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I know I'm cursed, the lightning rod for all the chance strikes that could have turned me into a billionaire if all these probability math worked for me when it comes to lotteries. But no, this time round I blame Microsoft! Yeap, and so Service Pack 2 was released to the masses via Windows Update yesterday. I acted on it without hesitation given ...

Microsoft knows the experience of torturing people into a zillion application breakages with the upgrade to Windows Vista. Painfully. So this time round with Windows 7, a new strategy is being tried out to keep the masses happy with their legacy applications - Windows XP Mode. Using a modified Virtual PC 2007, the process of installing and booting ...

So here I am stationed with a huge customer, with a huge legacy .NET 1.1 application base. Oops, did I just call .NET 1.1 ''legacy''....??? When one regularly travels at the speed of light, everything else appears to be in perpetual standstill. The rate of progression with Microsoft software is so incredibly swift that those of us who (attempt to) ...

Following the death of my father I thought it was time to look back ahead, and re-align myself with the rhythm and joys of life. My gaming PC is in need of being powered on; time to put this entertainment hardware to good use before it becomes obsolete. Or maybe, it already is? Totally? Given my current job and developer community ...

In preparation for the first meeting of the newly-formed VSTS group, I took some time last week to personally run through the dual-server deployment procedure for Team Foundation Server 2008. Sad to say, little has improved from the 2005 version in way of the installation procedure. But then again, I wonder how much ought to be hidden to simplify ...

Ah, spring is approaching. Thereby comes the responsibility of the beasts of the earth who cannot start their engines in cold weather to snap out of their hibernation and carry on with their jobs in the new year. And so must my laptop. Hibernation is a wonderful technological feature that has been with us for nearly a decade. I quantify this ...

If only I could strike a lottery each time I encounter such hurdles to simplistic computing activities, I would be richer than Bill Gates. So Windows 7 is looming near. I hear nothing but praises for it, so I thought I ought to give the beta a drive around the neighbourhood to see how it handles the road. The only real guinea pig ...

Want to be a more knowledgable developer by setting Visual Studio's output window to automatically focus upon activating the Build process? So that you can observe real-time details on what happens behind the scenes with MSBuild and the compilers? Well, curses to you for wanting to know so much! You should remain an unmotivated uninterested ...

Dealing with software, real actual released, gone into production, gone live, working software, is a serious pain. Both as a user as well as a developer, I experience both sides of the coin and most certainly understand and empathise either. I know of the unsurmountable challenge of delivering software that works robustly within unreasonable ...

How is it that I frequently encounter chains of problems that arise out of the simplest of activities that stop me dead in my tracks trying to do my work? Seems like all these bugs all lie in wait to synchronise their actions and achieve a larger concerted effect to increase my suffering. What is the latest way to disable Windows Vista? Simple - ...

*shhhh* I am going to let you in on some secrets. Secrets on how to exploit some vulnerabilities in Windows Vista, thereby stalling the system, rendering in that frustrating despair of useleness. Sounds like fun, huh? Read on. Drag the taskbar around the screen. Yeap, it's that simple. Windows Vista occasionally trips and falls flat on its face ...

What a night this has been. Yup, here I am in the office, half past 12 midnight. And still battling with this nascent laptop to get SQL Server installed properly. Previously I had problems trying to get Analysis Services to start. I thought maybe - maybe - it could be that I am using Windows Vista Home Premium, instead of Business, Enterprise, or ...

So I could finally get my new computer to reboot with ease, and to actually resize the video window during playback; I thought things could simply get better from now on. What a foolish thought that was, for not taking past trends to predict the future. One of the incredibly entertaining aspects of Indian movies is the imperial edict thou shalt ...

It always amuses me when I watch shows of would-be escape-artists who skillfully avoid detection by security guards or manhunters with the arcane distraction technique of rock throwing. Such preoccupation with little disturbance objects almost makes me want to wear figure-hugging black leather catsuits and go on burglary adventures ...

Every parent knows those crushingly exciting and exhausting times. The family welcomes the cute little new member; a wonder bundle of pure joy. There is no greater satisfaction knowing there is the next generation who will carry on your good legacy + fallicies into the future. This joy includes spending many a subsequent night answering ...

And they've said, when you want to hit your enemy hard, hit them from all fronts. Nobody can properly defend blows to all sides. That's why ''outflanking'' is such a critical military strategy. But what happens when your enemy is plain bad luck? First, my bike has not been healthy of late. Just within two months, I have had the engine ''moaning'' ...

After decades technology experience, with well over 10 years of 32-bit Windows operating system development, I thought we were long past this. But nope, apparently Windows Vista with all its delays and quality gates spanning over 3 years, still breaks like a baby who has pooped its diapers at the most fundamental of computing activities. The ...

I knew it. My server, as with just about every other computing device i and my family (extended too) have owned, is ghosted. Deep within the depths of the soul lurks that ''dark seed'' - traumas from the past - those painful mental scars - that ever so whispers into the ear an evil intent and deed that-must-be-done. So when the ...

Looks like the Failure of The Pheonix theme, or virus, is spreading. I am slapped in the face by this same laptop again as I was a year ago.Nope, installing the OS all over on this pathetic piece of hardware does not safe it completely. Now that the adoption rate for the 2005 development solutions have picked up speed, I find myself quite often ...

I guess sometimes even a fresh OS reinstallation cannot undo the work of an anti-miracle. Or, cranky old hardware simply refuse to work properly no matter what. This laptop still exhibits bouts of CPU hijacking by svchost.exe once in awhile, although no where as bad as what it used to be with the old OS. I thought that is still within tolerable ...