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SkyDrive, Windows 8 and Domain Account

Amit Bahree — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:18:35 +0000

I am running Windows 8 on my primary work machine now, which is domain joined. When I try and use the SkyDrive metro app (which ships with Windows 8), it does not like that fact I am domain joined and wants me to switch accounts, which is something I don’t want to do. This of course works great for those who are not domain joined and essentially are personal machines. For many of us who will be using this on ‘work’ machines, this seems like we will be ignored.

Of course I can install the desktop app, but that is not Metro and I am then in the ‘old’ world. Also the free 25 GB has now dropped to 7 GB, if you already have a Live account, I suggest you login and upgrade your account back to 25 GB for free!

Concurrency and CEP

Amit Bahree — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:36:07 +0000

The sooner we all understand the Concurrency ≠ CEP (Complex Event Processing), the better the world will be!

CEP is generally used when we implement real-time systems (of course that is not the only area where CEP is used). Real-time does not mean concurrent or for that matter high-performing system.

Of course there are correlations, but at the same time they are fundamentally different paradigms.

AWS Extension for Visual Studio

Amit Bahree — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 11:59:55 +0000

I had forgotten that I had the AWS Extension for Visual Studio installed until recently I noticed AWS Explorer item in the View menu option. This add-in allows you to explore the various features that Amazon exposes right from within Visual Studio. The toolkit makes it easier for developers to debug and deploy a .NET solutions that uses AWS.

When you install this, you also get AWS SDK for .NET which provides one with all the building blocks that are required for consuming the IaaS services exposed by AWS including SimpleDB, S3 and EC2.

If you are or planning to use AWS, this add-in is a must have in my opinion.

Had to post this!

Amit Bahree — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:22:20 +0000

Got this in one of the chain emails, and thought it was too funny to pass up.

Thought of the day

Amit Bahree — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:46:16 +0000

Whilst the following was said in the context of mobile ad-hoc network (MANETs) I believe it can hold of many situations that life throws at us.

Efficiency and quality are of equal importance!! Both come from experience, not from study. Study as you go, don’t assume that you’re ready for the real world because you studied first.

—Jon Davis

What I am working on today? Optimisation Algorithms

Amit Bahree — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 09:34:32 +0000

I often get the question – a what am I working on today? Some of the things I can’t discuss in an open forum, but some I can. Those that I can, I thought it was best to share via my blog and do quick small posts on it. Will this become a new series? Well time will tell – depends on how much bandwidth I will have.

This weekend, I am researching Optimisation Algorithms – both Deterministic and Probabilistic. Specifically interested in Swarm Intelligence (which are a type of Monte Carlo algorithm) and in that in Ant Colony and Particle Swarm routing are the main ones I am researching.

Suggestions for a new Camera?

Amit Bahree — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 05:42:57 +0000

Our current camera (Canon IXUS 860 IS) is on the last dying leg – the camera itself works OK, but the screen is going to give up any day now – there are big holes where the pixels are dead (looks like a black hole). We love this model and want something along the same form factor and not interesting in anything fancy. One of the options was the new Canon IXUS 240 HS which has a built-in Wifi connection and has just been released, though is not available in all the markets.

As it happens I am going to be flying through Singapore soon and was thinking of picking one up at duty free. Does anyone have any recommendations for a model along the same lines? Want something decent enough in a small form factor.

Realisation of the Day

Amit Bahree — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:30:11 +0000

A common mistake people make when designing a computer system completely fool proof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools

Enabling Win 8 Metro on a Netbook

Amit Bahree — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 03:43:54 +0000

When you install Win 8 on a Netbook the screen resolution would be too low for Metro apps to run which is a bummer. One way to get around this and “fix” this is to update the registry (and you thought that was so XP!) .

Run Regedit and search for “display1_downscalingsupported” (without quotes). Find all occurrences of this entry and change its value from 0 to 1.

Reboot when finished and you should have more options on your Screen Resolution choosing which will allow you to run Metro.

A great example of a MANET

Amit Bahree — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:54:30 +0000

I have been doing some research on MANETs and UAV’s and this TED talk is a great example of how a number of nodes operate in a MANET and implement some predetermined algorithm, which in this case is the Bond Theme Song. Worth watching.

Less than Symbol in Latex

Amit Bahree — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:30:53 +0000

If you want to show a simple less than symbol (i.e. <) in Latex, you are in for a surprise as you cannot use that character as is. If you are in math mode and writing this part of a formula then you might be still OK, but if you are in text mode then it is quite difficult.

Surprisingly, searching for this online also did not provide any obvious answers (perhaps I was searching for the wrong thing).

Anyways, I did figure it out in the end, and I needed to use the \textless directive for latex. I also found a few more symbols and have them listed below in case they are helpful for anyone else.

Symbol	Latex Command
^	\textasciicircum
<	\textless
>	\textgreater
~	\textasciitilde
ª	\textordfeminine
*	\textasteriskcentered
º	\textordmasculine
\	\textbackslash
¶	\textparagraph
\|	\textbar
·	\textperiodcentered
{	\textbraceleft
}	\textbraceright
¿	\textquestiondown
“	\textquotedblleft
”	\textquotedblright
‘	\textquoteleft
’	\textquoteright
•	\textbullet
©	\textcopyright
†	\textdagger
‡	\textdaggerdbl
®	\textregistered
$	\textdollar
§	\textsection
. . .	\textellipsis
£	\textsterling
—	\textemdash
™	\texttrademark
–	\textendash
_	\textunderscore
¡	\textexclamdown
	\textvisiblespace

Rich Copy – a Robocopy GUI

Amit Bahree — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:36:22 +0000

I needed to copy a bunch of data (Photos and Music) from my primary laptop to both the WHS and MCE and instead of hand crafting a Robocopy script I came across something called RichCopy (download from here) which is a much better version of Robocopy GUI and allows for quite a few advanced features. If you use Robocopy a lot then I would highly recommend using this – you can setup multiple profiles depending on your environment.

15 Year of Microsoft at CES

Amit Bahree — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:55:59 +0000

Productivity Future Vision

Amit Bahree — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:34:05 +0000

Microsoft’s productivity future – how cool is this?

Happy Diwali

Amit Bahree — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:38:52 +0000

Wishing you and your family a very Happy Diwali

May the year bring Joy, Happiness, and Prosperity!

Performance Reviews and Dilbert

Amit Bahree — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:28:08 +0000

We are going through your year-end process now at Avanade; perhaps I should have a word with my Boss first.

Developer, Designer, PM, QA, Client Matrix

Amit Bahree — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:34:46 +0000

Can you find yourself?

The reason I tweet

Amit Bahree — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:57:03 +0000

I can’t decide which one of the following reasons makes more sense.

Joke of the day

Amit Bahree — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:50:25 +0000

Two strings walk into a bar.
1^st string: I’ll have a beerk^xtc3ts08bmd;tidd%ti=lt}to
2^nd string: Please forgive my friend. He’s not null terminated.

(credit: Avanade communities)

Greatest moment in a geek’s life!

Amit Bahree — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:50:08 +0000