Visual Studio: Resource vs Embedded Resource

I can’t seem to find the answer to this question: what is the difference between a “Resource” and an “Embedded Resource” in a Visual Studio project?  These are selections made from the “Build Action” property of a project item.  My and a co-workers’ guess is that it is the difference between actually putting the data in the assembly and just marking it as a resource that you can then copy to the output directory.  I wonder if you can access items marked either in the same way.

Russian SMS Mafia

Some kind of Russian spam came into my Gmail inbox this morning from supp0rt@gmail.com (a zero instead of an ‘o’):

From: Администрация <supp0rt@gmail.com>

Subject: Подтвеждение авторизации ящика

 

Здраствуйте!

 

С 30 сентября производится авторизация всех ящиков на Gmail.com. Для авторизации ящика нужно послать смс с текстом 44441 на номер 1899 Смс бесплатные! Ящики не подтвердившие авторизацию автоматически блокируются в течение 3 дней!

 

С уважением, администрация Gmail.com

www.gmail.com

support@gmail.com

A Babel Fish translation yield this:

From: Administration <supp0rt@gmail.com>

Subject: [Podtvezhdenie] of the authorization of the box

 

[Zdrastvuyte]! The authorization of all boxes since September 30 is produced on Gmail.com. For the authorization of box it is necessary to send sms with text 44441 to the number of 1899 sms free! Boxes not confirmed authorization automatically are blocked during 3 days! With the respect, administration Gmail.com

Of course I believe them, so I did this right away!

Volkswagon Boobies

I was behind a little Volkswagon “TTS” at a stop light last night.  They had shifted the latter two letters and inserted a red ’i’ so it read “TITS”.  Awesome.

Programming Truth

… as only told as XKCD can (with stick figures):

http://xkcd.com/224/

Abstract Class Constructor Defaults

Someone explain to me why you have to write out an empty constructor in a child class when the base doesn’t have a default constructor.  It seems like in most cases you’d want to be able to create the child in exactly the same way as the base class, otherwise you end up stubbing out all the same friggin’ methods which name parameters for the sole purpose of passing them up the line to base().  Lamo!

Object Composition

I ran across this terminology while reading up on Spring.NET’s AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming) section.

The current implementation of the AOP proxy generator uses object composition to delegate calls from the proxy to a target object, similar to how you would implement a classic Decorator pattern.

It took me a minute and a quick Google search, but basically “object composition” means an implementation where an object contains another object(s).  In the context of the above sentence, it means Spring.NET’s AOP proxies contain a reference to the original object which they then call methods/properties on.  It makes it sound like the original object code isn’t actually modified, it’s just wrapped.  If I have this all correct, then isn’t this basically aggregation?

necros.gibdon.com Down Again

Dang it, my “andrew sega shrine” (http://necros.gibdon.com/) is down again.  I don’t even know where it’s supposed to be hosted, because there’s no evidence of it in my DreamHost control panel and I don’t see the frickin’ files anywhere.  I feel crappy because I always forget about this dang thing and then it goes down and people have no recourse to finding a lot of the Red Fez MP3’s or other scene stuff.  I’d like to host it on WordPress, but that costs $10 a year.  Sure it’s not much, but it still costs something and I’d rather not have to pay anything for a free thing.  At the same time I’d like it to be up and have a place where people can post their own Necros/Andrew Sega/Iris stuff.  A forum seems like a natural fit.  I dunno, don’t want to spend more than a couple hours on it and already and I’m not even sure where the music files are.

I’m thinking I’ll at least put them all on SkyDrive or something so the files can still be available even if the website goes down.  Maybe Microsoft has some sort of domain-hosting thing for their Live Spaces.  Wait, I think they do and I tried it and it sucks.  Hmm … dang it!

Warcraft II: Return to Azeroth

It occurs to me that the last chapter of Warcraft 2’s Human campaign is well-designed to test your skill in sea, air, and land combat; in that order.  My first attempts at these levels always end badly.

The Battle at Crestfall, first of the three parts, requires you quickly take a nearby island and begin oil production.  Otherwise a mass of Horde Turtles will soon sweep in and destroy the ships you begin with, including a transport, and leave you stranded on your tiny island with its tiny amount of resources.

Secondly, Assault on Blackrock Spire urges you to overpower two foes with Gryphon Riders, but you first need to secure your home defenses since Ogres and Catapults drop by often to pound the piss out of your peasants and blow the bejeezus out of your buildings.  If you expect an attack from the air after seeing a couple dragons and a roost, think again or risk expensive and utterly unnecessary upgrades at the Lumber Mill.  On the offensive you’re told to make use of Dwarven Gryphons, who are annoying at best; their hammer attack is akin to a weak Mage’s fireball and the splash damage incurs more friendly fire than anything else in the game.  My foremost attempt resulted in the one Gryphon you start with killing both of my elves while ogres beat the snot out of my melee fighters.

Finally, The Great Portal is a level which starts you on a worthless barren jut of land and forces you into a fast frenzied fray with a well-guarded, well-funded, well-blood-lusted, and yet Peon-less, city of Ogres and Catapults.  Lest you spend all your time crying from your veins here, Dragons from a white-banded enemy will soon swoop down to pick off your peasants as they scramble to assemble a base.  Here my winning plan will be to create an awesome array of archers and fat groups of guard towers to keep those fierce flappers at bay.  And no Gryphons.

I’ll let you know how it works out …

Contractor Agreement

I hate signing employment agreements of any kind, because they’re written by vicious lawyers who want to cover their company’s ass as much as drill home how much you now belong to them.  Check out this section of the contractor agreement I’m about to sign:

4. Disclosure and Assignment.  During the engagement with Company and as reasonably required thereafter, Contractor agrees to make prompt and full disclosure to Company, to hold in trust for the sole benefit of Company, and to assign exclusively to Company all of Contractor’s right, title, and interest in and to any and all inventions, discoveries, designs, developments, improvements, copyrightable material, and trade secrets (collectively herein “Inventions”) that Contractor may conceive, develop, and reduce to practice while performing under this Agreement.  Contractor hereby waives and quitclaims to Company any and all claims of any nature whatsoever that Contractor may have for infringement of any patent resulting from any patent application for any invention so assigned to Company.

Contractor’s obligation to assign shall not apply to any invention with respect to which Contractor can prove the following:

a) It does not relate (i) directly to the business of Company, or (ii) to the actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of Company; and/or

b) It does not result from any work performed by Contractor for Company, or contact made by Contractor with Company, or its information, nor use made by Contractor of Company’s equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information.

I nearly barfed after reading that, and not only because of their damning using of the English language.  Whereas this is traditional legalese and tries to crowd in as many words as possible to eliminate relativity, it still has the uncomfortable phrase “as reasonably required thereafter”.  Whose reason are we talking about here?  I’m going to guess … Company!

I’m still going to sign it, and only because of the phrase “conceive, develop, and reduce to practice” which indicates only concepts brought to a prototype stage.  If I think of something while on this job and work on it after I’m finished with the contract, even if I’ve blogged the idea, then they don’t own it.  At least that’s how I see it, my naive optimism may be getting in the way.

What also bothers me about the writing is how it speaks about relation to the Company’s business rather than to the contract work itself.  If I’m working in a fruit recipe center and I come up with a banan recipe, even if I’m just picking apples, then I have to give it back.  It’s funny how inside companies you lose a lot of your intellectual rights, almost like stepping into a communist country.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6.0 (B not D)

The release of Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum (what a mouthful of a product name) I purchased a couple years ago was labeled 6.0a and it doesn’t correctly handle the MPG’s (or “MOD” files) generated by flash card camcorders like Canon’s FS100.  I looked for an update and forums mentioned using Sony Vegas 6.0d, but that’s for the full version of Vegas, not Movie Studio Platinum which can be seen more of a Home/Hobbyist edition.  Instead what you’re looking for is 6.0b of that particular product which can be a painful lesson to find out (if you installed Vegas 6.0d and realized you need to uninstall it), not to mention confusing even after the fact.

Here’s the link you want: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/dl/dl.aspx?dwnid=169

Now go forth and mix movies!