Computer Hardware and Software
Posts tagged Improvements
Explained: Garbage Collection
Jul 22nd
Garbage Collection is the concept of collecting useless “dereferenced” memory, and freeing it for re-use by the system. De-referenced resources are those objects that are no longer in use by the program but are still allocated for use by it.
Languages like C/C++ could allow programmers to directly interact and play with memory, a responsibility that is often so abused that it does more harm than good… Problems arise when people recklessly allocate large system resources and the due to some mis-management the allocated memory is never freed. This leaves large chunks of unreacheable memory locations that ultimately cause “Memory Leaks”. In comes the invention by John McCarthy, which shoulders the responsibility of memory management by de-allocating memory that is not in use by the program anymore. While the concept was initially developed for LISP only, now it has spread to a variety of High Level Languages, including updated versions of C\C++ themselves.
C++/CLI (Common Language Infrastructure), which is Microsoft’s language specification has provision for both manual and automated memory management.
Garbage collector is the term used to represent automatic memory management by the system. Garbage collector scans the runtime environment for objects that are accessible directly or indirectly via references. Then it proceeds to discard all remaining objects. Typically, an object’s memory is reclaimed when the number of references to it reaches zero. These scans are done in cycles, which are started automatically by the Garbage collector or when explicit calls are made to it.
Garbage collection does not guarantee immunity from memory leaks, and obviously requires a considerable percentage of system resources to run, but definitely helps programmers who have to deal with a lot of memory in their projects. Garbage collection is not commonly used in embedded projects due to their already small resource size but are available on certain platforms like .NET Micro Framework and Java-ME.
Windows Intune – PC management in the Cloud!
Jul 21st
Windows Intune, in a nutshell, is a Web-based console where IT administrators can manage the deployment of Microsoft updates and service packs to all PCs, keep track of hardware and software inventory, fix PC issues remotely, manage protection from malware threats and set security policies. Windows Intune can be accessed anywhere an Internet connection is available.
Microsoft is aiming the cloud-based Windows Intune squarely at companies with 25 to 500 PCs, as businesses of this size typically don’t have the resources to manage and configure servers in an on-premise desktop management environment.
For $11 per PC per month users will get the Windows Intune service plus integrated anti-malware (anti-virus and anti-spyware) and Windows 7 Enterprise upgrade rights. Volume discounts will also be available for purchases of 250 licenses or greater.
Windows Intune will be sold like other cloud services from Microsoft — through Microsoft partners and the Microsoft Online Services Web site.
You can find more in depth information in the PDF below or just visit windowsintune.com.
WPC 2010 Virtual Pressroom: Video Gallery
Jul 15th
Demo: The Personal Cloud
Corporate Vice President Brad Brooks shows off how Windows 7, Bing, Windows Live and other services connect to create a connected “personal cloud.”
[Video]
New Hotmail design and impressive upgrades!
May 18th
It’s official! Microsoft have just announced that Hotmail is getting a new design and some impressive upgrades!
Wow! Go to the preview website, and also read the announcement, this is good stuff. Hurry up and launch the new Hotmail please! Best of all, Hotmail will now be fully integrated with SkyDrive! This will be really useful. Every time I send or download an attachment in a Hotmail email, I feel there should be a SkyDrive button to go with it.
SkyDrive is rapidly becoming by far the most useful online storage facility, thanks to the new Hotmail, the new Office Live, and of course Office 2010 — all of which are integrated with SkyDrive and able to use this as their file storage system. SkyDrive is becoming my new hard drive – it has everything! (MS’s domination of the market with MS Office gives them an advantage that Google can only dream of. Google are planning to integrate their web-based office apps with their web-based storage, but they have taken too long, and besides the number of people using Google’s desktop publishing apps is negligible compared to MS Office and Windows.)
Here’s my wish-list of the features I want added to SkyDrive… If MS can give us these features, it would make SkyDrive absolutely perfect!
- The ability to upload bigger files (up to 5 GB would be nice)
- The ability to link directly to files on SkyDrive (by providing a permanent URL for a file on SkyDrive)
- A public API for SkyDrive (in fact, there already is an API, but we need it to be made public please!)
Ted-Talk: The surprising science of motivation
May 8th
I just found this really interesting ted talk from Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation.
Here the description from http://ted.com/talks to the video:
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.
[video]
Isn’t that amazing? What do you think? – Please comment.
The Black Box Recorder
May 3rd
Every developer wishes there was a way that an end-users could quickly and simply record a repro for the problem that they’re running into that is unique to their machine.
Here a little tool from Windows 7 comes to the rescue!
The in-built diagnostic tool ”Problem Steps Recorder” provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps.
It’s a really neat little tool and I can’t wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop! The program is called psr.exe; you can also search for it from Control Panel or the Start-Menu search under “Record steps to reproduce a problem”.
The Big Date is comming soon!
Apr 29th
Microsoft plans to release the productivity suite Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 global on May 12 at 11 a.m. EDT. Now they even released a widget for this event you shouldn’t miss:
Microsoft plans to release the productivity suite Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 global on May 12 at 11 a.m. EDT. Now they even released a widget for this event you shouldn’t miss:Access Skydrive with Windows Explorer
Apr 24th
Some of you may have noticed that I now prefer using Skydrive service from Microsoft if I want to share files. This free Service lets you use 25 GB of online space for free for storing anything you want for your personal use. You can use this to store your files and can be accessed anywhere anytime using your Windows live sign in username and password adding a considerable amount of security.
Normally You need a Browser to access it using a internet enabled system. Sometime this is not a great way to access your files. Skydrive Explorer is such a tool which can let you access 25 GB Skydrive with Windows Explorer without opening any browser.
SkyDrive Explorer is a free, easy-to-use, but very powerful extension for Windows Explorer. With SkyDrive Explorer you can make any every-day operations with your documents from Microsoft Live SkyDrive™ service (read more..) using Windows Explorer, as if they were on your computer.
Features:
- View the structure and contents of folders in SkyDrive™;
- View files information (type, size, creation date in GMT format);
- Create new root folders and subfolders;
- Copy files into the storage;
- Delete files and folders;
- Copy files from the storage to the computer;
- Copy folders and subfolders from the storage to the computer keeping their structure;
- Use Drag & Drop for files operations;
- Rename files and folders;
- Create links to SkyDrive™ folders on your computer;
- Copy URL of the selected object(s) to the Clipboard;
- Automatic check for the latest version;
- Bidirectional languages support;
- Selection of your preferred interface language;
Give it a try even if you are using other products like Microsoft Live Mesh or from other companies.
PS: The Free version of Skydrive Explorer should be fine for everyone. For rare cases where you would need the paid version, just use the Skydrive Website instead 
Talk by Bill Gates on the need to get to CO2 zero
Mar 9th
If you are interested in modern technologies, climate change, nuclear power or how the feature power-solutions will look like, then you should watch this really good talk by Bill Gates:
Google to begin indexing the internet in real-time?
Mar 4th
In a move that might rewrite the entire search market, Google is rumored to be creating a system that will let allow web publishers to submit content to Google for search indexing in real-time.
This of course follows the introduction of PubSubHubBub by Google, a tool to move syndicated content in real-time to aggregators. PubSubHubBub has become a hit among publishers looking to get their information into the market as quickly as possible.
This move by Google, if it comes to fruition, would be a super-PubSubHubBub, not just moving your content into Google Reader at light speed, but also into the hands of the tens of millions of people searching Google every few hours. It would be a bigger move towards a real-time web than Twitter will ever be.
Of course, this would give Google a strong leg up on Bing, and would tie internet publishers even tighter to the internet giant. Many already depend on Google Analytics and Feedburner in their publications Now with PubSubHubBub and the new tool, publishers not working on a Google platform would still be using Google tools to publish.
Is there no corner of the world where Google will not expand into?
Sure to be lost in any discussion are the internet searchers, who will benefit greatly from having the best data in real-time, all the time. Who loses? Microsoft, and any publisher not smart enough to jump on board.
Marshall Kirkpatrick has an excellent discussion of the technical aspects of the project, which we recommend that you read if you are a publisher.
When will this come out? We are not sure at the moment, but when it does, the earthquakes we resonate in search for years to come.