May 26
In spite of having a decade head start with Windows Mobile and the Pocket PC, Microsoft somehow completely missed the initial smartphone wave and is now playing a desperate game of catchup.
Apple released its first iPhone in 2007, essentially defined the smartphone ecosystem, and jumped to an impressive early lead. But with a more open platform and cheaper hardware, Google Android has grabbed a commanding 35% share of smartphone subscribers. Apple is holding flat around 25%.
Microsoft entered the smartphone market late in 2010 with Windows Phone 7 (WP7), which was already generations behind competing platforms and lacked key features like copy/paste and multitasking. WP7 is also incompatible with previous versions of Windows Mobile, so existing users have no allegiance to the new Windows phones, and hence are just as likely to switch to iPhone or Android. As a result, Microsoft’s share of the smartphone market is only 8% and dropping.
Continue reading »
May 21
In January 2011, well-known computer hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz discovered and published the keys to the Sony PlayStation 3 game console. GeoHot had previously cracked the iPhone, allowing users to “jailbreak” their phone and run any software they want.
Crack Goes the PS3
Around the same time, another hacker group fail0verflow had also cracked the PS3 and released tools that enabled users to install the Linux operating system on the PS3. The capability to turn the PS3 into a regular Linux computer was a favorite among geeks and hackers. Sony originally provided this feature, but later angered the hacker community when it turned off the feature in 2010.
GeoHot took it to the next level and released the PS3’s “root key.” This key authorizes hackers to run essentially any software on the PS3. And a root key is nearly impossible to change without breaking all existing PS3 software. Hence, GeoHot permanently and publicly cracked the PS3 platform.
Continue reading »
May 11
Imagine you are at a cocktail party. You are having a private conversation with someone you thought was a trusted business associate. You lean forward and whisper confidential information in his ear. He immediately repeats what you said aloud.
Your secret may not be exposed – depending on whether anyone is within earshot – but this person has violated your trust. You are unlikely to share any more secrets with him.
This is what it’s like when a website or online store emails your password in plaintext. The vendor has violated your trust and called into question whether you should continue to do business with them.
Continue reading »
May 11
This would be even more funny/scary if Microsoft was still the 800-pound gorilla in the computer industry that everyone feared.
Apr 13
Qink has assembled a comprehensive list of freely-available libraries for the Microsoft .NET platform.
Free .NET Libraries
Mar 14
Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for its Visual Studio 2010 flagship integrated development environment (IDE). Visual Studio SP1 provides many new features, performance improvements, and bug fixes including:
- Stand-alone Help Viewer 1.1
- Silverlight 4 support
- Basic Unit Testing support for .NET 3.5
- .NET Framework 4 improvements
- Performance Wizard for Silverlight
- Visual Basic Runtime embedding
- IntelliTrace for 64-bit and SharePoint
- Fix for partial or mixed Visual Studio installations
- IIS 7.5 Express support
- SQL Server CE 4 support
- Razor support for ASP.NET Web Pages and MVC 3
- Web Platform Installer integration
- HTML5 and CSS3 preliminary support
- WCF RIA Services localized and supported
- XAML Editor/Designer improvements
- XAML Style IntelliSense
- C++ MFC-based GPU-accelerated graphics and animations
- New AMD and Intel instruction set support
Download Visual Studio 2010 SP1
Full Description of VS 2010 SP1
Tips on Installing VS 2010 SP1
Feb 18
Microsoft has stated that its Windows Phone Marketplace will reject any apps that use the GNU General Public License (GPL) and similar licenses. As stated in Article 5 of Microsoft’s Application Provider Agreement:
“The Application must not include software, documentation, or other materials that, in whole or in part, are governed by or subject to an Excluded License, or that would otherwise cause the Application to be subject to the terms of an Excluded License.”
Continue reading »
Feb 05
Do you notice anything odd about the following list?
00000000-9b6d-4998-9dd7-6026894bdfba
11111111-9022-4400-bac2-8b66a9874443
22222222-a890-4dec-98bc-f41536b760bc
33333333-e361-4239-8d04-3f16f68ad9ce
44444444-d8c2-40ab-91bd-5a84511ed9d3
55555555-447a-4aa9-a51f-35c74a154156
66666666-193b-4ac3-bd92-860b6b49aedb
77777777-49de-4cc5-b9e6-2e5785dd47af
88888888-0d00-4672-933a-d68e240772be
99999999-7d9d-4d77-9e35-5e919db0f7d1
aaaaaaaa-76cd-4d6b-bae2-574e5b57c7ab
bbbbbbbb-6f9e-4d2d-ba11-64df5c7355fa
cccccccc-b897-4b15-9ab3-11b97836ce85
dddddddd-b417-48ad-8b5b-b762df75e03b
eeeeeeee-cc9c-4cb8-bae0-bbd4b10307fa
ffffffff-8d46-4a31-b297-2ac67dda3600
Yes, they are all legitimate Guids (Globally Unique IDs). But each is also a Vanity Guid, which is a unique ID that has some recognizable pattern embedded in the Guid’s text representation. A Vanity Guid is like a vanity license plate, only geekier.
Read the rest at C#411 >>
Feb 04
Red Gate has announced that .NET Reflector will no longer be free at the end of February 2011. According to an open letter by Neil Davidson, Red Gate’s co-CEO:
”Red Gate has announced that it will charge $35 for version 7 of .NET Reflector upon its release in early March. Version 7 will be sold as a perpetual license, with no time bomb or forced updates.
As many of you know, our original intention was to maintain .NET Reflector as a free tool. But, after two-and-a-half years of providing it without charge, we realized that we could not make the free model work. We know that this will cause pain for some people in the .NET community, and we apologize for the change in policy.
As a commercial company, we need to charge at least a nominal amount to keep .NET Reflector up-to-date and relevant. Without revenue coming in, we cannot dedicate a team of developers to ensure that Reflector remains a valuable part of .NET developers’ toolboxes.”
Continue reading »
Nov 23
I recently wrote how Visual Studio 2010 is very slow on my fast PC, taking 25-30 seconds to start up. Thanks to a Microsoft employee who helped me but wishes to remain anonymous, my problem is solved.
The VMWare add-in, VMDebugger, causes Visual Studio 2010 to load very slowly on my fast PC.
Continue reading »
