Ion Todirel

my old phone has a funny way of letting me know I didn't give it enough affection

2010-04-01T20:08:00.008-07:00

I use my old phone as a clock alarm. It's an HTC S710 and was my very first WM smartphone. It was a good phone and served me well. As I don't use it for anything else, often it discharges past operating levels. But it has a funny way of reminding me I didn't care, after I charge it and power up, the clock alarm kind of forgets that the OS was dead all this time and kindly ("hey wake up!") starts up all the alarms from the point where it went dead (you know modern devices have a RTC powered by a different battery). Now have fun turning them off. 1-4 or all 16 of them!

What does this teach us? Design your apps in such a way that you don't need to save any state before exiting, put some thoughts into it's architecture, that is were you should spend a lot of your time, don't jump to the code.

And no, this is not a April Fools' joke.

I met a weird guy on XBL yesterday....

2010-03-14T16:47:00.003-07:00

We had our regular 5 vs. 5 team slayer. And one guy from his team quit early. So there were 4 left in his team. The name of the players was x, x(1), x(2) and x(3). Meaning all the players were on the same console using 4 controllers. Halo 3 supports up to 4 and many other games do too. x(1)-x(3) appeared to be inactive, and only x was. This usually happens when a player goes to get a drink and leaves his controller behind while the game is playing. However the weird thing was that once you approached x(1)-x(3), being pretty confident they'll die pretty easily, they started shooting at you. :) Go figure. x actually was playing all 4 of them, and switching the controllers!

_VtblGap: skipping vtable slots when doing COM

2009-09-02T17:23:00.016-07:00

When doing COM interop is very important that the imported interface should match the COM one, you can always skip methods at the end or skip the parameters for the methods you are not interested in, that will work, granted:

The COM interface:

MIDL_INTERFACE("F4B1A599-7266-4319-A8CA-E70ACB11E8CD")
IAudioSessionControl : public IUnknown
{
public:
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE GetState( 
        /* [annotation][out] */ 
        __out  AudioSessionState *pRetVal) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE GetDisplayName( 
        /* [annotation][string][out] */ 
        __out  LPWSTR *pRetVal) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE SetDisplayName( 
        /* [annotation][string][in] */ 
        __in  LPCWSTR Value,
        /* [unique][in] */ LPCGUID EventContext) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE GetIconPath( 
        /* [annotation][string][out] */ 
        __out  LPWSTR *pRetVal) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE SetIconPath( 
        /* [annotation][string][in] */ 
        __in  LPCWSTR Value,
        /* [unique][in] */ LPCGUID EventContext) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE GetGroupingParam( 
        /* [annotation][out] */ 
        __out  GUID *pRetVal) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE SetGroupingParam( 
        /* [annotation][in] */ 
        __in  LPCGUID Override,
        /* [unique][in] */ LPCGUID EventContext) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE RegisterAudioSessionNotification( 
        /* [annotation][in] */ 
        __in  IAudioSessionEvents *NewNotifications) = 0;
        
    virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE UnregisterAudioSessionNotification( 
        /* [annotation][in] */ 
        __in  IAudioSessionEvents *NewNotifications) = 0;
        
};

Imported as:

[ComImport]
[Guid("F4B1A599-7266-4319-A8CA-E70ACB11E8CD")]
[InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
interface IAudioSessionControl
{
    int GetState(/*ref AudioSessionState pRetVal*/);
    int GetDisplayName(/*[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] ref string pRetVal*/);
    int SetDisplayName(/*string Value, ref Guid EventContext*/);
    int GetIconPath(/*[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] ref string pRetVal*/);
    int SetIconPath(/*string Value, ref Guid EventContext*/);
    int GetGroupingParam(/*ref Guid pRetVal*/);
    int SetGroupingParam(/*ref Guid Override, ref Guid EventContext*/);
    int RegisterAudioSessionNotification(ref IAudioSessionEvents NewNotifications);
    int UnregisterAudioSessionNotification(ref IAudioSessionEvents NewNotifications);
}

Now what can you do if you are only interested in the last 2 methods? Actually not much:

[ComImport]
[Guid("F4B1A599-7266-4319-A8CA-E70ACB11E8CD")]
[InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
interface IAudioSessionControl
{
    void _VtblGap1_7();
    int RegisterAudioSessionNotification(ref IAudioSessionEvents NewNotifications);
    int UnregisterAudioSessionNotification(ref IAudioSessionEvents NewNotifications);
}

This hides under a umbrella called NoPIA, part of .NET Framework 4.0

"to do"

2009-08-01T19:54:00.003-07:00

"to do", "to be done" or "for reading"... while following some delicious tags I encountered some of those, that reminds me of myself doing sometimes the same thing. It is a bad way of dealing with things and definitely a bad habit, if you consider it *important* enough you should read it ASAP *even* if you have more urgent matters at hand, queuing stuff is almost equivalent to keeping a weak reference to them in some dark side of your brain, or not... That thing you've just read may prove itself useful at some point and may indirectly improve your productivity, "may". Besides you won't run on "déjà vu"s, weakening the reference even more, if you read it in the first place

Ichigo and Rukia literally or virtually :)

2008-09-23T12:57:00.005-07:00

being a Bleach fan, couldn't control myself from not posting this:

if you are not a Bleach fan, then you probably won't get it, though

New blog, my blog?

2008-06-14T04:53:00.005-07:00

After a long time I decided to write my own blog engine, it's not like blogger doesn't do it's job well anymore, it does, just that being a developer and using a blogging service doesn't sounds cool. Anyway it appears that I'll have a lot of free time, so it's a good idea to put all that energy into something (although not only this project). Lets see how this will turn out, it's not so big deal, I may even get bored and don't finish it, anyway stay tuned.

EDIT: I felt like I need to post some explanations about this, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! First of all that kind of stuff sounds boring in my ears now, secondly I got too busy, this thing I'm using now JUST WORKS, wanting to do something new just for the sick of sounding cool is silly, specially when there is nothing to gain from doing it

Mono support for Windows Forms 2.0 is (almost) complete!

2008-05-14T05:25:00.003-07:00

Mono team announced that the support for Windows Forms 2.0 is "almost" done, and is now API complete. Mono team also released first public Moonlight release supporting Silverlight 1.0. This is great and exciting news, congrats to Mono team!!! they deserve all the cakes in the world :)

how (not) to write a ASP.NET control

2008-05-09T05:43:00.012-07:00

<ctl:Image id="companyImage" runat="server" src="/resources/images/CompanyLogo.jpg"/></img>

As you can see the control is broken, it renders a image without closing the opening tag. Now imagine this control is part of a framework and anyone is using it like that, and somebody wants to fix it... :) bonus points for the editor error message

yay, received my Visibone BROWSERBOOK

2008-05-08T09:42:00.005-07:00

The package (free shipping):

Package contents:

...

P.S. Some photos are at low-res for obvious reasons.

sorting a matrix by rows and by columns

2008-04-29T04:48:00.021-07:00

One day at work, me and one of my colleagues had a discussion about Microsoft interview questions, I don't remember exactly the whole conversation but I remember I asked him about what kind of algorithmic questions do Microsoft ask, he told me "how would you sort a matrix to ensure that all elements are sorted by rows and by columns at the same time?" I didn't know he was kidding (he's speaking in Russian, I in Romanian, and sometimes I don't know Russian so well...), I actually thought this is Microsoft question so I starting to think (on paper of course):

Like in the old days at university I tried to look for a pattern, but I didn't found one, from the start I thought the problem is not solvable and tried to find a excuse not to solve it :) like "it's not practical etc.", on the next day, * tada *, the solution is fairly simple, it's like "treating all rows like one big array and just sort it":

So if you have a 3x3 matrix, you need to sort it by walking in this order: x00, x01, x02, x10, x11, x12, x20, x21, x22.

Of course you'll say: "big deal, what a stupid problem", yes it may be, it's a Bogosort after all, but it's fun to solve, or not...

Halo 3 made it in Terminator SCC

2008-03-05T14:58:00.007-08:00

If you watched episode 8 "Vick's Chip" from Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles you've probably notice Halo 3 on that 3 big screens:

cool :P it's the first time when I see Halo 3 in a movie

Assassin's Creed Menu

2008-02-12T09:33:00.002-08:00

The only cool thing I liked about Assassin's Creed, is it's 3D menu, seriously I've played more with the menu than the game itself.

The menu looks very cool, video games always had cool menus and teached us something about good UI, well at least some of them... You could also check Need for Speed Pro Street for similar experiences.

using code for passwords

2008-01-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

this morning @ work when trying to login, Windows Server 2003 told me my password will expire in 4 days, our password security policy is very evil (not a bad thing actually) special characters are required and its not allowed to use previously used password (+ other evil requirements not posted for obvious reasons), i tried like 4 times to invent a easy to remember password without success, the solution? use real code for password, if you used for ex. _firstName_lastName_rocks since its not allowed you could use string myName = "_firstName_lastName_rocks"; or line/lines of code you like for ex. document.getElementById " :) nobody knows that except you isn't?

cool comments

2007-12-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

i don't use ASP.NET Ajax so much, @ work if we write custom controls, we use mostly plain o' Java Script and DOM, sometimes maybe custom Java Script code from our in-house Java Script frameworks, @ home i do mostly smart client's so i never touched the control toolkit (a control kit built using ASP.NET Ajax framework) source code (yeah pretty bad, i know), but some weeks ago i noticed a really cool comment in Accordion source code (AccordionBehavior.js) which amazed me as it's not just some simple and short explanation:

if you worry about size taken by comments you shouldn't, it's minifiers job to strip comments and minimize Java Script code, and don't forget to always comment your code!

IE8: ACID2 Test Pass Complete!

2007-12-19T13:21:00.000-08:00

good news dudes, IE8 pass ACID2 test:

Url:http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/12/19/internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx
C9:http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=367235

yea, we could be bitching a lot about this, but lets just be happy they finally did this

blog update

2007-11-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

added xbox live gamercard on right

yeah, can't leave this blog...

Check Engine

2007-02-09T01:37:00.000-08:00

There is an interesing article on Raymond Chen's blog:

Automobile manufacturers have learned to consolidate all their error messages into one message called "Check engine". People are conditioned to take the car in to a mechanic when the "Check engine" light goes on, and let the mechanic figure out what is wrong. Can we have a "Check engine" light for computers? Would it be feasible?

wow, cool idea, for your software... you could put a small red icon somewhere on your app, to be visible to users, and trap, without to show dialogs or something (since all users dont give a ****), all app errors (if possible). Also give the users the ability to turn this thing off, you could may also re-try automatically (if possible) the operation that trow the error, for a number of times (given by the users), without user intervention.

my new computer

2007-01-19T14:10:00.000-08:00

An Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop, Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 processor, 2G 667 of RAM, 80G 7200RPM HDD, a beautiful and powerfull machine

interior:

exterior: not available yet

the only const i have is: its a bit noisy and it desn't have a subwoofer builtin :p, so far

I need more storage so that... i can be finally happy and productive

2006-12-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

When i buyed my first computer (around 2002) i tough hey 80G is enough ill be happy with it, i was wrong. Movies, music, photos, games, software, etc. don't fit all on a 80G HDD. So i upgraded to 2x120 Seagate HDDs around 2004 or was 2005? anyway i was wrong again, there i not enough room for my media, as you can see:

I use "C" drive (in XP) for Windows XP SP2 OS and Software: Visual Studio, MSDN Library, SQL Server 2000, Photoshop etc. Drive "D" for Windows Vista RC2 and some programs i use in Vista. On drive "E" i store Virtual PC virtual hdds, games and software. On "G" music, photos, books, movies (videos) and dcouments and also projects.

I love games, especially FPS games: Splinter Cell, Halo, Far Cry, The Suffering, Silent Hill, Half Life, Doom, Cold Fear, Tribes and also other games like GTA, Need For Speed etc. But they are huge on my HDD there is no way to have installed more than 3-4 games thats annoying because i periodically replay games like Halo or GTA. And i dont have a console ;(

Anyway thats just games lets talk about TV Shows :p im a SF lover there is no way i can miss an episode from: BSG, Stragate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek Enterprise, Alias, Heroes, Lost, Regenesis and animation... Avatar, Ben 10, Megas XLR etc. There are also other "TV" Shows like Channel9 and on10 videos and many many others. I really want to download more shows from other sites but i just don't have storage. Learning videos from sites like dnrTV or asp.net.

Im also a developer, for testing purposes i use VirtualPC to test software i develop, i have 4 OSs: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows XP SP2 every virtual hdd is around 1-2G.

Photos? not so many, around 5-10G and +100M monthly (especially wallpapers and posters), music around 40G of albums (mostly electronic and metal) growing 2-5G monthly, also podcasts from .NET Rocks adn other places.

And finally books and magazines.

So i guess i really really need more storage, what do you thing 700G is enought for me? :p

PC and Mac: friends for christmas

2006-12-24T11:40:00.001-08:00

Fast checkout the apple.com website, cannot belive PC and Mac hugging :)

Now that's a impressive room ;)

2006-12-24T02:58:00.001-08:00

just take a look at photos, here

So this is the 9 dude

2006-12-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

looks cute, looks cute, i love it

Thanks John Askew,
Keep on posting

Surprise, Surprise

2006-12-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

The process of resolving location (probing) of an private assembly by the CLR is quite funny :) CLR extracts the friendly name (friendly name = module name - extension) of the assembly and begins searching in the application directory for a file named friendly name.dll. If this file cannot be located, an attemp is made to locate friendly name.exe. So, if your application is using friendly name.exe (without a strong name) and in the same directory, for some strange reason, you also have friendly name.dll the CLR will load the dll, funny :) Of course nobody will deploy Ion.dll (without using it), Ion.exe and IonApp.exe in the same directoy.

First post on my new blog

2006-12-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

As you can see :) i deleted my old blog (itodirel.blogspot.com). Nothing to see here, go away.