Here’s all that i had to do:

1. Run the install in text mode. You do this by entering “linux text” without the quotes at the initial prompt.
2. When Fedora boots:
1. Login
2. vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
3. In normal mode: type /DefaultDepth — which if you are not familiar with vi, just means search for the string “DefaultDepth”
4. Change 24 to 16
5. :wq to save and exit vi
3. Enter “startx” without the quotes at the terminal to start X.

That’s all you should need to do!

I think it’s very cool for the university to provide these free of charge. This certainly will make my commute go a lot quicker. Thanks!

“TextMate may be the latest craze for developing Ruby on Rails applications,
but Vim is forever.”

It provides:

• quick navigation commands from model to view and controller
• rake integration
• extends ‘gf’ command to understand Rails
• CTRL+X, CTRL+U autocompletion
• interface to the script commands
• convenient log file viewing

This YouTube video shows how it works.

If you are a seasoned WinDBG user, you’ll know all of these command by heart, but if you are just getting started this might help. The first thing to do is run, don’t walk to setup your “Symbol Search Path” setting. Enter CTRL+S from inside WinDBG, mine looks like this:

SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

You can find out more about it in this Microsoft support article.

The WinDBG command line has TAB completion, so when you type the first few characters of a command, hit TAB to cycle through the possible completions.

I have picked up the majority of these tips by reading some of the great blogs on MSDN. If you are interested in learning a lot more about WinDBG and how to debug some very difficult problems you need to subscribe to Tess’s blog right away!

If you know of any other tips or helpful WinDBG command, please post them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    public class Base
    {
        ~Base()
        {
            Console.WriteLine(“Base Finalizer called”);
        }
    }

    public class Derived : Base
    {
        ~Derived()
        {
            Console.WriteLine(“Derived Finalizer called”);
        }

        public void Suppress()
        {
            GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
        }

    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Derived d = new Derived();
            d.Suppress();

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Okay, so what gets printed out at the console?

Actually, nothing.

It was a little surprising to me at first, especially since after years of C++ programming the ~ immediately invokes destructor semantics in my head. I worked through a number of different variations, but I always got the same result. I used the !FinalizeQueue command available in the SOS extension of WinDBG to verify that there was only the Derived class reference on the queue. So when you say, SuppressFinalize(this) you really mean it! 

Now, granted, this is a cheesy example. But the discussion came up when talking about the correct way to implement IDisposable. In the example provided, SuppressFinalize(this) is called in the Dispose method. Now that’s a good thing, because you want to prevent the call to the finalizer since you have already cleaned up any resources via your Dispose implementation. But, what happens if a class you derived from, either your own or a third party, does not implement IDisposable and instead is relying on the finalizer? Or they do implement IDisposable but somewhere else along the virtual method override chain someone forgot to call the base class implementation.

This really never should be a problem if your code implements the IDisposable interface correctly. And since implementing a Finalizer on your class has a negative performance impact you should only use them when you really need to. Anyway, this makes a great conversation at any nerd party

It’s one of those power tools that most people, myself included, really didn’t like very much the first time you use it. But then you achieve a certain level of proficiency and you can slice and dice any text you have to edit so quickly that you become very spoiled.

I also have switched to using a black background. I found a great dark color scheme for Vim called Moria, that I would highly recommend. It’s a very readable, easy on the eyes scheme, that just seems right to me. I’ve posted an image of my setup using the abbrev.rb file from Ruby 1.8.5.

If you like using keyboard shortcuts, you owe it to yourself to try the Vim text editor. It does take some time to get used to a modal editor, but if you are going to be editing lots of text, it’s time well spent.

I still really like the text editor built into Visual Studio and will continue to post any tips and keyboard shortcuts that I find useful there too.

• Create a new Windows Application project.
• Open up the Form1.Designer.cs file in the editor.
• CTRL + I (this activates Incremental search mode)
• Type: “disp” (without the quotes)
• The selection should have moved to the first match of “disp” in the file.
• Type CTRL + I again. This moves you to the next match.
• CTRL + SHIFT + I moves you to the previous match.
• BACKSPACE removes the last character from the search string.
• ESC cancels incremental search mode.

His blog is full of detailed and well written articles that provide invaluable insight to any ASP.NET programmer.

He just posted the PowerPoint presentation and the sample code from his TechEd talk. I would highly recommend you download and review the sample project. I know every time I download samples that Scott has posted I learn something new.

Some of the features shown:

• app_offline.htm
• cross page postbacks
• maintaining scrollback position
• default button
• custom databinding expressions

Geeks like to be challenged with really interesting problems.

Most geeks, myself included, want to be challenged with really interesting problems to solve. The kind of problems that are only limited by your own creativity and determination to come up with the most simple, elegant and effective solution.

Do you have any more you would add to the list?