January 2007 - Posts
In my posts regarding the CPU monitor I posted a VBS script that would dump the values from WMI. That script incorrectly prints the wrong property name. It is also displaying the temperature in kelvin not Celsius
The conversion is:
static decimal ConvertToCelsius( string reading )
{
//It's recorded in 10ths of Kelvin
return ( decimal.Parse( reading ) / 10 - 273.15m );
}
''''On Error Resume Next
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\WMI")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( _ "SELECT * FROM MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature",,48)
For Each objItem in colItems
Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
Wscript.Echo "MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature instance"
Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
Wscript.Echo "CurrentTemperature:(Kelvin x 0.1) " & objItem.CurrentTemperature
Wscript.Echo "Critical Trip Point:(Kelvin x 0.1) " & objItem.CriticalTripPoint
Wscript.Echo "Thermal Stamp: " & objItem.ThermalStamp
Next
Well, before Microsoft hit's the street with WCF/WF update (.NET 3.5 perhaps), here's some custom activities that allow design time integration with WCF from Workflow
WCF activities for windows workflow
Source: WCF activities for windows workflow
Our book is printed, and out. Source code is now online on the Apress site.
Already seeing a few ratings on Amazon and a question regarding what version of WCF (.NET 3.0) was used.
The book and supporting code works with the RTM version of .NET 3.0 released in December on XP SP2, along with Vista RTM (which has .NET 3.0 already part of the distribution).
It's a great feeling to see this thing actually in print after a long road from concept to print (1.5 years easily). I had one advantage over my co-authors. While recovering from Back Surgery I had written quite a bit - literally on my back. Then there were the numerous updates as the CTP's and finally RTM was released.
Link to Code Download Page
Link to Book on Apress
Link to Amazon for Purchase
Link to Bookpool for Purchase
Interesting... What does this mean for the future of Websphere? A different track? This guy (Don Ferguson) has his name all over the WS-* Specs...
Link to Microsoft Hires Father of WebSphere from IBM
This came in handy today. The materials is buried in the MSDN documentation, but the presentation here is ideal.
Link to Fusion Workshop
Jets got crushed. Giants choked.
The fact the Giants were even a wildcard was amazing. Jets however showed promise - until New England crushed them in the 2nd half.
From the looks of New England they have a good chance of going all the way again. Eagles, can't judge from their meeting with the Giants as the Giants just plain suck and the margin was 3 points.
My bet is Saints and New England in the Super Bowl, with Saints blowing out NE...
Some nice features in the tool such as a diff utility for XML, which is not a pure text compare.
Intellisense
Transform support
Tree view
...
Not XML Spy (even the home version) but it's light...
Link to the MSDN Article
Link to Download details: XML Notepad 2007
Codeplex has some sample projects, code for DB pro.
Samples to me are by far the best way to get aquanted with a newer technology. DB Pro is quite cool too.
Link to Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals Samples
Found this in the Blue Origin article. This is cool. Amazon amazes me with some of these capabilities that they've re-marketed.
This looks like a great foundational platform for a strong service. I always need storage and the ability to get to it from many locations & machines. The pricing seems OK at first glance, but the Data Transfer prices would be the thing that ends up racking up charges.
Link to Amazon.com: Amazon S3, Amazon Simple Storage Service, Unlimited Online Storage: Amazon Web Services
Another billionaire is trying to make space flight commercially viable.
This is great. If they offered me a ticket today to be a passenger or just work on the thing, I'd take it.
If you view the video you'll see their prototype go up about 280 ft, then come back to Earth in a smooth, very "Movie Spaceship" like landing.
My big question is how they plan on breaking the pull of Earth's gravity with such a craft. When you see the Space Shuttle, there's enourmous amounts of power to break out of Earth's gravitational pull. From https://aerospacescholars.jsc.nasa.gov/HAS/cirr/ss/3/mission.cfm
The speed necessary to reach this situation is about 28,200 kilometers per hour (17,500 miles per hour) and this is the speed that the Space Shuttle must attain to continue to fall around Earth (remain in orbit) at an altitude of 300 kilometers (186 miles). (To go farther than that, or "escape" the Earth's gravitational force, if you wanted to go to the moon for example, you have to go even faster than that. The "escape velocity" for the Earth is about 40,300 kilometers per hour, or about 25,000 miles per hour).
That is fast. Lot's of thrust behind any craft that needs to go straight up. What about planes that can break into Space? If you watch the movie The Right Stuff they show how Chuck Yeager glanced at that idea. The real race then was whether it was a plane or a rocket to be the basis of our space program. Rockets won for 2 reasons - they were what the Russians were using and we could also top them with Nuclear warheads - dual purpose.
Since I kid I've been facinated by space flight. And yes, I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step off the LEM latter and onto the Moon's surface live. Something that I hope will be repeated in my lifetime, perhaps Mars.
Link to Blue Origin
With the update of signatures dated 1/3/2007, eTrust is no longer being reported as "out-of-date" by Security Center.
Talk about Y2K issues, this was an "every year" issue.
I can see the logic inside the WMI provider from CA eTrust:
bool productUptoDate(){
...
if (signatures_Year < current_Year )
return false;
Link to CedarLogic - Shawn Cicoria : eTrust 7.1 AntiVirus Out of Date issue on Vista RTM - Forefront looking better each day
Vista's looking more and more like a supported operating system!!
First Zune folks release their Vista update; Virtual PC 2007 RC is now ready.
Link to Scott Woodgate's OutBursts : Happy New Year - Virtual PC 2007 Release Candidate ready for download
I've been using eTrust 7.1 on my Vista builds with absolutely zero issues until the New Year. As of 1/1/2007 Security Center is informing me that CA eTrust 7.1 AntiVirus is out of date.
The Virus Signatures inside of eTrust and it's all up to date with 12/29/2006 being the last update.
Running the following WMI script from an elevated prompt and the "productUptoDate" property is coming back false. I'll be checking this out on an XP SP2 machine shortly, but something's up with eTrust 7.1 not reporting it correctly or something else. I've done a reinstall.
I tried the CA Support site and to say the least, it absolutely SUCKS!!!. A shame as it's been quite stable and I'd fork out money for a Vista certified version if I had had a better experience with their site. Now, I'll look elsewhere. Symantec I really don't like too much as it mucks up the system way too much.
Microsoft's Forefront security package is looking better each day http://www.microsoft.com/forefront/clientsecurity/default.mspx
strComputer = "." 'Can set to remote machine.
On Error Resume Next
Set oWMI = GetObject _
("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer _
& "\root\SecurityCenter")
Set colItems = oWMI.ExecQuery("Select * from AntiVirusProduct")
If Err = 0 Then
For Each objAntiVirusProduct In colItems
WScript.Echo "companyName: " & objAntiVirusProduct.companyName
WScript.Echo "displayName: " & objAntiVirusProduct.displayName
WScript.Echo "enableOnAccessUIMd5Hash: " _
& objAntiVirusProduct.enableOnAccessUIMd5Hash
WScript.Echo "enableOnAccessUIParameters: " _
& objAntiVirusProduct.enableOnAccessUIParameters
WScript.Echo "instanceGuid: " & objAntiVirusProduct.instanceGuid
WScript.Echo "onAccessScanningEnabled: " _
& objAntiVirusProduct.onAccessScanningEnabled
WScript.Echo "pathToEnableOnAccessUI: " _
& objAntiVirusProduct.pathToEnableOnAccessUI
WScript.Echo "pathToUpdateUI: " & objAntiVirusProduct.pathToUpdateUI
WScript.Echo "productUptoDate: " & objAntiVirusProduct.productUptoDate
WScript.Echo "updateUIMd5Hash: " & objAntiVirusProduct.updateUIMd5Hash
WScript.Echo "updateUIParameters: " _
& objAntiVirusProduct.updateUIParameters
WScript.Echo "versionNumber: " & objAntiVirusProduct.versionNumber
Next
Else
Err.Clear
WScript.Echo "Unable to connect to SecurityCenter class on " _
& strComputer & "."
WScript.Echo " Error Number:" & Err.Number
WScript.Echo " Source:" & Err.Source
WScript.Echo " Description:" & Err.Description
End If
This topic is containted in Chapter 13 of the book I participated on (Pro WCF: Practical Microsoft SOA Implementation). I did the first draft of Chapter 13 and spent quite a bit of time looking at the competing WS-* stacks.
If you're looking at interopability with WCF and the Java world this one is definately the most mature and more "meta-data" driven if you like designers, etc.
There's alot more on the subject in the book than what's on this blog posting referenced below. Along with some working examples and some "wire-level" inspection of what's actually going on using one of my favorite tools Ethereal (http://www.ethereal.com/) - which has become Wireshark http://www.wireshark.org/.
Link to The ServerSide Interoperability Blog » Tango in Web services: Java and .NET 3.0 interoperability