October 2004 - Posts

• Windows(Apples) vs. Linux/Unix(Oranges) TCO

  Recently there has been a lot of articles and posts about which platform has the lowest TCO. Many of these discussions perturb me including the latest executive email from Steve Ballmer, No Free Lunch an article in the latest edition of  Microsoft's Executive Circle, and a recent study done by the Yankee group. The reason these and many others perturb me is that they all make a similar remark to this one from the Yankee group study:   "And in large enterprises, a significant Linux deployment or total switch from Windows to Linux, would be three to four times more expensive and take three times as long to deploy as an upgrade from one version of Windows to newer Windows releases," the study found.   The real reason this perturbs me is that people are still comparing apples to oranges. I would really hope that an upgrade from one version of Windows to the next would have a cheaper TCO then it would to change an entire infrastructure from Windows to Linux or Unix. That's like saying it is it's a lower TCO to add an additional row of apple trees to an apple orchard then it would be to throw all of the current trees away and plant orange trees instead.   COME ON! Get on the ball, publish some facts and statistics at actually mean something and don't open your mouth bashing another company, idea, platform, etc. unless your facts are accurate.   I understand that we can probably assume that X% of the businesses out there are already running a Microsoft Windows environment and that it might make more business sense to push the thought that it is cheaper just to stay with the current platform. Though these facts just piss more people off.   If someone is going to publish statistics, figures and facts based on a Windows vs. Linux/Unix TCO I would like to see the following: Startup vs. Startup Windows Upgrade vs. Linux/Unix Switch Linux/Unix Upgrade vs. Windows Switch Windows Upgrade vs. Linux/Unix Upgrade Posted Oct 31 2004, 02:04 PM by emaino with 3 comment(s)

• i = i++;

  Should the following code, i = i++;, be caught by the compiler as an invalid operation? I don't know why I thought of writing this code today, but after doing so and testing it in Managed C++, C# and J# (this code was not tested in VB.NET becuase it does not supporte the postfix increment operation), I wonder if this code should just be caught by the compiler. When the example code is used in a loop, for (int i=0; i<10; i=i++), C++ is the only one too successfuly complete the loop, while J# and C# enter into infinite loops. The reason C# and J# enter into these loops is becuase they call dup, before the increment operation and the original value 0, in code is always the last value to be popped off the stack before the greater than or equal to check is made. This is obviously because the same variable is used rather then x = i++; Anyhow... What do you think? Should this be caught? Posted Oct 24 2004, 08:18 PM by emaino with 2 comment(s)

• Configuring FPSE Programatically

  Recently I wrote a script that is used to create bulk users on a Server 2003 terminal server. The script creates the user, places them in proper Active Directory OU, and adds them to the proper groups, pretty simple. Well in order to allow the users to develop and debug ASP.NET web applications I also had to set the server up so that they each had their own subweb and application pool. I also additionally had to create a tool that would sychronize their application pool and subweb user's password when they made a change. The last and final hurdle I had to jump over was actually configuring FrontPage Server Extensions for each of the subwebs. As far as I can tell there are no APIs or easy ways to do this with Server 2003 and IIS 6.0 out of the box. After googling for a while, I did find a tool that would help, but could not actually locate the tool, so I decided to give up and came up with this solution instead: public static void EnableFrontPageExtensions(string server, string web, bool inherit, string domain, string username) {    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();    sb.Append("web=%2F");    sb.Append(web);    sb.Append("&operation=create&page=newsbweb.htm&nextpage=webadmin.htm&oweb=&uweb=");    sb.Append(web);    if (inherit)       sb.Append("&Inherit=true");    else     {       sb.Append("&Inherit=false&username=");       sb.Append(domain);       sb.Append("%5C");       sb.Append(username);    }    sb.Append("&siteprovision=publish&Submit=++Submit++");       byte[] data = new ASCIIEncoding().GetBytes(sb.ToString());    HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(server + "/_vti_bin/_vti_adm/fpadmdll.dll");    req.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;    req.Method = "POST";    req.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";    req.ContentLength = data.Length;    Stream stream = req.GetRequestStream();    stream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);    stream.Close();    req.GetResponse(); } Posted Oct 19 2004, 11:52 PM by emaino with 4 comment(s)

• Imagine Cup 2005 FAQ

  DISCLAIMER: While the information in this post is intended to be accurate, this is not an official Microsoft post and is only meant to be informative.   What is the Imagine Cup? The Imagine Cup (www.imaginecup.com; imagine.thespoke.net), sponsored by Microsoft, celebrates and showcases student achievements in technology. This worldwide competition has touched thousands of students over the past two years, inspiring them to create, design, and achieve, all using the power of technology.   Beginning in 2003 with one category - software design – the Imagine Cup has grown to encompass a diverse range of competition options for students at all levels of technical skill and interest. The 2004 competition reached over 30 countries in four competition categories, culminating in a US National Finals in San Diego and a World Finals in Brazil. The Software Design Invitational continues into 2005 as our premier competition category, drawing the most talented student developers from universities the world over to design complex real world application using Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio.   What is the high school Imagine Cup? For the first time, high school students will have a forum to apply their creativity and capabilities with technology. The High School Invitational, built upon the foundation of the imagine cup, will introduce students to designing complex, real world application using Microsoft .NET and Visual Studio.   What is the theme this year? Imagine a world where technology dissolves the boundaries between us.   What categories are available this year? This year the 9 categories of competition at the world collegiate level are: Software Design Office Designer Algorithm Rendering Short Film IT* Technology Business Plan Senior Project Designer Web Development* Visual Gaming* *  Denotes world wide high school competitions   What about the software design invitational for high school students? Unique to the United States, Microsoft introduces the High School Software Design Invitational. The US High School Invitational is a team and project-based application design competition.   Please stay tuned for more details when the U.S. Imagine Cup site (http://imagine.thespoke.net/us) launches. Posted Oct 19 2004, 11:51 AM by emaino with no comments

• Possible Student Flash Column

  One thing I proposed as an idea for the student flash news letter was to have a column called "Coding Challenges", or something more marketable (as that's not more forte). The idea behind this column is that each issue a new challenge would be released to the reading population and a few days later the same challenge would be release on a blog somewhere (yet to be defined). Before the next issue is released the solution to the past issue's problem would be blogged (as we don't want to take up precious realstate in the news letter) and then linked in the current news letter. These problems would be developed to challenge the students, but yet be solveable to induce gratification. Let me know what you think? Good? Bad? Please remember this is just the initial brain storming. I have began something similar with my local CS Club  http://www.gvcisclub.org. Posted Oct 07 2004, 03:44 PM by emaino with no comments

• Student Flash

  For those of you that are students or are just active in the academic environment I would highly encourage you to check out Microsoft's lastest flash news letter, MSDN Student Flash. This flash update will contain a lot of great information about the stuff going on in the adcademic world and will also highlight lots of cool stuff the Microsoft Student Ambassadors are doing around the U.S. On the Quest to Discover Your Inner-Geek, This is Nirvana. Cold pizza. All-nighters. MSDN Student Flash. Now that's a well-rounded (and properly caffeinated) college experience-from extreme coding and brain teasers to job hookups and features on the hottest geeks in the industry, Student Flash has it all. So subscribe today and never leave your beloved computer again. Get MSDN Student Flash in Your Own Language Set your language preferences and you'll receive the MSDN Student Flash from Microsoft in your language preferences (if available). Posted Oct 07 2004, 03:32 PM by emaino with no comments