Thushan Fernando

Blog moved to WordPress and new domain...

I've moved my blog to my own domain and onto a WordPress engine, CS + SPAM was driving me nuts!

Catchup posts:

• Subversion Global Ignore List
• Design Patterns in C# & Java : The Singleton.
• Back /home/ again!
• Like Christmas in July, but in June - WINE 1.0 and Firefox 3.0 Released!
• Flickr Gallery for Japan
• Day 1 - Melbourne to Korea, Seoul (from Incheon)
• Update since the last post…
• HelloWorld #3!!!

Oh yes, I've been in Japan for a couple of months, first 2 weeks of photos are uploaded on Flickr, I still havent had a chance to upload the thousands after.

Whats more, I've actually written some information about me so you can finally find out my sad sad way of life. See About Thushan Fernando.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Released to Testers:-)

Wow its been almost 2 months since my last post. I've been so busy at work its not funny!

Today marks the date that MSFT release Service Pack 1 to the 15K or so of testers, so if you were among the crowd you'll find the RTM builds of Vista SP1 on your Connect download page.

Title	Windows Vista SP1 RTM Standalone ISO for x86 and x64 Five Languages
Release Date	2/6/2008
Size	1,161.72 MB
Version	18000.080118-1840
Category	Build
Milestone	RTM
Description	0xAC9DC48A    6001.18000.080118-1840_iso_client_sp_wave0-FRMCSP0_DVD.iso

and

Title	Windows Vista SP1 RTM for X86 and X64 UPD 5 Languages
Release Date	2/6/2008
Size	1,161 MB
Version	6001.18000.080118-1840
Category	Build
Milestone	RTM
Description	*REMINDER*  Please ensure you uncheck any files you don’t wish to download.   Windows6.0-KB936330-X86-wave0.exe Windows6.0-KB936330-X64-wave0.exe

Windows Vista SP1-RC and Office 2007 SP1 Released to public

Grab it while its hawt, Windows Vista SP1-RC and Office 2007 SP1. I think most people on Vista would be most pleased with SP1 as it smooths some of the roughness RTM brought with it.

Vista SP1 Changelog published

Microsoft have published a list of changes that are in SP1 of Vista, quite detailed too. You can Download a copy of the change log or see the summary on Long Zheng's (hola!) iStartedSomething Vista SP1 Change log post.

Procrastination Flow Chart. Need this on a T-Shirt...

SOFTWARE: Visual Studio .NET 2008 and .NET 3.5 Released!

Quick post before our Games Programming exam in a few hours, Scott Guthrie's blog has just announced the launch of Visual Studio  .NET 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5...

Yayyy! All the details are on his blog. Download away!

SOFTWARE: Visual Studio 2008 RTM Next week!

Well what an exciting few weeks/month this has been. We've had:

• Windows Vista SP1-RC Released few days ago.
• Windows XP Service Pack 3-RC few Days ago.
• Windows Server 2008 November CTP few Days ago.
• Crysis
• Need For Speed: ProStreet
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Timeshift
  
• Gears Of War
• Call Of Duty 4
  
• Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon
• PCMark Vantage
• oh yeah almost forgot, the 300+ feature-packed OS X 10.5.x Leopard something or other...For tonight we DINE IN HELL.

Just when you thought things couldnt get better and as predicted in an earlier post (well I cheated a bit!) now Microsoft will finally RTM Visual Studio 2008 early next week. MSDN Subscribers can download it from the "Top Subscriber Downloads" list according to the MSDN Subscriptions Blog.

ORCAS: Visual Studio 2008 coming end of Movember!

Thats right, it appears S. Somasegar let werd out that Visual Studio 2008 (aka 'Orcas') will ship sometime this month. I cant wait to get my hands on the final, read more on his blog entry.

While on the topic of Movember, did you know:

• Depression affects 1 in 6 men...Most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
• Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who die from *** cancer annually.
• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 5 years less than females.

Please get involved and contribute to fighting depression and prostate cancer. Find out more about Movember.

DRIVERS: Creative X-Fi Drivers for Windows Vista updated!

After so long, Creative have updated their X-Fi drivers for Vista.

Changes

This download is a driver providing Microsoft® Windows Vista™ 64-bit and Windows Vista 32-bit support for Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ series of audio devices. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.

This download supports the following audio devices only:

• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty®
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series 
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro 

Current release features:

• X-Fi Crystalizer™
• X-Fi CMSS®-3D
• MIDI Playback
• EAX® Effects
• PCM stereo output through Optical Out
• Line-in connectivity
• SPDIF passthrough is supported on both Vista 32-bit and Vista 64-bit
• Recording capabilities

Fixes:

• Resolves an issue for Windows Vista 64-bit systems with 4 GB RAM 
• Resolves loud speaker noise when restarting your computer
• Resolves an issue that causes OpenAL games not to respond

Known issues:

• Applications from the original Sound Blaster X-Fi CD (for Windows XP) will not work with this download.
• The following are not supported:
  • Decoding of Dolby® Digital and DTS™ signals (Cyberlink® PowerDVD™ or InterVideo® WinDVD® is required)
  • DVD-Audio (PowerDVD may support selected DVD-Audio content)
  • EAX or DirectSound®3D (Download Creative ALchemy to restore this feature in Windows Vista)
  • 6.1 speaker mode (not supported by Windows Vista)
    

Download page for x64 | Download page for x86 | Other OS's

GAMES: Crysis Demo released!

I was planning to call it an early night tonight but alas the Crysis demo was released moments ago. Weighing in at about 1.7Gb it comes with 1 single player level and the Sandbox2 editor. So I'm here sucking it down the pipes at ~1.2Mbs... the anticipation is killing me...

Download from the mirrors:

• Westnet Mirror
• EA Games Server #1
• GamersHell.com
• Nvidia
• Gamespot
• 4players.de
• FileFront
• FilePlanet
• WorthPlaying
• 3DGamers
• Internode Games Network
• Clubic.com
• Strategy Informer
• Ausgamers
• Fragland
• Gameservers.net
• Blogspan
• my-pgaming.de
• Gameguru Mania

Dont forget to checkout the Crysis System Requirements page. Something about Saturday (or friday) game releases, just like UT3 was released a couple of weekends ago. I'd be up till about 9/10am playing (remember we have to turn our clocks forward one hour today!) and before you know it its already sunlight on a Sundy morning, time for church...

UPDATE
*WOW* What an insanely great visual feast! Awesome graphics, great gameplay and I hung onto that flare you pickup on the beach for a while (it never runs out!!!) you drop it when you get to the forest again and the cut-scene starts but go back and pick it up for the next stage when you cloak up... confuses the hell outta the two guards you come across.

VMWARE-FIX: Explorer.exe crashes when using Shared Folders in Windows XP

If you notice that your explorer process (inside the VM) crashes when you map a shared folder in VMWare your not alone. Just goto Tools -> Folder Options -> and check 'Classic Folders' option (so use Classic folders instead).

Shouldnt crash anymore. Simple!

UBUNTU: Gutsy stuck at 82% "Scanning the mirror" status fix

So I finally had some time to install Gutsy on the Dell M1330, however I got stuck at 82% while it was "Scanning the mirror", it was stuck for atleast 40mins (went to get some dinner, came back and it hadnt moved!). This is because the official mirror's are getting a pounding right now, so here's a quick fix if your stuck in the same boat.

1. Goto System -> Administration -> Software Sources
2. Drop down the Download From combo box and select 'Other'
   
3. Then click 'Select Best Server', this will go and try a list of official mirrors and pick the fastest, for me i'm using the Pacific mirror in Aus.
4. Make sure you opt to reload the apt sources list.
5. Give it a couple of minutes, the installer should use the new mirror and continue installing/configuring...

Easy as:-)

WINDOWS: You know a BSoD but have you seen a Green Screen of Death before?

Came across a funky new way of throwing a bugcheck in Windows. You've seen/heard/experienced-more-than-you'd-like-to the pleasure/pain/excitement/horror of Windows throwing a Blue Screen of Death, just the other day I came across a slightly cooler bugcheck system halt, colored green (with envy!) and a semi rendered progress bar added to the mix. This is  purely for Windows, the Xbox does have GSoD's.



This was with Windows Vista x64 (Service Pack 1 beta) loading after a few OC'ing sessions. So what causes a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA ? There is an *excellent* article about it on OSR Online that will tell you.

BENCHMARKS: XPS M1330 vs Morpheus (P5WDH+QX6850) PCMark Vantage Results

Well after buying a copy of PCMark Vantage I decided to get the two machines I mess with on a daily basis a slogging.

The first is the lightweight and quite cool Dell XPS M1330 that was clean installed with Vista x64 soon after recieving it, the other my personal "daily machine" (or dev box) with QX6850/P5WDH & 4 GiG of Corsair 6400C4PRO.

See the PCMark comparison page for more info/specs and a rundown of how each machine faired. Its important to note that I'm running Vista x64 SP1 Beta on both machines and they both where *not* clean installed before this test, just a clean reboot and disabling of anti-virus and some user mode apps that ran in the background.

For the impatient, the Dell XPS M1330 scored a generous 2148, whilst Morpheus an awesome 5385. All stock, no overclocking or tweaking!

After uni finishes and I've actually got time to mess with things again I'll try and tweak Morpheus and see how much better it can perform.

SOFTWARE: PCMark Vantage Released!

FutureMark the cluey guys who make Benchmarking apps like 3DMark and PCMark have released PCMark Vantage aimed purely for Vista.

Download a copy and see what you get:-)

UBUNTU: 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon is finally out!

Thats right, the final countdown comes to an end and Gutsy's ISO's are now able to be downloaded from the Ubuntu servers. Mirror's should start propogating it soonishly! *HOWEVER* I would strongly suggest you try the Ubuntu 7.10 (Desktop AMD-64) Torrent (Desktop x86 or Server x86 / Server x64 ) instead, faster download and less choking on the server.

I've been busting to install it on the Dell M1330 XPS ever since I got it and now finally the moment has come. Oh, i'm so happy.

UPDATE:
Mirror's for those down-under.

• http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/ubuntu/releases/7.10/ (Free if your on PIPE!)
• http://mirror.optusnet.com.au/ubuntu-releases/7.10/ (OptusNet Mirror)

BETA: Unreal Tournament 3 Demo Out!

Yes thats right, I almost fainted, the demo for Unreal Tournament 3 is out now! Servers are still mirroing but here's an interesting dump of links to work off for now.

• UPDATED: Constantly updated list of mirrors here
• http://www.stfcc.org/bluefox/permanent/SetupUT3demo.exe
• Torrent
• Torrent 2
• GamersHell Mirror
• ftp://mirror.gameservers.net/UT3BetaDemo_www-gameservers-net.exe
• ftp://games2.unreal.ie/UT3BetaDemo.exe
• http://www.i4games.eu/downloads/ut3/
• http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/794/mirrors.php
• http://mywoh.de/index.php?showdownload=162
• Gaming Unlimited

Runs absolutely nicely! I've heard issues with Windows XP 64-Bit but runs fantestically on Vista x64. There is a post about a possible work around too. Frag away, my weeeekend plans are now void. Make sure you have the latest AMD-ATI Drivers or NVIDIA Drivers.

UPDATE Epic have posted official patch to address XP x64 and Windows 2003 issues on their forums.

BETA: Official Release Dates on MSDN for XP SP3 and Vista SP1

The MSDN Subscriptions Blogs have given an indication into when MSFT plan to release Vista SP1 (Q1-2008) Windows XP SP3 (1H CY2008) and Windows Server Home (TBA). Meanwhile, Office XP Service Pack 3 is already available for download.

See the official notification on the MSDN Blog page.

XP: Service Pack 3 available on Connect

Yay! Service Pack 3 for XP is available on Microsoft Connect now too.

Title	Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta
Release Date	10/4/2007
Size	1,037.24 MB
Version
Category	Build
Milestone	Beta
Description	These are the self-extracting executables that contain the update packages for Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta, English, German, and Japanese as well as release documentation.   It is recommended that you apply your selected update package to an activated, genuine copy of Windows XP, in a test environment. As with any pre-release software, it is also recommended that you back up files and settings on your machine before applying this update package.   We thank you for your interest and are looking forward to your feedback. Please ensure you uncheck any files you don't wish to download.

Download away, roughly 330Mb in size (EN/JP/DE).

PEE-PANTS-WORTHY: Microsoft will be releasing the source to the .NET BCL, ADO.NET, ASP.NET *AND* WPF!!!

I had to read this a few times before I was able to digest it, then I pee'd my pants - it was also raining tonight on the walk back to the car from uni... Scott Guthrie's blog just mentioned about .NET being openned up with the release of Orcas. Here's the important bits:

One of the things my team has been working to enable has been the ability for .NET developers to download and browse the source code of the .NET Framework libraries, and to easily enable debugging support in them.

Today I'm excited to announce that we'll be providing this with the .NET 3.5 and VS 2008 release later this year.

We'll begin by offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), ADO.NET (System.Data), XML (System.Xml), and WPF (System.Windows). We'll then be adding more libraries in the months ahead (including WCF, Workflow, and LINQ). The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL).

You'll be able to download the .NET Framework source libraries via a standalone install (allowing you to use any text editor to browse it locally). We will also provide integrated debugging support of it within VS 2008.

Unfortunately, the licensing terms make this a 'readonly' view of the source as stated in the Licensing Terms. So what does this mean to .NET Developers? We can finally debug at the Framework level!!! You can even opt to download the sources from MSDN. Checkout the Channel9 video of Shawn Burk, the man behind the curtain that made it happen and discusses the implications! His official announcement is available on Shawn's blog! . If you havent already, grab the latest Beta 2 release of Visual Studio 2008 or wait for the final due out early November.

Personally I cant wait to see the sources for WPF. So many good things coming in the next couple of months, not to forget Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), MythUbuntu and Visual Studio 2008.