Tech Blender

Microsoft pops out a number of interesting downloads this week.

Sample Code Generator 1.4.2.1 - What a terrible name for something that "takes an XSD schema as input and generates sample code showing how to mark up C# and VB.Net classes so that when serialized with the XML serializer, the resulting XML will be valid according to the original schema."

DHTML Editing Control for Applications Redistributable Package - This isn't actually interesting, except that the notes seem to indicate that Access 2003 is at least partially incompatible with Vista.

POS for .NET 1.1 SDK - Need to talk to a bar code scanner, magnetics card reader, or reciept printer?

Microsoft Standard User Analyzer - Nifty.  Built on top of the Microsoft Application Verifier, this utility will let you launch an application and analyze it as it runs to see if it would run as a standard user.  I tried it on a .NET app of mine, and it spit out all kinds of indications that the app won't run as a standard user, but the errors appear to be just stuff that the .NET framework is doing in the background.  Not sure how useful this would be for managed apps.  Seriously, what am I supposed to do about this?

CreateFileMappingW: Section (Global\netfxcustomperfcounters.1.0.net clr networking) is denied '' access with error 0x5.

Vista's glass won't hold Java

If you have sufficient hardware, Vista will render the UI using a feature that Microsoft referrs to as "glass" where portions of the windows are semi-transparent.

Microsoft Watch is reporting that if you use applications that fire up the Java VM it turns glass off, system-wide, until you shut down the app.

Which Microsoft Products Are/Aren't Supported on Vista

Petitions are all the rage.  Maybe we should start a petition to have Microsoft publish a comprehensive list of what products will and won't be supported on Vista.

Just a few that I've come across:

Product	Supported?
Visual Studio 2005	Supported
Visual Studio 2005 SP 1	Not currently supported.
Visual Studio 2003	Not supported
Visual Studio .NET (2002)	Not supported
Visual Studio 6	Supported
Visual Studio 6 SP 6	Maybe supported?
XNA	Not supported. Will be when Vista goes RTM.
SQL Server 2005 (Everything but Enterprise Edition)	Sort of supported (Installs, but complains about needing SP2, which doesn't exist yet.)
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition	Not supported
SQL Server 2000	Not supported
Access 2003	Mostly?
Virtual PC 2004	Not supported

Ok, I'm not going to count on Microsoft providing a comprehensive list, so if you know of other products that are/aren't supported then post them as comments, and I'll update this list.

Updated 2006-09-30: Access 2003 may not be fully supported on Vista.

Updated 2006-10-20: Added more details about SQL Server running on Vista.

Updated 2006-11-07: Added information about Virtual PC 2004.

Info on keeping IIS up and running

Want to maintain Web site uptime even if hardware fails?  The IIS blog points to how Microsoft does it.

PAG Explorer

First, who writes ScottGu's blog for him?  It's just hard to believe that someone at his level has the time to write this amount of blog content with the frequency that he does.

Second, he points to something that looks pretty cool.  An explorer that lets you drill through a database of best practice recommendations.

Want to develop for the .NET Micro Framework?

Microsoft has released a Beta developer kit for the .NET Micro Framework.

I guess the .NET Subcompact Framework just didn't have the right ring to it.

Copy Constructor vs. Clone

If you're interested in the merits of copy constructors vs. clone methods (and ICloneable), there's a debate going on over in the MSDN Wiki.

A nano-second is still a foot

Larry O'Brien points out that while time may be money, it's also distance, and chip makers have to take that into account these days.

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 (Beta)

Microsoft has just released the beta for VS 2005 SP1.  While I'm salivating over the option of installing an SP for VS 2005, hopeful that it will fix the many bugs that I experience, I just can't recommend installing a Beta service pack.  But, I hope someone does, because if it has bugs, I want them fixed, and if it's solid, I want it to ship.

Genetic Algorithms in the Linux Kernal

The idea is to have the kernal figure out how to self-tune.