August 2005 - Posts

Whidbey August CTP: 'The Binding Handle Is Invalid' workaround

After downloading the August CTP release I've had some issue with running the debugger, even on Release mode I get 'Error trying to run project: Unable to start Debugging. The Binding Handle Is Invalid'.

Not nice is it? If you get that happenning then a simple workaround is to goto your project properties and Untick 'Enable with Visual Studio hosting process' and it should work ok.

For reference:

Original Bug Report
Work Around

UPDATE:

Official Updated Post on this bug
posted Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:04 AM by wsoftware with 6 Comments

Opera 10 Year Anniversary, Get a free License code! (Today Only!)

To celebrate Opera's 10th Birthday, they are giving away license codes for the Opera browser today only, so hurry up and grab a code from here.
posted Wednesday, August 31, 2005 1:03 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

WinFS Live and Kicking (beta 1 anyway!)

Thats right, WinFS has just gone Beta 1 see the official Shipping WinFS Beta 1 thread on the WinFS blog on MSDN.

From the looks if it, MS will be releasing WinFS as a beta component with Vista when it RTM's and later  the final release. Whats interesting - and yet mind boggling - is that WinFS is (quite simply) makes your entire filesystem a database and WinFS itself is an instance of Sqlserver that accesses the data. This means that we can store not just files, but make it easier to search and even stream content.

I have yet to mess with WinFS and understand how it truely works, but you can learn more about WinFS (maybe some parts are out of date?) from TomsHardware or from a developers perspective at C# Corner.

posted Tuesday, August 30, 2005 2:58 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Silver's such a nice color for a car.... what could be better than a silver car?

I got an email from a friend today that made me think...

Some say Red cars go faster (*pffft*) others say black does and some others really dont care what color it is and know its whats inside the car that counts, personally i have a thing for blue (meh...) but when your considering a buy for a new BMW or Audi you'd want to look flashy and what better way than a silver colored car right?

Well what about a Silver car? No not silver colored, but *ACTUAL* silver?

Thats precisely what a Sheikh in Dubai has recently "bought"...



See a few more shots

Now leaving asside how fantestically lovely that car looks, I wonder... is this guy trying to tell us that he's soooooooooooo overloaded with money that he needs to buy a Silver car and not just an ordinary one like plain old us? I mean Bill gates is rich and you dont see him buying one of these and people bag him as being an evil empire or some such...

someone needs to invent a fuel that doesnt require oil - and while they're at it, something that doesnt pollute. Its nice to see *someone* enjoying the rising petrol prices... (unlike the rest of earths 5.9+1 billion population)

Then theres the whole idea of worldly possessions and how it ties down with religon... but thats a story for thought...
posted Friday, August 26, 2005 4:30 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments Rated Excellent [5 out of 5].

Avalanche Beta goes live... (and august CTP of Whidbey)

Just got the email about Avalanche going live, first thing to hit will be the long awaited August CTP of VS.NET, the installr/client is around 226Kb but you need to wait till after 5pm today as it will be "unavailable" till then...



dammit thats still 4 hours away:( ping
posted Friday, August 26, 2005 3:18 AM by wsoftware with 1 Comments

Uwe Boll cant direct, why the hell do companies give him money?

I nearly fainted when i saw the list of "upcoming movies" that Uwe Boll was working on... Some that may be recognisable...
  1. Far Cry (2006) (announced)
  2. Fear Effect (2006) (announced)
  3. Hunter: The Reckoning (2006) (announced)
  4. Night Claws (2005) (announced)
  5. Dungeon Siege (2006) (filming)
  6. Bloodrayne (2005) (post-production)
WHAT THE HELL... he's making a "Far Cry" movie? "Dungeon Seige"? Are you serous? After watching House of The Dead (makes Mortal Kombat and Super Mario brothers look good) and Alone in the Dark in agonising pain, finding that he's working on those makes me sick...

I'm glad he didnt trod on the Doom or Halo franchises:-) but of all things, Far Cry? I hear they'll be a HotD II (house of the dead)

But alas some people do like him... take this fansite for instance.
posted Thursday, August 25, 2005 5:07 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Quake 3 Source-code Release, wieghing in at 5.4MB:O

Ah yes, the moment we've all been waiting for, the release of the Quake 3 source.

Hopefully we'll see some mod's coming out like when the quake 2 source was released, to think that Quake 3 is still being used in benchmarks to this day is quite amazing...

Download it here.
posted Sunday, August 21, 2005 2:37 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Catalyst v5.8 Released from ATI... highly recommended download!

I downloaded the 5.8 release from DriverHeaven yesterday and from the initial usage its got some significant changes. The only game I've actually been bothered to play has been Battlefield II these days(that and Raptor + Commander Keen for old times sake!) but these drivers seem to make BF2 run a little bit better than the previous release. (256MB Sapphire X850XT PE - PCiEx)

Download them and take a look, theres lots of changes in this release:
Windows XP Drivers (x86)
Release Notes EDIT: I had teh Release notes and download links the wrong way... fixed (thanks to Mark22 for telling me!)
posted Thursday, August 18, 2005 3:03 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

New Hotmail beta screenshots...

Anyone who's using Hotmail might like to checkout whats in store for you folks when the new beta releases... Some screenshots from another blog.



They've brought the easy of Outlook 11 into hotmail, funky stuff...
posted Monday, August 15, 2005 12:14 PM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Sqlite Provider for ADO.NET 2.0 (not a managed wrapper!)

I've been working on our database tool for HotHTML 4(anyone who had the chance to use 'ServerExplorer' addin for HotHTML 3 should know that the addin is no longer supported and has since been bumbed up to HotHTML 4), among the usual bunch of Databases supported I've added Sqlite thanks to the C# ADO.NET 2.0 Provider for Sqlite by Robert Simpson. If your interested in tinkering with the sources they can be found here.

Unlike most *other* Sqlite wrappers, this isnt just the Sqlite source converted to MC++ or P/Invoking funcitons in the Sqlite library, instead this is a total conversion of the C Sqlite code into C# and running in a fully managed mode! Brilliant i say, not only that but the author has been kind enough to take the extra step of including full documentation *AND* adapters, trasnactions etc that are native to Sqlite.

Go on take a look, since coming across Sqlite a couple of years back, its down with Access and up with Sqlite!
posted Sunday, August 14, 2005 8:41 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

P5WD2 + P4 670 (3.8ghz) OC'd to 7.1Ghz... cooling? Why liquid nitro ofcourse;-)

Running almost the same config as my setup this insanely cool(literally) OC From XbitLabs...

A Japanese overclocker has managed to overclock 4 Intel Pentium 4 670 microprocessor to 7.132GHz and even run certain benchmarks on the system that was cooled down by liquid nitrogen.

In order to accomplish the extreme overclocking Japanese enthusiast Memesana, who published his results at XtremeSystems web-site, used ASUS P5WD2 Premium mainboard based on Intel’s i955X core-logic, Corsair PC2-5400UL 512MB memory modules as well as Intel Pentium 4 670 processor with stock speed of 3.80GHz. The processor system bus was overclocked to 1520MHz; processor’s voltage was pumped up to 1.70V, significantly higher than default setting; memory latency settings were CL4 3-3-4, memory voltage was set to 2.3V.

According to the posted statement, the system managed to calculate π (pi) number to 1 million decimal places in 18.516 seconds, which is currently the world’s record.

Earlier this year another overclocker has managed to push hit Intel Pentium 4 570J chip to 7.22GHz, but at that clock-speed the PC could function only in BIOS. The maximum speed at which he could boot Windows XP operating system and perform memory testing was 6.60GHz
posted Sunday, August 14, 2005 3:27 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Xbox 360 HD Previews of upcoming games... *yuummmmy*

A quick note about some of the HD Videos on Xbox 360 games coming around was posted on MS Download site.

Some cool flicks:
  • Quake 4
  • Dead Or Alive 4
  • Call of Duty 2
...And i'm still downloading the rest...

posted Saturday, August 13, 2005 4:10 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Saved by.... the MD5?

Found this kinda amusing and yet a little strange... it applies to australian traffic speed cameras...
  • EVERY fine issued by speed cameras could be invalid, after the Roads and Traffic Authority admitted yesterday it could not prove the authenticity of the pictures they take.

    In a double blow to the RTA, The Daily Telegraph can also reveal that Sydney Harbour Tunnel cameras monitoring toll cheats have been switched off for at least three years - and no penalties handed out.

    The revelation came as Sydney magistrate Lawrence Lawson threw out a speeding case after the RTA said it had no evidence that an image from a camera had not been doctored.
So how do they make sure the photo's are authentic? Why MD5 ofcourse!

  • "The integrity of all speed camera offences has been thrown into serious doubt and it appears that the RTA is unable to prove any contested speed camera matter because of a lack of admissible evidence," Mr Miralis said.

    The case revolved around the integrity of a mathematical MD5 algorithm published on each picture and used as a security measure to prove pictures have not been doctored after they have been taken.


Read the full article here. Thanks to Slashdot
posted Thursday, August 11, 2005 1:08 PM by wsoftware with 1 Comments

Change of Jobs, working at Vividas - Video Streaming technologies!

Its mighty cold here in VIC - lot more than usual... not as cold as the UK i'm sure! - so cold that its even snowed in the Dande's... But the change of weather came just in-time with my change in Jobs.

I no longer work for *that* company that I cant name (no its not WebSoftware!) but as of Tuesday I'm now apart of the Vividas crew.

Vividas is the company behind 'Vividas Player' (Suprise!) which is a video streaming platform (powered by VP6/VP7) which is very much like (to dumb things down) quicktime or Windows Media Player for streaming content, only with a twist. Its ultra fast, compact, installation-requiremente-requireded-no and very bandwidth efficient. Dont believe me? Ohhh so what now you think i'm lying to you? You of all people? Fine be that way...

Checkout some of the cool videos here(full screen under HIGH/MEDIUM, windowed in LOW):
Some of the big names that have adopted Vividas include Lexus(which I'm considering changing to from Subaru's - in my dreams), Jaguar (no chance of me getting one of these yet!) apart from the above. The decoder - written in C/C++ with a healthy mix of ASM - is around 250-300Kb. Most of the internals is hush hush so I cant reveal much, but what is interesting is the uptake of broadband across the globe and the future prospects of HD-Quality video streaming and where this technology is headed.

Its a big change from the predominantly .NET/Vx/Web stuff I've been doing the past several years but its new and an area of interest to me and definately different. I'll be sticking close to the Win32/Win64 environment though;-) Go see the videos for yourself!
posted Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:43 AM by wsoftware with 1 Comments

Spyware and Identity theft, its a very real reality.

Saw this on NeoWin today...

Researchers from a little-known security software company named Sunbelt Software have seemingly uncovered a criminal identity theft ring of massive proportions. According to one of their employees, Alex Eckelberry, during the course of one of their recent investigations into a particular Spyware application—rumored to be called CoolWebSearch—they've discovered that the personal information of those "infected" was being captured and uploaded to a server.

Updated (08/06/2005 4:24PM CDT): I've received a little bit more information on what's going on from the employees of Sunbelt Software. What follows is more or less the exact email I received from Alex Eckelberry:

Basically, it went like this:

Patrick Jordan, our CoolWebSearch expert, was doing research on a CWS exploit. During the course of the research, he disovered that a) the machine he was testing became a spam zombie and b) it send a call back to a remote server. He traced back the remote server and found what you have heard about.

The scale is unimaginable. There are thousands of machines pinging back in a day. There is a keylogger file that grows and grows, and then is zipped off and then the cycle continues again.

It is sophisticated. There are nifty little PHP scripts that help the criminals get reports. There is a special upload area.

Additional read and extra information

Make sure you dont get caught out. Install adaware, AntiSpy or SpyBot(what I use) to keep yourself clean.
posted Monday, August 08, 2005 7:55 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

Remote Controlled... Humans? WHAT THE?

Do you like Remote Control Cars? Planes? Boats? TVs? VCRs? Stereos?

OK ok... what about humans? Yeah.. I know, you must be joking right? Hellllll noooo...

Well would you believe it they've come up with a way to control human movement? Its via a small DC electric current that stimulates the behind of your ears which causes the body to move depending on the level of current. GVS as its called has been around for a century, but its only started picking up velocity (ha!) in the past 20 years...

Read the article on Forbes and watch the Video.

Now I wonder...

- Automated dance sequences so you can impress your wife without *actually* doing those dance classes and feeling like a girl:D
- Movies with remote controlled bombers... Get Smart anyone?


posted Sunday, August 07, 2005 9:25 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments

HOWTO: Vista Beta 1 on VirtualPC

For those of you who want to try Vista Beta 1 on VirtualPC there are some pitfals.

[From readme.txt]
Setup in this release of "Longhorn" versions of Windows does not support
installing to "RAW" disks (disks without a partition). To work around this
issue, install the "Longhorn" version of Windows on a partitioned disk. If you
must install to a RAW disk, press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt. Use the
Diskpart utility to create a disk partition. Restart the computer after creating
the partition, and start Setup again. The disk should be available for use.

VPC creates a RAW pdisk... so
  1. First and foremost, you need to have atleast a gig of phyiscal memory on the host (Eg. your machine)
  2. Allocate around 512MB Min to the guest OS
  3. Create a hard-disk with atleast 20GB of space (or dynamically growing)
  4. VPC cant read the ISO of the Beta 1 DVD, so you'll need to get something like Alcohol 120% or something to mount the ISO image as a virtual drive on your system and let VPC use that.
Then launch the VM session, mounting to the Virtual drive(or physical if you burned it!) and after POST you'll get the Longhorn PE. This is a mini-edition of the longhorn system that is going to go through the installation process - no longer a fugly installation process.

After all the productkey/eula stuff goes you'll come up with "The Partition you selected is not available for installation..." Click next here and the dsik should say "Unavailable".

Here you do this:
  1. SHIFT+F10 to launch the command line
  2. type "format C: /fs:ntfs /q" without the quotes which formats (quickly) the C drive as NTFS
  3. After format run "shutdown /r" without the quotes to reset your machine
  4. Relaunch Vista setup ignoring any BSoDs
If you keep getting BSoDs you'll need to run "chdsk /r" without the quotes.

EDIT:
I found some alternate pages for *your* enjoyment:
posted Thursday, August 04, 2005 10:53 AM by wsoftware with 0 Comments