Pic 2 ASCII converter

Some sort of Pic 2 ASCII converter. The web site is German.

error X2230: the type is in assembly that needs to be referenced

Sowftare: .Net

error X2230: the type '' is in assembly '' that needs to be referenced

This error is seemingly caused by the fact than one of referenced assemblies was built against another assembly with version different from the one available on the machine in compilation time.

Distinguished fields vs. Property fields

Software: BizTalk

Distinguished fields are to be used in:
- Expression shapes in orchs

Property fields are to be used in:
- Correlation sets

... to be appended.

BizTalk mapper: How to assign a constant value to a field

Finding answer to this fairly simple question proved to be not so simple task. But the answer itself is quite obvious. Click on the field, in Properties sheet find item called Value and assign your constant value there. For some reason, I couldn't see the Value item right away. Probably because in the mapper 99% of items in a field's property sheet are read-only (they are writable when you edit the schema, not the map), and I didn't expect to find a writable item in the middle of the item list.

HTML Validator

http://validator.w3.org/

Универсальный декодер кириллицы

http://www.2cyr.com/decode/

Самый простой способ бороться с баннерами

Искал сегодня хорошую бесплатную баннерорезку для IE и наткнулся на описание довольно эффективного и гениально простого способа бороться с баннерами, не требующего вообще никакого софта кроме самих Виндов. Адреса баннеров надо заносить... в файл hosts. :) Вот так:

127.0.0.1 ad3.rambler.ru
127.0.0.1 ad.adriver.ru
127.0.0.1 b.traf.spb.ru
127.0.0.1 dav.pdg.ru
127.0.0.1 ad.ajur.info
127.0.0.1 ad.realweb.ru
127.0.0.1 ad.adriver.ru

Прочитано здесь: http://www.hotdoc.ru/?P=3&T=5&D=37

How to set file permissions in Windows XP Professional

How to set file permissions in Windows XP Professional? It should be done the same way as on, say, Windows Server 2003, that is by right-clicking file or folder, selecting Properties in context menu and switching to Security tab. The problem is though that you might not see Security tab. Here is what to do about it:

1.Hard drive where the file is located should be NTFS. Only NTFS-formatted drives support setting file permissions, because it is NTFS-inherent feature.

2.Disable "Simplified sharing". Open any folder. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, switch to View tab. In the Advanced Settings section, uncheck "Use simple file sharing (Recommended)".

What's in strong name?..

Software: .Net Framework

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wd40t7ad.aspx

You can ensure that a name is globally unique by signing an assembly with a strong name. In particular, strong names satisfy the following requirements:

• Strong names guarantee name uniqueness by relying on unique key pairs. No one can generate the same assembly name that you can, because an assembly generated with one private key has a different name than an assembly generated with another private key.



• Strong names protect the version lineage of an assembly. A strong name can ensure that no one can produce a subsequent version of your assembly. Users can be sure that a version of the assembly they are loading comes from the same publisher that created the version the application was built with.



• Strong names provide a strong integrity check. Passing the .NET Framework security checks guarantees that the contents of the assembly have not been changed since it was built. Note, however, that strong names in and of themselves do not imply a level of trust like that provided, for example, by a digital signature and supporting certificate.

How to disable task list in Visual Studio

Software: Visual Studio 2005

Found in the vast expanses of Google:

Go to: 
    Tools/Options... 
        Projects and Solutions

There is a check-box which says "Always show Error List if build finishes with errors". Uncheck that box and you should be good to go.

How to use lock()

Software: .Net, C#

If you have to synchronize execution of a piece of your code, and framework executing your code can be creating several instances of the class that contains your code, then this will not work:

lock(this)

It will not work because it only synchronizes threads executing on the same instance of the class. Threads executing on different instances will continue to run simultaneously creating you all kinds of problems. To avoid this behaviour use lock on a static member of the class:

class MyClass
{
  private static object lockObject = new object();

  ...

  public void foo()
  {
    lock(lockObject)
    {
    }
  }
}

This will ensure all threads executing you code are synchronized, regardless of how many instances of your class framework creates, because static class members are shared by all instances of that class.

I faced this problem while writing code for a custom FILE adapter for a BizTalk project. At that time I used lock(this). Stress testing on large amount of data revealed symptoms usual for situations when threads interrupt each other. At the same time, testing on small amounts of data did not show these issues.

Investigation revealed the cause: BizTalk engine was creating multiple threads running on multiple instances of the class used in the FILE adapter when amount of data being processed was large enough. When small amount of data was used, BizTalk only created one instance. I am curious as to why BizTalk creates several instances of the class even with multiple threads. Why not run all threads on the same instance? But may be I lack some knowledge of multi-threading here.