicion, Reason , Yet again Prejudiced mind.

We humans tend to be so narrow minded at times that even normal things start looking weird. We cannot blame what is happening around us for it. The reason is how we make our mind think. Why are we so opinionated? What is that prevents us from putting our self in other persons shoes and think like them at least once before we form an opinion?

I have seen many people who take pride in saying that once they form an opinion, they never change it. They say that they will stick to it even if the opinions that were formed were against their own family members. They call it their mental strength or determination. But my dears, as much as I respect your statements, why don’t you try to see the world through other person’s eyes before making an opinion.

I have heard people say that even if a person do nice things whole day and makes a small mistake in the last second of the day, then they would like to see that mistake more than the good things. For them, a mistake is crime, but dears, what about good things that person has done till then? If that person is ready to apologize for the mistake, doesn’t the person concern need to think about it again?

All this is due to the prejudiced mindset of human beings. They want to see the world according to their wish. It is more a Reel World for them than Real World, a world they had orchestrated in their mind when reality is far from it. Strange principles , I must say.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T00:03:00.000+05:30

Back to Blogging.

2009-12-25T19:52:00.001+05:30

It has been quite a while I blogged. I would be lying if I cite tight work schedule as reason for it. Truth is, I have been lazy:).

Looking back, it has been quite an eventful few months. From Onam celebrations in Kakanad to XStatic at the Kalathil Lake Resort, it has been a fun filled time. Of all the celebrations that we had over last few months, none would have given us more pride than the night at Ramada. Our company UVJ Technologies ( a Calpine Group enterprise ) was accredited with CMMi Level 3 and being part of SEPG group in the company, it is one moment that will be enriched in memory for a long time.

Of course the Calpine Party ( read XStatic 09 ) was probably the biggest we ever had, in magnitude and the programs we were able to put up. The Dwarf dance deserves a special mention for the novelty it bought in.

But probably, the highlight of this time period was something else. Some of the things that fell apart at the start of the year somehow managed to come together by end of the year and it brings so much happiness in one’s mind and soul. Anyways, all’s well that ends well.

Now with 2010 staring at you, It is again time for New Year resolutions (it quite another story that did I keep the one I took in 2009). So let me find a new one for myself, but a point I would definitely make is to blog regularly.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year Friends.

Redirecting Tracing or Debugging output.

2009-10-22T13:34:00.003+05:30

Attaching Visual Studio IDe to the application for viewing debugging information can turn out to be quite troubleesome, especially when dealing with large applications. In such cases, as developer, one would like to redirect the debugging information to a external file without having to attach the IDE.

Following code verify whether you are running an exe build using debug mode and then redirect the output to a external file.

#if (DEBUG)

TextWriterTraceListener tr2 = new TextWriterTraceListener (System.IO.File.CreateText ("DebuggerLog.txt"));

Debug.Listeners.Add(tr2);

#endif

The output can be redirected to Console using ConsoleTraceListner.

A movie to remember

2009-10-20T13:54:00.000+05:30

Some movies are meant to be forgotten, while others leave a lasting impression on you. But there are some movies, which remembered for reasons other than what you saw on screen. "Wake up Sid" turned out to be one in the last category, sadly.

The idea of late night movie at Sridhar in Cochin is something we have enjoyed doing for ages, but this particular night turned out to be different. As soon as i stepped out of theatre i realized i had 3 flat tyres !!! and as if icing on cake, a couple of scratches on the side of my car. Fortunately or unfortunately, i wasn't the only one who were cursing the night, 2 other cars experienced the same.

Probably this is one of the sign of Cochin turning out to be a "chotta mumbai". Finally, by the time i reached back home , it was 3PM in night. A movie ticket worth 45 turned out to be worth more than 2000 :(

PDM Works Vault deletion error

2009-09-23T17:26:00.002+05:30

I had uninstalled PDMWorks from my machine. Later, when i attempted to remove the vault from machine, it threw a "Conisio" dialog stating

1. "Could not delete view"

2. "Class not registered"

Fix was right there in registery. I removed following keys and that was it, i was all set .

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Applications

2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SolidWorks\Applications

Men in Blue and Number Uno Spot

2009-09-13T01:26:00.002+05:30

Indian cricket teams stay at as Number Uno ODI Team was short-lived. Within 24 hours and 19 mins, the Men in Blue lost the position, thanks to thier loss to Sri Lanka in the last league match of tri-series.

But Dhoni's devils needn't worry. Their form over past year has so tremendous that it will be only matter of time before they regain the number 1 spot again.

For the moment, we need to applaud thier acheivement, for no other Indian cricket team in history were able to do what these guys did. Kudos !!

BLUE : Droplets from Heaven

2009-09-13T01:21:00.002+05:30

Finally got myself a tripod today. This is my first shot with it. I loved the way it turned out to be. This is NOT a photoshop effect. The shot was taken at night, with my mobile torch acting as source of light. The slower shutter speed of 1/2 sec enabled the water droplets to act lines to water.

BLUE : Droplets from Heaven

Google Doodle Solved.

2009-09-08T23:37:00.000+05:30

Google’s “Unexplained Phenomenon” doodle which appeared on site on September 5th had caused quite a flutter in the web (though I was surprised why in the first place it was made such big news). The company has finally clarified its stand on the issue, putting in rest innumerous theories which were floated around within a short span of time.

The doodle was in honor of the Zero Wing, the Japanese video game of 1980's, which incidentally was celebrating its 20th anniversary

Straczynski on God and Religion

2009-09-08T08:39:00.002+05:30

If I take a lamp and shine it toward the wall, a bright spot will appear on the wall. The lamp is our search for truth ... for understanding. Too often, we assume that the light on the wall is God, but the light is not the goal of the search, it is the result of the search. The more intense the search, the brighter the light on the wall. The brighter the light on the wall, the greater the sense of revelation upon seeing it. Similarly, someone who does not search - who does not bring a lantern - sees nothing.

What we perceive as God is the by-product of our search for God. It may simply be an appreciation of the light ... pure and unblemished ... not understanding that it comes from us. Sometimes we stand in front of the light and assume that we are the center of the universe - God looks astonishingly like we do - or we turn to look at our shadow and assume that all is darkness. If we allow ourselves to get in the way, we defeat the purpose, which is to use the light of our search to illuminate the wall in all its beauty and in all its flaws; and in so doing, better understand the world around us

- Straczynski on God and Religion

Onam Time

2009-09-08T08:37:00.000+05:30

Onam..Time for love to bloom, for tender moments, and warm embraces

Thomankuth , a weekend break.

2009-08-16T22:09:00.007+05:30

When tight schedules in the office starts taking toll of you, it is time to take a break away from the laptops and deadlines. First thing that cross your mind is to break away from the fast moving life of city and spend time where even your cell phone doesn't have range.

That's exactly I did as I decided to go the wild Thomankuth near Idukki district in kerala. This beautiful virgin forest is known for it's seven step waterfalls.

We start at 7.30 in morning from Ernakullam and via Muvatupuzha and Thodupuzha reached the serene Thomankuth by 10.30.

The 2 hour car was fantastic, but much more was in store for us. The trekking in the green forest along the waterfalls was surely a memory to treasure.

Aaagh, i wish i had a tripod during this trip. The waterfalls were really mesmerizing, but my shaky hands did spoil the snaps whenever i tried a slower shutter speed.

UAC Compatible applications - Part 3 ( Getting Process List )

2009-07-30T16:25:00.000+05:30

So now we have got an idea of how to get our application work in Vista. There are few tips which could help us tackle minor issues which we might face in Vista.

One of such issues is when we have to get the list of all processes active in the system. What we usually do is call the System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses() method. This, however, get us into trouble when running from limited user in vista. The Limited User in vista doesn’t have privilege to fetch this list.

Of course, it is not end of the world and is definitely, there is one work-around for this as well.

You could query the WMI Classes to get the desired result.

ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope();
System.Management.ObjectQuery query = new ObjectQuery("select * from Win32_Service");
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);

foreach(ManagementBaseObject objService in searcher.Get())
{
Console.WriteLine(objService["Name"]);
}

Simple as it can get.

UAC Compatible applications - Part 2 ( Access Registry )

2009-07-22T21:17:00.005+05:30

Okay, so in the part of the posts about Vista, we looked at the ways we could use manifest files to disable Registry Virtualization and subsequently, disable to UAC prompts. So with that out of the way, the next obvious question if how we are going get our application write in the Registry and Program Files directories.

The way I look at this, there are two distinct approaches of accomplishing this.

Method A

You would need to set permission at the directory/key level for the User Group .

This would ensure that our application could still write in the registry despite running the application from the Limited User Privileges.

Similar setting can be applied to the installation directory enabling us to write to the particular folder.

Method B

The second method is how we redesign the architecture of the product by introducing a second layer of code which would help us write the code. We would implement a Windows Service which would do the registry/folder writing for us.

The basic idea behind this approach is the fact the Windows Service runs in the System account and henceforth enable us in writing in the restricted areas. The custom application would send request to the Windows Service which, in-turn does the restricted operation. The mode of communication can be any of the IPC, from Named Pipes to Mailslot or any other.

UAC Compatible applications - Part 1 ( Disable Virtualization )

2009-07-21T22:48:00.004+05:30

Vista with UAC enabled is quite a nightmare for developers , especially if you are making an existing application vista compatible.

One of the first problems we face is how UAC prompts for Administrative credentials whenever it is running an application that performs action that requires administrative privileges. As a developer, one of first steps we need to do is to disable this.

All you need to get rid of UAC prompts is the manifest files.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity version="1.3.0.110"
processorArchitecture="X86"
name="MyApplication"
type="win32" />
<description>MyProjectDescription</description>
<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2">
<security>
<requestedPrivileges>
<requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" />
</requestedPrivileges>
</security>
</trustInfo>
</assembly>

There is two ways you could assign a manifest file to an application.

Method 1:
You can use Mt.exe to embed the manifest right into the application. Following commands does the job for you.

Mt.exe –manifest TPWPWDbsetup.exe.manifest TPWPWDbsetup.exe

Method 2:
The second method is to keep the manifest file along the application. The manifest file should be named as "YourApplicationName.exe.manifest".
Vista would detect the manifest and use the same settings when launching your application.

Another advantage of using the manifest file is it ensures registry virtualization is turn-off. I would really recommend developers to keep the virtualization turn-off for two reasons
a) Microsoft does seems to have plan to do away with the virtualization in the future editions of OS.
b) With Virtualization turn off, your applications is bound to throw exceptions aiding you in the test phase itself. On other hand, if the virtualization was on, your registry entries are made in localized key without showing any error.

Following are some of the settings you could use in the manifest file.

Application Marking	Virtualize?
Unmarked	Yes
asInvoker	No
requireAdministrator	No
highestAvailable	No

Virtual Serial Port detection in .Net 1.1

2009-07-02T14:36:00.001+05:30

.Net 2.0 provides SerialPort class which helps you in detecting the available Serial Ports in the machine. However, this is one useful class which v1.1 developers find missing in their tool kit.

As far as 1.1 is concerned we can accomplish it using WMI Classes easily.

private static void GetAvailablePortListUsingWMI()

{

//Below is code pasted from WMICodeCreator

try

{

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_SerialPort");

foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())

{

Console.WriteLine("Port : {0}", queryObj["DeviceID"]);

}

catch (ManagementException e)

{

Console.WriteLine(e.Message);

}

But is this perfect ? At First glance it does give you that impression, but the moment you have your virtual ports running, you are going to run against the wall.

WMI Classes fails in detecting the Virtual Serial Ports.

Solution wasn't too hard to find. I opened up the reflector against the SerialPort Class supported by .Net 2.0 and checked what it was doing and emulated the same with 1.1 code. The SerialPort class use the registry in detecting the ports and it does support the virtual ports as well.

Following is sample of code which runs in background for the SerialPort class in .Net 2.0

private static void GetAvailablePortListUsingRegistry()

{

RegistryKey localMachine = null;

string[] valueNames=null;

RegistryKey key2 = null;

string[] strArray = null;

new RegistryPermission(RegistryPermissionAccess.Read, @"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM").Assert();

try

{

localMachine = Registry.LocalMachine;

key2 = localMachine.OpenSubKey(@"HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM", false);

if (key2 != null)

{

valueNames = key2.GetValueNames();

strArray = new string[valueNames.Length];

for (int i = 0; i <>

{
strArray[i] = (string) key2.GetValue(valueNames[i]);
Console.WriteLine("Port : {0} ",strArray[i]);
}
}
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Error {0}",ex);
}
finally
{
if (localMachine != null)
{
localMachine.Close();
}
if (key2 != null)
{
key2.Close();
}
CodeAccessPermission.RevertAssert();
}

Tips for buying Laptop

2009-06-07T15:52:00.003+05:30

From the time you decide to buy a laptop to the time you actually get it in hand, there are a thousand thoughts that cross your mind. Over the last few years, a whole new generation of Notebooks has hit the market. The technological advances made by these notebooks are so much that an average user finds it scary even to understand the techno jargon let alone make up his mind. So is there an ultimate formula for choosing the right laptop, definitely not. Question of which is the best laptop that’s suits you is something that only you can answer. Once you figure out what you need from your machine depending on your usage, the choice of laptop would automatically appear before you.

Then what I am doing here writing this article? Obviously I am not trying to provide any sort of guidance, rather these are some of the thoughts I personally have based on my experiences with the new age notebooks.

Most of the buyers I have seen give so much importance on brand. But which brand is better ? If I say Sony, there would be hundreds who would argue for Dell. It is one of those questions which will never have an agreeable answer. Each person would answer it depending on his/her experience.

So I would prefer to keep my answer deceptively simple: Choose a well known brand that you believe in. Probably only point you need to keep in mind choosing a brand is the post sale services. If you are a frequent traveler, it would be always advisable to stick to a global brand to be on the safer side. Of course it goes without saying that you need to keep an eye on your budget when going for higher brands.

With first hurdle of brand crossed, palpable focus should be on the features. I would personally prefer to give priority on features in following order.

1. Intel Vs AMD.

I am not huge fan of AMD Processors and would be any day, recommend the Intel based processors. This is true despite fact the AMD processors being much cheaper and consequently bring down the laptop cost when compared to its Intel rivals. The sole reason for my loyalty to Intel is due to the fact the Intel chips consume less power when compared to AMD leading to more battery life and less overheating issues.

2. RAM, L2 Cache, Bus Speed

Have a good eye on this before you choose your machine especially RAM. The higher this number is, the better it is for you. Similarly L2 Cache and Bus Speed also hold high priority as these parameters would largely affect your performance.

3. Graphic Chipset.

One common mistake that should be avoided is overlooking this important factor. Quite often consumers are happy with the Integrated Shared memory rather than having a dedicated Graphics card and end up having their CPU power eaten when running a movie.

I am not asking everyone to go for a high end graphics card. A average user could well settle for a entry level graphics card while a graphics developer for whom 3D Max and Maya forms bread and butter should definitely opt for a higher end graphics card NVedia or any other competitor.

4. HDD Capacity.

Keep your eyes closed on this one. No matter what the size of HDD is, you will always run short. Remember this rule and don’t even bother about whether to buy a 100Gigs or 200 Gigs laptop.

5. Operating System Support.

Another key feature you need to look at is the support for different operating system. Sometime, your desired OS will not be the default one accompanying the OS, in that case make sure the platform you desire to work is supported by the Laptop. Also ensure that the drivers are readily available.

6. Screen Size.

If you are a traveler, the common sense smaller the screen, the better you are with portability.Personally, I find 15” laptops quite a hindrance when I move around or even to use it while sitting in a comfortable sofa. If you are a developer or a person who uses laptop quite often better stick to 14” widescreens laptops, but in case you are a multimedia designer you could well be comfortable with the 15” or 17” machines.

7. Wireless , Bluetooth Capability.

In this fast moving world, you just can’t afford to too far away from the internet. Whether you are in a Hotel or Airport, you would prefer to be connected to the internet. Support for wireless connectivity becomes more important under such situations.

8. Extra USB , network ports.

Gone are the days you would be happy with 2 USB ports. More ports you have, more equipped you are. This holds true in case of network ports.

9. Data Security.

If you are a person for data security holds primary importance, you should opt for higher end models. This of course would come with higher price tags.

Despite all this, always remember the Golden Rule : Read review on the model before you buy it.

Installshield Error

2009-05-21T13:35:00.001+05:30

Post install shield 11, the IDE would not successfully launch when run by a non-administrator and would display following error.

"InstallShield has not been initialized. InstallShield must be run at least once by a user with Administrator or Power User privileges. "

A bit of registry tweaking could help in finding solution to this problem.

All you need to do is add a key "ProjectTemplatesUpToDate" ( dword ) with value 00000001 in the following location

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\InstallShield\11.0\Professional\Project Settings]

Now you will be all set.

An experiment with lights

2009-05-10T22:38:00.001+05:30

An experiment with lights

Fort Cochin

2009-05-10T18:13:00.001+05:30

Book.

2009-05-10T18:08:00.001+05:30

A Writer only begins a book , A Reader finishes it.

Clearing "saved" network passwords

2009-05-08T12:12:00.000+05:30

Quite often we "save" passwords for frequently used network resources and later end up asking ourself, how the hell are we going to erase it ?

Unlike email or any other services, there isn't any place to remove the cached files and remove the saved password. Or do we think so ? In fact, you can do it.

Execute the following statements and you have the list you want.
"rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr"

Software Craftsman Vs Industrial Programmer

2009-04-25T13:22:00.001+05:30

Who do you want in your team ? A Software Craftsman or a Industrial Programmer ? This is question that has provoked strong reactions on both sides.

Question 1 would be who is a Software Craftsman and who is a Industrial Programmer. Let us tackle that first.

Software Craftsman is some one who thinks that software development is not just about put some dear code together, but instead strives to believe and make other believe that it is a craft. He takes pride in his code and strives to bring best of each line of code. He is in love with the code, rather than his task on hand.

Industrial Programmer, on other hand, is someone who understand the nuances of his task. His aim is to build a software that the customer would love. They take pride in delivering value to the customer rather the best.

Neither is better than other; the IT industry needs both.

Where would I put my money on, whom who would I love to have in my team : a Craftsman or Industrial Programmer ? A tricky question.

Although I do admit that it is the later who the business units prefer as they keep mouth shut and focus on "getting things done" rather than "doing it the right way", I do have my affinity more to the Software Craftsman.

For me , a Industrial Programmer may be producing "more" business , but a craftsman would produce "valuable" business. This is because the output is a program that is more complete and optimized.

There are many traits that you could find in a Craftsman's work, particularly his irresistible desire to stick to the Kiss Principle. Keep it Simple Stupid, or the KISS principle is very special for a craftsman.

There is a famous line in "The best software designs look simple, but it takes a lot of hard work to design a simple architecture."

The power of simplicity cannot be underestimated at any field, let alone coding. One could actually feel a touch of genius every time you see most baffling problems being solved with most simplest solution. This happens only because they are so strong in their basics and understanding of the language, that it helps them get best out of each line they write.

As they say, A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away. The craftsman chips away their code until there is nothing to improve further.

He also understands the benefits of polygot programming and does make it a note to take the best out of each programming language. For instance, even when developing in .Net, he could go for doing bulk of coding in C# but could extract the advantages of functional programming using F#.

Now why would I would prefer a Craftsman ? Because I do believe when someone fell in love with his code, you can be ensured that each he line he writes would invaluable asset.

As the Great Albert Einstein said, "Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction "

Disable Right Click in DataGrid , Thanks Justin

2009-04-25T10:39:00.001+05:30

It is only few days earlier I had posted an entry about disabling right click in a TextBox. Now how we do the same in DataGrid ?

It doesn’t seem quite as easy as in case of TextBox. The idea in assigning ContextMenu to DataGrid backfires when you attempt to right click right inside a cell. Thanks to my friend Justin Jose, I do have the solution for it.

DataGridTextBoxColumn dgColumn = new DataGridTextBoxColumn();

dgColumn.TextBox.ContextMenu = contextMenu1;

dgColumn.MappingName = "ColumnName";

DataGridTableStyle dgTableStyle = new DataGridTableStyle();

dgTableStyle.GridColumnStyles.Add(dgColumn);

myDataGrid.TableStyles.Add(dgTableStyle)

Thanks Justin, this is cool

Software Craftsman's Ethics

2009-04-23T15:07:00.002+05:30

Here is the famous Software Craftsman's Ethics published by the group.

We Care
We consider it our responsibility
to gain the trust of the businesses we serve;
therefore, we
take our customer's problems as seriously as they do and
stake our reputation on the quality of the work we produce.

We Practice
We consider it our responsibility
to write code that is defect-free, proven, readable, understandable and malleable;
therefore, we
follow our chosen practices meticulously even under pressure and
practice our techniques regularly.

We Learn
We consider it our responsibility
to hone our craft in pursuit of mastery;
therefore, we
continuously explore new technologies and
read and study the work of other craftsmen.

We Share
We consider it our responsibility
to perpetuate the craft of Software;
therefore, we
enlist apprentices to learn it and
actively engage other craftsmen in dialogue and practice.

Disable Textbox Right Click Context Menu

2009-04-21T17:28:00.000+05:30

Earlier today I had a requirement to disable right click context menu inside a TextBox Control. Though the solution looked simple at hindsight, it did seem cheeky.

All you needed to do was to add a Context Menu to you Form and attach this as the Context Menu for your Text Box Control. And that is all you need to think about !!

What happens is when you are not specifying any Context menu explicitly, Windows default Context menu gets attached to your control. By overriding it with another empty menu control, you are denying the default one an appearance.

Simple as it can get.

Strategic Commercialized BREAK

2009-04-20T21:18:00.002+05:30

The Indian Premier League was , is and will be always going to be all about fast-paced cricked and lots of money. The franchises who had pooled in monstrous amount of money to get the best in world in their team, did make sure they get it back by various marketing methods.

But how could the organizers be left behind ? We saw that in the last season as well, but this time round, they took it to all new level.

The so called cleverly devised "strategic break" seems to have a sole intention - get the commercial in and fill in your purses. Lalit Modi's explanation about the breaks makes him looks absolutely idiot and he seems to think the general public would buy that.

For the sake all those who are not quite following IPL, let me just explain what it is all about. The strategy break is a 7 and half minute break, that happens at the end of 10 overs. Modi's explanation is this would allow teams to get their thoughts together and avoid 12th man running in every now and then carrying message from the dug out.

The organizers are licking their lips on the money that is going on roll out in form of TV Commercials, but what it has done is it has taken the momentum out of the game. 20 20 is all about massacre and innovative cricket, but all 5 matches I have seen so far in this edition of IPL, saw the breaks causing disaster for the batting side.

CSK was coasting at 100 in 10 overs when they break came in and next two balls on other side of break saw two settled batsman falling and along with it the momentum CSK had.

So Mr. Modi, your brain child IPL is definitely a treat to watch, but please don't kill the goose that lay golden eggs with ideas such this.

Reflections

2009-04-19T22:59:00.002+05:30

“Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” -Charles Dickens

Splash of life

2009-04-19T22:54:00.003+05:30

A splash of life

Paradise beyond borders.

2009-04-19T22:48:00.002+05:30

Across the borders, lies an unseen paradise. Why bind ourself in barricade of petty differences.

Being Infamous is NOT Famous.

2009-04-16T16:57:00.002+05:30

Earlier in the day I was severely criticized by friends for not casting my vote in general election, but my answer to them was simple, name a single a candidate who is worthy of being voted ?

My approach stood vindicated later in the day when a senior advocate of Indian judiciary thought of earning some fame for himself. The advocate, who answers to the name Sudhir Kumar Ojha, seems to have forgot that "Being Infamous is NOT Famous". Wonder when people would understand this simple rule of universe.

Advocate has filed "criminal case" against M S Dhoni and Harbhajan for not attending the award function. The cricketers are charged under IPC 499 ( defamation ), 503 ( criminal intimidation ) and 504 ( intentional insult with intend to provoke breach of the peace).

I agree this is one of the highest award for any indian sportsman and respect the sanctity of the award, but dude, you got to respect the cricketers who get to spend only 2-3 days with their families in months. And for that if you are going to file criminal charges, Mr.Sudhir Kumar, you are making a mockery of Indian Judiciary.

My Message for Sudhir Kumar would be simple , MSD and Bhajji has done far more for the nation than you could do with all your service. If you really are hungry for fame, better try out some other profession mate.

Radio Button Binding in Flex

2009-04-15T12:03:00.000+05:30

How do we bind a radio button group to an XML ? Not all that straightforward in Flex. But not that difficult either.

What you need to do is to make use of the Repeater Control. Check out the following code.

private var treeData:XML =
<QMS>
<Question Label="This is Question 1">
<Option Label="This is option one"/>
<Option Label="This is option one 2"/>
<Option Label="This is option one 3"/>
<Option Label="This is option one 4"/>
</Question>
</QMS>;

<mx:VBox>
<mx:Repeater dataProvider="{treeData.Question.Option}" id="repeater1">
<mx:RadioButton label="{repeater1.currentItem.@Label}" width="201" groupName="radioBtnGroup"/>
</mx:Repeater>
</mx:VBox>

That's all you need. :)

AS3 & Flex : Querying the PHP Server

2009-04-06T14:06:00.002+05:30

I had to foray into the work Flex over the last week. Quite a newbie into this part of programming world, it was an interesting change to say the least.

As always, my blog entries are reflection of what I found interesting and thought would be useful to me later on for reference.

So here is how we query a external datasource like PHP Server for a query in Flex.

First and most important control you need to declare for the purpose is the HTTPService control.

<mx:httpservice id="serv" url="../Server/Login.PHP" method="POST" result="resultHandler(event)">

</mx:httpservice>

If you notice, we have given the URL of PHP page to which we would be posting our queries.Also mentioned is a "resultHandler" method which would be handling the events succeeding arrival of reply from the Server.

So how do you make the query in first place ? As you would have guessed, we would be making use of the HTTPService.

var params:Object = {};

params["ACTION"]="LOGIN";

params["PARAM_USERNAME"]="anu";

params["PARAM_PASSWORD"]="anu1";

serv.send(params);

In the above code, I have send the request to server using the serv.Send() method. I am also attaching the Parameters that I need through the method.

Now with that done, the query to PHP server is send out. The PHP page would process the query and send us back the result. In my case the result would be in a XML Format.

As mentioned earlier, the resultHandler method would be fired once the application receives result from the PHP Server.

private function resultHandler(event:ResultEvent):void

{

}

The event parameter in the method would contain the required result you have been waiting for.

Now that doesn’t look too different from coding in C#. Doesn’t it ?

Elections: Is there anyone worthy to be Voted for ?

2009-03-28T22:08:00.005+05:30

"Vote for XYZ" posters seems covered every inch of walls as I drive down toward my office. Yes, the election in worlds biggest democracy is fast approaching and no political party is leaving any stone unturned to promote their candidate.

I am 25 years of age but I don’t regret when I say I haven't voted in my country's election yet. The reason is simple, I just don’t believe in the so called leaders of the state.

If you look at the Indian Cricket Team, a captain like MS Dhoni is someone we adore because he leads by example. He is someone the team believes in and he is made the entire indian fans believe in him. But that’s not the scenario in Indian Politics. It is pretty to sad to say this, but there is not a single political party or individual who makes you feel that here is a person who you can trust.

Even though politics is something I hate talking about,A recent event in the Indian politics has made me write this..I had written in a blog entry earlier about the insensitiveness of a Delhi CM following death of a lady journalist and politicians supported "Moral Police Goons" taking law into their hands.

Just as when I thought politicians would try to keep their image clean during Elections to woe hearts of voters, came the thunderbolt named Varun Ghandhi.

This guy seems to have either few nuts loose or seems to born & bought up in Taliban. It was pathetic to hear this guy thrashing the secular image of india by swearing to send Muslims to Pakistan or cut their heads off.

India has been a state that has a diverse collection of people speaking different languages, following different religions and principles living a peaceful life. Kids has been taught from school days about the secularism in India. Now here comes a young politicians who is breathing fire on Muslims and spreading communal hatred.

And what’s more ?? Day he is arrested , his mom Maneka Ghandhi comes out with a statement that a Muslim Police officer had ordered firing on the mob that were trying to create a riot following Varuns arrest.

I have always respected Maneka Ghandhi for her contribution towards the wildlife and animal protection activities she has been involved. Probably that respect would no longer exist following her statement today which could well ignite a major communal riot in the country.

At first I thought Mrs Ghandhi had spend so much time with animals that she bought her son up in same lines, but now it seems she herself too had picked up a trait or two from them.

Probably Varun is following his dad's footprints.Who can forget Sanjay Ghandhi's role in imposing emergency in 1975 and his misuse of power held by mother Indira.Following wrong footsteps is not a new in Indian politics, after all,not much time has passed after Raj Thackeray tried to emulate his uncle in Maharastra.

Man, how can anyone wish such people to lead the nation ? Worst part of story is the man who is said to be the lead runner for the post of Prime Minister is the same person who was leading the charge in a rally which lead to biggest bloodshed India has ever seen. The riots following the Babri Masjid demolitions and unholy alliance of Advani & rioters is something which would have many groaning in disgust if he becomes the Indian PM.

Probably the last individual to have donned a political cap and yet won respect of free-thinkers (ones who are not attached to any political party) is APJ Abdul Kalam. He was one person who could be looked upto and one who could be a hero or role model.

Get List of Event Handlers.

2009-03-27T15:08:00.002+05:30

Quite often we would need to get list of Event Handlers of a particular event from outside the Class that has actually implemented it.

Here is a method which allows you to Check if Event Hendlers are added and if so, gives you the list of method name of those handlers.

private static ArrayList GetListOfEventHanlders()
{
ArrayList delgList;
FieldInfo fi = objClassInstance.GetType().GetField("MyEvent",BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);

object handler = fi.GetValue(objClassInstance);
if(handler!=null)
{
delgList = new ArrayList();
MulticastDelegate originalDelegate = handler as System.MulticastDelegate;
Delegate[] originalHandlers = originalDelegate.GetInvocationList();
foreach(Delegate item in originalHandlers)
{
delgList.Add(item.Method.Name);
}
}
else
{
return null;
}
return delgList;
}

For more details do check out this excellent article by Stephen Horsfield at http://blogs.interakting.co.uk/steve/archive/2008/05/19/NET--Hacking-events-and-manipulating-delegates.aspx

Cherishing Memories

2009-03-19T00:23:00.000+05:30

Why did you leave me?

2009-03-18T08:23:00.004+05:30

[Dedicated to a very dear friend]

Words would flatter and fumble, if I were to describe what you meant to me

For we were best of friends, or was it just me

It wasn’t long ago when we shared joys and tears

Though, it feels ages now, for the scars and distance that remains

O friend, why did you go away?

You were the sunshine who woke me from the darkness of solitude

Holding hands, you bought a wandering soul back to life

Like a true friend, you picked me up when I was down

And with affection of a sister, you turned my life around.

I never knew this world was so beautiful

Until your innocence became my eyes

Neither did I realize dark clouds spreading over the blue sky

Until you faded away far into oblivion

I still remember the day you said good bye

The moment when I felt lonely in the crowd

By now tears have dried and soul empty,

As if engulfed by a numbing fog

Pathetic smile hid pain in my heart,

As dagger of loneliness penetrate me inside

And utter silence of vacuum filled my ears and world

O friend, why did you leave me? Questions that will haunt me forever

O sister, did I ever hurt you? Answers I seek in your eyes

I said sorry, albeit I didn’t know what I did wrong

For you were the blessings, that giving meaning to life that had none

But O dear, if only you could hear me once

Will you tell me reason why you left me?

Lazy Evaluation : A Future CLR Need ?

2009-03-14T18:07:00.000+05:30

Let's us first have a look at the code below.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
GetConstant(GetInfinity());
}

static int GetConstant(int x)
{

return 0;

}

static int GetInfinity()
{

return GetInfinity() + 1;

}

That looks pretty straightforward code, but if you look closely, we would realize this would end up in a StackOverflowException owing to the infinite recursive GetInfinity Method. If you look furthur closely, do we really need a call to GetInfinity in first place, as GetConstant Method would return a value 0, least bothering the value returned by GetInfinity.

This is where my thought process starts. Cann't the compiler make the decission of whether to make a call to GetInfinity ?

At the end of the day, there are 2 different evaluation orders that could be follows.

a) GetConstant(GetInifinity()) => GetConstant(GetInifinity()+1) => GetConstant(GetInifinity() +1 +1 )....

b) GetConstant(GetInifinity()) =>0

If you notice, the first one never stops while the second one terminates after the first line.

This is something which functional programming languages can take pride in, the Lazy Evaluation.

Wikipedia defines Lazy Evaluation is the technique for delaying a computation until such time as the result of the computation known to be needed.

CLR engages in eager evaluation and hence get it self tangled in the infinite recursive loop in the code above.

I believe this is something Microsoft can bring in the future version of C#. Lazy evaluation can save us quite a bit of time.

Disable restart after Win update

2009-03-13T10:22:00.000+05:30

The bothersome "Updating your computer is almost complete. You must restart your computer for the updates to take effect. Do you want to restart your computer now?" is one message most Win XP users are irritated with.

Quite often we would be engrossed in some work and this irritating dialogs start prompting you every 10 Mins.

Here is a way to disable this prompt.

Start / Run / gpedit.msc / Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update / Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations

You can enforce the Group Policies by “gpupdate.exe /force” command without having to restart the system

Get All Physical Drives

2009-03-11T15:29:00.002+05:30

.Net 2005 provides us with the DriveInfo Class which enables us to get all logical drives in our system. We can use this class along with the property of DriveType to filter out the physical drives. But the problem with this approach is, suppose you were to connect an external USB Hard disk to your system, even that is detected as Physical Drive. Ideally you would want that to be detected as a Removable Drive.

We can accomplish this using WMI Classes. Check out the following function

private static StringCollection GetDrives()
{
StringCollection drives = new StringCollection();

foreach(ManagementObject drive in new ManagementObjectSearcher("select * from Win32_DiskDrive where InterfaceType!='USB'").Get())
{
foreach(ManagementObject partition in new ManagementObjectSearcher("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID='" + drive["DeviceID"] + "'} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition").Get())
{
foreach(ManagementObject disk in new ManagementObjectSearcher("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID='"+ partition["DeviceID"]+ "'} WHERE AssocClass = Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition").Get())
{
drives.Add(disk["Name"].ToString());
}
}
}
return drives;
}

Dynamic Interface Addition to existing Class using Reflection

2009-03-09T14:26:00.006+05:30

I recently went through an article by Eric McMullen. The power of reflection and dynamic code was so well depicted in the article.

We know how to create a dynamic code using reflection. But what i liked about this bit of article from Eric was how an already existing type was wrapped by a Interface dynamically at the runtime. Now, isn't that a useful feature to have ??

Not sure ?? Think in this manner. You have an interface with a method "Name". You also have a class "MyName" which DOES NOT implement the interface but has a virtual method "Name". It is obvious that you cannt create a referance of the interface for the class. But the point , is with Dynamic extension, we could just well do it.

How do we do it ? lets have a look at the code.

First and foremost thing you would want is have an assembly, in this case a dynamic one. So let us go ahead and degfine it first.

I have create a function which would take the target type and interface that needs to be implement as parameters.

public object GetNewImplementation(System.Type TargetType,System.Type InterfaceToImplement)
{
AssemblyName an = new AssemblyName();
an.Name = "ExtendedTypes";
assemblyBuilder = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(an, AssemblyBuilderAccess.RunAndSave);
moduleBuilder = assemblyBuilder.DefineDynamicModule("MainModule");
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += new ResolveEventHandler ( CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
Type t = Subclass (moduleBuilder, TargetType, InterfaceToImplement, "ClassTest1");
return (Activator.CreateInstance(t,true)) as object;
};

As you can see i am calling a SubClass method in later part of the method. This is the magic method which does the trick for us.

public Type Subclass(ModuleBuilder builder, Type target, Type interfaceToImplement, string newTypeName)
{
TypeAttributes attributes = TypeAttributes.Public;

TypeBuilder tb =builder.DefineType("ConsoleApplication1.DynamicClassTest1", attributes,target);
tb.AddInterfaceImplementation(interfaceToImplement);

Type subClass = tb.CreateType();
return subClass;
}

private Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
Assembly returnVal = null;
if(args.Name == this.assemblyBuilder.FullName)
{
returnVal = assemblyBuilder;
}
return returnVal;
}

Now is that cool ?

Passing Reference Variable using Pass-by-Value

2009-03-06T00:40:00.000+05:30

This is bit of going back to school.But at times, it's nice to revisit old classes once in a while.

Pass-By-Value and and Pass-By-Ref is something we learnt when we all started coding. But these are some very basics which we often tend to overlook. I recently was talking to a friend of mine who was passing a KeyPressEventArgs object to a Method by value. We for a longer part, overlooked the basics of programming and kept wondering why the value of property "Handled" was changed , despite the object being passed as "pass-by-value".

But that’s exactly how it should be. The value ought to be changed because we are passing a reference variable by value. That's the quintessential behavior. Lemme put it up in an example.

private void ArrayChange(int []G)
{
G[0]= 3434;
}

private void MyFunction()
{
int []arr = new int[]{3,4};
ArrayChange(arr);
Console.WriteLine(arr[0]);
}

The output of this would be 3434 and NOT 3. This is because even though the array is being passed as Value, being the reference variable, it is the reference to array that gets passed and not the entire array as such.

This is exactly what happened in my case. KeyPressEventArgs being a reference variable reacted in the same way it has been designed to.

Well, rather to look our self as stupid, optimistically I would prefer to believe that such goof-ups would occur when one started looking beyond the basics. This is also where the KISS ( Keep It Simple Stupid) principle comes along.

As programmer's we often think too many complicated solutions for a very simple problem. Probably, it is quite a good idea to go back to school and get our basics refreshed.That would encourage us to put the solutions really simple and follow the KISS principle.

Windows Form Resizing issue.

2009-03-04T14:49:00.000+05:30

I recently tried out bring out a form which had a size 2x2 without any border or title bar. The problem i faced was whatever i do, the form always took up a default size evidently larger than the one i set.

The solution was simple and straightforward. Just put up the MinimumSize and Maximumsize values for the border. By default, due to the draggging and resizing you had done, the values would be now 0,0. Change the value to say 1,1 and you have your way

Expression Blend 2.0 and Silverlight 2.0

2009-02-10T14:16:00.000+05:30

Expression Studio 2.0 which packages Expression Blend 2.0 would support only Silverlight 1.0 applications. This would happen even if your system is acquitted with Silverlight 2.0. Silverlight 2.0 is packaged along the 2.5 version of Expression Blend.

To develop Silverlight 2.0 application using Expression Blend 2.0 you would need to install "Microsoft Expression Blend™ 2 Service Pack 1". This would give you the option to develop Silverlight 2.0 from the 2.0 version of Expression Studio. Of course, you would need DotNet Framework 3.5 SP1 to go along with it.

Chadni Chawk to China : Movie Review

2009-02-04T22:40:00.001+05:30

Finally after such a long break I am writing a movie review. But really, I just couldn’t wait to start writing about this wonderful movie.

Never in my dreams did I think that such a hyped movie can turn out to be such horrifying disaster !!!! I think audience should sue Nikhil Advani and co for torturing us for such a long time. Being a action comedy, the only way you could laugh in this movie is by laughing at yourself to be in a theatre to watch a disaster.

By the time the movie reach its intermission, you would banging your head asking "Oh God, what have I done wrong to see this !!". I would suggest Indian Govt should give captured Terrorist Ajmal Kasab a copy of this movie to watch as a punishment for the cruelty in Mumbai.

Gals and guys, if you have an enemy, please do them the favor of buying tickets for this movie. They will never trouble you again.

But you get the RUDEST SHOCK in the last sequence of the movie, when the Sequel of the movie is announced. That's one movie i am surely NOT looking forward to see.

Access Denied for MSC files / Administrative Tools in Windows.

2009-01-31T11:41:00.001+05:30

Recently when I tried to start any of the Administrative Tools ( .msc files ) in my system ( Windows XP Home Edition ), I encountered a strange "Access Denied" error even though I was logged in as the administrator.

It seemed strange as Administrator, I should have access to these tools and such a response seemed odd.

The problem was the .msc file types had lost it's association. So once I ensured that msc files are opened using the Microsoft Management Console or mmc.exe, I could resolve the issue in no time.

Nant And WhiteSpaces.

2009-01-29T23:23:00.003+05:30

Whitespace in file paths can lead to a tricky problem while writing Nant Scripts. Quite we end up with "Path not found" errors only because whitespace in the folder/file names .

Work around under such circumstances is very simple, use the 8.3 format for that particular file/folder and your script is all set.

By the way, NantBuilder is quite a handy tool.

Politicians or Thrash cans !!

2009-01-29T22:11:00.003+05:30

Way to go India !! Today you have political party acting moral police and beating up youths !!! and guess what ?? the Idiots we have elected and put in the ministry to guard us says "well done" !!!!

To be really frank, the words that come to my mouth on seeing what happent in Manglore and hearing the politicians react, are so "sweat" that I cannt put it up in my blog !!!!

Instead of shutting the Goodaisim in the name of moral police, the super genius politicians are saying that pubs should be banned !! What a twist in tale to cover that they did !!

I absolutely loved the way Raghu Ram from MTV reacted to the interview in Headlines today. If woman is said to have equal rights in this country , why should they be banned from doing all that men do ? If , as per, the very wise moral security guard who was in the show with Raghu, the problem is that when men drink, they loose theier senses and misbehave. Then my answer is exactly what Raghu said, men should be banned from pub not woman. It is like, since men will do wrong, lets ban woman. What a beautiful piece of equality in the great country !!!

and remember this is same country where just about same day , another politician's "second" wife created a drama of kidnapping her hubby, same country where politicians son's are indulged in drugs, driving after consuming alcohol and roam scott free, a land where some brainless politician in mumabi say that north indian should be ousted from the state and the question the role of NSG commandoes who laid down thier life battleing in Taj, a place where terrorists acts are said to be not terrosims because they are done by hindu ??

We should be proud that we have a set of genius politicians who instead of focusing on the issues like terrorism or recession that is hitting the state so badly now, is focusing on making mountain out of a hole.

Please stop the hindu-muslim thing, every act against humanity is terrorism. Kill them from roots. We youth doesnt care if i am a Keralite or Kasmiri, South Indian or North Indian, Please put that your stupid ideologies in thrash, not in our minds. We the youth is far matured than the fossiled mind of the rotten heads that rule our state. If you have no other work to do, go home and sit at your home. Dont eat our head.

As Raghu said, probably the next thing they should ban is education because, what is use of filling in brains if we the youth are supposed to do only what our genious leaders thing. And please yaar, can any one bring a retirement age for politicians, seems once someone get old, their minds starting working in opposite way.

Flower

2009-01-26T18:18:00.003+05:30

Flowers are the sweetest things God
ever made and forgot to put a soul into.
- Henry Ward Beecher, Life Thoughts

Golden Globe for Rehman.

2009-01-12T22:42:00.002+05:30

A Golden Day for Indian Fim Industry, as A R Rehman became the first Indian to receive the prestigious Golden Globe. I wouldn't say India should call the movie itself Indian since it's basically Danny Boyle's baby and he truely made a story based in India, International.

But for Rehman, every Indian can be proud of this day. This mozart from madras has given innumorous soul stiring melodies over the past 16 years. Most people in India remember 1992 Roja as the start of the Rehman era, but we Keralaties had the oppurtunity of listening to his midas touch same year in another album, his first and only Malayalam movie, Yodha.

If you were asked to pick his best till date, i would bet you would scratch your head. Who would be able to pick soul stiring of Puthu velai manam from Roja, or the haunting Bombay theme or Naheen saamne from Taal or and list goes on. These songs were just the melodies from the maestro, how about the foot tapping numbers ?? So what did i say , dont even dream of picking best of Rehman, you just simply cant pick the best from the best !!!

2008 and India.

2008-12-30T20:57:00.000+05:30

As the world prepares itself for the final dawn of 2008, I was recollecting the major events which I myself would remember.

On the darker side, 2008 was a year when the Indian were rocked by a series of bloodshed. Whether it was the serial blasts that rocked Banglore and Ahmedabad, or the inhuman act of insane terrorism in Mumbai, the entire nation were shaken. While the bomb blasts put the common man on guard, the Mumbai shooting bought him to the streets. Angered, but united, the common man had decided enough was enough and decided to show its emotions.

On the high side, 2008 saw India achieving greater highs in Technology and Sports. While the Chandrayan would enrich in memory as a historic milestone in Indian Space programs, Tata’s Nano bought colors to common mans dreams of owning a car. The Indian Sports too touched its peak when India return with its best ever Olympic collection. The cricket maniac country had more to cheers as the Dhoni’s devils challenged and conquered the mighty Aussies. With South Africa also winning the Test Series in Australia, it wouldn’t be too long before we see a change of world order. Come 2009, and South Africa might just even perform the last rites by winning the third and final test in Australia.

Gadgets of 2008

2008-12-30T20:35:00.000+05:30

What was the Top 10 Gadget of 2008? Well, this is the TIME’s poll had to say.

1. Peek E-Mail Device
2. T-Mobile G1
3. Macbook
4. iPod Touch
5. Eye Fi SD Card
6. Wii Fit
7. Flip Mino
8. Sanyo Xacti HD 1010
9. Dash Express
10. Cannon PowerShot A590IS

3 wise men

2008-12-20T21:39:00.001+05:30

They traversed the silvery snow
And trekked the emerald forest
But they found their greatest treasure
Only when they conquered the scorching desert

With the star as their guiding light
The 3 wise men came from the east
Bowing on their knees, they found the greatest joy
At the feet of The savior, the Lord.

As we walk down aisle of life
Doesn’t life hold the same for us ?
Don’t we go through the same
As did the 3 wise men ?

Weathering the chilling winter
Smiling through the falling autumn
We find the joys of serene spring
Only after basking the searing summer

With knowledge as our guiding light
And selflessness as our trait
We find the greatest joy, when we join hands
In love, respect and friendship.

God's own country

2008-12-01T15:14:00.001+05:30

Bharathapuzha,kerala in all its glory

CMYK Vs RGB in FrameMaker

2008-12-01T15:01:00.003+05:30

I was importing a Image (JPEG) to Adobe FrameMaker when a certain image started throwing weird problems. Each time I import image, the image's color seems changed drastically.

A bit of googling and the solution seemed simple. The image was in CMYK format and i needed to change it to RGB to get it working properly in FrameMaker.

Simple, straightforward..i wonder why Adobe doesn't the same inbuilt inside the FrameMaker. Better they do.

Kill Terror...Kill Terrorism

2008-11-27T22:57:00.003+05:30

The fast paced mumbai city was virtually brought to standtill as anti-social elements launched attacks on some of best hotels and railways stations in the city. Once again, the ugly face of terror has shook the nation.

More than 125 innocent souls lost their in an act of cowardice by so called terrorist. As we all say our prayers for the departed souls, lets also make sure we join hands to put your hands together and make your voice loud and clear that "we will not bow down to terror, we have and we will fight it, and make sure these cowards fear even thinking about another act".

Kill Fear..Kill Terror...Kill Terrorism.

Failure while compiling.

2008-11-25T19:19:00.002+05:30

This is weird little error i got when compiling my application in Visual Studio .Net 2003 IDE.

"A failure occurred while attempting to start the compilation."

Kinda weird one, but fix was simple. I deleted all the .pdb files and cleaned up the solution and that was it. The solution was ready.

Simple nah ?

C# 4.0 : Optional Parameters

2008-11-06T16:20:00.001+05:30

C# 4.0 Feature list looks promising and adds more flexiblity to the programmer.

Of course, i dont have hands on experience with this features as it is yet be released for beta, my knowledge is purely based on the blog entries by Bart De Smet in his blogs.

First feature i would like to focus is a long-standing request for any C# programmer,The Optional Parameters for methods.

Optional parameters also bring along default values for parameters.

The syntax is very much simple and straightforward.

public static void SayHello(string s = "hello")
{
// body
}

The developer can invoke the SayHello method with or without an arguement, which case the default value would be used.

SayHello();
SayHello("welcome c# 4.0");

One important point to note here is, all optional parameters needs to come at the end of the arguement list.The reason for this is obvious, to remove chances of ambiguities which may be resulted

public static void SayHello(string s1 = "Hello World!", string s2)

What would a call with a single string argument result in? Would the parameter be bound to s1, overriding the default, or would it bind to s2?

Ban on Chinese Phones

2008-10-15T12:04:00.001+05:30

The 4 crore Chinese Mobile market is facing a standstill in Indian Market as DoT prepares itself to Ban calls made from such phone.Calls from such phones may be barred since most don’t carry the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, a unique 14-digit code used to identify valid devices.

Even locally-assembled handsets that don’t have IMEI numbers may be barred, according to a recent note by the department of telecom (DoT).

One of the reasons such a huge step is being taken is the fact that chinese phones were used in the blasts that rocked the nation recently.

One thing is for sure, people who brought the chinese handsets since it is cheaper, well, the "buy" just turned expensive for them.

Sun..

2008-09-29T20:28:00.002+05:30

Sun attempting to spread light one final time before it fades down for the day.

Remembering Dears

2008-09-28T22:42:00.005+05:30

Walking down the aisle of life, many people touch your life. They change you and when you look back after years, you will see their smiling faces.

Remembering all those who touched my life, especially, my best friend who taught me how to live, whom i , unfortunately are no longer in touch with. She was the person who made me what i am, my best friend, this is for you

Remembering Dears who made me what i am

Standing upto the sun

2008-09-28T22:17:00.005+05:30

One of the nice hobbies i recently got interested in is photography. I was wondering of including some of the snaps i personally liked in my blog. Earlier i used to the slideshow running, but thought why not include few which i personally liked a lot in here.

This is one of the first photos i took with my Sony H7 Camera. Thanks to my mom for having a small and nice garden at home, i had something to shoot and learn.

I stand , Facing the first rays of dawn, bracing myself to see another day of joy

Missing Address Bar in Explorer for Windows Xp Home

2008-09-27T13:43:00.004+05:30

Missing Address bar in your Windows Explorer/Internet Explorer in Windows XP Home Edition ??

Go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar

For Windows Explorer: In the right pane, locate the Explorer sub-key and open it. In the right pane, locate the ITBarLayout value. Right click this value and select Delete.

For Internet Explorer: In the right pane, locate the WebBrowser sub-key and open it. In the right pane, locate the ITBarLayout value. Right click this value and select Delete.

That's it. Restart your application and you have your address bar back.

Prefix vs As Casting : Which is faster?

2008-09-23T13:22:00.001+05:30

.Net Provides two ways to Cast an object, namely, Prefix Casting and "as casting". "As Casting" provides an additional type which results in a null value to be returned in case of casting error. On other hand, Prefix casting would throw an exception in that scenario.

But which is faster ? Well, it seems strange that even though "as-casting" provides an additional checking it seems faster than the prefix. Following sample code demonstrate the same.

ArrayList d = new ArrayList();
for (int i = 0; i < 67108864; i++)
{
d.Add(new Class1(i));
}
Class1 obj1;
DateTime dtAS = DateTime.Now;
for (int i = 0; i < 67108864; i++)
{
obj1 = d[i] as Class1;
}
Console.WriteLine((DateTime.Now - dtAS).Milliseconds.ToString());
Class1 obj2; DateTime dtN = DateTime.Now;
for (int i = 0; i < 67108864; i++)
{
obj2 = (Class1)d[i] ;
}
Console.WriteLine((DateTime.Now - dtN).Milliseconds.ToString());

If you look into the IL code for same, you would notice that "as casting" uses isinst IL command while prefix casting uses "castclass" method.

But if you have a look at how MSDN has defined isinst command, it can lead to think why in the earlier code, as casting works faster.

Here is a snippet from MSDN about isinst

Tests whether an object reference (type O) is an instance of a particular class.

"If the class of the object on the top of the stack implements class (if class is an interface) or is a derived class of class (if class is a regular class) then it is cast to type class and the result is pushed on the stack, exactly as though Castclass had been called. Otherwise, a null reference is pushed on the stack. If the object reference itself is a null reference, then isinst likewise returns a null reference."

Now if object is casted exactly as though CastClass after validation, then how is it that its faster ?

anyone has any suggestions ?

SQL Connection Pooling.

2008-08-28T16:33:00.000+05:30

First question that arise on ones mind is why do we need connection pooling at first place ? Answer to this would be clear if we look at what happens in a typical server.

To connect to a server, typically there are many time consuming steps.First, a physical channel such as named pipe must be established, initial handshake with server should occur, connection string needs to be parsed, connection must be authenticated and so on.

Think how badly performance would be hit if these steps needs to be done for every query you do with server. In most practical cases, most application would use only one or few different configurations for connections. Or in other words, during the entire life cycle of application, many identical connections will be repeatedly opened and closed. To minimize this cost of performance, ADO.Net came up with a much optimized technique called Connection Pooling.

The Pooler would maintain ownership of the physical connection. It manages by keeping alive a set of active connections for each given connection configurations.

So whenever a user calls open on a connection, pooler first looks in the available connection pool.If its available, it returns it to caller instead of creating a new connection. When application makes a call to the Close methods, pooler returns the connection to the pooled set instead of closing it.

This ensures that the number of times new connections are opened are reduced many a folds. Please note that only connections with same configurations can be pooled. But ADO.Net can keep several pools at same time for each configurations.

One important point to note in here is that SQLConnection object in .Net, by default as the Connection Pooling enabled. To disable it, you need to use "Pooling = false" in the connection string.

Hartal : Media News Channels spread fake news.

2008-08-21T07:46:00.001+05:30

It won't take too long for "Gods own country" to be rechristened “Hartal’s own country”. India’s most educated state, which boosts itself of near-complete literacy seems have taken special liking for hartals. 80 hartals in last 6 months in the state underlines the same fact.

But what was most frustrating to see on the hartal called on 20th Aug was how the media helped propagate “negative” news to make hartal a success. Before I tell how media did it, let me tell a small history about kerala hartals.

Even though rest of Kerala is willing to sit at home on a hartal day, the IT department has always thrown caution to wind and worked every hartal. Infopark in Cochin and Technopark in Trivandrum has seen 100% attendance despite entire state coming to standstill.

Probably this failure of hartal “conductors” to make IT department dance to their tunes forced them into using “fake” news via media news channels. 20th morning news by (if I am right) Kairali and India Vision stating hartal is 100% success and specifically saying that “the normally working IT Department too is on standstill, with Infopark and Technopark life disrupted”.

This might have sawed seeds of doubts in minds many IT professionals, but truth was Infopark and Technopark worked without any problems whole day. There was not even a single obstacle in the roads that lead to these IT Hubs.

So dear politicians and media personnel, please leave us alone. We don’t want to sit at home and yield to a group of people who loves bring kerala to standstill. This is “Generation Next” and for us, hartal or no hartal, we know what our duties are unlike our so-called leaders.

Media news channels like Kairali and IndiaVision, please watch out before spreading such news again.

Windows User List

2008-07-08T12:39:00.002+05:30

Here is a bit of useful code to fetch the list of all valid widows Users under current domain

string defaultDomain =
System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("USERDOMAIN");
string queryString = string.Format( "select * from Win32_UserAccount where Domain = '{0}' ",defaultDomain);
SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery(queryString);
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
ManagementObjectSearcher(query);
ArrayList ExistingWindowsUsers = new ArrayList();

foreach (ManagementObject envVar in searcher.Get())
ExistingWindowsUsers.Add(envVar["Name"]);

F# : My First Post

2008-06-30T12:27:00.000+05:30

I recently started looking into F# and I must say that it is highly useful when applying to Mathematical problems. I had this Euler Problem to solve which wanted me to get the value of 2^1000.

Now if i try the same in C#,I would end of up having a overflow or truncated value as C# doesn't contain any data type that can hold such a big number. However, F# supports a datatype BigInt which can hold such large values and one line of code is all that you need to write a function to calculate it.

let rec Power (x:bigint) (y:bigint) = if y=of_int 1 then x else x* Power x (y-(1|> of_int))

The above code exemplifies why F# provides more flexibility and ease when solving mathematical problems.

Scrollbar issue with .Net

2008-06-18T21:07:00.003+05:30

The behavior of scrollbars in container controls like Panel in .Net does raise the question of whether it’s a bug.

Scroll down the scrollbar to the bottom and attempt to bring it to top most position using code.

panel1.VerticalScroll.Value = 0;

This would definetly make the contends of the control to be scrolled up, how ever, if you notice the scrollbar associated with the control is still in that topmost position.

The only available workaround is to assign the VerticalScroll.Value twice.

panel1.VerticalScroll.Value = 0;
panel1.VerticalScroll.Value = 0;

Its quite shocking that this bug, which was seen in .Net 2005, hasn’t been fixed in .Net 2008.

Making Anonymous Types Read-Write

2008-06-13T11:56:00.003+05:30

Tried creating anonymous types and changing its value ?? Its strange, but Anonymous types in C# are readonly.

var v = new { FName = "aaa" , LName = "bbb" };
v.FName = "aaaa";

Above lines of code would yield following error

"Property or indexer 'AnonymousType#1.FName' cannot be assigned to -- it is read only"

But ofcourse, there is a workaround, you can use reflection to change the value of the Anonymous Method.

Type t = v.GetType();
FieldInfo fi = t.GetField( "i__Field" , BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
fi.SetValue(v, "1234");

i__Field is the internal name used for refering to property "FName". Fire up ildasm to get it.

Its true that the power of reflection cannot be ignored no matter what new features are added to .Net framework.

Wide Band Delhi using Confidence interval

2008-06-07T20:56:00.005+05:30

In my earlier post I talked about Wide Band Delphi. WBD stands of its own when the requirements are clear and there are no possible hindrances. But, how often do you make software in ideal conditions? As Murphy’s Law states, if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.So it’s better to make a range estimate when compared to a point estimate. These are highly useful in cases where the requirements would become gradually clear and not initially.

Here, just like WBD, estimators whose have expertise in the particular field assemble. But unlike earlier, here they provide 3 estimates for each task.

a) Best Case

b) Worst Case

c) Most likely

But we are not done yet. The next step is to assign probability to each of these cases. Let’s say we assign

a) P(Best Case) = 0.2

b) P(Most Likely) = 0.6

c) P(Worst Case) = 0.2

Next step would obviously be calculate the estimated value and of course the Standard deviation as we are mentioning the range.

Expected Value = μ = Sum ( x ) * P ( x)

Standard Deviation = σ = Worst Case * P (Worst Case ) – Best Case * P( Best Case)

You would do this for each of the estimators and take their average to find the cumulative Expected Value and Standard Deviation. We now proceed to calculate (μ-3 σ) and (μ+3 σ) values, which would in-effect, give us a better estimate than the usual WBD method.

We could also calculate (μ-6 σ) and (μ+6 σ) values or (μ-1 σ) and (μ+1 σ) values depending on whether want 68% CI or 95 CI or 99% CI. Now doesn’t this sounds more analytical than the default Wide Band Delphi method ??

Project Estimation : Wide Band Delphi

2008-06-07T20:09:00.002+05:30

Software development is inherently unpredictable in nature. Consequently, preparing a project estimate is not the easiest of task to do. It’s much evident from the fact that not more than 20% of software developments around the globe are always out of schedule. It’s true that getting 100% on-time delivery of your work products is a not the easiest of the job, as many volatile factors govern the development process. But, for sure, we can reduce the affects. People often predict the development time and forget the golden rule that, it is project “Estimate” and NOT project “Prediction”. Being part of SEPG group of my organization, this is my journey in studying different Estimation Methods available.

First of all, I am looking at WideBand Delphi. WBD, unlike other methods like COCOMO or Function Point Analysis, doesn’t depend on historical datas.

A team of experts would join together in an estimation sessions and individually estimate the task list of the project. These individual estimations are summarized by the Estimation co-coordinator, commonly in a tabular format and presented back to the expert panel. In the cases (task list) where there is variance (non-convergence) more than a predefined value, the panel would reassess the tasks and if possible break it down further into sub tasks and once again go through the whole process.

As you can see, WBD is a simple method, which underlines the fact that estimation is not rocket science. Its strength lies in fact the estimator has strong domain knowledge and that they are working independently would ensure process is unbiased.

But WBD could be made better, and that’s what we would be looking forward in the next entry. Wide Band Delphi variations like Confidence interval and Neinburg approximation would further enhance this method and making it more analytical.

Quick note on Temp File.

2008-06-06T17:11:00.003+05:30

Quite often we would need to temporary files in C# and having to delete them once we are done with its usage. And it is not uncommon that we tend to forget write code to delete the file we created. There is a constructor in File Class which makes our life easier.

FileStream fs = File.Create(@"c:\anuviswan.txt", size, FileOptions.DeleteOnClose);

That's it and we can forget about deleting it later on. A small thing, but quite useful for people as forgetful like yours truly.

Modulo Operation : Microsoft vs Google

2008-05-31T11:32:00.004+05:30

Modulo operation is something we all aware of from long time and this , infact brings out an interesting perspective on how Microsoft and Google has implemented it. Try out finding the result for following operation in C# or VB or even Windows Calculator.
"-5 mod 6"

Your result was -5 right ??? Now attempt the same in Google Calculator ?? -1 the result ??

Which is correct ? Its going to be an interesting argument. The Modulo function is definaed as the amount by which a number exceeds the largest integer multiple of the divisor that is not greater than that number.

Now if you go by that defination , - 5 * -1 would yield 5 with a remaining -1. That would explain the answer given by Google. But Microsoft's answer too can be argued.

The normal formula to calculate Mod is given by r = a - n(a/n). Now assuming Microsoft calculates this using r = a - n * abs(a/n) , then answer given by Calculator is correct.

Counter argument exists in both cases and hence it is argueable on sides of both parties about which is the correct solution.

Event : Public or Private ??

2008-05-27T20:47:00.002+05:30

Event declaration in a C# class exhibits strange property as far as its access modifiers are concerned.Declare your class with a "public" access modifier attached to your event.

public class TestClass
{
public event EventHandler myTestEvent;
public TestClass()
{

}
}

Now build your application and open up in ildasm and observe the access modifier associated with your event. Strangely, it is "private".

.field private class [mscorlib]System.EventHandler myTestEvent

This somewhat explains why we are able to "catch" a event from another class but not raise another class event from your class even if its public. I should thank my friend Hari for bring this to my notice.

Acer Predator : A Real Beast

2008-05-26T11:45:00.008+05:30

Speaking about Ultimate PC's and it couldn't have got better.Just couldn't resist writing about this beast machine , awesome configuration and an equally awesome design. Acer Aspire Predator G7700 come across as ultimate gaming machine that you can dream of.

Acer Aspire G Predator G7700 specifications
Item	Description
CPU Support	Intel Core 2 Extreme or Core 2 Quad up to 133MHz FSB
Chipset	Nvidia nForce 780i SLI
System memory	Up to 8GB DDR2 1066/800MHz
Hard drives	4x SATA HDD up to 1TB RAID 0, 1, 5, 1+0 Acer Easy-swap
Optical drives	Blu-ray SuperMulti burner Blu-ray/HD DVD SuperMulti burner (optional) SuperMulti burner(optional)
Graphics	3-way SLI ready 2x GeForce 9600 GT 2x GeForce 9800 GTX 2x GeForce 9800 GX2
Audio	Onboard HD 7.1 audio Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum (optional)
Dimensions	490×430×190mm (L×H×W)

TypeForwaredTo Attribute

2008-05-21T14:11:00.000+05:30

I happent to stumbled upon this cool attribute in RunTime.CompilerServices and just couldn't resist blog about it. TypeForwardedTo attribute allows you to move a type from one assembly to another without having to recompile your parent application that uses your original assembly. Now isnt that wonderful ?

Imagine you have send out your application to your users and then you decide to move a datatype you initially created with assembly "a1" to assembly "a2". Now longer would you need to recompile the original application again. Instead, all you need is to send the latest version of "a1" and "a2".

What helps you in this is the TypeForwardedTo Attribute.After moving the code to "a2", you would recompile "a2" and add a reference in "a1". Also you would include following line in your "a1" assembly, preferably in assemblyinfo.

[assembly:TypeForwardedTo(typeof(MyDataType))]

Thats all you need and you are ready to use your New assemblies with your parent application without recompiling it.

Now isnt that a useful one ?

C# coding Guidelines - An alternate naming scheme

2008-05-15T03:12:00.002+05:30

I have always felt hard to agree with the naming schemes for variables under the "C# Coding standards", which on other grounds is a very find document.

According to Microsoft, they strictly oppose the use of Hungarian notations. Furthermore, they advise on using camelCase for naming all local, member and parameter variables. Microsoft advocate that it increases readability by supporting a consistent naming scheme throughout.

This is something I dont agree with. My argument is simple. How would one recognize between local, member and a parameter variable ?? i believe, it would have been helped readability furthur if we had naming scheme such that all 3 types of variables can be differentiated.

So what i recommend is
Local Variables : camelCase
Member Variable : "m_" or "g_" prefixed to the name
Parameter Variable : PascalCase

These are my personal views and i did find the readability much improved in this way.

Sieve of Eratosthenes in C#

2008-05-04T13:48:00.012+05:30

I was trying my hands in problems mentioned in Project Euler (http://projecteuler.net/) and came across quite a bit questions which had to do with Prime Numbers.

C# doesn't provide any in-built methods to generate prime numbers, but its quite easy to write one. So thought of writing an implementation of the famous "Sieve of Eratosthenes" algorithm to generate prime numbers.

Sieve of Eratosthenes is an easy and straight forward algorithm and can be summarized as follows (courtesy wikipedia)

1. Write a list of numbers from 2 to the largest number you want to test for primality. Call this List A. (This is the list of squares on the left side of the picture.)
2. Write the number 2, the first prime number, in another list for primes found. Call this List B. (This is the list on the right side of the picture.)
3. Strike off 2 and all multiples of 2 from List A.
4. The first remaining number in the list is a prime number. Write this number into List B.
5. Strike off this number and all multiples of this number from List A. The crossing-off of multiples can be started at the square of the number, as lower multiples have already been crossed out in previous steps.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until no more numbers are left in List A. Note that, once you reach a number greater than the Square root of the highest number in List A, all the numbers remaining in List A are prime.

C# Code for the same is as follows.

public static List GeneratePrime(int Range)
{
var RangeArray = from X in Enumerable.Range(2, Range-1)
where X!=1
select X;

List Results = new List();
var Prime = 2;

while (Prime <= Math.Sqrt(RangeArray.Max()))
{
Prime = RangeArray.First();
Results.Add(Prime);
RangeArray = from x in RangeArray where x % Prime != 0 select x;
}
return Results;
}

A poem, replicating the essence of the algorithm, is as follows:

Sift the Two's and sift the Three's,
The Sieve of Eratosthenes.
When the multiples sublime,
The numbers that remain are Prime.

Having a good car doesn't make you a Schumacher

2008-04-09T22:16:00.004+05:30

I recently read an article in one of the newspapers which pointed out on some interesting facts, which I thought is quite true from my personal experience in this software field.

What do a good F1 car and softwares have in common ?? well, both needs to be in right hands to get its maximum utility.

Many non-IT organizations are moving towards automating their processes and this trend is only going to increase. Good sign at the first glance, isn’t?? There is nothing wrong in it, but just like the old saying of all that glitters is not gold, these changes have also another face to it.

It is quite alarming that a recent survey pointed out that almost 50 percent organization implementing ERP would be going for a major upgrade in less than 3 years. And this is not a one time business, almost every 2-3 years; these organizations undergo a major upgrade to their software. This would mean pooling in extra money and time.

You needn’t scratch your head much to find an answer to this. Those organizations didn’t have a proper process in place nor did they know exactly what they wanted.

Many a times we software engineers are asked to develop ERP or similar applications where the clients isn’t particularly sure of their requirements, just because they don’t have a process in place in their organizations. What these organizations need to understand is that bringing in a ERP or CRM application wouldn’t bring in a good ROI unless and until you know what your are doing and what you are capable of. The first step any organization planning to implement ERP or similar applications would be to clearly define and implement their processes.

The golden rule should be “Fix your organization and processes before you even think about automating.” A good car doesn’t make you a Schumacher.

Total Number of Pages in PrintPreviewControl

2008-04-01T12:10:00.003+05:30

This is strange but, it seems like the Print Preview Control doesn't exposes a property/method that would give total number of pages. Then how do you get it ?? Well , there exist a private property inside the PrintPreviewControl and you need to use reflection to get it. Here is the code for it.

private int NumberOfPages()
{
Type ObjectType = typeof(PrintPreviewControl);
MethodInfo CalculatePageInfo = ObjectType.GetMethod("CalculatePageInfo", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
CalculatePageInfo.Invoke(this.printPreviewControl1,null);

FieldInfo PageInfo = ObjectType.GetField("pageInfo", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
PreviewPageInfo[] infos = (PreviewPageInfo[]) PageInfo.GetValue(this.printPreviewControl1);
return infos.Length;
}

Longest Valid Code with Keywords only

2008-03-28T14:55:00.005+05:30

What is the longest set of valid C# code that can be created using keywords only ??? my attempt gave me a 43 keywords with each keyword appearing only once and braces not included in count.

set
{
lock ( value = this as object)
{
throw null;
}
}
get
{
unsafe
{
try
{
do
{
switch ((int)(uint)(ulong)(long)(sbyte)(byte)(ushort)(short) (float)(double)unchecked(sizeof(char)))
{
default:
break;
}
for (; ; )
{ continue; }
} while (true);
}
catch
{}
finally
{}

if (false)
{ }
else

return checked(typeof(decimal)) is string;

}

Buffer.BlockCopy Vs Array.Copy

2008-03-25T10:49:00.002+05:30

Yes, I do agree that am guilty of being repetitive in my posts. This is yet another comparison of different methods of doing the same thing.

Consider you have two arrays, how do you concatenate them?? Gone are days when you needed to loop through elements and append them. Managed C# has two inbuilt static methods , Array.Copy and Buffer.BlockCopy that helps you in the same.

byte[] c1 = new byte[]{ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };
byte[] c2 = new byte[]{ 0,0,0,0,0,22,33,44,55,66};
byte[] c3 = new byte[]{ 0,0,0,0,0,22,33,44,55,66};

Buffer.BlockCopy(c1, 0, c2, 0, 5);
Array.Copy(c1,0,c3,0,5);

Now the question arises why you need two methods for achieving the same results?? Answer lies in the way both Array.Copy and Buffer.BlockCopy handles the elements while copying.

While Array.Copy copies the elements in an index to index manner, its Buffer Class counterpart uses an offset to offset (byte based) copying method for accomplish its goal.

So what is the impact?? Well, when you are using byte array it has no effect. But what about when you are dealing with int arrays ?? Each Each Int occupies 4 bytes. Lets see the difference in code when above is re-written with int arrays.

int[] c1 = new int[]{ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };
int[] c2 = new int[]{ 0,0,0,0,0,22,33,44,55,66};

Buffer.BlockCopy(c1, 0, c2, 0, 20);
Array.Copy(c1,0,c2,0,5);

Notice that we have changed the number of elements to be copied parameter in the Buffer.BlockCopy Method to 20. This is because each int occupies 4 bytes and hence ( 5 x 4 = 20 bytes ) needs to be copied.

Code Monkey

2008-03-20T21:21:00.001+05:30

A funny and interesting song by Jonathan Coulton. Do check out the song in it, really nice to hear.
-------------------------------------------------
Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
have boring meeting with boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very diligent
but his output stink
his code not functional or elegant
what do Code Monkey think
Code Monkey think maybe manager oughta write goddamn login page himself
Code Monkey not say it out loud
Code Monkey not crazy just proud

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
with big warm fuzzy secret heart
Code Monkey like you
Code Monkey like you

Code Monkey hang around at front desk
tell you sweater look nice
Code Monkey offer buy you soda
bring you cup bring you ice
you say no thank you for the soda ’cause
soda make you fat
anyway you busy with the telephone
no time for chat

Code Monkey have long walk back to cubicle
he sit down pretend to work
Code Monkey not thinking so straight
Code Monkey not feeling so great

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
with big warm fuzzy secret heart
Code Monkey like you
Code Monkey like you a lot

Code Monkey have every reason
to get out this place
Code Monkey just keep on working
to see your soft pretty face
Much rather wake up eat a coffee cake
Take bath, take nap
This job fulfilling in creative way
such a load of crap
Code Monkey think someday he have everything even pretty girl like you
Code Monkey just waiting for now
Code Monkey say someday, somehow

Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain Dew
Code Monkey very simple man
with big warm fuzzy secret heart
Code Monkey like you
Code Monkey like you

Running code from same assembly in difference application domain

2008-03-20T10:44:00.003+05:30

Running a particular function from same assembly in a difference application domain than the default one is pretty straightforward. I guess the code below is self explainatory.

class RemoteClass : MarshalByRefObject
{
public void Action()
{
Console.WriteLine("Running From Appplication Domain :- {0}",AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName);
}
}

class Class1
{
[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string ClassFullName =typeof(RemoteClass).FullName ;
string AssemblyName = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName;

AppDomain TempDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain("secondDomain");
TempDomain.Load(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName);

RemoteClass objSecondDomain = TempDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap( AssemblyName , ClassFullName ) as RemoteClass;
objSecondDomain.Action();
RemoteClass objMainDomain = new RemoteClass();
objMainDomain.Action();
AppDomain.Unload(TempDomain);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}

Output
------
Running From Appplication Domain :- secondDomain
Running From Appplication Domain :- ConsoleApplication1.vshost.exe

PS: Point to be noted here is that the Class whose instance is being created should inherit from MarshalByRefObject.

Initialization Order and Virtual Functions.

2008-03-19T14:28:00.000+05:30

Initialization Order in C# class is a interesting area to probe. When constructing a C# object, especially one that is derived from another class , its important that we are aware of the initialization order.

Following is the usual initialization order.

1. Derived static fields
2. Derived static constructor
3. Derived instance fields
4. Base static fields
5. Base static constructor
6. Base instance fields
7. Base instance constructor
8. Derived instance constructor

What i am trying to focus in here is the way virtual functions are handled when using a derived class.

Consider following code.
class Program
{
static void Main( string[] args )
{
Derived d = new Derived();
Console.ReadLine();
}

}

class Base
{
public Base()
{
Console.WriteLine("Base Instance Constructor");
this.MyVirtual("Base");
}
public virtual void MyVirtual(string str)
{
Console.WriteLine("Base Virtual Function called from "+ str);
}
}

class Derived : Base
{
public Derived()
{
Console.WriteLine("Derived Instance Construcor");
this.MyVirtual("Derived");
}
public override void MyVirtual(string str)
{
Console.WriteLine("Derived Virtual Function called from " +str);
}
}

Following is the output.
Base Instance Constructor
Derived Virtual Function called from Base
Derived Instance Construcor
Derived Virtual Function called from Derived

As you can see, the derived virtual function is being invoked by the base class even before the derived class constructor is called. This shows why it is a bad design to call the virtual function from the constructor.

String to Bytes : Comparing Methods

2008-03-19T12:45:00.002+05:30

Suppose you have a string and you want to convert it to a array of bytes, there are two ways of doing so. Using the Encoding Class directly or using the Encoding class with the stream writers.

Lets examine both ways. Here I have written two functions which would convert same string to bytes and print those bytes.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
string strTest = "this is a test";
Encoding encodingType = Encoding.ASCII;
Console.WriteLine("First Method");
FirstMethod(strTest, encodingType);
Console.WriteLine("Second Method");
SecondMethod(strTest, encodingType);
Console.ReadLine();

}

private static void FirstMethod(string strTest,Encoding encodingType)
{
foreach (byte b in encodingType.GetBytes(strTest))
{
Console.Write("{0},", b);
}
Console.WriteLine(Environment.NewLine);

}

private static void SecondMethod(string strTest,Encoding encodingType)
{
MemoryStream mo = new MemoryStream();
StreamWriter so = new StreamWriter(mo,encodingType);
so.Write(strTest);
so.Close();
foreach (byte b in mo.ToArray())
{
Console.Write("{0},", b);
}
mo.Close();
Console.WriteLine(Environment.NewLine);
}

Now the output would be same for both the function if you want them as Ascii characters. Check the output below.

First Method
116,104,105,115,32,105,115,32,97,32,116,101,115,116,

Second Method
116,104,105,115,32,105,115,32,97,32,116,101,115,116,

But what about the case when the Encoding is Unicode ?? Well , then there is a difference. The second method would prepended by two bytes 255 and 254. Check the output.

First Method
116,0,104,0,105,0,115,0,32,0,105,0,115,0,32,0,97,0,32,0,116,0,101,0,115,0,116,0,

Second Method
255,254,116,0,104,0,105,0,115,0,32,0,105,0,115,0,32,0,97,0,32,0,116,0,101,0,115,
0,116,0,

The two additional bytes are the preamble. the preamble is a set of bytes that usually denote the byte order for the decoder.
The Unicode byte order mark (BOM) is serialized as follows (in hexadecimal):

UTF-8: EF BB BF

UTF-16 big endian byte order: FE FF

UTF-16 little endian byte order: FF FE

UTF-32 big endian byte order: 00 00 FE FF

UTF-32 little endian byte order: FF FE 00 00