Network Solutions first impressions

Well I moved my site to Network Solutions and my first impressions are good. Much less in your face advertisements when accessing my account manager and the account manager interface is also less busy and easier to use.

The verdict is still out on my Google search engine problem. Hopefully I will have an answer soon.

Move from GoDaddy to Network Solutions

My website has been hosted by GoDaddy for the last 6 months. In that time I tried my utmost best to get my site listed on Google and even Yahoo for that matter. I started investigating and came across the following two articles

• GoDaddy says ...
  
• Search Engine Optimization ...

According to these two articles GoDaddy is to blame for this. I decided to open a new hosting account with Network Solutions to see if it is better. I will only know after the next few days.

I also changed my domain name from TheSystemArchitects to MarthinusSwart, after working on my site over the past 6 months I realized I will not be able to maintain the TheSystemArchitects website as I would have liked to.

Notebook Docking Station

Just received my notebook's docking station today. It is in simple words Amazing! I can't imagine anyone working on a notebook without a docking station. It really makes the whole experience of developing on a notebook so much more enjoyable.

My first configuration without the docking station worked OK as can been seen from this picture. I was able to work on my notebook monitor and keep all the other debug information etc. on the secondary monitor.

On the CRT / secondary monitor my latest desktop enhancement is visible ... Yahoo! Widgets, very nice and very useful.

After I received my docking station I had to change my configuration a bit. My CRT monitor was not high enough to have it above my LCD monitor so I had to move the CRT monitor to the left side of my notebook.

Still works good, the CRT just had to move back a bit so that I do not need to twist my neck too much to work on the CRT monitor.

Visible is my Yahoo! Widgets and my other desktop enhancement tool Meebo.

A view of my notebook with docking station from the side.

Notebook Update

It's been a week since I took delivery of my notebook and it works like a dream. Must be one of the best 'investments' of this year, that and my Seinfeld DVD collection. The notebook was a bit on the expensive side but I feel it was well worth it. I will post a small picture of my current work environment shortly.

I must admit the 7200 rpm hard disk makes a huge difference in my compile time, but it was expected. I am very impressed with my notebook. I am still waiting for the delivery of my docking station and my sports bag but until then my notebook rules!

Pending file operations irritation

I recently had the unpleasant pleasure of encountering a pending file operations irritation while trying to install SQL Server. Luckily there is a solution.

The short of it is as follows:

• Run the Windows Registry Editor
• Go to
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager
• Delete the pendingfilerenameoperations key

And that should get rid if the irritation.

C# Quick Equivalents

I discovered a nice website containing some common C++ functionality and the C# equivalents to those funtions. Really helpful when converted legacy C++ code to C# like I am doing now. The website is available here.

Another 48 hours

Jip sounds like the 48hours movie and its follow up. Everything was setup and ready for me to take delivery of my new HP notebook on Thursday, but alas they will only get new stock on Monday so my ETA shifted out to Tuesday, so in reality it will be another 96 hours before a take delivery of my new HP notebook.

At least next Monday might not be that blue then.

48 Hours to go

After a lengthy purchase exercise my new notebook will be delivered Thursday morning. I am buying my notebook through the company I work at so it wasn't as easy as just walking into a store and taking delivery of a notebook.

Two years ago I bought a top of the range HP notebook for the same price than my new top of the range HP notebook but the new HP has 1Gb more memory and it includes a docking station which my previous notebook did not have. Nice to see notebooks becoming cheaper, though slower than the desktop computers, but I assume the more people start buying notebooks the cheaper they will be become eventually.

Another friend of mine bought himself a notebook at a 1/4 of the price I paid for mine and it is actually a decent notebook.

Now I just have to wait 48 hours and maybe finish setting up my desktop computer at home.

Notebook, notebook, notebook ...

Well I knew that my notebook will only be delivered within 7 working days and today is only the 2nd working day, but after working on my friend's NW8240 over the weekend I can barely wait for my notebook anymore.

The 1920x1200 resolution is not a problem at all, I think it is one of the best things about this notebook. The screen real estate on the notebook is amazing!

Now it is just a matter of time ...

My New Laptop

After two years of using my trusty HP Nx7000 I decided to upgrade. My Nx7000 was not an average midrange laptop for its time but it was showing its age lately.

My Nx7000 was one of the few laptops with a 60Gb 5400 rpm hard disk coupled with 1Gb RAM and it sported a 15.4" WSXGA+ (1650x1050) LCD screen. This set me back a bit of money when I bought it but it was well worth it. Two years after I bought the laptop it was still good enough to do my everyday work on.


Naturally when it was time to upgrade I looked at HP again. Not having any problems with my Nx7000 I decided to buy HP again. My new laptop will be the NW8240. More details are available on the HP website but in essence my new laptop will have a 80Gb 7200 rpm hard disk, 2 Gb RAM and a 15.4" WUXGA+ (1920x1200) LCD screen.

I was a bit reluctant to buy the WUXGA+ LCD at first, I was concerned that the resolution will be too small for development but after a quick call to a friend already owning a NW8240 I decided to give the WUXGA+ LCD a chance. I will only know for sure when I get the laptop whether it is a good development screen on not.

My new laptop should be delivered within the next 7 working days.

Difference between free and delete

I stumbled across the following article on www.voidnish.com. It compares the differences between using the new / delete pair and the malloc / free pair. The 'Tip for scalar and vector new/delete' in the article helped me realize why my one DLL had a memory leak when handling char arrays.

Obviously a seasoned C++ programmer would know this, but me being a C# / Java programmer and only a C++ programmer when the situation calls for it, I did not realize that mixing the two ways of allocating memory and freeing them again will have such an effect.

Just another reason I love my C# / Java managed code world ;)

Metamodel Programming

I always used meta data to store business rules e.g. tax rates, commission etc. This allowed the system to be modified and even extended after delivery well into the maintenance phase without too much hassle.

Lately I am gravitating more and more to the idea of having all my logic inside a meta model. This meta model will not only contain business logic but also programmatic logic . The meta model must be able to model the interaction between all the various business objects as well as the presentation objects which will in turn allow me to generate code from the meta model.

There are tools available today allowing this, but they are either too expensive or too bulky. Obviously creating a product to do all of this, the product needs to be very generic to allow it to be usable by the mass market.

Because my projects are medium in size, 5 - 10 developer teams, I do not need the bulky huge be everything to everyone packages. The tools needed in my domain will be fewer but more biased towards the domain instead of trying to have a tool generic enough for all domains.

Luckily for me the chances are very good that I will be trying out this new approach on my new upcoming project. We will have to wait and see how many sleepless nights I will have to endure to make this a reality.

Intel Pentium M vs. AMD Turion 64

Being an avid laptop fan, I found this article very interesting. I wondered when AMD will come to the party with some real laptop CPUs, the previous attempts were running too hot for my liking. It seems my next laptop will still be a Pentium M, but it is good to see that AMD is making some progress. The mentioned article is available here.

What I do find very interesting is the advantage the Pentium M has over the Turion when the level 2 cache is used. I suspect the level 2 cache plays a rather prominent role in compiling code, which is way my next laptop will again be a Pentium M.

It gave up the ghost

It seems my Motorola E1000 decided to give up the ghost for a third time. I decided enough is enough and bought myself a new Sony Ericsson W550i. I will now use the USB library to communicate with my new W550i. Maybe I will have better luck with the Sony Ericsson.

Motorola E1000 USB Access

I am currently struggling to communicate with my Motorola E1000 cell phone using the libusb-win32 library. Whenever I try to open configuration number 1 the library just stalls until I disconnect my cell phone.

I am able to connect to my PocketPC via the USB successfully, so I suspect my Motorola USB driver is at fault. Unfortunately this means I will have to do some trail an error investigation for the next few sessions.

USB Access Library

I downloaded the #USBlib from icsharpcode. Unfortunately the library was not complete enough for my intends and purposes. After browsing through the icsharpcode forums I realized there are more than a few people that would have liked the #USBlib to be a bit more complete.

I decided to complete the #USBlib library to a point where I will be able to use it to communicate with my Motorola cell phone. Unfortunately Mike Krueger decided that all his classes will be marked as internal and not public making my attempt to only extend his existing classes impossible but he did make the source code available.

I copied his code as is into a new assembly and started with extension classes. I did not want to change code on the existing #USBlib classes but again there were some incompatibilities which I had to deal with in the current source code but I kept the changes to a minimum.

I implemented the classes needed to be able to control the USB device according to the USB documentation e.g.So to be able to read and write information to and from the USB device you will need the Device object. The Device object will have a Configuration object. The Configuration object will have an Interface object and the Interface object will be able to create a USBStream to read and write from.

The library is complete enough to play around with, but it still needs some refinement and it needs a help file explaining all the classes.

I have the following files available for download:

• The assembly
• The Test application and
  
• The Test application source

Some limitations and dependencies:

• You will need to install the libusb-Win32 library
  
• The current version only works with Framework 2.0 and the Win32 DLL
  

.NET USB Library

I have been unable thus far to obtain any free Bluetooth library in either .NET or any other language that would enable me to use the Widcomm Bluetooth stack.

The Franson library works sufficiently enough but I do not want to buy a $99 library just for my current freeware project. I am on day 5 of my 14 day trail period so I need to get another way of communicating with my cell phone.

I decided to use the USB port for now. I am developing a cell phone library that will be able to communicate with any cell phone that is compatible with the extended Hayes modem commands. To enable me to test my library extensively over the next few months I will need a connection to my cell phone that will not expire and is free.

I decided to use the #USBlib to communicate with my cell phone via USB. The libary is open source and can be obtained from icsharpcode.

Franson BlueTools

I found a different Bluetooth Library from Franson. Their pricing model is also a bit better, but now I need to develop a commercial application and not a freeware application. There is a 14 day trail available, maybe that will work fine for now.

Bluetooth Communication

I recently became interested in Bluetooth communication between my PocketPC and my Motorola cell phone. I primarily want to be able to send and receive SMS messages from my PocketPC through my cell phone. For some strange reason Microsoft decided that the messaging software supplied with a standard PocketPC will not be able to send and receive SMS messages unlike the messaging software supplied with a PocketPC with cell phone capabilities embedded.

I definitely want to use C#.NET to develop this simple SMS application but now I need some Bluetooth library to communicate with my cell phone.

In my first search attempt I came across a Bluetooth library for .NET created by 32feet.NET, unfortunately this library only supports the Microsoft Bluetooth stack and not the Widcomm Bluetooth stack. My HP iPAQ uses the Widcomm Bluetooth stack and not the Microsoft Bluetooth stack.

In my second search attempt I came across a Bluetooth library for .NET created by High Point Software which supports the Widcomm stack but it is not a free library. I will be able to obtain a free evaluation copy of the library. This copy will pop up a message each time the application connects to the Bluetooth stack. There is also a limited edition of the libraries available but I do not know what the implications are of these libraries.

What is ...

What is The System Architects blog? The System Architects website's main aim will be to help other system architects with their projects. The System Architects blog's main aim will be to talk about current developments in different projects from different architects. Some of these posts will be upgraded to articles which will then be published on The System Architects