Microsoft’s C# compiler becomes open source
Microsoft decided to open source their latest .NET Compiler Platform with the codename Roslyn under the Apache License 2.0 license. This is great news as it allows for more people to take a look at the code and suggest improvements, find bugs or even implement features.
If you would like to take a peak at the code you can visit https://roslyn.codeplex.com/, and in case you are thinking about contributing to the project make sure to read all the rules Microsoft put in place to ensure the quality of the project.
Posted in Microsoft.
Microsoft drops support for Windows XP
After supporting Windows XP for more than 12 years Microsoft announced that they will be dropping the support for Windows XP on 8 of April 2014. After that date Windows XP users will not receive any updates through windows update and technical support from Microsoft will no longer be provided.
In addition to the above, Microsoft announced that they will also stop providing Microsoft Security Essentials for download for Windows XP users on the same date.
This is an important announcement since a Windows XP holds more than 10% of the users in the current market.
Since the upcoming security issues will no longer be fixed after the 8th of April, current Windows XP users should strongly considering moving to a newer Windows version, mainly to either Windows 7 or the Windows 8 version.
Posted in Microsoft, Tech News.
Tagged Microsoft, Windows, Windows XP
Tracert implementation in C#
While I was looking for a tracert method that I could use for an application of mine I noticed that the .NET framework doesn’t provide one out of the box, so I decided to create one that matched my requirements.
The method below works in the exact same fashion the tracert method works. Providing
the method with the IP address, the max number of hops you would like to receive and a timeout value for the hops will allow you to track down the route your data will travel in order to get to their destination, as well as the time (in milliseconds) it will take for each hop.
Main method:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 | /// <summary> /// Traces the route which data have to travel through in order to reach an IP address. /// </summary> /// <param name="ipAddress">The IP address of the destination.</param> /// <param name="maxHops">Max hops to be returned.</param> public IEnumerable<TracertEntry> Tracert(string ipAddress, int maxHops, int timeout) { IPAddress address; // Ensure that the argument address is valid. if (!IPAddress.TryParse(ipAddress, out address)) throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("{0} is not a valid IP address.", ipAddress)); // Max hops should be at least one or else there won't be any data to return. if (maxHops < 1) throw new ArgumentException("Max hops can't be lower than 1."); // Ensure that the timeout is not set to 0 or a negative number. if (timeout < 1) throw new ArgumentException("Timeout value must be higher than 0."); Ping ping = new Ping(); PingOptions pingOptions = new PingOptions(1, true); Stopwatch pingReplyTime = new Stopwatch(); PingReply reply; do { pingReplyTime.Start(); reply = ping.Send(address, timeout, new byte[] { 0 }, pingOptions); pingReplyTime.Stop(); string hostname = string.Empty; if (reply.Address != null) { try { hostname = Dns.GetHostByAddress(reply.Address).HostName; // Retrieve the hostname for the replied address. } catch (SocketException) { /* No host available for that address. */ } } // Return out TracertEntry object with all the information about the hop. yield return new TracertEntry() { HopID = pingOptions.Ttl, Address = reply.Address == null ? "N/A" : reply.Address.ToString(), Hostname = hostname, ReplyTime = pingReplyTime.ElapsedMilliseconds, ReplyStatus = reply.Status }; pingOptions.Ttl++; pingReplyTime.Reset(); } while (reply.Status != IPStatus.Success && pingOptions.Ttl <= maxHops); } |
Microsoft Office 2013 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available
Microsoft Office 2013 Service Pack 1 is now available to download. This update offers improvements in stability, performance, and security. In addition, the SP1 update contains all the previously released updates as well as some unreleased ones.
For more detailed information visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817430.
This update can be applied to the following products:
- Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013
- Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013
- Microsoft Office Personal 2013
- Microsoft Office Professional 2013
- Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2013
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013
- Microsoft Office Standard 2013
Download Links
- Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB2817430) 32-Bit Edition
- Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2013 (KB2817430) 64-Bit Edition
Posted in Microsoft, Software Updates.
Windows 8.1 Update 1 to be released this spring (2014)
Joe Belfiore has mentioned in the Windows blog page that Windows 8.1 Update 1 is currently scheduled to be released this spring.
Over the next few months, we’ll continue to deliver innovation and progression with an update to Windows 8.1, coming this spring.
Not much information has been released yet as to what changes the new update will bring to the users, but based on the things pointed out in an official post it seems that desktop user experience will be one of the main things they want to improve.
- We’ll enable our partners to build lower cost hardware for a great Windows experience at highly competitive price points.
- We are making improvements to the user interface that will naturally bridge touch and desktop, especially for our mouse and keyboard users. We have a number of targeted UI improvements that keep our highly satisfying touch experience intact, but that make the UI more familiar and more convenient for users with mouse/keyboard. Don’t worry, we still LOVE and BELIEVE IN touch… but you’ll like how much more smooth and convenient these changes make mouse and keyboard use!
- We are enhancing support for enterprise customers via a few tweaks, particularly including features that greatly improve IE8 compatibility in Internet Explorer 11, which is especially critical for web-based line of business applications. Additionally, we’re extending mobile device management capabilities and making deployment easier.
As a desktop user I welcome any chances aimed to improve the functionality for keyboard and mouse users and I am eager to see what the update has in store for us.
What kind of features/improvements would you like to see in the new update ?
