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What follows is a primer on the key security-oriented characteristics of the HTTP protocol. It's a collection of a number of different sub-topics, explained in my own way, for the purpose of having a single reference point when needed. A brief, handy guide to not getting hacked.
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We are excited to announce an update to the Visual Studio Achievements extension: the availability of nineteen new achievements all oriented toward Windows 8 app development. These new achievements can be earned in JavaScript, C#, VB and C++. Some examples include: I Like To Move It Move It which is earned by using the accelerometer and The Play Is The Thing which is earned by using the AutoPlay contract. New achievements shipped. Achievement unlocked!
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Now that the final versions of Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 have shipped, most Silverlight developers are looking at ways to translate their existing skill set to Windows Runtime (WinRT) apps built with XAML. Because you're already familiar with XAML, you need to understand what the Windows Runtime consists of, and how it's different than what you're used to. In this article, I document 10 things I've found while building my first WinRT app using XAML/C#; I hope they'll save you time and energy getting used to this new platform. Wait, is this different than Windows RT? Is Silverlight staying or going? I'm so confused...
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You aren't the only one confused by this. MS (particularly the Win8 team) has done an incredibly hideous job of messaging, and an equally hideous job of defining Windows 8 (which is actually two operating systems). I'll try my best to explain.
Windows 8 is actually two operating systems duct-taped together. One is the "Desktop" OS, which for all intents and purposes is Windows 7. It runs just like Windows 7 (minus the Start Bar), and is fully backwards compatible with all the code and plug-ins (including Silverlight) that you used before Windows 8.
The other side of the OS is what people sort of called "Metro". But we can no longer call it that because MS found out that "Metro" was already trademarked. There is effectively no good name for it now (apps for this part of the OS are now loosely called Windows Store Apps rather than Metro apps, for example). This part of the OS is exposed as WinRT or Windows RT. It is brand new code that has little to do with old Windows, and includes all the consumer-ish UI bits, like live tiles, charms, touch gestures etc.
When you buy Windows 8 on a PC (or for a PC), you get both sides of the OS installed. If you run the newer Windows Store Apps, they are launched from the tiles screen and run in WinRT. If you try to run old Windows apps, they run in "Desktop" mode, even though you will probably be launching them from the tiles screen too.
If you get Windows 8 on a mobile device powered by an ARM chip, you only get the new WinRT side of the OS (no Desktop mode).
So, if you attempt to create a new Windows Store App (WinRT application) in .NET, part of it will feel familiar because WinRT apps also use XAML to define the user interface (just like WPF and Silverlight did). However, there are some WinRT quirks in the runtime, like most operations being asynchronous, that force developers of WinRT apps to learn some things that are not so similar to older Silverlight or WPF apps.
As for the second question, about whether or not Silverlight is alive or dead... it sort of depends who you ask, and what platform you are targetting. Steve Jobs effectively killed plug-ins on mobile devices. After he decided that iOS would not allow plug-ins for mobile app devices, most other mobile producers followed suit (including MS). Silverlight requires a plug-in to run, so it's effectively been killed from most new mobile platforms.
Windows Phone 7 was trying to force all apps to be Silverlight, but Win 8 Phone is now all WinRT, and will *not* be supporting Silverlight.
Silverlight will still run in Windows Desktop mode, but if you have the full desktop capabilities available, then Silverlight is probably not the best technology to use, especially because it will no longer run on other platforms. If you writing apps for Windows itself, then you're probably better off with WPF (in desktop mode) or WinRT Apps. If you want a more universal run-everywhere technology, people are migrating to HTML5 because that's the only thing that will run across most mobile devices as well as desktops and laptops.
So basically, the areas where Silverlight will still operate have narrowed, and the areas where Silverlight provides a clear advantage have all but disappeared. When you add the rumors and rumblings about what's going on with Silverlight development within MS, it's clear that most reasonable people feel that if it's not exactly dead, it's on life support.
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A retired mechanical engineer, Mr. Woodland was a graduate student when he and a classmate, Bernard Silver, created a technology — based on a printed series of wide and narrow striations — that encoded consumer-product information for optical scanning. Their idea, developed in the late 1940s and patented 60 years ago this fall, turned out to be ahead of its time. But it would ultimately give rise to the universal product code, or U.P.C., as the staggeringly prevalent rectangular bar code is officially known. | || | | | | || || |
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![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif) RIP
Bob Dole The internet is a great way to get on the net.
 2.0.82.7292 SP6a
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The web browser is not only important at home or in school. For business, the browser is a key tool for accessing line of business apps, connecting with customers and partners, modernizing employee desktops, and enabling employees the flexibility to work from anywhere. Choosing the right browser is critical for organizations, and a choice that has far-reaching impact on organizational security, productivity and application development costs.... Forrester found that ninety-six percent of firms today standardize on a single browser for company-issued PCs. Available in convenient 12-packs...
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Quote: Forrester found that ninety-six percent of firms today standardize on a single browser for company-issued PCs,
Am I the only one who thinks that the only way that number is even vaguely credible is if it was limited to companies so tehcnically lethargic that they're mostly standardized on IE6?
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Hmm, a Microsoft sponsered survey finds that IE is the best browser. Who would have thought that?
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The programming profession is blessed with a number of gifted essayists. Today I will pick on three of my favorites — Eric Raymond, Paul Graham, and Steve Yegge — because they all seem to disagree about why (and whether) mathematics is relevant to the practicing programmer. They seem to agree on one thing... From a workaday perspective, math is essentially useless. This view is mistaken.
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The Fibonacci calculation presented as an example by Evan Miller is seriously flawed!
It is less efficient than a loop and (at least with IEEE double precision) fails to get the correct value for N > 70.
(See: Fibonacci Without Loops or Recursion[^] and comments.)
I haven't checked the closed-form factorial implementation, but I suspect it will fall victim to at least the problem of numeric precision.
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Tablets have come a long way since Apple first introduced the original iPad in 2010. They’ve gotten thinner (and, sometimes, thicker), smaller (and, sometimes, larger), more durable, and, of course, cheaper. But how cheap is too cheap? Does a worthy tablet exist for just $100? Penny wise, but will you look foolish?
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At long last, Google has released its own iPhone maps app to compete against Apple's homegrown version introduced with iOS 6. For three months, iPhone users have been limited to Google's functional-but-lacking mobile mapping site, and their reaction to the new app tells us all we need to know: people really missed native Google Maps support. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... now you know which to take.
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I’ve been thinking about code review lately, and took a little time to look at the Linux kernel git tree to see how many commits are marked with “Reviewed-by” (indicates that the patch has been reviewed and found acceptable). The short answer is, not a whole lot – or at least not consistently, but improving. The usual suspects.
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We’ve been working with, building, and evangelising message queues for the last year, and it’s no secret that we think they’re awesome. We believe message queues are a vital component to any architecture or application, and here are ten reasons why... They'd have more uses, but they're stuck in the queue.
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Network penetration testers love to complain about the unrealistic scope restrictions that get placed on our work.... Our clients place these restrictions on our work because at some point in the past they got burned. A penetration tester locked out user accounts, created an accidental black hole in the network, or brought down a production server. But isn't it ironic that blackhats bent on data theft so rarely cause system outages? The blackhat's goal is also your goal: your victims should never know you were there.
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Whether you’re a developer or designer, 3rd party tools can improve productivity and just make life easier. Here you will find my top 5 tools I use on a day to day basis. Hopefully you will find them as useful as I do! What are your favorite XAML tools?
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: What are your favorite XAML tools?
See the end of my sig.
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Xamarin.Mac allows developers to build fully-native Cocoa applications for Mac OS X with C#. Xamarin.Mac exposes native platform APIs, making it possible for developers to build sophisticated apps that integrate with platform conventions and leverage the rich spectrum of platform-specific functionality that make Mac apps so beautiful and distinctive. C# here, C# there... C# on computers everywhere.
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This is an improved Router Advertisement flood attack: First it simulates ten normal routers, and then sends the new flood_router26 RA flood. That makes it much more effective against all Apple devices we have tried. As the video shows, it can now kill four devices at once via a wireless network.... Microsoft's IPv6 Readiness Update greatly alleviates this vulnerability.... However, it's only available for Win 7 and Win Server 2008 R2. This one crashes the Mac, and it makes Windows Server 2012 restart. Could it be exploited further?
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A vulnerability found in Microsoft's Internet Explorer allows hackers to track the movements of your mouse cursor across the screen, which could in turn reveal data entered on virtual keyboards. Virtual keyboards and keypads can be used to reduce the chance of a keylogger recording every keystroke and therefore being able to "read" your passwords. However Spider.io discovered that Internet Explorer versions 6 to 10 make it possible for your mouse cursor to be tracked anywhere on screen, even if the IE tab is minimised. When the browser starts keeping tabs on you...
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Over the course of the intervening years... Mac OS X has evolved in a decidedly NeXT-skewed direction. Mac OS X technologies that began life at NeXT (such as Cocoa and Services) have thrived; technologies from the classic Mac OS (such as Carbon) have been deprecated and eliminated. AppleScript, however, is an exception to that evolutionary pattern—and, in many regards, an exceptionally surprisingly one. Still alive... but how much longer?
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Two researchers — Johannes Kopf from Microsoft, and Dani Lischinski from The Hebrew University — have successfully created an algorithm that depixelizes and upscales low-resolution 8-bit “pixel art” into lush vector graphics. The algorithm identifies pixel-level details to accurately shade the new image — but more importantly, the algorithm can create smooth, curved contour lines from only-connected-on-the-diagonal single pixels. I'm not sure this is progress. Maybe I'm just old and nostalgic.
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I wonder if they reticulated splines.
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Linus Torvalds has officially announced that version 3.7 of the Linux kernel has gone stable, and that means good news for developers who work with ARM-based CPUs: among its other changes, Linux 3.7 is the first Linux kernel to include generic support for multiple ARM CPU architectures, reducing the amount of effort required to get Linux-based operating systems running on phones, tablets, and ARM-licensed developer boards like the Raspberry Pi. Tablet and smartphone users shouldn't get too excited just yet.
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