Hemant's Blog

Markdown

2012-02-06T18:47:00.001+05:30

Heading 1

Below is some text for heading 1.

Heading 2

And Here is some text heading 2.

Heading 3

Some text for heading 3.

Heading 4

Some text for heading 4.

This is some quote from John Gruber.How about another.

But a blog cannot be complete without some some code:

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    Console.WriteLine ("Hello World");

This is bold and this is italics.

See you later.

Sublines 1.0.0.2 is available now

2010-09-14T21:03:00.001+05:30

There was a problem in earlier version of Sublines which caused problems in other types of subtitles. This problem has been fixed and latest code is uploaded. You can download the latest client from sublines site.

Sublines - Easy subtitles on Mac

2010-09-10T22:08:00.001+05:30

I have started an open source project called "Sublines" which allows the users to download subtitles on Mac OS X. Project is hosted on Google code site. Feel free to download and use if you need it.

Project Site: http://code.google.com/p/sublines/

Pakistani girls about India

2010-05-01T23:27:00.000+05:30

Leaving no stone unturned

2010-04-28T06:44:00.001+05:30

As a programmer myself, I used to think that I do my job very carefully. I used to think that I am the person who really thinks about possibly everything before I actually write code and ship it.

I was wrong! I currently have an opportunity to work with a person who taught me what it means to put your heart and soul to software you are writing. He taught me what really unit testing means. He taught me the real meaning of "leaving no stone unturned".

And whats more surprising is the delight you get when all the hard work is done. You hear the validation engineer saying "I am already confident with this software, we have almost no issues". When you ask the market facing people about their demo setup, they say "all is going well". Writing a quality code takes efforts first time but makes us free from support trouble for a long time after that.

Visual Studio 2010 - Released

2010-04-17T08:58:00.001+05:30

Visual Studio 2010 is officially released now. Full information here.

Unexpectedly big Nokia device software

2010-03-13T11:20:00.003+05:30

Today I was trying to update the firmware of my Nokia E71. So I launched Nokia Ovi Suite and started the update operations. I was simply shocked to see the device software size:

Total phone memory is 128 MB. Does the device software takes 102 MB? Can you image you buying a laptop with 120 GB hard disk only to find out that your operating system takes 100 GB and you are left with only 15 GB to play with.

Windows Experience Index

2010-02-13T14:17:00.002+05:30

Today I ran the windows assessment test on both my earlier HP laptop and new MacBook. And here are the results:

HP Laptop (hardware details):

MacBook (hardware details):

Having done this, it is definitely unfair to compare both since:

I bought HP laptop more than 2 years back whereas my Mac is brand new.
My HP laptop was priced $650 and my Mac is of $750.

Another interesting thing to note is that windows reports that my Mac is 64 bit capable.

Tuning the backlog for TCP server

2010-02-13T08:15:00.002+05:30

Yesterday we spent a lot of time of analysing the effects of backlog parameter on a server performance. It seems to affect the new connection acceptance rate. But what should be the right value for a high performance server?

It turns out that a right balance must be maintained when deciding the right value of backlog parameter. Selecting a too low value will result in new connections being refused in case of a connection burst and selecting a too high value will make your server vulnerable to syn attacks (taking food in the plate more than you can eat is always going to create problems).

So the backlog parameter must be decided based on following 2 criteria:

What maximum connection acceptance rate you are designing your server for?
What is maximum time you can take between serving new connections?

For example, if you are designing your server for maximum 100 connections per second and your server is so busy that it might not server new connection request for 500 msecs then your backlog should be 50!

But there are more interesting things. Various operating systems exhibit different behaviour with different backlog values.

Windows XP and Windows 7 both have a hard limit of 200. So any value of more than 200 will not have any effect and real backlog will be of 200 only. Though it does make sense considering these are desktop operating systems and aren't supposed be hosting real world high performance server applications.

Windows Server 2003 (Standard edition) is very polite (may I say too polite) because it assumes an infinite value for backlog if given any value beyond 64.

To summarize:

For Windows XP and Windows 7:

Given Value: 10: > Effective Value: 10

Given Value: 100: > Effective Value: 100

Given Value: 200: > Effective Value: 200

Given Value: 500: > Effective Value: 500

For Windows Server 2003 (standard edition):

Given Value: 10: > Effective Value: 10

Given Value: 50: > Effective Value: 50

Given Value: 63: > Effective Value: 63

Given Value: 64: > Effective Value: Infinite

Given Value: 100: > Effective Value: Infinite

Last surprise what that when experimented with Windows Server 2008 (standard edition), it showed the same behaviour as Windows XP and Windows 7! Well that was strange. I think the server must have some configurable parameter to control this behavior. But I couldn't experiment with it since it was too late in the office yesterday and my wife was yelling at me...

Picking IP address and port number when using UDP

2010-02-08T16:01:00.003+05:30

I have just finished experimenting with UDP using C# and .NET 3.5 and thought it would be nice to throw the findings on the blog to stop myself loosing track of them.

Listening on port n

First of all, when you are listening for packets, it doesn’t matter whether that packet was only intended for you or it was a broadcast. Suppose you are member of an email group in your organisation. You receive emails sent to that group but you also receive emails that are sent only to you. The way you receive and read your emails is unaffected by the fact that whether it was sent to the whole group or just to you.

Similarly, when listening for UDP packets, you just get one when you should. So when we are listening for packets, life is simple and we just listen on given port:

socket.LocalEndPoint = new IPEndPoint (IPAddress.Any, n);

//Remote end point can be defined in following 2 ways:

socket.RemoteEndPoint = new IPEndPoint (IPAddress.Any, 0);
//or 
socket.RemoteEndPoint = new IPEndPoint (IPAddress.Broadcast, 0);

Broadcasting on port n

If you wish to broadcast some packet to a given port, specifying local end point is not mandatory. If none is provided, a free port will be automatically picked. But we do need to specify remote end point:

//socket.LocalEndPoint = Not mandatory;
socket.RemoteEndPoint = new IPEndPoint (IPAddress.Broadcast, n);

Sending a packet on given IP address and port

If you wish to send an UDP packet to one computer specifically, you just need to define that IP address when setting remote end point. Local end point still remains optional:

//socket.LocalEndPoint = Not mandatory;
socket.RemoteEndPoint = new IPEndPoint (IPAddress.Parse("w.x.y.z"), n);

Review of "2 States: The Story of My Marriage"

2010-01-27T21:32:00.003+05:30

Chetan Bhagat brings the same witty sense of humour that we all have learnt to love. Still you can't say you didn't find anything new in book.

"2 States: The Story of My Marriage" is about a punjabi boy "Krish" who falls in love with a madrasi, o'oh Tamilian Iyer Brahmin girl named "Ananya" during the course of his MBA from IIM, Ahemedabad. But don't think the book is about how they fall in love. That's just first 25 pages after which you find them in love (and sex off-course). The book is about what happens **after** that. The book is about how the boy starts his difficult journey to his marriage. Which means both his family and her family has to love each other. Which becomes a herculean task considering both comes from very different states, culture and expectations!

Krish's mother is very talky and she gives all the reasons to Ananya's family to hate the boy but he doesn't give up. He wins the heart of girl's family one by one. Once that mission is accomplished, its now girls turn to impress boy's family. Just when you think everything is going well, some ugly incidents take them back to square one.

The thing that stands out in the novel is the flow of events that happen in Chennai which brings the boy in the good book of Ananya's family. Nothing seems unnatural or unbelievable when slowly but surely boy does his magic. The non-stop of supply of quick-humours makes it a splendid reading. But the incident which makes the Krish's mother to accept the girl looks a slight bookish and even though heart wants to believe it, brain refuses to do so. Apart from that one incident, other things fit well and even though the story of their marriage comes back on track almost by a miracle, it easily becomes understandable.

I don't know if it is only me but at one point you think that boy is doing so much to make that marriage work and he loves the girl a lot but somehow you don't feel the same way about the girl. She doesn't seem to do enough to commit herself to marriage. At some places, you even find her arrogant and too harsh on the boy. You feel bad for the boy!

I have always been confused about how much of the novel is actually true. Various novels seem to have a link with Chetan's life and with each other. Off-course all of the stuff is not true because it takes more than just a single life to make so many interesting novels. But I can sure conclude following points which I believe are true incidents:

Chetan did study at IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad! (Okay that was very naive to start with :)
Chetan did love a girl during his study at IIT-D which didn't conclude well.
Chetan's grades during the IIT are actually NOT good.
Chetan did love a girl during his study at IIM-A and eventually married her.
Chetan did find it hard to convice his in-laws. May not be as dramatic but still difficult enough.

Things I liked about the book:

+ Sense of humour (I just love the witty lines)

+ Perfect characterization of punjabis (Not sure about Tamilians since I don't know them well enough)

+ Flow of event

Rating:

4 out of 5

Quote from "Mostly Harmless" by Douglas Adams

2010-01-13T15:24:00.001+05:30

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

- From Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams

Using extension methods for enums

2009-12-02T11:01:00.002+05:30

Despite the fact that they can create confusion to the reader, I love extension methods and have used extensively in my projects. Recently an answer on Stackoverflow taught me that extension methods can even be used on enums.
For example, if I have 2 enum types:

public enum English
{
    None,
    One,
    Two,
    Three
}

public enum Roman
{
    None,
    I,
    II,
    III
}

I can write extension methods to convert one to another and vice-versa:

public static class EnglishExtensions
{
    public static Roman ToRoman (this English value) {
        switch (value) {
            case English.One: return Roman.I;
            case English.Two: return Roman.II;
            case English.Three: return Roman.III;
            default: return Roman.None;
        }
    }
}

public static class RomanExtensions
{
    public static English ToEnglish (this Roman value) {
        switch (value) {
            case Roman.I: return English.One;
            case Roman.II: return English.Two;
            case Roman.III: return English.Three;
            default: return English.None;
        }
    }
}

And use it like:

//english to roman
English e = English.One;
Roman r = e.ToRoman ();

//roman to english
Roman r = Roman.I;
English e = r.ToEnglish ();

Writing WCF Wrapper and Catching Common Exceptions

2009-11-27T08:18:00.013+05:30

Suppose you have a WCF proxy class which calls some remote methods. Instead of calling remote methods, lets take the example of a similar class:

public class WcfProxy //calling methods of this class may raise exceptions{
    //Method with one string parameter
    public void function1 (string s) {
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty (s))
            throw new CommunicationException ("Its my nature to throw exceptions...");
        Console.WriteLine ("I am in function1");
    }

    //Method with one int parameter
    public void function2 (int i) {
        if (i == 0)
            throw new TimeoutException ("I like to throw exceptions and spoil your day...");
        Console.WriteLine ("I am in function2");
    }

    //method with one ref parameter
    public void function3 (ref string s) {
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty (s))
            throw new CommunicationException ("Its my nature to throw exceptions...");
        s = "function3 executed successfully.";
        Console.WriteLine ("I am in function3");
    }

    //method with return parameter
    public string function4 () {
        Console.WriteLine ("I am in function4");
        return "function4 executed successfully.";
    }
}

Now I want to write a wrapper class which will call these function on my behalf and catch the common exceptions related to communication problem. Instead of calling these functions and catching exceptions after every call, we can use generic functions which will call the functions and catch exceptions if raised.

//declare the delegates that are NOT provided by .NET framework
public delegate void ActionReference (ref T t1);
public delegate T ActionReturn ();
 
public class ProxyWrapper
{
    private readonly WcfProxy proxy = new WcfProxy ();
 
    public bool Success { get; set; }
    public string Message { get; set; }
 
    private void ExecuteAndCatch (Action action, T t) {
        try {
            action (t);
            Success = true;
        }
        catch (TimeoutException) {
            Success = false;
            Message = "Timeout exception raised.";
        }
        catch (CommunicationException) {
            Success = false;
            Message = "Communication exception raised.";
        }
    }
 
    private void ExecuteAndCatch (ActionReference action, ref T t) {
        try {
            action (ref t);
            Success = true;
        }
        catch (TimeoutException) {
            Success = false;
            Message = "Timeout exception raised.";
        }
        catch (CommunicationException) {
            Success = false;
            Message = "Communication exception raised.";
        }
    }
 
    private T ExecuteAndCatch (ActionReturn action) {
        T result = default(T);
        try {
            result = action ();
            Success = true;
        }
        catch (TimeoutException) {
            Success = false;
            Message = "Timeout exception raised.";
        }
        catch (CommunicationException) {
            Success = false;
            Message = "Communication exception raised.";
        }
        return result;
    }
 
    public void function1 (string s) {
        ExecuteAndCatch (proxy.function1, s);
    }
 
    public void function2 (int i) {
        ExecuteAndCatch (proxy.function2, i);
    }
 
    public void function3 (ref string s) {
        ExecuteAndCatch (proxy.function3, ref s);
    }
 
    public string function4 () {
        return ExecuteAndCatch (proxy.function4);
    }
    //more functions can be called here...
}

Now we can test the wrapper class in main method:

public static void Main () {
    ProxyWrapper w = new ProxyWrapper ();
 
    w.function1 ("");
    Console.WriteLine (w.Success ? "Success!" : "Failed: " + w.Message);
 
    w.function2 (0);
    Console.WriteLine (w.Success ? "Success!" : "Failed: " + w.Message);
 
    var s1 = "Initial";
    w.function3 (ref s1);
    Console.WriteLine (w.Success ? "Success! " + s1 : "Failed: " + w.Message);
 
    var s2 = w.function4 ();
    Console.WriteLine (w.Success ? "Success! " + s2 : "Failed: " + w.Message);
 
    Console.ReadLine ();
}

And here is the output:

Failed: Communication exception raised.
Failed: Timeout exception raised.
I am in function3
Success! function3 executed successfully.
I am in function4
Success! function4 executed successfully.

This solution is developed from the answer given to my question on StackOverflow. You can download the complete source file here.

Cleaning my project folder

2009-11-26T18:34:00.002+05:30

We all suffer from various files being created by IDE that are not really necessary to commit in version control system. I have found a simple batch command incredibly useful to clean my project folder.

del "%CD%\*.EXT" /s

Simple replace the EXT with the extension of file you want to clean and run the command. Since I switch from Embarcadero Delphi Studio to Visual Studio and (vice-versa) every now and I have created a batch file which look like this":

del "%CD%\*.dcu" /s
del "%CD%\*.identcache" /s
del "%CD%\*.cfg" /s
del "%CD%\*.local" /s
del "%CD%\*.drc" /s
del "%CD%\*.~*~" /s
del "%CD%\*.stat" /s
del "%CD%\*.dcuil" /s
del "%CD%\*.pdf" /s
del "%CD%\*.rsp" /s
del "%CD%\*.suo" /s
del "%CD%\*.user" /s
del "%CD%\*.pdb" /s

Whenever I need to remove the dirt from a folder and sub-folders, I just place the batch file in that folder and run it. Simple but effective…

Cryptography in .NET framework

2009-11-26T14:58:00.005+05:30

Cryptography is a vast subject. Its true that "devil is in details" but devil is at its best when it comes to cryptography. When you start learning encryption, hashing and signing; for the most of initial phase you just learn one thing "you know very little about it". Don't even consider me when some exceptional programmer make serious mistakes.
I managed to avoid cryptography for most part of my 4 year programming career but it eventually hit me in last project. And it hit me hard. I had to go through quiet a few concepts and use them in a real project. The fact that I was starting from basics, made it worse.
When I started learning about some of the basic concepts, I started playing with those concepts using .NET framework library. I was pleased to see that it has good support of cryptography.

I was wrong! .NET support of cryptography is too good.

Why? For following reasons:

.NET framework has multiple implementation of almost all algorithms.
Availability of an algorithm doesn't just depend on framework you are using, it also depends on the operating system.

Sometimes more is less

I use Visual Studio 2008 on Windows Vista machine, so I faced little problem in using any algorithm but when I proudly demoed my application to my friend who happened to be using Windows XP, my application simply crashed. I started exploring the MSDN documentation about the support of algorithms and it was not long before I started to loose track of things. After digging things a bit, I found out that there are three types of implementations:

Managed: These are the classes that has "Managed" suffix. (e.g. SHA512Managed, AesManaged) As the name suggests, these classes are fully managed implementation of cryptographic algorithms)
CryptoServiceProvider: These are the classes which end with "CryptoServiceProvider". (e.g. SHA512CryptoServiceProvider,DESCryptoServiceProvider) These classes are just managed wrapper of cryptographic service provider libraries (also known as CryptoAPI).
CNG: These classes ends with "Cng" which means "Cryptography Next Generation". (e.g. SHA512Cng, ECDiffieHellmanCng) It is the strategic replacement of CryptoAPI.

What makes it more confusing is:

Not all algorithms has implementation of all three types. For example SHA1 has all three implementations: SHA1Managed, SHA1CryptoServiceProvider, SHA1Cng whereas MD5 has only 2: MD5Cng, MD5CryptoServiceProvider
For a given type, implementation of some algorithm are available in one version and other are available in different one. For example MD5CryptoServiceProvider is available in all framework versions but SHA512CryptoServiceProvider is available in only Framework 3.5.

Final Juice

Here is the complete table containing details of each algorithm:

Class	Size (bits)	Windows					Server			Framework
		98	2000	XP	Vista	7	2000	2003	2008	1.0	1.1	2.0	3.0	3.5
Hashing
MD5CryptoServiceProvider	128 bits	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
MD5Cng	128 bits				y	y			y					y
SHA1CryptoServiceProvider	160 bits	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
SHA1Managed	160 bits	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
SHA1Cng	160 bits				y	y			y					y
SHA256CryptoServiceProvider	256 bits				y	y		y	y					y
SHA256Managed	256 bits	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
SHA256Cng	256 bits				y	y			y					y
SHA384CryptoServiceProvider	384 bits				y	y		y	y					y
SHA384Managed	384 bits	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
SHA384Cng	384 bits				y	y			y					y
SHA512CryptoServiceProvider	512 bits				y	y		y	y					y
SHA512Managed	512 bits	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
SHA512Cng	512 bits				y	y			y					y
Symmetric Encryption
DESCryptoServiceProvider	Block: 64 Key: 64	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider	Block: 64 Key: 128, 192	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
AesCryptoServiceProvider	Block: 128 Key: 128-256(+64)			y	y	y		y	y					y
AesManaged	Block: 128 Key: 128-256(+64)			y	y	y		y	y					y
Asymmetric Encryption
ECDiffieHellmanCng	Key: 256,384,521				y	y			y					y
RSACryptoServiceProvider	Key:384-16384(+8)	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
Digital Signature
DSACryptoServiceProvider	Key:512-1024(+64)	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
RSAPKCS1SignatureFormatter	Key:384-16384(+8)	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
ECDsaCng	Key:256,384,521				y	y			y					y
Random Number Generator
RNGCryptoServiceProvider		y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y

Where is this folder?

2009-11-26T14:24:00.006+05:30

I sometimes get terribly confused with various system folders. Since most of the folders get a new location in Vista, I thought it will be nice idea to compare a table as to which folder is located where and which folder should be used in which situation.

About folder usage:
You should adjust your app to store temporary files in the current user's temp folder and the data should be stored in one of the following folders depending on whether or not you want the user to have direct access to the data files (ie. in an easily accessible folder), whether you want the same user to have access to the data when logged into another computer and whether or not you want other users logged into the same computer to have access to the files.

C:\Users\username\Documents
data private to one user while logged onto one specific computer
the database files can be easily found by the user by browsing their Documents folder
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local
data private to one user while logged onto one specific computer
the database files are in a hidden folder but may be accessible by a skilled user
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming
data private to one user while logged onto any networked computer
the database files are in a hidden folder but may be accessible by a skilled user
C:\Users\Public\Documents
data public to any user logged onto a specific computer
the database files can be easily found by the user by browsing the public Documents folder
C:\ProgramData
data public to any user logged onto a specific computer
the database files are in a hidden folder but may be accessible by a skilled user

Detailed Information:
Following table contains a folder ID or CSIDL and its location in both Vista and XP:

Folder Name/Id	Windows Vista/7 Location	Windows XP Location
CSIDL_DESKTOP	C:\Users\\Desktop\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Desktop\
CSIDL_INTERNET
CSIDL_PROGRAMS	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Start Menu\Programs\
CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON	C:\Program Files\Common Files\	C:\Program Files\Common Files\
CSIDL_CONTROLS
CSIDL_PRINTERS
CSIDL_PERSONAL	C:\Users\\Documents\	C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\
CSIDL_FAVORITES	C:\Users\\Favorites\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Favorites\
CSIDL_STARTUP	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\startup\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
CSIDL_SENDTO	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\	C:\Documents and Settings\\SendTo\
CSIDL_BITBUCKET
CSIDL_STARTMENU	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Start Menu\
CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY	C:\Users\\Desktop\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Desktop\
CSIDL_DRIVES
CSIDL_NETWORK
CSIDL_NETHOOD	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts\	C:\Documents and Settings\\NetHood\
CSIDL_FONTS	C:\Windows\Fonts\	C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\
CSIDL_TEMPLATES	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Templates\
CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\
CSIDL_COMMON_PROGRAMS	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\
CSIDL_COMMON_STARTUP	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY	C:\Users\Public\Desktop\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\
CSIDL_APPDATA	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\
CSIDL_PRINTHOOD	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts\	C:\Documents and Settings\\PrintHood\
CSIDL_ALTSTARTUP	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\startup\
CSIDL_COMMON_ALTSTARTUP	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
CSIDL_INTERNET_CACHE	C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
CSIDL_COOKIES	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Cookies\
CSIDL_HISTORY	C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\History\
0	C:\Users\\Desktop\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Desktop\
1
2	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Start Menu\Programs\
3
4
5	C:\Users\\Documents\	C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\
6	C:\Users\\Favorites\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Favorites\
7	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\startup\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
8	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Recent\
9	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo\	C:\Documents and Settings\\SendTo\
10
11	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Start Menu\
12
13	C:\Users\\Music\	C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Music\
14	C:\Users\\Videos\
15
16	C:\Users\\Desktop\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Desktop\
17
18
19	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts\	C:\Documents and Settings\\NetHood\
20	C:\Windows\Fonts\	C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\
21	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Templates\
22	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\
23	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\
24	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
25	C:\Users\Public\Desktop\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop\
26	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\
27	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Printer Shortcuts\	C:\Documents and Settings\\PrintHood\
28	C:\Users\\AppData\Local\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\
29	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\startup\
30	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
31	C:\Users\\Favorites\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Favorites\
32	C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
33	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Cookies\
34	C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\History\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\History\
35	C:\ProgramData\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\
36	C:\Windows\	C:\WINDOWS\
37	C:\Windows\System32\	C:\WINDOWS\system32\
38	C:\Program Files\	C:\Program Files\
39	C:\Users\\Pictures\	C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Pictures\
40	C:\Users\\	C:\Documents and Settings\\
41	C:\Windows\System32\	C:\WINDOWS\system32\
42	C:\Program Files\
43	C:\Program Files\Common Files\	C:\Program Files\Common Files\
44	C:\Program Files\Common Files\
45	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Templates\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Templates\
46	C:\Users\Public\Documents\
47	C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\
48	C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\
49
50
51
52
53	C:\Users\Public\Music\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Music\
54	C:\Users\Public\Pictures\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Pictures\
55	C:\Users\Public\Videos\	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Videos\
56	C:\Windows\Resources\	C:\WINDOWS\Resources\
57
58
59	C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Burn\Burn\	C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Burning\
60

Getting creation, modified & accessed date time of a file in Delphi

2009-11-26T14:12:00.001+05:30

Here is the code snippet to get hold of various date-time values associated with a file in windows:

procedure GetDateTime (fileFullName: string);
var
  systemTime: TSystemTime;
  lastModified, lastAccessed, firstCreated, lastWrite: TDateTime;
  sr : TSearchRec;
begin
  lastModified := 0;
  lastAccessed := 0;
  firstCreated := 0;
  lastWrite := 0;

  if sysUtils.FindFirst(fileFullName, faAnyFile, sr) = 0 then
  begin
    try
      lastModified := FileDateToDateTime(sr.Time);

      FileTimeToSystemTime(sr.FindData.ftCreationTime, systemTime) ;
      with systemTime do
        firstCreated := EncodeDateTime (wYear, wMonth, wDay, wHour, wMinute, wSecond, wMilliseconds) ;

      FileTimeToSystemTime(sr.FindData.ftLastAccessTime, systemTime) ;
      with systemTime do
        lastAccessed := EncodeDateTime (wYear, wMonth, wDay, wHour, wMinute, wSecond, wMilliseconds) ;

      FileTimeToSystemTime(sr.FindData.ftLastWriteTime, systemTime) ;
      with systemTime do
        lastWrite := EncodeDateTime (wYear, wMonth, wDay, wHour, wMinute, wSecond, wMilliseconds) ;

      memo.Lines.Add ('Last modified: ' + DateTimeToStr (lastModified));
      memo.Lines.Add ('Created: ' + DateTimeToStr (firstCreated));
      memo.Lines.Add ('Last access: ' + DateTimeToStr (lastAccessed));
      memo.Lines.Add ('Last write: ' + DateTimeToStr (lastWrite));
    finally
      FindClose(sr) ;
    end
  end;
end;

Who will be boss???

2009-11-25T08:48:00.000+05:30

When God made man, all the parts of the body argued over who would be boss. The brain explained that since he controlled all the parts of the body, he should be boss. The legs argued that since they took the man wherever he wanted to go, they should be boss.

The stomach countered with explanation that since he digested all the food, he should be boss. The eyes said that without them, man would be helpless, so they should be boss. Then the asshole applied for the job. The other parts of the body laughed so hard that the asshole become mad and closed up. After a few days the brain went foggy, the legs got wobby, the stomach got ill, thr eyes got crossed and unable to see. They all cenceded and made the asshole boss. This proves that you dont' have to be a brain to be boss.... just an asshole will do!!!

Dual boot Vista and OSX on HP Laptop

2009-08-20T15:17:00.001+05:30

Disclaimer: Installing Mac OSX on non-apple hardware is illegal. This post is just for educational purpose.

My laptop configuration:

HP Laptop dv6000t
Processor: Intel Core Duo CPU T2450 @ 2.00 GHz
Memory (RAM): 1GB
Audio: Conexant High Definition Audio
Display: Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family
Network: Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection (Ethernet), Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection

What you need

iATKOS Mac OSx86 DVD

You will need to get hold of iATKOS DVD. You can find it at usual places. I used iATKOS v 7.0. Download the disk image and burn the DVD.

Windows Vista DVD

You will need it to repair Windows Vista startup. If you have Windows Vista DVD (system recovery disk) which came with your laptop, it won't work. You need a bootable Windows Vista Disk.

chain0 file

You will need this file to make your PC dual bootable. Click here to download this file.

Procedure

Prepare a Partition

You will need to configure a partition on which you will install Mac OSX. If you already have a partition, you are good to go. If you don't have one, you need to create it. You can do so by resizing an existing partition. Various posts mentions using Windows Disk Management for doing it. You can also try this. Right click my computer, click "Properties", Click "Device Manager"on left pane, Click "Disk Management". This will show all the existing partitions. Right click the target partition and click "Shrink Volume". You can select the amount of space to free and click OK.

However I found Disk Management of Windows pretty crappy because it almost always didn't allow me to free space even when there is plenty of space left on hard disk. This is because Windows only lets you shrink the largest continuous chunk of free space.

This is where I found EASEUS extremely useful. The free home edition works just fine. It has a similar interface as Windows Disk Management, so you can create the partition using it very easily.

Format the partition as NTFS and apply the volume label "OSX".

Installing OSX

Insert the DVD in the tray and boot your computer from it. You may need to change your boot order if your computer doesn't boot correctly.
Press F8 as the count down begins and type -v at the prompt and hit enter. This will make the startup verbose so that you can see the startup messages.
After a while you should be looking at the leopard installer. Follow the on screen instructions.
Once the loading bar vanishes, select Utilities > Disk Utility.
Select the volume "OSX" which you created previously and format it as MAC OSX Journaled Extended.
Now get back to the Leopard install screen. Choose the partition which you just formatted.
Customise the installation option and:
- Unselect
  - Chamleon boot loader (We will be using Windows boot manager so we don't need it)
- Select
  - Intel EFI String
  - GMA 950 for Laptop
  - Apple PS2 Drivers
Continue the installation. It will take a while so you can have a coffee.

Making it dual bootable

Once the installation is done, reboot with the DVD in the drive. Press F8 at Darwin boot loader and type -s and press enter.
Execute the following commands:

fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0
flag 1
quit
reboot

Now before the PC starts, remove the DVD. You will not be able to boot into Vista and instead get an error "winload.exe is corrupt"
Now insert the Vista bootable disk in the drive and reboot from DVD. Click on "Repair computer" once you are inside the DVD and it will automatically detect if a problem exists and suggest "Repair and Restart". Press the same and remove the DVD once the PC is about to restart. You should now be able to log in to vista without any problem.
Boot into Vista. Copy the chain0 file to C:
Open the command prompt with elevated admin privileges from the start menu.
Type the following into the prompt

bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Mac OS X"
bcdedit /enum active
bcdedit /set {GUID} PATH \chain0

In the first command type {current} as it is, literally..nothing else. Just {current} with the curly brackets. In the third command replace the GUID with the alphanumeric GUID you see against "Identifier" for Mac OSX. You will see this as soon as you enter the second command.

Now again give command "bcdedit /enum active" and confirm that you have Mac OSX correctly configured. It must look something like:

Windows Boot Loader

identifier {e94e2940-68da-11de-b9a9-8cf8abd2fc0f}
device partition=C:
path \chain0
description Mac OS X
recoverysequence {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae2-0007e994107d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {17cbdd92-6953-11de-909d-806e6f6e6963}

Close the command prompt and restart your laptop.
You should be looking at the screen with two options to boot into Mac OSX or Vista. Select the operating system you want to boot into. Hurray!!!

What works

HP quick launch keys (the blue touch buttons above keyboard)
Web cam
Remote
Accessing files from windows NTFS drives

What still does not work

After following above steps, I couldn't get the network working (Wireless and ethernet both). I am still in the process of fixing it.

Credits

Most of the steps and guide come from this excellent article.

How to generate a unique machine signature

2009-08-13T14:45:00.000+05:30

During a recent project, I had to solve a problem which is NOT really new:

Creating a signature using computer hardware that uniquely identifies it

I didn't want to depend of software characteristics because I didn't want the signature to change even if user decides to change or install new operating system.

I used uncle Google extensively and came across many resources such as:

I learnt following things in the process:

I quickly found that most hardware information can be accessed using WMI only. Since WMI is not available below Windows 2000, I tried to find other alternatives but couldn't find any. I could get the volume serial number using Windows API but that was not enough. So WMI seems to be only viable choice.
Using MAC address for machine signature generation is generally a bad idea because many manufactures allow you to change it and you can have multiple MAC addresses if someone is using more than one connection (think of someone using laptop connected to a LAN and also a WIFI network).
Using Processor ID used to work in earlier days but somehow Intel has decided to stop giving unique processor ID to each processor these days.
It is not right to rely on only one hardware parameter considering the dynamic advancement in computer hardware industry (Multi core processor are so common these days).

To easily analyse the computer hardware parameters, I created an application which uses WMI to get hardware information. I called it Machine Explorer! You can download the application freely and have fun with it.

Here is how it looks like:

I found out that some serial numbers such as BIOS serial number and Motherboard serial number are unique and they are not likely to change also. There might be other candidates which you explore (do let me know if you find any).

How NOT to confirm when user is leaving without saving his work

2009-07-09T14:58:00.000+05:30

Confirmation dialogs are useful in some situations but mostly they suck. They suck because programmers overuse them a lot and instead of showing real dialog, they try to frame the question such that it fits in fixed "Yes/No/Cancel" or "OK/Cancel" format. It makes it impossible for a user to determine what is being asked without actually reading whole text.

But this one is worse. It is so effective that it still catches me sometimes. I am talking about .NET Reactor. So you open this nice little application and do something with it. And then you decide to close it. It shows following screen:

Now this type of dialog is common. A lot of application confirms when you are leaving the application without saving your work. But what you normally get is:

There are some unsaved changes in document. Would you like to save them?

And you normally say "NO" to that dialog and get away. But .NET reactor is evil in this regard. It asks this question in a way that you have to say "YES" to get away.

To be fair to .NET reactor, its not necessarily wrong. But doing something different than most other software irritates the users. It sure irritates me!

Getting creation, modified & accessed date time of a file

2009-06-18T14:54:00.000+05:30

Here is the code snippet to get hold of various date-time values associated with a file in windows:

procedure GetDateTime (fileFullName: string);
var
  systemTime: TSystemTime;
  lastModified, lastAccessed, firstCreated, lastWrite: TDateTime;
  sr : TSearchRec;
begin
  lastModified := 0;
  lastAccessed := 0;
  firstCreated := 0;
  lastWrite := 0;

  if sysUtils.FindFirst(fileFullName, faAnyFile, sr) = 0 then
  begin
    try
      lastModified := FileDateToDateTime(sr.Time);

      FileTimeToSystemTime(sr.FindData.ftCreationTime, systemTime) ;
      with systemTime do
        firstCreated := EncodeDateTime (wYear, wMonth, wDay, wHour, wMinute, wSecond, wMilliseconds) ;

      FileTimeToSystemTime(sr.FindData.ftLastAccessTime, systemTime) ;
      with systemTime do
        lastAccessed := EncodeDateTime (wYear, wMonth, wDay, wHour, wMinute, wSecond, wMilliseconds) ;

      FileTimeToSystemTime(sr.FindData.ftLastWriteTime, systemTime) ;
      with systemTime do
        lastWrite := EncodeDateTime (wYear, wMonth, wDay, wHour, wMinute, wSecond, wMilliseconds) ;

      memo.Lines.Add ('Last modified: ' + DateTimeToStr (lastModified));
      memo.Lines.Add ('Created: ' + DateTimeToStr (firstCreated));
      memo.Lines.Add ('Last access: ' + DateTimeToStr (lastAccessed));
      memo.Lines.Add ('Last write: ' + DateTimeToStr (lastWrite));
    finally
      FindClose(sr) ;
    end
  end;
end;

Base32Encoding Implementation For .NET

2009-06-12T15:11:00.001+05:30

I was working in a project which required me to send that data to one application in the form of a series of bytes. This data was to be processed by humans so it was necessary that proper encoding mechanism is used. I considered my alternatives:

Hex encoding is pretty simple (atleast simple for programmers). You just write the hex string in plain text. Resulting string is case insensitive but too long. If input data length is x bytes, you will end up with 2x character long string.

Base64 encoding is pretty good in terms of efficiency since it uses approx. 4x/3 characters. It uses 0..9, A..Z, a..z and 2 special characters for encoding. This type of encoding is used widely (email processing, keys storage etc). .NET Framework library has Convert class which takes care of this task.

But Base64 encoding is not really suitable for humans considering it uses couple of special characters and it is case sensitive. Imagine someone is speaking the encoded text over phone! I didn’t settle for this one.

Next one was Base32 encoding which is pretty similar in concept but it uses characters A..Z and 2..7. So it has the advantage of being case in-sensitive at the cost of somewhat bigger encoded text. Text that is encoded with Base32 method has approx 1.6x characters. I was OK with somewhat increased length because ease of use was more important. Exploring further revealed that there is one modified implementation of Base32 encoding which is called zBase32 encoding. This encoding:

Permutes the characters for encoding so that more frequent characters are easier to read (even from a hand scribbled page).
Intelligently calculates the original data length which eliminates the need of padding. Padding increases encoded text length significantly.

So I finally decided to use zBase32 encoding in my project but whoa…I couldn’t find any implementation of zBase32 encoding for .NET. After searching for a while, I decided to write one myself.

This library is pretty simple. It has 2 classes only:

Base32Encoder: Implements base 32 encoding
ZBase32Encoder: Derived from Base32Encoderes Base32Encoder to implement ZBase32 encoding.

Here is sample code:

public void Sample () {
   var zBase32 = new ZBase32Encoder ();

   byte[] inputData = new byte[] { 0xF0, 0xBF, 0xC7 };
   string encodedText = zBase32.Encode (inputData);

   byte[] outputData = zBase32.Decode (encodedText);

   Console.WriteLine ("Original: {0}, Encoded: {1}, Decoded: {2}",
       ToString (inputData), encodedText, ToString (outputData));
}

And here is the output of above code:

Original: F0BFC7, Encoded: 6n9hq, Decoded: F0BFC7

If you checkout the samples given on zBase32 website, you will find the same results.

Comparison

Here is a short comparison of encoded text lengths of both base32 encoding (all lengths are in bytes). You can easily realise that normal base32 encoding doesn’t encodes efficiently when input length is not exact multiple of 5.

Input Length	Base32 Encoded Text Length	zBase32 Encoded Text Length
1	8	2
2	8	4
3	8	5
4	8	7
5	8	8
6	16	10
7	16	12
8	16	13
9	16	15
10	16	16

You can download the assembly or original source code.

Do you download ebooks from internet?

2009-06-12T14:52:00.000+05:30

If you ask this question from any programmer, you are likely to get no for an answer and it is likely to be a lie. We all know, no matter what our conscious tells us, we do download ebooks. An internet user doesn't just download ebooks. Songs, videos, movies, software are equally popular on file sharing sites and torrent providers.

Do I download ebooks from internet? I can lie once again but you already know the answer. I do! But I still consider myself a noble soul.

Why? Because I download ebooks only in 2 cases:

I live in Indian sub-continent. Many software books that are written and published in US do not get published locally here. Getting hold of those books mean ordering that book on some international online shopping site and paying international shipment. While it takes a lot of time (almost a month) to reach that item to owner's hands, price that you pay for that book is also pretty high after converting the dollars to Indian rupees. I do earn a decent salary but I cant afford super expensive books. So I end up downloading them.
If I do plan to buy a book, I first download the ebook and go through it. I quickly scan the book and make sure that I am not throwing my money on some crap. Normally I do end up buying that book. For example, I did download the Jon Skeet's book "Cin Depth" and read few pages before ordering it. I loved the book and I do own a copy now.

Someone might argue against that type of illegal ebook usage but I consider them fair. In my opinion, if you are seriously planning to buy the book, there is no harm going through it once before you actually buy it. If you don't find it interesting enough to buy, you are most likely not going to read it even on stupid computer screen (Did I mention reading a book on computer sucks and I simply hate it?). Ask your fellow programmers and they might have dozens of ebook lying somewhere in their computer but they cant even name them (leave alone reading them).

Using BouncyCastle .NET library for elliptical curve cryptography

2009-04-18T13:28:00.000+05:30

Encryption is a process of modifying some information in such a way that only the intended person can understand it. In software world it is normally done using various encryption algorithms. DES, Triple DES, AES are just some example of encryption algorithms. But these algorithms suffer from a basic problem of handing keys. Your encrypted information is as safe as the key you used to encrypt it. If you have encrypted something, you sure want someone to decrypt it. And for that, you need to send him/her the key. If the communication media is safe to send the key, why don’t you just send the information without encryption.

Public key encryption solves the basic problem of handling and transferring keys. It uses different keys for encryption and decryption. Most widely used algorithm for public key encryption is RSA. But it has some problems:

Encrypted text produced by RSA is pretty long.
The size of encrypted data depends on the key size but a key size of 2048 bits is recommended if you see your software being used after 2010.
This algorithm is pretty slow compared to other symmetric key algorithms such as DES, AES etc.

Elliptical curve cryptography is a type of public key encryption but it uses much shorter keys without compromising the encryption strength. Elliptical curve encryption done using 128 bit key gives the same level of security as given by RSA using 3072 bit key.

I needed to use elliptical curve encryption in one of my project and I was http://stackoverflow.com/questions/690566/-net-implementation-libraries-of-elliptic-curve-cryptography searching] for its implementation on .NET platform and then I found Bouncy Castle.

That was just a little background. This post is really about using the Bouncy Castle library in a C# project. This library implements generating digital signatures using ECDSA.

Namespaces

Following namespaces will need to be used by us:

using Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto.Generators;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Crypto.Parameters;
using Org.BouncyCastle.Security;

Key Sizes

It is normally possible to use different key sizes. ECDSA supports following key sizes:

192 bit
239 bit
256 bit

Generating Keys

We can use the library itself to generate the random keys:

private static AsymmetricCipherKeyPair GenerateKeys (int keySize) {
  var gen = new ECKeyPairGenerator ();
  var secureRandom = new SecureRandom ();
  var keyGenParam = new KeyGenerationParameters (secureRandom, keySize);
  gen.Init (keyGenParam);
  return gen.GenerateKeyPair ();
}

Generating Signature

private static bool VerifySignature (AsymmetricCipherKeyPair key, string plainText,
  byte[] signature) {
  var encoder = new ASCIIEncoding ();
  var inputData = encoder.GetBytes (plainText);
  var signer = SignerUtilities.GetSigner (”ECDSA”);
  signer.Init (false, key.Public);
  signer.BlockUpdate (inputData, 0, inputData.Length);
  return signer.VerifySignature (signature);
}

Putting It All Together

Now we just need a function which calls above function in the right sequence so that we can see whether it really works:

private static void ECDSASample (int keySize) {
  Console.WriteLine (string.Format (”======= Key Size: {0} =======”, keySize));
  string s = “Hello World!”;
  try {
      var key = GenerateKeys (keySize);
      var signature = GetSignature (s, key);
      var signatureOK = VerifySignature (key, s, signature);
      //Show it to me
      var pubicKey = (ECPublicKeyParameters)(key.Public);
      var privateKey = (ECPrivateKeyParameters)(key.Private);
      Console.WriteLine (”Input Text: ” + s);
      Console.WriteLine (”Key ({0} bytes): {1}”, privateKey.D.BitLength, privateKey.D);
      Console.WriteLine (”Signature ({0} bytes): {1}”, signature.Length, ToString (signature));
      Console.WriteLine (”Signature verified: {0}”, signatureOK);
      Console.WriteLine ();
  }
  catch (Exception ex) {
      Console.WriteLine (ex.Message);
  }
}

Result

Calling the above function 3 times for all keys sizes shows:

======= Key Size: 192 =======
Input Text: Hello World!
Key (192 bytes): 5383271877913095293497459795960978936424465262977103383268
Signature (56 bytes):
303602190096736F03CB7AE4183590FE6185EFA900E6F4CD8B903100CF021900D5C0255ECC05921A9BC9EFD3AADB5B1FD8326CBA614713A3
Signature verified: True
======= Key Size: 239 =======
Input Text: Hello World!
Key (236 bytes): 83986687572262518000833780316201230289349432496423690059305652492588142
Signature (66 bytes): 3040021E0DABDA56D88E2DEB633FBA399EBBA5F5E678AE8600791EBF65094B0CDB0A021E381C2A864523F306D808FD45335EF73D62C9B66E9F6F6A846A9E7CA447D8
Signature verified: True
======= Key Size: 256 =======
Input Text: Hello World!
Key (255 bytes): 37067712327984319889067683157535631380322797492360190963255045782768937377579
Signature (71 bytes): 3045022100CFDB9F6DFB4C063C5C75CF4DCBC00F2CB79B61540BF982998C0F0810CAED7F2E022053DADF416C793AAB3EA8EB978A764B1E440C86C8BF897039EFCADEC7296790CA
Signature verified: True

I am still confused about a few points though:

Why it uses a key size of 239 bits. It seems so unnatural in binary world.
If I increase the length on input text and generate the signature, I sometime get a signature with different length. For example key size of 192 generates signature of 56 bytes when I use the string “Hello World” but it generates the signature of 54 bytes with string “Hello World”.
If I want to serialise the key to disk, which values actually should be saved.

Here is the complete source file.

Did you know?

2007-08-22T21:50:00.000+05:30

William Huskisson was a British member of parliament. He was run down by a train during the opening of first railway in 1830.
Thomas Midgley was an American inventor who was strangled in 1944 by a machine he had invented to help him move after contracting polio. He invented three products that have since been found to be environmentally harmful: lead in petrol, CFCs in fridges and aerosols and the insecticide DDT.
Last words of French Queen Marie Antoinette (1893), who accidentally trod on her executioner’s foot as she went to the guillotine: “Pardonnez-moi monsieur” (Pardon me, Sir).
Last word of Joseph Henry Green, a British doctor (1863), after checking his own pulse: “Stopped.”
Some non-Catholic countries such as Britain refused to adopt the Gregorian calender at first. The Julian calender, previously used in Britain was based on a solar year, the time taken for the earth to rotate around the Sun. This is 365.25 days, which is fractionally too long (it is actually 365.24219 days), so the calender steadily fell out of line with the seasons. In 1752, Britain decided to correct this by abandoning the Julian calender in favour of the Gregorian. By doing so, 3 September instantly became 14 September - and, as a result, nothing whatsoever happened in British history between 3 and 13 September 1752. Many people believed their lives would be shortened. They protested in the streets, demanding, “Give us back our 11 days!”
If we put the history of the Universe into the scale of a calender year, i.e. Big Bang on 1 Jan (midnight), then:
- Earth formed on 12 September
- First many-celled life formed on 18 December
- First dinosaur on 24 December
- Extinction of dinosaurs on 28 December
- Homo sapiens (modern human) appears on 31Dec (11:55 PM)
- Everything that happened in last 475 years takes place in less than the last second of the last minute of the year!

CodeGear's roadmap for Delphi and C++ Builder is published

2007-06-15T00:05:00.001+05:30

CodeGear has published the roadmap for 2 of it's major products Delphi and C++ builder.

Top 5 most used commands in MS Office

2007-06-15T00:02:00.000+05:30

Here is an interesting post I came across. Can you guess what are 5 most used commands in MS office?

Here is the answer!

Think before you speak

2007-06-14T23:59:00.000+05:30

Taken from another blog:

The classic example is the Sony Walkman which was universally panned because it did not record, but only played tapes. The rest is history. But here are a couple of quotes that are hard to believe these days:

In reference to the Apple Macintosh, Windows, and GUI

"The Mac simply doesn't have the look or feel of a business computer." (InfoWorld, March 26, 1984)
"A few traditional computer users see the mouse, the windows, and the desktop metaphor as silly, useless frills." (Byte, May 1984)
"'Icons represent an attempt to restrict what people do with computers, in the guise of user-friendliness.' According to Currie, icon-based systems are appropriate for novice computer users, but will hinder the work of knowledgeable users." (Computerworld, August 20, 1984, interview with Edward H. Currie, president of Lifeboat Associates, a New York-based software publishing firm)
"Because works the way you do, you don't waste time with a mouse or learning a Macintosh-like graphics environment. works the way PC software is supposed to work." (Ashton-Tate brochure for Byline Desktop Publishing, 1988)

In reference to the mouse peripheral device

[headline] "Mice are nice ideas, but of dubious value for business users" (George Vinall, PC Week, April 24, 1984)
"I was having lots of fun, but in the back of my corporate mind, I couldn't help but think about productivity." (George Vinall, PC Week, April 24, 1984)
"Does the mouse make the computer more accessible, more friendly, to certain target audiences such as executives? The answer is no." (Computerworld, October 31, 1983)
"There is no possibility that this device will feel more comfortable to the executive than the keyboard. Because of its "rollability," the mouse has the aura of a gimmick...." (Computerworld, October 31, 1983)
"The mouse and its friends are merely diversions in this process. What sounds revolutionary does not necessarily help anyone with anything, and therein lies the true test of commercial longevity." (David A. Kay, Datamation, October 1983)

Disposable email ID

2007-05-22T00:00:00.000+05:30

When was the last time you were surfing a site and want to try a software out. You click on download and it asks for your email id?
When was the last time you want to see just a conversation thread in a forum and it forces you to register (asking your email Id) before letting you see the conversation?
When was the last time you wanted to register to some site by are afraid of spams?

If any of above web annoyances happened to you, the solution is mailnator!

What mailnator does is exactly what you want. It creates a disposable email id for you every time you open mailnator homepage. And you can even check your emails (for registration confirmation, trial keys etc.) and email Id will automatically be deleted after few hours...

Takes one to know one

2007-05-21T23:18:00.001+05:30

Following article was written by Nick Hodges in one of his blog and I liked it so much that I took a copy of it. Since then he has changed to CodeGear's official blog. Because I have my own blog now and I liked this article so much, I take the liberty to publish this (under his name off course J).

It's a standard Dilbert joke that managers are idiots. One doesn't have to hang around programmers too long to find out that many of them work for managers that don't have a clue about developing software and thus make many a nutty decision based on profound ignorance. Plenty of Delphi fans have had a boss that follows the "Nobody ever got fired for choosing Microsoft Development tools" rule and choose Visual Basic as a corporate standard. <shudder> And the old adage states that programmers make crappy managers.

So, I guess, based on the above, it's impossible for someone to be a good manager of programmers. If one doesn't know anything about programming and has never been a programmer, then apparently, he will suck as a manager. And if one has been a programmer, and is so good at it that he gets promoted to be a manager, he,too, will suck as a manager. Sounds like a lose/lose situation all around -- programmers doomed to a life of sucky supervisors.

Well, I'm not buying it. Surely somewhere, somebody is managing programmers well. Somebody has to be leading folks to build some of the insanely good software projects that are going on out there. So, what does it take to manage programmers well? Good question. I'd say that such skills and capabilities exist. I'd also say that they are, sadly, in relatively short supply. Too many Dilbert strips end up on too many cubicles in

First, to be a good manager of programmers you have to be, well, a good manager. That's easier than people think, really. Here's my basic list of things one can do and not do to be a good manager:

Place the careers of the people that work for you above your own. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever take a dump on an employee to make yourself look good to your boss. Always let the boss take a dump on you instead of your employee. Take responsibility for everything bad that happens under your watch. Dole out all the credit for good things that happen to your people. If you have some bizarre, overwhelming need to impress and brown-nose your boss, let your employees make you look good. It's your job to make your employees happy and productive. It's not your job to get promoted. (And do I need to say that if your employees are happy and motivated, then they'll do a good job, which means you are doing a good job?)
Place the needs of the employees over your own. What's the quickest way for a Marine Corps officer to be considered the biggest jerk since Josef Stalin? Get in the chow line ahead of his Marines. Officers don't eat until the troops do. Take the same attitude, and your people will love you and work hard for you. Give them the good computers. Give them the good chairs. Don't take a perk for yourself until they all have it. Believe me -- they will notice this. Another way to state this is don't ask your employees to do anything you yourself aren't willing to do. If you want your folks to work 12 hours a day, you need to be there 13 hours a day.
Recognize that your employees know what they are talking about and might actually know more about some things than you do. (If they don't know more about some things than you do, then you need to get new employees). If your employees seem to think that the WonderWidget is a much better solution to a problem than the SuperSprocket, then, hey, maybe, just maybe, they are right. Just because you read about the SuperSprocket in some magazine that takes $4.6 million dollars a year in advertising from SuperSprocket, Inc., doesn't mean that is the way to go. know what they are talking about and they
As a follow on to that, don't try to impress your employees with your knowledge. Don't spout buzzwords unless you know what they mean. They probably are going to think that you are an idiot anyway, so feel free to appear to be ignorant about things that, well, you aredo ignorant about. If you don't have a clue about what the best printer is for the needs of your team, then let the folks on your team that know about such things choose the printer. If you don't know the answer to something, say so. The quickest way to be thought an idiot is to try to act like you know what you are talking about when you don't.
Manage yourself out of a job. The best managers are the ones that sit in their office all day surfing the internet because they've set things up so that their people can take care of everything and thus they don't have anything to do. People love being the ones with the power, authority and skill to do the work. If you are in their shorts all day, making all the decisions, doing all the work, and taking all the credit, you will be a crappy manager. Once you've managed yourself out of a job, then, besides surfing the net, you can spend all your time making things even better for your employees and protecting them from the foibles of your boss.
Encourage your employees to tell you what is bugging them. When I was running a 24/7 Intelligence Watch, I told my people that if they found a Dilbert cartoon that exactly described a stupid, irritating, or aggravating situation in our organization or something that I was doing that was "pointy-haird-boss-ish", they could bring it to me or put it on my desk anonymously. If you are totally committed to the first two items on this list, they will come to you. If you aren't, they never will. And if your employees aren't bringing issues and complaints and problems to you, then you have a big problem.
Reward your employees with what they want to be rewarded with. Frankly, this is usually good old cash money. But if you can't do that, perhaps they want better computers, a nicer deskchair, a day off, whatever. If you want to reward someone, find out what they want and give it to them. But please, PLEASE -- I'm begging you here -- do not call a big meeting and pass out a "Worker of the Week" award with some cheesy certificate ginned up with Microsoft Publisher. When I was in the Navy and at a joint command, I had an Air Force Colonel that did this, and he was universally mocked and reviled for it. Everyone thought it was a joke. No one wanted that silly certificate and everyone hoped and prayed that they wouldn't "win" the thing. Those that did posted them like they post Dilbert cartoons on their cubicles -- sort of like a badge of "dishonor".

Now, that's all general stuff. It applies to all managers, whether they lead a team of auto workers or a group of Delphi programmers. What does it take to manage programmers well?

I think that to be a good manager of programmers, you have to be, or at least have been, a programmer yourself. This goes against the conventional wisdom, I know, but I think that in order to understand the way programmers work, you really have to have done it yourself. It's true that many programmers would make bad managers, but it doesn't follow that every programmer guarantees that one will be a bad manager. Programming is one of those strange professions that mixes right- and left-brained skills. To program well, you have to have an ordered, mathematically oriented mind, but at the same time you have to come up with artistic, creative solutions to puzzles and problems. One really needs to be one to understand one. Now the hard part here is that most programmers don't want to be managers. Alas -- a quandry there, eh? Well, if you run across one that does, don't hesitate to consider it. If you are a programmer and want to be a manager, let your bosses know, they'll probably be happy to hear it.
Give programmers what they want: challenging work, a quite place to do that work, a good fast computer, a good salary, and the opportunity to expand their skillset. Don't be cheap on these things. This may cost a bit more,but you'll make it back in spades.
To as large a degree as possible, let programmers choose the tools that they use. I know, I know, this isn't always possible. Sometimes those decisions are made above your paygrade. But then again, if you use Delphi under the table to produce a solution twice as fast for half the cost, then maybe Delphi won't be under the table for long. If one of your guys wants to try to build that new intranet application in Ruby On Rails, let him. Why not? Who's going to know? If it works and gets deployed early, it's likely that no one will care what tool or language was used to make it, and now you have a new skill in your quiver.
Be flexible. Some programmers do their best work between 10:00pm and 04:00am. Let them. Some hate to wear ties, dress shirts, khakis, etc. Don't make them. Some are flat out nuts. Let them be. Nothing wrong with all of that as long as they produce good code, eh?

Okay, that's a pretty good list. I've been on both sides of the fence, and as a consultant, I see all sorts of management types and methods. I deal with programmers on a daily basis, and I are one myself, so I think I have a pretty good grip on what's going on from a lot of angles. I'm sure you all will come up with more stuff and comment on it. Please do. After all, I'm not an expert on this stuff and I only write this to try to make you look good.

Moving to .NET Platform, A difficult choice?

2007-05-20T22:20:00.001+05:30

I am working on a product which is developed using Delphi for Win32. Originally Delphi 7 was used and we then moved to Delphi 9 (Delphi 2005) and are now planning to move to Delphi 10 (Delphi 2006). I have to admit that despite the originally reluctance in accepting the Delphi as the long term development technology, I have now grown to simply love it. You know what I like about Delphi most? The fact that it solves the real world problems!

You know there is lot of technology talk always going on. Every second day you hear the announcement of a new language, new database technology, new framework which would just magically solve all your problems. But if you have worked even for few months in software industry (as I have), you will realize there is no such thing which can solve all our problems magically. Language, framework and components just assists you do your job and *nothing* can replace a good programmer. Still Delphi provides the simple to understand and simple to use framework which suits most developers. This is because real developers like to find the "most appropriate way" to solve a problem in given time and resources and not essentially the "best way". Lengthy and exhaustive time, performance, use analysis is luxury of few developers, who program in a garage and for fun.

Everything was working fine until my organization had to think "What to do about .NET platform? Do we need to go for it?"

After thinking for sometime, I concluded couple of points:

Developers (who actually get to work on product) like to work on a technology which is popular in market. Perhaps it makes them feel safer that it will not be too difficult to find another job, just in case. If you ask "Why you like to work on .NET?" it would be difficult for them to answer. Perhaps the only answer is "because every second person seems to talk about .NET".
It doesn't matter to the organization whether its developers are using .NET or Java or Delphi; it wants to deliver the right solutions to customer at right time.

During my initial couple of months in software development, I used to find so many problems with existing code/structure/design etc. Even a stupidly named variable would drive me nuts. It's not that now I don't care about how variable are named but you just can't make everyone to name variables like you. You have to adjust somewhat somewhere. I always liked to do things the perfect way and I still do, but now I also think "what is more important? Renaming the variable to my taste in 20 odd units or shipping the product to customer next week?" Don't take me wrong, I am a real nasty person in this regard; I would still rename the variable in 20 odd units but only in next planned release!

In coming few days, a decision will be made by me and few senior people (who I actually admire). Lets see what comes up!

My Nerd Score

2007-03-12T22:18:00.000+05:30

How to be highly paid manager even though you are a stupid moron?

2007-03-12T15:55:00.000+05:30

Start a subscription of good technology magazine. Whenever a new issue arrives, read the headlines (only) of all articles and recite few new names in it. You will need to utter one of those in big management meetings so that you sound most updated person.
Once in a while, open one of those fat books which you managed to steal from your library when you were pursuing your dumb management degree, and go through some of those chapters. Hey! You will find at least dozen management ideas which sound super cool but actually does nothing in practice. You can suggest those ideas to someone and pretend to be super-intelligent. Don’t worry, if ever, someone will try to work on those ideas, soon he will become more confused than ever and will never come to you again.
Don’t be too involved with your sub-ordinates. More you speak, more they will know the truth you are a stupid moron. So say few words straight from Oxford dictionary, sitback and relax.
Always use the ^professional^ language in your documents and emails. Don’t use witty sentences and humour ‘coz that will create an impression that you are not professional. Any yes, don’t forget to discourage your sub-ordinate who uses simple english to say things straight and little humour to enjoy his job/work. You can say something like “You need to work a lot on your communication skills”. It will make him feel you are perfect manager and he should improve a lot to be *such a nice manager*.
Whenever you are in a meeting, act like you an angel straight from heaven. Speak in a very low polite voice and sound a real gentleman. I know you are not actully like that but you need to pretend that you are a gentleman.
Don’t leave a single chance to mark your name on a good work done by your sub-ordinate. Do mention his name for good work also when he is present and a very few people are listening to you, otherwise maintain *your* larger than life image.
Instil a culture of ideals that don't actually mean anything practical, this involves coming up with a mantra that sub-ordinates are supposed to adopt like "we must all realise the max" or "strive to achieve" etc. Essentially this means asking people to do more work without getting more money and still feeling good about it.

Delphi Compiler Version Directives

2007-03-06T18:32:00.000+05:30

Here is a list of Delphi Compiler version directives. I searched few places but none could give me complete list (A page on About.com was closest to completion) so I thought of creating this list and publishing it.

SYMBOL	COMPILER VERSION
VER80	Delphi 1
VER90	Delphi 2
VER100	Delphi 3
VER120	Delphi 4
VER130	Delphi 5
VER140	Delphi 6
VER150	Delphi 7
VER160	Delphi 8
VER170	Delphi 2005
VER180	Delphi 2006
WIN32	Indicates that the operating environment is the Win32 API.
CONSOLE	Indicates that an application is being compiled as a console application.
LINUX	Indicates that the operating environment is Linux.
CPU386	Indicates that the CPU is an Intel 386 or better.
MSWINDOWS	Indicates that the operating environment is Windows. Use MSWINDOWS to test for any flavor of the Windows platform instead of WIN32.
CLR	Indicates the code will be compiled for the .NET platform.

Sharing spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel

2007-02-27T13:11:00.000+05:30

When was the last time you needed to quickly collect some information from you colleagues and you couldn't find an easy way to do this? When was the last time you opened an Excel Spreadsheet and it said "This workbook is locked for editing by user blah. What would you like to do?"

Problem is many people doesn't know about a neat feature of Microsoft Excel which allows collaboration and sharing of Excel Spreadsheets. This essentially means, more than one user can edit a spreadsheet at the same time. Interested in how to do this?

In Microsoft Excel 2003, you need to follow "Tools > Share Workbook" menu:

In Microsoft Excel 2007, this option is located in "Review" ribbon:

Firing above option shows a dialog presenting a check-box which says something like "Allow changes by more than one user at the same time..blah blah". Select this option and save the work book in a network location where all the persons who need to edit this workbook has write access and you are done!

Thinking of using constants in Delphi? Consider class properties!

2007-02-27T10:39:00.001+05:30

If you have gone through any *real* software project you will understand the need of using constants in code. Your professor would have told you thousand times that don't use any magic numbers in code and if you need, define a constant and use *that* in code. I wouldn't go into the flexibility constants brings in (define and change at single place and use million times stuff).

What I want to discuss is an alternative to constant. There are called "class properties". In C world, these would be called static properties. Yes, you guess right. These are properties which relate to a "class" rather than an "object" (instance of the class). With Delphi.NET, we now have:

Class Fields
Class Methods (Both procedures and functions)
Class Properties

Class fields and class properties and not available in Delphi for Win32 (well, programmers take "never say die" approach).

So class properties allows us to write something like:

var
 number: Integer;
begin
 number := TPredefinedNumbers.DefaultNumber;
 //do something with number
end;

Here, "DefaultNumber" is a class property of TPredefinedNumbers class and we can access DefaultNumber using class name and without actually creating an instance of it. .NET framework makes extensive use of class properties. Refer SystemColors, Brushes etc.

Why class properties qualifies as an (perhaps better) alternative for constants? The reason is, you never know what crazy requirement will be raised by your sales or marketing person which calls for user control on that constant. Perhaps you would think that using the INI file for that constant value would be better so that you can control it. Perhaps day after tomorrow it will qualify to sit in a database field. Who knows?

So class properties provide a great abstraction. When you want to change the location where that constant value resides, all you need to change the get method of class property. And everything works fine..

type
 TPredefinedNumbers = class
 private
   class function GetDefaultNumber: Integer;

 published
   class property DefaultNumber: Integer read GetDefaultNumber;

 end;

implementation

class function TPredefinedNumbers.GetDefaultNumber: Integer;
begin
 //You can return a hard coded value
 Result := 0;

 //or you can get from INI file or database or whatever and return
end;

Back from Bihar!

2007-02-24T21:57:00.001+05:30

So I am finally back from Bihar. Though it wasn't the first time I was visiting Bihar but things are new every time you visit a place. Some bad food habits made me suffer in later part of tour but that's fine considering how much we enjoyed.

Take a look at the sample photograph of some exotic location in Bihar. Not exactly like you heard about Bihar in many ghost stories. Right?

A little Super-Man act

2007-02-18T01:04:00.000+05:30

Pretty good Super-Man act in my home. Thanks to my friend Shripal for photo-timing...:)

Cricket tournament preparation

2007-02-17T23:19:00.000+05:30

So we are fighting for Entity Cup. Here is our official team logo:

Tez-Dhaar team is ready to take on any team. Beware opponents!

Using the HashTable in Delphi for hybrid collections

2007-02-16T11:53:00.000+05:30

While working on one of my project I came across a problem of maintaining a collection of item who were of different types. As I was using Delphi.NET, I was able to use HashTable class (in System.Collections namespace) for this purpose.

Here is code snippet:

{$AUTOBOX ON}
procedure UsingHashTable;
var
hybridCollection: Hashtable;
stringValue: string;
dateTimeValue: DateTime;
integerValue: Integer;
begin
hybridCollection := Hashtable.Create;

stringValue := 'A String...';
dateTimeValue := System.DateTime.Now;
integerValue := 1000;

//stuff different type of values in the collection
hybridCollection.Add (1, stringValue); //Add a string
hybridCollection.Add (2, dateTimeValue); //Add a datetime
hybridCollection.Add (3, integerValue); //Add an integer

//Get the values back
stringValue := hybridCollection[1] as System.&String;
dateTimeValue := hybridCollection[2] as DateTime;
integerValue := hybridCollection[3] as Integer;

console.WriteLine (stringValue);
console.WriteLine (dateTimeValue);
console.WriteLine (integerValue);
end;
{$AUTOBOX OFF}

Above code snippet produces following output:
A String...
16-Feb-07 12:15:05 PM
1000

Did you know?

2007-02-15T15:37:00.000+05:30

The original name for Windows was Interface Manager.
Windows 1.0 first released in 1985. By 1990, over 10 million copies had been sold.
In August 1995, Windows 95 was released in a buying fever so great that even people without home computers bought it. Over one million copies were sold in the first four days, and in the first seven weeks, over 7 million copies were sold worldwide.
Windows is the most widely used operating system in the world, with an estimated 300 million copies in current use.
Windows 3.1 (released in 1992) had three million lines of code, but less than 10 years later, Windows XP (released in 2001) had over 45 million lines of code. Windows Server 2003 has over 50 million lines of code.

List of my favourite books

2007-02-12T22:49:00.000+05:30

Software/Programming:

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks
Programming Windows by Charles Petzold
The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup
Mastering Delphi 7 by Marco Cantu

Others:

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Client by John Grisham
Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh
Electrical Machines by B.S. Bimbhra
The letter never sent by Valerii Osipov

The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code

2007-02-12T22:28:00.000+05:30

Here is an interesting article I came across to judge where a software project stands:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

Basically it has following questions each of which has to answered in either "Yes" or "No":

The Joel Test

Do you use source control?
Can you make a build in one step?
Do you make daily builds?
Do you have a bug database?
Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
Do you have a spec?
Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
Do you use the best tools money can buy?
Do you have testers?
Do new candidates write code during their interview?
Do you do hallway usability testing?

Refer the link for details about these points.
Basically the bottom line is "if your software project scores below 10, your project is in trouble".

5 Things to understand to make life easier for programmers

2007-02-12T21:27:00.000+05:30

Here are 5 things understanding which will make life easier for programmers. Unfortunately, it is not the programmers who has to understand this but their super headed bosses (so called managers).

All resources are not same. First of all, I don't like when people call programmers "resources". It indicates as if programmers are some kind of robots. Of different make and model but robots none the less. If you are working in software field for more than 6 months you will strongly agree with me. If you still have some doubts, you got to read The Mythical Man-Month.
A design document can never be complete unless the coding for that product is complete. Same is true for product specification document. I don't know why it is that hard to understand. My head starts burning when a person with a fat belly asks me "Is design complete? Have you started implementation phase? Why you are still modifying product specification?" It is roughly equivalent to asking "Is the foreplay complete? Have you started sex now?" Next time somebody says "Design for EagleWing is complete and it is in implementation phase", you know he is one of those moron managers.
Nobody else than a programmer can prepare a schedule for a project. Yes. Nobody else can. Doesn't matter your super smart project manager has just returned from a fancy software estimation training which costed your company more than his one month salary. Doesn't matter a coder is having just 6 months experience. She will still do it better. I bet last time you were given 1 week to complete import table feature in some ToDa application, you wanted to yell "You do this in a week and I will pay your salary for this month."
More bugs does not necessarily mean that programmer who implemented that darn thing was poor in programming. There are zillion reasons for more than average bugs being reported. Perhaps, the initial design of software was so bad that it is almost impossible to touch something without breaking the other. Perhaps the tester was far too intelligent and perfect and he found all the bugs at once which were left unnoticed in last couple of years. Perhaps the project is dealing with one of those customer who decide that their banking software should show a warning "Be careful of the snowy weather" after having a sneeze. Perhaps the programmer was not given enough time to implement blah feature properly (side effect of point#1).
A design remains unaffected by the language, framework, platform. This is too good to be true. Can one create an application on Unix with the exact same functionality and user interface as she would do on Windows. Deliberately or accidentally, designs are created to leverage the full power of framework/platform being used and I don't see any harm in that. Any design or specification without so much details of implementation is useless anyway and if they are detailed, they ought to have few things related to implementation scheme peek out.

World of Quotes

2007-02-12T17:22:00.000+05:30

Decisions in 10 minutes or less, or the next one is free.
- Brian Valentine, the lead developer on Windows 2000

A step from which we may never recover.
- C. A. R. Hoare (About pointers)

No programming technique solves all problems.
No programming language produces only correct results.
No programmer should start each project from scratch.
- Axel-Tobias Schreiner (Author – Object Oriented Programming)

Object-orientation will not replace sliced bread.
- Axel-Tobias Schreiner (Author – Object Oriented Programming)

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.
- Abraham Lincoln

God is real, unless declared integer.
- Anonymous

The purpose of most computer languages is to lengthen your resume by a word and a comma.
- Larry Wal

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
- Weiler's Law

A professional programmer is an amateur who never quit.
- Morendil

I invented the term Object-Oriented, and I can tell you I did not have C++ in mind.
- Alan Kay

C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg.
- Bjarne Stroustrup (Creator of C++)

The aim of science is not to open the door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error.
- Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo

A mind trained to look for complex solutions is often stumped by simplicity at first.
- Anonymous

Computers intimidate many people. Those who aren't intimidated, tend to become programmers.
- Steve Oualline, Author of C Style of coding

...one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.
- Robert Firth

Making Delphi applications Vista friendly

2007-02-06T15:30:00.000+05:30

Here is an article I came across while surfing which mentions some basic steps needs to be performed to make Delphi application Vista friendly.

http://www.installationexcellence.com/articles/VistaWithDelphi/Index.html

Girl Falls off Motorcycle

2007-01-20T15:36:00.001+05:30


Some idiot showing off on a bike with his girlfriend on the back. She flys off at about 50 mph. Watch Girl Falls off motorcycle on Google. Very funny... And this one too: Sexy girl with funny Jim Carrey

Feeling like have to buy a restaurant to have dinner?

2007-01-12T11:29:00.000+05:30

One time or another you might have felt this if you using Delphi 2006 (or Borland Developer Studio as they call it). I came across this Delphi 10 Lite while browsing yesterday and a guy (don't know who he/she is) has done a great job ripping BDS 2006 and making a light weigth developer environment. Loads in couple of seconds and is lightening fast.

I don't know whether it is completely legal or not and I don't care either. Borland should learn from Delphi Configuration Manager and BDS 2006 start up managers. Why they couldn't add the functionality of various personalities in Delphi 2005 which they had to add later on in Delphi 2006 inspired by the success of Delphi 2005 configuration manager.

Run a google search on "Delphi 10 Lite" and I am sure you will find some download links.

Have Fun

What American accent do I have?

2007-01-12T11:20:00.000+05:30

So I took a quiz sent by Simon and here are the results:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The Midland
The South
North Central
Boston
The West
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I don't know whether the quiz creator did the good job or not because I am not really an American. So don't which "great lakes" quiz creator is talking about....