大家有沒有發現, 我從這篇 Taipei International Book Exhibition 2007 之後, 就幾乎沒在寫 blog 了. 原因應該和很多人一樣 — 因為最近的 Project 太忙了. 現在算是告一個段落, 所以開始來 update 一些本來想要寫東西.

TechCrunch:Microsoft Announces Surface Computer. 這個是 Engadget 癮科技的文章: Microsoft Surface將給你帶來革命性的改變. Microsoft Surface 是由一個隱藏式投影機和幾個偵測用攝影機所組成的. 在以後利用 RFID, 這塊桌面顯示器希望還能知道你放在桌上的葡萄酒是哪個年份的, 夠炫吧!

這裡是 Microsoft Sureface 的官方網站, 裡面有想像圖(?), 哈哈!

這樣應該要先來學一下 Surface Computing, 會不會是另外一個商機咧? :p

Popularity: 31% [?]

Microsoft flags Gmail as a virus, form News.com.

From late last week until Sunday night, the Windows Live OneCare security software incorrectly flagged the Google e-mail service as a threat.

A warning popped up when OneCare users opened the Gmail Web site, telling them that their systems were infected with a virus called “BAT/BWG.A.”

It seems that Microsoft gotta long long way to go due to high false positive rate.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Peer to Peer (p2p) in Windows Vista - People Near Me API from ebooth’s blog.

The overview of the p2p APIs available in Windows Vista is:

• PNRP (Peer Name Resolution Protocol) is like server-less DNS. It allows clients to register secured and unsecured peer names that can be resolved over the internet. Currently large data centers are required to host services that PNRP has the potential to replace. PNRP gives people the ability to discover a friend and see their presence online and then play a game or work on a project together.
• PNM (People Near Me) allows for dynamic discovery and invitation of computers running Windows Vista on the same subnet or Ad-hoc wireless. This means you can play games with people in the airport, swap photos with your friends or collaborate with colleagues. For example Windows Meeting Space uses PNM.
• Peer Naming API allows email providers to tie PNRP names to email addresses. Then any program that uses the WinSock APIs can resolve registered email addresses. This means you can literally ping a friend or put their email address where you would have to put an IP address in a game.
• Graphing is a mesh networking API. It allows groups of people to share information and collaborate. A game could create a mesh of online players so that it could do server-less match making. Or an evangelism team could collaborate on a document without having to upload the latest copy to a server.
• Grouping is the security component of Graphing. It allows for a group to be administrated, so that membership and permissions can be restricted. Think of Grouping and Graphing as a database in the cloud.
• Peer Channel is the only managed API in the P2P API suite. It allows for mesh replication instead of mesh collaboration.
• Application Invite (AppInvite) allows a user to invite another user to use a collaboration application. Any application can register with the invite API and when a user sends an invite to use that application the application will be launched by Windows Vista. Windows Meeting Space is an example of an application that uses AppInvite.
• Contacts API allows the creation and administration of p2p contacts.
• Serverless Presence: Gets contact presence information.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Buffering in HTTP.SYS, from Windows Core Networking Team’s blog.

故事內容是這樣的. IIS 5.0 之前是用 WinSock 來 implement, 這樣預設會打開 buffering 機制, 到了 Windows 2003 的 IIS 6.0 開始, 則改由 HTTP.SYS 來負責. 這樣反而會遇到 performance 下降的問題.

主要的理由我猜是 Nagle’s Algorithm. 現在的 socket 實作預設都會打開 TCP 的 Nagle’s Algorithm. 這個演算法簡單的說, 就是利用 delay ack 來減少網路上所傳輸 packet 量, 進而增加 TCP 的 performance. 不幸的是, Nagle’s Algorithm 對於小 packet 的幫助比較明顯, 大 packet 反而會有 latency 拉長的反效果. 換句話說, 對於一次傳輸大量資料的網路程式, 應該要 disable Nagle’s Algorithm 會有比較好的 performance.

目前在 Windows 2003 SP1 之後有一個 workaround 的辦法, 就是利用 HTTP_SEND_RESPONSE_FLAG_BUFFER_DATA 這個 flag. 雖然說還有另一個 flag 是 HTTP_SEND_RESPONSE_FLAG_ENABLE_NAGLING, 表示預設應該是 disable Nagle’s Algorithm, 不過我還是很好奇, 為甚麼預設明明 disable Nagle’s Algorithm, performance 沒上去的原因, 和一般網路程式 enable Nagle’s Algorithm 一樣呢?

Popularity: 43% [?]

開發自己的 Xbox Game 非夢事, from engadget.

原則上, XNA 是以 C# 作為程式開發語言. 不過不懂 C# 的玩家們也別難過, 因為 XNA 除了那些低階的函式外, 還提供數個”新手套件”. 根據原廠的說法, 一般使用者只要將這些 “新手套件” 組裝起來, 便能夠輕鬆開發出簡單的遊戲.

喂喂喂~ 這樣不就是北打 OpenGL, 南踢 PS3 了嗎?

不過, 我記得 DirectX 9.0b 的 DirectShow, 還沒有 managed code 的版本, 那時候在寫 C#, 還要用 System.Runtime.InteropServices 來和 DirectShow 溝通 (殘念, 這應該也是 DirectX family 唯一的一個沒有 managed code 的 component), 還是 Gamer developer 都不用 DirectShow 的啊? :p

Popularity: 17% [?]

Changes to IDN in IE7 to now allow mixing of scripts, from IEBlog.

IE7 added support for IDN in Beta 2, and implemented a nice approach to accommodate the IDN spoofing as well.

If a user navigates to an IDN URL and if the scripts that are present in the URL are not part of the user’s configured Accept language, IE7 will convert the URL into Punycode and display it in the address bar.

IE7 also displays the information bar saying that the website address contains characters which cannot be displayed using the current language settings.

Consider the following example where a URL label contains Hang and ASCII (website for LG Korea). IE will now display this URL in Unicode for a user who has added Korean language support, since the non-ASCII script belongs to the Korean language set.

This is really a pretty user experience! Good Job, IE Team!

Popularity: 34% [?]

Microsoft Acquires Winternals and Sysinternals, from Slashdot.

Sysinternals 提供了超多有用的免費工具下載, 像是可以知道某個 File 或是 Folder 被誰 Lock, 哪個 DLL 被哪個 process load 進記憶體的 Process Explorer, 可以知道目前哪個 port 被哪個 process 用的 TCPView, 監看某個 process 動了哪些 File 的 Filemon, 監看某個 process 動了哪些登錄檔的 Regmon 等等.

Winternals 的共同創辦人之一 Mark Russinovich, 曾經揭發 Sony BMG 光碟中使用 Rootkit, 他也被 Microsoft 認為是全球前幾名最熟悉 Windows 的人. 如果 Microsoft 一直挖走這類的人, 那不就沒有人可以發現 Windows 的小秘密了嗎? 還是陰謀論一點, 其實 Mark 早就發現了某個不可告知人的秘密, 所以 Microsoft 不得不拉他過來? :p

值得一提的是, 可以看看 Mark’s Sysinternals Blog, 就會發現強者和我們平凡人的差別了 :p

Popularity: 28% [?]