Messages

251

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« on: February 23, 2011, 06:14 PM »

did MS release any gratis compiler that supported 9x target before 2003 toolkit?

-mwb1100 (February 23, 2011, 05:54 PM)

I think they might have offered 'standard' compilers. The 2003 toolkit was the first time you could get an optimizing compiler for free I believe.

252

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« on: February 23, 2011, 04:37 PM »

Yeah the SDKs are great, they seem to give you everything except ATL and MFC, and the IDE of course.

253

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« on: February 23, 2011, 03:59 PM »

True of course, but nonetheless the functions are used within in the CRT as best I can tell.

254

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« on: February 23, 2011, 03:39 PM »

f0dder - I didn't think I did, but a scan of the CRT sources show it crop up on 4 files, so I guess MS switched over to that function from the older ExInterlockedPushEntrySList & Pop functions when they dropped Win2k support. I must be referencing it indirectly somehow.

Windows XP and later versions of Windows provide optimized versions of the sequenced singly linked list functions that are not available in Windows 2000. If your driver uses these functions and also must run with Windows 2000, the driver must define the _WIN2K_COMPAT_SLIST_USAGE flag, as follows:

#define _WIN2K_COMPAT_SLIST_USAGE

For x86-based processors, this flag causes the compiler to use versions of the sequenced singly linked list functions that are compatible with Windows 2000.

-http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff563802(v=vs.85).aspx

That define doesn't seem to appear anywhere in the 2010 CRT sources/headers, so I guess that's why it has no effect.

Mouser - I am increasingly coming around to that conclusion, it just seems a pity though.

255

Developer's Corner / Re: To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« on: February 23, 2011, 03:17 PM »

Ha, didn't know that was you f0dder, though seeing FASM mentioned did surprise me.

I was all ready to go with that solution, together with a possible LoadLibrary check to forward on to the existing functions if they are present, but then I saw in my test app that it was also referencing InterlockedPopEntrySList & the Push variant. I figure that would be a harder problem to get around.

A Google did turn up this thread suggesting to #define _WIN2K_COMPAT_SLIST_USAGE to avoid the use of those functions, but it doesn't seem to work. Annoyingly, one of two apps didn't link in those functions, but I've no idea which header or library, in the one that does, is the culprit.

256

Developer's Corner / To persist with Windows 2000 support?

« on: February 23, 2011, 01:36 PM »

I used to be happy to limit the target platform of my Windows applications to Win2k and higher. I figured it was pretty safe to give up on the Win9x family, particularly as I wanted to support Unicode yet the idea of messing with TCHAR's, etc, really didn't interest me (nor is it recommended anymore it seems).

I was happy with that decision, indeed I was quite proud to be able to support a 10+ year old OS.

Now however, MS have dropped support for Win2k and WinXP pre-SP2 in the Visual Studio 2010 runtime. There is some discussion regarding the troublesome missing functions, Encode/DecodePointer, over on StackOverflow, but even if the hacks suggested work, they are just hacks. Also, looking at dependencies, I noticed another export missing, one which would be much harder to get around.

Now admittedly you can actually use the VC++ 2008 toolset in Visual Studio 2010, but you don't get the newer C++0x features, such a lambdas or auto, which really make C++ programming so much nicer.

So this leaves me in a quandary, such I stick with older C++ just to maintain Win2k compatibility, or ditch it and embrace the newer, better, programming world?

257

General Software Discussion / Re: Instantly Increasing Password Strength

« on: February 23, 2011, 12:42 PM »

Anything else done to reduce the complexity or length in order to make it more suitable for human use will reduce the level of security.

-40hz (February 23, 2011, 10:58 AM)

Exactly, any rule or technique you develop only doubles the attackers work/rainbow table, ie they test their search space once with the rule, and once without. So they simply use two computers instead of one.

Actually doubling the length of a truely random password instead squares the search space, which is a massive increase.

258

Living Room / Re: SSD usage recommendations

« on: February 22, 2011, 04:39 PM »

Another related question is one of encryption, I wonder if using TrueCrypt full disk encryption is worthwhile, or even advisible?

• SSDs and TrueCrypt: durability and performance issues
• TrueCrypt Docs - Wear-Leveling

259

General Software Discussion / Windows 7 SP1 released

« on: February 22, 2011, 03:10 PM »

So the rumors were right, SP1 has been released today!

edit: Offline install Download Center link.

260

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is Software for Hardware Always Sucky?

« on: February 22, 2011, 02:55 PM »

I try to stick with S/E because I can then use the nice unbloated MyPhoneExplorer

-f0dder (February 22, 2011, 01:08 PM)

I use that with my Android phone just fine, so that opens a load more phone choices for you in future.

261

Living Room / Re: The Plot Thickens...

« on: February 22, 2011, 11:12 AM »

Ha, you nailed it app, I don't understand how anyone could make such an obvious mistake!

Anyway, as many of the comments quoted by Paul point out, this 'study', as described, had so many other variables floating around that it's conclusions are irrelevant.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Why is Software for Hardware Always Sucky?

« on: February 22, 2011, 11:05 AM »

I always assumed it was to be flash, i.e. you couldn't possibly interact with our shiny new hardware through some drab efficient interface, here use our custom UI.

263

Living Room / Re: SSD usage recommendations

« on: February 22, 2011, 06:01 AM »

OT perhaps, but very interesting.

264

Living Room / Re: SSD usage recommendations

« on: February 21, 2011, 02:19 PM »

Fascinating article, it'll be interesting to see what type of drive I get, though it most likely will be the new 24nm ones. From those benchmarks though I can't see myself being too bothered if it is the 24nm model.

265

Living Room / Re: SSD usage recommendations

« on: February 21, 2011, 07:06 AM »

Hmmm, that's a bit sly. Anyway, it still seems to be the best of the choices I had availible so I'm not going to get upset 

266

Living Room / Re: SSD usage recommendations

« on: February 21, 2011, 06:42 AM »

Yeah you're right, no point point just staring at it I'll be putting the dev work on it. I suppose once off large builds like for the Boost Libraries could be done on a mechanical drive if I'm really bothered.

As far as I can tell, OCZ Vertex2 is currently the best bang for the buck.

-f0dder (February 21, 2011, 06:14 AM)

Well that's actually the one I ordered, so no changing my mind now. I didn't have much of a selection for my set budget.

Speaking of ramdisks, I've toyed with ImDisk without issues, it's free, regularly updated and is signed so it's works with x64 without hacks.

267

Living Room / SSD usage recommendations

« on: February 21, 2011, 05:03 AM »

SSDs have been discussed here a bit recently. I'm now looking to get a 120gb one and do a full reinstall of Windows (7 x64). I wondering what partition layout, filesystem, etc is recommended.

Here are my own initial thoughts -

• Obviously Windows and Program Files go on the SSD as they're fairly static.
  
  
• Temp?
  That's a hard one, if I had more than 8 gbs ram I'd consider a ram drive, but could I get away with one as it is?
  
  
• Development work?
  This is the really hard one, I primarily use the machine for dev work, and compiling C++ programs is processor and disk intensive so I'd love to get a speed up. Also compiling binaries seem to suffer horrendously from fragmentation, so here an SSD could shine. On the other hand though, would the excessive use kill the drive?
  
  
• Documents?
  I suspect these should go on a a mechanical drive, I'd need the extra space anyway.
  
  
• AppData?
  This is a bit harder, most AppData is small config file, I really feel like they'd benifit from the SSD. On the other hand, one unruly program using it's appdata folder as a workspce could really mess things up.
  
  

Those seem to be the key decisions. Anyone have thoughts, is there anything I big I've missed?

268

Living Room / Re: We are doomed: IBM's Watson debuts on Jeopardy today (14 Feb 2011)

« on: February 18, 2011, 02:37 PM »

(True, I'd prefer a hint of attitude...and her being more on the subtle-flirty geek-girl side.. but that's me.)
 (see attachment in previous post)
 

-40hz (February 17, 2011, 12:30 PM)

Ah Maggie Q... 

269

Living Room / Hilarious DailyWTF

« on: February 17, 2011, 10:35 AM »

The DailyWTF is always good, but todays is particularly golden.

Genital Syncing, Accentricity, & More Support Stories.

Well actually maybe the second one isn't funny, or perhaps I'm biased

270

General Software Discussion / Re: IE9 Release Candidate...Released

« on: February 16, 2011, 07:03 PM »

Mozilla have called out the RC on it's actual level of HTML5 compatibility: Is IE9 a modern browser? (from El Reg)

271

Living Room / Re: I'm so old, I remember when people paid Microsoft to use their software

« on: February 14, 2011, 09:52 AM »

Nokia really had no choice but to switch OS, and the two options were either Android or Windows Phone. I'm a big Android fan myself, but only time will tell if Nokia and MS succeed.

272

Living Room / Re: I'm so old, I remember when people paid Microsoft to use their software

« on: February 14, 2011, 08:26 AM »

What about C++/CLI?

Also, I really love C++ as a language, especially with the new 0x additions, it's just so elegant.

273

Developer's Corner / Re: How did WordPress win?

« on: February 10, 2011, 06:41 PM »

My brain just can't quite wrap around open source as a cut throat business model.

-mouser (February 10, 2011, 06:15 PM)

Me neither, but then maybe it's not opensource which is the business model, it's probably the business men in the background, not the programmers.

274

Living Room / Re: CPU Question: More Mhz per core or more cores?

« on: February 10, 2011, 03:15 PM »

P.S. Also, the newest Photoshops version can make good use of GPU, so investing a bit more in a good graphics card v. the CPU might provide for a better return.

275

Living Room / Re: CPU Question: More Mhz per core or more cores?

« on: February 10, 2011, 03:12 PM »

Actually upgrading RAM is perhaps the easiest upgrade, among the internal parts anyway. Though it does help to plan ahead and not fill up all the slots when you first buy the machine, other wise the upgrade will require you to replace some sticks, which is a bit of a waste.