HP a1750e Upgrade to Windows 7

I upgraded my HP Pavilion a1750e machine from Vista to Windows 7 (32 bit) over the weekend, here is how it all went down…

Preparation

Before doing anything I wanted to make sure my system would be able to run Windows 7 so I downloaded the upgrade advisor and performed an analysis. The analysis takes a couple of minutes to do its work before showing you a report with all the (potential) problems you will encounter, allowing you to get your system ready before taking the big leap into an exciting new OS. The report is split up in sections covering the system hardware, devices (drivers) and programs.

One of the first things the upgrade report points out in the system section is the HP webpage describing how to upgrade your system, i recommend you take a look at it.

Drivers were listed as available for all hardware devices that come standard with this system. Two ‘unknown’ devices were listed for me: “HP psc 1600 series” (a printer) and “Yamaha USB-MIDI Driver (WDM)”. I took the opportunity to install the latest USB-MIDI driver from Yamaha (um304x86 at the time of this writing), it still functioned properly after the upgrade. The printer driver was automatically updated by the hardware wizard after the upgrade.

The programs section looked a little more problematic:

• Canon Camera Window MC 6 for ZoomBrowser EX, version 6.3.0.8, Known issues.
  I uninstalled this program before upgrading.
• Hardware Diagnostic Tools, version 5.00.4262.12, PC-Doctor, Inc., Update available.
  I have never used this program and did not update it. - If you experienced problems with it please leave me a comment.
• iTunes, version 7.4.0.28, Apple Inc., Reinstall after upgrade.
  I uninstalled this program before upgrading.
• Microsoft Expression Web, version 12.0.6215.1000, Microsoft Corporation, Update available.
  I did not bother updating it (yet).
• Roxio Express Labeler 3, version 2.1.0, Roxio, Update available.
  I did not update this program (yet). - If you experienced problems with this program please leave me a comment.
• Skype™ 3.8, version 3.8.188, Skype Technologies S.A., Known issues.
  I upgraded Skype to the latest version before upgrading which made the warning go away.
• Windows Mobile Device Center, version 6.1.6965.0, Microsoft Corporation, Reinstall after upgrade.
  I uninstalled this program before upgrading, then reinstalled Windows Mobile Device Center after the upgrade and connected my iPaq. The driver got automatically installed and it appears to function properly.

Execution

After all this prep work I started the upgrade which completed successfully in approximately three hours.

My system is the lucky owner of two sound devices, onboard “Realtek High Definition Audio” and a “Creative AudioPCI (ES1371,ES1373) (WDM)” card, the settings for these devices were seamlessly transferred during the upgrade and they still function properly. Very impressive. I think it is very cool you can hot-switch default audio output devices while playing sound in Windows 7!

Issues

Two issues I am aware of thus far:

• Canon Camera Window MC 6 for ZoomBrowser EX
  After upgrading I downloaded the latest ZoomBrowser EX installer from the Canon website: ZoomBrowser EX 6.4.1 Updater, Windows 7 is not available as a supported OS for downloads so I picked the Vista version. Unfortunately the Camera Window application is not functioning. – Setting the CameraWindow application to run in Vista SP2 compatibility mode will resolve this issue.
• Powersaving for the display does not work (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT/GTO).
  The display will go black but it never gets turned off. -  This issue was caused by the screensaver, changing to a different screensaver resolved the issue.

How To Determine If A Window Is Active (In C)

As promised in my previous blog describing how to add activity notification flash to PuTTY here is another way to check if the window is active. Instead of keeping track of the current window state by handling the WM_ACTIVATE message you can directly query a window for its status with GetWindowInfo(). The WINDOWINFO.dwWindowStatus field will be set to WS_ACTIVECAPTION when the window is active.

Paste the following snippet at the end of window.c:

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION2 */

/* SNIPPET ID: {CE84000D-9024-45f1-B0E6-5029AD1B257F} */

BOOL is_window_active()

{

   BOOL bActive=FALSE;

   BOOL bResult;

   WINDOWINFO wi;

   memset(&wi, 0, sizeof(wi));

   wi.cbSize=sizeof(wi);

   bResult=GetWindowInfo(hwnd, &wi);

   if(bResult)

      bActive = (wi.dwWindowStatus==WS_ACTIVECAPTION);

   return bActive;

}

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION2 */

Then add a forward declaration to the forward declarations (Snippet ID: D8B4F4A3-F870-4ded-B298-EEB71701D25D), it will look like this:

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - FLASH METHODS FORWARD DECLARATIONS AND VARS */

/* SNIPPET ID: {D8B4F4A3-F870-4ded-B298-EEB71701D25D}-20090922*/

static void flash_window_activity(int mode);

static BOOL window_is_active=TRUE;

static BOOL activity_blink_done=FALSE;

BOOL is_window_active();

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - FLASH METHODS FORWARD DECLARATIONS AND VARS*/

 

With this new code in place all that is left is updating the activity detection logic to use it. This is implemented in the from_backend method, replace the use of the window_is_active boolean with the new is_window_active() method call so the code will look like this:

int from_backend(void *frontend, int is_stderr, const char *data, int len)

{

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - SESSION ACTIVITY DETECTION */

/* SNIPPET ID: {9198643F-09DF-466f-971F-EB05EA15A85E}-20090922 */

   if(!is_window_active())

      flash_window_activity(2);

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - SESSION ACTIVITY DETECTION */

   return term_data(term, is_stderr, data, len);

}

 

All that is left now is compiling the code and firing up PuTTY!

Enjoy!

How to add Activity Notification to PuTTY

For over a decade PuTTY has been my Telnet/SSH client of choice for Windows. I mostly use it as a MUD client nowadays and missed one convenience feature: activity notifications. Chat clients all flash for attention when activity occurs and it would be a great addition to streamline my social mudlife, so I set out on a quest to add it…

First of all you need to have Microsoft Visual C++ installed to compile the sourcecode for Windows which can be found on the PuTTY Download page. Get the sources unzipped and load the workspace “putty-src\WINDOWS\MSVC\PUTTY.DSW”, you will need to go through a conversion to a Visual Studio 2008 solution when using VS2008. All code additions and changes are done in the file WINDOW.C in the “putty” project.

To support activity notification we need to know when there is activity and notify the user by making the window flash if the window is not active and it has not already done a flash. This brings us down to three problems to solve: detecting activity, knowing when the window is not active and flashing the window.

 

Flashing the PuTTY Window

PuTTY already has the option to use the window flash as a visual bell so that code can be used as a template. Notice how this feature also has been implemented in the PuTTY code itself to support flash on older Windows OSes that do not support the FlashWindowEx API method. (I have left this code in place, but it has not been tested.)

The following code snippet must be added at the end of the file:

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - FLASH METHODS */

/* SNIPPET ID: {34060BBE-6F8C-4bc1-AF1F-97B3FC8D24A4} */

static void flash_window_timer_activity(void *ctx, long now)

{

    if (flashing && now - next_flash >= 0) {

      flash_window_activity(1);

    }

}

static void flash_window_activity(int mode)

{

   if(mode==0) {

      /* stop */

   } else if (mode==2)

   {

      /* start */

      if (!flashing && !activity_blink_done) {

         flashing = 1;

         activity_blink_done=TRUE;

         if (p_FlashWindowEx) {

            /* For so-called "steady" mode, we use uCount=2, which

            * seems to be the traditional number of flashes used

            * by user notifications (e.g., by Explorer).

            * uCount=0 appears to enable continuous flashing, per

            * "flashing" mode, although I haven't seen this

            * documented. */

            flash_window_ex(FLASHW_ALL | FLASHW_TIMER,

               (cfg.beep_ind == B_IND_FLASH ? 0 : 2),

               0 /* system cursor blink rate */);

            /* No need to schedule timer */

         } else {

            FlashWindow(hwnd, TRUE);

            next_flash = schedule_timer(450, flash_window_timer_activity, hwnd);

         }

      }

   }

   else if(mode==1)

   {

      /* maintain */

      if (flashing && !p_FlashWindowEx) {

         FlashWindow(hwnd, TRUE);   /* toggle */

         next_flash = schedule_timer(450, flash_window_timer_activity, hwnd);

      }

   }

}

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - FLASH METHODS */

 

Add the following snippet to the forward declarations at the top of the file (surrounding code is show for reference to the location where it should be placed and must not be added):

#define TIMING_TIMER_ID 1234

static long timing_next_time;

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - FLASH METHODS FORWARD DECLARATIONS AND VARS */

/* SNIPPET ID: {D8B4F4A3-F870-4ded-B298-EEB71701D25D}*/

static void flash_window_activity(int mode);

static BOOL window_is_active=TRUE;

static BOOL activity_blink_done=FALSE;

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - FLASH METHODS FORWARD DECLARATIONS AND VARS*/

static struct {

    HMENU menu;

The activity_blink_done boolean ensures the window flash gets triggered only one time once the window has become inactive and activity occurs.

 

Detecting the Window Active State

There are several ways of doing this, I embarked on the adventure of using a handler for the WM_ACTIVATE message to keep track of the current state because it seemed to blend in well with the rest of the code in place. The handler also clears the activity_blink_done variable so a new flash will be triggered when necessary.

Add the following snippet at the end of the file:

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION */

/* SNIPPET ID: {75B2CA9C-49F4-4eb5-AFCF-E3D743C37C44} */

int Do_WM_ACTIVATE(HWND a_hwnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)

{

   WORD wAction = LOWORD(wParam);

   WORD wMinimized = HIWORD(wParam);

   if(a_hwnd == hwnd) {

      switch(wAction)

      {

         case WA_INACTIVE:

            window_is_active = FALSE;

            activity_blink_done = FALSE;

            break;

         case WA_ACTIVE:

         case WA_CLICKACTIVE:

            if(!wMinimized)

               window_is_active = TRUE;

            break;

         default:

            break;

      }

   }

}

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION */

 

With the message handler in place we need to hook it up in the window procedure. To do this we need to add a case statement for the WM_ACTIVATE message in the WndProc method. Insert the following code snippet right before default case handler (surrounding code shown for reference and must not be copied):

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION */

/* SNIPPET ID: {5AFAA3AB-FB28-45e9-9DE7-E56648A1B5AF} */

      case WM_ACTIVATE:

         Do_WM_ACTIVATE(hwnd, message, wParam, lParam);

         break;

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION */

      default:

         if (message == wm_mousewheel || message == WM_MOUSEWHEEL) {

 

For completeness add a forward declaration below the previous forward declaration snippet we added:

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION FORWARD DECLARATION */

/* SNIPPET ID: {D3292300-A6A3-402f-A0A5-CE259BD25EC0} */

int Do_WM_ACTIVATE(HWND a_hwnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam);

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - WINDOW ACTIVE DETECTION FORWARD DECLARATION */

 

Detecting Session Activity

With the window flash and window state support in place all that is left to do is hooking it up to the session activity detection. Find the from_backend method and insert the code snippet below so the method resembles the code block:

int from_backend(void *frontend, int is_stderr, const char *data, int len)

{

/* MARK SLETTERINK - ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - SESSION ACTIVITY DETECTION */

/* SNIPPET ID: {9198643F-09DF-466f-971F-EB05EA15A85E} */

   if(!window_is_active)

      flash_window_activity(2);

/* MARK SLETTERINK - END OF ACTIVITY NOTIFICATION SUPPORT - SESSION ACTIVITY DETECTION */

   return term_data(term, is_stderr, data, len);

}

 

Enjoy!

That completes the code additions. Compile the code, fire up PuTTY and enjoy the new activity notification feature!

Quest complete! You gained 1 million XP.

How to parse and modify a URL in .Net

When you need to modify a url string in .Net code the most prudent way to do so is by using the UriBuilder class from the System namespace because it encapsulates all the quirky rules involved in url parsing. However simply creating a new UriBuilder instance initialized with the url string has the potential for throwing a UriFormatException which creates a serious performance hit whether the exception is caught and handled or, even worse, your program will fail on an unhandled exception if your code did not anticipate this.

The UriFormatException can be easily avoided by first converting the url string to a Uri class instance by calling Uri.TryCreate(...) and checking the return value for success. If TryCreate succeeded the resulting Uri instance can then be used to create a UriBuilder instance.

 

The code below shows a C# example of how to modify the hostname in a url without throwing exceptions.

[TestMethod]

public void ModifyUrlHost()

{

   string[] urls ={"http://brokensite.com/test/me.html?a=1&b=2"

                  , "https://brokensite.com"

                  , "https://brokensite.com/"

                  , "http://brokensite.com/default"

                  , "/test/me.html?a=1&b=2"

                  , String.Empty

                  , null

                 };

   string newHostName="www.somesite.com";

 

   foreach (string url in urls)

   {

      Debug.WriteLine("Original Url: " + url);

 

      string newUrl = url;

      Uri uri;

      if (Uri.TryCreate(url, UriKind.Absolute, out uri))

      {

         Debug.WriteLine("Uri.TryCreate succeeded");

         UriBuilder builder = new UriBuilder(uri);

         builder.Host = newHostName;

         newUrl = builder.Uri.ToString();

      }

      else

         Debug.WriteLine("Uri.TryCreate failed");

 

      Debug.WriteLine("New Url     : " + newUrl);

      Debug.WriteLine("");

 

      if(newUrl!=null)

         Assert.IsFalse(newUrl.Contains("brokensite.com"), "url still contains brokensite.com");

   }

}

This test generates the following output:

//Original Url: http://brokensite.com/test/me.html?a=1&b=2

//Uri.TryCreate succeeded

//New Url     : http://www.somesite.com/test/me.html?a=1&b=2

 

//Original Url: https://brokensite.com

//Uri.TryCreate succeeded

//New Url     : https://www.somesite.com/

 

//Original Url: https://brokensite.com/

//Uri.TryCreate succeeded

//New Url     : https://www.somesite.com/

 

//Original Url: http://brokensite.com/default

//Uri.TryCreate succeeded

//New Url     : http://www.somesite.com/default

 

//Original Url: /test/me.html?a=1&b=2

//Uri.TryCreate failed

//New Url     : /test/me.html?a=1&b=2

 

//Original Url:

//Uri.TryCreate failed

//New Url     :

 

//Original Url:

//Uri.TryCreate failed

//New Url     :     

Reusable Generic Exception Wrapper in C#

When crossing boundaries between software layers you are sometimes faced with the requirement to wrap a meaningless exception from a lower layer into a more meaningful exception for users from the higher layer. The pattern described below helps with implementing this requirement in a reusable way. It is in no way meant to be a catch-all for every situation where you have to deal with exceptions, but when applied correctly can prove to be an invaluable tool in your toolkit. See Framework Design Guidelines, Chapter 7 (7.2.3) for more one exception wrapping.

The approach used is to wrap the logic that can fail in a delegate and have this delegate executed by the WrapExceptions method. The WrapExceptions method then takes responsibility of handling the exceptions appropriately. It should be modified to handle only the applicable exceptions; some exceptions you might not want to wrap e.g. StackOverflowException, OutOfMemoryException and ThreadAbortException because you cannot recover from them. An added advantage of wrapping the failure prone code in a delegate is that it allows you to easily wrap it around existing code.

The WrapExceptions code snippet:

// public delegate void Action();

public static void WrapExceptions(Action action)

{

   try

   {

      action();

   }

   catch (MyApplicationException)

   {

      // just rethrow exception, it

      // was already properly handled

      throw;

   }

   catch (Exception e)

   {

      throw new MyApplicationException(e);

   }

}

And then you can use it as follows:

public void WrapMyException(string filepath, string myLine)

{

   WrapExceptions(delegate()

   {

      using (TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(filepath))

      {

         writer.WriteLine(myLine);

      }

   });

}

Let me know your thoughts on this approach. What problems did it solve, and did it introduce new ones?

The Pitfall of ICloneable

Or, why you should never use ICloneable.

So I decided I needed to support cloning for my objects so I can modify the object and compare it to the original (very useful for unit-testing, dirty checking, etc.). The .Net framework comes with a handy interface to publish this ability called ICloneable. The documentation states "Supports cloning, which creates a new instance of a class with the same value as an existing instance". Great! It comes with one method: Clone. Can't be too hard to implement this interface, right?

A quick peek at the documentation for the Clone method says the implementation "Creates a new object that is a copy of the current instance". And so every textbook implementation goes on to show you how you do that:

public object Clone()
{
   return this.MemberwiseClone();
}

But what is the point of that, besides adding more code to maintain? EVERY object already supports MemberwiseClone! Oh yes, we were trying to satisfy an interface contract... But hold on, it gets worse as the documentation then opens up an infinite can of worms with this remark:

Clone can be implemented either as a deep copy or a shallow copy. In a deep copy, all objects are duplicated; whereas, in a shallow copy, only the top-level objects are duplicated and the lower levels contain references.

The resulting clone must be of the same type as or a compatible type to the original instance.

The Clone method, and thus the ICloneable interface just became a free-for-all, do as you like, contract. You may deep copy, shallow copy, heck you can even change the type! Technically this can all result in correct code, but the sheer absence of semantics turns the use of this interface into a humongous pitfall. Within your own sphere of influence you can set an expected semantic, but as soon as your code leaves this safe place, or you introduce code from another source which applied different semantics to the ICloneable interface you are in for a debugging session from hell.

ICloneable just became unusable.

Go ahead and mark it as obsolete in your copy of the framework. Not all is lost however, you can work around this issue by defining your own interface contract with its own semantics, but do not inherit it from ICloneable as this would reintroduce the issue. For example:

/// <summary>
/// Supports deep-copy cloning, which creates a 
/// new instance of a class of the same type and 
/// with the same value as an existing instance.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">Type of the class 
/// being cloned.</typeparam>
public interface IDeepCloneable<T>
{
   /// <summary>
   /// Creates an equally typed deep-copy clone 
   /// of this object.
   /// </summary>
   /// <returns>An equally typed deep-copy clone 
   /// of this object.</returns>
   T Clone();
}

This interface contract sets a clear copy and type expectation (and gets rid of the pesky Object return type, that was so 1.0 baby!), but defining cloning semantics is not an easy task. Data containers, business- and UI-objects all have different needs and come with different cloning behaviors. Defining an interface for each of those will help keep expectations clear and ease integration with 3rd party components. However, unless you explicitly implement those interfaces on all classes you will also have to make sure the method names in those interfaces are unique else it will still be too easy to mix incompatible implementations. Always keep the consumer in mind while designing your interface!

I'm curious to know how you approached your cloning challenge. Leave me a comment!

 

References

• C# Object Clone Wars, a great recap on different cloning techniques.
• Framework Design Guidelines, it's on my mandatory reading list. Provides great insight on API design.
• Copy Constructors vs ICloneable -- Redux
• CodeProject: Generics and Cloning

Black Screen after Vista Wakes Up from Sleep with NVidia Driver Version 7.15.11.7521

It's actually not completely black, the top line of pixels still works properly! This problem started for me after I installed the driver update supplied by Windows Update for the GeForce 6150 LE; Driver Provider: NVIDIA, Driver Date: 5/22/2008, Driver Version: 7.15.11.7521. Both manually forcing it and idling to sleep or hibernate produce the same results.

The rest of the system appears to be functioning properly and pressing the power button will turn off the system. Hitting the [WIN], typing 'shutdown /r /t 0' and pressing [enter] will reboot the system. Upon reboot the screen is fine again and neither the EventLog nor Reliability Monitor show any problems.

I decided to roll back to the previous driver (7.15.11.6222, 7/6/2007), which produced four RunDLL error dialogs: "Error in NVCPL.DLL - Missing entry:NvCplRestorePersistence". Ouch!

Now the screen works properly when waking up, but I get greeted with that error dialog. Again, no errors or warning in the EventLog or Reliability Monitor.

Time for the windows cure-all... DAS (RE)BOOT!

Excellent! The reboot cleared up that issue.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Did you resolve it? How?

Related posts:

• More Pain with NVidia...

Building Software, Evil and Getting Things Done

Jeff Atwood  wrote a passionate blog entry about Craigslist and the demise of the Personals section (amongst others) now that Evil forces have taken over with the help of ever more sophisticated tools and creative solutions. Wouldn't you agree such is the natural result of the open approach used by Craigslist? Anyone can post an ad. If they had not taken this approach Craigslist would not have been so successful. Lowering the bar for getting your classifieds in meant getting more ads, because everybody could do it, without having to sign away their life. Just like tourist destinations attract pickpockets (and loose women?), open high-traffic websites attract spammers.

Craigslist was a great idea. A great idea that became more than just an idea, it actually got implemented. Maybe the implementation was not perfect by today's standards but it worked and has paid the bills for over thirteen years! A proper threat-modeling session in the early days would surely have brought these issues to light, and business-need would have overruled security/abuse. Unfortunately this business model might have seen its' longest days by now.

Nowadays such openness is no longer feasible. Spammers and crackers are abusing the system every which way they can for personal gain forcing our software solutions to be able to handle every known attack angle and mitigate the future ones as much as possible. Any programmer that takes himself seriously should invest in getting properly educated on the security aspects of programming. Not just because he should create solid code, but because sooner or later it will become a liability. Everybody with a little knack for logic and the ability to use google can cut and paste together a piece of software. Creativity and innovation flourishes! But... would you send your kids out on the road in an innovative car with no brakes? I think not!

When you make a living writing business software there is a constant struggle between getting things done, and getting them done right. Being able to get things done right generally means you already need to know how to do them right because there is no time to search the web all day for the perfect solution, that deadline is approaching fast. What's worse, you might not even be aware there is a problem with the chosen implementation. If you are a contractor, do you invest in your security education, or do you focus on getting up to speed on the latest fizz-buzzwords? If you are a wage-slave, does your company invest in your education, or are you merely a mindless implementer of business requirements? Do you invest in yourself?

Invest in yourself!

How do I invest in myself? Personally I still prefer a good book over online reading. The author of a book has put an effort into putting together a cohesive set of information to help you advance. When you randomly pull a single chapter out of a book you generally miss context or concepts. Browsing the web is like pulling a subtract of a chapter out of a giant book and all the other related information goes wasted on you. You get a quick answer to a specific detail to a problem, but never get to grasp the whole problem. When I do decide to stick with using the free online resources I make sure I do my research properly; Follow links, make sure I get the context. Granted, most bloggers/authors on the web put a lot of effort into their content, slowly weaving a never-ending book online, but that is not the same as having a book covering a specific topic. :) (Some day we might all go the way of the Kindle, but I prefer the feeling of a solid paper book.)

In the end we are all responsible for the solutions we produce, so next time you get to implement a great idea make sure you (know how to) do some threat-modeling first (online, book). That shortcut you were about to take might have changed the fate of the planet!

Does Universal Beautiful Code Exist?

A lot of debate is going on about "Beautiful Code". How can you measure the beauty of code? Is it "solid" code? Or perhaps easily readable for humans? An efficient algorithm, or a fast one? Terse sample code that shows a concept, or production code that is robust and fault tolerant? Perhaps a clever solution to a problem, or code that follows coding conventions and guidelines? Or should it be patterns based? What about curly-braces, indentation, comments, letter-casing (NO SHOUTING, IT'S RUDE!) or programming language? Should it exploit all features of the language it was written in, or only use some generic feature-set, libraries or framework commonly found in the language type (imperative, functional, .Net, C-Libraries)? What about cyclomatic complexity and other software metrics?

Most of those "beauty metrics" are purely gut-feeling based and enforcing metrics like a low cyclomatic complexity generally does not improve code beauty (good luck polishing a coal until it's a diamond). In my experience code often mirrors the authors' understanding of the problem and thought-process. No amount of computer assisted code analysis can improve that.

Beautiful code can come in the form of little one-liner gems, or huge elegant architectural diamonds that solve a real-world problem. You will generally find more little gems than big diamonds.

In the end nobody can win: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

I cannot put it better than David Hume:

Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.

Code beauty is determined by the observers' frame of reference; programming exposure (languages (C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, F#, Ruby, Lisp), Patterns, Algorithms, Operating Systems, formal training, experience (how many times has the beholder been burned by mistakes?), etc.), native language, organizational position (Junior Programmer vs. Senior Architect vs IT Director, they have different stakes in the code produced) and even aesthetical preferences.

Back to my original question: Does UNIVERSAL beautiful code exist?

Think about that for a minute, I'll wait... What do you think the Greys use as their programming language? Something based on hieroglyphs and flow-charts? What about my Ferengi friend Quark? Quantum languages like QCL or QFC?

Good luck getting consensus on that! :)

So, is there Beautiful Architecture?

Process Explorer for Windows Mobile

My iPAQ with Windows Mobile was acting sluggish, so I went hunting for a Task Manager/Process Explorer like utility for it and came across this little gem. Saved me some coding! In the end I  was unable to figure out what exactly caused the slugginesh because the problem went away, but next time it happens I will be prepared!

TaskMgr for WM* is a must-have for every Windows Mobile user, like a Swiss Army Knife my Leatherman (don't leave home without it)! All the basic tools a user needs to keep the system running smooth: Process manager, CPU usage, Application Manager, Service Manager, Device Manager (only WM2005 and above), Windows Manager, Notification Manager, IP Config utility, Ping utility, Net Stats utility, Registry Editor and a 'Run program' utility. Kudos to Dotfred!

<rant>I should not need a tool like TaskMgr to keep my system running smoothly. Windows CE is supposed to run a mobile phone, which can be a life-saving device... Last thing I need is a frozen (phrozen?) phone!</rant>