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An Early Look At IE9 for Developers

We're just about a month after the Windows 7 launch, and wanted to show an early look at some of the work underway on Internet Explorer 9.  At the PDC today, in addition to demonstrating some of the progress on performance and interoperable
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: ie announcements
Nov 20 2009 11:23 AM
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Challenge: Robust enumeration over external code

Here is an interesting little problem: public class Program { private static void Main() { foreach (int i in RobustEnumerating(Enumerable.Range(0, 10), FaultyFunc)) { Console.WriteLine(i); } } public static IEnumerable<T>
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: c#
Mar 04 2010 07:35 AM
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0
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Suggestions for a new laptop?

Okay, the previous time I asked this question, I decided that buying a big desktop machine would be preferable, but I am currently traveling and I am pained at the speed of my current laptop. Therefore, I am going to need a new one. I am the happy owner
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: miscellaneous
Feb 13 2010 05:34 AM
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Microsoft Joins W3C SVG Working Group

As a part of Microsoft’s continued commitment to interoperability and standards support, yesterday we submitted our request to join the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). We’re excited to take part in
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: w3c
Jan 06 2010 03:52 AM
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1
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Silverlight 4 Beta – A guide to the new features

At the Microsoft Professional Developer (PDC) conference, Scott Guthrie announced the availability of Silverlight 4 Beta. WHAT?! That's right, we've released an early beta of the next version of Silverlight. It's really amazing to think what the team is
Method ~ of ~ failed by Tim Heuer
 
Tim Heuer
tags: developer expression pdc ria silverlight
Nov 19 2009 10:40 PM
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In which hints become facts: XNA Game Studio 4.0

Today we announced what I've been hinting at this past few weeks: XNA Game Studio 4.0 is coming soon* to a phone near you! Quick summary: New platform Windows Phone 7 Series New features Integrates with Visual Studio 2010 Dynamic audio output Microphone
Shawn Hargreaves Blog
 
ShawnHargreaves
Mar 10 2010 05:32 AM
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Documenting Standards in IE

This post discusses some of the work we’re doing on the IE team to fulfill our commitment to document our support of web standards. A good starting point is Microsoft’s interoperability principles, something we’ve written about here on this blog before,
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: ie announcements w3c
Feb 25 2010 04:33 AM
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Stories of anticipating dead computers: Windows Home Server

Like most geeks, I have a bit of history with dead computers. In the past, I used the "wait until it breaks, and then panic" model, but recently I've begun being a bit more anticipatory, like replacing an old laptop before it actually expires.
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other dead computers
Nov 10 2009 12:17 AM
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4
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Can you hack this out?

I recently had to take a really deep look into how to cheat the CLR, that brought about some interesting discoveries, including the fact that it is, surprisingly, possible to do so. Let us say that you have this code in some 3rd party assembly that you
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
Nov 19 2009 04:06 PM
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Hey, is there somebody around to accept this award?

Back in the late 1990s, some large Internet association conducted a survey in order to bestow awards in categories like Best Web server and Best Web browser, and one of the categories was Best Web authoring tool. We didn't find out about this until the
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: history
Nov 03 2009 09:45 PM
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Only an idiot would have parameter validation, and only an idiot would not have it

The great thing about parameter validation is that there are people who say that only idiots would have it, and other people who say that only idiots wouldn't. Back in the old days, Windows didn't do parameter validation. If you called a function with an
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Nov 10 2009 11:11 PM
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Little-known command line utility: clip

Windows Vista includes a tiny command line utility called clip. All it does is paste its stdin onto the clipboard. dir | clip echo hey | clip For the opposite direction, I use a little perl script: use Win32::Clipboard; print Win32::Clipboard::GetText();
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: tips/support
Oct 11 2009 09:34 PM
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What can EF 4.0 do that NHibernate can’t?

I am trying to formulate my formal response to "NH vs. EF" question, and while I have a pretty solid draft ready, I found out that my response is pretty biased. I am not happy with that, so I wanted to pose this as a real question. So far, I came up
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers
Dec 24 2009 01:04 PM
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1
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When computer programmers dabble in making change

My colleague who dabbled in economics when deciding how many lunch vouchers to buy had a number of other money-related quirks. One of the ones that I remember is that when paying for a purchase, my colleague would double the balance and give the cashier
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Nov 25 2009 01:04 AM
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NHibernate vs. Entity Framework 4.0

This is a question that I get very frequently, and I always tried to dodged the bullet, but I get it so much that I feel that I have to provide an answer. Obviously, I am (not so) slightly biased toward NHibernate, so while you read it, please keep it in
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers
Jan 05 2010 05:43 PM
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Why did the word Start disappear from the Start button?

Commenter Mike Dunn would like to know why the word Start disappeared from the Start button in Windows Vista. After all, adding the word Start helped new users figure out what they should click first. I don't know but I can guess. To emphasize that these
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Dec 15 2009 01:06 AM
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Voicemail security, even stronger than bank security

Microsoft's telephone department takes security very seriously. Your voicemail password must be at least eight digits long. By comparison, the password for my ATM card is only four digits long. Because voicemail is that important, I guess. (Yes, I know
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Mar 03 2010 09:01 PM
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Working with the HTML5 Community

We’re always excited to engage with members of the W3C including the developers of other browsers as well as the broader web development community to help shape the direction of emerging Web standards, particularly HTML5.  This includes
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: w3c
Mar 10 2010 06:51 AM
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Advocating the overthrow of the government of the United States by force or subversion

It has been widely reported that South Carolina now requires "subversive groups" to register with the Secretary of State (and pay a $5 filing fee). Curiously, the list of organizations which must register include "an organization subject to
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Feb 15 2010 11:48 PM
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Responding to how EF is better NH commentary…

My last post caused quite a bit of furor, and I decided that I wanted to respond to all the comments in a single place. EF has a designer, NHibernate does not. This is actually false, NHibernate has multiple designers available for it. Active Writer
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers
Dec 25 2009 07:22 PM
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What should I work on next?

As we near completion with EF Prof, I am starting to think about what the next project* would be. I got some ideas, but I would like to see what you think. Note that I won't necessarily follow this, but it would be a good indication about where to
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: miscellaneous
Dec 10 2009 11:11 PM
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Slaying relational dragons

I recently had a fascinating support call, talking about how to optimize a very big model and an access pattern that basically required to have the entire model in memory for performing certain operations. A pleasant surprise was that it wasn’t horrible
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers databases
Feb 22 2010 01:46 PM
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You are listen to Radio Free Bob, a pirate radio station broadcasting on the Microsoft corporate network

Back in the late 1980's, when NETBIOS ruled the land at Microsoft, one of my colleagues ran a pirate radio station on the Microsoft corporate network. Let's call this colleague Bob, my generic name for a Microsoft employee. Bob had converted a bunch of
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: history
Dec 15 2009 09:57 PM
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3
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How would you learn a new platform?

Here is an interesting problem that I am facing. I have a pretty good working knowledge of computing, and while I can usually manage to get the gist of a new technology in a short amount of time, that is only useful for talking about it, not actually
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: development
Nov 23 2009 04:00 PM
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1
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ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta Released

Today at PDC09 (the keynote was streaming live), Bob Muglia announced the release of ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta. Feel free to download it right away! While you do that I want to present this public service message. The Beta release includes tooling for Visual
you've been HAACKED
 
Haacked
tags: asp.net asp.net mvc software development
Nov 17 2009 11:58 PM
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How IE8 Determines Document Mode

This post describes how IE8 determines what Document Mode such as Quirks or Standards Modes to use for rendering websites. This topic is important for site developers and consumers. It’s related to the Compatibility View List that we recently
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: compatibility
Mar 03 2010 01:52 AM
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Profiler Subscription?

One repeated request for the profiler is to have a personal version (which a price to match). I am not really happy with the idea, for several reasons. One of the major ones is that I have enough variability in the product already, and adding a new
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: uberprof
Feb 24 2010 07:30 AM
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Why is the fine for a basic traffic infraction in the state of Washington such a random-looking number?

Willy-Peter Schaub was puzzled by a sign reminding drivers that the fine for obstructing an intersection is $101 and wonders what the extra $1 is for. The laws of the State of Washington defer the monetary value of traffic fines to the Infraction Rules
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Mar 09 2010 09:45 PM
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Tab Isolation

Tab isolation has recently become a more popular topic. This post is a quick survey of what tab isolation is, how it works, and what it provides. What is it? Tab isolation is a way to improve a browser’s reliability by containing the impact of a crash.
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: engineering pov
Mar 05 2010 06:36 AM
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How many servings are there in a single-serve cup? The answer might surprise you

I was in the grocery store, and there was a sign advertising a new product. Delight in a cup Your favorite XYZ Ice Cream Now in convenient single-serve cups. I took a look at the cup. Seemed kind of big for a single serving. I picked one up to read the
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer reading the fine print
Feb 20 2010 02:33 AM
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It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Dubious escalation

Consider this type of dubious security vulnerability: There is a buffer overflow bug in kernel driver&nbsp;X. To exploit it, call this function with these strange parameters. The exploit works only if you are logged on as administrator, because
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Feb 16 2010 08:30 PM
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Learning how to cheat at Candy Land

My young niece received the game Candy Land and wants to play it several times a day. Naturally, I am frequently drafted as an opponent. I discovered that my niece cheats rampantly. Sometimes, she will advance three green squares instead of two. Or if a
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Jan 08 2010 01:35 AM
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How do I determine the processor's cache line size?

When doing high-performance computing, you need to worry about the CPU cache line size in order to avoid issues like false sharing. But how can you determine the processor's cache size? The GetLogicalProcessorInformation function will give you
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: code
Dec 08 2009 09:53 PM
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How do I minimize a group of windows in Windows 7 from the taskbar?

The Windows 7 taskbar automatically groups similar windows, and when you right-click on the grouped icon, you may get fancy stuff like a jump list or a task list, but you will also get a very small repertoire of window management options. In
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: tips/support
Dec 30 2009 01:37 AM
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Food products that are offenses against nature: Bagel-fuls

Wow, it's been a long time since my last rant against food products that are offenses against nature. Today's rant is against Bagel-fuls, a product which Kraft launched in April 2008. Bagel-fuls (note the hyphen and the lowercase "f") are a dense, doughy
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Feb 26 2010 01:29 AM
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My Java Experience

As I mentioned before, I am actively trying to find what I don’t know, and plug it. As part of that endeavor, I spent the last week learning Java EE. I decided that in the interest of saving time I am going to invest some money and I took a week long
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: programming
Jan 14 2010 05:18 PM
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Production profiling security considerations

I am currently in the process of building support for the production profiling. The technical part (how to reduce the footprint of the profiler when not profiling) is pretty easy, and I spiked it out in a matter of a few hours. The non technical part has
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: programming
Jan 05 2010 03:06 AM
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2009 year-end link clearance

Time for the semi-annual link clearance. The decade according to 9-year-olds. (Technically the decade doesn't end until next year, but try convincing anybody to care.) The online Dilbert strip finder does a full-text search on Dilbert comics, for those
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Jan 01 2010 12:29 AM
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2
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Reading Frenzy

I don't usually read non fiction books, I read some tech books, but that is work, more than anything else. I do read a lot, and I thought that I might post what I like, in hope to get recommendations for more stuff. The following list is mixed between
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: books
Dec 05 2009 12:04 AM
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What is the effect of setting the /3GB switch on my 64-bit Windows machine?

Nothing.
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Nov 03 2009 11:34 PM