.NET Brainwork

What's new in .NET 4 Beta 1 graphics

Vasco Oliveira — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:17:42 GMT

Since .NET 4.0 Beta 1 was released a few weeks ago I've been sniffing here and there around the framework for averything new. The WPF 3D team posted a series of new features aroung graphics that I thought of broadcasting:

RenderOptions.ClearTypeHint: If WPF renders text into a potentially transparent surface (e.g. a layered window like a menu or popup) we use grayscale anti-aliasing instead of ClearType because if the transparent surface is blended with another transparent surface, the ClearType will get messed up. Now with ClearTypeHint you can tell us to use ClearType and we’ll trust you that things aren’t transparent.

The BitmapEffect classes are now no-ops. They are still there so your apps will compile but don’t expect them to do anything.

The default RenderOptions.BitmapScalingMode (Unspecified) is now Linear instead of Fant. If you still want Fant, you can re-enable it.

Pixel Shader 2.0 is now required for hardware acceleration. Yes, if your card was Tier 1 but did not have PS 2.0 it is now Tier 0.

The memory leak that was easy to hit with software 3D has been fixed. I already mentioned this.

A common VisualBrush.Visual disconnect crash has been fixed. It’s in the same KB article as the memory leak.

Everything else is being kept for Beta 2... Have fun :)

Microsoft releases Security Essencials Beta

Vasco Oliveira — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:04:09 GMT

Today marks the release of Microsoft's free anti-virus named Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). 75k people will be given the software thru a beta program although this number is likely to extend the cap of 75,000 downloads depending on demand.

MSE is Microsoft's free anti-virus and anti-spyware product that is set to replace Microsoft's paid Windows Live OneCare subscription service which is being withdrawn a week today. Earlier this month Neowin exclusively revealed MSE (codenamed Morro) and we believe that the final product will be available shortly before the Windows 7 launch in October. MSE is being distributed on Microsoft's Connect site as a beta program.

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 now public

Vasco Oliveira — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:04:44 GMT

It's been a while since I posted here, and shameless as it might seem I just moved to my new appartment and it's been a busy month.

Trying to redeem my self, It's time for another great announcement: On Monday, Microsoft released Visual Studio/Team System 2010 and .NET 4.0 Beta 1 for those who are MSDN subscribers. Well today it is time for everyone else to have a piece of the cake. Counting from yesterday, the download is publically available to anyone who wants to download it. I have to say that this is indeed a treat. The new features are simply awesome, and I'm yet to see the end of them. Will this be the end of those Silent Crashes?

Give it a test drive here.

Lang.NET

Vasco Oliveira — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:10:48 GMT

Ever heard of it? It's an event for people who spend their days develping programming languages, kinda like PDC of DevDays, or MIX, or TechEd. The main difference is that it's dedicated to a small community of people focused on programming languages. It was held in Microsoft Corporate Redmond in 14 to 16th April and you can get all the talks here:

http://www.langnetsymposium.com/2009/talks.aspx

This post is kinda late but nevertheless, here are some bits to spice up a bit: IronPython, CLR, F#, JVM, CCI, PowerShell, Irony, Eagle, Pex...

Enjoy :)

Glimmer: A JQuery composition tool

Vasco Oliveira — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:59:19 GMT

If you are currently developing for the web and animations and sleek design is your game don't forget to check out Glimmer, a WPF-based application that harnesses the power of JQuery:

"Glimmer is a WPF-based Windows application that allows you to easily create interactive elements on your web pages by harnessing the power of the jQuery library. Without having to hand-craft your JavaScript code, you can use Glimmer’s wizards to generate jQuery scripts for common interactive scenarios. Glimmer also has an advanced mode, providing a design surface for creating jQuery effects based on your existing HTML and CSS."

Check it out here.

SQL Server 2008 SP1

Vasco Oliveira — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:31:49 GMT

Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2008 was made available last week. But since I was in vacation the post only came out today :) The Service pack is available via download here and is primarily a roll-up of cumulative updates 1 to 3, quick fix engineering updates and minor fixes made in response to requests reported through the SQL Server community. While there are no new features in this service pack, customers running SQL Server 2008 should download and install SP1 to take advantage of the fixes which increase supportability and stability of SQL Server 2008.

Customers have no reason to wait to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 and many are already taking advantage of SQL Server 2008 as a smart IT investment. In fact, there have been over 3 million downloads of SQL Server 2008 since the RTM in August. With this Service pack, Microsoft is introducing 80% fewer changes to customer configurations compared to previous SQL Server Service Pack releases. This remarkable decrease is a testament to a revised product development process and updated servicing strategy that is focused on ease of deployment while keeping customer environments stable.

With this service pack, Microsoft has made investments to ease deployment and make management of service packs more efficient. Key improvements in SP1 include Slipstream, Service Pack Uninstall and Report Builder 2.0 click-once deployment.
- Slipstream allows administrators to install SQL Server 2008 and Service Pack 1 in a single instance. This decreases the total time for an installation, including a fewer number of reboots thereby increasing productivity and deployment availability.
- Service Pack Uninstall allows administrators to uninstall the service pack separately from the database release. This feature also improves DBA productivity, reduces the cost of deployment and improves overall supportability
- Report Builder 2.0 Click Once improves the existing SQL Server end-user report authoring application by easing deployment to business users.

Source: SQL Server Team Blog

Microsoft "Velocity" in CTP 3

Vasco Oliveira — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:17:49 GMT

For community technology preview 3 (CTP3), Microsoft project code named "Velocity" offers several enhancements and revised APIs. The enhancements include cache notifications feature, performance improvements, security enhancements, and new cluster management options. There have also been updates to the installation program. Please checkout Velocity CTP3 Help/Documentation for more details [Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” CTP3 on the Microsoft Download Center]

Cache Notifications
When using local cache to store data that changes infrequently, you no longer have to wait for the configured timeout before the client pulls the latest object from the cluster. Using cache notifications, the object in the local cache automatically invalidates as soon as it is notified that the object has changed. This greatly reduces the possibility that your application is working with stale data.

When caching data that changes frequently, you may want your applications to perform certain tasks based on various cache operations. For example, you may want your application to do something specific when a cached object is added, replaced, or removed. You might also want your application to do something different when a region is added, cleared, or removed from the cache. Specifying an event-triggered task is now possible with cache notifications.

Performance Improvements
Throughput, latency, and memory usage have been further optimized to improve performance for your applications.

Security Enhancements
The cache host Windows service now runs under a lower-privileged account: Network Service. To simplify deployment, the installation program now helps to configure the permissions of installation folders and the cluster configuration storage location. You still need to be an administrator on the cache servers and cluster configuration storage location in order to install "Velocity."

Note: Although these efforts help to secure the cache cluster; they are not enough to protect it from malicious activity. "Velocity" is designed to be operated in the datacenter, within the perimeter of the corporate firewall. Data transfer is not encrypted and is at risk of network "sniffing" and "replay" attacks.

New Cluster Management Options
Previously, only lead hosts could manage the cache cluster operations. Now, when using SQL Server to store the cluster configuration information, you have the option to let SQL Server perform the cluster management role instead of the lead hosts. This option improves supportability and availability of the cluster, eliminating the possibility of the cluster going down due to an insufficient number of (running) lead hosts.

Updates to the Installation Program
To streamline deployment, the installation program now supports automated installation for the cache host.

Cluster Configuration Editing Options Decoupled from Storage Options
Previously, how you chose to store your cluster configuration settings in the cluster configuration storage location dictated the options available to you for editing those configuration settings. Now, regardless of where you store your cluster settings, you can change those settings with the PowerShell-based cache administration tool or by directly editing an XML representation of the cluster configuration.

Along with this paradigm shift, the option to store the cluster configuration settings in XML (the cluster's "working copy") has been removed. Now you can export and edit (and import back) the configuration settings in XML when you choose to store your cluster configuration settings in a SQL Server database or a SQL Server Compact data file in a shared network folder.

With this change, your decision for the cluster configuration storage location can be based on application availability requirements and the resources available to your application (that is, how challenging it would be to procure an instance of SQL Server that your distributed cache cluster could use).

Revised APIs
To minimize changes in the following release, the "Velocity" APIs have been changed to enhance usability and more closely resemble the naming conventions of other Microsoft namespaces. The namespace of "Velocity" has been changed to Microsoft.Data.Caching from System.Data.Caching. Additionally, all class and delegate names have been renamed to include the prefix DataCache. Along with the name changes, many overloads have also been changed. For more details about the CTP3 API changes, checkout Velocity Online Help Section: CTP3 API Changes (Velocity)

Source: "Velocity" Team Blog

WPF Application Quality Guide

Vasco Oliveira — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:21:29 GMT

I'll be checking out (a bit seriously this time) the December 2008 revision of Windows Presentation Foundation Application Quality Guide. I'm a big fan of quality and patterned development (see this as enjoying being in control of things) and whenever I see any initiative regarding this matter I tend to give it some attention whenever I can. The fact that I'm currently developing with WPF, Prism and MEF definitely leads me towards this behaviour, whether it's for my own professional and technical training, nor for the enrichment of the skills of my team.

This Quality Guide is 100% focused on WPF. It is a work-in-progress document that explains the in's and out's of WPF in a quality assurance fashion, from architecture, testing concerns, design, security, localization, best practices and so forth. It ends with some links to online resources, tools and contacts that you can take advantage of.

Yu can check out the online version here, and the full document can be downloaded here. It's about 77 pages, and it is currently in version 0.4.

Enjoy...

Internet Explorer 8 has arrived!

Vasco Oliveira — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:33:56 GMT

Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager of the Internet Explorer Team, has announced in MIX09 the availability of Internet Explorer 8. Windows users can now download and install the final version here.

WCF REST Starter Kit 2 available

Vasco Oliveira — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:24:13 GMT

For those who are unaware of what WCF REST Starter Kit is, it can be described as a set of features, Visual Studio templates, samples and guidances that enable users to create REST style services using WCF. The REST Starter Kit is a preview of features that are being considered for WCF 4.0, released early on CodePlex so you can download it, look at the code, play with it. The October release of the WCF REST Starter Kit focused on building server-side REST services. Now, the Preview 2 release adds features to make client-side REST development easier.

Among the new functionality included in Preview 2 is a new class that provides a staged pipeline model for requesting resources over the web. Using this new HTTP client class allows the developer to plug into the various stages of communication to handle custom authentication, caching, and fault handling outside of the client’s application logic. The bits are available on CodePlex, and WCF Dev Center devoted to WCF REST capabilities http://www.msdn.com/wcf/rest was updated as well. It has links to the CodePlex project, overview documentation, a WCF REST White Paper, screencasts showing how to use the WCF REST Starter Kit, and links to resources on the Web for learning about REST.

Have fun