MSKB 317540 article Global Assembly Cache (GAC) APIs Are Not Documented in the .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) Documentation came in handy when I recently experienced writing a deployment script to GAC an assembly. While MS Windows Installer should have been the most natural choice, I wrote a C# APP to spawn gacutil with System.Diagnostic’s Process class and used System.IO for file copying and folder creation. This App determined .NET framework path at run-time to invoke gacutil.exe and it worked like a charm on my machine; however, it failed during platform-test since gacutil isn’t distributed with runtime.

With some experience, it turned out that this approach to GAC isn’t smartest choice when it comes to network deployment; (C# version of this KB article is here: Install an Assembly into the Global Assembly Cache in Visual C# .NET). Windows Application deployment wizard turned out to be the most feasible solution but exploring how mono or DotGNU may implement gacutil will be a good learning experience.

Couple of good reads: Using a Custom Action to Pre-Compile an Assembly During Installation,

Frequently Asked Questions About Windows Installer

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I learn.-

-Confucius

Steve, Editor of 15seconds.com started blogging on weblogs.asp.net . Tech Writing - What Is It Good For? is an interesting read for those interested in tech writing.

hmm...wondering if last sentence is an oxymoron?

A December 2003 MSDN Article on ASP.NET and Struts: Web Application Architectures was discussed exhaustively on various technical forums including theserverside.com; it’s an interesting reading to understand the how comparative analysis of architectures unfold.

There is another framework comparative studies project Wafer (Web Application Framework Research project) as defined on their website.

"Wafer is a research project which compares the many open source web application frameworks which are available using a common example application. This research project is designed to compare the application frameworks on a level field by specifying an example application so that the application features become irrelevent and the merits of each framework becomes the focus"

Just read ASP.NET Overtakes JSP and Java Servlets; a bit hostile but we are catching up!
 

MSDN has a section on migration which provides various knowledgeable articles collectively. But I reserve rights not to agree with this particular case study of JLCA because my experience with conversion of Bayesian corpus classification library wasn’t very pleasant.

Couple of good articles I was going through lately.

• Generalized Callbacks: C++ and C# - Dr. Dobb's Journal March 2003
• Build intelligent Web applications through conditional probability
• Apply probability models to Web data using PHP
• Spam filtering techniques
• What UML Is and Isn't Craig Larman, Java Pro March/April 2004
• Adventures in Palindromes Putting backtracking strategies to work William R. Mahoney, Ph.D.
  Dr. Dobb's Journal April 2004
• Web Services & Relational Databases Alexander Vaschillo Dr. Dobb's Journal April 2004
• Time-lapse mpeg animations
  Generating time-lapse animations starts with acquiring and storing images, then combining them in a single file.
  by Stephen B. Jenkin Dr. Dobb's Journal April 2004
• Building a Custom Rule Engine With Prolog
  Rule-based and logic-based tools for encoding logical knowledge Dennis Merritt Dr. Dobb's Journal March 2004  

I was having a weird problem in windows XP as defined here. I suppose it’s a major file system parse point error which should be fixed WinXP SP2 whose RC1 was made available yesterday.

Adnan Masood just returned from DevDays 2004 in Los Angeles. Here he provides some thoughts and insights into the Web application security-focused conference.

www.15seconds.com

Direct link to Article
http://www.15seconds.com/Issue/040318.htm

Yesterday at DevDays2004, I read this quote on an adidas billboard in front of LA convention center. It's really inspiring;

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it.

Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion.
Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare.
Impossible is potential.
Impossible is temporary.
Impossible is nothing. 

Microsoft EMEA Architects Journal January 2004 Issue is out. PDF could be downloaded from here. This journal comprises of the following writings.

• Enterprise Arhictecture Design and the Integrated Architecture Framework
  Andrew Macaulay, CGEY 
• Understanding Service Oriented Architecture
  David Sprott and Lawrence Wilkes, CBDI Forum 
• Business Process Decomposition and Service Identification using Communication Patterns
  Gerke Geurts and Adrie Geelhoed, LogicaCMG  
• Metadata-driven Application Design and Development
  Kevin S. Perera, Temenos 
• Best Practices for Rule-Based Application Development
  Dennis Merritt, Amzi! Inc. 
• DasBlog: Notes from Building a Distributed .NET Collaboration System
  Clemens Vasters, newtelligence AG
  
  And an good basic intro about Basics of Bayesian Inference and Belief Networks at Microsoft Research.

My new article is published on 15seconds.com

Mar 10, 2004 - Intellectual Property Protection and Code Obfuscation
Learn about the execution process of CLR-based programs and how to protect your applications from being easily disassembled back into source code.

Its broken down into five parts.

For an archieve of my writings, visit http://www.15seconds.com/Issue/wa.htm#masood

Does nature abhor a quantum computer?

That's what Michael Freedman, a senior researcher in Microsoft Research, is trying to find out. It's his job to figure out how to build a physical quantum computer, and the challenge is not easy.

http://research.microsoft.com/displayArticle.aspx?id=297

Keith Delvin in "The Millennium Problems: The Seven Greatest Unsolved Mathematical Puzzles of Our Time" ASIN 0465017290 which was recently reviewed by Guardian describes the following as seven greatest mathematical puzzles.

1. Riemann Hypothesis
   http://match.stanford.edu/rh/
   
2. Yang-Mills theory of Mass Gap Hypothesis
   http://ccollege.hccs.cc.tx.us:16080/instru/Math/faculty/sever/2413%20Summer2003/21thCenturyMathProblems.doc
   
3. P VS NP Problems
   http://www.claymath.org/millennium/P_vs_NP/
   
4. Navier-Stokes equations
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navier-Stokes_equations
    
5. The Poincare Conjecture
   http://www.math.unl.edu/~mbritten/ldt/poincare.html
    
6. Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture
   http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Birch-Swinnerton-DyerConjecture.html
    
7. Hodge Conjecture
   http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HodgeConjecture.html

I googled and saved links for later reading; Not in a position to say of they are seven greatest of all times but they pretty much look like it.

The trend of events websites is thriving; Microsoft's Dev Days 2004 is the simillar effort concentrating on community process and resource listing making it a one stop shop. Local News, USer groups in the area, presentation slides, Developer Centers, Content Catalogue and special offer listings are some of the features of this website.

I'm attending Smart Client Track at DevDays 2004 on 15th March 2004 in Los Angeles, CA. As said on website "With a focus on building secure smart client and Web applications using Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET, this event will help you add power and security to your applications the moment you walk out the do"

Looking forward to get bags full of goodies!