MSMVPS.COM

Happy New Year 2010 and MVP again!

carlosq — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:55:00 GMT

Happy New Year!

I have just received the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award again, the 7th one that I receive from Microsoft. As always, I am very grateful for this award :-)

[MVP] Congratulations 2010 Microsoft MVP!

Cliff Hobbs at myITforum.com — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:44:12 GMT

Well Santa maybe a week late but I forgive him as he’s given me the best start to 2010 – I’ve been re-awarded as a MVP for the 7th consecutive, something I feel deeply humbled but also honoured about at the same time. 2010 is going to be a BIG year in Read More......(read more)

MVP Award Recipient once again / Una vez más elegido como MVP

AngelHernandez — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:17:00 GMT

Hi community,

I'm happy to announce that Microsoft has awarded me an MVP once again. I would like to thank, God and all of you for your patience and support. I look forward to deliver heaps of articles and cool stuff for this new year 2010.

Thanks again,

Angel

Hola comunidad,

Me alegra anunciar que Microsoft me ha concedido nuevamente el reconocimiento de MVP. Me gustaría darle las gracias a Dios y a todos ustedes por su paciencia y apoyo. Espero poder entregar montones de artículos y cosas interesantes este nuevo año 2010.

Gracias nuevamente,

Angel

Taxonomy Types

Michael — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:13:50 GMT

Organizing documents in taxonomy is not an easy task, because there is no a “silver” bullet and “best practices” for such task – everything depends on the usage patterns. “Discovery, contribution and collaborations” are the key priorities you should manage first, and then build your design upon.

There are several types of taxonomies you have to consider in your design: Subject, Unit Based and Functional (thanks to Barb Blackburn to his description of the types)

Subject type is based on “subject terms” when you arrange you subjects in alphabetical order. This type works for well established terms that are unique in defined context and have no shared information – like family names, countries and etc. In case of terms ambiguity the thesaurus is used

Business-unit type is used to reflects the organization structures like departments/divisions and etc. The advantage is that such structure minimize number of documents, because they can be inherited, but disadvantage in duplicated information that have to be shared across structured elements.

Functional type is based on the produced activities, when you build taxonomy on the top of business process. The issue of such type is in the project files support that relate to the particular person/project. In such situation metadata is used to address this issue.

The summary of those types are incorporated in the following table

Taxonomy Types	Advantages	Dissadvantages
Subject	- Common approach recognizable by most users (library, Yellow pages, internet sites) - Many sources of existing and reusable schemes	-Requires understanding of terminology or supporting Thesaurus
Unit-based	- Familiar to users (mimics most existing paper filing systems)	-Organizational changes require maintenance of the taxonomy -Shared documents are difficult to classify
Functional	- Endures organizational changes	- Difficult to address case files

Downloading PowerShell version 2

RichardSiddaway — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:01:37 GMT

The PowerShell version 2 download seems to be difficult to find. It is part of the Windows Management Framework (PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0 and (where applicable BITS 4.0).

The install packages for various Operating Systems – Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 2003 and Windows XP are available in 32 and 64 bit versions from

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968929

BITS 4.0 is only supported on Windows 2008 & Vista

Happy New-Year

Technorati Tags: PowerShell v2,download

Tim provides Exchange sp2 step by step

bradley — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:26:00 GMT

http://www.nogeekleftbehind.com/2009/12/31/exchange-2007-sp2-on-sbs-2008/

Way to go Tim for providing a step by step guidance for installing Exchange 2007 sp2!

Nicely done and helpful guide to what to do and what to expect.

ALERT: Please treat the following domains with extreme caution

sandi — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:29:26 GMT

advertisingcommunity-s.com
ICANN Registrar: DIRECTI
Created 2 November 2009

IP: 217.23.10.16 - Worldstream, Netherlands.

Registrant hidden behind Privacy Protect, dedicated hosting.

Implicated in malvertizing incidents before:
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/advertisingcommunity-s.com

*****

adrime.net
ICANN Registrar: ENOM, INC
Created 18 November 2009

IP: 64.27.26.81 - Calpop.com Inc, Los Angeles

Registration Service: director@climbing-games.com (www.ruler-domains.com) - a familiar name and email address; see here for an example of past history: http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2009/04/23/1690203.aspx

Registrant: Pol Andersson (pol@hiparis.fr)
70, Rue Hautpoul
Paris, 75019
FR

Sharing IP with ad-spenser.com, adendum.net, colorednews.com, eu-planning.com, exanza.net, ie-adv.com, inclick-eu.com, maps-europe.net

Digging around I find a NS connection with impressionsreport.com, advunit.com

Bon développement parallèle pour 2010

BrunoBoucard — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:34:00 GMT

Comme le disait Herb Sutter durant la PDC09, "nous aurions préférés ne pas passer à la programmation parallèle", mais malheureusement… le destin en a voulu autrement… Donc en 2010, je vous parlerai encore et encore de modélisation parallèle.

je vous souhaite une bonne et heureuse année 2010 !!!

Bye-bye 2009, Hello 2010!

Alberto Silva — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 22:22:10 GMT

Assim chega mais um ano ao fim, momento habitual para balanços de como correu o ano face às expectativas que foram sendo criadas.

No plano pessoal, aspecto importante ao condicionar o sucesso nas outras áreas, o maior destaque vai para a confirmação da reguilice da Inês, agora com 2 anos, e das boas referências que a Anita tem dado na escola, e mais recentemente no violino!

Agora no plano ‘comunitário’, apresentei duas sessões no DevDays em Fevereiro, apresentando numa delas uma aplicação que o Jack Bauer se orgulharia de ter no seu PDA, fui ao MVP Global Summit a Redmond pela 4ª vez, apresentei uma sessão num evento do PocketPT.net para profissionais em Março, e outra sobre o papel que o Windows Mobile pode tomar nas organização no Politécnico de Vila do Conde em Abril. Em Outubro recebi o título de MVP pela Microsoft pela 7ª vez consecutiva. A actualização do blog tem sido um pouco irregular, o Twitter vou actualizando a maior parte das vezes com assuntos off-topic, os newsgroups nacionais não têm tido grande actividade e tenho vindo a acompanhar o fórum da MSDN destinado ao SQL Compact, onde tenho sido um considerado um dos ‘top answerer’. 2009 era suposto ser o ano em que o meu projecto sucessivamente adiado tomaria forma, mas por razões profissionais terá de continuar na sua condição de… adiado…
No âmbito do Windows Mobile este foi um ano que não trouxe muito de novo, o Windows Mobile 6.5 embora interessante, ainda não é o marco que temos vindo a esperar, para os programadores para a plataforma Windows Mobile, o único destaque são os widget para 6.5. Esperamos que 2010 dê mais frutos neste campo.

E por falar em razões profissionais, este foi um ano que para a moving2u não começou muito mal, bem melhor que o início de 2008, mas ao longo do ano, o adiamento de tomada de decisões por parte de muitas empresas, algumas com projectos que estavam praticamente adjudicados, levaram a que só na rampa final o panorama tenha melhorado de forma animadora, antecipando o que esperamos que seja um bom 2010. Esta parada do mercado permitiu-nos investir na nossa solução de pré-venda e auto-venda, tendo-lhe adicionado uma componente de ‘assistência técnica’, ao mesmo tempo que migrámos a solução para .NET CF 3.5 e SQL Compact 3.5, de modo a podermos acompanhar a evolução das tecnologias do lado dos servidores, como o Windows Server 2008, o SQL Server 2008 e as suas versões a 64 bit. Do lado dos PDA propusemo-nos uma revolução da UI, mantendo em termos gerais os elementos das versões anteriores, mas passando a acompanhar algumas tendências como os gestos, ou a garantia da aplicação correr em qualquer equipamento com ecrã táctil Windows Mobile 5.0 ou posterior, independentemente da sua resolução (240x320, 480x640, 320x320, 240x400 e 480x800) ou da sua orientação, sendo das poucas aplicações empresariais capaz de correr num equipamento como o TMN Bluebelt, adaptando-se em tempo real à mudança de orientação de ecrã, como quando se abre um teclado lateral deslizante. A nossa aposta continuada de 5 anos nesta solução tem vindo a dar os seus frutos, passando a ser considerada por grandes empresas de âmbito nacional em projectos em Portugal e Angola, estando a aplicação neste momento integrada com Primavera, PHC, SAP Business One, Eticadata, Gexor e outros menos conhecidos. 2010 vai também marcar um grande marco na evolução da solução m2uMobileSales, ao passar a ser distribuída pelos parceiros de uma das principais software house Portuguesas em regime OEM. Em termos gerais, a moving2u renovou o estatuto de ‘Microsoft Certified Partner – Mobility Solutions’.

A duas horas do novo ano, a minha atitude é… VENHA ELE!!! Espero que 2010 Vos traga pelo menos aquilo para que trabalharem, e que as surpresas o sejam apenas pelas melhores razões!

Exchange 2007 sp2 on SBS 2008

bradley — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:17:00 GMT

When you install Exchange sp2 on a SBS 2008 any issues you hit will not be because of SBS or unique to the SBS tool but stuff you would hit regardless of the installation and are pure Exchange issues.

For example... one that Nick Whittome hit during his testing was an error that he got while installing SP2:

"Setup previously failed while performing the action "Install". You cannot resume setup by performing the action "BuildToBuildUpgrade".

http://www.google.com/search?q=You+cannot+resume+setup+by+performing+the+action+%22BuildToBuildUpgrade&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

As you can see this is an issue that "normal" Exchange has seen. So if you hit issues, it's not unique to SBS and you may need to google on the exact error message you get. Plan on about an hour for the download of the SP2 package (at least on my DSL speed) and about an hour to install SP2 on a box... and as I said before TAKE A BACKUP. Go into the Backup console and kick a special one.

La concurrence est parmi nous ?

BrunoBoucard — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:02:39 GMT

La programmation concurrente a la réputation d’être difficile et confuse, mais je pense que c'est un malentendu, car dans la vie de tous les jours, nous utilisons souvent la concurrence sans même y faire attention. Nous vivons dans un monde où de multiples activités s’exécutent au même moment. Si vous prenez le temps d’observer votre quotidien, vous constaterez que nos vies regorgent d’exemples où nous avons organisé nos activités en tâches séquentielles et parfois concurrentes afin de gagner du temps. Il existe naturellement de nombreux exemples souvent repris dans la presse informatique qui illustrent parfaitement nos pratiques concurrentes, comme la distribution du courrier, la construction d'une maison ...

Mais j'ai finalement repris un exemple d'un nouvel ouvrage sur la programmation concurrente, "Introduction To Concurrency In Programming Languages" que je recommande chaudement à toutes les personnes désirant se lancer dans la programmation concurrente. Je reviendrai dans un prochain billet sur ma sélection personnelle des meilleurs livres pour aborder la programmation parallèle dans de bonnes conditions.

Nous allons considérer toutes les activités que nous réalisons lorsque nous devons préparer un simple plat cuisiné à partir d’une recette simple. Comme exemple nous prendrons une recette rapide à réaliser: Pâtes à la sauce fraîche .

Dans un premier temps nous allons constituer une liste sur laquelle nous noterons tous les ingrédients nécessaires pour réaliser ce plat:

· 1 belle tomate cœur de bœuf mûre (500g)

· 2 à 6 gousses d'ail frais selon le goût,

· gros sel non raffiné,

· huile d'olive de qualité,

· basilic,

· pâtes (type penne)

Après avoir constitué notre liste, il est temps de nous rendre au magasin pour acheter les ingrédients... Si nous décomposons cette étape en différentes actions nous constatons que nous avons noté un à un les ingrédients à acheter sur une liste, puis nous nous sommes rendu jusqu’au magasin d'alimentation collecter les ingrédients dans différents rayons et finalement payer le tout à la caisse avant de rentrer. Au regard de cette décomposition, nous pouvons noter que l'essentiel des sous tâches est séquentiel et ordonné. En effet, il n'est pas possible de collecter les ingrédients avant de se rendre au magasin d'alimentation. Cependant si nous étions arrivés avec nos enfants dans le magasin, nous aurions pu décomposer notre liste en fonction de la nature des ingrédients pour produire des sous-listes, puis affecter ces sous-listes aux enfants et à nous-même afin de collecter plus rapidement les ingrédients. Notons que la collecte ne réclame pas de connaissance particulière et chacun est autonome pour trouver ses ingrédients. Cependant, un seul, l'adulte peut payer et donc un point de synchronisation s’impose pour rassembler les collectes de chacun et payer l’ensemble.
Cette description n'est pas sans rappeler la manière dont nous les informaticiens représentons ce type de situation. En fait, nous sommes ici dans le cas de la forme la plus récurrente en parallélisme; le fameux Fork/Join.

La liste des ingrédients est partitionnée en sous-listes assignées aux enfants et à l'adulte, d'ou la représentation en forme de fourche. Tout le monde exécute sa collecte en parcourant les différents rayons indépendamment les uns des autres, puis s'attend mutuellement devant les caisses pour rassembler dans un panier tous les ingrédients et enfin payer.

Une fois de retour à la maison, en cuisine, nous pouvons commencer à nous intéresser à la préparation du repas lui-même. Contrairement à la phase d'achat des ingrédients, relativement simple mais qui nous a permis d'illustrer le pattern Fork/Join la recette contient quelques contraintes d'ordre et de durées très intéressantes vis à vis d'une recherche de parallélisme. Voici la recette:

· Découper la tomate en dés, piler l'ail, mélanger avec du gros sel et recouvrir d'huile d'olive, hacher grossièrement le basilic, mélanger.

· Quand les pâtes sont cuites (plutôt al dente), mélanger de suite.

De part les dépendances exposées par la recette, nous savons que le temps de cuisson des pâtes réclame environ 10 minutes et qu’une fois l'eau arrivée à ébullition il nous faudra bien 15 minutes pour préparer la sauce.
Nous savons également qu'il nous faut 5 minutes pour porter à ébullition l'eau des pâtes.
Finalement, il est judicieux de commencer à chauffer l'eau et débuter la préparation de la sauce pour lancer ultérieurement la cuisson des pates lorsque nous aurons terminé la préparation de la sauce.
Pendant la cuisson des pâtes notre sauce va reposer.
Cette petite phase d'analyse de la recette, nous a permis de mieux comprendre l'ordre des tâches à réaliser décrites dans la recette: cuire les pâtes réclame que l'eau bout, préparer la sauce des pates réclame que la tomate ait été découpée en dès, que le basic ait été haché, ...
Cette petite recette permet d'illustrer que nos actions sont souvent conditionnées par des dépendances naturelles et nécessaires (de bonnes dépendances). Le schéma ci-dessous illustre l'arbre de dépendances de la recette.

De ce schéma, nous pouvons déduire quelques faits: la préparation des pâtes n'a pas de dépendances avec la préparation de la sauce. La seule contrainte est de les mélanger lorsque les deux sont prêtes . Pour produire un plat correct nous devons satisfaire cette contrainte, sachant les temps de préparations respectifs sont identiques.
Si nous récapitulons, nous savons que la préparation des ingrédients prend 5 minutes. Nous pouvons donc lancer la cuisson des pâtes (ébullition + cuisson) dès le début de la préparation des ingrédients car notre sauce doit reposer 10 minutes. Ainsi lorsque les pâtes seront cuites notre sauce sera prête à son tour et le tout pourra être servi (éventuellement avec quelques copeaux de parmesan). Le schéma ci-dessous résume l'orchestration de la recette.

La motivation de ce billet n'était pas de vous présenter une recette de cuisine, mais bien de vous illustrer sur un plan ludique la première étape dans une modélisation parallèle. En effet, en relevant les dépendances dans la préparation des ingrédients, puis en les ordonnant de manière à obtenir un plat appétissant, nous comprenons mieux les problèmes que nous pouvons rencontrer lorsque nous souhaitons paralléliser une application. En effet il n'est pas rare de tomber sur une modélisation déclinant des dépendances fonctionnelles imposant un ordre d'exécution séquentielle. Malheureusement il existe aussi un autre type de dépendances imposé par le design technique qui pénalise aussi la parallélisation et dans ce cas, il existe parfois des possibilités de s'en affranchir, mais nous reviendrons sur ce type de dépendances dans un prochain billet.

Finalement à travers notre petit exemple tiré de la vie quotidienne, nous constatons qu'avec de bonnes spécifications, nous pouvons décomposer un problème en tâches, les regrouper et les ordonner pour apprécier facilement où nous pouvons introduire du parallélisme. La concurrence nous est familière car nous la pratiquons tous les jours, cependant le passage à la programmation parallèle réclame un peu de méthode et surtout une bonne connaissance fonctionnelle du problème. Si vous tenter de préparer un plat sans en connaitre la recette, la probabilité d'obtenir quelque chose d'immangeable est sans doute très importante :-)

Exchange sp2 wrapper tool is out on the download site

bradley — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:32:00 GMT

TAKE A GOOD BACKUP FIRST

Download details: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP2 Installation Tool:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ffd2fe61-9278-489e-9b96-3816394c9cb6&displayLang=en

Keep in mind any SP2 installation issue that Exchange box might normally 
hit (and I'll blog later about the ones I've seen the normal Exchange 
folks hit) you may hit regardless.

It takes an hour to download the sp2
It takes an hour to install SP2

Book the time accordingly.

TAKE A GOOD BACKUP FIRST

(I'll blog more on this topic but I'm about to leave for LA/Disneyland for the New Year's weekend)

TSGateway and domain credentials

bradley — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:13:00 GMT

One of my users that has XP as a remote machine was saying that they couldn't log into RWW. They would get to the TS Gateway and enter in the information and it would say that they were getting a bad password. So I fired up a virtual XP to see if I could walk through the screens to see what they were hitting.

And I see the problem. XP's do the log in one way, Vista/Win7's do the log ins differently.

On a XP machine when it gets to that TSgateway screen it does not enter in the DOMAIN\username like it automatically does in Vista and Windows 7.

So if your XP users are complaining that they can't log in and get a bad password, what happens is without the DOMAIN\username they end up on the local account on the box, not the domain account. And of course, the password for the local account is not the same.

So in that screen make sure your XP folks know to type in DOMAIN\username. I've typed up instructions for folks that access the firm remotely but apparently I missed that instruction.

The last day of 2009 is an awesome time to prepare for MMS 2010

Rod Trent at myITforum.com — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:19:51 GMT

The Microsoft Management Summit is the best conference on Earth (I’ve not checked the one’s on Mars yet, so I can’t speak to that). MMS has always been the best place to catch up on System Center products, attend labs, and develop friendships and Read More......(read more)

Criel-sur-Mer

arno — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:45:00 GMT

The last few days we were in Normandy, around Criel-sur-Mer. Just a few days away to relax a bit after a busy year and trying to think as little as possible about work or flight simulation. So when it was a nice and sunny day we decided to go for a walk along the coast and over the beautiful cliffs.

And what do you think we stumbled upon during our walk? A nice little airstrip, on top of the cliff and quite close to the coast. I think the airstrip is used by a local flying club, probably with ultralights, but I am not sure about that. We saw one ultralight flying that day as well.

Apart from a few white markers and the little sign (see the photo to the right) there was not much that identified this piece of grass as an airstrip. I think it must be pretty hard to spot something like this from the air, it really blend well into the environment. I found it back on Google Maps though and you can also see the markers there.

For many FS sceneries it is still a challenge to blend that well into the environment. If there was a nice photo scenery of Normandy for FSX (I am not sure if there is actually, I am not so up-to-date with French sceneries), would this not be a fun little airstrip to fly from while exploring the coast? It could be a nice little side project to make if I ever get bored.

An update is available that lets you add Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 as supported platforms for Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1

Rod Trent at myITforum.com — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:20:15 GMT

On a computer that is running Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1), you have the following features: Software distribution Software update management Desired configuration management However, the following products Read More......(read more)

ModelConverterX video tutorial

arno — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:03:00 GMT

Just a little reminder that in two days there will be an online video tutorial about ModelConverterX. I think tutorial I will give a quick introduction to the tool and after that I will show how you can use it to convert old API macros into FSX MDL files or how to import them into GMax for further editing.

So you are all invited to join this tutorial on Saturday 2nd of January at 20:00 CET on the FSDeveloper Livestream channel. See you there! And if you can't make it the tutorial will be available on the Wiki afterwards as well.

Best Windows Freebies and Guides 21 [December 2009]

Windows Tools, Help & Guides | Mintywhite.com — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:00:24 GMT

Windows 7 - The Pocket Guide | Get FREE books (Password: ilikefree ) Windows 7 - The Pocket Guide | Get FREE books (Password: ilikefree)Every month we take a look around some of the most interesting windows-related web sites. We collect the best Read More......(read more)

Canales y GoRoutines en AjSharp (Part 2)

lopez — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:23:56 GMT

En mi anterior post describí algo de la implementación de canales y “goroutines” en AjSharp, mi intérprete de un lenguaje de scripting. Quisiera hoy mostrar algunos ejemplos del uso de esos canales y rutinas lanzadas en paralelo.

Primero, recordemos el código simple:

channel = new Channel();
go channel <- 10;
result = <- channel;

En la primera línea, se crea el canal. Luego, el comando go ejecuta en otro thread el envío del valor 10 al canal. En la última línea se toma el valor desde el canal, y se coloca en la variable result. channel <- 10 es “syntax sugar” para channel.Send(10). <-channel es una expresión (devuelve un valor, no es un comando, se puede colocar en cualquier lugar donde se espera una expresión), que codifica channel.Receive(). Las operaciones Send y Receive son bloqueantes: cuando enviamos un valor a un canal, si no hay otro thread leyendo, el thread que envía queda bloqueado, y viceversa. Esta conducta nos da una forma de coordinación entre el productor de valores para el canal y el consumidor de esos valores. Tengo que mejorar el código de implementación para soportar que varios productores (en distintos threads) puedan enviar valores a un mismo canal. Lo mismo para varios consumidores.

Podemos usar el canal varias veces:

channel = new Channel();
go for (k=1; k<=5; k++) channel.Send(k);
for (j=1; j<=5; j++)
  result = result + channel.Receive();

que en notación de operadores, es lo mismo que:

channel = new Channel();
go for (k=1; k<=5; k++) channel <- k;
for (j=1; j<=5; j++)
  result = result + <-channel;

En vez de generar solamente cinco valores, podemos escribir una goroutine que escriba todos los números en un canal:

channel = new Channel();
running = true;
k = 0;
go while(running) channel <- k++;
for (value = <-channel; value<=10; value = <-channel)
  PrintLine(value);

La goruoutine no ejecuta por siempre: su ejecución es controlada, indirectamente, por el thread principal, usando las operaciones bloqueantes del canal. Si la goroutine intenta escribir en el canal, pero no hay quien esté leyendo, entonces la goroutine se bloquea.

Más interesante, podemos usar varios canales para comunicar distintos subprocesos:

channel = new Channel();
running = true;
k = 0;
go while(running) channel <- k++;
function filter(in, out)
{
  while (true) 
  {
    value = <-in;
    PrintLine("Received in filter " + value);
    if (value % 2)
      out <- value;
  }
}
odds = new Channel();
go filter(channel, odds);
for (number = <-odds; number <= 7; number = <-odds) 
  PrintLine("Received in main " + number);
  
running = false;

Este código crea un canal, y un thread paralelo que envía números naturales por ese canal. Otro thread toma valores del primer canal, filtra los impares (rechazando los pares) y los envía a un segundo canal. El thread principal toma valores de este segundo canal, e imprime los primeros resultados.

Vemos que podemos crear, conectar y usar muchos canales. El ejemplo que sigue (inspirado en el que brinda la gente de Google para el Go language ver http://golang.org/doc/go_tutorial.html#tmp_346) imprime los números primos menores de 1000:

numbers = new Channel();
running = true;
k = 1;
go while(running) { k++; numbers <- k; }
function filter(in, out, prime)
{
  while (true) 
  {
    value = <-in;
    if (value % prime)
      out <- value;
  }
}
function makefilter(channel, number)
{
  newchannel = new Channel();
  go filter(channel, newchannel, number);
  return newchannel;
}
channel = numbers;
number = <-channel;
while (number < 1000) 
{
  PrintLine("Prime " + number);
  
  channel = makefilter(channel, number);
  
  number = <-channel;
}
running = false;

Esto planeando agregar un comando done, para parar las goroutines que quedaron andando (una idea más liviana es que las goroutines se lanzen en threads de background). Por ahora, no necesité esa característica. Tengo que estudar el lenguaje Go más en detalle: al parecer, las goroutines se ejecutan en un solo thread, pero no estoy seguro. Para leer más:

http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2009/11/the_go_i_forgot_concurrency_an.php

Sutil tema: en el código de arriba, escribí una función makefilter. En mi primer intento, escribí ese código en línea, no como función, directamente dentro del ciclo while, pero tuve un problema: la rutina lanzada por go tiene acceso a las variables que estan en su “lexical scope”, y entonces, cuando la go ruitina accede, por ejemplo, a la variable channel, ese valor podría no ser el mismo que tenía cuando se pasó por el go (la rutina de dentro del go se ejecuta en paralelo), el código externo podría haberlo cambiado. La solución: escribir una función makefilter (que no es otra cosa que un lambda con nombre) para recibir y mantener el valor original de channel y otros valores, sin verse afectados por la rutina principal. En el ejemplo del lenguaje Go que cité arriba, el autor escribe la manipulación del canal en línea, sin apelar a una rutina (por lo menos en el primer ejemplo que muestra), así que debería estudiar más en detalle este tema.

Pueden bajar el código actual de AjSharp desde http://code.google.com/p/ajcodekatas/source/browse/#svn/trunk/AjLanguage. Los ejemplos presentados acá están en AjSharp.Tests/Examples y en AjSharp.Console/Examples (AjSharp.Console es una aplicación de consola que permite ejecutar programas AjSharp leyendo archivos o ingresando el código interactivamente).

Me gusta cómo queda el código del ejemplo de números primos en pastie http://pastie.org/758175 ;-)

Mis próximos pasos en canales y gorutinas: implementarlos y usarlos directamente en C# (ayer escribí un spike), y agregar a un proyecto como el AjAgents o similar. Pueden ver el spike en:

http://code.google.com/p/ajcodekatas/source/browse/#svn/trunk/AjConcurr

y el código de ejemplo de números primos en C# directo:

http://pastie.org/761916

Nos leemos!

Angel “Java” Lopez
http://www.ajlopez.com
http://twitter.com/ajlopez

Et si l'année 2010 était celle du développement parallèle ?

BrunoBoucard — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:12:31 GMT

Dans des billets précédents, j’ai tenté d’expliquer pourquoi la programmation parallèle était à la fois nécessaire et difficile. Cependant la motivation de ce blog n'est pas d'en rester là, mais bien de rendre plus accessible le sujet. Mais avant de passer à des billets plus pédagogiques, j'aimerai reprendre une remarque de Herb Sutter à la PDC09, concernant le temps d'adoption des technologies informatiques. En effet, si nous prenons un peu de recul en informatique, de nombreux sujets ont été par le passé considérés comme difficiles alors qu’aujourd’hui personne ne s’en inquiète. Si vous repensez à ce qu’étaient les techniques de développement objet à la fin des années 80 vis-à-vis des connaissances actuelles, beaucoup de chemin à été parcouru. En effet, de nombreux ouvrages, des méthodologies, des designs patterns, des langages, mais aussi de nombreux outils se sont développés au cours du temps pour rendre le développement logiciel orienté objet accessible au plus grand nombre. Aujourd’hui toutes les écoles d’informatique enseignent la programmation orientée objet sans que les élèves ne se doutent qu’il y a quelques années le sujet n’était pas abordé alors que le célèbre langage orienté objet Smalltalk existait déjà. La programmation concurrente est certes enseignée aujourd’hui, mais rarement sur le plan de la modélisation. Sans un vocabulaire spécialisé, une méthodologie éprouvée et un outillage adaptés, la programmation parallèle restera un art difficile et confidentiel pendant encore de longues années.

J'aimerai conclure ce billet, par une suite de graphes intéressants sur l'évolution de l'adoption des technologies sur le dernier siècle aux USA. Ce que l'on constate c'est que plus le temps passe et plus l'adoption est rapide:

Naturellement, je n'irai pas conclure sur une accélération fulgurante de l'adoption de la programmation parallèle, mais ... l’arrivé massive de machines multi-cœurs et des nouvelles cartes vidéo (GPGPU) ouvrent la voie à de nouvelles perspectives pour le parallélisme. N’importe qu’elle application qui s’exécute sur un portable ou une machine de bureau comportant plusieurs cœurs (c’est aujourd’hui presque impossible d’acheter une machine neuve mono-cœur), peut utiliser la concurrence pour gagner en performance : les jeux vidéo, les applications de bureau, les outils de développement, l’imagerie et le traitement de données complexes sont autant de sujets candidats à la parallèlisation.

Finalement si nous disposions d’une méthodologie pour développer des applications parallèles, accompagné d’un environnement de développement parallèle facile à utiliser nous pourrions imaginer retrouver le Free Lunch plus rapidement. Les programmations concurrente et parallèle sont historiquement issues de secteurs de niches comme le recherche et le calcul scientifique haute performance (HPC) et l’implémentation de solutions serveur comme un SGBD ou un serveur Web. De ces années d’expériences dans le monde de la programmation parallèle, certains auteurs ont déjà réalisé des ouvrages sur la conception d’applications concurrentes. L’arrivée imminente de Visual Studio 2010 avec ses offres parallèles C++ et .NET, devrait contribuer à un nouvel élan de la part des développeurs et finalement des entreprises pour accélérer l’adoption de la programmation parallèle dans notre économie.

Happy Holidays

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:58:00 GMT

In the Query Analyser, set the Result mode to Text (Press CTRL+T) and run the following code set nocount on select space ( 17 - len ( replicate ( char ( 94 ), no )))+ replicate ( char ( 94 ), no * 2 - 1 ) from ( select top 10 row_number () over ( order Read More......(read more)

What are we doing to ourselves?

bradley — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 07:42:00 GMT

We've built a beast. Or building a beast. We've built a business model (or lack thereof) that is destroying content.

With the Christmas holidays I missed the announcement that Brian Krebs was leaving Washington Post. Another really good source of information from the traditional media that is now no longer at the place it used to be.

Security Fix - Farewell 2009, and The Washington Post:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/12/farewell_2009_and_the_washingt.html
Krebs on Security:
http://www.krebsonsecurity.com/
briankrebs (briankrebs) on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/briankrebs

The good news is that he's opened up a space on the Internet. Here's hoping that he can continue to maintain the level of information that site has brought to security. To make sure he does I clicked on that paypal and donated.

Back in 2003 the security researcher "Rain Forest Puppy" wrote this note -- http://www.wiretrip.net/rfp/txt/evolution.txt. I think it still holds true today.

Don't lose sight of security. Security is a state of being, not a state
of budget. He with the most firewalls still does not win. Put down that
honeypot and keep up to date on your patches. Demand better security from
vendors and hold them responsible. Use what you have, and make sure you
know how to use it properly and effectively.

And above all else, don't abuse or take for granted sources of help and
information. Without them, you might find yourself lost or
inconvenienced.

Happy New Year 2010

Microsoft Dynamics AX — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:28:00 GMT

Quote of the day…

sandi — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:17:18 GMT

“The point is that I was dumb enough to think that Ubuntu was secure enough out here in the Linux wonderland that I love so much that I ended up on gnome-look downloading everything that looked cool without examining everything first.”

The quote is taken from a thread about a “screensaver” for Ubuntu, sourced from gnome-look.org, that installed malicious script (as reported here). There was also a dangerous “theme” entitled “Ninja Black” (info here).

Here is a message, allegedly from the screensaver author – scary, yes?

I have been saying this for years … we need to stop saying "use this - its better". They need to say "use this - its better - but make sure you check regularly for security updates and patches, and always practice safe hex". I’m not going to say “only install software from trusted sources”, because even the trustworthy screw up – let’s not forget what happened to Mozilla when the Vietnamese Language Pack trojan was uploaded to addons.mozilla.org, orthat there were HP drivers infected with a virus. Lenovo has been hit, as has ASUS.

Remember, there is no software on this planet that will protect its users from attack via social engineering. It may be able to protect you from infection **without user interaction** to some extent, but it can’t protect you from yourself.

Consumer Electronics Show

bradley — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:23:00 GMT

Microsoft at International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2010 Virtual Pressroom:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/

As we close out the old year, the new year and the Consumer Electronics Show is right around the corner.

For whatever reason I didn't realize it was next week. We'll see what press comes out of next week. Looks like Apple is planning an event at the end of the month and bypassing CES.

EF: Another (better ?) way to deal with POCO entities

Matthieu MEZIL — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:14:00 GMT

If you want to have POCO entities and to keep at the same time, the context features like tracking, attaching automatically relationships, Lazy loadings, EF will generate a proxy which inherits your entity classes and which adds some code to do it. This is the same idea than in N-Hibernate. However, in my opinion, it is a bad idea. Indeed, it is very restrictive approach because you can’t have your entities sealed and need to have them public, you must have gets and sets protected or public...(read more)

Ideas for a Tech Interview - Part I

William — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:55:00 GMT

I firmly believe in having potential employees write code during an interview. I want to see how they interact with the computer and IDE (are they comfortable, do they seem to know their way around, do they know shortcuts, are they quick or slow in navigating etc). I’m only concerned with what they can do and how well they can do it so I think it’s fine to give them internet access and documentation as well. So the first will typically be a simply project retrieving something from source...(read more)

Mise à jour des machines virtuelles

jeanmarc — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:42:49 GMT

Hop, pour la fin d’année, quelques machines virtuelles pour bricoler / tester…

IE6-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE6 VHD file. Expires April 1, 2010

IE7-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE7 VHD file. Expires April 1, 2010

IE8-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE8 VHD file. Expires April 1, 2010

IE7-VIS1.exe+IE7-VIS2.rar+IE7-VIS3.rar contain a Vista Image with IE7 VHD file. Expires 120 days after first run.

IE8-VIS1.exe+IE8-VIS2.rar+IE8-VIS3.rar+IE8-VIS4.rar contain a Vista Image with IE8 VHD file. Expires 120 days after

Download details: IE App Compat VHD

So I'm closing out the year still without access to the MVLS web site

bradley — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:46:00 GMT

https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/servicecenter/Registration.aspx

So I'm closing out the year still without access to the MVLS web site and I know from others posting that they are in the same condition.

Granted OEM software distribution sucks (like we've had two Windows 7 consumerish newly purchased computers arrive and neither one had true media and you had to burn in your own), but you do have the software somewhere.

What this has done for me is question deeply if I want to buy Open Value licenses in the future. The value of Open Value to many is the upgrade, not the benefits of the platform itself.

It's getting harder and harder to justify open value based on the time wasted to try and get access and the real (and not perceived) benefits.

So for all those of you that are still banging your head, keep the faith.

Or try to at least.

Kim Komando - what is Cloud Computing?

Harry Waldron — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:33:00 GMT

This 4 page overview provides an easy-to-understand overview of this increasingly popular computing trend.

Kim Komando - Computing in the cloud
http://www.komando.com/tips/index.aspx?id=7907

QUOTE: There is an acronym--SaaS, or software as a service. Cloud, as used by geeks, refers to the Internet. So, people computing in the cloud are running software on somebody else's computers. They access those computers via the Internet. The computers could be next door or overseas. When they do that, they don't have to install the software. They don't have to update it. They don't have to upgrade whenever a new version appears. They don't need more powerful computers to run new versions.