.Net GUI thread crossing
"Cross-thread operation not valid" explained from the ground up: what the GUI thread actually does, why only it may touch your controls, and how to cross over correctly in WinForms and WPF.
The journal
Notes from the workbench.
149 articles on building software and understanding how it works.
Disable Windows 7 Sound Card Jack Sensing
Windows kept detecting my X-Fi's plugs in and out at random, so the speakers did too. The fix is a registry key: EnableDynamicDevices = 0. Took me days to find, hope it saves you the trouble.
Early alpha release: Kinect C# Starter Kit
A starter platform for Kinect hacking in C#: MVVM-bound module engine, sample modules doing silly image processing, easy to extend with your own. Buy a Kinect, install drivers, open this project and start playing.
Kinect
Bought a Kinect, hooked it up to the PC, fought the drivers for a couple of hours — and then got raw image data access working in C#. Sample code for fast access to the Kinect's byte stream.
Merging multiple Visual Studio Solution (.sln) files into one (Outdated)
88 projects across 22 solutions needed to become one solution, and Visual Studio crashed trying. So I brushed off my black belt in Perl regex and wrote a script that merges .sln files automatically.
Ah! THERE’s your problem!
Ah! THERE's your problem! A screenshot that speaks for itself.
Compression algorithm
Every now and then I get a bright idea for a compression algorithm. This one took 3.5 hours to compress the 5 characters "Tedd!" into 7 characters, after 143 billion iterations. Not every bright idea survives contact with math.
Enabling Windows Firewall on Windows 2003 Active Directory Domain Controller
Active Directory lets NTDS, NTFrs and NetLogon pick random ports, which makes firewalling a domain controller a pain. Here is how to pin them to fixed ports and finally enable the firewall.
C# Image Analysis (“auto-gaming”) – with source
Playing Age of Conan wasn't enough tinkering, so I wrote an app that screenshots the game window, analyzes the pixels and reacts — totally useless, great fun, and a nice excuse to play with image analysis in C#. Source included.
Tip: Upgrading VS2008 projects to VS2010
The VS2010 conversion wizard is defect: it tries to rewrite your code when only the solution and project files actually need changing. Convert, then keep only the new .sln and .csproj — step-by-step guide inside.
Setting up Debian with Varnish as internet proxy
Varnish claims to be "10 times faster than squid" but isn't built to be a general internet proxy — so I chained it with Squid on a Debian box for my cable modem. The full setup, step by step.
WPF MVVM IRC Client progress
Sweet — status window and channels opening through pure binding to the ViewModel.
WPF MVVM Thread annoyance
I hoped WPF had left WinForms' GUI-thread invoking behind. Then BindingList and DependencyProperty both demanded GUI thread invocation from my ViewModel — which isn't supposed to know the GUI exists. ARGH.
Refactoring IRC client with MVVM and “MDI”
First working window after the MVVM refactoring — including a homemade MDI window, since WPF doesn't have one.
MVVM (and my IRC client)
A personal rant on whether to use MVVM, written while heavily refactoring my IRC client. Comparing MVVM with my current module architecture — clearly MVVM is not optimal, but there might be parts worth borrowing.