October 2006 - Posts
This is the first for me - google server error while searching. You can click on the image to see the full version.
If you buy a en eligible Dell on or after October 26th you can upgrade to Vista. Check out Upgrade Express Site and http://www.dellvistaupgrade.com/ and for more details.
I like the option in Vista where you can be notified a week in advance (see highlighted section in the image below) of the time change due to Daylight Savings - very handy. Now I can stop fretting over when was the time supposed to change and trying to find out online.
What do you know, Vista finally has a whoami.exe - you do know the whoami from Unix/Linux, right? Type in "whoami" (without the quotes of course) in a command prompt to launch this. It shows you all the user and group information in addition to SID details, privileges access tokens, etc. Pretty cool and handy especially when trying to debug applications and security related issues.
Below is a screen-shot of the output of this dumped to a text file (click the image to see it in full size).
And yes, I do understand the irony about ÎÜñ|‹ø\/\/ñ and "who am I" 
Yes, they are like Military Intelligence - an oxymoron. And HSBC is not too off as well by locking out accounts of users running on NetSurf (which incase you did not know is an opensource browser for RISC OS platform).
See I keep saying, common Sense ain't very common.
Yes, it is one of the simplest rules of grammar, but I still get confused - I call it Writers Block 
.
Technically my mother-tongue is Hindi, and I can speak the "street version" of it and while I can read it - you honestly don't want me to. The fact that most fellow Indians around at that time are in splits and rolling on the floor might give you a clue. Well I am not particularly proud of that, the fact remains I suck at Hindi and no matter of dressing can fix that. On the flip side, my English is quite strong and for the most part I can read and write it just fine, some of my spellings and grammar sure can do with a refresher (hey but Word helps).
This grammar usage (or rather the lack of it) was highlighted by two things - one writing a book and two, Meenakshi actually starting to read this blog (more on that another day).
I did find these two sites which help people like me in helping find out the difference between Affect v Effect:
- Blue Book of Grammar
- Writing Tips
If you want to hone your Hindi skills then check out BBC Hindi.
I guess, Dheera did not like the faculty entering his dorm room at MIT, so he had to fix the situation I suppose. .
If I ever get to own a house with a basement (which would be my "hang out" area), I am sure to get one of these. Writing the PS/2 keyb driver seems simple enough and the code unlock door code is straightforward as well (however, you might want to format it to make it readable). Sweet, I do need to make one of these.
(Can I see Meenakshi rolling her eyes?)
Those who know me, know how much I love Fry's electronics and is the single most thing I miss after moving to London! They finally have a website now! Although they have had the domain for a while they have not started using it till now. If you have not heard of Fry's (where the heck have you been living dude), then read up more here.
Ah, I miss the those Fry's Ads in the newspapers every week.
Oh man, this is so perfect after my faux pas on the Diwali greeting, which accidentally was emailed with everyone in the "To" line as opposed to BCC. Needless to say, Meenakshi was pissed!
While this story is a few months old, I just came across it. Seems like China has accurate reproductions of the disputed Indo/China border down to scale - including accurate geographical features. Take a look below - the image on top is from China's reproduction and while on the bottom is on Google earth.
Maybe the freezer trick would work 
If you got more time to waste while searching than doing anything then check out Ms. Dewey. While it seems cool at first, it very quickly gets very irritating. And the fact, she does not shut up does not quite help.
(via fellow Avanut, Christopher T Clark)
Interesting story by the NYTimes on how American graduates are joining Indian companies and going to India for initial training before going back to their offices. They also talk a little about their experiences in a developing country and how some of the most basic things are different.
Yes, there are probably more BSOD screens on the net that anything else, but these Top 10 Linux crashes are a keeper.
Karan, see number 5 - were you on it?
It is quite unusual for me to blog about non-technical things (other than the usual crappy joke), but there are certain thing which have a profound affect on me and global warming is one of those. Maybe it is the fact that I have seen the shortages first hand while growing up in India (and back then things were better that now, and they are just going to get worse), or maybe I have seen such a huge cultural difference between the Europeans and the Americans (having lived both in California for many years and for a couple of years now in London), or maybe I am just getting old - I don't know.
If you have not seen this movie by Al Gore called An Inconvenient Truth, then make sure you go and see it. It is a documentary on global warming with sound science behind it and cuts through the political hype. Simply put, is a hair raising experience. It is a must watch! (you can see the trailer here)
After you have seen it, then you don't sit on your ass, but actually do something about it. Firstly, calculate your contribution to the Global Warming and then try and reduce it. It is not very difficult to do, and you can reduce the impact at home, work, while commuting, etc.
More Information: http://www.climatecrisis.net/
I have a USB printer (an HP DeskJet) that shared on my home network via one of the desktops (which is running XP). I had the same problem in Vista RC1 and it still exists in RC2. Whenever I try and connect to this printer it takes a long time and eventually I get the error below. Any ideas what the resolution for this is? Note, I can connect to network printers at work - these are directly on the network and not shared via a Desktop.
I found this very irritating behavior with WCF (at least with the Vista RC2 runtime of WinFX, I have not tried it with the other builds yet). When I am on an active VPN connection (in this case, connected to the Avanade corporate network) and I try and start a new WCF Service it fails spectacularly with a NetworkUnreachable exception. When I disconnect from the VPN everything is fine and executes as expected.
Also, some more context to my environment - the VPN type is L2TP IPSec and the service is of a unsecure netPeerTcpBinding type. I cannot even instantiate the ServiceHost class - so I don't even get to the point of trying to configure the address, bindings and contract for the ServiceHost.
I have the exception details below. Although the stack trace itself is meaningless I have included it here for the sake of completeness.
How weird is that? Is it a bug or is that how it is supposed to work? Can anyone else also reproduce this?
Exception Details:
Error Message: "A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable network"
Socket Error Code: System.Net.Sockets.SocketError.NetworkUnreachable
Error Code: 10051
Stack Trace:
at System.ServiceModel.AsyncResult.End[TAsyncResult](IAsyncResult result)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PeerNodeImplementation.SimpleStateManager.EndOpen(IAsyncResult result)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PeerNodeImplementation.SimpleStateManager.Open(TimeSpan timeout, Boolean waitForOnline)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PeerNodeImplementation.Open(TimeSpan timeout, Boolean waitForOnline)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PeerChannelListenerBase.OnOpenCore(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PeerChannelListenerBase.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PeerChannelListener`2.OnOpenCore(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PeerChannelListener`2.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ChannelDispatcher.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open()
at QuickReturnTraderChat.Main.StartService() in C:\Users\Amit Bahree\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\QuickReturnTraderChat\ChatApplication\Main.cs:line 43
at QuickReturnTraderChat.Main.Main_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in C:\Users\Amit Bahree\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\QuickReturnTraderChat\ChatApplication\Main.cs:line 89
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DebuggableCallback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
at System.Windows.Forms.SafeNativeMethods.ShowWindow(HandleRef hWnd, Int32 nCmdShow)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.SetVisibleCore(Boolean value)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.SetVisibleCore(Boolean value)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.set_Visible(Boolean value)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context)
at System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(Form mainForm)
at QuickReturnTraderChat.Program.Main() in C:\Users\Amit Bahree\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\QuickReturnTraderChat\ChatApplication\Program.cs:line 18
at System.AppDomain.nExecuteAssembly(Assembly assembly, String[] args)
at System.AppDomain.ExecuteAssembly(String assemblyFile, Evidence assemblySecurity, String[] args)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly()
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
If you have any mp4 video that you would like to play on Vista then you need to install the Xvid codec's for those to work. There are many codec's out there (especially Xvid being open source), for me this particular pack has been quite successful and I would recommend it.
Finally if you have been waiting for WMDC to sync up your Mobile, you don't need to use the hack I had posted - instead can use Beta 3 of WMDC that is now publicly available. This works on RC1 onwards - I have tried it on Builds 54xx and also now on RC2 (build 5744) and it works fine. If you have the internal dogfood build installed, this will detect that and update it. And you get support for Windows Mobile 2003 as well!
Vista RC2 (essentially an updated build of RC1), is now available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers in addition to the TAP and Beta Testers. I just checked and I don't see it on MSDN, possibly it is being slowly rolled out.
Update: If you are not part of the beta program, you and download RC2 from here (link via fellow Avanut Chris Smith).
I don't know if I am doing something wrong, or if this is a bug (it has been a long day for me and I am at wit's end so I cannot be certain one way or the other). If you have a WCF class (for example as shown in the code snipped below), where I have a Windows Form that happens to implement both the Service and Client side of a WCF application.
1 [ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.Single)]
2 public partial class Main : Form, ISomeInterface
3 {
4 //rest of the code commented out
5 }
Now this is pretty straightforward - all I was trying to do was start the ServiceHost as shown in the code snippet below. To begin with, if you instantiate the host by passing in a type (as shown by the code in Line 4), the solution will compile and run without any issues - or does it? Well, it does not as the behavior is not what you expect; while the service side of things seems to wire up correctly, the client side of things don't. I can see the event firing and everything looks OK, and no exceptions are thrown, but it does not work. I cannot get a complete end-to-end "conversation" going.
1 private void StartService()
2 {
3 //Instantiate new ServiceHost
4 host = new ServiceHost(typeof(Main)); //this does not work
5 host = new ServiceHost(this); //but this does
6
7 //Open ServiceHost
8 host.Open();
9
10 channelFactory = new ChannelFactory<ISomeInterface>("SomeEndpoint");
11 channel = channelFactory.CreateChannel();
12 //rest of code delete for clarity
13 }
14
It took me a little time to narrow it down to this, but if you change the line 4 above to passing in the object directly as shown in Line 5 (remember both the client and service is in the same class - see the signature in the first code snippet at the top of this post), then everything works like a charm. I am running Vista RC1 Build 5728, which essentially is the Sept. CTP of WCF.
To give you the complete context the ServiceHost class has two constructors shown below. Not sure if it is important or not, but the bindings were setup as netPeerTcpBindings.
1 public ServiceHost(object singletonInstance, params Uri[] baseAddresses);
2 public ServiceHost(Type serviceType, params Uri[] baseAddresses);
Before anyone starts sending me emails on this, it goes without saying, in the real world, you will of course not have both lines 4 and 5 - they are only shown here to point out the issue.
Not sure if anyone else has seen something similar or is it just me?
(Update: Changed the Code plug-in to get the formatting correct)
For the last few days I have not been able to run Windows Update on Vista RC1 (I am running Build 5728) even though I am online. I always get the Code 8024400A error (see screen shot below).
Nothing stands out in the event log. Speaking of the Event Log, if you think you can find these failures in "Windows Logs => Systems", well then think again. You would need to go to "Application and Service Logs => Microsoft => Windows => WindowsUpdateClient => Operational" (phew, what a mouthful).
Is anyone else also experiencing this? Any idea what is wrong? If it will help here is the XML from the log:
1 Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational
2 Source: Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient
3 Date: 06/10/2006 22:15:33
4 Event ID: 25
5 Task Category: Windows Update Agent
6 Level: Error
7 Keywords: Failure,Check for Updates
8 User: SYSTEM
9 Computer: AmitBahree-PC
10 Description:
11 Windows Update failed to check for updates with error 0x8024400a.
12 Event Xml:
13 <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
14 <System>
15 <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient" Guid="{945a8954-c147-4acd-923f-40c45405a658}" />
16 <EventID>25</EventID>
17 <Version>0</Version>
18 <Level>2</Level>
19 <Task>1</Task>
20 <Opcode>11</Opcode>
21 <Keywords>0x4000000000000022</Keywords>
22 <TimeCreated SystemTime="2006-10-06T21:15:33.317Z" />
23 <EventRecordID>174</EventRecordID>
24 <Correlation />
25 <Execution ProcessID="1160" ThreadID="4708" />
26 <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-WindowsUpdateClient/Operational</Channel>
27 <Computer>AmitBahree-PC</Computer>
28 <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
29 </System>
30 <EventData>
31 <Data Name="errorCode">0x8024400a</Data>
32 </EventData>
33 </Event>
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