Periodically, I need to parse a string, which represents an xml file into formatted file with intendation. Here is a simple .Net code which does this and can be compiled into a console application:

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Here is the complete info:http://realfiction.net/go/153. The gist of it is that you create a symbolik link under %WINDIR%\System32 and %WINDIR%\SysWOW64 to point to either 32 or 64-bit oracle client depending on the bitness of a client app.

I'm opening a new series of posts related to performance optimization of software systems, which is my primary area lately. First, and most useful suggestion when it comes to setting up the environment, pay attention to the exact spec of the testing system, namely, CPU, disk, memory, software installed and running etc.

Microsoft just updated their version of a programming language for children, called SmallBasic.

Loren Goodman, CTO of my company, presented an excellent topic on Microsoft TechEd conference Getting to the Handshake: Leveraging Business Rule Technology through Architecture, Design and Practice which can  viewed and downloaded at http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/ARC301. It highlights the growing interest in this area in the community since people are into rules more and more as they redesigning existing solutions and engineering new ones and the understanding of the flexibility in the first place is a requirement which is one of the core one. You can find more on the current state of the Rule Engines on my company's site at http://www.inrule.com

IT Architect Regional Conference in Minneapolis on November 6-7, 2010 is the one not that far from Chicago, IL to attend. Should be interesting for an Architect to get a sense of the heartbeat of the latest innovations in distributed architectures.

My posts lately are rather short, but I want to keep 'em informative and would like to move closer to the technology track that I'm working on. Here is the Windows Azure Guidance document, which represents the holystic view on the Microsoft Cloud's vision and the architecture decisions behind the cloud-based applications - http://wag.codeplex.com/releases/view/45438

Without further adeu, Hotmail goes into social world of networking, keeping up with our contacts and sharing information. More on Windows Live site here. Interesting trend which shows that nowadays the systems are more like hybrid connected and information organizing systems.

If you're developing for Microsoft Cloud Services, this might be of interest for the evaluation of the performance and Best Practices concerning running applications in the Cloud:

http://azurescope.cloudapp.net/Default.aspx

As you've might heard, Microsoft announced its latest generation of mobile operating systems, called Windows Phone 7 Series. One cool thing is that it was something unexpected as where Microsoft would go with its developments, how much iPhone would influence on their UI, whether it would reminicent the Zune Phone idea to some extend. The importance of that annoouncement could not be underscored as it clearly indicates the trends of nowadays interfaces.

Most importantly, systems are moving away from unauthentic 3d interfences whereever possible to the specific areas such as games, TV, AR, i.e. places where it naturally blends with the actual reality and humans expect those interactions natually to be supported by the computers. One can observe that by looking at latest web site designs, e-devices (kindle etc.), mp3-players. Moreover, people would like to offload the thinking about the process and rather concentrate on what is in their current focus and context, therefore, UI is presenting a very few choices to a user at a time in bold annotated graphics, which is clearly seen on iPhone and Zune. People then naturally interact within a context of a device through tough-based interface with system reacting to a user activity immediately through animation and other visual effects. Note that no complex visuals are required at this point as humans are accustomed to a very simple response, usually just affirmative reaction, or, a simple denial of an operation. Furthermore, response on a user action is as simple as visual or audio activity executed by the system. A person is interested in a very few contexts at a time, such as phone communication, social communication (facebook, communities), audio (music, podcasts, lectures), visual (movies, clips), planning (calendar, notes). Microsoft came up with the list of those contexts, which are available in the main menu. Very clever idea is to get rid of task bar at all as it is becoming an obsolete concept nowadays. Widget architecture is a very straight-forward way to extend the device's functionality, because it would give very rich functionality to developers hands and at the same time allows to isolate system's core modules for platform stability.

All at all, the direction where the system interaction with human is moving is clearly set by two major players on the market, namely, iPhone and Microsoft, and with the hardware manufactures's support, the future of the mobile devices looks very promising.