Let's say I had a program in C# that did something computationally expensive, like encoding a list of WAV files into MP3's. Ordinarily I would encode the files one at a time, but let's say I wanted the program to figure out how many CPU cores I had and spin up an encoding thread on each core. So, when I run the program on a quad core CPU...
I am sketching the architecture for a set of programs that share various interrelated objects stored in a database. I want one of the programs to act as a service which provides a higher level interface for operations on these objects, and the other programs to access the objects through that service. I am currently aiming for Python an...
Is there an easy way to discover a File's creation time with Java? The File class only has a method to get the "last modified" time. According to some resources I found on Google, the File class doesn't provide a getCreationTime() method because not all file systems support the idea of a creation time. The only working solution I foun...
How do you set the Windows time zone on the local machine programmatically in C#? Using an interactive tool is not an option because the remote units have no user interface or users. The remote machine is running .NET 2.0 and Windows XP Embedded and a local app that communicates with a central server (via web service) for automated dir...
I've found a few (unfortunately, they are bookmarked at home and I'm at work, so no links), but I was wondering if anyone had any opinions about any of them (love it, hate it, whatever) so I could make a good decision. I think I'm going to use Cygwin for my Unix commands on Windows, but I'm not sure how well that's going to work, so I wo...
I'd like to add dvd burning functionality to my .Net app (running on Windows Server 2003), are there any good components available? I've used the NeroCOM sdk that used to come with Nero but they no longer support the sdk in the latest versions of Nero. I learned that Microsoft has created an IMAPI2 upgrade for Windows XP/2003 and there...
The leaving your wireless network open question reminded me of this. I typically share the root drive on my machines across my network, and tie login authorization to the machines NT ID, so there is at least some form of protection. My question, how easy is it to gain access to these drives for ill good? Is the authorization enough, or...
I would like to extend some existing applications' drag and drop behavior, and I'm wondering if there is any way to hack on drag and drop support or changes to drag and drop behavior by monitoring the app's message loop and injecting my own messages. It would also work to monitor for when a paste operation is executed, basically to crea...
Obviously, that's 64-bit windows. Also, what's the maximum amount of memory a single 64-bit process can use? I was kind of counting on using it all... (Yes, I know what I'm doing, please don't tell me that if I need that much RAM i must be doing something wrong) Also, is this the same for a .Net 2.0 process? Or is there a lower limit ...
For a long time I've been looking for a good diagramming/vector-based drawing program that meets my needs as a developer. I'd like to: Draw database diagrams Draw flow charts Draw object-modeling diagrams (UML being the standard) Draw other free-form diagrams (basically boxes & arrows with the occasional clipart) Draw mockups of user i...
Given the key for some registry value (e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\blah\blah\blah\foo) how can I: Safely determine that such a key exists. Programmatically (i.e. with code) get its value. I have absolutely no intention of writing anything back to the registry (for the duration of my career if I can help it). So we can skip the lecture ab...
What are the best alternatives to Notepad? I would like to get syntax highlighting support for major languages. Other desired properties are: Simple to use Light weight ...
In another question I posted yesterday, I got very good advice on how a Python script could be run as a service in Windows. What I'm left wondering is: How is Windows aware of the services that can be managed in the native tools ("services" window in "administrative tools"). I. e. what is the Windows equivalent of putting a start/stop sc...
Is there a tool out there that can interact with a SQLite database in a similar way that TOAD works with Oracle or Management Studio works with SQL Server? I'm looking for something that visually shows table structures, views, etc. Looking to target the Windows platform (preferably Win 7). Thanks! ...
What graphics toolkit is used for the Window's Google Talk application? ...
The one that comes with Windows XP is not that great. The text field is small, everything's on one line, and it's hard to edit. Does something better exist? If not, where should I start to make one? ...
I'm looking to run Redmine, a Ruby on Rails app, on a vps windows box. The only thing I can really think of is running a virtual linux machine and hosting it from there. If that is my only option, am I going to run into problems running a virtual machine inside of a virtual machine? Also, this will be an internal app, so performance i...
Where is the best tutorial for getting RoR working on a windows box with Mongrel? I'm a complete novice at server management, so the more detailed the better! ...
I currently have speakers set up both in my office and in my living room, connected to my PC via two sound cards, and would like to switch the set of speakers I'm outputting to on the fly. Anyone know an application or a windows API call that I can use to change the default sound output device? It is currently a bit of a pain to travers...
I would like to create events for certain resources that are used across various processes and access these events by name. The problem seems to be that the names of the events must be known to all applications referring to them. Is there maybe a way to get a list of names events in the system? I am aware that I might use some standard...