Coleman's .Net Nuggets

MsMpEng.exe is the nugget draining my CPU...

Coleman — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:17:00 GMT

It has been a few months since I installed Windows Live OneCare and results are mixed. For the most part it runs quietly in the background providing, at least I think, real-time protection. The problem the last few starts has been MsMpEng.exe (Windows Defender) crippling my machine with heavy CPU utilization. I've Googled, Live- Searched, MS-Knowledge Base searched and found basically the same thing... High CPU... but no resolution.

I dug through OneCare help and still didn't find anything. Therefore I decided to look in the registry and found: HKLM | One Care Protection | Exclusions. Under Exclusions I found three folders: Extensions, Paths, and Processes. I know through the One Care GUI I can designate folders and files for exclusion. I have excluded a few folders and found these in Paths. On a whim, I decided to add MsMpEng.exe in Processes. I was initially blocked lacking permission. I added full control and then added the DWORD: MsMpEng.exe having a data value of 0. I restored the permissions and restarted. After the restart, MsMpEng.exe has not consumed more than 50% CPU at startup (for only a brief time) and then occasionally 7-10% when browsing or starting other applications. For the most part it runs quietly at 0% I'm only guessing, but MsMpEng.exe may have been monitoring MsMpEng.exe. So far so good...

This nugget is the future...

Coleman — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 02:20:00 GMT

What Vista would like to be...

A New Presentation Nugget On The Horizon

Coleman — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 05:28:00 GMT

I think the next big (and good) Nugget in GUI web development is on the horizon. (And not just in the .Net world.) I've always said I will never limit my focus to any one technology. You pay me to write Java, I'll write some Java. You pay me to write .Net... done. I admit I prefer .Net, ANet (Asp.Net.) and ANet's most recent flavors: MS Ajax, MS AJAX Toolkit, etc. Even though the graphical web has been evolving for several years it has been lacking to say the least. AJAX has successfully regenerated life back into the static-script-tricky-stateless world we know as the web. So what is next...?

Scott Guthrie wrote about it today: ScottGu's Blog

Additional documentation can be found here: "WPF/E" (codename) CTP SDK (Dec 2006)

My Java friends will tell me it can be done with Java using applets or Java Web Start. They will tell me it can be done with Flash/Shockwave. I will agree with them to a certain extent. John Milan points out reasons in his article as to why it can be successful. Here are some those (and a few more) reasons why it will have an impact.

Competition - Google has set the standard for interactive web apps. Microsoft has Google in the cross hairs. Microsoft has been successful coming from behind to re-"innovate" where others have succeeded.

Development Tools- If you have ever used Visual Studio, you know it has some hidden nuggets in the form of shortcomings. If you have never used it, then you have never experienced the integration capabilities it provides. The "general ease" it provides for developing web applications can fill the Applet/AWT/Swing/Struts/Eclipse/JSF/[Insert Next Nugget] void. It will know doubt ease the development of this new technology... at some point.

Developers - A good community base chomping at the bit for new technology and a chance to make something old look new again.

Business - Think AJAX... Think marketing... Think bandwagon.

Evolution - This is the precursor to thicker clients over the web. "Click-Once..."

I'll be the first to admit this thing is probably not a silver bullet. To a certain extent it may (and does) appear similar to previous technologies. But ask yourself why this work won’t? If it does become a cross browser and cross platform reality... Why is this a bad thing? Leave out all answers containing, "I hate Microsoft."

Fix MSDN .SDK nuggets.

Coleman — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:53:00 GMT

It is too early to see if this will live up to promises... but way cool if it does!!!

http://msdnwiki.microsoft.com/en-us/mtpswiki/default.aspx

Info from the site:

"Welcome to the MSDN Wiki Beta! On this site you can add content to VS 2005 documentation topics and edit contributions from other users. Our goal is to extend the documentation with code examples, tips and tricks, and other information that you add. To learn more about this site, check out our FAQ. To report bugs, make suggestions, and view information about our future plans, visit the MSDN Wiki Connect Workspace,

To get started, click on one of the library nodes on the left (Visual Studio or .NET Framework SDK) and scroll down to the bottom of any documentation topic.

Look for "add content" or "edit" under the green "Community Content" area."

A Handy Method Stub Nugget in the Form of a Smart Tag

Coleman — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 01:11:00 GMT

As most developers these days, I try to do as much design as possible prior to diving into coding. Typically, ever project consists of UML in one shape or another. Usually the design takes shape with class, activity, and sequence diagrams. Depending on your task or company’s documentation requirements, you may or may not model every state or behavior in every class you design. Personally, I try to publish my public methods and properties since this is my API to the class. Protected and private members tend to get less “public” attention and are only documented in code. As I was working the other day in Visual Studio 2005, I stumbled upon a handy little nugget in the form of a smart tag. I typed a non-existent private method that I wished to call in the scope of an existing method. Studio wanted to know if I wanted to generate the method stub for the one I just made up.

What was I to do? What would Bill Shatner do in a situation like this…? I had to say YES. What happened next was nothing short of a pleasant surprise.

The nice thing was that it picked up that the method needed to be declared static. Additionally, it picked up the parameter type and return type. Hitting (Shift + Alt + F10) is the shortcut to the smart tag.

Regards
Coleman

Script# - A nugget worthy of checking out.

Coleman — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:39:00 GMT

Nikhil Kothari is a web architect at Microsoft. He has put together a cool new nugget called Script# that rivals Google's GWT. The tool is a script (think AJAX) code generator that allows you to write JavaScript using C#. I blogged on his site and questioned the fit between Script# and Atlas. At this point, Script# is just a side research project of his. He may be placing it out on the Microsoft’s new code project site, CodePlex, but if MS has any plans of using it... I would bet, NO.

Now to the sounding of the trumpets... Script# was the focus of an article on Microsoft Watch and it was mentioned in an article... not me of course... but my question and Nikhil's answer...

The blog... [Search for "Coleman" twice if you're interested. The first hit will be my question... the second his response...] http://www.nikhilk.net/Entry.aspx?id=121

And then article... http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1970672,00.asp

Nikhil's site... http://www.nikhilk.net

To get to the download... http://www.nikhilk.net/Project.ScriptSharp.aspx

I think MS will absorb his project into ATF, ANet, and VS... and my same question holds up... when and more importantly... how?

Regards Coleman

Express Edition(s) Help Nugget

Coleman — Tue, 23 May 2006 23:07:00 GMT

When attempting to access help in the MS Express editions, I ran into the following nugget. Help would come up. I could select “Content”, “How do I?”, “Index”, etc. When I attempted to select a topic such as “operator” using Index, I would get a nasty crash of the help app. Clicking on “How do I?” under the help menu popped a message box alerting me that this type of error can occur when memory is corrupt... I thought to myself in my best Bill Shatner voice... “Is my memory bad? Could...my...memory...be bad?” Of course not... after playing with Task Manager for a bit... I started exploring my Express directories.... As luck would have it, I found the following path....

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Microsoft MSDN 2005 Express Edition - ENU\

with a little “install.exe” nugget waiting for me... after starting and choosing repair (something had to go wrong because help used to work... and it gave me only two choices 1. Repair and 2. Remove.) After a couple minutes updating... ta-flippin-da... it worked!!!

ASP.Net/Atlas nuggets...

Mike Coleman — Tue, 09 May 2006 14:42:00 GMT

I've been playing around with the validation controls and atlas…

The Atlas toolkit provides a Confirm extender… it is less than desirable. Canceling seems to have some event bubbling side-effects. The 2.0 OnClientClick is used… but a little differently. In the past, I have gotten away with OnClientClick="return confirm('Are you really really sure?')"… that doesn't seem to be the case… when you say ok, true is returned and client-side validation is not raised... therefore, the following nugget seems to play nice with all things considered…

<asp:Button ID="btnSomeAction" ValidationGroup="someAction" runat="server" Text="Submit" CssClass="button" OnClientClick="if (!confirm('Complete your action?')){return false;}" OnClick="btnSomeAction_Click" CausesValidation="true" UseSubmitBehavior="false" />

You may be saying, Coleman - Atlas provides mechanisms for validation… well yes and no.. Their examples show a lot of hand wiring… sources recommend staying with the 2.0 validation control. It would be a good bet that versions of controls down the road will just plug-in with the ATF... but until then, this seems to work... I'm not sure if it is a bug in the ANET or the ATF... but a gotch nonetheless.

Regards

Coleman

FYI: AT-las Framework and Asp.NET

Beginning again...

Mike Coleman — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:26:00 GMT

Well, the portal projected was benched and will resurface in the near future. Working on a suite of web apps that will be taking advantage of the Web 2.0 feature set. Along the way, Atlas has come around... with a go license. Our plan was to use it where possible... problems..

Unfinished - It is an impressive mix, but still being shaken out.
Limited documentation - There is only one book to date published by O'Reily.
Limited controls - The toolset provided in the April drop our nice but a work in progress. (Found and logged a bug that will be in the next drop. http://forums.asp.net/thread/1269962.aspx I will say MS is monitoring their forum and reacting proactively.)
Simple implementations - The tool set and examples are as usual, very primative. They do show off features... but let's face it, I don't think there is an Enterprise app out there using a full blown Atlas implementation. MS is touting the lessons learned with Outlook web, Live.com, Maps, etc. But for the most part, they are using the “Ajax“ styled programming, but I don't think they are using Atlas.
Hooking into a current web framework. I put together a framework that is to assist with common features - page dirty prompting user when leaving, security token (preventing back, refresh, etc.) For the most part, things were changed to play well, but...we found that putting a few update panels here and there didn't quite do it. Bummer!

We have decided to use ComponentArt's callback features including their grid control. At some point, CA will catch up and support Atlas. Additionally, we may just do regular page posts to save time due to project timelines.

Overall, I think Atlas will prove an excellent development platform in the future. At present time, bleeding edge is an understatement... standing in the middle of a beating heart is more appropriate.

More to come.

Current project...

Mike Coleman — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 03:48:00 GMT

Greetings - I am currently working on a portal application that will (when finished) allow access to a suite of services (classic asp web applications.) So far so good. We're currently in the proto-typing / proofing phase. The portal will be written in ANet 2.0. (I perfer saying “ANet.” It is easier for me to say. We will be using Callbacks to update the portal navigation and workflow based on the child service(s) actions. (I prefer saying callbacks since XmlHttp postbacks and XmlHttp callbacks are just too wordy. I don't like AJAX because of the marketing blitz.)

Pretty hyped about the whole thing. Learning some callback tricks as I go which I'll share later.

Regards

Coleman

Greetings.

Mike Coleman — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 14:11:00 GMT

Hello all. Just got word today that I got the blog. I'll begin posting soon.