01 May 2003

Someone Needs to be Shot. - [Jesse Ezell Blog] So, I am working with some ServicedComponents so that I can use COM+ transactions. For some reason, every time my method returns, all my fields are null. It doesn't make sense to me, so I step through the program to see what is going on. The set methods are called sure enough and the properties are indeed being set properly. So, I do a google search and find in a newsgroup posting from MS developer support that this is the "Expected behavior" for any ServicedComponent which has a method marked as AutoComplete. As soon as the method returns, the object will be destroyed. So, if you have any fields, they will be reset. Now, I have two questions: who is the moron on the .NET team that thought that was a good idea? Has he been fired yet? Why the hell would I want to use objects that randomly lose their state? ServicedComponents are not something I have used so I can't say for sure whats going on but reading this it makes no sense to me either. Why return a object if its going to be destroyed, it means that the object is unsable. I get the feeling that what may required is to overide (if you can) the finalize method of the object so that you can make use of the object before the GC cleans it up.  I do wonder why this behaviour as been appiled, prehaps the object can't be left in memory long and the GC needs to be forced. What ever the reason its clearly not been explained. 5:27:33 PM    comment []

80x86 ASM for ASP.NET. via Slashdot [Lambda the Ultimate] Lately we have been swamped with Bill Gate's new .NET vision. Once again even respectable people are crying out that C++ and assembler programmers will become extinct dinosaurs. My reaction to that is: "It's not fair!" Why are they always picking on assembler programmers? We don't do a lot of harm! Just because we like to have total freedom and like to be close to our hardware doesn't make us bad people. Go pick on someone else (like LISP programmers. I don't like them). Frankly, I was getting a little tired of this whole discussion, so I decided to do something about it - by bringing x86 assembler programming into the .NET age. Well, at least to allow ASP.NET pages to be written in 80386 assembler. A worthwhile effort if ever there was one! LOL, I can see this taking over C# as the language of choice ;-) 5:19:05 PM    comment []

Docs on the GC. [Brad Abrams] We had a little thread internally on some good docs on how the GC works... These were the most popular whitepapers... http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/1100/GCI/default.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/1200/GCI2/   Cheers Brad, these are great articles. Personally I think all .NET programmers should have at least some understanding of the the way GC works, all too often I see programmers taking it for granted...not a good idea. 5:15:43 PM    comment []

Post BillG Review. -[Rob Howard's Blog] Last Wednesday at 9:30 AM we had our caching taskforce BillG review. I came into work at my normal time that morning, about 7:30AM, and did the usual email/spec. update/bug review/forum work. At 9:00 AM I decided that although I'm not presenting, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to print out copies of my caching related specs. I didn't think I'd need them, but you never know. At 9:10 I headed out to the meeting. This is a great story, a couple of bloggers have asked why Bill is not using a Tablet? Nothing wrong with pen and paper !! 5:12:12 PM    comment []

Macromedia Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2003 Results. - [mesh on mx] Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2003 financial results. Net revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2003 were $83.6 million, compared with net revenues of $76.3 million reported for the comparable period a year ago. Net income for the three months ended March 31, 2003 was $6.9 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $83.4 million, or $1.42 per share, for the comparable quarter a year ago.... This is great news, I am glad Macromedia are back in the money !!  5:10:55 PM    comment []

Wanna work at Microsoft? Chris Sell's had a interesting story to tell, this story however is not so good. Scared?...... a little. 5:07:46 PM    comment []

Rotor Book Just got this book, looks great. When I have finished my other 5+ or so other geek books this one is next. 5:04:46 PM    comment []

Mono Book The first english Mono book has been announced. I don't mind the Linux approach (after all HOW many windows books for .NET are there) but Mono is cross platform and a book should really cover that. 5:03:04 PM    comment []

Up to my kneck in it Sorry for the lack of updates recently, loads on at the moment. 5:01:16 PM    comment []