2² C# 4.0 and .NET 4 Selected Features
These are the slides for the short version of my talk 2² C# 4.0 and .NET 4 Selected Features, presentation time for those is approx. 30 minutes. A slide set which goes into more detail for the DLR and .NET dynamic features is geared for 90 minutes incl. live code demos. It's available upon request.
Most slides in the original Office 2010 PowerPoint file are animated in order to not overwhelm the audience with slides bursting with text and information. The embedded Scribd version is based on Office 2010s PDF export. It is missing the animations and intended for print & screen reading purposes.
As always, your feedback is appreciated in the comments or via email to mustafa ÄT codesurgeon DÖT com
codesurgeon blog
Monday, July 05, 2010
Slides for Talk on Selected Features of C# 4.0 and the .NET 4 Framework
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Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The iPad ... it tastes just like chicken!
... yet it seems to make men, predominantly aged between their quarter- and midlife crises, to roll on the floor, snarling and biting.
Being an all-around geek, former co-host of Germany's most popular Mac-centric podcast, founder & co-producer of the biggest indie video gaming show north of the Alps and software engineer, I have been closely following the birth of Apple's latest aluminum, electronics and glass sandwich pancake. After all, the prospect of a "usable" tablet computing platform, bearing interesting challenges and new opportunities for a range of applications, tingles more than a single sense in the geek mind.
I have been excited about the concept ever since Bill Gates couldn't stop talking about it around the turn of the millenium. Unfortunately - as with phones afterwards - Microsoft's implementation of the idea left much to be desired. The Redmond behemoth, employing an army of bright and talented engineers, stuck too close to its Windows OS UI paradigm.

It wasn't until 2007 and Apple's initial iPhone release that a touch user interface successfully premiered in my and tens of millions of other personal computing universes and secured itself a place to stay. As we've all experienced by now, Apple's execution of the idea was close to flawless and their success well deserved. On the other hand, right now it seems they've been drinking a little too-much of their own kool-aid and seem a little lost in hubris - making themselves believe they've invented mechanisms (multitouch UI, OO graphics subsystem ... WTF?) which they have not.
Let's all hope that Microsoft ups their game, Android gains more traction, handset makers rise up to the challenge and the closed nature of Apple's platform leads straight into a wall sooner rather than later ... for the sake of us all, especially Apple's; for we all know that once Steve Jobs leaves the mothership, it will force the company to crash-land and need all the karma-cushion it can build up until then.
Yes, I am aware of the thousands of people working for Apple - among them bright devs - usually kept out of the limelight ... well, actually any light at all aside from their release into the safe confines of WWDC once a year. By the way, being a developer, to me this is probably the single most disturbing aspect of Apple's corporate culture, absolutely contrary to e.g. Google and Microsoft and any vibrant tech company in its right mind.
Over more than three decades, Jobs has proven to pick the right people and projects and be absolutely uncompromising (interestingly enough, even self-destructive) when he's set his mind on something.
Imagine an executive meeting at Apple today. Steve is presented with an idea, feature or prototype that he doesn't like. That pretty much settles the project's fate. Forever. Who is going to override his decision? Who is going to argue with the man who can rub you in the face that he's been there from the beginning of personal computing as we know it. Who is going to go rogue with a project inside Apple as he himself did with the Mac in the eighties? The man who financed George Lucas' former wandering hippie circus of CG-genius PhDs long enough for them to churn out the world's first fully computer-animated feature film? The list goes on and no matter what picture the various Jobs' biographies and personal stories we've all read and heard draw of him, he has obviously gotten some things right.
Now imagine the same meeting post-Steve ...
Apple *is* one auteur's will manifest in corporate form. If creative dictatorship is the company's only successful modus operandi (Sculley, anyone?), will Apple still work when it turns into a soviet? It's much less a traditional company than for instance Microsoft is. Is Apple up for a slow death-by-compromise/committee? We'll see but until then let's not steer off further from course and explore the shallow waters of gadget love.
The iPad has been released in the US four days ago, on April 3rd. The internet has been abuzz with videos, columns, spec sheet recitations and reviews. As far as those types of articles go, I have nothing more to add to what a Google search currently reveals.

I'd much rather share my initial hands-on experience with the device: it's much less magical than it is useful in a utilitarian sense. As with the iPod and iPhone, Apple has taken a rough concept others only pursued half-heartedly and made it accessible and joyful to use. Contrary to countless posts (authored by hyperventilating authors?) on the web, there is *no* black magic involved.
The hardware is as slick as all the photos on the internet convey. The solid aluminum casing, sealed on the front by a single glass-covered screen, is a joy to touch. As for holding the iPad for longer periods of time, that is another story. It's a little on the heavy side. Then again, so are textbooks and laptops. Just don't expect the convenience that comes with the light weight of an Amazon Kindle during handheld reading.
IMHO, none of the apps available right now are groundbreaking. The Marvel app would have been close if Sony Computer Entertainment Europe wouldn't have already come up with their PSP comic reader half a year ago. Nevertheless, it's nice to have a compact device with a screen of this size.
I have no doubts that the best is yet to come. The iPad's form factor is in a region where size *does* make a non-trivial difference. Compared to the iPhone/iPod Touch, the additional screen real estate makes it possible for applications to utilize screen input with both hands without occluding most of the display. That is definitely the distinguishing feature of the device and it matters more than what the "but it's just a bigger iPod Touch" blows might suggest. For the purposes that I see the device serving, the lack of a keyboard is liberating - no more cumbersome lid opening and lap balancing.
The display size makes the iPad perfectly suited to replace our living room computer - a white MacBook. It's what we use when we feel like browsing the news on the couch, checking up on friends and photos on Facebook or digging into Wikipedia when mutual stubbornness deadlocks a discussion. Now if only Apple would have included a front-facing camera, the iPad would have become the ultimate home-bound communications device and helped propel video chat into living rooms. I guess, for that to happen, we won't have to wait any longer than for the next product iteration.
As it is right now, the iPad feels right at home next to a stack of magazines, easily replacing your current terminal of choice for internet lookup.
It's different, it's cool ... and it tastes just like chicken.
--
Special thanks to geek chick extraordinaire Winnie Teichmann for dropping by, joint iPad-ing and taking funny photos.
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Labels: apple, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, tablet
Friday, November 27, 2009
The Windows Cache Manager - A Quick Overview
Well, if I have to spend my days (and currently nights!) with Windows cache and memory management, it should at least be good for a blog post ;)
The Windows Cache Manager is a central operating system facility managing the system cache, which transparently supports all Windows filesystems. It is capable of handling file data - including multiple data streams for filesystems that support such - as well as filesystem metadata. Since the operating system provides for a centralized external storage caching mechanism (including support for network and disk based access), filesystems are alleviated of implementing proprietary caching functionality.
The Cache Manager operates on a relatively high level for a kernel mode component, interpreting files as byte streams vs. individual disk blocks on physical storage media. Abstracting away from physical file layout allows for simplified analysis of data access patterns and resulting optimizations for instance in terms of better read-ahead performance.
A segment of the kernel virtual address space is assigned to the system cache by the Windows Memory Manager. The Cache Manager further slices this segment into 256KB chunks to hold cached views of filesystem data.
Mapping file contents from disk into the system cache is 256KB-aligned - that is, when reading 100 bytes from a 1MB file at byte offset 400,000 the Cache Manager will fill up the corresponding 256KB chunk in the system cache starting at byte offset 262144 through 524288-1. Assignment of filesystem mappings into the system cache 256KB slots happens in a round robin fashion.
The filesystem tracks the physical bits of a logical file and the type of I/O requested (buffered vs. unbuffered) within corresponding file objects. Multiple file objects can represent the same file on disk. The former share a "shared cache map" which serves as metadata structure for the file on disk being represented by the file objects. It contains a mapping from file offset for a particular view to system cache virtual address space. The Cache Manager utilizes the shared cache map to ensure cache coherency among the different file objects for the same file - for instance by only caching the same view into the file exactly once. Data relevant to individual file objects alone - that is, access patterns to handle read-ahead - is kept in object-specific private cache maps.
- Fourth Edition of Russinovich's Windows® Internals, Fourth Edition
- an updated version has been released in June 2009, covering the more recent versions of the OS: Windows Internals, Fifth Edition
.
- 2005 MSDN Channel 9 interview with Molly Brown, the engineer responsible for the Vista version of the Windows Cache Manager: part 1 and part 2
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Labels: cache, management, manager, memory, software development, vista, windows
Monday, July 20, 2009
Interview in Germany's #1 College Magazine: The Google Experience and CS Careers
He was particularly interested in career advice I could give for fellow CS students and my personal experiences with working for Google.
I have embedded the magazine, neatly turned to the right page for your viewing/reading pleasure, right after the jump.
If you don't speak German, let me distill the article for you: Yes, go work for Google.
It's a special place, where you are given any and every chance to evolve as an individual and engineer. This is not to say that there aren't any other workplaces that qualify, but Google definitely gets a lot of the things I was looking for right. And then some.
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Friday, February 13, 2009
WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Review for games™
When Soenke Siemens, associate editor in chief of German games™, asked me for a WotLK review for their print publication in October 2008, how was I supposed to say "No!". Especially given that such an inquiry translated to an excuse for burning time hunting down Arthas in Blizzard's latest extension to Warcraft lore?
I might get around to pick up a little WoW-ing over the course of the next four weeks though. If you feel like teaming up with our friends & family guild on German server Khaz'goroth, I suggest you drop me a note. I have a dormant US account too, but chances for me to pick up that one too, while living in Germany and barely finding time to dwell in the European server pool, are currently very low.
Judging from the feedback we received for the article, coming up with a compelling review seems to have worked though. Thanks to everybody for the kind words and feedback.
On the other hand, thanks to games™'s PDF offer, you can always opt for the cellulose-free way of digital distribution and get access to any back issue you'd like ;)
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Labels: electronic gaming, gamestm, magazine, print, world of warcraft, wotlk, wow
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Review: I Love Katamari (iPhone/iPod Touch)

The bug fixes also result in a significantly decreased difficulty level. For instance I was trying to get past the Park stage for the last two days, but failed miserably each and every time I attempted to. After the patch, it took me exactly one try to roll up the requested light truck and pass the level.

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Labels: Bandai, Damacy, electronic gaming, iPhone, iPod Touch, Katamari, namco, review
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Space Siege Preview for games™
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Labels: electronic gaming, gamestm, magazine, space siege
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Google Tech Talks: Wiring Hacker Synapses & More
Some of the talks given at EclipseDay at the Googleplex are available as videos via the Google engEDU Tech Talks Channel on YouTube now.
For your (and my) convenience, I have embedded our very own Eclipse Communication Framework Wiring Hacker Synapses talk right after the jump. But if you are really in for a ride to remember, I suggest you indulge yourself in the full list of EclipseDay Grand Teton room recordings.
- Eclipse @ eBay, Michael Galpin
- How Mylyn Changes the Way I Develop, Bjorn Freeman-Benson
- GWT in Eclipse, Bruce Johnson
- Plug-in Development Tips and Tricks, Chris Aniszcyk
- and Wiring Hacker Synapses, Mustafa K. Isik & Scott Lewis
Wait - there is even more ;) Photos.
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Labels: cola, google, presentation, talk, tech
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Visiting the Friendfeed Global International Headquarters ...
... and helping out with the move.
Since I was in Mountain View, CA for the first half of this passing week, I used the chance to make up for all the missed friendfeed open house and TGIFF invitations. On Monday afternoon I took a break from preparing my slides for EclipseDay at the Googleplex and dropped by the Friendfeed Global International Headquarters - new and old.
It was great to finally meet up with the team behind the service of which not only I think that it is excellent in scope, execution and promise.
After a warm welcome by Ana and a chat with Paul, I joined the team in moving from the old office to the new location, contributing my share to friendfeed's continued success ;)
Among the non-trivial tasks of relocating a global international headquarter was mounting a high-tech mailbox to the precise specifications laid out by Ana - that is "So that our short and chubby mailman can reach it". Paul and I had to make more than one attempt to get it right.
Over the course of my stay I was successively introduced to the rest of the team and I have to say you guys rock. I had a blast talking to you all and I am sure that my Monday afternoon friendfeed diversion helped with the success of the talk at Google the following day :D
P.S.: Ana thank you for the shirts. I took mine out for a walk in Munich today. My girlfriend says thank you for thinking of one for her too - since you and I could not find the girl cuts in the box, it looks like as if I'll get around to wear that one too though :)
Corresponding items on my friendfeed:
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Labels: friendfeed, google, mountain view
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Hot Off the Press: Slides for Cola Tech Talk "Wiring Hacker Synapses"
These are the slides for my Cola: Real-Time Shared Editing talk at Google for EclipseDay.
You can download the PDF version of the slides by clicking through to the scribd page for this presentation.
The embedded slides/PDF version have been stripped off any animation, that is are fully built and thus should be well suited for non-presentation style consumption.
Wiring Hacker Synapses
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Labels: cola, ecf, eclipse, google, presentation, shared editing, slides, talk







gamesTM asked me for a preview of the title which has been published in their latest, i.e. August 2008, issue. The magazine is available at newsstands and bookstores as well as a slick DRM-free PDF online.
It is jam-packed with previews (e.g. Civ IV: Colonization, CoD: World at War, Treyarch's Bond, Dawn of War 2), reviews (Battlefield Bad Company, Alone in the Dark) and a LucasArts Indy retro flashback - well worth shelling out the bucks ;)