WinRT demystified

Windows 8 as introduced at Build is an exciting release as it has important updates to how Microsoft envisions users will interact with their computers, to a fresh new user interface to a new programming model and a lot more.

If you build software for end-users, you should watch Jensen Harris discuss the Metro principles in Windows 8. I find myself wanting to spend time using Windows 8.

But the purpose of this post is to share what I learned at the conference specifically about WinRT and .NET.
The Basics
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Microsoft is using the launch of Windows 8 as an opportunity to fix long-standing problems with Windows, bring a new user interface, and enable a safe AppStore model for Windows.

To do this, they have created a third implementation of the XAML-based UI system. Unlike WPF which was exposed only to the .NET world and Silverlight which was only exposed to the browser, this new implementation is available to C++ developers, HTML/Javascript developers and also .NET developers.

.NET developers are very familiar with P/Invoke and COM Interop. Those are two technologies that allow a .NET developer to consume an external component, for example, this is how you would use the libc "system (const char *)" API from C#:

    [DllImport ("libc")]
    void system (string command);
    [...]

    system ("ls -l /");
   

We have used P/Invoke extensively in the Mono world to create bindings to native libraries. Gtk# binds the Gtk+ API, MonoMac binds the Cocoa API, Qyoto binds the Qt API and hundred other bindings wrap other libraries that are exposed to C# as object-oriented libraries.

Read more: Personal blog of Miguel de Icaza
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Zero Install

Zero Install is a decentralised cross-distribution software installation system. Other features include full support for shared libraries, sharing between users, and integration with native platform package managers. It supports both binary and source packages, and works on Linux, Mac OS X, Unix and Windows systems. It is fully Open Source.

Read more: Zero Install
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Italian Hacker Publishes 0day SCADA Hacks

An Italian security researcher, Luigi Auriemma, has disclosed a laundry list of unpatched vulnerabilities and detailed proof-of-concept exploits that allow hackers to completely compromise major industrial control systems. The attacks work against six SCADA systems, including one manufactured by U.S. giant Rockwell Automation. The researcher published step-by-step exploits that allowed attackers to execute full remote compromises and denial of service attacks. Auriemma appeared unrepentant for the disclosures in a post on his website.

Read more: Slashdot
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Linux on Windows

Yes you read the headline correctly - andLinux is a distribution that runs under Windows and it allows you to run Linux software on the Windows desktop.

You may already know that Linux users can run Windows applications using a sub-system called Wine. This mostly works, but there are big problems keeping up with the proprietary code in Windows. You can't simply take the source code of Windows and arrange for it to run as an application under Linux. Of course, Linux being open source means you can do exactly that but the other way around.

andLinux is an Ubuntu system that uses coLinux as its kernel. coLinux is a port of the standard Linux kernel to Windows. This makes the claim that it runs almost all Linux applications without modification perfectly believable. It isn't a new project and it is still in beta, but it seems stable and usable.

Read more: I Programmer
Read more: adLinux
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.NET 4.5 now includes the core AntiXSS functions

Due to the popularity of the Microsoft AntiXSS Library, ASP.NET 4.5 now incorporates core encoding routines from version 4.0 of that library.

The encoding routines are implemented by the AntiXssEncoder type in the new System.Web.Security.AntiXss namespace. You can use the AntiXssEncoder type directly by calling any of the static encoding methods that are implemented in the type. However, the easiest approach for using the new anti-XSS routines is to configure an ASP.NET application to use the AntiXssEncoder by default. To do this, add the following attribute to the Web.config file:

<httpRuntime ...
  encoderType="System.Web.Security.AntiXss.AntiXssEncoder, System.Web,
    Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

When the encoderType attribute is set to use the AntiXssEncoder type, all output encoding in ASP.NET automatically uses the new encoding routines.

Read more: idunno.org
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A first encounter with Windows8 Development (C#, XAML, JavaScript)

Yesterday I have watched the Keynote speech presenting to developers around the world the new Windows8 development ecosystem. And in my opinion the basic idea on what is going to happen, which programing skills we need to master and what we can carry with us from the .net world is summarized in the following basic figure:

In this figure with light-blue we have the “old” paradigm and with light-green the “new” one. And as I see it in this “new” era XAML is there, C# is there and also HTML5 and JavaScript are now more “natively” supported, being two more than welcome additions to the picture. So if I tried to summarize the awaited change I would say: a new underlying API (WinRT) that understands more developers and provides richer functionality out-of-the-box along with a big set of new UI interaction ideas at the hands of the developer. Of course there are hundreds of features in this new ecosystem for the developer to harness and master but this for me is the general idea. Myself being a WPF enthusiast I was happy to see that XAML is still there and also the fact that VS 2011 and Expression Blend are the two IDEs that will handle the development workload for the developer. Having said that I wanted to get a “hands-on” experience on how it is to develop in this new ecosystem.
 
So in order to have some insight I have installed Windows8 on a virtual machine and tried to implement a very basic app in C# , XAML and then in JavaScript using VS2011 and Expression Blend 5. Below are my first thoughts/encounters/guidelines on how this can go:
 
Installing Windows8
Initially go ahead and download the .iso image for the Windows8 Developer preview from this link. Download the 64bit edition with VS2011 and Expression Blend 5. My approach then was to download VirtualBox from this link ,install it and then do the following:
Run VirtualBox, select New, name the VM Windows8, select Microsoft Windows as your OS and Windows 7 64bit as the OS Version. Specify that the VM will use 4GB of memory and create a virtual HDD of fixed size of at least 30GB. Once the VM is created mount the .iso you have downloaded and Windows8 will be up and running in no time!
 
Developing the Unit Converter in Windows 8 (XAML + C#)
At that point I was ready for development. I switched to Desktop in Windows8 and started VS 2011. We will create a simple Unit Converter in XAML,C# so we select Visual C#/Windows Metro Style/Application:

Read more: C# and .NET Tips and Tricks
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Windows 8 to have built-in anti-virus - there's good and bad news

Microsoft will ship Windows 8 with built-in anti-virus software.
That's the big news that is no doubt being discussed furtively at the watercoolers of computer security companies around the world today.
What will it mean to them? A quick glance at Twitter reveals that some people already have pretty good ideas about how the news might have been received..

@supascape
Jason Hughey

Microsoft announces Windows 8 has anti-virus/anti-malware built in. Loud screams are heard from Symantec/Norton and McAfee headquarters!

September 13, 2011 9:16 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

But seriously, is this good news for the existing anti-virus companies and - more importantly - consumers?

Microsoft has been making a free anti-virus software available for a couple of years, in the form of Microsoft Security Essentials. But you had to download it from the internet - it wasn't bundled with Windows itself.

Microsoft has been bundling a program called Windows Defender with Windows 7, Windows XP and Vista, but it doesn't really compare to a proper anti-virus product.

Read more: Naked security
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Xamarin and Mono at the BUILD Conference

Continuing our tradition of getting together with Mono users at Microsoft conferences, we are going to be hosting an event at the Sheraton Hotel next to the conference on Thursday at 6:30pm (just after Ask the Experts).

Come join us with your iOS, Android, Mac and Linux questions.

Read more: Personal blog of Miguel de Icaza
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[CentOS-announce] Release for CentOS-5.7 i386 and x86_64

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS-5.7 for
i386 and x86_64 Architectures.

CentOS-5.7 is based on the upstream release EL 5.7 and includes
packages from all variants including Server and Client. All upstream
repositories have been combined into one, to make it easier for end
users to work with.

This is just an announcement email, not the release notes. The Release
Notes for CentOS-5.7 can be found on-line at :
http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.7 and everyone is
encouraged to look through them once. Also worth browsing through are
the CentOS FAQs at http://wiki.centos.org/FAQ

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Upgrading from CentOS-5.6 ( or CentOS-5.0/5.1/5.2/5.3/5.4/5.5):

If you are already running CentOS-5.6 or an older CentOS-5 distro, all
you need to do is update your machine via yum by running :

'yum update'

Running 'yum list updates' before doing the update is recommended, so
you can get a list of packages that are going to be updated. To check
you are indeed on CentOS-5.7, run : 'rpm -q centos-release' and that
should return: 'centos-release-5-7.el5.centos.1'

If you are running CentOS-5.6 and have the CR repo enabled, a simple
'yum update' will still move your machine to 5.7. But since the CR repo
already contained all the 5.7 updates, there will only be a handful of
rpms that need to be installed for the 5.6 to 5.7 upgrade. If you are
not running the CR repo, we highly encourage everyone to install and run
this repository on their machines. More details on the CR repo can be
found online at http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/CR

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Downloading CentOS-5.7 for new installs:

When possible, consider using torrents to run the downloads. Not only
does it help the community and keeps mirrors from running up high
bandwidth bills, in most cases you will find its also the fastest means
to download the distro. There are currently over a hundred people
seeding CentOS-5 and it's possible to get upto 100mbps downloads via
these torrents.

- -- Via BitTorrent :
       CD:
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.7/isos/i386/CentOS-5.7-i386-bin-1to8.torrent
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.7/isos/x86_64/CentOS-5.7-x86_64-bin-1to8.torrent

       DVD:
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.7/isos/i386/CentOS-5.7-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.7/isos/x86_64/CentOS-5.7-x86_64-bin-DVD.torrent

Read more: CentOS mailing list
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Sessions at BUILD Day 2 and Windows 8

The second day of the BUILD conference was dedicated mostly to breakout-style sessions on the various topics covered only in brief during the keynotes. Some of the new stuff I’ve seen today in pseudo-random order:

Visual Studio 11

    Productivity Power Tools (with over a million downloads)! are going to be built-in in Visual Studio 11.
    You can right-click a piece of code in Visual Studio and select “Find Matching Clones” for a similarity analyzer that detects copy-paste across the board.

Read more: All Your Base Are Belong To Us
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Visual Studio 11 and TFS 11 Available For MSDN Subscriptions

Build Conference announced several new things, beginning from Windows 8 to the new version of TFS 11 and Visual Studio 11.

TFS 11 and Visual Studio 11 are in Developer Preview state, means it’s not even a Beta, but every things works just fine If you like to experience the new features coming in TFS 11 and Visual Studio 11.

We in Sela Group will do a special event to introduce the new TFS 11 and Visual Studio 11 over the coming weeks, meanwhile if you have an MSDN Subscription you can download the new version and give it a try.

Here is couple of the new features coming in TFS 11 and Visual Studio 11, later today I’m going to Cameron Skinner and Brian Seller on “What’s new in Visual Studio 11 for Application Life Cycle Management” and I’ll post about more cool features coming in the new version.

Planning a Sprint

    Once work is prioritized, it’s time for the team to plan the next sprint/iteration,
    identify the tasks and start allocating the work.
    The enhanced work item management tools in Team Web Access make this process simple by pre-populating required data and streamline the association and update process.
    The sprint planning tools help your team effectively allocate work balancing load with available capacity.
    In this screenshot interactive bar charts show team member capacity and the burn down progress for the project. Enabling real-time feedback on the updates to the plan.

Read more: Shai Raiten
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Коллекция бесплатных дизайнов для сайта, HTML шаблоны с PSD исходниками. 2011 год

 

9 профессиональных HTML шаблонов различной тематики с внедренными JavaScript эффектами. Тематика сайтов: центр йоги и пилатеса, шаблон спа салона (spa-салон), дизайн интерьеров, свадебная тематика сайтов, семейная тематика, шаблоны кулинарных сайтов и другие HTML CSS JavaScript решения.

Для бесплатного скачивания шаблонов с PSD исходниками дизайна, необходимо ввести имя и е-мейл, на который вы получите ссылку для загрузки. Все шаблоны сделаны очень профессионально и предоставлены известным разработчиком Template Monster. Их можно скачивать, изменять и использовать в ваших проектах бесплатно без ограничений (запрещается только продажа бесплатных шаблонов).

Read more: Follow design
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WinRT and .NET in Windows 8

The Web today is full of rumors about the demise of Silverlight, .NET, Win32, and nearly anything else that doesn’t align immediately with Metro-style apps. Indeed, it seems sometimes that we are so eager to focus on “what’s dead” that we forget to look at the new announcements and try to figure out “what’s alive”.

From a brief analysis of the Windows 8 Developer Preview, Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview, and whatever bits of information delivered at the conference sessions, I think I have a pretty decent mental picture of what’s going on.

First of all, a managed Metro application (e.g. written in C#) will still load the CLR. I confirmed this by launching a Metro application and inspecting it with WinDbg – I was even able to load SOS and run basic commands. The CLR version bundled with the preview is 4.0.30319.17020, and that’s the version that gets loaded inside a Metro app. (It’s curious to note that even though the Visual Studio setting dictates “Any CPU” and the Windows version is 64-bit, the actual process is 32-bit.)

Symmetrically, a “fully” .NET application (e.g. a WinForms app) can reference the WinRT metadata assemblies and use WinRT APIs. This will be a necessity in some cases, for example to tap into the WinRT sensor APIs.

Next, a C++ Metro application will still load Win32 DLLs such as kernel32 and ntdll. Moreover, the WinRT APIs call into the Win32 DLLs – so they are not a replacement but rather a wrapper, an API flavor, on top of Win32. (Historical note: Windows used to have a feature called “environment subsystems”, which can be roughly described as API flavors. WinRT is not an environment subsystem – it is a library on top of the Win32 environment subsystem.)

What about the limitations, then, that a Metro application has in terms of API surface? Indeed, a Metro application written in C++ will be able to access only a part of the Win32 API surface, and this is accomplished through a bunch of preprocessor definitions. For example, the MessageBox function is not available for Metro-style apps, and its declaration is protected in the header file as follows:

#pragma region Desktop Family
#if WINAPI_FAMILY_PARTITION(WINAPI_PARTITION_DESKTOP)
WINUSERAPI int WINAPI MessageBoxA(…);
…

Read more: All Your Base Are Belong To Us
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Visual Studio 2010 Updates Now in Windows Update!

On a mailing list I’m on Ed Blankenship pointed out that VS updates are now coming through Windows Update. Finally! Hopefully Microsoft will keep pushing these updates for all products they ship because it’s something of a pain to keep a development box up to date.

Read more: John Robbins' Blog
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WCF Extensibility – Serialization Surrogates

After the callbacks, the next extensibility point on the list for serialization are the surrogates. This will be a short post, since the surrogate idea is simple (once you understand it) and there is some good documentation on MSDN about this issue, so I don’t think I need to repeat it here.

Surrogates have been around for a while, even before WCF, and their idea is simple: replacing one type A which is part of an object graph to be serialized with another type B (the “surrogate”). The main reasons why we’d want to do that are either because the type A isn’t serializable at all, or because it doesn’t have a serialization format which we want, so we use a surrogate to change it. The first case is straightforward – sometimes you have a type from a 3rd party or a legacy library which cannot be modified to accommodate serialization, but it’s part of the object graph which you want to exchange between client and server. One possible solution is to replicate the graph in Data Transfer Objects (DTO) which only contain the data which needs to be serialized. Sometimes, however, this may not be the best approach (too many types, high cost to convert between DTOs and objects with business logic, etc.), so a surrogate can be an way out. The second case (wanting to change the serialization format) doesn’t happen very often, but there are some scenarios where users want to change the way a type is serialized.

Before WCF was released, the way to implement surrogates was by using the ISurrogateSelector and ISerializationSurrogate interfaces.. Most of the previous “serializers” (including the BinaryFormatter and the SoapFormatter) supported it via the IFormatter interface. When the formatters were serializing an object graph, they’d search in their “surrogate chain” to see if any surrogate was present to deal with each type in the graph; if this was the case, then it would use the surrogate to serialize / deserialize the objects instead of the object itself.

Read more: Carlos' blog
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Integration vs unit tests

When people are talking about automated testing, unit tests get all the buzz. Alpha geeks do them all the time, Uncle Bob Martin blogs about them, Oprah invites them to her show, Mr.President.. well, you got the idea. When somebody mentions integration tests, it's like, "you should write integration tests like a good boy/girl, or you'll be punished". Those of you who are just starting automated testing probably think, "ok these integration tests must be real pain in the ass, l'm really scared". This post will ease your fears, I promise!
What's the difference, again?

When we look closer at these two types of tests, we discover that there's no clear distinction between them. People tend to think that unit tests are those that test only one class. But a "unit" can sometimes consist of several closely related classes serving the same purpose. Some folks even dare to say that, regardless of what you test, unit tests are those that run fast. Ayende, for example, openly supports including interaction with a database (via NHibernate) in your unit tests. A couple of years ago you'd be banned from the community for such rebellious statements!

Integration tests are meant to check how good can several units work together as a team. (There are also "functional" and "acceptance" tests that do the same, and some folks even claim to understand the difference.) People are scared to write integration tests, because they think they'll have to test the system all the way from the input screen to the database, or another screen, or a call to an external service.
Rejoice, 'cuz your fear will liberate ya!

If you don't feel like writing tests for your UI, pick a testing framework that makes it easy (like this one), or start your test just one level below the UI. While the first option will keep you confident that your UI is correctly integrated with the rest of the system, the other one will help you isolate the UI from the code, improving the system design. This is the general rule: moving towards integration testing gives you more confidence, whereas unit testing helps in improving your design.

As you see, you can include in your test any number of your classes, and sometimes even external services, and depending on the current trend it could be called whatever. Let's say some tests are more "unit-y" then the others, but there's no clear distinction between the two, just a continuous spectrum. For the purpose of this post, let's talk about "smaller" and "bigger" tests.

Read more: Codeproject
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Windows Server 8: built for the cloud, built for virtualization

Where Windows 8 is an operating system built for the tablet, Windows Server 8 is an operating system built for the cloud. Not the Windows Azure public cloud; rather, it's built for "private clouds": on-premises, virtualized deployments with tens or hundreds of virtual machines.

This kind of large scale administration requires a new approach to system management. That approach centers around PowerShell and Server Manager, the new Metro-style management console. Server Manager provides a convenient GUI, but behind the scenes, PowerShell commands are constructed and executed. The commands can also be copied, edited, and executed directly in PowerShell. This should sound familiar to many Windows administrators, as Exchange already uses this style of management, with the GUI being a mere layer over PowerShell.

The same mechanism is used to administer multiple machines simultaneously; it makes remote PowerShell calls to multiple machines, allowing actions to be performed on them in parallel. To enable this, PowerShell has been expanded with more than 2,000 new commands.

Going hand in hand with this new style of administration is a new approach to the GUI. Windows Server 2008 has Server Core mode, a way of running windows with the GUI removed. This hasn't received much uptake, however—quite a few applications, though server-oriented, just don't work without the GUI for one reason or another. Switching between Server Core and the standard operating system requires reinstallation.

Read more: Ars Technica
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How Do I Get Cool Desktop Effects in Linux?

Dear Lifehacker,
I'm loving Linux, but I keep seeing screenshots and videos of these tricked-out, super-customized interfaces with things like the desktop cube and I'm not sure where to find them in the settings. How can I customize my Linux desktop like this?

Sincerely,

Confused Customizer

Dear Confused,

Like many things Linux, the solution is not always as obvious as it would seem. Many of the things you see—like that fancy desktop cube—come from the Compiz window manager and its advanced settings panel, which doesn't come installed by default. Here's how to get that stuff installed and how to enable some of our favorite cool effects.

Note: Many of these effects can be pretty graphics intensive, so you'll need a decent video card to handle some of them. Make sure you're running a somewhat newer machine, and that your graphics card's drivers are properly installed before continuing.

Installing The Compiz Settings Manager

How Do I Get Cool Desktop Effects in Linux?To get most of these effects, you need to be using the Compiz window manager. We've talked a bit about what a window manager is before, so I won't get too deep into it here, but what you need to know is that, by default, Ubuntu should use Compiz by default just by installing the Compiz Config Settings Manager, also known as CCSM. Other distros and desktop environments may vary; we'll just focus on Ubuntu today.

Read more: Lifehacker
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Ubuntu web site launched to encourage application developers

Canonical has launched a new web site, developer.ubuntu.com, aimed at both new and experienced developers making their first steps with Linux development. The Ubuntu Developer site promotes the strengths and ease-of-use of Quickly, Canonical's development framework.

The web site started out as the brainchild of those participating in the Ubuntu App Developer Week, 5-9 September, where developers presented tutorials and gave help to attendees in the chat room. Sketches were initially released, with a restricted prototype available to those closely involved. Attendees at Ubuntu Developer Summits will be able to give feedback about the site directly to Canonical.

Newly-recruited UI architect John Oxton stated that “the goal of this site is to help get more and better apps into the Ubuntu Software Centre”. Oxton also made it clear that the web site is not aimed at existing, mature applications, but rather at “individuals, or small teams, with an itch to scratch … or small indie developers/companies who are already making small, useful, or just plain cool, apps for other platforms.”

Read more: The H Open
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Metro style browsing and plug-in free HTML5

    One of the first things a lot of folks will try after installing the developer preview of Windows 8 will be the IE10 browser—the most used tool in Windows. IE 10 in the preview is Platform Preview 3 of IE 10.  You can read on the IE blog about the HTML 5 engine work we’re doing. This post is about a big change in Metro style IE, which is the plug-in free experience. In Windows 8, IE 10 is available as a Metro style app and as a desktop app. The desktop app continues to fully support all plug-ins and extensions. The HTML5 and script engines are identical and you can easily switch between the different frame windows if you’d like. Metro style IE provides all the main navigation keyboard shortcuts and mouse support you’ve come to expect—creating tabs, moving between tabs, closing tabs, entering addresses, searching, and more. I’m using this browser full–time, and given the amount of time I spend in Windows Phone, the same experience and use of touch is definitely a plus. But you can decide on what works best for you, and not compromise. Dean Hachamovitch, who leads the IE team, wrote this post. 
    --Steven

For the web to move forward and for consumers to get the most out of touch-first browsing, the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free. The experience that plug-ins provide today is not a good match with Metro style browsing and the modern HTML5 web.

Running Metro style IE plug-in free improves battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers. Plug-ins were important early on in the web’s history. But the web has come a long way since then with HTML5. Providing compatibility with legacy plug-in technologies would detract from, rather than improve, the consumer experience of browsing in the Metro style UI.

The reality today is that sites are already rapidly engineering for a plug-in free experience. Google, for example, recently launched their HTML5 YouTube site for phones. A previous IE blog post discussed how plug-in free sites are becoming more mainstream, and what sites can do to run plug-in free. We examined the use of plug-ins across the top 97,000 sites world-wide, a corpus which includes local sites outside the US in significant depth. Many of the 62% of these sites that currently use Adobe Flash already fall back to HTML5 video in the absence of plug-in support. When serving ads in the absence of plug-ins, most sites already perform the equivalent of this fallback, showing that this approach is practical and scalable. There’s a steep drop-off in plug-in usage after Flash, with one control used on 2% of sites and a small collection of controls used on between 0.5% and 0.75% of sites.

Read more: Building Windows 8
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Microsoft Reports 500,000 Downloads of New Windows Preview

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. said developers have downloaded 500,000 copies of the preview version of Windows 8 since its debut yesterday, evidence of interest in an operating system that will vie with Apple Inc. software.

“While it’s clear we have a long way to go still with Windows 8, we’ve been gratified by the reactions and the interest,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said today at a conference for developers in Anaheim, California. One area needing more work: a Windows 8 version that runs on chips with technology from ARM Holdings Plc, which is “very, very important to us,” Ballmer said.

Microsoft is rushing to complete Windows 8 because the company wants an operating system capable of running thinner, lighter tablet machines with battery power that can rival Apple’s iPad. That need has led the world’s largest software maker to make its Windows personal-computer operating system compatible with ARM-based chips for the first time. ARM processors typically run smartphones and other mobile gadgets.

At the conference, Microsoft gave attendees a prototype machine running an Intel Corp. chip rather than an ARM model, a sign that version is farther along. Microsoft hasn’t said when Windows 8 devices will go on sale.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, rose 46 cents to $26.50 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have lost 5.1 percent of their value this year.

Read more: Bloomberg Businessweek
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Learn anything with your peers.

It's online and totally free.

At P2PU, people work together to learn a particular topic by completing tasks, assessing individual and group work, and providing constructive feedback.

Read more: P2PU
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Windows 8 Replaces the Win32 API

Windows 8 introduces a new core API called WinRT. This is used to develop Metro style applications using C/C++, .NET, or JavaScript. These applications automatically gain features such as hardware acceleration and advanced power management out of the box. Existing Silverlight and WPF applications can be ported to the new “Native XAML” libraries with minimal effort.

What follows is a summary of the keynote presentation. More details will be provided as they become available.

General Notes

Windows 8: Base line memory usage dropped from 540 MB to 281 MB.

The lock-screen can now display user content.

Touch-based passwords, essentially you tap on three points of an image to unlock the machine.

Like Windows Phone, the start page uses the metro style with live tiles.

There is a heavy emphasis on full screen applications.

Application specific and system settings share the same space on the user interface. It appears that applications will need to indicate which systems settings are relevant.

New version of Internet Explorer will be completely free of chrome. All of that functionality is hidden in application bars that slide into view.

Spell check is included system wide.

Developer preview includes Visual Studio 11 Express, Expression Blend 5. There is no timeline for the next milestone, which is the public Beta. Intern updates will be pushed to the preview machines on an as needed basis. The preview will be available starting tonight as http://dev.windows.com at for x86/x64.

Application Integration

Windows 8 will have extension points known as “charms”. An example of a charm is the “share charm” which shows all the ways text can be shared such as email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Applications can register themselves inside a charm by implementing the correct interfaces. Meanwhile other applications can indicate they are capable of sending information to the charm. The concept is very much like JavaScript mashups or classic OLE, but with a lot more thought about what those interactions should be.

Read more: InfoQ
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XAML Sessions at BUILD

By now hopefully you’ve seen a lot of the revealing of what the next version of Windows has in store for developers.  Trust me there is a LOT to absorb as the week continues and you should absolutely keep your eye on the BUILD conference site where session information will likely start to appear.

I know that a lot of readers here will be interested in the XAML-specific sessions so I thought I’d iterate them here real quick.

    NOTE: Anything on the agenda with a “C” after the session number is a chalk talk and is not recorded.  These are more interactive sessions for QA with attendees.

Again, there is a lot to cover so be sure to spelunk the sessions on the site for more things that might interest you, but here are the XAML-specific ones from our team and some ones I felt relevant to my readers:

• [APP-737T] WED 11:30 AM (Joe Stegman) Metro style apps using XAML: what you need to know
• [APP-741T] WED 02:00 PM (Marco Matos): Metro style apps using XAML: Make your app shine
• [TOOL-479T] WED 02:00 PM (Vikas Bhatia, Joanna Mason): A lap around Visual Studio 11 Express for Metro style apps using C++
• [APP-494T] WED 03:30 PM (John Papa): Stand out with styling and animation in your XAML app
• [APP-517T] WED 05:00 PM (Hamid Mahmood): Build polished collection and list apps using XAML
• [APP-503T] THU 09:00 AM (Alnur Ismail): Make great touch apps using XAML
• [APP-847T] THU 10:30 AM (Tim Heuer): Reach all your customer’s devices with one beautiful XAML user interface
• [TOOL-834T] THU 10:30 AM (Joshua Goodman): What’s new in .NET Framework 4.5
• [APP-912T] THU 01:00 PM (Laurence Moroney): Build data-driven collection and list apps using XAML
• [TOOL-790C] THU 01:00 PM (Daniel Plaisted): Bringing existing managed code into Metro style apps
• [APP-542C] THU 02:30 PM (Alnur Ismail): Building accessible Metro style apps using XAML
• more...

Read more: Method ~ of ~ failed
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Guide to Installing and Booting Windows 8 Developer Preview off a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)

Booting a Windows 8 VHD off a Windows 7 Primary System

Whew, now that's out of the way, let's void a few warranties, shall we?

Please note that there are a half dozen ways to do this. You can do it all from the command line using tools like ImageX, DISM, etc, or you can do a lot of it graphically with tools like BellaVista. This is just the way I did it. It's not gospel. I'm sure the folks in the comments will have much nicer ways. Take them all with a nice grain of sea salt. You can also SYSPREP the VHD directly from the ISO's WIM with IMAGEX if you know what that stuff means. It's a little subtle and requires you go get some tools. While my process  is a little baroque, it just needs the one ISO->USB tool.

Step 0 - Have a lot of Disk Space

I like to have a roomy VHD. You can make one that expands or you can make a fixed size. 40 gigs is usually enough, but I like 60 gigs as a nice round number, plus this is the Windows 8 Developer Preview with Developer Tools. If you don't have enough space when an expandable disk "bloats" itself to the fixed size on boot, it'll blue screen, so expandable or not, have the slack space.

Step 1 - Make a USB stick or DVD from the ISO

Go get the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool and get yourself a USB stick that will hold at LEAST 10 gigs. I used a 16 gig one. Go through the process by pointing at the ISO you downloaded and then preparing your USB key. You can also use the resulting USB key to boot and install Windows 8 from your sacrificial hardware if you like.

Read more: Scott Hanselman Computer Zen
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Twitter бот на C#

Здравствуйте, уважаемые пользователи Хабрахабра.
В этой статье я хочу рассказать вам об очень простом и полезном боте для Twitter, который поможет контролировать состояние Windows-сервера (Занятое место на дисках, процент загрузки CPU, RAM).

Предисловие

Я работаю системным администратором на одном консервном заводе. Так как фирма не профильная, приходится быть администратором и программистом в одном лице.
Причина создания этого бота — быстро заканчивающееся место на жестком диске сервера из-за ежедневных резервных копий баз 1С.
Я долго размышлял о возможных вариантах подобного контроля и пришёл к выводу, что Твиттер самое удобное решение для этого. Итак, от слова к делу.

Подготовка

Так как писать бота будем на C#, нам понадобится:

    Microsoft Visual Studio 2008-2010 любая редакция (или SharpDevelop 3.2 — 4.x)
    Библиотека Twitterizer для работы с Twitter в .NET Framework
    Немного терпения

Разработка

Скачиваем с сайта разработчика библиотеку и распаковываем её содержимое в каталог с нашим проектом. Нам нужны только два файла — Twitterizer2.dll и Newtonsoft.Json.dll. Добавим библиотеку Twitterizer в наш проект. Правая кнопка мыши по проекту -> Add Reference Выбираем вкладку «Browse» и указываем путь к Twitterizer2.dll.

Read more: Habrahabr.ru
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How and where to download the Windows 8 Windows Developer Preview, watch the BUILD Day 1 keynote replay, access information, and much more…

Wow, what an exciting day today with the BUILD keynote kicking off the day and the excitement exploding from there! Now that the keynote is over, I am putting up a quick post to help you find all of the fantastic information that was shared today, as well as where you can get even more of it moving forward:

    BUILD Day 1 Keynote Replay: Did you miss the BUILD keynote this morning, or do you want to see it again? No worries, we have it available online for you to stream and watch from the convenience of your home, office, or wherever you are: Watch It Here
        Want to read the transcript from the BUILD Day 1 Keynote? Ok, here you go.
    Windows Developer Preview Download: Did you see the BUILD keynote this morning and hear the exciting news about the Windows Developer Preview (which is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 for developers) being released for download tonight and now you’re looking for where you can download it at? No problem! You can DOWNLOAD IT HERE.
        Windows 8 Developer Preview Fact Sheet
    Press Releases: Did you see the all of the information shared today through our press releases on our PressPass site? Check them out:
        Microsoft Reimagines Windows, Presents Windows 8 Developer Preview
        BUILD Outlines New Opportunities for Developers
        By the way, if you have the Microsoft Partner Info mobile app, you would have seen these (and more) built into the app already under the People section by clicking on “Microsoft News”

Read more: Microsoft SMS&P Partner Community Blog - By Eric
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BUILDing the Future with Visual Studio

From students participating in the Imagine Cup, to the next hot start-up in Silicon Valley, to enterprises delivering modern efficiencies into mature businesses, developers today all have three things in common: they are transforming and improving society through the software they envision, they have invested in themselves by obtaining deep knowledge and skill sets, and they require great tools to accomplish their goals.

At Microsoft, we’re passionate about delivering the best tools to help make developers successful.  That’s why I’m excited to be here in Anaheim, California, attending the BUILD conference, where Steven Sinofsky has just finished delivering a keynote address in which he unveiled Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows Developer Preview. We see it as our responsibility to empower you as developers to productively create groundbreaking solutions, which is why we aim to help you to capitalize on the skill sets you already have. Whether your skills center around HTML and JavaScript or around C#, Visual Basic, or C++, Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11 represent exciting opportunities.

Read more: Somasegar's WebLog
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BigInteger in C# 4.0

In C# 4.0 Microsoft has added so many features and I love all most all the features. In today’s post we are going to discuss BigInteger Class. During programming some complex systems often we need a very big numbers. For example if we use some of asymmetrical cryptographic feature which require to use large numbers or we can give simple example of factorial where we sometime reached to limit of data type provided by C# compiler. At that time this BigInteger data type can be very handy. You can store 232 to 264 number in this data type. So its very big and you can copy very very big number in that data type.

So let’s take a simple example to write a factorial program. BigInteger data type comes under System.Numerics namespace. So first we have to add reference to our program to System.Numerics assembly like following.

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SharpGL

Project Description

SharpGL is a C# library that allows you to use OpenGL in your WinForms, WPF or Silverlight application with ease.

The current version of SharpGL (1.83) is described in brief on the CodeProject at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/openGL/sharpgl.aspx.

Read more: Codeplex
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How to add Root Certificate and Intermediate Certificate to a Windows Operating System

If you are using a PKI (Public Key Infrastructure), you may found out that Root Certificate and Intermediate Certificate may need be installed manually for Workgroup computers.

Also, in case that you don’t use Active Directory (e.g. GPO etc.) to publish the Root Certificate and Intermediate Certificate details, you may need to add this certificates manually.

To accomplish this task, please use the following commands:

Installing Root Certificate: “Certutil -addstore -f Root MyRootCACertificate.crt”

Installing Intermediate Certificate: “Certutil -addstore -f CA MySubCACertificate.crt”

Read more: Yuval Sinay
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Expression Blend for HTML

In my previous post, I highlighted how Windows Metro style apps can be developed utilizing the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills you already have. If your world is code, Visual Studio offers a great environment in which to write, edit, test, debug, and deploy these apps. Of course, great apps need great user interfaces. And when you need a visual, design-centric way to build your UIs, we have a brand new flavor of Expression Blend for you, built from the ground up for the visual authoring of Windows Metro style apps written with HTML5 and CSS. Unlike most other HTML editors, Blend for HTML is focused on app design, not on Web sites, with an unmatched ability to work on AJAX-style, JavaScript-centric UI.

Read more: Somasegar's WebLog
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