ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog

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Sun, 05 Dec 2004 20:22:20 GMT

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Scott Hanselman

Precompile.axd in ASP.NET 1.1 with System.Web.Handlers.BatchHandler: A harbinger of ASP.NET 2.0 left vestigially in 1.1?

Sun, 05 Dec 2004 01:08:50 GMT

I'm surprised I'm just now noticing this. Jon Galloway hooked up the apparently unused System.Web.Handler.BatchHandler to an httpHandler and was able to precompile all his .ASPX pages. This could be useful during deployment to catch any goofs in ASPX code. Certainly not something you want on in production lest you be DoS'ed with compilation, but a helpful thing regardless.

To set this up at the machine level, add the following line to the <httpHandlers> section of %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\CONFIG\machine.config:

<add verb="*" path="precompile.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.BatchHandler"/>

To set this up at the application level, add the you'll need to create an httpHandlers section like so: [JonGalloway]

<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <httpHandlers>
      <add verb="*" path="precompile.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.BatchHandler"/>
    </httpHandlers>
  </system.web>
</configuration>

Now playing: Stevie Wonder - As

Target: Referral Spam in dasBlog

Sat, 04 Dec 2004 07:37:24 GMT

I've pretty much solved the comment-Spam problem (only one person has voiced their distaste so far) but a recently perusal of my logs and older posts indicated a ridiculous amount of referral spam.

This is when someone hits a post on your site and has changed/hacked the HTTP Referrer Header to indicate where they came from. If your blog adds this referrer to the page, as most to, you've just linked to Hot Gay Sex (not that there's anything wrong with Hot Sex between consenting adults : ) ) or whatever by their actions.

The story goes when Google comes around, they see that you've linked to them, and they get Google Juice via the Page Rank System.

Not only is this potentially offensive to my readers, it also obscures the posts and comments when they are filled with referrals.

Potential Solutions:

Stop printing out referrals on my pages.

Personally, I like to see them, and I think they provide value to the reader so they can see other places with information of interest. It also promotes cross-linking between my peer blogs.

Modify dasBlog to NOT add icky referrals.

This would be idea. However, it will likely be in version 1.7 in some way, either via James Snape's whitelist solution (I think a whitelist removes the point of referrals, and I'll greatly prefer a keyword-based black list) or some other technique.
I've avoided running a "private build" of dasBlog so far (as evidenced by my care in creating the CAPTCHA solution without recompiling) and I'd to continue as such

Clean the .xml files occasionally with a process

This is quick, easy, can be automated, and will work in the short term for me as I await dasBlog 1.7.

So, here was an opportunity to use the only dev stuff I have on my home machine, Visual Studio C# 2005 Express.

Here's what I did. Use at your own risk, back up your /content directory, and know that this will only have to run on your "*.dayextra.xml" files from dasBlog. No error handling, no warrenty, but it worked for me. Enjoy.

Usage: TrackingFilter "c:\yourdasblogcontentdirectory"

File Attachment: TrackingFilter.zip (9 KB) (for VS.NET 2005, I don't know if it works in 2003)

WARNING: The words I put in the .config file are ; delimited and are unquestionably offensive. Not only do they include most of George Carlin's words but they also include "bloglines" and "artima" because they don't provide a value in my referral list.

GUI Front End to Chris Sells' XmlPreCompiler - For Debugging XmlSerialization Errors

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 22:56:32 GMT

I spend a lot of time with the XmlSerializer (I personally dig it immensely, and I think too many people complain about it, but anyway) and while I put up an article on how to debug directly into the generated assemblies, I noticed that Mathew Nolton has a GUI Front-End to Chris's XmlSerializerPreCompiler.

The tool will check to see if a type can be serialized by the XmlSerializer and shows any compiler errors that happen behind the scenes. +1 for Useful, thanks Chris and Mathew.

HTTP POSTs and HTTP GETs with WebClient and C# and Faking a PostBack

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 07:37:17 GMT

A fellow emailed me wanting to screen scrape, er, ah, harvest a page that only displays the data he wants with a postback.

Remember what an HTTP GET looks like under the covers:

GET /whatever/page.aspx?param1=value&param2=value

Note that the GET includes no HTTP Body. That's important. With a POST the 'DATA' moves from the QueryString into the HTTP Body, but you can still have stuff in the QueryString.

POST /whatever/page.aspx?optionalotherparam1=value
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 25
param1=value&param2=value

Note the Content-Type header and the Content-Length, those are important.

A POST is just the verb for when you have an HTTP document. A GET implies you got nothing.

So, in C#, here's a GET:

public static string HttpGet(string URI)
{
   System.Net.WebRequest req = System.Net.WebRequest.Create(URI);
   req.Proxy = new System.Net.WebProxy(ProxyString, true); //true means no proxy
   System.Net.WebResponse resp = req.GetResponse();
   System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream());
   return sr.ReadToEnd().Trim();
}

Here's a POST:

public static string HttpPost(string URI, string Parameters)
{
   System.Net.WebRequest req = System.Net.WebRequest.Create(URI);
   req.Proxy = new System.Net.WebProxy(ProxyString, true);
   //Add these, as we're doing a POST
   req.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
   req.Method = "POST";
   //We need to count how many bytes we're sending. Post'ed Faked Forms should be name=value&
   byte [] bytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(Parameters);
   req.ContentLength = bytes.Length;
   System.IO.Stream os = req.GetRequestStream ();
   os.Write (bytes, 0, bytes.Length); //Push it out there
   os.Close ();
   System.Net.WebResponse resp = req.GetResponse();
   if (resp== null) return null;
   System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream());
   return sr.ReadToEnd().Trim();
}

I could and should have put in more 'using' statements, but you get the gist. And, there are other ways to have done this with the BCL, but this is one.

Now, how would you fake an HTTP PostBack? Use a tool like ieHttpHeaders to watch what a real postback looks like, and well, fake it. :) Just hope they don't require unique/encrypted ViewState (via ViewStateUserKey or EnableViewStateMac) for that page, or you're out of luck.

Being a good .NET citizen means certain things...start with your debugging skills

Fri, 03 Dec 2004 07:10:09 GMT

I've not been one to work the newsgroups, answering questions. I probably should. I'm more of a one on one person, and I tend to go the extra mile when folks (largely strangers) ask me technical questions. I've had email threads 10-deep with total strangers on technical questions, and only at the end do I say, "Um, do I know you?"

I haven't done what Scott Mitchell wisely did and setup a "Getting Help" policy, but I'm quickly getting there. I'll happily answer your question for $75 too, satisfaction guaranteed, and I'll blog the answer. I've done this hundreds of times for free. :)

Anyway, the point of this post was this: People, for crying out loud, debug a few things before you ask for help. If you don't know how to debug, learn or ask someone to teach you.

So, I present:

The Hanselman List of .NET Debugging Dos and Don'ts

Don't - Say "Hey, I got a NullReferenceException," what's the problem?
Do - Provide a Stack Trace/Dump with the line number it likely happened on.

Don't - Get deep into your complicated program, find a bug and insist it's BillGs fault.
Do - Reproduce the bug in some simple test program and tell the world. Remember, 9/10 times it's you.

Don't - Decide there's a problem if you don't know the preferred behavior.
Do - Always Assert your assumptions. If null can happen, check for it. BUT, if null must never happen it's time for a Debug.Assert

Don't - Move code around blindly, somehow fix your bug, ignore it and keep coding. Programming by Coincidence!
Do - Understand your program fully. Remember what Andy and Dave say about lucky folks who step into minefields and don't die. Just because you didn't die, doesn't mean there aren't mines!

Don't - Reformat or "pave" something because you don't know what's wrong. If you get a spot on your carpet, fix the spot. Don't lay new carpet.
Do - Know enough about your environment to know what your program's dependencies are. If your registry settings can get boogered, Debug.Assert that you are getting good values from the registry.

Don't - Get overly frustrated with Assembly loading/versioning/policy. At least the Assembly Loader follows clear, set, rules.
Do - Make a folder called C:\FusionLogs, then go to the registry in HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion and make a DWORD value LogFailures=1 and string value LogPath=C:\FusionLogs. Every AppDomain that has a binding failure or weird redirect will get logged. Know: What assembly you want, what they looked for, what you got. Know where Assemblies are searched for.

Don't - Avoid debugging. Debugging in .NET is easier than ever before. Remote debugging and AttachToProcess are gifts. Don't stop at a point in the call stack if you can keep going by finding PDBs.
Do - Keep your Source and PDBs in the same location. We keep ZIPs of every build's PDBs. Just today we dug up 9-month old PDBs and source (from CVS) to debug into some confusion. Not saving those PDBs would have screwed us. Create a Symbol Server.

Don't - Limit yourself to the QuickWatch. Learn what VS.NET has to offer.
Do - Use the Immediate Window to test theories. Remember that you can perform Casts in the Watch Window. Remember that you can drag and drop variables into the Watch Window. Remember you have 4 Watch Windows, Autos, Locals, not to mention. Learn how to use Conditional Breakpoints!

Don't - not debug something just because you can't figure out how to launch the process from the VS.NET Project Properties.
Do - Debug|Processes|Attach to attach to processes that have your DLL loaded. Use ProcExp from SysInternals as a better Task Manager to see .NET processes, as well as a system-wide DLL search. Who's got you loaded?

FireBlogging - The View From My House

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 09:10:27 GMT

It's 1:09am on Thursday, December 2nd 2004, and here's the view from my bedroom window. The house next door is burning and we share a wooden fence. Pretty exciting stuff! Fortunately, I'm not too worried, I'm in a family of fire-fighters.

P.S. For those of you not in the U.S., most, if not all, residential housing (especially in the Suburban Western U.S.) is made of wood and quite flammable. My wife's still not used to this fact, and her family isn't impressed that our family fights fires. :)

Adobe PDF Reader slower than Molasses? Speed up Acrobat Reader 10x+

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 05:29:16 GMT

Here's a great little free util that Omar has found. I used to move the plugin's manually to speed things up, but PDF Speedup makes me NOT DREAD opening a PDF anymore. BTW, does Acrobat 6 suck LOTS more than Acrobat 5? I HATE the new Find Dialog.

I have previously written about how darn slow Adobe Acrobat 6 is when launching. I don't understand why Acrobat is so darn annoying. Here are some things I don't care for:

* Don't create a “My eBooks“ folder in My Documents when I have nothing to put there.
* Don't load 500 plugins when none of them are necessary to view a PDF
* Don't place shortcuts for some lame Internet Printing thingy in my Start Menu (I loathe Start Menu Advertising)
* Do install a PDF IFilter so that indexing products like Lookout can index PDFs w/o installing it seperatley
* Don't load PDFs in IE because it is god awful slow
* Don't make copy and paste so freaking hard
* Don't ask me to install other Adobe software when I boot Acrobat
* Don't create an updater (6.0.2) that creates an additional entry in my add/remove programs

If you want to fix most of these things, PDF SpeedUp is a free application that should come bundled with Acrobat. It's a must have piece of software to make Acrobat behave (as much as you can anyway). [shahine.com/omar/]

NUnit Unit Testing of ASP.NET Pages, Base Classes, Controls and other widgetry using Cassini (ASP.NET Web Matrix/Visual Studio Web Developer)

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:44:16 GMT

There's a lot of info out there on how to cobble together NUnit Unit Testing of ASP.NET Pages and assorted goo. NUnitASP is a nice class library to facilitate this kind of testing, but it doesn't solve a few problems:

Do you have/want a Web Server on your Test/Build machine?
How do you get your Test Pages and such over to the Web Server? Just automatically copy them?
Are your Test cases self-contained? That is, do they require external files and other stuff to be carried along with them?

I have a need to test a number of utility classes, base classes for System.Web.UI.Page and other miscellany and I'd like the tests to be entirely self contained and runnable only with NUnit as a requirement.

So, here's a small solution we use at Corillian. I use Cassini, the tiny ASP.NET Web Server that brokers HTTP Requests to System.Web.Hosting and the ASP.NET Page Renderer. You may know Cassini as the precursor to the Visual Developer Web Server from Visual Studio "Whidbey" 2005. Cassini usually comes with two parts, CassiniWebServer.exe and Cassini.dll. However, I don't want to launch a executables, so I'll just refer to Cassini.dll as that is the main engine.

      using Cassini;
   
          [TestFixture]
   
          public class WebTests
   
          {
   
              private Server
      webServer;
   
              private readonly int webServerPort
      = 8085;
   
              private readonly string webServerVDir
      = "/";
   
              private string tempPath
      = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory;
   
              private string tempBinPath
      = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory,"bin");
   
              private string webServerUrl; //built
      in Setup

Cassini is the 'private Server webServer' in the code above. I'm using a fairly random port, but you could certainly scan for an open port if you like. Note that I'm building a /bin folder, as Cassini's own ASP.NET Hostingn AppDomain will look for DLLs to load in /bin.

Cassini starts up another AppDomain, and that AppDomain then loads Cassini.dll AGAIN, except the new AppDomain has a different search path that includes /bin, so it won't find Cassini.dll in the current directory. Usually this problem is solved by putting Cassini.dll in the GAC, but I want this test to be self-contained, and since I'll need my other DLLs in /bin anyway...

      [TestFixtureSetUp]
   
      public void Setup()
   
      {
   
          //Extract the web.config
      and test cases (case sensitive!)
   
          ExtractResource("web.config",tempPath);
   
          ExtractResource("test1.aspx",tempPath);
   
          ExtractResource("test2.aspx",tempPath);
   
          //NOTE: Cassini is going
      to load itself AGAIN into another AppDomain,
   
          // and will be getting
      it's Assembliesfrom the BIN, including another copy of itself!
   
          // Therefore we need
      to do this step FIRST because I've removed Cassini from the GAC
   
          //Copy our assemblies
      down into the web server's BIN folder
   
          Directory.CreateDirectory(tempBinPath);
   
          foreach(string file in Directory.GetFiles(tempPath,"*.dll"))
   
          {
   
              string newFile
      = Path.Combine(tempBinPath,Path.GetFileName(file));
   
              if (File.Exists(newFile)){File.Delete(newFile);}
   
              File.Copy(file,newFile);
   
          }
   
          //Start the internal
      Web Server
   
          webServer = new Server(webServerPort,webServerVDir,tempPath);
   
          webServerUrl = String.Format("http://localhost:{0}{1}",webServerPort,webServerVDir);
   
          webServer.Start();
   
          //Let everyone know
   
          Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("Web Server started on port
      {0} with VDir {1} in physical directory {2}",webServerPort,webServerVDir,tempPath));
   
      }

A couple of important things to note here.

This method is marked [TestFixtureSetup] rather than [Setup] as we want it to run only once for this whole Assembly, not once per test.
We're copying all the DLLs in the current directory down to /bin for Cassini's use during the test, but we'll delete them in [TestFixtureTearDown] after Cassini's AppDomain.Unload.
We build webServerUrl and start Cassini (remember, it's the "webServer" variable).
At this point we are listing on http://localhost:8085/

Additionally, I've snuck a new method in, ExtractResource(). This takes the name of an Embedded Resource (one that is INSIDE our test assembly) and puts it into a directory. In this case, I'm using the current AppDomain's directory, but you could certainly use Path.GetTempPath() if you like.

      private StringCollection extractedFilesToCleanup
      = new StringCollection();
   
      private string ExtractResource(string filename, string directory)
   
      {
   
          Assembly a = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
   
          string filePath
      = null;
   
          string path
      = null;
   
          using(Stream
      stream = a.GetManifestResourceStream("Corillian.Voyager.Web.Test." + filename))
   
          {
   
              filePath = Path.Combine(directory,filename);
   
              path = filePath;
   
              using(StreamWriter
      outfile = File.CreateText(filePath))
   
              {
   
                  using (StreamReader
      infile = new StreamReader(stream))
   
                  {
   
      outfile.Write(infile.ReadToEnd());    
   
                  }
   
              }
   
          }
   
          extractedFilesToCleanup.Add(filePath);
   
          return filePath;
   
      }

The ExtractResource method takes a filename and directory (and could, if you like, take a namespace, although I've hardcoded mine) and pulls a file as a Stream of bytes that was embedded as a resource in our Assembly and puts it into a directory. Hence the name, ExtractResource(). There is a StringCollection called extractedFilesToCleanup that keeps track of all the files we'll want to delete at the end of these tests, in [TestFixtureTearDown].

At this point, I've got a web.config (which was important to my tests, and will be looked at by Cassini/System.Web.Hosting) and a test1.aspx and test2.aspx in my current directory. The Cassini Web Server is started up and listing on port 8085 for HttpRequests. I also turned Page Tracing on in the web.config which will allow me to make certain Assertions about what kinds of code were called by the Page and helper classes within the Cassini ASP.NET context.

I'll add a helper method to create HttpRequests and return the response as a string:

      private string GetPage(string page)
   
      {
   
          WebClient client = new WebClient();
   
          string url
      = new Uri(new Uri(webServerUrl),page).ToString();
   
          using (StreamReader
      reader = new StreamReader(client.OpenRead(url)))
   
          {
   
              string result
      = reader.ReadToEnd();
   
              return result;
   
          }
   
      }

Now I can write some tests! My tests need to test things like the overridden behavior of custom BasePages (derived from System.Web.UI.Page) as well as some helper functions that require (to be TRULY tested) an HttpContext. However, I don't want the hassle of a CodeBehind or a lot of other files, and certainly not the effort of a whole separate test project, so I'll make my ASPX pages self contained using <% @Assembly %> directives. So, for example:

      <%@ Assembly Name="Corillian.Voyager.Web.Common"
      %>
      
      <%@ Page Language="C#" Inherits="Corillian.Voyager.Web.Common.SharedBasePage" %>

      <script runat="server">

          public void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e )

          {

              Label1.Text = "Hello";

          }

      </script>

      <html>

        <body>

          <form runat="server">

              <p>

                  <asp:Label id="Label1"
      runat="server">Label

                  </asp:Label>

              </p>

          </form>

        </body>

      </html>

A test to determine if this page executed successfully might look like:

      [Test]
   
      public void BasicSmokeTestOfWebServer()
   
      {
   
          string result
      = GetPage("test1.aspx");
   
          Assert.IsTrue(result.IndexOf("Hello") != -1,"Basic smoke
      test of test1.aspx didn't find 'Hello' in response!");
   
      }

You could easily expand your tests to include NUnitASP, or continue to use WebClient with specific HttpHeaders like accept-language or user-agent. One of our QA guys uses NUnit to automate the IE WebServer Control, the manipulates the DHTML DOM to make Assertions.

Finally, my cleanup code is simple, deleting all the files we extracted as well as toasting the /bin folder.

      [TestFixtureTearDown]
   
      public void TearDown()
   
      {
   
          try
   
          {
   
              if (webServer
      != null)
   
              {
   
                  webServer.Stop();
   
                  webServer = null;
   
              }
   
              CleanupResources();
   
              Directory.Delete(tempBinPath,true);
   
          }
   
          catch{}
   
      }
   
      private void CleanupResources()
   
      {
   
          try
   
          {
   
              foreach(string file in extractedFilesToCleanup)
   
              {
   
                  File.Delete(file);
   
              }
   
          }
   
          catch (Exception
      ex)
   
          {
   
              Debug.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
   
          }
   
      }

Now the WebServer, Test Cases and Test are nicely self-contained and can be moved to the CruiseControl.NET Continuous Integration Build Server.

Enjoy. I did.

Opportunity: Windows is completely missing the TextMode boat...

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:11:46 GMT

With all this talk of shiny Avalon, I'm surprised that more people aren't mentioning "text-mode" applications. I assume we all realize that there are literally millions of Windows machines from 95 to XP that exist only to allow more than one Telnet/ProcommPlus/Terminal window at a time, so end-users can interact with remote systems.

Point of Sale is a huge example:

Blockbuster Video – I'd hate to have the video store guy have to reach for a mouse and click on a Gray Screen button OR a shiny Avalon Form.
Toyota Service – Searching for Parts, making service appoinments, it's considerably faster in text mode than any *.*Forms technology, and I've seen them open as many as 8 windows at a time.
Teller Banking Systems – Many banks are changing their TextMode systems over to intranets, and I personally waited 90 mins at a large bank last week to open a checking account, while I watch the teller move between three intranet ASP applications and two Word Macros, then attaching the Word files to an Outlook Email. This same process, in text mode, at First Technology Credit Union took 10 mins.

I'd like to see how far someone could take the new Colored Console support in Whidbey and make me a forms renderer.

I’m just saying that my Tab,Tab,Tab,Enter will beat your Click,Tab,Alt-F,O,Click,Double-Click, more often than not and I will take the Pepsi Challenge otherwise. :)

Am I nuts to think that Windows is missing the text-mode boat?

QuirksMode Bug Reports - CSS and JavaScript Weirdness Search Engine

Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:28:26 GMT

Here's a darned useful thing, the equivalent of a KB Serach for CSS and JavaScript bugs.

This is very useful: QuirksMode Bug Reports, "entirely dedicated to finding, mending, and publishing CSS and JavaScript browser bugs." You can search by browser or by keyword, or just go to that page to see the last seven reported bugs. [WebStandards]

TestDriven.NET 1.0 Launch - What are you waiting for?

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 20:34:51 GMT

It just kills me - literally tears me up inside - to watch people with both NUnitGui and Visual Studio.NET open who painfully switch back and forth, opening DLLs, attaching to processes, and generally cobbling together a sense of TDD.

Tell me you wouldn't rather right-click and say "Run Test" or "Test With...Debugger."

You may have used NUnitAddIn, which was a godsend. Today, Jamie and team launched T estDriven.NET 1.0 with full support for NUnit, csUnit, MbUnit AND Visual Studio Team System.

Naysayers may dismiss TestDriven.NET as a simple Add-In with modified right-click context menu, but there's much more than that. You run your tests in their own runner process, which gives you side-effect free testing. If you have different projects using different testing frameworks, their tests are all runnable with the same right-click/"Run Test" experience. You can right-click on a single method and debug it. I love it.

You can run tests with NUnitGui, sure, but the Visual Studio integration goes very deep. I even show this integration in sales meetings. When you hit Build, the output window's combobox says "Build", of course. When you "Run Test" you'll see "Build" then "Test" immediately. This is what folks were aiming for when continuous integration and TDD.

I literally don't know how I managed before TDD, and you'll have to pry this free tool from my cold, dead hands.

Thanks Jamie and Team, this is great stuff.

I particularly like the last question in the short registration/survey, and I wish more people would ask it!

How did you answer these questions? (it will *not* be held against you!)

I answered them honestly
Randomly to get to the download

Scott Hanselman's Holiday List

Mon, 29 Nov 2004 06:42:41 GMT

I'm beating the Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Festivus rush, and posting my wants-list now. :) This is also known as my stuff-I-may-buy-if-you-don't-give-it-to-me list.

Enjoy. In no particular order.

Games

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 - I'm loving the squad-based shooters
Prince of Persia 2 - I'm about 85% through the first one, and it's the best 3D platformer ever
Burnout 3 - Never heard of it, but the folks who play it won't shut up about it and it would be one more game to use my Xbox Wheel Controller
Nintendo DS - I think I'll wait until the frenzy dies down, but this seems too cool not to have. I'd probably get Mario, and Rayman. Might be time to start taking the bus to work...

Music and Books

Adrianna Evans - I dig the neo-soul
Meshell Ndegeocello - Smooth sounds
Davina - More music that somehow never hits the radio
Amel Larrieux - Come on, people, you at least remember Groove Theory?
Van Hunt - Heir to Marvin's throne...
Anything from this neo-soul list...although I have most of these...
Abraham : A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths - So I can give my borrowed copy back

Electronics

iPod 60gig Photo - My 15gig is totally full, and I'd love to move photos from my camera when on long trips. I hate thinking about storage
Airport Express - I wouldn't mind streaming some music to the downstairs stereo either
Altec-Lansing iPod Portable Speakers - My speakers at work are crap...
Actually, scratch that last one, I'd rather have a Tivoli iPal
Casio Exilim EXZ55 - Can't say enough nice things about the Exilim series
Panasonic SA-XR50 - One of the first truly digital receivers. There's no DAC!
The wife will never let me get this 37" LCD HD TV

Gadgets and Misc

Anything from http://www.despair.com/
Any Phidgets, but especially the Motion Sensor and Interface Kit 8/8/8 with Power Supply
A CFA634-TMC-KU so I can hook it up to iTunes

Today's Quote - "The Internet combines the excitement of typing with the reliability of anonymous hearsay."

Fri, 26 Nov 2004 01:31:39 GMT

"The Internet combines the excitement of typing with the reliability of anonymous hearsay."
-America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

Attention Bloggers: If you're not reading the Daily Grind, why not?

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:24:29 GMT

I am subscribed to 168 RSS feeds. I'm obviously creating work for myself, which may not be a good idea. Having only a 4k stack myself, I can't hold a lot of URLs in my head. Additionally, sometimes I just want to visit a website myself.

Here's the websites that I actually launch a browser for every morning (I have a macro in Slickrun called "morning" that does this):

http://www.cnn.com - World News
http://www.news.com - Tech News
http://www.theonion.com - Fake News
http://news.google.com - Aggregation of News
http://www.larkware.com - Programming Stuff and Useful Information that I should have found myself if I was paying attention, but I wasn't

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Setting the Title of the "DOS" Command Prompt from a Batch File

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 19:08:28 GMT

Just a small reminder for myself and others that you can set the title of the Command Prompt Window with the "TITLE" Batch Command.

Since I'm building three different branches of our SDK during dev, it's nice to differentiate all these windows on all these monitors.

For example here's "mybuild.bat"

TITLE Building VoyagerFramework 2.0
set BUILDDIR=C:\dev\VoyagerFramework\build
call BUILD.BAT %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

A Hanselman Review: Doom 3 vs. FarCry vs. Half-Life 2 vs. Halo 2

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 02:36:19 GMT

Believe it or not, I'm not a big gamer. By 'not a big gamer' I mean, I didn't take a week off work to play GTA: San Andreas as a co-worker did. By 'not a big gamer' I mean, I lost interest with Ninja Gaiden because it was too freaking hard. I've got about 2 hours patience with a game, but I stop when I start to hurt, be it hands, back or head.

That said, you'd think I was a gamer as in the last two months I've picked up Doom 3, FarCry, Half-Life 2, and Halo 2. These games, unquestionably, represent the pinnacle - thus far - of FPS-style gaming. The first three are PC while Halo 2 is on XBox. I'm playing the PC games on a P4-4Ghz with a gig of Ram and an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro.

There's been a million reviews of all these games from AnandTech-type reviews that tell you how much internal processor cache you must have to enjoy these games, to TomsHardware-type reviews that are meant to sell $500 video cards with heat sinks and fans of their own, to 12-year old blogger/reviewers who let you know about the latest mods and cheats so they can embarrass my 30-year old ass on multi-player maps. (You'll be happy to hear that I (and my ego) no longer need to defeat these infidels to feel secure. I just cry tiny tears and leave it at that.)

That said, I wanted to write up what I thought was important about these games, and what drives my opinion and buying decisions around gaming. These categories may be slightly different than the typical review. Or not.

Story

Game	My Thoughts
Doom 3	While Doom 3 tries harder than it's predecessors, there's little story to speak of. Some crazy stuff happens on Mars and you're a Mars Marine who has to single-handedly kill everyone. There are some interactions with other characters but it's largely as you stumble upon them doing something else, and you can't assist them. They are usually killed as you walk away. The "scripting" feels a little stilted to me. There are a few clever places where the camera backs out of your first-person view into a third person view when you "trigger" an event. Perhaps a monster is making in entrance. Then the camera pushes in to the back of your head and control returns to you to take care of business. It's fairly predictable as you can "feel" when it should happen.
FarCry	You'll notice a pattern here as "single-handedly" is pretty common in the FPS space. In FarCry, you're on vacation when your wife is kidnapped and you are unwittingly and unwillingly pulled into a terrorist plot to do some crazy stuff. You have to single-handedly kill everyone. Every once in a while, a benefactor in the form of a scientist on the project meets up with you to help out.
Half-Life 2	The original Half-Life set a whole new level for story quality and I believe Half-Life 2 is even more extraordinary. There is constant interaction with the NPCs and a real sense of total immersion that I honestly haven't felt since "Bard's Tale." There's many places where you find your self asking "what's the story here? There's something I'm not seeing or being told." That sense of curiosity continues to push you forward through the narrative. It's also worth noting that the realism in the faces and expressions of the characters is truly amazing and really underscores the uniqueness of people. Rather than dozens of carbon copy NPCs, each character is totally unique and could be recognized in a crowd later. "Oh! It's this guy again" happens a lot. Additionally since the "action button" doubles as the pick-stuff-up-and-optionally-throw-it button, there are a number of things you can do to interact with the environment. I'd say that Half-Life 2 has the most interactive world of any game I've played. You can blow up anything, stack objects, throw objects, flip over tables and hide behind them, toss TVs out windows, and break things with your crowbar. I was impressed with the attention to detail yesterday when I broke a window with the crowbar, expecting the whole window to break out, and instead, as it was safety glass, the window shatter, but stayed together, and I had to clear it out with additionally specifically-placed blows. This level of detail means that things in Half-Life 2 work as they should (as they do in the real world) so rather than learning the physics of the Half-Life world, you can use your knowledge of the real world in this artificial one. This increases the overall enjoyment of the game greatly.
Halo 2	Halo 2's single player story is even more compelling than the others as there are extensive movie-like cut scenes of some length that explain the context of the larger story. Additionally you will end up playing as more than one character later in the game which deepens your involvement and causes you to wonder who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, and gives the game less of an "us vs. them" narrative and more of a "us vs. them and them vs. three or four other folks."

Puzzles

Game	My Thoughts
Doom 3	Most of the puzzles in Doom 3 are pretty stock and fairly lame. Find this key from that guy's body. Open that door. Find this code from this guys personal log. Open that door. Only once (so far) is there a "move this barrel" puzzle and then it's just to throw them in the trash. Mostly it's just shoot folks. There's not a lot of platform jumping, just moving from door to door, ammo cache to ammo cache. The puzzle aspect of killing is limited. Mostly zombies lunge and beasts run at you. There's no puzzle-strategy on how to kill them - circle-strafe, rinse, repeat. Doom 3 has great object physics, but not nearly enough objects available to show it all. When you go to Hell later in the game, it's just red-red-red and there's even less to interact with.
FarCry	FarCry is also not big on puzzles. There are a number of doors to open and forts to blow up. This is a much more tactical game - the "puzzle" factor is more "how do I kill as many of them before they realize there's just one of me." Sound (your footsteps) and light (your shadow) play a big part as you try to take out entire enclaves with limited ammo. The FarCry enemy AI is also top-notch and the best of the four games. The enemies will call for help, run away, panic, berzerk, hide, sneak and more. This makes you feel like you're fighting another intelligence. The physics model is without par, but none of the puzzles use it. There are a number of single-player downloadable maps that are specifically designed to show off the physics by causing things like chain-reaction blowing up of barrels, but I wish that kind of stuff was in the game more.
Half-Life 2	The puzzles in Half-Life 2 are a freakin' blast. Most are physics-based which is great considering that I dig physics, and the physics engine within the game is fantastic. You'll find creative ways to raise water levels, set up ramps, remember that different objects have decidedly different weight, including your own body. There are gravity puzzles, water puzzles, 'how do I get up there' puzzles. Additionally you are, more often than not, presented with more than one way to solve the puzzle, but often only one solution is possible. Afterwards you'll find yourself saying, "oh, I can totally see where I took a wrong turn on that one."
Halo 2	Halo 2 is a little weak on puzzles. Again, it's more tactical. Some fights you can bow out of by letting the fighting factions beat themselves up. Each enemy has a weakness or weapon they are the most vulnerable to, so there's a lot of rock-paper-scissors choosing of weapons. Most puzzles involve killing something then finding a button to open a door or move an object. Since your own interaction with the world is the "action" button, and that button can only "do stuff," you can only perform actions that an object is scripted to know.

Vehicles

Game	My Thoughts
Doom 3	No vehicles in the shipped game. Lame. However, just days ago vehicle support was added to the Mod SDK which means total-conversion mods could utilize vehicles soon.
FarCry	The vehicles in FarCry are wide ranging, from a blow-up boat, to a hang-glider, to buggies and jeeps. There are number of times when you have to make smart use of a vehicle or its weaponry to solve a task. FarCry and Halo 2 are just about equal when it comes to coolness of vehicles, but Halo 2 gets the nod for including "jacking" of vehicles.
Half-Life 2	The "water hazard" sequence in Half-Life 2 is bar-none the most extraordinary experience I've ever had playing a single player FPS. It alone makes the game worth the price. Half-Life's vehicle use is great, and the immense size of the vehicles and beasts that the enemy uses is also awe-inspiring, especially the Striders.
Halo 2	Halo 2 improves on Halo's use of vehicles which was already outstanding. Halo 2 adds the ability to "jack" a vehicle. With good timing you can jump onto an enemy vehicle and yank the driver out, throwing them from the cockpit. You then take over driving and, well, kill them all. There are also some immense non-drivable vehicles that you have to jump on top off from a bridge and destroy from the inside. Also, the vehicle sizes far greatly from tanks to small "ghosts" which dramatically changes the feel of the game during these sequences. The tank sequences are especially powerful and satisfying.

Graphics

Game	My Thoughts
Doom 3	Touted as the graphics to end all graphics, Doom 3 is pretty snazzy. However, it's dark. Frankly I found myself thinking "are the graphics really all that good or are they justing being smart with shadows." The objects are gorgeous, as are the player models, and the use of light (what light there is) is a amazing. Everything casts a realistic shadow and the reflections and use of glass is amazing. It's just so damn dark. Additionally, the graphics are repetitive. When you've see one lonely Mars base level you've seen them all. OK, I get it. Doesn't the Sun come out on Mars? FYI: I play Doom 3 at 1280x1024x32 with 2x Anti-AliASINg. [Example Image]
FarCry	I play FarCry at 1600x1200x32 with no Anti-AliASINg and it's amazing. The FarCry environment is largely outside on a tropical island. The organic aspect of the island is well represented with their graphics engine, with the grass and trees standing out particularly well. The use of wind and sound along with swaying grass and foliage is strong in the jungle scenes. However, when you start your way into the caves and start fighting monsters, it gets too dark and too much like Doom 3. Frankly, I played FarCry religiously for days until I got to the dark monster stuff, and just got disinterested. I'd go back and play the game from the start up through, and until, the monster levels. Make sure your resolution is as high as your card will support, it's worth losing a few frames a second to get a glimpse at the incredibly long draw-depth. FarCry boasts a draw-depth (the distances at which objects in the environment aren't rendered anymore) as much as a full kilometer. The levels in FarCry are MASSIVE - as much as 4 kilometers square. The engine really shines when you are at the top of the island with a sniper rifle. The binoculars are a thrill to use to spy on the enemy at long distances. [Example Image]
Half-Life 2	Half-Life 2 blew me away. As much as Doom 3 floored me, Half-Life 2 crushed Doom 3. Argue polygons and detail and lighting and whatever all you want, but when Half-Life 2 renders an entire living city-scape with clotheslines and giant propaganda-filled TV overloading city squares, and waterways filled with floating plastic bottles (that you can interact with) the 10x10 corridors and mazes that Doom 3 has me running around in just can't compete. Additionally the face and character modeling is without par. Half-Life 2 has restored my faith in PC gaming. [Example Image]
Halo 2	The Halo graphics engine has been completely re-written between Halo 1 and Halo 2. It appears to be a progressive rendering image that drops textures and polygon count when frame rate might suffer. For example, when a level loads, it loads immediately, but you can see far-away textures load last and cover over low-res images and low polygon count buildings. You can still move around during these times, and it rarely lasts more than second, but I thought it was of note. Additionally as you move away from, say a dead body on the ground that is not longer of interest, there is a "popout" (my word) effect as the game dramatically and quickly lowers the polygon count (or swaps the model) for that entity, presumably to open up processing power for more important objects. I personally find this effect distracting and obvious, but no one else I've mentioned it to seems to care. During a slow moment, look at any object and walk slowly towards it and then away from it as far as you can. You'll be able to count at least THREE, possibly FOUR separate models or "steps" that the object will go through. Again, I'm assuming that since the XBox is nearly three-year-old technology running an NVidia nForce derived card that this software technique opened up processing headroom for normal mapping. To be clear, the graphics in Halo 2 are the greatest graphics I've ever seen from a console, and certainly make standard TV shine. (Halo 2 also shines at 480p on a HDTV but 480 horizontal lines is the max, and equivalent to 640x480 or 720x480 resolution) However, it can't compete with a 19" LCD at 1600x1200 running Half-Life 2. [Example Image]

Level Design

Multiplayer

Game	My Thoughts
Doom 3	I found the level design in Doom 3 to be fairly pedestrian. I mean pedestrian in both meanings. It's combines the excitement (not) of overly-symmetrical design with the thrill (not) of constantly being on-foot, not to mention having to back-track to retrieve keys and widgets you may have missed. The levels tend to be named Alpha Lab 1, which isn't a bad name until you've been playing for hours and the next level is Alpha Lab 7. OK, I get it. Can I get to the freakin' Beta lab? Ah, steel walls with no lights. We've made it to Mars, but didn't bring backup batteries? Flares? A friggin' glowstick? But, I digress. Every once in a while you get to leave the lab for the Martian landscape, but you consistently don't bring an air pack or helmet so you only get to enjoy the scenery for 20 seconds before your brain explodes. You have to run as fast as you can to the other airlock. Again, we knew we were coming to Mars. Perhaps a breezeway would have been a nice architectural touch? Just a though.
FarCry	Levels in FarCry are many and varied. The game is huge, and while most of it happens on a remote tropical island, the design makes good use of caves, mountain trails, forts, underwater and boat approaches, as well as the best level that includes a giant abandoned tanker (I thought this level was reminiscent of The Goonies. Go figure.) culminating in a huge fire-fight on the top that includes helicopters and guys on turrets. And me with a single Uzi. That was a tough one. As you move deeper there are levels in underground caves, high in the trees (ala Ewok village) and reinforced concrete forts. If it wasn't for those darn monsters, I would have loved it all the way through. I just don't feel the need to put genetically-modified mutant creatures in every single game.
Half-Life 2	That said, Half-Life 2 is all about mutant creatures (from another dimension?) but the Level Design is perfect. You have to think though, when moving around these levels. While the gameplay is pretty linear, there are many back roads and alleys that should be explored, not only get to useful plot points, but to avoid running out of health. There's little backtracking, but when there is, you'll often find different things and people when you return to a previous location. I got nailed a couple of times assuming that I'd cleared an area, when of course, in a realistic simulation, the cops would come to check out the commotion and might be waiting for my return. There is an uncomfortable break in the action as you move from level to level. It presents itself as a mandatory pause with a -loading- sign. After 20 seconds the game continues. I wish they'd have been loading these levels in a background thread as Halo 2 does. Otherwise, Half-Life 2 is the closest thing I've experienced to total immersion in a game. You are truly "playing a movie." I feel that the total lack of cut-scenes increases this sense of immersion. Instead the scripted encounters take the place of cut-scenes and you always have control over your character's movement.> >
Halo 2	Halo 2 level design is, as usual, stunning. It's a little two symmetrical and repetitive, IMHO, when you encounter the Covenant and enter their domain. However, the early city levels are massive. Another important note about levels - in Halo 2 there isn't the sense of a distinct "level," as there are "scenes." There is no loading pause to speak of as you move from location to location. You'd think at this level of the development of games as a media, the publishers would realize that we don't like waiting for levels to load. If you know the game is linear, then you know what the next level is. For Pete's sake, preload it as I'm moving towards it! It's not like I'm moving towards another level. Halo 2 takes this Common Sense to heart and gives you a completely seamless experience.

Game	My Thoughts
Doom 3	Doom 3 only supports up to 4 players at a time to play multiplayer. In my mind, this is hardly multiplayer. If I want to play an FPS with strangers, I'd rather it be a free-for-all 16 player war than just 3 other schleps. There are hacks and mods to allow for more players, but this was a surprising message for ID to be sending the public about their flagship product. Doom 3 is clearly meant to be a single player game.
FarCry	FarCry has a very active multiplayer map community and there are literally scores of maps available. The interface is slightly less friendly than Counter-Strike, and certainly not as flexible as Halo 2, but still a strong multi-player contender, and the winner for massively-sized maps.
Half-Life 2	Half-Life 2 is officially a single player game. It does ship with multiplayer maps, but as has been the tradition since Counter-Strike (a total conversion Half-Life 1 mod), the engine is meant to be reused for multiplayer. That said, when you buy Half-Life 2 via Steam, you get the full version of Counter-Strike: Source, which is newer port of the anti-terrorist classic Counter-Strike using the new "Source" Graphics Engine used in Half-Life 2. This game is a blast and includes lots of maps, weapons and VoIP trash talking.
Halo 2	Halo 2 along with XBox Live redefines ease-of-use with its multiplayer. There are Parties, Clans, Rumbles, Giant Fights, Little Fights and in-between. You can use any of their dozen included game variants with complete control over allowed weapons, rules, etc. You can also create named-variants of your own games. Every single game played is stored and can be accessed via Bungie.Net or RSS Feeds. Additionally, everyone who has XBox Live has an XBox Communicator Microphone and broadband (required) so the sense of multi-player community is heightened by both proximity-based communication (whoever is nearby can hear you) and push-to-talk walkie-talkie communication (press a button and talk through your helmet to your team). The XBox has really improved multiplayer gaming with the inclusion of microphones in a way that is possible, but still a hassle, on the PC.

Patch-ability/Maintain-ability

Game	My Thoughts
Doom 3	There's an Update button within Doom 3, but it didn't tell me I needed to update even though an update was clearly available not sure what's up with that. Additionally, when I did update, the new update wouldn't allow me to use my own save games from where they were saved. Instead I had to start that level over from the beginning. I'm sure there was a technical reason why this had to happen, but it was LAME.
FarCry	FarCry has had some patching troubles with an abortive attempt at a Patch version 1.2 that was yanked the following day (not after I and many others installed it.) Version 1.3 took months to be released. There's no patch notification service so I have to poll for patches, and they are installed via InstallShield. Fairly typical, certainly not revolutionary, and one of the lame things about PC gaming. I also had to start a level over due to file version incompatibilities.
Half-Life 2	Half-Life 2 uses a unique game-delivery system called Steam. I payed $70 and received not only Half-Life 2, but also the original Half-Life, Counter Strike:Source, and 10 additional games like Day Of Defeat and Team Fortress. All delivered over Steam. I can even play them on my laptop just by installing Steam and logging in. All the patches are automatically installed on startup. Some folks complain that you have to be online to get your purchase authenticated, but that hasn't been a problem for me, and I was totally impressed as the multi-gigabyte Half-Life 2 purchase was slowly pre-loaded onto my machine weeks before the game was released. The entire purchase and experience was online. No box, no problems. I was throughly impressed with the process. Steam also checks the version of your Video Card Driver and points you to the correct download page to get the latest version. Why doesn't Windows Update open their API to do that for the OEMs?
Halo 2	Surprisingly patching XBox Live is not a seamless as Half-Life 2/Steam. With Steam, you don't have to do a single thing. With the XBox you are informed there is a required updated and have to press one button. Considering that I don't have a choice, why not just install it silently? That said, every update experience (what few there are) I've had with the Xbox has been butter. You just hit "A" and get on with it. One of the nice things about Console Gaming, but as has been proven with Steam, a good experience is equally possible with the PC.

Conclusion

Hanselman Rank	Game	My Thoughts
1	Half-Life 2	Great graphics, great puzzles, great story, great feel, great experience. Steam rocks with auto-updates and patching. My favorite and the ultimate FPS PC game so far.
2	Halo 2	Unparalleled totally seamless multiplayer with up to 16 folks trash talking simultaneously, a dozen variations, best graphics on a console, no patching, no worries, downloadable levels and unbelievable statistical database.
3	FarCry	If you want to fight on a tropical island with hundreds of terrorists, this is a winner. Also has easy multiplayer with massive maps and dozens more to download. Also the total-conversion mod community is large and we will likely see the next big mod come from this group for this game.
4	Doom 3	Only 4 players in multiplayer? Oy. Too dark, too scary, a real disappointment. Amazing sound, truly, but otherwise I just don't have the patience or stomach for the repetition.